While his forces fought a war of attrition with the neighboring beast nodes. Din and Jao made sure people would know who their leaders are.

They would entertain small groups of people for short periods of time. Sometimes answering questions.

Jao was fond of meeting the children. They were growing up fast. Still within reason, but far faster than what Din knew was normal.

Din also examined every child they came across. He was interested in his future people. And he felt it was a promising future.

Not one child had gotten sick. They were running around like little tyrants before their parents had time to shut one eye.

Din had looked for First and others for guidance. After seeing children capable of grabbing small items like branches.

He thought if they could grab branches, maybe they should make arrows.

As it turned out, he was being unreasonable. He wasn’t sure why either, but everyone he spoke to was adamant that children under two years old shouldn’t make arrows.

His thinking can only be blamed on his upbringing. He wasn’t taught theses things, so how would he know? At least this was how he felt.

He wasn’t convinced but the matter wasn’t too important.

‘Two or three years aren’t far away. It won’t be too late to have them pick up arrow production.’

Other than establishing a strong presence, Din and Jao would find a place and sit down. They’d take up their respective production activity.

Jao had actually begun dabbling in growing her own materials. She’d also refine them and use them for whatever she wanted.

This wasn’t a rare thing anymore. Din and Jao had encouraged people to create their own gardens. And people, having little to do, experimented with it.

It was people who liked doing one thing and one thing only that didn’t bother. People like Din. Din was obstinate on doing the same thing.

There is something to be said about working with materials from planting a seed to embroidering a beautiful piece of clothing.

This processes allows people to understand in more depth. It can be considered a correct path. If they are looking to better their craft.

Din didn’t do this in any sense. Din didn’t even stick to a single type of material to Scribe unto.

One day it would a stack of arrows. Another would be a handful of metal poles. Even a pile of innocent riverstones wouldn’t escape the purge.

This was not a good way to learn Scription. It wasn’t even a good way to enhance his carving ability. But he still progressed at a steady pace.

In the village there is a lack of talented people. But there is no lack of enthusiasm. It is instead rare to see anyone not fiddling with one thing or the other.

In addition to people discovering this conscientious and industrious side of themselves. The store allowed for added incentive to create an item so they could sell it.

This was a rule set up by Din and his council. It is too difficult to stop people from selling raw material. So instead they allowed them to sell finished products.

The expedient soul would feel this was constricting. But Din was cultivating more than just a little village. People’s way of life had to adapt to this village.

This meant he had to guide people to act in the village interests. This can be difficult. Tell a person to turn left and they’ll turn right.

Guidance. The keyword. Din was educated in these things. But he had never used this knowledge. This was why he would take advice from smart people.

It shouldn’t be surprising that Din took advantage of others talents. This was perhaps the most humble sector of the Laq Docte Doctrine.

There is absolute sense of superiority preached. Yet it turns around and acknowledges that people can be capable. And it is a Laq Docte’s duty to guide these people.

An outsider might feel this was contradictory beliefs. But a Laq Docte would feel this was normal. And Din knew this was true.

It wasn’t too difficult to reason this. Not to Din. People can have talents and intelligence that was staggering. But would they know how to use these gifts?

Din would answer no. Every Laq Docte would answer no. People were headless chickens. They came in many forms but in the end a headless chicken is a headless chicken.

There were a lot of strange things that Din had been taught. Some could be considered ignorant.

There were numerous reasons for this. The main culprit was the great ancestor himself. His numerous life experiences were translated in different ways.

There were instances were the same story was interpreted in two different ways and both had been lectured to Din.

This was a part of why Din acted the way he did. His view of the world was distorted, to say the least. One such thing was his blatant thievery.

Another odd thing was he’d wade into the river to bathe himself. This was public nudity and he had no qualms about it. He had never bathed alone his entire life.

A part of a Laq Docte’s training was a steady mind. They needed to be able endure their future hardships.

In the end, the reason for their rigid education was because a few of them would be sent to this exact place.

To this day, only the Laq Docte ancestor had returned from this place. It was hard for them to know but they assumed the others had perished.

It isn’t impossible to return back to earth. As is proven by the Laq Docte ancestor. There are different ways to do so. Some require sacrifice and others steep requirements.

Out of the Laq Docte youngest generation. Out of the ones sent to this mysterious place, Din was most likely to return back to Earth.

One of the reason was because of his village. He had a lot of manpower to gather what he might need. Assuming he survives any potential revolution.

