Lucan appeared on a hill overlooking an orc camp. He sat down in the shade of a boulder and summoned Adrestia with a thought. The shadow drake stayed perched on his shoulder. She would help defend him, she couldn't be used to scout, she was too noticeable against a blue midday sky.
Instead he stretched out his hand while pointing his wand towards his palm. He began to stir the shadow magic together. As the shadows fell, a small brown bird chirped in his hand. Lucan's original familiar was a small shadow spirt that could take the form of a handful of creatures. The spirt spent most its time as a little brown mouse and earned itself the name 'Little brown'.
"Okay Little brown, fly around the camp and give me a better look." Lucan said. The small bird took to the sky while Lucan deepened their connection, looking through Little brown's eyes. Lucan studied for half an hour.
Just over 1,000 orcs lived at this camp. Walls and barricades built from felled trees encircled the encampment. 200 of the orcs were children and elderly, they shouldn't be a threat in low numbers. 600 were level 25 warriors or workers. But the workers looked just as fierce as the warriors. The last 200 hundred were elites. Each elite could compare to 10 regular orcs. Their leader was a named rare elite.
A rare creature was a variant, different from the rest, usually with an extra ability or two. And the fact that he had a name meant the A.I. system that ran 'Evolution' gave 'Orc-chief Olgar' extra intelligence compared to a creature called 'Orc-chief'.
200 orcs, 5 of which were elite patrolled outside the walls in regular patterns. They were divided into 5 groups and each covered their own area.
As Lucan observed, he didn't mind the green skin, broad frames, and jutting tusks, he only wished he could eavesdrop. If there wasn't a need to level quickly, he would have bought the ability to speak their langue. He wasn't going to drop levels again just to impress these people.
The time cycle of this Instance was accelerated. An hour passed while Lucan watched but the noon sun had diapered while a sliver of a moon hung in the air. It was Little brown's turn to sit on Lucan's shoulder. With the upgraded connection to Adrestia, Lucan didn't require mana to maintain the connection. He watched while listing possible scenarios.
Lucan soon began to get a feel for this fast-past paced orc camp. They had a shrine to their god, a little shopping area. Most of the orcs ate dinner together around a large fire. Lucan had learned where most of the elites claimed residence.
Besides the orc-chief, there were 4 more named elites, they were not rare. Lucan created 5 illusionary pieces of parchment laid out in front of him, he had been listing the characteristics, habits and trying to discover the skills of the 5 named orcs. He meticulously reviewed the information when Adrestia pulled on his mental connection.
He looked to see a single orc sneaking off from his patrol towards the woods. By the way the orc was clutching his bottom, Lucan didn't think he was up to anything nefarious. Adrestia followed while Lucan sent Little brown to join.
Once in the woods the orc began to empty his upset stomach. Lucan waited as long as he could for Little brown but he couldn't pass on the chance to catch an enemy with his pants down.
Lucan closed his eyes and began concentrating while swirling his wand.
Adrestia sat 20 feet in the air on a branch of the tree above the squatting orc. She opened her mouth as a shadow bolt silently launched every half second.
The first one hit.
[200 damage to target.]
'Damn, that's not even 2% of his health, what are these guys built of?'
The dark forest hid the silent shadow bolts as they rained down on the panicking orc. He rolled and tried to scurry away, but the barrage was relentless. As Lucan's shadow mana ran dry the orc could see the edge of the woods. Making a break for it, he abandoned his pants and ran.
As he approached the edge, a small bird was flying straight towards him from the distant plains. When the orc looked at the bird he froze in fear. Intimidation had locked him down for 5 seconds. Lucan began to unload a flurry of Telekinetic Slashes. He had always known that telekinetic magic had cost more mana and had a shorter range but it boasted good damage and it was hard to block because their was no spell path, the slash just appeared. Through spell weaving Lucan found it was also capable of being used much faster.
4 slashes a second started slice at the orcs neck. Lucan pulled out a second wand and started converting pure mana. He topped off his shadow magic and put his mind to the test while using both familiar to cast different spells. Lucan started slowly going back and forth while gradually picking up the speed with each cast.
The two winged familiars circled the orc, launching spells while he unfroze and left the forest. His group was nowhere in sight. His health had been steadily falling the whole time and things were becoming desperate. Adrestia had started to swoop down when his back was turned and clawed at any exposed flesh. It wasn't much but Lucan knew she was doing everything she could.
The orc suddenly turned and threw a small hatchet towards the shadow drake who was swooping down. She was stuck with nowhere to go.
*Chirp Chirp*
Little brown dropped through the air, smashing into the weapon, then disappearing in a puff of shadows.
Adrestia became enraged and swopped down again going against Lucan's orders. She clung to the orcs back, scratching and biting while Lucan put everything into mental magic. If he used only shadow bolt, his damage would be higher, but telekinetic slash could burn a lot of mana incredibly fast to acquire high burst output.
Lucan watched every mana bar but ethereal empty out.
[You have gained 1,500 XP.]
The orc collapsed while Adrestia didn't stop until both of its eyes were clawed out. The orcs body turned gray before disappearing. It left behind a book and a few coins. Under Lucan's command Adrestia ignored the coins and brought back the book. She had to take a few breaks while circling around the camp, the book was on the limit of the weight she could carry.
'This is a joke; it takes everything I have to kill a normal warrior. An attempt on the chief would be stupid. Unless they want to see if I can still be determined under unfavorable odds. Maybe he is actually super weak. No, that's crap, the gatekeeper told me it was impossible to begin with. What do I do? How do I make myself look valuable?'
Lucan hand given up the notion of success and was focused on the judges now. A worn out Adrestia landed beside Lucan.
"Good girl, here is some water." Lucan said setting down a bowl and scratching behind her head. Adrestia was trying to shrug off his finger. "Don't worry, unlike you, Little brown's cooldown is only an hour, he was out longer than that. See." Lucan swirled his wand to unveil a little brown mouse.
Little brown squeaked and went to the water bowl, Adrestia chirped and joined him.
"You both did well, it is me who is the weak failure."
Lucan picked up the book and looked it over. It was in orcish, he couldn't understand. But he did recognize the symbol on the front. It was the same symbol on top of their holy shrine.
'It's only 3,000 experience to learn how to read orc, it might give me a chance. If I can't make something useful with this book, I will do something flashy and call it quits, I am already at the 2-hour limit.'
"Okay guys, this is the only time I am going to spend my own experience till I hit 100. This is it, and its for a good cause."
They chirped and squeaked their approval. Or it could have been to two dabs of honey Lucan put on a plate for them. They were both eternal beings, spirts that possessed bodies when they entered this world. They didn't need to eat or drink. But having some water after a fight or licking honey was still enjoyable to his two spirit companions.
Lucan bought the skill and started flipping through the book. It was about an orc named Broom that lived 1,000 years ago. He led a big rebellion against the humans and was one of the first orcs to build a real existence after escaping enslavement. It was believed that most orcs were descendants of the orcs he freed. The book contained the story of his life. His rise to power, then his decision to retreat and go wander the world, never to be seen again. At the back was the list of tenants he left behind. His beliefs of how an orc should live.
"This…, I could…, it's a long shot but…, if this works…, ha, ha, Ha, HA!"
[Warlock's Insanity has been activated.]
Lucan started to cackle to himself while muttering. He summoned illusionary diagrams of orcs and what he had seen. He started sketching together a plan while whispering about orcs and gods.
"Ha, yes, and I will need this one too."
"Oh, yes, this will come in handy."
Lucan made several more purchase and dropped back down to level 20.