Chapter 72: Second Floor Part 2

Tall, muscular, and must have a darker skin tone.

The above was my basic understanding of how an orc should be. But those five orcs destroyed my so-called understanding of orc anatomy.

They were slender, almost having an identical body proportion to humans. They have red skin, almost humanish faces lacking all pig parts. They also had long white hairs, which were creating a contrast against their red as blood skins.

“Who are they?”

I couldn’t stop looking at them.

Maybe it was my uncanny valley effect or my fear of human-like figures, but I couldn’t stop the dread emerging from my heart.

“Those are Orc royalty. Before the Bloodyvores started the crusade, they used to be the controller of this floor.” Ergoth replied. His voice carried a hint of defeat and fear.

“Why do they look different from you?”

There was indeed hell and heaven difference between Ergoth and those thin orcs. It's as if they don’t even belong to the same species.

“I don’t know.” Ergoth shook his head.

I was disappointed.

I wondered how they didn’t know about the origin when they call them royalty.

I continued to observe the camp. Those slender orcs were indeed treated like royalty. Wherever they go, they were getting a subservient response from others. Some of the red-skinned orcs were the exception to this, though.

The orc I marked stumbled into the camp, garnering everyone’s attention.

Little by little, more orcs gathered around him. I couldn’t tell about what they were talking about, but it must be about his wounds.

“Why are the royalties here? It must be the edge of your habitat, correct?”

I had my guess. Yet, I wanted to confirm.

“I don’t know, lord.” Ergoth shook his head. “But I guess they must be gathering their arms to march onto the first floor.”

I also thought so.

Even if the Bloodyvores conquered and unified the orcs, for them to send to a symbolic presence such as these so-called royalties meant it’s for something important.

That orc I killed, he had given the biggest hint before his death.

Piecing two and two together, it became clear that they were preparing to conquer the first floor.

After I realized this, I couldn’t help but feel unease. If I was one day late, they might have already reached our doorsteps. Having fought a battle for their existence not long ago, neither the orcs nor the goblins were ready for another.

I was also thankful that my evolution came right on time. I couldn’t thank those humans who attacked me enough for what they did. It was their actions that made me chose this evolution path.

Had they not made me use the Flesh Eaters, I wouldn’t have been in a hurry to chose a path and done with it.

…

We stayed there until the sky darkened. Give or take, a few hours had already passed since that orc entered the tribe.

“It's time,” I mumbled.

“What for?” Ergoth asked. He was lying near me behind a thick bush and observing the camp.

The orcs were going about their day, doing nothing but walk around or fight with each other. Before the dawn came, I have already seen four fights. Out of them, two ended up with one side dead.

The so-called orc-royalty seemed to not care about it, and neither did the red-skinned orcs. It gave an impression, which had about a 50% chance of being true.

They were expandables.

The Unique Class must have sent them to test the waters.

“The thing I did to that orc, the result we will see now.”

I wanted it to be a surprise to them.

And me too.

The surprise came faster than I expected.

It was the red orc that went back. It suddenly collapsed while sitting around the bonfire and eating a steak.

The ‘female’ orcs gathered around him and tried to shake him awake. But it was already too late. Boils appeared on his skin as he lost consciousness. But I knew it was temporary. The orc will wake up into the worst kind of pain it had ever felt.

It was the same disease that killed the other Bloodyvore orc. The same bacteria were found in this orc’s lungs too. This led to an assumption that nearly all Bloodyvore orcs had this same infection. The last time I checked, Logier’s tribe didn’t have it.

Strangely, even though the orc fell amidst their celebration, none seems to be worried. Then came one of those royalties and kneeled beside the fallen Orc.

I don’t know what it did, but the orc stood up completely healthy after a few minutes.

I could only stare at the spectacle disbelievingly. My emotions fell into disarray.

I never thought someone could cure what I did to it.

I had all the details about that infectious bacteria. Before coming here, I had taken some time to improve it and increase its lethality.

Honestly, I never thought someone could heal them inside this dungeon. I expected the feat to be accomplished by a human or some other sentient race. But an orc doing it, it never crossed my mind.

Of course, my emotions would fall into chaos.

Soon I regained composure.

I had expected this outcome long before. Although it came sooner rather than later, that too from an unusual source, it was still within my expectations.

After it healed him, the thin orc led him somewhere we couldn’t see.

I wasn’t worried about them discovering us. What we did was a perfect crime.

“Lord, what shall we do?” Urt whispered. I sensed disappointment as well as anticipation from his voice.

“Don’t worry. I haven’t failed.”

Indeed, I haven’t.

Before the thin orc finished healing him, one of the boils had already popped from his back. The bacteria had already spread in the air. Within the next five hours, the rest of these orcs will also fall ill.

Initially, I had planned to see the orc spreading the bacteria and then leave this place to venture deeper into this floor. But now, I had to change it. The orc royalty was an unaccounted variable that appeared suddenly.

I decided to stay put and watch how they cope with this outbreak. It will give me valuable info on their strength and weaknesses.

Know your enemy and know yourself, then you will be undefeated in a hundred battles.

A quote from the best strategist of all time known as Sun Tzu.

I have followed and still following this strategy since the day I reborn as an Imp.

I have yet to be disappointed by following his ways, though.

The light gradually dimmed as night came. We stayed put the whole time, with me watching over the camp. Ergoth and Urt were on their backs and were snoring lightly. I also felt sleepy, but my excitement kept me awake.

Everything was quiet, but then suddenly I heard a loud roar coming from the campsite. The ringing of drums followed after, shaking the very air with its sound.

Ergoth and Urt were startled awake and looked towards the direction of the sound.

“The war drums!!” Ergoth mumbled with his beady eyes going wide.

“What is that?”

I looked at the orc questioningly.

“We beat the drum to warn everyone in case of something emergency.” Ergoth’s eyes narrowed. He stood up before looking into the camp seriously. “Did someone attacked the camp!?”

He wondered loudly.

Well, I immediately understood what happened.

The disease outbreak must have been beyond the control of the slender orcs.

“Is this a warning of some sorts?”

I asked Ergoth as Logier never spoke about their war culture.

“Yes, my lord,” Ergoth replied. “This particular rhythm means we suffered defeat and we must retreat or abandon the camp.”

After I heard it, everything made sense to me.

There was no one else who attacked them. Besides, to make a camp of 500 orcs retreat, the attacker must also have an equal number of orcs at the very least. I was stalking them the whole day. How could I miss a number so large marching at them?

It was the desease that cause the beating of the drum.

I stood up and walked in the direction of the camp confidently.

“Let’s go in. I want to meet that orc royalty.”