“Gather in one place!”
The quickest to respond to the anomaly was, without a doubt, Jun.
And following Jun’s voice, the ones who reacted were his companions and Schneider.
“Quick, gather over here!”
Soon after, the two assistants came running, and the prisoners who grasped the situation quickly gathered as well.
“Stop messing around and stick together in one place.”
Leon took control of the prisoners like that.
“Mage, what’s going on?”
“Someone has awakened something in this temple that should never have been disturbed. Probably…”
“That bat-faced bastard, huh.”
“Oh, Braight! Just what have you done, man?!”
Both Leon and Schneider immediately thought of the two who had disappeared.
Jun knew all too well what this phenomenon signified.
Whoooooom—!!
As the light bursting from within the temple grew ever stronger, Jun shouted to Eleanor.
“Eleanor! Barrier!”
[Block of Light]
A holy golden light rose up, enveloping the group and cutting off any contact with the outside.
Not stopping there, Jun invoked another spell.
[Iron Rampart]
Iron walls abruptly sprang up from the ground, encircling the group.
Somehow, their immediate safety was secured.
Almost simultaneously, a colorless energy swept through the interior of the temple, emanating from the walls.
The holy golden barrier forcibly pushed back that colorless energy.
Some of the energy managed to penetrate Eleanor’s holy magic and attempted to seep inside, but was blocked by the iron walls Jun had raised and soon dissipated into the air.
“H-Hey, Jun. Don’t tell me…”
“…The Orc Lord Hargon. He’s awakened.”
***
The Orc Lord Hargon.
His other name and title was the Conqueror King.
He was, quite literally, the hero of the orcs who had sparked countless wars and conquered innumerable lands in ancient times.
However, in the process, he became entangled with an Outer God and was ultimately dragged forcibly into the underworld. He was a tragic hero, or so the story went.
Well, tragic only from the orcs’ point of view.
In the game, this guy appeared in the latter half of the story.
It happened right here, on the Warfield of Orcutas all thanks to the schemes of the Heavenly Church.
The real problem was the power he possessed.
Upon returning from the underworld, he devoured every soul in his vicinity, greedily absorbing them into himself.
Fortunately, thanks to the preparations of Jun who already knew about this fact, the worst-case scenario of their entire party being wiped out right from the start didn’t happen.
Jun raised his gaze to the night sky, where a blue full moon had risen.
Should he pity him? Or call it karma?
The soul of the Orc Lord, who had devoured two souls, departed the temple.
He had probably gone off to search for a body to possess.
The immediate threat was over.
But that was no reason to feel relieved.
“Oh… Braight. Why in the world did you do something like that…”
“Tch.”
After the situation had run its course—
The group entered the temple to check on what had happened inside.
There, they found two withered corpses.
As if every single nutrient in their bodies had been drained away, only shriveled skin and bone remained.
They were the bodies of Schneider’s assistant Braight, and the prisoner known as Mustache.
“Hargon must have drained every last bit of energy from them.”
“Haa…”
Schneider stared down at his assistant with grief-stricken eyes.
“Why were you in such a hurry…”
The two corpses lay facing the entrance as if they had died trying to escape from the stone chamber.
Apparently, that Mustache prisoner also possessed the [Ancient Language] skill.
While everyone else was struggling, he must’ve planned to stick close to the client and leech off the rewards for himself.
Jun turned his gaze back toward the stone tablet.
Should I call it misfortune… or a blessing in disguise?
It was different from the hidden stage in the game.
No, to be more precise…
In the game, I only ever encountered him when the hidden stage was already in progress. I had never come across him right from the beginning.
So as long as he kept his wits about him, this was a crisis he could overcome.
Jun turned his head back toward Schneider.
If he remembered correctly, Schneider had said this assistant had followed him for ten years.
But Schneider was a skilled scholar.
In other words, he was also someone accustomed to death.
When he closed his eyes for a brief moment and then opened them again, there was no trace of sorrow left on his face.
“Jun. In your opinion, what’s the current situation?”
“According to what’s written on that stone tablet… The Orc Lord has likely gone to find a body to possess.”
“And after that?”
“He’ll move with two objectives in mind. One is to find the five mediums that brought him here from the underworld.”
Everything Jun said was written on the tablet.
“Mediums, huh? And why is he looking for them?”
“The closer he is to the mediums, the more of his original power he regains. And when a medium is destroyed, he’ll be dragged back to the underworld.”
“I see. Is there any other issue?”
“He’ll probably resurrect those mediums.”
“Don’t tell me, those mediums are…”
“The Orc Lord’s five generals. Their corpses are the very mediums he’ll use for possession.”
This was the difference between the game and reality.
In the game, the player only encountered him after he had already found at least three of the mediums. But right now, he hadn’t found a single one yet.
However, if one were to argue whether this situation was advantageous or disadvantageous for their party…
Obviously, it’s a disadvantage.
