Kazemitsu

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Grunthor gave the other Runt a slightly agitated look. "I'm aware my skill set is limited. I focused heavily on boxing with a side of kickboxing to the point I got into the pro's. As an adult I could probably beat every other adult orc in hand to hand." He grunted a bit defensively as the other Runt hammered on the bubbly outcropping with the handle of the stone knife. Smart, no point destroying a weapon if you didn't have a back-up one.

From the group he had been with there hadn't been much focus on modern education. Esfir seemed like a survivalist and Akeno felt like she had focused on martial arts as much as he had focused on boxing and kickboxing. But who knew how many other Runts were like him and the nameless one. Said Runt asked if he met Bowbh. "No, because I haven't gone in and I left immediately. I need to hunt something to bring back, remember?" Grunthor questioned. Maybe he'd get bonus points if it was a Spider?

Catching the ore chunk he tucked it into his Stone Slime Sack while the unnamed pointed their torch further into the cave. "Makes sense making it safe for us to return to. If none of the others know about it it could turn into something useful for us. Like armor and proper weapons not made of stone or soft wood." He replied before gesturing for him to go first since he had the light source.

When they got moving he made sure to keep his spiked club at the ready to smash an enemies face in. The limited spikes were on the part that would make contact first just to give it that extra kick.

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Grunthor glanced at the other Runt. "Considering I was an amateur in the professional boxing ring...less confidence and more knowledge. If I can build myself how I want I'd be too fast for humanoids even as a heavy weight. Weapons have dead zones, your body doesn't." He stated as they moved. Then the subject of Camazot's. "What even is one, I only heard the name from a different Runt. Is it like a bear from earth or something? He questioned curiously before they looked into the cave.

He had no idea how to make a torch, he just knew it had something more required than just a stick. He followed the motions of the other Runt, entering the cave and sticking to the opposite wall. No need to be right behind each other, that leads to tangles if the need to run arose. Proceeding slowly gave Grunthor the chance to see a couple shrooms. No he was not stupid enough to eat unknown mushrooms, he plucked them at the base and stuck them in his Slime "Bag". Once at the end of the light they sat for a bit to adjust to the dusk within the cave they started moving again. Until they reached a fork.

To the right, open, clear, no sign of critters, but there was the sign of a small camp. Why were there two camps? Was one a check point and the other a fall back point? To the left a sharp turn but there was something he very much did not want to see. "All sorts of monsters...but there's a cave with potentially gigantic spiders. Unless you have fire we are very much not going left." He muttered quietly to the Unnamed Runt.

Slowly, warily, he crept forward towards the burned out camp. He didn't just look around, he also eyeballed the ceiling pretty heavily. Humans didn't have that conditioning to watch the skies normally, but this was not his normal world. Spiders were very much ambush predators, even wanderers like tarantulas. The eight legged bastards fascinated him sometimes, but he was still wary of them.

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

@ReusableSword Hurry up and become my party member some how so we can be bro's again XD

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Grunthor gave the Runt a dull look. "You do realize you're talking too well to be a normal Runt, just like me. He stated before scratching his own cheek. "I never got into some things others did, I was very sports oriented. I even got into professional boxing before I shit the bed. He continued. He hadn't been stupid in his past life, he could connect dots as basic as this.

The other Runt chuckled at his status plight and questions what he ate. "Yes, I ate the entire bird minus some small items. Then the majority of a Stone Slime, finally a normal slime. I have its Skills...saved for lack of a better word. As long as I don't Ingest anything else you can 'keep' the previous set if it's something you want." Grunthor explained as they began moving South. He let the other lead the way since obviously Grunthor had no information except it was South.

The Runt asked what his skillset was looking like. "Making my opponents uneasy while I hit them fast with some toughness currently. If I can build myself up like before...well I'd probably be able to completely dominate anything my size or smaller when I'm a full sized adult. He stated while tromping along and keeping his eyes and ears wide open. Not that he'd probably hear the wompfruit cat.

Eventually they arrived in the rough area given that the landmark were looking between a pair of trees. A point to take note of was the positioning of the sun. It took an hour to get out here with no creatures around. Had he just gotten lucky all three times? The got to the cave and could see a bit of the way in. Runt started poking at a pile of what looked like dirt, which was at least day old shit. A little lore, grukh was shit, huzzah.

