Once I was content that the construction would at least begin on the right foot, I headed for the respawn area. Tulbat and I had never gotten along. In the past he held the advantage over me, but this time I was the more powerful by far. I wanted to be there when he respawned, so I could set him on the right foot.

  I didn’t have long to wait. Within moments of my arrival, the air began to sparkle, and then that light coalesced into the form I had expected. He appeared with all his gear, including the massive hammer he seemed to favor. There were a few seconds of disorientation, and then he looked at me.

  This was the moment of truth.

  “Elder Oogliefrank, goodz to see youz. Youz keep village safe?”

  I detected none of the hostility which normally existed between us. It was as though there was a clean slate and I could write a new plan from here. “The village was destroyed by our enemies, the kingdom of Belchor. But we are rebuilding. We are becoming stronger. We will show them the power of ogres.”

  I hated the way I spoke sometimes now. The longer I remained an ogre, or maybe it was, the more I was around other ogres, the more I slipped into some of their speech patterns. I needed to remember to make a conscious effort not to become a moron. That thought made me snort. Tulbat looked confused when I did, so I had to cover it up.

  “Now that we have our Head Warrior back, it will be better. We are working on leveling everyone up and must get stronger. Head Warrior will have to get stronger, too. You should find one of the humans who joined our village and perhaps go hunt stronger monsters. It will help you gain levels faster.”

  An odd series of expressions crossed Tulbat’s face. He appeared confused, then angry. Finally, he smiled. “Is good youz defeated humans. Make them part of tribe. Make them work, make ogres strong. Strength is ogre way.”

  I nodded. “Get used to things, then work on gaining levels. We must be much stronger.”

  With a grunt, he ran off into the woods, presumably to hunt. That really went better than I could have expected. I was shocked he hadn’t contested that there were humans and a half-elf in our village now. But whatever the process of respawning did for AI driven NPCs, it seemed to adapt him to the situation as it was.

  __________________________________

  Life over the next few days settled into a pattern. It took two weeks for us to build the necessary buildings. We now had seven longhouses, a chief’s hut, two storage huts, a dining hall, and alchemist’s hut. We still had plans to build a forge and an enchanter’s hut. I had put off building some other buildings like barracks just because it was easier to have the ogre’s build another longhouse since they already knew how to do so.

  Leveling had also gone very well. Most of the warriors were up to level twenty. They seemed to stall out at about that point, which caused me some concern, but it was progress for now. The same thing happened with craft skills. Apparently, they would need something a bit more challenging to push them through.

  Because of our increased population, our daily energy count was now up to 978 with an upkeep cost of 242/day. Despite having more buildings, because we were building them by hand, the system wasn’t charging as much to maintain them. This had led to a current surplus of 8,243 points.

  Every day the elders asked about putting up more buildings and everyday I had to explain to the others why it was not a good idea. Insta-building was easier, but in the long run, the extra upkeep costs were simply not worth it. Fortunately, the other three elders all seemed willing to listen to me. And for whatever reason, the others had not automatically been granted elder status when they reached level 20.

  Digging into the interface explained that a bit further. We could have other elders, but they needed to have a designated role. We still had room for a chief enchanter, blacksmith, hunter, builder, runesmith. It seemed to be capped at that. Also, in order to become an elder in one of the crafts, it was apparent that their skill had to exceed 20. There was still so much to figure out in this world or game or whatever it was.

  Shemi was no longer the tribe’s head shaman. That distinction fell to me. I had out-leveled her and while she was back to level twenty-six, she seemed content to be the head alchemist. She now led a cadre of alchemists and, with Tauri’s help, they were learning to make a wider variety of potions. The half-elf had even made a trip to the capital of Belchor to buy some more recipes.

  Ghazban village could now reliably produce Uncommon quality healing potions, mana potions, and, of course, poisons. It was looking more like that was the direction we were headed. Even the warriors were being trained in how to fight with poison on their blades. Ogres didn’t adapt to change very well, but they were learning. Fortunately, we had enough shamans around to heal all the mishaps which occurred.

  As for Elgar and his team, they were invaluable assistants. We hadn’t been able to create any oracles yet, but once we were ready to add to the village’s population, then I hoped we could do so. The same for Robert’s blacksmithing skill. We needed a forge for that. The good news being that the miners had gathered a large amount of iron ore and, with some tips from Robert, were finding the other elements necessary to make steel.

  I was surprised at how well the three of them had been adopted into the village. There were still occasional challenges, but they kept leveling, so they stayed ahead of the average ogres. Sure, they came and went as they would log out, but usually one of the three of them was with us. I would be lying if I didn’t admit I was jealous of their ability to leave the game, but I simply swallowed that bitter pill and kept it to myself.

  Morale was up and I had been able to carve out a bit of time for myself in the past day or so. The dining hall probably helped with morale as the quality of food seemed to improve. We now had several cooks with skills at level 20 and my cooking skill was past 30. I even managed to carve out time to gain enough XP to reach level 30.

