Haroon Volume 3 Chapter 12

《Dungeon of Lump Orcs》

 "d.a.m.n it! What kind of GM¹ is this?"

 Megrum sighed without knowing. He was a natural-born genius, who had graduated high school and university at a very young age. And now he brought honor to his family by being employed at Necomwall, the world-wide famous conglomerate, on his first application when others needed to do at least three interviews. Thanks to him, the whole family was able to move to District B from District D.

 "I'm so lucky that I decided to get you as my son."

 His foster father was a career soldier who spent his whole life in the Union Defense. He was now bragging about his son all over the world. Though Megrum found it a bit embarra.s.sing, as an artificial human, he was feeling proud of being able to pay back his parents' grace of adopting him.

 The house that the Union a.s.signed to them was a mansion with a garden. His foster mother really loved it because of the earthy smell. Her hobby was cultivating flowers, and since she had now gotten an entire garden, her smile never went away from her mouth.

 The first job a.s.signed to Megrum was as sub-administrator of the game called Beyond. Because administrators – also known as GMs – usually had ultimate control of the game, he felt proud that the company was recognizing his genius.

 Though Beyond was a game that Necomwall developed, it was quite different from other games. One of the top secrets was that the company itself didn't have control over the game system.

 Beyond was a virtual world realized with two Ancient Computers and thousands of Supercoms, and now these two Mothercoms, which have their own will, were fully preventing humans from intervening with the world of Beyond. It made no sense to Megrum that the game developers did not have any control of the game, so he had to ask higher officers what the matter was, but no one could give him an answer.

 "Well, I heard that was the deal they made with the Mother computers."

 "Yeah. It was a contract between the Whole Global Committee and Necomwall to be exact. And I heard we couldn't do anything about it as the WGC had owners.h.i.+p of the Mothercoms and Supercoms."

 The words of his GM Colleagues were shocking. Megrum did play virtual games before, but he never heard of any games being run like this.

 "Then what makes a GM different from the users?" said Megrum.

 "Well! We are still the highest rankers unofficially," Said Chornn.

 Like how Chornn said, that consoled them for not having control as GMs. They started with characters with the first job advancement done for them. It was also fun to play the game with ordinary users. Though, they had their tasks to do.

 "But Chornn, why do we need to find unofficial rankers?"

 Chornn smiled. Chornn was an elite who graduated from the Ko-1 Top University as a top student, who joined Necomwall at the same time as Megrum. Though, his social cla.s.s was too low to make it into the n.o.bility of the Union.

 "People say the Union Military is going to make a large-scale special employment."

 Megrum tilted his head. His father was in the military. Even though his rank was not that high, he knew lots about operations because of the years he spent in it, but Megrum had never heard of such a thing from his father.

 "This might be news to you, but it was found that people gain abilities by training in-game, if they use prime capsules like we do."

 "That makes sense. Prime capsules with specially designed suits connects your whole nerve system to Beyond. They might be simple electronic signals, but your body learns from it. Swordsmen or Warriors should be able to use the same techniques once they train their physical body."

 The capsules Necomwall provided were prime ones. Moreover, because it came with specially designed suits, the sync rate was near 50%, which was known as the limit the current technology has achieved.

 Though the movements in-game was not a replica of the physical body, the body was getting stimulated via the suit and the capsule, which allows them to use some abilities in real life.

 "This game is somewhat different. The other GMs say, WGC, the unions and Necomwall cooperated on developing Beyond for some reasons, and one of them is to train soldiers to face Orgs and Harks."

 "Well, can't they simply train special units by selecting elites from the Union Defense?"

 And that was the standard procedure, since one had to be physically agile and strong to be a career soldier.

 "Some say most of the rankers are agents of Union defense. They're already doing it."

 "Then why are we looking for unofficial rankers?"

 "Well, the thing is that there are talented people among gamers who were originally found incompetent. There were some reports saying that incompetent users were found gifted while playing virtual games."

 "Hmm… So you are saying this game was developed with a military purpose in mind."

 That was the hidden intention behind the development of Beyond, the game that was most popular in the eastern Unions of the Eurasia continent.

 Megrum learned a few new things after he got into Necomwall, before the task was given to him. The first thing is that the outside of the barrier is quite different from what the Union education system teaches, and it is more effective to use traditional weapons than firearms when fighting the mutated species or beasts.

 But Chornn's expression told Megrum that Chornn was still in question.

 "But I don't think that's all. It feels like something larger is behind this. Otherwise, the n.o.bles wouldn't have allowed this surreal game to be published to the public."

 "You do?"

 Chornn too, was a genius by birth, which made the n.o.bles feel jealous and do horrible things to him. So he has an ambition of becoming a n.o.ble when he grows up.

 "And I'm pretty sure the true intention will be revealed as the Golden Battle proceeds."

 With Mothercom's special consideration, GMs were sent to a special stage where they were able to get their first job advancement in a week, and reach level 80 in three months. But surely it wasn't this advantage that attracted these newly hired GMs' attention. The word 'True Intention' excited Megrum.

 "Well then, let's go and meet Imperial Princess Briella."

 "Yup. Correct me if I'm wrong. So we are looking for talented people or unofficial rankers who gathers around the imperial family, right? And we were a.s.signed to Briella."

 "You've got it. Though, isn't it great to be paid for playing a game?"

 "Hahaha! I can't agree more!

 Shaking off the uncomfortable feeling of not knowing the true meaning of the development of Beyond, they had to travel to the Viscounty of Paros, where Briella would be. Though now they were destined to live the life of playing the game for months, occasionally emptying the excretion bag and disconnecting for regular exercises, their faces were still bright.

Devron and Paros gave their wholehearted support to Haroon for accepting the quest of escorting Hall to the Huk'ran Mountains. Thanks to that, the Gusts of Wind were able to bring enough supplies for the journey, including expensive potions and elixirs.

