Better Than One - Chapter 2 Meat And Greet.

From the rocky perch where the kobold sat was a thin trail heading into the woods. We followed it northward as it got steeper, and soon we were huffing along at a trudge. She looked bewildered when I decided to hold by breath. She started bellowing out and inhaling air like a vacuum cleaner. It looked like we shared a pair of lungs between the two of us, breathing in sync. She was mad when I explained to her what happened. But it was worth the look on her face.

“I can’t believe this happened to me. It’s so unfair! I need to see my father!” She said in a demanding tone. “He’ll know it’s me, I’m sure of it. There are things that only I know. I can prove that it’s me.” Not this again – we had already gone over this a hundred times. I didn’t bother explaining that the only ones who would recognize her are the gate guards before killing us. I didn’t understand why I had to be the one explaining this. She was the one who told me that ogres of any sort are kill on sight in the human kingdom. I understood this, and I have been on this world only a handful of hours. The world called Icredore.

We were about a mile on the trail before a group of kobolds came out to greet us. And by greet, I mean with spears, pointing. Fourteen of them surrounded us and I could tell they were more afraid of us than we were of them. None dared to come any close. I waved and said hello, but they stood there looking scared.

A close inspection of one brought up an [Inspect] screen with a bit of information. I was starting to like this skill.

[Race: Kobold; Male; Essence: Around 8k.]

The 8k essence number indicated the general threat of the creature, as I had learned from Estra. She was about a 35k essence herself, and I was at 25k. Somehow our essence amounts were different despite sharing the same body. The System interface had a minor help functionality, allowing me to gain a bit of knowledge without having to pry it from her.

[Essence: the lifeblood of creatures and plants. Can be gained by slaying creatures. Used for purchasing stats, upgrading skills / spells, and evolving. A stat increase from 100 to 101, costs 101 essence, etc.]

The reptilians were short and skinny, like young teenagers. They had short alligator shaped heads, and their scales were rust colored. It was an uncanny sight, like first contact with aliens. I was way more excited than afraid, despite all the spears pointing our way.

“Do they understand what we’re saying?” I asked Estra.

“We don’t need these slimy kobolds! Let’s go see my uncle instead, he has an estate not far west of here.” She said, in a disgusted tone. She wasn’t impressed like I was, they mustn’t been new sight for her.

“Is your uncle an Ogre?” I asked rhetorically.

“No, you stupid! Why would he be an ogre?!” She shouted. I sighed.

“Do they understand what we’re saying?” I repeated myself, but slower.

“Yes, of course.” She rolled her eyes under the bushy canopy of her eyebrows.

They waited, and I waited, Estra was growing bored. Finally a single one emerged walking with a bejeweled ivory cane. He wasn’t armed otherwise, and unlike all the rest, he had a pair of small leathery wings on his back. He was wearing a shawl and a whole slew of jewellery: rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and even a golden nose ring. The jewellery tinkled with every slow step he made as he approached us just a few steps past the circle that they made. Estra eyed his jewellery with interest. His crooked back was making it hard for him to lift his head up to meet us eye to eye.

“Greetings.” He said, and exhaled as if winded. “What brings one of Ogre out here?” He peered up at us, squinting.

“We seek shelter and food.” I said, and our belly growled as if on cue. He studied us for a minute.

“Did Eruk sent you?” He finally asked.

I turned and asked Estra. “Any idea who that is?”

“Why would I know that? Why would I know any Ogres?” She said angrily.

The old kobold seemed confused at our conversation. “My name is Zeeld of the Ozo Clan. We would be honored to provide shelter for you-”

“And food!” Estra blurted out, taking him aback.

“… and food.” He added, looking somewhat hurt. He was about to say something more but changed his mind.

The kobolds lowered their spears with relief, and we proceeded down the thin trail. The sun had almost set by this point, driving red spears of sunlight through a leafless forest. It felt like any number of evenings I spent in the forest, serene. It turned out we were a short distance from their cave entrance. It was difficult notice – a mere dark gash in the side of the mountain, with a worn foyer of mud and stone.

The cave opening was narrow for our size. We had to duck our heads and squeeze in sideways to get through. Once inside, the entrance opened up to a vast round lair. In the center was a cooking fire with a cauldron. The whole left side of the lair had a smithy, including an anvil, wooden workbenches, forge, and a kiln of a sort. Drying racks with fish and other meats were spaced out around the center of the lair, near the fire. The smoke from the cooking fire and the smithy funneled up through a hole in the ceiling, carried by warm air. All around the lair were tunnels, heading out in various directions, deeper into the mountain.

