“It’s changed a bit since the last time I was here,” Armin muttered, staring up at the stone wall and arch guarding the entrance. “You built all of this really fast.”

“Hmph, we didn't build it,” their guide answered.

Armin looked at him in confusion, but Samael’s input quickly cleared things up. The lanky cleric took a step forward and looked closely at the earth wall, as smooth and hard as stone.

“Isn't this earth magic?”

“Yes. The chief has the earth attribute. I'm pretty sure she used a spell called .”

“So she’s a one-star Mage… Without a guild... I'm impressed.”

“It's still just one-star though, right? No Mage below two-stars would really be a threat to us.”

Their guide chuckled when he heard those words. “You shouldn't judge a person’s skill by their rank alone. Chief Vyra won this year’s chief battle. If you can also fight every other Orc chief at once and come out on top, then you can start considering whether the chief is someone you can beat or not.”

Armin repositioned his body slightly so their guide wouldn't be able to see the glare Runa was giving him.

“So, do we really have free reign to go where we like in the village?” Armin asked.

“Yes. But some people might not want you in their houses. If they say they're bothered by something, just stop. But going anywhere to start with should be fine. Except for the Goblins, everyone speaks the Human language.”

The guide started to turn back toward the forest.

“Wait! Aren't you going to supervise us or anything?” Samael called in surprise.

“No?” the guide turned around and stated as if it was obvious.

“Well, I mean, it isn't like we plan on causing trouble or anything, but shouldn't you be a bit more careful about strangers entering the village?”

The guide snorted. “Lady Oolga, the chief’s mother, is here in the village. She could hold out one on one against a Fomor back when she was an active Hunter. These days she’s learning fire magic as a hobby. If you want to cause trouble in her beloved daughter’s village, that’s your decision.”

The guide left them with that advice and walked back into the forest.

“... So we have to wait a while before their chief comes back, right?” Runa clearly looked uncertain about such a thing.

“Well… first, we could actually enter the village,” Samael offered, gesturing to the archway they still hadn't passed through.

“First, let’s take a look around and get a feel for how the village is laid out.”

The other two nodded at Armin’s suggestion, and they entered the village together. Scattered all around were Orcs wearing basic leather coverings tied at the waist with a leather cord. Perhaps a fourth of them wore dressings that actually resembled a shirt and pants, but were still tied at the waist simply. The Orcs noticed them and looked on curiously for a moment, but they seemed to just ignore them after that. Well, no, they weren't quite being ignored. It seemed like the Orcs had accepted in that short amount of time that there were three Humans in the village at the moment.

Rona, Samael, and Armin felt the pressure of being fish out of water. They tried to keep their pace even and gradually take a tour of the town.

The buildings were simple clay huts, some of which had grass thatching on top. The road was simply dirt packed from heavy foot traffic. The villagers who were present were mostly lounging or doing simple work.

Something that caught their attention quickly was an abundance of Orcs fiddling with stone tablets. The way they were moving those thin sticks… could it be they were writing? What did Orcs have to be writing about?

Once they had noticed the tablets, they noticed the stacks of tablets lined up against the huts. The number was considerable. They noticed a pair of Orcs alternating making markings on a tablet. After a while, they ran their hands over it to clear what they had written.

Samael gathered his courage, held his staff close to his body, and approached those two Orcs.

“Um, excuse me… What are you doing?”

““Hmph?”” The Orcs snorted at the unexpected interruption, but they just made relaxed postures and pointed at the tablet.

“It’s a game,” one Orc said.

“Tic tac toe,” the other Orc said.

“Tic Tac toe?” Runa also came over, glancing at the tablet from behind Samael. Armin stopped and waited for them while the game was explained.

“One person makes X marks, and the other person makes O marks. You can only make the marks in these nine spaces, and you alternate turns.”

“If either person gets three of their markings in a row--diagonally, vertically, or horizontally, they win. If the board is filled so that neither person can win, it's a tie.”

“Won't that get boring pretty quickly?” Runa muttered.

“The chief promised to teach us more games later.”

“Yep. I'm getting bored. But it's still better than when we didn't have tablets to write on or games to play.”

“By the way, are you Humans new friends of the chief?”

“Um…!” Runa blushed slightly. “We haven't met her yet.”

“Ah, okay. You will probably like her. The last Humans who came liked the chief a lot.”

“Yeah, but then those Humans wouldn't leave. Well, I still don't really know why that was bad though.”

“Previous Humans? We're there others besides him?” Samael pointed over his shoulder at Armin.

“Hmph…?” the Orcs examined Armin from where they sat. “Oh! You’re the Human who came to take those other three away, right?”

“Welcome back!”

““Eh?”” Runa and Samael turned around to look at Armin, but he just shrugged. “I’ll tell you guys about it later.”

Runa frowned and Samael gave a small, awkward laugh, but Armin just turned his head away and refused to explain.

“Thank you for teaching us about your game,” Samael smiled at the Orcs.

“You're welcome.”

