Chapter 26: The Green Race ‘Orc’ (1)
Ssshhh—
As they stepped inside, warm sunlight and a gentle breeze greeted them.
The expressions of the advance party, who had worried that a jungle, desert, or snowfield might appear, brightened at once.
Generally, the harsher the environnt, the higher the dungeon’s difficulty.
And the fact that this wasn’t a top-tier dungeon like a Labyrinth or Ruins also offered so hope.
“First, we’ll fortify that hill up ahead as our base, then continue the search.”
Jung Seongtae, an A-rank Hunter from Monarch, one of the five major guilds in Korea, took the lead.
“Hey, look. It’s Jung Seongtae.”
“He’s one of the top-tier Rangers, right? He even joined the Northern Expedition.”
“Guess crises like this let us rub shoulders with such people. Haha.”
A veteran with over twenty successful raids on A- and B-rank dungeons.
Jung Seongtae had even been dispatched to the North, one of the lands swallowed by the Second Impact.
In other words— to the Dark Zone that once was Russia.
“If it’s Hunter Jung Seongtae…”
“Understood. Let’s secure the hill first.”
Even the Hunters from Silver Lion and Red Ghost acknowledged him and yielded unified command.
Thus, the sixty-mber advance team swiftly headed toward the hill.
How long had they been pushing through the brush?
“……!”
Jung Seongtae raised his fist.
Everyone froze.
And at that very mont—
“Grrr.”
“Grk.”
A number of monsters appeared from the bushes near their destination.
Large, burly figures, around 185 cm tall, with taut greenish muscles.
In their hands, axes soaked in dried blood.
The monsters’ identity was clear—Orcs.
‘…They’re huge.’
Jung Seongtae’s eyes narrowed.
Typically, Orcs averaged around 150 cm in height.
But these were a full head taller.
They were clearly mbers of an elite tribe.
There were six in total.
Thanks to moving carefully with the wind’s direction in mind, their approach hadn’t yet been noticed.
Swoosh.
They’d take them out swiftly and move on.
Jung Seongtae nocked an arrow.
That signaled the others to draw their own weapons.
At his hand signal, a perfectly tid ambush was launched.
Puff!
Thwip!
“Gahk!”
“Cough… grrk….”
The Orcs staggered, their throats pierced clean through.
But—
“What?”
“Why…?”
They weren’t dead.
They were gravely wounded, yes, but not a single Orc had stopped breathing.
Even with arrows through their necks and hearts, their movents didn’t cease.
Without a mont to spare, Jung Seongtae drew twin daggers and closed the distance in an instant.
Step.
Fast and light.
Slash!
He weaved between the wounded Orcs, finishing each off with precision.
As expected of an A-rank Hunter, his response was swift and composed.
“They’re tougher than expected… maybe because of their size. If we’d called for backup, it could’ve been troubleso.”
One of the tankers, who hadn’t joined the attack, spoke up. But those who had engaged couldn’t entirely agree.
Sure, the Orcs were strong—but there was another source for the unease creeping through their bodies.
“This is strange. My abilities… don’t feel the sa.”
“Sa here. They should be stronger than this….”
It was as if their skills had been nerfed—their power drastically reduced.
‘Naturally.’
Yohan observed calmly from nearby.
They could still use their existing powers, but not at full strength.
It ant they had to obtain proper Jobs through the sub-quest and learn the corresponding skills anew.
“Hunter Jung Seongtae. Then, we’ll follow that ridge and—”
The tanker’s voice was abruptly cut off.
BOOM!
A dreadful sound rang out as his head vanished entirely.
Ti seed to slow amid the spray of blood and flesh.
Tension pressed down on every muscle.
A red flash surged again—
KAAANG!
Jung Seongtae barely managed to block the attack.
Sparks flew as the axe’s edge scraped against his dagger.
Though Rangers specialized in mobility and reconnaissance, the raw strength of the Orc before him shattered all common sense.
“Ambush!”
With a shout, more than twenty Orcs charged forth.
Three had red skin; the rest bore the usual green.
“Groooar!”
“Kill them all!”
The red-skinned Orcs swung their twin axes.
BOOM! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
A trendous impact.
