Chapter 32: The Good Orc (3)
Groktar, a warrior of the Bladeaxe Clan, began his day with a bang.
“Kahahahaha! Groktar has cracked Galdin’s skull!”
“That was some good axe work, brother!”
Groktar prays for his compatriot, whose skull was split open in a morning quarrel.
“You died fighting bravely, and the Warrior God will send you to the eternal battlefield.”
After blessing the corpse of his fallen comrade, Groktar heads to the river. He raises his staff to the water, celebrating his honorable victory.
“Groktar, Groktar of the Bladeaxe Clan!”
A voice called out from across the river. It was an orc from a hostile tribe in the bloodbath that would determine the next Great Chieftain of the Grasslands.
“Yes, and who are you!”
“My name is Balbata, of the Iron Fist tribe!”
“Yes, Balbata! What is it!”
“Fight me! I will defeat you and honor my people!”
“Hmph, good! Raise your axe!”
Groktar split Balbata’s head open and drank victory ale.
All around him were orcs who, like Balbata, had come to drink water and then challenged their kindred to a duel and lost. Was that why?
“Hmm, the water tastes unusual today.”
Something about the water tingled and tickled him, making it taste strange. But this was the only water they had to quench their thirst, so they couldn’t find any other.
Groktar carried the bucket of water back to his tribe and then the tragedy began.
Groktar realized that his body was rapidly deteriorating.
Before lunchtime, he lost his senses and fell unconscious several times.
The radioactive material was destroying water molecules in his body, creating an excess of free radicals.
The resulting hydroxyl radicals destroyed his body’s cells in real time, and he tasted an unpleasant metallic taste in his mouth – the taste buds on his tongue had been disrupted.
In less than an hour, he lost every hair on his body and experienced nausea, vomiting, generalized weakness, and bleeding.
His body felt heavy, like he was carrying a boulder, and his vision was spinning and he couldn’t see clearly.
“…Lord, shaman…call a shaman…….”
Groktar cried out in pain and slipped out of his tent. He crawled out on his knees, but all he saw were his brothers with the same symptoms he had.
“Shaman, shaman ah…….”
They had found the tribe’s shaman.
A shaman who didn’t usually treat wounds, only performing tattoo spells to strengthen the tribe members but they asked him to remove the curse on them.
“What, what… I don’t know about this. I’ve never seen anything like this!”
This wasn’t a spell or a curse, it was the result of drinking water from a river contaminated with highly concentrated radiation so a shaman couldn’t deal with it.
The orcs were only able to survive because of their natural physical prowess; lesser creatures would have died from the tainted blood they vomited.
And so it was that the orcs in the meadows lay dying, contaminated by radiation.
“Glory to the Lionheart!”
The thundering footsteps of the Hunters echoed across the meadow as Leon javelin pierced the orc shaman’s torso.
“Kuhhhh!”
The orc shaman, pierced through the torso, tried to attack the raiders with elemental magic even as he was lifted up, but was instead thrown and rolled across the ground.
“Exterminate the beasts, do not let a single one live!”
With a rumbling shout, the Hunters burst into the orc camp.
“Go, free experience points! Kill them all!”
“I can’t believe how easy it is to kill orcs.”
The Hunters slaughtered orc after orc, whistling as they did so at the emaciated state of the orcs they had never seen before.
It was not a battle, it was a massacre, a slaughter.
“Mmm…Your Majesty.”
“What is it, Ha-ri?”
“If we kill the radioactive orcs…we’ll be exposed to the radiation too.”
“The toxins, you mean? They’re nothing to worry about.”
Leon was not unaware of the toxicity of radioactive materials as Yappy had explained the dangers well enough, and that it was powerful enough to kill all the orcs in the meadow.
“It doesn’t matter. If it’s that toxic, it can be washed away by eating the crops Demera has blessed us with. Best of all, all who enter the gates of this king will have the power to ‘resist contamination’.”
“……haha.”
What does this mean for the quest? The dungeon’s closing requirements were shattered… At that moment, a message popped up in front of Ha-ri’s eyes.
[You have turned the entire Orc Tribal Alliance against you, becoming their public enemies.]
