Not far off in the cavern from where Singer lay unconscious, an Orc and a goblin were arguing. Kovak'g Ironeye was big for an Orc. Equally so Dahpu Raug was small for a goblin. As drastically as their sizes differed so did their appearances. So much so in fact that if one were to encounter them in a city they wouldn't even appear to be a group.
Kovak'g's skin was a shade of green so dark it appeared black. His left eye was covered by a metal plate bolted to his face. Black braids of hair fell neatly from his head and large tusks protruded out the top of his mouth. He wore heavy spiked armor that appeared fierce and almost demonic. Two mismatched medium shields were strapped to his arms whistling slightly through the air as he walked with speed. He was one of the largest Orcs either of them had ever met.
Dahpu however was nearly bald with a small number of white tufts of hair randomly sprouting from small patches about his entire head with no apparent pattern. His skin was a sickly pale green and scarred and tattered all over. One of his ears was nearly completely missing leaving only a torn stump. His other ear stuck out nearly six inches ragged and tattered up its entire pointed length. His long downward pointed nose was bent in many places having been broken multiple times across its length. Cracked, mismatched teeth gleamed behind his crooked smile. Even his tattered robes matched his physical appearance. Much as the rest of him they were clearly filthy, damaged and reeked to high hell. The only think of apparent worth was the smooth staff he carried in his right hand adorned with various feathers, teeth and trinkets at its top. His small size had led to him being bullied in the past. This had been such an issue in his early years his previous tribe had even used him as a poop rag. This had led to his rather unfortunate sounding name. It wasn't until he unlocked his potential as a shaman and joined a new tribe that things changed for the better.
The two of them were arguing now as they trekked through the cavern.
"Dahpu not stupid! Dahpu tribe Shaman!" Dahpu was clearly upset as he scurried around angrily waving his arms about as he yelled.
"Dear friend. Kindly calm down. I never once claimed you were stupid. I simply stated the fact that talking in third person makes you sound uneducated."
"But Dahpu not third person. Dahpu is second person." He scowled as he craned his neck up to direct his glare at his friend who sighed in response.
"It is simply a matter of proper grammar. It has nothing to do with how many people there are and more to do with the perspective you are speaking from."
"Kovak'g is a silly Orc, Dahpu is clearly speaking from a lower perspective than Dahpu's tall Orc friend." Kovak'g's remaining eye twitched as they continued walking. Speaking from a literal standpoint Dahpu's words weren't wrong. But from a literary standpoint he was utterly off base.
"It is basic grammar to use words such as I or me when speaking about yourself." Kovak'g clearly wasn't a normal Orc in this regard. At an early age he had been the only survivor of a tribal massacre in the plains. He was later found by a rather scholarly monk who believed in pacifism and protecting the weak. Being raised such a way had tempered much of his Orcish nature. While he still longed for combat he only used his shields and the spikes upon his armor and shields when fighting. Even so he only did so when protecting others or himself preferring to read while downing kegs of tea when he was able. If not for his large size and formidable combat sense he likely would have never been accepted into his current tribe with such civilized habits. His penchant for be a learned Orc led to many arguments with his best friend Dahpu a surprisingly intelligent goblin despite years of massive brain damage and head trauma. Kovak'g often wondered at how brilliant his friend might have been had his early years been different. As such he often found himself trying to bring out Dahpu's more intelligent side... for his own good of course.
"Dahpu is not you. Dahpu is Dahpu. Why would Dahpu speak of you when Dahpu speaks of Dahpu?" This was about par for the course when they had their arguments. Typically it ended with Kovak'g ceasing his responses as he attempted to think of more ways to help his friend learn proper grammar. This time however it had been stopped by a groaning body on the cavern floor before them.
