Return of the Woodcutter

'Kill.'

Aito kept hearing this word as he felt himself floating in an unknown space, time… the notion of time was blurry. One hour, two hours? He did not know how long he remained in that state until a stinging feeling gradually brought him out of this darkness back to the world of the livings. 

'Kill.'

His right hand moved slightly, touching a smooth polished hard surface. From there, Aito progressively regained awareness of his body as the pain of his previous injuries flared up, calling him back to reality.

He picked up the call, awakening from what felt like an eternal slumber. His mind dizzy and his eyes blurry, he could barely distinguish at first what surrounded him, tricking his brain into thinking he was still in Urük's soul realm. 

[Congratulations! You have achieved three feats never before seen!] 

A familiar notification window ponded in front of him. Too confused to read it, he set it aside for later. That vicious whisper rang slightly louder in his head, urging him to...

'Kill.'

Next to him, someone or something moved away in hurried steps, the sound reverberating in the space. Alerted by it, Aito focused on his vision and shifted to the side. He could see the blurry figure of an orc running past an open door into a corridor, but also his left hand tightly gripping a shaft. 

Urük's ax, the soul weapon. 

It was that impressive-looking ax talking to him. A certain urge to thrash his surroundings seized him as he took notice of the ax. He released his hold, putting an end to the voices. The ax fell on the stony ground with a loud thud. 

Aito pushed himself up to get a better view of where he was, a room built with stones, or it was more accurate to say it was carved into the stone. 

All he knew was how neat-looking it was. The walls were smoothed, well polished. The furnitures crafted from stones were plain, mostly simple square designs but seemed to serve their purpose well. 

He peered through a large window in a half-circle shape only to see dirt, stone, and a mirror reflecting sunlight, inviting it to pass through the window, lighting the room with a comfortable warmth.

Surprisingly, it wasn't hot despite the desert climate. The temperature was perfect, probably because it was underground. 

Half naked, loose brown pants covering his lower parts, bandages on his torso and around his right arm, Aito was currently sitting on a rectangular stone bed without sheets or pillows, just stone. He leaned on the wall behind him, trying to make heads or tails of where he was. 

The last thing he remembered of the real world was being in the arena fighting Urük.

To his left was a stone chair facing towards him. Someone had clearly kept watch on him all this time. 

Alerted by the unknown environment, he rapidly looked for a weapon to defend himself, one that wouldn't constantly whisper wicked words to his ears. 

Nothing but furniture, and a gourd on a bedside table, made him aware of how desert-dry his throat was. 

He grabbed the gourd, opened the lid, and eagerly drank its content, frowning when he tasted alcohol, probably made with fermented cactus juice. Remembering his oath to never drink again, he spat it out, but the liquid still wet his lips. There was a strong lingering aftertaste in his palate constantly reminding him of the alcohol.

Heavy footsteps echoed in the corridor as he abruptly cocked aside, rapidly putting down the gourd before instinctively reaching to the side to draw his ax, grabbing empty air.

At that moment, his soul weapon lifted from the ground as if it heard his call and flew into his hand bearing the ax mark, attesting to the contract he had made with Urük. Once again, the murdering, cold voice of an insane Urük invaded his mind. 

'Kill.' 

He felt empowered by his new weapon as the pain disappeared and the adrenaline went up. His call appeared to have awakened the ax's bloodlust, ready to bite flesh and crush bones, eager to taste blood.

Aito fought off the unpleasant voice but did not let go of his soul weapon. 

Krugan in heavy armor passed the room's entrance door, his yellow eyes shifted from Aito to the ax shimmering with astonishment, incomprehension, confusion. 

The huge orc stood still for a moment exchanging gazes with Aito and finally spoke, "You are alive…."

"Yeah… I'm the kind of human… that is hard to kill," Aito replied with difficulty, his throat too dry to talk properly.

Krugan seemed to notice and threw him a gourd filled with cactus juice. "That's hard to believe the Ancestor choose you as the next Khül. But who am I to argue with his decision?" 

The orc knelt, his head low and one fist on the ground. 

Eagerly drinking, Aito released the hold on his weapon and almost spit out the gourd's content when he heard Krugan's words and saw the awkward pose the orc was adopting. "What are you doing?" 

"I am paying respect to my new leader, the Khan," Krugan said. "You have been chosen by the Khül to lead our people. Although human, you indeed have the power necessary to proudly wear the Khan's mantle." 

