"Reward thy service of offering tribute!" Zhou Tian was a little disappointed because although the Beastman leader was considered one of the strongest bosses in the Novice Village, his intelligence was clearly still not very high. After uttering such a wooden line, he placed his weapon on Zhou Tian's shoulder.
Before Zhou Tian had time to recover from his disappointment, he received a torrent of information as the Beastman leader's weapon touched his shoulder.
Firstly, a massive amount of experience transferred from the Beastman leader's weapon into Zhou Tian, providing him with energy to evolve once again.
At the same time, the Beastman leader used his power as a boss to unexpectedly bestow Zhou Tian with the title of Beastman Warrior. This meant that even without considering the power increase from future evolutions, Zhou Tian had already become a minor Boss thanks to the present actions of the Beastman leader.
Upon becoming a Beastman Warrior, new information popped up in Zhou Tian's mind. For instance, he only learned after becoming a Beastman Warrior that although the Beastman Clan appeared as an independent force, they were actually just the weakest of the Blood Moon Lord's vassal forces. Now as a Beastman Warrior, he had gained a name in the Blood Moon Cult.
One could say that before becoming a Beastman Warrior, Zhou Tian was merely cannon fodder within the Monster Group. It wasn't until he became a minor Boss that he reluctantly counted as one of many underlings of the Blood Moon Lord. After officially becoming a part of the Monster Group, Zhou Tian discovered that monsters were seemingly no worse than players in this world.
Players leveled up by hunting monsters and through equipment and skills they had cultivated after level upgrades, their strengths were determined.
In comparison, although monsters were different from players, they too had a 'leveling' system.
Regular monsters were like Beast Slaves when they were 'born'. Despite differences in races and power, they were all merely cannon fodder.
After gaining experience from fights with players and NPCs, monsters could choose to evolve like Zhou Tian had. Ultimately, through race evolution or acquiring various talents, any monster could become a mighty Boss.
Irrespective of regular monsters, if one was lucky enough to become a Boss, no matter how weak they were—even if they couldn't defeat a regular high-level monster—simply having that title meant they would gain a new special ability.
The greatest special ability of Bosses was the ability to command minor monsters. When Zhou Tian became a Beastman Warrior, his consciousness not only received information about his allocated territory within the Beastman Clan, but also a notification that he could control regular Beastman Warriors if he wished.
This meant that the biggest difference between regular Monsters and Bosses in this world was not power, but this ability to command. A regular monster's strength depended entirely on its own power. As for a Boss, if they had a significant number of underlings, they could still dominate opponents stronger than them even if their own power was weaker.
Players were a different story as they were the biggest glitch in this world. Relative to the world's two other factions, a Boss's strength greatly depended on the size of their territory and the number of troops under their control, besides their own power.
When Zhou Tian fully absorbed the information in his mind, he couldn't help but break into a smile.
His own strength was the only reliance against the threats from players, but the power in his hands was the best choice to deal with those NPCs. The thought of becoming a leader one day stirred excitement within Zhou Tian. After briefly composing himself, he took his leave from the Beastman leader's residence.
After nearly an hour of travel, Zhou Tian managed to find his 'territory' with the information stored in his mind.
"Although I know I'm a newbie and can't expect to have good territory, this place is way too shabby!" When Zhou Tian arrived at his 'territory' and understood its specific conditions, even though he was mentally prepared, he still found it difficult to accept.
Speaking of territory, Zhou Tian's might not be big, but it was not small either. In terms of average Beastman warrior's territory, Zhou Tian's was not bad. However, because it was located in a remote area, the strength of his territory was quite weak.
Under equal conditions, the number of Beastman warriors under Zhou Tian was only a third of those in his original area. That is, even though they were all Beastman warriors, in terms of power, Zhou Tian might not be even a third as powerful as his former boss.
Faced with such a situation, Zhou Tian naturally felt unfulfilled. However, after grumbling a few times, he accepted the reality. After all, who knew how long that Beastman warrior had built up his power. Being a 'newbie', it's natural for Zhou Tian to be weaker. Instead of complaining about his own weak strength, he thought about how to expand his power quickly.
Generally speaking, there are several ways to expand the power of a boss.
The most common method is to save strength gradually. After the territory gets a leader, the higher-ups would dispatch soldiers every month according to a certain quota. As long as Zhou Tian could prevent his Beastman warriors from dying too much, his military power would naturally increase.
Of course, Zhou Tian would never choose this way. After all, he was not an ordinary monster. He was a human who wore a monster's skin. Having ambition, he would never be satisfied with this slow development. Dismissing the most common method, Zhou Tian had only one option left, which was to distinguish himself.
Just as before, Zhou Tian was promoted from beast slave to Beastman warrior by slaying countless NPCs. After killing a few players, he was promptly promoted to Beastman warrior by the Beastman leader.
Similarly, as long as Zhou Tian performed well, whether it was killing NPCs or players, the big bosses would notice. Then, with the rewards from higher-ups, Zhou Tian's personal strength would progress, and his power would grow naturally!
With such a thought in mind, Zhou Tian decisively acted.
Because the monsters underneath had inflexible minds, they were always in a passive situation when confronting NPCs. Normally, the monsters would not provoke enemies unless the NPCs and players actively attacked or they received commands from the higher-ups.
However, obviously as an outlier, Zhou Tian would never let go of any profitable matter that the other monsters would not do.