Marguz was definitely a tough contestant. His character was firm and ideally suited to be the next chief. The only thing he still lacked was the strength to defeat his father in battle. Someone like that doesn't give up easily.
Elrianthe knew from experience that taking control of someone with a strong character is not easy, and she should first work on his resilience. Some she has to bring to the brink of desperation, others in awe, and some others, like Marguz, she has to make them angry. The key is to trigger strong emotions that drown out common sense and cool calculation, making it easier for her magic to penetrate deep into the mind.
Marguz getting mad at his cousin for talking out was so unstable that Elrianthe could easily take control of him with her < Domination >. Of course, this wouldn't have worked without the help of a few other skills.
Elrianthe pulled the vial of paralyzing poison from his chest and inserted the vial of antidote. After just a dozen seconds, the paralysis subsided and Marguz was able to move again.
“Go ahead,” Elrianthe said.
As soon as Marguz regained control of his body, he dashed toward the last living orc.
“Marguz, wait-”
Struka didn't make it. His head was separated from the rest of his body, with one powerful axe cut, and the carcass settled to the ground, staining it scarlet.
Immediately after, Elrianthe asked Marguz for some details about his village. This time he could no longer lie or spit on her. During the conversation, she looked into his skills some more and picked up three development points, which would be more useful to her than to him.
“You should be rewarded for your good behaviour,” she said, after getting all the information she needed.
She then took off his control and pierced his heart with her spear. Marguz fell to the ground dead.
The upside for Elrianthe was that humanoid creatures like orcs had a similar physical structure to humans. Inflicting critical damage was not a problem. In contrast, in battles with monsters, she often had to make use of Taygeer, who could inflict powerful damage with just an axe blow.
[ +18000xp ]
[ Promoted to level 10 ]
[ Received 2 development points ]
[ Class change available ]
[ Unlocked a new feature: Shop ]
[ Task completed ]
[ Reach level 10: 10/10 ]
[ Reward: 3000 free experience points ]
Elrianthe earned a total of about 35,000 experience points and about 6,000 free points. The promotion to level 10 opened up several new opportunities for her, which were too many in the current situation to comprehend them all.
Noon was approaching, and Elrianthe wanted to attack the orc fortress later that day. She ordered a short break to sit down and review the system in a calm place.
Taygeer and the rest of the group busied themselves with the roasted meat of a deer hunted by Duncan, while Elrianthe, pretending to nap, quickly assigned development points.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
She chose a total of +90 MP, a level increase in the < Domination > skill, an increased chance of successfully using < Daze >, and a random skill.
[ Received a new skill < Deep Pocket >]
< Deep Pocket > (Class B, Spatial Magic) - This skill allows you to hide any item in a private space that acts as a storage area. Inside it, time does not pass, and the capacity depends on the host's magic resources. Maintaining the skill requires reserving 5% of the maximum magic pool available to the host, with each 10 MP of this reservation equivalent to 1 cubic meter of available space. Current space: 1,9 m³.
'Finally, I can stow my stuff and stop lugging around a heavy bag with me!” she thought with satisfaction, tossing everything she had with her inside.
The next step was to use her free experience points to advance her skills. With nearly seven thousand points, she could afford to go pretty crazy. The obvious choice for her was to upgrade the < Scholar > skill to level four. This made the skill more effective, and increased the previous 10% extra XP to 20%, which meant even more free points to use.
As < Scholar > enabled her to see the future benefits of skill advancement, Elrianthe opted for < Team Manager >. The second level of this skill allowed her to share experience points. She no longer had to personally kill to gain experience - on the contrary, she could be completely absent. Of course, with ordinary team members, it wouldn't work that way.
Since the rest of the group were her puppets, experience points were shared regardless of location or status. She could comfortably sit in the stronghold with Alison while the others ran around the forest.
'A truly ideal solution,' thought Elrianthe.
Both skills were S-rated, which meant that she had to spend almost all of her available experience points, leaving her with not enough left to advance other skills.
'That's okay. I'll get a lot more soon,' she thought with a sinister smile.
Putting the rest aside for later, she set off toward the orc settlement.
Chief Narzagul sat in front of his house, watching two young orcs practice fighting each other. One of his four wives served him, handing him apple alcohol, prepared according to their recipes.
Narzagul took a deep sip from a wooden mug and contemplated how best to use his future toy.
'I should take her first. I have to show her who's in charge. Later I'll give it to Marguz for fun. It's better for the boy to play with this elf than to have him make a bastard with his sister,' the chief pondered.
Guards were roaming around on the walls made of wooden stakes, vigilantly on the lookout for threats to the fortress. They included his two daughters and one of the warriors.
In orc culture, women were just as powerful as men, so it was not unusual for a woman to engage in male activities such as fighting, hunting or even blacksmithing.
Most orcs treated both sexes equally, benefiting from their strength and endurance. The exception was the wives of the chief, who were exempt from heavy tasks. They focused on serving their husbands, bearing and raising children, and other 'domestic' activities. The orcish stronghold was, after all, one big family - albeit a somewhat strange one, but still.
*Swish*
Suddenly, one of the orcs standing on the fortress walls was hit by an arrow and momentarily fell to the ground behind the wall. Not even five seconds had passed when another guard, one of the daughters guarding the main gate, was also hit by an arrow and slumped to the ground.
“Intruder-”
Narzagul jumped from his chair, and the two young orcs ceased sparring when one of the chief's daughters fell from the wall, hit by an arrow. However, she managed to alert the rest of the settlement.
*Boooooom*
The gate shattered into tiny splinters as a fireball hit it from outside. Three wild beasts burst inside through the destroyed gate, pouncing on the first individual and starting the slaughter. Along with the beasts, Gaz, Matt, and Taygeer rushed to the attack.
The settlement began to burn, under the fire of Mitta's fire missiles, and Duncan's accurate shots disabled the orcs, who fell to the ground one by one, hit by strong poison. They were standing not far away, on a rocky hill, from which they had the entire fortress as if on their hands.
The three guards, two young orcs, and Narzagul's two wives fell dead in a swift and perfectly organized assault.
Before Narzagul had time to draw his weapons and face the invaders, all three were already standing in front of his small relaxation area, where he had been sipping alcohol a while ago.
“Who are you? What do you want? Speak up before I kill you!” Shouted Narzagul, followed by his two wives and the Urguluk shaman.
“Knock, knock, is anyone home?” A woman at the gate called out, pretending to knock on an invisible door.
“It's you...”