Tian had enough seating for everyone made in a matter of seconds, along with a large fire pit with a rotating spit for the giant boars that Hawk wanted to get rid of.
"Your people are generous in victory." The Chieftain noted, and Karl chuckled.
"Nobody wants to celebrate a defeat, and we've got good reason to celebrate lately. One of the ladies just made it to the Overlord Rank recently, and soon the others are likely to join her.
If they can keep up that pace, we will be celebrating for a year."
The Chief nodded in agreent. Overlord was an important advancent, as it was so uncommon for most species to make it to Totem Rank. If they could just advance to Totem without any issues, the Orcish Tribes would dominate the region, and not be relegated to Nomads.
"To the North of here, the Trolls are doing the sa. They just got a new village chief's successor at Totem Rank a month ago." He explained.
"Are they easy to get along with?" Karl asked.
"As much as Trolls ever are. They are currently led by an aging shaman who rembers the old ways, so we don't have any issues. But the younger generation is different. They have ideas about isolating the tribes from other species.
Even the Orcs don't do that.
Just because we don't trade for things that we can make ourselves doesn't an that we don't wish to interact with others." The Chief explained.
"If you didn't interact with others, how would you know how strong your kids were? Comparing them only to each other doesn't give you a good asure of their progress." Karl agreed.
"See, you understand. If you don't watch how others are doing, you can fall behind without ever knowing it."
The Orcs and the ladies started to gather as they returned from the battlefield, and Lotus began to show off her advanced food creation skills.
When she got the Nature's Friend Class, she had gotten even better food creation skills, and now she could make wine directly, without waiting for the process. That skill was very popular among the Orcs, who also brewed berry wines of their own.
As she explained it, ferntation was a natural process, and making the ingredients was simple. So, it was only natural that her skills would advance to making wine, ad and other alcohol.
That could beco a disaster for many Nature Clerics, with their notorious lack of self-control, but Lotus was never a heavy drinker, and actually preferred the fruit juice to the wine.
But the wine was a big hit among the Orcs, as it went well with roast pork, which was on the spit now, and being helped in the cooking process by a healthy dose of fire magic that increased the temperature of the whole carcass without burning the outside.
They didn't have all night for the food to cook, but the Orcish chefs were good at the trick. They had practiced it all their lives, as the Clan hated to wait for food, and they rarely set up camp long enough before a battle to begin the celebratory feast.
Plus, if they spent all that ti cooking, they wouldn't be able to join the fight.
You couldn't leave all the cooking to whoever happened to be injured or pregnant enough that they had to be excluded from the battle.
So Orcs just couldn't cook.
Tessa added the traditional rice and beans, but spiced heavily, the way that the Orcs and Demons liked it. Now, they had a proper feast.
Unlike many of the Orcs that lived in Drodh, this tribe didn't look like it put much ti and effort into decorative or entertainnt items. They did have a large drum that they set up for the dance, but that was it.
It was enough, Karl supposed. The Orcs were happy to dance to the beat, as were Lotus and Ophelia. So, it didn't really matter if they were all dancing in their armour.
This really was Lotus' ti to shine, Karl decided. She had transford into the Tree of Life, and was happily dancing along, shaking golden dust from her branches, while the blue healing birds fluttered around the camp, periodically diving into soone to heal hidden injuries.
The Orcs loved the show, as the afternoon sun make the golden dust sparkle, and this tribe was particularly easily entertained.
They were just winding down the party when the ground began to shake, and everyone was suddenly on guard again.
"I don't recognize this. Do you what it is?" Karl asked as the Orcs prepared for battle.
The Chieftain nodded. "This is fairly common. There is sothing underground in this region, and every so often the ground simply opens up and spits out monsters, then closes again."
That was not how Karl rembered Anomalies working at all.
Could it be the result of anomalies underground?
As Karl recalled, the Dwarves had said that the Anomalies didn't form underground. They had never had one in the Dwarven cities, they always happened on the surface of the Mountains, not inside them.
So, this had to be sothing else.
Maybe it really was related to the missing System Stones?
It wouldn't shock Karl if it was. Most of the unexplained things in the world were sohow System Related. So, if there was so sort of underground monster spawn trapped here, or perhaps a stable portal underground, it would explain the monsters trying to escape.
Or, they could be in an illusion, and the monsters were actually already there, and just broke through the spell.
Both were possible, but Karl didn't know enough about what was going on in the region to really understand what was simply possible, and what was actually likely.
Hawk was in the air, scouting. But so far, he hadn't seen anything.
[It is shaking the ground, but it isn't shaking the air. Earthquakes should shake the air, I can tell when a hard impact hit the ground nearby.] Hawk complained.
Cara agreed. Earthquakes would shake the air. But when she flew even a single tre high, she couldn't feel any disturbance from the shaking ground, and that wasn't right.
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