BREAKFAST! Bountiful fish! A festival of fish! Fish forever!
I would've loved a morsel of meat, but rabbits were impossible to
find when there were so many people around. We hadn't seen any deer or
boars either.
We also hadn't seen any orcs. They were like oversized goblins that
were stronger, meaner, and even smarter.
That's a low threshold to cross—even fish are smarter than goblins!
But we—the girls and I—had to try fighting an orc at least once. An
unknown enemy was frightening and dangerous. We needed to get familiar
with fighting them.
I wasn't always going to accompany the girls. Eventually they would
make it to town and take jobs as adventurers. For now, fighting together and
building up experience was safer for all of us.
We traveled upriver after breakfast. There was a risk of running into
the guys, but we weren't going near the original campsite, and there were
high-level orcs in the area. I doubted that the guys would go anywhere near
here.
We were getting close. I stayed vigilant by using Clairvoyance,
Presence Detection, and Enemy Tracking. I also took the opportunity to
secretly use Appraisal in search of new food. Naturally, I not only kept my
eyes open for wandering monsters and animals but for humans as well.
The delinquents were cowardly, and the other guys who'd attacked
the girls weren't high level, so no one was likely to come here. The Class
Rep was here, anyway. She would take care of them no problem.
The meathead jocks were another matter entirely. According to the
nerds and the Class Rep, they had kept curiously quiet. Maybe they had
achieved a new level of brainlessness and could only act out of instinct and
involuntary reflex.
Did they isolate themselves from the rest of the group? Or were they
part of the group that attacked the nerds? I had my doubts. They were the
kind of guys who blundered ahead without a thought. Whether they ran into
monsters or off a cliff, they would just have kept going, forgetting that
they'd encountered anything at all. In that way, they always seemed to end
up involved in conflicts, even when it didn't have much to do with them.
The way things went in the camp, I could've imagined them helping the
nerds out.
Or this world might have changed them. In life-or-death scenarios,
they might have learned to be cautious and paranoid. But they were
probably way too dumb to change. Way too dumb.
I'd never seen an orc before, but if an orc was smarter than a goblin,
then it'd also be smarter than the jocks. A meathead had barely any more
intelligence than a goblin. Even that might have been too generous an
assessment. Could they have changed? Become less gullible? Become
skeptical of their surroundings? That was utterly unimaginable.
Perhaps, by some miracle, the meatheads had managed to rub their
few neurons together and spark some thoughts. That was only speculation,
but I knew that they didn't help the nerds or the girls before, so I should be
wary of them.
At last, we found a solitary orc. The nerds' intel was accurate—orcs
didn't travel in groups. There were no signs of other monsters or meatheads
in the surrounding area.
"Stay hidden and keep an eye out, I'm going to try fighting it." I said.
I went forth alone. I needed to see it in action to learn how it fought
and reacted. Practical experience was essential if I wanted to develop a
strategy against orcs.
"Thanks, Haruka-kun," said Class Rep. "Be careful."
"Watch me closely," I said. "And no complaining."
I activated Presence Concealment and Stealth, and approached the
orc.
The nerds had told me that while orcs were physically powerful, the
nerds had managed to defeat one with magical attacks. I used Appraisal.
Orc A RACE: Orc LV: 11
HP: 66
MP: 10
VIT: 59
POW: 63
SPE: 21
DEX: 16
RES: 10
INT: 8
LUK: 19
COMBAT: Hammer Mastery Lv4, Great Strike Lv4, Body Slam
Lv3, Herculean Strength Lv3, Adamantine Lv2
SKILLS: Intimidate Lv2, Alpha Male Lv3
EQUIPMENT: Club
They weren't kidding about the strength. Its vitality and power far
surpassed that of any goblin, and it had decent speed and dexterity, too.
Eight intelligence, huh? It was stupid but still way smarter than a
goblin. Probably smarter than the meatheads, too. At the very least, my
stats were higher, if not my level. No point in dithering; I had to attack.
I ambushed the orc, charging full tilt and swinging with all my might.
I bashed it over and over with my staff. Hyaaaaah! Oh, did I kill it? This
thing was supposed to be strong? The nerds told me orcs had high physical
resistance! I couldn't have known this monster was a total pushover.
The girls clambered out of their hiding spots and immediately started
complaining.
"What was the point of that?! We didn't learn a thing watching you!
Sneaking up from behind and beating it till it dies—you think that's a viable
strategy? The orc keeled over without even doing anything!"
