“Oh! Have you figured it out already?” Ria raised her eyebrows at Zyrus.

“There should be a rat colony underground, right?”

Ria nodded with surprise at his accurate guess. After all, it took them a lot of effort to figure it out.

“Don’t be disheartened though, I wouldn’t have realized it without prior information,”

“Come on, I’m not that petty.”

“Haha.. regardless, as I said before, I’ll reward those who have worked well, so look forward to it,” Zyrus chuckled and left behind the bemused Ria.

As far as he recalled, there should be three types of rats working together in the nearby area. The first race was the sawtooth rats which he had faced at the end of the tutorial.

The second race was scavenger rats. As their name suggested, they were excellent at finding trash and treasure alike.

The third and final race was his target for blood fusion. They were burrow rats who possessed remarkable underground movement skill.

Zyrus came upon this decision after a lot of thinking. There were a lot of monsters that had good traits even in the first ring.

For example, Trolls had their signature regeneration trait, Orcs and ogres had strength and stamina, kobolds had sharp senses, and so on. There are also some rare salamander species who had magic related traits.

However, they were all lackluster in his opinion. Apart from the troll’s regeneration rate, the rest of them were very common amongst the monsters. Not to mention the negative chance where he could unluckily obtain a useless trait.

Zyrus wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry if he were to obtain the troll's slumber trait, or the salamander's healing-type shedding ability.

Thus, the burrow rats were a great option. Just like other rare species, they only had a couple of traits. The burrow rats in particular had earth movement and concealment traits, so he would have a 50% chance of obtaining either.

Both of these were supportive type traits which made the rats the weakest monster race in the first ring.

The burrow rats' role was to act as scouts and build underground lairs. It might look useless to others, but for Zyrus, these traits were perfect.

Earth movement would give him the ability to travel underground without any hindrance, whereas the concealment was self-explanatory.

‘I hope I get earth movement though,’ Zyrus thought with a wistful smile. Although it had a common name, its practical uses were very much game-changing.

The burrow rats were able to move into the earth as if it were a pool of water. Be it in running away or setting up an ambush, this trait was exceptional.

Zyrus recalled the report he had received from Ria as he walked towards the designated area. This was a golden opportunity for him to level up and expand his army while he was at it. Before that, however, he had to reward and motivate his troops.

It was a simple carrot-and-stick tactic. Everyone knew about it, but it didn’t make it any less effective.

*Thuck*Thuck*

“Who is it?”

“Call everyone out.” Zyrus didn’t explain anything to the flustered mage and ordered him to gather everyone up.

After departing from the mage’s tent, Zyrus repeated the same process with other groups on his way. He could’ve asked someone else to call them on his behalf, but it wouldn’t be as impactful.

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He had gained their loyalty by instilling fear into their minds. Thus, he knew that there would be underlying issues in the future if the situation were to continue as is. He wanted to turn their fear and resentment into respect and awe.

‘It’ll be difficult, but I'll manage it somehow,’ Zyrus stood at the square while thinking about his future plans.

The players gathered at the center in just a couple of minutes. There was pin-drop silence in the area despite the large crowd. Even the goblin riders showed remarkable discipline.

“As I’ve said before the last battle, I’ll reward those who did well.”

Zyrus cut straight to the chase without any flowery speech. Starting from the ones who had done well, to those with exceptional performances, he called them out one by one.

He had decided to give them the looted equipment. And judging from their curled lips after getting their rewards from Ria, the decision was indeed a correct one.

“Last but not the least, I’ll appoint two among you as crown holders.” Zyrus declared in a higher pitch as he looked at everyone.

He scanned the crowd and saw a lot of players who had eager expressions on their faces. His gaze finally landed on a yellow-clothed bald man.

“Shi kun, with your commendable leadership qualities, you have earned the right to hold a bronze crown. I hope you impart your tanking skills to others in your unit, and create an impenetrable fortress that guards us all.”

The middle-aged man, Shi kun, was caught off guard by this pie falling from the sky. Never in his wildest imagination had he thought that someone like him who was only good at defending, would be one of the two new leaders.

As expected from an experienced man though, he immediately regained his bearing and bowed towards Zyrus.

Zyrus nodded and ordered Ria to arrange all of the shield warriors and bulky swordsmen under the man’s group. For swordsman and thief squads, he already had Kyle and Lauren in his mind.

Regardless of how well the players performed in that area, he wasn’t going to appoint any of them as a crown holder. For him, trust came before everything.

‘Besides, those two are on a completely different level compared to these players,’ Zyrus thought as he looked at the edge of the crowd.

The person he was looking for was ironically an exception to his previous thought. He was a young man wearing a gray hoodie.

From a single glance, it was apparent that the man was an introvert. His communication skills were non-existent as per the reports, however, what caught Zyrus’s eye was something else.

“Jacob, I know you’ll hate this, but you’ll be leading the mages from now on.” Zyrus chuckled as he looked at the man’s devastated expression.

Everyone was perplexed by his announcement. After all, unlike the previous times, Zyrus hadn’t mentioned a single feat of the man called Jacob.

Ria gave Jacob a knowing smile and appointed him another 100 players. The composition of this group was rather peculiar.

An incompetent leader, 20 mages, and the newly subdued players.

It didn’t take a genius to realize the chaos that would unfold in this group.

Zyrus didn’t care about that as he looked at everyone with a calm gaze. He selected Jacob for a very simple reason, the man was talented in wielding mana.

It was his assessment as the man who once stood at the apex of arcana. In just this short period of time, Jacob had created two magic skills by getting different achievements.

*Clap*Clap*

“I’m sure most of you have realized my goal for different leaders. Since we can't access the class system yet, I’m going to divide the players based on their weapons. For now, the archers will work with goblin riders.”

Once again, everyone was surprised at this decision. Some archers felt uncomfortable at the thought, but no one had the guts to question Zyrus’s decision.

“Finally, I’d like to sincerely thank and reward the one who had worked hardest amongst all the players. From today onwards, Ria will be in charge of all the human players.”

Even the calm and composed Ria was stunned this time. Unexpectedly, she had obtained a position that was below one and above many.

“All leaders will meet me after Lunch. Dismiss,” With a wave of his hand Zyrus walked off the square platform.

Hundreds of thoughts were swirling inside his mind at this moment. Before fighting against the rat colony, they had to digest their current strength.

He had a perfect plan for that. Apart from improving the player’s teamwork and cohesion, he could get some goodies as well.

‘I’ll create a magic spell as well while we’re at it,’ Zyrus rubbed his hands as he recalled his first battle against the field boss.

At that time, he already had a silver crown with level 17. He and the group he was fighting against, were ambushed in the middle of their battle.

By a field boss that is.

Zyrus won the fight in the end, but he had nearly lost his silver crown. It was a gruesome fight as the field boss, Tauranox, had the ability to summon minions.

There were far too many causalities in that fight. The fight took place in none other than these same plains. After a day’s march, Zyrus was sure his troops would be able to reach that location.

The player’s levels were bound to skyrocket after a successful hunt. It would be even better if they were to encounter other crown holders on the way.

“Status,” Zyrus muttered after reaching his camp. Before getting an achievement, he had to increase his mana to a passable level.

At long last it was time to use the SP that he had been hoarding so far.