When heavy mass t speed, the result was sheer destructive force.
“Guhk!”
“Uaaagh!”
Pained cries burst from the tankers behind their shields.
The steel twisted pitifully out of shape.
Under the storm-like onslaught, their formation collapsed rapidly.
And then—
[Sacred Relic ‘Guardian Stone Tower of the Green Tribe’ is activated!]
[All Orcs within a 1 km radius gain 5 Attack and 5 Defense!]
[Morale increases by 1 stage.]
Sothing rare had appeared.
The Orc-exclusive Sacred Relic, Guardian Stone Tower of the Green Tribe.
It even possessed a large-scale army-wide effect.
As the undulating waves spread outward, the Orcs’ eyes changed.
‘Of course, she really knows how to start things off explosively.’
Yohan, drawing out Resentnt of the Black Abyss, took his stance.
iba had claid she had “adjusted the difficulty out of kindness,” but in truth, that was the most absurd nonsense imaginable.
Find the Orcs’ sacred relic within seven days?
‘That’s insanity.’
Even among his 999 runs, preventing an outbreak had been sothing that could be counted on one hand.
Hunters tended to look down on Orcs as a race, and the guilds rarely cooperated in any aningful way.
More precisely—
‘They were too obsessed with conserving their own strength.’
Especially the S-ranks.
If they had all been deployed from the start, obtained proper jobs, and awakened, it would have been a much easier conquest.
Though, at this point, that was a bridge long since burned.
‘Even if I gave them information, they wouldn’t believe . And once it turned out to be true, they’d just start digging into the source.’
It was regrettable that sacrifices would occur, but that didn’t an he could shoulder the risk.
In this world, the most important thing wasn’t ability or items—
it was information.
“Grrr….”
An Orc holding two axes dripping with blood spotted Yohan.
The red-skinned one who had crushed a heavily armored tanker like a rotten log—
a Warrior-class Orc.
“Looks like you’ve found yourself a new prey, but I wouldn’t recomnd it. I tend to be… pretty tough to chew.”
“You reek… of a disgusting stench.”
What the hell? From an Orc, of all things.
Coming from soone who probably didn’t even bathe on his birthday, that was rich.
“I’ll kill you. Hang your blood and flesh on the trees, human.”
BOOM!
The Warrior-class Orc kicked off the ground.
Skrrrch!
The edge of his axe scraped along the earth as he advanced.
A flicker of crimson light blazed in his eyes.
Despite his massive size, his swing was fast—ferociously fast—aid straight at Yohan’s neck.
[‘Isofoth’s Animal Encyclopedia’ is activated!]
Yohan had selected three animals through Isofoth’s Animal Encyclopedia.
KWAANG!
The splendid antlers of a stag blocked the descending axe.
Clang! Crackle!
The axe embedded in the antlers refused to budge.
It was because blood tendrils, manifested through his Bloodline Ability, had bound the two together.
“Ghh!?”
“I told you, didn’t I? I’m pretty tough.”
What followed was an attack from the Polar Bear of the Frozen Land.
THOOM!
“GRAAAHH!”
One of the Orc’s arms was severed cleanly.
From the wound, crimson blood gushed like a waterfall.
Judging by the sound, even his ribs had been crushed.
The deep claw marks left suspended in the air still radiated intense heat.
But—
“GRRAAAAH!”
Though the gash across his chest was deep, the Warrior-class Orc refused to retreat.
Even as his body was torn by blood tendrils, fury blazed undiminished in his eyes.
If anything—
He tried to grab Yohan with the one arm he had left.
Thud!
The Blood Spear pierced the Orc’s torso and nailed him to the ground.
The monster’s claws stopped right in front of Yohan’s eyes.
“Haa… kuh! Kill… you… I’ll kill…”
“I’ll at least acknowledge your fighting spirit.”
[Trait ‘Sacred Fla’ is activated!]
Fwoosh!
A brilliant holy light wrapped around the blade.
Slash!
Resentnt of the Black Abyss cut diagonally.
Tendons snapped, arteries burst—the motion flowed as smoothly as water.
As if both beginning and end had been predetermined, the dagger swept through the Orc’s neck.
