16. Double Edged Sword

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To confirm whether Ceru was male or female.

I told him to jump once if it was a boy and twice if it was a girl.

Because crows don’t have external sexual organs, it’s very hard to tell their gender.

Ceru seemed to understand what I was telling him and jumped once on my shoulder.

A boy huh? I noted at the seemingly unimportant information.

But what if I call Ceru a she and he gets mad at me, even though we have a master-servant relationship, I don’t want the crows to hate me or think I am a tyrant. I am a kind person when needed ..probably.

After finishing testing everything. I unsummoned Ceru.

For now I didn’t really need him.

..

Just right after I unsummoned Ceru, Tina came back.

Her clothes had changed, after all she got wet all over.

Now she wore black pants with similarly colored boots, a white shirt and a red fur coat on it.

Before, I didn’t realize her her features.

But now when I look at her closely, she is extremely beautiful. She has black hair which she let loose, green eyes that hinted pride. Her body was well matched with her face, her breasts were average but well shaped and her body formed a flawless hourglass.

It seems my taste for women didn’t change when I came to this world.

Well

I am sure as hell I won’t go out with a demon who has 9 eyeballs on her head.

I looked at her and said, “That robe sure hid your beauty well.”

“It works very well.” She replied, hinting that she was used to the praise.

I nodded. “Indeed.”

After we finished our conversation, Brandon and Claus arrived.

“Let’s hope, the traps will be more useful this time.” Said Brandon as he sat down and took a sip of his water.

“I sure am tired” added Claus, needlessly.

A young girl, who doesn’t tell her Identity, a middle-aged man who protects her and a boy who is awfully childish.

“You are a weird bunch” I muttered loud enough to be heard by them.

“So are you.” Said Brandon.

I pointed my finger towards my face “Me?”

Both Brandon and Claus nodded simultaneously.

While Tina added, “Even though demons usually live longer than humans, you seem to be around me and Claus’ age, yet you are so strong”

“Is that so?” I smiled and shrugged

Erasing my smiling expression, I suggested to them something.

“Why don’t we change tactics a little?”

Brandon and Tina looked at me and I continued, “Instead of using the fire as bait and the traps as lucky damage, why don’t we go on the offensive?”

“And how do we do that?” Asked Tina.

“I have a method of finding the ogres, after we find them, we will launch a sneak attack, and kill as many as possible, as for the rest that remain, you can leave them to me.”

“What about the [ Horned Rabbits ] ?” This time it was Brandon who asked.

I simply smiled “Rabbits are cowards in nature, after they saw their companions die so easily they won’t dare come back for more.”

Tina seemed to completely understand the information and nodded.

“We’ll do as you say.”

Brandon looked at Tina with a surprised expression and mumbled out, “y— Are you sure?”

She looked at Brandon and and said firmly, “The way Leonidas is suggesting is very good, if what he said was true, it’s better to go on the offensive then stay on the defensive.”

After listening carefully at her words, Brandon looked toward me and seemed very unsure.

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Probably doubting my intentions, so I spoke with the intention to clear the air.

“It’s your choice, if you three don’t want to do this my way, we can do it your way, I only suggested it because it’s more safe and has more chances of success.”

After I finished my words. Brandon didn’t say anything.

Tina spoke up, “It’s decided, we are going on the offensive, gear up.”

Claus was shocked, “Are you saying I got tired setting up traps for nothing.”

Brandon patted his shoulder showing support and started to get ready to leave.

“There is no need to get ready so soon, it will take me at least one hour until I can track them.”

“What if they find us before then.”

I looked at him and responded casually, “Then we are going to do it your way.”

If it wasn’t for the cooldown of my [ Crow Summon ] skill, we wouldn’t have to wait.

It’s just that my sneaky plan came too late and I had already unsummoned Ceru.

Well, a nap will do- wait that’s not going to work, because I just said to them that it will take time to find the [ Ogres ]. If I take a nap now, they’ll think that I was saying that because I wanted to sleep.

Is this what they mean when they say that lying has consequences?

The consequences this time is my beauty sleep.

Talk about a double edged sword..

On the premise of finding the [ Ogres ], I left the camp fire, I went very far, and made a swinging bed between two trees. And took a nap with the help of [ Meditate ].

The only way to get out of a lie that’s a double edged sword is another lie.

I didn’t really worry about those three being attacked as the [ Ogres ] aren’t really pushy.

It’s good they didn’t have any knowledge of [ Ogres ]. Otherwise they would have seen through my lie.

Defend?

The [ Ogres ] are possessive over their territory, and only come out if they are in need of food. Their Food is Rabbits. Yes…

They won’t go after someone who easily obliterates [ Horned Rabbits ], They will go and look after the leftover Rabbits, while they do that, I nap, simple. When I wake up, the cooldown will be removed, and I will send Ceru to track them then.

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

Such a fitting situation for a famous Chinese saying.

