Way forward

"It was worth it."

Glitch just sat there, waiting for the healing function to start. It was one of the passive features that allowed the ruler to recover from any injury they suffered in the space village, as long as they did not die. Too bad it won't heal his wounds from the game world.

At this time, Lark asked from the side, "Boss, why did you teleport the Shakhan to the sub-regions? You could have just told them to walk to those regions."

Glitch sighed and shook his head. "That won't do." He looked at Lark and asked, "Do you know the importance of naming the regions in the space village?"

Lark took some time and said in an uncertain tone, "Isn't it simply to mark different regions for proper understanding?"

Glitch nodded. "You are correct, but that's for both of us. Other creatures relate naming a land to starting a history from that land. I just want to give all the Shakhans a memory that they could tell their young ones."

"Ah, but boss, why teleport them?"

"Well, for most of them, this will be the first and last time they will see me."

"What!" Lark looked at him with wide eyes and asked in confusion, "Why?"

Glitch took out the newly created map by Lark and motioned for Lark to sit in front of him.

Lark wasted no time and sat like a good, attentive kid, waiting for his explanation.

Glitch closed his eyes, organizing his thoughts. He knew it was time for him to explain his plans to Lark, but how to explain them was a little problematic for him.

This was a downside, and it was also one reason he was not a commander.

After minutes of thinking, he opened his eyes and looked straight into Lark's eyes. "Lark, do you know about the development of the three paths?"

Lark frowned a little and then scratched his head. "Ah, boss, I know the basic stuff, but I don't know how to do those things."

Glitch nodded his head. "What about the ranking system?"

The moment Lark heard that, he nodded his head vigorously. "I know it, boss. In the universe, along with the grading system, all creatures even have an individual ranking system. While most creatures can only be common rank, many can reach the boss rank. This would give them the power to command others, and then there's also the world rank. A world rank creature can be strong enough to change the entire planet. Hah!" Lark took a deep breath after saying all that in one breath.

Glitch tapped on Lark's head. "Calm down, dude. There is no need to rush things, and you are right."

Lark became red-faced at this but still maintained that stoic expression.

Glitch grabbed a broken branch from the side and made three small circles on the ground. "So right now, all the creatures in our space village are in normal grade, right?"

Lark nodded his head. "Yes, boss."

With Lark's approval, he scribbled N in the first circle and then pointed to the second circle. "What about the ranks of the creatures?"

Not even a second later, Lark said, "Boss, all of them are common rank, as normal-grade creatures cannot become boss rank. They need to be at least of elite grade to even have a chance, and for world rank-"

Glitch waved his hand to stop Lark. "No need to rush. Let's take things slowly."

With that, he scribbled C in the second circle.

Lark froze for a moment, then nodded his head.

Glitch pointed to both circles and said, "First, we have grading that is species-related. Then second, we have a rank that is individual power-related, including social factors and other things."

He pointed to the third circle. "What do you think the third important factor should be?"

Lark just looked at the third circle and then back at him. "But boss, from what I know, there are only ranking and grading systems, nothing else."

Glitch nodded. "True, but that does not mean we cannot create our in-between grades or ranks, no?"

Lark thought for a moment and nodded his head. "True, boss. But how can we make these in-between ranks?"

Glitch scribbled a question mark in the third circle. "That we need to discover slowly. After all, these customs in between grades would depend on the path and species."

"Oh, okay, boss."

Glitch then a graph with the horizontal axis as time and the vertical one as development.

He created a big horizontal line just an inch above the time axis and said, "This is the current state of development for all the rulers. There is only a little development because of the first method. Now, how do you think a ruler of the study path increases his development?"

Lark did not understand the meaning of these lines; nevertheless, he said what he knew: "Boss, for the study path, their focus is to learn more about their power and create new methods and skills."

Glitch looked up at him and nodded his head. "That's the bare basics. To be more specific, the path of study is pioneer-oriented."

Lark tilted his head in confusion. "Ah, what is a pioneer?"

"Okay, let's say we get 100 Shakhan, and instead of the evolution path, I choose the path of study. Now the best way to start development in this case will be by creating a village and a school in the village that will teach everybody about the first methods. What do you think will happen?"

"Ah, I think everyone in the village will learn the known stuff, and then a few of them will even explore things beyond the first method."

"Bingo!" Glitch pointed to the line. "So, let's say first, people learn together." He created an uplifting new line that suddenly spiked up and then fell back.

He pointed to the spike. "This spike is the genius who learns so much that he reaches the next grade. This genius even tries to teach others his ways, but those guys are not smart enough to understand the genius. So what happens after the genius dies?"

Lark looked at the line that went back to the new uplifting angle and said, "The development will fall back to the usual speed."

Glitch shook his head. "Wrong."