Chapter 150: Treasure Hunt (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 150: Treasure Hunt (4)
“Captain!”
Linvar, having imbued her dagger with mana, cut through the iron bars. She entered the cell and sliced through the chains binding Tarkind in the same manner.
Linvar caught Tarkind as he went limp like a strand of seaweed.
“Captain! Are you with me? Do you know who I am?”
“Ughhh…?”
Tarkind looked around with dazed eyes. His gaze fell on Linvar, who was holding him.
Long, slender hair.
The moment he caught the distinct scent of a woman.
“Hieeeek! No females! No more mating!”
“Captain? What’s wrong, Captain! It’s me, Linvar! Snap out of it!”
“Hieeeeeek!”
Tarkind covered his face with his arms and let out a girlish scream. He struggled violently, trying to escape Linvar’s embrace.
But because he was so weakened, it wasn’t easy to break free.
The pride of the scouting party, so respectable and kind. Linvar couldn’t hide her bewilderment at Tarkind’s complete one-eighty. Not knowing what to do, she looked at Karami.
“Wh-what’s wrong with the captain?”
“Hmm, perhaps the female orcs did something terrible to him? Seeing how he’s reacting so violently even to you, a human female, he must have suffered a great deal.”
Karami clicked his tongue, looking at the broken Tarkind.
In a game like this, if you’re born a male character, you’re supposed to be a broken-as-hell OP character who shatters the power ceiling.
Tarkind was a failure. Of all things, he was captured by orcs because his combat power was lacking.
And to top it all off, he was forced by the orcs.
Born a man, only to become a woman’s plaything.
‘Pathetic bastard.’
I can’t end up like that.
I will remain a respectable master.
Karami thought to himself.
But that wasn’t what was important right now.
He wondered if he’d forgotten, but no.
Tarkind was a slave he’d never seen in the game.
The thought occurred to him that perhaps the slaves who appeared in the gacha were characters who had never appeared in the game.
Still, thanks to Tarkind, he’d gained new information.
If you don’t rescue a slave in time and leave them for a certain period, they’ll head down a path of ruin.
Of course, this also raised a question.
‘Did he become a slave because I pulled him in the gacha?’
Does one gacha pull alter the world?
It could be, or maybe he was already a slave.
There was no way to know for now.
“Those orc bastards… I’ll kill them all right now.”
Linvar ground her teeth in fury. She radiated a killing intent fierce enough to wipe the entire orc race from the world, but the situation wasn’t so simple that it could be solved by sheer bravado.
“Miss Linvar. I understand how you feel, but we have places to be. For now, let’s just be satisfied that Mr. Tarkind is alive.”
Linvar glared sharply at Karami.
“Satisfied? When the captain is in this state?”
“If you don’t like it, you can stay here. I’m not your master, and I have no obligation to look after you two.”
Karami turned to leave without hesitation. He had planned to come alone from the start anyway.
With the invisibility robe, he could move through the fortress without issue. He had only refrained from using it because he was hesitant to use items carelessly while traveling with Linvar.
“……”
Linvar stared once at Karami’s retreating back, and once at Tarkind.
It was infuriating, but Karami was absolutely right.
There were more than just one or two people captured by the orcs.
It would be difficult to travel with Tarkind in his current state.
Most importantly, Azyeth would eventually eliminate all the orcs here. Linvar wanted to avenge Tarkind with her own hands.
“Captain. Wait here for just a moment. I’ll be right back.”
“No females…”
Linvar put her cloak on Tarkind and laid him on the floor. She ran down the corridor where Karami had disappeared.
*
Karami, who had been advancing cautiously, hid his body around a corner.
Not all the orcs had gone out to fight.
A single orc guarding the lower levels was patrolling the corridor.
‘Should I have brought Halgran?’
He would have made the combat part easier, but I left him behind because his chattering would have been annoying. If I unfroze him now, he’d obviously be pissed.
I have the invisibility robe, but I need to open the door down the hall, and the cell door too. To do that, I need the bundle of keys on the orc’s hip.
Even if I’m invisible, if I get caught blatantly stealing the keys, I’ll be in big trouble…
Shweeeek!
Just then, from the other end of the corridor, a thin line was drawn through the air with a sharp, ear-piercing sound.
Thwump.
“Gyaak!”
The orc let out a pig-like squeal and collapsed.
An arrow was embedded in the nape of its neck.
Linvar walked over, nocking a new arrow to her bowstring.
“You left acting all high and mighty, only to be stopped here?”
“What did you do with Mr. Tarkind?”
“I left him tucked away somewhere safe. We’ll get him on our way out.”
“I see. Understood.”
Karami took the bundle of keys from the orc and continued on his way.
“What’s the plan now?”
“We need to free the hostages and gather them in one place.”
“Again?”
“What do you mean, ‘again’?”
Linvar narrowed her eyes at Karami’s feigned ignorance. She hadn’t forgotten what Jorn had subtly told her before she left.
