Cless did a gruesome job. And worse yet, the gnomes that could talk thanked her. They closed their eyes with peaceful faces and Cless decided to carry that sin forever. Few of them gave her names but Cless knew she would learn all their names through the notifications. She asked with her eyes and the woman in front of her nodded. The sword came down one more time. It would forever stain her. "Are you sure?" – "Yes." She struck true. As painless as it could be. Words of appreciation. The end of the torment. She felt weak. She couldn't change these gnomes fates. She could only grant repose.

One of the last ones, a young gnome woman, still a girl, with one of the biggest bellies said "Wait" and Cless halted. She was not a killing machine.

"I'm sorry," Cless said. Her tears were red from all the blood on her face.

"Wait. You are a Cleric, right?" She was panting in pain.

"Yes. Do you want me to pray for you?" Cless was confused. The power of the contracts she already collected was gathering and changing her body.

"No. I want to live. I don't want to die. But these parasites they put in me will kill me. Please open my belly and take them out. Then heal me. If I die, so be it. But I want to try."

Cutting open bellies to take out babies? Cless never heard of it. But then again, she visited the midwife only once in her entire life. And the nuns were childless.

"I'll do anything you want. Where do I cut?" Cless asked.

"Get a sharp knife. Cut below my belly button from one side to another." She said between gritted teeth. The orc bab... larvae were squirming inside her.

She took a knife she used to cut her food. It was sharp enough, she hoped. Cless cut the gnome woman's belly and it burst. The skin, stretched beyond what should be possible, pulled back to reveal a fleshy sphere.

The gnome girl screamed in pain, "Cut all the way! Open it deep!"

Cless trembled and stabbed the belly. She held the knife with both hands and made a wide cut. Water, goo and green-skinned dolls wrapped in fleshy sacks burst out and spread all around between the two girls. Some of them twitched and there was a cord made of flesh and veins connecting them to her.

"What do I do?" Cless cried, desperate.

"Pull all these cords, yank them out!" Another gnome woman shouted. "Quickly before she bleeds out!"

Cless pulled. One, two. Twelve, sixteen. A lot of flesh and blood came out.

"Put your hand inside and see if there is any other of these monsters in her!" The gnome woman said.

Cless shoved her hand in the hole where the orc larvae came out. She touched around and found one more, lodged deep inside. She grabbed and pulled. The gnome she cut twitched, already unconscious. She touched more and felt nothing. She removed a bloody arm from inside the gnome and looked at the one guiding her.

"Heal her before she dies!"

Cless prayed, "Heal!" The wound closed. She prayed again. And a third and fourth times. She clutched the gnome girl on her lap. She checked and she was breathing. She used a fifth heal.

The other gnome woman smiled, "Thank you, Cless. Thank you for saving her."

"I can save you. You don't have to die." She told the gnome.

"We are already dead inside, Cless. You are just granting us peace."

Cless gently put the gnome girl aside. She took the sword and approached the woman. "Is that what you want?"

"Yes. If I can ask a favor..." Cless' eyes screamed yes. "... Take care of that girl. She will be a good companion, maybe even a friend to you."

Cless nodded. "I will. She will be my sister from henceforth and forevermore."

"Thank you, Cless. Please grant me eternal sleep. My husband waits for me."

"Goodbye."

Cless finished her business. She stabbed all the orc larvae, for she refused to call these things babies, and carried the gnome girl next to where Joe was. Seventeen monsters were eating her lifeblood. She couldn't help but shudder as her mind did the math on its own. The gnome women there would, against their will, usher over six hundred orcs into the world. The notification played and the text notifications were waiting for her but she ignored it. Her guild was out there fighting and she was going to kill orcs.

She was going to kill a lot of orcs.

Cless ran outside and saw her guild hiding against a building. Some of them were wounded, a few heavily wounded, and the big orc knight that was probably Lyle was fighting alongside a bloodied Silverfang defending them. She saw several warlocks climbing the roofs of the houses and she jumped ahead as she mumbled the first stances of a prayer-spell.