 It took two days of walking for the Gusts of Wind and their V.I.P. Hall to reach the river Seine, the south natural border of the Huk'ran Mountains. Having its source at the highest peak of Huk'ran Mountains, Seine had a large volume of water with vast width. Though it was quite deep, it was flowing right through the rocky terrains, where there were some places with narrow gaps.

 Ordinary people would not dare to cross the river, but Haroon and his members found and chopped down a tall tree that grew roots in the rocks, to form a bridge. Though it broke a sword that Gitan was bringing to look cooler, Gitan didn't mind at all as he was now using a s.h.i.+eld as his main weapon.

 After crossing the river unscathed, they headed north, following the river, not daring to climb the mountain right away. As they heard people say that dangerous monsters like ogres have their habitat at the center of the mountains, they figured out the riverside would be safer.

 But there were still countless monsters that had the riverside as their habitat. As the riverside was rich with herbivores, numerous groups of orcs and goblins were having those as their main food source.

 With Teeno's helpful skill, they were able to avoid encountering any huge hordes, but it was inevitable for them to encounter small numbers of monsters, several times a day. Mainly because the riverside were either a plane field, or shrub forest which didn't provide enough cover to hide their bodies.

 But there were no reason to avoid having battle with a small number of monsters. In fact, Haroon intentionally chased down the groups when their number was less than 10, so it was actually fortunate for them. The Gusts of Wind needed more experience.

 "You useless piles of orc dips.h.i.+ts, smelly ugly orcs!"

 "……"

 "You wanna die? Where are you staring at? I'll make a necklace out of your eyes!"

 "……."

 Ritrina's taunts were at the peak, and was always followed by the members' silence of shock. Her taunty look and curses were so effective, that the orcs that heard her taunts chased her no matter what, even though they didn't fully understand what she said.

 But the monsters that chased her had to face the giant s.h.i.+eld of Gitan. It was big enough for two men to hide behind, and was forged from a single sheet of steel, so it dealt a lot of damage upon impact.

 "s.h.i.+eld Attack!"

 Gitan's s.h.i.+eld Attack was a simple, yet impactful skill, which was pus.h.i.+ng the s.h.i.+eld forward. As he got stronger by always carrying a heavy s.h.i.+eld, Gitan was able to parry back even two or three weapons at the same time.

 "s.h.i.+eld Crossing!"

 Three orcs' bodies were cut into half as Gitan swung the s.h.i.+eld. As his skill level is still low, he wasn't able to use the blades at the side effectively, but it was still good enough.

 "Smas.h.i.+ng Blow!"

 When Gitan wasn't able to make his next move because of the momentum, Philip dashed out from the back of Gitan and stabbed the forehead or neck of the orcs that still were in a daze because of the impact with the s.h.i.+eld. It was easy for him to attack still targets. And now, he had no problem with handling more than one enemy.

 "Multi blow!"

 Multi blow, the evolved version of Smas.h.i.+ng Blow was an intermediate skill that uses slightly more mana, and allows the user to stab multiple targets simultaneously. To use this skill effectively, Philip was in need of  finding a sword with a more narrow and sharper blade. If the number of enemies were more than Philip could handle at a time, Haroon attacked with his throwing knives. Because the skill had to be used in a focused stance, there was a little bit of delay between the skills.

 Haroon's knives never missed even when he had to attack multiple targets. Clearing the Dungeon that Rumm brought him to, gave him enough S.P. for his newly acquired skill, Multi-shot, so he learnt it as they left the castle. As he was able to use it a lot in the Huk'ran Mountain, Haroon's Multi-shot was already at level 2.

 With his current E.S.P. stats, Haroon was now able to observe the movements of his muscles if he focused enough, which allowed him to practice more precise movements, and with his reckless way of training, he learned to throw six knives at the same time at different targets, three in each hand. He still needed to practice distributing enough power to each of the knives, but he was getting there. Meanwhile, he leveled up 3 times.

 "Yes! This is a big one!"

 Serinn was now having fun with skinning the monsters. She got so used to it that she had become able to skin a whole body by herself, without having the others help her with pulling off the leather. Seeing her skinning a dead orc with a smile, n.o.body would be able to match her to old Serinn back in the Merc. Academy.

 "I don't see any other monsters in this area."

 Ritrina reported, after scouting around. Then the members eased the tension and sat down on the ground.

 "Well done, Ritrina."

 "Teeno, my Taunt skill has reached its maximum level!"

 On Teeno's compliment, Ritrina proudly bragged about her achievement, giggling. Haroon thought her words were probably true, considering how her taunts were making the members angry as well. Ritrina was having so much fun using her own skill instead of what she learnt in the Hall of Warriors.

 "You call that a skill? Tsk tsk."

 Philip clicked his tongue seeing Ritrina so proud of such a skill, but Serinn's words were over the top.

 "Heh, so you finally reached your final level of Basic, yeah? I'm sorry to tell you but my butchery skill reached intermediate level a long time ago."

 It was easy to tell that it was true, seeing how skillful she was at using her dagger. She was now skinning a monster without letting any blood wet her hands, which meant she is able to skin without touching any blood vessels.

 Seeing blood stains on her hard leather, Haroon realized how much she might have gone through. Haroon felt a bit sorry that he has messed up such a beauty, but he wasn't going to feel sorry about it.

 'I don't think you are out of the n.o.ble category yet. You still need to change,' he thought.

 He turned his eyes away from her, and looked at his other members.

 "Well done, guys. Philip, how are things going for you?"

 "Slaying a few more would level up my Multi-blow skill to 2, Boss."

