41 Establishing Territory

Despite most of the area around the waterfall being covered in water, there was still enough land to set up a camp for the 80 people under Deon's command. Soldiers were well accustomed to living in all sorts of conditions, they wouldn't mind it, even if it was a little bit cramped.

The men in Deon's team were taken from the first group of recruits that he took under his wing and forced to endure through his training. Compared to that training experience, this much was like a holiday.

The forest hill was very useful to them, providing the team with sufficient lumber to begin building their defences. Deon directed the building work and also helped out, but mostly he circled the area and kept a look out for enemies. This place was close to the Eastern mountain side, Fan Kingdom troops could appear at any moment.

Three days passed by quickly. Deon worked everyone to the bone, but he ensured that they all got sufficient rest and were able to maintain their mental alertness in case of battle.

Military men worked quickly, and in 3 days, they had already erected a basic camp along with some defences. Ten inch wide wooden poles were stabbed into the ground, digging in two feet deep and protruding upwards 10 feet high. These thick poles were spaced exactly one foot away from one another, with more slender, crossed wooden poles linking with each adjacent pillar. These crossed poles were both nailed into the main pillars and tied together with strong vines that were found in the forest.

After erecting this fence in 3 days, they spent another grudging 3 days building an identical fence directly in front of the first fence. The two fences were then tied together, whilst supports leaned up against the inner wall from the inside, and wooden spiked poles pointed towards any approaching enemies from the outside.

"Well, it's acceptable for the first layer of defences." Deon nodded.

"You mean that we need more?" Someone asked weakly.

"Of course!" Deon exclaimed. "Not enough traps, and we need at least 2…no, 3 lookout towers! Let's get to it!"

Building his own camp was unexpectedly fun and he may have gotten a bit carried away, but by the time they encountered their first enemies 10 days after arriving here, everyone was glad for the sturdy base camp.

They ended up building 4 watch towers, so the enemies were spotted before the Fan soldiers even knew that there was a camp ahead. The group of 10 were rapidly slaughtered under a barrage of projectile spirit attacks.

Deon also made sure to dive in and take 2 kills for himself, whilst also managing to sneakily extract an origin soul.

"94 1-Star origin souls." He smiled contentedly. He only needed to harvest 5 more souls, then he would be able to use the mysterious soul refinement spirit! He had pondered this for a while now, who would be the best target? They needed to be a 1-Star shaman since he was using the 1-Star soul refinement spirit with 1-Star origin souls. Preferably, the target should also be both young and talented as a shaman.

There were other requirements though…many believed that mythril class was the pinnacle of classes for spirits, but this was far from the end. Deon knew that there were classes above this. For example, there were holy class spirits, this was the rank above mythril. Although only a single class above mythril, the holy class was vastly superior. In fact, spirits of this class and above were so heaven defying that only a single one of them could exist in this world at any one time! They were all unique spirits, though it was possible for similar spirits with similar effects to be formed too.

Deon didn't know what class was above holy class and where this 'ancient class' fit in, nor did he know the class of the soul refinement spirit, but he did know that the soul refinement spirit was far too shocking. This was because it had the ability to create holy class spirits! Indeed, when refining a shaman into a spirit, they would become a holy class spirit!

The holy class was also the prerequisite for a spirit to potentially develop its own intelligence, though not all holy class spirits were intelligent. However, since a shaman refined into a spirit would need to retain their intelligence, the only way this could be possible was to create a holy class spirit. Naturally, any shaman refined into a spirit would be unique, which also required the holy class.

Unfortunately, for such a shaman spirit to reach the holy class, their core spirit also needed to reach the holy class. The soul refinement spirit was able to mysteriously increase the class of its target's core spirit up until the holy class, but for each class it rose, the shaman would face backlash, often dropping a stage in their rank.

Deon put all of this out of mind for now and focussed on the task at hand. After the 10 unfortunate Fan troops were cut down like grass, Deon stood up and narrowed his eyes.

"Vice commander, what is it?" Soldier Nikoni, a red haired girl with a cute and bubbly personality arrived besides him. Some found it jarring that she could slaughter someone in one moment, then grin childishly in the next. Deon didn't mind it at all, she was a good soldier which was all that mattered to him.

"Only 10 soldiers…groups shouldn't be this small right now. There must be an enemy camp nearby." He quickly assessed.

Deon was about to investigate himself, but then remembered…didn't he have his own miniature army to do that for him? It would be a problem if he left the camp and it came under attack whilst he was away…

In the end, he delegated the task to 3 teams of 4 people, each specialised in stealth and investigation. The teams were ordered to go out only a hundred feet from the camp, to look around the area, then return to report. They would then go back out for 200 feet and repeat the process until someone found something.

