Midas, Aydin and Julio arrived at the Southern Clearing at approximately 9:30 am in the morning. But something was wrong. There was a flurry of activity with people moving up and down and talking to each other.
There were tens of people around the area. Some were examining the Tablet, trying to make sense of it. Others were cutting down trees, to turn into something useful.
Others were transporting previously cut down trees to places where some who had the relevant skills would cut and shape them into more useful pieces.
Midas noticed that the trees that Julio had liberated yesterday had been appropriated by these people, and even the campsite and fireplace built by Midas and Julio had been turned into an even bigger one to accommodate their large group.
"Hey, what the hell, they are taking our camp!" exclaimed Julio, who then tried to rush forward. Midas, not wanting to underestimate anyone, held Julio back while saying:
"Hey! Stop. Do you see their numbers? Relax. Let's try to talk to them."
"What?" asked Aydin, not understanding why Julio was so charged.
"This place is where we spent the night last night. Julio had already taken down numerous trees in this area, thinking that we would set up a base camp here. Even that fireplace was set up by us." said Midas apologetically to Aydin.
It seemed like some people had seen them coming from the forest and three of them approached calmly. The man at the front was an African who had a French accent when he spoke:
"Hey guys! What brings you here to these parts?"
"Hey. I know this might seem crazy… But did you guys find a camp when you got here?" asked Midas with a friendly smile on his face.
"A camp?" said the man, looking left and right to his friends who were beside him. He smiled a smile with a mocking sneer and said, "No! We did not find a camp here. We were the first to discover this place!"
"Pfft Haha!!" cackled a crony on the right.
"Yeah, we were the first!!" said another crony to the left of the Frenchman.
"Since when did you guys occupy this place?" asked Midas calmly.
"Since yesterday," said the Frenchman. The men beside him couldn't help but continue to chuckle at his words. They were clearly making fun of Midas and his group.
"That's interesting. Because I could've sworn I didn't see you guys last night…" said Midas to which the Frenchman said:
"You were here last night?" while looking up and down Midas. He was assessing the threat these three could represent and if he and his friends could take them down.
"Yeah, actually we were. That fireplace… We were the ones who created it by digging into the ground. And those trees you guys keep hauling over to get cut and shaped… We're the ones who took them down."
"Really… So you're saying this place belongs to you ehh? The forest… the trees… All of this belongs to you?"
"Pfft Haha!!"
"Kukuku Who are these guys?"
"Well we don't care if you slept here. This place is ours now, so you better leave," said the Frenchman.
"Eh really? That's cool. Could we possibly check out that Tablet before we leave though?" asked Aydin, who was now seeing the Tablet. He realised that it really did look as amazing as Julio was hyping it up to be. He was genuinely looking forward to seeing it for himself.
"No. That Tablet was also brought by us." said the Frenchman, to which his cronies continued chuckling from behind him while showing more and more arrogant expressions.
"Eh… It's really beautiful," complimented Midas, but before he could continue, he was scolded by the Frenchman who came closer to Midas threateningly while shouting with a menacing expression.
"Who gave you the permission to look, eh??!!"
Julio immediately reflected the Frenchman's energy back to him and his men by stepping forward in an equally menacing fashion. The three men, seemingly overtaken by Julio's vigour, stepped back instinctively. After stepping back, the French African man's face fell, almost as if he felt insulted by Julio. How dare he make him step back?
"Huh, you people want to start a fight?!!" said the Frenchman in a loud fashion almost as if to get attention. And attention he did get. Twelve men approached from behind him, with the one at the front and centre of those men stepping forward and speaking first.
"What's going on here?" said the man with what Midas assumed to be an Australian accent. The man had long curly blonde hair that went down to his shoulders. He sported a bushy moustache on his face and a European skin colour that was probably tanned due to the harsh and hot Australian climate.
"These idiots want to start a fight!" said the Frenchman deferentially. Midas now understood that this new guy was the boss of this place.