 Philip shook off the blood from his blade, then put it back into his scabbard. During the first journey, he was mastering his basic skill 'Smas.h.i.+ng Blow', and now he was mastering Multi-blow that he learned in the Hall of Warriors. Like the tip of his blade, his eyesight was getting sharper.

 'He is indeed a sincere guy. It'd be so much better if he learns a skill in case he needs to fight alone.'

 Haroon was worried about Philip getting way to used to fighting in a group. Of course, his stabbing skills were agile and precise, and has been effective so far. But when the battle becomes a dog fight or when he had to face multiple opponents, Haroon knew he would struggle.

 'When we get to the training center in the middle of Huk'ran Mountains, I'll ask Hall if they could give him a chance to pick up a sword technique or two.'

 And it was the same for everybody, as a member's improvement meant the guild's improvement.

 Philip was the main damage dealer in the Gusts of Wind. While Haroon personally thinks that  Teeno is the best member, he was poor at combat. To mercenaries who'd be constantly facing dangers such as monsters, combat skills were the primary concern. That would probably be why Teeno was not accepted into other mercenary communities even though he is a Grade-C Mercenary.

 Now Haroon looked at Hall, who were watching the members nonchanlantly. He couldn't tell if she was looking at the members, or the scenery behind them.

 'It's so hard to get close to her.'

 They've been travelling for more than 20 days, but Hall was never a part of the group. Seeing how she does not talk to the members who are commoners, her social cla.s.s must be high, but Haroon had no idea about who she really was.

 Devron never mentioned her rank specifically, and even Her Majesty Briella was not treating her lightly, so maybe she's a descendant of some important family. In that case, it was fortunate that she wasn't looking down on the members, or was hostile to them.

 Drawing his attention away from Hall, Haroon stacked his knives back. The leathers that she skinned were well stacked and was ready to be carried on Gitan's back. That stack of leathers were well-dried and was ready to be sold for a good price.

 "Teeno, let's find a place to rest around this place."

 The sun was barely going over the peak of the mountain.

 "Sounds like a good plan. I'll look for a campsite."

 With agile movements, Teeno disappeared into the small bush forest. His Messenger Moving, which Teeno told Haroon that he learned from Devron, was well-trained. Messenger Moving was an altered version of Messenger Walking, which allowed the user to move the whole body faster, although the power of acc.u.mulating mana is weakened dreadfully .

 With decades of training, Teeno was now constantly casting Messenger Moving on every move he made, subconsciously . Although he didn't know, he was now acc.u.mulating some mana.

 Back to the routing, they were following the river Seine, but now they had to enter the Mountains. The place they stopped at was rocky terrain, which acted as a sign for the beginning of the mountain. While Teeno was looking for a campsite, the members rested, and maintained their weapons.

 Though the sun was still high up,Teeno said it'd be better to rest and set off early at dawn as they'll have to pa.s.s Cliff rift.

 "Are we finally entering the Huk'ran Mountains?"

 Hall opened up her mouth after a long time. As if she was a mute person, she hadn't been speaking very much. Gitan even forgot about her existence a few times. As an a.s.sa.s.sin mage, she was good at hiding her existence, even when they are moving together.

 "Yes we are. According to Teeno, Cliff rift that we can see from here is the pa.s.sage to the peak of Huk'ran Mountain, so we should be arriving at the Training Hall within three days maximum."

 Haroon wondered what kind of place it would be. What kind of people would be training, and what kind of training are they taking. Everything was hidden behind a veil, so the members and he were making lots of a.s.sumptions.

 The users were making their speculation on the game as well. The last time Haroon checked the official webpage of Beyond, there was lots of forums talking about their opinions and expectations of the Golden Battle. And according to their intel, Briella had the weakest force of all the partic.i.p.ants.

 That was a false a.s.sumption to Haroon. He saw Paros' and Devron's faces which were full of confidence. It was positive that they had a secret force that the others did not know about, and Haroon a.s.sumed it to be the force that is being trained in the secret training camp located in the middle of Huk'ran Mountains.

 While Haroon was lost in thought, Teeno ran back to the members with excitement on his face. It didn't take long for Haroon to notice him.

 "Boss!"

 "What's the matter?"

 When Teeno came to the group, the group was already ready for combat. It was a pavlovian reaction that their body made because of all the fighting they had been through for the last 20 days.

 Even Gitan, did not seem so scared. He had his trusty s.h.i.+eld with him.

 "I-I think I found a d-dungeon."

 "I'm sorry?"

 The members drew closer after hearing Teeno's words.

 "Well, I found a small cave that I presumed to be a wolves' den under the big boulders on the way to the rift so, I took a look at it, and it seems like a dungeon."

 "Lead the way!"

 As Teeno lead the way, the party ran toward the dungeon, full of excitement. If it really was a dungeon, they hit the jackpot as all they got during the journey was the leather of goblins or orcs.

 Haroon wasn't the only one who was excited. It was common sense that a dungeon is a perfect place to get experience and treasures. This was mainly due to the legendary figures of the mercenary world, as their strength was known to be acquired in the dungeons.

 Teeno stopped near the bottom edge of the cliff. Withered by water and air for an unimaginably long time, boulders and rocks of different sizes were lying on the ground, they probably came off from the cliff. Teeno lead the party to the crack between the rocks, covered with tree roots and vines

 "Wow, that's a great spot for a dungeon."

 "Yeah. n.o.body would find such place if they're not Teeno."

 Like how Philip and Gitan said, the crack between the rocks were barely visible because of thick tree roots.

 "I thought there would be some caves nearby the cliffs, and I felt a sudden change of temperature in the wind, then I found this place."

 Teeno indeed had exceptional ability in scouting.

 Because of the time difference, the season of autumn had begun in Beyond. The atmosphere was cool enough, so they could definitely sense warm wind coming from the crack.

 "Let's head in."

 Pulling the vines to the side, Haroon headed into the crack.

