IM AN ORC?

3 - The Hunger in the Dark

Ruk awoke to the unfamiliar soul-crushing despair of his previous life, but now to a dull and persistent ache in his muscles. It was a good pain he thought to himself, It was the pain of exertion and the ghost of the Grawler's weight still lingering in his bones. He lay still in his crevice he found the night before, a tiny sliver of darkness tucked away from the main cavern and took stock. The warmth of the absorbed essence had faded off in the morning, but something remained. A subtle and underlying resilience. His VITALITY was a tangible thing and a small but sturdy wall against the constant, now grinding misery of his existence.

He was still weak and still a whelp in a world of giants. But for the first time now, he had a resource. He had a path and the blue interface of the System was a constant but silent companion in his mind, a secret that separated him from every other creature in this world. He focused on his status, the glowing text in his thoughts.

[Name: Ruk]

[Race: Orc (Whelp)]

[Level: 1]

[Evolutionary Energy: 20/100]

[Stats]

[Strength: 3]

[Vitality: 4]

[Agility: 4]

[Will: 8]

[Corruption: 1]

[Desire: 5]

Twenty out of one hundred... It wasn't much, but it was a start. It was a slight measure of progress, a concept that had been utterly non present to Aiden Cross. His old life had been a standing pool of quiet desperation. This new life although as brutal and terrifying as it was, had a current. It had a direction and that direction was up.

The sounds of the clan stirring pulled him from his thoughts. He looked out from his hiding spot with his eyes, now gifted with LOW-LIGHT VISION cutting through the gloom. The cavern was a hive of activity and the warriors were sharpening crude axes and spears, their grunts and boasts echoing off the stone walls. Females were tending to the fires, and preparing the morning meal. It was a foul-smelling gruel made from dried meat, crushed bones, and some kind of lichen scraped from the walls. The air was thick with the familiar stench of smoke, sweat, and unwashed orc...

He watched as Bor, and his single eye scanned the assembled warriors, he then began to bark orders. He was assembling a hunting party with a group of a dozen orcs, the biggest and strongest of the clan's warriors. They were gathered around him with their chests puffed out, their weapons held with a swaggering pride. They were the elite mix, the ones who brought back the large and impressive kills that fed the clan and helped Grummok's rule. Bor gave a final and booming speech, full of promises of blood and meat and then led them out of the main cavern through a large but well-worn tunnel, their laughter echoing behind them.

This was his chance.

With the strongest warriors gone, the cavern was less chaotic. The remaining orcs were the B-team, the older and weaker males and the females who were not part of Grummok's or Bor's inner circle. They would be less likely to notice or care about a single, insignificant whelp slipping away.

He needed more energy. The Grawler had been a flicker of luck, a desperate gamble that had paid off. He couldn't count on that again, he needed a reliable and repeatable source of power.

He needed a plan.

His mind, the mind of Aiden Cross began to work. The main hunting parties went after large prey. Meaning cave bears, giant boars, and other massive creatures that lived in the deeper and more dangerous tunnels. That was too risky... He would be killed before he even got close. The lower tunnels are where the Grawlers lived and were also out. He had survived one, but a pack of them would tear him to shreds.

That left the upper tunnels. The narrow and twisting passages that the larger orcs couldn't easily navigate. He had seen them, they were a maze of cracks and passagways in the upper reaches of the cavern. The warriors ignored them and the prey that lived there was small but fast, and not worth the effort for the amount of meat they provided. But Ruk wasn't after meat, he was after essence. He wanted energy. So for him a dozen small and worthless kills were infinitely more valuable than one large and unattainable one.

He slipped from his crevice with his movements small. He kept to the shadows with his eyes constantly scanning, making sure no one was watching. The remaining orcs were occupied with their own squabbles and tasks. He was invisible to them and a piece of the background scenery. He reached the far wall of the cavern and began to climb up with his small, and nimble fingers finding holes in the rough stone. His AGILITY was still pathetic, but it was enough for now. He was light and his determination was a fire in his belly.

He reached the entrance to one of the upper tunnels, it was a dark and narrow crack in the rock that was barely wide enough for him to squeeze through. The air that drifted out was cool and damp but carrying the scent of wet stone and fungus. He hesitated for a moment with the fear of the unknown. Then he thought of Bor's sneer, of Grasha's cruelty, of the word leftover and he pushed himself into the darkness.

The tunnel was a tight squeeze. He had to turn sideways to get through some parts, with his shoulders scraping against the rock. But his LOW LIGHT VISION was a powerful skill in the darkness. The darkness was not absolute, for it was a world of shades and shadows, and glowing patterns of phosphorescent lichen.

He could see.

He moved deeper into the maze with his senses on high alert. The silence here was different from the main cavern though. It was a living silence that punctuated by the drip of water, the scuttling of unseen insects, and the faint but high pitched chirping that echoed from somewhere up ahead.

That was his target.

He followed the sound, his movements slow and deliberate. He came to a small and open chamber by a pocket in the rock where a cluster of glowing, blue green fungus illuminated the space with a soft and ethereal light.

There he saw his prey.

