It was the things Marcle had read in the centaurs diary that gave them a sheen of confidence, or at least not fear. It was a well known fact that ogres were mostly blind. It was one of their few weaknesses, although calling it a weakness was already overstating things a little. They more than made up for that little deficit with their superior sense of smell and hearing.

At least that’s what normal ogres did. Marcel had no idea how the centaur had figured it out, but he had stated it very clearly in his diary that the ogre living on the foot of the Tresten mountain in the beginning of the Deadlands Mountain range had, due accident or other occurrence, lost most of its ability to smell, thereby severely limiting its ability to perceive and navigate the world around it.

In the usual wilderness that either led to a quick death by one of the many natural predators that fought fiercely around their territories, or would’ve made it fall pretty quickly to some adventuring group.

This one lived secluded though. Very secluded. It was far enough away from the real deadland mountains to not even come in contact with the other monsters. The centaur had also, through a series of observations and logicing, determined that the ogre was actually not even on the list of the adventure guild.

Marcel had checked up on that extensively. Or at least as extensive as he was able to. Not a single quest on their floor had led in the direction. Nor were there any mentions of ogres that would’ve fit with what he had read about the monster.

He had asked Fredrik about the higher tiers. He had tried to be as circumspect as possible. And in the end the other man had told him he wasn’t aware of any ogre missions active at the moment.

That had cemented it.

They were close enough that the ogre would be able to reach them if he woke up. Close enough that Marcel could see its heaps of flesh rising and falling in a steady rhythm. The sound of its heavy breathing droned out every ambient noise, only the fast beat of his heart managed to penetrate through that.

His palms would’ve been sweaty, if the paste they had applied hadn’t mudded his pores. Close as he was to the ogre now, he realized why the extra silvers had been worth it. The foul paste had exactly the same smell as the monster, hopefully making true on its promise of masking them from its nose.

Of course, if the centaur was right they didn’t need it, But it was better to be safe than sorry.

Every step the three of them took was an arduous process now. Their progress slowed down to mere inches, as they desperately tried to step over any type of noise making thing they found on the floor.

The small distance from where the ogre would have been able to touch them, to the point where Marcel would now also be able to touch the ogre had taken them the better part of an hour. And a lot of nerves.

Marcel instincts screamed at him, and he threw himself to the floor.A moment later a fist the size of his body slumped down next to him. His heartbeat went from zero to a hundred immediately, and he was about to summon his trident, when he realized the sleeping beast had simply turned itself around.

It took a few more breaths before Marcel had calmed himself down enough to continue. He stepped even more carefully now, as his mission had just gotten harder. With a hundred ton monster rolling around like it was nothing, he had to be careful not to get too close to it. Otherwise one wrong roll of it but be the end of him.

The monster continued its restless sleep, but Marcel always kept an eye on it. He avoided getting too close to it again. The twins followed his example.

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They split up from each other. Each one holding their own illuminating stone. Three tiny cones of light wandering around the ogre in the pace of snails.

Illuminating the things on the floor almost made Marcel puke. There were dozens of small different trinkets and pieces of armor thrown around. It was in a very similar manner to the centaur cave, although the few pieces of armor Marcel found weren’t just slightly bulged out, they were completely destroyed.

He found half of a chestplate and the other half only half an hour later. The worst thing though, were the several dozen carcasses in diverse stages of rot strewn around the monster.

Marcel was almost grateful he wasn’t able to smell them over the smell of the black paste.

Time went by and Marcel felt like he wasn’t getting any closer to the goal. The night was trickling and their stalking still had yielded nothing. By His estimates it was almost dawn when he suddenly noticed a ray of light penetrating the sky.

He had to stop himself from sprinting over in joy. Whereas every slowly trickling second before had been loaded with nervous anxiousness and agony, now he almost felt an excitement bubbling up in him.

He arrived to find Will and Messy standing together, examining the floor. He followed their gazes and a small smile cracked out. They shared eye contact, nodded, and looked back down at the floor.

They had finally found it. The centaur had been right.

The creeping way back from the ogre had almost been more tense than the searching all around his body. Marcel knew that the distance they had put between them and the ogre meant nothing should the thing wake up.

So instead of growing safe, he felt like at any moment the beats could roar, find out it had been stolen from, and chase after them. It felt almost too good if they were able to get away from the beast.

But in spite of all of his beliefs, they made it all the way to the wall they had climbed down a few hours earlier.The first rays of sun were penetrating through the mountain range and shone into the valley. There was a strange calmness to the hue of orange, a sort of peace established between the night and the oncoming day.

For Marcel and the twins, it meant they needed to hurry the fuck up.

Messy was about to unroll the lined hook they had stowed behind a rock, when a deep roar echoed out between the cave walls.

They froze mid-motion. Cold dread creeped down Marcel’s back, slowly invading his legs and paralyzing them. He turned around in slow motion, afraid to see the sight of a giant ogre charging towards them. But what he saw instead, made him even more anxious.

There was a giant flash of light, followed by a huge eruption. A shockwave thundered through the valley, rustling Marcel’s hair and almost forcing him to take a step back.

Another series of explosions went off. These ones are smaller, equipped with less bravado but still a surprising amount of force.

The three of them shared a look.

“Let’s go.” Will nodded up the cliff side. “Sounds like another one of these monsters has also found the sleeping ogre.”

A battle cry and the sound of chinking armor followed. Marcel heard the unmistakable singing of an arrow through the air.

“Or a whole army of small monsters,” Marcel said drily.

The adventure guild had found about the ogre.

“Should we help them?” Messy asked.

“Please,” Will gestured wildly with his hands. “Whoever they are, they are probably at least on the second tier of the guild. They don’t even need our help. Besides we should just take what we have.”

“We are also part of the guild:” Messy said.

Will frowned. “Yes and as such we both have learned the hard way how everyone is on their own. If you even want to think about keeping the stone, we better get going now.”

“Sometimes they also hand them out to first tier adventurers,” Marcel said. During his research on ogres he had found quite a number of cases where a whole score of first tier adventurers had been sent against one of the giant beasts. Usually resulting in quite a few casualties.

“What if one of them dies while we were here to help?” Marcel asked.

That seemed to settle the matter. Will physically deflated and walked back away from the wall.

“Let’s see what we’re dealing with first. And if it looks like they’re fine, we won’t even intervene.”