When I arrived at the Huuron compound the day after my upgrade so to speak, I found it busier than it had ever been, and full of orcs I was completely unfamiliar with.
“Rick, over here!” I spotted Dennis jogging over to me. He stopped and quickly grabbed my hand. “Brooke and Yolana told me to come get you. We tried to call, but it never went through?”
I held back a wince. I couldn't make or take calls when I was in the pocket unless a portal was open nearby, and Bob had forbidden there to be any portals open for more than ten seconds. It was for our own safety, and I was keen to follow that rule, especially now, when an ender was on our case.
“Who’re all these orcs?.”
“Didn’t Brooke or Yolana tell you? About the clans visiting?”
Oh, damn I forgot about that.
I sighed as I followed him up to the house. “I’m sorry, I’ve been out of sorts lately.” He snorted, galing back. “That’s an understatement. Word ‘round here is that you’re training like you're trying to kill yourself.”
“Not kill myself, improve.”
“Whatever,” he said. “We need to go quickly before someone asks who you are, and I have to explain.” There were orcs everywhere near the main house, some talking while others seemed to organize things with some of the Huuron orcs. A few glanced my way, and some pointed and asked the Huuron orcs who I was, but most just waved a hand as if to dismiss the questions. It was probably Brooke or Yolana’s order, and I was glad they weren’t just revealing things about me so casually.
When we got inside, Brooke was waiting, and she looked exhausted, not physically but mentally. The look in her eyes spoke of hours spent doing something she did not like. “Brooke, you ok?”
“Not really,” she said, sighing. “It’s been chaos since last night. Orcs everywhere, and guess who had to help sort things out and greet every single one.” She glowered, then shook her head. “Come on, we’ve got training to do, with some guests at that.”
“Guests?” I asked as she lead the way into the compound.
“Yes, some of them want to see how the heiress is trained, although I imagine they’re going to be more shocked or impressed by you. I know I’ve been worried, and I still am, but Rick?” She paused and met my eyes. “Go full Rick today. Show them your drive and everything. I’ll be doing the same. One thing that my clan can’t afford to do is show weakness. And you Rick, are being taught by Yolana so show discipline, respect, and—”
“Basically everything I normally do?”
She smiled. “Yeah, basically.”
Although there was nothing basic about Yolana’s training, I followed her down and prepared for another hellish day. We passed by many orcs, most unfamiliar to me, and Brooke introduced me to many of them. Some looked normal, but others were different. I met two who had red chains tattooed on their necks, a few female orcs with bandages covering their breasts which reminded me of some anime I had watched, though, these women were all very muscular, and had plenty of scars, which I found strange until Brooke told me some orcs saw scars are marks of pride and didn’t get them magically healed. Another had white stripes across his face like you might see in some fantasy game. He spoke in a language I was unfamiliar with. It was rough, and guttural, although when Brooke responded in the same language, it sounded much smoother. There was definitely a lot of throat work going on there, and Brooke laughed as I tried to say one of the words I’d heard.
“I’ll teach you some, later. Most orc languages are not easy to learn.”
When we arrived at the training area, it was to the sight of a dozen waiting orcs. I saw an extremely large orc, almost Axtons’s size with a red chain around his neck, and an orc with what looked like brown skin, but as I got closer, I realized it was just very dark orange. Another had a single white stripe going diagonally across his face, but it was the one at the center that caught my attention. He was short for an orc, but the look in his steel grey eyes was full of malice, sort of like how the old Jacob had looked at me, but worse. That had been more mocking, this was something darker. His skin was the darkest green I had ever seen, and he was missing a tusk like it had been broken off.
They were all dressed in training garb, which for many was just shorts and that was it. They were all muscular, especially the short one who looked sort of odd with just how much muscle he had on him. He sort of looked like one of those bodybuilders who took steroids, and bulging muscles in places muscles were never meant to bulge.
“Good, now that you’re here we can begin.” She turned to the other docs. “Alright, listen up, and listen well, because if I have to repeat myself then it’s some more time in pain for all of you. Today, you’ll mostly be watching Rick, and my daughter Brooke.”
Some of the orcs made faces and were about to speak, but then Yolana's eyes hardened and they shut their mouths. “You will still train, but I want you paying attention because I will tell you now, I doubt any one of you, works harder than him.” She pointed at me, and it took me a force of will not to blush as all gazes, most accessing and hostile turned to regard me as though I were a bug. The big guy smiled, and it seemed genuine, but it gave me an uneasy feeling.
No surprise, the short one looks like he wants to kill me.
When we finally began the training, I put the new orcs out of my mind and did what I had for the past week. Focus on what was at stake: My life, and Bob’s life, and Litra and even Uliena’s for that matter.
We started with the pain pods, and I didn't get to see much of what was going on with the others at first, but when my time of pain was over, I was able to watch for a few minutes as the others got in. Most lasted longer than I had my first time, but only the big orc, orange orc, and short orc were able to last as long as Brooke or I normally had to. In fact, the big guy wasn't even fazed, and just laughed, ”That itched.”
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I stared at him in shock, but then it was on to the exercise, and finally the martial and weapons training. Yolana went just as hard as she had in the last week, and just like then, I pushed through, thought it was easier with my enhancements, and I was sure Yolana would have noticed if not for her split focus. It was still odd, being able to sense more. Sounds were more distinct, and smells stronger, which in a room full of sweaty orcs was not good. Bob had actually explained another reason why the jump hadn’t been larger, and that had been my current body, or more precisely, my mind. I still had the mind of a human, though a bit enhanced due to my magic.
