I felt the bones in my wrist snap. This ogre body of mine would have been considered unbelievably powerful compared to humans in the real world, but that hadn’t stopped Tulbat from snapping it with a powerful twisting motion.
I lifted my good arm up while ignoring the pain in the other. I was going to at least try to defend myself. When Tulbat’s fist never descended, I was initially confused. I knew that pain could confuse the mind, but I thought I was actually tolerating a broken bone fairly well.
Fearing this was a fight for my life, I didn’t hesitate. Even if I was able to respawn, I still wasn’t gonna take any chances. I shifted my weight and brought a leg up between the head warrior’s legs. He was wearing some armor, but hopefully a direct blow there would still buy me a second to grab a weapon.
As my foot made contact, I realized what had paused Tulbat’s hand. One of the warriors with him had picked up the bacon he knocked from my hand. That same warrior was scarfing down the bacon and moaning about how good it was. When my foot connected, I felt it hit something solid, definitely not flesh. But the force of the kick was still substantial enough that it drove the codpiece or whatever it was upward and made Tulbat release his hold on me.
The head warrior stumbled back while I held up my unbroken hand again and shouted, “Flameburst.” For the first time, I tried to focus on channeling as much mana into a spell as I possibly could. A notification popped up and the largest explosion I had managed to create so far blossomed, centered right on the head warrior’s armored chest.
The concussive force sent him stumbling backwards. It didn’t hurt that he had already been stepping back from the low blow I had delivered. The other ogres all seemed to drop whatever they were doing and were mumbling, “Fire. Himz have fire.”
The brush around us was now thoroughly trampled as Kerkek, the chief, Shemi, and a dozen other ogres appeared. Kerkek demanded an explanation, but didn’t want to listen to me. The bashers started explaining to him while Tulbat was complaining that I had sneak attacked him. I used the time to layer regeneration spells on my wrist, but found that a great deal of my mana has been used up by the Flameburst.
Shemi was arguing with the chief and I thought for a while that he was going to take Tulbat’s suggestion and kill me in any of a number of rather inventive and painful manners. Eventually, though, the chief saw a few of the ogres fighting over the last of the bacon I had cooked.
He shoved them aside. “Gimme goodiez. Chief getz first.”
His eyes lit up like Christmas lights when he tasted the mana enhanced meat. Then he raised his hand, and I prepared to defend myself again, only to have him spin and push Tulbat. “Tulbat want challenge Kerkek?”
Tulbat growled back and for a moment, I thought he just might. But then he lowered his head and said, “No, chief. Tulbat am loyal.”
“Tulbat, follow orderz. Shaman say ooglie one haz magic. Himz make yummy magic food. Make tribe stronger. Make warriorz stronger. Tulbat no hurt.”
That was the best news I had heard all night. Tulbat’s yellow beady eyes and the glare he gave at me made it clear I had earned an enemy tonight but at least I would live for another night.
Then the chief turned on me, “Kerkek want more magic food. Cook and bring mez. Youz get outcastz helps youz.”
I immediately saw the downside to this. If Kerkek hated the slop they had been serving earlier, even half as much as I did, he would do just about anything to get me cooking. I didn’t want to spend all my time feeding the tribe. And the more valuable they thought I was, the closer watch they would keep on me.
“Oh great, chief, there are limits to how much magic food I can cook now. For now, I should cook only for the chief. But if I grow stronger or get better food to cook, then I can make more. I will need to go hunting,” I said.
Kerkek looked at me for a second, then he looked to Shemi. “Youz makes sure himz have what himz need make yum yumz.”
Shemi nodded and replied, “Yez um chief.”
After that, Kerkek started to clear the rest of the ogres out from the area and Shemi practically pulled me along to follow her. It was all I could do to manage to get my gear and the rest of the bacon to cook. As we walked back to her hut, I heard Tulbat venting his anger on some of the other ogres. His unfortunate victims were sent running out into the forest with bruises or even broken bones.
Once back to her hut, Shemi said, “Youz be trouble already. Must sleepz here now or Tulbat give youz accident.”
“I will need a place to cook for the chief. And will you teach me some more spells?”
“No talk tonight. Youz go sleep now.”
When I tried to follow her inside her small hut, she barked at me, “No. Youz sleep outside. Youz too ooglie. Mez not want risk make more ooglie ogrez.”
I didn’t argue with her, but instead sat down with my back to a tree. I wasn’t really feeling tired and I couldn’t help but laugh at the implications of what Shemi had said. Something about me really be off that all the ogres thought I was ugly. I couldn’t help but wonder if it wasn’t them somehow detecting that I was different.
Of course, it didn’t really matter. I wasn’t going to be here, so I needed to take stock of what my options were. I started with the notifications that had occurred during the fight with Tulbat.
Mana Channeling Increased to Basic 5. Flameburst increased to Basic 9. You managed to cast Flameburst at 200% power for 275% mana cost. Critical Strike- Flameburst caused 108 dmg to the ogre, Tulbat. Those were interesting enough as it went. I would have to work on that mana efficiency, but that was the most powerful spell I had cast by far up to this point. My inner mage was doing cartwheels. Maybe I had not completely doomed myself by trying to play an ogre as a caster.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
There was still a great deal to learn, though. What was curious to me was that some of my skills were climbing fairly significantly while I remained at level one. That had not been an option for a player, at least not when I was doing the beta-testing. A player couldn’t have a skill more than three levels above their character level.
