Aiden cross was dying and the last sounds he remembered was a beep of a machine, a sound that had become a soundtrack in his mind and the essence of his existence. After a long time he fell into nothing-ness, in this void he realized he passed away. He was Aiden cross, he had no one and he felt as if no one will remember his name.
A flicker of what seemed like a consciousness came to, he started to hear sounds of screaming, their was a weird smell. The sounds were like grunting, then the tearing of meat and dripping liquid. Their was something eating and he did not recognize this sound as normal, the awful stench in the air filled his lungs like miasma that made his stomach turn, as he started to wake up all he felt was a cold wet like ground, stone all around him and he was weak. weaker then he had felt before.
he forced his eyes open, grunting and heaving in pain he turned over to focus on what the sounds were coming from across the room. the cave he was in was dirty, filled with corpses and lit up by torches. he tried to scream but nothing came out and he began to throw up what ever was even in his stomach.
he couldn't get up, there was no strength in this body he had awoken in, as he pushed his hands against the ground to get up he noticed something was off. His hands were green, little, and had weird jagged sharp nails. This was not Aiden crosses body.
sitting across the cave was a huge female orc, she grunted with laughter towards him. He snarled at her and she seemed amused, she got up and kicked him in the ribs. The force of her kick knocked the wind out of his lungs and he coughed up blood, as she peered over him he curled into a bawl gasping for air. She laughed and made a sound that only orcs could make, "Look at this whelp, barely worth eating"
she spoke in a guttural tongue that shouldn't have been possible to understand, but he knew every word and sound. as she spoke words appeared in his vision like a format in an game he played in past life.
[GUTTURAL LANGUAGE UNLOCKED]
As he was in a daze the female orc took it upon herself to kick him again but this time in the head, upon impact another text appeared in his vision but this time different.
[PAIN RESISTANCE TIER 1 ACQUIRED]
he laid there in agonizing pain, he didn't understand what was going on. He was in a new body, a new place, and he was treated worse then left over meat. He thought that what came next was going to be the end for him again.
then came the smell of something delicious, it was cooked meat. Something rich and heavy filled the cave and his stomach grumbled with hunger. A almost primal craving kicked in he did not know was possible and the pain, the fear and everything else seemed to go away. He only wanted to eat and that's how he would survive.
He dragged himself across the cave floor, all of his body in agonizing pain. When he came to the pit there was a tiny charred piece of meat, it was a grawler. Sizzling on a tiny stick he grabbed with his hands, he realized this was a left over piece of meat, a scrap meant for the lowest among the cave but it was his meal.
His hands burned against the stick, this was but a minor problem compared t the hunger he felt. He sank his teeth into the flesh of meat, his new sharp teeth cut right through it like nothing he ever experienced. within seconds he had consumed it, as he swallowed the last piece of meat more text blurred into his vision and almost chime sound like a reward came with.
[DEVOURING EVOLUTION SYSTEM ACIVATED]
[YOU HAVE CONSUMED A GRAWLER LEVEL 1, YOU HAVE ABSORBED ITS ESSENCE. STRENGTH +1, AGILITY +1]
[NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: NIGHT VISION TIER 1]
[BLOODLINE AWAKENED. STAT ALLOCATION UNLOCKED]
[NAME: RUK]
[RACE: ORC (WHELP)]
[LEVEL: 1]
[STATS: STRENGTH 2, VITALITY 3, AGILITY 4, WILL 8, CORRUPTION 1, DESIRE 5]
He got lost in thought staring at these stats, strength, vitality, agility, will...he had seen these in his past life and a sense of understanding came to his mind. But he was confused also, Corruption and Desire? These made no understanding to him. with this thought another text appeared but this time almost like an alert in a glowing red.
[DESIRE: A MEASURE OF YOUR AMBITION, YOU WANT FOR POWER, AND THE ABILITY TO DOMINATE OTHERS. THE HIGHER YOUR DESIRE INCREASES THE MORE AUTHORITY YOU WILL HAVE, WITH THAT YOUR ATTRACTIVENESS, AND ABILITY TO FORM RESONANCE BUFFS THOUGH EMOTIONAL AND SEXUAL BONDS INCREASES]
He paused with confusion, 'sexual bonds?'. This very thought sent an impulse though him, a heat over taking his body and it was not the charred meat he had consumed earlier. His gaze turned to the female orc in the cave, he then studied the other male orcs and there gaze upon her, it was almost like a hunger and there eyes filled with a possessive look that couldn't be satisfied. He saw an order and a pyramid of power, the intense sexual undermined hierarchy in the cave, he knew the desire he was feeling. This was a weapon and unfortunately for the other orcs, he knew how to use it.
as he looked down upon the stick that held his last meal, he noticed how filthy he was, covered in blood and grime from the cave. He felt no disgust for the situation, he only had one cold thought in his mind that pierced though everything else going on.
