## Chapter 176 – Dancing With Orcs
ㅡSwaaa.
The valley stream flowed powerfully. It was true that monsters gathered near streams. They needed water to survive, after all.
Orcs were smart enough to use their heads, so if they ran away, they would naturally hide somewhere in the valley.
“Katt. Reminds you of old times, doesn’t it?”
“Hmm? Old times?”
“Yeah.”
“What are you… Ah.”
My face flushed.
There was that time when I followed the stream with Cloudie and we ended up doing it in the lake. The first and last time for outdoor play. It was the first incident where I, a civilized man, shed a layer of refinement and stepped onto the path of savagery.
It could be said that the experience back then made me who I am now.
“What are you thinking about?”
Winia asked, sensing the heated atmosphere between Cloudie and me.
This was a bit difficult to answer.
“It’s nothing. When I first met Cloudie, there was… something like that in the valley. More importantly, let’s search.”
“What did you do with Unnie in the valley?”
“Something a little difficult to talk about.”
“Difficult? Don’t tell me you did it outside?”
What was this?
Was Winia not a succubus but Gung-ye? It was chilling how she had mastered mind-reading. She might even pull out a scepter soon.
Winia immediately made a disgusted face and clicked her tongue.
“You’re such a horny bastard. Even so, that’s a bit much.”
“Oh my? Such harsh words.”
“Yeah. Go away, Unnie. Not now.”
She even skillfully pushed away Cloudie, who was approaching. Her guard had become solid. Cloudie’s ears drooped. Winia’s chest defense skills had improved a lot.
I awkwardly approached Copson, who was staring into the valley stream.
“Anyway, Copson. Let’s unleash our tracking skills. Aren’t we experts at this?”
“That’s right… Damn it. I don’t know why I feel so awkward. Let’s follow the direction of the stream.”
The orcs were probably hiding in small caves or in the bushes. Even if orcs were smart, they were still just monsters.
“But didn’t you say there were a hundred of them? Aren’t they gathered in a bunch nearby?”
I walked while sharing my thoughts with Copson.
“Well, I don’t know. I heard they were crushed by Baron Dodens’ army and ran away. Some probably joined the group, and the rest are wandering alone, right? And if they’re gathered, the traces would be bigger. If they gathered, they would have returned to their homeland. The ones we’re likely to find are probably traveling in small numbers.”
“Whoa, what? Why do you seem so smart?”
“I’m originally smart. Unlike barbarians. The difference between civilization and savagery is exactly this, hehe.”
Copson’s explanation seemed quite reasonable.
“Don’t laugh, you bastard.”
He was born and raised in this other world and had lived as an adventurer since leaving his hometown. He probably knew more about miscellaneous knowledge and this other world.
ㅡRustle.
Other monsters appeared from time to time, but they all just ran away into the bushes. Cloudie didn’t seem to sense anything special either. After all, the forest was so dense and full of living creatures, it would be difficult for Cloudie, who had lived in the desert, to receive information through hearing.
“Shall we take a little rest?”
“Sure.”
We searched until about noon and then went up to a suitable place to set up camp. Let’s have a simple meal and resume the search. After looking around, I took out the dried rations I had brought.
“Winia. Is there a spell to search for monsters or something?”
I asked Winia, who was sitting gracefully.
“Would there be something like that?”
“It would be nice if there was.”
“That’s the problem with you darkies. You think magic can do anything.”
“Really? Isn’t it normal for magic to be able to do anything?”
Honestly, this seemed plausible.
“Yeah. Our darkie has such a cute side to his stupidity. Come here.”
“Okay.”
When I went next to her, Winia put a piece of hardtack in my mouth as if she were feeding me. It was indeed delicious to be fed. There was a reason why baby birds begged their mother birds for food.
ㅡRustle!
“Huh?”
Suddenly, the bushes rustled loudly. I immediately drew my sword and tried to jump out, but Cloudie was one step faster. ㅡWhoosh! The flying curved sword pierced through the bushes.
ㅡTechyaaaaaaa!
Then, a familiar scream erupted.
“Techya?”
When I went closer and parted the bushes, a gremlin with a curved sword stuck in its forehead was sprawled out. Judging by the red tears flowing from its reddened eyes, it must have been quite painful.
“A gremlin, this bastard, it’s been so long.”
I pulled out the curved sword, wiped off the blood and brain fluid, and handed it to Cloudie. Gremlin. A familiar-looking green small monster. Bizarre creatures that looked like bipedal reptiles.
Somehow, something familiar stimulated my mind.
“Hmm, a gremlin. A common monster in this area. It’s useless even if you kill it.”
“Well, they’re not worth anything.”
Just as we were about to put the corpse in a corner and have a meal, Winia said.
“Darkie. Bring that here.”
“Huh? You want me to bring this gremlin corpse?”
“Don’t talk back.”
I wondered if she had something in mind, so I grabbed the gremlin’s limp ankles and brought it to Winia. The blood dripping down wasn’t a very pleasant sight.
“Darkie, hang this on that tree.”
“Wh-what? Why hang this on a tree!”
It seemed that the corpse of this small monster had stimulated her sadistic tendencies. Was she thinking of decorating the surroundings for a classy meal? The gremlin’s empty eyes seemed to be staring at Winia.
“Orcs have a good sense of smell. If we give off the smell of blood, they might come looking for us. I just thought of it.”
But it was a more reasonable reason than I thought.
I nodded and, together with Copson, hung the corpse on a branch a little above my height. The eco-friendly green body drooped. The flowing blood pooled and seeped into the dirt floor.
