"Cure light wounds."

A green light bathed Lance, healing his injuries.

"Thank you, my Lord."

He said.

Aeron nodded to acknowledge him before turning to the group of villagers trailing behind.

"Collect the corpses and bring them back."

Aeron walked into the beast den, dealing with any stragglers left over.

To his disappointment, he only found one item within the entire den. Fortunately, the King Stag had dropped three items otherwise Aeron would've felt cheated out of his effort.

Aeron thought of making one of the Stage 1 stags his animal companion, but decided against it as he would rather have a beast more suited for battle as his companion.

The stags were herbivores, only knowing how to fight for self-defence and deciding the dominance hierarchy. They were not as suited for combat as carnivores generally were.

He headed back to the village, carrying the King Stag's body with a few other villagers.

Once there, he set it down and watched as the craftsmen descended upon it.

The blacksmith took its antlers, the tailor its hide, the Tattoo Artist took its blood, the pill maker took its bones, eyes and other organs, whilst a couple of the villagers took the meat to be cooked for their Lord later during the feast, which was becoming a daily routine at this point.

Hardly any of the beast king was wasted and it was all taken to be processed into useful things for Rising Sun Village and its people.

Aeron looked forwards to seeing what would be made of the mighty beast.

He then checked the items he got from the King Stag and its den.

The first was a carved statue about the size if a fist.

Nature Idol

An idol that converts Faith Power into Nature Power to form a Nature Spirit.

Can create and sustain one Nature Spirit.

The second was an ornate dagger, encrusted with green gems.

Sacrificial Dagger (Nature)

A dagger that can be used in sacrificial ceremonies, increasing the effect of the offering if the ceremony is dedicated to a Nature Spirit.

The third item, and final one dropped by the stag, was a green crystal that pulsed with energy.

Small Nature Crystal

Crystallised Nature Power that can be consumed but not replenished.

Those three items fit well together and Aeron already had plans on how he would use them.

The final item was a beautiful flower that emanated a enticing aura even after being uprooted.

Fairy Flower

When properly taken care of, produces Flower Fairies.

Aeron carefully replanted the flower, not knowing how to take care of it but hoping he would in the future.

With all the items dealt with, Aeron went back to his training all the while thinking of plans.

That afternoon, Edmund came with 4 more villagers.

With nothing special about them, Aeron got them to join the logging and construction crews building houses and another building Aeron ordered built.

When Edmund was about to leave, Aeron bid him to stay until tomorrow morning as he was needed for tonight.

He also went and recruited a D rank to fill the final [Druid] slot as an extra would help later.

He compared swordsmanship with Edmund until the patrols had finished for the day and returned. After that, the whole village once again had a feast as the meat hunted throughout the day was cooked or stored in a dry storage building.

Aeron himself ate the meat from the King Stag. His body once again was improved until the point it couldn't be strengthened further, though that was because if his non-existent cultivation.

After the feast, Aeron went to look for the Tattoo Artist.

Throughout the day, the Tattoo Artist had given tattoos to every soldier under Aeron's command besides the elites and the druids.

The Berserkers and Spearmen had strength boosting patterns, the Knights had constitution boosting patterns, and the Skirmishers had Agility boosting patterns.

The main material used in these had been pre-Stage 1 beast blood and so the patterns only increased the given stat by 3. This was like giving every soldier an extra Copper grade piece of equipment, but it wasn't good enough for Aeron's elites.

Aeron decided that the Druids, besides himself and Henry, would have intelligence patterns drawn with Stage 1 beast blood and he and his elites would use the Stage 2 blood of the King Stag.

The three Druids were done quickly and it was then Aeron's turn to choose.

Since agility was the King Stag's best attribute, Aeron decided to choose that as it would give an extra bonus. Henry chose Intelligence like the other Druids, Edmund chose Constitution, and the other 3 chose Strength.

The Druids' tattoos gave them +5 whilst the elites gained +8 in their chosen stat. Aeron himself gained +10 to his agility. Unfortunately, class stat bonuses did not include the tattoos effects.

His agility now naturally surpassed that of Stage 1 humans, and with equipment it even beat that of an unequipped Stage 2.

He now had 2 attributes crossing into the 30s: Agility and Strength.

This advantage would truly show itself against the beasts in the wild as they could not equip items like humans could and their species would determine how much their attributes grew through cultivation and it would usually be lopsided.

Aeron looked over his status with pride.

Name: Aeron

Titles: None

Profession: Druid

Achievement Points: Rank 1 Baron (143/1000)

Race: Human

Age: 18 (100)

Stats: Strength 30 (12+2+16), Constitution 16 (12+2+3), Agility 34 (12+2+10+10), Intelligence 19 (9+5+5)

Cultivation: Stage 0

Cultivation Technique: None

Skills: [Animal Companion] [Basic Sword Technique] [Illusionary Second Strike] [Nature Magic]

Equipment: King Boar Hide Scabbards (+2 Strength), Ring of Intelligence (+5 Intelligence), Superior King Boar Hide Armour (+3 Strength and Constitution), Twin Frozen Swords of the Boar King (+10 Strength and Agility), Weak Ring of Strength (+1 Strength)

Extra: King Stag's Tattoo of Agility (+10 Agility)

How far he had come in just a few short days.