A hidden stage.
Among players, it was a phenomenon known as “Hard Mode”.
In other words, the changes in the field itself had already begun.
Jun listened closely to the roars of the orcs echoing from far away.
“That sound?”
“The Orcs have awakened along with the Orc Lord’s resurrection.”
“……Was that written on the tablet as well?”
There hadn’t been any explicit phrase stating that the Orcs would awaken.
Instead…
“There was a phrase that said, ‘On the day he returns, the long-standing war of the orcs will come to an end, and they shall reclaim what was lost’.”
“What they lost…”
“It probably means they’ll gain power comparable to the orcs found in the upper levels.”
But in truth, that wasn’t quite accurate.
The ones in the upper levels were systematically trained, whereas these orcs had simply awakened the instincts that had been lying dormant within them.
Still, I should at least say this much to keep them on their toes.
It wasn’t something Jun was saying for Schneider’s sake.
Jun’s gaze turned to the back.
It was directed at the prisoners, who were still tilting their heads in confusion, not fully grasping the situation.
“Uh, it feels like something’s gone wrong. Can’t we just run away?”
One of the prisoners suggested that, but unfortunately, that wasn’t an option.
“The field door is blocked.”
“W-What? What do you mean by that?”
The prisoner asked in a flustered voice, but Jun didn’t answer.
After all, the tablet hadn’t mentioned anything about the field door being blocked.
Fortunately, instead of asking more questions about that, Schneider chose to discuss their next steps.
“Then what must we do from here?”
“There are two methods. Either kill the possessed orc or destroy the medium.”
“Is either of those feasible?”
“The former is impossible, but the latter should be doable.”
While it wouldn’t match the power of its true body, the Orc Lord was still a monster beyond the capability of anyone here to deal with.
Even Leon, a level 6 expedition leader, would struggle to land a proper hit on him.
“First, we need to retreat from this area.”
“Because of the orcs?”
“Yes. Their long-lost masters are finally returning.”
Looking outside, dozens of orcs could be seen approaching.
Every single one of them had a red glow swirling in their eyes.
It was the signature state of orcs called “Frenzy”.
That was the very instinct that had been lying dormant within them.
“Hoo… I’ll join you as well.”
Although he hadn’t directly stepped in for his assistant’s thesis until now, Schneider himself was a level 6 warrior.
He took out a pair of gauntlets engraved with a peculiar pattern from his bag.
“What should I do?”
“For now, we need to break through.”
Schneider moved to the front, and the party followed behind him.
Their top priority right now was to break through the dozens of orcs charging toward them and escape the Temple.
“…Is this supposed to be a common mission? If I had to do this ten times, there wouldn’t be much of me left.”
“Seriously, what a way to get initiated…”
“Haha…”
Jun did his best to ignore the voices of his comrades coming from behind.
The one who’s really got it the worst is me…
But he didn’t have the courage to actually say it out loud.
***
Schneider.
Even in the game, he was a level 6 scholar who could temporarily join you as an ally depending on the mission.
The very reason Jun was still able to look at this situation with a bit of hope was because of that man.
You don’t usually see level 6 fighters this easily on the level 4 field.
By sheer coincidence, there happened to be two level 6 fighters here.
“What will you do?”
“I’ll go first. Shouldn’t you be looking after the prisoners?”
“…Understood.”
Leon took a slight step back, and Schneider pulled his right arm all the way back.
With his right leg also pulled back, Schneider lowered his stance and gathered mana into his fist.
The mana he gathered was immediately absorbed into the gauntlets he was wearing.
The orcs, having spotted the group, started roaring.
“Orcutas Bahal—!”
“Baaahaal!!”
Dozens of orcs, with their bodies far more swollen and huge than before, charged all at once.
If they tried to block them using only the prisoners, they’d have to be prepared for at least half of them to die.
However, Schneider, who was facing the orcs, simply focused quietly on his fist.
The moment he drew power to its very limit and thrust his fist forward once—
“Step back behind me.”
At the same time as Schneider muttered softly, he threw a straight punch forward.
And from the tip of his fist which had undoubtedly been aimed at empty air…. a burst of energy exploded outward.
Boooooom――!
As if a cannon had just been fired, a storm of dust rose behind Schneider, completely obscuring the group’s view.
But not a single one of them missed what Schneider had just done.
“C-Crazy…”
The shockwave of energy that had burst from his gauntlet swept through the orcs in an instant.
They weren’t merely being knocked back.
Their bodies were literally being torn apart in midair.
Centered around Schneider, the energy fanned out in a wide arc before him, wiping out every orc directly in front of him.
Just when the party members found themselves speechless at the almost magical sight—
“Khuh…!”
Schneider let out a low groan and let his right arm drop limply at his side.
“Sir Schneider!”
The two assistants hurriedly ran to him.
