Interesting offers.

Lagash almost choked on her ale when John added the last part. While she was coughing and spitting up her drink, Mub stared at John. His mouth hung open as the Gamer refused to look away from him now, but he recovered fairly quickly... after Lagash had.

"You are not an Orc!" she balked. “You cheat and use magic-” she said, and pointed at the new branding on his chest, as if reminding him of the reason for getting it might change the direction of the conversation. John didn’t care. By that point, after the branding it didn’t matter to him all that much if the Orcs utterly abhored the use of magic. The only thing that seemed truly important to him in that moment was making sure that his girls were still okay, which Mub reassured him about with a wave of his hand as if it was such a silly thing to ask, and dealing with the Alpha. According to Mub, the Orcs didn’t bother with hurting the slaves most of the time. If another member of the tribe had a problem with one of them, then by nature they had a problem with the owner.

"What do you have to offer?" Mub asked, and Lagash actually threw her cup down at the feet of the large Orc. He didn't care for her outburst either.

"I don't really have anything to offer. What do you want?" John countered and watched as Mub sunk into a slow train of thought. His eyes locked onto the ground as he sat there, scratching idly at his chin again. Lagash stood up from her seat, swearing and growling at the two of them for their stupidity, but neither cared to listen. Mub was too entranced with John's audacity and busy considering his options, while John was focusing on completing one of his quests.

"Bleakfield," the Orc finally grunted and looked John back in the eye. "I want this whole village after we take Eldham. In exchange, I will join your pack." The gamer swallowed hard. Technically, if he had understood the Orcish way so far, then even if he gave Eldham to Mub, the village would still technically belong to John. He just wouldn't be the one to directly rule over it. Mub would run the village in his stead and take most of the proceedings that it earned. Still, it was a lot to give up just for one Orc, and John wasn't about to agree to the worst part of the deal. He wanted more for such a large price.

"You can have Bleakfield if you join my pack and..." he paused. What else could he get from the Orc? More armor? It was possible, but he felt confident that he could try talking the large Alpha into making more for him anyways if he didn't just find the rest of what he needed. "... if you convince your old pack to join me too." Lagash outright walked off. Her frustration for the moment overwhelmed her, and she stomped away, cursing Mub and John until long after she had moved out of earshot.

"Not all of them will join," Mub was quick to counter John's bargain. "If any of them even will... It is an impossible thing to ask."

"Then for joining and convincing as many as you can. Talk to them, just try to tell them at least to follow you into joining my pack, and then you can have Bleakfield," he said and watched as Mub stared at him again. The slaves close enough to hear them speaking also gazed at the Gamer with wide eyes as he spoke, but he didn't back down. John didn't care to consider the possibility that Mub would have agreed and then chose to not speak with his old pack. He was an Orc, and because of that, he highly doubted that Mub would get scared at the thought of speaking to his raiding partners. Mub considered it for a while longer... and then nodded.

"Deal," he said and clasped John by the arm. He pulled him into a deep, strange handshake, one where they grasped at each other's arms just below the elbow and then held there long enough for John to learn to do the same thing. They both shook once and then departed. John stood up, with the bottle of wine being shoved into his hands by Mub, and with a happy smile, he turned and walked away from the newest member of his pack.

Distracted from his problems, for the time being, John returned to where his tent was supposed to be.

Quest Complete! 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

TURN IN QUEST?
YES | NO

John's finger hovered over the 'Yes' button as he made his way back to the small campsite where his tent had been located. He had been eager to turn it in and see what the next part of the quest was, if that had unlocked the second part, but he decided against it. He chose to wait until he could enjoy some small measure of privacy back at his normal campsite before he accepted a new, random ability. Once he had though... he almost regretted not taking it immediately.

New Skill: Evade. Level 1, 20 Mana.
Evade: Expend some of your mana as a reaction to help you try and dodge out of the way of certain Area of Effect abilities. Area of Effect damage reduced by 50% (45%+5% per ability level)
Requires a minimum of 25 Agility to use.