  That, however, reminded me I hadn’t learned any new spells for a while. First, I wanted to acquire some new standard spells to see what options I might have. Shemi might not be my instructor anymore, but she still had more spells from the system than I did. It took some finagling, but I eventually got her to teach me three more spells.

  The one I was most excited about was a summoning spell.

  Call Brother Wolf (Proficient 5)- This spell summons a wolf spirit made flesh. It will serve as a faithful companion and obey you as though you were the alpha of the pack. The wolf creature summoned has a level equal to your level in this spell -5, but never higher than your actual class level.

  Brother Wolf Level: Variable

  HP: 500 +20/level Attack: Bite- 20-70 dmg + 5/level

  Resistant: Cold Vulnerable: Fire

  Mana Cost: 100+10/level. Duration: 1 hour + 2 minutes/level. Range: Must stay within 1 mile of the caster. Cool Down: 1 hour.

  I got the spell at Proficient level five. The benefit of Pack Master showed here in that the spell was cast as though it was 3 levels higher. This was definitely one I had wanted and couldn’t wait to try it out. It was also one with a cool down, so it wasn’t like you could use the wolf recklessly.

  Shemi warned me that if I ever tried to cast it again while the first one was active, the two wolves would fight each other to the death and the survivor would attack me. I didn’t ask how she knew that.

  The next spell she taught me was not one that thrilled me, but there would be times I needed it.

  Moderate Healing (Proficient 4)- Range: 120’+3’/level. Instantly heals target for 250+10/level. Mana Cost: 40+2/level. Cool Down: 12 seconds.

  I wasn’t fond of playing the healer role, but it had come in handy. And while the cool down on Brother Wolf didn’t bother me, it made this healing spell considerably less valuable. At my current level, it would cost me 48 mana to cast for 290 HP worth of healing. If I could have spammed that once per second, it would have been a truly valuable spell. Oh well.

  The final spell was a much needed one. Really, it was an upgraded version of a spell I had already been offered before.

  Polluted Breeze (Proficient 8) Creates a stream of poisonous mist which affects any enemies in the AoE. Range: 60’+3’/level. Width: 10’+1’/level. Duration: 10 seconds +1/level. Effect: Poison damage 20 per second for duration. Continues for up to 5 seconds after fleeing the AoE. If the target does not resist, a poison counter is added every 5 seconds. Poison counters stack and increase the effect of all poisons by 10%. Poison counters can only be removed magically. Mana Cost: 80+2/level.

  It didn’t have the incredible punch that Frostburn had against a single target and the mana cost was high enough that channeling extra mana into it would come at a real expense. But at its maximum level, it would be 30’ wide by 120’ and would damage or weaken everything within that area. Tauri would love it as it stacked with her abilities. The best part was that it would only affect enemies, so I didn’t even have to worry about casting it where allies were fighting.

  Now the next thing for me to do was to meditate on what I should create for another signature spell. I was able to learn one at each threshold. I had two slots available from level 10 and 20. The best part about signature spells being that they leveled up with me.

  An ogre’s body was not really made for sitting cross legged on the ground. I was certainly never going to convince anyone that I was a monk. I had found with Rapid Meditation that it wasn’t necessary for my legs to be crossed. Instead, I performed what I perceive to be the fat man pose where my legs only crossed at the ankles.

  It still worked for what I needed. My first idea was to see if I could convert Talisman of Arctic Force into a signature spell. I tried combining it with Scale Skin to give the ultimate defense bonus. But it didn’t work. I simply couldn’t get the spell patterns to line up in my head.

  Part of me was doubtful it would work. Every time I learned a new spell, either from leveling or from Shemi, it came with a brief searing pain and a new ring of runes tattooed onto my arm. My spell like ability had not given me a tattoo, but it was too good not to at least try. After trying to combine it with every other defensive spell I knew, I admitted it just wasn’t meant to be. At least not now.

  So that left me with the question of whether I needed another defensive spell or an offensive one. My defensive spells had long enough durations that it wasn’t much of an inconvenience to switch them out. On the other hand, I still felt like my spell damage was lacking. That only left the question of what the best offensive spell would be.

  I thought back over my battles. Whether alone or with the team, there was one spell that I relied on repeatedly. It had a glaring weakness, but that hadn’t been much of a problem so far. That spell was Root. I felt like Root had saved my life more than any other spell.

  I envisioned how much better Root could be if it inflicted damage as well. I knew it wasn’t my ideal spell, but I settled on Polluted Breath and Root for the combination. Intent played a part in this, so I focused on it being a single target spell. The idea of being able to root an entire field of enemies was pretty cool, but I worried it would either be too feeble or too costly to be worth anything.

  With my eyes closed, I focused until I visualized the elements of the two spells merging. A new tattoo formed, which took runes from each of the existing spells and copied them into a new pattern.

