Chapter 606 – A Reminder Of Friends Unseen

‘I still don’t get why the orcs didn’t push with all their forces after destroying the walls.’ It was hard to see from here, but the inner wall was painted with destruction. Every few meters it had been completely destroyed. 

Looking towards his map, Eldrian frowned. ‘Wait, why is the orc army so- Weak?’

Using his map’s inspection function, Eldrian quickly concluded that this was not the main army. And suddenly it all made sense. 

‘Fucking bastards!’

[{Eldrian} -> {Elizabeth} – Orcs are on the move, I am not sure where. Diades is only surrounded by a skeleton force to keep them occupied. I’ll scout later after settling things.]

[{Elizabeth} – What should we do?]

Eldrian could feel the hopelessness in her reply, for what could they do if the army was actually heading for Kynigo? They needed time, and it seemed it was not something they were ever going to be given. The hope was that this was not the case.

[{Eldrian} – Stay on alert, inform the others. Especially Evale and Aspen. Continue to deal with the undead, have Mist inform the dwarves that we are not sure where the enemy’s main force is. Try to contact Myropsis.]

‘Ceph?’

‘Yes?’

‘It appears that the orcs are not wasting their time, we need to do something drastic.’

‘You mean?’

‘Yeah, meet me at the main road going south. I want to test my new strength a bit before going.’

Jumping over the barricade, Eldrian ignored the shouts from the hiding centaurs and moved forward without a care. A group of goblins were on their way and he wanted to test a few things. The first was runic traps.

Moving forward far enough to not put friendlies in range of the explosion, Eldrian paused and quickly added the runes making up Nova onto the road.

After which he disappeared into the ruined buildings to the nearest group of orcs who were moving through the buildings. Looking for people who are stuck or who have been abandoned. A few friendlies were also dotted throughout the abandoned ruins of the city.

{“Found you!”} A strange shout filled the air filled with terrified screams of a young girl.

‘Let’s see, do you die from this?’ Eldrian questioned, thrusting his spear through the orc’s heart from the back. He had made sure to control his strength so he didn’t end up killing the girl too. 

The orc dropped the girl and slowly tried to turn to face Eldrian, who noted that it was not enough to kill an orc. Eldrian was unsure if it survived due to its race’s abilities, its armor, or his controlling his strength– likely they all contributed.

The fact that it could survive was important as it meant that simply piercing the heart would not be an instant kill. 

[Vlog- Orc {Follower of Kugbu}, Tier 4, Level 19]

[HP: 98/619 (+2.5)]

[Stamina: 721/786 (-5)]

[Attack: 62(26)]

‘Huh, that did far less damage than I thought it would.’ Eldrian jumped back and dodged the rage-filled wide sweeping attack from the orc. 

‘Let’s see, can I get some more info?’ Concentrating on the orc and trying to glean as much information as possible, Eldrian dodged a flurry of blows until he finally succeeded with what he wanted. 

‘Hah! Success.’

What Eldrian had wanted to do was see if he could also see an enemy’s statistics in full. While the explanations and all were nice, he wanted to have a better understanding of the distribution of the orc’s attributes.

Even if it could only be used as a guideline, it would help him know what the enemy was likely specialized in. 

[Vlog – Orc {Follower of Kugbu}, Tier 4, Level 19]

[HP: 163/619 (+2.5)]

[Stamina: 460/786 (-5)]

[Mana: 20/120]

[Attack: 124 {52}) ]

‘Oh, he upped his damage, and doubled it at that! Impressive.’ Eldrian mumbled as he deflected the orc’s attack and at the same time let the trap he had placed on the road finally do its magic as the goblins and orcs guiding them were right in its range. 

The explosion could be heard far and wide, while it was not near as impressive as an attack from the magic towers, it certainly shocked everyone nearby. 

‘Wow, 5M XP! That is actually quite lucrative.’ Eldrian mumbled as he kept dodging the orc’s attacks and inspected the rewards individually. ‘I see, so the goblins are only Tier 1 and 2, truly just fodder. Lol, they only gave me like 3k XP total.’

‘But these Tier 5 orcs, 2M each. They are worth hunting then… Oops, how did I become so relaxed?’

The orc Eldrian had been fighting had now regained almost a hundred more HP. But that didn’t matter as Eldrian was tired of the charade. Slipping past the following blow, Eldrian thrust his spear through the orcs head. Killing it in one, Eldrian doubted much could survive such an attack. 

‘Head is likely still vital, heart might be semi-vital. It is entirely possible that the orcs can use their mana, or possible stamina, to keep their blood flowing. It makes sense considering their regeneration and high constitution base, plus magic.’

‘Though, it is important to note that even the head might become semi-vital at some point. Especially for devils and demons and their aptitude with soul magic. Assuming the body of theirs is similar to our avatars… I’ll be careful.’

‘As for your attributes, heavily focused on constitution and strength. Makes sense,’ Eldrian nodded, it was to be exact [Constitution: 268 | Strength: 240 | Agility: 190 | Spirit: 120 | Intelligence: 105]

Seeing its abysmally low spirit and intelligence, Eldrian realized that much like the Vodi, mind magic would be amazing against them. Alas, he knew none. 

‘I should really learn some type of illusion magic. Casting it against an orc army might be highly useful in a siege.’

‘Eldrian, you still busy?’ Came Ceph’s voice.

‘Ah, I’ll be there in a moment.’, “Are you hurt?” Eldrian knelt next to the terrified girl, so stuck in fear she had not even managed to get up after the orc had dropped her. 

Shaking her head no while looking at Eldrian in fear, Eldrian sighed. According to her animalistic ears, she was some type of demi-human. Though Eldrian couldn’t even hazard a guess due to how dirty he was. 

Just to make sure, he checked her stats and indeed she wasn’t hurt. Only a few HP lost, her stamina on the other hand was terrible. She was in fact a kitsune, fox-type beastkin. Eldrian froze as he recalled a kitsune who had saved his life, long ago. 

Truly, she might have really saved his life as Milgoroth’s assassination along with his soul attacks might have killed Eldrian for real. ‘Is Kohaku still alive?’ He wondered, not having seen her since returning. He also hadn’t seen Kydone, ‘I hope they’re alright.’

Shaking off the sadness from the fact that they might not be, Eldrian moved to the little girl. “Come with me, I’ll take you-” Eldrian stopped as she shook her head no, viciously. “Why not?”

“Mommy… Daddy…”

Eldrian turned to his map, sadly there weren’t any friendly people within a few blocks of here. “I’m sure they are fine and looking for you.” After a bit of persuading, Eldrian managed to get her to willing come after him. 

Their return was smooth as he used the map to avoid any of the other orcs. 

AN: A big thank you to everyone who continues to read and support the story on WN.