Although Michael was glad that he came into possession of hundreds of kilos of cacao beans, he was still clueless as to how it all happened.
He thought that cacao beans were already nearing their extinction with the current landscape caused by the recent earthquakes, but it seemed as if the Orcs had their own plantation that could harbor plenty of cacao seeds for them to harvest.
Michael watched as the Orcupine tribe returned to their side of the forest with only one thing bugging his mind.
"Fudge? I think I deserve an explanation here…"
A violet blob emerged 'victoriously' from the shadows. He had his blobby hands on his nonexistent waist, with his nonexistent chin raised high as if waiting for the upcoming praises from Michael.
"Hehe, Master! I was able to spread my clones to the Orcs when I saw them at the meeting…"
Fudge began to describe his 'heroic' and a little bit exaggerated story of how he infiltrated the tribes and manipulated them from the inside. He even weaved in a few stories about how he skillfully avoided being caught a few times, being a good ninja, and all that.
Michael listened and finally learned about the Orcs' Sacred Grounds.
"Why do they have so many cacao beans?" Michael asked.
But Fudge, being too excited about his reward of chocolates, didn't pay much attention to why the Orcs treated cacao beans with such high regard, even calling it their Sacred Grounds.
ChatJK3, does their diet consist mainly of cacao beans?
[It is highly unlikely. There is not enough nutritional value in Kakao beans for them to sustain their large stature. However, there is not enough evidence to fully prove this.]
[It is best to awaken one of their talents for the software to fully comprehend the physiology of the Orcs and their correlation to cacao beans.]
[There is also a large possibility of learning lots of Physical Arts from the Orcs as it is what they mainly use on a day-to-day basis.]
Michael didn't want to awaken their talent before he fully solved their civil war and integrated them into the Nation of Reborn. So, ChatJK3's suggestion would have to wait for a little bit.
"How did I do, Master? Am I a good ninja hehe?"
Fudge closed his eyes and waited for the showering of praise and love from Michael. Yet a few seconds passed and there was only silence from his Master.
"Umm…Master?"
"So let me get this straight. The reason why the Orc tribes are giving me cacao beans is because you goaded them into competing against each other?"
"Yup!" Fudge said proudly.
"You did this knowing that I wanted them to make peace with each other and end their civil war?"
"Um…nope?"
The ninja slime, upon realizing that he may have inadvertently made the two tribes hostile against each other again, looked depressed.
"Did Fudge do bad?"
A large gust of air puffed out of Fudge, slowly deflating into a puddle of violet water.
Michael chuckled and patted the little guy. How could he get mad at his cute pet?
"Nah, you did fine," he consoled Fudge. "You helped me out a ton by giving us more cacao beans to make chocolate with. Your method is a little bit…shady, but either way, good job buddy."
Fudge slowly gained shape again, being filled solely from Michael's praises.
"Really?"
"Yup. And now that you've gained the trust of the Orcs, I want you to spy on them and find out why they have such a huge grudge against each other. You're the only one who can do this, so I'm counting on you, okay?"
The violet slime jumped up and quickly transformed into his ninja outfit in midair.
"Of course, Master. Thy will be done," Fudge said hoarsely, creating a serious atmosphere for himself.
His turnaround was so quick that many would think his previous depressed state was nothing more than a lie for pity points.
Fudge quickly returned to Michael's shadow and continued his ninja missions.
Meanwhile, Michael had the Dragonborns move the cacao beans inside Neo Orcus where he could process the cacao beans into chocolate.
Many locals and Rebornians gathered at the center of their town to watch Michael process the bitter cacao beans into the sugary sweetness of chocolate.
Michael did this publicly because he wanted to teach the locals of Neo Orcus how to make chocolate of their own in the future. After all, he was planning on making this the primary exported product from this town.
It would give Beth and others a chance for their talents to shine. After all, chocolate was a flexible ingredient that could be added to any food, either cake, bread, or even water!
The business possibilities of chocolate were endless!
…
…
…
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the forest, deeper into the Queens region, there was a gathering of a few peddlers carrying large rucksacks on their backs.
These were the very same peddlers who had run away at the sound of the Orcs' ritual shouting against each other.
Although they were scared to death from the potential threat of the Orcs as well as the dangerous terrain ahead of them, these peddlers decided to come back and risk their lives to help the poor inhabitants of Orcus Town from starvation.
As peddlers, they were the only ones who could supply Orcus Town with enough food to last for at least another month.
If they didn't come back, then they would be leaving Orcus Town to die on their own. They couldn't leave that on their conscience.
So, they came back.
And miraculously, the shouting from the Orcs seemed to have stopped. Even as they traveled deeper into the forest, there was no sign of shrieking and taunting echoing in their ears.
"They are gone?"
"This is our chance. We must help Orcus Town."
This gave them the courage to go deeper into the forest until finally, they came across the territory known as Orcus Town.
Yet, as they came closer, they noticed that something was wrong. Orcus Town was too…busy.