"Ugh, where am I?" groaned Drak as he sat up from his "bed" which was just a few animal furs filled with moss
"Huh, big brother!" yelled Atiga as she jumped onto Drak's lap
"Atiga? what are you doing here?" asked Drak
"She wouldn't leave your side from the minute you were brought here."
Drak's mother came through the entrance to the sleeping area with Radak in her arms.
"Oh, hello mother, where is father?" asked Drak as he motioned for her to give Radak to him
"He will be here shortly," replied Atika with a warm smile that seemed to perfectly fit her face despite being an orc
Once Drak grabbed Radak from their mother, he started tickling and playing with the 3-month-old orc child.
The giggles of a baby could be heard throughout the living area of the cave as Drak played with Radak.
Normally other orcs would've been annoyed by the sounds of the child, but due to being the children of the current clan head, Grak, the three siblings got to sleep in the private sub-area of the cave system that the tribe inhabits.
While Drak was in the middle of messing with his two siblings, their father Grak walked into the room.
"Haha, it would seem that my son is even stronger than I originally thought, to be honest with you boy I was a little worried since you hadn't shown any feats of prowess or interest in fighting, but it seems my worry was unfounded!" laughed Grak as he walked up to the side of Drak
"Not only that but who would have thought that our son could harness magic arts!" said Atika with the voice of a proud mom
The magic arts that his mother is referring to is offensive magic like what he did with his purple lightning.
Although most orcs pride themselves on their physical prowess and if they can achieve aura, that doesn't mean that they do not value those who can wield mana and as a result, magic.
Most tribes actually hold their shamans in high regard, shamans being their equivalent to mages.
The only reason the shaman of their tribe is called old crony or old bat is due to her unhealthy obsession with everything related to magic.
Plus her experiments do not really help her public image either.
It's just another Tuesday when some concoction she is making blows up, or you can hear screams from captured humans and enemies as she pokes and prods them with whatever she has.
Speaking of prisoners, now that he thought about it, Drak has yet to see the so-called "prison wing" of the cave system.
From what he has heard it is deeper down into the cave and houses an assortment of different peoples and races spanning from human to even the occasional ogre or elf.
When Drak first heard of there being elves in this new world, he was quite surprised.
Back on earth, a portal had opened up around 6 years after the initial invasion, this portal led to a world inhabited purely by elves, ranging from wood elves, dark elves, and even the mysterious high elves.
Hearing what his father had just said woke Drak up from his stupor.
"Just be thankful that you didn't fully sever the fool's arm, if you did then no matter how useless he is, there would've been a punishment for critically injuring another orc."
"While that old bat Is crazy, she can almost everything except for severed limbs, so be mindful of that next time you do something risky," said Atika in a stern tone
"Tsk, he didn't lose his arm," muttered Drak
"What was that?" said Atika with a scary glint in her eye
"Oh uh, I said yes mother," replied Drak quickly with his head down
"hmm, sure you did," said Anika with a disapproving glare
Even though it had already been a year since he was "born" as an orc, it still comes as a surprise when Drak witnesses them being extremely human-like, in the way they talk, walk, and just their mannerisms in general.
At first, Drak had thought that maybe these orcs were a different breed or species compared to the other ones he fought in portals and the ones who invaded earth, so he combed through his memories and finally came to a realization.
The orcs are not the different ones, he is.
For the past ten years he had always fought with blinders on, he never stopped to question whether these creatures he was killing were just like him, beings stuck in a constant struggle for survival.
Now that he thought about it, he remembers several instances where the monsters seemed even more human than him.
It was pretty common to see different monster races like orcs and goblins who possessed a certain level of intelligence and care for their own people.
Heck, just two years before his death, Drak had entered a field-type portal that brought him to a world ruled by hobgoblins, the superior form of goblins.
He remembers how the hunters alongside him would just mercilessly burn down and terrorize the goblins as they wreaked havoc on citizens and warriors alike.
Though he remembers this, he still feels no remorse for exterminating goblins and other semi-sentient monsters, even orcs.
The only reason why they went into that hobgoblin field portal was due to them abducting any younger adult females they could find and using them as broodmares to bolster their numbers.
usually, someone who saw what Drak, then Michael had seen, would be filled with unspeakable rage, but by that time, he had already given up on humanity, the only thing he felt was sorry for having to kill them, even then it was only a small morsel of remorse.
"hey Drak."
"Drak."
"Boy!" boomed Grak effectively snapping Drak out of his thoughts
"U-uh, sorry I was lost in thought," said Drak apologizing
"You sure do think a lot." said Grak
"h-haha." laughed Drak awkwardly
"So, now that I have your attention, I was asking if you wanted to come with me to meet some of the other orc children your age, but do not pick any fights, you are in no condition to fight right now, understood?" said Grak
"Sure, I was interested in who my competition was, this will be a good opportunity to gauge their strengths," replied Drak
"Haha, that's the spirit!" said Grak
"That's good and all, but make sure to make some friends to son, and maybe even try to start finding a mate," said Anika wiggling her eyebrows
"Mother, I'm only 1 year old," said Drak with a deadpan face
"So, your father and I met when we were only a little older than you."