Another reason is that he would desperately return to his elders. He was walking in the dark and his Laq Docte family was the light.

What’s more, he might actually be able to bridge the worlds. This was possible. The benefit to doing so wasn’t much, if any.

The benefit would be to Earth. Earth would bath in an energy source previously near nonexistent.

To bring people to this world would be the next step. This step was difficult. Din and others in his village might be able to cross the aforementioned bridge and back. But Earthlings wouldn’t.

To move through this bridge, first one required a body and mind that could survive the journey. This might be possible for Earthlings in a decade or so after the bridge is first created.

The same reason that the Laq Docte ancestor is staying back on Earth is why he wouldn’t be able to go back. He failed at something and paid a heavy price to return.

Not yet at least. There is always a way. The question is whether they would be willing to pay the price. And Din would.

Din was willing to die for the family without second thought. A devoted zealot. As dramatic as it sounded, it was a truth hard to ignore.

It isn’t impossible for Din to save himself from such a fate. To release himself on the stranglehold of the Laq Docte doctrine.

It was difficult because he could be considered worldly. He traveled the planet. He studied broad subjects to esoteric things that only applied to the Laq Docte.

Without the option to broaden his already very broad mind, it is difficult to get new perspective on the world. This in addition to Din constant reinforcement and meditation.

Life altering events can be called sparse. Perhaps a child will bring a new side to his blind zealotry.

Tragedy might shift his view. But tragedy required losing something valuable. Only thing of real value in this world was the Laq Docte.

It is hard to say whether he held strong emotion when regarding Jao. If he does, he didn’t know it himself.

You have acquired a support node!

You will receive additional one thousand percent increase in experience while within your sphere of influence.

Additional resource points are added every seven days.

‘That’s nine.’

First’s group had returned already while the other group had just finished taking over a new zone.

‘That’s ten thousand experience increase from the first nine nodes.’

Din had been dismissive of the experience bonus as it was hard to feel. Experience was a slow accumulative thing. It was like watching grass grow. Making it difficult to care about.

But that only applied to the small increments. Once the nodes evolved to a higher tier, the experience boost felt tangible.

This is not unreasonable. An experience boost, it means that the energy concentration increased by the same factor.

That increase is the actual reason for this bonus in experience. Peoples body slowly adapt to this energy and absorbs it, preparing it in a way.

If everything went as expected then that bonus would come once one more tier two node was acquired.

Din had been walking with Jao when these news hit him. So now they stood there, quiet and still. Their guards were used to this. Not just Din but even Jao would suddenly stop to ponder things.

The unconscious reason Din was giving this more thought than would be expected. Was because he felt the want for an improvement in his production efforts.

If his initial ability of blind instincts lashing out in his stead was nothing but tedious, the ability that enhanced his production was the opposite.

This is a type of reinforced behaviour. A fighter would unconsciously want for even stronger abilities. Their limited views would make it so their abilities would align with their present abilities.

Din had originally not been in this cycle. But now he felt this hidden force pulling at him. Like the erosion of trickling water. It wasn’t impossible to notice but easy to dismiss as uneventful.

It was instead Jao that held true to her personality. She was not engulfed by these things. This was because she felt genuine empathy towards others.

This wasn’t necessarily a kindness, it didn’t make her without vanity. Her empathy was that of a superior watching over her people. She a shepard and they her herd.

This could be seen in an charming commander caring for his troops. Only in a position of superiority could you lead your lessers towards greater heights. This was their logic.

It can be seen that Din had a similar mindset of superiority. But his empathy wasn’t present. He had no wants for their personal benefit.

Instead everything was a means to an end. This meant neutrality in all things. Neutrality in the sense that everything is and was handled through the way of the Laq Docte scriptures.

This is why all of Din’s abilities were enforcing Din himself. Because that was all he could do. As he was the only Laq Docte here.

In the presence of other Laq Docte, It is likely he would develop abilities that supported his kin. As his empathy laid with them. In all likelihood he would have developed supportive abilities.

The only present threat to this mindset was a selfish desire to better his production means. It was miniscule threat. But it slowly eroded, patient as a small creek.

Once he snapped out of his reverie Din called a few people over. Mainly people in charge of military affairs.

He wanted to know when or how things were going. He had been informed after First’s return a week earlier that there were some issues cropping up.

