"An entirely different location, you say?"
"Yes, Natural Green-sama"
Green's mind started pacing around in circles, but already knowing the fact that the situation doesn't make sense from the start, it was easier for him to just accept it instead of thinking much of it.
"Could you explain our location to me?"
"Of course, it's a forest, there is no civilization nearby and I've only detected small creatures in the vicinity thus far."
"Alright, tell Rosamund and Santuu to be on alarm, Meredith and you are going to work together to summon enough servants in order to be able to set surveillance around us that does not require constant work from me"
"Sure thing Na-"
"Call me Green for now"
"Of course Green-sama"
And so, Alexandrus went off to tell Meredith their orders
"What the hell…?" Green says, as he drops even further into his living wood throne
"Our previous location was far away from most civilization too, but that was because the entire area was a biome of ruined, dead trees, even the ground was barren."
Green of course was thankful that his base was constructed the way it was, as it was an underground crypt. Even though it was very small compared to most other guild bases, it has no protruding elements and can only be found by digging into the ground.
The biggest thought on his mind, though, was that if this alternate reality made in-game mechanics into feelings, there's the chance that someone could possibly find the crypt by feeling the magic energy flow through the ground or something of that nature. If this were true, it would mean that the base could easily be found, which is the only way that the guild managed to avoid conflicts with other guilds back in the YGGDRASIL days
Their guild's name was Resurgens Vindicta, a name fueled by Green's love towards ancient Rome, it was a guild with only four members, which focused on roleplaying, and other than that, scouting newfound areas. This is the way that they got this guild base in the first place, Green's race had an ability that allowed him to burrow into the ground for short periods of time, however, his character model collided with the, at the time, dungeon.
Green slowly got up and walked through the door and beside two of his servants whose job was to summon any helpful surveillance spawn.
"You managed to find summons for the job?"
"Of course Green-sama, we will always do our best to fulfill your orders." -Said Meredith, slightly bowing towards Green, so as to not interrupt the summoning process, while Alexandrus nodded in silence, bowing in much the same way.
"Mhm, I'm glad to hear that."
He then went to the large hallway where Santuu and Rosamund stood alert, as per his orders.
"I will go out and scout our surroundings more thoroughly, you keep standing here"
"Not to question your motives, but are you certain Green-sama? We are here to serve you and furthermore, you're putting yourself-"
"I'll be fine, Rosamund, our situation needs us to act quickly and getting a bodyguard would only make us more visible to the rest of this world"
"…As you wish Green-sama…."
And so, after he steps out of the door and walks into the dirty, cramped room, a circle appears around him, and the scenery changes.
Suddenly, the entire world around him takes color, it's nothing like the completely white insides of the crypt, but an open forest with birds singing and colorful flowers all around.
Green always wanted to see this sight, the point of his name was that, after all, to see such scenery with his own eyes, knowing that what he's seeing isn't a video game would've made him tear up if he wasn't stuck in this body.
But beyond just the beautiful scene in front of him, his happiness was too extreme, as soon as he stepped out of the crypt and saw this scenery, a lingering feeling in him made him feel like he's truly home.
"Does my form affect my feelings..?"
As he finishes that sentence, he teleports back into the cramped room, and the feeling vanishes.
"…I see, either the forest above us has a specific enchantment to give this feeling or my character's form directly affects my consciousness."
He teleports back out to the magical forest and reminds himself of the reason that he's here.
"Let's see…『Hawk Eye』『Invisibility』and…『Greater Reach Out』"
Green's entire build was based on discovering new areas. His guild's roleplay made it so that he is the character that is dedicated to scouting and being able to quickly identify threats and the such. Even though he had not managed to play the game as much as he'd hoped, he was confident that he was the best player when it came to roleplaying with the skills of a scout and had several smart ways that he could outdo opponents.
"Looks like as Alexandrus said himself, there's nothing but small critters here. I'll have to scout further and gain info from any nearby settlements…let's hope there are some."
Green jumps off of the tree and as soon as he hits the ground, he realizes that his character can "spread" and "bend" as any plant would do. He then extends one of his appendages and realizes that it is possible to do so to extreme lengths.
"So then…"
In a single swoop, he suddenly seems to disappear. However, looking closer, one would notice that he has spread into his surroundings and has taken up a quite large chunk of land that way, at least a hundred square meters.
"Well, if this 'roleplay' build isn't OP I don't know what is."
As he says so he gathers himself back to the area where he teleported last from, slowly, as he felt like it was important to him to keep in touch with this environment. As soon as he teleports back into his base, he feels melancholic and realizes how bound his feelings are to nature itself. Nevertheless, he carries on and puts on a brave face to order his subordinates.
"Alexandrus, keep searching the area around us until you find any intelligent life, take your current summons and place them in key places around the nearby forest and prepare a premature surveillance system"
"At once, Green-sama" Alexandrus responds, hurriedly collecting his own subordinates and walking towards the brand new world.
"Meredith, have you completed your summons?"
"Yes Green-sama, these are all of the possible summons given my current levels, forgive me for my incompetence."
"That's fine."
