NSE-Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Resistance Army

―Snort! That’s the Dekum Tribe over there!

Just like the one he’d seen before, a village with huts packed tightly together came into view.

At the sight of a hundred Orcs carrying tools approaching with imposing dignity, the Orcs on the other side came out to meet them.

‘Looks like about a hundred and fifty.’

It seemed the population of Orc villages was roughly similar across the board.

A big Orc stepped forward and asked.

―Snort! Why come here?

“Are you the chieftain here?”

―Snort? Human?

The Orc looked at the stepping-forward Kim Min-woo with puzzled eyes.

Soon, the Orc nodded.

―……Right. I Dekum, Chieftain!

“You guys, join our Resistance Army.”

―Resistance Army? What is that?

“A gathering that hunts the Witch.”

Murmur!

The Orcs’ eyes grew wide.

Hunting the Witch?

To Orcs who had been oppressed for long years, the name Witch was no different from terror. And a human, not even an Orc, was saying it out of the blue, so they couldn’t help being bewildered.

Just then.

Urkan stepped forward.

―This human here is a true warrior who beat me, Urkan! And he is my big brother!

―Snort? How is human big brother?

―The weak one is the younger brother, he said!

―Snort! I believe only what I see myself!

Dekum raised his axe.

‘As expected.’

When bringing Orcs into submission, proving your strength was best instead of talking.

Judging by the look of him, he didn’t seem to be a boss like Urkan.

“Bring it.”

He’d better finish this quickly.

Kweeeek!

Soon, a mournful squealing, like a throat being slit, echoed out.

* * *

The Dekum Tribe, the Twin Axe Tribe, the Stone Head Tribe..

He had brought every Orc tribe in the vicinity into submission.

It wasn’t particularly difficult.

After going over with an Orc horde, he fought a one-on-one duel with the village’s best warrior, the chieftain, and when he beat him in front of every Orc, they would swear loyalty. Thanks to that, he already had as many as twelve younger brothers alone.

Swarm, swarm!

A horde of no fewer than a thousand Orcs trailing behind him like baby birds, what a sight!

‘……I’m really going to be busy from now on.’

Their daily food intake alone would be enormous, and he was already getting dizzy just thinking about it.

He looked over the Strength panel.

[Current Resistance Army Strength]

[Leader: Kim Min-woo]

[Members: Human 1, Orcs 1,322]

[Rating: Naive Primitives]

[Average Level: 118]

[Food Situation: Very bad]

[Morale: Not bad. Captivated by a powerful leader.]

[Enemy Alert Level: 0 (They don’t even know the Resistance Army exists yet)]

In just one day, Orcs had grown by over a thousand.

What’s more, even at this very moment, the number of Orcs kept increasing. Because news that a great tribe uniting the Orcs had appeared had every wanderer nearby flocking in.

“Urkan. Gather all the younger brothers.”

―Snort! Understood!

Soon, twelve Orc chieftains gathered in one place.

―Snort! Eldest Brother! What is it?

“I heard there’s a Cockatrice pack nearby. Anyone know where it is?”

At those words, Maktun, ranked twelfth among the twelve Orcs, raised his hand.

―Snort! I, Maktun, know!

“Oh, right, youngest. Lead the way.”

―Understood!

The Orc horde moved out in a rush.

―Snort! Meat! Eldest Brother said he’d feed us meat!

―Snort! Cockatrice meat is honey-sweet! I tried it!

―I’ll eat it too! Hungry!

A unit with no discipline or order, but full of ferocious savagery!

Thanks to that, even though they were going to hunt Cockatrices whose Levels were 100 higher than their own, morale was practically overflowing.

Before long, on the snow-covered ground.

A pack of monsters milling about in a rush came into view.

Heads resembling chickens.

Bodies well over 3 meters.

Sharp beaks and pointed talons glinted in the sunlight.

Such Cockatrices numbered, at a glance, over a hundred.

‘Quite a few will die today.’

It was a monster that couldn’t be hunted without sacrifice in the first place. The same went even if he joined in.

‘Survival of the strongest.’

Only the strong ones would survive.

They’d be winnowed and refined like that.

“Let’s tear into some meat! Charge!”

―Orc! Orc!

The Orcs, worthless apart from their valor, ran out carrying axes.

[Summoning Cedric!]

[Skeleton…….]

