As the war cry of the orc echoed through the forest Mark made his move with a thrust of his hand that kept its fingers together acting as a blade as it collided with the orc's pair of axes that he crossed together instinctively in front of him fulling experiencing the weight of the skill Greater strength at its first level!
He grunted upon receiving it as his feet sunk into the ground before tilting the axes slightly to the side as some bones in one of its wrists cracked from the exchange and strain to lessen the damage.
As Mark was getting closer to him while one of the axe's held by the orc fell, He received a kick to his side that was strong enough to push him into a nearby tree thanks to the bad positioning of his feet.
the orc's regeneration was kicking in as its green skin gain a slightly red hue, meaning that its bloodlust was kicking in.
As for why it wasn't killed so easily Mark was trying to familiarize himself with his skills during the fight as his body was bigger than before and his head was slouched forward even more as he was also 'seeing' things' differently compared to when he didn't have these eyes.
ever since the fight started, after he struck, it was like watching things go slower for a few seconds every time he had contact with the orc to which confused him a lot as Mark's perception of time was getting jumbled those two times.
So his plan of overwhelming the orc at the first attack was ruined by his eyes, but it wasn't all that bad as this discovery had a good number of promising aspects now he just needs to get his mind and body to adapt to the strange ability or whatever it was to make his life hell of a lot easier against stronger enemies.
The only irritating things about orcs were their vitality and battle senses skills.
But more on that later.
Mark was well... stuck to the tree thanks to his bone spurs without him even realizing this as the orc charged forth with his Axe raised high wanting to deliver a few chops at the immobile Mark.
Mark sensed that he was feeling slightly heavy, so he used his strength skill at full throttle as his skinny frame bulked up a bit for a few seconds as the tree was ripped out from the ground with its roots still intact, as the orc was fully committed to its attack as he believed in his vitality and senses seconded only by his weapons!
The orc activated its other skills one of which Mark was familiar with before his evolution which was Increased strength and the other was something that orcs could gain as it was innately ingrained into their bones... Axe mastery.
Yes, the skill may sound bland and useless to which those of the other races believed it to be as the only effect it had was increased proficiency of the said weapon.
Mastery skills are foundation abilities that require years of effort to even level it up once, it could take some 50 to 100 years to completely master, and should one do so... the efforts paid into it were worth it.
As for what happens hehe it isn't something that exists... yet~
But a hint should be given I suppose, A realm closer to deities.
But sadly no one is willing to put any effort into the skill other than dwarves with their craft, elves that have too much time on their hands, and orcs as this IS their most commonly used weapon other than Halberds to which Orc chiefs switch to as a sign of their position.
As for what level the mastery the orc had reached... it was at level 7!
Mark blocked the attack casually with one arm, only to be surprised at the damage done to his defenses as his blood trickled down from the injury as the axe of the orc managed to sink in half a foot into his arm!
Thanks to his surprise the orc delivered a roundhouse kick to his side yet again as the orc managed to pull the axe out as Mark stumbled before trying to hack at him again as the orc had a smug look on his face.
Mark was getting pissed so he unconsciously retracted the spikes on his right hand as he used his left foot to hold his ground then push him forward delivering a rocket-like punch to which pretty much destroyed both tusks and the lower jaw of the orc as it was sent flying into the air crashing through a good number of trees as Mark noticed that there was a strange pain on his shoulder.
It turned out that the orc managed to rip out one of his spikes by using his punch to help the damned orc.
Mark was wanting to finish off the cheap shot bastard but the sound of horns made him change his mind as you could hear the sound of their heavy steps from far away, at the same time it gave Mark an idea of how strong the orcs were.
Not realizing that the orc that he fought against was actually the former orc chief of the camp who will be using the spike that was taken from Mark as a symbol for him passing a trial to challenge the orc chief again as the bone spur would quickly turn in a heavily coveted item as more orcs that wish for better armor would challenge Mark.
Just to get even a small piece as it was better quality compared to the regular bones that they use that were originally weaker than iron before getting embued to rival steel the which Mark's defenses were at, so you can imagine the boost in power these orcs would receive should even a hundred of them manages to get a piece of His armor.
But Mark won't be complaining as it was like sending a training dummy and food to him, however, this is something that will happen in the near future~ as now Mark was heading back to the cave dragging along a couple of wolves and a boar the first two were for Silk, while the boar was for himself.
Mark was humming to himself, practically enjoying the new things that he learned about himself and some of the skills, he had, were waiting to level up, but the sight upon arriving at his cave caused him to bellow out in annoyance as the female goblin seemed to have changed a little, physically bigger, but was still bound by ropes, Silk had another humanoid monster tied down by web with its arse in the air as you can't help 'butt' wonder.
"Silk, what the fuck are you doing!?"
Silk screeched back in delight for his return as a web attached itself to Mark as the spider said.
"Welcome back boss~ just give me a few hours or so with this one and we should have another 'loyal' grunt under your command~"
The said humanoid had all four of its limbs tied as it was hanging upside down with its ass in the air with something odd inside of the backdoor while being gagged as the monster's drool, snot and tears dripped to the ground.
Mark was disturbed, greatly disturbed as these techniques reminded him of one of his ex-girlfriend's Hobbies he was tempted twice to say something, but decided to keep his mouth shut as he just robotically placed the two beat-up wolves on the ground then went to his cave with the boar in tow.
All while telling himself this.
"is Silk a fellow reincarnator too?"
This caused Mark to forget completely about making a few skills level up as he ate the boar then called it a day.