Some orcs made it through the attack and started to get up from the ground, shifting the rubble and bodies over them.
An orc got up and rushed Erik.
Erik threw his hammer, it struck the orc, revealing a needle extanding form its handel buried in their chest.
Erik reached out, two new hammers appeared in his hands as he threw them out, they howled through the air as he put his strength into the attacks.
Orcs dropped from the hammers.
Erik’s footsteps stopped, his eyes glowed, they seemed to see through all of existence.
There’s nothing left. He turned to look at Gilly and Tian Cui, they were covered in dirt and sweat, but their fights had come to an end.
Tian Cui looked at the scene of destruction around Erik.
Erik threw a hammer out without looking, it smashed into a wall. The wall exploded an orc came out the other side of the half-destroyed building.
“Clear here,” Storbon reported in.
“No one wandering around here, nothing got out,” Rugrat said.
“We had more than we anticipated, all good though,” Erik said.
Tian Cui was covered in a healing glow as Erik’s eyes dimmed.
“What was that?” Tian Cui asked.
“That was me using all of my power, not holding back and combining mana and body cultivation. I think that hammers might be more useful than just my fists. Come on, lets meet up with the others.”
Chapter: Secret Origins of the Orcs
The group gathered together. Erik could feel it and see it on everyone’s expressions since they had entered the orc territory they’d had little in the way of rest, they had been on alert or fighting the entire time.
They were worn out, but they continued to drive forward.
“Everyone good?” Storbon looked to the others.
They all nodded.
“Alright, then get ready to move out, the longer we stay here, the greater chance of discovery. Erik, Tian Cui, Yao Meng upfront. Rugrat, Lucinda and myself in the middle, Yuli, George and Gilly in the rear.”
Erik checked his notifications
=======
Skill: Marksman
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Level: 82 (Expert)
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Long-range weapons are familiar in your hands. When aiming, you can zoom in x2.0. 15% increased chance for critical hit.
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Blackfire spear
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Expert
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Create a spear of Earth, fire and poison
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Cost 200 Mana
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Skill: Spear
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Level: 22 (Apprentice)
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No bonuses at this time. You must prove your skills first.
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For teaching yourself an Expert ranked spell, you gain: 5,000,000 EXP
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Upon advancing into the Apprentice level of Alchemy, you will be rewarded with one randomly selected item related to this skill.
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You have received the item: Sturdy spear
+10,000 EXP
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Stone hammer
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Journeyman
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Someone that steps into the area of effect are healed rapidly
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Cast: 500 Mana 200 Mana/minute – 20m radius
1500 Mana 500 Mana/minute – 40m radius
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For teaching yourself a Journeyman ranked spell, you gain: 500,000 EXP
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Skill: Blunt
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Level: 17 (Novice)
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No bonuses at this time. You must prove your skills first.
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Skill: Throwables
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Level: 46 (Apprentice)
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Your throws gain 5% power
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45,948,136/56,900,000 EXP till you reach Level 58
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You have come into contact with a Stronghold
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Do you wish to:
Take command of the Stronghold
Destroy the Stronghold
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Erik put his finger on Destroy Stronghold and a new screen appeared.
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Destroy Stronghold: Volzig
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You will receive:
7289x Sandstone blocks
1x Common Mortal-Grade Dungeon Core
23x Thunder Mines
14x Teleportation Crystals
232x Thorium
1x Shield Spell Formation
534x Soul Manacles
1x Mortal-Grade Mana Cornerstone
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Do you wish to destroy this Dungeon?
YES/NO
==========
Erik let out a sigh as he opened and closed his fist. All of the orcs tombstones had been recovered, their own mana destroyed them from inside, the ten realms always won in the end.
Don’t bet against the house.==
A few minutes later they were all ready and they headed away from the gate and the fading orcs.
Lucinda’s scouts revealed the maze of tunnels that ran through the rock. While Yao Meng used his dungeon sense to locate the dungeon core that was acting as their guiding light. They didn’t want the dungeon core, but as they had followed it, they’d run into more developed and powerful orcs.
When a group of orcs was heading toward them, they would hide in the walls using earth magic.
“We can’t keep on advancing like this, as we get closer to the center there will only be more patrols,” Rugrat said.
“Slow and steady,” Erik said.
“Well, there is another option,” Lucinda said, capturing their attention.
“If we were to get one of my scouts to lead the way, they’re small enough and the orcs don’t pay any attention to them. If we get into one of the large beast holding crates, we would be fine.”
“We won’t be able to wear our storage rings and items,” Erik said.