  Corrupted Vines (Basic 10)- Causes magical vines to break up from the ground and capture the target. Even as the roots break, more will spring up. Each vine is covered in thorns, which inflict piercing damage and inject a poison.

  The spell creates 1 vine + 1 per 5 levels. Each one has Strength equal to the caster. All vines must be within 30’ of another vine. The vines may be summoned all at once or over the duration of the spell.

  If the vines are not strong enough to stop movement, then they only slow it. Once broken, the vine dies. Each vine inflicts 5 piercing and 5 poison damage per second. Duration: 20 seconds + 1/level. Mana: 50 + 1/level. Spell damage will upgrade upon reaching a new tier.

  Hmm… at first, I was bummed out that it was only a basic spell. Then I realized this was the signature spell for my level 10 threshold, so that made sense. I was further encouraged by the fact that the damage would scale up once I got the spell to the proficient tier.

  Chapter 37- Dark Kitty

  After getting the new spells, I took them out for a test drive. There wasn’t much of anything to fight closer than the Valley of Hills, which could provide me with XP now. I was nervous to be away from the village too long, but I figured being gone for a few hours wouldn’t matter.

  I managed to earn a little less than 300 XP in a few hours. It was slower than before by a good margin, but nothing provided me with much of a challenge. I found that even a drake wasn’t immune to my new signature spell. The vines would snap up and catch them as long as they weren’t more than 30’ feet above the ground.

  Since they had to dive to attack me, it took some timing, but it worked quite well. I would pop out all three vines at once and the damage was fairly impressive. Drakes died in a matter of seconds once trapped. They were too strong for one vine, but three were able to hold them and that triple damage was deadly.

  I also found that Brother Wolf was an excellent hunting companion. He didn’t talk. That left me to my own thoughts. My mind raced about the breach and what it might mean for me. But truthfully, I found it easier to focus on what was in front of me. I was just determined to examine the severed hand I had captured.

  Honestly, the combination of having Brother Wolf to distract attention from me and my new solo killer spell made me want to chuck the entire leader thing and just focus on my leveling. The only thing that kept me from doing so was an unspoken fear of the system.

  It had threatened me enough times to know that I needed to not step too far out of line. It was clearly intending to create a larger conflict, so I had to be a good little pawn and play my part. I swore it wouldn’t always be like that. I was going to be free. That felt too close to the question I had been asked twice, so I shut down that line of reasoning for now.

  When I returned to the village, we had collected points from another day. Our lumber supplies were being built back up and the evening meal was being served. I settled in near the other elders. They were all deferential to me since the respawn, even though Kerkek was the chief. If I had to live with a bunch of stupid ogres, I figured it was better if they did what I wanted.

  On my way back to the village, I got a notification.

  Abnormal Activity Detected in Ghazban Village.

  New Quest Assigned: Investigate Potential Breach

  Go to your village and determine if there is a breach. Readings are anomalous. You are the system asset best positioned to deal with this issue.

  Reward: 1,500 XP, 1 enchanted item

  Failure: Zone wipe and reset

  Great, another quest I had no choice about. I wasn’t given the option to accept or decline. I either went and acted as guard dog for the system AI or lost everything I had been working for. I wanted to scream out loud, but it wouldn’t accomplish anything, so I just stuffed it down deeper. There was gonna be quite a mess if that can of worms ever broke open.

  I didn’t have to wait long to find out what was going on. As soon as I was back in the village zone, I could feel the difference. There was an icy chill in the air that had nothing to do with the temperature. It most definitely reminded me of the possessed necromancer we had to deal with.

  I was startled when Tauri leaped down from a tree just as I was running past it.

  “About time you got back. Something is going wrong,” she said as she began running next to me. I cast Wolf Spirit on her or she would never be able to keep up.

  “What is it?”

  She scratched her head. “Elgar was the first one to notice it. He was trying to teach lightning spells again. He won’t give up on that one, seems to be sure that he can create a storm shaman.”

  “That’s great, but what did Elgar notice?” I asked impatiently.

  “Oh yeah, sorry. I know how important this village is to you. Can’t tell if it’s all an act or if it is just your programming, but I guess it doesn’t matter. He said the mana was off. Not like gone, just that it didn’t feel right. I don’t use any mana, not sure what he means. Robert just said he felt an aura of unholiness spread throughout the zone.”

  “Did he discover what was wrong?”

  “No, but just before he sent me to wait for your return, some of the ogres started acting oddly,” she replied.

  “Oddly how?”

  “Like just walking around aimlessly. It was like their subroutines had been deleted and they didn’t know what to do. They didn’t even react to being touched.”

  My mind was racing. That didn’t sound good. I hoped they weren’t being corrupted in some way. This sort of thing sounded more like a hack into the system AI or at least some of the subsystems. That had to be more plausible than the idea that this was a breach from some reality outside of the game world. But then, what did I know? Not that long ago, I had a flesh and blood body. Now, I was just a digital life-form, and yet I still felt all the same sensations, maybe even with more clarity.