Walking through the orc settlement once again reminded me that the technology-level on Mundus was, at least when looked at through a normal lense, all over the place. Where in history, technology had followed a logical path, with each new discovery dependent on those before on Mundus that wasn’t the case. Partially, it might just be due to developer-whimsy but from what I had seen, it was well embedded in the world and it’s rules.

Kolyug had been an excellent example of that, the buildings made from singular blocks of rock, given shape and strength with earth-magic, allowing them to build massively large and sturdy buildings, all embedded into a magical super-structure. From what I had heard, it had been built in a relatively short time, by a reasonably small amount of people. For a project on that scale, short time meant within less than a decade and few people meant a few hundred, instead of thousands. And that was before taking technology into account, on Earth, you would have to use modern, mechanized construction-equipment to even stand a chance, let alone the quite sophisticated material-requirements to get the buildings to remain structurally sound.

To get to that point of technical development within a civilisation, you needed to follow a path, to build mechanized construction-equipment, you needed a well-equipped workshop, to build a well-equipped workshop, you needed a certain sophistication in metallurgy and so on. One step on that path was required to get to the next, but on Mundus, that wasn’t the case. There were short-cuts, thanks to the use of Magic.

But at the same time, Magic was, in a way, just another discipline of science. It advanced slowly, as there was no internet to propagate the results of different groups around a country or even the world. The closest to some sort of Academy of Science was the Mages’ Guild but I had little information on them, let alone a way to join, not yet. But it seemed interesting, something to investigate.

In the orc-settlement, those shortcuts were obvious by the well-made glass-windows I could see all around, set into buildings made from simple rock, mortar and wood, looking positively medieval to my eyes. But with what looked like modern glass-windows, even if the black rubber-fittings I was almost expecting were absent. Despite knowing where the discongruity came from, it felt strange to me, my mind instinctively expecting a certain conformity to what it deemed normal.

As I was amused by the way my brain worked and assigned patterns it deemed normal, we moved through the settlement, standing out like sore thumbs. The only one who looked remotely similar to the orcs, with their generally sturdy and strong physiques, was Sigmir but the simple fact that her skin was a pale blue, while the orcish skin-colours ranged from a dark earthy brown to an olive-green, marking her as an outsider. And it looked like the orcs had a certain predisposition towards outsiders or maybe they had heard the rumours about Dura Firebringer and her supposed slaughter of the centaurs’ captives. Either way, the looks we received had a certain hostility to them.

What also stood out to me was the make-up of the crowd. Most of them, easily eight out of ten, were women and of those, about two of those eight showed signs of advanced pregnancy. Just looking at them made me want to study the process from a magical perspective, the creation of life and thus, the guarantee for more Death, in the future. But such studies couldn’t be done, without either absolute force or the consent of the studied, something I would have a hard time getting, judging by the looks we were getting.

I felt my lips curled into a smile, when I noticed a particular orc, standing amongst the people on one of the squares. Harms, the Traveller that had been with Dura Firebringer and my personal prime-suspect for originally starting the rumours. In my eyes, there were two possible ways for them to have started. Either a Traveller who had only seen the video had started them or a Native who had been involved in the fighting, or maybe a former captive, had used some magical way to communicate with someone in the village, spreading rumours with just enough of the truth to be annoying. I thought the second was a long-shot, as those with us had known the truth, leaving me to suspect a Traveller.

From suspecting a Traveller to suspecting a particular Traveller, namely Harms, was a short, logical leap, from the way he had commented on the video and the simple fact that I knew he was in the village. There might be another Traveller who had started here, but I without knowing about them, I couldn’t estimate their chance of involvement, leaving only Harms.

Who I looked straight at, fixating him with my gaze.

“There is someone I want to talk to.” I hissed, staring at the Traveller who, in my opinion, had messed things up a great deal. Passing on information obtained from the forums to the locals was in my opinion a good way to disrupt and potentially destroy what made the forums so interesting. It gave those who wanted to play a role on Mundus a way to communicate with others separate from that role. And it allowed them to show off things they would normally keep secret from the world of Mundus, like that one video I had uploaded in which Lenore and I had turned a small town into zombies. Selectively passing on from such a source, to people who had no way to verify and check the information given, or even the habit to verify information they received from multiple sources, was just ripe for abuse. It felt like cheating.

Using information to alter what you did with your character, maybe adjust some things or gain inspiration, that was fine in my eyes. But trying to use information gained on the forum to influence the locals, that was just not okay.

Adding some theatrical effect to my actions, I let a bit of cold mist seep from my sleeves and the back of my head, controlling it to cloud around me like a shroud and walked towards him. The other locals seemed to get out of my way happily, while the Traveller stared at me, almost like a mouse, looking at a cat. Frozen, and there hadn’t even been the need to use magic to accomplish that.

“I hear you did not approve of my actions, helping Dura Firebringer?” I asked, my voice deliberately calm and cold, once I stood in front of the orc. There seemed to be a bit of sweat forming on his brow, despite the relatively cool morning, especially now that the cold mist I had spread around me was cooling the air around him as well.

For a moment, he just stood there, before I could see his throat work, trying to swallow. Finally, he let out a cough, forcefully clearing his throat.

“What I saw looked like an indiscriminate attack, striking all, including the prisoners..” he responded, his eyes darting back and forth.

“And you took it upon yourself to spread that? Without knowing what happened, without even giving Shaman Firebringer the chance to respond?” I asked, pressing it home, trying to bring the consequences of what I considered cheating on him. I fully planned to upload something about this whole saga to the Forum, in an effort to curb the spreading of Forum-Information into the world of Mundus. There should be boundaries and he had crossed one of them, even if he might not have considered it one.

“I only told two people what I saw!” he blurted out, clearly getting unnerved.

“Most curious. You only told your lies to two people, but when we returned, bringing with us all those who had been taken, everyone had heard your lies.” I stated, trying to pitch my voice in such a way that even a normal speaking voice carried.

Turning away from him, I decided to add one more shot, to finish things off. “You might want to start running. I’ve heard that cowards have a low life-expectancy amongst those bound to their honour, unless they are fast runners. And spreading false rumours is a definite act of cowardice, in my book.” I told him, before starting to walk away, as if he was no longer of any concern, dismissed from my mind. He was not, but I tried to make it look that way.

The effect was just marvellous. From Sakgu, who had been following behind me, a little confused, to everyone around us, they all heard my words, especially the last part. What I had seen and heard about orcish culture was that they regarded honour as important, so calling him, and by extension all of them, out publicly worked wonders. The looks previously directed at me, suddenly shifted to him, weighing my words. The place was silent

“Sakgu, we have places to be, it wouldn’t be polite to leave the Elders waiting, to deal with a coward.” I told the orc, causing her to give Harms one last glare, before falling in line behind me. As we left the area, I was able to hear noise starting up, as the various people began to talk about what I had said and what it might mean.