Kaden observed things through his slaves. There wasn't much to see than what could be considered a surface view on the status of the Saint Empire. These couple hunters were hardly important people. Kaden wondered whether he should tell them do something more useful, but decided against it.

If someone noticed them act in unusual manner, it could draw attention.

Since no other hunter group had fallen to his traps and he had only the three in his control he would have liked to make better use of them. Yet, this sort of hunters had their way of living. Hunt beasts, come back with materials to sell and then spend the money until going back to hunt.

Kaden wondered, if he should tell them to waste their money quicker so they would return. Upon returning they might recruit more members to their team and then bring them to the traps.

"I will eventually need people important enough that they will go to Corand and not hang out at some fringe hunter town", Kaden though to himself as he pondered his plans. "Perhaps I should have these three join some stronger team. Then again then they would not be in control and at that point I lose control of them as they have to obey commands of their team leader."

There were many possibilities, but still Kaden eventually decided he would need more servants before he took any risks.

Instead Kaden continued his cultivation.

It had already been a while since he reached mid Lower Cari stage. Since then he had absorbed quite a bit more mana, but as before there was seemingly no change that he could observe. Well, one could say there was one change, but Kaden did not really consider it as anything unexpected.

Since his core had advanced, the human side had lagged behind. Over time, simply the presence of a higher core caused higher amount of mana inside his body and that caused the human side slowly follow behind. Kaden wasn't even sure there was such a thing as advancing his human side anymore. It just followed. If there was a limit to reach mid Condensation stage, it would slowly get over the limit.

Any mana he gathered went into his core and only after that elsewhere. Yet, core wouldn't progress until rest of his body reached high enough mana concentration. Condensation stage would reach its peak following after core reaching the peak.

"The total mana I need is just the sum of both", Kaden assumed. "More or less. Its just that core takes priority when mana enters my body."

As he had already previously noted, this was both negative and positive thing. His growth was going to be harder, but the results would be beyond anyone else doing the same.

Kaden continued his cultivation as before. As things were, he was progressing at an expected rate. That rate was rather slow, but it didn't matter for the time being. There were things Kaden expected to do at later date.

As time passed, another group of Formation stage hunters fell into Kaden's trap. He gained three more slaves in very similar manner as the previous group. They too carried with them Kaden's communication system's amplifiers.

There were quite a few hunter groups at the hunter guild. Kaden wasn't certain how many of them he would eventually control, but he hoped it would be majority.

Underestanding this, Kaden started to build a 'command center' for his slaves. It was basically a formation that collected all the feedback from his slaves to a single location. Otherwise he would have to manage the likely growing number by himself. He still assumed, if the number of his slaves continued growing and they lasted long enough, he would eventually have to just give them some commands and let them act without constant supervision.

At any rate, with the increased number of slaves, Kaden's view into the state of Saint Empire had expanded. What he had originally imagined to be the normal state, with soldiers inspecting people randomly, executions with dubious proof and so on, was just nearly the bottom level.

Church was not taking any chances.

One of the hunters he had enslaved went into a city. There were the 'usual' executions left to rot as a reminder for the rest. There were houses and stores closed with their doors barred shut with 'heretics' painted on the door. People were living in terror.

The interesting part was that quite a few had seen fit to join in with the church and work for them directly. Kaden guessed that kind of protected you from the church at least for a while. People were killing each other just to be on the right side.

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"I'd assume same happens with the military", Kaden thought to himself as he pondered on his findings. "If people join the forces such as church and the military, it will provide them protection. I find it unlikely that at this time the church would harass the military since it is still required to fight Sacronan and eventually Cari from Frika."

In other words, if you weren't part of the fighting forces, you were a potential target for heretic purges. Church and military grew in power. There was the question of morale, but if you showed any signs of problems, you could easily be executed anyway.

"Perhaps this also causes people to move out of major population centers", Kaden continued his thoughts. "The number of hunters is also probably unusually high. Those that hunt beasts are easily able to stay out of sight and also provide useful service."