“I’m fine. It’ll heal soon enough. For now, we need to keep moving.”
From a distance, the roars of orcs rang out once more.
It was clear there were still many orcs left in the area.
“I’ll head northeast first.”
With that, Jun took the lead, and the group wasted no time in following closely behind him.
***
“Do you see the markings written here?”
When Jun pointed to a relatively cleanly drawn map, Schneider asked,
“What’s this?”
“It’s a map we found on Assistant Braight. Here and here; do you see them?”
“…Those are the hieroglyphs we discovered.”
“Yes, that’s right. It seems to be a map created by deciphering those hieroglyphs. It appears to have been left behind by Assistant Braight.”
“Hmmm…”
Sadness once again appeared on Schneider’s face, but this time, he composed himself.
They couldn’t afford to lose the lives of those still living just because they mourned the dead.
“I see… These hieroglyphs seemed to depict someone. So, the five mediums… in other words, they represent the Lord’s five generals.”
“Yes. And right now, our location is here, near the Ancient Temple.”
“We were supposed to head northwest, weren’t we?”
“That’s correct.”
“But that’s strange. Judging by our location, wouldn’t it be more efficient to head directly north and then east? That way, we’d be able to find the most mediums in terms of distance.”
At those words, Jun shook his head.
“According to these hieroglyphs, the name of the general located to the northeast is Barbata.”
It was a name also mentioned on the stone tablet in the Temple. He was the shaman orc who had created a device to summon the Orc Lord’s soul.
***
“A shaman, huh…”
“All four of the other orcs are warrior-types, but this one alone is a shaman.”
“That’ll make him tricky to deal with.”
“Yes. That’s why I judged that it’s best to take him out first.”
“I agree.”
“Makes sense.”
The only two members of the group who were Level 6 both agreed with Jun’s proposal.
They too thought that if the orc shaman managed to join forces with the Orc Lord, it would become far more difficult to handle.
However, eliminating the shaman first wasn’t Jun’s decision solely for that reason.
But this wasn’t the right time to reveal that to the group.
That was information they could only learn after killing the shaman.
Jun continued his explanation.
“After we kill the shaman, our next destination will be the southwest.”
“That’s geographically close by. But won’t the path to the next location become much longer because of that?”
“Even so, I believe it’s best to deal with this first. These hieroglyphs…”
“Explorer… in other words, a ranger unit, huh.”
Once again, Jun nodded his head.
“From the moment the Orc Lord was resurrected, the mediums also awoke from their long slumber. However, since that area has been sealed off, they’re unable to come out. Our goal is to take away the Orc Lord’s brain, eyes, and feet.”
“Very strategic. Good, I’ll agree with your plan. But why exactly are the mediums sealed away?”
“That much, I’m not entirely sure myself.”
As to be expected from a scholar, Scheider was curious about such things, but it wasn’t as if Jun could explain every little detail to him.
“Well, this is Blackout, after all. Figuring that out would be the job of a scholar like me.”
There was no time to be leisurely.
Even at this very moment, the Orc Lord was probably moving to search for the mediums.
That was when Leon asked Jun a question.
“But is there really a reason to go after the mediums first? Wouldn’t it be better to just deal with the Orc Lord directly?”
“It’s not entirely impossible. However, that would be closer to a gamble.”
If, while they were out searching for him, the Orc Lord managed to recover even a single medium, then with their current forces, they wouldn’t stand a chance.
If he hasn’t reclaimed any of the mediums yet, there’s still a chance at least.
Jun had no intention of taking such a dangerous gamble.
***
Just traveling in the direction where the Orc Shaman, Barbata, was located took over ten days.
Even Jun couldn’t do anything about that.
Starting from the level 4 field, the field’s size was more than twice as large as before.
The problem was that, during that process, the issue of food shortages began to arise.
“Huff, huff…”
“Goddamn it. More damn orcs again…”
“Shit. I feel like the smell of orc blood is permanently stuck in my head now…”
The prisoners who had drawn their weapons looked at the orcs with exhausted eyes.
Since they hadn’t been able to properly feed the prisoners, their stamina had been dropping rapidly.
It was a bad sign.
Without stamina, not even divine power can restore them.
The problem was that there was no food left to feed the prisoners.
Using the food in the space pouch should be the last resort.
If he used that to feed the twenty prisoners, their own food supplies would run out in no time.
The most straightforward solution was to hunt for food.
“Move out.”
The real problem was that Jun had no way of persuading the expedition leader, whose hobby seemed to be tormenting the prisoners.
The treatment of the prisoners is entirely under his authority.
Jun’s gaze naturally turned to Joseph, who was fighting hard against the orcs while looking after Luke and Lucy.
If I can’t persuade him, I’ll have to look for another approach.
After the skirmish with the orcs came to an end, Jun quietly approached Joseph.
Leave a Reply