Second path

Glitch cared little about Lark's feelings and just shook his head. "Nope, it still won't work."

Lark looked at him with wide eyes, "But boss, didn't you just say.."

Glitch waved his hand. "I told you that realization is important. That does not mean your plan is good. You see, you again missed one important detail. Titles are worthless, with no kind of benefit from them."

Lark squinted at him in doubt, "What do you mean, boss? Didn't the path of hierarchy work by giving titles?"

"No, it works by creating titles, not by giving them."

Lark asked in frustration, "Isn't that the same?"

Glitch paused for a moment. For a moment he just wanted to explain his plan and be done with it, but then he shook his head.

All the assistants were like a blank slate and it was not like he did not see any improvement. He glanced at the Lark's face. Before this conversation, Lark was all about following his command, but now he was trying to understand things on his own.

It was an improvement and he knew that learning the basics of other paths would help Lark understand the different mechanics of all the ruler paths. 

 Glitch decided to take time and teach Lark about the proper difference between each path. After all, the start of Space Village was the most important.

He took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "Lark, from this moment onward, you are the new ruler of this space village."

Lark looked at him with wide eyes and then shouted in panic, "What are you talking about, boss? Don't you know an assistant cannot be the true ruler?"

Glitch doubled down, "Why not? As the current ruler, I am telling you that you are the new ruler."

Lark shook his head. "That's not how things work boss. I cannot be a ruler. How can an assistant be a ruler when they can't leave the space village?"

Glitch snapped his fingers and pointed at the little guy. "That's what I am saying. Does it matter if I call you assistant or ruler? Do you get anything when I give you the ruler title?"

Lark froze. He frowned at this situation but then he thought of his method and nodded in an understanding tone, "Boss, so you are saying even if I give Shakhans titles, it won't affect them."

Glitch smiled. "Yup, it is a common misconception that the path of hierarchy is all about giving titles. To be true, it is about creating diversity in the group; titles are just a label."

Lark scratched his head. "Boss, how can we create diversity then?"

"You were correct about creating a village, but this time do not make any kind of school in the village. Instead, we are going to introduce the concept that all the powerful people will go out of the village for hunting. Now all those capable hunters will get more to eat and others will give them respect in the village. What do you think will happen then?"

Lark rubbed his chin and said, "To become a hunter, everyone will start to increase their strength. They will most likely start learning the blood method."

Glitch shook his head. "It won't be limited to learning the blood method. After all, they only want to hunt. They can do this in many ways. From increasing their physical power to learning how to build traps and then even using blood power."

"But boss, won't it be bad if they focus on other things? This will decrease their progress in the main path."

Glitch nodded his head. "Well, that's the beauty of this path. This is the slowest but most diverse path out of the three. Do you know how their development graph looks?"

He started drawing a straight line on top of the first line, then he made a few centimeter vertical lines. After this vertical line, the main line remained flat, but it is a centimeter up from the first line.

This line continued, but then he added another vertical line that pushed the main line up a few centimeters. This graph looked like uneven steps.

Glitch paused and pointed to one of the vertical lines. "What do you think this vertical line represents?"

Lark looked at the first graph and then at the second one. This one was a lot different from the first graph. In the first graph, there was an upward trend in the development line, but this time the main line never went up without these vertical lines. It did not take him long to realize. "Boss, I get it. These vertical lines are the geniuses of this path, but why is there no progress made by other people?"

Glitch rubbed his chin. "Well, you are right about the vertical lines. These vertical lines are geniuses, but they are not the high IQ geniuses like in the first path. The only way for creatures to increase their grade in this path is through their social power and control over others."

"So let's go back to the hunter village example. At the start, all the hunters will find their methods to hunt the pig, but the effectiveness of each method will be different. Now this would create differences between them. Can you guess who will be the first genius in this case?"

Lark thought for a moment and said, "The one who is working on the blood path."

"Nope, being a genius does not mean being right. The first genius will be the first hunter to leave the village with his people to start his group."

"What! How is that guy a genius? Isn't that just arrogance, boss?"

"Nope, think about it. That guy was just a hunter in the village, though the strongest, but still a hunter. But now that he has made his separate group, what position does he get in this small group?"

Lark said in an uncertain tone, "Leader."

"Ah, I wouldn't say that, but you can say he will become the leading hunter. In this small group, he will teach others his methods, and this would solidify his position among others. This way, a ruler gets a new level of hierarchy as the head hunter within the space village."

Lark nodded his head.