[You have found the Lump Orcs' Dungeon]

 With a short UI sound, an information window popped up in front of Haroon.

Lump Orcs' Dungeon

Difficulty : B – Temporary Dungeon

Full of ores and mana stones, this volcanic area of Huk'ran Mountains is the habitat of the orcs who survived through continuous consumption of a mixture of water and manastone combined by the volcanic heat. While being seperated from the other orc tribes, time caused mutation to their bodies, adapting themselves to store absorbed mana; resulting in the form lumps on their head, gradually enhancing their intelligence and physical ability.

Monster types:

Lump Orc Warriors – Lv 35~40
Lump Orc Raid Leaders – Lv 60~70
Lump Orc Witch Doctors – Lv 70~80
The Lump Orc Chief – Lv 90~100

Objective:

Defeat: The Lump Orc Chief, 5 Witch Doctors, 10 Raid Leaders, 400 Warriors

You have been rewarded for the discovery with:
100 Fame
30 S.P.
300% Drop Rate until the dungeon completion

This dungeon cannot be registered.

 'That sounds so dangerous,' Haroon thought

 According to the intel Bell collected, the number of registered dungeons started to increase recently. This meant some users has became cartographers or finders. But most of them were dungeons with difficulty D, and C in some rare cases, but there were no official records of dungeons with difficulty B.

 'Just what kind of monsters are the Lump Orcs?'

 Their level was more than two times higher than ordinary orcs, which are known to be about level 15 to 20. It became a concern of his, as the difficulty was way too high for them. The party dungeon he just went through had a difficulty of C, and the entrance requirement was a party with at least 10 members. Theoretically, this dungeon would need at least 90 members to be beatable.

 While Haroon was thinking to himself after checking the dungeon information, the members were giving their speculations.

 "Yuck! This is the smell of orcs!"

 "Then it's a monster dungeon."

 Teeno lightly nodded while listening to Philip and Gitan's words. Deep disappointment was drawn over their faces. Unfortunately, this dungeon wasn't some kind of secret lab for magicians nor an ancient ruin. If it was, they could have gathered a fortune that one can't spend in their lifetime, and a legendary skill, but fate betrayed their expectations.

 "But still, it's a dungeon, isn't it? And the monsters are easy-peasy-lemon-squishy orcs!"

 Said Gitan, who was not afraid of the orcs anymore.

 "You're right! I wonder how good items these guys have."

 Ritrina seemed excited, so was everyone. To those mercenaries whose daily salary was 50 Silver, the items that they could sell for at least 30 Gold was still a fortune.

 But Haroon was still considering whether to risk fighting with the monsters. These NPCs did not have any intel, but he, a user, did know a lot of things. He simply wasn't feeling right about this as he didn't know what kind of orcs Lump orcs were. Not knowing what would be waiting for them, their numbers were way too low to strike right away.

 "This is gonna be fun!"

 On Ritrina's excited words, Haroon shook his head. These NPCs could say this kind of thing very easily because they knew nothing. So Haroon made a safer choice.

 "Let's make a basecamp near here and take a rest for today. Tomorrow morning, we'll leave our loads at the basecamp and enter the dungeon with light bodies."

 "Do you think it'll be fine, Boss?"

 Cautious Philip asked, seeing Haroon's face.

 "There is no trace of orcs at the entrance, so it's either them not coming outside, or there is another entrance that the orcs use."

 "Boss is right on that. Though the smell of the orcs are present, I don't think they’re near this place. I'm a bit concerned because going into this dungeon just smells dangerous…….."

 Teeno slurred his words at the end. He must have felt the danger by instinct.

 "Let's scout ahead and then decide."

 "Sounds like a plan."

 Teeno's judgment on terrains and monsters was always trustworthy, so they decided to follow his decision. As Haroon said, they began setting a basecamp near the entrance. Since they never knew how long it would take to clear the dungeon, they brought some food and basic needs with them, but left everything else at the basecamp.

 After spending a night at the dungeon entrance, they entered the dungeon as soon as the sun rose. Although they didn't talk about Hall accompanying them, she followed them in.

 The dungeon was in the form of a cave. The naturally formed cave was very long. Like how Teeno commented about the entrance, they couldn't meet any orcs even though they walked for quite a while. They had to crawl through some small pa.s.sage instead, but it wasn't impa.s.sable.

 It took about a half an hour to encounter an orc for the first time, in the most awkward way possible.

 It was sitting on a hole, with its feet on each side of the hole to support itself, exposing its pink rump contrasted to its furry body, and ready for 'action'.

 "Oh man! Yuck!"

 Because of the smell it made which was incomparably worse than the humans', in the end, Gitan grumbled, pinching his nose.

 "Shhh!"

 As Teeno warned him to be quiet, Gitan shut his mouth, but it was too late. It heard the noise and turned back, and surprisingly enough, the orc had a lump on its head.

 Haroon quickly threw a knife before the situation got uncontrollable, but it didn't hit the target.

 "d.a.m.n it!"

 Haroon couldn't believe his eyes. Not because he missed a still target, but by the orc being quick enough to pick up its ax and block the knife, even in that awkward position. Shocked by the scene, the group hesitated to make a move, and it gave the orc enough time to get into a stance, then it charged at the group.

 "s.h.i.+eld Attack!"

 Gitan stepped forward and blocked the first attack. With a loud impact sound, the ax and the s.h.i.+eld made a spark and bounced off. While the orc was still staggering from the aftershock, Philip quickly made his move.

 "Smas.h.i.+ng blow!"

 The sword of Philip, who almost mastered the skill, was able to find its way easily, piercing its target.

 The orc's eyes widened. Philip spun his sword and made a hole in its neck. Then it was pulled out with a stream of blood, and the orcs eyes were losing its light.

 "This…… This is…….." Gitan mumbled.

