Din felt like a great big hen. A great big mother hen, he looked towards the camp. Yesterday they had broken a thousand people.

In just eleven short days he’d buy the Agricultural building.

There was a slight food shortage, but it would right itself next harvest. Until they they’d have to go hunt a bit more.

This hunting fell to the battle training troops. First issued his closest men as his direct subordinates.

His men would make sure the hunts went on in an efficient and organized fashion.

The days kept trickling by. Only two more groups came. One with two hundred people. And another with just under a hundred.

There was no opposition. But they also did not confer their nodes to Din. They could keep their nodes for over six months before it went neutral.

Din hadn’t thought about this. If he had he’d threatened them or killed them. It was only a matter of time before one of them used it as a bargaining chip.

Soon this moment would come. Once they fully felt they had lost any semblance of power. they’d come to bargain some back.

This was natural. When that moment came. Did had just bought the agricultural building and was reading through the information on it.

There were too many things there. Information about too many fruits and vegetables. An abnormal amount of animals.

He got interrupted from his reading. There was a sense of relief in Din. This was a monstrous amount of inane information. But Din felt obligated to read it.

“I would like to take head of forging.”

This man was sharp. He had a suspicious look around him. Most people would feel this way. Din however didn’t see it.

“Head of forging? What would you do?”

“I want authority over them.”

He further explained but the more he spoke the more Din felt this was pointless.

“If you want to be head forger, get a recipe.”

It wasn’t until the man offered his three nodes that he got Din’s attention.

‘How could I overlook this.’

A smarter person would have realized it sooner. Din reflected over this failure. Then looked into the man’s eyes.

“There is no position available in my camp.”

“What do you mean?”

Din stood up. And told Jao to get someone to get all the other leaders.

Before long all of them were gathered. This was a closed off shed. Only Jao was still there.

“I gave you all ample opportunity. Didn’t I?”

The gathering felt it was strange. Only two thought they understood. Din didn’t leave them time to ask any questions.

“I've taken you in. I let you live. But here we are. I give and give. And get nothing back.”

No one felt like speaking up. They didn’t know what was going on. But it felt like a build up to something dangerous.

“I’m going to give you a chance today. You confer your nodes to me. Or I’ll settle the matter myself.”

When the words came out they realized what this was about. They felt the tension skyrocket.

Then they felt insulted. He wanted their nodes for free? But Din felt the weight of a heavy betrayal. His calm self was angry now.

It was out of character for Din to lose his composure. Although it didn't look like he lost it. He was seething with anger. He somehow retained a kind smile.

But that smile didn’t reach his eyes anymore. They were still bright. But they no longer carried goodwill. They were now just normal. Boring almost.

But the stark difference felt odd to them. Still no one cracked. They were in a closed off space with Din. there was fourteen of them, and just him and a woman.

Din patiently gazed at them. He was trying to hold back. He was about to kill them.

‘One word.’

All he wanted. He wanted someone to say something.

Levat Koramsins Outtlettum transferred three support nodes to you

The man stood up and bowed slightly. He had expected this to happen before he even entered the camp. He was surprised it took this long.

Din’s eyes lit up and he looked at him. He was very happy with this person. Soon another person transferred his two nodes.

These two were incidentally the two that had understood Din from the beginning. He bowed similar to the previous man.

The rest saw this and felt it annoying. Couldn’t you stand your ground for a bit longer? Now there is just twelve of us.

They wanted something. They couldn’t give up their nodes for free. That would be absurd.

Just as Din’s mood was coming under his control. Someone coughed, indicating he wanted to speak.

“Careful with your words.”

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There was no room for discussion in Din’s mind. The discussion was over when they entered his land. It ended when he knew they existed.

The only reason they were still alive was because he wanted all of nodes and not just the nearest one.

“Can you buy them from us?”

Din thought it over in a flash.

“Name a price.”

He didn’t hesitate to answer.

“A woman and a bigger shed.”

Din looked at him. He was confused. This wasn’t a large price. But he had a rule in the camp. Women had to choose a man. Did this man not have a women?

He really didn’t have a woman anymore. He had a bad reputation. He had been less than gentle.

“How many nodes do you have?”

