Volume 2 Chapter 1: Azrael's Shadow_Harem Reaper

Sex is strange in Royal Road, and not just because genders can be chosen or the various non-human races who are involved. Unlike reality, there are rules and regulations that cannot be broken, there is no rape. A person cannot even attempt to sexually assault another without filling out a contract between Royal Road and both participants. Coercion, deception or any variation of non-consensual sexual interaction is eliminated through the use of game masters and automatic systems that are triggered by keywords. Users under the legal age have nudity censored and can‘t even choose to do anything related to sex.

It really was a beautiful system and Azrael thought it was nearly perfect in that regard. NPCs weren't excluded from the protection either, except for various Ai that were created to work in brothels or just be really… ‘easy’ but they had the mental capacity of a goldfish. Romance and love were actually possible for the ‘real’ Ai, but it was very difficult to win their affection. Your stats and skills could help speed up the process, but for the most part it was very difficult to impress a woman or man in Royal Road. After completing quests for them, spending lots of time and generally making them happy, you could finally have sex with them. Sometimes you even had to be married first before they would let you do anything sexual but the end result was the same. After so much time and effort on an NPC, it was common to stay in long term relationships with them, it was even possible to have children.

When two NPCs are paired up together, typically they have a bit of back story but nothing actually happened. Most of them that have been alive since the game started, were simply created with their partner and family, they were programmed to love and care about each other… sometimes they even hated each other. Every race was different though, humans acted pretty much the same as real humans. Elves acted like humans but typically reproduced slowly and were more picky about their partners. Orcs were more like monsters and even though they could have sexual relationships with users, their children typically spawned at a set rate, without the parents even having to do anything. The children quickly grew into adults and within weeks they were capable of fighting and hunting, usually they ended up dying relatively young. It would even be really sad, if they weren't quite so stupid…

The question is, what about hybrids? They definitely exist, so how are they made? Well that all depends, between humans, elves and dwarves, its just sex, pregnancy and birth. However, this is the story of how the Dark Orcs came into existence. On a day just like any other, a hideous orc woman got separated from her hunting party and ended up in dark elf territory. She discovered a beautiful dark elf man sitting at a table with two seats, outside his cabin in the middle of the forest, he had poured an extra cup of tea for his deceased wife. The orc simply walked over to the table and sat at the seat across from him, they started at each other awkwardly and the moment that orc female drank a sip of that tea *Poof* a little dark skinned orc who had tight abs, a smaller body and a relatively pretty face walked out of the cabin. The End!

For the most part, hybrids are considered abominations or outcasts, it varies depending on the difference in appearance and nature of the parents. That little dark orc wandered through the forest alone and afraid, struggling to defend itself from simple wolves, but that’s when a kind man appeared and protected the little girl, it was a dark elf hunter who decided to raise the child. When she matured into a woman in a few weeks, they had their morning tea and she got pregnant. It was not as extreme as her parents case, but she had a baby within days of that, the baby was essentially just a large muscular dark elf man after becoming an adult in a few years. That man met several orc women in his life time who he had tea with, more than once, and thus the Dark Orc tribe was created. After a certain point they had a relatively large population, but they were enemies with both the dark elves and regular orcs, so they became weaker and weaker. Eventually they were wiped out by orc raiding parties, only one remained, the last Dark Orc. Her name is Nyx, her favorite game is killing orcs, her second favorite game is killing dark elves, she only stops playing when she’s hunting for food.

One day she came upon a strange sight, there was a gigantic human who was fighting alongside orcs in the woods. The orcs treated him like he was one of them and he even pretended to speak the same way they do, but she had no idea why. Nyx was a Dark Ranger, which is basically just an archer who can use stealth and creeps around a lot. Normally, using stealth requires a constant stream of mana and stamina but she had been in stealth mode for over 10 years. Perhaps it was a racial quirk or maybe the memory from her childhood of hiding in the corner of her hut as she watched a giant orc tear her mother and father apart with his bare hands. Since then she hadn't deactivated it even once, regardless of what she was doing.

The giant human pretended to be a mindless brute, but was using magic to create clothing out of the wolves they hunted. He even used it to cut his wolf meat into neat, thin slices, before eating them one at a time, using the magic to touch the food, instead of his hands. Dark orcs were almost as strong as orcs and almost as intelligent as dark elves, they were a rare case of a powerful hybrid race. Which is probably one of the reasons both sides hated them and thought they were a threat.