"Ugh, fine, but no promises." groaned Drak
Although it didn't sound like it, he was happy to have not just a mother, but a family who cared so much for him, it sure was nice, but at the same time, it only made him miss his son even more.
...
Drak followed his father as they exited out of the cavern that had been granted to his father and his newly founded clan.
That's right, in a twisted sense of feudalism, each clan is given a cavern or sometimes more depending on their size, power, and standing.
These caverns work as the defacto "territory" of the clan that controls them, there are even rare cases of clans going to "war" over more space.
the reason why the war was in the quote is due to how the so-called war is set up.
In all actuality, the real thing t call it would be duels, two representatives from the two warring clans will duke it out in a one-on-one duel, and whoever wins, no matter if their opponent dies or forfeits, the winning clan will gain the area that was fought over.
As said before however, this rarely happens due to the populations of clans being unwillingly mitigated due to the occasional giant raid by human soldiers on the entrance to the cave, or when hunting parties are out, it isn't uncommon to encounter either a band of adventures or a squad of soldiers on patrol.
The main cause of death usually comes from those raids that happen once or twice every year.
When these raids happen, a sizeable retinue of soldiers and adventurers numbering around 500 - 1,000 will invade the immediate territory of the tribe outside of the cave.
Although it has been mentioned how clans control areas within the cave system, that's only for high-standing clans.
the River Valley Tribe, as Drak's tribe is called, has over 60 clans within it, only 20 of which reside within the cave system.
The rest of the "lower" clans reside outside of the cave in basic huts, in the style, you would expect neolithic age humans to live in.
Unlike the humans during the neolithic era, the orcs do not farm crops, they only raise livestock, such as Valley Cows, River Pigs, and a small amount of plains Sheep which were plundered from a human village a while back before Drak's birth.
Besides animal husbandry, the major bulk of food, aka meat, comes from hunting in the eastern and northern forests around the territory.
To the west is where the human kingdom which gives the tribe the most trouble comes from, and down south once you exit the valley you start to meet more tribes of orcs and some goblin tribes.
While up north in the forest there are kobolds and goblins, and eastward, there are more kingdoms farther that way, but closer there are a few small orc tribes scattered around.
"father," said Drak snapping out of his trance while walking next to his father
"Hmm, yes son?"
"How come most of the tribe lives in the cave, and why do I never see the rest of the tribe outside?" asked Drak trying to act like a curious child
"Ah, good question, well, the reason we retreated into the caves, or at least the powerful clans did, was due to the major threat that humans had posed over 200 years ago.
"And due to this threat, the major clans made the decision to settle in this cave system and leave the lesser clans outside to act as guards and even fodder."
"You see, the River Valley Tribe that you know today is just a small fraction of what it used to be, in all, honesty our humble tribe of over 500 orcs, used to be a mighty orc kingdom numbering over 10,000!" boasted Grak
"What happened that would cause such an extreme amount of orcs to die?" asked Drak
"Sigh, well as I told you, we were a mighty kingdom, that is, until the "new humans, came," said Grak with just the slightest hint of fear in his voice
Hearing this term greatly shocked Drak.
Back on earth he had heard stories that when the earthlings had first made contact with the elves and later dwarves, they were told that there used to be humans in their own worlds before they disappeared.
There were even some that said humans still lived there, they just weren't able to contact them due to some massive barrier.
But what all of them had in common, as how they referred to the earth humans, even semi-sentient monsters called them the say way, and that was.
New Humans.
Some of the working theories were we as earth humans were not able to contact other humans from other worlds due to the portals themselves.
In almost every portal the monsters knew about humans, even before the first hunter entered, so this led the federation to try and investigate the portals, but they found that in the field portals where they were doing this investigation, there was some sort of barrier blocking them.
Researchers had theorized that beyond this translucent "wall" was the full world, and the area within the field portals was almost like small demos compared to the full world.
"When the new humans came, wearing their weird clothing and armor while wielding an assortment of metal and unknown material weapons, these new humans came in with a fierceness that could match an ogre."
"And their abilities were also seriously powerful, they could wield magic arts like it was nothing."
"But the worst part was how they indiscriminately slaughtered everything that came in their path, women, children, elderly, sick, it didn't matter to them, according to stories passed down, all they used to mumble about in their language was a word called "xp" we know not what it is, but we do know that it drove them with a mad intensity to slaughter us like animals," said Grak while gritting his teeth
"There is even a story of a human man who came in with nothing but some light armor and a metal waraxe, it is said that he was like a tornado of death on the battlefield, it was a hopeless situation, the only reason the orcs who saw it survived was due to him getting bored. He got bored and left! what kind of monster does that!" yelled Grak in slight fear
...
As the father son duo walked, Drak was lost in thought, he was so entranced that he didn't even hear the last remark his father had made.
Once they finally reached the area where most young orcs train, Grak shook Drak out of his trance and led him to a group of male orcs and what could only be their children.
"Haha, Grak! it's great to see you, we haven't seen each other since eth least human attack have we?" boomed an orc while laughing
After Grak exchanged some more greetings among the obviously veteran warrior orcs, the topic changed to Drak and the other kids.
"Everyone, I'm sure you already know of his strength after his display against my brother's son, this is Drak, my firstborn!"
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