Ink grade

[third POV]

The chief made his usual speech at the Nayum ceremony. However, this time the young orcs weren't directly led to the forest. They were all bought behind the chief hut.

" This year and probably the following years' trial will be more difficult." Said the chief with a grave expression.

He looked at each of them, marking each of his words.

"Some of you might already know the clan is currently facing a new danger, a new enemy. Last year out of the thirty young orcs who had gone through the trial, only fourteen came back !" He made paused to make his words more impactful.

"Usually, there would always be less than eight orcs dying each year. So why do you think the last year was different? You might think a powerful beast was passing through the mountain simultaneously, but that wasn't the case. Does anyone have any idea ?" Before any of the orcs could answer, Alog resumed his speech.

" I will tell you." the chief took a big inspiration.

" It's a f*king small rival tribe who thought we were easy prey. They sent their offspring to OUR territory to KILL us. Do they think we are pushovers?"

" I AM NOT A PUSHOVER ! ARE YOU ?"

"WE AREN'T!" yelled all the orcs fired up.

"GREAT ! NOW, you will go to this forest, and you will fight for Nayum's glory. Each one of you who bring me back one their head will be highly rewarded, and the one who has the most head will be able to choose something from my own collection. Now go and follow Gorzgdulg to your glorious fights !"

All the young orcs, Neeg and Khurd, included, were greatly inspired and motivated by the chief speech. They excitedly followed the chief right arm in the forest.

...

[Yalak POV]

I've made a lot of progress. During the last few months, I have learned how to make my own ink and how to sculpt wood. Baruba started to teach me how to make masks with wood because it's one of the most important. The wood allows one to carve what he has in mind. The first masks in history were made of wood. It would help in visualizing more easily the mask I wanted to make. From then, I would be able to incorporate other materials to diversify and improve my creations.

My first mask was a bit ridiculous, it was a simple plank with two holes for eyes. But Baruba said that sometimes the most simple things are also the most mysterious and beautiful. I agreed with him for once. ' Looks like even this old man can be wise at a time !'. But it was not the case for this one. When I presented it to Uzu, thinking she might like it.

She laughed at me right in front of me. She couldn't stop laughing for the next five minutes. Then she became angry at me for believing she would have a mask like it. However, in the end, when I wanted to bring it back to Baruba's workshop, she stopped me and took it from me. She said that although it wasn't the mask she wanted, it would do the job for now, and she went playing with Noa wearing her new mask.

I quickly improved. By the second month, I could carve the wood in the general shape I wanted. I then learned how to make realistic details. I was mostly imitating reality as master asked me to. Then I could more easily produce what I was imagining. I made orc faces, wolves, and other kinds of animals. The mask I'm the proudest of now is a sabertooth tiger. It's my last mask, a full month of work. It's greatly inspired by the black lightning tiger that Ushha end Vae hunted together.

They are both on the same hunting team. And the black lightning tiger is the strongest beast they killed on their own. It's a dangerous beast, and Ushha nearly lost an arm in this fight. They brought back the body at egghead for us to eat. After hearing of the epic battle, Uzu couldn't take her eyes off the head of the beast. That's how I decided to use the tiger as a model.

I decided that this mask would be the one I would use to offer to Uzu. So I focused like never before and gave my all. The result is well worth the effort ! Hell, I don't even know how I was able to realize this piece of art. When I finished it I couldn't believe it was my creation. Even Baruba was surprised and even impressed when he saw it, even though he tried to hide it.

The mask would take the whole face. The fur was very well detailed on both sides of the mask. The tiger is roaring and shows all his sharp teeth. That is the part I'm the proudest and took me the most time. I succeeded in catching the fury and anger of the beast.

All in all, I was more than satisfied with it. I am really looking forward to painting it and adding a tattoo. 'Uzu will love it.'

In the past two months, I accumulated a good quantity of ink. The process of making one is taking quite some time. On my first tries, I would take half a day to only fail in the end. Nevertheless, day after day, I persist, and now it takes only two hours to make two bottles. There are different grades of the ovzgûn transmission ink : failed, trash, poor, mid, good, great, high, excellent, and perfect. Each of these grades corresponds to a percentage of transmission. Failed is basically 0%, trash all ink under 20%, poor between 20% and 40%, mid between 40% and 60%, good between 60% and 70%, great between 70% and 80%, high between 80% and 90%, excellent between 90% and 99.99%, and finally perfect 100%.

I was surprised when I learned that they didn't have a rank. That means the ink can be used for a tattoo of any rank. Like the novel I read, I believed that if you improved in grade or rank, you would improve the other things as well. For example, as you improve your pills level in Alchemy, you need a better cauldron, plants, technic... But when we think about it a bit, we only need the ink to let the energy flow through it.

Currently, I can only attain 50%, which is no different from trash from Baruba's perspective. And he isn't wrong. You can only draw tattoos on people with a great grade of ink, but even then, it isn't recommended. High grade should be the bare minimum. Under this grade, it's considered too much of a waste, the user won't be able to bring the full power out of the tattoo.

Baruba ink is currently in the excellent grade at 95% of transmissibility. The higher your ink grade is the harder it is to improve it.