Chapter 20 - Season of Blood and Heat
Season of Blood and Heat
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Translator: Dusky90
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Season of Blood and Heat
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Ogres are solitary monsters by nature.
Each one claims an enormous territory as its own, and because they lack any sense of kinship, it’s common for them to battle to the death whenever they cross paths.
However, there’s only one time each year when ogres gather and live in groups—the autumn mating season.
Curiously, ogres are unique among monsters in that only the females experience heat, while the males do not.
When a female ogre goes into heat, her strength increases abnormally, and her size grows by more than thirty percent.
Along with that, her sexual drive becomes overwhelming, and her temperament turns far more brutal.
When she encounters a male, she’ll usually beat him half to death before forcing him to mate with her—and it’s a truly terrifying sight.
During every mating season, it was common to find the corpses of male ogres—either beaten to death by females or dead from overexertion during intercourse.
That’s why, during mating season, male ogres banded together in groups of seven or eight just to stay alive.
To keep from being taken down individually by females, they’d cooperate only during this period.
“The females are in a berserk state right now. It’s the time when males also travel in groups. An ogre hunt at this time is far too dangerous.”
“I get that, I do, but wouldn’t this be the perfect chance to wipe out all the ogres in one go?”
Ogres usually lived alone, which made it nearly impossible to exterminate them completely.
How could anyone possibly track down and hunt all the ogres scattered across the land?
Hunting an ogre was never easy in the first place.
“No, we absolutely can’t. If we run into a pack of male ogres, our troops will be wiped out. And if we even come across a female… whew.”
Camille shuddered at the very thought.
“You know how terrifyingly strong a female ogre in heat can be.”
A single female ogre in heat had enough combat power to easily take down about five male ogres.
There were even cases of female ogres so powerful that they’d crush entire groups of males before forcing them to mate.
“I know, but we still have to go through with it. You know as well as I do that the region’s been overrun by ogres. If we clear them out, the trade route will reopen and the economy will finally recover.”
“Hmm,” Camille nodded slightly.
“I have a plan, so let’s give it a try.”
“What exactly are you planning to do?” Camille asked cautiously.
“Let’s move.”
Otto pulled a bag and a small hoe for herb collecting from his inventory and passed them to Camille.
“Are we seriously going herb gathering right now?” Camille asked in disbelief.
“Yeah,” Otto replied.
“Why are we suddenly gathering herbs?” Camille asked, confused.
“You’ll understand when we get there,” Otto said calmly.
Although Camille didn’t quite grasp Otto’s intentions, he chose to follow him anyway.
* * *
A few hours later.
Otto led Camille to a canyon deep within the northern mountain range.
The place was perpetually damp and cool, with barely a ray of sunlight even at midday.
Though winter hadn’t officially arrived yet, icicles already hung from the rocks, and sheets of ice glimmered underfoot.
“Let’s see… where could it be…”
Otto murmured as he moved through the canyon, his gaze sweeping around in search of something.
“What are you looking for?” Camille asked.
“An item that’ll make us rich,” Otto replied calmly.
“Huh…? What do you me—” Camille’s question trailed off mid-sentence.
“Found it!”
Otto exclaimed, shoving Camille aside before dashing off.
He then shouted loudly.
“Got ittttttttttttttttttt!!!”
Otto’s yell reverberated across the canyon.
“What… is this?”
Camille tilted his head, puzzled, at the unknown plant Otto had found.
[Bear Bile Herb]
A poisonous plant whose fruit resembles bear bile.
It only grows in cool areas that do not receive sunlight.
Category: Weed (Perennial)
Grade: Rare
Special note: Ingesting the fruit can cause a sharp increase in heart rate and may lead to death.
“Bear Bile Herb.”
“Bear Bile Herb…?”
“Take a look.”
Otto pointed toward the fruit hanging from the plant.
“The fruit looks just like dried bear bile, right?”
“That’s true, but… what’s this plant for? It obviously looks poisonous.”
