-two months later, in the forest north of Hoss-

In front of me, there were seven wild orcs ready to become my exp.

I was walking among them but none of them was noticing anything strange. I was using my improved dark magic to create the illusion of an orc I killed earlier all around me and none of them seemed to have noticed anything.

We found them not too long ago when they were returning to their turf. We couldn't kill them one by one but we managed the same to get a couple of stragglers, including the one I was impersonating.

Wild orcs had a slither of intelligence, enough to learn a few simple commands, but it wasn't enough to develop a proper language, so it was easy to blend among them.

One of them didn't return, so they were on guard. They were checking the area surrounding them but they weren't good enough to spot Oliver. While Jane was hiding further away, ready to act when she would receive the signal.

I was behind the one that Jane recognized as the strongest, waiting for Oliver's move.

Suddenly an arrow flew from the trees, it seemed in the wrong trajectory to hit anything, but suddenly it took a turn to the right, thanks to Oliver's wind magic, and hit an orc in the chest. The thick muscles of the orc stopped the arrow before it could break through the orc's ribs and pierce the earth but the dark attribute mana infused in the arrow took care of that, depriving the orc's heart of every bit of life in it.

Every orc stood up on guard, looking towards the direction the arrow came from. The orc in front of me also raised his pillaged shield towards Oliver's direction, giving me his back.

I didn't let the chance slip by. I took out my stiletto, used the fire enhancement, infused the weapon with dark mana, released the illusion, and stabbed the orc behind his head. The over two meters tall orc fell to the ground and the other orcs, when they saw it, started to panic.

Three of them hesitated, trying to guard themselves against Oliver while also keeping their eyes on me, while two of them charged at me.

As the two orcs attacked me, a thick mist started to rapidly cover the area.

If the orcs were more than two I would have run around inside the fog while Oliver took care of them but I could take them on if it was just two orcs.

Right before the orcs arrived in range with their weapons, I tested my new spell on them.

“Fireball.”

A ball of flames was launched from my wand and hit the furthest orc, it probably wasn't enough to hurt it seriously, but it was enough to buy time.

I threw myself at the nearest orc, he tried to hit me with his club, but I used fire enhancement on my eyes and legs to enhance my reflexes. I dodged with ease, then I slashed at his unprotected flank with my sabre infused with fire mana.

The fire damaged his internal organs and his spiritual body, making him scream in pain.

The orc started to wildly swing his club around. I gained some distance from it.

I looked for the other orc, the fog now was much thicker, so I couldn't see him anymore but I could hear his groans of pain. I got closer to him and as soon as I saw him, I launched a slowed illusory fireball to his left and then went to his right. He dodged to his right, getting himself in the right position for me to kill him. I cut his throat with an enhanced slash and a sabre infused with dark mana.

In the meanwhile, the other orc, after losing me, heard the sound of his comrade dying and found me again.

I positioned myself behind the corpse of his friend and cast an illusion on it, hoping the orc would trip on it.

But when I saw the orc, I noticed a slim column of water hovering above his head. Suddenly an arrow struck itself in his flank while releasing the dark mana infused in it and wounding the orc.

I used the opening by launching a couple of dark bullets to its legs, making the orc fall to his knees, overwhelmed by the crossfire. He tried to protect himself by hardening his skin with an earth martial art but he remained vulnerable to magic so I ended him with a dark bullet to its head.

Now that my chasers were dead I waited for Oliver and Jane to sweep out the rest.

The fog was created by Jane and although none of us could see inside it, the fog wasn't enough to stop Jane's blessing, so she was able to pinpoint the location of the strongest orc with it. She then created a slim column of water taller than the fog that hovered over the orc, to signal the position to Oliver, who then sniped at them from outside the fog.

After a while, the fog disappeared. I could see two more orc corpses and a half-dead orc with 7 arrows on him. It tried to run at me but it was too weak to be a threat. I killed him and then waited for the others to come.

Jane seemed a little nervous.

“S-sorry I finished my mana before the last one died.”

Actually, I wasn't disappointed at all with her performance.

“Don't worry, it was good enough, you did well.”

Jane seemed reassured by my words.

Then I saw an elf girl dressed like a maid running towards us. That dress had a shorter skirt than normal, short sleeves, it showed a bit of cleavage and came with white long gloves and stockings. Of course, it was me that choose that dress but I didn't think she would insist on wearing it even in the middle of a forest.

“As expected your strategy was amazing, master.”

Lae seemed to be thinking very highly of me, I liked that.

