Night shrouded the Wilderness. A lamplit wooden house, the sole firefly beneath the starry sky, stood lonely and isolated in the pitch-black expanse.
Levi stood before a small wooden table in the center of the wooden house, upon which was a crude map drawn on parchment.
All the Beastmen had arrived, cramming the originally spacious wooden house to the brim and making the room swelter.
Fortunately, the first Pioneer had built this main house to be a meeting hall, so it had been made especially spacious.
Otherwise, there would have been no way to accommodate the fifty-plus muscular brutes, each of them towering figures.
"Since everyone's here, our first internal meeting will now officially begin."
Looking at the team before him, Levi was filled with hope for the future.
"First and foremost, we need to decide on a name for this place. I'm open to suggestions."
Upon hearing they were naming the place, Zat's face lit up with enthusiasm.
"Boss, how about we call it Vite Territory?"
"You really have a talent for names," Levi said, giving Zat a long look.
'You couldn't say he wasn't ambitious, trying to sneak his own name in there. Then again, the fool at least knew to put my name first.'
Levi turned to see Muto looking eager to have a go, so he immediately gave him an encouraging look.
'I should encourage everyone to voice their opinions,' he thought. 'After all, two heads are better than one. It might even teach these simpletons to stop thinking with their muscles and use their brains for a change.'
"Chief, or we could call it the Vito Tribe."
Muto said with a serious expression, after a moment of deep thought.
"Not a bad name," Levi said, taking a deep breath. 'I thought Muto was building up to something great, but he just laid a giant turd.'
Muto, thinking his name had been accepted, was just about to break into a smile when Levi unexpectedly made the final decision himself.
"From now on, this place is called High Cliff Castle!"
Muto was dumbfounded. 'Didn't he say it was a good name?'
He hadn't noticed that Levi had only given them the right to make suggestions; the final say was his alone.
Zat quietly curled his lip in the shadows. 'A little wooden house on a small hill,' he thought. 'There's no mountain, no cliff, and definitely no castle. Why call it High Cliff Castle?'
'The Boss's name is even worse than mine!'
Zat grumbled internally.
Outside the wooden house, Old Neil stared at the light inside, his heart filled with envy.
He was like a moth drawn to a flame, desperate to be a part of that light.
Unfortunately, he was not qualified to attend this council meeting.
But looking at the young pups staring up at him with expectant eyes, Old Neil had an idea. He dusted off his rear and swaggered over to the door of the wooden house, pretending he too was listening to the noble lord's speech.
Catching the adoring gazes of the pups from the corner of his eye, his heart swelled with immense satisfaction.
But just then, a Beastman standing in the doorway scratched his rear, and in the next moment, a cloud of gas wafted directly into Old Neil's face.
Old Neil's expression froze. He nearly passed out from the stench, but with all the pups watching him, he was in a difficult position and couldn't back down. He had no choice but to pretend that nothing had happened.
"Now, this is our current location."
Levi pointed to a spot on the map, then gestured to the surrounding areas.
"And this represents our current situation."
The Beastman Barbarians scrambled to crowd around and look, but afterward, they just stared at each other in confusion. They understood it was a map, but why did a small hill and its surroundings represent their current situation?
"We've just arrived. We know nothing about our surroundings."
"Oh, so that's it," the Barbarians said, the realization dawning on them.
"Right now, the most urgent task is to figure out who our neighbors are, how many there are, and what kind of Tribes they are. Otherwise, we're flying blind."
Levi's expression was serious.
Seeing their chief's serious expression, all the Beastmen straightened their backs, trying to look serious as well.
"I have decided to establish the first Pioneer corps of High Cliff Castle. Zat will be the captain, Muto will be the vice-captain, and all the Warriors will be Beastmen."
"The name of the corps will be..."
Levi stroked his chin in thought for a moment, then clapped his hands. "Let's call it the Burning Corps."
'In my past life, the Burning Corps' goal was to destroy all worlds. My goal is to plant my flag on all worlds and conquer them.'
'The objectives are more or less the same, so the name fits.'
Levi's confidence in achieving this goal stemmed from his strength.
'Now that I have a system, what's the point if I don't dare to aim higher? It would be a complete waste.'
"Zat, tomorrow you will lead ten Warriors from the corps to scout the Tribes within a twenty-li radius. Remember, you must not start any conflicts. Record their Race, estimate the number of able-bodied adults, and note their locations."
Levi added thoughtfully that twenty li was equivalent to about ten kilometers in his past life.
An ordinary person could walk that distance in a little over an hour, let alone Beastman Barbarians. A full day was more than enough time for them to get a rough idea of the surrounding situation.
This distance also represented a safety margin that Levi was comfortable with for now.
Whether it was an enemy attack or something else, it gave him enough time to react and mount a response.
'Sigh, we're still short on troops and cavalry,'
Levi couldn't help but sigh. 'If only I had cavalry. I could form a patrol and control a radius of at least a hundred li.'
As for the Beastman Barbarians serving as cavalry, the very idea was laughable.
That afternoon, Zat had abused his position by taking a horse out for a joyride. The moment his six-hundred-plus-pound frame landed on its back, the poor draft horse collapsed, all four of its legs broken.
An enraged Levi had kicked him so hard he went face-first into the dirt, and then warned the group of Beastman Barbarians—who clearly had no concept of their own weight—not to try sneaking off to ride the horses again.
To carry these Beastman Barbarians, ordinary horses were completely useless. It would take, at minimum, a Haka Golden Lion from the Southern Territory, a Frost Seat Wolf from the Far North, or a Black-toothed War Boar from the Kas Mountain Range.
The crucial point was that these guys didn't even have a cavalry unit branch, so Levi had never intended to train them as cavalry in the first place.
"Muto, you will lead the remaining Barbarians. Stay here to guard High Cliff Castle and supervise the Goblins and Kobolds."
Levi commanded.
After giving his orders, Levi thought for a moment. Seeing no other immediate issues, he dismissed them.
With a crowd of muscular giants crammed into the wooden house, the air had quickly filled with the stench of sweat, which Levi was already finding unbearable.
He decided that building a proper, large meeting hall was now an urgent priority.
The adjoining room served as the bedroom. It was about forty to fifty square meters and contained a wooden plank bed, already made up with a cotton quilt.
Levi didn't go to sleep. Illuminated by an oil lamp, he sat at the room's table, a quill in hand, sketching and writing on a sheet of parchment.
His territory didn't lack Warriors at the moment. What it lacked were subjects—a populace to help with development and construction.
Furthermore, it would be best if these subjects were human. The likes of Kobolds and Goblins could only be used as slave labor; they weren't suitable citizens.
'But where can I find humans in this Wilderness?'
Levi tugged at his hair in frustration. But as his gaze swept over the map hanging on the wall, he froze, a look of delight spreading across his face.