A five-year-old girl runs out of the house carrying a basket of herbs, darting through the street toward an open space where an old man is bandaging injured tribe members.
She stops beside him.
"Grandpa shaman, I brought the herb you wanted."
The old man smiles.
"Good job, Tillie."
She helps him bandage the rest of the wounded, then walks with him afterwards.
"Grandpa shaman," she asks, "isn't the Rock Horn tribe our friend? Why are they fighting us?"
The old man sighs. A week ago, the Rock Horn tribe had been their ally. But everything changed when fifty deer-orcs joined their tribe, raising their population to four hundred ninety—just ten short of five hundred. Crossing that mark would make them an intermediate tribe, threatening the Rock Horn tribe's authority. To maintain their dominance, the Rock Horn tribe began attacking, hoping to keep their numbers below five hundred.
He explains this to Tillie.
She frowns.
"Grandpa, the Rock Horn tribe will never stop us. They don't know the power of our great totem."
The old man smiles at the little girl.
Inside his sea of consciousness, Merin is not the slightest bit worried about the Rock Horn tribe. Even if they keep his tribe's population from reaching five hundred and advancing to an intermediate tribe, he can still promote the tribe through his comprehension of the Law of Dream.
Five years have passed, and his understanding of the world has deepened. He has learned there is another path for a tribe's advancement—one that does not depend on numbers but on the totem itself. When a totem's comprehension of a law reaches a certain level, it can raise the tribe's rank.
Merin feels he is on the verge. For the past week, he has ignored tribal affairs, devoting himself entirely to the Law of Dream.
Two days later, on a fine day, he hears a click in his mind, and his consciousness rises into a mysterious space. There, he senses the law of the world with perfect clarity and pushes his comprehension of the Law of Dream to the next level.
At that moment, the tribe members are startled as a mist spreads from their totem and seeps into their bodies. A wave of indescribable pleasure floods them, so intense it feels as if they have returned to their mother's womb. Their bodies are being refined, transformed from pig iron into fine iron.
Some tribe members are in the middle of a fight with Rock Horn warriors over a prey they hunted. The Rock Horn tribe came not for the prey, but to kill them. Yet, during battle, an overwhelming sensation calls them back to the tribe. Without hesitation, they retreat, leaving the Rock Horn warriors confused. The enemy does not pursue—stepping further would mean entering the range of the deer-orc totem's influence.
The hunters burst from the forest and see their village walls wrapped in a dense mist. Instead of fear, a strange urge pulls them toward it. They hesitate, wondering if their home is under attack, but before the thought settles, their bodies move on their own, carrying them involuntarily into the mist.
When Merin emerges from the mysterious space, new knowledge flows into his mind. He learns that he has been promoted to the totem of an intermediate tribe and has gained the ability to form a divine clone capable of leaving his sea of consciousness and travelling the world. Spreading his spirit sense across the village, he finds all his tribe members unconscious.
During his promotion, his connection to the origin of the world caused divine power to pour from his body, evolving his people. Their hides shift from dull grey to a grey laced with purple, and their strength rises to varying degrees. Ronald and Jaques even advance to the realm of Divine Seal warriors.
Warriors from Rank 1 to 5 are known as Divine Mark warriors, while Ranks 6 to 10 are called Divine Seal warriors. With this breakthrough, their lifespans double from sixty to one hundred twenty years.
When the tribe members wake, Merin learns they have gained a new ability—they can remain conscious while dreaming and link their dreams with one another. That day, the tribe held a grand celebration for their promotion to an intermediate tribe.
The next day, nearby tribes arrive to congratulate them, drawn by the faint presence of the world's will that can be felt from afar. Even the Rock Horn tribe comes, offering to end the war between them, which Merin accepts.
With their new status, they are entitled to choose a tribal name. Merin names them the Dream Tribe. As an intermediate totem, he gains the world's recognition and authority over both the Law of Dream and the deer-orc race.
To ascend to the rank of Divine Totem, he must either claim complete authority over the Law of Dream or bring all deer-orc tribes under his rule.
Achieving either goal means clashing with other tribes—other orc tribes for the first path, and primarily deer-orc tribes for the second—though all would seek to hinder his rise.
A week later, after growing familiar with his newfound strength, Merin orders the Divine Seal warriors to retrieve the hidden crossbows. He aims to provoke the Rock Horn tribe. They have long resisted any challenge to their authority, and Merin intends to expand his influence—and they stand directly in his way.
In the dead of night, the Divine warriors leave the Dream Tribe's walls, with Merin's divine clone following silently. They halt near a rocky mountain where the Rock Horn tribe makes its home. Setting foot on the mountain would alert their totem, so Merin instead issues a divine war challenge.
Both their consciousnesses are pulled into a golden mist space, where only victory or death allows escape. The Rock Horn totem, a massive sheep-orc, lowers its head and charges like a boulder rolling downhill, aiming to crush Merin. Merin, in his deer-orc form, sidesteps the strike and weaves the Law of Dream into the sheep totem's consciousness, subtly clouding its focus.
Hours pass as they exchange blows, the sheep-orc growing weaker under Merin's unrelenting interference. At last, Merin drives his weapon through its body, killing it and ending the battle.
Its weakness stems from the heavy casualties among its tribe. The Rock Horn tribe had advanced to an intermediate level through sheer population, and once their numbers fell below five hundred, the totem's strength began to wane—a side effect of this particular path of advancement. Merin, however, will never suffer such a limitation.
With the totem dead, the surviving Rock Horn tribe members surrender. All are ordinary sheep-orcs; their shaman perished during the fighting. The Divine warriors fare no better—those not already slain in combat die instantly with their totem, their lives bound too closely to it.
Now Merin faces a choice. Releasing the sheep-orcs risks them joining another tribe and bolstering its strength. Killing them means slaughtering more than four hundred defenceless people. Enslavement remains the only viable option.
He orders his Divine warriors to march the captives back to the Dream Tribe. Before their arrival, he commands the shaman to clear an area outside the tribal wall and announces both the victory and the arrival of more than four hundred sheep-orc slaves.
The shaman asks what will be done with them. In this world, a tribe contains only one orc race, as most follow the population path of advancement. Different orc races living together cause constant conflict due to differences in diet and behaviour.
Merin intends to advance through the law path, which allows him to establish separate towns for different races. But the sheep-orcs, as former enemies, will not be granted such a town immediately. They will live as slaves until their hatred fades, after which Merin will slowly integrate them into a town of their own.
As the shaman prepares, Merin sinks into his sea of consciousness, spreading his spirit to comprehend the Law of Illusion. To become a Divine Totem through the Law of Dream, he must subdue every totem that has grasped it—and even one hiding would block his promotion.
Thus, he seeks to master the Law of Illusion, then the Laws of Runes, Formation, and World. If one law cannot elevate him, the combination of five surely will.
From the next day, disapproval pours in from all the intermediate tribes, as well as the top-ranked Golden Eye Ox Tribe. Yet an emissary from another top tribe—the Fire Wolf Tribe—arrives, proposing an alliance. Merin delays his decision, knowing that to the wolf-orcs, deer-orcs are prey.
From now on, Merin must tread carefully. He has established his authority in the region but challenged those long in power. The rise of a new force means the fall of the old. This land can only sustain two top tribes—the Golden Eye Ox Tribe and the Fire Wolf Tribe. The Golden Eye Ox Tribe leads the hoofed orcs, while the Fire Wolf Tribe leads the clawed. Though bitter enemies, they would not hesitate to unite against the emergence of another tribe capable of reaching the top.
Thus, Merin must conceal his promotion through the Law method and keep his population in check until he can ascend by mastering the Laws.