She then started gathering the orcs' left ears as proof of subjugation.

We left that work to her and took a little rest.

After I saved Lae she became my personal maid. It was me who requested it, both to be sure she wasn't killed without me noticing and because I liked the idea of having a personal elven maid.

Now that I got to know her for a couple of months, I also thought that she could become a loyal subordinate. In the current situation someone that wouldn't betray you was more precious than gold.

After a while, we returned to our camp. As we entered Alua appeared from behind us and entered with us.

First, we measured our maximum ki and mana. We've been hunting steadily for the last two months and we managed to hunt more efficiently than how usually heroes did. I had now 436 maximum mana and 388 maximum ki, Oliver scored 395 in mana and 308 in ki, while Jane got 356 in mana and 194 in ki.

We then also measured our affinities, I measured only fire and dark because if I had to measure all affinities then I would have to measure demonic too and expose its growth. My fire affinity was now 42 and my dark affinity was 63, Oliver scored 39 in wind and 47 in dark, while Jane scored 49 in water.

The light was starting to get dimmer so the girls went to wash in the river near the camp while I and Oliver waited.

There was a certain powder that was burning in the bonfire in our camp that kept the monsters away from us and since it barely reached a small portion of the river, so we couldn't just have the girls washing in a spot and the boys in another one far away from it. That was good for me though since I had to talk with Oliver about something Alua couldn't hear.

“Hey, David can I ask you something?”

“Yes.”

“Did something happen between you and Jane? Lately, she's been acting strangely around you.”

“Well kind of, she asked me for help get out of this situation and I've been guiding her since then.”

“Wait, what do you mean with "get out"?”

“I just wanted to tell you about it. Even though we could still gain more here, we managed to learn enough to be fine on our own, and lately, the voices on a possible war with Zaven became more insistent. I think it's time we get away from here, Lae is the only one I talked about it until now but I'm sure Jane will accept too. I have a few aces up my sleeve and your blessing is perfect for sneaking around so I think we have very good chances to succeed. So, are you in?”

Oliver listened in silence, then said.

“Did playing the hero got to your head?”

I froze up. That surely wasn't the reply I was expecting.

I noticed Oliver got more self-confident with time but I didn't think it was that much.

He continued to talk.

“I hope you aren't serious, there's no way we can do it, we also have no reason to. Here we get everything we need and are protected by an entire city-state. I see no reason to go risk our lives just so we can live while struggling to get daily necessities.”

“Wait do you know what will happen if a war breaks out?”

“We will be used to raise the soldiers' morale and kept safe by the city. It's better than to risk getting involved as civilians.”

I was starting to get irritated by his defiance but I needed to bring him to my side.

“Wait don't you want freedom? Are you going to risk your life for a country that just wants to use you?”

Oliver's cheeks became red, now he seemed upset.

“I am. Do you think you can always have what you want? Do you think that everything will always go your way? The world doesn't work like that, if you don't adapt to it, you'll just be left out and die. Play the main character all you want with Jane but at least leave Lae alone. Like all the natives, she thinks of us as messengers of the goddess and since you also saved her life, she thinks way too highly of you. Don't abuse her trust.”

“Fool. Do you think you will be fine just obeying others and letting them decide your fate? One day you'll be used and thrown away. The world is the shit it is just because no one is strong enough to change it. I will show you what I'm capable of.”

I was tired of him, I didn't know why he reacted like that but I couldn't just let him do. I was about to show him the fruits of my training in demonic magic when he suddenly changed expression.

He looked away, took a deep breath, and then assumed a calmer expression.

“I-I, sorry, I was too conceited, I don't know what got into me. I still don't want to join you in your plan but I didn't want to belittle you. I still respect you David but I think you got a little too full of yourself.”

I calmed myself too, it's not like I could waste months of secret training just for that.

“I see. I got too conceited too, sorry about it.”

I looked towards the river and saw the girls returning.

“Now let's go take a bath, I need it.”

Oliver blushed and then said.

“I-I still have something to do. You go first, I'll do it later.”

“Okay then.”

I took a brief bath and then went to sleep.

I got asleep while thinking about how to compensate for Oliver's loss.

I woke up feeling my heart being grasped by anxiety. I constantly had to keep my guard up from everyone around me and now I just lost a potential ally. I felt the weight of my task crushing me. I looked at the sky and saw the moon shining upon me.

I got up and walked away silently, relying on a dark spell, without waking Alua. I continued to walk through the forest, looking for a spot where I could call the moon to me.