He didn’t have to wait for long as a few minutes later everyone appeared. The sharp look in everyone’s eyes showed they were no longer their weak-willed past selves.
Everyone reached the Intermediate stage in at least one mastery. The tribe’s strength increased from one veteran to eleven veterans. Maria, their leader’s Spear Mastery reached level 30 in the Intermediate Stage.
Her immense talent in spear was evident as even before training inside the Training Room, she had reached level 15 in the Intermediate Stage without any teacher even if she drastically reduced her practice time in the last ten years. With a mere six days in the Training Room, she had increased fifteen levels and reached the peak of the Intermediate Stage.
She could have easily reached the Advanced Stage but refrained as she devoted time to training other tribe members.
He checked their change in loyalty. As expected, the tribe members became Devout and had loyalty between 91 to 95 points. Ruby also became a Fanatic with 97 points of loyalty.
But he was puzzled after seeing the loyalty of two tribe members. Both Darla and Dawn had become Fanatics with 99 points of loyalty.
When he was wondering about the reason for such an increase in their loyalties, his thoughts were interrupted by Darla.
“I am sorry, my lord for ever doubting you. I was foolish to doubt if you could lead us. But you proved me wrong with your capabilities. Please punish me for my insolence. Also, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your merciful heart for allowing us to use that place and train,” Darla said as she prostrate on the ground.
The reason for Darla’s low loyalty previously was that she didn’t completely believe in Drake. She wanted to test him if he could truly lead them. But the magical properties of the strange forest they went to proved that her worries were meaningless. Rather, it was no longer the question if Drake could lead them properly, but of whether they were worthy to follow him.
Following her, the rest of the Wildfang tribe members prostrated on the ground.
“It's good that you understand. All of you get up. I accept you all to be my followers. As for you Darla, don’t get up. You are right, you need punishment,” said Drake.
All the tribe members got up but Darla stayed down. They looked a little worried thinking about what punishment the lord would give her. Zoe looked the most worried for her mother.
‘Last time Ayame easily did one hundred pushups. This time, I should ask for one thousand pushups.’
After coming to a decision, Drake said, “Your punishment is to do one thousand pushups.”
The twins smiled a little hearing that punishment. They knew of Drake’s frustration when he saw Ayame complete one hundred with ease but didn’t voice it out.
Darla blanked hearing the punishment. But she quickly came back to her senses and started the pushups. As a veteran, one thousand pushups were not very difficult for her. In a few minutes, she completed the punishment.
Drake's face twitched seeing that. He said, “Good, you are forgiven, Get up.”
“Thank you, my lord, for showing mercy,” said Darla.
The twins smiled as they knew exactly what was going on in Drake’s mind. Not only them, but even the fox-women understood, but none said anything.
That solved the puzzle of Darla’s increase in loyalty. But still didn’t understand what was Dawn’s deal. When he looked at her, she smiled brightly but he could see infinite madness deep in her eyes. That only puzzled him further.
So, asked Ivy to send him clips from the Training Room related to Dawn. Ivy knew what he wanted and sent him some interesting ones.
He opened one of those. Dawn had cut all the limbs of a goblin and it was desperately wriggling away from her like a worm. She followed him smiling brightly.
“Hey. do you feel pain?”
“Do you want to feel more pain?”
“I know you want to.”
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“You can’t run away from me.”
The goblin felt chills in his spine as he heard those words that Dawn said in a sweet voice.
“What do I do this time? Should I poke one of your eyes? Or maybe remove a few of your teeth? Maybe cut off one of your ears?” asked Dawn genuinely curious.
“So many options.”
“What do you suggest? What will make you feel more pain?” asked Dawn with a bright smile.
He saw a few similar clips, then closed all the clips with a blank face forgetting that he ever saw something questionable like that.
He quickly forgot about all of it and became serious as it was time to discuss business.
He gave both Maria and Aria access to the system functions. Like the twins, they could keep 70% of their earned Eldritch Points. He had decided that his direct subordinates would have a 70% share of the points. Then he gave them, the same rights he gave to the twins.
