Each time glaive collided with monster’s axe, there was ringing and sparks. With each hit deflected by glaive, Minotaur was forced to step back, and it was enraging him.
Normally, such a rusted glaive would’ve shattered a long time ago. But Weed had repaired, grinded and polished it to extreme sharpness.
Weed’s strong resistance gave strength to his fellow Orcs.
“Chwiiik!”
Minotaur finally grew frightened.
The wave of Orcs advanced fast! Hundreds or Orcs with glaives in hands run up and began to slash at the monster. Some of them died from Minotaur’s attacks, but in return he also received many wounds from which he finally died.
As it is said, “you can not block ten hands with a single one”. In that exact manner Orcs were winning the battles, due to their numerical advantage.
And the real hunt began.
Hundreds of Orcs with glaives hunted huge monsters. While many of them got killed, the rest grew stronger. Because survivors gained new levels, the overall strength of the party kept growing.
Orcs survived despite being constantly threatened by many dangerous monsters. They survived thanks to their fertility. Some Orcs died, but others grew stronger, and to their aid came new growing up tribesmen!
Even knowing all this, Weed made sure that none of his friends died. He repaired their weapons, prepared food and bandaged them when it was necessary.
The big hunt continued!
Many simple-minded, ignorant orcs roamed the surrounding lands slaying any monsters they met. Orc didn’t possess any special techniques or other secrets, they just overwhelmed their enemy with the sheer numbers. If a dozen wasn’t enough, then a hundred will come; and even if they die, even more will follow.
In such dangerous battles, many Orcs started to gather around Weed.
“Chwichwit, ignorant Karichwi, lead us.”
“Karichwi, you are simple, we are comfortable with ya. Chwiik!”
Because of his low Intelligence and Wisdom, Orcs regarded Weed as one of them! In addition he also had high Leadership and Charisma stats, due to which Orcs were willing to be led by him.
Nodding to the “recruits” in agreement, Weed continued the hunt.
Although he received command of the new “heads”, fighting became harder because of them. Because they were all one big group, the one to last hit the enemy, received over half the XP.
The rest of experience was distributed almost equally, regardless of your contribution to the battle. And Weed had to restrain his greed for experience points.
‘I have to stay smarter than these greedy Orcs...’
If he focuses on getting the maximum amount of experience, He would risk losing all the friendship with these Orcs. At the same time, if he holds back, it may very well lead to his death at some point.
That’s why Weed just fought as much as possible. He attacked the monster first, did as much damage as he could and if there weren’t too many others fighting the same monster, aimed for the killing blow.
Not to mention that a large number of battles was the main point of Weed’s early game strategy. From the first day he attempted to boost his attributes as much as possible, and only then raise levels. As a result, fighting monsters of the same level was considerably easier.
By accumulating various skills and attributes, he became much more powerful than any other player of the same level! And with time, the difference continued increasing.
‘Hard work now will make it easier later on...’
He couldn’t count the times he had noticed players who do not pay attention to it. There have been cases when people reached level 250 without even getting their sword skill to an appropriate level. Those kind of players leveled up without improving their skills just because it would have required some hard work.
But for Weed it became a priority. He was very glad that Orcs hunted a lot. Surrounding lands were filled with monsters, and all he did here was fighting them, putting trade skills and sculptural mastery aside for now.
At some point Weed reached 295th level.
* * *
Pale’s party’s hunt at the Soul Lake was in full swing.
Before, they would not have dared to approach this place, but now, after raising their levels and with the help of Hwaryung, Zephyr and Meyron, they decided to give it a try.
Here they encountered terrible water spirits and fishlike monsters!
After fierce and lengthy battle most of the group left the game, and only Pale and Mayrun stayed for a date next to the lake.
Pale actually liked to chat:
“And so... Actually... And then…”
He met a girl that he really liked.
Pale wanted to tell her all about his life and adventures in the Royal Road. Especially since they met through this game.
He told her about the heavenly city Lavias.
“What? Really?”
Meyron’s eyes sparkled when she heard about the first steps they took as beginners, their first quests and how they explored the city in the sky.
“How did Weed chose a profession of sculptor?”
“As far as I know...”
Pale also talked a lot about Weed. He also shared the secret that it was Weed who destroyed the vampires in the province of Mort.
* * *.
You have completed the quest: “Orc provisions”
There are many dangerous monsters preying on regular citizens in the surrounding countryside.Catch them with a hunting party and feed their meat to the young.
Difficulty: C.
Reward: Depending on the result - equipment, precious stones and ores.
Restrictions: Orc race only. Or those capable of shapeshifting into orcs due to magic or other means.
Orc Chieftain and Elders were also giving missions, however, the Chieftain lived in a neighboring village, and the Elders weren’t easy to get friendly with. But Weed didn’t despair, and continued to hunt a lot and do quests. He didn’t receive any good items for them, but rewarded ingredients and ores were rare.
Besides, hunting monsters awarded him with precious experience. Not just the XP points he received for kills, but also new knowledge and information. Most of the monsters in the Lands of Despair were over level 300 and often possessed unique abilities. It was very easy to make a fatal mistake in the first encounter.