Green looks behind her to see almost a sea of summons that are perfect for surveillance, trying to hide his shock at how Meredith sees this as incompetent.
"Take them and help Alexandrus complete the surveillance system, Santuu, you're in charge of the defensive summons and in turn, the general defense of the crypt, make sure to work with the surveillance network for maximum efficiency. Rosamund, we'll have to change your armor's visuals most likely, but that is to happen at a later date."
Green gave all of these orders in rapid succession and with dedication, since his job was already that of a manager of a black company, he knew how to boss others around even though he did not earn that much higher pay than his subordinates at work.
"Of course Green-sama" They say with one voice.
After everyone but Rosamund leave, Green turns to her to question her once more.
"Tell me, do you hold grudges against any races?"
"Wh-whatever do you mean, Green-sama?" She answered, confused
"Do you dislike humans, by any chance?"
"…I do, but the reason I do so doesn't have to do with my backstory, I merely see anyone that doesn't originate from Memento Mori as an inferior being."
"Good, keep those beliefs under check, do not, under any circumstances, show this grudge unless there is no one from outside of our guild watching you, and even then, be careful."
"U-understood…"
"I can understand why you'd see them this way, as my guildmates and you, the NPCs, have no humans amongst their ranks, however, Memento Mori may have to deal with them peacefully in the future, and so we must show total neutrality to the matter of species."
Memento Mori is the name of the underground crypt they were currently in, the original name was "Crypt of the Roman Occult", however, Green's fascination with the ancient European world came into play and so he decided to call it by the name of "Memento Mori".
"I am definitely in a bit of a situation currently, but I can manage this, as long as we get to civilization before the enemy does, we can manage our diplomacy to be rigged against them."
As he says this to himself, he shudders at the thought that an enemy player could've teleported directly next to a city, or, even worse, taken action faster than him.
"Hey, at least I'm not the last guy that's transported here, if every player's been transported here, it wouldn't take them one by one as if it's loading…"
Only time can tell if his thought process was true thus far.
Collective roars are heard as a tall demi-human with exaggerated masculine features and the face of a hog steps on top of a table.
"AAAHHH! I've fought all of the tribes and WON! Now none of you elders can doubt my absolute power! There has never been a warrior like me before, all shall bow before Xazor!" The voice booms across the entire fortified, but seemingly nomadic, village, filled with primitive and angry-looking mobs of the demi-humans.
These demi-humans are called orcs, the tribe in question did a mass migration from their former location and split into several ones, currently, after decades of civil war, the war chieftain "Xazor" has managed to bring all of the tribes together through war, as is the usual case for most unifications of this species.
"If you manage to get across the upcoming winter with your way of ruling, we'll accept you as the true chieftain of the orcs and will accept the plan of migration back to the Abelion Hills to conquer the rest of the tribes, until then, do not bother us with your mindless raging." Says, one of the five elders whom the chieftain poked fun at.
"Do whatever you want, the migration was already made for the next Spring, don't act like smarties because you don't want to move during the winter!"
The elders begrudgingly collect back into their large, dark tent as Xazor feasts with the rest of the younger members of the tribe, who valued honor and valor.
"We won't be able to last long enough because of his stupid ways of managing food supplies, he'll need to realize that we need actual ways to gain food now that we can't raid other tribes." Says the same elder as before.
"We cannot do anything about it" A second one replies, trying to maintain his composure. "He already has all of the warriors' approvals, we can't get him to leave."
"What if we finally get in touch with the humans and try to reform the tribe?" A third join the discussion
"Are you insane, Zalthu? We all will be executed as traitors, and who knows, the humans always had a superior attitude towards all other species, it's more likely that they'll just kill us for our tusks." The second one assumes.
The fourth one then cuts into the discussion and calms them down.
"It's okay, leave him do what he will, the elders always are given the food first so in the case of famine, we'll have our stomachs rid of hunger enough to not worry about this."
They were right in their suspicions, it was already late autumn, as soon as the true cold starts in December they'll have to endure it with minimal food, considering their chieftain hadn't thought about any possible answers about this problem and instead just asked if they could raid the humans themselves when the subject was brought up to his attention.
But as orcs are fueled by war and battle, they could not sway the village just by spouting what looked like nonsense to them. And so, Xazor was here to stay in the orc tribe.
The five elders were a form of authority along with the tribe's chieftain that set apart this specific tribe from the rest. Once one of the orcs turns 40 or older, he can become one of the elders of the village, depending on whom the previous ones choose. They vote and discuss issues that require wisdom and intelligence to solve, issues that the chieftain, which was usually the warlord of the orc horde, could not understand due to his nature.
The elder names were: Zahgigoth, Vorgak, Zalthu, Dalthu and Kogan. They all were a few years older than 40 and have had some experience in their field, however, the triumphant chieftain was causing headaches for them, as he did not make compromises on any subject. Some might say that this is the reason he won the prior wars, but it may also be his undoing if he does not rethink his positions before the upcoming winter, which was the biggest problem so far.
They started discussing this problem in depth, unable to yield any answers on it.
