After returning to camp, some changes had to be made. Sheds needed to be built. The farmland was sufficient as is.

Din had already planned on at least a few dozen sheds in anticipation, but more had to be made. The farmland was sufficient and easy to expand.

People still had work. Forging had to be done and everyone still trained. Din was for a lack of a better word, bored.

But this wasn’t an issue. He could be patient. Today he sat outside his shed. Jao by his side. Din was reading from the interface.

He was going over what he considered frivolous. These were consumable items. Strong medicine that would keep you alive.

There were pills that gave you attributes, monstrously expensive in Din’s mind. A few month’s worth. The less expensive ones were just temporary.

What really shook Din was the experience boost you could purchase. Temporary boost to experience. He was almost cursing.

‘Have they all been buying these things?’

There were many things he couldn’t wrap his head around. Why were the camps in such poor shape.

From what those people he met in the beginning had said, the two camps they had seen were in no better condition.

That’s five camps he had some information about. Five camps, all struggling to even feed themselves.

‘They can’t have been buying this stuff, could they?’

He was bored. So he spent more time thinking about worthless things.

Soon two weeks passed. Followed by two months. He had gone and taken over the southern camp. But his level held fast at level thirty.

The amount required to cross thirty to thirty two wasn’t small. Without ten nodes under him he’d have to struggle.

The camp now contained one hundred eighty seven souls. Seventy of which were women. And despite the unbalanced ratio, not one person was without a companion.

A few women were near immobile. It didn’t seem like they’d take a whole ten month period to give birth. This was unexpected. But Din was happy.

Din was happy that new generations were being born. The new generation would be easier to mold. Parents would crave stability. Which was the biggest benefit for now.

After thoroughly feeding his sense of superiority over other camp leaders, praising the Laq Docte in tandem. He thought he’d need a hobby.

So he had a small rod ground in the grinder. Eventually it had a the semblance of a dagger. It wasn’t much. But a few had been made before.

The forgers often chased after recipes in their free time. A bunch of tools had been made. But it was a fruitless endeavour so far.

Din held this dagger tight and began carving a thick tree branch.

Time moved a bit faster. Even though he didn’t enjoy carving. It was something to distract the mind.

His woman, Jao, joined him in this activity. But she felt it was worse than doing nothing. She’d want to go around the camp.

Din would take her around the various places people worked. He was very serious about this, he felt his presence gave purpose.

Jao mimicked Din and gave people a deep glance. She gazed at them with aged wisdom of an elder. The more she looked, the more she felt pleased with everything.

She felt a burden. She had to be a model to look up, she was an inspiration to these people. She had slowly adopted these thoughts after deep consideration,

Din had no idea what was going through her mind, after all he wasn’t a talkative person. And neither was she.

‘Should I feel out these beast kings?’

There was no particular reason as to why Din hadn’t aggressively expanded his territory. He was just being meticulous.

There was a surplus of food now. Every man and woman was armed. They had stopped creating additional rods and moved into a more experimental phase.

But the main reason why Din hadn’t taken the initiative to expand was that every known adjacent area was under the control of a beast king.

And his information on them was abysmal. From the amount of beasts during an invasion, he felt he required more people.

This wasn’t because he felt the beast would be strong. But he wanted up to thirty people fighting at all times, over several days.

Maybe he had enough now. He could wait years if he had to. But he was planning on taking on one of the two eastern zones.

Any one node was connected to other five nodes. A rough hexagonal shape. He was going to begin with the north-eastern zone and make his way in a circle until he had all areas.

He didn’t know that ten nodes would give him the pivotal increase in experience he would want. but even without it, he’d continue to amass territory.

Din had sent his to scouts to all nearby areas, all they found were beasts. Beasts in every direction. They were talented. But to stay safe, they would be slowed down.

And the deeper you go into beast king territory, the harder it was to stay out of sight. Short invisibility, it was impossible to survey properly.

‘If this isn’t enough, i’ll come back in ten some years, die or find other camps somehow.’

It was an odd thing to think. But a decision had been made. He would take all available hands, just over hundred and fifty people.

This was the beginning of Din’s expansion. He took the lead, even Jao had to stay back. He explained it to First that he had to make sure she wouldn’t be crippled.

It looked like a worried lover to First. But he took it seriously. He knew to do this much. He only felt it phrased wrong. But he wouldn’t correct him.

But he didn’t understand Din’s thoughts. DIn had near two hundred people under is control. Not one of them, beside Jao had an aura.

Not only did the aura provide a unique attribute but its range was exceptional. This had to be respected.

He also felt protective of a lot of other people. But not to the extent that he felt them irreplaceable. And that’s what the aura represented.

Like a lonely hero he walked thirty meters in front of the group. Few beasts attacked. But they still attacked.

The camp members and Din had hunted them extensively, but they never seemed to lessen. Today however, there were clearly less of them.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

Once Din had crossed the north-eastern border, not much happened other than a beast pack attacking.

It wasn’t until twenty people had crossed the border that Din stopped. He received an objective. He was to kill two hundred beasts.

