28. The test is over!
“Shh.”
The face of the fairy, who had been lost in pensiveness, recalled a coolness like a blade. Not forgetting her own duty, she signaled her party members to stand by.
[That’s a signal to stop.]
Of course, the ignorant hero of her adventurer’s guild almost trolled her, but I quickly stopped her. Hundreds of years have passed and the signal has changed slightly, but not to the point of being unrecognizable.
“Wait.”
With a low whisper, Layla permeated through the bushes. Taking on the role of a ranger, it is to scout the enemy before a proper battle.
Although there are times when I get nervous, my condition is perfect because I rested enough. Layla moved through the trees, scanning her enemy lines.
In the meantime, the other party members checked the necessary items. Soon, after she was fully engaged, after waiting a little longer, Layla returned to our position.
“I will start the fire first. In the meantime, you go into the enemy camp and draw attention. As always, you know?”
The warrior nodded her head trustingly. Layla looked at her hero for a moment, then shook her head.
“What is that…. Do it yourself. Don’t be silly.”
Maybe it’s because we were originally a two-member group, so we’re living a very cold life. I grumbled, but the hero didn’t seem to have any complaints. She rolled up her sleeves and prepared her chant.
“Sure.”
Having finished her words, Leila disappeared before our eyes again with fairy-like swiftness. Soon, acrid smoke began to billow from all over the forest.
“Chwiek!”
“Charuk! Charak!”
“I will go first too.”
The village became noisy in an instant. Taka, who returned to us once, soon walked towards the orc village with pride. At first glance, a reckless act.
However, with each step he took, a piece of magical armor was added to his body. Soon, he charged forward as a heavy tank wrapped in iron armor.
“Uryaaa!”
A roar echoed over the cries of the orcs. While the orcs’ eyes focused on it, Layla threw glass bottles all over the building.
The glass bottle shattered and the liquid inside soaked the building. As soon as it touched the divine flame that Layla had lit, a fire started sweeping the entire village.
It looks like oil at first glance, but it was the holy water of the sun. A red pattern appeared on the armor that covered Taka, blocking the heat.
It’s too much to be a level adventurer’s preparation. I was wondering how the two of us subdued an orc colony alone.
[It smells bad.]
Warriors are not that great in skill, but their equipment is excellent, and fairies also have an outrageous output of divine power compared to their control ability.
Worry about it later. While the two ran amok in the village, the warrior also rolled up his arms and went out to exercise his skills.
“Huh?”
The first to feel the change were the adventurers. Originally, they were violent, but from a certain moment on, they were swimming like fish meeting water in a fire.
Sometimes there are days like that. For some reason, I was in a good mood. It was such a day when the mind was clear, and even playing games worked exceptionally well. Coincidentally, that moment came to them.
“Suck.”
After that, the hero took a short breath and flipped his open palms, and a strong wind blew the flames to the other side. Now, not only the outside of the village, but also the inside began to burn.
“Ahahahahaha! Yes, everyone die!”
At first, the clandestine movement went on, but the excited fairy spewed out reckless anger at the orcs as if to relieve the stress she had accumulated while meeting the slaves.
The heat and firepower were so intense that even warriors clad in flame-resistant armor hesitated to move closer. Several of her orcs threw her stones at her, but none of them hit.
“Layla!”
“Ahahahaha!”
Melee attacks are meaningless as they can’t approach, and long-range attacks are blocked by a hero, but it would be dangerous to dig in alone like that. A hero is omnipotent, but magic is not omnipotent.
Magic is a force subject to the laws of nature. Although it was possible to touch the condition of living things or bring in wind, the laws of physics could not be ignored at all.
If her mighty orc fighter throws at her a chunk of rock, even the bravest woman can’t save her. The warrior hurriedly followed the fairy, but it was too late.
“Cheer!”
The fairy’s body, which ran amok and spread flames to the inside of the village and to the place where the female orcs and their offspring were staying, flew in the air at some point. In the deepest part of the village, something appeared.
A huge creature that is at least one head taller than a normal orc. The warrior who took her sprite opened her eyes wide and murmured.
“Orc shaman?”
The civilization of the Orcs was forming a primitive tribal society. Warriors under the chief hunt animals and defeat enemies, and the old male becomes an elder and protects the village with the female.
Orc shamans are alien beings who do not belong to any such tribe. Shamans, who are estimated to have perhaps more than human intelligence, roam the wilderness without a tribe, ‘selecting’ one of the young and promising orcs.
The tribal totem, a shamanistic symbol that infuses intelligence into orcs and gives them a sense of community as a tribe, is made in the hands of shamans. And only a select few get the right to form their own tribe.
Of course, Orc Shamans are so strong that it’s hard to believe that they are of the same species as Orcs.
“Damn it, why is the shaman staying in the village?”
Not only is it much bigger than a normal orc, but it has tattoos all over its body. Above all, the huge totem he carried on his back proved that the monster was a shaman.
I glanced behind the orc shaman. There, if not as much as an Orc Shaman, a fairly large Orc was groaning on the floor with a battered face.