Thud!
The red Warrior, who seed unstoppable, finally collapsed.
With the Resentnt of the Black Abyss boasting an Attack Power of 50, plus the enhancent of Sacred Fla, even a Warrior-class Orc couldn’t endure.
“Haa…”
Yohan exhaled deeply.
It had been far from an easy fight.
Even so—
‘It’s manageable now.’
All thanks to the Opportunities he had accumulated over the past week.
Before, taking down even one of these would have taken him ten minutes.
“Squeak!”
A squirrel carrying a blue acorn from the corpse stood beside Yohan.
[Mana 1 has been restored.]
Although he had yet to obtain a Job and thus couldn’t access his personal status window, Yohan estimated that his total mana was around twenty points.
The Squirrel of the Reed Hill in Winter, which could instantly restore a single point of mana, would be imnsely efficient in the early stages.
Yohan imdiately moved toward his next prey.
＊＊＊
“Groooar!”
“They’re there! The humans are over there!”
The number of Orcs was increasing rapidly.
A hundred and fifty… perhaps even more.
The worst part was that the red Warrior-class Orcs were targeting the weaker ones first.
The Hunters from Monarch weren’t going down easily, but—
The unaffiliated Hunters were being rcilessly cut down by the Orcs’ assault.
“Gaaahk!”
“Aaah! S–Save !”
Because they were a scouting party, the lack of heavily armored tankers, magicians, and healers was devastating.
“Everyone, abandon the hill and retreat to the Gate! We’re giving this area up!”
Jung Seongtae shouted until his voice went hoarse.
Out of sixty, more than twenty were either dead or severely wounded.
‘My skills… they’re not what they used to be.’
The Ranger’s innate danger-sensing ability—
The power to discern enemy positions and movents—
All of it sputtered like an overused battery running dry.
‘The reconnaissance is already a failure. At this rate, establishing a foothold is impossible.’
He had managed to kill over ten Orcs alone, but that was his limit.
Surviving to deliver this information to the main force outside was now top priority.
The Orcs were strong—and their numbers overwhelming.
They couldn’t approach recklessly. They had to go all out from the beginning.
“Scatter!”
“Damn it. Let’s make it out alive!”
The Hunters split into small groups and attempted to flee.
They were confident in their escape skills—if they went all out, they could at least save themselves.
“Groooh! Chase down the humans!”
“Do not let them return!”
The Orcs imdiately spread out, descending the hill.
The remaining ones scavenged through corpses, eager to claim spoils of war.
Then—
“What are you supposed to be?”
One man remained.
Calmly popping acorns handed to him by a squirrel into his mouth—
the sight was almost absurd.
Dozens of Orcs slowly surrounded Yohan.
“Why don’t you flee like the others? Can’t move because of injuries? Or has your body frozen stiff with fear?”
Thud!
A Warrior-class Orc sat atop a corpse.
Steam rose from the twin axes in its grasp.
Among those gathered, it seed the most skilled—
since none of the others dared to sit in its presence.
“Fleeing is what the weak do to avoid the strong, is it not?”
“Indeed. Just like your comrades are doing right now. If you’ve forgotten, I’ll remind you once I slice off one of your arms, you’ll rember your place.”
A slight gesture.
“Leave it to . I’ll make him beg for rcy in no ti.”
A green-skinned Orc snickered as it approached Yohan.
Step by step, with heavy strides, it closed the distance.
Gripping its glaive, the Orc raised the weapon high above its head.
Swoosh!
A streak of blood arced through the air, staining the ground.
But—
The pitiful, cowardly scream typical of a human never ca.
Because it was its own wrist that had been severed.
“When… did you—?”
The Orc’s eyes, filled monts ago with arrogant confidence, widened in horror.
Thud!
The glaive, now without an owner, fell to the ground.
“Urrgh… aaaargh!”
Slash!
The retreating Orc’s neck was cleaved cleanly in two.
Swift, concise swordsmanship—so fast it was nearly impossible to track by eye.
The fight ended in only two exchanges.
Yohan slowly opened his mouth.
“Then run—now. Cowards.”
With everything you’ve got.
Otherwise, you’ll all die here.
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