A few hours of exploring the Ludo Forest with enthusiasm, not to mention the orcs, we haven’t even found one monster here.
“There’s really nothing here.”
While scraping through the bushes, Leafa muttered that while looking tired.
【Umu. I don’t even feel any presence of a monster. Lord, are there really orcs in this place? 】
Frey seems to be gradually expanding its range by using detection magic from earlier, but no result has come out so far.
What does this mean?
There should be more than 300 orcs, so no matter how wide the forest is, there’s no reason for us not to find one like this.
When I was worried about it like that, Yumina had a heavy expression on her face.
It’s unusual for Yumina, and as I immediately asked her what was going on.
“…… Ah, no, that’s …… it might not be, but perhaps we were deliberately made to take charge of a place without monsters?”
I didn’t understand the meaning of Yumina’s words, so I tilted my head and asked her again.
“Yumina. What do you mean, by that?”
“Uhmm, in other words, that’s ……”
Maybe it was hard for her to say, since Yumina wanders her eyes and chokes her words.
Then, Leafa broke in as if she couldn’t bear watching her.
“Ah mou~! This is what it means! Katou is the lowest-ranked hero, the gigolo hero, so I think you were made to be in charge of a safe place without monsters for you not to die!”
“––––Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!”
My understanding finally caught up with Leafa’s words.
That’s certainly true.
I’m the worst 1 hero at the bottom of the hero ranking.
From that part, I’m incredibly weak, and it can’t be helped if they thought that I was just a water flea.
Such a water flea me, seriously fighting with ferocious orcs, thinking normally, this must be the work of a devil.
In other words, the management side designated this place for us because they knew that there were no monsters here.
Everything was organized from the beginning.
No matter what I think about it, it’s likely, in the east district of Ilia and the others.
Even if I run from here on, it’s not a distance which I can make at all.
I’m completely at lost with this.
––––That was when I thought so.
【Lord, it may put a little strain on your body, but use my power! 】
“Eh? O,oh!”
Suddenly, a tremendous amount of power filled my body.
My muscles expand in an instant, and it becomes exactly like the ideal fine macho body figure.
My body is light like a lie.
I can do anything now.
To the extent that I even fell into such a delusion.
“Frey! If you have such a hidden technique, tell me first! Amazing! My body is light like it’s a lie!”
When I tried to wave Frey in her magic sword state lightly, a nearby large tree, and even the rock beyond it, was cut horizontally.
It’s a terrifying destructive power.
【As expected, Lord! Would you like to go a bit stronger! 】
“Eh?”
Then the next moment, my body screamed.
“I,it hurts! Frey! Somehow, it hurts all over my body! My body’s joints hurt!?”
【It’s okay! I’m sure the Lord can endure it! The Lord is the only man I acknowledge! Be more confident in yourself! 】
“Eh!? Ah, no, thank you! –––– Or not! Is this really okay!? …… This is safe, right? –––– Ah shit! This is bad, Yumina, Leafa! I’m already going ahead!”
I brought a lot of potions for today, but because of the pain running throughout my body, I don’t think I can spend much time here.
I showed my back to Yumina and Leafa, while gulping down a potion.
“Katou! Hunt a lot of orcs for my shop! The minimum quota is 100!”
“Nobuyuki-sama! We will catch up to you as soon as possible! Please do not overdo it!”
I ran through the forest like a gale while receiving such words of Yumina and the other on my back.
In the scenery that was passing by in an instant, a man’s screams reached my ears.
It hasn’t been a few minutes since I left Yumina and the other, but it seems that I had already arrived at the place where another party was in charge of.
【Lord! Over there!】
When I stopped at Frey’s voice, just now, a man was being bitten by an orc on his arm.
The man falls to the ground with his white eyes laid bare.
And two girls, who might be the members of this man’s party, had collapsed near him.
However, the orc was not looking at the fallen man and the two girls, and was slowly chewing the arm that it has bitten.
Then, at the next moment, the muscles of the orc gradually expanded, and its body greatly swelled as I see it.
