Inefficient Overwork

As with any other day, Alaric woke up naturally. According to his stopwatch, it was currently 8 a.m. and the day that Alaric would raid Ryder Village.

Alaric felt a telepathic link form, and Sonic's voice sounded, 'My lord, you're awake?'

'Yes, did anyone exit the village?' Alaric responded.

'Negative. I kept a close eye out the entire time, and although no one left, many people worked through the night.'

Alaric was stunned. There were certainly not enough villagers to handle a day and night shift system, which meant many didn't sleep.

'How many?'

'I counted 15, my lord.'

Alaric quickly pondered, thinking that the 3 who didn't work through the night were the children. If all of the men and women were working through the night, while he slept, Alaric certainly failed as their leader.

Thinking aloud, Alaric said, "Was the use of Clarus's ability too much?"

Although he wanted a strong base of operations in order to strengthen his ability more quickly, this did not mean he was willing to use the death of his people in order to achieve that.

'So that's why they were working so early in the morning last time.'

With the addition of mana inside everyone's bodies in this world, it was certainly possible for most adults to stay up for 48 hours while retaining their cognition. But, this did not change the fact that their immune response would be weakened, it was dangerous.

"I must quickly rectify this issue. I can't believe I didn't realize the reasons they were collecting and building so quickly."

Alaric walked outside of his house and ordered Sonic to bring him to the center of the village. With Sonic's speed and a distance of only 40 meters, it was as if Alaric teleported there.

Tapping on the megaphone, and activating the sound amplification formation, Alaric said, "Gather at the center of the village. I repeat, gather at the center of the village."

Soon, everyone immediately stopped what they were doing, and arrived in front of Alaric. Now that he looked closely, the dark bags under their eyes were indeed apparent.

Alaric spoke into the megaphone, lowering the amount of mana he put inside of the formation, and thus lowering the volume, saying, "I've heard that you all worked through the night, correct?"

One villager, who Alaric remembered as "Balk," and one of the 5 people working on Mulder's forge, spoke up.

"Yes, Chief! Winter is arriving and we must repay your magnanimity with hard work! Working through the night is nothing for us!"

Obviously, Balk was rather passionate. And because he spoke up, the other villagers began to speak similarly, saying that their hard work was for Ooze Village's prosperity.

Alaric suddenly realized what was going on, thinking, 'The Ryder family must have encouraged this behavior.'

Suddenly, Alaric motioned for the villagers to be quiet, and said, "You all are like family, and although the place you came from encourages such behavior, times are changing. I order you all to immediately sleep! This isn't healthy, or efficient! Next time I find you all working so hard, there will be punishment."

The villagers seemed confused as if their health didn't matter in the first place. After all, the idea that they were born to serve someone stronger had been thoroughly implanted into their heads.

Thus, Alaric continued, "If that isn't convincing, please think of your families. If you were to one day collapse because of overwork, or even die, the village would not be able to replace you."

Now, that had enlightened the villagers. They realized that they truly did have a purpose! Piko and Mulder actually seemed a bit guilty, as if they were the ones causing this.

Simultaneously, they both knelt before Alaric, "Chief, we apologize!"

Alaric gave them a glance, saying, "Do not risk the health of your subordinates again."

The villagers then went home, their kids surprised to even see them so early, and they slept.

Afterward, Alaric could finally sigh in relief, "Those damn villagers almost cost me all of my manpower."

'My lord, it was very noble of you to allow them rest. After all, humans are replaceable.'

Alaric stared at the cthulhu slime dully and telepathically responded, 'Don't misunderstand. They're uneducatedly overworking themselves, the result will be them blaming me later on. They may die, or rebel. I'd lose manpower either way. Unless there are 50 or more villagers separated into day and night shifts, I just can't allow such things.'

The room slime, Wurst, who was at Alaric's side, nodded in agreement. Slimes named by Alaric seemed to be able to intercept telepathic links between him and other slimes.

'How insightful! I'm ecstatic at the fact that you are using that brain to lead, and not to run, my lord!'

Alaric simply ignored Sonic, slumped onto the ground, and began meditating. He planned to accumulate a temporary reservoir of mana before heading to the Ryders' territory. After all, even if he didn't combine it with his own reserves to break through, mana within his body could still be used more easily.

'Too much and my soul will suffer, I must be careful.'

After an hour of meditation, Alaric reached the limit. His soul couldn't handle any more excess mana and decided to stop.

Alaric stood up, grabbed the megaphone on the platform, and walked in the direction of Clarus's house. Clarus had been absent from his view for a while, but his mana signature was slowly getting stronger, so Alaric knew that he was meditating.

After knocking, Clarus immediately arrived to receive Alaric.

"My liege, you've come for me?"

As per usual, Clarus was extremely passionate in his subservience to Alaric. Although, Alaric didn't exactly know why.

'I guess becoming a ranked wielder is truly a big deal to him.' Alaric thought.

Alaric quickly introduced Clarus to Sonic and notified him that they'd be heading out.

"Where to, my liege?"

Alaric smirked, and turned to Clarus as they left the old man's house, "Ryder Village."

Clarus went wide-eyed.