The next few days passed... relatively fast.

We went hunting, created new Homunculi, and after we reached 5 people, I felt confident in separating our little group into 2 teams, 1 under me, and the other under Jonathan.

And a day or so after we reached 5 people, I successfully managed to make our first stone tool!

*ding*

Research bypassed, Stone Tool Creation.

Quest Stone Age completed! Rewards, 10 Exp + 1 Research Point has been granted in the Empire System!

The moment the system window popped in front of me, some extra knowledge about stone tools flooded into my mind, and I was confident that I could make stone tools better than before, but also, I had somehow completed a quest that I didn’t have?

“Don’t worry about it, I was planning on giving it to you after you reached 10 people. It seems that I’ve underestimated your skills... but no matter, enjoy the free stuff.” Rae told me after I asked her what was going on.

And I wasn’t the kind of person to reject free things, so I just accepted what she said, and moved on.

And by the end of my first week, I had already had 10 Homunculi under me!

*ding*

Quest A Gang of Homunculi completed! Rewards, 10 Exp + 1 Research Point have been granted in the Empire System!

“Perfect!” I said out loud while all 11 of us were huddled around a fire and opened the empire system to see my new quests.

Empire System:

Level 1 Experience: 30/100

Population: 11

Empire Stockpile +

Research +

Research Points: 2

Quests:

Main Quest - Galactic Conquest – Win The Great Game and Conquer the Galaxy! – Rewards: Heaven or Draconic reincarnation + memory wipe.

Fresh Meat – Hunt enough animals or gather enough plants to feed yourself and your people for 10 consecutive days. – Rewards: 10 Exp + 1 Research Point

A Place To Call Home – Construct enough dwellings for you and your people. They can be however big or small as you desire. – Rewards: 10 Exp + 1 Research Point

Warm And Clothed – Make enough clothes for all of your people. - Rewards: 10 Exp + 1 Research Point

After taking a quick look at my quests, I saw that I was quite close to completing Warm And Clothed as I was already making primitive clothes for my people. Those clothes were basically just hides cut into the shape of skirts by primitive tools that were being held by really bad ropes but... they were clothes nonetheless, and I hoped that counted.

I just had to make 3 more of those, and I’d be golden!

Now, onto my research points, I only had 3 things that I wanted to spend them on, Homunculi Brutes, Basic Food Storages and Butchering.

Gathering and Basic dwelling construction would be nice... but if I ever got one of them, it’d be basic dwelling construction as I had a steady supply of fruits already, so I saw no point in wasting precious points on gathering.

And seeing that I needed food for the next 10 days to feed my people, the only option that made sense was Basic Food Store—SIKE!

Homunculi Brute, here I come!

The moment I clicked on Homunculi Brute... nothing happened.

But when I clicked on the “+” sign next to Homunculi Creation, I saw that the Homunculi Brute was below the base Homunculi.

Now, some may see say that my idea was bad, as we are in the stone age, and preserving even a little bit of food from our hunts or gatherings would be invaluable!

But, there is something you all are forgetting... well, you are not exactly forgetting it, you just didn’t know it but, I asked what season we were in and Rae said this planet was in the middle of Spring, so we were floating in food, and more fruits and nuts would come, and animals would start breeding soon, so there was no need to worry about meat for a long time too!

Winter will be a... problem to say the least, but I hope I am able to stock up enough food in the summer for the winter and... wait.

“Rae, can you tell me how long the winter last on this moon?”

“Basically the same as on Earth, 3 months. And you can just use a normal solar calendar with 365 days too! After all, I chose this moon because it was similar enough to your home world that you wouldn’t have a hard time adapting living on it.”

“Thank you for choosing a planet similar to Earth then.”

“You are welcome, Damian. Just make sure to at least destroy 2 or more of my siblings’ empires before your empire falls, and everything’s going to be perfect for me too!”

“I... don’t know how to feel about how lowly you think of my chances of an actual galactic conquest.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s not that I doubt you buuut... my siblings have a few centuries of advantage before us, so their empires are going to be that much better. So, its not a case of you being inferior to their champions, but just being late to the party.”