“You said you were going to bring back Lord Pascal, didn’t you? Don’t tell me he’s here?”
“Of course not. How could a dead man be here?”
Pascal had already been cremated. His gravestone was in the public cemetery behind the village, and his ashes had become snow, scattering freely on the winds of Eisengar.
Karami knew this, yet he’d said he would bring Pascal back. She couldn’t help but be wary of what scheme he was plotting.
“Hmm.”
Karami, walking down the corridor, stopped in front of a certain door.
The door was locked and wouldn’t open. Jingling the bundle of keys, he began searching for the one that would unlock it.
“Miss Linvar, how much longer do you think the tribal chief will live?”
“…What?”
“I don’t think she has much time left. The North is not a place where the frail can easily survive.”
It was a sad fact that everyone in the village, including Linvar, was aware of. But there was nothing to be done. It wasn’t as if they could bring the dead Pascal back to life.
“Do you wish for Lady Darka to spend her final moments as a senile old woman, dying while longing for a son who will never return?”
Click.
The door opened.
Inside was a storage room filled with acrid dust.
Karami began to rummage through the storeroom.
“What are you trying to say?”
Ignoring Linvar’s question, Karami continued to rummage silently through the junk before picking something up.
The moment she saw the object in Karami’s hand, Linvar’s eyes widened.
“You, that’s…”
A string with various ornaments sewn onto it.
It looked exactly like a broken bracelet.
In Karami’s eyes, it appeared like this:
[Broken Bracelet]
Someone’s bracelet.
A faint trace of shamanic power remains.
“I’m going to give her a chance. A chance for Darka, who has lived her whole life bearing the duty of a chief, to die as a chief should, as a person should. Of course, the choice will be hers to make.”
Karami carefully tucked the broken bracelet into his pocket, brushed past Linvar, and left the storeroom. Now that he had what he needed, he intended to finish the rest of his work.
Linvar, who had been standing there blankly, turned her heavy head to stare at Karami. Despite the harsh northern cold, a single bead of cold sweat trickled down her spine.
“You… what in the world are you?”
How on earth did he find that bracelet?
Karami gave a gentle smile.
“Just your ordinary slave trader.”
*
The orc colony was home to thousands of orcs, from lesser orcs to orc warriors, orc berserkers, and orc shamans.
They were on a different level from the mongrel orcs commonly found in the wild.
They didn’t just swing around logs they found lying about like clubs. They forced their dwarven slaves to make them weapons and wore proper armor.
Moving systematically, they were a proper legion.
No group in the North could stand against the orc legion. To put it plainly, they were the rulers of the North.
Chwaaak—!
In the middle of that orc legion’s base.
Azyeth performed an elegant sword dance among the hideous orcs.
She weaved through them as if it were her own home, rhythmically stepping on the orcs’ heads.
Wherever Azyeth went became a field of ice, and any orc that got too close to her froze from the cold.
She was, in a word, living dry ice.
She allowed no one to approach.
But the orcs were also systematically trained warriors. They didn’t approach rashly, maintaining their distance. The orc shamans chanted spells and cast their magic.
Body enhancement magic.
The bodies of the orc berserkers who received the magic began to glow red.
The orc berserkers charged ferociously. Even upon entering her domain, they didn’t freeze instantly thanks to the enhancement magic.
However, they couldn’t defend against it completely, and their bodies began to freeze over with a cracking sound, but they paid it no mind.
“Uwoooooooh!!!”
As if feeling no pain, a half-frozen orc finally reached Azyeth’s side. The orc berserker roared and swung its red axe.
A heavier, faster attack.
But it was far from enough to reach Azyeth.
Azyeth lightly dodged the axe and thrust her sword into the orc.
Her swordplay was brilliant yet efficient.
Countless cuts were carved into the orc’s green body.
They might not feel pain, but they weren’t invincible. The critically wounded orc berserkers collapsed into the snow.
Kwang!
Lightning flashed.
A bolt of lightning struck from above Azyeth’s head.
An explosion erupted, sending snow flying in all directions.
But when the smoke cleared, Azyeth stood there without a single scratch. A hemispherical ice barrier that had formed around her had completely nullified the orc shaman’s attack.
“Krrk… Female. Strong.”
She was impossible to break through.
No matter what means they used, nothing worked.
The orcs, who had been charging with such vigor, now hesitated, none daring to be the first to move.
The orc legion, rulers of the North, stopped by a single woman.
As if they had met their true master.
“Move aside.”
“Y-Your Majesty…”
The orcs flinched at the low voice that suddenly echoed through the fortress. Parting the crowd of orcs that had split to the left and right, an orc twice the size of a normal one came stomping forward.
Its green skin wasn’t a normal green, but a dark shade closer to coal. Its body, with a massive double-bladed axe slung over its shoulder, was covered in countless hideous scars.
The King of the Orcs.
The Ruler of the North.
It was the arrival of Balkrash, the Orc King who received the blessing of the Ice Dragon Skadia.