Episode 17: The Orc’s Share
“Uooohhh!”
“Damn it!”
“Die!”
Gyaaa!
Gowa!
Gyaeee!
With each war cry, I stepped forward, thrusting my short spear at a Goblin, eliciting a scream.
“Howl! Pull it out and stab the one next to it!”
At my shout, Howl hurriedly pulled out his short spear and turned towards the Goblin next to him.
I thought he wouldn’t even bother with after-strike composure, but I guess it can’t be helped since this is the first fight I don’t feel like I can lose.
One Goblin escaped, but we defeated six, so everyone’s faces are beaming.
Each of them is extracting the Magic Stones from the Goblins they defeated, gazing at them with delight.
“Training really pays off, doesn’t it? I was nervous, but I didn’t feel like I could lose.”
“When Swords of the Royal Capital and Company taught us before, we were just swinging our swords around like madmen.”
“A short spear gives you so much more peace of mind than a sword.”
“Well, you can attack from further away with a short spear than swinging a sword, and the Goblin’s attacks can’t reach you. In a fight against people, there’s also strategy, but against Goblins, you can win with just a single thrust, so it’s easy.”
As we were talking, my sense of danger picked up something.
I silenced everyone and searched for the source of the unease, and it turned out to be another Goblin horde, but they were clearly heading towards us.
It seems they heard the commotion from earlier. There are about ten of them, and it doesn’t seem like there are any others around, so we decided to meet them head-on.
“More Goblins, but this time there are about ten, so I’ll join in too. Position yourselves diagonally to the left and right, centered on me. Take care of anyone who gets past me.”
We positioned ourselves among the trees, and I stood at the apex of the triangle, glaring at the approaching Goblins.
This is the first time I’m using the custom-made short spear, but I’ve practiced against trees hundreds of times, so I have no worries.
In Hunza, I helped Cokes and the others before running away, and I’ve experienced Goblin extermination many times.
The leading Goblin, swinging an ugly club, charged at me, and I struck him, sweeping him to the side.
The short spear pierced his chest, and as the Goblin stood there for a moment, I swept him aside, causing him to stumble and fall with his comrades.
“Leave the ones on the ground to me!”
I shouted, entrusting them to the others, and then thrust the short spear into the belly of the next one, scooping him up from below.
Unlike against the trees, the Goblins don’t offer much resistance to the short spear’s excellent sharpness.
With no enemies in front of me, I looked to the left and right, and each of them had thrust down the Goblins in front of them, quickly ending the battle.
“When you look at it like this, Goblins aren’t a big deal after all.”
“Eleven of them. It’s hard to believe we struggled so much before.”
“Hugo, you’re amazing at things other than magic too.”
“Alright, let’s quickly extract the Magic Stones.”
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After the seventh round of training, we returned to the Royal Capital, distributed three silver coins to each person, and headed to a store frequented by adventurers to buy the promised Magic Pouches.
“They sell Magic Pouches in a place like this?”
“Yeah, the ones called ‘wallet pouches,’ with a capacity of 1-5, are cheaper than a bad weapon. Anything with better performance costs at least 6 or 7 Gold Coins, so you’d have to go to a magic item store to buy them.”
There were other adventurers here and there, browsing weapons and equipment, so I quietly told the shopkeeper that I wanted a Magic Pouch.
The shopkeeper, understanding, looked around and took one out from under the locked counter.
Harrison placed 20 silver coins on the counter, and the shopkeeper taught him how to register the user, dripping a drop of blood and muttering an incantation in his mouth.
The remaining four were fidgeting as they watched.
“Next! Next, me!”
“Don’t rush, the store isn’t going anywhere, and there are plenty of them,”
Uruzaku blushed, scolded by the shopkeeper.
I told him to attach it to his belt so others wouldn’t see it, warning him to attach it discreetly.
The shopkeeper was in high spirits, seeing five Magic Pouches sold at once, and we headed to the market to procure food, seeing him off.
“Hey, why don’t we take a break and have some fun before going back?”
At Uruzaku’s suggestion, everyone looked at me at once, so I shrugged and allowed them free time.
I didn’t want to interfere with their days off, so we decided to meet at the entrance before sunset.
Since I had some time, I went to the Commerce Guild to ask where I could buy a watch.
A silver pocket watch with some decorative carvings cost eight Gold Coins, and I was told to go to a store frequented by adventurers for anything simpler than that.
From my perspective, the watches displayed in the stores frequented by adventurers looked like children’s toys.
I want to practice Appraisal Magic and see if I can increase my Magical Power, but I don’t know if repeatedly depleting my Magical Power will actually increase it.
In light novels, there are descriptions of Magical Power depletion leading to death, so I’ll ask the mages first.
