A Bargain for Survival
The blizzard grew fiercer the higher I climbed the snowy mountain.
And then...
What's that...?
I spotted the carcasses of Ice Bears scattered along the path.
There had to be at least thirty of them.
I couldn't tell what had attacked them, but looking at the messy stab wounds all over their bodies, the pelts were completely ruined.
They completely wiped them out.
No wonder I hadn't run into any Ice Bears.
Seriously, I came all this way to relieve some stress, and this is what I get?
They're already all dead.
What am I supposed to do now?
Which bastards did this...?
My eyes flashing with irritation, I pressed onward toward the gray shadows in the distance.
I'm not letting them off easy.
Gritting my teeth, I crossed the ridge.
A sorrowful cry echoed.
Then came the brutal, contrasting sound of clubs striking flesh.
...White Orcs? Here?
An unexpected sight unfolded before me.
A pack of about twenty White Orcs was ganging up on a single Ice Bear.
The cornered Ice Bear fought back desperately without trying to flee.
...Ah, it has a cub.
It was refusing to run to protect its offspring.
Teetering on the edge, a baby Ice Bear cowered near the cliffside.
The pitiful wail had come from the cub.
The mother bear was holding her ground with everything she had, but one of her eyeballs was already dangling out of its socket.
Her jaw was shattered, and she was bleeding profusely.
Even so, the mother Ice Bear kept swinging her massive paws at the White Orcs.
Perhaps because the Ice Bear was putting up a better fight than expected, the White Orcs pulled out nets.
Unlike ordinary Orcs, White Orcs were far more intelligent.
Just like now.
A normal Orc squad wouldn't care if they got crushed by the bear's paws. They would have just charged blindly, swinging their clubs.
But the White Orcs didn't charge.
Instead, they took a step back and readied their nets.
Are they trying to pin it down with nets before killing it?
But what happened next defied my expectations.
While the front-line White Orcs distracted the mother bear, a few of the Orcs holding nets circled around and scaled the cliffside.
"Huh?"
The White Orcs who climbed up the cliff ambushed the baby Ice Bear from behind.
The net snared the cub, and the baby Ice Bear wailed.
Only then did the mother bear look back.
In that split second, the White Orcs stabbed her in the back with spears tipped with sharpened monster fangs.
The mother's agonizing shriek echoed across the snowy mountain.
The cub cried out in response.
The mother tried to turn back to fight the Orcs, but the cub's cries paralyzed her.
She managed to swing a paw, sending one nearby Orc flying.
In response, a White Orc immediately jabbed the cub.
As the cub shrieked in pain, the mother bear hesitated and backed away.
The White Orcs didn't miss the opening, relentlessly stabbing the mother.
She's going to die soon.
I wasn't the only one who realized it.
The mother bear seemed to know it too.
With a brief roar, she threw her entire body over the netted cub, shielding it.
The White Orcs stabbed the mother bear as if they had been waiting for this.
Even as the sharp spears pierced her flesh, the mother bear didn't budge, keeping her cub tightly embraced.
Until her white fur was completely dyed crimson.
Had she breathed her last?
The mother Ice Bear no longer moved.
From beneath the dead mother's body, only the cub wailed, crying its heart out.
Indifferent to the tragedy, the White Orcs tied up the mother's carcass and began dragging it away.
She must have been an alpha; her body was massive even for an Ice Bear, making it a struggle to move her.
Meanwhile, the cub whimpered and cried, watching its mother's body go.
Perhaps irritated by the noise, one of the White Orcs struck the cub with a club.
The Orc burst into laughter, finding the cub's whimpering amusing.
He raised his club once more.
And just as the club was about to crush the cub's skull, Echo Walker's Blink activated.
A clean, effortless slice with the Sword of Calamity.
The White Orc's head blinked as it fell.
Thanks to the thick snow, it didn't even make a sound when it hit the ground.
Now, onto the next target.
The Sword of Calamity slid smoothly into the solar plexus of the Orc pulling the net.
Like a chopstick piercing tofu, it sank all the way in.
At the same time, a critical hit was registered.
Gallows
As if an invisible hand were squeezing its throat, the Orc's neck began to collapse.
And then, with the sound of breaking bones, the White Orc's body collapsed onto the snow.
"Oh."
So that's how Gallows works.
Pretty convenient.
"W-What?!"
"Who the hell are you...?!"
"We should have wiped out all the other races here!"
The White Orcs panicked as they looked at their dead comrades.
In a frenzy, they began drawing their weapons.
Then...
"...Huh?"