“What the hell…….”
A quest change? This was the first time a quest had been changed and Ha0ri looked at the new quest.
[Hidden Quest: Slay all orcs in the field]
“Your Majesty, the quest has been…changed.”
As Ha-ri reported the changed quest, Leon smiled in satisfaction.
“Good! At last, justice has been done! Soldiers of Lionheart! The time for light and justice has come!”
A few hundred orcs remained and Leon intended to dispose of every last one of them.
─────!!
It was then that there was a strange change in the air in the center of the orc camp and the sky was turning green.
“What is that?”
Leon rode Stallion straight to the center of the change and found the orcs gathered there.
“It’s you! It’s you! You’re the one who poured the curse on the river!”
Hundreds of sick and dying orcs and a robed orc shaman looked at Leon and the Hunters, bloodshot and furious.
“You wicked bastards, you cowards, you call yourselves warriors!”
The orc shaman wept tears of blood as he watched his people die a horrible death.
Orcs are a race closer to death than any other, but because of this there was no such thing as a dishonorable death.
“Ha.”
Leon sneered in amusement at the orcs’ cries.
“Worthless beasts crying out for honor.”
The beast’s eyes, screaming with rage, were hollow and dirty, and it was a humiliation for Leon to meet their gaze.
“The honor of the Lionheart King is not to be found in the eyes of beasts. It’s a crime that cannot be forgiven, even if you are covered in blood and have your eyeballs gouged out alive.”
The orcs shuddered at the chilling sentence.
“Curse your ugly selves and give yourself a chance to redeem yourselves, you filthy beasts.”
“Arrogant bastards, Gokrok will not forgive you!”
At that moment, the shaman’s eyes glowed green and he emitted a doomed aura.
“The beast speaks!”
Leon didn’t wait for the energy to dissipate but lifted his holy spear and hurled it at the shaman.
Several orcs raised their shields to protect the shaman, but the javelin, thrown with superhuman strength, pierced through them and slammed into the shaman’s gut.
“No! It’s…too late!”
The shaman poured all of his life force and the life spell succeeded as a portal opened.
“Gokrok descends…! Our great Shaman God will… punish you!”
As if the gates of hell had opened, a black pit pushed through the space, and the great breath from within sucked in all directions.
“For…the Shaman God!”
“To avenge our brothers!”
The orcs offered no resistance and were willingly sucked in.
“Your majesty, what is that!”
“Ha, a human sacrifice. Indeed, beasts, and not the least bit civilized.”
“…….”
“…….”
Ha-ri and the other Hunters stared at Leon in disbelief. There were many things she wanted to say, but she decided to hold back.
“Behold! This is the great right arm and eye of Gokrok!”
[Hidden Quest: Defeat the Orc Shaman God Gokrok]
* * * *
Orcs are an otherworldly race of uncertain origins but their characteristics are simple: they are violent, combative, and highly fertile.
They are despised as savage beasts, but they have their gods and Gokrok, the Orc Shaman, one of the Three Great Orc Gods.
He answered the summons of the orc shaman who inherited his wisdom.
Though it took the sacrifice of hundreds of orcs and the souls of thousands of orcs to summon one arm and one eyeball Gokrok saw the Orc Butcher in his searing green eyes and with all his might, he summoned his mouth and called the creature.
[Unacceptable, must be destroyed]
Gokrok’s eyes glowed and a green beam that was aimed at Leon shot out but the protection of the arrow shield, a holy law that allowed any ranged attack to be blocked once, blocked Gokrok’s eye beam.
[Protected by a being like me, who is the god that protects you?]
Gokrok realized that the power that blocked the force was that of a transcendent being. Though on a different plane, he was intrigued by a being that could stand up to him.
“A being… like you?”
But Leon’s reaction was dramatic. There was no fear or hesitation in the face of a divine being, but rather anger.
All positivity is stripped from his fresh smile, replaced by a vast amount of murderous rage.
“You bastard. You think you’re a god by being the leader of beasts! Argh!”
Leon’s halberd glows and Stallion charged, holy sword in hand.
“You filthy beast, your presence will not be tolerated by the Lionheart King!”