After purchasing plenty of food, we headed to the city entrance. Harrison, Howl, and Lucas were there, but Grosta and Uruzaku hadn’t arrived.
The sun was already setting when the two of them came running, so I was relieved and headed to the campsite.
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On the second week of expanding the search training range into the forest, Howl nervously signaled that he had found three Orcs.
They were about 30 meters away, so it was good that he noticed them.
I, who was thinking so arrogantly, had noticed them from a distance of about 60-70 meters, but I realized that I still needed to hone my search skills.
I gathered everyone for a strategy meeting, instructing them to surround one Orc while I went around to the back and took care of the other two.
“I thought we weren’t supposed to exterminate wild beasts, even Goblins.”
“I did say, ‘We don’t really talk about exterminating wild beasts.’ But don’t you want to test the results of your training? I’m not saying we have to exterminate all three; I’ll take care of two of them. You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.”
“I want to try it. Like with the Goblins, I can definitely see the results of the training.”
“Time’s up. It looks like we’ve been spotted, so I’ll take care of it.”
I stood up and faced the approaching Orcs, extending my arm and muttering, “Daruma-san ga koronda,” while continuously firing Ice Lances, knocking them down.
“Amazing!”
“He defeated the Orcs as easily as Goblins!”
“I wanted to test my skills.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen Orcs this close.”
“Yeah, they’re imposing.”
I took out a Magic Bag made of Orc leather from my Magic Pouch and threw them in.
“Is that a Magic Bag?”
“Hugo…”
I read and pasted the Magic Bag that the dismantling chief in Hunza had, but they wouldn’t understand.
I also pasted shock resistance, blade resistance, and magic defense, making it 5-30. Anything more than that would be Honings Marquis’ Magic Bag, which I read and memorized, but it’s 12-360, so it’s hard to use.
I want to read something around 5-90 to 12-120 someday, but I don’t have the chance.
I’ll take it to the Adventurer’s Guild on my next day off and sell it as soon as possible.
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When we returned to the Royal Capital, I went straight to the Adventurer’s Guild and told the old man at the purchase counter that I wanted to request an appraisal of the Orcs.
He looked around at us, glaring with a low voice as he confirmed, so I patted the Magic Bag hanging from my shoulder and smiled.
He pointed to the passage next to the counter and told me to report to the dismantling chief, jutting out his chin.
He’s round and fat, and he doesn’t even have a chin, what a weird old man.
“What is it, so early in the morning? If it’s just two or three Horn Rabbits, do it later.”
“It’s three Orcs, but where should I put them?”
“Is that a Magic Bag?”
“Yes, please tell me where to put them.”
The suspicious dismantling chief pointed to a corner of the dismantling area, so I took out the three Orcs from the Magic Bag and lined them up.
The Ice Lances shot into their chests had disappeared after draining their Magical Power, so blood overflowed and flowed around.
“Hmm, all three with one shot to the chest. Good skill.”
I handed over my adventurer card and told him I was in the cafeteria.
I took the five people who were curiously looking around to the cafeteria, got breakfast, and sat at an empty table.
“Even though you registered just like us, Hugo, you know a lot.”
“I followed an adventurer party around before I came of age and learned a lot.”
“No wonder you know so much.”
“Yeah, I thought you registered as an adventurer just like us, but you know everything, so I was wondering why.”
“You defeated three Orcs alone, you’re completely different from us.”
The dismantling chief came with the appraisal form during the meal.
“They’re clean, so I appraised them a little higher. Who defeated them?”
Everyone looked at me at once, and the dismantling chief was dumbfounded.
“Just you alone, huh…? Well, there’s only one wound, so I figured it was just one person, but I didn’t think an Iron-ranked first-class adventurer would bring in three Orcs.”
The dismantling chief handed me the appraisal form, which I took and checked the purchase price.
80,000 Daras per Orc × 3 = 240,000 Daras. I acknowledged the amount and took my adventurer card.
“How much did you get?”
“Three Orcs, that’s gotta be a hefty sum.”
“80,000 Daras per Orc, so that’s 240,000 Daras.”
“Amazing!”
“Lucky…”
“That’s 40,000 Daras per person.”
“…What are you talking about, Uruzaku? We refused to participate in the subjugation and just watched.”
“Yeah, we were too scared. And you were complaining about subjugating just one.”
“We shouldn’t have any right to say anything!”
“We’re just hired help, so even if we participated in the subjugation, we wouldn’t have the right to receive anything.”
“But we split the money from Goblins and Horn Rabbits, didn’t we!”
“That’s just Hugo-san giving it to you, Hugo-san doesn’t take a single Dara.”
“It’s not fair to run away and then demand money!”