"Wait, isn't that a human?"
The moment they realized I was human, the tension vanished from their faces.
"What... was it the cub's doing?"
They seemed to think the baby Ice Bear had killed their comrades.
Idiots.
Do they really think an Ice Bear's claws could sever a head that cleanly?
It would have shredded the flesh.
"Looks like he wandered into the wrong place."
"Doesn't matter. Kill him!"
With their signature snicker, one of the White Orcs stepped forward.
It was obvious at a glance.
He was the weakest of the bunch.
A guy who hadn't contributed to the hunt was clearly thrilled at the chance to bag a human.
"Sigh..."
Looking at the scrawny bodies of the White Orcs compared to the Ice Bears, a sigh escaped my lips.
"This isn't what I wanted..."
What I wanted to kill wasn't these squishy White Orcs.
It was the tough-skinned Ice Bears!
...Now I'm getting pissed.
Come to think of it.
I mean, I climbed all the way up this tower just to blow off some steam, and there are no Ice Bears left?
Just a bunch of White Orcs?
As far as I'm concerned, this is a total scam.
"Tsk..."
Still, since they were strong enough to hunt Ice Bears, maybe they'll put up a decent fight?
I adjusted my grip on the Sword of Calamity.
"Keke. That looks like a nice item."
"Oh? You've got a good eye for an Orc."
"Just thinking about killing you and taking that weapon makes my guts tremble with—"
Since he said his guts were trembling, I stabbed him right there to stop the shaking.
Hmm, not a vital spot, so no critical hit.
Can't be helped.
I gave the Sword of Calamity a good stir inside the Orc's stomach and yanked it out.
Intestines spilled out of his ruptured abdomen.
"Pfft, gah!"
"Still trembling?"
"Gurgle...!"
He flailed around as if trying to scoop his guts back in before collapsing face-first into the snow.
I knew it.
"How annoying..."
An Ice Bear would have been much more satisfying to stab.
They would have lasted longer, too.
White Orcs might be smarter, but they aren't nearly as durable as Ice Bears.
"Move aside. I will handle this."
A White Orc holding a staff embedded with a large magic stone stepped forward.
"Ah, a shaman."
I heard some Orc shamans use Confusion to tame beasts.
Is that how they hunted the Ice Bears?
The magic stone began to glow with an ominous light.
Just as I thought, he was casting Confusion.
But too bad for him.
Thanks to the Quiet Eira Forest's Earring, status effects like Confusion didn't work on me.
"Is that it?"
"W-Wait...!"
With a single swing of the Sword of Calamity, the staff was sliced in half as easily as pudding.
The large magic stone lost its light and fell into the snow.
Along with the shaman's head.
"Tsk."
This is barely even a warm-up.
It's not even worth the effort.
"Kill him!!!"
"Kill him now!!!"
Fine.
Come at me all at once.
That's way less boring.
"Bring it."
I need to get my money's worth, after all.
"S-Spare me..."
Lee Taepyeong looked down at the White Orc's face with an expressionless gaze.
"Ah. So this is it?"
"...?"
"The difference between a normal Orc and a White Orc."
"W-What...?"
The White Orc looked up at Taepyeong, trembling violently.
"Normal Orcs are too stupid to beg for their lives."
"...!!"
"They say White Orcs are smart, and look at that—you actually know how to beg."
"Hahaha."
Taepyeong laughed, genuinely amused.
The White Orc forced a laugh to stay on his good side.
But the laughter didn't last long.
Taepyeong's face went blank again as he stared down at the Orc.
He's insane...!
The moment their eyes met, the White Orc realized.
He was going to die, just like the rest of his pack.
Desperate, the Orc's mind raced.
"S-Spare me! If you let me live, I'll give you all my items! I'll give you the Ice Bears too...!"
"What are you talking about?"
"..."
"I can just kill you and take those anyway."
"Gasp...!"
"I'll give you exactly thirty seconds. Start thinking."
"...!!!"
"Twenty-five seconds left."
The White Orc, who had never shivered in the freezing cold of the mountain, began to shake from sheer terror.
"Twenty seconds."
"W-Wait, wait, wait!"
The White Orc squeezed his eyes shut.
To survive, his brain worked faster than it ever had in his life.
"Ten."
Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four...
At Taepyeong's chilling countdown, the Orc panicked.
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
The White Orc finally chose to betray his own kind.
"I'll tell you how to get to the Snowy Mountain Demon's Altar!"
"Oh?"
Now that was something useful.
Taepyeong smiled and met the Orc's gaze.
"Tell me more."