Chapter 46

Dylan woke up early in the morning and hurried out of bed, putting on his armor and scabbard. He managed to sleep for about 2 hours last night, which wasn't good, but he thought it was worth it. Now he had a little over 2000 MP in reserve and a rough strategy against the orc chieftain.

Nick left the hut and headed away from the camp to find the orcs. He needed an excuse for how he knew about them, but he didn't even have to, as everyone in the camp was very restless. Many were quickly gathering their gear and preparing for battle. Dylan was walking around looking around the camp when Lynella ran up to him and spoke quickly, she didn't seem scared, but she was too collected and serious.

"Dylan, the scouts have found many orcs and goblins moving in our direction. The prince is gathering everyone near his hut, let's go faster."

Dylan nodded and ran with her, mentally praising himself for his foresight yesterday.

It's good that the scouts actually did everything that we discussed with the prince. It saved me a lot of time and effort.

It was very noisy near the Prince's house, most of the people were there and everyone was trying to shout down each other. Everyone was arguing about the actions that should be taken against the orc attack. Evander stood in the center and tried to calm everyone down, but it was not very successful, nobody just listened to him. Dylan and Lynella came when the Prince's patience ran out.

"Everyone, calm down!" The prince shouted loudly, seeing that no one interrupted him, he continued. "Many orcs and goblins are moving in our direction, another scout recently returned and reported that orcs are also moving towards us in another direction." After the Prince's words, there was a noise again, but when he raised his hand, everyone stopped talking.

"I dare to assume that the orcs found us some time ago and were simply afraid to attack while the troll was with us. I don't know how many orcs and goblins there are, but their number is already over 200. The average level of [Orcs] [Rare] is about Lvl 35, and the average level of [Goblins] [Common] is about Lvl 40. And that's not counting the unknown number of class owners and the orc chieftain. This leads me to the fact that the orcs are ready to deal with us, most likely they completely surrounded us and blocked our path to the troll." Evander gave him some time to think about his words and continued.

"I can definitely say that the orc leader is not a stupid monster, since she thought of surrounding us. Alas, but we have no chance of defeating her and the rest of the minions, so we will retreat across the river and try to hide from pursuit."

While the prince was talking, Dylan saw all the members of the class gathered around him. He counted them and made sure that all 31 people were accounted for. When the prince finished talking, Dylan realized that he must have been desperate, since he suggested that they just run away. In his opinion, it made no sense, the Orcs on average had more stamina and surely the chieftain would be able to find them, they would just delay their end for a while. So he raised his hand like a good boy and Evander offered him the floor.

"Evander, this doesn't make sense, there are a few people in the group who are exceptionally bad in physical attributes, and sooner or later we won't be able to maintain the necessary pace to break away from the orcs. They also have more stamina and numbers on average, and that's not counting the possibility that they might have someone who specializes in searching. Our chances of hiding are very small, so I suggest we swim across the river and fight them after they manage to swim across. This will reduce the number of orcs and goblins we have to fight at the same time and give us a slight advantage." After his words, the people became very restless.

"Dylan, you're just sending us to our deaths!" Norn [Water Mage] said loudly.

Looking at her displeased face, Dylan couldn't help but get angry.

Damn, even the useless [Space Mage's Apprentice] and Kaeti aren't that scared of this option. Even though not really cut out for combat.

Dylan pulled himself together so as not to offend the bitch, he simply nodded and continued talking.

"Yes, that's right. In the current situation, we have two options: leave the mages and those who lack physical characteristics to the orcs, or fight together."

Dylan replied and was very pleased that Norn had shut up. Looking around at the others, the mages looked miserable, and the adepts tried to gather their courage for the fight. Overall, he had achieved exactly what he wanted, in such a state it was much easier to persuade the group to a suicidal fight. This of course does not take into account a few people. Among all of them, Cassandra, Liam and Alistair stood out with complete calm and lack of fear. Dylan thought it was strange that Alistair was not scared, but he could not help but respect him at this moment. While the others were talking among themselves, Evander looked sad and thoughtful, having collected his thoughts, he spoke again.

"Please calm down. As much as I hate to say it, Dylan is right. We don't have much time left, so we'll swim across the river and fight the orcs there, when we can't handle their numbers anymore, we'll split up and retreat into the forest." Several people began to loudly object to the prince, but he wouldn't give in to persuasion. "Remember that we have the rings and real death doesn't threaten us, so we'll stick to the plan. Now, everyone, quickly, get going!"

Evander turned and walked towards the river, not listening to those who objected to the plan, seeing that no one was listening to them, they gathered in different groups and having no choice, began to stick to the plan. Dylan allowed himself a slight smile, now that the first part of his plan was completed, he should communicate with the strongest and coordinate the attack on the Orc Chieftain.