“One.”

‘He wants to bargain with me, with one node?’

Din attacked, it looked awkward. The guy countered with an ability. But once he acted, Din changed. The shadow took control.

The man fell to the ground and Din now had one additional support node.

“Anyone else have a price?”

This wasn't Din threatening them. He just attacked because had just one Node. And he felt the man worth less than a woman. Was this man going to birth a child? Din didn't think so.

They felt a bit awkward. Despite being ready for a fight. This was a bit unexpected. They had been talking about terms.

Why was he now dead? They hadn’t at all expected this. Three of them realized the key factor. One support node.

They now knew the only reason they were alive was because he wanted all of their nodes. Not just one.

When they thought up to here. They came a bit more cunning.

“Two nodes, I just want to be excluded from all responsibilities.”

“Done.”

He transferred two nodes over. He had three, but figured this would be enough. He could still access the consumable shop. Six months of resource points from a single node was valuable.

He was right. He had struck while he could. But he didn’t think far enough. Din would make sure he had all nodes.

All had to do was ask around. It was doubtful whether people would lie for their previous leaders.

“Next?”

Some wanted positions. Others wanted women. But all they got was the right to be excluded. At least they didn't need to fight.

Five days after the exchange five of the men were politely asked back to meet with Din. everyone but one died.

The one left alive had two nodes. Din wanted two nodes.

“It’s good that you are sensible.”

It was rare for Din to be spiteful. He was perhaps too naive. But not naive enough to be taken advantage of for free. It was only a moment but afterwards Din reflected on it.

He had never felt this before. He was cursing these people in his mind. They were dead on the floor. But still felt frustration.

Jao had watched him slaughter these men mercilessly and then smile as he sent the last one away. She felt this a natural thing.

Din now had one tier one node and twenty six unrated. This was a two hundred and sixty percent experience bonus. Coming up to five hundred and sixty.

He was ecstatic. He felt like the Laq Docte ancestor was watching over him. He felt him smile at him dotingly.

To say his feeling was better than sex was an understatement. This was a spiritual pleasure. He envisioned a bright future the Laq Docte would provide.

Din had so much resource point income now that he almost felt like buying a leisure building. Not a large one. Just a small one.

He drew upon his belief in in Laq Docte like a believer to his god. He settled down after a few rounds with Jao.

It really was out of character for Din to act this way. Jao had never seen so much passion from Din.

She didn’t like it. She had grown used to being reserved, to being regal. But we all have our crosses to bear. These were her thoughts.

Things quieted down. Din had the fire taken out of him. He put emphasis on establishing people's schedules.

Other than that he actively went out on hunts with Jao. the experience was substantial and not long after they felt their level rise.

Din’s map was now zoomed out further. In it were hexagonal shapes.

The nodes under Din’s tier one node was blacked out the surrounding areas were yellow sprinkled with blue spots.

The blue spots were his new unrated nodes. If he connected enough of them together he’d create another tier one node.

Further away, in a ten node radius from Din’s tier one node. There were red nodes. These nodes were not affected by the tier one node.

The yellow nodes were dangerous. Five to ten of them would merge into one. To take them they would have begin a slaughter.

This slaughter would be three to five times larger than previously. Two to three thousand beasts killed. This would force a fight with the node’s beast kings.

The reward would be increased as well. Not proportionally, considering the difficulty would be many fold.

It could be considered faster. Take out the nodes respective beast kings and gain a whole slew of nodes.

Din had to do this if he wanted to turn his twenty six unrated nodes into tier one nodes. He contemplated the map. The nodes were spread in a near circular pattern.

He would just have to pick a direction at this point. But he didn’t mind. The creation of arrows and bows was slow.

They were limited by the people who had a recipe for the bows and arrows. Then there was the metal rods and shields. These things took time.

Because of this, Din wasn’t in a hurry to take over new nodes. He felt that going in unprepared might causes a large amount of casualties.

He could definitely take over a node with this amount of people. But every dead man and woman was less future children. This would have negative effects in the long term.

A new invention swept the camp. Earplugs. It was material refined from tree sap. It was popular because there were always people awake.

There was a constant rotation of people making their sleep schedule varied. This meant noises were never ending. And people wanted to sleep.

