Chapter 10 - 10

After a week of the journey of traversing through the edges of the Lag'ranna Mountains, Xiao Chen and his group arrived at a campsite.

Tents made of different animal skins were scattered around the place, some bigger than the others and grander, and in the center is where the biggest and grandest tent was at.

A tent made of fine Thyrian skin, its fine reddish and vibrant color, made it stand out among the dull colored grey and brown tents in its surroundings. Looking around carefully, Xiao Chen spotted a few more of its brethren, female orcs and still young ones. A system prompt notified him of a new total population of his people, which is at 814.

This is what remains of the once great Arkhan Tribe, which boasted a total number of around 11,000 abled bodies, of which more than half of it were brave warriors. Now we are nothing but a shadow of our former glory after that damned warlock Rhak'kashad decimated our numbers!"

Sakh'arran said with a sad tone, he was reminiscing about the past, the glory days of the Arkhan Tribe where they were respected and feared by many but now they were driven away from their fertile ancestral lands and hunted by those that they have looked down upon before.

"What exactly happened?"

Xiao Chen can't help but ask if they had such a huge number of warriors, they should have been able to easily trample Rhak'kashad into meat-paste. He wondered what exactly happened.

"Balfurs, specifically like the ones that you have slain. He had many Balfurs to do his bidding. He captured many of us, mostly the young and pure women, and sacrificed them to his demon masters, gaining more power and command over the Balfurs. We hunted him relentlessly, but he was sly one, never showing his face and just commanded the Balfurs to confront us."

"One day, we pursued him far from the tribe. Little did we know he was luring us away and when we least expected it. He ravaged our tribe, killing many of our tribe members, even our chieftain, Arat'than.

My father, my sister, mother, and many of our warriors fell during that attack. When we returned after loosing track of him, we were greeted with a devastated tribe. Corpses of both Balfurs and our brethren scattered everywhere. They did not spare even the still growing ones. The brave chieftain took down two Balfur Queens at the expense of suffering grievous wounds. At his last moments he made an oath, by the Arkhan Tribe's honor and his name Arat'than, chief of the Arkhans, that he whoever kills that damned warlock will succeed his position as chieftain.

What was more painful was that the warlock Rhak'kashad was the chieftain's own brother. Loosing in the Rite of Succession, he succumbed to demon's temptations and delved into the dark side, secretly conducting live sacrifices to please his demons masters. When he was discovered by the chieftain, he exiled him since he didn't have the heart to slay his own brother but that was his deepest regret, he muttered in his last moments that he should have ended him there and then instead of just exiling him."

Xiao Chen wasn't able to speak. He was stunned. The story of the Arkhans was like a scripted story. A vengeful brother, who can't accept being overshadowed by his brother, succumbed to the dark side, then came back for vengeance.

"Now the Arkhans will have to depend on you to regain its former status and glory..."

Sakh'arran said, then went forward first to inform everybody of the new chieftain of the clan. At night they performed a ritual, making Xiao Chen the official chieftain and recognized by every Arkhan as their new leader.

*****

Making his way out of the tent, Xiao Chen was greeted by the chilly morning winds and the thin mist coming from the Lag'ranna Mountains. He now had a tribe to lead. Many are now depending on his leadership for survival and he must not let them down, like he had a choice. A new mission was just issued to him by the system.

MISSIONS

Available Missions

[

*Establish your territory

Reward: 1000 points

*Train and build your first army

(must comprise not less than 400 combatants)

Reward: 3000 points

*Win a battle with your army with less than 50% casualties

Reward: 5000 points

Failure: Deduct 20000 points

: host will experience the demon's curse for an entire day

]

Xiao Chen didn't know how to move forward with his new missions. Sure, orcs are natural born warriors, but if they engage in a battle with their usual style, attaining less than 50% casualty was nigh impossible and the massive penalty for failure was not something he can ignore.

Looking at the system, he noticed new features in the Army Tab and Commander Tab

*COMMANDER

RANK: Grunt Sergeant (Upgradable)

- able to take command of a rabble(10 orc warriors)

Army Morale: 98%

Army Cohesion: 20%

Commander's Prestige : 76%

Commander's Authority: 0%

Commander Skills

Battle Commander: Novice (Upgradable)

- 10% chance for warriors under your command to execute your given commands perfectly

Morale Boost: Basic (Upgradable)

- 5% chance that warriors under your command will fight to the death as long as you are within 10 meter radius of them.

Commander's Share: Basic (Upgradable)

- for every enemy that a warrior under your command kills, receive one point.

*ARMY DETAILS

Trust: 92%

Combatants : 441

Non-combatants : 373

Assigned Officers: None

Total Number of Subordinates: 814

The army's trust and morale were all-time high, and he had enough prestige to command them, but with a very low cohesion and non-existent commander's authority, was a recipe for an inevitable defeat. So Xiao Chen upgraded his rank to have better control of his army, he spent 1000 points to upgrade to Grunt Second Lieutenant allowing him to take charge of 50 men, 2000 points to upgrade to Grunt First Lieutenant to be able to take command of 100 men then 5000 points to raise it up to Grunt Captain allowing him to take assume control of 500 men, 8000 points quickly gone.

Checking out the assigned officers' feature, he found out that he can assign four combatant officers and two non-combatant officers to help him control his army. With his new rank as a Grunt Captain, his Commander's Authority now is at full capacity, a full 100% sadly, though, the army cohesion remains the same. He must find a way to raise it up or else their enemies will easily decimate his army.

Xiao Chen started thinking, then finally had an enlightenment. What better way to raise an army's cohesion if not through training camps, the intense and hell like training to make them united, he thought.

He now had plans, a plan that his subordinates surely wouldn't like, but it is a sure way to increase his army's survival rate and effectivity in combat. He will have to play villain if he has to, like his old drill instructors and trainers.

Rummaging through the scattered things inside the chieftain's tent, Xiao Chen finally found what he was looking for, an old tattered sheepskin that had a map drawn on it. Under his scrutinizing gaze, he finally had a general idea of the orcish lands and the other areas that the orcs have explored.

To the west, separated by the Lag'ranna Mountains was the Human Kingdom of Threa, the elves to the northwest beyond the Kasha'norah Forest, the east was a vast expanse of blue which could only mean an enormous body of water, maybe a sea or the ocean and to the south was the Burning Sands represented by a huge swat of brown and basing on its name and color representation, Xiao Chen can only think of one thing, a desert.

*****

Looking for a good place to settle at, he finally found a good place. A huge flatland near the Burning Sands, where there are no immediate orc tribes nearby nor any human settlement around, their closest neighbor would be an orc tribe which was a more or less a week to march from his chosen place. It had the Burning Sands and the Lag'ranna Mountains as its natural buffers, making it less likely to be visited by unwelcomed guest.

With a clear destination, he went to inform Sakh'arran where they will be headed to.. The sun was already up in the sky and the orcs were now awakening from a night of festivity, celebrating Xiao Chen becoming the new chieftain.