 Gitan was still shaking his hands. It meant the orc was hard to deal with. Besides, Philip's face took on a set expression, despite how he had slain an enemy.

 "It moved even when it had a sword in its neck. That's not all. My sword didn't hit where I aimed, in fact, it was far from it."

 On Philip's words, Teeno drew closer to the corpse and inspected it. Like how he said, the hole was far from the center of the neck.

 "It's a lump orc!"

 It was Hall, who was watching the situation from behind.

 "Did you just say lump? Well, It really does have a lump on its head."

 With curiosity in mind, Serinn drew closer and looked up and down the corpse. It was a head taller than the a normal orc, and its muscular body made them recall the orc warrior they've seen a while ago. She touched the lump on its head.

 "It's hard like a horn. Could this be a bio-mana stone by any chance, Hall?"

 A spark of greed was reflected on Serinn's eyes for a brief moment.

 "I find that unlikely. Bio-mana stones are formed when a beast or a monster happens to consume a mana stone, or a portion of it. In most cases, the consumer dies because their body cannot handle the flow of mana. But in very rare cases where the consumer have a strong physical ability and is born with the ability to handle the mana flow, they survive and the body adapts to use mana, mainly using the manastone. As they live, the manastone gets larger and larger. We call that a bio-mana stone."

 "Then what is this?"

 "There are not many things known about it, but what's known is that those humps are coagulation of unused mana that the monster consumed. When the Bio-mana stones have higher purity and better conductivity than the ordinary mana stones, these humps are just multiple layers of raw mana and monster tissues. Because it requires a complicated method and presence of high-ranking magicians to use it as a manastone, it's not really useful."

 The magician Hall was able to answer Serinn's curiosity.

 'Well, that's a shame.'

 Haroon secretly hoped for it to be a mana stone, as Haroon couldn't summon Brat because of the poison.

 'Well? Who knows!'

 Haroon took out his katrat knife and cut out the lump. Though it has poison on it, it didn't matter as the one who'll be consuming it would be Brat.

 "Prepare yourself, since these monsters are much stronger than the ordinary orcs."

 On his word, the group nodded and held their weapons tight.

 "Boss. Do I have to skin th-this thing too?"

 "Why do you ask?"

 Serinn simply pointed at the corpse's rump, which were still full of 'residues'.

 "Well, the leather seems good. I think we can sell it for a higher price than the normal orcs' leather."

 "As far as I know, lump orc leathers are sold for five times or even ten times more than the ordinary ones. Its toughness and durability is valued quite highly."

 As Teeno adds, Serinn frowned.

 "But there are still residues on it……."

 "What's the problem when you can wipe them out?"

 Knowing that no words would work, Serinn lowered her head and sat down near the corpse.

 "Hey, Ritrina, why don't you help her with wiping it off?"

 "Wait, Boss, WHAT? ME?"

 Haroon left the raging Ritrina behind and went to the hole that the orc was sitting on.

 There were more than 40 holes, with most of them enclosed with stone lids. It seemed the place was a toilet of some sort, extended from the other entrance to where the group came from. Haroon lifted the lid of many, only to close it right away because of the foul smell. He wondered what kind of things the orcs ate.

 "Make it quick! It seems like the monsters are using this place as a toilet, so let's ambush them from here."

 When Ritrina was about to protest on the order she just got, Haroon coldly spoke and that made her give up. She knew Haroon needed to see his orders done when he spoke like that.

 Like how Haroon said, there were about 5 to 6 holes that didn't have lids on, which were just wide enough for the orcs to sit on comfortably. It was obvious that this place is a toilet.

 "The orcs know the concept of toilets?"

 "Remarkable. Even humans only build proper toilets once the town gets big."

 Teeno and Philip spoke with wonder, pinching their nose.

 "Stay here. I'll be right back."

 Thinking about the lump he cut out from the orc's head, Haroon backtracked a little bit. Before he turned around the corner, he glanced over the shoulder. He could see Serinn getting ready to skin the corpse, and the others were gathering around her.

 Haroon summoned Brat when he thought it was far enough.

 "Brat."

 "’Sup? You've not been summoning me these days."

[You are poisoned! You are receiving 10 damage per second.]

 As expected, Haroon got poisoned so he quickly took an antidote.

 "I'm running out of antidotes, so I couldn't summon you as often as before."

 "Meh, not news to me. I knew you would. Haven't you heard the phrase "prepare more than you need"? How are you gonna live your life if you can't prepare yourself like this?"

 There it goes again. Haroon got an urge to open its head and see if it really thinks he is its master.

 "Shut up or you'll get punched. Your choice."

 "Hmph, are you always gonna use violence when things don't turn out in your favor? I don't think you should abuse the Covenant of Time Immemorial that pets cannot hurt their summoners. You know, I'm so much older tha-"

 Haroon took out the lump and shoved it into its mouth.

 "Take a bite of this."

 "Wha-What was that about?

 "Just taste it."

 "Huh, this is? This is a mana chunk! It's mixed with some messy stuff, but it definitely has a high mana density!"

 Haroon smiled inside.

 "Do you think more of these would regain your ability and allow you to evolve yourself?"

 "What do you mean 'I think'? Of course they would. They are so much better than uncommon items!"

 With small eyes, it greedily looked at the horn and drooled over it.

 "How many do you need?"

 "Hmm, if they have the same amount of mana, 50 should do it, I think? Because it is a mixture of mana and flesh, it'll be rather effective on me since I need to absorb various types of mana.

 "d.a.m.n, that's a lot."

 Brat regained a lot of its ability by absorbing poison-type mana in the swamp after killing the Orc Warrior. But it got worse as it cast a vast scale of elemental magic that were beyond its ability when it helped Haroon and his party cross the river.

 'Well, if that saves at least an item…' Haroon thought.