He gave them some time to digest all the new information they got. They understood everything quickly and knelt simultaneously. Maria said, “Thank you, my lord, for bestowing such a gift on our unworthy selves. We will not let you down.”
Drake nodded and they got up. The rest of the tribe members were puzzled about what the mother-daughter pair got, but none questioned.
“Maria,” called Drake.
Maria knelt again as she knew from Drake’s tone that he was about to give her some important order.
Drake took out a cube from his bag. That was the Fog Foundation Stone, which he purchased from his system shop for two thousand Eldritch Points. He wanted a better one that gave special abilities, but he was too poor to purchase them. Moreover, those properties could be acquired later during territory level-up, though it was very hard. So, purchased a simple one.
He gave it to Maria and ordered, “Establish a territory. No need to do it immediately, but do it as soon as possible when you think you can do it. You will be the leader of that territory. That territory will be the first of many of my subordinate territories.”
Maria couldn’t believe her ears that Drake would give her such responsibility. On one hand, was the beast king who killed his fox concubine in fear that she would take his throne by giving ridiculous reasons. On the other hand, was her lord, who gave her an entire territory to rule.
“My Lord, I am honored by your generosity and trust. I assure you, that I will spare no effort in fulfilling your expectations. I pledge to transform this territory into the finest domain within your realm,” Maria vowed with a serious face. She had decided to create a territory worthy of the name of her lord’s first subordinate territory.
All the tribe members were happy for Maria and were excited about the territory. All the tribe members with loyalty in the Devout realm, increased their loyalty by one point but not beyond 95 points. It was not easy to become a fanatic.
“Good. I have high expectations from you.”
“Naturally, my lord. I am fully committed to surpassing even your highest expectations.”
Drake nodded his head to acknowledge her vow.
Drake initially wanted to have Aria lead the territory but after he met Maria, he knew she was the best choice for the role. He decided to keep Aria as part of his crew.
He told the twins that they could help the Wildfang tribe if they needed anything with the establishment of the territory.
He knew that it would be better to let them concentrate on the territory and not disturb them much. So, he decided to explore another territory for a change as the Black Forest Territory was just a starting territory. He decided to go to one of the bigger territories, the Ravencrest Territory.
All of them requested that he let at least someone follow him to the new territory. But he was adamant on his decision.
“Young master, at least let one of us follow you,” Yumi implored Drake to consider letting one of the twins follow him.
“I don’t need anyone to follow me right now. If I need any assistance in the future, I will tell you to come. For now, just keep on doing what you were doing till now. You can help Maria if she needs help with anything outside her control. For rest, let her handle everything. Moreover, Ayame also has a project that she started so she will need to devote some time to that too. In that case, it is all the more important that both of you stay here,” Drake said.
When Aria wanted to say something, Drake stopped her with a look.
“No Aria. Help your mother with the territory,” Drake replied to Aria without her asking the question as he had seen in her face what she wanted to ask.
“We understand, young master. But please call us whenever you need our assistance, we will come as soon as possible,” Yumi said.
Drake nodded, bid farewell to everyone, and traveled to the capital city of the Black Forest Kingdom. It had the only portal used to connect many territories for trade and travel. He didn’t bring his RV as it was too costly to teleport with the RV so he teleported alone. He only carried a sword and a gun. The gun was hidden as it was illegal in many territories to carry firearms, especially by mortals. He left all the local currency back in the mansion which could be used by the twins as needed. He only carried with him the Fog Card that had all his Fog Coins in it.
After teleporting three times, he finally reached the Ravencrest Territory. It was a huge territory ruled by the Ravencrest Empire situated in the middle of the territory. Surrounding it were many big and small kingdoms that paid yearly tributes to the empire. Being closer to the edge of the territory, they were also the ones who bore the brunt of any invasion from outside the territory.
He appeared in one such kingdom, the Windmere Kingdom, in the capital city. He wandered around the area to look for anything interesting.
As he was roaming in the bustling market, he heard someone call him.
“Hey kid, I can see that your bones are of a thousand years' genius. How about you purchase one of my martial arts cheats? I guarantee you that once you have it, you will leave all your peers in dust.”