Huge.
The orc changed its appearance into something huge and atrocious, enough for me to say so.
However, thanks to that, the movement of the orc has stopped completely now.
Now is a great chance to attack it.
However.
“Hey Frey!? Something is completely different from the orc there and the one that I imagined, though!? Is that really an orc!?”
I was honestly scared by its fiendish appearance.
【It’s all right, Lord! Lord can do it! Believe in me, and cut this guy as you wish! 】
“Ah dammit! Let’s get this done!”
I was already desperate.
A visible large amount of magic power, that is overflowing from Frey wraps around my body.
I greatly kick the ground.
With that alone, my distance to the orc shrunk in an instant, and the orc appeared at the tips of my eyes and nose.
All that’s left is to swing my sword at the orc.
I recklessly swung my sword.
–––– In an instant, the orc’s head flew in the air.
I watch the huge orc that makes a noise, and falls down at the end.
And after a short pause, I screamed in joy.
“Alriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight! How about thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!”
I yelled excitedly at the defeat of the Orc.
My heart beat loudly, and I raise my right arm overhead.
Then, I felt that someone was gazing at me.
“………………Tsu!?”
When I turned to the back, the two girls, who were the companions of the man whose arm was cut off, stood.
Noticing my gaze, the bodies of two trembled with a start.
Right.
It wasn’t a situation for me to be doing this.
I hurriedly took out a potion, and splashed the fallen man with the potion.
Then, the man’s arm regrew.
“Oh, cool. Even a low-grade potion, can heal a wound like this in an instant.”
I had Frey’s seal approval about the effect of the potion, so I have confidence in it to some extent, but this is a great effect.
It seems that the two girls are also injured, so I give them a few potions.
“It’s potions. Please use it.”
“Tha, thank you.”
“……Thanks”
Good, for now, I feel relieve at this.
When I tried to talk to Frey with that in my mind, I realized that Frey had disappeared before I knew it.
When I looked around to look for Frey, she was looking down at the orc I had defeated, while still in her magic sword form.
I approach, such Frey.
Then.
【……Lord. This may have been, a bit of a nasty thing. 】
Frey said to me with an extraordinary serious tone.
Those words, made me look down at the orc.
Then, at that moment, a terrible offensive stench assaulted me.
“Tsu!?”
It had such a strong stench to my nose, like it hadn’t taken a bath for days.
“…… Surely, this odor is severe.”
When I think that I have to defeat more than 100 of such things, I feel depressed.
I wondered if Frey made that previous statement to me because she thought so too, but it’s apparently different.
【Ah, no, that’s not the case …… Lord, this is no ordinary orc. This is an orc in the underworld. 】
Frey’s words made me tilt my head.
When she said the underworld, it’s probably the world where Frey used to live.
I don’t even know the common orcs of this world, so to be honest, I don’t really understand the difference.
“Orc of the Underworld? Is there any difference to the two?”
For the time being, I urge Frey to continue her story.
【Umu. These guys have a special ability. That ability is, as the Lord saw earlier, to eat others, and take in their powers, but …… well, to put it simply, it’s like an absorption ability. 】
I was surprised to hear those words.
“Absorption ability, is one of the strongest abilities!”
It’s the power of the absolute strong who becomes stronger the more he absorbs.
It’s an infinite power that can beat anyone as long as it’s alive.
If it had such an ability, it must have been rampaging in the underworld.
That’s what I thought but ––––
【Ah, no, well, it might be so in theory, but…… unfortunately for those orcs, there were no creatures weaker than them in the underworld. …… However, that doesn’t mean that they will appear in a place like this…… I don’t know who summoned them, but this must be dealt with as soon as possible. 】
––––Otherwise, it will be irreparable.
Frey continued to say so.
It may be exactly what Frey said.
As far as those current orcs are concerned, there must be a mountain of creatures in this world that are weaker than those orcs.
I should better hurry up on this.
“Alright! Then, let’s go to the next!”
However, the anxiety I had in me disappeared before I knew it.
