Chapter Five

A Pack Forged

It turned out that the latrine and the bodily functions associated with it worked the same way that corpses and blood did. Ogre was thankful for that as nearly the refuse of a hundred pounds of meat he ate exited his body, from a hiding spot in the mass of great roots well beyond the Hall of Class Archetypes. Ogre took the greatsword from his inventory and rested it on his back. When checked his Status Mirror he saw that a few things changed since he leveled up. He weighed 202lbs now, which meant that by consuming a heap of food awfully close to his bodyweight he was able to put on two pounds of mass. What was more some of his stats bore the benefits of such an increase. The dog felt a thrill of excitement at the prospect. He had over a thousand pounds of meat to practice with.

Ogre broke into a quick jog to catch up to the other beasts, who were led by the huge Borhelm past the alcove, to the other side of the sprawling tree. In a normal place and world, Ogre would have guessed, judging by the scale of the tree that it took them the better part of a few days to make the trip. However, just as when he hurried to catch up to the group after he first woke, time stretched and compressed. So, it could have been a week or a handful of minutes as far as anybeast were concerned. Lam of course did not know why the Tutorial Tower manipulated time and space in that way and Borhelm ignored the question when the fox asked on behalf of Ogre. Instead, he told them about a time when he wrestled an Ogre for Dewglass apple. He peered at the dog as he told the tale smirking as he exclaimed that he not only overpowered the beast but outsmarted it as well. Ogre held his growl deep in his throat and looked away.

The dog did not eat during the trip. He did taste the wine and drank deep with the others as they walked. Ogre saw that the tower gave him bread, cheese, and the sweet wine but he knew that he could eat more if he fasted longer. And since eating was no longer just about sustaining his body but about getting stronger it only made since for him to gather strength in efficient ways. His next level would cost him 2000 Insight. Even if he were to use all of his soulweight to absorb the wisdom in the beast gems, he wouldn’t come close to achieving it without slaying more beasts or monsters. Ogre thought about engaging other beasts besides Lam in conversation. The fox was amiable enough, but he quickly ran out of things to say and liked his personal space even more than Ogre did.

There were two other foxes, a male with a shortsword and shield and a female with a handaxe and bow, but they stayed together, and moved away from the dog when he approached. There were at least three dozen Otters all large muscular beasts, and though the females were smaller they were still more muscular and larger than Ogre, besides his monstrous head. They were a cohort and moved like it. They had twelve sword and board fighters, twelve spearbeasts, three bowbeasts, and three with greatswords identical with Ogre’s blade. Two of their kind lead them. One of them was a female that was taller than the other male Otters and had greatsword that must have been a gift given by the tower. It was double Ogre’s greatsword in mass and ranked a class ‘S’ besides. That female also carried an arbalest, with bolts on the hip in a quiver, and that was S-class as well. The carcajou’s crossbow was not as highly ranked as that. A quick calculation on Ogre’s part told him that the first bolt that shot him in the side would have done almost three thousand damage if it had been. The last otter was nearly as tall as the big female but was slimmer by half than the others and bore a single small knife on a hip. His eyes shone with a keen intellect that Ogre could sense with the glance the otter gave him. A low whistle made the otters with shields close ranks, as the dog drew too close and so Ogre backed away.

The roots of the Tree of Cosm looked on their right like the side of a mountain range, a great gnarled mass of living wood. The grass felt like ribbons of green silk, but Ogre did not think too deeply on the strange feel of it. It was too close to what the grass felt like in the dream. The dog could not help the shiver that passed through him at the thought. He truly hoped that it was a night terror that would not return, but he knew better. That place felt more real than his waking world, even now if his thoughts strayed, the world where he walked, even under the majesty of that impossible tree became a faded imitation, a shadow of a true world. Ogre distracted himself by glaring at the back of Borhelm.

The dog narrowed his eyes at the cuirass the boar wore then swept his gaze over the otters and foxes, including Lam.

“No one is wearing full armour.” Ogre noted, before willing his pig iron breast plate into his paws from his inventory.

Lam glanced at Ogre before turning his eyes back to the group before them. “That is true. Some of them wore plate in the adjoining waiting area as we climbed the Tower Levels but a crossbow bolt at close enough range can pierce that pig-iron plate. Even the S-class plate will only turn the common bolts and crossbows. As you see there are others who picked an S-class arbalest.”

“It would be a hindrance…I see,” Said Ogre, “Full plate is heavy when you are hale. Full plate is death when you are wounded. I’m sure it will affect stamina and endurance as well. They must have learned this by trial and error. How many beasts were killed by those carcajou?”

