After Hama's corpse was dealt with, I had the entire village of roughly thirty split the orc we dragged back to camp before I returned to the hut that I had been staying in previously with an order that i should not be disturbed.

Inside the hut, I sit down cross legged to relax for the first time since this morning when we did the ritual. I use my perception to sense the changes within my body and look at the interaction between my dantian and my mana core.

The within my observations, I can see that the mana core is passively drawing in mana at an extremely slow rate. This slowly increases the mana pool, just like had been explained. The mana pool seems to exist within the core itself, and by extracting mana from the air, they can expand the size and quality of their mana pool. As my blood passes around my mana core, I notice that a very small change occurs in the blood that passes by it. Every so often, one microscopic portion will increase in density as it is pushed past the core.... interesting... This means that the faster I pull in energy, the faster I am to "evolving".

The next thing I look towards is my currently opened meridians. Since the mana is passively flowing through my body, it also seems to be slowly strengthening my dantian. This doesn't seem to occur in normal goblins, as the connection between the mana core and dantian seems to be non-existent at the moment. This is probably caused by the fact that I had opened three meridians instead of just one like Bearg and the others.

I next examine my closed meridians and can see that as the energy that is passively flowing through my body past my mana core is slowly putting pressure on these meridians. I figure I can focus all the energy and push past through the meridian when I have enough energy built up.

From my conclusion, I can determine that my dantian will be focused around my cultivation and understanding of natural laws, while my mana core is based around my body and purity of blood line. People with purer bloodlines will naturally have higher control over mana as their is more molded to be in tune with it, however this double mana and dantian combo will essentially give me two mana pools. This does nothing for me now however, as I should open up my meridians before I cultivate my dantian to achieve the best effect.

Pulling out Hama's core, I muse to myself for a second. This person achieved purification of the bloodline through devouring a crystal. I have decided to see just how potent eating one really is.

This shouldn't count as cannibalism right? It is just solidified mana.... I think to myself.

With a shrug, i pop the core into my mouth like eating candy. I feel the solid mass pass down my throat like a rock before it reaches my stomach. Upon reaching it, it starts to evaporate like gas. The gas quickly fill my body and heads straight towards my own core. That's when an idea struck me. I used my soul and forced all the energy into a condesed ball of gas. I then directed it to one of my blocked meridians.

The pure mana slowly melted away as it passed through my meridians and cleared the blockages. As the impurities were melted away with the gas, they were excreted through the pores along with my sweat. The whole process caused my body to stink, however with it, I was able to clear an entire fourth meridian. The rest of the energy was not enough to help with the others, so I just released it to fill up my mana pool. As it reached my mana core, I watched as it grew a layer half a milimeter thicker. The energy used was really negligable.

I smiled as I realized that I'm going to have to start hunting monsters with cores not only for myself, but also for the tribe that I am currently taking care of. I figure if I use blood formations, I can forcefully open their meridians, but I'll have to reach at the very least qi gathering stage.... no wait, I guess in this world, we'll call it mana gathering stage. I can control a formation with my soul to some extent, however I have to have actual control over the energy to use it on other people without them dying.

My terrible excuse for a father gave me a test. I intend to pass with flying colors, not show up with a large group of mediocre cannon fodder. I will turn us into a variant never before seen, I will make us so powerful, that the other demon races will be shocked. With excitement on my face, I stand up to go wash the filth off my body in the nearby river.

~An entire week after leadership has changed within the tribe~

Okay so rebuilding is harder than I thought. Every day, I have been focusing on strengthening the overall tribe. They are overall stronger than they were before, no longer starving, and since they are all small, going from emaciated to having normal body fat only took five days, especially since we specifically hunted larger creatures to feed them. They have all started training basic strengthing forms, but they are hard to communicate with. Bearg seems to be better at doing so, so I had him take over when it comes to translation.

With the increase in food, I have forced all the goblins to rebuild the huts from scratch. They now live in better homes, and the filth they rolled around in no longer exists. It took a little bit of beating it out of them before they realized they have to poop and pee in a different spot than right outside their houses.

I plan on moving soon so I haven't done anything drastic to the overall layout of the village. I actually plan on moving the entire tribe to the inside of the ghost wood tree. The creature was fireproof, and has tough bark that is difficult to cut through. Plus it will provide natural shelter from enemies. It is perfect for my intentions, however the goblins are not intelligent enough to use the layout of the tree to their andvantage, and I fear they would be hindered by it instead if for some reason we were attacked.

I have taught bearg and the other two a method in which to recognize and clear their meridians, and while Bearg was more successful than the other two, none of them have fully cleared a meridian.

At this moment, a goblin rushes up to me.

"Leader! Wedhund tribe is here!" the goblin rushes out in quick breaths

While crinkling my nose I stand up to consider what this means. I decide to deal with it directly and walk out to greet our visitors.

There are three hobgoblins and four goblins all standing together in the center of the tribe. I walk up to them directly while giving them a look with a raised eyebrow.

"Where's Hama!" A stout looking hobgoblin says to me.

"Dead." I reply

Looking at me with a little annoyance in his face he says in response "Well then get me the tributes. And bring any women you have, they are ours."

I look with surprise at him and snort a little.

"What tributes? What women? Do you see any? I sure as hell don't. Hama caused the death of our last woman. And any food we get is eaten as soon as it arrives in the camp. What we have is out here. And what gives you any right to demand tribute from our tribe?

With a look of anger he looks around the camp to see that it's true, we don't have anything he could get his hands on.

With a sneer on his squashed face, he says to me "We are from the Wedhund tribe. We have over fifty warriors and twelve hobgoblins. If you don't have tributes next time we come, I'll wipe out this trashy place"

Looking at this arrogant prick, I weigh my options. Currently we only have four hobgoblins. And while that is quite a few, if we were to face such a big tribe, we'd definately lose, and although I believe I can survive, I doubt the rest of the gasric tribe can. And if I let everyone die, that would be the same as starting over, and it'd be hard to find a tribe that is as easy to take over as this one. It appears that I'll have to speed up everyone's training immediatly. I have no time for luxury, and I don't intend on paying another tribe any "tribute".

With a fake smile plastered on my face, I sarcastically say "Well we'll be sure to properly welcome you next time."

Scoffing he glares at me, signals the rest of his companions to leave, and they walk out through the front.

I've decided that within this next week, we'll move and I'll increase the average strength of each goblin.