Chapter 18: The War (2)

After the celebration was over, I arranged a group of two hundred Orcs to make a perimeter around the new area we obtained. It was around 5k sq. meters of space, probably 1/10th of the whole forest. First, I had them cut down the high rising trees, and then clear the bushes. Then I had them build strong wooden fences by wood obtained from the trees. I simply showed them the design, and they did the rest.

After the perimeter was done, the next step was weapons. I saw the Orcs prefer blunt weapons more. While it was a good thing against the forces, they fought just now, what if stronger ones appear? Going by fantasy standard, the evolved form of goblins are either hobgoblins or something similar. What if they appear in the next battle? The Orcs would lose their only advantage.

Hence, a proper weapon was necessary. The problem was, there was no one among the Orcs who could build one. Even though I specifically showed them the design, they still were clueless about it. Hence, it was, in the end, upon me to guide these idiots on how to make weapons. Of course, they were all simple tools like polearms, or hammers or wooden shields. The reason why I ordered to clear the trees and bushes other than the use of wood was to make sure no troops would sneak attack us when our guard was down.

After everything was done, Logier came to me, who had taken up a small wooden hut as my residence. It was closer to the exit point. If something drastic happens, I would be able to escape easily before others. The hut was tiny, made comparatively to my size. Since he couldn’t go in, Logier sat outside and started talking, “everyone’s happy after the initial battle.”

“That’s a given.” I smiled. Despite all the things filling my mind, I could share this little joy with this Orc. Suddenly I remembered something and decided to ask Logier, “Say Logier, What is the evolution path of you Orcs?” I was very curious about the way the other monsters evolve. After all, I don’t think everyone had a system like me or the others who came from my world.

“Evolution? What does that mean?” Logier looked confused with his head tilted and eyes squinted. It was quite ugly and bad for someone with a faint heart to look at. But, the way I am now, I can’t comment on other’s appearance so I kept quiet.

“Well, I mean the way I transformed from my previous appearance to this and also become stronger. Do you have something like this happening to you?” I explained with specifics this time so that he could understand what I am asking. Looks like my explanation worked as he made a face that looked like he understood what I want.

“Oh, you mean Enhancing, right? We have that too.”

So it’s called Enhancing in monster speak. I learned something new today again.

“Is it? How does that work?”

“Hmm, it depends on what we do. If we fight a lot and consume our prey’s flesh, we will grow strong. After a certain threshold, we will experience Enhancing. The Orcs could enhance into three paths to my knowledge. One is Orc Lord, it is quite common and most Orcs enhance to this stage. The second was Orc Defender, it was a similar type of growth as Orc Lord. Only, instead of huge attacking power, they have a sturdier body. It was nigh impossible to hurt them, be it by physical force or magic.” Logier stopped and looked at the distant trees as if he remembered something, “my old man used to be an Orc Defender too. If it were not for his sacrifice back then, that magician would have wiped us all out… I could still vividly recall his back as he burned to a crisp by the lightning the magician summoned.”

I kept quiet. Logier also quieted down for a while before giving out a long sigh, “compared to father, I am nowhere close to an Enhancement at all… I wonder if I have the talent or not…” then he looked at me and snorted, probably thinking of something rude about me. Then he continued his explanation, “the third and the rarest path of Enhancement is Orc Shaman. It was very obscure and not much is known about it. I too only heard it from my old man once. Apparently, the very first leader of our tribe was one. She was very strong and could hold her own against all other powerful monsters inside the second floor.”

And that’s how the monsters evolve.

Interesting indeed, if I think about it a little deeper. Looking at Logier, I further asked, “How are the criteria? I mean, what criteria needed for a monster to evolve?”

“Criteria? I don’t know. It’s because I don’t know, perhaps, that’s why I am yet to enhance. I wonder how my old man did it. He also kept a very tight lid on the secret. When asked, he would say that I need to find my path and method. I wonder what that meant” Logier looked disappointed, but, realization dawned upon me.

His father said to find the way to evolution on your own… that’s right… the path!

I have chanced upon this realization partly because I am a human with higher intelligence and partly because of the system giving out obvious clues. The same couldn’t be true for Logier and thus he was stuck in the level of an adult Orc for a long time. If I am not mistaken, either he hadn’t yet collected enough EPs or equivalent necessary for Enhancement, or, he hadn’t mastered all the aspects of his current level and there’s still room for growth.

It was something worth looking forward to. As such, since someone that just recently had an evolution, I thought I am qualified to give some pointers.

“Logier, it might just be my imagination, but perhaps you are not chanced upon your enhancement yet because probably you can still grow strong as an adult Orc… or perhaps, you have not killed enough yet… how about using this battle to see if you can clear either of the criteria?”

