We turn back time a couple days now, to when Coran first set off on his own for the human realm.

Coran set off in the early morning, before his sister was awake. He didn't want to bother seeing her off, as that would imply that he might not come back.

"Your life is your biggest priority. If you ever feel that you are in danger, do not hesitate to throw the mission aside and save yourself."

These were the words of Theo, his master.

But how could Coran obey this order?

His masters were too kind, too benevolent. He wanted to give his very life in service to them, and saving his life at the expense of the precious mission which he was assigned would be nothing more than blasphemy for Coran.

He had to avoid that scenario at any cost.

In the case that he really did have to choose between giving his life and succeeding in the mission, he would have given his life without hesitation had his master not said these words, yet it was due to this absolute loyalty and desire to perform the will of his master that he had no choice but to save himself should this situation come about, lest his master become disappointed that he did not obey his direct order.

What did this end up meaning practically for Coran then?

Coran would have to ensure that there were no mistakes- that no such situation came about where he would have to choose between his life and the mission. He had to succeed in his mission without coming under the threat of death.

He had to ensure that everything went off without a hitch.

Coran had experience ruling a nation now, and he understood well the complexities of planning and ruling over subjects.

However, the subjects of the dictatorship were relatively easy to rule over compared to the subjects of other nations. Coran understood this much. Because of their loyalty to the antiheroes, every person living in the Dictatorship was essentially an ideal citizen, one who would not question the orders of their superiors and would merely listen- but not only that they were obedient. They were fervently motivated to do their best at any task assigned to them so that they would be of use to their masters.

It was an idealist nation.

It was something that was only dreamed of in human societies- an impossible paradise. The only reason why it had been brought about what because of the magnificence of Coran's masters.

'Their excellencies are truly the greatest leaders in the world... they were able to do something which has never been done- and likely will never be done again.'

However, even with this practical experience, combined with some of the knowledge taught to him by the Determined, Coran was still not completely sure about the current mission.

He was born as a monstrous humanoid, and treated as an abomination all his life. He lived in the care of a mother who held no love for him or his sister, with only his sister to share the pain with until he met his masters.

Everything he knew right now about humans and the outside world was something that either his masters or the Determined taught him directly, or something that he had directly experienced in his time as a leader.

Yet this was not enough to go off of. He had not yet faced a real challenge in his life.

Even when he ruled the Dictatorship, he mostly just guided the flow of things and let the people figure out their own tasks. Right now, he was challenged with creating his own plan to achieve a goal, and he had no idea where to start.

"Well... I suppose the first thing would be to actually make my way to the human realm.... I should come up with some sort of plan on the way, but according to his excellency, there will be a wall stationed with soldiers which I will either need to sneak past or break through..."

Coran recalled the words of Gary.

"It would be best if we completely cut him off from our assistance. In order to grow as a person and as a subordinate, sometimes you have to throw people into unknown situations and let them figure things out from there. Unless his life is in danger, I think we should leave this task completely up to him, and stay out of it."

Ally had agreed to this suggestion, which left Theo forced to comply.

"I suppose you're right... it hurts to let them go.... they grow up so fast..."

"You're acting like he's your son or something, Theo.", Sarah joked.

"Am I? Ah... how out of character for me. Ahem. Well then. good luck, Coran."

Coran remembered the playful interaction of his masters between one another. It brought a warm smile to his face, however because he was a monster it would look to any person like an evil grin.

Setting out into the forest, he decided on one thing for certain.

'I first must make it into the human realm, and I then must search for some sort of village to make my target. A small village with few people would be best, as they would likely not cause a massive stir within the country, and they would likely try to take care of the issue of a monster showing up in their midst on their own at first, should I be revealed...'

Coran pulled out a map from his enormous sack, which he wore on his back, and took a look at it. He had Fergo print it out using the equipment made by one of his masters. The printed map was constructed from the database that linked to his master's memories.

It showed all the areas of the world which had been explored by their excellencies thus far, and it seemed to be continuously updating. Even now, there seemed to be more and more that filled in on its own as if it were some sort of magic.

This was a result of Garett's crafting abilities of course, for he was able to create a map which linked to the database and automatically updated through a certain magical connection.

Looking at the map, Coran saw the wall, the cities of Erthos and Githard, and the farming shack in between which his masters had visited, along with the dictatorship itself. Many areas were not on the map, as Trevor had not been to them himself yet, such as the lizardmen or birdmen villages.

'These cities look slightly too populated to target... I should try to find something on a smaller scale.', Coran thought.

Preferably, a city with around 100 inhabitants or less.

Even Erthos which was a small town was too large.

