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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Your role will be important. You’ll basically be acting at the forefront.”
That applied to Kayla as well.
She had shown no lack of mobility since her leg was fixed.
“I expected this when I received it. Don’t worry. I won’t disappoint you.”
Athena showed a confident expression, and Kayla was wary of her excessive enthusiasm.
“A tribe of that size will definitely have real orc warriors who have awakened mana. Don’t let your guard down. There might be ones faster than you.”
Kayla’s words made sense, so Athena suppressed the excitement she felt from obtaining the item as much as possible.
‘It’s certainly good to have a teacher.’
Mutre, who heard about the situation, opened the warehouse and took out all of his creations.
“…Being diligent on a regular basis is really helpful in times like this.”
I consoled Mutre for his hard work, and he said it was only natural since he was also a member of the dungeon.
“Well, in return, please bring back some materials. A large tribe should have many useful things. If possible, I’d like to make a furnace too…”
“…As for that, I don’t know how it will turn out.”
“Really?”
Mutre occasionally suggested that it would be nice to have a proper forge, but unfortunately, I couldn’t grant that request.
In the first place, there wasn’t much need for a forge, and above all, the smoke was a problem.
‘If it’s discovered by chance… it’ll be troublesome.’
Given the characteristics of the Siglen County, which possessed hippogriffs, there was a high possibility of detecting such smoke from a distance.
However, all of that would be solved if wind magicians were with us.
The fuel to maintain the heat of the forge was also a problem.
We also had to make charcoal…
‘If we solve this with a large amount of materials through looting, it’s not impossible to make.’
There was no possibility of the orcs having charcoal, but instead, if we dealt with them, our range of activity would expand tremendously.
It meant we could easily obtain wood.
Even if we didn’t have much use for it right away, having a forge was good.
‘Above all… Mutre is a dwarf.’
It wasn’t that we couldn’t make it because the situation didn’t allow it, but the value of a dwarf with a forge was needless to say.
I received the defensive traps from Mutre, moved them to the surface, and explained the situation to Thea.
“Another… war. It was nice and quiet for a while…”
It was a dangerous world.
She also knew it couldn’t be helped.
So Thea asked us not to get hurt.
She seemed a bit resentful that she always had to send us off by telling us not to get hurt, but unlike the past, she wasn’t just waiting.
In the meantime, she would maintain stability inside to prevent chaos, and she also had to cooperate as much as possible in managing the young hornorcs who would soon arrive.
Therefore, even though she told me not to get hurt, unlike the past, she didn’t look so helpless.
She had her own role.
‘It’s quite reassuring.’
When I finished moving the defensive traps to the surface and explaining the situation to Thea, the Dolgaebaram Tribe entered my territory in a swarm.
“Hmm. Those are…”
“War tools.”
Rithild, who silently nodded while watching us prepare various things for the war, said to me,
“You have faith for a warlock.”
I didn’t bother to answer that.
“But… there are more young hornorcs than I expected.”
“The dead ones are the adults. We tried to save as many children as possible.”
The number seemed to easily exceed a hundred.
There were about fifty adult hornorcs, but the number of young ones was more than double that.
‘This is unexpected…’
I was impressed that they managed to escape from the Great Forest to here with this composition.
‘No, even in the process of escaping… countless hornorcs must have been sacrificed.’
There was no need to think that far.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts and considered the treatment of the young hornorcs.
The number was much higher than expected.
We could accommodate them all inside the dungeon, but it was difficult to put them all in one place.
‘We can’t send them to the annex either…’
In their eyes, these were monster babies.
Although hornorcs had horns and generally better appearances than orcs, they still had the appearance of orcs.
Just because they were good-looking orcs didn’t mean they weren’t orcs.
They would definitely be scared.
On the other hand, the basement of my former residence felt a bit cramped to keep them.
‘There’s no choice.’
We had to open a part of the main building.
“For now, let’s keep them inside.”
“I’d like to leave one adult to control the children…”
I had no reason not to allow that much.
“Thank you for your kindness.”
One was a bit lacking, but if a problem occurred inside, it would be troublesome.
I handed them over to Thea and discussed the war with Rithild.
“So… most of these undead will disappear before long?”
Since their biggest weakness, the young hornorcs, was in my hands, there was no need to hide it.
‘It will be revealed in a few days anyway.’
They weren’t stupid monsters, but hornorcs with intelligence on par with humans.
Trivial deceptions wouldn’t work well, so I chose to just reveal it.
“There was a reason you wanted to fight the war as soon as possible.”
“We’ll handle the luring on our side. We’ll install defensive traps at every choke point and continue to provoke them.”
“I heard you already clashed with them once.”
“Are you asking for information? Hmm… To be honest, at first, I thought they were nothing special, but… I was surprised to see they had a scale beyond imagination. Among them, there were even warrior orcs who used mana. Three of our tribesmen died at his hands.”
Kayla’s prediction was correct.
“It was partly due to letting our guard down, but even if we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have been able to prevent the deaths of our tribesmen. …The lack of a front line was regrettable at that time.”
Most of the front line had died after being left behind in the process of escaping.