“It is poisonous.”
“Huh?”
“If you eat it raw, it’s so bitter you’ll probably vomit instantly. It’s poisonous too, so eating it as it is could kill you with a heart attack.”
“Don’t tell me you’re planning to feed this fruit to the ogres to poison them….”
“As if.”
Oto shot back, sounding like he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard.
"Do you really think they'd eat it if we tried to feed it to them? Besides, it probably wouldn't do much to ogres."
“So what are you planning to do with this? There’s no way some nameless poisonous plant like this could make any money…”
“Actually.”
Otto grinned knowingly.
“It could be very profitable.”
“How could it make money?”
“If you drink a potion made from this fruit… it boosts your vitality.”
“Huh…?”
“It’s an aphrodisiac. A very potent one. No side effects either.”
".....!"
“And apparently, it’s said to help a lot with muscle growth. Supposedly, it promotes male hormone production too?”
“Th-That… really?”
Camille’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Does this fruit, the Bear Bile Herb, really have those effects?”
“I’m telling you, it does.”
“If… what you’re saying is true, we could earn a huge amount of money.”
A strong aphrodisiac with minimal side effects is every middle-aged man’s dream.
If what Otto said was true, making a fortune would just be a matter of time.
“This Bear Bile Herb will become a specialty of our Kingdom. More precisely, it will be the potion made from it.”
Otto had absolutely no intention of revealing that the potion’s key ingredient was the Bear Bile Herb.
He planned to keep it completely secret and monopolize the supply of the potion across the continent, so he could reap all the benefits himself.
“If it goes as you say… our territory… no, the Kingdom becoming wealthy wouldn’t be a mere dream.”
“It will happen, trust me. Of course, not immediately. We need proper cultivation and processing facilities. We also have to establish distribution channels and promote it.”
“You had planned all that?”
“Isn’t that just the basics?”
Grinning, Otto tugged Camille along.
“Let’s dig all of this up and take it with us. It’ll come in handy for hunting ogres as well.”
“Yes.”
Otto and Camille dug up all the Bear Bile Herbs and carefully placed them into the collection bag.
*Ding!*
At that moment, the quest window popped up.
[Notification: You’ve discovered a specialty!]
[Notification: Progress on the 'Kingdom’s Special Product!' quest has advanced!]
And with that, Otto set the first step in motion for the [Kingdom’s Special Product!] quest.
* * *
The next day.
Early in the morning, Otto set out with Camille and the rangers toward the ogres’ breeding grounds.
“What’s our mission?”
“You just need to find a male ogre’s corpse.”
Otto answered Camille’s question.
“No unnecessary fighting, just locate the male ogre’s body.”
“Understood.”
Following Otto’s orders, Camille and the rangers moved carefully, searching for the corpse of a male ogre.
“We’ve found a male ogre’s body. From its condition, it looks like it was killed by a female ogre yesterday.”
“Fresh. Perfect.”
Otto harvested the t*sticles from the male ogre’s corpse.
“What are you going to use that for?”
Camille frowned as he asked.
“See? If you mix the ogre’s t*sticles with the Bear Bile Herb fruit like this….”
Otto pulled a small herb-grinding mortar from his inventory and added the ogre’s t*sticles and the Bear Bile Herb fruit.
He ground them down, creating a sticky green liquid.
“What are you making?”
“Uh... Some kind of pheromone perfume?”
“Huh…?”
“The Bear Bile Herb fruit boosts the pheromones found in the male ogre’s t*sticles.”
".....!"
“We’ll use this to lure the female ogres—right to where the male ogres are hiding.”
“And then…?”
“Total wipeout.”
Otto smiled.
“We’ll sweep them all away.”
* * *
Three days later.
“Grrr…!”
The female ogres, still in heat, were rampaging through the mountains in search of the male ogres.
However, since the male ogres hid carefully to stay alive, the female ogres frequently came up empty.
