The fort did not see another conflict that day, and the two man took their time and talked long into the night.

When they finished their conversation, Atos was pleased as this Alistair was even better than he imagined.

Who knew that those nobles from the kingdom next door would be really so foolish? He met his fair share of them from Earth and knew many of them intimately, yet it was very rare for geniuses like this to be wasted away this badly!

Even those haughty and useless nobles knew that they needed capable men, so they always tried to get their hands on capable ones, no matter their origin. Even if they were a little problematic they were more useful and so they were tolerated, as talents were always scarce no matter the place or even time for that matter.

Yet, here he was,a genius general exiled by a pompous stupid and propably crazy brat that did not know better and sent him to waste away his life by managing convicts for defense against an otherwise unlikely enemy. That this skirmish happened, is the consequence of Atos being here, and otherwise it would not have happened. Even if it did, it would have not happened this swiftly and easily! This general would have most likely been able to ward off most attacks if he had a little time to prepar. Unfortunately, for them, they were not here to play and took the easiest solution, a surpirse attack.

Well, their loss is his gain, so he is not going to complain. He really felt lucky that the first place he conquered was those “barbarians” as they did not have that bad segregation between each other, so this way he had no nobles to fight with. Even if they lived, and still live to some degree, to fight, it was much easier to mold them into the better and new people they mostly became with his help.

Those nobles, on the other hand, he did not have high hopes for. He did not have beforehand, but after talking with his new friend, he was even less so. He expected them to be bad, but not to this degree!

It seemed that this “noble” class managed to secure their position mostly with the usage of magic and other special magical materials. He expected it, really, when he first found out about these energies that could be harnessed by people. As the saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and if their noble status was not enough, they had magical energies at their beck and call. It is no wonder they behaved so stupidly and arrogantly. Even more so if it gave control over their fellow humans.

Technology was more than enough for people to start thinking themselves as beings higher than gods before. So, when they had power like this, why would they hold back with their greed or selfishness?! There was nothing to rein back.

What's more, he heard from Alistair that most nobles were worshipping selfish and cruel beings as their gods that required human sacrifice and all kinds of evil deeds to feast upon. It was disgusting! 

There were rumors about nobles sacrificing whole villages just to sate their hunger for destruction and blood, but most of all, power. The only neutral seeming order so far was the royal family. Or they were just very good at suppressing rumors and keeping their secrets. Unfortunately, he knew that the chances of being good in a world where they could wield supernatural powers was scarce. Power corrupted, and even he had times in his past when he was nearly fully lost in the allure of power, and he did not even have this energy beforehand. He has been once close to becoming something he loathed and even now, he sometimes feels that the necessary evil he had to commit in the past and will need to in the future are unforgivable, no matter the cause... Yet, he knows they are needed, and it is better if he takes rensponsibility and commits these than the whole of humanity being destroyed by his misplaced morality. Now is not the time to be too benevolent and easygoing. This is one of the reasons that his territory has ultra-strict rules and laws to follow.

If someone would commit pedophilia they are castrated, for example, and there is no mercy!. Then anyone who commits a serious enough crime, they might get implanted by a monitoring/mind-chip.

The judging is done by him at the moment, at least for unclear and serious cases. He uses his tech and newly learnt “Magical” senses to examine the person even closer and with his huge experience with people he was able to figure all of them out so far. Everything is punished severely as he can ascertain the legitimacy of the crime with close to a hundred percent precision. There is no place for mistakes and he wants to beat morals into his people even if it requires some unsavory means. 

They are necessary, even more so after he conquered all of the other tribes. His territory now encompasses the entirety of the Western Barbaric Lands and after the census he enacted, there were more than 500 thousand people under his command. Most of them even more savage than the first he managed to take over. Those were mostly from the Southern Barrens and they did not even have basic commodities like adequate clothing and tools.

Some of those tribes even had to resort to cannibalism. Fortunately, it was not yet integrated into their cultures but he had to purge some demon worshippers that were on the verge of insanity. Flaying babies and eating them, sacrificing their weakest and things like that. Thanks to that however, in those tribes only the most brutal and strongest people were left alive.

Those tribes he obliterated, took their strongest and implanted them with a mind chip that would guarantee their loyalty after some mental conditioning. They became new persons, with new personalities and started serving in his personal guard. The others that were in similar situations but were not fit for service were given the same treatment of brainwashing, with the chip implant.

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Things like small mind chips were not too hard to make with his available equipment. He had an inbuilt, miniature fabricator in his suit that could make small precision equipment. However, it can’t make anything bigger than a 1x1 meters wide box. And, of course, very rare materials were still needed for most it, not to even mention his fabricator that deteoriated with every use thanks to its miniature parts that were too soft!  