"That's…," Aito was beyond confused. His thoughts had already been in shambles and now this. 

"I, Krugan Stoneshield, swear to serve you to the best of my abilities until the day I or you find glory in death," Krugan declared solemnly, showing his weapon. "Please accept my weapon as a sign of my undying loyalty." 

That orc was a fake. Aito knew it. But despite this knowledge, he couldn't help himself see Krugan as a true living being with his own thoughts and will. Krugan had always been honest with him, even helped him. If it weren't for that orc, he would have probably died in the arena. 

Krugan and the other orcs might have been created by the gods, but they remained living beings. To the Khül they were fakes. That remained true no matter how much Aito thought about it. However, he also knew they had not chosen their fate. Like him, they were mere puppets to the gods' whim. 

At that moment, a new notification window he had never seen before popped up.

[Would you like to make Krugan Stoneshield your subordinate? Yes or No.]

'Filona's tits…,' he cursed internally. So many unforeseen events happened one after the other upon his resurgence. Why did he have the option to make an orc his subordinate now? He hadn't been able to do so with goblins. 'Something isn't right.' 

Aito rapidly checked the notifications he had ignored until now. His eyes widened with disbelief at the ridiculous rewards. 

___

[Congratulations! You have achieved Three feats never before seen!] 

Achievements: 

1) Survive the Sacred Event. 

2) Kill the Khül's Avatar. 

3) Become the Khan. 

Rewards: 

- Active Skill: Cleave Lv 4 (A skill developed by Urük the Destroyer. Used in short range attacks, the host's blade is coated with wind element increasing his attacks' penetration power. Use in long range, the host's weapon can manifest wind blades. Max Range: 50 meters)

- Passive Skill: Heat Resistance Lv 2 

- New Title: Khan 

- System Update: Complete Orc Knowledge 

- System Right: Orc Subordinate (The host is given the right to take in an orc subordinate he will be able to summon at any given time. After one hour, the orc will be unsummoned and the system right will be on cooldown for the next 24 hours. This system right can be upgraded using glory points at any divine places.) 

- 3 Skill Points to allocate freely 

- 3 Stat Points to allocate freely (Cannot be used on the Destiny stat) 

- 50000 Glory Points 

- 500000 Tutorial Points 

___

'This is messed up… in a good way,' Aito thought as streams of data flowed through his mind. The new skill he had earned was passed down to him as well as the orc knowledge that turned out to be quite bountiful. 

Stone carving, weapon smithing, battle tactics, training courses, way of life. Everything there was to know as an orc flowed through his mind. The knowledge of an entire civilization was downloaded to his brain. 

He knew what they were. How they survived in this place. Why they fought and how they lived. WHO they were.

Aito now knew everything there was to know about the orcs living on the sixth floor. He understood now that, like him, they were people, not creatures, despite being created by gods.

His gaze trailed to the notification window that was still ponding. Through it, he could see Krugan kneeling, patiently waiting for his answer.

A sense of guilt crept up his chest as he thought back on what he had done, on what he had denied to Krugan. Aito knew now what kind of shame the huge orc repressed inside him. The shame of being unable to die a glorious death.

To Krugan it was the equivalent of the guilt Aito felt for killing his own father. It was like a painful ball stuck in his chest, about to burst but never exploded, ever-expanding. 

He understood it.

'Damn it… I feel like an ass,' he thought, getting off his stone bed. His ribs hurt as he moved, and his right arm had yet to entirely heal. However, it was nowhere near comparable to the pain he had felt in the arena.

His body probably had time to heal thanks to the recovery beads he had taken before falling unconscious.

Aito towered over Krugan, looking down on the kneeling orc as a monarch would his subordinate. He grabbed Krugan's one-handed ax, its yellow blade shimmered with a murderous light. Crafted from luzli, a mineral orcs had access to on the sixth floor. 

Only the strongest orcs were deemed worthy of wielding weapons crafted from this precious mineral. It was tough, resilient to shock, and extremely sharp.

Aito could see himself in the yellow reflection. His face looked pale and his eyes tired but filled with power.

"I'm sorry for dishonoring you. I had no right to deny you an honorable death. Even though it is not enough to make amends, I will accept you as my subordinate, Krugan Stoneshield," he said, clicking Yes on the notification window. "Rise. We've got much to talk about."