The day passed slowly as I couldn't do much while lying in bed. Dave was right. While going to my yurt would have gotten me out of pain faster, it would have cost me time. I had things I needed and wanted to do. The biggest was getting out of this place.

I had to figure out what I was going to do about Kasidy. If I took her with me, I would show her what I was doing. If I left her behind, I wouldn't know what she was doing here. Plus, she was sent because she could help me. While I didn't have much faith in the gods doing anything useful, her god, the one who brought me here, seemed like an okay guy.

After all, how bad could a guy be that gave me a beer bucket with magical beer? Granted, it would get me drunk off my rocker but still. The Sisters had bailed me out of a big mess, but I felt like I had been in hawk to them ever since. On the other hand, Bartholomew seemed more like the hands-off type of guy, so I might even see about finding a way to follow him more fully.

The problem, and it was a problem, was that I didn't know what I could or should tell this chick. She clearly had some powers, but I wasn't sure what they were, and her loyalty was clearly to her god, which I understood as I hadn't earned it at all. In fact, she was the type that got under my skin enough that I made a fool out of myself a few times.

"Well I guess it's time to get cleaned up and then head back up."

I left the safe room and headed down to the river. I still didn't have a good way to get clean now that the weather was changing, but having flowing water would help remove the gunk I had laid in for a day.

As I was cleaning off my armor, I made up my mind. I needed to know how to claim this area because I was sure it would help deal with future problems. But, on the other hand, I didn't want to leave my dungeon where someone else could claim the area around it. Nor did I want Kasidy claiming where my thicket was.

I moved and placed myself on the sand, and looked around. Everything that was hard or sharp, I moved out of the way. Then I sighed. I wished that there was a better way to do this. I triggered the spell Beseech a greater knowledge. My arms shot up over my head, and I yelled as loud as I could while doing a slow spin.

Oh great and mighty greeter Sam, I, the lowly Arn, beseech you to answer my question.

What is the step-by-step process to claim land?

As I finished, I was facing the cliff, and as I fell back, blacking out from the mana drain, I could have sworn that I saw Kasidy at the top of the cliff.

When I came to just a moment later, I looked back to the top but didn't see her there. It might have been my imagination, or she might have been up there. It shouldn't matter. With the waterfall next to me, I doubted that she could have heard me. Even if she did, she wouldn't know what was going on with it.

"Time to go finish up with the loot." I muttered

It only took me a few minutes to get back to the top of the waterfall. When I did I saw the gear was all piled up near the dungeon entrance but both Kasidy and Blink were nowhere to be found. I didn't even think much of it as I snatched up more of the orc's equipment.

None of the equipment was magical but it was all better quality than what I had seen the orcs have before. It was heavy iron even the weapons were iron and just thick. I took as much as I could carry with me, and once I got into the safe room, I got started adding more value to it.

While I could sell it as it was, which was what we did with the first bits, I wanted to get as much out of it as I could. If I was going to defend the upper landing, I needed to buy more equipment that I could stake. So the time it took to add a few runes and core the item before selling it was well worth it.

The secondary benefit was that the dungeon was getting mana from the items and so was growing. Selling things that were cored, even at level zero, seemed to provide far more mana to the dungeon than it should. I hadn't figured out why it was the case, but I was going to roll with it until it changed.

It took me all of three hours in real-time to get the loot sold, and the new thicket and growth stakes bought. I had four thickets and twenty of the cube tree stakes. When I got done with the selling and buying, it was time to see if I could get some info out of Dave.

I settled up to the bar. As I did, Dave dropped me a pint of ale and slid some fried bread toward me. Then he picked up his never-clean shot glass and rag and just smiled at me.

I shook my head, "You know just because you read minds doesn't mean that you should act like it."

"I know but with you its funny. Other people get mad and so I don't do it with you however, you find humor in the process and so it makes it acceptable."

"Yeah, I guess you are right. Though the fried bread was only me thinking that it was what you would have since I doubted you had soft pretzels."

Dave shook his head. "Never have seen those before if you can figure out how to make them then I can. But going by your memories it looks like you don't have a clue how they are made."

"Pretty much. I loved to eat them but yeah never even saw them get made. But they aren't why I came over here."

Dave nodded, "The levels of orcs. Well those blooded orcs would start showing up on the 10th level of the dungeon. As you go deeper they get stronger. Many natural creatures stop leveling because of size and power. A house cat is unlikely going to ever get above level 10. But the forces of the dark ones level like others do. Add into that they also evolve. Your gremlins will get up to level 15 or so before they just stop as well. However, if something amazing happens at level 20 a gremlin will either grow a tail or wings. If they grow a tail they get smarter. Not much but some. If they get wings well they just become a flying gremlin."

I shook my head thinking about that. "So do orcs evolve?"

Dave sat down the glass, "No, and that's a good thing. It seems that only the lesser races of the Dark One's armies can evolve."

I nodded and then thought, "Can people evolve?"

Dave smiled, "Kind of. Once you gain enough power, and that varies from race to race and, to a lesser extent, person to person, you can turn into a half-step ascended. After that you can become an ascended. This world calls them demigods and gods. But they are wrong on that."

"So what are Order and Chaos?"

"They are beyond the ascended by a few levels. What it is called off this world doesn't matter much unless you get off the planet. However, here they used to be called greater deities. They have control over much more than the lower ascended do."

"Can the orcs ascend?"

Dave smiled, "Nope and that is the one advantage that we have. The orcs are more powerful than normal people at their level. But they cap out and can't keep growing stronger. When the first ascended they were able to stop the orcs on the planet they fought."

"So I should expect the orcs to typically be bigger and stronger based on level than a human is."

Dave nodded, "Most races too. The only natural race that out paces the orcs for raw power level by level are ogres."

"Any dark ones more powerful than orcs?"

"You might come across trolls and just a reminder that sadly there are naturals that are siding with the dark ones now. So any race might be an enemy now."

I sighed, "Well that all sucks. I had thought I was getting strong enough with my equipment that orcs weren't going to be a problem anymore."

I finished my bread and ale and thought about what Dave had just told me. The orcs were troops that could overwhelm almost anyone because they were more powerful than normals. However, if I could level up enough, then I could ascend, which would make it so that I was more powerful than them.

I asked, "So can anyone ascend?"

"Most anyone has the ability to ascend the question is do they gain the power needed. It is a race against age. They have to level up enough to break the cap. The fastest way in though combat and so many people never move that way. Major quests also help others ascend."

"So the gods here are just more powerful people?"

"Yeah that's the long and short of it."

I nodded and stood up. "Okay I have work to do."

Dave waved on my way out the door.

I sent out across the bond once I was back to the top, "I'm heading out to put up some more defenses. I could use you to help cover me if there are more of those blooded orcs."

Out from the tree house, I saw lizard girl Blink come skipping down the steps. My brain was cringing when I saw her skipping; all I could think about was having a bad tumble down them all. But things worked differently here, so even if she missed her skip, she should be okay. I hoped.

Blink smiled, "Ready Daddy!"

"Good. This shouldn't take long and then the whole area with vines will be supported with stone cubes. That should keep them from breaking through as easy."

Kasidy called down from above, "We are still going to talk right?"

"Yes! But I need to try to shore up the defenses right now."

"Okay. Do you want me to come with you?"

I shook my head, "Not unless you have something that could put a orc on it's butt."

She shook her head. "Not without an instrument."

I waved and walked out of the protective circle of the thicket. I didn't think that I was going to need to be too worried right now since we had taken out a group of orcs just a few hours ago. But that didn't mean that I wasn't ready. At least as ready as I could be.

* * *