Even with her keen intellect, Nyx still couldn't figure out why the giant human called Michwii kept running around, risking his life, just to save the weakest orcs when they were about to get overwhelmed. He was obviously very powerful, but they were just orcs, disgusting, stupid, monsters that she only considered as target practice. Over the years she killed thousands, yet there was a man who wasn't even part orc and still he considered worth protecting. It was just a simple curiosity at first, but then something truly strange happened. After following them for a few more hours, they had come to a small clearing that should have been full of dire wolves.

It was him, the orc who killed her parents, Kaichwik! She finally had a chance to take revenge, killing that monster was her main motivation to keep going, but she couldn't move. Even though 10 years had passed, she was still that same little girl, hiding as she coldly gazed at the slaughter. Michwii tried to protect the orcs, but he was easily pushed out of the way by the monster. In what seemed like an instant, two of the orcs were gone, the only one who had the courage to fight back was a weak old orc. However, when he should have been crushed into a fine paste, a blue light surrounded his body and absorbed the blast.

‘Michwii’s still in the fight! They might be able to win if they all teamed up against the giant!’

The opposite happened when he told the others to retreat in a voice that was terrifying, even when she was 50 meters away. She immediately thought ‘No! Stay and kill that bastard! No, I can’t rely on orcs, I need to kill that monster myself.’ but she couldn't move her body any further. If she were stunned like Kaichwik, at least she would have an excuse, but she was paralyzed by her own fear. Nyx wanted to cry as she watched Michwii, a mage, desperately trying to hurt the giant orc while using a rusty glaive. Even if she got closer and started shooting arrows at Kaichwik, he wouldn’t notice her and at least then Michwii would have a chance at victory, but she just watched.

After finally dealing a critical blow to the giant, Michwii died, or at least he should have been crushed to death instantly, but he shrugged it off and stabbed the orc again, blinding him. At first she thought that maybe he saved himself by using a mana shield, but there were huge indents in both of his sides. Massive quantities of blood were gushing out of his mouth, ears, eyes and especially out of his waist. Then it just stopped, but even with his giant body, there was no way he wasn't about to die. Kaichwik was flailing around and she could have killed him with one well placed arrow, but she didn't, just cried tears that no one could see. It seemed like a miracle when Michwii finally managed to kill the giant orc and her curiosity transformed into admiration.

She was his shadow, following only a few meters behind him at times and when he was sitting in the middle of the bazaar, she was practically touching his back. Admiration turned into obsession, she was stalking him in every sense of the word, stealing the food directly from his hands sometimes. Nyx would pretend that he gave it to her, she would only sleep for a few minutes at a time to keep up with him, but he never slept. He never seemed to urinate or defecate either, so she began to believe that he was some kind of demigod. Sometimes he would look at her with his deep red eyes and she could feel a sharp pain in her chest, it was a sensation that she couldn't comprehend.

She had to go outside to relieve herself for a few minutes but when she returned to the cave, Michwii was doing something strange. He kept forcing massive amounts of mana into strange orange rock, it looked dangerous so she stayed back about 20 meters. The rock exploded and shards flew into his face and body, then a large group of dire wolves came rushing over to attack him. She used multi-shot, a skill that lets her fire multiple arrows at different targets, several times and quickly dispatched all the wolves, but there were arrows everywhere. There was no way he wouldn't notice her now, after staring at her for a few seconds he pulled out another rock and started doing the same thing again.

It happened so fast she couldn't even see the projectiles which passed through her unprotected abdomen with ease. Her small intestine was shredded, there was no hope for survival even if she didn't get eaten by the waves of dire wolves that swarmed around Michwii. She couldn't stop her screams of pain or the tears that poured from her jet black eyes where only a yellow, snake like iris was clearly defined. She didn't actually know what her body or face looked like, the last time she saw her reflection was when she was a child. Somehow, Michwii managed to slaughter 40 dire wolves in less than 10 minutes, but his armor was completely destroyed. He was only wearing a pair of leather boxers and covered in gaping wounds that were bleeding worse than she was. After yawning loudly, he walked over next to her and sad down with his legs crossed.

‘No! Don’t look at me! Please don’t look at this hideous monster!’

He smiled and said “What a cute little stalker I seem to have.” in a quiet voice, with a gentle look on his face and she immediately stopped crying and screaming. She wanted to disappear, to be invisible, but she couldn't, so had to at least be silent.

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Azrael finally got a good look at his invisible friend, she was beautiful. She did have very small tusks like a female orc child, but she was definitely fully grown at about 2 meters tall. Her skin was green, but so dark that it was impossible to see it as anything but pitch black, like a dark elf. Black sclera combined with yellow snake eyes, the yellow part was like an orc, but neither dark elves nor orcs had snake-like iris’. Ears that were long and pointed but slightly curved. Her muscles were all very well defined and her breasts were rather large for such a muscular woman. She was very feminine in many ways and since she was so tall, her muscles appeared very lean. Her hair was completely shaved off, but somehow it didn't take away from her beauty.

