Chapter 2 - Section 4 - Reverse Night Raid
[What the hell am I doing, I mean sure I raised my level to 3 from the combat against the goblin's yesterday but even still going solo against 7 unknowns, unless this is the world's easiest game, any mmo veteran knows I'm about to bite the big one]
Directly ahead of me I could see the shadowy figures of the enemy, their hulking silhouettes contrasting against the fields, in the distance the inky black of night was starting to reveal the colors of dawn.
Thanks to my skill even at a distance I was able to see the monsters type and level. But with that…
{Prairie Orc, Levels 5-7}
[I'm outnumbered and they are twice the level I am, man I really regret not waking the others]
Then a bolt of lightning passed through my mind.
[Wait maybe I don't have to fight along against the goblins I picked up some monster cards I wonder..]
Still heading towards the Orc's, I manipulated my menu, heading to the Monster tab.
In Yggdrasill you could collect monster cards from fighting with monsters, with those cards you could summon up to three of them to fight by your side the drawback was once you used the card it would disappear, and using low ranking cards was utterly useless except in the beginning.
The goblins I collected yesterday were all common rating.
Card collection and even gear was broken down into a pretty typical rarity system Each category rose it's unlikely hood of being found the system tiers being; Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Mythical, Legendary, Celestial, God
Equipment differed from Monster cards in one key aspect, you could merge monster cards of the same type to generate high ranking cards, but you could not do the same with equipment.
It took 100 of the same type of cards to receive a single card of the next rank up as a novice.
In my gaming days it was common to party with other players so saving card collections was common especially since to get a God Tier Summon you'd have had to collect and convert over a billion commons, course if that was your goal you could just hunt and receive higher ranking drops from the same breed of monster.
But even still if I equip them I could use them as trash mobs to aggro the orc's while I finish them off from the shadow's.
[Well it's worth a shot]
I moved all 7 Goblin cards from my creature book into my inventory then pulled then out to my hand.
But a display popped up informing only three could be removed at a time.
"Summon Goblins" <Satou>
As soon as the words left my lips the three cards in my hand glowed a white light and dispersed, then three childlike figures joined me in my run towards the Orc's.
The menu displayed them simply as Level 3 Goblins, so does that mean they get the same level as me or are common gob's just that weak? Next three windows appeared in front of my face requesting I name my summons.
[I'm in the middle of a battle here seriously]
Closing the windows without choosing names I gave a command to the goblins before breaking off and wheeling my way to the orc's sides.
The sound of battle filled the air as the goblins crashed into the orc line, shouts and howls filled the aurora of night. Each goblin only wielding a buckler, and short sword was now tanking 2 orc's each.
As their entire focus was on defending themselves as I had instructed them, I meanwhile had made my way behind the orc's, in a quick dash I ran my blades straight into the legs of the two nearest to me, as the blades plunged into the muscled sinew of their thighs the great weight of the orc's plummeted down, as both were forced to take a knee, another howl fill the air as these injured orc's released even greater murderous intent.
Working quickly now that they were at my level I switched my grip and in a downward arc plunged each blade into the nape of their necks, their heavy club weapons clattered to the ground, pulling the blades out.
'thump, thump'
A chorus like drums beating in the night as both hulking forms collapsed onto the ground still twitching now and them.
[Two down only 5 to go]
Calmly thinking but the battle wasn't going well on my side either two of the goblins had been hoisted up and squeezed to death as a rain of blood, entrails, and other foulness poured from the orc's hands.
"Summon Goblins" <Satou>
I took two more cards from my inventory and whispered the summoning.
Another white light flashed where I stood and two new goblins appeared and immediately joined the last survivor in their line of defense.
With the battle lines now seeming more even at a 5 vs 3 the orc's guards we up much higher than before, perhaps cause these two new goblins appeared seemingly out of nowhere, their fight continued as I shifted once again to take a stance behind their line, but there were much fewer openings for me to attack as one orc had removed itself from the fighting to take up the rear guard, they must've noticed how the others had died, and that it wasn't the goblins in front who had killed them.
