Chapter 71: Vanguard Battle 1
TL/Editor: Raei
Schedule: 5/Week Wed-Sun
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Contrary to Kaiden's worry of finding too few clues, the forest was teeming with them.
"These guys lack caution."
"It seems they think there's no danger in this forest."
The most powerful monster in the forest on the 20th floor is the Orc Hunter.
Aside from them, we've battled goblins, kobolds, moss wolves, and helmeted deer so much that we're tired of it.
All four of these monster types are prey for the Orc Hunter.
The orcs have no natural enemies here.
Of course, if they meet adventurers wandering the forest, they'll soon discover how mistaken that belief is...
Wee-eek-!
Gruk, gruk!
Just take a few steps, and you can hear pig-like grunts echoing loudly in the forest before Grace even gets a chance to scout.
Follow the noise, and you'll find orcs hunting helmeted deer or moss wolves.
Of course, no matter how many times they hunt these beasts, regular monsters just leave mana stones and vanish.
They catch a fat helmeted deer, cheer happily, and then when the body turns into a mana stone and disappears, they cheer even louder.
When their excitement calms down, they start hunting for other prey.
Their endpoint, endlessly repeating the hunt like Sisyphus* pushing his stone, is Han Se-ah's inventory.
"This feels easier than hunting an Orc Hunter."
"Right. There are lots of them, but they don't try to hide."
Orc Warriors, ranging from three to five, move around in groups, but they aren't particularly powerful.
They're stronger than average people, but they're nothing compared to adventurers navigating the 20th floor.
No matter how many there are, they never exceed five.
Any human who's reached the 20th floor as an adventurer, working with a team, won't be defeated by these orcs.
The front-line fighters holding the line and the back-line fighters providing support fire, just the basic movements give us the upper hand.
It's clear that they're easier to catch than the Orc Hunters, who just set traps and run away.
There may be more of them, but it seems each orc is weaker.
"But it's a relief."
"What is?"
"If the Orcs had rushed into the city like those horned wolves, people would have been seriously injured. Horned wolves lie in wait and attack when people get close, but the Orcs just wander around without a care."
"That's true."
Grace and Han Se-ah, collecting orc loot as they go, chat.
Indeed, if these carefree orcs had shown up in the city, it would have been a real headache.
I'm not sure if it's the quest designer avoiding repetition or taking the players' convenience into account, but I'm grateful that the orcs haven't shown up in the city.
With these thoughts, I follow the noise through the forest for a good while.
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Raei Translations
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Grace, who's leading us, suddenly stops and alerts the group.
"There's something odd up ahead."
"Odd, how?"
"No, it's just... really loud. Much louder than I expected...."
After Grace's warning, I take a few more steps, and a rowdy noise hits my ears.
The grunting of pigs, the sound of axes slicing into wood.
Even the sound of trees falling and being dragged.
In front of us, it's not a goblin or kobold camp, but a camp of orc warriors.
"What is this...?"
"Goodness..."
This is an uncommon sight.
Even for Kaiden, who's been to the 20th floor as a porter.
Though Irene, as a saint candidate, is startled at how many monsters gather out of view of the Goddess.
It's understandable to be surprised when dozens of orcs gather to form a tribe and build a fence.
This isn't a pathetic makeshift hut like the ones goblins and kobolds make.
The orc warriors use their unique strength to chop down nearby trees, creating rough tall fences.
The sight of orc warriors doing scouting and logging, and orc hunters looking for prey, feels more like a barbarian army than a monster group.
"I need to check this out."
"Check what?"
"You guys stay back and hide, we don't want to draw in all those orcs."
"...Roland?"
The team naturally hesitates and starts to back away.
Though we've tracked an orc hunter and dealt with groups of orc warriors, we're now facing a huge tribe.
Fighting five orcs is very different from fighting fifty.
As the team quietly starts to retreat, I head in the other direction.
Orc warriors have appeared, and an orc camp has formed, but something else has caught my eye.
The large and grand house in the middle of the orc tribe that's still half-finished.
Who wouldn't want to know who's inside?
"Go back to the passage leading down to the 19th floor. Try to avoid fighting as much as possible."
-Hurry and attach the camera to Roland or I'll lose it
-You don't have to split the cam, just filming Roland is enough
The first to react to my words are the viewers.
Han Se-ah nods a little and fixes a camera on me.
Though she splits the cam view anyway.
After making sure the team has quietly vanished beyond the bushes, I start to move slowly.
There's no real need to prepare for this fight, but it feels like an athlete's pregame ritual.
