Of course not!

John had won. He had done what he was supposed to and defeated another enemy who had been blocking his way... yet Urga's own sister remained adamant about John finishing his opponent off. There wasn't any way he could see of getting around it. He tried shaking his head at first and silently told her he wouldn't do it before the pack suddenly started to close in on him again. Lagash simply barked, repeating her order to finish it as she hefted her own weapon back up and marched with the rest of them.

It didn't make sense to him to be thrown into a situation by his powers where the only way he could get out of it was through killing. It didn't matter what they said or how threatening they got. He was not about to commit **** if he could avoid it.

"No," he declared adamantly, even when a dozen other Orcs nearly came within striking distance. "I'm not-" he was cut off suddenly as another large Orc spoke up. A man, of over seven feet in height, stepped forward cautiously and put a hand on Lagash's shoulder. He said something, though, really, with their language, all of their words sounded visceral and threatening like a simple series or growls and guttural attempts at spitting. Lagash trembled at the man's presence but still barked back at him, a tone of ice hidden under her indecipherable words as the two exchanged words, bringing the tribe to a full stop just before pummeling John to ****.

The two Orcs growled and fought with each other verbally, staring one another down as they both tried to hold their ground and stand determined over their fellow tribesman, but, eventually... Lagash stepped back. The woman growled, and like an animal **** into hiding, she fell to the back of the pack. The man turned to John with his bald, emerald-hued head and slowly bent down. Now that he had called specific attention to himself, it was pretty clear that that Orc was the biggest one there. He was tall and burly, with a kind of thickness to his overall body that John expected to see in football players back home. He was the kind of giant who would have broken world records with his height, though the other male Orcs really weren't that much smaller than him. He looked at John with his dark brown eyes and more armor strapped to his nearly naked form than the rest of the tribe had all together. In one hand, with a number of bones and metal spikes sticking out of it, he hefted a large club with straps of different kinds of fabric hanging from its hilt.

John watched as the big Orc bent down and grabbed the iron collar that Lagash had first thrown at him before the fight had even began. He straightened and tossed it to the young gamer, who let it land at his feet before looking back up the other Orc in confusion.

Was he really asking John to surrender again? He couldn't survive fighting another member of the tribe like that. He wouldn't have won, not with his low health. Surrender was starting to seem like it was the only option he had left. At that rate, he was just going to lose no matter what he did. He bent down begrudgingly and slowly picked the collar back up.

"What a fucked up situation-" John mumbled to himself under a quiet breath.

"Finish." The man repeated Lagash's initial statement and pointed at Urga with one of his calloused, green fingers. John followed his direction, glancing back and forth between the collar and Urga with new understanding, and everyone watched as... well, John just stood there. He was thinking it through.

It was actual slavery that the Orc was trying to push him to after all. In a way, it felt better to John than the alternative. He already knew that he would have treated her better than most and would have tried his hardest to make being a **** a better choice than just outright ****. Even if the Orc hadn't emphasized his statement with a fit of growling and waving of his weapon, John wasn't about to die or kill off what could have been his first real living piece of proof of a fantasy race actually existing. The collar felt like it really was his best option, so he knelt down again, crouching over Urga's groaning form as she weakly tried to struggle out of this new twist of fate.

Even if John hadn't had had his new strength, it wouldn't have taken him long to fight past Urga's struggling to fix the collar around her neck. They were both low on health, but John didn't feel any of the weakness that came from being so close to ****'s door. Urga simply just wasn't able to push him away. All the Orc could do was simply sit there as John tugged her **** arms to the side and slowly slid the metal collar shut around her throat. The iron ring closed with a loud clink, drawing a weak wail out of both Urga and Lagash, and then John's eyes widened as he watched the metal actually start to shrink and conform to fit perfectly around Urga's firm green neck.

It closed the gap between her skin and the collar, and after a couple seconds of having the item touch her, John watched as her eyes flashed a vibrant, violet color for a moment and then went back to normal. Her body went still, falling lax under the sudden pulse of magical energy, and once again, it seemed like all reason, all signs of life, slowly left Urga's bright blue eyes. Her expression fell flat with the thin, blank line crossing her lips, and she went completely still, doing nothing more than just staring up at John and waiting.