“Huh, okay I guess... do I get to go to heaven after I lose?”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Eh, I don’t see why not.”

Well, that’s enough of an incentive for me to lose. I just gotta act like me losing was not on purpose and was totally an accident and then we are golden!

Then I quickly made 4 groups from the citizens of my “Empire”. Of course, the groups were led by Jonathan, Jonathanne, Jacob, and finally me.

And yes, I do plan on naming every single Homunculi I create personally with names that start with “J”, and you cannot stop me.

Then, I sent Jonathan’s and Jonathanne’s groups to hunt, and told them to stick together as, while we mostly hunted by setting up traps and chasing or luring prey into them, there was still a chance that they could get injured or be attacked by a predator, and there was strength in numbers, so I hoped they wouldn’t die if they sticked together.

Then I completely ignored my logic of there being strength and security in numbers and sent Jacob’s group to gather fruits and look for more trees that grew fruits and nuts that were similar to what we were eating already.

Being left with Jesse, the newest member of my glorious empire! I just had him help me with not cooking but collecting good and long looking branches from the forest nearby.

And I was talking about the branches on the trees, not on the ground.

And yes, a lot of trees had a bunch of their branches removed by us already, and I am sure that quite a few of them are actively dying because of us... well, that is the cost of progress for the Homunculi kind!

My idea for dwellings was simple, a mud house.

I was going to stack branches on top of each other, then cover them in mud to make sure they stuck in place and make a roof from weeds and grass around us.

And yes, the floor would also be dried grass.

Was that going to work? No goddamn clue, but that’s what I imagine when someone talks about primitive houses, so why the hell not?

After a few hours of carrying and stocking branches, me and Jesse got tired, we had a small break where we ate, and rested, and got back to work.

After an hour or so of our break, Jacob’s group returned with their fruits and nuts, that were in big leather bags, and put them near where we set up our campfire, and after resting came to us and joined me and Jesse in preparing wood for house construction.

Jonathan and Jonathanne were not yet here, but that was normal. Hunting took quite a bit of time, and even if they returned empty handed, that was fine because we could probably last with what was remaining of yesterday and what Jacob’s team brough us.

And as we continued to pile up branches, I realized that I was a dumbass for planning to build our houses next to the river. Because the land around us was flat, so the moment it rained and the river overflooded, our houses would flood too.

So, we had to bring all these branches to the hills, and build our houses there... yeah, not starting construction today, I am tired already.

Instead of continuing to get wood for the rest of the day, I just ordered everyone to start cutting long weeds and grass so we could make the padding for the roof, and a bit after we started cutting weed and storing it, the hunters came back with an esoteric animal I hadn’t seen before, instead of a normal mammalian animal, it resembled more a crocodile, but it was more like a dinosaur because it was taller than any other reptilian I had seen on earth with 4 long legs, and quite a thick body too!

But sadly, its scales were just dull green, brown, and lighter shades of those 2. No shimmering dragon scale armour for me, I guess.

After they brought it next to the campfire, I saw that we had gained 6 units of meat, which was great, as it was 60 kg!

Quickly I moved to help butcher the dinosaur after they removed its skin with stone knives and their claws.

But while butchering it and... frankly doing a terrible job, I saw something weird.

“Is that a... crystal?” I muttered loudly, and moved my hand to grab it, and pulled it.

It was covered in blood and flesh, but after washing it all off in the river I was left with a brilliant blue crystal, that, contrary to what its shape implied, had dull edges.

“Rae is this a... mana stone?” Rae turned from looking at the others working around and stared at the crystal at my hand.

“Yup. Sure is. Surprized your people were able to hunt a tier 2 already... but like I said, there is not much difference between tier 1 and 2, and it seems like this is a juvenile, so it makes sense that it couldn’t protect itself with magic.” She told me, and I looked at the skinned dinosaur.

It was around 140-150 cm tall, but it was a juvenile? It was as large as an adult deer ram! And wait... didn’t she say before that every being is born as tier 1?

“Yeah, everything is born as a tier 1, with no exceptions... well, other than gods but we are not exactly in this power scaling system, so it does not count.

