Even if Kaden had built the formations for his base, he still continued adding more. He built as many as he felt he could reliably maintain. It wasn't time to yet build permanent formations, but the ones he had he could feed enough energy that they would last as long as he needed.

Kaden didn't really feel too comfortable starting anything outside of his plans. Hence, while he was waiting, he had more than enough time to study once again. Before Kaden had left the phoenix clan, he was given a good look what kind of advancements they had made on the godless mana system.

He obviously had his own ideas and thoughts regarding it that fit his special body more, but he was easily able to look at what others had come up with and adjust. The progress was even relatively fast. The old type mana systems, that humans used, advanced very slowly. They were already so optimized. On the other hand, the godless mana system was completely new and fresh innovation. It was still easy to make it better.

"I wonder what humans have added to it", Kaden wondered. "I will have to acquire some new versions, but they are likely far more rare since churches have attempted to destroy it. At worst I will have to look for some cultists again."

Kaden had spent a lot of time on other research and his mana system was on backburner. He was willing to let other give their ideas and progress it and then have a good look on it and add what he felt was good.

Over time Kaden's sensors detected quite a few being pass by. There was actually even one Lower Cari. Kaden wondered if someone had followed him, but it never appeared again and detection was at the edges of his detection range. Due to the range, he could not gain any more information such as species.

Kaden wasn't too concerned.

What he cared mostly were the human groups passing by. None of them came near his traps. Not that they were avoiding them. They simply didn't walk into the traps.

"Should I leave some kind of a bait?" Kaden wondered.

He wasn't quite certain what he could use as a bait that wouldn't be suspicious. Eventually he decided he could still just wait. It seemed the hunter groups were common enough. It was just about whether they entered his traps or not.

"If this takes too much time, I'll just turn one of the rare High Beasts around here into my slave and have itself to be found by the hunters and run it into my traps", Kaden decided.

There was no need to start with Condensation stage humans, if he couldn't reach them safely. Getting a few weaklings would be enough. Yet, in this case, Kaden wondered why was he waiting. He could just personally go out there and capture such a group.

"No", Kaden told himself. "Even if I could do it easily, its better that I never show myself, if I can avoid it."

There was a reason he had spent so much time preparing. If he was going to skip it just because of impatience, he might as well return back to Frika.

Kaden decided to keep waiting.

The number of the groups passing by was high enough. Eventually someone would trip one of the traps.

A week later Kaden was experimenting with the godless mana system, he felt someone enter one of his traps. They weren't traps that would trigger instantly. Kaden made it so that he would be the one to activate them, but they did send an alarm to him.

"Finally", Kaden mumbled to himself.

A group of humans, three of them, containing only those at Formation stage! It was perfect for Kaden. He needed his initial slaves to be unnoticeable. No one really cared about a few Formation stage hunters; they were nobodies. What Kaden needed was eyes inside the empires.

This group was clearly searching for any potential quarry. Yet, they had become the quarry.

Kaden triggered the trap. The hunters suddenly found themselves completely immobile and as such they showed no terror. They simply couldn't move the muscles on their faces to alter their expression. Even a Lower Cari had not been able to act while being affected to it, let alone a few Formation stage humans.

Additionally, Kaden had added a little extra to knock out those inside.

Just like that, Kaden had gained three subjects.

Kaden dragged all the thee humans into his base. The humans remained unconscious as Kaden started to work on them. Whether they were aware or not did not matter. Nor did it matter to Kaden either whether he caused them pain or not. They were tools. Just things he could use.

Eventually the humans woke up and found themselves unable to do anything.

"Act normally", Kaden told them. "You will go out and continue your hunt and lives as normal. Behave as if nothing has happened. You will act as my eyes inside the human territory for the time being. I will communicate new orders to you as neccessary. No one should notice anything odd about you, but if it does happen, kill them quietly. If you can't, self destruct or arrange complete destruction of your bodies."

There was still something else.

"Also, take these", Kaden handed each of the human slaves a small, but complex, formation plate. "Once you return from the forest, hide these somewhere unseen."

They were amplifiers for his communication system. Kaden wanted to remain connected to his slaves all the way from the forest. Kaden planned to have his slaves scatter similar formations all around the human empires. At least wherever his plans required him to be able to see.