"Really? These friends don't seem to be starting a fight. Right, friends?" said the Australian man with a smile on his face.
Midas willed his [Divine Database] into the foreground again to check who this man was.
→ MATCH FOUND FOR FACIAL PROFILE ←
Those Words flashed in his eyes. He immediately willed the idea of viewing the results to his database and then an Identification document of some sorts and some other memories popped up in front of Midas.
—
| Identity Found |
Name: Andrew Jacobs
DOB: 1998/09/10
Sex: Male
Nationality: Australia
…
—
Midas' [Divine Database] had been hard at work the whole time running as a background process while capturing information about the Chosen Midas passed by and the environment. Midas decided that he would later look over the information thoroughly when he had time. Now that he was in the situation, he decided to bring up the Profile for this person.
'The son of an Australian Governor huh… A rich kid. Someone who is used to having things the way he wants them. History of violence and drug abuse, but obviously wiped clean by his loving father… Really annoying. A spoiled brat acting like a feudal lord.'
"Of course not. We just found out from this man here that you guys were here since yesterday, and that you also have someone with the Skills and abilities to create that Stone Tablet over there," said Midas. There was a veiled threat in the words said by the Australian man and Midas would be an idiot not to recognise them.
"Eh, did Francois say that? Haha Francois was just joking, you guys know that!" said the Australian while chuckling. The 14 other men joined him in his laughter and together they made the whole situation seem like a joke together.
Midas had seen enough and chose not to waste anymore time.
'[Eye of Judgement]' thought Midas, ignoring his building headache, then suddenly there materialised two panels in front of him. One of the panels was written in obscure symbols while another was written in English. Midas decided to focus on the English language panel for now, since he still did not fully understand the language.
|————————————
|| Index || Network | Statistics |
—————
Earth Name: Andrew Jacobs
AC: 49,800
Gift: Gift of Domination (S Rank)
—————>
| The Gift of Domination (S Rank) |
[Yours is the Will to Enslave Everything in the World. Everything exists to Serve beneath your feet.]
Skills: [Enslave(Lv. 1)], [Psychic Driving(Lv. 1)], [Heaven's Commander (Lv. 1)]
|————————————
| Enslave (Level 1) |
[You can enslave an existence to the extent where the existence will be obligated to follow your orders with some conditions]
————————————|
|————————————
| Psychic Driving (Lv. 1) |
[Existences are influenced by your words and actions with some conditions, changing existences' mentalities and even brainwashing them with enough effort]
————————————|
|————————————
| Heaven's Commander (Lv. 1) |
[Your ability to use your people to their maximum ability is maximised with some conditions]
————————————|
<—————
Conditions and States:
—————>
Nature: Neutral Evil
Trait: King among Peasants
Mental: Macchiavelian Personality, Borderline Personality
Physical: -
<—————
Stats:
—————>
Dexterity (Agility, Flexibility) → 1.6
Strength (Speed, Power) → 1.6
Constitution (Endurance, Health) → 1.1
Intelligence (Memory, Reasoning) → 2.7
Charisma (Charm, Persuasion) → 5.9
Wisdom (Intuition, Adaptability) → 2.1
Spirit (Mental State, Character) → 5.6
<—————
————————————|
' Wow, another S Ranker… But… He's a Slave driver… So much AC? Fishy… Let me guess, all his friends are actually his Slaves and they donated their AC to him? And what's up with that supercilious trait? ' thought Midas cursing his luck.
He did not know what condition Andrew had to fulfil to enslave someone so he did not look forward to spending time here. As far as he was concerned, he would leave as soon as possible.
"Boss Andrew, these guys said that they slept here yesterday. And they also said that they wanted to check out the Tablet," said the Frenchman.
' Boss? '
|————————————
|| Index || Network | Statistics |
—————
Earth Name: Francois Poko (Slave)
AC: 200
————————————|
'Confirmed. They're definitely Slaves. So disgusting,' thought Midas while holding back the urge to destroy the piece of trash in front of him formally known as Andrew.
