Chapter 62 Lizardmen (2/2)

Soran searched around once more to make sure he'd gotten everything, then quickly left the gnoll settlement. It was getting slightly late; it was best to head back to the stockaded village if he wanted to return by nightfall. He would rest there for the night, then head to the place where the villagers reported ogre sightings the next day. As much as Soran wanted to earn EXP, he would just leave them be and report back if the ogres were too strong; he did not like fighting battles which could not be won.

Ogres were more dangerous than gnolls. They had a Monster Level of 5 and a Challenge Rating of 6, and they often appeared in groups of three to five. Most of them also had professions; the majority of them were warriors, but there were also ogre sorcerers and wizards. If a tribe's religion was totemism, there might even be ogre shamans. They were basically a variant of priests that worshipped totems instead of deities. As ogre shamans were influential ogres with high social status, they rarely appeared in the wilderness; they mostly stayed in settlements in their territory.

Ogres' main forte lay in their Strength: adult ogres had at least 18 Strength, with some of them having over 20. It allowed them to use hundred-pound weapons as if they were twigs. Considering Soran's current attributes, he would be half-dead after receiving a single strike from them. Their weakness, though, was very favourable to Soran; ogres tended to have sluggish movements and low attack speeds. If there were just a few of them, Soran could deal with them using his agility.

Under normal circumstances, adventurers would rather fight a large pack of gnolls over a small group of ogres. As ogres used blunt weapons and had great Strength, even warriors who pursued the path of defence and tanking would find it hard to receive a blow from the ogres and remain unscathed. Full-plate armor and shields could stop the attacks, but they could not stop the resulting shockwave from shattering a bone or two. This was why monsters with high Strength often had higher Challenge Ratings, more so for gigantic creatures.

Soran understood how brutal attacks from enemies with such high Strength could be. Back in the game, a mountain giant had dislocated and fractured his shoulder even when the strike barely grazed him. He'd had to spend all his savings to get a priest to heal him. He'd eventually gone back and killed the mountain giant as revenge.

Just as Soran reached the village, he noticed that something was off. Militia were stationed near the entrance, and torches were lit everywhere in the village. The archers stationed on the watchtowers drew their bows and aimed at Soran, then let out sighs of relief and lowered their weapons after realizing his identity.

”What's going on?” Soran entered the village and asked, ”Did something happen?”

The militia captain had a grave expression as he approached Soran and replied, ”Lizardmen! The lizardmen from the swamp invaded our territory and attacked our patrol squad.

”Two of them died, and five of them got injured.”

After hearing what had happened, Soran had a serious look on his place.

”How many men do you have? Don't count the normal villagers. Just the trained combatants.”

The captain hesitated slightly before replying, ”We have thirty more. However, we have plenty of strong young men also. They can fight as long as they have weapons.”

”That is insufficient.” Soran frowned and said, ”You can't take on the lizardmen with such numbers. I suggest that you all start packing up and move the entire village somewhere else.”