After looking at the wound he had a pretty good idea of what needed to be done, he put his left hand over the holes in her back and placed the right gently over the wounds on the front. Azrael said “This might hurt… a lot. Don’t scream.” in a serious voice. His mana was completely recharged and he had already healed his own wounds a few minutes ago. At first he tried using mana shield to close up the wound, but that didn't help much. Then he cauterized both sides of the wound, but her internal organs were still bleeding and it wasn't enough. That’s when he thought of an interesting concept and tested it out.

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Sacrificial Healing (Lvl. 1 0%): You can give up a large portion of your own health to heal someone else. At higher skill levels it can be used in reverse.

Costs 500 health per second to heal 100 health per second.[/col][/box]

After 9 seconds he had to stop and burn all his mana to get a few more seconds worth of healing her, but it was enough.

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Faith increased by 100![/col][/box]

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Health increased by 100![/col][/box]

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Mana increased by 100![/col][/box]

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Karma increased by 30![/col][/box]

The girl had tears dripping down her face as she became invisible again and squirmed out of his hands. He was happy with such nice quest, so many stat increases and he got to learn a new skill. Even if the quest didn't appear, he would have helped the girl, even if she was a normal orc female or male. It was just part of his nature, the kind of person who would make huge sacrifices for people they didn't even know. The only condition was that they would need to be right in front of him, otherwise he really didn't care about anyone he didn't know. It was probably related to his obsessive compulsive need to control everyone close to him rather than compassion.

It was pretty obvious as soon as the quest appeared, but she was definitely an NPC. Although, that made little difference to Azrael, if anything it was better. He didn't like how most users thought of them as ‘Not Real” or just NPCs. They had intelligence and even had souls, so what was fake about them? He sighed and said “I’m sorry for hurting you, my name is Azrael. You don’t have to introduce yourself, I already know your name is Nyx and judging from your appearance I can pretty much guess your life story. Also, you've probably been following me for quite a while now, if you’re tired then get some sleep. Might not want to do it inside the cave though, I’m trying to use mana to smelt this iron ore. If you want to watch, hide behind me and cover your ears.” in a tried voice as he looked around, not only was she invisible but also silent.

There was literally several tons of meat just laying around on the ground, along with bones, hides and one of them even dropped a giant cut emerald, random drops are definitely strange. They make sense in a normal MMORPG but when everything is normally so… well, there are definitely stranger things in Royal Road than a dire wolf dropping a jewel. There was something else he noticed as well, eyeballs, teeth, snouts, ears, hair, and other similar dog parts had dropped. When he used his identification skill, they were described as alchemy reagents so it was time to finally test out his ancient alchemy skill. After mashing a bunch of wolf pieces together into a beaker, he struggled to swallow the furry clump.

For 2 days your sense of smell and hearing will be heightened!

For 2 days you will have night vision![/col][/box]

It was such an amazingly useful potion, yet it was most likely too disgusting to market towards users. However, to orcs who have practically no sense of taste and would eat every part of the wolves they killed anyway, it would make a huge profit. Azrael immediately whispered Osmond and told him to come over with a big crew to pick up the meat and potions. By the time he got to the cave, Azrael had already created about 20 Minor Dire Wolf potions. They were in containers crafted from dire wolf leather, smelled and looked so gross that Osmond nearly vomited 8 times on his way back to the village to sell them. He managed to sell them in a few seconds, for 20 gold a piece. The orcs liked the taste even more then the effects, so they were anxiously awaiting the chance to buy more.

With the Dire Wolf Lycanthropy effect active, Azrael was able to hear and smell Nyx, who was only a few feet behind him. He didn't tell her though because he thought she might leave, but it was strange how good she smelled. Perhaps it was due to him being around regular orcs so often lately, or maybe it had to do with his dog-like sense of smell. Her heart was beating incredibly loud and fast, it seemed like she was nervous or afraid but he could understand. Michael would get nervous even when just video calling one of his friends from CoM, it was the fear of being judged by another person.

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Several days had passed since Nyx had been healed by Azrael and she became accustomed to being in very close proximity to him. Over and over there would be loud explosions and she would use a silencing spell to protect her sensitive ears, while hiding behind his gigantic back. Obsession had turned into a strange kind of one sided love, but she was literally invisible to him. After each explosion, a group of dire wolves would come to attack, but between the two of them, the wolves were killed very swiftly. They were both gaining a few levels every day, her level was a still a little higher than his. Azrael would make slice the meat up into what looked like sashimi and infuse it with a bit of mana then give it to her to eat. The mana give it an interesting flavor but it would also give strange status effects.

