19 Ch 18 – Hunting an Orc
(The Next Day)
Inside the deep dark forest filled with rays of light from the sun, both Shiro and Aki were seen hiding inside the bushes looking at the giant Orc in front of them surrounded by Hobgoblins and Goblins.
"Remember, produce a flashbang to blind them and we go in guns blazing," I said in a hushed voice as Shiro nodded with an excited smile.
"Okay, wait for my signal," I said while I looked at the orcs surrounded by hobgoblins and goblins with focused eyes.
We should be able to annihilate the goblins and hobgoblins with our Mythical Rank gifts and chip in some damage while the orc is confused, I just need them to all be looking in our direction so Shiro could blind them all with one bang.
After a while, we had no luck as the monsters kept looking in other directions and knew that I needed to make a distraction and without hesitation, I broke a twig in half below my foot that made a resounding *crack* sound as the monsters instantly looked at our direction with their eyes wide open.
"NOW!" I shouted and closed my eyes and before I knew it, my closed eyes became pure white from the light that got through my eyelids and rushed in towards the horde along with Shiro and summoned my Light Sword.
Without a second thought, I started chopping at the goblins and hobgoblins killing tons of them with each swing while Shiro took out his club made from an Alpha Wild Boar and swung it, and as the club swung through the air, a dangerous golden light soon flowed from the air and a resounding boom went towards the horde of monsters, killing tons of them with that single blow that is quite imaginable for D rank adventurers like us but we have Mythical Rank Gifts so the norm doesn't really work for us.
"Wind Blade" I muttered as a large blade of wind cut through the air cutting the goblins and hobgoblins into two as the goblin settlement quickly became bathed in blood with the thick scent of iron filling the air.
"Attack the orc now," I said towards Shiro as tons of Light Arrows covered the air around us that shot towards the C rank Orc in the head while Shiro rushed towards the recovering Orc and swung his club to its knee, making it fall down to the ground.
"Ha!" we both shouted as tons of Light Arrows shot towards the Orc while Shiro pummeled the Orc on the head while enhancing his club's attacks with his Gift and with our rapid coordinated attacks, the Orc wasn't able to fight back and in just the matter of a minute, we killed a whole goblin settlement along with a C rank monster as D rank adventurers.
"Whew!" said Shiro who plop down on the ragged ground while I leaned on a giant rock.
"Ugh" I groaned while wiping off the sweat from my head and dismissing my Light Sword.
We stayed like that for a few seconds to recuperate from what happened and with a groan, we both stood up and walked towards the Orc to see if we can get anything useful from it.
"Oh look, its club is larger than what you have and it's from a C rank monster, it might be better," I said while pointing at the large bone club that the Orc have as Shiro picked it up and swung it around.
"Mmm, it feels better," Shiro said as we gained a new weapon and moved the Orc away to see if they dropped any skill books, and there was!
"Nice," we said and looked at the skill book and it was called Orc's Strength.
"You take it," I said while I picked up the book and gave it to Shiro. "It's a great skill suited for your build."
"Thank you nii-chan!" said Shiro who used the skill book and gained a new skill.
"What rank?" I asked while I move the other goblins around and as if our luck was turning around, I found two other skill books which were coincidentally the same.
"Oooh, it's C," said Shiro who tested out the skill while I watched what happened.
Soon, I visible saw his muscles bulk up in size and watched him punch a tree and split it into two with ease.
"Huh, who would have thought we defeated the Orc just like that if it was that strong" I muttered and walked towards Shiro while holding the two skill books.
"Rank up your mind first so you have a higher chance of rolling for a higher rank," I said while tossing him the skill book that has the skill Stealth inside it.
"Okay," said Shiro while I also rank up my stats and used the skill book.
"What are your stats now?" asked Shiro as I looked at my new status.
[Aki] [Title: ]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Priest]
[Gift: Heal(Mythical)]
[Body: D]
[Mind: D]
[Energy: C]
[Skills: Light Arrow(D) Rabbit's Swiftness(D) Stealth(D) Minor Healing(E) Light Sword(E) Wind Blade(E) Water Ball(E) Keen Eye(E)]
"My Body and Mind is at D right now while Energy is at C," I said while activating the new Stealth skill to try it out and felt myself blending into the surroundings.
"My Body is at C while Mind and Energy are at D," said Shiro as we looked around the corpse-filled settlement and their mangled bodies and knew we can't sell them for a profit and sighed.
"Well let's go finish the quest already," I said while cutting off the Orc's head with my Light Blade and putting it inside a sack we hid inside the bush we were hiding in and left the bloody goblin settlement, and walked back to the Town of Lute to finish our quest and rank up to C.
After a short while, we reached the town while the town was already setting and walked towards the Adventurer's Guild of Lute and was greeted by a sight of tons of players coming by and go wearing their own unique outfits.
"Let's go," I said while entering the guild with Shiro following behind me.
"Hello miss, we just finished our quest for subjugating the goblin settlement inside the forest, here is the proof of completion," I said as we walked up to the lady behind the counter and showed her the Orc's head and looked at in surprise.
"You both hunt it down yourselves?" asked the lady who fiddled with the face and confirmed that it was real.
"Yeah, there were also tons of hobgoblins and goblins and it was too tedious for us to cut off all of their ears so we only took the Orc, that should also allow us to rank up to C right?" I asked the lady who nodded and gave her our badges and cards so she could update our ranks.
After that, we got 10 gold coins from the quest we took and now we could take the higher rank quest and a higher rank means more money we could earn from quest and monsters.
"Oooh," said Shiro who looked at his Iron colored badge and proudly put it on his chest.
"Yawn, let's log off already," I said while stretching my body around.
"Mmm," said Shiro who nodded while we got out of the Guild and onto the open street and log off.
[Welcome back NoNameDeity and Shiro] said Ai as she appeared right in front of us with her white humanoid body with no human-like features such as boobas or a face.
"Hello," said Shiro who wave hello.
"Hey," I said while rubbing my tired eyes.
[Did you guys have fun playing today?] asked Ai.
"Yeah, we got to rank up to C as adventurers and hunt our first orc," said Shiro while flapping his hands around.
"And we got new skills" I chimed in on the conversation.
[Well it seems like it's time for your dinner, have a great day ahead of you!] said Ai as we nodded and got out of our IVR pod while I thought of some things.
The entrance exam for Hope Academy is already coming a few weeks later, should I apply for it? I mean, it can give me a great source of Gifts if the villains 'accidentally' get into an unfortunate mishap.
With a yawn, I grabbed a towel from my room and walked towards the shower to calm down my tired mind from that action-packed adventure we just did and saw Shiro was about to do the same.
"You want to go first?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Mmm, you go first," said Shiro while I nodded and entered the bathroom, take off my clothes, and turned on the shower with my voice.
As the continuous droplets of water hit my head and body, I felt a sense of calmness inducing out of nowhere from the water and started to think about stuff.
Sigh, I still can't take off the bugging thought from my mind, why do I have so many weird abilities? Ranging from my charisma to my ability to steal these presumed souls, how did I come to gain them in the first place? Am I Despair? Or am I just similar to Despair? Whatever it was, it will irk me for the foreseeable future until I solve this mystery of mine.
AN: This is 1576 words, you're welcome.
The Sword of Damocles hangs above each and everyone one of you with its ever present threat of despair, so send me some power stones with your power of friendship and save the thousands perhaps even millions to come who will read this masterpiece immortalized in the tunnels of time.
(March 19, 2022 – 115th day of writing)
