That's how I met a new friend of mine—a stupid orc. I killed his friend, but the only complaint he had was 'War's like this: some friends die, some friends don't—why does it matter?' which wasn't even a complaint.
When he acted like this, as I wasn't so confident my commonsense was developed enough for me to brand this new friend crazy or stupid, I was simply confused. As it happened, I would kill him too anyway, so I aimed my sword at him, but then he was the one who was confused. I jumped at him with my sword, but he brushed the weapon away as if it were a child's play.
Then, he ran away. He was so fast I probably couldn't catch up to him using Quick Pace. Yeah, that definitely wasn't just your regular orc, there, right? That, or I wasn't as strong as I thought. At any rate, disappearing into the distance, the orc still moronically half-turned to me, waved a big hand and communicated that the Warchief would be happy to have me on the team from then on. Inwardly asking the orc to go easy on me with a scoff, I shook my head and decided to forget about him.
If an enemy ran, after all, though the outcome wasn't as good as a victory, I still kind of won. When the orc fully departed, the upper winds blew down past the path he took, rushing to my face and blowing my hair around. Gently squinting my eyes, I shivered into the wind for a second; when I opened my eyes, the System caught me with a notification.
A new Voluntary Quest has been acquired. ?
Voluntary Quest — the System said — 'You passed da test!' — After I battled with two orcs, the System explained, I had passed some test they set up to acknowledge me or not. As for the reason why, well, it was because I was a monster. It was common sense then—All demi-humans, facing the evil humans' threat, must come together as one team, otherwise there's no defeating the human race.
The same logic could be applied to the other races which were discriminated against by the human race. Well, what about monsters, then? A monster was no use since it was no more intelligent than a senseless animal—but what about 'the' monster—what about 'that' kind of monster, eh?
Voluntary Quest — The orcs may recognize the Player as an ally; will the Player, too? Follow your friend or not—fate will reunite the Player and the orc. Either follow the demi-human or wait for him to come to greet you. A dagger will be offered to you—a token of gratitude obtained from the demi-humans. What purpose will it serve? Let the Player discover it by proceeding forward with the quest. ? Leaving me a side note saying a voluntary quest was just how it was called, voluntary, it could as well be left untouched with no malus attributed to the Player's growth. Did that mean not doing a mandatory quest would affect me negatively? Hmm. Okay.
The Quest then told me I should either follow the demi-human back to his settlement—which wasn't an option anymore as instead of the usual '0/1' quest indicator, it read 'unavailable'—or wait for the orc to come to me. Well. That was that.
Waving the System off, I got back to the matter at hand. What was the matter at hand already? "Where was I anyway? Yeah… Kinda like it better with a sword rather than claws." I remembered I wouldn't prioritize the 'Claw' Skill if I had a sword, or any other fighting tool, tied to my belt.
Giving my claws—that had now turned back to normal nails and fingers—a look mimicking a grossed-out expression (I wasn't grossed out but thought I should probably be in order to fit in), I sniffed the blood on my fingers. "Eww… Gross! I'm a normal person, by the way!" Washing my fingers with dirt, I got the blood off trading it for the soil of the earth. And that was it.
Around me were lying my prey. Not sparing them a last glance, I trod along my way, with my glance resting on the frontline of the battle, a mile or so away from up my elevated plateau. The fighters had fought well, and they kept at it.
Commending the people with a "Good job, guys," I observed the humans were winning. It must have been why people won't attack me. That was quite sad. Also, maybe it was why the crazy orc ran off at once. Maybe he saw that and decided against staying back for too long—it could be dangerous for him. Seeing how shy the earth was, today, I guess I understood the orc. Your own blood was precious, after all. You didn't want it to be spilled.
But in any case, skills were everything I had, at the moment. So I just did as my old consultant asked and tested my skills. That was about the present situation. The old attendant sure proved useful as my partner. If I wasn't even familiar with my abilities, what was the point of having them? I needed to get to know them, and myself, while I was at it, better. I'm someone who wants to live, after all. By now, the assessment might have been done. The old man must have been satisfied with that much.
From the green hill, I waved frantically at the old man. Yelling "Old man!" to the top of my lungs, my voice carried to him. A calm and passive hand, in the image of his demeanor, waved back at me. And then, his free hand went back to stroking his thinly bearded chin. A cup of tea. He had none, at the moment. I didn't feel bad for taking this old man out with me on a journey; he was very happy to follow.
When he had no tea to drink, his right hand almost only fiddled with his thin gray beard. From such a distance, I couldn't really see that with my eyes, but… as I was sure he'd do that, I could faintly see him do so. From that long distance, I couldn't really make great use of Mana Perception. On that tree, if I spotted him rather easily was thanks to his large, clear tunic of a wealthy merchant. The old man watched over myself from his distant tree, and I yelled some other words to him. "Yooou! Saaaw! Meeeee?!"
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