There was an everlasting twilight and they could block out what little light there was, inside their sheds. Leaving only the noise to worry about.

Din would still roam about with Jao on occasion. Jao had been nervous with the new influx of people. Would they know how great she was?

Every time Din and her showed up people would at the very least acknowledge them. She and Din would gaze approvingly. She felt things were even better.

She cherished these moments, if she could she’d carve them into her bones. Her favorite was the Artificer. It was where most of the women would go.

Only there she’d fully feel the envious gazes on her. This was better than any nectar.

After a round, Din decided to take up a new hobby. He had a waterwheel and a grinder moved to his shed. There he took them apart and put them back together.

He’d occasionally pick up a piece of wood from the refinery. He wasn’t some genius. But he couldn’t spend all his days whittling away.

Sometimes he’d call over some woodworkers. Even the leader forger would have to pay a visit every once in awhile.

The lead forger had pioneered a way to smelt handles on things. This invention was applicable to many things beside handles.

What Din wanted to make was gears. Once he had gears he could make better use of the waterwheel power.

Gear made from refined wood was more durable than metal for some inexplicable reason. Or so Din thought.

He stopped caring about making gears and was now trying to figure out this nonsensical difference in durability.

After numerous experiments it was obvious that it was the wood. The wood had been refined from hacked of tree roots.

These were the roots from the mines. After they had dug down considerably they began hitting roots.

The roots came from the very large trees that shot into the fog. These roots were far more flexible than the metal and considerably more durable.

Once Din and his team of researchers came to this conclusion they felt great satisfaction.

This was in spite of knowing the small amount there was of it and the difficulty of extracting it from the ground.

Just solving the inconsistency was reward enough. Din also commissioned a hold on the material, for personal use.

He returned to his whittling. To practice his gear making he used lesser materials. Not wanting to waste this rare material.

They used a gear to create a rough grinder. This grinder used the waterwheel for power. One without ropes.

It was made entirely of metal casted from molds created with a claylike substance. Din was planning on making his own tree-made gears.

There were multiple reason why the roots were more durable. Not only was it because the roots of the tree were growing in metal laden soil.

The metals were worked into low quality. It would not be wrong to say the metal was ruined.

Following the poor refining, the extracted metal was impure. It would require a more advanced refining techniques to extract the defects.

The new grinder was repurposed to grind down the farmed wheatgrass. This was a rough process but produced far better results than manual labour.

It was a minor achievement and caused next to no change. They manage to get finer material which they then refined further.

This resulted in a softer wheatgrass bread. This bread wasn’t popular. But it was easier to work with it.

All in all, it looked like a waste of time. In the end, it was only a hobby to Din.

It was normal for people to try out different crafting. Some would make themselves useful things with no interested in pursuing it further.

One particular camp member had made herself a bed covers, leather socks thick enough to be considered shoes, and was currently working on a way to shave her legs.

Din spent most of his time whittling. There wasn’t much else to do beside making sure weapons and arrows were being produced.

When Din saw people wearing simple leather clothing, he felt this was a good thing. Two days later they had a team producing pants and jackets.

They had to create two to four thousand arrows. Metal tipped arrows. They needed over ten to twenty thousand non metal tipped arrows.

The time it took to create one metal tipped arrow, three to four non metal tipped arrows could be produced.

There were people actively trying to learn how to make these arrows, eventually they would receive a recipe for one. If they mimicked the original creator slowly.

They only had to repeat the process. One day they’d complete a replica suitable enough to be granted a recipe.

There wasn’t much Din could use to reward people with. But one of them was the right choose their work.

If you were a original creator a recipe you could even be excluded from mandatory things like hunting, battle training or fighting.

The former node leaders all held this right. Or to be exact they had the ultimate privilege of not having to do anything at all.

A decree had been announced. Anyone who could create a useful recipe could be granted a position in their respective field and be excluded from unwanted activities.

He had to emphasize, to make sure people understood that it had to be a useful recipe. Because there appeared a lot of recipes with no observable merit.

One such recipe was for a hard cracker. Made from ground and refined wheatgrass. While the cracker wasn’t inedible. It had no other benefit.