 "Ok, I'll get you those, but under a condition."

 "Huh? What condition? It's a Master's duty to evolve their pet!"

 "I knew you'd say that. Just don't, if you don't like it. I'd better keep you unsummoned forever since I'm running out of antidotes anyways. That sounds probable, considering your bratty words and behaviour, who can't even consider its master as its master."

 On Haroons words, Brat crumbled its ugly face.

 "He-hey, Mas! That's a breach of contract!"

 "Have I contracted with you to evolve you?"

 "Well, you haven't, but…… still……"

 Smiling inside, Haroon told him what the condition was.

 "You said you can make a subs.p.a.ce once you evolve, right?"

 "Yeah, that's right. That'll be my bedroom."

 "How big is it?"

 "We-well…… about 10 times of this place?"

 Haroon looked around the place he was in. If Brat's description was right, three horse carts would fit in the subs.p.a.ce.

 "I'll get those horns if you let me use the subs.p.a.ce."

 "Wha-what? Mas, that's a bit……"

 "I'm your master anyways. That means all of your things are mine, and I'm saying I'll use some of yours. Is there a problem with that?"

 "Of course that's……."

 That was not true. Although Brat was Haroon's pet, using its subs.p.a.ce required its permission. The subs.p.a.ces are treated as a kind of permanent item that's maintained by the pet's mana, so they are treated as a part of a pet.

 "Well, I'll take that as a yes."

 "Ma-mas!"

 Brat seemed perplexed by Haroon pressing his argument, but its mind was already conflicting with the need of those horns.

 "Look, I am willing to fight strong monsters with my life in order to regain your ability and evolve you whom poisons its master when they get summoned. Can't you appreciate your master more?"

 Brat frowned on his words, but it admitted the fact. Though it was resting as Haroon couldn't summon it, it knew he was trying to get mana stones for it.

 "But my body gets bigger when I evolve, Mas."

 'Oh, really?' he thought.

 He came to realize that no one knew anything about elemental pets. Users, NPCs, no one had elemental pets.

 "Well, let's make it half then."

 "Ok, ok, Mas."

 That was still bigger than a cart. A same-sized magic bag would cost more than 500 gold. Moreover, no robbery would take place in the subs.p.a.ce, so it was a perfect place to store important items. Though he still had a lot of empty s.p.a.ce in his Inventory, he simply wanted to have a subs.p.a.ce.

 As he got permission to use Brat's subs.p.a.ce, Haroon unsummoned it and returned to where the group was waiting for him, with a deep smile on his face. Everyone in the party who saw Haroon's smile had different opinions on it, but they were all shaking with fear because of the odd situation – Haroon's eyes coincidentally being on the red chunk on the flesh of the lump orc.

 'Whoa, that's b.l.o.o.d.y. He really is a cruel one.'

 Not to mention Teeno and the Quad w.a.n.kers, even Hall was frightened by his smile. Even though Haroon became the main source of fear in the party, Haroon didn't even get a hint about it.

 "How's the leather?"

 "…….. Oh, yeah, the leather! It's great. Its toughness is incomparable to the normal ones. It was so hard to skin as I couldn't skin it with ordinary daggers. I had to use several times more strength to skin it, you know? Though I haven't seen the leather of ogres, wouldn't it be similar to this?"

 Serinn answered Haroon's question, and admired the skin.

 "That's great. Let's ma.s.sacre more of these."

 After all, the monsters were the enemies of humans. Though they had no idea of how many lump orcs exist, and one of them even surpa.s.ses the ability of several normal orcs combined, the quality of their leather was too great to have them give up the dungeon. Moreover, he could gather more horns and money. This was a chance that they couldn't miss.

 Serinn's body shook with fear. The smile on his face created the most basic horror that a human can ever get. Like yawning, the horror spread to the group in a matter of seconds. The Silence filled the s.p.a.ce and strangled their necks.

 "Well, let's hide somewhere and a.s.sa.s.sinate them as they come."

 Haroon decided to reduce their number before they proceed.

 If they had an intelligence of understanding the concept of a toilet, they needed to be extra careful. But the best reason was that the toilet is where the creatures lower their guard to the minimum.

 It wasn't hard to kill the Lump Orcs in their toilet. There was no need for the other members to join the fight. They simply had to hide behind a huge boulder.

 The throwing knives that were shot at the orcs revealing their lump couldn't miss their target. Even when some of them heard the sound of a knife cutting the air, their fates were already decided when they lowered their guard. The throwing knife messed up their intestine after entering their a.n.u.s. They died with excretion.

 'I’ve never seen such a cruel scene like this.'

 Teeno shook his head. As the number of dead orcs increases, the fear on the party increased accordingly. As they witnessed the scene of a knife entering the weakest part of the body, they felt the same pain of something penetrating their bodies.

 'I-I'd rather die during combat.'

 A Coward, Gitan's face was paled white. He felt like he would die any second, because he thought he would forget how to breathe.

 Fortunately or not, the time that strangled the party ended quickly. It was because of a group of orcs who came to find the orcs that were not returning after they went to the toilet. It was an expected scenario as Haroon had slain more than 20 lump orcs.

 "Boss, there are five of them."

 Teeno figured the number of lump orcs just by hearing the footsteps.

 "Each person will be marking one each. Attack as soon as I throw my throwing knives. Hall, a.s.sist us with your magic. Teeno, scout ahead when the fight breaks out, so we can retreat early enough when the backup comes."

 "Copy that."

 The party waited without making a sound. Although they got rid of the corpses by dumping them in the hall, they couldn't get rid of the smell of blood. This came to the party as a concern, as there was a chance that it would cause the ambush to fail.

 As they waited for a chance in the shadow of huge boulders, they could see a young lump orc and 4 older ones. The young one entered deeply without thinking, but the other ones approached with cautiousness as if they smelled blood.