"I suppose I could ask people? No, there's no way I can just walk up to people... perhaps I can just sneak around? Or I could threaten people? So many options, but none of them seem right... what would their excellencies do in my situation? Yes, that's all I have to do... I just have to figure out what they would do. Hmm...."

While Coran was walking calmly through the forest, his animal instincts and enhanced perception told him that he was being watched.

He stopped in his tracks, feeling a large amount of killing intent.

'There is no need to worry, however that would only be the case if I hadn't learned firsthand about caution from his excellency... I cannot allow myself to underestimate an opponent, no matter how weak they are.', Coran thought.

"It is through negligence alone that the strong allow themselves to be brought down."

Theo told him this as if it had some sort of personal injury attached to it.

Coran's four eyes seemed to be looking around in all directions as he tried to find the source of the presence watching him, and he pinpointed it to somewhere in the bushes behind him and to his right.

'Over there eh? And just what are you going to do? Are you waiting for me to keep walking so that you can pounce, or perhaps you'll make a move any moment now?'

Coran prepared to spin a web, however he understood that the second he moved, it was likely that he would be attacked, so he slowly lowered his human arm to grab one of his weapons- a spear.

Without making a sound, he put the tip of the spear in his own mouth, pulling it out with a strand of spit attached to it. It was a poison produced by his own teeth.

With one of his spiderlike arms, he then unpocketed a blowdart, loading it into the blowgun, and held it to his own mouth, ready to aim at any moment.

His eyes darted around, waiting for the enemy to make his move, but there was none made.

'If you won't attack me first, then I will simply make the first move..."

Coran allowed a piece of thread to attach to the ground from his abdomen, and prepared to jump.

He had actually discovered a way to route his thread to his hands, so that he could shoot it off from his arms if necessary through a piece of equipment which his master created for him.

The enemy still made no movement, so Coran crouched down and made a leap for a nearby tree. His speed exceeded human comprehension, and he seemed to go back and forth between locations in between two trees and the ground, all while keeping his eyes and his blowdart aimed at the location that he had determined the enemy was hiding. In less than a second, he had woven an entire web that was spread between two trees and connected to the ground, and he now hung from it in wait for the enemy to show itself.

After making such a rapid movement, just a second later the bushes seemed to rustle, and Coran jumped back from his own web, continuing to keep his blowdart steady and his spear in hand.

Out from the bushes came a large wasp- one the size of a human. It seemed ferocious and angry, but Coran knew that it was not a humanoid.

This thing was a mindless monster.

Coran grew up hating his own mother because she considered him to be an abomination, but he held just as much hatred for mindless monsters.

Now though, this hatred was even greater than before.

"Wild monsters will never be able to appreciate the ultimate benevolence and glory of my masters... they are worthless."

The wasp seemed to charge straight at Coran, who kept his blowdart aimed and his spear in hand as he jumped from tree to tree, and the wasp seemed to be flying rapidly towards the webbing, weaving left and right.

'It doesn't see the trap. It's made from clear strands that can't be seen too well, especially with the sun beaming down. But I can't let my guard down. If it goes around, the first thing I'll do is take a shot.'

However, there was no such need to do so, as the wasp's leg was caught on one of the threads, and as it tried to rip itself off, it only further entangled itself within the webbing until it wasn't able to move even a muscle.

As the creature desperately struggled, Coran smiled.

'Trapped like a fly... harmless... but I cannot allow myself to let my guard down just yet.... a normal spider would immediately go and wrap it's newly killed prey in a cocoon, however I am different from my idiot mother... I know of caution. After all, it is still possible that in one final death throe, it will try to sting me when I approach it.', Coran thought.

"Just because an enemy has been entangled in your web doesn't mean that it cannot fight back. That was why your mother died."

'This was something that Ally once told me.'

Coran then took his shot with the blowdart, hitting the wasp right in the throat.

It began to buzz loudly as it thrust itself back and forth, trying to escape and in pain due to the poison. It died quickly after being shot, and Coran started making his way over to the web.

"It should be dead now, but I will attack it once more with this spear once I get close enough to make sure."

However, before he could do this, Coran sensed something else using his heightened level of perception. He was able to see the signatures of heat of creatures around him, and as such took notice of a number of incoming threats.

"3...5...9....10...15...22....30!"

The buzzing of insectoid wings filled his ears, and Coran knew that he was surrounded.

"Was that some sort of call to attract others here? Well, that doesn't matter right now. I need to fight, and it looks like I have no room to be cautious this time.... I cannot waste the precious time of my masters either by calling them over for something as trivial as this. I will take care of it myself."

Coran sensed the locations of the bugs flying around him, and was able to pinpoint the exact location of each one.

He reached into his backpack and slid each insectoid arm in, and when they came out they were each equipped with what looked like a sharp metal spike that perfectly fit on each arm.