Just because she loved him, didn't mean she wasn't an obsessed stalker anymore. She was constantly asking herself ‘Does he want me to leave? Why hasn't he said anything to me lately? Maybe he forgot about me? What does cute mean? Maybe he hates me? Why did he save me?’ but never actually saying a word. Humanoid NPCs don’t have to learn languages and they can’t forget them either, she could speak if she wanted to but instead she just kept creeping silently.

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Mana Manipulation (Lvl. 1 0%): Everything in this world has mana and health, they are fabricated resources from another world. If you can manipulate mana, everything is possible. However, while mages and clerics use mana specifically for magical spells, you’re just an idiot who likes to throw it around and hope for the best. The Gods who first inhabited this world tried the same thing, what do you think happened to all of them? Their minds began to erode and eventually their souls were converted into pure mana and absorbed by the few that survived! How arrogant of you to assume you are more powerful than them!

Allows you to bombard anything with mana. Warning: Effects may vary depending on everything!

Allows you to transform mana into any of the elements. Warning: Unless you have some basic knowledge of magic, you really shouldn’t try this![/col][/box]

Azrael had finally succeeded! It took him a week, he spent a lot of time making potions and hide clothing to sell but the iron was really starting to pile up. He had finally figured out how to melt down the ore without making it explode, he cheated by using the internet to look up smelting. The trick was using mana shield, which had been leveling up pretty quickly, to create an iron furnace. Although it would have been a hell of a lot easier just to make one out of mud or clay, he could have even used the one the orc's had already made! Plus, if he ran out of mana or lost his concentration, the furnace would disappear and he would have to start from scratch. Nyx would bring him branches to turn into charcoal and he would use mana manipulation to create fire and wind magic for the furnace to work properly. At first he could only smelt one ore at a time in his mini mana furnace, but as his various skill levels increased, so did it’s scale.

It took him a week of smelting to catch up with all the ore he had collected since he was also hunting wolves, making clothing and creating potions to sell. They had made over 7,000 gold so far but after paying the miners and orcs they only had about 3,000 each. Osmond was extremely happy, since the most gold he ever had prior to the arrangement was 20, but Azrael thought it was barely anything. Nyx was paid 300 gold for helping so far but she had no idea what to do with it, she thought of it more like a gift from Azrael and cherished the shiny coins.

It was finally time to start using mana to forge the iron ingots into workable shapes for weapons. There are many hi-tech and old fashioned ways to forge anything and everything. He made ingots so that he could easily melt them into whatever shape he wanted and his first test would be a simple knife. However, each ingot was about 5 lbs so he ended up making a knife that was closer to a short sword. Using mana shield he created a mold and using mana manipulation he heated the iron but then he learned something else in the process.

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Mana Sculpting (Lvl. 1 0%): By manipulating mana shield you have learned how to hone your mana into sharp blades and use them to carve sculptures or engrave objects. In conjunction with Manasmithing you can also create molds to give shape to metals.

Costs vary depending on the situation but will decrease as skill level rises.[/col][/box]

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Art has increased by 15![/col][/box]

Mana was a lot like stamina and health, it was always the most comfortable at 100% capacity. At 0 stamina or health you die, but at 0 mana you just wish you were dead. It was like having the worst migraine you could possibly imagine and the only way to make it go away was waiting until your mana was above 50% again. It’s one of the main reasons why magic classes are relatively unpopular, but the second reason is that they actually had to memorize spells and incantations. You had to pretty much learn a special language for each type of magic, it was much easier to just kill things with a sword or bow. Most people would never let their mana drop below 20%, but Azrael would completely deplete his mana, over and over. He did let it recover to 100% but combined with the tedious nature of crafting, there was a huge impact on his mental health.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Azrael realized why he felt so shitty, it wasn't because of the migraines, he hadn't been singing. Normally he would have spent almost every second of every day singing, but because he wasn't alone, he was subconsciously suppressing his needs. While forging that first dagger, he sang a soft core metal song about something completely unrelated to what he was doing but that didn't really matter. After the metal was in the general shape of the dagger, he waited till his mana regenerated. Then he reheated it to about 60% of its melting point and started to use mana shield along with his massively increased strength from mana conversion to refine the daggers shape by beating on it with his shielded fist like a hammer. Even though he actually had a small repair hammer he could use, it wouldn't have increased his mana related skills. That was the main drawback from mana crafting, it made regular handicraft skills useless, Ancient Alchemy was technically a mana related skill since he had to infuse mana into the potions, the same thing with creative cooking. Finally, a dagger was crafted!

