You have obtained the title “Friend of the Ogre” as a reward.
You have obtained the skill “The Ogre’s Fury” as a reward.
You have obtained the spirit of “Incarnation of Strength, Straang” as a reward.
* Title *
Friend of the Ogre
As an effect of the title, decrease the chance that an ‘ogre’ would become hostile to you.
As an effect of the title, you are able to communicate with ‘ogres’.
“To communicate with them…”
Ogres couldn’t speak the human language.
Well, other than Kingram.
But it was true that the ability to communicate with an ogre in the wild was a unique ability.
I didn’t know where this would be useful, but… it was better than not having it.
I immediately checked the skill window.
The Ogre’s Fury
Active
You borrow the strength of a raging ogre and instantaneously become stronger. For 30 seconds, your strength will increase by 300. This is affected by ‘Body Arts’ and will gradually increase over time.
Cooldown: 3 minutes
‘A skill to instantaneously become stronger…’
It was a generally useful ability.
Above all, as I became stronger, the skill also became stronger.
I liked that it was a ‘growth type’ skill.
And one more thing.
“What’s this…?”
I muttered to myself as I held that pebble in my hand.
Kingram nodded as if he figured out what I was thinking.
“Looks like you’ve received some quest rewards. Draka would sometimes talk into the air like that as well.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Let’s see.”
Kingram moved his massive body and came closer to me.
He talked after analysing the small pebble in my hand.
“Hmm. So it’s Straang.”
“……”
He was correct.
The Incarnation of Strength, Straang.
I urgently asked Kingram,
“Do you know this item?”
“Item? This is no item. It’s an ‘incarnation’. How could I not know when this one used to stay right next to Draka all the time? Looking at it now, it looks like it sealed itself into a spirit stone after Draka died.”
“……”
An Incarnation…
What would that be?
But hearing that it was sealed in a ‘spirit stone’, I could guess it was something close to a spirit.
Spirits.
Spirits were divine beings, and there were only a few people who could handle them.
I once heard that there existed a group of spiritual beings that could handle these spirits somewhere in the northern forests.
They were called spiritualists.
These spirits shared a fundamental origin with the 4 natural elements, similarly to magic.
However,
“That one is the Incarnation of Strength. They are sometimes called spirits, but they are quite different to the average spirit. Its temper was terrible and so was its demands, as it asked Draka for his strength nonstop every day. But if you can satisfy its demands, it’ll also promise you endless strength.”
“……”
Not any of the 4 elements, but ‘strength’.
And for it to be an ‘incarnation’, not a spirit.
Wasn’t this an entity that represented the fundamental concept of strength?
I had never heard of such an entity.
‘Well… that could also be said about my current abilities.’
Of course, considering the things I went through the last few months, I wasn’t as surprised.
But I still asked Kingram,
“Are you saying an incarnation will be born from this rock?”
“Correct. Originally, incarnations don’t reveal themselves to anyone but their masters, so for it to appear like this means that it has met its master.”
“What do I need to do?”
“Even if you don’t make a fuss about it, it’ll naturally wake up soon. Since it has found its home.”
Kingram was speaking the truth.
As I clenched on the rock in my fist, a line suddenly appeared and started cracking open.
And in the centre of that opened rock…
“…a bear?”
was a single bear.
It looked unnatural considering it was small enough to fit on my palm, but looking at it rubbing itself with its tiny paws after just being born, it was definitely a cute baby bear.
However, looking pissed that it was called a ‘bear’, Straang glared at me in anger.
“How about not calling me a bear?”
“…the bear is talking.”
Oh my.
A bear was talking.
Well, it wasn’t especially surprising considering the talking ogre.
“I’m not a bear!”
“……”
As I looked at it confused, Straang stood up by hitting my palms.
And after that, it put its two hands on its hips and talked while trying to look imposing.
“I am an incarnation not bound by forms. I could become anything I wanted. Here, watch this!”
After shouting confidently, Straang strained his eyes open.
But… nothing changed.
“Eh… huh? S-strange…”
The only thing that changed was that Straang’s face had become red while clenching.
“Pfft.”
“D-don’t laugh!”
I could only laugh at that cute display.
Straang responded with a shaky voice filled with frustration.
“It’s─it’s because I have no strength! I’m starving because I was just born. So give me food right now!”
“Food? What do you eat?”
“Your strength.”
“My strength?”
The Incarnation of Strength, Straang.
That is, he grew by eating my ‘strength’.
Based on the strength that I gained every day from the quests, he said he would regain his strength as I grew stronger.
However,
After looking me over from head to toe, he pouted with disappointment.
“Why is the master this time so weak?”
“…Master? Me?”
“Yep! Master! Draka, my previous master, was really strong. Well, he wasn’t that strong to begin with… Whatever. If you want to get my help going forward, it’ll be good for you to diligently become stronger. I hate weak masters the most.”
Talking about how I was weak and how he hated weak masters as soon as he was born.
Even though it whined, I couldn’t stop myself from laughing.
‘So, you’re saying I’m the master…’
I’d need to train even harder in the future, even if it was just to feed this kid.
Well, rather than a master-servant relationship, this was closer to a symbiotic one.
“If I get stronger, you get stronger.”
If I could get stronger, I didn’t care what it was called.
“Yawn-! I’m gonna sleep for a bit. I’m too tired right now. Wake me up when it’s time to eat.”