Orcish Archer Defeated!
+80 Experience
+1 Simple Longbow
+8 Simple Arrows
+1 Simple Collar Of Control

You have captured a new creature!
Orcish Archer Obtained!

You may now leave the Barrier at any point.

He actually had to stop for a moment and read through the collar's effects while he still could.

Simple Collar Of Control
This crude, iron collar is made for slaves and the training of them. On it, numerous sets of large, deeply-cut runes are engraved around the outside like a second ring so that the wearer may not scratch or alter any of its magic. This dark metal binding has no accessories save for one solid metal ring at its front. This item cannot be removed by any kind of traditional means.

• Commanded: Status effect (While Commanded, the wearer loses points in their Wisdom stat equal to the Owner's level multiplied by five until the wearer has completed their task. The subject's Wisdom score may not fall below 1.)
• Subjects may be put into or pulled from a near catatonic state at the issuing of a secret word or phrase. Secret words for items like this may be chosen by the Owner.
• +10 Libido while worn

"Feel better, now?" A deep, familiar female voice spoke up as John stared at his pop-ups with wide, unblinking eyes. Slowly, he **** himself to peel his gaze away from his new... belongings and look over at Lagash as she spoke. A part of him hated the idea of referring to another as nothing more than an owned item... and another part couldn't deny that there was also something undeniably arousing about it.

Lagash had all but yanked the male Orc to the side by his giant, cannon-sized arm. A deep, heavy growl rumbled dangerously in the center of his chest as she spoke carelessly in front of John as if he couldn't hear them.

Yet, he could hear them. More than that, he could understand them.

"You finally got Urga out of the pack... and somehow managed to pull an ugly pink-skin in as her replacement." John could see Lagash's mouth moving, and he had to blink a couple times to make sure he wasn't seeing things. He could legitimately understand them. The man's growl deepened and rose in volume as Lagash continued. "Perhaps you would have us be them? Turn the whole pack pink and weak until the Elves can just walk all ove-" Something in the larger man snapped at Lagash's words. In a flash of movement, one just as quick as Urga had been in her more powerful state, his hands shot out at Lagash's throat while John was still taking in the mention of more fantasy races. His fingers all but clapped against Lagash's neck as they collided, and with a simple grunt, he lifted her off the ground by her throat. A weak, angry gurgle escaped her full, snarling lips as she struggled to match his superior speed and strength by clawing and tearing at the bigger man's arm with her fingers, but it was no use.

"Perhaps you would like to join her?" his voice rumbled with a low, gravelly tone to it as he spoke. His gaze locked with hers, and for nearly a whole minute, the two of them just stayed like that as he actually seemed to **** her back into submission. After a while, Lagash stopped struggling. She shook her head and averted her gaze from the more powerful tribesman, and he slowly set her back down.

"What the fuck..." John mumbled softly just when the pack slowly started to disperse... and then promptly brought everyone’s eyes back to him. He heard the quick gasps and mumbles of disbelief as the group slowly repeated what he had come to believe.

John was speaking Orcish.

John waited until long after the surprise and astonishment had passed before he eventually chose a secret word for the collar. Urga didn't move until he did. She just laid there on the ground, unmoving and staring up at the sky while the pack gradually began to walk away from him again. It didn't take him very long to pick a word either. Most of his time deciding was spent on choosing what kind of reference he should make. In the end, it was a rather simple one that he found himself rather proud of and discovered that, if he said it right, he could add just the tiniest bit of noise to his secret phrase.

"Unpause...Pause...Unpause...Pause..." He did that for about five minutes until Urga was finally able to get back up onto her feet again. He didn't bother taking her stuff away from her; as angry as she seemed, she didn't even try attacking him again when she got back up. Even if she did, he could have just paused her again, and she seemed to get that.

As tempting as it was to go back to the group of heavily armed individuals waiting outside the locker John had been hiding in, he decided to stay in the barrier for a little while longer before he went back. He had become overly curious about the mention of Elves in the area, and when he asked the pack about what it was they were doing... well, they just told him to fuck off.