For the male ogres, who had no sexual drive, personal survival took precedence over the species’ reproduction.
“Uwooooooooh!”
At the moment when the female ogres were nearly driven insane by the lust brought on by their heat—
“Sniff! Sniff sniff sniff!”
One female ogre caught the scent of a male carried by the wind.
The scent was so intense that it almost felt as though the male was right beside her.
“Grrrrrr!”
And so, the female, as if bewitched, began to move following the male’s scent.
Unaware that the scent wasn’t from a real male ogre, but from an extract Otto had created by blending bear-bile fruit with a male ogre’s t*sticles…
As a result.
“Uwooooooooh!”
The female ogre managed to locate a massive cave where seven male ogres were gathered close together.
“Uwo?!”
“Uwoooooo?!”
“Uwo! Uwooo!”
The male ogres panicked as a female ogre suddenly showed up.
They had thought they were safely concealed from the lust-crazed females….
“Uwoooooooo!!!”
The female ogre let out a roar and charged at the male ogres.
*Boom* *SMACK!* *WHAM* *THUD* *THUMP*
In under ten minutes, she had taken down all seven of them with sheer ferocity.
The combat power of a female ogre in heat was truly extraordinary, like a living runaway locomotive.
“Ggeoeoeoeok… ggeok….”
“Uwoooeoeo….”
The male ogres were completely knocked out cold.
“Krururururur!”
The female ogre gazed at the battered males with deep satisfaction, her eyes gleaming.
It was as if a grand buffet had just been laid out before her.
But the female ogre never got to enjoy her buffet.
“Uwooooooh!!!”
“Grrrrrrrrrr!!!”
Two other female ogres suddenly burst into the scene.
The freshly arrived female ogres attempted to stake their claim—reaching for a spoon at a table already laid out.¹
“Krurrrr!”
Naturally, the female ogre who had prepared the ‘buffet’ wasn’t about to take that kindly.
“Uoooorrrraaaahhhh-!!!”
Soon after, the three female ogres began a bloody battle over the fallen male ogres lying between them.
“Wow.”
At the same time, Otto hid with Camille, watching the chaos unfold with amazement.
“Wow, that’s some power. Damn, look at her go—she’s not holding back at all.”
“…You find this amusing?”
“They say the best things to watch are a fire and a good fight.”
“That’s true.”
Camille agreed with Otto’s opinion.
Watching ogres beat each other senseless was such a wild spectacle, it almost felt like something you’d pay to see.
“An impressive tactic.”
Camille praised Otto.
“To think you’d come up with the idea of luring the female ogres using the pheromones of the males… honestly, I’m a bit surprised.”
“It’s nothing,” Otto said casually.
“You’ve really pulled off something impressive.”
“I’m not the amazing one here—our rangers are the real deal.”
The rangers had taken on the dangerous task of luring the female ogres to this location during the operation.
“I’ll personally make sure the rangers are rewarded. They’ve worked hard, so they deserve a generous bonus.”
“That’s a wise call.” Camille nodded approvingly.
“Then, shall we begin?”
“Yes.”
At Otto’s signal, the soldiers who had been lying in wait emerged from their hiding spots, ready to annihilate the ogres in one decisive strike.
About ten minutes later.
“Uooooooaaaahhhhhhh!!!”
The victorious female ogre, the last one standing, let out a triumphant roar.
Surprisingly, the last one standing was the same female ogre who had first found and beaten the males into submission.
Despite being worn out from the earlier fight, she had still managed to slaughter every new challenger that came her way.
But that was the end of her run.
“All units, attack!” Otto roared.
At his command, the air filled with a deafening rush of sound—
*Swooooshhhh—!!!*
Moments later, a hail of arrows poured down on the victorious female ogre and the defeated males lying around her.
** ** **
TL/N:
1. “밥상에 숟가락을 올리다” is a Korean idiom meaning to take advantage of something already prepared, often with a hint of opportunism or freeloading