The days passed peacefully as the dwarf Vuard guided the group. In just three weeks, they reached the southern region of the continent and encountered a vast and endless area filled with mountains. It was there that most of the continent’s mines of metals and precious minerals were concentrated. Even from the distance of the desert, Alm and Bruno could sense multiple times more metals in the ground.
Practically all the inhabitants of that region lived from mining and metallurgy. This place was responsible for the production of weapons, armor, and high-value items, and all blacksmiths from other regions came or spent many years studying there. Although the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants were dwarves, Vuard explained that in the city of the dwarves, there were also humans and other visiting races, whether merchants or people interested in studying the art of forging.
’Obviously, these other races end up mingling with the dwarves or have children among them there. Although rare, it won’t be strange if we present identification from the kingdom of the dwarves,’ Bruno concluded mentally.
At this point, Ruri walked with two small wyverns on her shoulders: Runula and Deryu. During the day, the two flew together through the skies, and Deryu, with his strong bloodline, detected demonic beasts to hunt. He could devour any strong bloodline, and his dragon blood refined it for him, strengthening his body and cultivation.
As for Runula, after consuming a third of the Drake’s remaining bloodline, her dragon blood completely eclipsed the demonic. From the start, her mother was a mixed demoness of the Soul Eater clan, so it was already weak, and since Runula couldn’t control the dragon blood, she became pathetically weak, relying solely on demonic blood. Now, she had a dense dragon bloodline, and she could use it correctly after being trained in all aspects by Alm and Bruno.
The whale allowed them to act freely. After all, Runula had a cultivation at the sixth level of the Elemental Condensation Realm; it was very difficult for her to find a randomly matched opponent. So, after a week, Runula returned with Deryu from a hunt and assumed her human form, speaking a bit tensely.
"Not far from here, I found a rudimentary base among the mountains. There were makeshift tents, and I sensed several ogres around. But, upon sensing inside the tents, I noticed several dwarves and some humans... there was also the smell of blood."
Everyone frowned upon hearing this. Ogres often kidnap women for easier reproduction. Although there are female ogres, it’s very difficult for a pure ogre to be born, so these pure ones are the commanders while the hybrids are the worker soldiers.
"Yes, in the southern region of the continent is where practically all the ogres live. This outer region is surrounded by mountains and caves, making it very difficult to hunt them or even find them," sighed Vuard, speaking dryly.
"Ogres kidnap many dwarf women and sometimes venture into other regions to capture other races. We have tried to exterminate them many times... but they are a plague, and the entire kingdom suffers from it... especially our women, they are small and don’t last long with them." He concluded with red eyes.
"Ogres?" Corin was the only one flying and didn’t understand anything.
The whale quickly explained: "A humanoid race descended from yours. They are something almost like demonic beasts, extremely dumb, but they possess an enviable physical body and explosive power. Unfortunately, their reproduction is poor, so the other races end up suffering." The whale then added. "Don’t think about it as right or wrong. They don’t have enough intelligence to differentiate between those two concepts. They do what they do out of necessity for their survival. Of course, it doesn’t mean you should just ignore it. At the end of the day, it is all about the survival of the fittest, and they found their way to survive."
"Master, we’ll help, won’t we?" Ruri said, holding their arm with a sweet look. Bruno felt that gaze, so the whale didn’t even hesitate to respond.
"Go with Loeus, it will be good training for you," they affirmed.
Ruri smiled, and then Deryu and Runula grew into their true forms. Ruri jumped on Deryu’s back, while Loeus mounted Runula; they quickly departed.
"Sir... I appreciate you helping my race. But, if there are many alive as the wyvern said, then they must be either pregnant or have just given birth. Those damn ogres make them reproduce until they die, or kill them cruelly," said Vuard, who clearly had hatred for the ogres. Even though the whale explained, he still hated those ogres.
Bruno quickly felt a headache for answering without thinking. Ruri knew how to manipulate him perfectly, and Alm didn’t dare to criticize; if he were in control, she would change the method, but the result would be the same.
"Let’s go quickly. Corin, take the dwarf," said the whale, activating its spiritual root and flying. Corin waved and grabbed the dwarf by the arms like a child, making him curse furiously.
The whale flew swiftly, but Runula and Deryu were much faster and arrived several minutes earlier. Now that Alm and Bruno had to fly, their speed using the laws of the earth was nullified; even if they ran on the ground, as it was a mountainous region, it would take longer to get there.
As they arrived, they smelled blood in the air. Loeus and Ruri were in the midst of a fight against hundreds of ogres. Loeus fought in a direct and physically athletic style, similar to Langrum. Meanwhile, Ruri easily cut down everything approaching her with her katana.
She could only use spatial laws after much concentration, slowly gathering them. Each strike cost a lot of her limited QI. Meanwhile, she used her mental power to deceive the ogres surrounding her, killing them easily.
Using mental power in a large play would consume all of her QI. Nearby, an ogre king watched them closely with a spear in hand. His cultivation was in the middle of the Core Formation Realm, far superior to hers. If she made a big move, he wouldn’t be immediately affected and would attack, putting her in danger.