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Mana Affinity: Elemental affinities increase the effectiveness of spells based on that specific element, but mana is the base for all magic. To have an affinity with mana makes mana itself more effective, all mana related abilities will become more efficient and powerful depending on this stat.[/col][/box]

Damage: 10-15 Durability: 50/50

This weapon was created by using mana to smelt the iron, mold the dagger, then forge it into a powerful killing tool. It has a simple design but is very efficient and sharp. The Manasmithing process has infused this weapon with additional effects. This weapon was created by Azrael specifically to be used by the dark ranger Nyx against him in a strange yandere fantasy he often daydreamed about.

Requirements: None

Effects:

+50% extra damage when invisible.

+10 maximum damage when bald.

+5 minimum damage if you are a hybrid race.

+70% damage if you are female.

+600% damage when used on people you love.

-90% damage if you aren't a dark orc.[/col][/box]

Azrael started laughing just loud enough that he didn't activate Voice of Death while reading the dagger description. As long as Nyx was the one using it, the dagger was actually really good but he was afraid to let her read the description. After thinking about it for a whole 2 seconds he decided to give it to her anyway, while thinking ‘Hopefully she has a sense of humor…’ he turned around and handed the dagger to the invisible girl. Luckily she was too happy about getting a gift that she didn't even read the item description and quickly equipped it as a secondary weapon. Most weapon based classes can equip secondary and tertiary weapons, in sheathes located anywhere that’s convenient, that they use in emergency situations.

Normally in a situation when two people who are attracted to each other, spend every second of every day together for a few weeks, their relationship tends to progress. However, when one of them is a dark orc who’s parent’s didn't even have sex, and the other is a barbarian who hadn't even watched porn since he started playing Royal Road, they couldn't even progress to a normal relationship where they talked to each other. Azrael just sang constantly to block out the silence, while Nyx just listened while watching him from within his shadow. It was a strange partnership, but it worked, neither really needed the other but it would have been much more difficult for Azrael to create weapons and armor if he had to constantly fend off the wolves that spawned every day. He completed the quest to give meat to the village almost two weeks ago, but he never got around to turning it in and he missed the orc festival.

Azrael was working on his second weapon idea, nothing particularly difficult but when he created the dagger, he used wolf leather to create a comfortable handle cover. Most weapons had wooden parts like handle covers for swords, staves for pole arms, and handles for maces or axes. He practiced his mana sculpting by carving simple tree branches by coating his fingertips in thin, sharp mana shields that acted like carving knives. With his strength and agility being so high, it was pretty easy to make the cuts, but while his art ability was relatively high, when he attempted to make a simple dire wolf out of a stick…

Artistic Value: -23

This sculpture was most likely created by a kobold with absolutely no concept of art.[/col][/box]

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]You have lost 1 art stat![/col][/box]

Normally when you destroy a sculpture you receive negative art stat but when he incinerated it using mana, the art stat he just lost from making it returned. Crafting is always about trial and error, mostly error, but the key to success is determination. Michael wasn't just born knowing how to sing or play instruments and he wasn't taught by others either, he learned from repetition… probably more than most people would even need. However, by practicing something all day every day, to others it would appear that he was learning quickly. For him, it was much easier to create mana molds of different shapes than simply carving a piece of wood and since it was relatively simple to create leather grips to iron poles and swords, he gave up on carving for a while.

Orcs typically used glaives, but that was just because all they had was glaives. They didn't particularly care what kind of weapon they used, as long as it was big and could be used to kill things. Since they naturally had high strength and low agility, great swords, heavy pole arms, battle axes, war maces, generally anything that required two hands was popular. Azrael never used the same design twice, mainly because he could create a mold by just imagining a shape and once the iron cooled, he wouldn't have enough mana to make another right away. It was fine though, because every time he used a new design, he would gain creativity and art points and every skill that he used was increasing at a pretty steady rate.

He used 1 ton of iron to make 30 great swords, most of which only had 1 edge and were what he liked to call ‘Siege Blades’ which you could literally use to cut down a tree, if you could even swing it. The next ton of iron was used to make creative and frightening war maces and battle axes of varying shapes and sizes, one was just a long pole with a simple sphere on the top, but when you hit it against something, thin long needles would pop out and could easily penetrate a wooden shield. The last ton of iron he had was used to create heavy iron plate armor that was padded with dire wolf hide and each set was made to fit an orcs body type, which meant that with all that metal, only 10 sets could be made. For the abdominal area he had to use a massive amount of leather to accommodate the typical orc gut and since both males and females have pretty much the same body measurements, there was no reason to make a special chest plate to fit the women. The helmets were the most intricate and important part of any suite of armor, aside from the pardons but they were usually more for decoration anyway.