The fighting continued for a while with me taking what shots I could at the backs of the orc's, meanwhile the frontliners valiantly defended their position, I could feel my stamina waning the longer the fight remained in motion, I had used up all my goblin cards, and while they fought bravely we hadn't managed to defeat all of the orc's, a single one still remained, cuts reigned across it's body and the once tranquil field was stained red with the blood of a dozen monsters, goblin and Orc corpses littered the ground.
"So it's just you and me know huh big guy" <Satou>
Submitting my challenge as I removed the hood from my face, revealing myself to the final orc, the Orc raised its club high over its head in an instant to the human who'd appeared before its eyes.
[So obvious]
Charging in close so the huge swing would miss I pulled my short sword up and delivered a deep slash into the orc's stomach, blood poured out from the wound, but in that moment an intense pain filled me, and the field and sky endless rolled around in my vision.
'guhgh'
Spitting out a mouthful of blood.
[I was careless; to be kicked like that I really did drop my guard]
Getting wearily back to my feet, staring intently at the hunched over orc.
A waterfall of blood rained down. Smiling to myself, well I could just dodge and wait for it to bleed out but that might be too cruel so we should finish things up.
Entering a stance with my blade centered up in line with my eyes, seeing this the orc's posture also changed spinning a bit so it now had one side facing me.
[Is that to protect its injury, or to increase the momentum of a great horizontal sweep]
Deciding it didn't matter I charged out towards it as fast as I could, once I was in ranged of it's great club the orc put all its strength into its final attack and swung with all its might, the club which was like a tree trunk hurtled through the air sweeping towards me, but moments before it would've cast me aside like a ragdoll, I kicked off and orc corpse on the ground, using it like a spring board, I soared through the air using the parabolic arc to add to my own attack's power driving my sword all the way to its hilt coming down right on the orc's clavicle.
Our faces now right next to one another, its eyes shifted slightly to look at me, before falling flat on its back eyes closed.
As it tumbled down I was cast away rolling into the dirt coming to a stop as I collided with one of my summon goblin's corpses.
'Whew'
Breathing a sigh of relief as I got to my feet and dust off my clothes, not that it helped much look down I saw I was covered head to toe in all manner of blood and filth.
"Well better make this quick, and get back before they start to worry" <Satou>
I quickly walked around the battlefield carving off the Orc and Goblin ears, retrieving the Orc pouches (Only contained slightly rotten foods and a handful of silver and copper coins), along with the all the drops they also released.
Collected: {Orc fangs x14, 20 Silver, 5 Potions of Minor Healing, 10Kgs Orc Meat, and 7 common Orc Cards.}
The goblins I'd summoned didn't drop anything and aside from their weapons, ears, and fangs there wasn't all that much I could retrieve from them physically.
Deciding I'd done enough I headed off back towards the others at a modest run, before I'd gotten back I could see all five of them standing fully armed in a circle outside the tent.
"SATOU!" <Quinella>
She let out a scream as she raised her hand to wave at me.
The others all turned to look in my direction, as I got closer the looks of relief on them all changed to one of grimace and pain.
"Wha… What the hell happened to you!" <Larr>
He let loose as the others all raised hands to cover their noses.
Glancing down at myself still coated in now dried blood and filth.
"Ah yeah right, I really should change shouldn't I…" <Satou>
Anthony stopped me from speaking as he slapped a hand on my shoulder.
"Before you get to doing anything you better explain where in the hell you were, and especially why you are now covered head to toe in blood!" <Anthony>
Was this anger or concern on his face, I couldn't really tell I mean if it was me I'd probably be pissed if I woke up to find someone had been fighting for their life and hadn't bothered to inform the others.
"Well you see I spotted some monsters on my watch so I went off to deal with them, they weren't that strong so I didn't want to bother waking any of you" <Satou>
I replied sheepishly like a child explaining what they'd done to a parent.
"What! Why didn't you call to me I could've helped you" <Quinella>
She was now the one to shriek in reply at me.
"Well I mean you'd gone off to the river, and I figured at least one of us should remain behind to warn the others should the worst come to pass." <Satou>
The rest of the group nodded their heads slowly.