"Fuck!" John swore when he read the last part of that ability. It was a good skill to have, if he could have used it. Currently, though, he was over two levels away from even reaching that much Agility. He needed at least eight more stat points to use, but he only got five per level, and he didn't like the idea of separating his focus away from building up his strength. He needed-

New Quest! Rise to Rule or Ruin. Part 2 of 4.
Your journey continues deeper and deeper into the reality of another world. Safety seems almost tangible now and less like a distant hope. Climb the ladder of leadership and establish not only your oncoming rule but also yourself now.

• Increase the size of your raiding pack. (2/5 Members)

Rewards:

• 1000 Exp
• 5 Stat points

Optional Objective:

• Recruit one of the tribe Elders into your pack.

Reward:

• 500 Exp
• 1 New Ability

ACCEPT QUEST?
YES | NO

"You're back," Urga grunted at John when he finally came close enough for her to hear him swearing. Her unseeing visage never even lifted up from her task when John turned to face her. He accepted the quest without a second thought, happy to find a way to get more Stat points without using the ones he received from leveling... and then he froze when he saw what Urga was doing. While John had been busy talking to Mub and Lagash and working with his pop-ups, the rest of the tribe had taken it upon themselves to finally recognize him in some way.

The normally vacant clearing where Urga had chosen for them to set up their tent was no longer absent of people or belongings. When John looked up from his 'distractions', he found himself staring at Urga as she picked up one of the many, many items that had been left outside of John's tent. She lifted a new bow, a long, slender thing made of white wood and gingerly explored the shape of it with her fingers. Clenched in her other hand were a number of straps of cloth, mostly silk or anything else that she could find that was soft and light.

John didn't bother telling her not to mess with the stuff, because firstly, he didn't care. Secondly, as soon as Urga addressed him, another woman stepped out from the other side of the pile. She was writing on a large scroll of paper that had been neatly stuck to a plank of wood before she dotted something on the sheet and handed it to John when he approached. He wasn't able to read anything that she wrote on it. It was in a language that he knew nothing about.

"It's offerings," the redheaded, human girl explained, and smoothed out the creases on the lower half of her sheer, white, silken dress. She might have fixed the upper half of her uniform too, if there had been anything to it. However, the only two straps it had hung from her shoulders and were so small and so loose on her form that most of the time it didn't even cover anything on her chest. It failed to cover her stomach, the V-shaped opening in the front went all the way down to the sash that had been tied around her waist. The rest of her outfit was completely translucent and revealed the entirety of her petite body, but she didn't seem to care. Her firm, toned legs were clad in a pair of eerily familiar, long, black stockings, yet somehow, they fit her perfectly, even when John thought that they should have been too large for her. It was almost like they had been magically altered to fit to her shape. A tiny, simple, black garter belt helped to hold the stockings up. She blushed slightly as John looked her over, his eyes lingering on her swollen, pierced nipples for a moment, before she continued talking. "After... after what happened between you and Dullong, and then with the brand, my master kindly sent me to you so I can assist you in sorting, managing, and accepting the gifts the tribe chooses to leave with you in exchange for living in your town." She smiled slightly at John when he turned to look at the giant pile of loot that had accumulated in front of his tent, and then when he faced her again, she hurried to discreetly look away, but John still caught it.

"And who is your master?" he asked.

"Mub." She brushed a few ruby locks away from her face and pointed to the piece of paper she had given to him. "I'm supposed to help you manage your finances," she repeated and blushed at him but deeper this time until the red of her cheeks burned all the way up to her ears and began to reach all the way down to her chest. He noticed that the freckles on her body began to truly show when she was blushing... and then it dawned on him why she might have been so embarrassed. Perhaps she was Mub's offering. Orc tradition was strange enough that he could have believed it, and the thought caused him to blush as well.

"He just... gave you to me?" John asked and then watched as the girl's eyes widened.