As in turned out, from two different direction, a beast invasion was occurring. This wasn’t a large issue but it had to be dealt with.

After being briefed on the ongoings of his military, he felt the a slight headache.

It looked like this invasion wasn’t as simple as originally believed. Instead more beasts were encroaching on his nodes.

On his map he saw the plague inching in, from five different directions. This wasn’t many beasts but it was still odd.

He and his other military advisors couldn’t help but be puzzled by this turn of events. This wasn't the first time they had to deal something like a beast invasion.

They were common enough but never in this quantity. They concluded that this had strong relation to them conquering the eighth and ninth tier two nodes.

These people were young, but they were not stupid. They maybe lacked wisdom but they still saw the patterns. Something was actively working behind the scenes.

And this time, that force was pushing back. Forcing them to use majority of their military power to stave of the invasions.

The reason for the urgency in staving of this invasion was due to its nature. This invasion begins small, but quickly expands, growing stronger and stronger.

One such invasion was still manageable and easily scoured even once it grew to an unruly size, but this many had to be stomped out at birth.

This was the first time in its short history that there was a sense of unease in the village. This was a real threat.

In recent time, all fighting was done long ways away from the original camp. But people were feeling a tinge of claustrophobia.

This was because they realized that if there were five invasions, there would be six. Then seven, eight, nine. Who knew when it would end?

In truth, it was a test. It was a threshold for this small civilization. Once a tier evolves, so did the surroundings.

The size was large, this would spread their forces. The beasts were stronger, smarter and most importantly, more aggressive.

Without the power to even withstand a few beastnode invasions, how would they withstand the stronger beastnode invasions in the future?

This was a precaution, aimed the village inhabitants. If they can’t fight of something of this scale, they had no place in acquiring a tier three node.

Despite perceived neutrality bordering on indifference, the system in place has the intention of guiding this world's inhabitants.

Din and his military advisors were thinking things through. It was quiet discussion, sometimes only a word would be added. Every word had the group descend further into thought.

They were like this because they mimicked Din. Despite his many inadequacies, he was charming to a fault. His actions were subconsciously admired.

Often during their many discussion about the future of the village. Din would be present. His presence very apparent. His demeanor seeping through and influencing these great thinkers.

Before they knew it, they adopted Din’s long pauses and single word sentences. They didn’t say it outloud but they felt it to be mysterious.

This leads to them wanting to be seen as mysterious. Creating this odd quiet council. They did create results. Enhanced further by their various devices used to jot down their thoughts.

These were devices like Din had. At first it was just about the accessory, later on they began relying on the item’s usefulness.

It could be considered amusing from an outside perspective. But it was instead a status symbol now. Slowly people were creating a difference in class.

As of now, this line was ambiguous and could be bought into through some sum of resource points. But things like embroidered signia’s and changed disposition were harder to achieve.

Din had these made specifically for this purpose. To differentiate the people. Too much equality is dangerous. It causes instability.

Without goals to strive for, society would begin to fester a diseases. Those in position of power have to fear losing it and those without it, crave it.

With the village being as a small as it is, this is not an issue. Din’s stranglehold of the people is too tight. Only when he is required to loosen his hold will this psychological manipulation see use.

After a long quiet period, Din and his advisors hatched a plan. They spread the forces as they could while also planning an expedition to take the tenth tier two node.

The forces were spread so thin that even Din and Jao were going out into the field. Jao welcomed it. Din just felt an obligation to further the village.

Din’s group had gathered the people capable of using ranged abilities, most using the bow as a medium. A select few could conjure material from the environment. The most fantastical of abilities.

These abilities were the most draining and very limited in comparison to those that used bows, arrows or other medium to deal damage from a distance.

The idea formed when there was a consensus about the minimum requirements to safely kill invaders.

These were herds of beasts, perhaps not stupid, but leaderless. For an organized force, it was easy to guide them into gauntlets, then pepper them with arrows.

This only required coordination, any ranged specific abilities were unnecessary. While the beast kings of a tier two beastnode could not be dealt with, with such ease.

Din was now leading a group. He did so in a casual way, reliant on the disciple instilled into the troops by his military leaders.

It was surprising how fast they traveled. They were walking a stamped down road. Allowing them to increase their pace. In addition, their collective stamina had become impressive.

Even Din had no issue with the continuous brisk pace. This was in part due to their increase in levels, better food and general exercising. But a large portion was attributed to Jao’s aura.