Lam did not look at Ogre. “It was not just them. Once the killing started there was no beast that left with clean paws. I…I don’t know if I should tell you this.”

Ogre looked at the fox hard. “Tell me.”

Lam finally met his eyes but quickly looked away again. Ogre immediately thought about how sly foxes were rumored to be, instantly he felt bad for mistrusting Lam. Ogre spoke again this time in a calmer voice. “Tell me.”

“They said you were the worst,” Lam explained, “They said, namely Borhelm that you slew more beasts in the tower than any other save three. They said that you were in the tower for a century.”

Ogre blinked, feeling his throat tighten. “It’s just what that overripe pig would say.”

A sly smile creased Lam’s black lips and he parted them to speak, before hesitating, glancing at the dog from the corner of his eye. Ogre rolled his eyes, breathing through his teeth to reel in his anger. I will kill that boar, with these two paws and these teeth! “Will you speak freely Lam, I will not lash out at you, I know what I owe you!”

“I was just recalling…”Said Lam, his smile growing, “What you did to those weasels.”

“They attacked me first!” Ogre protested, waving the pig iron cuirass.

Lam shrugged, “Perhaps the beasts in the past did the same?”

Ogre snorted and began to put on the cuirass.

“There are other downsides to wearing armour, Ogre,” Said Lam, “If you don’t have the vitality or endurance, it will severely affect your vigor. Even if you do it will still limit your agility.”

“I showed you my status, Lam,” Said Ogre, feeling the weight of the pig armour settle on his torso.

“Yes…Yes you did.” Lam said, “I did not consider the extent of your ability. In order to make armour negligible you’d have to be ten times greater than the average. I did not do the math. With weight of heavy armour your combined vitality and endurance has to be above 1550. For most beasts that would be around level seventy.”

(E) Pig Iron Helm [Pierce + Slash]

Pro: 500

Req: Vit+End 50/Level 3

Wt: 50

(E) Pig Iron Gorget/bevor+ Cuirass + Backplate + Tassets/Fauld [Pierce + Slash]

Pro: 4000

Req: Vit+End 400/Level 20

Wt: 400

(E) Pig Iron Greaves [Pierce + Slash]

Pro: 750

Req: Vit+End 75/ Level 4

Wt: 75

(E) Pig Iron Sabatons [Pierce + Slash]

Pro: 750

Req: Vit+End 75/Level 4

Wt: 75

(E) Cuisses [Pierce + Slash]

Pro: 1000

Req: Vit+End 100/ Level 5

Wt: 100

(E) Arming Doublet [Blunt]

Pro: 750

Req: Vit+End 75/Level 4

Wt: 75

Ogre took a step and felt like he was moving slower than usual. He calculated the vitality and endurance needed and still could not figure out why he was so much slower than he had been before. Lam stayed back with him as he struggled to move forward in the plate. This is harder to move in, then it was to move my body when I ate 65lbs of meat! Thought Ogre. I need to look at my status again!

The armour increased his weight by 750 and coupled with his greatsword, his equipment burden was 950. I’m going to have to take off some armour if I want to move as quickly as before. Ogre thought. Then the dog recalled the sensation of axes tearing into his midriff, and wolverine claws scoring him. “No…It’s best that Keep everything as it is. The protection alone is worth the downsides of being slower and less agile as I was before.”

“Well, we can see how much slower the plate has made you by trying to keep up with the others.” Said Lam,

Ogre looked up sharply at the fox, “What was that?”

The fox blinked at the dog.

“So, you were speaking to yourself…nevertheless we must catch up to the group.”

I must have spoken what I was thinking out loud. Ogre nodded and tailed after Lam. The others in the group looked at Ogre curiously. Some smirked, knowing the drain on stats and vigor armour could take. One, the giant female otter stared at the dog with a flat look, before donning cuirass and backplate. Then she studiously ignored Ogre.

“I wonder what level is she?”

Lam quickly spied, the female otter that the dog was staring at. “She is likely the closest beast as strong as you Ogre. So, until you level up again and increase your power monstrously, I would keep my distance. The gifts from the tower were not just physical items. And she won all of her weapons and gear, well the S-class at least, as you won your axes. She is as highly leveled as I am, if not a few levels higher. And as a warrior she would get buffs to health, strength, and vitality. And if she is fully committed, she might have already put all of her points into strength.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Frowning Ogre spoke haltingly, as if finally feeling the vigor drain of the full plate. “I would not want to fight her…nor any of the otters with her. They seem more disciplined than the weasels and as strong as the carcajou.”

