As the woman witnessed Jack's execution, she fell to the ground laughing while tears streamed down her face, making Karla try and comfort her.
Diedrich walked up to Bill who was still standing over Jack's body. Bill's hands were shaking.
"Are you okay?", Diedrich asked.
Bill let go of the spear in Jack's body and turned around. He tried to put up a tough front, but before he could respond he quickly turned away from Diedrich and began to puke.
Seeing the scene Diedrich felt sympathetic for Bill and decided to let him recuperate for the moment and shifted his attention to his soldiers.
Looking at their faces he could see they were having difficulty accepting what had just happened, to Diedrich it seemed like the right thing to do however to most people who lived in a peaceful society, it just felt wrong.
Although Hans still had an indifferent expression as if it didn't bother him, probably a result of having been in the army.
Diedrich decided to avert their attention for now and told them to go scour the village and find any valuables they could take, especially the poison Jack had used.
Seeing that Bill had calmed down now but was still sitting on the ground looking at his blood-covered hands, he let him rest for a bit as he walked up to three villagers.
Diedrich asked them if they wanted to join his village and they all happily agreed, Diedrich performed the rite and it worked, he then told them the same thing as his soldiers and they joined the search.
After that Diedrich with his Treant walked over to the creation station, entering it Diedrich found the origin. It was a grey colored cube, about 30 centimeters big floating above the ground, looking around the hut he found no other structures.
Diedrich then walked up to the origin and saw its description.
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[Unconquered Village]
Village Name: Jack Village (Stone)
Level: Primary (0/1000)
Village Territory: 0.1 square kilometers
Residents: 1/250
[Village Affect: Spawns 2-5 villagers a day. 89% chance of spawning a rank 0 villager. 10% chance of spawning a rank ✩ villager. 1% chance of spawning a rank ✩✩ villager. (80% chance of spawning a warrior, 20% chance of spawning an artisan).]
[Territory effect: Territory Crop Output +3%, Territory Crop Growing Time -5%.]
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It seemed the stats of the village were similar to Diedrich's although much weaker, which was likely due to it being a lower grade, as his village was bronze.
Jack had also changed the village's name after himself, showing how pompous he was.
A notification then suddenly popped up for Diedrich asking him if he wanted to conquer the village, Diedrich smiled and immediately said yes, making another notification sound.
"Ding, Tarak Village earned 250 Exp".
"Ding, You have conquered Jack Village".
Diedrich was shocked at the Exp he had gained because he finally figured out how he could upgrade his village, that wasn't the end of the notifications though as a system alert then asked him, [Would you like to Relocate Jack Village?], [Yes] [No].
Diedrich thought about it and decided to relocate, the village was too far away from Tarak village so he wouldn't be able to protect it in case an emergency happened.
Deciding to relocate the village Diedrich saw the Stone cube stop spinning and begin to shrink, turning into a small cube that fell to the ground.
While this happened the buildings in the surrounding suddenly began to shake and crumble disappearing into the ground, Diedrich quickly grabbed the village creation stone and exited the creation station and when he was outside all the structures had disappeared except for the self made one's like a few chairs and items.
The soldiers were naturally shocked when the building's suddenly collapsed and ran over to Diedrich, Diedrich apologised and explained what happened making them calm down as they continued their search which was now much easier.
After the soldiers left, Bill was the only one left standing there, he looked much better now although still a bit shaken up, he walked up to Diedrich with a green marble in his hand as big as a golf ball.
He told Diedrich that a minute or so after Jack died, light green mist began to seep out of his body, the mist began to rotate above his corpse and coalesced into a ball.
He then gave it to Diedrich and said that he would be surprised.
Checking its description, Diedrich was indeed startled.
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Item: Nature Rank orb
Grade: Rare
Description: Contains the power of a Rank 2 being. Power can be assimilated through absorption, increasing the rank of the user to rank 2. User's profession must be Warrior and have the Nature affinity.
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Diedrich realized this was a massive boon and probably the most valuable object he had seen, other than his village. Although not impactful to him it could massively upgrade his soldiers fighting power, especially if he could get more of them.
The only problem was that these orbs came from humans after they died or that was at least what Diedrich assumed from what Bill had told him.
After a few minutes, the soldiers came back with a few items, there were 3 more orbs that corresponded with the rank and profession of Bill's previous original party, even Bill's leader left a rank 3 elemental orb.
Confirming a few things for Diedrich which was that it seemed only people who survived the trial dropped a rank orb, as Bill told Diedrich two rank 1 villagers had spawned, and as their rank orb had not been found it could only be assumed that only trial survivors dropped the orbs.
The other thing that it confirmed for Diedrich was that he would also probably drop a rank orb if he died, meaning that people would likely be aiming to kill him later, especially since he was rank 4, and from what he knew his rank was very rare.
This realization made Diedrich slightly worried as he understood that he had to be discreet while quickly growing in strength so that he wouldn't draw attention to himself and get killed by some opportunist.
Having thought about the implications of the discovery Diedrich focused on the other item they had found, the item was wrapped by what Diedrich assumed was a banana leaf tied with a vine.
Untying the package Diedrich found 10 or so small beautiful white flowers, with purple dots on them. Carefully picking one up by the stem, Diedrich read its description.
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Item: Spotted Hyacinth
Grade: Uncommon (+)
Description: A flower carrying an extremely potent toxin, causes the victim's organs to slowly disintegrate.
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Diedrich quickly threw the flower back into the pile as he read the description, he told his soldiers to carefully wrap the flowers back into the leaves as he asked Bill if he had seen the plant before, Bill shook his head.
