Darkness.
That was all Michael could "see" around him at the moment.
He was currently suspended in some sort of dark empty void.
There was nothing and no one anywhere near him.
There was only one sound, and it seemed to be some sort of, pulse.
Pulsating at an even rate, one after another.
'Where am I' thought Michael
'Last I remember, I was... e-eaten.'
'Those damn bastards, I know they didn't like the way I did things, but they seriously betrayed me like that!' roared Michael in his mind
'If it wasn't for that damn debuff, I could've killed the dragon and slaughtered those sorry bastards!'
When Michael "says" he could've handled them and the dragon easily, he isn't talking just to talk.
He was strong enough to be a high-tier S-rank but chose not to advance.
while there were several reasons, one of the main ones was the duties that would come with being an S-rank, as someone that strong, he would be expected to protect not just the federation, but all of humanity, and that would take away from his time with his son.
While he did tolerate humanity and didn't want them to go extinct, he was at a breaking point.
For too long, he had seen others exploiting their fellow humans, and that was before the portals appeared!
After the world collapsed, this got even worse, and so, seeing all of the corruption and exploitation happening around him, Michael truly lost all hope in humanity.
The only reason he donated his money was due to it going towards orphanages and charities aimed at children.
Children were the only ones that kept him from going into some forest and living a hermit lifestyle.
Ever since that day he lost his wife and unborn daughter, he felt the duty to help those in need, but over time that evolved into only helping the powerless children, who had nobody.
Kids were the only truly pure beings left in the world, and don't get him wrong, Michael is in absolutely no way, innocent.
He has killed his fair share of humans along with the genocidal amount of monsters he has slew.
In conclusion, Michael was a broken man who grew to only truly care about himself and his son, his only loved one.
While he feels a sense of duty to help out all of those innocent children, deep down, he truly couldn't care less.
And now it would seem that his betrayal was the final straw.
All humans could burn in the deepest layer of hell for all he cared, all he could think of now was his rage and his sadness for leaving his son on such an important day.
Michael was worried about what would happen to his son now, thankfully his son had been evaluated as a C-rank.
This made him an important hunter, the real problem was if his life was going to become a living hell now because of Michael's death.
...
It had now been quite some time since Michael had awoken in this, void of sorts.
He still had zero control over his "body".
He couldn't see a thing.
And to top it off, he wasn't even sure if he was alive or not.
So that's great.
While he was thinking about some useless things like how he would miss his favorite shows and movies, and how he could really go for a burger right now, he all of a sudden felt a jerk and light started entering the "area" he was in.
'Oh god, is that the light at the end of the tunnel I'm always hearing about.'
Right, when he was ready to accept his passing over to whatever was to come, Michael suddenly felt something, it was like he was... being sucked out?
(O_O)
'What the hell is happening to me?!'
'Help anybody!'
'Oh right, I'm alone...'
'HELP!'
'AHHHHHHHHhhhhh...
...Waaahhhhh!'
Hajj, gabifg!
Lorfkad?
Tohkg.
'Huh? what is happening, what is this blinding light, ah! my eyes hurt!'
.
.
.
'I HAVE EYES!'
'WOOH!'
'But wait, why can I still not talk?!'
Right when Michael was about to have another breakdown, a sound rang in his head.
[Ding!]
[Learning Orcish...]
[10%]
[27%]
[51%]
[74%]
[87%]
[99%]
.
.
.
[100%]
[Ding!]
[The language of the orcs has officially been learned!]
'What the hell?'
'What is this?'
[Ding!]
[Status Panel fully assimilated, happy hunting!]
'No way!'
'How did I just regain my status panel?'
'And when will this light dim down?'
Just as he was thinking that the bright source of light moved away from his face and that's when he saw them.
standing in front of Michael was what seemed to be an old female with green skin.
She had what seemed to be tusks that had rings in them.
She was wearing a cloak made of what looked to be animal skins, mainly deer fur.