Orcs normally have large defined jaws which had extreme under bites because of their huge, almost tusk like lower canines that kept them from closing their mouths properly. One of the main attributes of all orcs is their insatiable gluttony and willingness to eat just about anything, even each other. Azrael made the helmet in two parts, the lower jaw, and the main helmet. The main part was shaped pretty normally, except for the eye holes the rest of the head would be completely covered, but in front of where the orcs upper jaw would be, were several huge metal teeth. The biting function was similar to how orcs usually eat, with the lower part sliding over the upper teeth, the lower and upper jaw areas covered and protected the orcs teeth so they could bite through anything weaker than iron without shattering. The inside of the helmet was comfortable, padded with wolf leather and fur, the inside of the jaws was also padded with a decent amount of leather. He even made a customized version for Stumpchwii that was lighter but full plate, even over the abdomen and for his wooden peg leg there was an iron prosthetic attached to the greaves. There was also a large iron shield that could be attached to his arm that was severed at right below the elbow, so he didn’t have to choose between either using a weapon or shield. Each suit of armor made an orc look like 230 cm tall, bulky metallic monster that could terrify even the most battle hardened warrior. When he finished the last suit of armor, it had been a month since he arrived in the orc village.

The only problem with making such extravagant weapons and armors was that no one could actually afford them. Maybe in one of the bigger villages there would be orc generals who had a couple thousand gold to spend on gearing themselves up, but the most the Sharp Tooth tribe had was Stumpchwii and a couple of other veterans that weren't even level 100. However, Azrael considered it more like an investment, so he told Osmond to sell each armor set for 500 gold a piece, most of the weapons were about 200 gold a piece. The orcs didn't even have that much but, it was different story if there were payment plans. Orcs had clans which consisted of hundreds or thousands of members that were similar to guilds, their leaders were typically orc commanders who created huge raiding parties to perform dangerous hunts. The main payment method was basically a pledge of loyalty and friendship from the entire clan to Osmond’s clan, plus 10% of the original price was still paid upfront. By doing that with 9 clans and even Stumpchwii who was basically the village chief, Osmond became the leader of the Sharp Tooth tribe. Of course it was Azrael who told him exactly what to do and Osmond still had no idea why he needed to be the orcs leader.

Rather than increasing the village size, Azrael instructed Osmond to focus on increasing the general quality of life that the orcs had and improving their defensive capabilities. It was only a matter of time before some other tribe, or race or just a random group of high level monsters would try to destroy the Sharp Tooth orcs. A population of 50,000 was actually way more than he would have liked, because it would be impossible to turn all of them into elite warriors equipped with heavy weapons and armor. Luckily, there are plenty of menial tasks that can be handed out, like builders, farmers, miners, lumberjacks, craftsmen, and hunters but at the moment almost everyone was a hunter. Osmond felt uncomfortable ordering around orcs but they seemed to respect him for some strange reason and didn't complain. The orcs had discovered several other mines and caves in the area but never had the motivation to explore them. There was a silver, copper, coal, and several other iron mines, the caves were all filled with dangerous monsters over level 100 so Osmond told them to just clear the mines. The dwarves were each given hundreds of orcs to help with mining and also provide security from monsters.

There were hundreds of new orc blacksmiths and tailors, most of which were terrible, but it was still better than before. Azrael could only make about 50 weapons and 10 armors a week, but the horde of orc craftsmen could create thousands of bad weapons and armors in the same amount of time. They basically just copied his designs and made barely usable imitations that were bad but still massive improvements compared to what the average orc could normally afford. The huts were slowly being transformed into cheaply made, wooden row houses and the current wooden wall surrounding the village was being replaced by huge stone blocks that they were excavating from a quarry to the south. It was a slow process but on such a large scale that every day the village was starting to look more like a city. Since the coal mine was created, it was possible to smelt steal instead of just iron, making armor and weapons of much higher quality.

Azrael and Nyx stopped leveling in the Cave of Beasts once they reached 75, so he decided to move on to the newly discovered caves, one had huge black ants that were level 90-100. He didn't clear the caves because he was afraid the monsters might not re-spawn after that. The black ant’s had delicious meat that tasted a lot like lobster when cooked, and their chitin or exoskeleton could be used as a light armor component with much higher defense than leather. When Azrael made himself a full suite of Black Ant Chitin armor that was reinforced with steal and had comfortable leather padding he finally reached the next level on a few skills.

+Intellect has increased by 100!

+Mana Affinity has increased by 50!

+All magic resistance has increased by 10%

+Fame increases by 300!

