"Augh..." Silas grumbled while standing back up again; his entire body was drenched in pain, as if every fibre of his muscles had been hammered several times.

'After effects of the 'Ironhide Reinforcement' skill are quite gruesome...' Silas frowned. 'Activating that skill takes quite the toll on my current body. I thought I had grown stronger physically, but I'm still lacking proper durability to go around swinging my fist in the middle of a swarm of beasts...'

Silas sighed, but at the same time, his regeneration skill was constantly repairing the torn muscles, growing more durable and stronger with each passing moment.

Silas sat down on his bed, rubbing his forehead, and his eyes went on over the two wolves in front of him; they both also seemed to be growling in pain, twitching their limbs here and there.

"What a pain in the ass..." Silas frowned, "I would think thrice before using this skill..."

With that said, Silas finally stood back up again, grabbing clothes that had wrapped all the Soul Cores of those Fang Goats he hunted down just a day prior.

"... Hahh~" Silas sighed deeply and once again started to crush and absorb those Soul Cores; this definitely gave some relief to his migraine-like situation. With a supply of small amounts of energy charges constantly being supplied inside his body, he felt almost instant relief.

"Better..." Silas remarked and made his way over the balcony with a sudden depth in his eyes, reminding himself about all factors present in the world now.

'Human civilisation has almost collapsed, or at least we are on the brink of collapsing completely. It might sound horrible, but the number of corpses we witnessed in the city is a lot less than what I expected there to be.

The military indeed has taken some action to protect people; they might not be knowledgeable about beast taming yet, but they sure are capable of rescuing and protecting people.

In the granary, I noticed the tire marks of heavy trucks and many rows of grain bags missing; the military must be making rounds to secure food for people themselves.

Even in the city I felt someone watching us; I can't exactly be sure, but that gaze didn't hold killing intent like the savage beasts. The survivors must be keeping an eye on us.

But even so, it doesn't feel wise to have the military rescue us; I'm sure they are lacking resources themselves, and in the current situation I'm more confident in raising an army of beast tamers myself than living while leaving our fate to others, whose life itself isn't guaranteed to last a month.'

Silas sighed, equipped a bluish hoodie, and left his room; the wolves followed right after him, making their way downstairs.

"Good morning, Silas. Want a sandwich?" His mother greeted him with a warm smile; Silas's face instantly blossomed with a warm smile as he grabbed the sandwich.

"Thanks, Mum!" He grabbed two for himself and tossed some over to Asra and Zerath; Silas's father seemed to scoff with a smile, watching the wolves jump like pups for little treats, and with that they left the house.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"I will be out at Charles's home~" Silas said and left, stepping out on the road; with a single step, he suddenly accelerated, and with a rush, stepping directly on the roofs, he reached over his old friend's house, with the wolves following right behind him.

"Come in."

Silas didn't even need to ring the bell; Charles opened the doors himself, and reaching inside Silas was greeted by the sight of the bunch of people already gathered inside along with their tamed beasts.

"Morning~" Silas greeted them with a chuckle before walking inside. Along with the beasts, he took the empty seat at the centre with the two wolves waving their tails, taking a seat on the floor around his legs.

"So with yesterday's mission, we have received the basic idea of what is going on with the world, right?"

The room fell into a tense silence as everyone shifted in their seats, glancing at one another before turning their focus to Silas. Charles leaned forward, arms resting on his knees, with a serious expression.

“Yeah… we have a rough idea,” Charles started, running a hand through his hair. "With all our contacts being cut off from the rest of the world. I can't exactly be sure what the situation with the whole world is, but our region for sure is in deep trouble.

Those beasts have already started to settle in the woods surrounding our residence. We have a high ground advantage because we are settled in the hills, but at the same time we can get isolated from the outside world if the beasts completely surround us like this."

"That's why we need to move fast, first during the fight with those goat-like beasts. I realised our residence doesn't have any sort of defence except for being on high ground.

We need to make some sort of walls to cover our residence; thankfully, we still have electricity thanks to solar panels and experts to keep the services running in the locality.

We will be setting up cameras everywhere to keep an eye out for any hostile attack. We can have people without tamed beasts assist us in keeping an eye out for now; satellite phones and normal ones aren't working, so we will set up a giant bell as a signal for us. Charles has one, right?"

"My grandfather's antique piece?" He muttered in surprise before chuckling, "Guess we can use it that way too."

"Very well then, how many days do you think the food distributed to the people is going to last?" Silas questioned picking up the notepad.

"2 weeks at most?" Charles made an approximate guess, and Silas nodded, "Then 2 weeks is what we have to turn our residence into a stronghold against the beasts outside."

Silas tapped the chair thoughtfully, then looked at the wolves. "And since we are on the topic, let me make a terminology too. The ones who fight alongside us… let’s call them 'Sentinels.'."

Charles tilted his head. "Sentinels?"

Silas nodded. "It fits. They guard, they stand with us, and they aren’t just beasts—they’re watchful, loyal, and ready to fight. More than anything, they help protect what’s left of humanity."

Charle's eagle let out a soft cry, as if approving the term. "Sentinels… I like that."

"And the others?" a youngster leaned forward with the question.

Silas’s gaze hardened. "The ones who’ve lost all reason, without intellect and only purpose of destruction—those are 'Savages.' Showing them any mercy is a sin; if you are capable, kill them the moment you see them."

A ripple of agreement passed through the group. The words carried weight, and for the first time a clear boundary between allies and enemies was declared in the world.

Charles gave a slow nod. "Sentinels and Savage… nice ring to it."

Silas crossed his arms, feeling the slight tension fade as the room began to accept this new reality. "Good. Now let me share more information; you all have observed that some beasts are naturally stronger than others, right?"

The eyes of the people who gathered inside instantly lit up; they clearly observed it firsthand, be it the battle with Iron Fang Goat or the beasts they had tamed themselves.

"I think there is a difference in grades of beasts." Silas explained, "In order to maintain our survival and assess the danger level, we should make a grading system for different grades of beasts.

From the weakest, Grey Grade, with the strength of an ordinary adult human, then Yellow, who are as strong as half a dozen strong adults, above that is Green, the strongest we have seen till now; one can't imagine fighting against them without Sentinels.

People nodded with grave expressions, "We might see even stronger ones in the future, so we can categorise them as Blue grade; above that might be Orange. Just hope we don't encounter those in the current situation."

Every person inside the room seemed drenched in sweat with the mere imagination of encountering those in the current situation; there was a strange cold silence.

'That's right...' Silas observed their serious expressions, some seemingly horrified and scared, some just plain nervous, 'You should be scared; fear is a rope you need to climb for survival...'

Silas nodded and finally shattered the silence, "Okay then! Let's start moving now; we need to build the wall. Ask all capable people we have to assist; this isn't a comfortable world. If you want to live, work for it!"

As Silas announced, the people snapped back and stood up with strong agreement, and after a little more discussion, the construction of the Great Wall finally started.

Cutting down the trees from nearby regions and supplying it across all corners of the residence, the work began for the second step towards survival of humanity.

*****

Join the discord peasants