A group of kobolds were busy making a racket in the smithy up until they noticed our arrival. The place went quiet as everyone inside stared at us. We followed Zeeld past the cooking fire and down one of the tunnels, with only the light from the fire and the smithy. Despite the lack of torches of any sort, the place was bright enough to navigate, which I assumed was thanks to Ogre’s [Darksight]. It didn’t change the world into shades of green and white, but somehow made a dim setting into one that was vivid. I felt at my eyeballs to check if I had large eyes like most nocturnal creatures do, but they felt ‘normal.’

Despite the kobold’s small sizes, the tunnels were big enough for our size, so that we didn’t have to duck, or walk sideways. Once through, the tunnel opened up to a small chamber with rugs and a bit of furniture. A few skulls sat on the shelves, white and polished. Though most were kobold, with their alligator snouts, the rest I didn’t recognize. Old enemies? Against a wall stood a decorated, metal-reinforced wooden chest, like a shrine of worship. I felt safe to assume that Zeeld was the chief of this clan, and this was the chief’s room. He motioned for us to sit on the rugs. They weren’t the complex designs you’d see in a persian rug store, but merely stripped and of a rough texture.

“Sorry for pointing spears.” Zeeld said. “We had a couple wild Ogres come through the area, killing a few of our own.” He sat down across from us, bracing on his cane the whole way down, grimacing in pain.

“You couldn’t hide in the cave?” I asked, all the while feeling that I needed to take a piss, but wasn’t sure how to bring it up. Judging from the antsy expression on Estra’s face, she was feeling it too.

“We did, and the entrance was smaller before too.” Zeeld said. A kobold entered the chamber with a bronze tray having a variety of meats, and laid it out before us. Zeeld took a small sampling of the fish, ‘chewing’ it over slowly with his toothless mouth. I introduced myself and Estra. He acted surprised that we had two names.

“So you said Eruk didn’t send you?” Zeeld said. Estra picked up a piece of dried meat in front of her like it’s a bug, considered it, and then placed it back on the tray. She turned to look at me, meaningfully. I know what she wanted to say, but wouldn’t.

I sighed. “Zeeld, can you point me to the nearest bathroom?” I asked.

“We don’t have baths.” He replied. Of course not, I thought.

“Right. How about I need to take a piss.” I said.

“Ahh. This way.” He got up, wincing every inch of the way, and then trudged back through the tunnel and down another. A short walk brought us to an underground stream of water. He walked over to downstream section, took a piss, and then left.

I walked over to the stream and thought about all the people downstream who may be using this water for drinking. Then I removed the dirty loincloth – might as well wash it while I’m at it.

“Well, go ahead,” I told her with a smirk on my face. She gave me a look that could kill, and burst out crying like a baby. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been so mean. I felt terrible. I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like if this ogre was a female instead. Or going from a princess to a monster, not that I was accustomed to being an Ogre myself. I sighed, grabbed the tool and pissed into the stream.

After that, I scrubbed the loincloth in the freezing cold water, wringed it damp, and realized I couldn’t put it back on. It was a torn mess of a cloth. Tried as I could, there was no making sense of how it went back on. Estra wasn’t helping either, she was sobbing with her eyes closed. The large overhanging belly was making it harder too. After some trial and error, I finally managed to put it back on and it stayed on, mostly. It felt a lot breezier, and something may have been hanging out, but I didn’t care. She sobbed all the way back to chief’s room.

“We have a fight with the Izro clan coming up, and I had asked Eruk to send me an Ogre to help. I assumed it was you.” Zeeld said.

Estra had quieted down to a miserable frown, chewing her lip. She eyed the food with an equal portion of hunger and repulsion, but wouldn’t touch it. I grabbed a whole fillet of smoked fish, sniffed it and took off large bite. It tasted quite good, but was lacking in spices.

“We don’t know about this Eruk guy, but maybe we could help.” I pointed at Estra, “she can shoot fireballs and heal.” I said, and his eyes bulged out like he won a lottery. I shoved the rest of the fish down my large mouth and grabbed more off the tray.

“You can heal?! T-that’s wonderful!” He said. I kept eating and eating until the tray was empty, and still felt like I could eat more. Sensing that, he had another tray of food brought out.

“You sound very intelligent for an Ogre,” Zeeld said. “What clan are you from?”

I looked over at Estra for help, but she looked like she was ready to scream at me some more, I decided best not to bother her. “The Goaruk clan.” I said, going with first Ogre sounding name I remembered from my D&D days, and Zeeld looked satisfied with the answer. After the second tray I felt sated, and Estra stopped eyeing the food. Turned out, hunger and thirst are also shared between the two of us.