“Those mutagens did affect your mind, though only in order to make sure your enhancements functioned correctly, and everything connected as it should. When increasing senses, body, or anything really, you do have to take into consideration the mind, though it’s different for some methods and most often mutations also affect the soul. Just know that there is a limit as to how much the human mind and soul can do, and that boost you got… is not pushing it, but it’s close. Before we do anything else, we need to get rid of some of that frailty, and strengthen your soul and other deeper parts.”
It was interesting and made more clear just how complex magic was. It wasn’t as simple as getting stronger. There were certain requirements and things that had to be done. Bob did know of many ways, but with what we had, and their risks, we only had a few options.
As I continued the training, every now and then, I glanced at the orcs, and there was definite surprise there, though the big guy was still smiling at me. The short orc was still glaring, and the orange orc looked bored.
When the time for a break came, Yolana used it to introduce me to them. The big guy was named Ivan and had a slight Slavic accent. He was friendly enough and was part of a group called the Crimson Link. The short orc was named Kolor, and part of clan Rettin. The orange orc was called Nicholes, though he insisted I call him Nick, but never Nicky because Nicky made him sound like a girl. He was heir to clan Nylas.
“You’re name’s Rick?”
I nodded. “Richard, but everyone calls me Rick, and one calls me Ricky.”
Nick sighed. “Ricky sounds better than Nicky.”
“Nicky does seem a bit more… feminine, but it ain’t bad. Depends on how someone uses it I guess.”
Another was Olore, who was the orc with the white stripe on his face. He spoke English, but not well, and was fairly friendly, expressing admiration for my dedication to training. Some held a clear dislike for me, while others seemed ok. Nick seemed the most normal of them all, and we actually spoke about video games for a short bit and anime. He was really into it. For some reason, Brooke found it funny and was smiling at the two of us.
When training was finally over, I washed up and headed with Nick and Olore to get some food, but only after promising Ivan that we'd get to spar sometime. I might have been worried, but he could not be worse than Yolana, and after everything I’d endured, it couldn’t be that bad. And Bob had said I needed more experience.
Brooke had gone off to do some more work, and, apparently, Zara was busy with some of the few orc practitioners which had come. Orc magic users were rare compared to most orcs who didn’t possess a magical spark. Most orc practitioners were half-bloods, and apparently, some looked down on them. I’d caught Kolar sneering at Aleah a few times when he thought no one was looking.
The cafeteria was packed when we arrived, and there were no empty tables.
“How about there?” I asked, motioning to a table with some empty seats.
Nick followed my gaze and sighed. “Sure.”
When we headed over, Nick was greeted warmly, as was I and Olore. I quickly realized they were all part of clan Nylas, and seemed to enjoy joking with him. It never went too far, sort of like how Bob was with me, and when Nick shot a warning look, it quieted down.
“So, you're this madman sorcerer I’ve been hearing about,” one of the orcs said after I introduced myself.
“Not a madman, just keen on training.”
“A good reason to be called mad,” he said. “Those who work so hard that others call them weird or mad, well those are usually the ones who end up at the top. What’s your reason?”
“Freedom.”
“Freedom?” A female orc asked, taking a swig of a beer bottle. “How’s that?”
“Freedom is power, power is freedom. There’s a few reasons like wanting to be able to defend myself, and those I care for, but they all link back to freedom. Freedom enough that it doesn't matter who or what comes after me.”
The female orc blinked, then laughed, raising her bottle. “No matter who or what comes after me. Now them’s some words I can get behind.” She slapped Nick on the shoulder. “You should learn from this one, spend less time on those games.”
He frowned. “I like my games, and I do train hard.”
“But not your hardest,” the first orc said.
I quickly took a liking to the Nylas clan, though there was a definite tension between Nick and them, mostly about his likes. I sort of understood, and after we were done, Olore left us, and I spent some time talking with him about games and his favorite consoles and such. The frown on his face fled quickly and soon he was describing his love for portable consoles as his role as heir had him moving about, unable to stay in one place. Another interesting thing was his love for the games of a para nature, which I had only briefly glimpsed while searching the PPW, and after coming across deep illusion pornography which was like deep fakes, but with shapeshifting, flesh magic, illusion magic, and more. I had watched a clip of a video game character getting… frisky with a popular movie character. Magic created so many possibilities for so much as did digital magic which allowed for digital products like video games and animations on a completely different level than what mundane society had, though alot of it was also restricted, or so Bob told me. And it was still a fairly new field of magic, having only really come to the forefront in the past fifty years, at least on the Prime.
“You wanna see my Zwitch? It’s modded to hell, I’ve even got a mod I bought from—” He glanced around before leaning in, and lowering his voice. “The Pit.”
“Maybe another time,” I said. “I’ve got someone to meet. It was nice meeting you, Nick.”
“You too, Rick.”
It took some asking to find Zara, but eventually, I found her in one of the magical practice rooms with two orcs, one of which was definitely a half-orc. I watched from the door, then decided to leave it for today. She looked happy, and I didn’t need a session. Besides, I wanted to spend some more time with Han, even if it was only a little more time.