Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival-Chapter 77

Orc Battle (1)

I, alone, would stall the Orcs for at least a month.

I was thinking that there would be an opposition, both good and bad, about me doing it alone, but perhaps I intimidated them too much that my decision was unanimously approved.

Updat𝓮d from frёewebnoѵēl.com.

The number of enemies was at least fifty normal Orcs equivalent to Rank 3, four Orc soldiers equivalent to Rank 4, and one Orc general of Rank 5.

Even if the militiamen were to fight along with me, with no combat skills, they would simply become a burden, even if the militiamen outnumbered Orcs ten to one.

A sane minded person would think that it would take more than a hundred skilled men to stop a group of that many Orcs.

That’s if they were sane.

I might be able to find the house where Gill and Shuri used to live, but I didn’t intend to take care of that at the moment.

For I would try to buy the residents time to escape, but whether Shuri and Gill’s brother and stepmother wanted to run away or stay here was their own choice.

The guild had given me the general location of the Orcs, but after getting more details from the scouts, I went to the Orc stronghold later that day.

The distance was said to be about two days by the adventurer’s legs, but I should be able to shave half a day off my trip.

The place had been a village until about ten years ago, so there was enough road for a carriage to pass through, but after ten years it was just an animal trail.

I checked the ground where the path turned into grass and found several large footprints that looked like someone or something had recently passed through the area, so I was certain this was the right direction to go.

From the footprints I found after that, I guessed that the Orcs were not working alone, but in groups of three or so.

The intelligence of Orcs was higher than that of Goblins, but the higher ranked Orcs were said to have an even higher level of intelligence, and which could be seen on how well organized they move.

I wondered if I could defeat three Rank 3 Orcs on my own…? The problem was not how many I could defeat, but I would need to make sure that there was no escape when I challenge them, so they wouldn’t be able to call out to their friends nearby.

The strength of monsters was not their flexibility and adaptability to multiple skills like humans, but their single skill and high status.

So, even at Rank 3, which was the same as mine, a single Orc had only about half my Combat Strength, but when their numbers increased, I would fall behind in terms of power since Orcs inherently had high strength values compared to me.

But even if I could defeat the Orcs, if the Orcs saw the carcass and knew they were under attack, there was a high possibility that they would attack the town in retaliation against me.

The omnivorous Orcs were not a problem currently, as they were still taking the remaining crops from the farms outside the town and eating them, but like people, once they were satisfied, they would start craving flesh.

I expected them to be hunting around the abandoned village, but I was certain that when they couldn’t find food in the surroundings anymore, the Orcs would surely attack that little town.

I was not doing this because I want the people to think that I was some hero or a saint.

I must not forget that my objective was not to exterminate the Orcs, but to buy time until the town’s inhabitants could escape.

To achieve that, I needed to maintain the current status quo, not hunt Orcs that procure food and push them into a corner.

At this point, though, I still didn’t have a proper plan.

*

After about half a day of hiding and moving through the forest, I came upon some Orcs walking through the forest.

[Orc (Normal)] [Beast]

[Magic Value: 98/108] [Strength Value: 392/420]

[Total Combat Power: 278]

They seemed to be working in groups of three, armed with rusty spears and crude stone axes, but the numbers were not so high that they couldn’t be defeated by a surprise attack.

But the monsters were still troublesome because of their large physical strength values.

Since they had no prey to hunt, these guys were probably more like patrolling soldiers who instantly eliminated invading foreign enemies.

If that was the case, it would only alert others if they did not return in time. If I wanted to go after them, I would have to wait until they were a good distance away from the village.

After going through several encounters with Orcs in the grass or crawling on the ground, I finally arrived at the abandoned village where the Orcs were said to be residing.

The village seemed to have been originally surrounded by a wall made of logs driven into the ground as stakes, but now there were parts of the wall that were damaged beyond repair and had rotted away. It seemed like the Orcs had piled up stones to fill in the holes.

Once back in the forest, I smeared my cloak with dirt and mud to disguise my appearance and smell, and also smeared my face and hair with mud.

(From now on, I must never be found.

Not even once must they know I am there until everything is done…)

After eating only a small amount of dried meat and alchemical nutritional pills, I waited until it was dark, clinging to the trunk of a tall tree.

After ensuring that it was dark enough, I tied the rabbit fur I had prepared on the soles of my boots to silence my footsteps.

