When they finally moved in force. Over two thousand and five hundred people armed with metal weapons, shields and fine bows.

This was a terrifying force. They now had tier one recipe wheatgrass crackers. The first tier one recipe. This wasn’t a harvesting method or a refining technique. But a production recipe.

Its greatest merit was the long shelf life. It was a rough, crunchy cracker. It would last months on end, in open air containers.

It didn’t have much in the way of taste but it would go with whatever they hunted. It also had decent satiety.

Din couldn’t award the man further. He had little to offer. So he just gave him more subordinates. This was Din’s greatest resource, people.

They had brought a sizeable army. Each equipped with two sets of melee weapons, a shield, a bow and arrows.

There were too many people this time around. They didn’t have experience in commanding such a large number of people.

After realizing the unorganized chaos, Din and a few others discussed solutions. They ended with splitting the army into five. Five hundred some people in each group.

They travelled in a spear formation. One group took the lead. The next two would stay to the left and right, few tens meters apart.

This then followed by the fourth and fifth group even further out. This might not be ideal but they felt they had more control like this.

Din didn’t take lead of a group and let First’s other men take that role. All he wanted was to expand what he could expand.

He was also mindful of not rushing to fast. This is why it took them more than a half a year to take a firm step towards further conquest.

This was despite overwhelming military power. Both in numbers and equipment.

Din did this because he wanted stability. He didn’t want a prolonged fight with the unknown. He could deal with some sacrifices, even felt they were necessary.

He felt they were needed. It gave people perspective and nurtured dependencies. This was something he was taught. It was a ruthless mindset.

These were things used to control the masses without doing so directly. There was no need for personal control. Not if you nurtured your people in the right way.

It felt emotionless, filled with indifference. But to Din it was a mercy, a gift. This was righteous justification. Death and suffering, presented as gifts. Only the deluded would see this.

Din was nothing if not immersed in his delusions. His older brothers, cousins and extended family felt this way to thinking to be right. But Din knew it to be true. A minor difference.

The current expedition was going as expected. They killed, ate and slept. There were too many of them. They were organized but not enough.

The chaotic atmosphere resulted in them slowing down. They still slaughtered beasts in record numbers. But their efficiency was down when the proportions were considered.

It didn’t have much meaning. And it was hard for anyone to think of this point at all. Most felt they were doing better than ever before.

This was misconception brought to them by large numbers. Only a few didn’t feel they were doing better. But even they felt they weren’t doing worse.

This difference in time was large enough to make this activity continue for a month longer than expected. This was a month of nonstop killing.

Waking up. Killing. Eating. Killing. Dreaming. Killing. A cycle of death. This sort of living was inducing temporary insanity.

It was temporary because it wasn’t changing them fundamentally. Only heavily influencing them.

This insanity manifested itself it strange conversations. People would smile when they saw a beast fall down and blood flowing.

Most of them time people would at least indulge themselves a bit and smear fresh blood on their faces. Their expressions twist back and forth.

What they never were, was confused. There was no confusion. There was nothing strange about smearing a bit of blood on themselves.

There was a qualitative difference in this insanity as well. People like First would feel it but in a different way. It was more composed.

Only Din was unaffected. There was no room for thoughts about killing and blood. There was no thrill to be had in killing. Not for Din.

What was contradictory, was that this influenced state didn’t cause chaos but order. The further people dove into this madness the more easily they followed orders.

Perhaps they would walk into death willingly. It was hard to say. To say they were fearless was wrong. To say they were mindless was also wrong.

As far as Din was concerned. They were just acting like they animals they were. Fragile plebeians, unable to handle the harsh world.

To fight fire with fire was a term applicable to Din in these moments. His madness easily overcame this pathetic influence. What was this wave of water against his vast oceans?

Outside the odd conversations and blood used as warpaint it was difficult to point towards this madness. Fatigue explained a lot of it away.

Mental fatigue wasn’t something easily whisked away. It is hard to say whether this kind of fatigue could accumulate beyond a certain point.

It could be argued that falling to into the rhythm of the environment was to guard the psyche. Like clotting up a wound, the body might be saving itself.

