Bro, I'm not an Undead!

(A/N: A nod to IMITA)

As Skullius looked around, taking in the rather well-built infrastructure, and the clean streets that were populated with well dressed and well fed people, he couldn't help but compare it to the other settlements he had seen so far.

A town was, of course, a town and would usually not house many people but serve as a central point for selling goods and services.

The structure of this settlement was rather refined, and the Discount Human could wager that aesthetically, it looked a lot better than Eofel, a city.

This was the product of Tulnas' skill in managing the areas under his jurisdiction.

When he and his Guild had risen to their current status, given jurisdiction to the settlements in the East, Tulnas had already plotted out a plan for how he would go about managing the people and lands.

He had presented this plan to the Town leader who at the time had been lax about any sort of development to his town or the surroundings areas.

This, put into context, wasn't his fault.

'Getting used to the depreciating standards that came with the area while shying away from effort,' he called it.

Tulnas had expected such when dealing with an elderly man who had been leading the town for so long, but instead of forcing the man to step down, he had taken a different approach.

After extensive research, Tulnas identified what was most lacking in the areas, the villages, the towns and all on top of the elephant in the room, which he worked around.

Finance was obviously lacking, along with ideas on what most of the individuals dwelling in these areas could partake in.

Most would want to head to Inhone City to try out for becoming mercenaries but the truth given would usually be disappointing as they would be more inclined to defy their given Directions which pointed towards farming, carpentry, teaching and so on.

Arduous activities, in their opinions, that were simply impossible in the region because of a certain 'elephant.'

Most would choose to defy their Direction, mainly because many no longer believed in the sentience of the Deities anymore but also because facilities to learn these were rather... lacking.

Bring given Directions that conflicted with where they were situated further fuelled unbelief.

The young and handsome took these social qualms into account too and took action.

Tulnas' first course of action was to plead with the Town leader for a permit to built structures that he would have the Town leader check for quality in the town, even though he didn't need one.

If he wanted, he could have exerted his dominance from his rights like most Guilds would but knowing that many of the people in the area shared the same lack of enthusiasm for change as the Town leader, Tulnas found that it was better to work with the man for the change.

If the old man stood for new ways to adopt information, this effect could very easily and smoothly transfer to the masses.

Thankfully, the Town leader gave him the consent for construction without so much as a care as the coin came Tulnas' own pocket.

After building two institutions and hiring some qualified personnel with no lack of experience, Tulnas had announced their grand opening of the institutions, showing the seal of approval he had been given by the Town leader.

At first very few joined the institutions, but because of the quality of the teaching service that was rendered, the results for these few became very apparent as they started to make names for themselves by committing to carpentry, building and agriculture, earning from the skills they cultivated and continued to cultivate.

This drew in a lot of others who sought to learn, giving in to their prospective Directions and actively seeing changes.

Rich lands without any use were quickly taken advantage of, plain lands used to build sturdy homes for those lacking such to live in, crops of all kinds farmed, animals reared for meat and minerals mined more efficiently.

One would ask why such things had not been present in this area to be begin with and the answer would be... that was a false claim.

All these had existed on a limited scale, dwindling because of the high spawning rate of Clusters, which could be seen by the high temperatures in this area over the average scorch in the entire region.

These made this area prone to destruction by weaker monsters that broke through Clusters faster than expected and raided populated areas before the mercenaries could arrive, a typical pattern for Guilds when weaker Clusters were involved.

This was the norm before this area was assigned a Guild to man it as under their jurisdiction.

Because of the Clusters, many activities were put on hold and trade with Inhone and other cities and towns was what sustained the masses, others migrating to distant settlements which left these lands with a significant amount of brain drain and lack of manpower.

Year after year, this grew more and more problematic, as people lost the passion to do anything but eat only what was brought from other settlements.

Erkus could not deal with this issue definitely, as the only option had been relocation, which wouldn't really solve the problem.

The fact that most of those that remained simply refused to move didn't help his case either.

Tulnas had taken advantage of this, however.

Along with reviving the passion for enriching activity with his scheme, Tulnas and his then Guild members had ensured that security wouldn't be a problem.

And surely, the residents of both the towns and villages were awed by the power and efficiency of Tulnas' Guild.

Casualties dropped from hundreds to none in a month, which bolstered the people's confidence when they saw that it wasn't a one time thing.

There were always consistent and quick responses by the Guild when matters regarding the safety of the people were concerned and while, in truth, most of the Clusters that spawned were white which meant easier work, they were still numerous.

And the Harem Guild took cars of it.

Soon, the Town leader saw the rejuvenated spirits of the people and decided to publicly work hand in hand with Tulnas which bolstered the people's confidence even more.

Such was the journey that further led to expansion, cutting off the full reliance on unfair trade and creating a nigh self sufficient zone that grew vast in a couple of months, extending its influence to other parts of the region that became reliant on it.

Such was a brief recount on the history on where the respect and love for Tulnas came from.

At the current moment, Tulnas and company were being briefed on what had happened in the past weeks and the results of the stealthy investigations by the pony tailed girl who looked excited while doing so.

They were within the Town Leader's office, which was as formal and graceful as it could be, showing the old man's taste in embroidery and masonry.

The pony tail girl was one of the members of the Harem Guild, Scorta, who was a C rank Form User. An assassin.

She had led the investigation on the whereabouts of the Evenfall and so far, her findings were promising.

"I think the Evenfall is setting up camp in places like this, where numerous Clusters appearing in one day are a norm, and thus it makes it easier for them to hide as they spread the chaos. It's just a theory of mine, so..." the girl said as her big eyes seemed to spell that she wanted some sort of reaction from Tulnas, who unfortunately gave none as he instead urged her to continue.

"Ahem, thankfully, we managed to further narrow down their whereabouts but we also didn't proceed after a certain point. I thought it would be better if we waited for your arrival before he went on," Scorta said.

"A wise choice. They may already know that we are on to them, which is why I wanted to hasten the operation. What's the status with the civilians? Are there anymore recurring illnesses or... sudden frenzies like before?" Tulnas asked with a stern voice.

"Ah... there have been a few cases but I thought it would be better to deal with them after the operation," Scorta said as she sat up straight.

Tulnas mulled it over for a hot second before shaking his head.

"No. Let's take care of this now. It won't take long and for all we know, these people may not last any longer," the Guild leader as a light that did NOT look to stem from pity or kindness flashed in his eyes.