Of course, she could use the runic seal on her clothes or the laws of the earth through the array. But her master said it was a training exercise. She had to fight with her own strength. Both she and Loeus were not willing to use external things, not even the runic seal on their weapons.
Runula and Deryu watched the fight from the skies, ready to interfere if something happened. The difference in cultivation for Runula was so high that the ogre king didn’t even realize that she alone could annihilate everyone below with a dragon’s breath.
The whale quickly used its soul to investigate the tent, but soon Bruno lamented. Indeed, there were hundreds of women and an even larger number of newborn hybrid ogre babies. Now, mounted on the tiger, they had no way to go back.
In twenty minutes of fighting and mountains of ogre bodies on the ground, the ogre king didn’t realize that Ruri had drastically slowed down. It was at that moment that her katana glowed with spatial laws, and only an afterimage remained.
Slash.
The ogre king was cut in half without understanding what happened. Ruri’s spatial shadow technique, without the power of the Eternal Bond or the sharpening seal, left her with zero attack power. Therefore, she had to wait for the moment to gather spatial power for the final attack.
After the king fell, it took another five minutes for them to finish everything. Loeus, being a front-line fighter, was the standout, killing much more than Ruri. But she was an entire realm below him, and her concentrated attack power was greater, so much so that she killed the king.
They finished, and Ruri quickly jumped into the tents. The whale followed her, and the sight was much better than when they found Sesel and Oria before. The women were just locked in wooden cages, taking care of their babies.
Vuard approached the tent, and all the dwarf women, upon seeing him, sighed in relief. Dwarves were almost always honest and supportive of their race, and upon seeing one of them, they quickly felt that they were free.
Ruri and Vuard freed them and talked gently with them. In the end, there were more than a hundred dwarf women and half a dozen human women, all with a hybrid ogre child in their arms. To Alm’s surprise, the women grabbed their children without caring much about their origin or how they were conceived.
Unfortunately, there were twice as many dwarf women before; but most of them died before even getting pregnant. Ogres were brutish and ruthless, and they were small in size and physical power. Even human women often died in this process.
So, when they threatened to leave, the distressed women ran to the whale leading them and begged him to have mercy on the babies. Everyone had strange expressions, not understanding. Soon, a dwarf ran to another destroyed tent, and when the whale approached and threw the entire tent away, he saw inside it a dozen babies, pure ogres.
’In the midst of the corpses, there were female ogres. They look so much like us that, if we didn’t look twice, we wouldn’t see any difference.’ Alm said dryly.
The women took those babies with them, not caring about anything. ’Well, ogres aren’t very smart, but there’s no pure evil. If raised well, they’ll become normal people and won’t necessarily do harm.’ Bruno commented, clearly stunned by the kindness of the women. But then again, they were the ones who talked about not being much right or wrong when it came to the ogres. Somehow, that felt like the best outcome.
Vuard watched the women and the babies, tense. Then, he approached the whale and spoke in a whisper: "Lord, dwarves deeply hate ogres... if we take their children, or even these hybrids... things won’t be good."
Bruno sighed, realizing the problem they had created. Well, they would have to take the women back to the city. Suddenly, Alm remembered something, and his mind lit up. ’Wait, the diagram has the ogres’ heritage.’
Bruno heard and also recalled this fact as Alm continued. ’Langrum will also do everything to raise them well.’ Alm spoke, laughing villainously. ’Since all the ogres live here, we can gain an army of babies that, after receiving the bloodline from the diagram, will be invincible.’
Bruno understood the point and thought about it from another angle. ’If we put effort into it, with our soul and Corin using his bloodline to detect them, we can hunt down practically all of them. It’s a good idea; we’ll save countless dwarf women, giving us a warm welcome card with the dwarves.’
Then, the whale stopped his steps. "Change of plans, let’s organize this area, and this will be our temporary base."
Ruri immediately understood what he wanted to do and smiled. "We have free time, let’s split into three groups and hunt down the ogres, saving everyone. We’ll gather everyone here, and then we’ll head to the dwarven kingdom."
No one opposed this; in fact, Vuard was excited as if it were a divine blessing for the dwarves; he obviously was part of the whale’s religion. With his enthusiasm, the women were infected, and they didn’t mind waiting to return, after all, they were going to save their own race.
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So, as Corin was from an ancestral bloodline connected to the ogres, after he saw one, he could use his bloodline to easily sense where others lived. Vuard divided the southern region into three parts on a map. Corin got 45%, the whale got another 45%. Loeus, Ruri, and their pets got the remaining 10% to thoroughly search the mountainous area. Runula was powerful and could track that region without problems.
The mountainous region represented only a third of the southern region, so this was possible only with them. In a month, the hundreds of women, along with their babies, became thousands. In two months, they saw hundreds of thousands. And in the third month, when everything seemed to be nearing the end, the whale, while flying through the skies, received a message through Runula’s array.
’Lord! We’re in danger, Ruri... she’s injured!’