Using my Level 4 Magic Control to blend the magical elements in my body with the surroundings, also using Level 4 Concealment, thanks to my Magic Control, I moved through the darkness, becoming the darkness itself.

I did not touch the Orcs. Even if there was an opening, I would not touch them.

According to that Knowledge, while in Concealment I had to approach from a downwind direction, but that was only half of the actual preparations I needed to actually approach targets in this world.

I, who used Clean to remove my scent and covered myself in mud to disguise, as I blended my presence completely into the darkness and moved at the flow of the night breeze, rather than going against it and creating an unnatural airflow.

Based on the area of the village and the number of houses still standing, this village must have had a population of about 500 people.

Surrounded by fields, there were 30 houses in the center and 20 houses each to the west and south, and the Orcs seemed to be using the half-decayed houses as they pleased.

The first thing to find out was the exact number of Orcs and their distribution.

How many Orcs were there in each area? Without knowing where the Orc General and the four Orc Soldiers were, I could not make an accurate prediction.

Afterward, I scouted until morning, and found out that there were about 15 Orcs and one Orc Soldier to the west, about 20 to the south, and one Orc Soldier to the north.

To the south, about 20 Orcs and one Orc Soldier.

In the center, there were about 15 Orcs and two Orc Soldiers. I suspected that there was probably an Orc General commanding the group and a total of around fifty Orcs. The reason I only suspected was because I could not approach because of a strong being emitted in the surroundings, but I still haven’t found the source.

The reason I said, around fifty was because there were several individuals scattered around on night watch, so I could not measure the exact number, but it should not be far off from the fifty or so that the adventurers had scouted earlier.

I returned to the forest before sunrise and started gathering plants away from the abandoned village.

I only focused on plants that were available in the area and the materials I had on hand to create various types of poisons I could use, and the ones that could be eaten raw would also be a practical option for my food.

If I wanted to make poisons from these forest materials, insects and frogs would be more toxic, but it would be meaningless if I could not secure them in quantity, so I decided to focus on plants from the beginning.

I found some of the most unusual mushrooms that would work as both poison and medicine, so I gathered as much as I could, tied them up with ivy, and hung them on top of tall trees to dry.

I didn’t spend all day doing just that.

I needed to keep an eye on the Orcs and at the same time find out what the Orcs were doing out in the open, such as in the food scavenging units.

As I didn’t know when the Orcs would change their mind and invade that town, I couldn’t let my guard down.

Sleep would be divided into a maximum of five minutes, and a total of three hours a day would be manageable.

After living like this for about a week, I began to read the general pattern of the Orcs’ behavior.

Every three days, there were about ten Orcs that went to the town to pick up the town’s crops. I was thinking this might have been the first group of Orcs that attacked the town, since I had witnessed them pass by that direction more than one time, and they were accompanied by a single Orc Soldier.

And every day, as soon as morning came, there were another dozen Orc going to hunt animals, but these were all small, young Orcs with low fighting strength.

For my part, even though I said I was keeping myself in good shape with pills, pills alone would only keep me in perfect shape for about a week.

So, I tried to consume fruits and dried meat found in the forest and away from the abandoned village. Surprisingly, I found many wild legumes and yams, but they were still not tasty when eaten raw.

After a week of getting a rough idea of their movements, I decided it was time to get our act together.

The first step was to hunt the animals, but not to eat them myself.

As I learned from my watch, Orcs were not good at hunting animals. Since their Race was large and not suited for concealment, there were days when about a dozen Orcs hunted and returned with nothing, and on those days they brought back only fruits they foraged from the forest.

The Orcs hunted every day because the higher ranked Orcs (Orc Soldiers and Orc General) preferred to eat meat than beans and vegetables.

So to prevent them from immediately raiding the town for the lack of meat, I hunted rabbits and deer and scattered them around the abandoned village.

Humans wouldn’t normally eat fallen carcasses that were left behind and would certainly be suspicious, but Orcs thought that it was probably loot which their companions left behind, and because they were fresh animal carcasses, they brought them back with glee.

At the same time, she began preparing materials to create poisons suitable for the situation.

It was quite difficult to create poisons for fifty animals in the forest without alchemical tools, so I would start little by little.