"N-no! I'm just here to help!" she stammered out quickly, and with one hand, she gingerly went to cover herself up. Her palm hovered in front of her plump sex for only a moment before she seemed to remember something and hastily pulled it away. "I-I'm..." she paused and cleared her throat. A couple of seconds passed as she composed herself again while Urga laughed and snorted off to the side. "I'm quite happy where I'm at, sir, thank you." The last two words seemed almost stressed when she said them... like she was trying to thank him for a compliment, and after John didn't say anything for a while, she smiled and nodded like it had been one as well.

"O-okay. Um..." he paused and looked over at the pile of loot sitting in front of his tent. A part of him thought that the offerings might have belonged to Mub now, since Bleakfield would soon be going over to the Orc, but at the same time... Mub had been the one to send the girl over to help. What was belonged to Mub was supposed to also belong to John if he was in his pack, but he didn't want to risk it. When he considered that Mub might leave his pack if John were to steal from him, John asked the girl if it was supposed to belong to him.

She assured him that it was. Even if Mub was technically the one running the town now, the tribe had still intruded upon the village when John had owned it. They had insulted him, and in this way, they also apologized for their transgressions and asked to be allowed to stay. Urga made a harsh remark about the tribe when the girl explained it to him. She called them pretenders, and to express her point, she picked up one of the 'gifts' that had been left at John's tent and threw it hard at the ground. The bundle of thick, harsh, grey cloth dropped with a heavy 'thwump' noise and then began to unwind from the neat roll it had started as. The cloth was covered in mud and stains of ale.

"They 'offer' you shit," his Orcish **** muttered and stood up to walk away from the pile. "Only this kind does not smell as bad." John went to follow after her, to grab her by the arm and ask her about her sour mood, but Urga did not wait for him. When he touched her wrist, she wrenched her arm free and nodded back in the direction of the campsite. "No. She is waiting for you. Go," Urga said and then walked away again. John considered following after her once more. He thought about trying to talk to Urga and make sure that she was okay, but she was right. His mother had been waiting for him for more than twenty-four hours in the kingdom by that point. He had to try and talk to her, and when Urga took his hesitation as an opportunity to walk away, he was left with almost **** but to walk back to camp.

The redheaded girl, Tyrea he learned her name was, moved to try and start sorting through the pile again before John walked up to it. It only took a couple of moments for him to move everything important, interesting, or useful into his inventory. What was left behind was anything that he didn't think he should be carrying with him.

+50 Units of Stone
+46 Units of Wood
+60 Units of Grey Wool
+8 Units of White Silk
+2 Simple Longbows
+2 Crude Daggers
+4 Arrows

The rest of it was all simple stuff like food or wine, or it was just outright useless in some cases. He didn't see anything that he could do with the old, half-rotted, wooden toys that some of the Orcs had left behind. They were things people didn't need, cluttering mementos from earlier childhoods. The worst part was the pile of old, chewed-on, greyish bones. John grimaced at the food scraps leftover from the tribe's meals and then turned to face Tyrea who was still gawping at him after seeing him make all the loot disappear.

"Just use the stuff that hasn't been eaten to make a feast or something. Maybe save a few bottles of wine, and..." he paused and glanced back over to the pile of bones and toys sitting on the ground. His jaw tightened imperceptibly as he stared at the Orcs’ unsaid insult. Normally, he might not have cared... but, with the members of the tribe starting to join his pack, it only made sense to join in on Orcish traditions. Their crappy gifts were insults, and he couldn't just sit back and take them… certainly not after being branded. A part of him wanted to go back to Mub to ask about the branding or pull Urga aside to get some answers for it, but his focus was still mostly on going to see his mom. "... and then I want you to make a list of everyone who gave me a rude offering. We'll see if they can repeat their rude comments to my face or try to give me a new gift again."

"Only the elders are given gifts regularly, because the tribe belongs to them," she answered but went to grab a new piece of paper nonetheless.

"Make it something I can read this time, too, please."John didn't have an answer for that comment, just another order, and then he went and walked back to his tent.