She moved faster than ever. Her leap brought her across the street and to the roof of the house her guild was hiding against. The warlocks saw her and shifted their targets but she was already finished.

"Hallow!"

The pulse of holy power was a visible halo running around her, casting away shadows as it passed and enveloped two rows of houses in all directions. The warlocks, caught in the spell screamed and fell to their knees, too wounded to even run. She didn't even bother to sustain the spell. Cless jumped again, into the throng of orcs that was pressing on the street defended by Lyle and Silverfang. She swung her sword and cut three orcs next to her. The sword broke on the fourth.

Cless was enraged. She kicked an orc over the kidneys and used the momentum to pounce another, breaking its jaw with a punch. She felt her knuckles sting but she cared not. The world around her was moving slow. The orcs were slower than she remembered. Cless shouted with pure anger. The orcs flinched. She grabbed a rusted greatsword, a slab of metal without edge and swung. She should have lost her footing but her feet were as if stuck to the rock where she stood. She bashed two orcs onto another four.

The greatsword felt light on her hand. She felt like she was wielding a twig. She swung high and to the side, catching the heads of three orcs. The orcs parted and she saw. A big orc knight, as big as the one Lyle was possessing now. It came at her screaming and bashing its massive ax on its equally massive shield.

"Protection."

"Blessing."

She cast a third spell but held onto it. The orc knight came and swung his greataxe. Cless dodged and with graceful steps she twirled around finding herself behind the orc knight. She released her magic practically touching the small of the orc's back.

"Holy Bolt!"

The orc knight toppled forward and didn't stand up. Cless shouted and dropped the greatsword for the knight's greataxe. She swung around, no orcs dumb or brave enough to stay close to her and the greataxe did a full turn. She released the weapon and it spun, cleaving maybe half a dozen orcs and bowling into another amount. Cless grabbed the greatsword and ran to the mass of frightened orcs swinging it down and smashing the metal helmet and the head of a warrior. She pulled the sword sideways and ripped open the chest of a berserker.

She felt danger sense ping. A hidden attack. Cless moved around, dropping the greatsword and yanking a polearm from the hand of an orc warrior and ducking underneath it. Several dark bolts blasted the place where she was, one of them hitting the orc she took the spear from.

More warlocks on the roofs. She didn't move. She just used the spell again.

"Hallow!"

She stayed immobile and watched the warlocks burn. And something else happened. Several orcs that were shambling in the back also burned. Undead. Probably the orcs they killed earlier, raised into undead servants by the dark warlocks. The burning heaps of the warlocks stopped moving and Cless found herself alone. The orcs were running away, at least the living ones. The undead orcs, a horde shambled and stumbled toward Cless but she would not back away. She ran toward the mass of undead and raised her holy symbol.

"Turn Undead!"

It was cheaper than Hallow and at this range, it would have about the same effect. The orc zombies were blasted away by her holy power and soon were crumbling to dust.

Cless scanned around and found no enemies to fight. She ran back to where her guild was.

Orc-Lyle was kneeling and as she turned a corner, she started throwing Mendings on everyone without even bothering to do triage. She was covered in blood from the head to the toes. The sticky fluid seeped inside her armor, inside her boots. Cless cared not. She looked around for more orcs to kill. She had to do a double-take to not assault Orc-Lyle.

"Wait, Cless. Stop, there are no enemies around. We won!" Lyle told her with his new grunting voice.

She wobbled. The bloodlust and rush of combat taking its toll on her. "Is everyone alright? Is everyone alive?"

They groaned. She could see that all of them were at least moving. Cless checked again. This time carefully. No deaths. One God be praised. She spent the rest of her magic power healing them until they all could move. Most of them were not able to fight but at least they could move.

