"Are you certain?"

A city lord of a nearby town asked with a frown, trying to understand if they truly had a grasp of the situation.

It was too odd. Jones died, and yet instead of crushing the perpetrator, Anesse befriended him? That didn't sound like it made much sense at all.

Even if Anesse was just using his son, his son was still his son, after all. On top of that, given Anesse's intelligence and the ease with which he manipulated his populace, he would definitely use this as an opportunity to reel in more power.

The only reason they were having so much trouble dealing with his city in the first place was because of Anesse's solid understanding of politics and how to guide the feelings and views of the people. Otherwise, he would have found himself crushed beneath their momentum long ago.

Something like the death of a son, even if the majority of the city hated him, could easily be used.

For example, Anesse could have held a large procession and forced the city into a mourning period.

As bad as Jones was, he couldn't have possibly had the time to affect every person of the city. Most would only have heard about him through the proxy of others and would have no personal experience with the matter.

As the mourning ramped up, many would even begin to doubt whether Jones was truly that bad or not, or if the rumors they had heard were just exaggerated, or even a step further, spread by their enemies to trick them into hating their own people.

If Anesse drummed this up and ended it with a public execution of Leonel, it would bring everyone in the village together. Though there would be some dissenting voices, they would eventually be drowned out by the general public sentiment until they began to turn even people who called themselves their friends away.

This was how easy it was to manipulate the human mind. Everyone was susceptible. You didn't need to convince everyone. Even just 60% of the population being on your side was enough to sway the remaining 40% until they had no choice but to follow.

This was why Anesse was bold enough to allow his son to run rampant in the first place. He intimately understood this matter...

Which was why it was so ridiculous that he would make a choice like this.

The only explanation was that...

Leonel was dangerous.

BOOM!

Just as the city lord was lost in thought, there was a sudden burst at his door, and his messenger's head flew into the skies.

The city lord hurriedly stood from his desk, only to find a spear jetting out through his chest.

"Weak. Weak. Weak. The lot of you. I can't believe they gave me this stupid human body."

The spear shook, and the city lord on the end of it vibrated, then shattered apart into a rain of gore.

"Alright, this city is mine now. Anyone who has anything to say can taste my spear and see how it likes it. Of course, if you happen to be a woman, I have another spear you can taste. Never say I don't treat the fairer sex well."

All across this Zone, scenes similar to this one played out. In fact, many of these situations had occurred long before Leonel even arrived at his city.

Although Leonel was one of the first to forge a weapon and make his way down the mountain, he was also by far the most delayed. The Regulator had thrown so many beasts and challenges at him that those only now taking over their cities were actually on the slower end of the spectrum, while the most powerful of them had already done so long ago.

However, these newbies were quite impatient. And those that had been there for a while noticed the vulnerability of Leonel's city as well.

As their spies came back with news, they realized that Leonel must be one of them, and likely had an ability to manipulate or cast illusions that could trick the people. If he was allowed time to sink his claws into the city, he would be able to control his own far better than they could in a short time.

In that case, they would take a more hardline approach.

Battle.

What better way was there to gain prestige than to perform well in battle? They would be killing two birds with one stone.

"We will wait a bit..."

A voice came from a city lord's office, but it felt far too deep and rumbling to have come from a human.

However, none of the officials dared to enter to find out why.

The inside of the office was a mess of beast carcasses. A bearman who stood so tall

that even in a seated position, his head had to bow to avoid the ceilings, ripped

through them one after another.

"My strength... I want my strength... Get this human skin off of me..."

The more he ate, the more he reverted back to his truest state.

An oddity that no one had been able to understand was that all Races that entered this Zone had become humans. It didn't feel like they were stuck in the body of another, but rather like their own bodies had regressed.

If Leonel were present, it would have been easy enough for him to understand why this was. After all, all humanoids were descendants of humans.

But to most, they assumed that it was just another test of the Zone, and they were all

too eager to return to their true bodies.

And this Bear Beastman was no different.

Blood leaked from his lips, and his body shuddered with pleasure as strength poured into it once again. He seemed to have gained some sort of PTSD from living in the body of a weak human.

"Once I'm done here... I'll find the bastard who dared to kill my brother... I will smell it. on you... Wash your neck..." he spoke between bites.