While he was thinking about how to do this, Liam approached him, along with Ariana, Linella and Cassandra.

"You can't pretend you didn't plan this, so what's our plan?"

Dylan sighed and thought that his friend lacked tact, catching himself thinking this, he realized that he also really lacked it.

"Defend against the orcs and kill the chieftain if possible. We should be able to do that if we catch her alone by surprise. If we can't do that, we'll split up and run away. If we can do that, we'll just run away. It's simple, when I see her I'll clarify what we should use. For now, we'll just use our strongest attacks and illusion magic to give me a chance to get close to her and stick the cursed blade into her. Any questions?"

"Great, I agree." Liam replied and the others nodded as well.

Dylan nodded and walked towards the river, the others were already swimming across it. Before entering the water, everyone took off their armor and clothes, putting them in backpacks. Of course, no one undressed completely, swimming in their underwear, which made Dylan smile slightly. Even in such a situation, people did not get rid of social boundaries, of course, he planned to do the same.

Looking at the river, Dylan saw that at this point it was about 30 meters long and the current was very strong, but the water mages helped the physically weak to swim across it easily. Dylan nodded and also began to undress and put his armor and clothes in a backpack. The others who were with him did the same, Dylan allowed himself a fleeting glance at Linella, Cassandra and Ariana.

At least there is something good about this.

They were in thin underwear, Linella noticed his gaze and winked at him, and Cassandra stared at him like he was an idiot. Embarrassed, Dylan turned away and quickly put everything in the backpack. After making sure that it was watertight, Dylan got into the water and quickly swam across the river, although even with his excellent physique and the fact that he was 4 times stronger than a the strongest person, it was not so easy, the current still fought against him.

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Well, that will definitely hold off the orcs.

Once on the other side, he overcame his embarrassment and threw away his wet underwear, he tried to quickly get rid of the water with [Strength Magic] and quickly get dressed so that no one would see him naked, but he still managed to get a satisfied look from Linella and a complete ignore from Cassandra and Ariana. When they came out of the water, Cassandra covered her body in blood, and Linella cast an illusion for herself and Ariana, covering their private parts until they got dressed. Liam also covered his view with diamond dust, which actually attracted more attention from others. But he did not pay attention to this, collected the water from those around him and changed his clothes.

Everyone in the group had to get rid of wet clothes and water, not because it would be uncomfortable, but because everyone knew perfectly well that in water on wet orcs it is best to use spells that cause cold, if they had wet clothes on, the spells would be just as effective against them.

When everyone had crossed the river, the prince spoke loudly.

"We will split into several groups and not give the orcs a chance to emerge elsewhere and surround us. If possible, try to use [Ice Magic] spells and do not use [Fire Magic]. When we can no longer hold back the orcs, we will split up and hide in the forest."

Evander went on to explain the general plan and select people to lead the various groups, sending their teams to various locations along this side of the river. When he was done, Dylan could only wait for the enemy to appear.

About 30 minutes after the prince had gathered everyone near his hut. Many goblins began to run into the camp, they had wooden spears with stone tips in their hands, they were dressed in rags. In general, they were ordinary goblins that he had seen before, Dylan decided that they were looking for them, and as soon as he had time to think about it, one goblin began to scream louder than everyone else and point a spear in their direction. Because of this, the other goblins noticed them and also began to scream even louder and more furiously. Dylan assessed most of the [Goblins] [Common] and saw that they were mostly of a low level, on average Lvl 40, they differed among themselves in build and shade of green. Dylan immediately singled out those who had a class.

Name: Gobu-Gobu, 10 years old

Race: Forest Goblin [Common] Lvl 38

Class: Wild Hunter [Common] Lvl 23

Class: Spear Warrior [Common] Lvl 18

Name: Dirty Earth 18 years old

Race: Forest Goblin [Common] Lvl 69

Class: Rock Thrower [Common] Lvl 50

Class: Spear Warrior [Common] Lvl 43

Name: Ratix, 30 years old

Race: Forest Goblin [Common] Lvl 100

Class: Spear Disciple [Uncommon] Lvl 105

Class: Goblin Chieftain [Uncommon] Lvl 31

The goblin chief was special in his opinion, he looked very old, and his skin was wrinkled like a 100 year old man, he had a small beard of gray hair and even his green skin had faded and turned pale yellow. This was not surprising, considering that goblins lived up to 25 years, and his class could not prolong his life much. But of course he could still move normally and quickly, he shouted loudly at the other goblins in his language and looked at them with anger.