Leon’s sword glowed, light layered all around it, just as it had earlier when he poured holy water into it to activate it.
[Mere mortals…!]
Gokrok’s right arm slammed down toward Leon.
The massive mass is a force in itself and Ha-ri and the Hunters were stunned by the sight of the twenty-meter right arm slamming into Stallion and Leon.
“Your Majesty?!”
But Leon charged on, unperturbed, his sword glowed with a brilliant light.
The Holy Sword given to the first knight by the God of Light and Justice, this sword possesses another power besides indestructibility.
The Holy Sword of Brilliance: a symbol of unquenchable splendor that can cut through anything in the world.
[What!?]
Panic flashes through Gokrok’s voice but it was understandable since a mortal, albeit a strong one, cut off his arm.
Holy Knight’s trait: their holy swords are written with holy law. The power of the concept to deliver a true blow to the person you cut.
Even if you’re strong, if you’re slashed by this sword, your body will take a hit as well.
[Kaaaahhh…!]
“Go, Lord Gokrok?!”
The god screamed in pain and the orc shaman panicked.
[Aaah, you…! Yes… it was you… Orc Butcher… Demon Slayer…!]
Gokrok recognized his opponent’s identity by the damage to his body.
He was a knight from another dimension than his own, but one so infamous that demons feared him.
A demigod of that nightmarish world where the highest ranking demons under the evil god of wisdom and inquiry were said to have died in droves.
[I will retreat for now…but you will pay the price for this rampage]
With those words, Gokrok ended his summoning and returned to his own dimension. The orc shaman was dumbfounded as the alter ego of the god he had paid thousands of orc souls to summon vanished.
“Go, Gokrok. Gokrok!”
Leon stepped up to the shaman, who shivered at the shadows that shrouded him.
“So much for the god of your trash beasts.”
“Eh, ino-oh…!”
The shaman didn’t finish his sentence as Leon’s holy sword had decapitated him.
The orc shaman’s head rolled back, and Leon stared down at it in disdain.
“Hmph, beasts like you should not exist.”
[You have completed all hidden quests]
-All participants are granted the Talent ‘Orc Hunter’.
-All participants will receive the Talent ‘Man-At-Arms of the War Knight’
Hunters cried out when they saw that they received Talents as rewards since by nature, Talents are rare rewards for Hunters.
The theory was that talents were earned through specific actions or repetitive behaviors, but to have two rewards like this?
[Orc Hunter]
-Gain 30% more damage when dealing with Orcs.
[Man-At-Arms of the War Knight]
-Gain 20% physical resistance when fighting alongside a knight with the War Knight talent.
The stats aren’t great – one is Orc-specific, which is a bummer, but it’s a whopping 30% bonus damage, and Man at Arms of the War Knight grants 20% Physical Resistance.
Virtually all of the Hunters had physical resistances that only tank Hunters would have.
“Fuck…this is awesome.”
As Koo Dae-sung and the other Hunters stood dumbfounded by the Hidden Quest rewards, Leon exclaimed.
“We’re collecting the loot! Hurry up and move!”
The Hunters jumped to their feet. Yes, there was loot left.
Over four thousand orcs had been killed and even if the gate where the orcs appear is terrible, 4,000 of them is a lot of loot.
As long as the dungeon closing conditions were fulfilled, they had to scrape up the loot from the gate as soon as possible.
“Hurry up! Focus on the Warrior class and higher, we need to get all the Shaman’s equipment!”
“Ugh… If these bastards died nicely, the Heart of the Warrior would be a great item…….”
“Would a radioactive heart be okay?”
“I don’t know, if we ate the blessed rice, we won’t have to worry about radiation, let’s get them out!”
The hunters scattered in all directions of the meadow with greedy eyes.
-Ugh!
Unlike them, Ha-ri and Yappy stayed behind since Ha-ri was not greedy for items, and Yappy’s attention was elsewhere.
“I, Your Majesty… what should I do with this?”
Ha-ri pointed to a giant severed arm. It was the severed arm of the Orc Shaman God Gokrok that was left behind when Gokrok closed the dimensional gate.
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