Removing useless thoughts from my mind. I entered the land of sleepiness and let my consciousness get dragged into the darkness.

*Zzz*

*Zzz*

….

Exactly one hour later. I woke up. Not even a minute less or one minute more. I slept through that shitty void for who know how long, doing it long enough, I’ve mastered it.

I am rather surprised that I don’t have a skill named [ Sleep - Triple Max ].

I cleared my eyes and got straight to the point by using [ Crow Summon ].

Ceru appeared before my eyes. I talked to him telepathically.

“Find and search the area for [ Ogres ].”

Ceru received my order and flapped his wings, flying away.

I sat in lotus position and used Shared Vision.

As Ceru flied and searched around the area, I also saw the trio far away.

[ Enhanced Vision ] sure is amazing, I almost had thoughts about devouring Ceru.

As if realizing what I was thinking, Ceru cawed.

“Relax buddy, I won’t do that ..probably.”

Well let’s say that Ceru wasn’t really pleased with his current situation and cawed a few more times in a tone of pleading and cursing. Although I have Language Comprehension, I am pretty sure I can’t speak Crow. So I wasn’t sure what he was cursing.

As Ceru hovered the sky, We finally found a glimpse of an [ Ogre ].

The book gave a surprising accurate portrayal of them.

Over 2.5 meters tall(8ft 2Inch.) tall. Its body was very muscular and green, his face was very ugly though, more so then I thought.

I couldn’t use [ Identify ], because I wasn’t there physically and could only look at them from the above in Ceru’s eyes.

The [ Ogre ] was not alone though as more ogres started to appear on the scene.

A total of 5 Ogres appeared. But that’s not all.

Around 6 other [ Ogres ] made it to the scene, holding a little platform. On top of the platform stood another [ Ogre ], but this one was a little different. Instead of being green he was black. Still ugly though.

It seemed they were marching toward somewhere….

“Shit”

I cursed as I disconnected from the Shared Vision with Ceru and started running full speed at the others.

The ogres had started to march towards the trio. Normally, [ Ogres ] wouldn’t be doing this, but that Black Ogre seems to be quite smarter than the others of his kind.

It’s good they didn’t decide to attack earlier or Brandon, Claus and Tina would be doomed.

Those normal [ Ogres ] look strong enough to kill them on their own, let alone putting the mutated one on the equation, which is acting like the other [ Ogres ]’ king.

They are a total of thirteen, and all of them look pretty strong, they were at least as strong as the wolves I fought back then. As for the black one I couldn’t tell, but it was definitely as strong, if not stronger then the [ Three Headed Hound ]

I activated [ Enhance ] to quicken my pace.

By running as fast as I can, I finally arrived at the campfire in 4 minutes.

Who told my ass to go so far.

I was relieved when I saw that the [ Ogres ] had not arrived yet and that the trio was still there.

I moved fast and arrived before them.

“Whoaa!” Claus was surprised, while Brandon and Tina just looked at me.

There is not times to waste, get ready. The [ Ogres ] are coming.

“What?”

This time Brandon was surprised and then continued to ask, “I thought we were going to them, why are they coming now ?”

I look at him and say with a serious expression.

“The leader of the [ Ogres ] seems to be a mutated [ Ogre ], a special kind, it’s probably stronger than the [ Three Headed Hound ]. It’s also smarter. But that’s not the problem, the real problem is that there are 12 other [ Ogres ], who are stronger than the Wolves we previously fought.”

The three of them looked at me seriously, even Claus.

They had trouble to face 10 [ Fanged Wolves ] let alone more [ Ogres ] who are more stronger.

“So what do we do ?” Asked Brandon as he was looking between me and Tina.

“I’ll fight them all alone.” I said with confidence in my eyes.

“What?” The trio exclaimed in surprised.

“I have the ability to beat them, but not the ability to do so while I protect others.”

All three of them saw me use [ Magic Missile ] and know I killed a Level 32 monster. But that doesn’t mean that they will be convinced that I would be able to do the same again against monsters stronger than the previous.

Tina massaged her temples as she said, “Alright then, We will only watch from afar, but if we see that you can’t defeat them alone, we will also join the battle even if that kills us, we will not let someone sacrifice themselves so we can live.”

“Alright” I agreed, not like I am going to need help though, but my abilities will be revealed to them.

I see myself as a good judge of character, so it will be fine if they see.

Roooooar

Roooooar

“They’re here! Hide far away! Quickly!” I say to the trio urgently as the roars are getting closer.

The three of them nodded and quickly left running.

From the darkness of the woods

The seven [ Ogres ] appeared and started to make way in a line. They made way and five more appeared holding a platform as they stomped their feet on the ground.

I look at the one sitting at the throne on the platform.

How cliche

[ Orc/Ogre Half-ling - Lv. 38 ]

It looked at me and let out a ferocious roar.

*Roooooaaar*

I grinned as I spoke.

“Sorry, I don’t speak pig.”