Tristan had just won his first battle against the elves, and he couldn't help but feel good about that. It was such a good experience for him, as he ultimately had an opportunity to fight a group of elite fighters and strong magicians and even came out on top of them as the winner.

Unfortunately, Tristan's forces didn't succeed unscathed as there were several losses from his side as well.

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From the more than a hundred orcs that he brought for this endeavor, he was left with 48 grunts and 22 champions. In addition, some of those who survived suffered severe injuries and fatal wounds.

In this one battle, more than 50 orcs breathed their last and would never be seen again. However, considering the 50 elves they defeated, Tristan should still count this as a win.

Moreover, though more than 50 of their brethrens lay lifelessly on the ground, these orcs acted as their death to be an honor and shouted out their war cry loudly. They were celebrating for winning the battle and praising their extraordinary chief for leading such a battle.

"Chiiwiwkk!!"

This was something that Tristan always thought as amazing from these orcs. Seeing these very scenes made him more attached to these orcs, and his mind even thought those 50 stinking elves were not comparable to the 50 orcs he just lost.

At this moment, he suddenly felt this victory of theirs was a pyrrhic one.

In order to not let the same thing happen, or at least reduce the loss they would suffer, Tristan decided to find a way to further strengthen his orc tribe.

Afterwards, Tristan ordered the orcs to start clearing the dead bodies and picked up all the equipment off the elves' body. The majority of these elves, after all, were equipped with Tier 2 weapons and armor. There were even a few who had Tier 3 weapons, which certainly made Tristan really happy when he saw it.

He decisively decided to share the tier 2 weapon to the orcs, as for the armor and all the tier 3 were kept for himself.

The reason he didn't give the Tier 2 armors to the orcs was because their muscular figures didn't exactly match the elves' slender figure.

In the end, there were still 3 elves who survived the bloodbath. The elder and the other two who were heavily injured.

Tristan decided not to kill them in order to get more information about what was actually going on.

Naturally, before bringing the three back to Caerleon Town, Tristan didn't forget to take all the equipment on the elder's body. Immediately after, he willed the system to show the equipment's stats.

[Cuirass Set - Heavy Armor - Tier 3]

[A set of body armor]

[Weight 33.5 kilograms]

[Increased durability]

[Mithril Dagger - Tier 3]

[Weight 2.8 kilograms]

[Increased attack speed]

The armor surprisingly had an increased durability effect, while the dagger gave its wielder a speed boost. One was a magic-based buff to the artifact itself, while the other granted positive buff to the user.

While he was still immersed in the joy of finding the two artifacts, Tristan also discovered a storage ring on the elder. But unfortunately, he discovered he couldn't open it and had no idea how.

Even so, Tristan still gained a lot from this battle. Not only did he receive a total of 10,260 Blood Essence from extracting all the elves, he also earned 820 Blood Essence from the orcs.

Unfortunately, it was the same with the blood-sealed, augmented orcs who died didn't give back his Blood Essence, only the corpse's blood itself.

At the end of the day, Tristan was extremely happy that his almost empty reserve of Blood Essence was once again refilled.

[Blood Essence 14190]

Today's battle gave Tristan an understanding that the orcs were the best ally for him, as their prowess were formidable and the amount required to be augmented were very low. As for the elves with their high harvest of Blood Essence they should be an ideal enemy for him to harvest.

---

Tristan told Astrid, Karra, and a few Orc Champions to stay, while ordering Gazef to take the remaining orcs and three prisoners back to Caerleon as he still had one last thing he wanted to do.

"Karra, we are going to check the orc lair one more time."

Tristan thought the elder's attention to the mines appeared to be too much for a mere 100 orcs. Hence, he decided to once again enter the mines, heading into the breeding lair. Several minutes later, the group reached the place where the cocoons were.

It would be a week or two before the orc would be mature enough to break through its cocoon with its own prowess. But Tristan didn't have the plan to wait as he was sure part of the answer for his problem was beyond this cocoon.

Tristan swiftly took out his newly-acquired Tier 3 dagger and delivered an upward slash to one of the cocoons. In the blink of an eye, it was torn open and revealing the bits of what inside.

Everyone, even Karra, was surprised when they saw it wasn't a normal orc that lay inside the cocoon. It was a large orc-like figure with dark black skin. An Uruk.

[Orc - Uruk]

[Battle power 55]

The dark-skinned orc was the same kind Tristan fought when he first arrived in this world. This kind of orc was tougher and stronger than its normal counterpart. Even though not yet fully grown, it was already almost twice stronger than a normal grunt.

Seeing the figure who managed to exert a faint pressure even on himself, Karra quickly said, "Chief, these orcs are not natural. They are an abomination"

A few seconds later, the Uruk woke up and quickly attacked the group at sight. However, Karra was fast enough to kill him before he could do anything dangerous.

After making sure the Uruk was dead, Karra quickly turned to Tristan and said, "Chief, these orcs were born with an objective planted by their creator. I don't think I could convert them into our tribe."

Tritan once looked around the wall of the caves. There are more than 100 Uruks orcs laying inside these lairs ready to follow their master command in a week or two.

Knowing the Forlond elf behind it all, it must have been nothing good.

At first he was thinking about destroying them but the uruk corpse in front of him only gave a mere 15 blood essence. He decided to find more information about them first before deciding.