 The group of orcs found it odd that there were no trace of anything when they definitely could smell the blood. Puzzled, they tilted their head and approached a hole that was pumping out foul smell. When they were about to check the hole, Haroon threw 5 knives with both hands.

 "Multi-shot!"

 Multi-shot was a skill he's been practicing in the field. With this skill, he was able to throw knives at multiple targets at the same time using each fingers' strength. Though the skill level was low, it was effective against multiple large monsters.

 But the knives couldn't kill the lump orcs, except the young one. The lump orc warriors' ability was higher than they thought. It was still fortunate he hit an orc's shoulder, and anothers thigh.

 Among the Quad w.a.n.kers who threw their bodies at the orcs, Ritrina was the first one to enter the combat. Her target was the one with a throwing knife hit on its thigh. It was an easy target for her as she was out of the orc's sight who had lowered its upper body unwittingly. She swung her blade at its head.

 The orc reacted quickly and attempted to dodge as her shadow drew closer. In the blink of an eye, the blade hit the shoulder and it screamed. It was a skill that she learned in the Hall of Warriors. Pa.s.sing the orc, Ritrina turned around and quickly stabbed its body multiple times.

 But her blade only cut the afterimage of the orc who stood up using its rebound after lying on the ground. Unlike how big it seemed, the lump orcs were able to make swift movements.

 The injury triggered its unique chest voice to explode out of its lung. Intimidated, the orc shouted. On the next moment, it dropped its arm and its weapon. It was because of Haroon's knife penetrating its head, through the mouth when it was shouting.

 "s.h.i.+eld Attack!"

 Shouting, Gitan firmly grabbed the s.h.i.+eld with both hands and shot his body at an orc. The orc had no intention to avoid the s.h.i.+eld being charged at it. The orc swung its mace that had the size of a boulder, shouting back.

 "Kugh!"

 With a large sound, they both bounced off at each other's strength. Seeing how Gitan spat blood and the orc just staggering, they could tell the orc had won the battle of strength.

 "Smas.h.i.+ng Blow!"

 Philip kicked the ground and shot his body at the staggering orc. His sharp blade was heading toward the orc's eyes.

 The orc's scream burst out once again. But it didn't mean Philip's attack was successful. With unexpectedly swift movements, it avoided the blade hitting its head, but it couldn't dodge the blade and got stabbed in the shoulder. Even before Philip could turn his wrist and make the wound wider, the orc quickly held the blade with its hand.

 "Eeek!"

 With all his strength, Philip tried to pull the blade out, but the blade wasn't moving at all. Instead, the thin blade started to bend as if it was going to break. Haroon quickly threw a knife to help, but there was no more time for that. It was because he heard Serinn screaming, who had the lowest combat skill.

 "Kyaa!"

 Serinn's body was flying in the air, after squarely blocking the greatsword swung by the orc. The sword which left her hands were broken in half. As if that impact didn't bother the orc at all, it was raising its arms to finish her.

 "Serinn, you idiot!"

 Haroon shot his body toward the broken sword that was flying at him. With a high jump, Haroon stepped on the handle of the broken sword and kicked it in the air to jump even higher. His hands were already ready with a steel sword.

 "Hey!" Haroon shouted at the orc.

 The orc turned its red eyes away from Serinn and toward Haroon. Haroon's steel sword was slas.h.i.+ng downward with tremendous speed.

 The orc was perplexed by Haroon's sudden appearance, but it swiftly moved its greatsword and blocked Haroon's sword with its side. But that wasn't the end of Haroon's attack. Haroon's sense sword skill helped Haroon to find an opening while blocking or dodging the attacks.

 Haroon landed on the ground so close to the orc that he could smell its bad breath. Without any hesitation, Haroon swung his sword at the orc that had a greatsword longer than Haroon's height.

 Though Haroon's sword was quick, the orc used the side of the greatsword to block his attacks, as if it had a lot of combat experience with humans. It tried to attack, but as Haroon took away the lead from it, it needed to focus on defence.

 Haroon's sense sword was level 5, which now allowed him to cast it even if he didn't focus on the combat. He looked around for a second to see the situation.

 Gitan was staggering and slowly moving back with the s.h.i.+eld in his hands as two orcs swung blows on the s.h.i.+eld. The combat consisted of Ritrina and Philip hiding behind the s.h.i.+eld and jumping out whenever they had a chance, and hiding back.

 But Gitan's staggering was getting worse and worse. Because of the shock from the impacts, a thin stream of blood was flowing out of his mouth, nose and ears.

 "Hall!"

 Haroon called Hall, who had made four fireb.a.l.l.s in front of her and was waiting for the chance. It was frustrating for him to see her waiting for one when she needed to make one.

 "Woah!"

 It was his mistake of not focusing on his combat. The greatsword was falling on him. There was not enough window to avoid the attack.

 'I'm giving the shoulder!'

 Clenching his teeth, he dashed forward and to the side.

 "Aagh!" Haroon screamed.

 Fortunately, he was able to avoid the blade, but the handle hit his left shoulder. It felt like his bones were broken. He felt like he was losing vision from the pain that felt like something hot was burning his skin.

 By giving up his left shoulder, he got close to the orc. Clenching his teeth once again and kicking the ground, he held his sword tight.

 Surprised, the orc tried to pull back, but Haroon's sword was chasing it from the ground. This was a sign that Haroon successfully traded his shoulder with its chest. The orc's eyelids were shaking from fear. It pulled its upper body back with flexible movement, but Haroon's sword was not missing it.

 The sword cut through the flesh.

 Haroon successfully stabbed the heart of the orc. The orc screamed, dropped its greatsword, and held Haroon's sword. Haroon turned his wrist with all his strength. As the wound widened, blood spurted out like a fountain. The Lump orc's hand seemed to stop the sword, but slowly, it was turning.