"Really now…" said Andrew with an inexplicable glint in his eyes. He looked closer at Midas, Julio and Aydin and then continued with a smile on his face:
"Well I won't lie to you, we only got here this morning, and we did find the remnants of a camp here. Was that you guys?"
"Well, yeah it was us actually. We just left this morning to go drink some water at the River." said Midas with a nonchalant expression on his face.
"Ahh, now things are starting to make sense. Well, look here. I think since you guys were the first to get here, then we don't really have the right of just taking this place away from you do we? Hmmm… How about this? Why don't you guys join us? Let's all live here in one place together as a community?"
'Fuck No!' thought Midas, but his face was expressionless as he merely said:
"Well actually, we realised that the walk to the river is a bit too cumbersome, so we were going to grab some of the stuff we left behind while checking out the Tablet for the last time and then head out to join the groups congregating by the Shrine. By the way, do you guys know what it is or what it means?" asked Midas trying to change the focus of the conversation.
"No actually. We've been studying it, and it looks similar to the language in the Holy Book. But that's all we know for now. Since you guys were here yesterday then you should know more than us right?"
"I wish. We got here at about the same time as another group from the centre of the field. We tried touching it and feeling it up for clues, but we got nothing. When I spoke to those guys they ended up telling me that we'd just have to learn the language before understanding what was up." said Midas.
Before Andrew could reply he continued:
"Well, I don't know if you know the leaders of that group in the centre. You know the one with the apples? Those S Rankers called Frank and Gwen… If you want to know more, you should probably talk to them."
Andrew seemed taken aback for a moment before collecting himself and saying, "Woah, there are S Rankers behind that group huh… That's interesting. I had no idea. I will most definitely talk to them. In the meantime, why don't you guys come on over and check the Tablet out?"
"Nah.. On second thought, we need to get going. I just realised that every group is setting up roots in this place, I've never really been one to set up roots. I'm more of an explorer. We promised them that we would come over and make them wooden tools anyway, so we should actually get going." said Midas with a smile on his face to which Andrew chuckled and pointed to Julio and Aydin saying:
"What about you guys? You're more than welcome to join us."
"No thanks. I'll follow Midas," said Julio.
"Yeah, we're best buddies. We stick together," said Aydin.
"That's a shame. Well, if you ever get tired of exploring, Midas, feel free to come over and stay with us okay?" said Andrew reaching out his hand for Midas to shake it.
"Sure."
'Is this it?' thought Midas before reaching out his own hand. Then their hands came together and their hands shook. Midas had a smile on his face, and so did Andrew.
Midas let go of Andrew's hand and turned to leave, followed by Aydin and Julio. Andrew merely watched them leave while staring at his hands. He had an expressionless face, but in his heart he was more than shocked. That was the first time his Skill hadn't worked. That Midas, who was he?
'How dare he try to enslave me?!' thought Midas.
Midas was fuming. Midas was always downplaying his presence to seem normal to others but now it turned out he was being grossly underestimated. It was okay to be underestimated, but why did it have to be by a Daddy's boy little spoiled brat.
Midas knew that if it wasn't for him mentioning the group at the Shrine and their two S Rankers, thus alluding to a relationship between the two, worse things could have happened.
He had seen a glint of greed in Andrew's eyes when he saw the wooden tools and heard of the fact that Midas and the duo had spent the previous night there, but it disappeared as soon as Midas mentioned Gwen and Frank.
That's the type of person Andrew is. A King among peasants. But when he's among Kings, he would be nothing more than a Jester.
Midas wondered what Andrew would be in the presence of an Emperor. An Ant?
Worse still, Midas knew that he had exposed Frank and Gwen who probably wanted their S Rank identities kept hidden. Now they would know that he had a way of finding out people's abilities, which would be annoying for him.
'That Slaver piece of Trash.' thought Midas.
He would find an opportunity to teach that piece of trash a lesson.