"Ah see Dahpu not third person! Dahpu found third person!" Kovak'g sighed loudly as his hand smacked his own face in exasperation. The only thing louder than the sound of his hand against his face right now was the groans of agony coming from the unconscious man in front of them. With a rather unceremonious grunt Kovak'g flipped the man over with his foot. The man appeared human and was pale from blood loss. As they looked around they saw there were no signs of corpses or enemies. Kovak'g waved for Dahpu to heal the man and then preceded to pull out some water for the man.
"Dahpu wonders why you grab water when Dahpu heals man." He asked as healing waves washed over the man. The most skilled healers could easily solve dehydration with basic heals. After all they had to restore the blood most of the time.
"And I continue to wonder why you still insist on talking in third person."
"Dahpu not third person! Stupid dead man third person."
"He's only mostly dead!"
_________
Singer woke with his head still throbbing. To make matter worse there was a loud booming voice and a squeaky high pitched voice arguing and yelling seemingly right next to his head. He managed to crack his eyes open just in time to see an Orc dumping water on a goblins head.
"The water is for your bloody stench since you're gonna argue!" It was at this point that the goblin began to swing his staff blindly at the Orc in anger. With blindly being the chief word here, he instead smacked Singer in the face just as he sat up.
"FRELL!" The first nerdy expletive that came to his mouth blurted out laced with pain. Aside from the splitting headache that had knocked him out Singer realized this was the first true pain he had felt since he entered the game.
'GOOD MORNING! I am so glad you're finally awake. You see clearly there has been a mistake. As I would for obvious reasons never in a million years pick a bumbling fool of an adventurer as my Dungeon Lord. Now as per section...'
Singer tuned the dungeon's voice that was screaming in his head out before his splitting headache got worse again from yet another source. He was kind of losing three for three on headache sources at this point. It was at this point he realized the Orc and goblin had finally shut up and were currently staring at him rather bashfully.
"I'm sorry. Who are you?"
"Oh no, he has amnesia..."
"Shut up Dahpu! He just hasn't met us yet." The Orc smacked the goblin on the back of the head and then introduced themselves to Singer. "My Name is Kovak'g Ironeye, and this bundle of joy here is Dahpu Raug." Singer managed not to chuckle at the goblins name, if for no other reason than laughing would make his headache worse. "We are members of a hearth-less green-skin tribe seeking the tree of birth. We believe it to be this tree here and had hoped to make our new home beneath its branches." Kovak'g paused at this moment rubbing his neck rather nervously. Singer waited patiently for him to continue. He was also rather hoping the moment of silence would ease his headache a bit.
"Ya see, we managed to find the hearthstone room. However, someone seems to have beat us to it. We had hoped to find the new Hearth Master and gain their permission to settle here under their banner. When we found you here nearly dead we healed you in hopes you might put a good word in with the local lord for us."
Quest
You have been offered a Quest
Help the green-skin's obtain permission from the local Lord to settle within the Hearthstone's influence.
Reward
Rewards for Success: Unknown
Rewards for Failure: Unknown
Accept Decline
Singer accepted the quest without thought and then quickly pulled up his interface. His head was clearing now and he found he was rather upset about recent events. The headache that had knocked him out easily rated as the second most painful thing he had felt in his life. He attempted to pull up the bug report menu but was faced with an error message instead. With cold dread running down his spine he quickly pulled up the logout button to find it grayed out.
Error:
Elemental Arts interface items unavailable. Adjusting user interface. Pairing interface with mounted AI.
System paired.
Singer had read enough books and watched enough anime to have his suspicions. It wasn't that he hadn't dreamed about being transported to a fantasy world. In fact it was probably his greatest dream. Regrettably the video game variety of transmigration tended to have a few potentially devastating drawbacks. The first of these was a common lack of respawning. For whatever reason being stuck in a game with respawn often led to a lack of respawn despite the fact transmigration typically came with respawn capabilities. Even when they did include respawn video game transmigration usually came with strict penalties such as memory loss. All this aside one also had to account for a game's life span as well as a servers survivability. The moment knowledge of people getting stuck in a game or dying from a game got out it became only a matter of time. Only the belief that people could still be rescued tended to extend it out.