It wasn't my fault the intel was misleading, I thought. Next time, I'll
try magic. I doubted that anyone could object to that strategy.
The next orc was level 12, with similar stats to the previous one. The
girls watched me from a safe distance as I snuck up behind it. I could feel
their eyes on me. I had to stay focused; if I paid any attention to them, I
would lose the fight.
I'd sprayed countless tiny fire bullets in previous fights, so I thought
I'd try combining them to create a single blast.
I snuck up behind it and aimed at its back. I formed a single, giant
fire bullet and infused it with magical power. As the magic poured in, it
became denser, harder, stronger…fire!
The moment I shot the bullet, I immediately created another one.
Again and again, I formed and shot flame bullets—an endless fiery
onslaught. Fire echoed in my mind like a mantra. Damn, did it die already?
I felt the girls staring daggers at me.
Didn't the nerds claim that they barely managed to kill an orc with
magic? I was assured that it was crazy tough. Can it really be dead?
"It's dead!" the girls screamed. "It died after your first spell, and you
blew its head off with the second!"
"I killed it?"
"You obliterated it!"
Can't we just move on? I'm trying to be helpful!
We looked for more orcs in silence. Come out, come out, wherever
you are! I could feel the withering gaze of twenty irritated high school girls.
Alone with a giant group of girls in the woods, yet I only desired
orcs. Err, just forget I said that. We found one before long. Oh, how I have
longed for you!
"Okay, everyone, let's show some hustle! We'll give it our all and get
this over with…I guess?"
Before I could finish inspiring them with my speech, the girls went
flying through the sky. But not by using a skill—the orc sent them flying
with mighty swings. It broke through their shield wall easily. Swords,
spears, and arrows did no damage. Magical attacks slowly chipped away at
its HP, but the orc had too much HP to care. The healing corps had to rush
all over, trying to keep everyone alive.
If I don't do anything, I'll get scolded again. I knocked its club out of
its hands with a single flame bullet.
That wasn't enough. It was pawing at the girls with its bare hands.
This looks bad. It has Alpha Male Lv3! Is it looking at the girls with eyes of
rage…or lust?!
Before it did anything awful, I leapt at it, stabbing through the neck.
Well, if you consider poking something with a staff "stabbing."
The orc was still on its feet, even as it clutched at its neck. I stepped
aside so that the girls could finish it off. It was disarmed and heavily
wounded, but they still struggled. After a little while, when they still hadn't
killed the monster, I decided to leave them to it and work on lunch.
The weather was fair, and we were in the middle of the woods. That's
it! I thought. It's the perfect day for a barbecue! We only have fish and
mushrooms, but barbecue would really hit the spot!
"We're in the middle of a fight to the death with an orc, so why the
hell can I smell something delicious?" someone yelled from the melee.
"What makes you think now is a good time to grill some fish? Is that a
table? Did you make a table and chairs?! Where did all those flowers come
from?!"
At long last, they killed the orc. It was only level 9, but it took them
so long! I'm so hungry!
"Uhm, fighting that orc must have made you all hungry, right? Aren't
these flowers pretty?"
"Yes, the flowers are pretty!" the girls yelled at me. "That's not the
point!"
Were they mad at me? They were being totally illogical. We needed
to eat, so I made lunch. They were happily eating the food I made even as
they scolded me.
On the way back, they leveled up by fighting goblins and kobolds.
They decided to get their revenge against orcs tomorrow.
The girls all discussed the battle after they finished lecturing me.
"So there really isn't any special technique to fighting them."
"I could try to cut off its arm…"
"We need magic bullets! Those are strong!"
"We should still come up with a more conventional strategy…"
They kept on having their girl huddles and strategy meetings all the
way home. I showed them how to beat the orcs twice! Some girls were
staring daggers at me—did I say that out loud?
"If we all try to attack at the same time, we just end up getting in
each other's way."
"It's hard to cast magic when we're trying to retreat."
"We need to chop off its limbs first!"
"We can't afford to get too close. It has Alpha Male! Close-quarters
combat is out of the question!"
They couldn't decide on a strategy. Sometimes the simple strategy is
best: just beat the crap out of it. Uh…I didn't say anything! I'll stay quiet!
The girls split up into four groups of five. They raised their levels by
hunting goblins and kobolds until late at night.
The fights were so one-sided they weren't even fights anymore, more
like massacres. Okay, I'll quit criticizing.
I was as quiet and timid as a rabbit. Speaking of which, I would love
to eat rabbit. Where are you, deer and boar?