As I’d hoped, the orcs set about following the order I’d issued. Four burly specimens had gone out into the forest to cut timber for my requested raft. While I did not know it at the time, but as Dendra informed me later, most orcs naturally suffered from what she called “Minion Complex.” According to Dendra, Minion Complex is the polite term for “full of bluster, but folds at the first sign of real danger.” So when I had effortlessly destroyed the village strongman, they felt an instinctual need to suck up to and serve me if I chose to stick around. Not that I would, these orcs didn’t seem very entertaining.

“Also, they’re just villagers, so he probably wasn’t that strong compared to a proper orc chief. Just a small fish in a smaller pond,” Dendra added.

It all sounded weird and unnecessarily complicated, but it was easier than threatening their lives if they didn’t comply as I’d originally planned. Still, if there were stronger orcs elsewhere, perhaps I could eat them. This one hadn’t really been of any use to me.

While I waited for the lumber team to return, I took some time to meditate and integrate the turtle I’d eaten. Its shell was truly interesting, and practically glowed as I viewed it in my mind and stripped it away. The bony structure apparently drew on the creature’s magic aura to reinforce it. The other major point of interest was the fog glands that were located along the ridge of the shell’s spine. They produced and stored a complex liquid compound which, when exposed to air, would burst forth into a thick fog. This fog, as I’d already observed, seemed to almost entirely block sight and magic perception, as well as dulling noise and smell. Interestingly, it also seemed to have a lot of nerve endings on the bottom of its feet, implying that it would be able to feel slight vibrations in the ground, and possibly in the water as well. But that wasn’t terribly useful to me right now.

Aside from those features, it was rather mundane.

I greedily integrated the fog glands into my normal form. They held very high potential both for ambushes and escape. Yet I hesitated on using the shell. It would make fantastic armor for my body, to be sure, but it was heavy and would restrict my range of motion wherever I used it. I had an inkling of an idea for how to best use it, but the concept wasn’t properly formed yet, so I set that aside for now.

As I roused myself from my meditative state, I checked on the status of the raft. The orcs were just now bringing in their first log for processing.

To kill time, I grabbed my two troll femurs and started modifying them to match what I’d done to my first club, making them more like a war hammer than a club. If only I had an easy way to carry them…

“Ah! Dendra, tell the orcs to make something that lets me carry these easier.”

“Hmm, well… Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but I’m not sure they can make something to accommodate your shifting forms. I suppose I can help with that. Are you going to take them to hunt the lake’s master?”

“No. Not good for underwater. Can’t swing it right.”

“Well, once we’re done here I can figure something out.”

I sat and thought for a few minutes, ignoring as Dendra continued prattling on about other things. As I worked, I began to pick and prod through some of James’ stranger memories, looking for inspiration for the idea I’d had earlier. While the concept of ‘video games’ and ‘table-top games’ was rather strange to me, they seemed to be a virtual treasure trove of ideas that I might be able to implement or emulate eventually. Without realizing it, I’d fallen back into a trance as I explored the concepts from his memories, moving from one to the next, following along related concepts as I clarified my understanding of them and gained further context or backtracked to previous ones to follow along a different path of related ideas.

I snapped back to the surface in a moment and stood as a nervous orc approached and gargled gravel at me, his green brow shiny with a slick of sweat.

“The raft’s done!” Dendra cheerfully translated.

Already? But it can’t have been more than a few minutes since the first log was brought back…

I looked at the sky and noted the suns were much further along in the sky than I’d anticipated. I must have been browsing his memories for longer than I’d thought. I’d even finished working on shaping the troll-bone war hammers without realizing it.

I followed the orc to where they had constructed the raft at the edge of the water.

The raft was a simple, but sturdy design. Several logs had been split lengthwise and lashed to two whole logs which were on the bottom. Overall, it was a platform about eight feet wide by ten in length. It should be plenty sufficient for my purposes. After all, for now, I just wanted to lure it out and get a good look at the thing.

I directed the orcs to push it into the water, and I followed, shifting to my aquatic form as I partially submerged myself in the cool water. Once the raft was floating on the water, Dendra spoke to them, giving one more order. The orcs chanted something in unison and gave a mighty shove, sending the raft drifting out towards the center of the lake. I ducked all the way under and watched as the lure gradually worked its way toward the deeper parts of the lake.

I swam along the steeply sloping lakebed and found a good, inconspicuous spot to keep an eye on the raft. I waited there, with my aura tightly controlled, not moving at all except for the slight fluttering of my gills. Several minutes passed before I finally spotted the target surging up from the darkness of the depths.

It looked like a snake, but with a fish’s shiny scales and a set of massive gills behind its colossal head. The creature must have been over a hundred yards long, and four or five yards wide at its thickest.

It came to a perfect stop about thirty yards down from the raft, which is about the time I noticed the wholly unnatural way it moved through the water. It didn’t swim. It made no movements of its flesh. It simply moved. Then, without the rest of its body moving, it lashed its silvery tail tail out in the rafts direction, and I saw that it possessed a fin at the end of its tail. The moment that tail fin flicked the surface beneath the raft, it simply exploded. Only then did it make any noticeable shockwaves in the water, with the area that was stricken becoming cloudy with bubbles, and spreading waves distorting the light that played down from the surface.

Nope. No chance. Not happening.

There was simply no way for me to fight this thing, let alone kill it or eat it.

The colossal snake beast, having done what it came for, descended once more with its strange way of movement.

I waited until a few minutes after it disappeared and returned to shore.

“That was a-” Dendra started to speak but I interrupted.

“Back to hunting turtles, I guess.”