Singer sighed inwardly. With the games time dilation technology even if his body still sat in the FIVR pod he had a few months of in game time before anyone found him or the bug got fixed. His best chance was to play the game and hopefully run into one of the other few dozen players who were currently testing. If he got so lucky then hopefully they wouldn't be stuck like he was and could get a message out. That being said Singer pulled up his notifications that he had been suppressing since he unlocked Blood Magic.
Blood Casting has reached Rank 5
+50 Blood Pool +50 Health
Blood Spell Visualization Has reached Rank 3
.3 reduction in casting cost
Blood Control Unlocked
You can now control your own blood with your mind
Scholar Class & Title Unlocked
Your penchant for obtaining power through knowledge has unlocked Scholar. You may now view your class level. New abilities will unlock as you level up.
Knowledge is Power!
Combat Rank 10 Achieved!
Congratulations you aren't completely useless!
Title Cannon Fodder Unlocked
You stupidly sacrificed your life to defeat a foe many times greater than yourself for no apparent reason!
+20% damage dealt against enemies 10 or more Lvls higher than you.
Title Dungeon Lord Unlocked
Congratulations! You somehow managed to con your useless self into being a Dungeon Lord! You are now responsible for the advancement and direction of a dungeon.
Singer found himself pulled out of his notifications prematurely at the sound of Kovak'g and Dahpu arguing again. He quickly forgot his irritation at the system insults again as their argument pierced his concentration.
"Human has amnesia!" Dahpu declared angrily as he waved a short arm in Singer's direction.
"For a shaman specialized in healing you are rather dense at times." Kovak'g responded evenly. "He is most likely just viewing his character sheet." Singer raised an eyebrow curiously at that. The fact NPC's were aware of character sheets surprised him, and he wondered how many interface features they were aware of in this world.
"Apologies, I was viewing the changes on my character sheet." He considered mentioning he was simply reading his notifications but thought better of it as he recalled their rate of arguing.
"Ah, well I suppose you must have had plenty of changes. You were on deaths door when we found you, and with no enemies in sight we can only assume you must have killed whatever put you in such a state." Kovak'g grinned widely at Singer's supposed combat prowess. Singer just grinned hesitantly and gave a half hearted chuckle in response.
"How bout we go find this Hearth Master." He grinned as he shamelessly changed the subject. Though he wanted to know more details about what NPC's knew about interfaces he did not want to discuss how he had essentially bled himself out. He glanced briefly where the chaos parasite had been to see the tree root had completely grown over the area erasing all signs of his prior fight.
"Very good. See Dahpu, our new friend does not have amnesia or he would have forgotten our quest." Singer was pretty sure that wasn't how amnesia worked but decided against mentioning it, instead choosing to introduce himself properly.
"I'm Singer by the way, Scholar and Adventurer extraordinaire."
'More like extra lamebrain.' BIS interjected mentally. Singer was beginning to suspect he had a bead on who had been writing his notifications.
"Pleased to officially meet you Sir Singer." He cringed at the prefix Kovak'g had given him.
"Just Singer is fine, or Singe if you prefer." Kovak'g nodded in feigned understanding. After all what human wouldn't want proper respects given. Aside from the man who had raised him every human Kovak'g had met before had been extremely sensitive about their titles being respected.
Kovak'g reached out and yanked the human up by his arm as Singer struggled to stand up from where he had been sitting. Despite the goblin's healing it seemed mass blood loss and near death didn't agree with Singer much. At least his headache was finally gone.
Together the three of them began exploring the massive cavern checking down the smaller caves and tunnels they encountered. Singer kept an eye on his map for signs of other living beings. He had already set the filter to hide non-sentient beings leaving his map blank for the time being.
Singer used the time they spent searching to slowly refill his blood vials when the other two weren't looking. After a few slip ups he found he was able to speed the process up with his new Blood Control spell. He was able to simply prick his thumb and guide the blood to stream into an open vial. His higher health pool also sped this process up.
