The direction of that conversation was making me nervous, but then Robert added, “He was obviously sent by the gods to help me reach my true potential.”

  Tauri and Elgar just shook their heads then, but a moment later Kittikork appeared in our group interface and then I got a series of notifications saying three players had joined POP and I was 3/10th of the way to completing that quest requirement. I kept my smile on the inside, but this was gonna be fun.

  When we engaged with bears, most of them gave us little to no XP because of the level difference. The most we were getting was a single point. The giants were better. We got 13 XP for a level 29 hill giant. The kills came so fast that Tauri really only had time to bring monsters in. I primarily focused on melee because it was simply faster, along with an occasional spell.

  “Stack the corpses and let’s see if we can get some drakes to attack. We need to fight more than one or two at a time in order for this to be worthwhile,” I said.

  Thanks to the Strength granted by my Talisman, even the humans were able to drag the beasts’ corpses into a stack when we had half a dozen hill giants and twice as many bears it made a veritable mountain of flesh. We hadn’t looted them for the express purpose of leaving remains to attract drakes.

  After about five minutes, we stood there impatiently. I hadn’t caught sight of a drake yet and our time here was almost up. As much as I wanted more XP, I needed to get back to the village. It had been almost two days and if I hurried back, I could get back before the other elders respawned.

  Since I wasn’t feeling patient, I channeled mana into a Flameburst and held it in the very center of the corpse pile. The flames started to sear the flesh and send a smoke up into the air without me allowing it to explode. Within another three minutes, there was a column of smoke carrying the scent of roasting meat into the zone.

  That was all it took. I heard the screeching of drakes in the distance and soon more than I had expected descended on the feast. I kept slowly pouring mana in until eight drakes were digging into the buffet laid out before them. The spell was charged up and cost me over half my huge mana pool as I finally let it explode. But for the obstruction of the corpses which acted as a partial shield, it would have taken half their HP. As it was, each of the drakes still lost nearly a third of their health.

  The corpses were flung in every direction, but Tauri’s group invisibility spell cleared all the agro. The drakes snapped and bit at each other, but then settled down to their separate feasts. This allowed the team to attack one of the drakes at the edge of their group.

  First, I took some time for some Rapid Meditation. The skill even ticked up another level, but at this point it increased my regeneration rate by 6 times. It took as long to settle into the meditative state as it did to regenerate my expended mana at this rate. But I never would have risked it if the team hadn’t built up some trust with me.

  Then we attacked with coordination. A lightning bolt and Frostburn were followed by Tauri leaping onto the beast’s back. I noticed that one of her daggers was different now. It had a green blade and seemed to pierce into the drake’s scales as easily as a hot knife through butter. Robert didn’t even get to attack before it was dead.

  Drakes had high armor value from their scales, excellent mobility, and fearsome attacks, but they lacked the vast amounts of health their larger dragonkin were rumored to possess. As it was, this plan worked for four of the drakes before the other three noticed what was going on.

  It felt good to be a team. I had kept my mana mostly charged up. We all could move far faster than normal because of Wolf Spirit, and my Scale Skin buff combined with my new hauberk provided me with almost as much armor as Robert had. He yelled a taunt to one.

  I shouted, “Kittikork, focus your heals on Robert.”

  Since the drakes were on the ground, I managed to get a root off onone of the others. That never would have worked when they were nine levels above me, but at only two levels above, this was a manageable battle. Elgar and Tauri went to work on the trapped one, leaving the last one for me.

  I rushed it as though I was a warrior rather than a shaman. As we closed, I cast Frostburn on it and then began channeling extra mana into the DoT effect. It leapt into the air trying to escape, which was the one thing I didn’t want. Keeping it on the ground was a top priority. So, I leapt at it. My spear was extended in a thrust. I grunted as the tip met hardened drake scales, but my buffed Strength was over 160, so ogre muscles won out.

  Then, not wanting it to pull away, I left my spear stuck in the space where its sinuous neck met the shoulder. My arms grasped that neck and I hung on, squeezing with all my might. Bony spikes pierced through my buff and produced bleeding wounds, but I never considered letting go.

  My heart was pounding and my blood was pumping. This was what it was to be alive. Then it was like I was seeing red. This pathetic lizard was not going to stop me. I felt a surge of power flow through my body.

  Ogre’s Rage has been triggered. HP: +100%, Strength: +100%, All Damage Resistances +100%. Spell casting Locked. Rage lasts 1 minute.

  I didn’t even care about the notification. All that mattered was the struggled between me and this drake which rocked back and forth, bucking its body as it tried to dislodge me. Frostburn ate away at its HP steadily as I struggled to snap its neck. My legs braced against its shoulders and I twisted with the might of arms.