It smelled a bit fishy.
It was a very grotesque sight, but everyone didn’t seem to care much. In that space that had turned into a dreamy atmosphere, we resumed our meal.
That’s when it happened.
“Winia. Over there.”
Cloudie gestured with her chin, and faster than I could stand up, ㅡWhoosh! Winia’s memorized Fire Bolt exploded. At the same time, Copson and I, who had stood up, ran in that direction.
ㅡSizzle!
The flames that had spread to the vines flickered and began to devour the surroundings. Something moving was visible behind it. The owner of the familiar scream was none other than an orc.
ㅡScreech! Screeeeech!!
“Orc!”
ㅡScreeeeech!!!
The orc, who had become a Fire Orc itself, was dancing to get rid of the flames stuck to its body. “It appeared so quickly?” Cloudie said, turning her head.
As expected, she was a mage.
The violent idea worked right away.
“Copson! Let’s get him!”
“Got it!”
ㅡScreeeeech!!!
The reaction speed of Cloudie and Winia was above average. I drew my sword with Copson and approached the orc, who had become a member of the burning legion.
ㅡScreech!
The guy looked like he was in a lot of pain, and it was as if he was appealing his pain by dancing. A truly flamboyant dance that seemed to vomit out his very soul. Was his job a dancer? I couldn’t know for now.
His talent or job didn’t matter.
ㅡScreeeeech!!!
“Get him!”
The orc unleashed a Fire Punch. ㅡWhoosh! The swung arm drew a clear trajectory of flames, heating up the space. Of course, it was just a meaningless attack, devoid of eyes or will, just writhing in pain.
I easily performed a backstep to evade and launched a counterattack.
“Die!”
“Ooh!”
He had already missed his weapon. Besides, I couldn’t imagine losing to a burning guy.
I narrowed the distance with Copson and, timing it right, simultaneously stabbed the guy’s torso and neck with our swords.
ㅡScreech!
The orc, who had instantly become something similar to a pirate roulette, fell to the ground. The fire went out before long. Copson and I stabbed the guy’s broad back about ten times to make sure he was dead.
ㅡThwack! Thwack!
ㅡThwack thwack!
The convulsing guy finally slumped.
“Is he dead?”
“Looks like it.”
The smell of burning meat wafted sweetly.
The skin, which was originally green, was charred black. Seeing that, Copson mumbled something, but it was a racist remark, so I’ll skip it.
ㅡWhoosh!
Cloudie, who had approached, cut off his head with a single blow and picked up the bouncing head. The orc’s face, with its melted flesh, looked very desolate. This was 1 silver?
“Hmph… Katt. If we kill all the monsters around and hang them up, will the orcs gather? Shall we do that?”
“Seems like a good idea.”
It was too easy of a battle.
Well, the mage went first with a preemptive strike, and Copson and I both slashed at him at the same time, so it was natural that it was easy. It was too anticlimactic of an ending, but with this, I earned 1 silver. I put the head I received into my bag.
It was bigger than I thought.
“It ended quite easily. It seems good to have a mage after all.”
“I agree.”
Copson also seemed to have lost his energy from the easily ended battle.
“First of all, more than that…”
I searched the place where the orc was dancing.
He was definitely holding something. That was probably the weapon the orcs used. The blacksmith who sold the knives said he would pay for it if I brought it, so I had to take it and increase my profits.
“Is this it?”
What was lying there was a hand axe that seemed to be made from orange rock fragments. Orange rock? The way the blade was made like a chipped stone tool made me guess the orcs’ technology.
Was it the Stone Age?
“Barbarian. What’s that?”
“It looks like a weapon the orc was holding.”
“Hmm… A crude weapon of a primitive level.”
First, I showed it to Winia and Cloudie.
Cloudie’s eyes lit up as if she was interested in the weapon of a different race, and Winia started explaining as if it was nothing special.
“It’s a weapon that orcs make and use themselves. They break and process this common rock called vermilion stone and tie or insert it into wood… Well, it might be worth something as a collectible.”
What the heck was vermilion stone?
Judging by the fact that I had never heard of it, it seemed to be a local mineral from this other world.
Anyway, I put it in my bag after the blacksmith said he would buy it. An orc using chipped stone tools… The burned orc had nothing else.
The completely burned leather pants and vest-like thing didn’t seem worth taking, and even though I took them off in case he had put something inside, there was no gain.
You poor bastard.
It didn’t seem like the income would be much, no matter how I thought about it.
I needed to catch at least 10 orcs to make it worth it.
“Barbarian. What are you going to do? All the monsters nearby must have run away because of the commotion just now… Shouldn’t we start searching again?”
“That’s true.”
The only gains were that orcs had a good sense of smell and 1 kill. Now that we were done eating, we immediately moved to find other guys.
“It doesn’t seem like they’ll appear easily.”
Cloudie said. It would definitely be difficult to find orcs who were running away as defeated soldiers in such a wide place. First of all, since we were a 4-person party, finding that many orcs was also a problem.
We went deeper and deeper.
Where were the crushed orcs hiding? The thought of the shiny ornaments they had made my motivation soar. Looking at their weapons, which were at the Stone Age level, they would be ecstatic just looking at silver coins.
That was the same for adventurers.
While walking, I asked Winia about the orcs’ ornaments.
“Feathers or leather. And flashy things. If I explain it as a shiny and flashy-looking foolish hat made of feathers, can you imagine it? Those are quite valuable. Well, if you find just one orc with that, you might be able to get a decent daily wage.”
We followed the valley, crossed the hill, and searched the opposite valley again.