Just as he was about to try to speak, the weird orc lady turned him around and handed him to another female orc who seemed to be considerably younger.
'What the hell is going on here, was I reincarnated! and why are there orcs here!'
'Am I going to be killed already!"
As the female orc was taking him from the older one, what seemed to be a male orc spoke up.
"Shaman, why does my son have what seems to be purple tattoos on his body?" asked the male orc with a tense tone
"Ah, that don't know, however, it doesn't seem to be bad, instead, I think it is beneficial for him, for these tattoos will serve a great importance alongside the child." said the old crony in a sage-like voice
"Bah, enough of your riddles shaman, tell me now!" roared the orc as he pulled out a giant stone axe
"Calm down Grak, look at him, even though you are yelling he hasn't made a single fuss, this shows he is a true warrior in the making!" exclaimed the female orc
While the male orc now known as Grak was happy about this, Michael was within his own world at the moment.
'Did she just call me their son?'
'What have I been born into?!'
"Oh look Anika, our son has such a stern face and he was just brought into this world, he will make a fine warrior!" boomed Grak with a laugh
"Yes he will." said the now named female orc, Anika
Back to our baby orc protagonist who was having a mental breakdown.
Michael.exe has shut down, starting reboot, please standby.
.
.
.
.
Ding!
"Yargak bratic!"
that's baby orcish for... What the hell!
...
It had now been a few days since his, birth, and Michael, who was now named Drak, had started to adjust to his situation.
From the initial looks of it, he was just born into a tribe of orcs, where and how that is, he doesn't know.
Much less, he doesn't know why he was reborn.
During the past couple of days, Mic- no, Drak, had learned about his parent's standing in the tribe.
It would seem that his father Grak, was the third son of the previous chief which would make his eldest Living brother the current chief of the tribe.
The reason his eldest "Living" brother is chief, is due to a civil war that was led by Grak's two other older brothers who are now dead.
It would seem that the old chief in all of his wisdom, decided to split up the tribe into three parts among his three eldest sons, a sort of barbaric orc gavelkind if you will.
Of course, orcs being orcs, the two other brothers immediately waged war after their father died.
They both attacked the current chief together since they saw him as easy pickings, however, they made one fatal mistake.
They underestimated the strength of not only Grak but the shaman who delivered Drak.
IT would seem from all things he has heard and priced together, that his father Grak is the true power behind the tribe, being the strongest out of all of them, but due to his fondness for his older brother, and his uncaring attitude towards leadership, he stayed loyal and fought for his brother.
And of course, now that brings us to the shaman.
It would seem that the shaman is actually just a mana-sensitive orc who has trained her skills in magic and alchemy to a relatively high place when it comes to orc magic.
She had apparently unleashed devastating AoE attacks along with poisons that she had cooked up herself.
Now armed with that knowledge, Drak had no idea what to do.
So instead of drawing hasty conclusions, he decided to wait a little while longer and gain more intel before choosing what path he would take in this new life.
...
It had now been just a month after his birth and he had already started growing.
Going off of tidbits of info he has heard from the other orcs, it would seem that orcs reproduced quickly, and their young would be full grown within 5 years.
Now while this goblin level of growth and reproduction may seem pretty crazy, it balances out with the unnaturally high mortality rate of orcs.
Although they are stronger than most other races except maybe some select demihuman groups, orcs tend to mindlessly rush into massive battles, and on small scales, they don't usually wear armor except some light clothing.
Hence over the years, it has become relatively easy for the other more "intelligent" races to take on several orcs by themselves.
However, large groups of orcs are highly dangerous and are known to devastate whole towns when left unchecked, this has caused orcs to be hunting like a wild animal would to where their population stays in check.
Most orcs also prioritize physical strength over anything else, effectively making them walking tanks, however, these muscle brains can easily be taken down by a couple of soldiers with good teamwork.
An orc's favorite weapon is most times a stone axe that they made themselves.
