Chapter 10: Enemy Scout.

Lorthic stood next to a tree at the edge of the tribe, leaning against the tree with his shoulder he started at the forest that was in front of him. Annabel, as always, stayed near him, yet also at a respectable distance.

It had been three days since Lorthic had captured the giant spider's soul, during the passing day's he would walk around the edge of the tribe, checking for any signs of unwelcome guests. He had promised Barcus his protection to this tribe, and he would not slack in his duties, no matter how cruel or kind he was he would always be a man of his word.

He had gotten another two Warrior Rank souls during these three days, he only needed two more before his payment would be complete and his job would officially start.

Looking back he saw Annabel quietly sitting at the base of the tree he was leaning against, he had first thought he was getting closer to her, but after the soul capture incident, she seems to be growing more distant and it had only grown worst with the more souls he got from the tribe. Right now just making a gesture in her direction would cause the girl to flinch back in fright.

As painful as it was to see someone he was protecting fear him so much he could not exactly blame her, to most living beings he would be no different than a monster, not everyone was excepting, in fact, the only reason that this tribe did not fear him was thanks to Braska. The old shaman himself focussed on the manipulation of the soul and creation of voodoo beasts, thus these tribespeople used to it, it also helped that they had grown up knowing that the shaman was protecting them using these otherwise evil techniques.

The same applied for Lorthic, back when he was protecting glorica, although not all its citizens accepted him most did, the people he protected had always respected him, evil techniques are damned, he had protected them for centuries, not only them but their fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers, he was there shield the hand of protection that has hovered over there kingdom for as long as they remembered.

Those that did not except him within the kingdom were mostly nobles and immigrants that migrated from nearby kingdoms, the nobles were obvious since they feared he would strike them down if they were to ever step out of line, and he had many times, especially when the kingdom was threatened do to there actions, the immigrants on the other hand just felt revolted by the idea of a ruler of death protecting the living, but as always a few hundred years were enough for them to accept it.

Even if people accept him after so many years that did not mean it did not sadden him when others looked at him for the first time with such fear, but when facing other guardians for the first time there was reverence and respect.

Lorthic crouched down next to the tree and studied the ground, there were footprints on the ground, by the look of them they were bipedal creatures, their feat had four toes and each had sharp claws.

'Lizardmen?'

They were a race of bipedal lizards, they were around the same height as an average human, with lizard-like features. They lived in groups and were intelligent enough to craft weapons and armour.

'It seems a scout had come out here to check out this tribe, are they planning to attack while the hunters are away?'

Lizardmen would send out scouts to search for targets when they found one they would gather as much information as possible about the target's strength before returning to their chief and relaying the information. The problem was that these scouts although intelligent only referred to strength as the number of warriors or people and not the individual strength of each, usually, this wasn't a problem since the Lizardmen would always attack an enemy with their strongest forces and they would ensure that their own number was at least double that of there targets.

Unfortunately for them, this was one of the times were there a way of assessing their enemy's strength will bite them in the ass.

'I better just let Braska know when he comes back

Standing up from his crouched position, Lorthic leaned against the tree again.

"Hey girl"

Annabel shivered when she heard Lorthic call her, ever since she started distancing herself from Lorthic after the giant spider incident, he had also stopped calling her by her name. It was as if she had offended him by being afraid of him.

"Y-yes?" she answered

"After this is over and I have settled this little tribe's problems, we will leave for your home."

Annabel looked up at him, he had said the same thing before, but that was before she started keeping her distance from him, even when she was sharing a bed with him, no matter if she knew he would not harm her she would keep as far from him as possible, she even curled herself in a fetal position. Even though she hated herself for it, she could not help but fear Lorthic from the deepest part of her heart.

Yet, right now he told her that despite that he would honour his agreement and help her home, this had been bothering her ever since that day with the spider. She thought Lorthic would go back on his word, she had no reason to think that other than her own prejudice against Lorthic because of the kind of power he wielded.

Staring at his back, she could only lower her head afterwards in shame, she still feared him, she still hated herself for doing so, but right now there was a new emotion...guilt. She had misjudged his character, he was not a dishonest and cruel being, he was someone that kept his word, although he had yet to take her home, she knew that he would do it.

"Thank y-you"

"I will say it again, there is no need to fear me, I have said I will get you home and I will, I ask only for your patience"

"Yes", she said lowering her head even further.

"Lorthic!", a shout came from behind, turning his head in its direction, Lorthic found Nevarre waving at them, Braska was standing next to him with a triumphant smile on his face. Behind the duo, the hunters were dragging a humanoid creature, it had a large body filled with a massive amount of fat and muscle and its head looked like that of pigs.

Lorthic approached Braska and Nevarre with Annabel sticking close to him as usual. Nevarre laughed happily as he spoke.

"Who would have thought we would run into a stray Orc Warrior, they usually hunt in groups and have superior strength and defence to us, humans, so it's usually an impossibility to capture them alive even if we outnumber them two to one, but who would have thought we would meet a Warrior Rank Orc on our way back from a failed hunt and what's more he was injured to boot," Nevarre said happily.

Nevare stared at the Orc, there seemed to be claw marks all over its body, it seems to have been fighting a powerful foe. Staring at the orc for a while the familiar status screen opened up again in front of Lorthic.

<Orc>

<Title: Orc Warrior>

<Level: 22>

<Rank: Warrior>

<Tier: Silver>

<Difficulty: Effortless>

Lorthic sighed at the useless knowledge he got from the system rune. Although it might be of some help to normal people Lorthic had found that it was quite obsolete to him. Maybe in the future, he might find a good way to use it but at this moment it's only used is its ability to summarise his ability's and stats into a numerical number. The problem is there is no way to compare it with others since he can't see their stats.

"What do you think?", Braska asked

Lorthic stared at the orc for a while, "I think I might want to keep this one's corpse for myself."