Each team took 2 rifles with them to serve as a signal, incase they found themselves under attack.

An hour later…

BANG!

The explosive sound resounded through the region, but Deon's response seemed to be even faster than the speed of the echo making its way through the camp. He didn't wait for anyone, nor did he even say anything, just directly charging towards the direction of the gunshot.

If he went alone, he would be able to reap more origin souls without risking others seeing his demonic actions.

The only possible position for an enemy camp, was up the cliff at the end of the river, down one of the many cliffs, or somewhere up the forest hill. The gunshot stemmed from the direction of the forest hill.

Deon's body blurred through the trees as he used the swift leaf spirit. He moved with expert agility up the hill for around 500 feet, until the hill came to an end in an unexpectedly large opening.

The land was a bit uneven, but in terms of tilt, it was basically flat, extending for 200 feet across in all directions in what was almost a perfect circle. Shockingly, this was easily the largest piece of flatland that Deon had discovered this high up the mountain. It also wasn't noted on the maps back at base camp, meaning the Kingdom of Restari was yet to discover this perfect location for a larger sized military camp!

Towards the back of the circle landmass lay the enemy camp. It was clearly larger in size than Deon's camp, but it was less well built and defended. Deon quickly moved backwards and hid himself within a nearby thick bush, just in time to avoid the sight of 4 armed guards walking past, dragging with them 2 struggling soldiers who were serving under Deon.

"Tch, to think those other two managed to get away, even after one of them fired off a warning shot first! There must be an enemy camp nearby, they've likely returned for reinforcements…"

"Haha, what are they going to do? The region was only opened a few days ago, we must have arrived here before anyone else! With the landscape, the only way they can enter is after running up this steep hill, they'll tire themselves and be completely caught off when we're all lined up, gunning the Restari bastards down, hahaha!"

"Asshole, the vice commander will slaughter you all, just you wait!" One of Deon's subordinates, a man he knew to be called Fenashi, growled out.

The 4 guards paused and turned sharply towards the Restari soldier as they glared.

"Feeling talkative huh, how about telling us more about this vice commander of yours? Hahaha, either way, we have certain methods to extract the information, even if you're unwilling, hehehe…"

"Despicable Fan scum!" The soldier glared again. He glanced at his companion worriedly, but she was out cold, knocked out by a surprise attack from the Fan Kingdom's own scouts that had spotted them first whilst they were surveying the area surrounding their new base.

Deon silently listened to their conversation, hoping to learn more.

Whilst Fenashi felt guilty that he had mistakenly revealed the fact that they were serving under a vice commander, Deon actually hoped that he would share more! If Fenashi continued to blab, the Fan soldiers might also give away some intel regarding their camp…

"Hmph no matter what, flat regions like this are uncommon in the upper region you know? We actually have well over 100 men stationed here! Haha, and not only that, there's Lieutenant Cra!"

At the mention of this 'Lieutenant Cra', the other 3 looked at Fenashi with a mocking gaze. Deon narrowed his eyes, wanting to make his move, but in the end, he held his position and continued to wait.

The 4 Fan soldiers were dragging his men even further away, whilst he could see a squad of the 10…no, 15 men rushing out from the Fan Kingdom camp, likely attracted by the gun shot from before.

Luckily, they happened to say exactly what he wanted to hear just before they reached their approaching comrades. It was fortunate that soldiers enjoyed bragging about their units, especially when doing so could devastate their enemy's morale.

"Lieutenant Cra is an esteemed 2-Star shaman powerhouse! So tell me Restari dog, can your little vice commander possibly match up to such an esteemed figure?" The Fan soldier laughed disdainfully. "The Lieutenant is actually not even 40 years old, yet she's already a 2-Star shaman, she's a genius, a prodigy! Pfft, a vice commander? Hahahaha!"

Not only were these 4 Fan soldiers laughing, but Fenashi felt his heart drop.

'Even if the vice commander is a genius prodigy, he's still only a peak stage 1-Star shaman! This…damnit, I need to find a way to escape so that I can warn-'

Whoosh…Thud, thud, thud….

Nobody saw him move, whilst the sound created by the swift leaf spirit could easily be mistaken for a gust of wind. These 4 guards were all shamans, but since they were actually still wielding single shot rifles, they definitely weren't top level elites.

Whoosh…CHING!

Thud…

"Hmm, what's-"

Puchi!

"Ah! Enem-"

CHANG!

"Enemy attack, enemy attack, we're under attack! Ah, reinforcements!" The final shocked and afraid soldier started running back whilst keeping an eye on Deon, but he caught a glimpse of the approaching 15 soldiers from the base camp. His heart felt a deep sense of relief.

And then, his heart felt the sensation of being pierced through with a demonic spear, which mysteriously dissipated into a black gas before his body hit the floor.