By defeating the orc earlier, it gave me a certain confidence.
Now I can hunt orcs without any problems.
Also, it was great to see how effective the potion actually was.
I told the two girls where Yumina and the others were, and I immediately left this place.
◇
“…… I didn’t think, that the day will come that I’ll be defeated by merely orcs …… The world is wide, is that what it means.”
Amanda, an adventurer with a beautiful brown skin, blurted out as she held her flank.
With a deep wound, Amanda’s breathing becomes rough.
Towards Amanda, the magician Anri, used their final potion, and she wiped her sweat with the back of her hand.
The place they are in is a small shed set up in the Ludo Forest, which is a refugee site for monsters.
There is a hollow in the basement of this refugee site, and it’s entirely connected with it in a straight line.
Anri and her companions had evacuated to this place through it.
Anri the magician, Amanda the adventurer, and Reina the Knight are here in this place now.
Amanda is the only one who has been seriously injured, but Anri and Reina also had a big wound in their hearts.
The skills and powers that they had cultivated so far, did not get through to those orcs at all.
The number of orcs that they defeated was ten, but most of them were killed by Ilia and Amanda, and Anri and Reina were overwhelmed by their own worthlessness.
“I wish, I could join another party.”
“…… That’s probably, impossible.”
In Amanda’s words, Reina answered while holding her knees.
It was an equal enemy at last to Amanda and Illia.
It’s not an opponent that others can engage with.
Perhaps, no party other than them has survived it.
Anri guesses so.
“…………”
…… No, there was only one possible party.
It’s the hero party of the one named Katou, who became a hot topic in the royal capital a long time ago.
They were called with the purpose of comparison to Ilia this time, so they were not converted as fighting power.
Their area in-charge was also specified as a route that originally crosses the national border, which has no monsters.
The chances that they’re alive were quite high.
…… However, whether they were alive or not, in this place, it was not a story that they could exchange.
“Anri. If I remember correctly, you can use transition magic, right?”
“…… I can use it. But I can’t utilize it in this place. “
At any rate this place, is the border between the boundary of two countries.
Not only communication magic and detection magic, but even transition magic is inhibited by the high-level magic here.
With a superficial magician, even its activation will be tough.
In the first place, transition magic is often thought to be versatile for moving, but it has large flaws.
The terrain of the place of transition, and the obstacles such as buildings and animals.
All of them must be calculated and done precisely.
It’s a delicate magic, that they can’t afford to make a single mistake.
If such delicate magic is used in place like this, those individuals who have transferred will die 8 or 9 out of ten.
“…… Let’s withdraw from here for a bit. Our potion reserve has run out now, and we can’t expect immediate reinforcements from the country. …… Well, even if they came, I wonder if they can compete with their half-hearted strength to it.”
Reina nods to Amanda’s words.
“I like that. …… To be honest, I’m, unlikely to be of help with you guys in this fight.”
Reina squeezed her fist with a bitter smile.
It must be frustrating.
Anri is the same.
“That’s fine with me, too.”
Then Anri nodded.
Amanda is right, any more combat is reckless.
…… However, it seems that their action was a little slow.
“We’re surrounded.”
When Anri hurried to Amanda’s words and put out her face through the gap in the shed, she can see the orcs being vigilant in the area.
They were completely surrounded.
She didn’t notice it.
As of now Anri, was activating soundproof magic and detection magic at the same time.
However, she wasn’t able to detect those orcs.
No matter how much of her magic was obstructed, Anri bites her lips at her own incompetence that has pushed her companions into a corner.
“We need a decoy.”
Then Amanda said that, so that everyone could hear it.
In those words, Anri swallows her raw spit in one gulp.
Anri was also thinking about that.
Even if they escape from here recklessly, those orcs will surely catch up.
If so, it can be said that the decoy role is indispensable.
And then, Anri was aware that she was the most useless person in this place right now.
If it’s staying here, she has to be the one who’ll stay.
Anri was aware of that.
They don’t have time.
Anri immediately tries to raise her voice that she’ll become the decoy.