So, there are already more than a hundred of them. The orcs most likely sent them as cannon fodder, which is very smart for them. The goblins are not a threat to us anyway, they are only needed to deplete our resources.

Dylan thought about how many characteristics one goblin could have and activated [Reincarnator's Madness]. In terms of basic physical characteristics, they were half as strong as humans. That is, they had about 20 characteristics, mental characteristics were very low in the non-intelligent representatives of their species and could not even be assessed. The only thing they were better than humans in was perception, they had night vision and they had about 50 characteristics. Race: [Goblin] gave 6 characteristics per level, and those who had classes, besides the goblin chieftain, did not move much away from this level.

Statistics:

Strength 20 +1

Dexterity 20 +1

Endurance 20 +1

Vitality 20 +0.8

Constitution 20 +0.8

Perception 50 +1

Intelligence 5 +0.2

Wisdom 5 +0.2

So, it turns out that ordinary goblins won't be able to cross the river, no matter what level they are. To do this, you need somewhere around 100-120 physical characteristics. You just have to be wary of the stones they can throw.

After a few minutes of noise from the goblins, an orc came to them. He looked at the people who were on the other side of the river and let out a loud and drawn out growl in disappointment. This caused a small smile to appear on Dylan's face. He turned around and began to look for the people, most of whom were about 100 meters away and were not happy about the fight, but were ready for it.

Dylan continued to watch the orc and was not at all happy that even more goblins had arrived, now there were about 200 of them. After another two minutes, many orcs began to arrive. They were simply gathering in groups and waiting for the command of the classers, whom he immediately assessed. From the entire place, Dylan counted about 40 orcs and 200 goblins, he did not even imagine how many there were in total.

Name: Bud, 30 years old

Race: Orc [Rare] Lvl 43

Class: Disciple of the Mace [Uncommon] Lvl 60

Class: Magician of Goblin [Uncommon] Lvl 51

Name: Ryk, 20 years old

Race: Orc [Rare] Lvl 28

Class: Berserker [Rare] Lvl 19

Class: Disciple of the Mace [Uncommon] Lvl 43

Hmm, interesting that there is a goblin slave class.

More orcs and goblins came and Dylan realized that he was completely right in his prediction, there were about 400 of them in total and that was the ones he could see. The orcs lined up in front of the river when they heard a distinctly female voice. Even he could tell, despite the ugly language. Dylan only now noticed that he hadn't seen any females among the monsters, which meant that there were even more of them than now. A tall orc woman, a little over two meters tall, came out in front of the river, dressed in the skins of iron wolves that glittered with metal. She had typical orcish features - sharp teeth, a large nose and eyes, yellow skin. Staring at them, she said something in a loud, growling tone, but no one could understand her. Seeing their reaction, she changed her language and repeated what she had said.

Name: Hortensia, 59 years old

Race: Orc [Rare] Lvl 138

Class: Shaman of the Spirits Ancestors [Rare] Lvl 100

Class: Orc Doctor [Uncommon] Lvl 100

"People, surrender immediately and you will die easily!"

Evander emerged from the trees with Brandon walking next to him with a shield and shouted back at her.

"We don't agree with this, negotiations?"

The Orc Chieftain's face twisted in rage and she began to scream at them.

"I will eat you alive! And I will give your women to the Orcs, and then to the Goblins to bear children. You will beg for death!"

Hysterical, but it was almost effective.

Looking around, most of the people had disgusted expressions, like him. Evander didn't say anything and just went behind the tree again. Just when a huge block of stone flew at him. The Prince and Brandon managed to dodge, but after it hit the tree, they were riddled with fragments of stones and chips. Dylan saw that they were generally okay and counted that the Chieftain used about 500 mana, for this, her magic was stronger than he expected, but not much. When she wanted to scream something again, an arrow flew at her head. The orc raised her hand and put it in front of the arrow, contrary to her expectations, the arrow pierced her hand and a flash of orange energy burst out of it. She screamed and in rage began to say something in her language. Several orcs immediately covered her with their bodies, and the goblins and several dozen orcs began to move towards the river and try to swim to them.

Dylan came out from behind the tree and started swearing loudly at Ariana.

"Ariana, you're a fool! If she could be killed with an arrow, I would tell you so, now she'll be on guard!"

"Well, I'm sorry, it was such a chance, I didn't think she would have time to react." She said, looking out from the bushes nearby.

Well, to be honest, her stats shouldn't have allowed her to react to the arrow, so it must be some skill. I doubt it's the [Danger Sense] skill, most likely something related to Aura, or some spell. Too bad my senses don't extend that far.

Looking at a bunch of goblins that were quickly carried away by the current and a few orcs that managed to swim correctly, Dylan thought: "This is how it all begins!"