“Astute observation.” Said Lam, wryly.

The dog’s great brow wrinkled, and his frown deepened. “I know I was lucky, Lam, there were so many things that were stacked against me in that pitched battle. And I also know that having you there saved me. However, I feel like the weasels were weaker than I. I believe that even if they were, all they had to do was work as a team and I would have died in minutes if not seconds.”

Lam looked at Ogre in a way that made it seem as if he was peering at the dog’s Status Mirror. Did he have the skill, appraisal?

“Many beasts would have come from that battle with an ego to match how marvelously you performed in it. I guess the wisdom stat that you have might be to blame for your view. You were a sight to behold. And yes, they were weaker but they should not have been. You were Level 0, Ogre they were at least Level 5 and some Level 10 and above; that should have made them more than two to four times stronger.”

Ogre recalled the conditional passive skills Trollblood Vigor and Deathknoll. The latter reduced the damage he received so far that it felt like cheating. They ambushed me…They tried to cheat me of my life, to steal my loot! It was some time before they reached the place that Borhelm wanted them at. During that time, every Otter managed to slip on a piece of pig iron armour, helm or vambraces, gauntlets or sabatons. No one could spare the vitality and endurance for even a cuirass as Ogre and the huge female otter did. Still, when the dog donned his plate, it seemed to signal to the that the infighting between the beasts was done. Ogre was the most vulnerable to the arbalest shot and so to them him keeping the plate was a sign of trust. They did not speak to him, but their eyes were no longer flat, fearful, or mocking when they looked his way. Ogre was tired of wearing the suit of metal, but the reaction from the otters spurred him to keep the plate on. And if I took it off, Lam would be right, and I’d look like a fool after bragging about my stats. Borhelm stopped at a dais of deep cerulean stone, encircled by a thick ring of lustrous smoke gray metal. Two statues, elongated with flat-faced helms. twice the boar’s height and made of a strange metal stood on each side of the dais.

“Gather around.” Commanded Borhelm waving a huge gauntlet irritably, “It’s time to you all to leave this place.”

The platform was half a stride taller than the strange grassy land of the tower and broad enough to hold all of them with room to spare. When Ogre passed the statues, he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, and had the distinct feeling of something watching behind the statue’s visor, living eyes that followed as he moved past. He said nothing to Lam, but the fox hunched his shoulders as he passed before it.

“This Planar Stone will send you outside the Tower, but first I need to explain a few things. Namely to the beast who joined us, late. You will need to proceed from the tower to A Town of Beginnings. For you all I would suggest an F-Class, Town which would be the town of Cerulean. Cerulean is about three days travel from outside the tower, just head northeast on the Road and follow the signs. The monsters just outside the tower like to pick on new adventurers. They are called Jackalopes. They have a mystical ability to stay 125 levels above any adventurer, hero, hunter, or slayer, common or High of Yore. If you decide to face one, they will beat you and take your gear, but they usually will not kill you. However, if you find an S-Class Jackalope you will die. If you find a World or Beyond World Class Jackalope you will die. There is another creature you should avoid if you can. A Bulroo is very similar in nature to a jackalope just a lot stronger on average, they will not steal your gear but they too will kill you if you challenge them. They are beasts of honor and are often challenged by High Soul Rank Heroes. Other than that, conserve your food, or hunt close to the road. Use your sense and you will make it to the Town. Tell the guards where you are from, and they will get you in to the Adventurer’s Guild, where you will officially register with the local magistrate to set up how you will pay your taxes and to get your heroic rank. You can also upgrade your armour and weapons if you have the coin, and get special training. The guild posts common quests and special bounties inside its halls.” Borhelm looked directly at Ogre, and smiled nastily, “Don’t die. You will only be useful to me if you continue to absorb insight and soulweight.”

Ogre felt his face tighten. Lam placed a warning paw on the shoulder protruding from the cuirass. The Boar then called above them in a loud voice, “To the entrance.”

They vanished in a luminous swirl of blue-white energy.

The world resolved like a loose sheet of silk drawing tight. As the energy faded, the tree vanished and the expanse within the tower was replaced with glossy black volcanic stone. Heat rose from under his sabatons as if to lift him in a thermal. Warmth settled on him with a wetness that said a great body of water was near but not on the scale of or with the salt bite of a sea. The world smelled like a thousand scents of small beasts, and the rot and freshness of old and new greenery, pine, oak, ash, and weeping willow. The scents of monster lay over the glittering black stone in a thick cloud, and below that wild grass, flowering plants and brush. Three hundred paws from the tower the flagstones gave way to weeds and grass that grew in fitful bunches before ending abruptly at an open space, for another thousand paces before thick woodlands began. Grass and woodland were broken up by dun brown stone that made a road that cut through the forest and over dips and swells on it’s floor. The woodland surrounded the tower, which from outside seemed a mundane size of mottled gray stone, barely wide enough to accommodate them all on the floor level. Four roads shot out from it leading in the cardinal directions.