The Skeleton unit also mixed in among the Orcs and ran toward the Cockatrices.

The Cockatrices, who had been eyeing the Orcs warily, grew ferocious.

―Cock-a-doodle-doo!

―Kaaaah!

These guys, too, were battle maniacs like Orcs.

The moment the two sides collided.

―Squawk!

Crunch!

Whack!

Orcs began dying off in droves. Each time they were stabbed by a sharp beak, holes were punched through their bodies, and each time they were kicked by the two giant legs, they flew dozens of meters.

The Orcs didn’t stay idle either.

Urkan’s axe came down on the head of a Cockatrice whose beak was stained with blood. The Cockatrice, its neck snapped with a crack, thrashed wildly. The Orc horde pounced on the guy from all sides.

―Cooooh!

The monster screamed mournfully and was pushed away and vanished under a wave of Orcs.

Kim Min-woo, too, was taking on one Cockatrice.

The body-tanking by Orcs.

‘The damage is on me.’

Every time he planted a sword stab in its rump, the monster looked as if it were dying of joy.

‘I should get to lap up an easy ride like this.’

Wasn’t that what made raising a unit worthwhile? After thirty minutes of fierce battle, they hunted down the Cockatrice pack.

[Your Level increases by 2.]

[The Skeleton unit’s average Level rises to 20!]

[The Skeleton unit’s combat experience increases greatly!]

[The accumulated combat experience creates a new Skill!]

[The Skeletons can now use Melee Weapon Art(F)!]

[The Skeleton Mage unit’s combat experience…….]

‘Huh?’

He rubbed his eyes.

That combat experience had accumulated wasn’t so strange at all.

Because he had the effects of the Death Lord and the Cedric Title.

But…….

‘The Skeletons created a Skill?’

This was an effect he hadn’t even imagined. And no wonder, since a Skeleton was the lowest-grade Summon, summonable at Level 1 at most.

Their Levels did rise as they hunted, but a Skeleton was still a Skeleton.

With no ability to learn, their combat sense was still a mess.

That was why they were normally used as meat shields.

Rush in as a mob and pound away wildly.

If you keep at it, something’s bound to land.

That was roughly the intended use.

But these guys had created a Skill?

This was a feat you’d expect only from high-level Awakened.

“Teacher Death Lord…….”

Just how far do your abilities go?

Kim Min-woo resolved.

That from today, he would become one body with the Death Lord.

He examined the Summon Skeleton Skill.

[Summon Skeleton(F)+9]

[A Skill enhanced to its limit.]

[Consumes 10 Mana to summon 2(1+1) LV20 Skeletons.]

[* Possesses Melee Weapon Art(F).]

[Melee Weapon Art(F): Damage of all melee weapons increases by 10%.]

‘Ahh!’

Insane.

Handing out all sorts of weapons had paid off.

Only…….

‘Happy is happy.’

At times like this, a gamer shouldn’t just be glad but analyze the main cause.

The reason the Skill had been generated.

‘Was it because of the mass summoning?’

Collective intelligence is terrifying, after all.

Even if the Skeletons’ ability to learn was at the level of an ordinary person, when hundreds of them overlapped, efficiency would rise.

Hundreds of them swinging and thrusting weapons. If that experience had been concentrated and turned into a Skill in one go, it made perfect sense.

‘Wait a moment?’

A terrifying possibility suddenly came to mind.

“This ability to learn…… does it have to be limited to combat?”

The ability to learn.

Literally, the ability to learn.

Since Skeleton just had the image of a meat shield, he’d been throwing them into battle, but there was no need to use them only for that purpose.

‘What if they learn production Skills?’

Be it blacksmithing, alchemy, or whatever.

All good.

If they learned it through collective intelligence, wouldn’t the related Skill be generated quickly?

‘It’s definitely worth trying.’

It was the same even right now.

The Orcs’ equipment was truly lacking.

In a pinch, he had scattered spare equipment from his Inventory.

But arming over a thousand Orcs was a distant prospect.

Most had one axe and a single leather loincloth.

The slightly higher-ranking ones were wrapped in whole hides at best.

It wasn’t strange that they’d been rated Naive Primitives.

Orcs wearing only a pair of underpants.

If the Skeletons had had even a single crafting-type Skill, they’d have escaped such a wretched fate.

Because they’d have made something out of the by-products like the hides and feathers he’d just obtained.

