While waiting for the pillar's previous claim to be purged and his own to be established, Ronan practiced his sorcery. Mostly healing, as he had a few wounds left over from the battles and could self-inflict more if he needed, but also a few of his other spells like dust bomb and gust.

He wanted to try as many spells as he could and figure out the similarities, so that he could begin to create his own spells and learn the patterns and rules of magic. That would give him more power and freedom than anything the system could grant.

Twenty minutes in the constant blaring of the alarms pissed him off. He got up and started searching through the compounds until he found the source of each alarm and smashed it to pieces. With silence restored, he returned to his practice.

The rest of the seven hours passed by and Ronan managed to make some progress. He was now quite proficient at using all of his healing spells via sorcery. He'd also used gust a few times without aid of the skill, but dust bomb still eluded him.

The difference between simply launching a gust of wind and creating particles of dust from mana was a big one that he'd struggled to overcome. Ronan was confident he could manage it in due time, though.

You have successfully claimed [Grathen Border World 13 - Sector 1085]'s Pillar from the faction [Grathen Federation]!

For claiming a pillar from another faction on a world occupied by that faction, you have initiated an [Invasion]! Conquering all pillars on [Grathen Border World 13] will mark a successful completion of the [Invasion]!

Ronan cursed. There was no doubt that the other side would be notified of this. His invasion was now definitely public knowledge, and the other faction would be coming down on him like a hammer.

He just had to hope that their military presence and structure on this world was disorganised. As long as he could fight fast enough to outlevel the strongest fighters that came for him, he would be able to survive and succeed.

The pillar which he had claimed was assigned the number 1085. Back on his homeworld, the pillar he'd claimed was thirty-eight-thousand-and-something. That was worrying. He didn't have the time to claim thousands of pillars to complete his conquest.

Phase 2 of the integration mentioned regions, so perhaps there was a way to conquer larger swathes of land at once? Perhaps if he defeated the person who owned the pillar claims directly he might be able to usurp them? It was a question worth experimenting with.

Right now he needed to head towards Kayir to learn more and find out what the response to his invasion was—if there was a response at all. It was possible that only higher-up leadership would know and the ordinary people here wouldn't have a clue. He'd killed all the soldiers who had direct knowledge of his invasion, so at the very least he had a short window of secrecy.

Running at top speed, Ronan made his way down the hill that the military compound was built on. It took him just five minutes to reach the bottom, and he realised that the city in the distance was far larger than he'd first thought. The 'bubble' reached almost a hundred metres into the sky and occasionally rippled with greenish-blue waves of energy as what looked like flying ships exited and entered the bubble from specific locations.

It took him another thirty minutes to get near the city. It was kind of disappointing up close. The bubble was an impressive work of architecture and technology, but it was pretty basic aesthetics-wise. Ronan had seen cooler things in old-Earth movies. This close, he wasn't sure how a soldier would behave so he stopped rushing and looked for foot traffic.

He spotted a line of people and vehicles in the distance and made his way towards it. As he got closer he saw that almost all of the vehicles were being pulled by a strange kind of lizard that walked on two-legs. They reminded him of velociraptors but the size of a large horse.

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If he wasn't as strong as he was he might have been scared of them, but most of them had tags denoting them as in the level 20-30 range. Only a rare few were higher than that and the vehicles were far grander than the others. He wondered why they were even waiting in the queue when they clearly had a higher status, but he didn't know the culture of this people or planet.

He also noticed the lack of soldiers in the queue. He wasn't sure if that was because they could skip it or if they were meant to stay in the military compounds. Hopefully his disguise wasn't going to raise a flag.

Ronan needn't have worried about it. When he was nearing the queue, he saw two figures rushing over from the entrance to the city. They were wearing the uniforms of the armed forces, but the lower rank one. Both stopped in front of him and saluted, throwing nervous glances at his uniform and covered face.

"Sir! This… is unusual. Are you wanting to enter Kayir?" The soldier on the left greeted him, sharing a glance with the other halfway through speaking.

Ronan didn't move or reply immediately. He stared at the soldier who had spoken, doing his best to channel the aura of an imperious officer. "You think it's your job to question me? Get me inside, I don't have time for this," he snapped.

The soldier on the left coughed, his eyes going wide. Both soldiers smashed a fist on their chests and straightened their posture. Some kind of salute, Ronan guessed. "Yes Lieutenant, right away sir! Follow us."

They turned and led the way back towards the gate. Ronan looked at the people in the queue as they walked past them. Most stared at him with pride and excitement, but there were two groups of people who had only disdain or outright hatred in their gazes as they looked his way.

They were the ones in the most worn-out and dirty clothes, who stood on foot. The poorest people, obviously. He understood why they would hate the army if they lived in a society that still hadn't eliminated inequality. However, it was the second group that surprised him.

Those in the grandest vehicles with the most beautiful and fearsome raptors pulling them stared out of their windows with venom in their gaze. One of them seemed as though they would leap out of their vehicle and start attacking him, their gaze filled with so much burning anger.

While it confused him, Ronan wasn't here to fix their political situation. He was here to conquer the planet to complete the first step on his Path of the Gladiator. They went past the entire queue and reached the gate to the city.

There was a wall at the base of the bubble made, unsurprisingly, from the same material as the military compounds. Whatever it was, the Grathen were clearly fond of it. The bubble was produced by metal rods that poked out of the top of the wall all the way around, spaced about five metres apart at regular intervals.

The gate was left open permanently, but there were two more guards stationed there currently, watching everyone who passed in and out, as well as a third who was checking every single person who wanted to enter Kayir.

That made five in total, including the two who had rushed over to greet Ronan. The three soldiers at the gate threw glances at Ronan as they approached, but clearly saw the expressions and gait of the two escorting him and simply mirrored the fist-against-chest salute as he passed into the city.

Once he passed the wall, the city itself laid itself before him. Ronan had to admit that the view from outside didn't do it justice. Kayir was not beautiful in a traditional sense, but it had a brutalistic logic to its layout and architecture that made his mind tingle in appreciation. He loved things that followed patterns and this city certainly did that.

Beyond the gate there was an open area with a tree growing in the centre. The ground was paved in the typical grey material, a roundabout that split into six streets heading deeper into the city.

Most of the raptor-pulled vehicles went down the leftmost street or the third from the left, while the poorer looking people went down the rightmost street. The rest of the people were split between the others, with the exception of the fourth street from the left, which was completely empty.

The buildings were uniform in height, mostly made from the grey material but there was a lot of metal and some kind of black stone used in their design. None of them had windows, and the doors were made in the same style as the sealed gates from the military compound. It was becoming very clear to him that the Grathen were a practical people with little affection for aesthetic flair in all things.

The two soldiers had stopped and turned to face him, realising that he had paused to observe the city. "Lieutenant?" One of them spoke nervously, obviously wondering what he was doing. A local wouldn't have frozen entering a city they knew.

Ronan played it off with a wave of his hand. "I always appreciate the construction of Kayir. A city of functional beauty." There was a moment of silence while the two soldiers stared at him. Ronan's heart dropped. He wondered if he'd fucked up.

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