Chapter 608: The Colony’s Next Step

Roderick was standing calmly near one of the carriages.

After receiving a copy of the travel schedule, Rindo also headed toward the area assigned to the academy students.

Lian glanced at the main gate of the base.

For a moment, memories of his early days after returning came back to him, but this time, he wasn’t leaving the base to hunt a few ordinary monsters or look for a rare plant.

His destination was much farther away.

The heavy sound of the gate’s mechanism echoed through the area, the huge iron doors slowly opened, and the advance units began to move.

Then came the transport monsters and support carriages, and among them, the ten selected Awakened.

As he passed through the gate, he took one last look at the familiar walls of Base #3 before turning his attention to the road ahead.

The journey to the Land of First Dawn had begun.

The first two days of the journey passed without any important incidents.

The convoy traveled along relatively safe roads, while the reconnaissance teams checked the route ahead for monsters or possible obstacles.

Sometimes, creatures could be seen in the distant plains, but most of them preferred to stay away after sensing the presence of the escort forces.

During the day, the ten selected candidates were allowed to rest in the central part of the convoy, check their equipment, or gather more information about their destination.

Lian spent most of his time observing the route and reviewing his future plans, but there was one thing that had been on his mind for a long time.

The Colony.

He now had three Special Colony Members.

One.

Two.

And Three.

All three were powerful creatures with completely different abilities.

However, the capacity for ordinary members was still untouched.

Lian opened the window for his Colony Sovereign Talent.

[Special Colony Members: 3/5]

[Ordinary Members: 0/100]

One hundred ordinary members, and he hadn’t filled even a single slot.

He looked at the number one hundred for a moment.

"The problem is that I’m really not interested in personally commanding a huge army."

From the beginning, he had been more interested in having a few powerful subordinates than gathering a large number of weak monsters.

Managing an army, even if all its members could be controlled through the Colony Link, required constant decision-making.

Positioning, supplies, choosing targets, coordination during battle, and most importantly, preventing dozens of creatures from waiting for his direct orders at the same time.

He had no interest in being forced to decide the movements of every single subordinate in the middle of a battle.

However, now that he had three Special Colony Members, another idea had come to his mind.

"Maybe they don’t all need to be directly under my command."

He opened the Colony Structure section.

[Natural Colony Hierarchy]

[Sovereign]

[Queen]

[Commander]

[Worker]

Lian looked at the information for a few seconds, as he had never assigned any specific organizational positions to his Colony Members before.

He himself held the position of Sovereign.

However, One, Two, and Three were only considered Special Colony Members, being a Special Colony Member did not automatically mean having the position of Commander or Queen.

These were two different systems.

He placed his hand under his chin.

If he added more ordinary members to the Colony in the future, he could probably form smaller groups under the command of his Special Colony Members.

One was suitable for breaking defensive positions and fighting in heavy battles.

Two had various abilities that could be used for hunting and complex operations.

And Three? Despite all the crimes it had committed in the past, its intelligence could not be ignored.

The Dreadmaw Sovereign had commanded creatures under its control for decades and had a great deal of experience using its subordinates to achieve different goals.

In terms of leadership, it might even be more suitable than the other two members.

Lian smiled for a moment.

Thirty members for each of them...

With this arrangement, ninety ordinary members would be divided into three groups, while the remaining ten slots could be used for independent missions or special situations.

But for now, this was only an idea.

He still didn’t know how well each Special Colony Member could manage its subordinates in practice.

Besides, he still had two empty slots for Special Colony Members, which meant he could instead assign a small battalion of twenty members to each Special Colony Member.

On the other hand, the exact role of the Queen position in the Colony’s structure was still not entirely clear to him, so there was no need to rush into assigning positions.

Lian closed the window.

"First, I need to find suitable members."

"Then I can decide how to divide them."

At the same time, another one of his personal belongings caught his attention.

The Celestial Book of Treasure.

He looked at the book’s cover for a moment, the Land of First Dawn was famous as a paradise of treasures.

According to the information he had read earlier, many rare training resources, ancient treasures, and unknown artifacts could be found in this region.

This was one of the main reasons why entry into the area was so strictly limited, but for him, the region’s appeal was not limited to the value of its resources.

He had a book that could identify hidden treasures.

The last time he had used it to search for something, he had found the Sphere of Witness.

Lian ran his fingers over the book’s cover, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

This book was going to be very useful there.

Of course, he still didn’t know how well the resources in that region would match his current level of power.

But even if he couldn’t use a treasure right away, it would still be worth keeping or selling.

From that point of view, the upcoming journey could bring him great benefits.

On the afternoon of the second day, he found an opportunity to rest for a short while beside one of the support carriages.

At the same time, Noah came toward him from another part of the convoy, carrying his long folded umbrella and holding two containers of a hot drink.

"Want one?"

Lian looked at him.

"What is it?"

"A hot drink. I thought you might want one too."

He accepted one of the containers.

"Thanks."

Noah sat beside him, but unlike what someone might have expected from his sociable personality, he didn’t start talking right away.

For a while, they both looked at the wide plains in front of them.

Then,

"Have you traveled along this route before?"

"Not this far. I mostly operated around the base."

"I haven’t been to this region either."

Noah took a sip of his drink.

"Honestly, I’m more curious about what the place actually looks like than worried about the dangers."

"Because of the treasures?" The young Vorhelm gave him a brief glance.

"Those too, but I’ve heard that some parts of the region are completely different from any of the known areas in the Ruined Realm."

The young Frenchman smiled.

"I think seeing a completely different place is worth the journey by itself."

Lian thought about those words for a moment.

Noah had been friendly from the beginning, but it seemed that his interest in this mission was not only about gaining power or fame.

He genuinely enjoyed discovering new things.

At that moment, one of the guards passing by them put a heavy container on the ground and bent down to check its damaged straps.

Noah put his drink aside without saying anything unnecessary.

"Do you need help?"

The man raised his head, and a few seconds later, Noah was helping him secure the container.

Lian watched the scene.

"He really treats everyone this way." He whispered softly.

What was even more interesting was that he didn’t seem to be trying to attract attention, even when no one was watching him, he still acted the same way.

He took another sip of his hot drink, at least, Noah didn’t seem like a bad person.

The third day also passed in relative peace.

The convoy traveled through several rocky areas, and along the way, the scouts spotted several small groups of monsters in the distance.

However, none of them posed a serious threat to the convoy, during one of their short stops, Roderick spent some time training alone.

Lian watched his movements from a distance.

His speed, accuracy, and the way he shifted his weight during his attacks, everything was more organized than before.

Roderick no longer relied only on raw strength and his noble confidence, his movements showed signs of real combat experience.

After watching for a few minutes, Lian turned his gaze away, it was clear that the result of their draw had made Roderick extremely angry, and he had spent all this time after the final exam getting stronger.

It seemed he wanted revenge for the humiliation of that day, no matter what it took.

The young Vorhelm burst out laughing at the sight, this poor guy didn’t know that he couldn’t even defeat an ant... his ant.

Rindo also spent most of his time checking the travel schedule and the condition of the group, he treated the other selected candidates politely and formally, but showed no interest in unnecessary conversations.

When Noah once tried to ask for his opinion about their destination, he gave only a short answer before returning to the map.

Noah didn’t continue the conversation either, and he showed no signs of being upset.

It seemed he had quickly realized that Rindo was not the kind of person who could be drawn into a long conversation with nothing more than a friendly attitude and a few casual words.

By the end of the third day, the convoy had continued along its route without any major problems.

But on the morning of the fourth day... everything changed.