Although stone isn't the most durable material, especially when up against any kind of armor, that weakness is negated by the fact that orcs have an uncanny ability to sense and gain access to aura.
Aura is a watered-down version of mana that most knights and warriors use to help strengthen not only their bodies but once they advance enough, their attacks.
Back to Drak and his now growing body.
Within a single month, he had already grown to the stage where a 2-year-old human child would be.
He can now speak with a limited number of words, at times it frustrates him since his mouth can't keep up with his brain, but that is just one of the many things he will have to push past in this new and scary world
...
Another few months had passed.
Right now Drak was with his mother watching his father train with some of the best warriors.
Drak was sitting next to his mother while she carried a newborn female orc child.
That's right, within a few months orcs are able to reproduce again, however, that is only something the younger, adult orcs can do.
Just like humans, having too many children can cause serious harm to the body.
orc couples mate for life, and will not move on after their spouse's deaths, so they have to make as many children as possible before one inevitably dies.
Some higher-ranked orcs can have multiple wives, but that's only after they reach an evolution or two.
Yup, evolution, orcs are able to evolve after certain hidden conditions are met, however unlike them, Drak has a status panel that shows his level, and he is hopeful that like the hunter system where every 10 levels he gains a new skill, that every 10 levels he will be able to evolve.
But for that theory to be tested, he will have to wait until he is fully grown, or grown enough to kill something.
Back to the baby-making aspect of orcs.
Female orcs are able to have between 3-6 children before their body makes them slow down to one every 2 years, I know, that's a pretty drastic amount of time, but imagine if orcs could continuously reproduce every few months, the whole world would be overrun with muscle brained idiots.
However, the orcs have adopted a policy that they learned from goblins.
Sigh, you know where this is going.
That's right, when desperate or just simply want to have more children, male orcs will capture female adventurers or unlucky village women, and, ugh... forcefully procreate.
Most orc men have at least 1-3 "mistresses" and those said women are able to pump out 1 orc child every two years.
The reason why it is so slow is currently unknown.
Another reason why the orcs adopted this famous goblin policy is not only due to the need to repopulate the tribe in times of emergency but also because of the fact that half-orcs don't exist in this world.
Well, at least not in the traditional sense.
I mean that a female human having woo-hoo time with than male orc, forced or not, will only have a pure orc baby.
But for some unknown reason, When a human male and a female orc love each other very very much, and they hold hands, a baby half-orc pops out.
These half-orcs are basically green-skined humans who are slightly larger than the average human.
Of course, Drak doesn't know ALL of this, but bits and pieces.
...
It had now been a little over 1 year since the was born, and Drak was at the same growth stage as a 6-year-old human child, which was a little faster than the other orc children born around the same time as him, most of whom are at a 4 years old stage.
Right now he stood at a height of roughly 152 cm, or in freedom units, 5 feet on the dot.
Before you go and think that is tall, Grak, the father of Drak is slightly over 213 cm, or 7 feet tall
Currently, Drak was playing with his younger sister Atiga, and his newest younger sibling, Radak, his younger brother who was born 4 months after their sister.
Atiga was currently 7 months old while Radak was if you can do basic math, 3 months old.
Currently, Grak was speaking with his older brother, Taruk the chief, about an event that will be held within the next year, don't ask how they know about the time measurement of a year.
This event will be a battle event between all of the 2-year-old orcs, meaning Drak and his "generation" would be put in a tournament-style battle, and the last one remaining will get the opportunity to go out with the hunting party.
This greatly interested Drak since they wanted to see what was outside of this dark and damp cave they lived in.
For the past year, he had his suspicions that they were in a dungeon, but those thoughts came crumbling down when the hunting party came back with deer, bunny, and boar carcasses for meat.
None of these animals could be found within dungeons in Drak's past life.
...
Now that he had a goal to work towards, Drak was about to go to work with the training regiment he had created that would suit his body which was that of a pre-teen human child.