Somehow, even in the crisis of the village, the chief didn’t come out. But did the orc shaman and the chief fight each other? Why?
[A hairless, two-legged beast dares to do something outrageous.]
“Ha, those of you who can’t control your desires must be beasts!”
[I will not deny it. However, no matter how inferior and uncivilized they are, they are my kindred…]
The Orc Shaman’s mental waves were flowing from the totem. The orc shaman growled, exposing his protruding fangs, and soon stomped the floor with his totem.
[I can’t let you live.]
Spiritual vibrations that could not be explained simply by physical action spread in all directions, and the orc’s blood began to squirm everywhere.
Soon after, the orc’s blood soared into the air as if it were alive, flying everywhere and clinging to it. Just a stone floor, a half-collapsed tent, a warehouse wall still burning…
“Come on! You monster!”
Taka, who had been acting like a protector, was seriously angry, but even the momentum of a veteran warrior couldn’t stop it from happening. This is an incantation. A disparate power that is at odds with martial arts, magic, and faith.
If martial arts trains an individual’s body and spirit, magic asks the spirits dwelling in nature, and faith gains power from the gods in the heavens, sorcery is a technique that borrows power from demons in the underworld.
It is not easy to learn and requires thorough preparation and complex rituals, just like martial arts. It exerts an absolute influence not only on tangible beings but also on intangible beings, like magic. Even so, the laws of this world do not apply, just like faith.
The orc’s blood, clinging to it everywhere, spread and shrank at will, carving bizarre patterns. It is a congratulatory message that looks like letters or pictures. A trigger that activates magic.
[You can hear the drums of the ancestors!]
The hero did not intervene, the warrior’s sword could not cut through the blood, and even the fiery arrow fired by the fairy could not burn the ritual ring.
The sorcery was completed with shouts close to screaming.
“What, what?”
The air is thick. Alien energy intervened in the flow of the world, and the creatures belonging to this world instinctively felt displeasure. The shadows of the underworld are cast.
Shamanism is a technology that borrows the power of the existence of the other side world – commonly known as the ‘devil’. When their power descended on the world, the law of the other world was overlaid on the place where the influence reached.
The ability of an Orc Shaman is not that great, so it was only to the point of feeling unpleasant, but if you are an excellent shaman, you will be able to replace this reality with the influence of shamanism.
“Geuuu…”
“Gaaa!”
However, the Orc Shaman’s sorcery was powerful enough for silver level adventurers at most, even if it wasn’t the Elder Lich level.
An orc who has already died staggers to his feet. Decapitated, bloody, burnt, screaming, weeping, laughing, hateful, bloodless faces sing an unruly death ensemble.
“Taka…”
“Don’t be afraid. Layla. Even so, they are just corpses!”
Taka, whose voice had changed for some reason, encouraged Leila. I’m sure that’s not wrong. It’s threatening to look at, but it’s inevitably inferior compared to when he was alive.
The Orcs, whose souls and memories died and only their bodies were resurrected, were nothing more than walking meat balloons. As Taka swings his sword and Layla breathes fire, the corpses fall in autumn leaves.
However, there were dozens of corpses in the village, and the sword and fire did not reach the shaman, the subject of the ceremony.
[What are you going to do, hero? Are you just watching?]
I don’t know if it’s before the witchcraft is performed, but at the point where the ritual is already completed, the power of the existing world greatly diminishes. Martial arts, divine as well as magic are no exception.
Of course, if the hero reveals his true strength, it won’t be a task to overcome this crisis, but then, of course, the promotion request will fail. Well, there are other ways.
“What?”
Ah, he could read my thoughts. Because sometimes this is inconvenient. Shouldn’t personal privacy be respected no matter how much it is a sword?
“Noisy…How…”
Ehh, I can’t help it. I also refuse to develop the sweet potato that the hero suffers because he is saving his strength. At my will, the hero took off his mask and robe.
From noble mtl dot com
Even in the midst of the imminent battle, I could see Taka and Layla looking back at us with surprised eyes. The hero who threw off all his camouflage was wearing his usual clothes, and I was still hanging from his waist.
In that state, I opened my mouth.
[Hey, examiners.]
If you think about it, yes. There are basically absurd conditions attached to the rank promotion, but how do you know if the person taking the test violated the condition or not?
Accordingly, the guild secretly dispatches ‘examination officers’ without informing the adventurers. To be able to monitor whether the person completing the promotion request fulfills the conditions.
If you’re a jjambab like me, you’re bound to be quick on the backstory of a guild like this. The answer was simple, as neither the warrior nor my senses had caught anyone else tailing them.
[At this level, I think our hero has proven his cooperative spirit.]
Is a duo armed with skills and equipment unmatched by level adventurers.
One was unnecessarily far-fetched, and the other was unnecessarily rambunctious. Two figures scratching their insides from different directions. Intentional disregard and coldness.
In the first place, the adventurer’s guild, whose motto is freedom, exerts pressure on a decent party and puts other members in? Even if it’s an excuse, I’ll be prepared with sincerity.
[Is it still not enough to prove it? Or should I wait until you die?]
I laughed at the two examiners with bewildered faces.