+Maximum mana increases by 1500![/col][/box]

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Intermediate Mana Weaving (Lvl. 1 0%): With the mana control that should be impossible for a barbarian, you can fuse cloth and leather together to create clothing and armor without the use of thread! You have also learned how to create living armor that can become part of the wearers body and grow along with them, they act like parasites and feed off the wearers life force, experience, mana, and stamina, using it to repair themselves or grow stronger. Can only be used on armor created through mana crafting, organic armors grow faster and more efficiently. Living armor can be removed but cannot be used by another person afterwards, if someone tries to use the armor besides the owner, they will be devoured.

Warning: Living armor can literally kill the wearer if they aren't healthy enough!

Costs 5000 mana, 3000 health, and 1000 stamina to give life to an armor set.

Costs 500 mana, 300 health, and 100 stamina to give life to a single piece of armor.

Costs 10 mana per second to fuse materials into clothing or armor.

Mana increases by 10% per skill level

Mana regeneration increases by 5 per second per skill level[/col][/box]

+Strength has increased by 100!

+Intellect has increased by 200!

+Creativity has increased by 100!

+Vitality has increased by 100

+Mana Affinity has increased by 50

+Fame increases by 300!

+Maximum stamina has increased by 1000![/col][/box]

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Intermediate Manasmithing (Lvl. 1 0%): Blacksmithing using mana to smelt ore and forge the metal into various shapes. You have also learned how to create living weapons that become stronger as they’re used to kill, feeding off their enemies corpses. Can only be used on weapons created through mana crafting.

Warning: Living weapons may try to devour their wielders if they aren't consistently fed!

Costs 5000 mana, 3000 health and 1000 stamina to give life to a weapon.

Costs 10 mana per second to smelt iron.

Costs 20 mana per second to heat and cool iron during the forging process.[/col][/box]

+Mana Affinity has increased by 100!

+All stats increase by 50!

+Fame increases by 500!

+Maximum mana increases by 3000![/col][/box]

[box border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=3 width=80% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5][col colspan=4 valign=top width=100% bordercolor=#202020 bgcolor=#f5f5f5]Intermediate Mana Crafting(Lvl. 1 0%): The foundation for all crafting skills that use mana. Levels along with all other mana crafting skills. Allows several mana crafting skills to work together efficiently and effectively.

Increases Weapon and Unarmed damage by 20% per skill level.

Increases Defense by 10% per skill level.[/col][/box]

It would have taken months if he had to gather all that ore by himself but with Osmond's help, he had painstakingly reached intermediate. He had gotten two strange additional abilities from his skills that seemed extremely dangerous. Luckily life is pretty cheap to orcs and even if it might be dangerous to use parasitic armor or ravenous weapons, the increase in strength would actually make them life longer. To test it out, he used the ability on his newly crafted armor and put it on. It felt slimy and burned a little bit but then the sensation disappeared and the armor was attached. His entire body was covered in black ant chitin that made him look like a giant ant man, but the strange thing was that he could feel through the armor like it was his own skin. The helmet was basically just a giant ant head that had a widened neck hole, somehow the compound eyes were smoothed over into what looked and acted like round sunglasses. He could even open and manipulate the mandibles on the ant head, it was like he really was a humanoid ant.

His current weapon was a steel siege blade that was so large he actually had to use both hands to wield it. The design was pretty much the generic giant sword shape that no human could ever use properly, mainly because it weighed over 500 lbs. Similar weapons were always very popular in video games and anime but in Royal Road people quickly realized that regardless of how cool they looked, someone with a katana would easily win in a fight. He fused some chitin over every part of the sword besides the blade and then brought it to life. Suddenly the black chitin on the sword began to pulsate and radiate fighting spirit as the steel colored blade started to turn a shade of dark blue.

Damage: 70-90 Durability: 80/80

This weapon was created by the mana craftsman Azrael in what can only be assumed was an attempt to create the heaviest sword possible. After making it, he covered it in black ant chitin for no apparent reason and then gave it life. It has no consciousness, no soul, only a ravenous hunger for living flesh, bone and blood.

Requirements:

Level 80 or higher

Over 700 strength

Over 15% poison resistance

Over 200 vitality

Must be at least 250 cm tall

Effects:

+200 strength

-100 agility

+200 defense[/col][/box]

The strength requirements of weapons and armor are scaled based on level, a level 1 weapon that weighs 200 lbs will only take about 30 strength to wield. However, there’s a huge difference between being able to equip a weapon and actually being able to use it. A sword that weighs 5 lbs and is extremely easy to wield might still have a strength requirement of 200 just to equip it. Azrael's siege blade was so incredibly heavy that even when he pumped as much mana as possible into strength, it was still nearly impossible to use efficiently. Fortunately, it could still do enough damage to easily kill an couple giant ants with one swing. Once he gathered enough chitin he molded it into a bow for Nyx to use, but he didn't turn it into a living weapon because he didn't think it would work properly and he was afraid it might end up killing her.