“By the way, if you want something fun to do while you wait for the chief to come back, you should sneak into Fiara’s hut.”

“Fiara’s… why?” Samael tilted his head.

“Fiara is like the chief’s best friend?” one Orc tried.

“She sometimes fills in for the chief to teach classes, and she’s the first Orc in this village to evolve,” the other Orc explained.

“She wrote a lot of stuff down, and drew some nice pictures too. You can pass a lot of time reading those.”

“Ah! Wait, Danan. Fiara usually writes in Orcish. These guys can only read the Human language, right?”

“Ah… hmm… We could give you a translation chart for the characters, but the language structure is different. Sorry, I take back what I said before. You won't be able to read it.”

“The pictures are still nice though, so you might like those.”

“Thank you. By the way, where did your written language come from?”

““Obviously, Chief Vyra made it,”” they answered in unison.

The three moved away from that location and walked a bit farther. They started to see more and more women gathered about. They were butchering prey, weaving baskets and decorations out of pine needles, treating leather, and even sewing.

In this part of the village, they didn't get the chance to be the first to approach. Almost as soon as they appeared, women got up from their work and came over. Samael hugged his staff close to his body and Armin felt his sword hand twitch. Runa glared and made a posture like she was getting ready to either fight or flee.

However, the woman quickly showed that they were harmless with their speech.

“Ah! Humans came again!”

“So happy! I let the first ones get away~”

“Hey, hey, can we please~ take a look at your clothes?”

“Please slow down!” Samael gasped.

“Stop talking all at once. We can't even tell what you're asking,” Armin scolded. “Just back up and explain it clearly.”

The women made bashful smiles and took a few steps back.

“Sorry, sorry~”

“We got excited~”

“It’s fine,” Armin nodded. “So what is it you want?”

One woman raised her hand in the air and the others quickly quieted down for her to talk.

“We want to see how your clothes were made. See, the chief taught us how to sew, but not how to make anything that looks nice.”

“The chief has lots of good ideas, but she’s bad at implementing them herself~”

“Remember the basket she only half-finished?”

“Yeah, yeah! It was lopsided and ugly, so she smashed it on the ground and tore it all up!”

“I remember when she tried sewing a hat in my house~ She kept poking herself with the needle until she got so mad she punched a huuuge hole in my wall!”

“It’s a good thing the chief knows earth magic, since she breaks things when she’s angry~”

“Haha, it's funny how she can't do crafts at all~ Even Lady Oolga can make simple things~”

“Excuse me,” Armin called out because the women had gotten off topic. “So what do you want from us exactly?”

“Could you take off your clothes so we can outline them to figure out the measurements?”

“We’ll also have to mark where the seams are.”

“I want to see what kind of stitching pattern they used!”

“We’re not taking our clothes off,” Armin said firmly, prompting disappointed “Ehhh?”s from the women.

“We’ll give you something to wear until we're done, though!”

“Please?! Humans don't come here that often! It's way harder to figure out without a reference or a teacher!”

“No means no. You're clever girls. You'll figure it out. Come on you two.”

Armin used his hard-ass powers to drag Samael and Runa free of the enthusiastic and curious women, and they continued to walk the perimeter of the village. Soon, they had come upon the East entrance.

“Isn't that a huge hole there?” Runa muttered, pointing at a large break in the ground where stairs were leading down.

“Ah, Humans.” Two Orcs who were guarding that archway noticed them standing there. “Welcome to Vyra’s Village.”

“Um… thank you,” Runa nodded her head. “Where does that hold lead?”

“Hmm… the underground? It's just a big hole under the town right now.”

“Chief Vyra built it to hold all the Orcs that came over for mating season.”

“You can go in and look if you want. There’s nothing down there besides some empty rooms and the big main chamber.”

“I'll pass,” Runa frowned.

“I'm slightly curious, but we can come back later,” Samael smiled.

Continuing around the perimeter, they entered another residential area. This place felt different from the first, since all the huts here were spaced and lined up evenly.

“Isn't this part newer or something?” Runa muttered.

“Those other huts were built by hand, but these were all made with earth magic,” Samael mused.

“This place is just as big as the previous area. Did they absorb another village?” Armin didn't know how close to the truth he really was.

The Orcs here were a bit more put off by their presence. They stared longer, took a bit more distance, and sometimes hid entirely in their huts. When Armin and the others did try to talk to them, their Human language was much more broken than that of the Orcs they'd talked with earlier. However, it was clear enough for them to learn that this place was in fact tacked on by Chief Vyra to accommodate the lost villagers of a chief she’d killed at the chief battle.

“She rib his face in have, only using naked hand.”

They weren't sure how accurate that testimony was, but it was certainly frightening. These migrants still seemed to be testing the water themselves.

They didn't spend long in the Southern part of the village, since the air wasn't very friendly. Instead, they headed West. What soon came into view were dozens of feet of fields and tens of little, green Goblins working in them.

“He did mention there were Goblins,” Samael said, thinking back to their “guide.”