The massive cavern was easy enough to navigate thankfully so Singer took the chance to bring up a mini window of his interface to continue going through things as they walked. While having new allies made things safer it had the disadvantage of reducing the attention he could give to learning all the upgrades he had gained. He managed to find out a bit more without garnering the attention of his new allies.
The first detail he noticed was a small glowing book symbol in the corner of his vision, next to that was a symbol of a blood drop. By concentrating on the blood drop a window popped up showing him much what he expected. His list of Blood Magic spells and bonuses popped up. He also found a spell tree for blood magic showing him many of the spells he would be able to learn as he ranked up in it. Most of it was grayed out by fog however hiding most of the tree.
Singer closed that window for the time being and focused on the glowing book symbol. There was only three options at the moment. First was listed Blood Magic, no surprise there. However the next two made him raise an eyebrow. The words Dungeon Lord, and New Specialization were glowing with a small throb just as the book symbol had been before he opened it. He suspected he knew what the second one meant and was pleased to find he was correct as he selected it.
Combat Rank 10 Achieved
New Specialization available for quick learn.
Singers joy spiked as he realized how powerful his new book was. Usually one would have to find a trainer or a unique event just to learn one specialization set. However these books had given him two before he had even left the beginning levels. He read of his new selection of choices as they continued walking.
Gambler's Pick
Randomly selects from prior choices you haven't learned yet. Compatibility will be automatically set to 50%
Error Insufficient Trait Rank
Scribe : Scholar Skill
75% Compatible
Druid Magic : Neo Magic
Error Incompatible
Mirage Step : Advance Martial Technique
Error Incompatible
The choice of four had remained. Looking at the list made him want to cry again. He was still being blocked from better options. His rotten luck was getting to him even in this new game world. However, the new Gamblers Pick choice seemed potentially useful if it ever became available that is. Should it remain as a permanent option it had the potential to give him picks he had missed. The last three options remained within the same error restrictions, making his choice easy. He selected the option his Scholar class had opened up for him.
Scribe Unlocked
TURT Learned
CELE Learned
THERA Learned
KHRON Learned
Four words were unlocked upon his selection. There was no further information however, putting Singer at a loss. It seemed he was going to have to experiment when he had some free time. His state of distraction almost got him killed as he stepped in the middle of combat between Kovak'g and and over sized rodent that was clearly unusual in its size. His inner monologue would have made him laugh if he wasn't currently staring that the rodent of unusual size that had attached its mouth forcefully to his arm. Instead he just sat there in silence for an uncomfortable amount of time as Kovak'g yelled at him from behind to move. He watched his own blood drip from around the rodent's mouth with a sick fascination as the rodent glared at him. A bleeding notification popping up on his interface catching his attention and shaking him out of his reverie. With a quick thought he crystallized his blood at the site of the wound ending the bleeding notification. With a second thought he formed spikes from the crystallized blood causing the rodent to scream in agony as it dropped from his arm bleeding from numerous wounds that its tattered maw consisted of. He suddenly found himself grateful for the mistakes he had made in creating a stream to fill his blood vials. Before he could finish the job Kovak'g dashed around him and crushed the rodent's head with his spiked Cestus.
Kill confirmed
Damage percentage calculated. Killing blow awarded to third party. Damage share of loot is 1 enlarged rodent fang. No Combat Rank progress gained.
Singer scowled a bit at that while Dahpu preceded to heal his wounds. He yanked a large rodent fang from Singer's arm placing it in his empty hand as the wound finished closing. He realized that all the pain he had just gone through amounted to very little having not given the killing blow. With a quick thought he pulled up the party interface and sent an invite to Kovak'g and Dahpu. Not only would it keep the loot spread even based solely on damage rather than killing blow, but it would help him notice when they were in combat if he had his face buried in his interface again. This first part was more a hope than a certainty though.