  The creature rolled around on the ground, but I would not be dislodged. Still, I held on, forcing the neck to twist as I wanted inch by inch, moment by moment. Eventually, after a struggle which felt like it had lasted an hour, the creature’s neck gave way. I heard a strange snapping sound and the body under me went limp.

  The exaltation of victory surged through me as I stood upon the corpse of my fallen foe. Foes, allies, it didn’t really matter at this moment, not to me. I needed to fight. I needed to prove my power over all the world.

  Then words hit my mind. “Would you be free?”

  It was no outside voice. Rather, it was the siren call of my soul. Power over this world meant nothing if I was a slave to its system, but a cog in the machine. Perception is reality. In that moment, I overcame the Ogre’s Rage and brought it to an end early. Adrenaline still pumped through my body, but I looked at my team.

  Elgar and Tauri had already finished their target. That was to be expected. Robert was still taunting his target as it railed against his new shield. What wasn’t expected was how Kittikork leapt in. She didn’t hold back but instead charged forward, holding a large axe that the paladin had loaned to her.

  Her blow came down on the neck of the beast. She was only level nine and while Talisman enhanced her strength, I didn’t expect it to cause a deep wound. But despite that, the blade sank in and great gouts of blood spurted forth. It was a mortal wound, for sure.

  We all stood there in awe. Then Robert slapped her on the back, congratulating her. I could tell that she was in the throes of Ogre Rage herself, but then a calmness came over her suddenly. It was odd. The warriors I had seen rage were always very powerful, but also needed to be avoided while they were raging.

  Behind me, I heard Tauri ask Elgar, “Did you see that black flash around the axe?”

  That worried me, but I couldn’t quite say why. My mind was a jumble, trying to process everything that had just happened. There was significance to my breaking the Ogre’s Rage. I simply didn’t know what it was, but instinctively I knew it was important.

  Then we were hit with XP notifications. Between the bears, giants, and drakes, we had just made 357 XP. It was enough to push Kittikork up to level 10. It was also sobering to me. We had just fought seven level 31 drakes and despite that, because of our level gains, I still had gained barely more than a third of a level. I was going to have to think through the options or my days of rapid leveling were over.

  Chapter 36- Rebuilding

  Once the barrier was down, we began racing back toward the town. Wolf Spirit made for a quick run, but it still took us a couple of hours. If my math was right, then Tulbat would be respawning very quickly. Time was limited. I explained my plan to the others while we went. They seemed to understand that it would be important how I introduced them to the village.

  Kittikork was strangely quiet, but I chalked it up to her deciding what to do with her level up. She was now able to choose an affinity. I fully expected that she would go with healing, which worked for me. She had a tender heart, at least as far as ogres went. Eventually, I asked her about it.

  “Are you excited about passing the threshold?”

  She continued running, but slowly looked over at me. “Oh, yeah, right. Very. Will be good for village.”

  The cadence of her speech was off, but I was too distracted to worry about it too much. “So, what affinity did you select?”

  Without missing a beat, she replied, “Plague bringer.”

  I hadn’t expected that, but then again, what did I really know about what motivated an ogre. Just about then, the village came into sight, and I had the players hold back while Kittikork and I ran forward.

  It was immediately encouraging when I reached the village and saw large stacks of timber piled up. It wasn’t very neatly stacked, but there were a ton of logs. There were even some stacks of what took to be iron ore. So maybe they had followed orders while I was gone.

  Then I heard the fighting and realized I might have jumped to conclusions. I sped ahead and on the other side of one of the lumber stacks, two ogres were pushing each other. It had all the makings of a schoolyard fight where neither one really wanted to hurt the other, but they also weren’t willing to back down.

  “What’s going on here?”

  Both ogres and those gathered around to watch all turned when they heard my voice. One of the new shamans came running over as she spoke, “Elder, youz iz back.”

  “Uh, yeah, so what is this fighting about?”

  She turned and pointed at one of the two ogres who had been fighting. “Himz say no more need lumberjacks. Himz tell others they not allowed buy skillz. Himz say…”

  I held up my hand and thankfully, she stopped talking. “How many lumberjacks do we have now?”

  The shaman held up her fingers and started counting. Then looked down at her toes and after a moment shrugged her shoulders. “Mez no have nuff toes for count.”

  I didn’t have time for this. So, I shouted as loudly as I could. Gather all the ogres. I have an important announcement to make.”

  When they didn’t move fast enough, I hurled a Flameburst at their feet. That got them moving. Within a few minutes, most of the village was gathered. I was glad that ogres were late risers, mostly.

  While I waited, I looked at the village stats. There had been some definite improvements. It also meant I wouldn’t have to ask as many questions.