Urga was **** to answer him though and explained that after this most recent failure in their little raiding expedition, the group was going back to camp. It was a long trek, one that John quickly came to hate when they started scaling back up the cliffside they had come down, but he managed to regenerate his health and mana back up in the time it took for the group to return.

The journey on the top of the cliff was vastly different from what John had come to expect down below. Up top, there were no great expanses of rolling hills and plains. Instead, after a couple hundred yards, there was just a large, dark wall of forestry and vines. The cliff went up so high that, when they finally got to the top, John felt the air shift suddenly, and the intoxicating effects of the atmosphere that he had noticed so far seemed to double... and then triple in effect. The treeline became clearer as they got closer to it, and, when they eventually passed into it, the wall of darkness pervading the area seemed to dissipate in his immediate surroundings like some kind of translucent, black fog.

They traveled and walked for hours, until finally every last wound in John's body completely sealed up. Urga, who had been quiet and pouty over her recent loss was the only one who noticed how John happened to be strangely healing back up. In her surprise, she even managed to get the courage to ask him about it.

He didn't answer. He figured it was probably best for him to keep it a secret for now, even from Urga.

Eventually, the pack reached an area where John's senses were attacked and flooded by the potent aromas of various campfires, kinds of ale, and flavored meats. It was a heady mixture of scents and delights that just came wafting out of a spot that was just further into the woods. Somehow, when the camp actually came into view, it turned out to be bigger than John thought it would have been.

It was gigantic actually.

It reminded him of something out of a video game, mostly. The first thing he saw was what he assumed to be the chieftain's tent, though calling it a tent was perhaps an understatement. The leader's home was shaped like some giant Omega symbol that had been laid across the ground with the entrance to the building in the center of it. It was built around one giant, crude bonfire with a strange, tall, black, iron symbol standing straight up from the ground on the other side of it. The home was made up of a myriad of different materials, ranging from various pelts and hides for the tent ceiling, to thick pieces of cloths for windows, or actual rocks for a solid base. As he got closer, though, John realized it wasn't actually rocks being used like brickwork around the outside of the building but was instead a variety of different kinds of skulls. Most even seemed human-shaped.

At the entrance to this Omega-shaped tent stood a handful of guards, physically blocking the path for anyone else who tried to enter. They remained silent, and like everyone else in the camp, most of them were nude. The large pack that John came in with turned out to be much smaller than the original source of the tribe, and as he entered, the pack was greeted with dozens more Orcs who came to see them come back. Many stopped upon his approach and eyed him dangerously, but when no one when attacked after a while, they eventually came forward to see him, despite his own lack of a collar.

Most of the tribe's greeting was physical for John. They seemed to just want to reach out and touch him, brushing curiously at his strange choice of clothing or skin color despite the fact that John quickly came across a number of other slaves in the camp. Most of the slaves that were already there were Elves or humans, and almost all of them had a similar or matching complexion when compared to John.

None of the slaves ever came to greet John, much to his own surprise. They didn't try to speak to him or even ask for help in any way. They barely even looked at him when he walked by. They just went about their business, utterly obedient and completely trained.

Most of the large, tent-like buildings in the area could not be identified by John at a distance. He tried using Observe a couple times, but the answers it gave him were always fairly vague, describing the area as 'just a tent'.

The locals didn't even seem to understand what had happened until the one who turned out to be the head of the pack spoke up again. It was the man who had let John get away without killing Urga, and she didn't even bother speaking back when he ordered her to show John to his new tent. Upon that mention, when the natives saw the collar and reached the realization that John had won his challenge and beat Urga, they reacted. Strangely enough, they didn't react much to John. Most of the Orcs there just turned to face Urga, whereupon they began shouting obscenities and spitting at her as she walked. They berated her for her loss, sending her through a walk of shame as she was **** to do her new duty and lead John away, and she just took all of it.

It stunned John to see how quickly they turned on her. It stunned him so much that he didn't even react until one of the Orcs started to pick up rocks to throw at her, and then he had to step in.

That earned him a few growls.

"Foolish," Urga grunted when they finally reached his new tent. Despite the fact that she knew now that he could understand her quite well, she mostly just remained quiet. She chose to not say much of anything around him, but every now and then, glanced back at him as if checking to see whether or not he might try and **** her tongue to work.