But now?

There were no production-type Classes at all.

All that could be made from hides were patchwork wearables with not a single effect attached. At best, a bit of defense and a crude body-warmth effect would be all.

‘It’s a situation where I have to make even that, for lack of anything better……’

He looked at the Orcs.

“Strip off the hides, bones, and feathers and collect them!”

―Orc!

The Orcs began skinning the Cockatrices with their axes.

Orcs drooling heavily at the thought of eating meat. Even though nearly two hundred of their kin had been swept away in a single battle, their fighting spirit remained as before.

“All chieftains, gather round!”

―Snort! Urkan here!

―Dekum here!

The chieftains came running quickly.

“Where’s the youngest?”

―Snort. Maktun died! Now I, Palkun, am the youngest!

“……Oh, right.”

―Snort! Eldest Brother, do not be sad. Dying in a fight is a blessing. Sadness is an insult to us!

He nodded.

Just as they said, dying in a fight was a blessing to Orcs. If anything, they were a race that feared growing old and dying powerless.

“Roast only half the meat, and wrap the other half in hides and store it.”

―Snort! Hungry! That will not fill belly!

“Tsk. Talking back to your big brother?”

―……Understood. We store half!

Second Brother Urkan immediately switched to cowering mode.

Chieftains bowed their heads in a row like dominoes.

He’d have liked to feed them as much as they wanted, but that was a shortcut to ruin.

The number of monsters was limited.

If they gorged until their bellies burst every day, they’d soon be suffering from hunger.

‘I’ll have to get these guys to an average Level of 150…….’

On top of that, he’d need numbers in the tens of thousands at least.

To do anything at all against the monsters of the Fortress, it had to be at least that much.

He looked at the average Level in the Strength panel. With this battle, the Level had risen from 118 to 122.

‘……Still a long way to go.’

Just as the smell of roasting meat began to sizzle up.

Small figures began to appear far away.

‘Hm?’

He narrowed his eyes and focused his gaze.

“……Dwarves?”

A small group of Dwarves was approaching this way.

Whether because they weren’t on friendly terms, wariness rose in the Orcs’ eyes.

―Snort! Shorties!

A few hot-tempered ones had already started gripping their axes tightly.

“Stop!”

―…….

“I’ll go and talk to them. You keep eating the meat.”

He rose to his feet.

Soon, the distance closed to the point that the Dwarves’ faces could be seen clearly.

“Human! We wish to talk!”

“State your identity and purpose.”

“I am Turon, Chieftain of the Black Rock Tribe! I hear there was a clash between you and the Corpse Collectors, is that true?”

“It is.”

The Dwarf group grew briefly noisy.

That lasted only a moment.

Turon walked over.

“I heard there’s a crazy human who resists the Witch, so that was you?”

“How did you know?”

At those words, Turon grinned and took a telescope out of his coat.

“It’s a thing for seeing far. I’ve been monitoring the Orcs’ movements as usual. I heard from a scout. That a human had not only wrecked the Corpse Collectors but was uniting the Orcs.”

“…….”

He held his tongue.

Normally, the one in need speaks first about his business. The one in need now was the Dwarves who had come first.

Just then.

Turon’s face turned serious.

“The Witch has begun her disposals. Refugees told us. That three tribes are already gone. They also said that an army will come to our side soon.”

“I know. The Orcs nearly met the same fate.”

Turon nodded.

“My business is simple. If you truly resist the Witch…… we too wish to join you.”

“You don’t seem very friendly with the Orcs, is that all right?”

At those words, Turon smiled bitterly.

“What race picks and chooses in the face of hunger? It’s true we’ve clashed over food issues. But that isn’t what matters now. We are willing to cooperate wholeheartedly.”

“Cooperate, how?”

“Honestly, we’re not confident in battle. But we make gear damn well. We’ll supply armaments. What we want is defense and food.”

“That’s not bad.”

He smiled broadly.

Orcs are brave but lack armaments. Dwarves are hopeless at fighting, but specialists in making armaments.

A symbiotic relationship where each could make up for the other’s weakness.

The enemy they aimed at was the same, too.

There was no reason not to join hands.

‘And on top of that…….’

While at it, he could even have the Skeletons try learning production Skills.

And from the best teachers, the Dwarves, no less.

He joined hands with Turon.

Both grinned at each other.