Kaden had to re-evaluate his plan to capture slaves. The situation was too chaotic and would not necessarily last. It was likely someone would eventually grasp control, likely the church. Perhaps with an excuse such as a crusade or something. They might even directly consript people that are able to fight. At that time number of people in the Centralean Forest could drop. This could even happen quite suddenly.

"I will need more direct means to get slaves", Kaden decided. "If I can simply take random people this way, so can church and military."

Several weeks later when Kaden gained several more slaves when yet another hunter group fell to his trap, he had already decided on how to attract the kind of people he required.

He sent the newest group back with, again, more amplifiers, but also he took some more valuable materials he had from Frika, such as a few Lower Cari cores he had not consumed and some materials.

These weaklings could never kill original owners of these parts. Yet, Kaden told them to 'accidentally' reveal that they had the said items as they were attempting to sell them.

Kaden cared not whether someone killed this group of slaves. What he needed was for some Condensation stage hunters take note and get greedy.

Their number was not large and most of them had bigger business. They would go deeper and hunt more valuable target and then sell the results at more larger markets... such as Corand.

Kaden also found it unlikely that a greedy Condensation stage hunter would tell anyone of their discovery. If a couple Formation stage hunters were able to find a place with seemingly large amount of valuable materials beyond their ability, there was likely very little risk for them. They would come alone.

There was some danger involved, if the slaves were able to attract someone stronger than Kaden himself, but his trap was likely more than enough to subdue those at Condensation stage whether they were lower or higher within the stage.

"I will observe the entire operation myself", Kaden decided. "If things go beyond my expectations or abilities, I can always get rid of the slaves."

That would leave the Condensation stage hunter empty handed. There could be attempts to track their hunting grouds, but that would give Kaden more than enough time to prepare for it. It might even help with his efforts if the hunter would wander around alone.

Kaden still pondered on the risks.

While Formation stage slaves were perfectly fine for scouting, Kaden doubted he could do much else with them. With Condensation stage slaves he could directly do things. There were risks involved, but Kaden hardly planned to simply settle with just scouting. If that was all he planned to do, there were better tools for it than invent a new enslavement formation.

What Kaden wanted was direct influence. No one relevant would listen to those at Formation stage, but Condensation stage was another matter entirely. It would be worth it to take some risks. Kaden had not come as far as he had by avoiding some calculated risks.

As for the potential targets. The person leading the hunter guild was at Condensation stage, but the woman seemed to have decided it was enough for her. As far as Kaden could tell through his slaves, the guild master was perfectly fine handling paperwork and all that. She would not be a good target. It would be seen as strange, if such a person suddenly decided to change her life entirely.

Other remaining few targets were occassionally passing Condensation stage hunters. Some of them leaders of teams, but the ones that Kaden was most interested about were the ones who came alone. While they did come to hunt, their reasoning for coming was most likely to train than to be regular hunters.

"I will need one that is more ... opportunistic", Kaden thought to himself. "I will need my slaves to keep eye on newcomers and see if any of them show signs before trying to deceive them. I will not have endless supply of proper baits."

Kaden wondered how long it would take to find the right target.

Turns out it did not take long at all.

Kaden only had to ask for information from his slaves. Since they worked in the hunter town, they knew people from there. That included the merchants who bought things the hunters had to sell. The also fit the story he was arranging for his trap. Specifically there were also the more shadier type merchants who sold and bought the more questionable things.

One of these black market merchants had arranged themselves a Condensation stage bodyguard that he used to not only to protect himself, but also to strong-arm people as needed. This was not a hunter, but it didn't matter.

Kaden reconsidered for a moment what the merchant was dealing with, if they were able to pay a Condensation stage bodyguard.

"Most likely it is a larger organization", Kaden decided eventually. "I might have to deal with this group of people, if I mess with their arrangement by removing one of their stronger warriors."

Kaden decided to see what to do, if he was able to enslave the man and as such gain knowledge. The involvement with a criminal organization was not necessarily a bad thing. The current chaos in the human empires likely opened a lot of opportunities to such people. Quite a few people might even seek shelter among them once the official organization went crazy and started to hunt down 'heretics'.

"Lets see, if I can entice this person somehow", Kaden muttered to himself.