"Oh so that's it then, you took on some monsters slayed them and came right back?" <Quinella>
Nodding once
"Well you're safe which is best, but did you manage to recover everything from the kills? How many were there and what did you do with the bodies" <Larr>
"Oh uh well there were only a few at first but more kept joining in, so in the end there were 14 in total." <Satou>
As my explanation started each member wore a look of shock on their faces.
"I grabbed up what I knew to be valuable but since it's my first time seeing what i think was an orc I only grabbed the same as what I did from the goblins" <Satou>
A redoubled look of shock flashed across the party.
"As for the bodies they were quite large and I wanted to report back so I left them over there" <Satou>
Pointing over my shoulder were a collection of bird was circling high over the sky, the suns, starting to pour their light over the hills.
"Amazing" <Roseanne><Raisa><Quinella>
They all leaked out in hushed voices.
"I see well you must be tired leave it to us we'll go back and deal with the bodies for you, do you mind helping Quinella prepare breakfast for us? We'll set out for Stata once that's finished" <Larr>
His voice laced with anticipation.
[Did she tell them about the porridge i had produced?]
"Sure I don't mind" <Satou>
With that Larr, Anthony, Roseanne, and Raisa headed off towards the field I'd indicated.
I meanwhile circled around the tent and pulled off my blood stained clothes, and gear using the menu not wanting to touch the soiled clothes anymore than i already have.
Promptly throwing them into my inventory in a new subfolder i titled as Laundry, before replacing them all with some clean clothes and the basic gear I'd purchased back in the capital.
Back at the front of the camp I approached Quinella who was studiously working away at a stone table cutting with a knife skillfully before placing the ingredients into a pot hanging over the fire pit.
"Looks like soup for breakfast?" <Satou>
"Oh Satou.. Yes though it won't be as good as your porridge this is pretty standard for travellers" <Quinella>
"I'm sure it'll be delicious" <Satou>
The soup we were making was a simple one using herbs, and vegetation found nearby, along with bouillon cubes that were included in the travel ration packs, also adding in a helping of the salted preserved meat, stewing it should help soften it up and the salt will mellow out as it's diluted by the soup.
I did make some audibles during the cooking process as she tried to boil the veg first then toss the water, but doing so would lose all the veggie taste, but i assured her it was for the best.
"To think while I was relaxing here at camp you were off fighting Goblins and Orc's" <Quinella>
"Oh don't you worry about it, if anything I'm surprised you're not scolding me for running off and abandoning my duty haha" <Satou>
"I could never do that, to fight an orc at your level and not only that but to then fight 13 goblins on top of that you must be very skilled, even with that amazing cloak of yours?" <Quinella>
I cocked my head to the side…
"But there weren't 13 goblins!?" <Satou>
I casually replied.
Quinella meanwhile stopped her cutting only to look back at me confused.
"But you said you fought 14 monsters, Goblins and an Orc didn't you?" <Quinella>
"Oh I see, my mistake well there were Goblins, there were only 7 of them, the other 7 were Orc's" <Satou>
At my matter of factly statement Quinella dropped her knife to the ground which stuck blade end into the earth and stared at me like I was a ghost.
"Something wrong?" <Satou>
"You took on not one but seven orc's, and seven goblins all on your own?" <Quinella>
"Well not exactly… I mean was I the only one on my side yes, but also no…" <Satou>
This time Quinella tilted her head bringing a finger to her cheek, I better explain this quickly.
"When I got to the field there was a group of goblins and orc's all fighting amongst themselves, so with my mantle on I just ran around attack their blind spots, so I really wasn't fighting at all… well up to the end when there was only a single wounded orc left, it had swung it's club in a show of supremacy and the gust it created blew my hood of revealing me to it, so that one I had to actually fight" <Satou>
As I regaled my lie of a story that actually didn't stray too far from the truth to Quinella, she listened raptly with her hands clutched together in front of her chest.
Finishing my story after accounting for spending a short while looting before heading back.
"Wow, even still to have all 14 kills on your record that's still pretty amazing for a solo adventurer!" <Quinella>
"I just got lucky, but we'd better get back to work, the others will be hungry when their finished with the bodies." <Satou>
Our attentions Once again focus on the preparation and cooking of breakfast.