"Doesn't hurt to explore a little. The South Cave might be safer than the North Cave with Camazots...whatever the hell those are." Grunthor muttered before tilting his head slightly while looking into the cave. "Can you see in the dark? He questioned, or did Orcs have Darkvision? He sometimes listened to the nerds back in high school to see what they were up to.

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Grunthor raised an eyebrow slowly upward. "I never said something as basic as a Dire Rat or Slime. There are more powerful creatures out there and I've already killed one." He semi-explained. He didn't kill the Stone Slime by himself but the Runt didn't need to know that. But the Runt had other plans and got touchy, like a jock from those old styled movies trying to guide a nerd to do what he wanted. A sort of physical threat without threatening.

He was directed south, well at least it wasn't the cave he had come from which was more northern. Were Camazot's only found to the north? "I'll need info then. What's an npc, what might be living in the cave. I'm not stupid, I won't be your bait if shit goes south." He growled. He had never played a video game so he didn't know what an npc was. The Runt went further to explain more details of the job, Quest.

As said they only had to find them, living or dead, nothing about escorting back to camp. He had gathered right from the start that the orcs were like Earth's Spartans. Work to live even from childhood and each youngster needs to learn how to survive. Assuming the other Runt elaborated further the former boxer nodded. "Fine I'll come. But if you see a wompus cat, run. It's big, white with black stripes, and stupidly strong. He stated before gesturing for the other Runt to lead the way. He'd walk, get the previous monsters working through his system to be less lethargic and slow.

"I'll also warn you, I'm low on Stamina and apparently Bloated. So slower Stamina regen, slower speed." Grunthor said while walking with a relaxed pace.

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Grunthor pushed through the cramping and liquid gurgles of his body. Yeah, he seriously had to shit, no he wasn't going to be able to hold it long. But long enough for him to eat a portion of the slime which had strange but unsurprising flavors. Well, the outside was unsurprising, the innards were doing something for his gut. As he ate the prompt for Ingestion popped up. A quick scan, two skills unrevealed with what he has eaten already.

So he kept eating after confirming Ingestion of the new target, slurping up the jelly innards and even crushing the stone flakes between his molars. Everything but the Membrane was devoured, revealing the last two skills to him. Tough, and Camouflage: Rock. So three out of five skills were useful to him. Blunt Damage Resistance, despite it's limitations, Danger Scan, and Tough. While he thought about what skills he wanted he stuffed whatever spoils he had into the membrane to use as a sack.

A glorp of his gut had him dive into a bush and a cacophony of liquid sounds and grunts shook the poor vegetation until a low krakoom made the leaves jump up before drooping slightly wilted. Staggering out of the bush Grunthor wiped his brow, flicking the sweat off to the side. "Fuck....I hate swamp ass... He ground out before putting his loincloth back on, grabbing his jelly sack oh stuff, and leaving the cave behind. As he moved he finally picked Tough, it sounded like a more defensive ability.

Retracing his steps back towards camp he came to a point and broke off to cover new ground. It didn't take long to stumble across a wobbling blue being. Clearly a slime, but not a Stone Slime since its surface was smooth. Like before there was no hesitation for him, he lunged forward with his Sharp Stone and brought it down on the slime point first. Why did he use the Sharp Stone? He now knew they were resistant to blunt attacks...like a club. Activating Rapid Strikes I another two blows followed, pulverizing the poor dumb creature into its afterlife.

Stashing the Stone in his membrane bag he went and just started to eat the Slime despite not being hungry. Would its flavor be different? What skills did it hold? Since it had no bits beyond jelly and membrane he simply ate the whole thing. Unfortunately he could only hold four Skills and he was topped up on them. But...he could hold onto it so long as he didn't Ingest anything else.

[Blunt Damage Resistance]
[Danger Scan]
[Scavenge]

So one different from the Stone Slime, huh? And two less! Made sense since it was a lesser form. As he thought a juicy crunch and screech caught his attention. Up in the tree nearby, meaning about fifty feet away for him, was a feline creature. A Wompus Cat if he remembered the description right, and it was fairly large. The stories he recalled from the Pit said it could knock over trees and could maul the adults. Meaning he was but a chicken nugget, fast food....and not nearly as fast as what it was chowing down on.

Backing away slowly he tried to keep his movements calm until he could get out of its sight. He had no delusions, he could not kill that thing unless he got insanely lucky. Luck was not his to have. After losing sight line he booked it back to camp with his membrane bag of goodies. Leaning back he caught his breath from that frenzied sprint.