After two weeks in the Ant Cave, they had reached level 100 so he decided to finally return to the village and turn in his quest. The walls were nearly complete and almost all the hunters and warriors were equipped with heavy armor and weapons, combined with fact that half of the huts had been converted into houses, the village was already more like a town. The idiotic orc merchants were actually selling items for reasonable prices and the sound of blacksmiths forging steel resounded throughout the village. Azrael went to the town hall, which was located near the northern wall and came across a peculiar sight. There was an injured dark elf woman crying while holding a child in her arms who was bleeding profusely.

The woman was on her knees, begging Osmond “Please! We have nowhere to go! I know you’re orcs and our people have been at war for ages, but none of that matters now!” in a desperate voice.

Osmond sighed and said “Its really not up to me… Ah! Az- I mean Michwii! I didn't recognize you in that… armor? Anyway, we've got a problem!” in a nervous voice as he ran over to Azrael, who was just walking into the room.

The woman screamed in terror at the sight of the giant ant man but then quickly recognized him as the boss and became quit. Azrael walked over to the woman who was now standing in the middle of the room and placed his giant black claw looking right hand on the injured little girls head. He said “Sacrificial Healing.” in a quiet voice and then the child’s wounds were completely healed almost instantaneously since she had so little health in the first place.

The woman looked in amazement at the giant monster using such advanced healing magic and then started pleading to him “Oh please great Michwii! Please let my people enter this village! We have many sick and injured but all of our healers were slaughtered by the invaders! We will do anything, even become slaves to the orcs if necessary!” in a loud and frantic voice.

Azrael sighed and said “I would rather massacre your people and mine than see even one orc or dark elf become a slave. There are much worse fates than death, little girl. Anyway, I would have let you kids stay here even if you didn't beg so pathetically. Now about these invaders… what did they look like?” in a deep and over dramatic voice while moving his mandibles along with what he was saying unconsciously.

The woman started crying and said “They were humans… we were only a small fishing village a few miles north of here, we didn't even have a chance to react. They came in huge ships and started bombarding us with metal spheres that could destroy a house with ease, after a few minutes they stopped and started sending boats with soldiers to the beach. There were so many ships… our strongest warriors fought valiantly but they were slaughtered. We immediately started evacuating as many people as possible but so many were already dead.” in a surprisingly coherent voice as she hugged the little girl tightly.

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A beautiful human girl with long black wavy hair was standing on the bridge of a galley while speaking to a tall, handsome, blond man with long hair, wearing beautiful white mithril armor that sparkled in in the sunlight.

“This is Eun-Mi of Versailles Continental News bringing you an update on the Orc Lands Subjugation Expedition, lead by the Poseidon Guild who currently have the most powerful fleet in the entire continent! Shockingly the cruel, disgusting and violent orcs aren't the only inhabitants of this land! Admiral Perseus, please tell our viewers about the Dark Elves?”

“The only way I can describe them is, pure evil. When I looked into their pure black eyes, I knew that they were just soulless monsters that needed to be cleansed from this land, along with all the orcs. Fortunately we managed to minimize our casualties in this first, epic battle. Our scouts have reported that the retreating dark elf army has entered an orc stronghold, quite possibly the capitol of the Orc Kingdom. We plan to begin our assault before they have a chance to prepare countermeasures!”

“Well, we’re all hoping that you succeed! This has been Eun-Mi, reporting in from the front lines on what is expected to be one of the most important conflicts in Royal Road history! Please tune in tomorrow for the next update!”

Osmond turned off the T.V. and walked over to his computer, before he started playing Royal Road he was a pretty famous internet celebrity from Japan who reviewed games but was most renown for his CoM videos. While Weed may have been a legendary solo player on the Korean server, there was a guild who was just as infamous on the American server. They were called Forewarning and each one of their members was very… dangerous, in their own way. They had the top 3 healers , top 3 tanks and top 3 dps on the server but there was a tenth person who was a mystery. His most notorious act involved using diseased rats to infect every city in every kingdom on the server in the same day. It actually crashed the server when every NPC in the world was transformed into undead at the same time so the whole guild was suspended for a month. Butter’s account was banned since it was his 37th offense…

Osmond logged onto the VCN website and posted a comment on the Orc Lands Subjugation Expedition video under the username Forewarned.

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Volume 2 Chapter 1: Azrael's Shadow

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