As to how a juvenile become a tier 2... I can just say, pure luck. Either that, or a tier 2 member of its species fed it a mana stone and turned it into a tier 2 early. And no, that’s not a sign of intelligence, just instincts. You’d be surprized the crazy things animals are capable of doing from birth if you watch them.”

“...So, can I fee—”

“Don’t even think about it, unless you want to turn one of your people into a monster that is, or the more likely thing, cause them to die from a mana overdose.” Rae suddenly cut me, and... eating mana stones could turn people into monsters, or kill them? Then why did animals do that if there is a chance of them dying?

“Well, that is because mana stones coming from different beings, be they be of the same species or not, is poisonous to one’s mind, be they be animals or not.

But more often than not, the side affects created by ingesting a mana stone are minimal in animals because, well, they are just simple animals after all, they don’t have much of an intelligence to lose. And even if they die while ingesting the stone, a tier 2 member of their species is just that great of an addition to risk a few newborns’ lives for.

And if they survive ingesting foreign mana in such a raw form, they will gain a natural attunement to it, and will be able to better sense and manipulate mana as they grow, and possibly develop a few spells too! So, it’s a big win for the pack, the herd or whatever.” Rae said after I asked her about it.

“So, mana stones just grow over time or when beings are exposed to mana? Does that mean I have a mana stone in me too?”

“Yes, you have a mana stone in you too. And the process of creating a mana stone in one’s body can be increased through artificial means, that are safe as long as they are not done constantly. Like feeding them food that is rich in mana or putting them in mana rich environments.

The body will get used to it and use the excess mana to make a mana stone, and the members of your kind will have their skin slowly turn to dark blue as they develop their core, so you’ll know when there is a new tier 2 in your species.” Well that is... actually pretty convenient.

“So, mana stones are just pure stones made of mana, right? Does that mean I can use the mana in them?”

“Yes, you can, but do not try to draw the mana in them because that will just fry your own mana pathways, and cripple you.

But worry not! You’ll be able to use them... in the future. For now, just store them in a safe place and make sure no animals get to them.”

“Understood!

...But, I gotta ask, are there dungeons where I can find a lot of tier 2 and above creatures?”

“Ehh... kind of. But you will not find dungeons with dungeon cores that can control every monster inside of them... often. Normal dungeons will be just places with above normal levels of mana concentration, that animals go to because they sense the mana there.

These can be anything, patches of forest, caves, mines, swamps, mountains, etc., the only requirement is that the place has an above normal level of mana concentration, nothing less, nothing more.

But for the kind of dungeons, you are thinking off... they are a bit more complicated, and you will only find a handful in a planet. Some planets may completely lack them.

But, luckily for you, this planet has 5 of those dungeons. And even more luckily for you, none of them are near you! So, you won’t be swarmed by hordes of monsters... anytime soon that is... not for the next decade or so at least.”

Though I was excited at the prospect of a real dungeon, and more mana stone that seemed like an important resource, being threatened by them was not... great.

“Where is the nearest dungeon then?” I couldn’t help but ask her.

“Around 1500 kilometres that way, so a 2-3 months journey by walking, that is assuming you take good, long breaks. You could probably do it in 2 months, or under it if you tried to.” She said pointing down river from me.

“But you don’t want to go there before you learn how to make barriers to defend your cities or get a few blessings from me.” She then added.

“Wait, I can get more blessings? How?” I asked, curious as to how that would happen.

“Don’t get that excited, blessings are just your 3rd type of skills. But they are more effective when a person who’s devoted to me does them. And as their powers are being provided by me, a literal goddess, they are quite strong... and expensive.

You’ll need to research them like normal spells and skills, and there may be some pre-conditions for some blessings, or I might want you to do something for them, but don’t worry about it. You’ll find my blessings quite worthwhile after all~~” She said.

And while I was curious about her blessings, and wanted to get them if they were really as good as advertised, that devotion part was... going to be a bit hard for me.

I wasn’t really the most devoted person back on Earth, but I can now say confidently that I am an Atheist.