Storage items could hold other storage items. Though there was an upper limit. Only one or two storage items inside one another, or else the space inside could collapse. Also the storage items being stored, couldn’t have a larger holding space than the storage item they were being stored in. When they took Vuzgal, they had put storage rings on strings or put them in simple boxes. Beast storage crates were much more fragile than regular storage items. They could take a few low powered storage items. Taking tens of high powered storage items was way past their limits.
“Tie them onto other scouts, spread them out a bit,” Rugrat said. “Gilly and George can get small, George should come with us, but Gilly can create holes in the walls, we get out there and grab our gear before we deal with whatever is in here,” Rugrat said.
The plan went ahead, They broke into two teams of two and one team of three, they put ammunition on their carriers and slung their extra weapons and equipment, the storage rings and items were tied up and strapped to the scouts as they got into the storage crates, they had been built with a function to allow those inside to leave.
If they were on the run then a medic and their patients could be inside, working on the wounded, or people could be resting, waiting to jump out and fight or ambush people as needed.
Erik had called them Trojans, to Rugrat’s immature chuckling.
One idea had been to use them as a way to transport troops into a city. They ahd a
few drawbacks.
They could fit ten people max inside. Each crate was as big as a fist or an adult’s head. When entering a city, formations would scan the crates to find out if there were people inside. The more people or creatures inside, the less storage rings could go inside.
For large scale operations they weren’t that useful. For the special teams they were incredible.
Tactics in the ten realms were to have the weakest wear out the enemy and gradually send forward your most powerful people. For the crate trick to work, the strongest people among the attackers needed to go into a crate and attack the enemy.
It was seen as dishonorable and these experts who had lived in a world of treachery and greed had to put their lives in another person’s hands.
It was a great custom, but it flew in the face of cultural norms of the ten realms.
All aboard, Lucinda controlled their scouts and Erik communicated with the mini-Gilly. At her small size she was unable to control all of her mana, making her much weaker, in less than a second she could swell to her full size to use her true power.
The scouts took off and they dodged past the orcs and patrols, heading deeper into their territory.
“I think we found their base of operations,” Lucinda said, using her communication device.
The area is largely barren, but there are a number of well-worn roads that enter a large walled area, carriages of people are heading towards the walled place.l There is a tower that sticks out of it, looking over the area. Orcs are on the walls, these ones are much stronger than the orcs we’ve fought previously, mid sixties, scouts are damn well terrified. I can get us inside though.”
“Find us a corner, we’ll scout it first and then we’ll think about getting inside,” Storbon said.
***
Rugrat looked through his sight at the tower and its defenses.
“Looks like a mage’s tower, big defenses, and just the single tower in the middle, carts of people go in, empty carts come out. This has to be where people are disappearing to,” Rugrat said.
The gates opened inside the tower.
Orcs with just simple furs and low levels stumbled out of the gate, pushed ahead by the orcs behind them.
Rugrat frowned and checked his storage ring, pulling out a simple leather necklace with a gem in the middle of it.
“This is the necklace that most of the orcs have been wearing since we got past the stronghold guarding the tunnel entrance. All of the orcs around the castle are wearing it.”
He studied it, trying to figure out its abilities.
Necklace???
Durability 67/100
Formation 1: ???
Formation 2: ???
“That’s annoying,” Rugrat rubbled the gem, studying the formations that were carved into the metal the gem was set in.
Whatever information he learned about the necklace would pop into his head when he studied it. When he made a piece of armor, or could decipher its abilities then when studying it he could get more information.
He didn’t know the formations so they were a mystery to him.
“What’s up?” Yuli asked. They were using their communication devices so that no noise left their hidden outpost.
“All of the orcs are wearing these necklaces, none of the orcs that were roaming beyond the defenses were. I don’t know what it means, but I don’t have a good feeling about it,” Rugrat rubbed the necklace once again, as if it would reveal more secrets before offering it to Yuli.
She took it and looked it over as Rugrat looked through his scope once again looking through the small hole in the hidden passage the group was hiding in.
The young and confused-looking orcs were being herded away from the tower.
Based on their bodies and their aura, they were weaker than the orcs that were outside of the defenses.
“Guess that they are new trainees to head off to the training camps,” Rugrat continued studying. It was a few hours later before there was another big change, one that made Rugrat completely alert.
“What is it?” Yao Meng, who had replaced Yuli, asked.
“Humans,” Rugrat said, confused.
“What?” Yao Meng asked.
“Lucinda, get your scouts to confirm the group entering the cavern,” Rugrat asked over the communication’s channel.
