Considering the ogre got a bounty on it for attacking travelers on the road it will probably be easier to lure it out. So I slow to a walk and start whistling as I head down the middle of the road. After about five minutes I spot a large boulder flying at me, so I step out of the way.
The ogre, which stands about twenty feet tall, roars in anger when it misses me, which makes me laugh. Now that I know where the ogre is, no need to waste time, I activate knight blade and charge at the ogre. It seems surprised by this, I guess it is used to people running away.
As I get closer the ogre picks up its club, basically a tree trunk, and takes a swing at me. The ogre is massive and insanely strong, but it is slow, so slow it looks like it is moving in slow motion to me. At this point I kind of feel like I am about to bully the ogre since it is so slow compared to me.
Since it is being so helpful in providing a ramp I jump onto the club and run up it. From there I run across its hand and up its arm, it hasn't even realized I have moved by the time I run up to its upper arm. This gets me high enough to jump to its shoulder, then a few steps puts me next to its neck, once there I start spinning.
As I spin my two knight blades easily start cutting through the ogre's neck and fountains of blood spray out. Due to how massive the ogre is it takes me about fifteen strikes to sever its head. With my spin it only takes about two seconds to complete these strikes, the ogre dies without making a sound.
The ogre's fall makes some noise though, with a massive boom a huge cloud of dust is kicked up. Leaving the ogre where it is for now I start following its tracks looking for its lair, after all I need to at least check for the sword. The massive footprints are not hard to follow and in a few minutes I arrive at a huge cave entrance.
As I approach the entrance of the cave I am suddenly assaulted, the smell of filth and putrefaction coming from the cave is intense. It is even worse for me since I have a sensitive sense of smell, it feels like the ogre just punched me in the nose. I am forced to spend a few minutes in agony before my sense of smell deadens enough for me to step into the cave.
As soon as I step inside I can see the source of the smell, there is a huge pile of corpses. The pile consists of the bodies of cattle and humans and other unidentifiable things. What's worse is all of them have been partially eaten, even I have trouble keeping from puking my guts up.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Automatically I give up on searching through that pile, if I can't find the sword outside the pile then I will just give up on the bonus. Ignoring the pile I start moving around the cave, searching through all the equipment scattered around. Luckily, I am able to find the sword I am looking for, along with a dozen others.
While I could probably find even more valuables in the pile, I refuse to touch it. My mental endurance has a limit, and touching that foulness would surpass that limit. So instead I continue poking around the rest of the cave to make sure I haven't missed anything.
Kicking an old beat up backpack out of the way I find yet another well crafted sword. After picking it up, as I am stepping away, I realize there is a faint mana trace clinging to my foot. My attention immediately turns to the backpack I kicked, when I pick it up I feel a fairly strong amount of mana flowing through it.
When I open the backpack and start pulling things out all I find are common use items like rope and bandages. So I turn my attention to the backpack itself, using my mana sense I probe the backpack. To my surprise not only is it enchanted but it is a bag of holding, a total jackpot since I don't have my pouch in the test.
The backpack will be especially useful in taking the ogre's head back with me to prove I killed it. It also means I won't have to leave behind any of the loot I have found so far. I quickly put all the swords and other things of value into the backpack and sling it on my back before leaving the cave.
As I hoped, the backpack is able to contain the ogre's head, meaning my trip back will be much easier. As I am about to head back to town a thought occurs to me, but I am not sure if it will work. Since the only way to find out is to try, I turn back to the ogre's corpse and start cutting open its chest.
The ogre doesn't have a core which is disappointing but not surprising. It does however have a heart, which I remove and take a bite out of. Fortunately the taste isn't too bad and I am able to slowly eat the thing, after two dozen bites I am rewarded.
Devour Activated! +10 Strength!
'Well, the reward wasn't all that impressive. Still at least I know it works in here.'
Immediately, I toss the rest of the heart away and start back towards town. I remember there being a stream not too far from here, as soon as I get there I stop to clean up. After all, going back to town covered in blood won't do anything but make the fear of me even worse.
When I return to the adventurer's guild I immediately head to the quest hall's redemption counter. The adventurers in the hall are all giving me pitying looks, they think I'm giving up on the quest. I can't really blame them for jumping to that conclusion, after all I only accepted the quest three hours ago.
The looks on their faces when I pull the ogre's head out of the backpack are absolutely priceless. Most of them have their mouths wide open and their eyes look like they are about to pop out of their skulls. Even the girl behind the counter looks shocked and amazed as she stares at the ogre's head.