That was as far as Kaden interacted face to face with his newest slaves. He watched them leave quietly.

"I will require more servants", Kaden muttered to himself. "First comes information. Eventually, if more do not step into my traps on their own, the ones I already control can recruit more people to their hunting group and lead them here."

Kaden wondered for a moment whether he should, in time, enslave all hunters that worked in the area. Once he had enough of the hunters enslaved, any new one that wanted to get into the work, would be led to him. Eventually he decided not to... at least not right away. If the enslavement was discovered, it would be suspicious and lead back to him. Yet, if it happened once he controlled wider groups, it could make more sense since it wouldn't easily direct to him anymore.

If someone discovers his presence? They would gather hunters. Such groups would likely contain at least one of the hunters he already controlled. It could serve as an another layer of security to have all the local hunters in his pocket.

Eventually the enslaved hunters left Centralean Forest. Their hunt had been successful. They brought in materials from many High Beasts.

Kaden watched them continue their lives as if nothing had happened. There were no suspicious actions. They all had a wound from Vegeance from the enslavement process, but a single wound that was not even intended to kill them, did not hinder them. The amount and type of mana would ensure a scar would be left at the very least, but people, such as hunters, were often involved in fights. A new scar wouldn't be suspicious unless someone specifically looked at them. At that point the slave formation would be likely discovered too. Yet, the slaves would basically go berserk and kill anyone or themselves as neccessary.

There were no concerns regarding that. Kaden was also pleased that he was finally able to get actual direct information about human territories. In this case from the Saint Empire.

These hunters returned to their homes while they had the money from the hunt and then return back when they needed more. Some would remain in the hunter town, but these did not.

Kaden was able to see along the way that there were a lot more patrolling soldiers. The hunters were even asked their identifications a few times along the way. This seemed to be considered normal. Kaden even saw a burned down village along the way. Some of its residents were hanged and left as visible warning for everyone.

All of this was expected. Kaden doubted the villagers had done anything wrong. Potentially one of them might have got their hands on the godless mana system and the entire village paid for it. This was unlikely, though.

The churches were not going to allow the godless mana system to spread, if they could avoid it. They would rather destroy innocents, if it meant they could destroy the godless mana system. It was a direct danger to their power and the gods they served.

"All this works in my favor", Kaden muttered to himself. He was pleased. "Even if they can't really do anything, people will begin to resent the churches and the gods. They will see the fraud that the gods are. At some point, if the churches weaken enough, there might be a retribution."

Unfortunately Kaden was not able to get a good idea of what was happening in Sacronan. He assumed it was the same. Also since there was so much military activity, it meant there was a war at the borders once again. Considering the situation, it was likely a more major one this time.

Everything seemed to unfold as Kaden wanted. Yet, this was not enough.

"If I can, I should try to find ways to fan the flames", Kaden continued his thoughts about the matter.

Problem was that Kaden still wanted to investigate where the black pentagon was leading him to. When he checked, it still directed north, but the direction had slightly deviated. He still couldn't tell whether it was inside the No Man's Land or inside territory of Saint Empire.

Kaden was hoping to arrange himself a proper network of servants that would warn him of dangers before he would attempt to reach No Man's Land. Starting something big before what would only increase the danger.

Until that time, Kaden planned to spread his influence.

"I would rather get some defences against the mana inside No Man's Land too", Kaden though. "My slaves can arrange that for me, if I can't acquire them myself."

For Kaden's level, the No Man's Land was still dangerous. Some of its influence could be mitigated with some defenses such as sensors detecting spatial distortions, mana analyzers for sudden changes and compositions. Yet, nothing could make it safe until you were at least a True Magus or a True Cari. Even then, it was only because, for example, a True Magus could sense space enough to get themselves out from a spatial bubble that randomly separated itself from rest of the existence and floated away into some dimensional void outside of space.

Anything could happen and those such as Kaden simply did not have the tools available to deal with the problems that might come up. He could only reduce the danger.

Until Kaden had the means to safely, or relatively safely, finding the location where the black pentagon was leading him, he had better things to do and that was spreading his influence.