Orc Lord

I lean into the doorway of Fiara’s house. “Hey, how's the research?”

My eyes rake over the interior. Fiara is furiously scribbling on a tablet. Another dozen are stacked up against the wall. These weren't here before. She must have borrowed them from other Orcs nearby.

She reaches the end of her current tablet, frowns, and then notices me.

“Chief! More tablets, please!”

I blink. “Yeah, fine.” I create another dozen tablets with earth magic and she snags one right away. I look in the pile of filled tablets. They’re well-written notes on various Magic Engineering strategies, as well as plentiful hypotheses on how humans apply them.

Looking up from the tablet in my hand, I ask, “Did Adelai wake up?”

Fiara shook her head. “She taught me a few things earlier. I'm organizing my thoughts. She likes to send a lot of information all bunched up when it can't be said in a few words.”

I furrow my brows and look at the stack of tablets covered in fine text.

She didn't have any memory skills when I analyzed her. Is her memory stat that good?

I focus on Fiara and try to use to identify her stats. Immediately, I'm wracked with a headache so awful it bypasses what can block. I very nearly cry out, but manage to restrain myself enough that Fiara doesn't notice.

I seem to recall Fiara telling me a long time ago that there are too many stats to count. I certainly feel like just tried to shove a crazy number of stats into my brain in an instant. I can't remember a single one of them anymore.

What if I only try to analyze one stat at a time? I give memory a shot, and something clear appears in my head.

Memory: 1200%

Hm? What is that percentage referencing?

I have an idea, so I use to find my own memory stat as well.

Memory: 100%

I try it again and again with every stat I can think of. And it’s pretty funny. They're all 100%. shows me how another person’s stat compares to mine. It's exactly what I would have done without it, just a bit more precise.

So, in other words, Fiara’s memory is twelve times better than mine is. What the hell kind of photographic memory does she have?!

… intelligence.

Intelligence: 110%

She’s ten percent smarter than me too.

I shouldn't feel jealous. It's not like I'm below average or anything. Fiara’s just too impressive.

I wonder how momma ranks. She’s lazy with her speech, but she isn't stupid.

Fiara suddenly looked up from her writing. She was still in the middle of things, but she set her work down and turned to me.

“Chief, she’s awake.”

“Oh,” my eyebrows jumped, and I thought briefly. “Could you ask her what it means to have an unstable Soul?”

Fiara’s eyes drifted up, like she was thinking about it.

“Well, it isn't good, but you won't die from it. Sometimes Souls become unstable when put under a lot of stress. It can also happen when the body and Soul aren't quite a match. It's easier for powerful beings to tamper with unstable souls, and certain illusion or curse spells will have a greater effect on you.”

That's both relieving and concerning. Now that I think about it, momma’s Soul is also unstable. I suppose it's because she’s waiting for an evolution to occur.

I opened my mouth to ask my next question, but Fiara cleared her throat and made an embarrassed face. I stop what I was going to say and tilt my head at her.

“I'm sorry. She peeked. You wanted to know about rejecting an evolution?”

I righted my head and nodded.

How much can an Indigo mind seed see? I think I understand another reason she didn't want me to know about it. Anybody would find this uncomfortable.

For some reason, I'm only a little uncomfortable. I think I already got used to every aspect of my private life being bought and sold in my previous world. I don't like it, but it doesn't particularly bother me either. That world desensitized me to a lot of things.

“If it reaches 100%, you’ll evolve again into something different,” Fiara stated. “Don't think of it as something bad. For most evolutions, it shows as “rejecting race,” but they're basically the same thing. It is strange for you to drift away so early. Adelai thinks it's because your thoughts are more accommodating and timid than usual. If you were in a bolder mood, that state should go away.”

“About a fractured soul shell, that's expected, since you're the Orc Lord.”

I automatically tipped my head to the side. “How’s that?”

“You've fused with a Lord spirit, right? That should have happened while your Soul was waiting for reincarnation. A Lord spirit can't function as a Soul on its own. Instead, it brings any mortal soul it latches on to,” she hesitated, “closer to godhood.”

“In what way, exactly?”

Fiara bowed her head. “Sorry for the personal question, but you don't have a limit to how many skills you can learn, right?”

How long has she known about that? “That’s right. At least, no limit I'll reach anytime soon.”

“The Orc Lord can store skills outside of the S system--in the soul shell. More accurately, the skills are carved into the soul shell. Even if you can keep as many skills as you want, it's better if you don't. Embedding too many skills into the soul shell will make it fragile. A higher being or a powerful curse might shatter it.”

Oh. 99.8% remaining: 0.2% fractured; it makes sense.

“I used on momma earlier. Is it normal to be “pending evolution”?”

Fiara shook her head. “That means there wasn’t a proper species existing for her to evolve into. The spirits have to create a new one. The same thing happened to you you know? You should have evolved a night earlier.”

“Eh? Seriously?” Doesn't that mean the spirits created the Dominance Orc race just for me?

What else can I ask while we’re doing this? Oh, I know. “Fiara, you got a racial skill when you evolved, but I didn't. Why is that?”

“Every evolution should have a racial skill, excluding the base level monsters. It's probably because your evolution was late and your Soul had already started shifting by the time it went through. You have to have a 100% match to learn the racial skill.”

“Are they all unique to that race?”

“Not all of them, but most.”

I couldn't think of any more questions, which was just as well, because Adelai fell asleep again.

“Well, you answered my questions. I should return the favor.”

“Chief?” She tilted her head.

I smiled slyly. “Didn't you want to hear stories about my world?”

In an instant, I had a sparkly-eyed Fiara sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of me, waiting for me to start. I laughed. “Alright, I lived in a country called America…”