He is now Ruk, he was meant to be eaten as left over meat. But now he could be more, he could eating, he can become more and this desire built u inside him like a campfire being stoked.
some time passed in the cave and he had a brutal lesson on the economics for orc clans, the currencies were brutally obvious and starting from the bottom it went
scraps
scraps of meat
scraps of respect
scraps on information
Ruk learned quickly that where he stood on the ranking was almost nothing, he was sometimes treated worse then scraps. He was there as a punching bag or just ignored. He was never acknowledged but if he kept his head down and observed with his new eyes he could gather information and miss no small amount of useful information. His mind was filling with the ways of orcs and the sounds these new beasts made, the violence became a daily ritual and the snarls and grunts turned into conversations.
The DEVOURING EVOLUTION SYSTEM will be his kept secret, it will be his safety feature for surviving this hell of a world he woke up in. His MULTI-TASKING MIND is a silent weapon that will allow him to process information while keeping true to his orc like nature, while his main consciousness focused on the small and degrading tasks as a whelp such as cleaning bones, getting water and staying out of the way from the bigger warriors in the clan, the other side of him will analyze and plan the way into greater power. He will study the system, dissecting every piece, every function, every stat, and every cryptic protocol.
As he progressed he found out that the DEVOURING SYSTEM was more then just eating, he absorbed the essence of things he consumed. He began with small non-ordinary things like phosphorescent moss that was growing in the damp corners of the caves, it tasted like dirt and despair but had an essence of VITALITY and even gave a prompt screen for new stats.
[SKILL: GLOW]
it was a low skill that made him give off this pathetic green light from his skin but he made it his own, he gained a weapon in this new life and to him this was better then not having anything.
He started eating everything that was feasible to him as a whelp, every morsel and every scrap left over from the clan, there was not much left in the dark of this cave but any insect and every piece of meat kept him alive. He struggled to find anything that could give him more power and the more he consumed the more desperate he felt clinging to what could be more. He was in a struggle for power but he was motivated and would not stop.
soon his stats started to climb, this was slow but he could feel his body getting stronger and starting to change. His skinny build gained muscle and his movements were easier to perform, his senses became sharpened but he was still a whelp, he was still treated as a scrap at the bottom of the ranks but in his mind he was not left over meat. He became a predator and he was training for the time he would rise.
the most important thing he had discovered was the ANALYZE skill, this was a true gift from the system. He felt as though it was a reward for him being relentless and becoming obsessive with studying the new world. Whenever he wanted he could use a prompt and ANALYSE any object or any creature in his sight, it would break down stats, skills, and weakness. This was his cheat code and he knew everyone else was playing on normal compared to him.
He began ANALYZING everyone, the warriors were the most interesting. Their stats were a show of there life long testament to battle and brutality with the clan. While looking at the whelps he noticed the difference of reflection, there stats were miserable and it showed for there existence. On the other hand the females, Their stats were complex with a mixture of VITALITY, WILL, and a new intriguing stat that only they had called FERTILITY.
When he turned his gaze towards Grasha, the alpha's first consort he was fascinated with her. She had this savage beauty among her, her body was a landscape of scars and muscle while her eyes burned with an intelligence that only a brutes had and it was a dangerous aspect to her. Her stats were the most impressive to see among the females, her WILL and DESIRE made some of the other females look pathetic among this warrior clan. He saw her as more then a consort, she was the queen and she wielded a sexual presence while maintaining a casual lethality like the warriors holding there weapons.
one evening Ruk watched her hold a court session in the middle of the clans tavern, the alpha, Grummok and a hulking stood aside her with a commanding presence. She was sharing a story with a low voice but a captivating purr, her hands weaved a captivating enchantment that kept everyone's attention. She showed her skills to keep the clan in line, using her female presence against the tribes brutes, Ruks DESIRE stat gave a strange impulse something of ambition and a hungry heat.
He thought to himself that he needed what she had, not her exactly but the way she commanded the clan to her will. She could lift a single finger and the power she wielded had the hearts and minds of everyone. He wanted to play this game and not just be used in it.
Before he knew it he had a chance come in the taverns door, there was a hunting party who had come back from there last venture. There faces showed despair and there numbers were less then when they had left. They explained how thy were ambushed by a pack of shadow-cats, these were semi intelligent creatures who were vicious and could hunt in the dark. " we lost 3 of our warriors" they explained the alpha and his consort, this filled the tavern with the sound of mourning orcs and a guttural keening that shook the foundations of the mountain they lived upon.
In this moment Ruk stood up and took an opportunity upon himself to show his efforts, "The shadow cats are a problem, but I have a plan". This was risky as he was just a whelp, it felt almost insane and all of the clan looked to him for an answer. This was the beginning of a show of strength and the first real step he needed to climb in power. After all heads turned to him the alphas female gazed upon him and was intrigued.