Coating each one with the poison after licking the spikes, he quickly prepared himself for a fight, and not a moment was lost.

5 wasps appeared out of the trees surrounding him, and were charging right for him.

"If you think that you'll take me down with such slow attacks, then you truly are nothing more than a wild beast who has no sense of fear or reasoning!!"

Coran viewed the wasps which were traveling at extremely fast speeds as if they were moving in slow motion, and he weaved his way around their attacks. One by one, they seemed to fly towards him with their stingers pointed at him, but he easily dodged out of the way, while piercing and mutilating their lower sections using the lance shaped blades on his arms.

One lunged at him, and after piercing it with one arm he spun it around so that it flew into another coming from the opposing direction. While the two were thrown away, Coran used the spear in his human hand to stab at a different one who was attacking from behind, and simultaneously shot a poison dart at one coming from above.

The one from above continued on its path, crashing into a tree, and all four of them started writhing in pain as the poison coursed through them, sending to quick deaths.

"Too easy. What about you? Too scared to attack?", Coran taunted the remaining one, who had stopped in his tracks and was now merely hovering in the air.

"Then... I'll just bring you to me!"

Coran aimed his wrist with the blowdart at the wasp, and shot out a large white string which wrapped itself around the wasp. He then yanked the webbing towards him like a rope, and caught the head of the wasp with the end of his spear.

"Anyone else??"

No more wasps seemed to have shown themselves from the trees, but he could tell that their were still 25 more buzzing about.

"Pesky little bugs.... truly, they are nothing more than annoying insects which need to be eliminated."

Coran then shot out a series of darts in all directions seemingly randomly, reloading each shot just as quickly as he fired, and in an instant he jumped high up into the air to witness the wasps fall to the ground, while choking and buzzing with rage.

He then aimed his webbing at a nearby tree, one that was taller than the others, and swung his way up to it, retracting the web.

"Let's see.... where oh where, is your little web.....no, I suppose it would be a hive?"

Looking around in the distance, he spotted it.

There was a tree much taller than the one he was currently perched in, and hanging from it was a hive that was as large as a human building. Buzzing around it were hundreds of wasps, which seemed to be going in and out while protecting their home.

"Ah.... we can't have that thing so close to our capital... it would drive away all the tourists.... I suppose it's time for me to play the exterminator."

Coran jumped down from the tree, and made his way on land towards the larger tree where the nest was. On getting closer, he encountered a few stray wasps and quickly took care of them, either wrapping them up in his webbing or using his poison darts to kill them- or both.

Slash.

Pierce.

Thwop. Thwop. Thwop.

The sound of darts exiting the blowgun resounded in his ears.

When Coran had come close enough, he climbed a tree, keeping himself mostly out of sight of the many wasps hovering around the hive, and took a look at the entrance to the nest.

"That's the best point of attack.... alright...."

Coran seemed to close his mouth and puffed up his cheeks as if they were filling with water.

He then began spitting a green fluid that sprayed from his mouth like water from a hose, completely dousing the nest, and engulfing the entrance to the hive. It hit many wasps around the area, and while they seemed to get extremely angry at first- and some even noticed his location and began flying towards him, their wet wings did not allow them to get far as they melted away due to the acidic poison.

Some tried to rush back into the entrance, only to get covered in poison, causing them to drop dead, engulfed in the viscous fluid near the entrance, sliding inside with their last action.

Others tried to rush out of the nest, to meet a similar fate. The layer of poison at the entrance was too thick to merely charge through without being covered. Soon, only a few stragglers who were originally further from the hive were left, and they dashed at Coran, who readied his spear and his other appendages.

He dodged the attacks of the wasps, which seemed to be trying to do some sort of swordplay with Coran using their stingers, and he even parried it a few times with the metal cones on his arms before slicing off a few wings with his spear and shooting a series of darts from his mouth, which was biting onto the blowdart. The dart hit the wasps in their abdomens, and they simultaneously fell to the ground, however Coran made sure to catch them with his webbing, wrapping the wasps up cleanly.

His poison did not effect himself, and so he could have a snack.

After chomping down on the crunchy corpses, Coran then started swinging using his webbing as a vine from tree to tree as he checked the perimeter around the hive, and he found no remaining enemies.

"Alright... looks like I should wait for a minute to see if any new spawn try to get out..."

Coran waited a few minutes, and a few wasps did indeed try to make their way out of the poison covered entrance, only to meet a gruesome fate.

After a while, the enemies stopped coming.

Coran then faced the entrance, preparing to enter it.

"This isn't exactly the reason I left the Dictatorship, however his excellency told me to use my own jurisdiction, and that is exactly what I intend to do. I refuse to allow these pests to exist so close to our beloved Dictatorship."