Punishing the teenagers with hard labor didn’t sound like the best way to deal with them, but it ought to exhaust them. They were all Mages of some sort and shouldn’t have high Body stats. Of course, none of that mattered if they didn’t have to use their physical strength to dig holes and carry stones around.

“I have a task for y’all,” David proposed, eyes lingering on the tamed monsters. “That is—if you’re done playing cards.”

The overly proud Believer got up for the first time, the glimmer in his eyes even brighter than before.

“What do you want us to do?” he asked, his voice hoarser than expected.

“Do you guys have experience with horses? Anyone ever ridden one?” David asked, but everyone shook their heads.

“I played a game where you can tame and ride dinosaurs,” one of the guys muttered, bringing a smile to David’s lips.

He snapped a finger at that guy with a smile. “And that is exactly what we’re going to do. Maybe not directly, and most likely not with dinosaurs, but how about we tame a few monsters? Preferably large and four-legged, to pull carriages or carry a bunch of people at the same time.”

David had forgotten all about the dinosaurs in the Dwarven Sanctuary. He’d been too busy taking care of the people in Orhain that he forgot how useful some of the things in the Dwarven Sanctuary had been.

Using Orhain’s greatest adversaries and working with them wouldn’t be easy, but David was certain the Tamers, Beastmasters, and Summoners had everything Orhain needed to recreate the Sanctuary’s success.

“You want us to create monster buses and taxis?” one of the girls asked.

David was about to deny her words but shrugged instead. If they wanted to call it bus and taxi, so be it.

“Are you up for it?” he asked instead, earning a series of bright smiles.

“I take that as yes.”

***

As the days passed and turned into weeks, David could feel the power of the Weave more clearly. It was no longer distant, as the Favor accumulated reached a new height. However, the real turning point was not caused by him. One could say that it came to him without his doing, and the Divine Seed’s information confirmed as much.

[Divine Seed]

Rank: Starless (7.25%)

Affliction: Unique(Twin Paths)

Champions: 1(Electra)

Sworn: 0

Bonds: 4551(76 Neutral)

Path of Favor: 2184(163x Favorable, 1525x Trusting, 485x Loyal/Follower, 11x Believer)

Path of Conflict: 2291(579x Negative , 329x Critic, 759x Dissenter, 624x Opponent)

“What the hell are you doing, Electra?” David scowled at the holographic screen, failing to understand what had happened.

Several weeks of hard work had barely been enough to create more than 2,000 Favor bonds, and to push most Favorable to Trusting. He’d been overjoyed with the number of Followers and Believers, given the power the bond of a Believer provided. It was enormous and exhilarating, to say the least.

Yet, in a matter of days, Electra had formed an additional 2,000-plus bonds of Conflict. Worse even—if one could call it that—almost one-fourth of the bonds were as potent as the Believers’—if not more so.

After spending almost two months in Orhain, Electra should have arrived by now. The Sacred Beast didn’t need to sleep as an Echo, and it certainly should not have required several weeks to travel from the Dwarven Sanctuary to Orhain. But the Mythical Electra had yet to arrive.

Something must have happened—perhaps a massacre—but David had no idea what. Electra had angered many people, and being an Ascendant’s Champion, the anger and wrath had created bonds of Conflict with him.

“I guess I’m going to grow stronger a little bit faster now,” he grimaced, satisfied with the gains, even if it was unclear what had happened.

One way or another, the Divine Seed would grow much faster now, hopefully reaching the ranks of a proper Ascendant sooner rather than later.

I should give Electra more leeway to wreak havoc, he thought, before diverting his focus to the information the other Echos had collected.

“Is it true that more groups of survivors have been located?” Lilia asked, her voice trembling.

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She did not say ‘Your Excellency,’ but that only showed how nervous she was. Normally, she would never ignore the opportunity to annoy him, though he doubted she realized how annoying the title was.

“Yes, we did. My Echos, to be precise,” David nodded, releasing a trace of pure Blood to materialize an arrow above the map displayed on the massive round table. Dozens of pairs of eyes followed the crimson arrow as it moved across the Scouts’ masterpiece until it stopped above a mid-sized city marked with three skulls.

“Someone survived in Liear?” Frey leaped to her feet.

Liear, the mid-sized coastal city, was nowhere close to Orhain. Even before the integration, it had been on the other side of the country, located no less than 400 kilometers away. Now that the Earthen Union had expanded with the addition of several regions, the distance had increased to close to 900 kilometers.