"Bloody wurm's feet!" Kovak'g yelled in surprise. "Ya didn't say you were a noble!"
"I'm not. At least I don't think I am." Singer raised an eyebrow in confusion. He wasn't aware he had said anything to give Kovak'g that impression. Were Dungeon Lords considered nobles?
"Aye you must be lad, only nobles are capable of sending party invites." Kovak'g was actually shocked Singer didn't know that. It was common knowledge that nobles were capable of providing their benefits to their people through use of the party system. It often made them popular in hero guilds for that very reason. It was said to be a gift from the gods to encourage nobles to share the burdens of their people so as to keep them from taking the heroes under their employ for granted. Party benefits had a short range thus sending them into the fray with those they were partied with lest they lost their bonuses. On the one hand it helped them to better understand the dangers heroes faced every day, but on the other hand like any source of power humans found ways to abuse the system.
Singer had seemed to be an honest individual from the get go to Kovak'g, leading him to not even consider he was a noble.
"I''m a Dungeon Lord if that counts..." Singer brought up the last bit with some trepidation. Knowledge was power after all and revealing all of ones secrets was dangerous. Singer stopped his train of thought again careful of the fact he was letting his trust issues surface again. It was a fine line between being careful and being paranoid
"Hmmm, perhaps." Kovak'g scratched his chin in contemplation as they discussed this new turn of events.
"Honestly I never knew about it before today." Which was true for both things technically.
"Not even an issue lad! It'll will be an honor to party with you as we continue our trek." Kovak'g grinned widely appearing more as a beast preparing to eat a meal than a grateful ally. Singer shivered slightly at that as he gave a smile back. After checking the rodent to make sure there was nothing more of use and ensuring everyone had joined the party they moved on. No one noticed the rodent corpse's disappearance as they walked away.
"So lad, I was curious what sort of skill that was you used on the rodent?" Kovak'g queried as the cavern narrowed back into a tunnel thanks to a cluster of roots. Singer contemplated how much he wanted to tell and decided on the bare minimum for now.
"It was a crystallization spell. I used it on the liquids in the rodents mouth causing it to get injured from the crystallization process." He held back on the blood aspects of it unsure if orcs held the same negative view of blood magic as most civilized races did.
"Incredible!" Kovak'g's excitement came across much like a fierce beast again as he grinned from ear to ear. "I have little inclination towards magic myself, but I do enjoy its wonders. How does such a spell work? Does it freeze the liquids, or dry them out perhaps?"
"I'm not completely sure to be honest. It simply turns it into a solid as far as I can tell. It doesn't seem to get colder or shrink in size." Singer was surprised by the Orc's curiosity and intelligence. Even in the books Orc's were presented as little more than tribalistic brutes. Though their fierceness had been instrumental in ending the Demon Wars in the books they were still frowned upon by most races. Singer had understood from the start that was precisely why they had asked his assistance in putting in a good word with the local Hearth Master. "You are more... curious than I expected." Singer picked his words carefully not wishing to offend Kovak'g
"Ha ha, do not fret friend. I understand your meaning and I am hardly offended. I understand well the reputation of my species." Kovak'g chuckled loudly, his laugh booming like a bass drum. "I was raised by a human monk who emphasized education as a proper start to ones success in life. I sadly was never able to grasp the magics he attempted to teach me, so instead I took it upon myself to be a protector instead."
Singer nodded politely as the Orc's behavior made more sense now.
"Dahpu is Kovak'g's student!" The goblin exclaimed. He had remained fairly quiet during the conversation and clearly felt left out at this point.
"Yet none the less I can not get him to stop referring to himself in the third person." Kovak'g sighed in irritation.
"Singer third person. Dahpu second person!" Dahpu grinned widely looking like a mutated frog, Kovak'g groaned, and Singer laughed. Then a dot appeared on the edge of Singer's map, blinking green and red, ending his laughter.