24 Chapter 24: The orc arc (1/2)
Obviously, I didn't go to a tavern to drink and drown my sorrows. I was under the legal age for drinking anyway…or I would have been in Japan, but that didn't mean I was going to start drinking in Restia because of different laws.
Alcohol just didn't appeal to me.
”Is there a library?” I asked one of the villagers, who stared at me strangely and shook his head. Evidently the mass printing industry hadn't taken off yet and most of the citizens were illiterate. There wouldn't be a point in establishing a library in a small village like this.
It was a pity. Reading was my only source of entertainment. With nothing else to do, I headed to a tavern and ordered some meat. While dining, I began conjuring my blue holographic screen and reading the eBooks stored inside my Library of Eden.
Oh, wow. So I can do something like this too.
Since we were subjugating orcs the next day, I decided to read up on orcs. Even though I had just slain one, I thought I would read up on them. Selecting the encyclopedia on demon and monster species, I scanned the contents page for the relevant topic and tapped on the orc tab, which immediately brought me to the appropriate page.
EBooks were so convenient.
”Yvonne-chan! Over here!”
Hmm?
I glanced up as one of the customers called out to the waitress. Unlike Miranda from the Blue Moon Inn, Yvonne was a brunette with shoulder-length hair. She wasn't dressed in a maid uniform, but the tight outfit clung to her feminine curves and emphasized her assets, and her short skirt revealed a lot of thigh.
”Sure!”
”Another cup over here!”
”Right away!”
She was busily running up and down, serving customers to the best of her ability. But never once did she lose that bright smile.
Wow, I'm impressed by her professionalism.
She couldn't be much older than me, but she was a lot more mature. She certainly was more matured than the 16-year-old teenagers in my party, even the usually composed and polite Alan. There was a lot Alicia could learn from her.
I decided not to disturb her. If possible, I wanted to make her job as easy as possible, so I sat in my own corner, poked my meat and engrossed myself in reading my eBook. Orcs were basically like hobgoblins in terms of size and strength, but in much greater numbers. They might lack the cunning of goblin shamans and chieftains, but they possessed tremendous strength and great skill with weapons. They usually wielded melee weapons such as clubs, broadswords and axes while outfitted with heavy armor that made them impervious to blade and arrow.
Fortunately, I didn't use such physical weapons. It appeared that they were vulnerable to magic, so my best bet of defeating them was my destructive spells.
Even though Alicia was dressed in a noble-looking dress that seemed more like a uniform from an academy, from what I gathered, she was a knight like Alan. Alan might seem strong, but Alicia probably wouldn't have the sheer power to punch through the orcs' armor. Probably she relied on speed and dexterity, in which case she could pinpoint the vulnerable spots with precision and deal fatal wounds. But at this point this was all speculation.
Well, I'll get to see her fight tomorrow, I guess.
It was too bad the Orcs here didn't have shootas. The one I met had a choppa, but that was it. So no looted Battlewagons, Trukks or any of those things they would have if they were Orcs in space.
How disappointing.
I popped another slab of meat into my mouth and washed it down with fruit juice. Flipping the page, I was disappointed to see that the entry on orcs was over. Maybe I should switch to a novel or historical records of warfare against orcs…
Before I could find the relevant books, someone came crashing into the tavern, screaming.
”Th…there's trouble!”
Slamming the door open, he staggered into the tavern, blood flowing down his destroyed arm. His face was as pale as a ghost and he was shivering violently, probably from shock. He was on the verge of collapse, which wasn't surprising, given the amount of blood he had lost.
”It's the orcs! There are a lot of orcs!”
He fell, but I caught him before he hit the ground. With a wave of my hand, I casted Regeneration on him, and his mangled arm was restored.
”What…?”
The man stared at me blankly, his jaw dropping.
”What did you do?”
”Healing spell,” I replied, but my voice was drowned out by panicked screams. The customers in the tavern were yelling and screaming in panic.
”Kyaaa!”
”What do you mean a lot?”
”We've to get away from here!”
”Hurry up and run!”
”Hide all the girls! Don't let them find the girls!”
I glanced outside the window and caught sight of massive, lumbering shapes whose silhouettes were barely outlined in the night. Fortunately, thanks to me being an undead, I could see them clearly as if it was day.
The orcs looked exactly like the picture as depicted in my monster encyclopedia. Humanoid boars that walked on two legs, they were over three meters tall, with dark brown skin and tusks sprouting from their lower jaw. Unlike goblins, whose noses were hooked, the orcs' noses expanded into a boar-like snout, and their triangular ears were perched atop their bald heads, twitching as they listened to the cries of human victims.
As I thought, they were heavily armed and dressed in armor that was half metal and half leather. They were smashing resisting men apart with clubs or cleaving village guards with broadswords while grabbing hold of whatever women in sight.
