Fate Online: Shadow

Meanwhile.

"Why haven't you killed those humans yet!?"

A huge and scary-looking Orc that has a scar across his face climbed up the watchtower and slapped the back of the Orc who is carrying a huge one-meter long crossbow on his hand.

"Keechi! Those humans are good at dodging and hiding!"

The Orc that has a smaller build than the Orc called Keechi started scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

This Orc would have beaten him by now if Keechi was just an ordinary Or, but he wasn't as Keechi is one of the five sons of one Great Elder in their city.

Keechi glared at the Orc and kicked his shin before taking the huge crossbow from the said Orc.

But the Orc manning the tower wasn't even angry, after all, he didn't really feel a thing when Keechi kicked him. Instead, he just quickly handed over the bow to him and stood on the side and started watching the former on how he's gonna kill the humans intruding their lands, when he, who's already considered proficient with the bow is having a hard time killing them.

A minute later.

"Rawwr!!! Stop moving around, you pesky humans!" Orc Keechi roared in anger after not being able to snipe the humans heading towards their direction.

Snort!

Then he suddenly heard a snort behind him and quickly turned around and glared at the Orc standing behind him.

Keechi didn't say anything and just angrily pushed the crossbow towards the chest of the Orc in front of him and made his way down the watchtower after that.

"Keep an eye an on them! I'll go meet them head-on, I'll see how capable these humans are! How dare they break the treaty our race signed with the humans long ago!"

After that, Orc Keechi slid down the ladder and landed on the hard ground.

Around him is just a simple lookout outpost, it only has a single watchtower and two large barracks around it, and the most surprising thing is that there's not a single snow around them, and instead, the land around them is brimming with greenery.

The Orc looked at Keechi and shook his head, "What an arrogant brat, I wonder what the Elder Saicho is thinking by sending this brat here?"

Then he suddenly scratched his head and muttered, "Aiya, how am I going to report this when that brat happens to die?"

The Orc sounded like a scheming Orc, but he wasn't. It was because the Grey Orcs have a strange custom or more like a ritual to adulthood.

Just like the Grey Orc Keechi earlier, he was just a young juvenile Orc and not an adult yet, but the Orc manning the watchtower is an adult.

A young Grey Orc would have a bigger build than an adult Grey Orc, and that's only until they reach adulthood when their bodies slim down, but that doesn't mean they would become weaker.

Instead, they would be even more powerful and agile with their bodies slimmed down as they wouldn't have to bear more weight now.

It's like how when Son Goku goes into Super Saiyan mode, that instead of getting his muscles bigger, he instead makes his hair longer so that he could maintain his body's dexterity and speed.

So for a Grey Orc to reach true adulthood, they need to hunt monsters, but not just any monster they want!

It was because the monsters that they manage to hunt down alone would become their prerequisite to reaching true adulthood!

For example, the Grey Orc who is manning the watchtower is called Sochi, he's a Grey Orc who had hunted down a monster called Wind Hawk, a bird monster that has great eyesight that could spot an object from a few kilometers away.

After a Grey Orc manages to kill off their desired monster, the ritual for them to reach full adulthood would begin by eating their prey so that they could inherit one or two of the abilities of the monster that they had killed.

Of course, not every hunt would successfully as the chance of gaining a monster's skill is only one percent or maybe even lower, and that percentage applies to monsters like lesser dragons, drakes, and monsters of a similar level!

But Grey Orcs can certainly get one or two skills from a Horned Rabbit or Goblin if they kill and eat them.

After all, they aren't really that strong.

This kind of ritual for this monster race would certainly sound absurd from the viewpoint of another race, and certainly, this innate ability of this race of Grey Orcs certainly sounds amazing, but there's a limit to this innate ability of theirs as they are only able to use it five times during their entire life!

After five tries and they still haven't got the desired skill or they didn't get anything at all, then they're f*cked up as they wouldn't get another chance after that!

Instead, they would just become an ordinary Orc whose only use is to do odd jobs!

"..."

This is the reason why Sochi was able to spot Michael and his group even when they are so far away from his location.

"So that's how Grey Orcs cultivates themselves?"

Michael glared at the kneeling Keechi in front of him, but the latter just glanced at him and ignored him after and instead looked at Dylan.

"Answer what he was asking," said Dylan, looking all smug after he managed to subdue this Grey Orc and became his pet or subordinate.

And how did Keechi reduce to becoming a pet of a human?

Well, Michael and the crew met Keechi and a group of Grey Orcs when they were ascending the mountain, it wasn't even a battle as the Grey Orcs were immediately killed which surprised the players as they weren't expecting the Grey Orcs that they met were even weaker than their expectations, but what they didn't know is that most Grey Orcs who got deployed in a watchtower outpost are actually far weaker than those Orcs in the horde, and it was because the Grey Orcs that Keechi brought with him are actually considered "rejects" or in other words, their not qualified to join the Orc Horde.

"Wouldn't this Grey Orc become really strong now that he had become Dylan's pet?" Solitary Tempest leaned towards Michael and whispered to his ear.

"Yeah~ After all, it would just come back to life if it dies. By then, I wonder if the tries it could use their innate ability would reset or not?" answered Michael, genuinely curious.

"I want an Orc pet too" Chakram mumbled from the side, looking at Keechi with blazing eyes, and the latter shuddered as he suddenly felt danger creeping towards him that he hurriedly looked around him frantically.

"Tell us how many more Orcs are still left at the outpost," Storm Moonlight said, feeling eager to kill whoever shot down her pet.

"Aside from me, there's only ten left" Keechi replied meekly, then he quickly added, "But don't underestimate them, the Orc Captain is really strong"

"We won't" Chakram slowly stood up from the ground and smirk.

"Let's go!"

Shadow figures flashed by between the trees, startling the small animals around that they scattered in all directions, and behind them…

"W-wait up!" Dylan panted hard, trying to call out to the others who are slowly leaving him behind.

"I should've never picked Mage!"

"You, get on your knees, let me ride on your back," Dylan said to Keechi, and the latter obediently knelt on one knee and allowed Dylan to climbed on his back.

"Follow them!"

"Yes, master!"

"I told you to call me Boss, you idiot!"

"S-sorry boss!"