“Got it,” there was silence as Rugrat studied the group, there were four mounted guards, studying the area with their hands on their weapons. One person was driving a carriage that floated above the ground, glowing with defensive and flotation formations.
Rugrat drew in his domain. He could tell that the guards were a higher level than him. Higher-leveled orcs were a problem, but higher-level humans could have a number of secrets and trump cards that could defeat the group easily.
***
Lena Lindenbaum looked at the test results from her latest experiments.
“There is still too much deviation and the control issues are annoying. Recreating orcs from Earth was a stroke of genius, but with the reduced mental abilities they need simplistic instruction until they are trained up again. It is necessary to remove their old memories and make them malleable. The orcs that grew up without the control unit have turned into a rabble, useful for keeping out intruders, but useless for business means. I’ll have a few more of them captured for further study to see if there are deviations from the original batch.”
She reached out for her tea and hissed as sudden pain assailed her body. She grimaced and winced, she took out an inhaler, shaking up the powder contained within before she pressed it to her lips and depressed the button that aerosolized it, breathing it in.
A shiver ran through her body as she relaxed and the pain numbed and her eyes became sluggish.
She let out a sigh as the pain receded, closing her eyes in bliss.
Smacking her lips together she turned her eyes to the paper notes in her hand.
“What I would do for a computer, or tablet, even a simple phone,” she complained and threw the pile of paper on her desk.
She stood up, the chair creaking as she walked over to the top of the tower, she looked down, seeing the cages below the tower that were filled with new material.
The new experiments were being pushed out of the tower and toward the tunnels, there they would be trained and put to work, expanding the underground empire she was creating and increasing their ability.
She went back to her work, beyond her paper-covered desk, there were different tables covered in different lab equipment, magnifying formations and tools were groups together, all of them oddly made as she had to create most of it, or request it from her backer.
She took her time looking at cultures and different samples.
“Here, without the controls and limits back on Earth I can use my skills without incrimination, in fact, people will praise me for what I’m able to do. I’ve been able to push genetics in completely new ways with what I have here,” she felt the pain coming back and took another shot from her inhaler as there was a knock at her door.
Her lidded eyes were forced open, annoyed at someone for breaking her habit.
“Come in,” she yelled, her voice shaking the experiments.
The door opened and a large orc opened the door, she was wearing a hide-created lab coat, in Lena’s eyes, the woman orc was like a child.
“What?”
“Thur, be, ba-ackers, uming,” The orc stumbled over the words but she was one of a few that could actually communicate, making her invaluable, and from the scars on her body she was one of the most frequent test subjects.
“Backers are coming?” Lena said, her anger growing.
The female orc grunted in agreement.
“Just what I wanted. I will meet them in the main hall, don’t harm them,” Lena said.
Lena finished with the equipment she was using and then headed out of her office. She took a lift down, controlled by two strong orcs as they struggled with their job.
The lift reac
hed the bottom and she walked out, she reached the main hall which had a large stone seat and a comfortable plush seat facing it.
“Lord Vinters,” Lena said as she took the stone seat, ignoring the looks from the guards as they stared at her.
“Researcher Lindenbaum, I have sent you another four hundred experimental material as you requested, has there been any progress?” The man asked.
Lena snapped her fingers and one of the statues against the wall moved and walked over. They were actually all orcs that had remained unmoving the entire time.
The orc was wearing a hide kilt and holding a large broadsword.
“Three major lines, the first laborers, with the orcs at your beck and call all you need to do is feed them and they will work tirelessly, only requiring a few hours of sleep a week to keep functioning. Their bodies upon delivery will reach the body of stone standard, if they are fed monster cores then their levels and power will increase, unlike humans they will be able to consume multiple cores and gain power from eating strong beasts, like other beasts. Their mental capacity is low but their strength can’t be underestimated. The second group are fighters, they can act as training dummies, take attacks and give attacks. They will recover with time and serve as a great training aid for your students. They can also act as defenses or attacking forces, if you require. The third line is shamans, they are able to work independently to cast magic. Their magic is reliant on materials and items, such as totems, they are harder to produce but they can buff and assist regular orcs and are smarter, when they work together to cast spells, then their power will increase. Linked by the control unit they can cast group spells easily. Casting speed is slower with mental limitations, with time if new totems and rituals can be perfected then their combat power will surge.”
Lena’s explanations were bland as if she was reciting information she had memorized for years.
Vinters’ cold eyes showed interest as a smile spread across his face.
The guards all had expressionless faces as they looked away.
“Good! Good!” Vinters said. “You have some kind of demonstration to show off their abilities?”
“Of course,” Lena said.
Sixth Realm Page 49