In reality, I also want to know if my assumptions are true or not. If it’s indeed true, perhaps I can create an army of powerful and evolved monsters to rally against the empire. I discarded the idea as soon as it appeared. It was a very dangerous thought. Although I am now in very dire straits, I can’t just bring myself to hurt millions of people just because of my revenge.

Hmmm, but using it to threaten them to surrender all the party involved might not be a bad idea. In any case, the idea had already been conceived in my head.

“Eh? Are you right? Can I still grow stronger?” Logier looked dubious. Perhaps I would too if someone suddenly advises me on how to grow strong. Credibility was a big issue here, as in Logier’s eyes, I am just an Imp… although an intelligent and stronger one. In any case, I still stand by my right to advice because I am the one who experienced the same thing not too long ago.

“Of course I am. Look at me, didn’t I enhanced to this current form? How do you think I managed it?”

“I see, so that’s how it is…” Logier suddenly looked determined. Clenching his oversized fist, which could fit the whole me in it, he looked at the ceiling and roared, “I will do it. Its just killing right, I will do it!!”

‘No, it's not about simply killing…’ is what I wanted to retort but I held back. I don’t want to ruin his mood. In any case, this was also an experiment of mine, and I wanted to see how far it was successful. If it’s how the things are, I would gain a very valuable chip. As to where I want to use that chip, that’s something I haven’t thought of yet. Perhaps in the future, when I seek alliance from other monster groups, I can use this info as bargaining.

…

The second wind of war came right after the first. Just when the Orcs were thinking about taking it lightly, a needle pierced through the darkness, reminding the ever-proud Orcs to not let their guard down even if the enemy was some weak green creatures.

The needle was different from the usual one goblins used. It was longer and thicker. Unlike the needles made of bone that goblins prefer, it resembled that of iron or steel. There was a weird purple liquid dripping from its tip. The needle struck one of the working Orcs, who was unlucky enough to get close to the perimeter.

The weirdness started from there. The corpse melted in an instant, spreading a kind of dense purple fumes. Whatever came in contact with the purple fume, started to melt like butter on a hot a pan. Moreover, the fumes only got denser when someone died from it. Due to such an outbreak, I ordered an instant evacuation of all Orcs from that particular area.

After we evacuated the whole area, the purple fumes rapidly dissipated and the base area returned to how it used to be. Still, no one dared to return in fear of the repetition of events. Honestly, I wasn’t surprised to see this turn of events. On the contrary, I was happy.

If these Orcs win everything without much of a hitch, would they still need me? Second, this showed me a glimpse of goblins’ powers. In fantasy setting games I have played once, goblins were often creatures that would either have advanced weaponry or use poison potions. It seems those notions held some truth after all.

‘What kind of other secrets they have?’ This thought appeared in my head. This chemical weapon alone was exciting enough; I wanted to see what next these goblins had planned.

Yes, that’s right. Exciting! That’s the word best suited to describe my feelings at the moment. I don’t know why, but, after encountering such a situation, the competitive spirit in me that was buried in the rat race called corporate, re-emerged.

Because, somewhere in my subconscious mind, I have considered the war between Orcs and goblin a type of game. A game where I am a player and these guys are my pawns. No doubt, it was a very dangerous mindset. The current me, however, didn’t seem to realize that yet.

“What should we do?” Logier came running and asked anxiously. Looks like the chemical weapon had thoroughly spooked them. His face was sweaty and his eyebrows were jumping every so often. I could even see his stiff cheek muscles.

“That thing is very dangerous, so of course we can’t back until we are sure no more attacks will happen. However, don’t forget this is goblins’ territory. They are more familiar with this place than us. So what do you think we should do?” I looked at Logier, trying to gauge his reaction.

“We should retreat for now…” well it’s a very surprising answer for someone like him. after all, I had half expected to hear something like, ‘let’s burn the whole forest and weed them out’… wait a minute, burn?

Suddenly an idea came to my head. A very dangerous but exciting idea. In fact, this idea was dangerous on so many levels. If I were to be back on earth, those environmentalists would have a field day with me for even thinking of such a horrible idea.

What do you think this horrible idea might be?

Of course, create a fire and burn the forest!

Everything is fair in love and war, and this is a war.

Goblins had the advantage in terms of terrain and unknown chemicals. Even though the Orcs were stronger, they couldn’t win a fight like this.

But before that, I passed an order.

“Logier, take a few of your men and retaliate. Whenever you see similar things happening, retreat and regroup. This gas’s effective duration was very low. Unless it affects you, people, the gas will slowly dissipate. Although I doubt they have too many of these.”

“Okay!”

After Logier ran off, I looked at the dense forest that was the goblin’s habitat as my lips parted wide, showing rows of zagged shark-like teeth. I wondered loudly, “I wonder what you have in store for us next, Unique class!”