I dried poisonous herbs and mushrooms before processing them with a bowl and pestle made with [Hard] to create the poisons.

I was in the second week and the Orcs had not moved yet, probably because I kept feeding them meat. If they moved now, it would ruin the preparations I had made so far, so now was the time for me to move my plan to the second stage.

The important thing to remember was that even though Orcs were monsters that attacked people, they were [living] creatures that regularly ate things and drank water.

The wells in the abandoned village were filled with soil and dead leaves that had accumulated over the past decade, but there was one reservoir of water that was gushing out, and although the water was stagnant, the Orcs, being monsters, were drawing water from it and drinking it without problems.

I crept into the pond in the middle of the night and gradually mixed the poison I had produced into the pool.

Little by little, I acclimated them to the poison so that they would get used to the taste of it.

Half-baked poison was not effective, since Orcs could drink muddy water and eat rotten meat without many complaints.

In addition to the taste, if they suddenly got sick from mixing too much poison, they would become wary and stop drinking water from there, so I gradually increased the amount of poison to the point where it would be effective even for monsters.

That was not the only thing I did.

I sneaked into houses with sleeping Orcs and smeared poison on the food which was scattered on the ground. Of course, I had also gradually mixed the poison into the meat I was feeding them.

Although there was only a small amount of the other poison, I also soaked the seams of the Orcs’ weapons, which were randomly placed outside the houses, with acidic chemicals little by little to reduce the strength of the weapons.

I carefully and without haste, let the malice of me permeate the Orcs.

I would not be foolish enough to rush into action.

I was not a strong person like Feld or Grave. I did not overestimate myself to the extent that I would blindly believe I would be able to keep on defeating a few Orcs little by little and keep them at bay.

My failure was directly related to the death of many villagers and other people keeping the guard.

If I made a move and the Orcs’ reaction exceeded my intentions, even slightly, I would make my last stand in this place.

Failure was not an option. I must not give the Orcs the slightest chance to fight back.

Therefore, I would not smash the huge rock that was the Orc horde with my great sword, nor would I smash it with a hammer from the periphery, but I would pierce it with a needle and pour malice venom into it.

But I was running out of time…

The poison I had used wasn’t enough. It might not even be a poison to begin with.

What I used was a [stomach flu] and an anti-nasal inflammation medicine.

I didn’t need to explain about the stomach upset. It was originally used to release toxins from the body, but if a creature took it for a long time, it would become dehydrated and lose strength.

And anti-inflammatory drugs were effective in controlling the runny nose and other symptoms of a cold. However, as a side effect, it made the creature unusually thirsty.

And the more water they drank, the more my malice consumed them.

Three weeks passed and most of the Orcs were dehydrated.

The Orcs finally began to notice that there was a problem with their bodies, but they thought it was because they had eaten the fallen meat which was left behind by someone else.

They were half right, since I had actually planted poison in the meat as well.

To get food other than meat, the Orcs would send out gatherers that were dehydrated and weakened, and relatively better ones would steal crops from the town.

But that would not be enough food to satisfy them, and soon, the higher ranks that preferred meat more than crops would choose to attack the town.

With a week left until the evacuation of those residents who could escape… I knew that I was running out of time, so I began the final stage of my plan: Me, directly stopping the Orcs.

Three Orcs were walking through the forest. They were carrying bagged pelts, not spears, so they probably intended to gather fruit, not hunt.

However, their appearance was different from three weeks ago, as their whole bodies lacked energy, and they seemed to have difficulty even walking through the undulations of the forest.

I was sure I could manage them without any problem.

[Orc (Normal)] [Beast]

[Magic Power: 85/105] [Strength: 127/410]

[Total Combat Power: 166 (260)]36% down

[Condition: Weakness]

With a thump, she leaped out of the tree overlooking the Orcs and thrust a black dagger from directly above into the cranium of the debilitated Orc, whose combat power had been reduced by half due to the poison in its body.

[Bumoaaaaaaaaaah!!!]

The other two who noticed this raised a cry of alarm. However, their voices could not reach the other Orcs in this situation as they had walked a bit far away.

I threw my blade pendulum towards the two Orcs that were lunging at me at the same time, aiming at their eyes, and as the two Orcs reflexively raised their faces to dodge, I stabbed both of them to death with my black dagger and knife from under their jaws straight to their brains.

You two should rot in the ground here.