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This might be why Din gave of a more aggressive zealotry aura while capturing new areas. These were all things no one noticed, but everyone felt.

It could be said that Din doubled down on his believes when contested. While others could only allow it to affect them.

In this way they live through what was longest excursion they had ever experienced.

This prolonged period caused some to feel despair. It was often these people that made mistakes and were struck down in battle.

Some of them died. This irritated Din. He again felt they were wasting his resources. These people had to be fed. They were trained. They had to raise children.

He wasn’t only frustrated by these people. But also others, that allowed this to happen. This wasn’t anger just passing thoughts.

There were numerous such thoughts that he treated like fleeting clouds. This was because most of his thoughts would lead to Laq Docte doctrine.

Once a thought touched on the subject of Laq Docte. It would stay on Laq Docte. Din would immerse himself in it. Feeling enlightened and serene.

Even when consummating with Jao he would stumble into this reverie. Jao was used to this and would take over majority of the work. This was another suffering she endured.

Jao felt like martyr in many ways. She felt she suffered a lot. But it wasn’t in vain. She was a hero. She was a pillar. This is what she felt.

Jao’s aura was now serving a purpose so grand that even ordinary people felt she was too powerful.

Feeling the slight increase in power wasn’t much. But there were people that could recognize the value. Thousands of people. All stronger. This was easy to assess.

It was hard on Din. He didn’t care for himself, but now he had this person. Jao. She was his woman, but more she was extremely valuable.

Now he had something he valued. He had to trust people to protect her and hope others wouldn't attack her. All these things were a headache to Din.

It should have been a headache at least. But in the end he would wander onto a Laq Docte factoid. This blasted away any potential worries he had.

Whether this was a bad thing or a good thing is debatable.

He wouldn’t intentionally neglect people. But it was something beaten into him. These people weren’t valuable enough. Even Jao. In the end they were all tools.

On the forty sixth day of the expansion, Din was immersed in melancholy. He missed his great grandfather's wise teachings.

Today was just like the days before it. They marched, slept, rested and ate. Din strolled along alongside Jao. They didn’t look wartorn.

What was surprising or perhaps not. Was that Jao was only slightly affected by the atmosphere. Her eyes still firm. Her thoughts overwhelmed any strange urges.

This was the effects of her personality working in tandem with her allocated attributes. This was how these things went.

It wouldn’t be dangerous to allocate all your attributes into one area. But once you got additional increases from other areas, it would start to affect them.

Those with towering strength could have a calm and easygoing personality. In time they would feel the urge for violence. To vent their violent frustrations.

This didn’t make them violent. They wouldn’t be prone to anger. There was a difference between the two.

Din was influenced in this way as well. In a most dangerous way. He could become timid as a mouse one day. His instincts could take over completely.

Imprisoned by his collective senses. These were senses he couldn’t feel. People will ignore the vast amount of information they receive.

Din’s illusory shadow did not ignore this information. These were your instincts. A subconscious mind so incredibly powerful it could even make use of the most obscure things.

Every person holds this power. And they all use it to an extent. This can be a smell triggering a memory. A sense of danger. It manifests itself in countless ways.

Din was nurturing this subconscious mind. Not intentionally of course. It was his fortune that he was a true person.

His thoughts united. A true person. A soul of the Laq Docte, with no room for anything else. His subconscious mind followed this trend as well.

The difference would be their tactics. How they achieved their goals. One was emotionless while the other filled with zealotry.

Din was filled with emotions he suppressed with his faith. His subconscious had no emotions to speak off. This was the difference between them.

Both would be domineering tyrants. It was hard to say which would be better for the world at large. Both would want the world to bow to Laq Docte.

No emotions didn’t mean much. It didn’t mean indiscriminate killings. To kill for pleasure was impossible. All was for survival. Be it his own or the family.

To survive was more than just keep a life intact. It was to thrive. To flourish and grow. It meant to expand. Until all threats were gone. Procreation is a form of survival.

Removing all threats meant at least some tangible control over the entire world. It meant unwavering subjects that devoted themselves to the Laq Docte. Or its puppet government.

Din still had control for the most part. It was only when he was in risk of death that his instincts took control. This wasn’t just physical control. But his mind as well.