"What doin back, Runt? No kill, no entry!" One of the guards growled out, barring the way in.

"Wompus Cat in the area....came back for a minute. Hopin it'll think twice if it followed. Grunthor replied. He was not above using the adults to save his ass from a creature that could track him.

His words got a scowl from the guards. "Get lost, scared little shit! Go get prey!" The other exclaimed.

As Grunthor huffed and scowled at the guards after the guard's rough dismissal, he would see another Runt heading towards the gate--but this one came from inside the camp. The guards allowed him to pass with barely a snort of acknowledgement, so he must have already delivered his kill. Or could there be some other reason for the difference in treatment? His skin was a darker, duller shade of green with what seemed like a mottled pattern to it, and his eyes were a fiery, ember orange. Black, almost blue hair with a greased sheen fell around his unusually mature face. As he looked Grunthor over, he grinned and held out one hand.

"Did I hear something about a Wompus Cat?" said the newcomer--with none of the usual accented or slurred speech of the other Orcs. "So, are you trying to take it down? Or just need somebody to watch your back? I might be willing to help either way...but what's your offer, huh?" He winked at Grunthor and cackled. "Can't do a Quest without a Reward, right?"

"I have no way of killing that thing, nor if there were a dozen of us little Runts. But having a second set of eyes doesn't hurt since I need to get another kill, which if I get I will hunt something with you and you can claim the whole thing for yourself. Grunthor replied before holding his hand out for a shake. Even primitives should understand a handshake, or the forearm grasp of ages past in his old world.

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

I'm chattin with Zeroth and gettin a lotta stuff done and outta the way for the sake of progression

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Grunthor was resting after beating the death into the rock slime. Despite needing to blow out his own innards from the undercooked fire chicken he picked the slime up. It hadn't been punctured so it retained its goop and sort of its shape. While he was doing this shit was stil happening in the cave, not that he really knew since he wasn't at the entrance. But enough had happened that orc younglings fled, Akeno stopping long enough to give him a warning.

There's still plenty of day time to get another kill if I can find something...or I could play it safe and turn this thing in... He thought to himself. To get a skill or to turn it in. How did you even prepare slime? Was it just boiled into a soup? Fuck it his ass was already going to be a faucet!

Latching on he began to chew, slurp, or drink the slime. However it was one devoured something. Granted he didn't try to eat the rocks, yet, only doing so if it was required to get to one hundred percent. Otherwise the peblet coverings would joint the items in his loincloth bundle. Sometimes fortune favored the bold, and raw slime was certainly bold!

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

The feel of the slime getting squished under the club was an odd sensation. Not that it died, but he broke off a chunk of its stone at the cost of one spike off his club. He was drawing back for another hit when the cave behind him rumbled with the sound of...something. An explosion? What could possibly explode in the world aside from magic? Or his ass when the under-cooked chicken hits? He was still waiting for whatever effect to hit him.

The rumbling scared the slime and surprised both Akeno and Esfir, who came out of her lala land. Both of which went for the cave. One going in, the other shouting from the entrance. Well all the more fun for him! He lunged after the slime, bring the weight of the club down on its body again. He didn't have to go ham on it and go full force, but he kept swinging the club down with decent strength to cause as much damage as he could in quick succession.

@Zeroth@King Cosmos

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Grunthor watched the stone slime sail off into the bushes, narrowly missing a tree. He stayed back, waiting to see what would happen, would it flee from getting clobbered like that or would it stupidly rush back in to get another thumping? His answer came pretty swiftly with the slime scooting out of the bushes. With comical furrowed brows that dictated anger on an otherwise expressionless surface.

It stopped roughly thirty feet away and gathered up some stones from beneath it. Was it going to chuck them? Could...could it throw them without limbs? How did that work? Another answer came as a glowing yellow stone shot out. With a surprised yelp the young orc leaned out of the way, but the stone still clipped his arm. From the side Akeno, who had sprinted around, was throwing a firebolt at the stone slime.

Regaining his balance he dashed in, trying to time it so the flames would hit the slime first to make it reel from surprise pain before a two handed swing downwards would plow into it from the top via his spiked club. He doubted this would kill it, but maybe get it stunned long enough to get another good thwack or two in.

@Zeroth@King Cosmos@Lucius Cypher