 Soon, the orc's body started to collapse. Its hands were about to be cut in half, but its strength was still there.

 With a low shout, Haroon pulled the sword, and shook the hands away. Knowing that the orc would die in any second, Haroon turned away from it and checked the situation.

 The orcs were afraid of the fire. Hall's fireball hit one of the orcs and burned its fur, and when it was trying to put out the fire, Ritrina's blade cut it several times.

 The burning orc screamed and was enraged. Killing it wouldn't be so hard. But the problem was the orc with two lumps. Unlike the other orcs, the orc with two lumps was. .h.i.tting Gitan's s.h.i.+eld, and was blocking Philip's attack without any problem.

 'This isn't going well.'

Though Ritrina was helping them, she was busy enough with blocking its attacks. Moreover, even if he helps, Haroon couldn't use his left arm. Though there is Hall, if the orcs floods in while they were in combat, that was the end for everyone. His left arm was going numb. This meant the wound was worse than the pain he was feeling.

[You have leveled up by 2!]

 As the level gap was so high, Haroon leveled up by 2. Experience gained was so much higher than he expected.

 Though, it was fortunate that he was able to level up in such a situation. He was about to take a potion because he was losing his. .h.i.t points due to the injury. The impact of levelling up at the end of combat was huge, as he was able to feel the pain from his numbed left arm.

 Haroon took out a knife and summoned Brat.

 "We are in a hurry!"

 "Got it, Mas."

 Getting poisoned while injured was so much more dangerous than being just poisoned. But he had to risk it.

"Integrate!"

 In the speed of lightning, Brat flew with the dagger at the orc who was parrying Philip's sword with its ax. Though the knife was fast, the orc wasn't so dull that it could get hurt by what it could see. The knife hit the wide ax and bounced off, making a short high-pitch sound.

 But the orc didn't know that it wasn't the end.

 A short scream of pain leaked out of its mouth. There was the whole blade of the catrat knife stuck in the back of its neck. How could it have expected the bounced off weapon to return like that?

 "Whoa, your throwing knife skill, I can't get used to it," Said Philip, wiping his sweat from his face.

 "Still, it-it's cool, aint it."

 Gitan was standing relying only on fear, horror, and unknown willpower. After saying those words, he collapsed to the ground with his s.h.i.+eld. His body was still shaking because of the impacts he received during the battle.

 Haroon unsummoned brat and took an antidote.

[You have slain an Raid Leader. You have gained 5 S.P.]
[You have leveled up by 2!]

 As soon as the orc that inflicted serious amounts of damage on the members died, Haroon could hear the UI sound that alerted him of his level up. On the same moment, Philip ran at Ritrina and held her shoulder to stop her from slas.h.i.+ng the dead body of the orc.

 'She really is a berserker,' Philip thought.

 Philip wasn't the only one who thought so. Haroon had the same idea. Not only her tauntings, but the way she fights in combat clearly showed that she was born as a berserker. But being crazy and being lead by instinct in combat wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

 When she goes berserk, she was fully using her ability. On the top of that, the amplification of her instinct allowed her to find a way to limit the enemy's movement and open up the chance for her, like Haroon's Sense Sword skill. On the negative side though, she became so exhausted that she couldn't move her finger by an inch when she returned to normal.

 When Haroon was thinking about that, someone held his hurt shoulder.

 "You're hurt."

 It was Hall. Though Haroon never found her likeable, he felt no need to remove her hand. Instead of saying something back, Haroon grimaced his face in pain.

 Hall took out a healing potion and poured about half of it on Haroon's shoulder, which was so messed up that they could see white bone with their bare eyes. Then she handed the rest to Haroon.

 "Thanks."

 Without saying a word back to Haroon who shortly thanked and drank the potion, she took some bandages out of her bag.

 Soon, unbearable pain greeted Haroon. He kicked it out by moaning. The effects of the healing potion is accelerating the cell and tissue regeneration process, but the pain it brings was comparable to breaking teeth. It was a relief that the pain didn't last long.

 "You held it well."

 As he felt her hand grabbing his shoulder, he opened his eyes without knowing. He could see her hands illuminating with light of mana.

 "Cure!"

 The light of mana gave an indescribably fresh feeling to the wound that the pain was about to be relieved. The combination of a potion and healing magic helped such a horrific wound to get back to normal.

 "You'll have to use it less for a while," she added.

 She carefully wrapped his shoulder and neck with the bandage. Haroon's body winced everytime her careful hands touched it. He felt like he could smell her sweet breath as they were so close together.

 'Hall was a woman too?'

 It came as a fresh blow to him as he had never thought of any woman as a woman. A faint, but comfortable scent, warm and soft hands, and her warm eyes. He could feel all of them vividly.

 "Th-thanks, Hall."

 Was it because of his eyes that were somewhat warmer unlike usual? With blushes on her face, she avoided his eyes.

 "Be careful when using your arm."

 Sadly to Haroon, she got up after softly whispering those words and headed to Serinn who was moaning and unable to get up on her own.

Translated by Channy_
Edited by Tom and Kmatt

Footnotes:

¹GM – Gamemaster, Game manager, Game moderator, etc.

Editor's notes:

Channy_: One thing I don't understand about this part is how he was able to level up by 2 by defeating the orc before he kills a warchief. Though I'm guessing it is supposed to be 20+ orcs all combined, that doesn't really explain anything.

Anyways, translating these chapters when I have a few papers to write…. It's a great guilty pleasure xD

Tom: I wonder if Brat's going to look like a gargoyle after its evolution, twice the size of Haroon with big wings and this nasty grin on its face!

Kmatt: I think Haroon is the real monster in that dungeon after his display of killing blows, Those poor orcs.