It wasn’t a blackout. He’d become a passenger for a moment. It was a smooth transition. It was so smooth that he couldn’t feel the loss of control. It was an illusion of control.

There was no disconnect, so it felt natural. As long as it remained in this way, he would be safe.

Despite not feeling the discomfort of losing control. Din still held back when it came to fighting. He didn’t like the thought of not being in control.

He still felt in control, but somewhere he knew something wasn’t right. Only when he had a purpose, he’d fight.

He was planning on fighting the beasts once they arrived. But something felt off to him. He knew this time around. Perhaps he always knew.

With as much time he had on hand, he didn’t have time to question everything. He did feel that maybe he couldn’t put himself in a deadly situation, intentionally.

This was a discouraging thought to Din. But had resigned himself to it. He could only let it go and focus on digging up the soil. Dig his roots as deep as he could.

Back home on earth there wasn’t much change. Another Laq Docte vanished. Three generations of Laq docte. Nine individuals in total were missing.

His grandfather’s generation, his father's and now his own. They were all either dead or somewhere in this world, with Din.

Three people for every generation. This was a hard price to pay. The rewards could be worth the sacrifices. But only if the individuals were loyal to Laq Docte.

This is why the Laq Docte were so eccentric. They had long seen passed their little planet and gazed into different worlds. All the riches on Earth were nothing in comparison.

This is why they didn’t work. They didn’t accumulate wealth intentionally. Not anymore. None of it was worth anything. Not in their eyes. Means to an end at most.

There was no grand reason as to why Din and previous generations weren’t told they would be teleported here.

It was perhaps the thinking of the great patriarch, that he experienced all these things blind. So they should experience them blind.

This was a backwards way of thinking. But who was going to change an old dogs thoughts?

If another individual returned to earth they would almost certainly inform the family of their experience. This was because they wanted to help the Laq Docte.

All these things aside. When Din was compared to his other family members. When taking progress in this world in account. He was the furthest behind.

This was because he was the only one still in an unrated zone. It would be hard to detail his two cousins journey so far.

To keep it simple they had left this unrated zone before Din had taken over a support node.

Whether this was intended or by accident was unknown. Only Din was still struggling in an unrated zone. Amassing useless territory.

This would leave Din dismayed. He would want to act as support for his cousins. Only to find out they abandoned their starting area.

It was absurd. The way Din did things. Not absurd as in stupid. But once you left an unrated zone it was easy to realize advantages that came with it.

What was even more clear was once people had enough personal power, it was harder to hold together any kind of sizeable force.

With thousands needing to experience insurmountable slaughter. These would not be simple people.

Even now. Din’s army was rather dangerous. They reached level forty five one by one. This gave them more survivability.

A single mistake could reap a life. But with abilities to save yourself the risks became negligible. And people knew it.

It was only the less experienced fighters that were dying due to mistakes. The rest always corrected themselves with powerful defensive abilities.

With the amount of things they hunted and the bonuses that applied to them. They were leveling to forty five faster than ever.

First had yet to reach forty six but hundreds were now at forty five as well. This was discouraging to say the least.

A natural course of action was to travel to tier one or even tier two zones at this point. But how could they know of this option?

Billions upon billions lived in these unrated zones. Only a fraction left it. But this fraction was still enough to populate tier one zones.

It was on the fifty fifth day that a familiar bellowing was heard. Far from the armies location, a gathering of six large creatures occured.

Each beast commanded ten to twenty beasts. It was easy to see there was some discipline within their ranks.

Previously they had been waiting. It was only now that they had all gathered that they sent out a united roar.

Their eyes were bloodshot in what was either anger or excitement. These beasts were far smarter than before. But this didn’t mean they knew battle tactics.

They would advanced as a united front. Take on these invaders. Their animosity toward each other put to the side.

Din’s troops stood still, their formation now tighter. They lined up in rows. The plan was to form a half moon.

A whole circle was too much, it would spread them too thin. But half a circle was just right to utilize their advantageous bows and arrows.

Din had been a part of this scheme but had only agreed to the plan. Feeling it all a bit pointless. They just had to shoot these beasts down. This was what he felt.