They were little Cave Hoppers, fast and cricket like creatures the size of his fist. They had long and powerful legs with large, multifaceted eyes that seemed to see in all directions. They were skittish and their bodies constantly twitching, ready to leap away at the slightest disturbance. He watched them for a long time with his mind a whirl of possibilities. They were too fast for him, he couldn't just run them down. His AGILITY was a joke compared to their speed.

He tried anyway and picked one out, a loner at the edge of the group and leaped. It was a clumsy movement and the Cave Hopper was gone in a blur, its chirping laughter echoing off the walls as it vanished into a crack in the rocks. The other hoppers scattered with their chirps a of mockery.

Ruk stood there catching his breath, the familiar sting of failure left a bitter taste in his mouth. This was the story of Aiden Cross's life.

failing.

Being too slow or too weak or too late. For a moment the despair was so overwhelming that he wanted to just sit down and give up. "What's the point?" he said to himself in a fit of emotions. He was a weakling in a world of monsters and he was destined to be meat.

But then the cold hard voice of Ruk the survivor cut through the self-pity. Stop thinking like a victim, start thinking like a predator.

A predator doesn't just run after its prey, a predator studies its prey. It learns its habits and itt uses the environment to its advantage.

It sets traps.

He took a deep breath and forced the despair down. He was not Aiden Cross anymore... he was Ruk and Ruk was a hunter.

He spent the next hour just watching and he didn't move but he just observed. He saw how the Cave Hoppers were drawn to the glowing fungus and nibbling at its edges. Their movement patterns being predictable with straight-line leaps they used to get from one ledge to another. He saw the layout of the chamber with the dead-end tunnels and the narrow fissures.

he formulated a plan.

He found a small and dead end tunnel, just wide enough for a hopper to enter. He carefully broke off a piece of the glowing fungus and placed it at the very back of the tunnel. Then he retreated to the entrance and waited, his body pressed against the rock with his presence masked by the shadows.

It took a long time and his muscles ached from holding still. His patience was a virtue he had never possessed as Aiden, was now tested to its limit. But he waited and finally, his patience was rewarded.

A lone Cave Hopper was drawn by the irresistible glow of the fungus, it cautiously approached the tunnel. It paused at the entrance with its antennae twitching, its large eyes scanning for danger. Ruk held his breath and then hopper sensing no threat, hopped into the tunnel.

The moment it was inside, Ruk moved. He didn't leap for the creature. He leaped for the entrance blocking it with his body. The hopper now realizing it was trapped, panicked. It began to leap wildly with its body slamming against the walls of the small tunnel. It was fast, but it had nowhere to go.

Ruk cornered it with his hands snatching it out of the air. It struggled in his grip with its sharp legs kicking at his arms, but he held on tight. He brought the struggling creature close and without hesitation activated DEVOUR.

The rush of energy was smaller than the Grawler's, a quick sharp jolt rather than a flood. But it was just as intoxicating, for it was the taste of success, the taste of power earned through his own intellect.

[DEVOUR successful. Cave Hopper essence absorbed.]

[+10 Raw Evolutionary Energy]

[Agility increased: 4 → 5]

He felt the change instantly with a lightness in his limbs, a new and subtle quickness in his reflexes. His AGILITY was still pathetic but it was better than it had been and he had a method.

A reliable, repeatable method.

He spent the rest of the day in the upper tunnels, aa silent and patient hunter. He refined his technique while learning to build more complex traps to use the environment to his advantage. He killed five more Cave Hoppers with each one adding to his store of energy, each one pushing his agility higher.

[Agility increased: 5 → 6]

[Agility increased: 6 → 7]

By the time he was finished, he was exhausted and his body aching, but his mind was sharp and clear. He had EVOLUTIONARY ENERGY. He was close, so close to his first level up.

He returned to the main cavern as the sun was setting down, the last rays of light filtering down from a massive crack in the cavern ceiling, painting the scene in hues of orange and purple. Bor's hunting party had returned with their prize being a massive tusked boar that was now being butchered by the lesser orcs. The warriors were celebrating and boasting of their prowess, their laughter echoing through the cavern. No one noticed the small dirt streaked whelp who slipped back into the shadows and disappeared into his crevice.

He had gained more power that day than any of them and he had done it in secret. He had done it with his mind and he now lays in his hiding spot, feeling the new energy in his limbs and he watched the clan. He watched Grummok sitting on his throne, taking the first cut of the boar. He watched Bor basking in the glory of the hunt, with his chest puffed out. He watched Grasha directing the distribution of the meat with a shrewd eye.

And as he watched he saw her again. The silent female orc Nym. She was standing at the edge of the firelight, with her face of indifference. But her eyes for a fleeting second met his. There was no contempt in her gaze or dismissal. There was only a sharp unnerving intelligence with hint of recognition. She had seen him leave and she had seen him return and she knew he hadn't come back empty-handed even though he carried no kill.

She held his gaze for a moment longer then she turned and melted back into the shadows, disappearing as if she had never been there.

Ruk's heart beat a little faster, he was not as invisible as he had thought. But that he realized was not necessarily a bad thing. In a world of monsters being noticed by the right person could be just as valuable as being ignored by the rest.

He closed his eyes and the sounds of the feast a distant roar. He was still a whelp and still at the bottom, but he had a plan.

He was finally learning the rules.