Another week had passed. It had been around thirty days since he got to the forgotten shore.
'Thirty two days to be exact.'
For now, Caster had decided to follow Neph's plan of action. Caster had set up his camp right where Nephis had set up hers in the novel. He sought out others and explored the settlements. He had gotten a general idea of the place.
The guy was currently just resting, thinking of his plan of action, and sometimes, overthinking in directions he didn't need to at the moment.
'I'll try to tame these guys in the next 30 days afterwards... before the trio returns here. It will be much harder without a hunting party though. Not to mention attracting Gunlaug's attention so fast won't be the best. However, I can't let Nephis become the leader again. Her ways will get so many killed. And while I am not a proponent of justice, I am not as crazed as her. And the dire state of humanity in the future, these people escapeing would be better for humanity as a whole.'
He stood up and started wandering around the area again. In the distance he saw a nightmare creature approaching. The creature was looking like an ugly mutated wold with sharp fangs protruding its mouth and long hairy fur shaggling all across its body.
"Ew, it doesn't even look edible."
Caster rushed towards it, without using his aspect, and summoned his beautifull jian. With extreme precision, that still didn't matched up the original Caster's skill level, he cut down the wolf's tendons and strode back avoiding a terrying gnash from the creature.
Then, he spun on his feet and jumped behind it, stabbing its behind with his sword.
The wolf howled in pain loudly, alerting the entire settlement.
Caster could hear murmers from the settlements and sounds of people shouting something. However he didn't pay attention to it. He rushed towards the wolf again, successfully stabbing one of its hind legs.
Then with in one, swift motion Caster turned again, jumping up and swing his Jian down severing the wolf's neck from its nearly imobile body.
[You have slain an awakened monst...]
'That was easier than I expected. I didn't even use my aspect.'
Looking around Caster saw a few people approach from far. Many remained standing right there.
After a moment of understanding, a few of them cheered, a few went back and a few approached Caster.
For now, Caster didn't pay them much mind, he just took out the two shards from monster's body and crushed them near his chest to absorb the fragments.
[Soul Fragments: 70/1000]
'Cool. I'll need to speed up though. my goal will be to reach tyrant before leaving the shore. No terror. No I should aim to be a titan. No i shoul fully saturate my titan core too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That would be so great. I can just imagine... ohhhh...'
Snapping from his day dreaming, he slapped himself, which seemed to have startled the people who were approaching him, one person even took a step back.
'Shit! I need to control my urges. I will never be satisfied and will always aim for better but... damn. I need to be realistic. Not that my flaw allows me to, but I'll have to.'
Afterwards caster sliced a small portion of the wolf for himself and called out to the people nearby.
"Listen up! People of the Outer Settlements. I am the Opposer of Miracles and my name is Caster, Han Li Caster. I am from a proud legacy clan as you can guess from my name. I swear in the name of the Han Li Clan to provide as much foor as possible for you, the people of the outer settlements!"
Before others even had time to be skeptical of him, question him, Caster took a step to the side and pointed to the dead nightmare creature.
"I will be giving a lot of this for free."
A dead silence hung above the edge of the outer settlement. The slum dwellers who had come to catch a glimpse of to see the brave man in front of them who fought of an awakened monster by himself or in hopes of procuring some food were all looking at Caster with a dark mix of mistrust, disbelief, and suspicion.
After a while, someone shouted:
"What trick are you trying to play? People here are hungry! Shame on you!"
Caster crossed his arms, furrowed his brow, and glanced at him calmly.
"There is no trick. Everyone is free to take a small share of the meat to fill their stomach. Only as much as necessary, there's about five hundred of you guys. Gotta ration it."
The young man who had accused him before laughed.
"Why would you just hand it out for free? Do you think that we're fools?"
Caster pierced the shouter with a cold look, scowled, and said, a hint of anger, acted anger, in his voice:
"...Why? Am I not a human? Are you not humans? Does a human need a reason to help others of her kind in this cursed place?! This hell is a place we can not survive without helping each other."
'Argh, I myself find this act funny hah.'
He then took a step forward and looked at the gathered people, making them shiver under his calm but heavy gaze.
"Shame on me? No. Shame on you all for forgetting who you are. We are people, not beasts. In the real world or in the Dream Realm, this is who we are."
His words echoed above the white stones, mixing with the howling wind.
"Now come forward and take some food if you're hungry!"
'I am even replaying Neph's exact words, truly a great plagiarizer.'
The slum dwellers were still not convinced. However, their hunger was stronger than their wariness. Soon, the first of them stepped forward, tentatively took a small strip of meat, threw a furtive glance at Caster, and then hurriedly walked away.
When the others saw that nothing happened to him, they became braver. Young men and women dressed in rags formed a messy line. One by one, they came forward, received their tiny piece of meat, and then disappeared with haste, afraid that it will be taken back.
However, slowly, a new kind of light appeared on their faces. It was something that precipitated hope, or maybe faith.
'I will need to form a hunting party. As soon as possible. I have Kai working inside the Castle so I suppose I should work towards getting Effie to start working for me. She'll be easy to convice. Probably.'
Sighs.
'She is a bit unpredictable so perhaps I might have to go kill that Andel guy to convince her, like Neph did in the novel. I hope not, that would attract to much of Gunlaug's attention onto me and it would just make things harder. As long as I am seen as a decently strong but not dangerous guy till I can execute my plan... It will be good.'
Caster stared at the people slowly taking the meat from the ginormous wolf. Someone earlier had seemed to cut up the bad layer of its hairy skin so people were having an easier time cutting meat stripes from it.
As unappetizing as it looked earlier, without it skin, the insides looked just the good pink meat.
'Oh boy, this is only the start of your brainwashing guys. I will turn all of you from the weak fellows you are right now to strong minded people. Just you guys wait.'
Caster had an anticipating and crazed grin on his face hidden under the shadows of his face. He was excited for what's to come.