After gaining another 17 northern expansions Logan found that the control over creatures outside his territory had expanded once again. The first thing he did was try to send out a bunch of rats to see how many troops he was allowed to send out now. To his surprise though he found that he couldn't send out any more troops than he already could. That was strange because he could definitely feel that his control had increased. After Carefully observing the rats he sent out it suddenly dawned on him and made him feel like a complete idiot for not noticing it sooner. He was actually observing the rats he sent out. well, more precisely observing the world through them. This time instead of being able to send out more troops he could vaguely sense what was around the creatures that were outside his territory.

While he could only observe things from a single individual's perspective and what he sensed was still extremely fuzzy it still opened up so many possibilities. For one he could actually get a view of the world outside his territory for the first time. Though he was only getting a rat's eye view right now which didn't show much. Immediately he tried to switch to one of the flying units but that was when he encountered a problem. He couldn't view things through the eyes of a creature bonded to someone else. He just knew there had to be a catch to letting his creatures bond with the people. He next tried sending out a giant black eagle that hadn't been bonded.

This worked surprisingly well, and he was able to get a fairly good areal overview of the land just outside his territory. He still couldn't see details, but he suspected that it was just a matter of waiting for the ability to improve again. This made him mentally leap for joy as he realized that he had claimed almost all of the town already. At this rate it should only take another two years max to claim the rest of the town. Admittedly much longer than the two or three years he thought it would take when he first realized it was a town. Still just knowing that the end is in sight makes him glad he expanded as fast as he could.

For the next year the kobold and elves kept probing the safe zone for weaknesses. They even tried going around and attacking from directly north and south at the same time. After that failed the went all the way around and started attacking from the west as well. It cost them a lot of troops, but they eventually worked out the size of the safe zone and Logan worked out that he had vastly underestimated their population. Their population isn't infinite though so once they worked out the relative size, they set up guard stations every 500 m.

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This surprised Logan at first but then it started to make sense. He hadn't sent troops outside the safe zone. well, except for flying units, which they didn't know about. From their perspective they were safe as long as they stayed outside of that border. Logan on the other hand was happy to abide by the unspoken agreement. He had plenty of room left to expand after all. Plus, it wasn't like he was idle during that year. He managed to gain another 17 norther expansions and 34 southern expansions during that time.

Now that he could perceive things through the senses of creatures outside his territory, he joined the hunt for other dungeons. The fact that he still couldn't give orders to units outside his territory meant that he had to plan out the route ahead of time. Still seeing new stuff was worth it and he hardly paid attention to things inside his territory anymore. Over the next 13 months he gained another 26 eastern and 26 western expansions finally claiming the last of the town. granted he still wouldn't be sure of that without his newfound ability as there are some building still partially outside his territory. As for the underground, the tunnel system to the west was way more intricate than he would have ever guessed. He now understood why it took so long to find the tunnel leading to the dwarf camp.

Meanwhile in his territory some of the young ladies had come of age and were eager to have their first child. This worked out perfect because for a lot of the older woman four children was enough meaning that the population growth had slowed down considerably in recent years. Even queen Siobhan was expecting her first child although she wasn't aware of it just yet. She was too busy making sure the populace was fed, protected, and educated. After all she knew through talking to Cid that the sanctuary wished them to be self-sufficient. Even though it would still take care of them regardless.

Unbeknown to everyone, including Logan, a being more powerful than even the group that had brought him here has taken an interest in his development. It was this being who was now working to fix the mistake of the others and also restore this world to something close to what it was. It was in fact him who loosened the restrictions on Logan while making it seem like the natural progression of an existing skill. The reason he only loosened it and didn't lift it completely is precisely because he wants Logan to think it's a natural progression. It's also why he doesn't just give Logan a ton of mana despite subtly increasing his mana absorption rate. After all, like he keeps trying to tell the others, if you do it right nobody knows you did anything. Of course, if they had taken their time and done it right to begin with, he wouldn't have to do anything.