The only scars that players should have in LoS were the ones they selected as part of their character creation process. Appearance was highly customizable, but healing always removed any sign of an injury. So that was another mystery.

  I turned to follow the ogres to Shemi’s hut, but once again I glimpsed shining metal on the ground. As I turned to look at it, my eyes glanced over it, but then refocused again. With some effort, I could see a pyramid lying there. It appeared completely undamaged, despite the scorched ground all around it.

  It was about three inches on each side. When I lifted it up, it was golden on one side, pale white on another, and green on the third. Each had a symbol with it, while the base side was blank and gray. The golden side was marked with the symbol for artificer, while the white and green sides bore the signs for master and witch, respectively.

  I bent down and picked it up, and no one around me seemed to notice. Most of the village was returning to its normal activity while the three players were going with a group of shamans to Shemi’s hut. The triangle buzzed in my hand and then stopped as soon as I squeezed it.

  There was something to this, but I needed to help my friends first. So, I dropped it into one of the pouches around my waist. Then I followed the procession of the injured.

  Once we were at Shemi’s hut, Robert woke up. He had just been set down, and he seemed disoriented. I explained I had managed to defeat the being, but it caused an explosion that knocked everyone out. He asked me, “What happened to Kittikork?”

  Shemi looked at him, “Who youz talkin bout?”

  I answered for him, “Kittikork, your niece. She is one of the shamans in our village.”

  Her forehead wrinkled and her eyebrows came together. “Mez think mez would knowz name of all ogres in village. There no be any ogre named Kittikork.”

  The players and I all shared a look. We obviously remembered her, but at that moment Tauri cried out in pain again and we put the issue of the missing ogresses and amnesia to the side. “Can I get some help here? This is killing me.”

  She was not a pleasant patient, but at least Shemi seemed to know what she was doing. Interestingly, there was a slight disruption in the mana flow at her wrist. Once Shemi set the bone, amidst Tauri’s cursing, the flow returned to normal. My interdimensional sight didn’t show me any of those black fibers, either. It was easily healed once it was set and Tauri didn’t appear any worse for the wear.

  On a whim, I checked out the scar on Elgar’s face. It showed the slightest disruption of mana there, too. It wasn’t along any of the actual channels that his mana flowed through, but I couldn’t say how it would affect him. For now, I just kept that knowledge to myself. There was a great deal I needed to figure out.

  We ended up calling it a day. They logged out to get some relaxation, and I decided to meditate in the forest. The rest of the village continued on as though there was nothing wrong. The moon was just rising, and it was a fairly dark twilight, which was fine. That fit my mood.

  The way I thought about this, there was something at work here. Maybe it was a new element to gameplay, which the system was introducing. It was distinctly possible that it could be using me as a guinea pig. But a nagging part of me just didn’t believe that.

  I decided it was time to process some of the questions I had. I pulled out the clawed hand I had severed while it was attempting to come out of the breach. Looking at it very closely, I saw that the skin was a mottled gray. It looked ancient as it was stretched tautly against the bones.

  I looked at it with mana sight and the hand was completely devoid of any mana at all. But when I used my interdimensional sight, it was practically crawling with those black fibers. As I focused on it more, I could see that they took the forms of rune like symbols. They were not ones that I recognized from Selmia, but they still gave off the same impression. They behaved differently though, as they appeared to be carved into the flesh itself and kept shifting from one runic form to another.

  The hand was very dead, but the remnants of energy in it were very much alive. Although, as I watched it, I could tell that the energy was slowly dissipating. That meant, if I wanted to study this energy, I didn’t have an unlimited amount of time to do so. I remembered one of the quests which had popped up in the strange red text.

  New Quest: Building from the Outside In- Trans-dimensional Body I

  Learn to temper your body with the aether of the cosmos. Flesh is but a dream. Reality is but perception. Beauty is only skin deep, but skin of stone is much harder to pierce.

  Reward: Mastery of Skin Like Stone Concept STR: +5, AGI: +5, CON: +10, Damage Resistance of all types +5.

  Failure: Is its own reward.

  Was it possible that these black threads of power were this ‘aether of the cosmos’ which the quest mentioned. I thought back and considered each encounter I had with the black threads. Each time, I had been in great danger. But then I applied a more critical lens to the experiences.

  The creature was obviously powerful, yet it had never caused me any serious harm. It tried to offer me knowledge each time. Of course, that could be its own agenda. After how I ended up in my current predicament, my trust for powerful entities was largely gone.

  I had to make a decision, but it wasn’t an either-or decision. At least not the way I saw it. I had no way of knowing if I would ever see that creature again or if it had been destroyed by the system. I couldn’t even say if it was really from outside the game system or not. Trust for either it or the AI was out of the question. So, I would take what they both offered and try to forge my own path.

  With that in mind, I held the withered arm close. I opened myself up to the energy and focused on the trans-dimensional racial ability which showed up on my character sheet now.