Assuming it was the same as before, the breakdown of skill tiers or levels was pretty common.
Basic 1-20 Proficient 21-40 Journeyman 41-60 Adept 61-80
Expert 81-100 Master 101+
It was one of the things that I liked about LoS. They didn’t try to reinvent the wheel while at the same time creating new and interesting ways to experience gaming, at least where it mattered. My attitude towards Quantum Games may have soured since they murdered me, but I could still admire their game. It was hard not to respect the attention to detail that I found in this world now that I was living here.
The next notification was exceptionally welcome.
You have completed Where Do I Fit 1.1 Rewards: 300 XP, 10 silver added to your inventory Cast Iron Pan of Frying- a masterwork item which will increase your chances of creating most any type of pan-fried food. Good thing you don’t have to worry about clogged arteries any longer. In a pinch, it can be used as a weapon. The handle is made in such a way as to prevent the transfer of heat from the pan to you. Blunt Damage: 2-7+10, Potential: Fire damage: max of +10
New Mandatory Quest: Where Do I Fit? 1.1b You have found a way in which you can enhance your tribe. The potential motivation provided by quality food as well as the need to seek further cooking manuals, supplies, and foodstuffs will provide a powerful incentive for your tribe to raid player race groups. Will you be the impetus for your tribe’s expansion? Find or direct your tribe in finding 1 written recipe, 1 cooking implement, and 3 new cooking ingredients. Note that you may not satisfy this quest by creating the implement or recipe yourself. Rewards: 600 XP, 30 silver Failure: Opportunities vary
I cursed as I read that quest. The game was definitely pushing me to create conflict between the ogres and players. The players wouldn’t have the things they needed, but human, elven, or dwarven merchants and settlements were the most likely place to find at least two out of the three requirements.
Six hundred XP seemed like a lot for such a straightforward gathering quest, but it was because of the conflict that would ensue no doubt. I was sure I could find more cooking ingredients in the forest, not to mention the shed. But not the other items.
I thought about trying to make a break for it. The problem was it would be a long journey through zones infested with mobs that could easily kill me at level one. Then even if I made it to a zone with players, and found a group of noobs willing to take on a level one ogre for the novelty of it, I had to figure out if I would be able to reset my bind spot outside of the village.
No, the more I thought about it, the more anxious I got. My best bet really was to stay here and level up for a while. I just needed to direct the ogre tribe away from killing players, as I didn’t know how that would affect my faction. Even six hundred XP wasn’t worth that.
Now, though, I was filled with nervous energy. I would need to burn some of this off. I glanced at my character sheet. The thought made me laugh, though. Was it really a character sheet anymore? This body wasn’t just some avatar in a game. This was my life now. For goodness’ sake, I just had to spend XP to learn how to cook myself a decent meal.
And speaking of a decent meal, I could feel rumblings inside my gut. The programmers or AI’s had definitely made this monster body way too real and I couldn’t decide why. I just knew that pretty soon, I was gonna get to find out firsthand what ogre crap looked like.
NPC- HI 3a5.x290 Integration: 24.2% AI Usage: 11%
Call Name: Frank Monster Race: Ogre
Ht: 9’2” Weight: 848 lbs
Class: Outcast
Level: 1st
XP to Level 2: 0/1000 Available XP: 178
Strength: 36 (38) Agility: 5 Constitution: 36 (38) Mind: 12* Will: 18 Unassigned Free Stat Points: 2 HP: 360/360 (380)
HP Regen: .72/second Mana: 180/180 Mana Regen: .36/second Armor Rating: 8 Physical Resistance-
Slash: 3
Blunt: 6
Pierce: 2
Fire Resistance: 5
Cold Resistance: 30
Electric Resistance: 0
Acid Resistance: 0
Necrotic Resistance: 0 Radiant Resistance: 0
Poison Resistance: 31% Disease Resistance: 31% Skills: (relevant) Blunt Weapons: Basic 3
Piercing Weapons: Basic 3 Skinning/Butchering: Basic 2 Cooking: Basic 4 Mana Channeling: Basic 5 Spells: Flameburst (B-9), Regeneration (B-5) Racial Abilities:
Starting Stats: STR: +25, CON: +20, AGI: -5, MIND: -5*, WILL: 0* Iron Gut: Poison and Damage Resistance equals level +30% Rage: 1/hour Frostburn Durability: increased physical, cold, and fire resistances Stun Immunity Class Abilities: Spell casting
Faction: Players (General): Tolerated (-1000) Beasts: Hated (-3000) Ogres: Tolerated (-950) Ghazban Village: Tolerated (+75)
Monster Races (General): Feared (-2000)
Seeing the sparse amount of XP on the sheet made up my mind for me. I was going hunting. Shemi had said that I couldn’t survive the monsters in the forest at night. That just meant I would have to be careful. And I would stay near her hut. But I wasn’t tired. I was just gonna lay here wide awake. It would be far better to put this nervous energy to some good use.
So, I grabbed my spear. I was at max mana and HP, so I wasn’t gonna get any stronger on those accounts. The darkness of the forest didn’t really seem very dark. I realized ogres must see better in the dark than humans. It certainly wasn’t true darkvision. It must be a minor difference since it didn’t make the racial traits list. Either way, I was glad for it and ready to mess some stuff up, ogre style.