  Ghazban Village

  Population: 347/350 (46 caster, 301 melee)

  Level 20-39: 1

  Level 10-19: 197

  Level 1-9:149

  Energy: 927

  Morale: Tolerable

  Crafts:

  Cooks: 13

  Woodcutter: 55

  Miners: 34

  Alchemist: 1

  Butcher: 14

  Skinner: 17

  Herb Gatherer: 10

  Materials:

  Iron Ore: 1312 units

  Lumber: 7114 units

  It even provided me with more information than before. By clicking on the population figures, I saw how many were casters and how many were warriors. I also saw the number within each level range. Even while gathering all this material, they had managed to level up significantly, and it showed in our daily energy production, which was up to 546/day.

  Some other conclusions were easy to make. The lack of tools were really hurting the miners as the woodcutters were producing units of lumber far faster. I could also see that morale had gone up. The smell of cooking fires pervaded the camp site where we would rebuild the village. That certainly played a part as ogres were ruled by their stomachs.

  My mind was churning with possibilities, but once everyone was gathered, I began speaking. “Ogres of Ghazban Village, I have returned. I rescued Kittikork from those who captured her.”

  A cheer went up at that. Ogres loved to make noise.

  I shushed them when I got tired of waiting and then continued. “I have also made new allies for our tribe. They will teach us many things.”

  One of the ogre sergeants grunted, “What be alliz?”

  “They are humans who will work for our tribe,” I shouted back.

  “Humanz is foodz,” one voice shouted.

  “No humanz tastez bad. Humanz is slaves,” another shouted back.

  Neither of those options worked for my plan. I raised my hand and gathered a Frostburn spell and allowed the energy of the spell to coalesce above my palm as I channeled more and more energy into it. Again, it got their attention.

  “These humans are neither slaves nor food. They are stronger than any ogres other than Oogliefrank. They can teach us to make armor and to learn magic. They will be our friends.”

  That concept definitely had them confused. Other voices were raised in protest, but I thumped each one in turn. My buffed body was more than a match for even the melee ogres. After a few minutes, they got the idea beaten into them and were all mumbling, “Yes, elder.”

  Only after I was sure they would not attack the team on sight did I send Kittikork back to bring them here. If I had been a player, I would be able to simply send them a message, but that option didn’t function for me as a Hybrid Intelligence. There was still plenty of hooting and hollering when I brought them in, but we had planned for this.

  First, I let several of the ogres challenge the team one on one. Most wanted to challenge Robert first as they saw him as tiny, but still the largest of the humans. Once he had shield bashed a dozen of them into submission without ever having to draw his weapon, the next one wanted to move onto an easier target.

  I had to give it to the ogres. They were persistent. It was just a matter of pointing that persistence in the right direction. Since Elgar was male and the second largest, they challenged him next. He repeatedly electrocuted the ogres and thankfully was able to send them to the ground in spasms without killing any of them. Their bladder and bowels might have emptied themselves involuntarily, but that didn’t really make them smell any worse. It only took eight challengers before they conceded the wizard was beyond their might.

  The next batch wanted to challenge Tauri. The half-elf was petite even by human standards and so she was positively a wisp to the ogres. Many of them taunted the one that first challenged her, saying he was going to fight a fairy of the forest. Apparently, it was looked down upon for an ogre to seek too easy of an opponent.

  Time and again, the rogue made them eat their words. They never laid a fat finger on her as she danced around her opponents. She lacked a non-lethal way to quickly end the fights, but in some ways the humiliation which she handed out was even more convincing.

  When all the challengers were laying on the ground groaning or had otherwise given up, the three players all lined up in front of me and then bowed to me. I called out, “As an elder, I now declare these three to be honorary tribe members of Ghazban Village. You will treat them with all the respect their strength demands.”

  The chant, “Strength iz ogre way” was taken up by most of the village. I could tell the players were skeptical, but at least they were still here, and they had all received an additional faction modification when I declared them to be honorary members of the village. They were moved all the way to the minimum threshold for the status: polite.

  We didn’t have the resources yet to build the structures for blacksmithing, enchanting or alchemy, so I assigned Tauri to take out ogres in pairs to work with them on leveling and scouting techniques. Likewise, for now, Elgar and Robert would take out teams and watch over them as they leveled.

  I asked for volunteers who wanted to become the builders for our town. I required that they be at least level 10 and many of those wanted to go out hunting. So, I had to offer a double food ration to anyone who worked as a builder. That got me a hundred volunteers, which would probably stretch our cooking capacity and end up as too much of a jumble. I only allowed twenty of them to stay and took some of the strongest we had.

  Tulbat would be back any minute and sometime late tonight, Shemi would be back. It would be midday tomorrow before Kerkek was back. I wanted to make the most of this time and so I spent points again. This time I created 6 carpenters. It spent most of our points, but it was worth it.

  I then showed them where I wanted the first couple of longhouses to be placed. The basic knowledge of how to build one came with the carpentry skill. I didn’t possess that knowledge, but I could organize them into two working crews. Each building was going to require three thousand lumber to make, but it would be worth it. The wood cutters were going to be bringing back about that much wood each day.