The soldiers also presented Diedrich with items of no significance except a crude wooden mortar and pestle, which seemingly some residue left from the flowers, showing that Jack had first crushed up the flowers to make the poison more potent before mixing it with the water supply.
Diedrich decided to leave the mortar and pestle behind although he did figure that such a tool would be useful for Bella the new doctor as she would need to work with medicinal herbs although he would create one for her himself with wood manipulation.
Having sorted everything Diedrich told everyone they were returning as they made their way back to Tarak village.
Along the way, Diedrich walked with Bill as he made him a citizen of Tarak and talked about his class and the work he would be doing for the village.
"Well although my ability to create monster trapping insignia might seem strong it does have a few limitations".
Bill talked about his class making Diedrich aware of a few things, first of all, he told Diedrich that the beast that the insignia could trap was dictated by the rarity of the material he could engrave the insignia on, so an insignia created on a normal item could trap a rank 2 and below level 15 beast, while an insignia created on an uncommon material could trap any rank 2 beasts in tier 1 or 2, and could trap rank 3 beasts up to level 25.
Bill also told Diedrich that crafting an insignia could be done on any item, but he had discovered that crafting it on a piece of organic hard material, like wood, seemed the easiest, although it still took him an hour to engrave an insignia on a normal rarity material, while he didn't know about the uncommon ranked material.
Until now Diedrich thought the restrictions to Bill's ability were not too bad so what if he could only create a few in a day, and the beasts were restricted by the rarity of the material, Diedrich could still have an army of pets especially if the entire village got a few, but Bill quickly dismissed Diedrich's dream.
It seemed people could only bind with one beast attached to an insignia, it would take about 2 hours for a person's soul to resonate with the insignia and only then could it be used to summon the creature inside.
Diedrich became a bit confused as Bill had said he had summoned multiple beasts when Jack attacked him in the night, Seeing the questioning gaze of Diedrich Bill explained.
"So, my second ability granted me a stronger soul and the ability to control four more insignias".
Understanding the reason Diedrich asked him what the ability was called and Bill said Soul enhancement. The ability not only let him control more insignias but also allowed him to resonate with the insignias faster than others making it only take 10 minutes.
The animals that would be captured also first had to be put into a state where they couldn't resist being bound to the insignia, the best way Bill had found was by beating them up to a near-death state.
After the beast would be captured it would be under your control and wouldn't hurt its master, however, to create more loyalty it was better to treat them with care, otherwise, they wouldn't help you unless ordered to do so.
The beasts also still had to be fed and could only level up to the rarity of the insignia it was engraved upon.
Hearing this Diedrich couldn't help but be a bit disappointed, even though Bill's skills would still be a massive boon to the city.
Working out the details Diedrich eventually decided that Bill would engrave five normal insignias a day, while the uncommon ones would be worked out when they knew how long it would take him to engrave one.
In return, Diedrich told him that he would be provided food and a house and that he would help Bill capture 3 beasts that he wanted as long as it was in his power.
Diedrich also told Bill that he would be given pay for his work when a proper currency was created, however, for now, this would have to do. Bill understood and accepted the arrangement, it was honestly better treatment than in vine village so he was pretty happy with it.
Having hashed out the details Diedrich left Bill and made his way over to Karla who was with the woman, she had stopped crying by now and was feeling a bit more comfortable, but still looked at the men in the group with a hint of fear and shame in her eyes as she kept her distance.
Diedrich however needed to add her to his village through the rite, otherwise, he couldn't fully trust her, so he made his way over to her.
Diedrich stopped about a meter away from her, and before he could ask her name and if she wanted to join the village, she spoke.
"Th.. thank you for saving me", she said softly.
As Diedrich saw her reticent and anxious appearance as if she was trying to hide, Diedrich's expression softened as he said kindly, "What's your name?".
"Cecilia", she responded.
"Cecilia I am glad we were able to help you, I only regret we weren't there sooner…. So do you want to join my village?".
Cecilia agreed and Diedrich explained to her how the rite worked, since it required physical contact she became a bit apprehensive at first, but after he told her it could be done by performing a simple fist bump she hesitantly agreed and became a citizen of Tarak.
Having finished the rite Diedrich told her that Karla would explain to her how the village looked and functioned as he left them alone.
It still taking some time before they arrived, Diedrich decided to finish some of his chores while he was at it, like getting the soul cores he owed the pig farmers and Ilsa.
When they finally arrived Diedrich and his treant were carrying arms full of soul cores, much to the envy and amazement of the soldiers, Diedrich had collected 20 in total, Diedrich would give the four farmers 2 each making them about level 5, which should be enough especially since he was planning to give them insignias as well.
He decided to also give two soul cores to Mark who was the skinner, this would probably make it easier and faster for him to skin animals, while he would give five to Ilsa as per their agreement, and next week he would give the other five to her.
It almost being dark when they arrived, and with the village already haven eaten, Diedrich was lucky that Matilda the cook had saved enough food for everyone, so they all got to eat and drink while being surrounded by the rest of the village curious about their exploits.
Not wanting to be the center of attention Diedrich left the role of being a storyteller to soldiers who told them what happened, only leaving out the part of what happened to Cecilia.
The Citizens took the execution of Jack better than the soldiers probably because they hadn't seen him executed, although the mood did go down a bit, but was luckily quickly dispelled by Hans when he brought up the news of Bill and that the village would get pet beasts, instantly shooting up Bill's popularity as he became bombarded by questions.
Seeing that this was going to be a long night Diedrich asked a few people to show the new citizens of Tarak village their new houses that had already been built in preparation for tomorrow's summons, after that he left the party and went to bed excited about his plans for the next day.