"I have to make a funeral for the gnomes. Silverfang, could you gather all the heads on pikes at the town's entrance? I doubt the orcs are sticking around but don't engage. If you see any orcs come back to tell us."

Cless gathered the bodies of the gnomes to make a funeral pyre while the guild took over a house big enough for them. She set the pyre on fire as the sun went down on their seventh day.

"Lyle, when we go back, we are finding some bandits to 'kill' you. You can't stay an orc. I hope you understand."

"It is fine, Cless. I don't want to be an orc forever. By the way, what happened with the gnomes? You come out covered in blood and whatever else and start to slaughter the orcs like they were cockroaches."

"I... I made a deal with the gnomes. I'm going to kill the King of this tribe of orcs," She points back at the mountain. "He is inside there. I promised to at least try."

"Can you? He would be stronger than one of these knights." Orc-Lyle pointed at himself.

"You saw how I killed the knight, didn't you?"

"Sure did."

"Go to sleep. I'll watch the pyre for a while longer."

No orc dared enter that village that night. Cless used her time to finally check her notifications.

For defeating 37 gnomes, you earned 711 Class Experience Points.

For defeating 26 orcs, you earned 3,586 Class Experience Points.

Your contracts earned you 372,654 Experience Points. You reached level 39. +5 stat points.

For defeating 17 orcs, you earned 2,615 Class Experience Points.

For defeating 24 orcs, you earned 48,000 Class Experience Points. You reached level 40.

For defeating 87 zombies, you earned 102,615 Class Experience Points. You reached level 42. +1 stat point.

For using your Class proficiencies, you earned 95,000 Class Experience Points. You reached level 45. +2 stat point.

Your contracts earned you +76 Strength, +124 Agility, +112 Health, +101 Intelligence, +67 Magic. +92 stat points. Stat increase exceeds safe threshold. Deferring allocation. Safe allocation set to +8 stat points each day. All your stats increased by +8. Next allocation at dawn.

You gained 42 Skills. Check text notification for more details.

Name: Cless (no surname)

Race: Human.

Level: 45 (+16) ( 1,041,995 / 1,081,000 Exp )

Class: Cleric 25 (300,000 Exp / ** )

Profession — Warmaster 16 (+4) (133,319 / 136,000 Exp) — Weaponmaster 16 (+4) (133,319 / 136,000 Exp)

Base Stats — Strength: 25 — Agility: 25 [38] — Health: 35 — Intellect: 46 — Magic: 86

Available Status Points: 104 (+100)

Skills: [ Absolute Contract (S) ], [ Giant's Stamina (E) ], [ Trick Shot (D) ], [ Dangersense ⦅C⦆ ], [ Nimble Step (D) ], [ Eat Anything ⦅C⦆ ],

[ Elven Longevity ⦅C⦆ ], [ Tinker (D) ], [ ??? ] x 42

Proficiencies:

Appraisal — Status: 22

Crafting — Crude Weapons: 5 — Arrows: 1

Magic, Cleric

— Mending: 28 — Detoxify: 16 — Light: 24 — Turn Undead: 4 — Blessing: 16 — Holy Bolt: 24 — Purify: 10 — Protection: 21

— Hallow: 25 — Flametongue: 1 — Cure: 1 — Uncurse: 1 — Banish: 1 — Heal: 7 — Warding: 1 — Revivify: 10

General — Prayer: 27 — Scribe: 2 — Houseworking: 6 — Math: 3 — Reading: 12 — Forestry: 9 — Skinning: 7 — Herbalism: 3 — Sabotage: 2

Social, general — Negotiation: 15 — Persuasion: 3 — Bluff: 6

Social, martial — Leadership: 28 — Intimidation: 21 — Tactics: 26

Movement — Tumbling: 3 — Stealth: 3 — Sneak: 3

Weapon — Long Blades: 27 — Short Blades: 2 — Unarmed: 11 — Archery: 28 — Spears: 3 — Maces: 22 — Staves: 4 — Axes: 9