  Nothing happened, and I began to wonder if I was going crazy. Instead, I just breathed slowly. I eased myself into a relaxed state. So many bad things had happened to me lately, it was either learn to go with it or drown. The more at peace I became, the more I felt the energy in the severed hand.

  Then, with a slow deep breath, I inhaled the power. Wisps of the black thread flowed from it into me. I felt it spreading all over my body like a fine mist. Somehow, I knew I was only pulling in the tiniest amount of it. I couldn’t handle more than that. Even with that, my skin began to itch. I trembled all over and focused on how the energy felt against my skin.

  I certainly didn’t want to be taken over, so I would take this slowly. I wanted to know I could control this energy rather than being controlled by it. Then the feeling passed. The amount of energy I had drawn in was fully infused into my skin, but it appeared as nothing more than the occasional tiny blips of black under my skin.

  My first instinct was to draw in more energy, but instead I looked at my character sheet. Trans-dimensional body had gone up to Basic 4. There hadn’t been any system notification, but it had still changed. I could keep second guessing myself about this, but instead I just wanted to relax. Maybe with time, I would see the path through.

  So, I placed the severed hand back into my pouch and laid down to sleep. I had no fear of the creatures in this forest. My current level of power was beyond them. In fact, I had a smile as I fell asleep. Soon it would be time to hunt down the bear-pede.

  I felt myself over and wasn’t sure. Maybe I felt stronger, but maybe it was just my imagination. No, stronger wasn’t the right word. Solid, that was more like it. It was a pleasant thought as I drifted off to sleep.

  When I woke, the sun had already started to break the horizon. It was unusual for me to sleep an entire night, but apparently the trauma of the day before really pushed me to the edge. I stretched and then walked back into the village. I didn’t feel different. No evil thoughts of controlling the world or ripping holes in the universe.

  Of course, I also didn’t feel any more powerful, but then again, going from Basic 3 to 4 in an ability wasn’t going to make that much of a difference. Now, I needed to plan with the elders. It was time for the village to expand. We also had to determine what buildings would be built next. It was important to keep growing and more of the tribe was reaching level twenty every day.

  Once I reached the village proper, I found the elders were all still sleeping. That shouldn’t have surprised me. In fact, most of the village was still out cold. The only ogres who were up moving about were the ones that were cooking. From what I understood, half a dozen of the ogres with cooking skills got tasked with getting up each morning. It certainly wasn’t creating a desire for more volunteers to learn this skill.

  I was still pleased with the skill. The quality-of-life change was huge, and it even provided buffs once you learned how to infuse mana into the cooking. Some of the cooks had been experimenting with the recipes from the cookbook we had captured. There was a great deal of trial and error unless I was there helping them, but the one recipe we had mastered was for light and fluffy pancakes.

  It had quickly become a favorite for breakfast. There was always fighting over the last of them whenever they were cooked. The buff they provided was minor, only +1 to Agility, but it could stack up to 5 times. Given that some of the ogre’s didn’t have a base Agility above 5, that was fairly substantial for some of them.

  Before I could check in with the cooks, I felt the disturbance I associated with players logging in. Elgar, Robert, and Tauri were still bound in a human newbie area outside of the capital of Belchor, but if they logged out here, they would reappear here when they logged back in. It was a convenient way for them to not have to change their bind spots. The only obvious problem would be if they died.

  I went to their usual spot and found them checking gear. When Elgar saw me, the wizard said, “We may have a problem.”

  Internally I groaned, but on the outside, I remained the stoic ogre I was supposed to be. “Oh?”

  “Yeah, there are rumors on some of the message boards about an ogre village being built up,” Elgar said.

  I shrugged. “It isn’t like we could keep it a secret forever. If we really wanted it to be a hidden village, we would have had to move it. The knights and high mages of Belchor already know where we are.”

  Tauri chimed in, “There are also rumors of an ogre who is grouping with players. I swear I haven’t told anyone about it. The big lug over there says he hasn’t either and Elgar is so tight-lipped he probably only eats through a straw.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I just remained silent. They would let me know how big of a problem they thought it was. I didn’t have access to the boards to know what was being said, so there wasn’t much choice in the matter.

  Of course, Elgar spoke up, “It likely isn’t a big deal yet. Most of it is being called a hoax, but eventually some players will come to investigate. And if you build up the village again, then Belchor may have something to say about that. But I have an idea for dealing with Belchor.”

  “I’m listening?”

  The wizard smiled at my reluctance. “I believe you told me you still had most of the equipment that you captured from the caravan?”

  I looked at him as I felt a wave of uncertainty go through me. My trust level was certainly low now, but I wanted to enjoy this existence for what it was worth. That meant making friends. “Yeah. Some of the cooking supplies and a bit of the armor have been used. But most of it won’t fit us.”

