Lanek sighed as he looked at the self-proclaimed bodyguards and their leader, Cagan. It had been Cagan that approached Lanek after hearing from Duristor about his various titles. Once Lanek had allowed the orc to see his status, the orc had immediately declared that it was his duty to follow and protect him. Not long afterward, Cagan had gathered the rest of the adult orcs in the caravan and created a bodyguard squad that was never far from Lanek.
While Lanek appreciated their concern, he was very uncomfortable with the saluting. However, Liv had pointed out that his title as a Khan would likely lead to much more saluting in the future whenever they ran across anyone loyal to the Hordefather. Like Khurzag, these orcs were all past their second evolutions and had levels ranging throughout the thirties. Idly, Lanek identified Cagan, the hulking bald figure with the bushy black beard standing vigilant a few meters away.
Cagan
Water Orc
Monk lvl 35
Water is but one of the variants that an orc can choose for their second evolution at level 25. This variant focuses on flowing movements and overwhelming their foes with a flurry of strikes. A water orc will have higher constitution and resolve while also being offered classes dedicated to those attributes.
Of the nine orcs that made up his bodyguard, three of them were water variants, four were fire, and the remaining two were shadow. Additionally, there were some interesting new classes among them that he hadn’t seen before. Garik, the white-haired and clean-shaven orc speaking with Cagan had one of those classes. An orc woman with short black hair by the name of Malaga had the other.
Garik
Fire Orc
Centurion lvl 33
Fire is but one of the variants that an orc can choose for their second evolution at level 25. This variant focuses on dealing as much damage to their foes as possible, typically through devastatingly powerful strikes. A fire orc will have higher strength and constitution while also being offered classes dedicated to those attributes.
Malaga
Shadow Orc
Shade lvl 31
Shadow is but one of the variants that an orc can choose for their second evolution at level 25. This variant focuses on stealth and eliminating their foes with critical strikes. A shadow orc will have higher dexterity and perception while also being offered classes dedicated to those attributes.
After speaking with the two, Lanek had learned that the centurion class was designed to lead troops, specifically from the front lines. This class would allow Garik to boost the morale, stamina, and coordination of those troops in his vicinity, but it also had bonuses outside of combat. Most notably, Garik boosted the speed at which those training around him improved their weapon proficiency. This was most effective if it was a proficiency that Garik himself shared, but it would boost other ones as well to a lesser degree.
Malaga’s shade class was a rogue type that reveled in close combat in all its forms. Most of Malaga’s skills revolved around placing as many debuffs on an enemy as quickly as possible. Her skills could inflict silence, poison, bleed, slow, and blindness debuffs. While this would make her deadly in a duel, the shade’s true potential, according to Malaga, was in a large melee as the shade class had a trait that increased the odds of one of the debuffs being applied based on the amount of enemies in her vicinity.
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As for the monk class that Cagan had, it was exactly what you would expect. The orc’s entire body was a weapon and pretty much all of his skills revolved around enhancing his body to incredible levels. The only skill that he had that didn’t enhance his body was an ability that would allow him to absorb energy from his surroundings to speed up the healing process. While this wasn’t on the level of what a dedicated healer or a regeneration skill could do, but it had saved Cagan from bleeding out after particularly nasty battles and ensured that he never really needed to spend more than a day or two recovering after a fight.
When Lanek had asked how they had been captured considering their levels and the fact that all nine of his bodyguards came from the same village, they had blamed the priest. Despite their decent levels and classes, they hadn’t really had anything that could counter the sea troll priest and his spells. Their village hadn’t had a shaman to counter the priest, which led to their defeat.
Speaking to the rest of the company, it turned out that the priest had been the reason for most of their defeats. It wasn’t that the priest had been exceptionally powerful or talented, it was just that the villages hadn’t had any magic users to fight him. This led to the priest using his magic to shield his followers from attack while they butchered the villages’ defenders. Many of the former prisoners also theorized that either the priest or the captain had some kind of ability that allowed them to mask their vessel’s approach as the trolls weren’t detected until they were already leaping off of their ship and attacking.
Out of the company of sixty people following him, only 27 had what he would consider a combat class. This consisted of nine orcs, twelve humans, and six dwarves. The classes held by the humans were those he had seen before, nine of them were fairly young and still working on their first class of hunter. Of the remaining three humans, two were scouts and the last one was the ranger, Kinat.
Lanek was honestly surprised that more of the humans were not hunters as it was a very common class that would be vital to the survival of their villages. As for the dwarves with combat classes, he hadn’t been able to get much detail out of them as they weren’t a very trusting or talkative bunch. Duristor assured him that they were grateful, but that sharing information like that wasn’t something they would do without knowing the other person very well.
The dranrid could already see a lot of potential in the people around him. He would love to get all of those hunters into the ranger or scout class tree, if for no other reason than to get some snipers or saboteurs later on. However, the classes that he really wanted to cultivate if possible were the shade and centurion. He could already picture centurions bolstering a formation of soldiers even as the shades weakened the enemy.
There were only a few barriers to that plan, with the biggest one being that it took people a long time to gain levels. Lanek knew that the main reason he had leveled so quickly was the combination of classes he had been given and the fact that he had been able to take down large groups of enemies with his lost salvo skill, which were advantages that the average person wouldn’t have. Additionally, the life expectancy in this world was very low, so he also needed to keep people alive long enough to get the levels to reach those advanced classes. Fuck, we need to be able to use the dungeon.
As his people recovered from their march north, Lanek watched as Pharaoh drifted down and hovered before him. “Kinat found a spot for us, it’ll probably take most of the day for everyone to get there.”
“Great, lead on. Alright, everybody! Time to get moving, we need to move right now. There will be plenty of time to rest at our next camp.” Lanek called out, much to the dismay of the tired company.
They followed Pharaoh throughout the day, the tressym’s prediction proving to be very accurate as the trees grew thicker and the undergrowth became harder to traverse. Finally, as the day was coming to a close, they were faced with their next obstacle.
Lanek had to admit that Kinat had done well. Before him was a large river running east to west that split around a river island before rejoining on the other side. The river island seemed to be a very stable piece of land as well considering that there were mature trees covering it. He had seen islands like this back on Earth, as well as their sand and gravel counterparts that were very much temporary.
Kinat was waiting on the riverbank. “Lanek! We can cross right here. It only comes up to my waist. Don’t wander past those rocks, though.” Kinat gestured at a pair of rocks with white cloth tied around them that were spaced about ten meters apart on the bank. “The water gets much deeper past them.”
“Liv, Duristor. Let everyone know and get them across the river as fast as possible.” Lanek said before turning his attention back to Kinat. “Where are the rest of the hunters?”
“They’re all here, I’ve had them setting up fire pits. They should have noticed you by now, so they will be starting the fires to get everyone warm after crossing. That water is fucking freezing.”
“Good job, freezing water and the night is not a good combination.” Lanek said, already seeing fires springing up on the island as the first people start crossing. “Tell me about the island. Are there any other shallow crossings?”
“No. The northern branch of the river is much wider and deeper than the southern branch. The northern branch of the river is probably twice as deep as I am tall at its shallowest point. I think it’s a decent position, but we could also find ourselves cornered.” Kinat said.
“You’re right. But, we don’t have much of a choice, do we?”