“Come,” he said, and we followed him back out through the tunnel, and down another until we reached the infirmary. There were a dozen or more cots around the room, filled with injured kobolds to various degrees. The room smelled of a certain medicinal herb, masking the odor of the infected injuries and body odor. “They got injured fighting the Ogres and our rivals from the Izro.” Zeeld said.

“I’m not wasting my mana healing bunch of smelly kobolds!” She said, with a repulsed tone, pinching her nose with her left hand.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, which affected her just as much, making her breathe in and breathe out in sync with me. I wasn’t sure how to bargain with her.

“Does mana regenerate?” I asked her.

“Of course it does, but that’s not the point! I’m a princess and a tier three mage, not some kind of a commoner nurse in a zoo hospital.”

She didn’t look like a princess, that’s for sure. Ogre princess? Maybe. Pain in the ass? Absolutely. They gave us food and offered shelter. That’s something I didn’t want her to screw up for me, for us. I hesitated, but it was only thing I could think of that I could do to force her – I grabbed our junk. Her eyes bulged out. It wasn’t anything for me, but for her, I imagine it was an entirely new experience. An experience she didn’t want to admit was happening.

“Stop! What are you doing!” She tried to move my hand off, but we came to a mental deadlock, without the hand budging a bit. I didn’t want to know what Zeeld thought of this spectacle. He looked at us with a worried face.

“Start healing or I keep this up.” I told her firmly, and for a long moment she was lost for words. In the end, I had won, but it was a battle I was not at all proud of. We moved through the room and she began with the more severely injured, and by the time she had to regenerate mana, quarter of the cots were vacant. Seeing how it was getting late, and there were no life-threatening injuries, Zeeld found us a place to sleep.

We got a whole ‘room’ all to ourselves, and a rug big enough to sleep on. It was a chamber a short passage from the central lair, also used as a storage for boxes with ore. They didn’t have any beds large enough to accommodate our size. It wasn’t a five-star hotel, but given the circumstances and the weather outside, it was nice to have a full belly and a place to sleep.

Sleeping proved difficult, and not because we were sleeping on the floor with just the rug as cushion between us and the uneven rocky surface. No. Estra wouldn’t stop moving us around. Maybe the reality of the situation had finally dawned on her, or maybe she was having nightmares. At what felt like the middle of the night, she sat us and starting bawling for her mommy. I felt horrible. I didn’t know what to tell her, or what to do. I couldn’t exactly give her a hug, or soothe her somehow. It was like having a colic infant; she was inconsolable. The minutes stretched out to eternity. A few minutes of this and I was ready to pull out whatever hair I had on my ugly head. Which I very much suspected it was.

Zeeld came to the rescue with a large mug of tea, but Estra would have none of it. Fortunately, it didn’t matter, because I gulped it down. It tasted like medicine and was bitter. And if it was supposed to calm the nerves and help you sleep, then it was ace. Shortly after she slowed to a sob, and a minute after she was out cold, and soon, so was I.

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Stats – an adult human has a ‘starting’ average of 100, someone with 200 is 2x as strong / fast / etc.

50 (22,650 to go from 50 to 100 in all 6 stats)

Small sized creatures

Adult kobold

100 (90,300 to go from 100 to 200 in all 6 stats)

Medium sized creatures

Adult human / dragonborn

200 (150,300 to go from 200 to 300 in all 6 stats)

Large sized creatures

Adult ogre / troll

400

X-Large sized creatures

Adult drake / giant

800

Giant sized creatures

Adult drake / giant

1,600

Enormous sized creatures

Strength: Muscle; how hard you push / pull / hit / throw; How much weight you can carry; Power of Parry / block ability.

Constitution: Max HPs (Con * 10); Stamina (Con * 10); Pain threshold; Stature – bone structure, hide thickness; Disease / poison resistance; Cold / heat resistance.

Intelligence: Reflexes (50%); Memory; Mental resistance; Perception; Critical strike chance; Aim; Spell damage / effectiveness.

Agility: Body Movement Speed; Dodging / parry chance; Flexibility / mobility; Reflexes (50%); Hit chance.

Spirit Max MPs (Spirit * 10); Regen (Spirit / 24) per minute. Regen is split up evenly between mana, HP, and stamina if all three are not 100%. Otherwise, it’s split up according to which is needed, allowing for the full regen going into any one if the other two are already 100%.

Luck Who knows?