Like the goblins, I doubted I could reason with them. I briefly wondered if I could get them under control with Machiavellian Charisma, but as usual I couldn't count on that to produce any tangible results. In other words, I had no choice.
”Yvonne-chan.”
I stood up from my table after swallowing the last of my steak, and walked toward the exit.
”Eh? Um…” the waitress was flustered as she watched me leave the safety of the tavern for the dangerous outside. ”Dear customer, the orcs are…”
”I know. I'll deal with them. For now, here's my payment.”
”Eh?”
I placed a single silver coin on the table. Even though most of my pay was input as credit in my guild card, I had drawn some money over the week for pocket change because there were many outlets and shops that didn't accept payment by credit.
”That's a little too much…”
The meat and fruit juice was only 15 bronze coins, but I paid a silver coin, which was equivalent to 100 bronze coins.
”I don't need the change, so you can just keep it. Consider it a tip.”
”O…okay.”
Perspiration dripped down Yvonne's face as she watched me go, but she didn't protest any further. She probably thought I was a suicidal idiot.
In a way, she was probably right. I was stupid.
Why the hell was I imitating a 40-year-old ossan from a light novel? Especially when his actions were so stupid…come to think of it, was he really a 40-year-old ossan? His actions and behavior seemed so juvenile. I mean, when a bloody teenager like me can pull this off so naturally, then why was a middle-aged man doing it? What was the point of making your protagonist 40 if he was going to behave like an impulsive, horny high school student?
I kicked the door open and drew my staff before striding boldly into the open. Much to my dismay, most of the village was already in ruins, with the orcs going to town on the residents. Blood spurted to my right as a man fell, screaming.
There were two orcs right in front of me. While the one on my right was slicing the poor male victim to bits, the one of my left had taken hold of a girl and ripped off her clothes, getting ready to **** her.
Typical…same as goblins. The orcs killed the guys and raped the girls. I could see the female victim in front of me pleading and weeping.
”W…what do we do?”
There was a single villager who had followed me out of the tavern, clutching a spear nervously. He was useless in combat, clearly an amateur who had never fought before. The guy was shaking so badly that he was close to pissing himself.
”You stay back.”
The two orcs had noticed me. Letting go of the girl and leaving the poor guy alone, they straightened and lunged forward.
”Waaagh!” they shouted as they charged with their choppas. I sighed and shook my head.
”It must be nice to be such idiots.”
Raising my staff, I unleashed a Doombolt that obliterated the both of them in a single go. Their smoking corpses dropped to the ground, almost like puppets with their strings cut. The armed villager beside me flinched.
”What…how…?”
”Help the wounded back into the tavern. I'll take care of the rest.”
As I stepped past the weeping woman and the wounded man, I casted Regeneration on the latter. His eyes widened as his severed arm was reattached and his fatal injuries mended in less than a minute.
”Whoa…how?!”
”Healing spell. Now get into the tavern if you don't want to get cut up again.”
The guy didn't question the stroke of fortune and quickly scrambled into the tavern. The armed villager helped up the poor girl and escorted her back into the safety of the tavern. As they did so, I continued into the junction.
An entire horde of orcs awaited, slaughtering, raping and looting. They noticed that two of their comrades had just been annihilated, and they turned toward me.
”The first who strikes has the advantage.”
I let loose a couple more Doombolts to destroy at least five more before the rest of them closed in on me, enraged. There were so many of them that they formed an impenetrable ring around me, their broadswords, clubs and axes held in front of them. Bellowing in guttural voices, they charged forward, hoping to make use of their superior numbers to overwhelm me.
Doombolt wouldn't be practical here. At least not before they cut me up. Actually, I doubted they had the ability to cut me up, especially when I had my Redwood jacket on. There was no way their crude weapons could pierce the multiple protective defensive layers that my Redwood jacket projected around my body.
That didn't mean I was going to stand around and let them hack at me.
”Corrupting Darkness.”
I slammed my staff against the ground and unleashed a colossal tide of miasma from the center, which spread rapidly and engulfed the attacking orcs. The boar-like beasts howled in agony as their skin blackened and they crashed onto the ground, rolling about. The nearest orcs died immediately, turning into desiccated corpses as the foul magic depleted their life forces, but the remaining creatures were tenacious enough to survive.
Growling in vengeful fury, they picked themselves up and resumed their charge, hoping to kill me before I could launch another devastating attack.
Corrupting Darkness was a great area of effect attack that could hit multiple targets at once, and was great for anti-horde tactics, but it lacked the power and strength of Doombolt. Consequently, a single blast of Corrupting Darkness wouldn't be able to clear out the entire pack of orcs. Having fought the goblins the other day, I understood this very well.