I tense my relaxed muscles and infuse them with an additional layer of magic.
As my heart beats faster, mana flows through my entire body.
From this point forward, standing here, I am more like a monstrous bipedal tank than a human.
As I lower my stance and shift my weight onto my legs, the forest floor indents deeply, cracking in places as if stricken by drought.
Each step I take causes dust to rise from the soil, causing a stir in Han Se-ah's stream, which I keep visible in a corner of my vision.
[Donation of 10,000 won from 'Han Se-ah, The One who Bested an Orc's Behind'!]
What's Roland planning, any guesses?
"Thanks for the 10,000 won donation, but if you don't change that ridiculous nickname, you're banned for a week. He said something about needing to check something, isn't he inspecting for the existence of other monsters besides the Orc Warriors?"
-She sure bested them (With her magic missile)
-So, did Grace best the Horned Wolves too?
-Pays 10,000, then enjoys a ban
-I have a condition where I can't use a normal nickname
As Grace's scouting and the noise from the Orc Warriors overlap, the party captured on the split cam safely head towards the passageway.
The grunting sound from the Orcs is so loud that it agitates even the helmeted deer and moss wolves.
In this way, I proceed, step by step, keeping an eye on the live stream.
The camera drone rises above the fence, filming me from the front.
I avoid looking directly at it and advance with my shield raised.
Moving swiftly, I reach the fence.
It's a thick fence, constructed by felling an Arumdri* tree, chopping off its branches, and setting it upright.
But what can an uprooted tree do to stop me when even a well-rooted tree can't?
I push the fence aside as if swinging open a door with my shield.
An ominous sound rings in my ears as the wooden pillars forming the fence topple over like bowling pins.
The Orcs' roars, shrieking from beyond the dust cloud, reverberate around me.
-Is that really a human, or a bulldozer?
-Shouldn't he have a different title apart from Paladin?
-Paladin (Strength Specialization)
-A Paladin that relies on physical prowess rather than holy power...
The erected fence tumbles backward.
The trampled ones, the ones rolling about, the ones fleeing, and the ones charging towards me the Orcs display a variety of reactions.
However, there's only one thing I'm prepared to offer the Orcs.
I charge ahead, my shield leading the way.
Like a knight forged entirely of steel, I advance with a velocity surpassing that of a warhorse.
New clouds of dust billow atop those that had been stirred when the wooden fence crumbled.
In the chaos, an orc struck by my shield is sent airborne, its horrendous form escaping the drone camera's capture.
This tactic isn't unusual outside the tower as well.
Especially when I went on quests with Rebecca, we used this strategy frequently.
I would barrel through, demolishing structures, and Rebecca would decapitate the stronger foes in the ensuing chaos, with the remaining opponents dealt with by the following mercenaries.
"Ughaahhhhh!"
I let out a battle cry, imbuing it with all the mana my lungs can muster.
The grumbling orcs drop their weapons, clutching their ears and crouching on the ground.
If the wooden fence has collapsed and the warriors have been frightened into submission, something else should come out.
If the orcs are a hint, what resides in the central building
-Why isn't the orc's underparts blurred?
-The game's 19+, but I really don't want to see an orc's thingy
-Now, I really don't want to go to the 20th floor.
-This is fitting for a shaman
-Did Roland charge in alone to check that?
An orc shaman appears, a distinctive feature visible beneath his leather loincloth.
His garb is impressive: a robe made from the hide of a moss wolf, a hood fashioned from deerskin and antlers.
Given that the 20th-floor moss wolves and deer drop no loot when slain, the shaman must have spawned wearing that outfit.
The issue is the lack of anything worn beneath the robe, assembled from the skins of moss wolves and deer.
It has the appearance of a robe casually tossed over a ragged leather loincloth.
Even though they've applied dye to the skin, it can't disguise the repulsive appendage hanging freely.
Naturally, the sight of the orc's privates doesn't stop the charge of a 6 paladin surging with magical energy.
Before the shaman, who emerges from the shack to appraise the situation, stands a steel shield capable of shattering a stone wall.
Before it can even blink or scream, it is smacked into a green pulp with a forceful shield strike, rolling several times on the ground.
[Donation of 5,000 won from 'Roland's Mighty Steel Shield'!]
If the orc shaman survives, I'll donate ten million won.
"Do you think it would survive!?"
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Sisyphus is from Greek Mythology, punished to forever roll boulder up a hill for eternity.
Arumdri tree is just the name of a tree in the novel.
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