If they wanted to at least buy time, warriors were definitely better than magicians.
‘Is it because only the magicians in the rear remained?’
It was a bit unfortunate, but that was it.
‘If they hadn’t trolled us, I might have shown a little sympathy.’
But they had paid the price, so I decided to forget that feeling.
“We only saw one warrior orc, but there are likely more. We tried to escape as much as possible, but they’re probably still chasing us even now.”
I nodded at his words and said,
“We’ll provide the basic luring and traps to slow them down and continuously provoke them, but the initial bombing will have to be done by me and all of you together. Since you said they’re still chasing you, there’s no provocation as effective as showing your presence.”
To do that, they also had to go to the main tribe’s base first.
“Are you confident in your stamina?”
“The Great Forest is no easy place.”
It seemed to mean that even magicians would have a hard time surviving in that rough place without stamina.
Indeed, it would be ridiculous if the orcs lacked stamina.
“Let’s start with installing the traps first. The branch orc tribe has fallen, so there won’t be any obstructions.”
The scheduled day of the decisive battle was two days later.
I had overall command.
Rithild accepted all of my proposals.
“…They’re disgustingly large.”
In the middle of the forest, there was a huge orc village.
Despite its size, there were no wooden fences at all.
Only tents made of animal and monster hides were haphazardly built here and there.
At least towards the center, there were larger and more luxurious tents, which seemed to be where those with strong power had gathered.
‘The chief will be there too.’
This area was their territory.
In fact, on our way here, we had already encountered quite a few orcs and killed them all.
Especially when they saw the hornorcs, they rushed towards us like crazy, and we realized that it had already been revealed as much as it could be.
‘Fortunately, they can’t find us yet because we fled to our territory.’
Even now, a tracking team would be searching the area.
Since their territory was quite wide, it wasn’t strange for them to waste about two days.
“Cause as much damage to the village as possible and run away. You all know the trap locations, right?”
“Of course.”
Rithild and the other hornorcs nodded their heads.
“Escape through the shortest route as much as possible. The subsequent luring… Athena and Kayla will take care of it.”
After provoking them once, the two of them will buy time using traps and their physical abilities.
I will also support them, but only slightly at first.
To be honest, at this point, I couldn’t keep up with their physical abilities.
So after we escaped, the two of them would handle it on their own.
‘We’ll take a slightly roundabout route, so we have plenty of time to escape among ourselves.’
I had enough faith that the two of them could handle it.
So I didn’t say anything special to them.
‘Shall we start?’
I gave a signal to the hornorcs.
The hornorcs briefly chanted an incantation or formed hand seals.
‘Even though they say they’re descendants of dragons, their incantations aren’t passive after all?’
The dragon language of dragons, like the incantation I use, didn’t require any chanting.
As soon as the magic was used, I also immediately supported them.
Simple 2nd to 3rd-class level magic poured out.
However, when the number exceeded fifty, it couldn’t be taken lightly.
Boom, bang! Bam bam bang! Crash!
The tents were attacked and instantly destroyed.
Screams of orcs echoed through the village, and warriors inside began to pour out.
They spotted us, and as soon as they saw the numerous hornorcs, their eyes rolled back.
“Kraaaaaaah!”
Howling with rage instead of screaming, they rushed towards us.
However, the hornorcs didn’t run away.
In sync with my signal, they poured out magic again.
Crackle! Bang bang!
They quickly slaughtered the berserk ones.
I didn’t lend a hand to that.
Instead, I raised the relatively intact dead orcs as zombies.
With my increased level and the further enhanced staff, quite useful ones rose up, and while the charge was halted due to the magic, my zombies began to draw their attention.
“Retreat. Kayla, Athena. I’m counting on you.”
“Leave it to me.”
“Go and wait. We’ll go a bit slowly.”
Nodding at their words, I left the battlefield with the hornorcs.
“They left.”
At Athena’s murmur, Kayla replied.
“Focus. Their attention has shifted. We need to turn their attention away from Master and the hornorcs. Even though he left the undead behind, there are too many of them.”
“But they’re hesitating for a moment, right? The undead are indeed helpful in this aspect.”
“Even for monsters, when they see their dead comrades come back to life and move, it naturally draws their attention. It’s something that deviates from the laws of nature.”
“In the first place, that’s what magic is. It performs unnatural miracles. It can’t help but draw attention.”
While the two were having a short conversation, the orcs began to attack the zombie orcs.
They seemed to be in a hurry after seeing the hornorcs and Inha escaping.
Of course, Kayla and Athena weren’t just watching that.
“Let’s provide support.”
Kayla rushed into the orc formation with a sword and shield in hand.
‘She’s really fast. I wonder if Inha would do that for me if I asked him?’
I heard it was similar to creating a chimera, so he probably wouldn’t do it.
Inha was cautious even though he was a warlock.
‘And he’s kind to the point where it’s hard to believe he’s a warlock.’
It was originally dangerous, but a series of coincidences led to results beyond expectations, so even if I asked, he definitely wouldn’t agree.
Athena pushed aside her stray thoughts and rushed in to support Kayla.
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