Their approach to the situation thus far was isolationist, they have not reached out to any nearby intelligent life to work with them yet. Xazor did not understand that while valor and honor were great, the main problem at hand was the fact that not only did they not have enough rations to go through Winter, but also that the migration itself was fueled by Xazor's drive to conquer. He wanted to conquer the rest of the tribes back home because he had nothing else he could conquer so far other than just attacking the humans, which even he understood is suicide. The migration itself was impossible due to supply reasons considering the pure size of the tribe and the fact that they'd have to go through human kingdoms to reach the Abelion Hills and because the area they were in right now was more resourceful than them. Due to the amount of life in the Abelion Hills, their resources ended up being subpar to the needs of the orcs. And so, the only reason to move back is only to try to conquer the hills themselves, which was an impossible task, even with human intervention.
With all these things in mind, the elders had to take some actions to bound Xazor to this area, even if he did not understand logistics.
And so, Kogan came forward, bringing a suggestion:
"We could send scouting teams to our surroundings and see if any human villages nearby would like to call on the Empire's assistance against 'dangerous orcs'"
The rest of the elders looked at him confused as if they were telling him 'This is suicide' without making any sounds.
"Even if our population is cut down, this would make our attempts at negotiations with humans much easier, Xazor would probably die, but it doesn't matter, if the humans receive some type of communication from anyone that claims to be the authority of the orcs, they'd listen if it was about accepting vassalage."
"Ah, I see! That way we can reform the tribe without making it seem like we're traitors, but making it seem like a last resort!" Said Zalthu.
"Exactly, the empire is very civil when it comes to issues like these, so if we claim that Xazor was a tyrant, they'll accept a type of tribute and allow us to force the rest of the tribe into acting more civilized and not accepting the rule of madmen. We could even migrate back into the Abelion Hills eventually and win the rest of the tribes by technological process."
Kogan was practically an 'evil genius'.
He was certainly an anomaly when it came to orcs, as none of them had much intelligence, but he was the one exception to the rule. He believed the ends justify the means in this situation and the rest of the elders could not bring any counterpoints before him, because they knew he was correct when it came to not having a choice.
There was however one of these elders who was relatively humane and did not think to kill as ever being the answer- Vorgak.
"What do you mean? Are you trying to say that you want us to kill our own tribe for our own gain? We're not snakes like the humans, Kogan."
"Do you have any other answers? Our choices are to go through a famine, which Xazor survives, probably, and to suffer a minor setback in population."
Kogan's words were smooth like butter, he was a true rhetorician, which the rest of the orcs were not used to.
"I myself believe this to be the only answer in the end. Any objections?" He asks.
All of the elders nod along and make sounds of agreement towards Kogan, Vorgak seems displeased but is aware that he wouldn't be able to win Kogan in a debate, much less be able to find a better solution for their situation.
"Fine, we'll go along with that…"
"Great" says Kogan, "We'll ask Xazor to make a scout corps to search for any new places to conquer or raid, he'll agree for sure, the meathead that he is."
The elders all collectively get up as Kogan continues speaking.
"We'll tell him we came to that idea later, he might get suspicious if we tell him now. One of us will get in touch with the humans after Xazor is preoccupied with scouting."
Everyone seems to agree and exit the tent one by one, and so, they all go to attend to other, personal matters.
"Santuu? What brings you to the edge of the surveillance net?" Asks Meredith, seemingly confused
"Is it that surprising for the one in charge of defense in general to check the walls?"
"I suppose not, however, your aura is much more detectable than mine, so you might give us away if you stand so near the edge." She says, concerned.
"…I did not think of that, I'll head back to setting the defenses, shouldn't Alexandrus already have set some type of the weird illusion thing that he does to hide auras from inside the area?"
Santuu's attitude is always on the angry side, so Meredith ignores it completely.
"I'm afraid not. More importantly, have you seen Green-sama? He was not in the throne room, it's going to be extremely worrying if he doesn't show up soon."
"Green-sama went on to scout areas beyond the perimeter, but he told me off when I wanted to act as a bodyguard and explained that he is much more secure by himself, considering that his character is made to be stealthy."
"I understand, he told me so as well last time I asked to act as a bodyguard for him. We can't keep accepting these wishes of his, he's the only member of the guild that stayed with us, we all lost our creators other than Alexandrus…"
"Green-sama is very decisive in what he says, he wouldn't allow anything that goes against his plans or is inefficient to pass along."
"I'm truly thankful to have him, but he can be a little bit more considerate towards our feelings, right?"
"Meredith…" Santuu looks at Meredith with eyes that are asking if she's serious about what she just said.
"…Yes, that might be too selfish of me…"
"Let's get back to work, Green-sama will soon be done with scouting the area, I'm sure."
Meredith nods along to Santuu's proposal and goes back to her work.
In the meantime, Green was indeed done with scouting, but instead of returning, he is examining a relatively small village, filled with demi-humans, about a few kilometers away from the nearest human city.
AN: The next few days will be quite packed for me, so in case someone liked this chapter and wants to see more, I'm afraid you guys will have to wait while I'm getting stuff in order.