  “Good, that is fantastic,” the wizard said. “We need to work out a way for you to return that the Belchor as a sign of good faith. You can claim to be the new leader, which is true, and we can vouch for you.”

  “That should keep them off your back for you to work out whatever plan you have,” Tauri added.

  “Plan?”

  She just smiled. No words were necessary.

  Robert, though, wasn’t one to leave something unsaid. “Look, we know you have something in that colossal head of yours. We are most likely on board for it because the last few days have been the most fun I’ve had in a game ever. So, count us in.”

  We spent the next couple of hours discussing how I wanted to build up the ogre village into a nation that could hold its own place here. I don’t think they were convinced it was possible, but they must have gotten quests, because I saw their eyes go vacant for a minute and then they all smiled. If the system was going to use them to help me, I wasn’t going to argue with it.

  Once we had the plan in place, it was surprisingly easy to convince the other elders to allow me to take the items back to Belchor. I learned I could open the village inventory and trade out of it as long as I was in a city with a market. That would make the transport convenient. It raised questions about why the caravan had been necessary in the first place, but I didn’t ask. The system just seemed to make some things be done the hard way.

  I told them I would be gone for a few days and left instructions to build more longhouses so we could accommodate a larger population. I didn’t want to spend the points creating any craftsmen yet, and I didn’t want them to build any of the more important buildings while I was gone. Again, they were surprisingly compliant.

  Before I could leave, Shemi said, “Youz can’t go tillz bumping ooglies. Needz more ogres. Ghazban Village is stronger now. Spirits say time for more ogres.”

  I felt myself vomit a bit in my mouth. The thought of “bumping uglies” with any of these ogre women was too far for me.

  “Chief Kerkek and Head Warrior Tulbat can handle that,” I replied.

  “Oh, theyz will do some, but wez have forty-two females. Youz is strongest. Youz need do some bumping so wez get more powerful shamanz,” she insisted.

  In desperation, I said, “I’ve never done it before. I don’t know how. They will have to do it.”

  All three elders burst out into laughter so forcefully that they were rolling around on the ground. I was just a second away from casting Polluted Vines when Shemi finally said, “Make sense now why youz no make new ogres yet. Ogre way is strength. Strongest must makez more. But Chief can showz you.”

  I groaned because that was certainly not an image, I wanted to get stuck in my head. From a tree behind us, I heard Tauri laughing. I shouldn’t have been surprised that she was listening in on the elders’ meeting, but I still didn’t want to get razed about this anymore.

  Shemi wasn’t paying any attention to me though as she called out for the rest of the tribe to gather. She had all the ogresses gather in one line, and the male ogres all stood in a cluster across from them.

  Once it was explained that the time for expanding the village had come, a few of the level 20 ogre warriors stepped up, claiming that they should be allowed to sire new ogres. Kerkek and Tulbat quickly squashed them. Then Shemi announced I would sire half and half, would be sired by Kerkek and Tulbat.

  I waited for any of the ogres to step up. Heck, I was mentally begging for one of them to challenge me, but my power was too well known by this point. None of them said a word. Heck, I probably would have lost on purpose. There was no way I could do this 21 times.

  Then I watched as Kerkek walked up to Shemi. The two of them did a belly bump. Shemi started to glow slightly and then she smiled. “Spirits be pleased. Make village strong.”

  This process was repeated with half of the ogre females until there were only twenty-one still standing there. The entire village was now staring at me. It still freaked me out, but when they said bumping uglies, this is what they meant. If this was all that was involved, I decided I could handle it. In fact, I felt a sudden wave come over me. It was a powerful urge just like Ogre Rage or Ogre Hunger. It was all I could do not to eagerly rush up to the line of waiting ogresses.

  I walked up each time and bumped my belly against theirs. Each time, I felt a surge of power flow from me into the ogress and each time they let out a little squeak, followed by the glowing thing.

  Out of curiosity, I checked the village interface and saw the changes already.

  Population: 352/394 (47 caster, 303 melee) includes humans

  42 new ogres to spawn. Timer: 3 hours 59 minutes.

  Talk about a quick incubation period. Oh well, at least I was off the hook for what I thought was gonna have to happen. I told them to keep growing our village as fast as we could build housing and that I would be back in a few days. I promised to bring back some goodies, although I didn’t know what I would bring that the village would want. But it seemed to pacify everyone. Then I was off with the players.

  Chapter 39- Rumors

  Making it to the zones, which were officially part of Belchor, was not the hard part. In the wilds, as they called it, the only people we ran into were players. Many of them stopped and talked to us. After adding in the bonus from Snake Spirit, my faction with them was at Friendly, so most just considered me to be an oddity.

  I had to admit if I had still been a regular player of the game, I would have seen it that way, too. We took our time traveling and shot the breeze with a few different groups. Most of the adventurers in these zones between my village and Belchor were low teens up to mid-teens in level. These were not the newbie zones, but they were just one step removed.