‘Not the beast king?’

It was strange. He thought. Only two hundred? They can easily kill this number many times over each week.

What people didn’t understand, was that objectives weren’t there to directly reward people. Not as much as they were there to provide a hint.

They are a form of guidance. It was an impersonal and disconnected system. Because it had to be. But everyone took it as rewards.

After consecutive beast attacks, it looked like Din would be overwhelmed. His metal rod was bent out of shape. It’s edge long dulled.

But he had ordered them not to help. He was trying something out. It wasn’t until he was finally snagged in the arm. His skin ripped open and he felt the pain.

This was a new kind of pain. His body twitched and leaped backwards. First took it as a signal to assist him.

People thought Din was showing them a strong front. To inspire them. People felt tense. A sense of pride swelled them.

Would they be able to do this? Fight so many and so viciously.

Din felt the pain. It was now burning. He almost reached out to buy medicine from the interface. If it wasn’t for it directly interfering with his plans for the Laq Docte.

He was swirling with thoughts. He felt light headed, maybe due to the pain. But it might have been because he felt he found a way to die.

Exhaustion. It was difficult. He’d have to surround himself with beasts. Once his instinct felt threatened he’d lose control.

If he wanted to beat this, he would have to plan. He wasn’t sure if him still being alive was affecting the Laq Docte.

His disappearance didn’t achieve what his death should have. He had been too late and as his family expected, he was transferred to this planet.

And since Din was here. That meant that others in his generation didn’t get the chance he was allocated. But Din didn’t know this.

Din wasn’t like his elder brothers, like his more reliable cousins. He was the most devoted Laq Docte member they had ever seen.

But instead of instilling confidence they felt it was counterproductive. So the heartless decision was made. He had to die. This to, was for the family.

They felt the blind devotion meant he couldn’t work independently.

Din’s would vehemently deny this were he told. And if not, his world would crumble.

He wasn’t the smartest. He wasn’t the most cunning. He wasn’t dumb by any measure but he certainly wasn’t their candidate.

The Laq Docte family didn’t sprout out from nowhere. The had forced their way to the top out of nowhere some hundred years ago.

Din’s great great grandfather had been sent here. He managed to claw himself back. And every generation a new person would be sent here.

This was a secret only the highest echelons knew. Even Din’s father wasn’t informed. And yet he had been ordered to have the youngest eligible Laq Docte to be killed.

To kill his own son. This form of heartlessness was hard to teach. Foster something that was a part of you, only to discard it at the whims of others.

Yet here Din was. Fighting to kill himself. Fighting to give the Laq Docte a place in this world.

Din was still savoring the pain. It was worse than he had imagined. The shock still hadn’t left him. He was afraid of it now.

To Din however, fear was miniscule in comparison to his ambition, and dwarfed next to his devotion.

The bleeding was stopped with a tightly wound cloth. It was a deep wound but his body didn’t seem to care. It was already clotting and healing.

Now the practice formation began fighting in relentless rotations. They fought hard and fast. It wasn’t until a day's work was done that they began slowing down.

The groups split further down, two parts slept while two equally large group split down further and kept guard.

While in a beast territory, you’d have to defend from a seemingly endless hoard. They had long finished the objective of killing two hundred beasts.

Din had assumed he’d get a follow up objective to kill the beast king. But nothing happened. So they continued to delve deeper into the territory.

Their rotations were working as intended and despite some battle fatigue, there were no problems to keep this up for weeks without end.

Din was thinking about how to go about delving deep enough to be surrounded. Din however underestimated his Instincts attribute.

The more Din knew, the more he experienced. The more effective his Instincts would become. If his instinct thought there would be a chance he’d be surrounded and killed.

It would take over ruthlessly, kill its way out as fast as it could and escape. This wasn’t within Din’s control.

If Din wasn’t as headstrong as he was, with so little desires of his own, his instincts might take him over entirely. He’d lose control. He’d be trapped as a passenger.

But this was just one possible outcome. It might also end with him adapting to the Instinct attribute. This would give him senses few could compare to.

It wasn’t until the eleventh day that someone died. It looked like an accident caused my complacency and fatigue.

Someone had taken the wrong stepped, fumbled slightly and a beast had ripped into their throat.

Din had been watching over the battle. He had not attended the battle training at all. When he did step forward to attack, it looked lackluster.

People watching had all been training for the passed few months. They felt strange watching his poor form and attacks.

But occasionally a beast would attack Din. This would cause some outrageous and efficient movements that slaughtered the attacker in one blow.

A few people had a counter attack ability, but they still felt this was strange. It didn’t seem to have a cooldown and he seemed to have endless mana.

No one knew his abilities. No one dared to ask either. But that didn’t stop them from guessing.

On the fifteenth day seven people had died. They got sleep, they got rest but there was a different kind of fatigue plaguing them.

All they did was fight, watch people fight, eat and sleep. There came a point where everyone began dreaming they were fighting.

Time began to feel like it had come to a crawl. This was mundane slaughter. Odd conversation began sprouting up. People talked about things they’d never mention before.