Ogre absorbed the sensation of his senses being enveloped by a familiar world. The sun was directly overhead, in a bleached blue sky, free of cloud, and burning a gold so bright that it was painful to look at. Everything outside the tower was a counterpoint to his time within it. The sounds of hearts beating including his own, the rasp of clothing or metal on metal as beasts shifted to take in the new but familiar stimuli made him smile. It was like waking from a dream. He no longer had to guess at time or distance. Ogre’s belly told him that it was hungry even when he was not thinking about it. Were my senses so dulled in that place? Comparing it to the outside world he had to admit that it was a ‘yes’. However, when he was there, he could only sense that something was wrong, that grass was not quite right, the sky and light a little off.

“This is a little overwhelming.” Said Lam, patting his threadbare tunic. “I’m glad I did not put on my thief garments. This tunic is cooler. But everything, is so intense.”

“It is your senses…your perception.” Said a feminine but large voice, not loud or deep just big. “You smell like you are level 25, that means your senses could be ten times more sensitive than they were before. This is a realm that your body would not yet be used to, at least not yet.”

Ogre shifted in a groan of iron on iron to look at the female otter. She loomed half again as tall as the dog, broad across the shoulders and hips and with that cuirass she looked more intimidating. She shifted back, with a paw on her greatsword. Ogre moderated his gaze then looked around him, before speaking. “I don’t see any jackalopes.”

The leader of the otters strode up to stand beside the tall warrior. “Will you take them on, despite the Guide’s warnings?”

A small smiled touched the dog’s lips before he could stop it. He liked this otter; his voice was so soothing, so full of strength and calm. Ogre watched in wonder as a ball of water stretched and flatted, reshaping itself into a transparent ribbon over above the otter’s palm. Is he an Elementalist? “I would like to avoid them if I can.”

The male otter turned to the female greatsword warrior. “What is his level, Glaeddra, what do you smell?”

Glaeddra scowled and breathed in deep. “It is distinct, even now, Jeda…he is level 1. But the scent is so strong it’s as if there is a company of dogs like him, all level 1, all sharing stats.”

Ogre startled when he looked back to the otter leader, Jeda. His eyes glowed. “I can only see that he is of every class and of none, despite that greatsword on his back the amount of armour that he wears with little issue.”

The dog felt a flash of annoyance go through him. Why am I angry at this Otter, Jeda, was his name right? What a dependable name. Well, he could just ask me, right? “I am standing right here otter, if you have questions for me, why not simply ask?”

“Would you answer truthfully?” Said Jeda, he turned back to Glaeddra, not expecting a response.

“It depends on how you ask, and whether you are for me or against.”

Ogre felt a tapping on his cuirass. He did not have to look at his side to know that it was Lam. All the otters surrounded them, twelve of the shield and shortsword beasts made half the ring while the others with spears made the other half. I cannot fight them. Glaeddra’s sword can likely damage my armour in a single blow, and if not that arbalest of her will do the work.

Jeda smiled at him. “It is not wise to allow yourself to be surrounded by enemies, dog.”

Ogre opened his mouth wide, baring fangs in a yawn and a mouth that could bite the otter leader in two with room to spare. The otters around them shifted back, and Glaeddra lifted her giant sword from its place on her back. The dog was tired, the armour sapped his vigor thoroughly. “You are not my enemies. My enemies try to kill me before I know they are my enemies, and you at least speak to me.”

Jeda smiled wide showing a flesheater’s teeth. “We are yet strong enough in our numbers to slay you here and now, perhaps Glaeddra and I can do it ourselves if your friend does not join in. But if you level up again, you will destroy us, no matter how many otters we have. Your power is in your ability to gather strength very quickly. You are not enough meat, to be worth the risk.”

“So why don’t we become a pack for now. We can hunt together and eat well on our way to the town of beginnings.”

Jeda’s eyes glittered. “A pack offers great protection for an individual beast, what would you offer a pack as great as ours?”

“Jeda, can we trust this one? Did you not see the mad fight he had with the weasels…They are distant kin, but they are kin.”

