Chapter 111: First encounter with a C- Ranked creature, Orc Grunt
Chapter 111: First encounter with a C- Ranked creature, Orc Grunt
"Hey, Hey, Wendy~ would you like some candy? Look, I have strawberry-flavored ones here!"
David said with a smile on his face, looking fully committed to simping for Wendy.
"Yes, I like candies, thank you"
Naturally, the naive and food-loving Wendy wouldn't reject the free snacks. Although her face looked as cold as usual, her eyes sparkled as she grabbed the strawberry-flavored candy from David's hands.
Meanwhile, Shye slightly chuckled after seeing David acting so silly.
He was currently chatting casually with Kiin and Siegfried, however, it was really hard for him to ignore David's funny antics.
Just like this, the Colzen Avengers party steadily made progress towards their destination.
Since this was their first time entering the advanced adventurer zone, the deans gave them lots of reminders and even chose their first quest to make sure that they would be able to handle the creature they needed to hunt.
Recently, a small orcish tribe was reportedly growing in numbers and was starting to become a huge threat to both humans and creatures inside the advanced adventurer zone so Colzen City and the other surrounding cities issued a hunting quest to trim down the numbers of the said orcish tribe.
Thus, they were now on their way to hunt an orc grunt, a (C-) ranked creature.
Fortunately, although their party encountered a few of the weaker creatures inside the zone, they managed to easily dispose of them without breaking too much sweat.
Finally, after two hours of walking, they arrived at the borders of their destination.
"Everyone, raise your vigilance, we're now approaching orc territory. Let's advance carefully to not alarm the other orcs, remember, we only need to kill one and then immediately return to the academy"
As the party leader, Shye was the one responsible for the safety of his party so he gave them a few reminders as they carefully advanced through the orc territory in hopes of finding a lone orc grunt.
They had to be careful because although an orc grunt was the lowest-ranked member of the orc warrior class, they were still physically stronger than human adventurers ranked gold and below.
In addition to this, the grunts usually guard the periphery of the orc territory in groups of two so it was hard to find the right timing but they had to since it would be difficult for their party to fight two orc grunts at once.
If they somehow made an error and were forced to fight two orc grunts simultaneously, then somebody might lose their life.
Fortunately, today seemed to be their party's lucky day as they spotted an orc grunt wandering alone. They didn't have an idea where the grunt's comrade was but not seeing it anywhere close was a good start.
Still, they can't let their guard down so the six of them remain hidden while Ian Izanagi checks the surrounding area.
Ian was like a black panther on the prowl as he silently moved, totally undetected by the lone orc grunt. He roamed a 30-meter radius and upon confirming that the orc's comrade wasn't nearby, Izanagi stealthily returned to their party's hiding place.
"Crowley, I checked the surroundings and this guy is indeed alone, we can take this guy down."
Izanagi said with a slight grin on his face, looking a bit excited to fight the orc grunt.
During their past hunts as a party of six inside the intermediate adventurer zone, everything was too easy because not only were the creatures weak, but Shye and the others were also very skilled so they hardly experienced difficulties inside the intermediate adventurer zone as a party.
Hence, he wanted to see how their extremely strong party would handle a challenge and this orc grunt seemed to be the perfect creature for the job.
All members of the Colzen Avengers were confident in their skills except Wendy since she was a bit inexperienced. Still, she had her strong points which were her stubborn curiosity and adventurous spirit so none of them felt any anxiety or nervousness.
In fact, they even felt excited to fight the orc grunt.
"Let's go then, everyone, stick to the plan." Shye said as he and the other members assumed their designated positions.
Everyone focused on Shye's hand signals and finally, after a few more moments, Shye waved his hand forward which was the signal everyone was waiting for to start the operation.
*FWOOSH*
As planned, Shye and Siegfried charged out of the shrubbery, however, Shye attacked from the left side while Siegfried attacked from the right.
The orc grunt heard the rustling of the bushes so it turned its head and upon realizing that it was being attacked, the grunt roared in rage.
*ROAAAAR*
A primal bellow reverberated across the forest as the orc exposed its razor-sharp tusks to the humans, its sinewy muscles tensing as it gripped the makeshift lodestone axe that served as its weapon.
The axe, massive and resembling a two-handed weapon, belied its weight, yet the orc's sheer brute force enabled it to wield the hefty weapon effortlessly with just one hand.
Unfortunately for the orc, it was alone so it had to choose one target at a time.
With its limited intelligence, it opted to confront the human it perceived as the more formidable adversary out of the pair.
Hence, it aggressively rushed toward Shye.
*CLANG*
"K-Kuuhh..." Although armed with two greatswords and a strength blessing from Wendy, Shye was still sent sliding back a good few meters after a direct clash against the orc.
*SPURT*
Naturally, Siegfried, armed with his new tachi and an agility blessing from Wendy, took advantage of the opportunity granted to him by Shye as he slashed his sword downwards with all of his strength.
"Tch! Too shallow!" Siegfried muttered to himself in frustration.
The toughness of the orc's flesh exceeded his imagination. He thought that he would be able to heavily wound the orc but it turns out that he was a bit too naive with his assumptions.