19 Chapter 19

"Vanguard!"

Without me instructing them what to do, the shield holder gets in front of us and creates a shield wall between us and the monster horde. Sensing a large number of enemies, I quickly create a platform underneath the archer and let them have the higher ground.

I can make a mini fort around us, but I want my men to grow, and there is nothing better than a real-life fight in close combat than standing behind a wall. I, of course, make sure no one dies or is maimed, but I let them bleed and then heal them.

And it was working. My men get stronger and more durable than before. It has been three weeks since our patrol, and they are two times stronger than when they were first deployed.

"Orcs!"

I can hear the archer shout from on top of the wooden wall. Orcs, huh? This will be tough. However, I have a solution.

"[Nature's Wrath] [Zodiac: Taurus] [Zodiac: Sagittarius]"

[Nature's Wrath] is a buff spell of [Druid] that reflects all damage received from the enemy for three minutes, and [Zodiac: Taurus] is [Astrologian] buff skill that increases all allies and the caster's Magical and Physical defense for ten minutes. [Zodiac: Sagittarius] buffs any long-range physical damage up to 300%, depending on the user's mana, for one minute.

My buff takes effect just in time as ten orcs charge at us.

"Hold!"

Normally, the vanguard will get blown away by the orcs, but they hold their ground. With the orcs stopped, the archer fires their arrow and kills the orcs in the back while the rest of us move forward and start killing the orcs in the front.

I swing down my sword and make a gash on the orc's body, and Jullian is the one finishing the orc by stabbing his sword at the wound I make. We have been fighting for three weeks, and our team works flawlessly. Among the monsters we fought, Orcs are one of them.

One person creates a weak point while the other will attack the weak point to kill the orc with a single move.

"Back! [Hellios]!"

My unit retreats behind the shield wall, and I heal the vanguard with my magic. A monster is mostly a mindless creature that only thinks of killing living beings. They will charge at the one with the highest life force (mostly a humanoid race like humans, elves, dwarves, and beastmen).

Because of this reason, they are easily predicted, and make a plan to counter them.

The strategy to fight an orc is to make sure you can hold your ground against them. Orc is a bipedal monster that stands three meters tall with a pig as a face. They are slow-moving monsters but very durable and hit like a truck.

However, they have a few weaknesses. The first one is obvious: they are slow-moving monsters, and you can dodge their attack as long as you watch out for the splash damage they deliberately make every time they attack.

The other weakness is their neck. For some reason, they have soft skin around their neck. As long as you have enough power, you can do good damage to the orc by attacking its neck. It sounds easy enough, but it was hard. You need the right timing to attack, or the Orcs will grab you or block your attack using other parts of their body.

"Block! And…. Switch!"

The Vanguard takes a step back, and my unit moves forward with our weapons in our hands. I quickly jump high and swing down my sword, followed by Jullian thrusting his sword deeper into the Orcs.

We continue to do this for fifteen minutes before all the Orcs are gone. I use a skill I make during my duty and notice nothing is coming to us. I release a relieved breath and say.

"Before we take a break, I need twenty men to butcher the orcs for me. Thirty men start a camp and the rest spread out! I need to make sure there is not a single Void Crack near us!"

"Yes, sir!"

While they are busy doing what I order them to do, I sit down on a boulder near me and relax a little. Sometimes, it is good to be the leader of an army. I can order my men around as long as it is a reasonable order.

I look at my men dragging the corpse of the Orcs and nod my head when they effortlessly butcher them. Monsters will not disappear and leave loot on the ground like in the Second Life. You need to butcher them yourself and take anything valuable before burning the corpse because it can taint the land if left just like that.

Orcs' most valuable part is their meat and skin. Their meat is just like high-grade pig meat. It was delicious and worth a good amount of money if sold.

The next one is the skin. It was tough and had good resistance against magic. It is a good material for armor and sometimes a building material if there are a lot of them.

I then look to the side and see my men put up the tent for us and make a makeshift cooking station.

"Young master?"

I look to the side and see a young man walk toward me.

"Yes?"

"Can we use some of the meat for today's meal?"

"Sure. Use them as much as you want. Just leave around thirty kilos of meat to be smoked for emergency food. I will store the rest inside my inventory."

My inventory is a boon for our journey. It can store many items inside and ensures any food will not spoil. It looks like my inventory stopped time for any item stored inside to make them still fresh.

"Of course, young master! Thank you, young master!"

"Don't mention it."

Since coming with me doing my duty, I ensure my men eat well. I bought a lot of vegetables from each village and town I visited on my journey and used the meat from the monster we hunted for protein.

Since we are patrolling near the Death Zone, we never run out of meat.

While patrolling the area, I also give a lot of meat to the village we visit. I decided to give them the meat after we used their village as a camp.

"Young master! Young master!"

I look behind and see Jullian running toward me.

"What is it, Jullian?"

"Young master! We found an ancient ruin!"

"What? Where?"

"A few hundred meters from here, young master."

"Lead me there."

After saying that, I get up from the boulder and look at the people preparing the camp.

"Continue your order. We will be back shortly."

Seeing them saluting me, I quickly follow Jullian to the southwest of our location. I frown a little when I feel the corrupted mana get thicker. We are in the Death Zone. The ancient ruin is in the Death Zone, where many monsters stay and make a nest.

I guess now I understand the reason why it was never discovered.

I snap from my thoughts when my instinct screams at me, grab Jullian, and see a massive worm coming out of the ground.

"[Iron Thorn]!"

A tree root comes out of my palm and wraps around the giant worm. The thorn on the root enlarges and stabs the worm.

"Jullian! Help me destroy the root around the worm."

"Eh? Young master?! The worm will get loose!"

"Trust me!"

Jullian nodded his head and helped me cut all the roots around the worm. For each of them we cut, the worm gets skinner and skinner before it finally leaves nothing but a husk of its previous self.

[Iron Thorn] is a debuff skill that drains the enemy's HP for each root player cut.

"Where is the location of the ancient ruin?"

"It is nearby."

We continue to run through the thick jungle for a minute before we arrive in front of a cave.

"A cave?"

"No, young master. It is true it looks like a cave but it was not."

"What?"

"Here!"

Jullian put his hand forward; to my surprise, half of his hand was gone. What? Is it some kind of barrier? I spread my mana, and to my surprise, I could not sense anything. Interesting. Let's test a stronger thing.

"[Detect Mana]"

[Detect Mana] is a 20th-level spell that lets me detect traps or any kind of item, spell, or even natural mana generator. I can use this to detect enemies, but it has a cooldown of ten minutes, and it was too long in a battle.

After activating [Detect Mana], I can feel a dome of mana that covers a large area. The diameter of the dome is more than two hundred meters. [Detect Mana] has a range limit of two hundred meters, and this dome is bigger than that.

"Is it safe?"

"Yes. The other is already waiting inside. For some reason, this barrier prevents any monster from getting inside."

"Really?"

"Yes."

This is huge. Many magicians, researchers, and even alchemists try to make a barrier to prevent a monster from getting closer to the city, but it results in nothing. Even though I tried to make one using my knowledge of the Second Life game's spell and lore, the result was zero.

If we can copy this barrier… it will be huge.

"Let's go."