Ogre blinked, Otters have a blood relation to weasels? “Your kin tried to hunt me; I obeyed the law of the hunt by making their weakness into my strength. Is there any greater honor that can be had for a carnivore?”

“Yes, there is a greater honor…to hunt and win the meat…obviously,” Said Jeda chuckling, he waved a paw dismissively at Glaeddra. “I did not like them, Glaea, they would have hunted us if we were not stronger than they. And they hunted other otters.”

“So, what is the problem, we can join together if that is the case.” Lam said, standing shoulder to shoulder with the armoured Ogre.

Jeda looked at Lam, and then at the foxes outside of the ring, who watched the proceedings with care. The look was expressive; why are you not with them? In times of extreme pressure and survival joining together by kind was only logical. That way it was easy to determine who was meat and who was mate.

“You, did not answer my question, dog. What do you offer the pack?”

“You saw first paw what I can offer, wouldn’t it be better to be with me shoulder to shoulder as I fight than against me to feel my fangs?”

Lam groaned. Ogre looked at him curiously then shrugged at the fox’s worried expression.

“You can turn your strength against us very easily, and we saw you eat your bodyweight in the meat of our kin. It is not enough to say you will not kill us. Though it is very arrogant and foolish to threaten us so.”

Ogre mouth tightened; he had not meant to make the threat. “What do you want?”

It was Glaeddra’s turn to groan, the big female otter replaced her greatsword on her back, dark gray iron on iron and glared at Jeda. The tall otter smiled again. This time it was oily. “You have S-class weapons that you are not using, give them to some of our best beasts, and you and your fox can join us.”

Ogre thought quickly. The high ranked weapons were undoubtedly valuable and worth jules that he might be able to get once they reached Cerulean. Though he did not know how much he could get for them. But if the otters attacked right now, they could end Ogre or bring him very close to death with ease. And Lam was all but doomed if it came to a fight, the fox did not have Deathknoll to keep him alive at low health. Fighting a lot of enemies is different when they are spread out versus when they are surrounding you. How can I salvage this situation? I will not be stolen from again!

“I have 10 S-class weapons I am not using. I will give them to you, though they represent jules to me in the future. However, I require one out of every two gems that we may get from monsters slain by the group, ten percent of the meat we hunt, all the meat I bring down alone, and both Glaeddra’s weapons. I mean the greatsword and arbalest.”

The warrior otter growled before turning to the dog. “These are mine, I took wounds to get them and had slay more than one beast to keep them. I’ll split you in two if you try to take them away from me.”

“That is unacceptable.” Said Jeda, “I told you what I wanted.”

“A great leader is charismatic. But a true leader is not afraid to lose if his beasts are made stronger from it. Lost is part of the bonds that make a pack, especially of different beasts, strong.” Said Ogre, feeling his tongue warm, a wisp of glowing silver light flowed from his open mouth. “Can you look at your fellow otters and say that you are not willing to sacrifice to make them better able to survive? I know if this deal does not go through you will attack me. Maybe you will kill me. But you saw that an ambush under ideal conditions for my enemies when I was weaker was not enough. Perhaps it is true, and you all are strong enough to slay me. But what would it cost you? What will it cost your beasts? They will be the ones who will die. Elementalists are not on the fronts lines.”

Jeda frowned at him and looked at that monstrous head that seemed to repel weapons better than armour. Then he cocked his head to the side, one ear erect, as if listening to something no other beast could hear. “You are using a skill. But it does not matter your logic is not flawed. But you ask for too much and give too little.”

“My weapons will increase the damage of your otters by nearly eightfold, whereas you will only slightly weaken your top warrior…if we are to believe that she has the stats to use it. And let us be truthful. She does not have the strength to wield that greatsword. I do.” Said Ogre making his bet, “The rest of what I ask will only be fair, I will be on the front lines, and I will deal the most damage to any foe we face, by my strength or power.”

Glaeddra stiffened when Ogre said that she could not wield the greatsword, but she did not refute it.

“One out of four gems, 10% of the meat, and the greatsword only, but you will give her the one on your back.”

“Deal.” Ogre said quickly. The arbalest was one that he had to ask for, and also, the one he had to give up on. It was Jeda’s best counter to Ogre there was no way they would give in on that, especially not to him. It would be nice to not have to worry about bleed, though. Thought Ogre. With Deathknoll I can absorb damage very well, with the armour my durability is further increased but all of that is a vapor before a bolt shot by the S-class arbalest. He knew that he could not get that weapon, yet if he did not ask for it, the leader of the otters would not respect him. The knowledge came to him intuitively, as he used the skill.