Chapter 71: Second Floor Part 1

The second floor, as expected, was a whole new world. Like the forest on the first floor, this place was a massive grassland with mountains and rivers. This place also didn’t smell foul as it did with goblin habitat.

“This place is so fresh,” Urt mumbled as he took in huge gulps of air.

“This is our home. Or, it used to be our home. We orcs don’t litter everywhere.” The orc elder squinted his eyes and made a face that looked halfway crying. Well, I couldn’t blame him considering it used to be their home, but now they could no longer go back there. It was the same thing with me too. If I have to visit my world now, I will cry like a baby. No doubt about that.

“This place looks beautiful,” I said with a frown marring my face. There was a smell of iron and rust in the air. I haven’t smelled anything like this before. No that’s not right. I have smelled this after the war with the humans. It’s the smell of the battlefield. “But there is a strange smell in the air.”

“Hmm!?” Urt also smelled with his eyes closed, and so did the orc elder. After a while, they both looked at me with a serious look on their faces, “Lord, it seems there was a big battle that happened here. The smell of blood is still fresh in the air.” Urt said while reaching for the new spear he won, as war spoils.

Ergoth also looked ready to pull out the battle hammer from his back.

“Can you find if someone is hiding and waiting to ambush us?” I asked to Urt. When it comes to battle, he was second to none. In fact, in certain situations, I trust him more than myself.

“No one’s around here, lord. But the smell is thicker in that direction.” Urt pointed to our left. I followed his hand and saw an ominous looking cave that somehow I missed while taking in the surrounding. “If I am not mistaken, there should be a wounded orc resting over there.” He added.

“Let’s find out then,” I said as we proceeded towards the silent and dark cave. I stopped them from entering and activated my Infrared Vision. I saw a faint, red humanoid outline sprawled on the ground. The tiny light dot on its chest looked like a flickering candle’s wick.

“There is someone inside, and it’s quite close to death as well. Urt, you go inside and drag it out. Be careful and exercise proper caution.” I ordered him to go inside, but not before reminding him to take care of himself. He was more important to me than all the orcs combined. I can’t let anything happen to him even if I have to sacrifice the whole orc tribe.

“Will do, lord.” Nodding at me, Urt pulled out the spear and held it in front of him. With careful steps, he went inside. All monsters have night vision, so he should have been able to see inside the cave. But the stranger thing was that we couldn’t see anything inside. If I didn’t have Infrared Vision, I wouldn’t have seen that body on the floor.

“Ergoth, what is this cave? Why can’t we see inside?” Curious enough, I asked the knowledgeable elder.

“It’s because of the rocks inside them,” Ergoth replied sagely. I was looking at his face, waiting for him to continue. But it never came. His explanation ended with just that. Resisting the urge to kick him across the cave, I carefully observed the rocks. They were dark as night and had a very rough surface. Aside from their weird property to absorb 98% of light, it was just like any other ordinary rock.

Urt came out dragging a body as big as he. Appearance-wise, it looked roughly like the one attacked me on the first floor. No doubt, this one was a Bloodyvore tribesman. Ergoth looked ready to pounce on it, but Urt stopped him in time. Disregarding him, I walked towards the still unconscious orc and lightly touched on its hand.

Pestilence’s Servant

The passive activated automatically, giving me a detailed report of the orc’s health condition. It wouldn’t be too much a stretch to call me a doctor with my current abilities. Usually, a disorder/disease happens due to some external influence. With the abilities I gained after becoming a Plague Imp, I could easily recognize any disease and can even cure them on the spot.

Broken bones, left-lung puncture, ripped gut, and viral disease, these were the extent of this orc’s wounds. If I don’t do anything, the orc will die. The Bloodyvores were a weird bunch of orcs. Loyal to the bone to their so-called master. I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t get any useful info from this one.

However, I had an idea.

Active Skill: Plague Bearer

Sometimes later, after I have done with my business, I stood up and stretched my back.

“Let’s go.” Urt obediently followed me. However, Ergoth showed some hesitation. So when I asked about it, he remained silent. With Ergoth as a guide, we walked briskly through the beautiful grassland that came after the cave. The whole point of me coming here was to spread deadly disease and make these orcs die. The seed had already been sown.

Now we have to wait for the results.

…

“Why are hiding here, lord?” Asked Ergoth as we laid flat on the high raising grass.

“We are waiting,” I said carelessly.

“For what?” I sighed before explaining what I had planned. “We are waiting for that orc to wake up.”

“Okay.”

And we waited until a few hours had passed. The orc finally woke up. He snorted loudly and touched around its body. After confirming that it was indeed healthy and alive, He let out a loud pig squeal before jumping around to show its glee.

His celebration continued for a while. Then it headed towards the opposite of the cave’s entrance.

“Where is he going?” I asked Ergoth. In the first place, the appearance of this lone orc so far from their ‘habitat’ was weird in itself. I remembered the orc that attacked me and tried to connect the non-existent dots. ‘Perhaps, both came together to scout the first floor, and the first orc betrayed him.’ I thought as that’s how a plot of kingdom type drama went anyway.

Though it was pretty farfetched, I still kept this hypothesis open for the time being.

“In that direction, there is a large water source. At the bank of that river, an orc tribe resided. Before we came down, that tribe had surrendered to the Bloodyvores.” Ergoth’s reply was curt, but I understood what he was trying to imply.

“Let’s follow him,” I have decided to watch the play until the end. I wanted to see the extent of my abilities. As a Plague Bearing Imp, all my abilities categorized under DoT. With a bunch of control type skills and now DoTs, I couldn’t be any more dangerous. Fortunately, no humans knew that yet.

“Yes, my lord.” As my loyal follower and right-hand man, Urt was ready to obey my orders. Although Ergoth had unwillingness written all over his face, he had no other choice than to obey me.

We followed the orc till the edge of the grassland. Beyond that, there was already signs of civilization. It was an orc community twice the size of Logier’s tribe. Not just me, even Urt had his jaws drop, and eyes widened.

“Bastard Bloodyvores!!” Ergoth growled. “They managed to unify this land entirely!” His voice carried a hint of disbelief mixed with fear and trepidation. This seemingly impossible goal had somehow achieved by the Bloodyvore tribe.

“How did you know?” I couldn’t help but ask to satiate my curiosity.

“Look at those thin and curvy looking orcs.” Ergoth pointed towards a group of four orcs huddled around a tent. When I followed the direction pointed by him, my brain short-circuited. I became unable to process anything for a while.

‘Are they really orcs?’ I had doubts in my heart when I saw those four orcs.