It hadn’t been long since a few Silver-ranked Seekers dared to venture that far. Even worse, they had fought several undead near the coastal city and were forced to retreat within days. The density of death and the power of the undead were not things the Seekers could face—neither head-on nor by sneaking through the ruined streets.

“The city has been ranked as too dangerous to approach. How can anyone survive there? The miasma of death alone should be potent enough to kill anyone below the Silver rank within a few weeks… let alone 18 months…” one of the elder members of Orhain’s council pointed out.

“I totally agree,” David nodded. “But the information from my Echos is correct. They located signs of life in the city, which is why I deployed more to observe Liear for a while. And they returned with good news. Several groups of survivors have been discovered roaming underground. They use the coastal city’s sewers and the subway network. I am not quite clear how they’ve survived this long, but they may stay underground all day and only surface to fish. And hunt, of course.”

Nobody said anything at first. Yet, as silent as the room was, the council’s emotions were just as vocal. As intangible as they were, David could feel them—hear them—as they filled the room.

The council members’ emotions overlapped and intensified, transforming into torrents that tore into him, threatening to rip him apart the moment he lowered his guard.

I don’t think I will get used to this, David thought, shaking off the emotions trying to influence his mind—to seep into him and affect him like everyone else.

“We need to help them!” Lilia’s words shattered the silence, but they did not dispel the torrent of emotions.

“Help them? We can barely help ourselves,” a middle-aged man, whose name David couldn’t recall, clicked his tongue reproachfully. “How long has it been since we could take care of ourselves? Our equipment is lackluster and we do not have any Classer at the Gold Rank, yet you want us to rush into a Forbidden Zone several hundred kilometers away to rescue strangers? That is insane.”

The man had a bond of Conflict with David. It was weak and clashed with the Favor the man owed him, yet the Conflict prevailed. His dislike toward David was stronger than the Favor—though that hardly mattered.

Another man, with a stronger Conflict than Favor, tapped the round table before he got up from his chair. He was frail and didn’t look any special, yet he was one of the stronger Shadowalkers, leading a group that roamed through the wilderness at night, using stealth and deception against their enemies. They were also part of the Seekers who’d been in Liear and ranked it as too dangerous to reclaim.

“Even if we decide to rescue them, how many people will we deploy? If everyone goes, Orhain will be defenseless for weeks and forced to fight hundreds of monsters trying to stop us from invading their territory. However, if too few Classers join the rescue mission, everyone will die.” His serene voice resounded as he looked every council member in the eyes—except for David.

He skipped David, clearly deliberately, which several council members noticed, but nobody said anything. Sigar’s dislike toward David had been clear from day one. He considered David an outsider and did not like that “the outsider,” which is what Sigar usually called him, forced his rulership upon them.

While that was not even close to the truth, Sigar certainly thought so. His raging emotions, displayed through the bond of Conflict, made that much painfully obvious.

“Sigar is right. This is too dangerous. We cannot afford to leave Orhain unprotected for weeks. If Liear was closer, we could do something, but as it is, we cannot do anything,” another council member added.

“But they’re survivors. Our people,” Frey growled. “Kamia has survived. We—we… are not the only ones who made it through this disaster, and we can help!”

She turned to David, her huge frame suddenly looking pitiful. “Right?”

“I will help as well,” he nodded, ignoring Sigar’s sneer.

Some council members were relieved and joined his side, voicing their desire to help their people.

Do they really think I am going to baby them? David rolled his eyes, wondering where he went wrong.

“I want to make one thing clear,” he considered what to say for a moment and continued, “I won’t be able to protect everyone on this mission. Not only will we have to split up to fight the undead and locate the entrances to the underground hideouts, but some of the undead are quite powerful. Possibly strong enough to face me head-on. I won’t be able to divert my focus and will thus be unable to ensure anyone’s survival. Not even my own.”

He might be an Ascendant since he had a Divine Seed, but real Ascendants were already 1-Star with an Ascendant trait or ability. David, on the other hand, was a false Ascendant. With all those bonds, he was bound to grow much stronger in the following weeks, but he was probably no stronger than a Platinum Classer. Maybe Diamond, given his Intents, Laws, abilities, and Vitae. That was it, though.

I am not a god. He reminded himself, understanding very well that he was far from strong enough to protect everyone.

Despite that, he wanted to conquer Liear. Rescuing survivors was one thing. It was important and had to be done.

However, David wanted to return to the battlefield as well. He spent more than enough time playing house with Orhain’s people.

He…wanted to go all-out again.