The bats who were pierced by the shackles ceased all their movement. What Zyrus ‘erased’ was their nervous system.

  *Splatter*

  One after another the bats fell and turned into mangled corpses. This way Zyrus didn’t have to use more attacks as the bats would fall to their death once he deactivated the shackles of nihility.

  “Hurry back! They’re afraid of sunlight,” Ria’s voice sounded in his head via the conductor’s tiara. She was like a walking radio station that managed the entire army. Zyrus and the other crown holders held back the bats’ charge while the players retreated in haste.

  Due to their destructive foraging earlier it was easier to move around in the forest. It took no more than three minutes before all 5000 players were back at the beach.

  “It’s safe for now, but we need to prepare for the night,” Kyle stated with furrowed brows. Thousands of red eyes were still staring at them from the forest’s shadows.

  “Leave that to me. Gather all the resources first.” Zyrus’s calm voice reassured everyone. This place wasn’t the first ring where they got food from the system. They would starve to death if the bats weren’t dealt with.

  A few hours weren’t enough to search the area, but still, there were 5000 of them. The manpower more than made up for their lack of strength.

  Zyrus walked to the piled-up wood and beckoned the others.

  “Distribute the fruits; a bite is enough to last a whole day. Take out half the logs and stones and create a boundary an hour before sunset.”

  “Got it, but will a boundary stop them?” Shi kun asked while scratching his head.

  “It will,” Zyrus didn’t explain anything further and ordered the ophidian warriors to carry the logs. As much as he wanted to train his subordinates, there were things they had to overcome on their own.

  He knew a lot as an arcanist. Different races had their own way of survival in the wild. Fire was the most common among them, but he didn’t plan to burn the wood.

  ‘I’m curious as to how it’ll take effect…’

  Zyrus mulled over his theories and ordered Elsid to bury the largest log. There was a simple reason why he wanted to destroy everything on this island.

  He wanted the resources, but that wasn’t all. This place would one day become a vanguard to attack the north of Kyros continent. There was no need for sustainable development on an outpost.

  This wasn’t his only goal either. He wanted to do a little experiment on the island. Regardless of whether he succeeded or not, nothing would grow on this island after that.

  ‘It isn’t for no reason that the arcanists have bad reputation.’

  Pursuit of arcana often required one to go beyond the extreme. Zyrus ordered the ophidian warriors to carry 99 more logs to cover the whole site. Apart from the one that Elsid had planted, the rest of the logs were completely hidden beneath the sand.

  “Are you going to use something like black magic?” Jacob asked with wide eyes as he saw the ophidian warriors. Lauren and the others also wanted to know about his summons, but none were as curious about magic as Jacob.

  “It’s similar. Tell everyone to spread their mana in the air.”

  “Got it.”

  Zyrus wanted to create something that was a mix of a totem and a mage tower. They were totally different in nature, and none except someone like him who had a thousand years of experience would even think of such an idea. The key here was that Zyrus was attempting this during the flag march.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Totems relied on belief to do a variety of tasks. Protection against wild animals, warding off misfortune, weakening natural disasters and many such examples. Offensive totems can even boost the stats and skills of the target.

  Unlike them, the mage tower had a singular purpose. It could control the mana in a designated area.

  Although it sounded simple, its usage was anything but that. Research, warfare, farming, and any other activity that needed mana would need a mage tower.

  On a fundamental level both the totems and the mage towers needed mana to function. Pure mana was easier to harness than people’s beliefs, but the latter was cheaper and had less technical requirements.

  Totems were used by the primitive tribes because the mage tower needed a tremendous amount of high-end resources.

  Zyrus had no means to gather enough resources to create a mage tower either. Not to mention he wanted to build one in every place he would conquer in the future. Heck, even creating a totem was difficult.

  Still, there was hope if the abyssal mana and void laws were added into the mix. Zyrus finished his calculations and summoned the white flag and made it hover above the central log.

  ‘I doubt it’ll work without a medium, but protecting this area should be possible.’

  He slit his wrist and placed it above the log. Just a drop of his blood was enough to change its color to red.

  *Fwooom*

  Zyrus poured all of his abyssal mana into that drop of blood. There was a minute chance that the logs would resonate with one another since they had the same material. He would be able to influence a wide area if the other logs were connected with the blood-red one.

  As for using his blood on all of the totems? He'd be sucked dry considering the size of this island.

  Though it wasn't the ideal scenario, it was within Zyrus’s expectations. This wasn’t something that he could accomplish with one try. A lot of trials and errors were needed for a new invention.

  ‘If only I could use my summons as a medium…’

  With the number of aliens on earth, he didn’t have to worry about losing a few thousand to create totems. That would become a horrifying force once they merged with the land. This wasn’t Zyrus’s wild fantasy either as with system’s assistance it was possible to bring his vision to reality. For now, he just drew a basic mana-gathering spell combined with a light barrier.

  Others might find this difficult, but Zyrus could easily weave the threads of mana to engrave spells on the totem. He was done with the process before the players were done releasing all of their mana.

  “Alright, gather around,” Zyrus clapped his hands and stood on top of the log. The white flag fluttering on a wooden branch was now tainted with a mark of red.

  “I’m not going to give you false hope for tonight. It’ll be a bloody battle where many of you might die. Survival is difficult, conquest much more so. However, as long as you believe in our strength and this totem, I promise you that you will survive this night and many more to come.”

  The players were confused by his words. Believing in their strength was one thing, but what could a bloody log do against thousands of bats and whatever else that lay in the forest?

  “What is the totem?” Ria asked as she stepped forward. She knew that the players didn’t have the courage to talk to Zyrus. Forget about humans; even trolls and ogres were avoiding his eyes.

  Thus, it was her job to act as a middleman between the two.

  “Recall your first day in the tutorial. Remember how you focused on the enemy’s weak spots to kill them and how you survived the first night?” Zyrus didn’t answer the question and gave them the time to think things over.

  “Think about the theme of the crown hunt and flag march. Do you find the whole process familiar?”

  A pin-drop silence descended over the beach. They couldn’t think of anything similar to the sanctuary.

  “Is it related to evolution?”

  “Go on,” Zyrus encouraged Stephen to continue. This was the first time the brown-haired youth was talking to him since the crown hunt.

  “On Earth, Humans were like other animals millions of years ago. They stayed in the wild and fought for survival. It took a long time before they learned to group together and hunt the predators. Once they did though, the progress of their-or well, our evolution could be said to have risen exponentially. From tribes to villages and then to gigantic metropolises. Was it not due to this that humans went from stone weapons to firearms that made them the apex predators? The theme of the sanctuary looks similar.”

  The players were silent after Stephen’s words. It wasn’t hard to come to this conclusion. The biggest difference between the first and the second ring was the concept of home. Even though other races like goblins and trolls had forgotten about their heritage, the words still struck a chord with them.

  “Good observation. As for the totem, you should know what it represents, right?”

  Trolls, ogres, goblins, and even the primitive humans. Which race didn’t have a concept of totem at one point in history?

  “You might think that a totem is nothing but a symbol that unites the people. But remember, this is a place where everything is possible. As long as you believe that the totem will protect you, it will.”

  Zyrus concluded his speech and ordered them to rest till sunset. What he said before was only half-truth.

  Totems and the power of belief wasn’t omnipotent. Regardless of an ant colony’s beliefs, an elephant could stomp them to death.

  Rules only applied to those who were on the same level.