Chapter 22- Stuck With Me

The shape of the arrows wasn't precisely like that of normal arrows as they had several tweaks and changes. However, Arthur could feel their sharpness without even touching them. He knew they would pierce their target with ease.

All he had to do was direct them correctly and launch them at the perfect moment. That naturally required a lot of patience and intelligence.

*Step* *Step*

The old orc, unaware of the human targeting it, continued walking around the wall of the settlement idly. The darkness around it made it hard to see with some torches hanging on the wall that helped a little with that.

It had been guarding the wall for hours now and it was growing tired. Its shit was close to ending so that it could go back and sleep the rest of the day. All it had to do was finish its duty and then go home.

However, as it was walking, its senses suddenly went off, and it heard something pierce through the air like a flash. Before it could even react to it, an intense pain assaulted its throat. Its eyes widened as it looked down, only to see a red object implanted into it very deeply.

Its first instinct was to shriek loudly and ask for help and then attack the sudden intruder. However, when it tried to make a sound, all that came out was a small grunt that didn't even qualify as a noise.

Then, as if things weren't already bad, it heard another object cut through the air as it pierced its body. This time, it hit it right in the eye. Blood splashed everywhere as the monster fell to its knees, struggling to make a sound from sheer pain. Blood accumulated around its body in a puddle.

At that moment, while it was looking around in disbelief and hostility, a silhouette emerged from the darkness carrying a red sword in his hand. Approaching the monster, he looked at it silently for a second before he lifted the sword and sliced its head off. 

The head dropped to the ground along with the body as the monster instantly died. Meanwhile, Arthur looked at it with a calm expression. However, deep in his head, he wasn't as calm.

'Blood arrows… these are no joke. I didn't even think their precision was this good. It was able to his throat right where his vocal cords are.'

When Arthur ordered the arrows to launch, he tried to target the throat in hopes of killing it swiftly or at least obstructing its ability to make sounds. However, never did he expect the arrows to actually hit their target that precisely. What further confirmed that was the second arrow that hit its left eye.

'Although they do consume a considerable amount of mana, this is still really good.' He thought to himself as he looked at his mana bar. The three arrows have consumed around 20% of his mana bar purely by summoning them and then another 10% for the launch.

Since Arthur's mana bar wasn't that big, to begin with, this wasn't a small amount. His mana regeneration wasn't that fast either as it restored one point of mana every two to three seconds. Which meant, for his mana to fill up again, it will take several minutes at least. 

Mana potions do help, but those weren't a permanent solution. Arthur had to increase his intelligence stat a lot to improve his mana reservoir and regeneration speed.

[Ding!]

[You have killed level 2 Older Orc.]

[+1 Health.]

[You have gained +20% experience points.]

[Ding!]

[You have leveled up!]

[+2 Bonus points.]

[You have acquired one item.]

Reading through the notifications, Arthur nodded his head before he crouched down again and moved toward the gate. He was quite surprised things worked out perfectly, but he still was far from over. He didn't even let himself celebrate his first successful stealth skill.

'The other doesn't seem to be aware of anything. Good, keep it that way, big guy.' Arthur thought to himself as he crawled around the wall to where the other orc was. Although he could've easily entered the settlement if he wanted at that moment, he decided to play it safe and kill the orc before doing that to reduce the chances of being completely trapped in case things went south pretty quickly.

Moving right behind the orc while keeping a good distance, he watched its movement. The old orc was unaware of everything around it as it walked. That brought an idea to Arthur's head.

'I can't really target him with arrows from the back. He would definitely start screaming the moment it hit him. I need to… Kill him with my sword, swiftly.'

With that in mind, Arthur slowly made his way behind the orc, getting closer and closer to his target while keeping very quiet. The boy was surprised at how calm and collected he felt at that moment even though he was standing behind a giant monster. All his fear was gone.

When Arthur reached a close enough range. He aimed his sword up and then, like a flash, he stabbed forward using all his strength. The sword cut through the air sharply as it stabbed the monster right in the nape.

The old orc felt the sudden rush of pain as it quickly tried to turn around. But, Arthur had already anticipated that as his left hand had formed bloody claws and he slashed forward, cutting the monster's throat brutally. The attack was deadly.

However, what Arthur was trying to avoid happened.

*ROAR*

The old orc, as shocked as it was, screeched loudly with all its strength as it fell to the ground. Arthur's eyes widened as he quickly pulled his sword out of the orc. At the same time, he heard several roars coming from within the settlement.

'You have got to be kidding me.' The boy clenched his teeth as he immediately looked around and made a run for it. At the same time, he heard loud steps rushing out of the settlement very quickly.

He didn't even need to look behind to know to whom those steps belonged. Instead, he quickly found a hiding spot and threw himself in it. At the same time, several silhouettes came out of the settlement, roaring loudly like wild beasts.

'Did they see me?' Arthur held his breath and watched carefully as the orcs turned to talk to one another in an unknown language before they scattered around the area, seemingly searching for something.

Eventually, they found the two corpses and their roars loudened in anger. Arthur immediately knew that they weren't going to let this slide off.

'Should I just try to leave?' He asked himself. However, that idea immediately left his head as he realized that he was on the opposite side of the settlement and that trying to reach the exit of the chamber was going to be extremely hard.

Unless something else happened, he was completely stuck in there with these old orcs. The boy, however, didn't feel anything strong from this idea. Sure, he was in a problem due to his own mistake. But, wasn't this a part of the fun? To solve such problems and finish these challenging tasks?

As weird as it was, Arthur smiled to himself at that moment. 'Well, if leaving was never an option. Then I might as well do what I came here to do. Whether it works or not, who knows?'

Unlike what many would feel being stuck in a cave with hideous monsters searching for them, Arthur felt like they were stuck with him, not the other way around.