"What?" John asked as he stepped inside his new shelter after her. It was a small abode compared to the other buildings there, and thankfully, this one actually seemed like a tent. There wasn't much inside of it other than a bed, completely made out of various furs and pelts, and a wooden chest shoved up against its far side.

"You," she turned and growled as she spoke, her heavy breasts brushing against his chest when they came face to face. He suppressed the urge to look down and groan as he felt her nipples slowly trace across his front. There was no mistaking that feeling of the way her body physically brushed against him. "Challenging them." She all but pointed out of the tent in the direction of the angry mob that they had just walked through as she spoke. "You want a collar?!"

"I-I didn't challenge them..." he stammered and felt his pants tighten as Urga stepped even closer to him and tugged on the ring of her own collar for emphasis. Her breasts squeezed and flattened slightly against his own chest as she moved, forcing John to stop her there with a single hand on one of her wide hips. He could already feel her body responding to the aura when she got that close. Her nipples had become hard already and were stabbing sharply into his torso as the two of them stood there. She didn't even bother registering to his statement before she continued speaking, she just kept going.

"Here!" She snapped and pulled hard on the collar's ring. It clanked softly, and her whole body shifted to fall and lean against him slightly with the strength of her own pull, but that was where she stopped. Urga glared at him for a few more seconds, as if daring him to challenge her again until his fingers started to slowly slide along her hips. The moment he touched her, though, Urga immediately pulled away, denying him any kind of physical contact with her like she knew how she was teasing him.

He wasn't sure if that actually was her intention since all of the Orcs dressed in almost nothing at all, but it certainly felt like teasing.

"Right..." John mumbled under a heavy breath and reluctantly turned his attention to the wooden trunk. There wasn't much inside of that either. He was able to make out some simple eating utensils, a bowl, and a mug, but there was really only one important thing in there. A loincloth... One that looked almost exactly like the one Urga was already wearing.

"Yours now," she grunted from behind John and scowled at him as she reluctantly gestured to the entire tent. "Everything." Her last word came out in the form of a harsh growl, explaining the arrangement with a tone of undeniable hatred in her voice.

Every last thing she had owned, every part of what she had been before... it was all just his now. It hadn't been his tent that he had obtained from joining the pack. It had been her tent all along that just went to him when he won against her in battle.

"Oh..." he paused. After a couple of long, awkward seconds John pulled his cell phone out of his inventory. He wasn't all that surprised to find out that there was no service. The time it had taken for him to do that battle and then travel to the camp had already cost him hours. By that point, if he had gone back, school would have been over and he was going to be late for work. Hopefully, Cassandra and her lackeys were gone too, otherwise he was going to have a problem. "Listen, uh... I need to go..."

Urga gave him a confused look.

"I don't know when I'll be back, but..." he paused as he stopped to look over at the time again. It had been over a minute already but the time hadn't changed. It was moving slower than usual, and after a little while he remembered the time distortion his Instant Barrier ability caused. "... I should hopefully be back by tonight." At least he hoped he would be able to get back. What little he had read on the information about barriers in Cassandra's book made it out to seem pretty rando-

Barrier Progress has been saved!
You may now choose to return to this barrier at a later point!

You have created a new Kingdom! ERROR: Kingdom has no official ruler.

New Quest Available!

New Quest: Rise To Rule or Ruin. Part 1 of 4
You have set yourself on a new journey in another world. However, safety is thin and nearly out of reach right now. Work to establish some real order if you can and change the kingdom for the better.

• Start a raiding pack of your own.

Reward

• 200 Exp

Optional Objective

• Recruit an Alpha Orc into joining your raiding pack

Rewards

• 200 Exp
• 1 New Ability

ACCEPT QUEST?
YES | NO

That pretty much alleviated all of his concerns about returning to the camp and left him all too confused about the way quests worked. He had two of them now. He wasn't complaining necessarily, but it left him with some new questions. If anything could have caused a quest to appear, then why had it taken so long for it to work?

"Yeah," he really didn't have anything else to say. He heard Urga start to utter something, but with another use of his Instant Barrier ability, he just left.