On the eighteenth day a bellowing howl forced the fighting to stop. A beast three times the size of a normal person. Two staggering hind legs and long arms that looked skinny in comparison.

‘This is the beast king?’

Din’s eyes shone. He rushed to meet it. It had stopped. It had never seen this many people before. Hundred scrawny little shits were slaughtering his minions.

These were it’s thoughts. This beast had the mind and temperament of a rebellious teenager. It hadn’t been this furious when fighting other beast kings.

This was more an insult than anything. It didn't care if thousands of beasts died. What it cared about was face.

It was hard to say who would know it experienced this humiliation, but it felt like the whole world was watching. It was confused.

Din was still moving towards it. This was yet another slap in its face. Who the hell is this now? Why is it charging at me? The beast felt it was ridiculous.

When he was close enough it stepped forward to meet him. It was furious and felt it beneath it to even have to do this. But it did anyway. Clearly it’s minions were useless.

It took the initiative to attack. This had a translucent shadow act decisively. Din suddenly ducked forward and leapt to the side.

A fist larger than his head slammed into the ground like a hammer. Din struck back at the arm. It was swift and heavy blow. The beast king’s forearm bone fractured.

It wasn’t entirely broken. But it was painful for it. This wasn’t a new type of pain for it. It had fought to control this area for a long time. It had been here for years by now.

But the fact this little creature was able to cause this kind of damage shocked it. The beast king retreated backwards. Inspected it’s arm.

Who the hell are you? It stared into Din’s eyes. What the hell are you? How did you hit me so hard?

It had a thousand questions. Din saw the intelligence in its eyes. He was surprised this time around.

‘Don’t look at me like that, you attacked me.’

Din thought he was in the right. Despite having just orchestrated a massacre. He didn’t even acknowledge that it had been him that charged at the beast.

“This is my land now.”

He thought it might understand him. It didn’t. It saw Din was trying to talk to it. This was also a type of insult.

It wasn’t afraid of Din. It was just shocked, so there was some confusion. Seeing Din trying to talk to it. It felt angry again.

Being what it was. It charged at him again. Everytime Din would dodge and strike back. Except now it didn’t leap back but continued attacking.

Soon it’s right arm was no longer just fractured but entirely broken. The swelling near doubled its forearm.

It didn’t know how to use its legs to attack, so it began using its left arm. Or right shoulder. This continued for a while.

They had monstrous stamina, the beast far surpassed Din in this aspect. But it didn’t matter. It couldn’t hit Din.

Everyone was watching this exchange. They didn’t feel it was real. How could he move like that? This creature was three times his size.

Even if he was fast, wasn’t this too exaggerated? Everyone except Fist felt this way. He was thinking how he made the right choice that day.

He had gone with Din to the third camp. He had see him easily kill their leader and seven other people.

But even then, he thought he could put up a fight. Not anymore though. He didn’t think he could fight this beast king.

This whole thing was absurd.

An hour passed before the beast king lost the use of its left arm. It had no choice now but to leap like a monkey. It was trying to stomp Din.

But this was impossible for it to achieve as well. Din began striking its legs instead. The beast felt worried now.

It could recover from its wounds. But not here. And not in a short time. It would take at the very least a dozen days.

So it ran. Din couldn’t kill it either. He didn't have the strength. But he chased after it. After a few minutes a holographic window alerted him of something.

He waved his hands and kept chasing. Soon he lost sight of the beast. He stopped. It was out of character but he felt angry.

It wasn’t until he read the alert he received earlier he began to smile again. He had gained control over this support node.

You have acquired a support node!

You will receive additional ten percent increase in experience while within your territory.

Additional resource points are added every seven days.

He expected more. This was the same as conquering the other nodes. But far harder.

When he glanced over his current resource points he changed his mind. Turns out that areas controlled by beast kings came with a sizeable sum.

‘If it’s this much I can afford to build some leisure buildings.’

There were no leisure buildings to buy. There were many buildings Din thought were extravagant and not worth the resources. But only he described them as leisure buildings.

Things felt different now. Sure it took some effort taking over these territorial beast’s nodes. The reward was great.

This would save Din years of effort. He saw the light. He might as well build all the buildings. He still wouldn’t touch consumables. That was too much waste.

‘I still need more people. Not every person can be talented.’

What he was referring to here was the production buildings he was going to buy. Just buying them wasn’t enough. He needed people to occupy them.

‘Thousand?’

The number was people. He thought it would be enough. He’d be wrong. Some things required more than just passion.

How was a simple person going to stumble their way through formations. Through scriptions. Even just forging was turning out to be exercise in futility.

Din couldn’t buy recipes. These could only be earned not bought. He could buy information and beginner refining methods.

But even this was limited. His network of nodes. Accompanied by certain success in their respective fields had to be achieved.

Only then could more advanced material refining and techniques be unlocked. Then they could buy recipes. But only of the lowest tier.

This wouldn’t be of much help to the crafter in question, but any other lesser crafter could benefit immensely.