"Okay, the plan is to comb through the forest, and see if we find any ore lying around." A dozen Ork kids listen to my instructions after the quick breakfast.
Will we find anything? According to YouCube, before the Iron Age, you could see all kinds of ore lying on the ground.
You could pick up anything from metals to gems and nobody cared.
Once the humans realized what they could use them for, they became harder to find.
[Notice: You can't compare this world and yours. The species here took a different route through evolution, and shaping their society.]
Right. So what will it be like here? It all depends on the age this world is in.
It's odd how much behind Earth their tech seems to be when almost half a day passes here in an hour there.
And they have magic too, which should be a great advantage in propelling science forward.
Will they ever catch up?
[Querry: Will Earth ever catch up in magic?]
Fair question. But it doesn't answer mine.
They look to be in the late Classical Age or earliest Dark Medieval.
It's still a bit later than the Iron Age, but the bloomery this tribe had gives me some hope.
Their other technologies might be obsolete if they relied too much on magic. They won't deplete the resources needed if they don't have the proper tech to use them.
That viaduct was what the Romans would build, but these shacks seemed basic. And the Orc's weapons were all gone in a decade.
They were low quality, but was it because of their lack of knowledge, or poor resources?
My Crafting skills will deal with the first problem, but if I can't find materials, that will be an issue.
[Notice: You are overthinking everything again.]
True. It's not like I saw too much of the world with my own eyes.
What Alexandra's memories revealed were too blurry to make out all the small details.
My best bet is to get out there and see what I can find. I have a plan B and C ready, and if everything else fails, I can take that mining skill too. But I won't.
I struggle to suppress a few yawns after my jetlag-induced all-nighter.
Still, the mission is there, and it should be easy, so let's clear it. I want to see what Masterful Crafting could do.
[Impatient sigh: Finally.]
The camp needs a lot of work. And walls. More buildings.
It could even take a farm field or two, but I also refuse to take up the farming skill.
If the Orcs want to learn it, they can be my quests.
The spears and the crossbows improved their hunting so they wouldn't starve. Still, having some variety in food won't hurt.
"We will go towards the swamp, if everything else fails, we'll dig up the riverbed there." And if that fails too, I'll convince Charlotte to visit the neighboring tribes with a trade offer.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Those will be my plans B and C.
C for having the chieftain sort it out for me. But let's begin with A.
We start our hunt in a loose formation, ensuring the kids are always within my sights.
I'm glad the chieftain doesn't trust me with everyone's lives and sent a few escorts.
Even if they think I'm Alexandra, I'm nowhere near as strong as the Goddess.
I don't trust the Auto Battle, so if anything goes wrong, I'm happy to have some adults supporting us.
And if there is nothing, we have more eyes to find ore.
[Querry: When did I let you down in battle?]
Oh, I don't know. When you froze up, struck to the ground by the First Bride?
And even Omerta almost took me out, until I grabbed a hold of her, um, assets.
[Notice: I was busy calculating counters for the Saint, Ghisella's attacks.]
Yeah, and if she were to strike me while you do it, you planned to defend against them by laying on the ground. No, it's better if I stay in command.
And of course, Mabel is my second in command. Varró — her mother — must have liked my little gift yesterday if she allowed her to hang out with me again.
The little green puppy of a girl is the absolute MVP of this tribe.
And she's the only one with such a human-sounding name among the kids.
The adults have a Charlotte and a Hank or Hana, while the rest have weird and hard-to-pronounce names.
The other kids also listen to calls that could pass as grumbling or crying instead.
Orc names are weird. They don't treat their families as humans do either.
Mothers are one thing. They care for the cubs in the first few years, but then they become one in the tribe like all the others. They are all sisters and brothers here in that sense.
Adults don't mate within the tribe. As it turns out, that's how their numbers dwindled.
A strong tribe draws Orcs from others when they mate and settle down.
The Thirteenth Battalion lost plenty of men and women to the same thing.
They all left for other tribes to mate because this village didn't have a future.
It wasn't meant to be a village in the first place. It was a temporary camp until the Goddess returned.
And poor guys got me instead.
Whatever plans Alex had with her Banners, she didn't say. I won't be guessing either.
The best I can do is sort out the village and make it attractive for the other Orcs in the area.
If my weapons and defenses can impress the neighboring tribes, so should I the Goddess.
And if I impressed her, she might forget about those nudes I sent to her phone.
God, I hate myself for that.
One week. She said she'll be back in another week, and that's all the time I need to whip up this place. With this silly cheat skill, it should be easy.