However, it was perfect for his plans, as it let him build useful things like chips and other smaller equipment like cogs and glass vials. It was not like he wanted to advance society too fast, truly, he only wanted to advance them at a snail’s pace. Earth’s society suffered from too fast advancement and he had time. No matter how much he wanted to go back and save his people, the original ones, he had time and he is going to use it to build a stable foundation! This world needs him just like his original does and he will not act in haste and screw up something in his hurry.

The mental conditioning worked by suppressing the previous, corrupt memories and helping the host to build up a new and healthy personality over it. It was not able to control people, just influence them and monitor them!

Using these chips was the best alternative right before killing them, and no matter how much he hated slavery, he lacked strong soldiers and this way they were at least much more useful to him! Not to mention that he was always the firm believer of second chances, and it was easier too with mental cinditioning available. Most of those that were sentenced to death only had their memories suppressed, so most of them managed to build up a new life, while those truly wretched souls always fell back into crime and insanity.

These new people even knew what happened to them, but after their mental conditioning that was mostly common human decency, they agreed that their present state was much better than the blood crazed murderers they were once before. They pledged themselves uncer his command even more so, as they felt that they had a serious debt for Atos helping them and gicing them a second chance.

Of course, they would, as there is no person that had a healthy mind and would want to degenerate into something that was acting like a monster.

The plan was advancing greatly, and he was looking forward to the future and the new civilization he was going to build.

Taking over the neighboring Corrumpere kingdom would be harder but not overly so. Still, after getting information about the frontier territory to their East he was positive that they will be able to take it over relatively quickly and it will open up new opportunities for him. His ex-tribal people were too easily distinguishable from normal people so he could not even send them on infiltration missions even if he wanted to, not to even mention that they were built more for strength and not stealth.

After herding them together, he started devising the best layout for their future capital.

There was one bigger mountain range that connected the four Barbarian Regions in the middle. It had high enough mountains around a natural basin. It teemed with life, after purging it of magical beasts, domesticating those that could be tamed and imprisoning the others for future experiments or used as food if there was enough of them. We kept two of every species for later reproduction and other uses.

The basin had several smaller and a few bigger waterfalls that would be able to provide energy in the future. In the middle of the basin, there was quite a good amount of space and one central lake that had rivers flowing out of it in several directions.

It was so perfect for a settlement that it was scary, yet, in an almost infinite world like this it will be easier to find rare happenings thanks to the gargantuan size of it all. This might be just another fortuitous happening or a gift from God, no matter, it was perfect for my imagined capital.

Next to the lake was a big plain that could accommodate millions if my estimates were correct, and that was only with present technology. It was unlike anything I have even seen before, truly a paradise.

I called it Eden, and I think it is a fitting name in this fucked up world. Oh, did I tell you? We found demonic beasts at several locations. They differ from normal “magical” beasts by using corrupted energy and being almost without any intelligence. They only live for savagery and to sate their murderous instincts, just like those unfortunate tribal people that worshipped demons and were corrupted.

It seems that if a living creature is exposed to magical energy for a certain period and potency, it can trigger unnatural mutations. Even if that particular creature is unable to use energy originally, if it is saturated long enough with it it can gain powers but at the cost of its mind. The vessel can’t process the energy and it overloads, becoming a grotesque monster. There are various versions of them, depending what they were originally, but they almost completely change in appearance and behavior too. There were several instances when they could not even determine what creature they mutated from, and only with Atos’ genetic examination came out the truth, and it was scary!

One of the biggest monsters they killed, where Atos even lost people for his ire, so he obliterated the beast quickly right after its deed, turned out to be a bunny! A bunny of all things! The energy saturation seemed to cause rapid cellular reproduction and mutation in the body, so much so that it became as big as an elephant yet kept most of its original build under the bulks of corrupted flesh, and its agility along with it. Not fully, of course, but it was still a tremendous achievement for an elephant sized animal to be that agile.

If he did not have experience with stronger beings beforehand, it would have been hard to kill it, but he succeeded by using his energy weapon at the right moment so the shot flew down on its throat.

It was lucky that there was only one beast like that where they found it and that it was almost completely mindless, because if it had any intelligence then they could have been in trouble.

One thing became clear, though, and that was that this energy is not something that should be taken lightly. The corrupting energy was insidious, and Atos only managed to find it after hours of examination with the advanced sensors built into his suit. Yet, even that was risky and he had to interact with the energy as he did not find a way to store any of this magic energy in any container other than his body. Yet, he managed to keep it just on his palm contained within his own and being prepared to cut his arm off if it was needed!

And the more he scouted out from his starting location, the more horrors he experienced. Some, even on the level of his home world, and it reminded him that even if God took him here this world was not safer, just had more opportunities and ways to use against the danger humanity can find itself in.

It was hiding in the dark, in uninhabited places, in the big hole in his territory that seemed to lead right into the abyss. He had to stay vigilant, as even the kingdoms seemed to be ignorant about it, or just did not care in their constant corruption and struggle for power.