Cless opened her eyes and saw the blue sky. Some clouds and the cold winter of autumn blew in her face. She tried to talk but her voice failed her. She was dizzy, with a heavy headache. Someone gave her water and she drank. Her throat hurt. She tried to speak and got by enough to cast Mending on herself. Her mind cleared.
"Who? Where am I?"
She rose and found herself still on the hilltop. A horrible stench of carrion permeated the air. Looking around, she saw the members of her group and Silverfang. She also saw three grave markers. She retched but there was nothing in her stomach to throw up.
"Dear One God, what happened?"
She remembered everything. The orcs, the fight, the deaths. Cless stood up and looked around the hilltop. A pile of rusted metal weapons was on a side, probably the loot from the orcs. Three mounds of earth, with grave markers made of cut tree branches. Cless kneeled and prayed. She used Purify on each grave so their bodies couldn't be risen as undead. Carrion birds circled the hill and announced to everyone in kilometers that a big fight happened there.
"This place will be swarming with orcs in the afternoon!" Cless shouted.
"Cless. Are you okay?" She turned around and saw Lyle.
"No. But I am alive, it is all I can hope for. How is everyone?"
Lyle showed some bandages holding his wounds. "We are pretty banged up. Could you help us?"
Cless went around healing everyone. She exhausted her Magic twice to bring everyone up to full health. Fortunately there was nobody with broken bones. Those would require a trip to the healer and a lot of time. It was thanks to her Protection spell.
> For using your class proficiencies, you earned 10,000 Experience Points.
She looked over the hill and saw grass bathed in blood. Some scraps of leather, some bones, but very little meat or organs.
"The wolves ate the orcs and took whatever they could carry away," Arnold told her. "Silverfang told us they won't attack us as long as we are hunting orcs. But the boys want to go back home."
Cless looked at the worn faces of her guild. They were tired, scared. Their armor had holes, the damage that would need repairs. The pile of weapons, even some metal armor. Too heavy to take home.
They had food for nine days, more even because she could see the three that died were not buried with their packs. Not even the weapons and armor, Cless could see the three sets of bloodied brigandine and the spears.
"Gather everyone. We need to talk." Arnold called them, and soon the thirteen boys were sitting around Cless. "I know you want to go home. However, what we are doing here might save said home from destruction. The orcs here are not just a hunting band. They are a horde. Hundreds of orcs are lying on these hills and mountains beyond, waiting for the snow to fall so they can assault us. We already killed over one hundred of them and I bet we barely made a dent in their numbers. This is our duty to save our home. Also to honor our friends' sacrifice. We need to kill one hundred more orcs for each one of them."
"That is easy to say when you suck all our Exp and pump your fat ass with levels while we chafe here, taskmaster!" Collin jeered.
"You are halfway to freedom, Collin. If you want I can set you free now. But I cannot do it gratuitously. I can only do it when there is equal compensation."
"What does it take to release me?"
"Three unassigned stat points." Cless was aiming for two but she had to let Collin negotiate.
"Two!" Collin replied.
"Deal."
The notification rang. Cless dumped the points in Magic without a second thought. She wanted to never again run out of power like last night. She also checked the others, all members of her guild were already paid off, only the other three level ten deserters owing her Exp. These three would have a long way to go on their payment plan.
"What about us?" Asked Jimmy.
"Once you are missing only twenty thousand Exp like Collin here, I'll extend the same deal. Better yet, I offer to shave twenty thousand Exp from what you owe me for two unallocated Stat points. That's about a hundred and fifty fewer orc scouts to kill by the way."
Collin nudged Jimmy, "Take it, dude. The sooner we are free from her, the sooner we can form our own guild."
The three of them took the deal. They winced as the stat points were unallocated from their Stats and Cless once again immediately dumped it into Magic.
"I won't offer it again, as it would weaken you too much." She told them. "Now, We need to sort this huge pile of weapons and see what is useable or of any value. The rest must be destroyed or the orcs will find it and re-equip them."
They spent a good deal of time sorting the weapons. The ones too rusted were broken with blows from the black warhammers Arnold and Martin had. Those too heavy to take home also were broken. It left Cless with ten longswords, twelve shortswords, and six battleaxes. Every one of them carried at least half a dozen knives or daggers. They scattered the metal scraps on the side of the cliff and they clanged down there, making ringing noises across the hills. Cless recovered a dozen of her arrows, one quiver of metal-tipped arrows the orcs were using, plus four quivers of stone-tipped arrows. She got another dozen of metal arrowheads.
From the armor of the orcs, she cut scraps and straps of leather and, in half an hour, she crafted a carrier for all these weapons. It was a huge bundle of weapons bound by leather straps but it would hold. Cless was amazed at the level of ingeniousness she displayed when she remembered the Skills she got from the dead boys as her collateral. With dread, she opened her text notifications.
> You gained the Skill [ Eat Anything ⦅C⦆ ] from Jerry Fuller
>
> Allows you to gain nourishment efficiently from any matter you are able to eat or drink. Immune to ingested poisons, diseases, parasites, and toxins. Reduces the amount of offal produced and chance of constipation by 90%. If edible and nourishing food or drink is consumed, increases all recovery rates by 100%.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
> You gained the Skill [ Elven Longevity ⦅C⦆ ] from Brett Randall
>
> You gain 700 years, plus three for each level, of lifespan. You remain youthful until the last thirty years of lifespan. If you gain levels, apparent age does not change. You are immune to the maladies of old age.
> You gained the Skill [ Tinker (D) ] from Herbert Kramer
>
> You have great insight for mechanical contraptions. You can craft and repair items at three times the normal speed if you have enough materials and tools. You can dismantle junk for useable materials.
There it was. Herbert had a Skill to craft stuff and salvage junk. Since she erased their memories of the collateral, they had no idea. Better that way.
Cless used more leather scraps to wrap the weapons entirely. Then she dug a ditch and buried the stash. She'd come back to get it later. Then she sat on a rock and pulled her prayer book. The boys frowned at the sight of her stopping to pray.
"Please. I need time to meditate on my prayers. I need to learn my new spells."
She flipped the book and reached level sixteen through twenty-four prayers. Cure removes diseases and parasites. Uncurse lifts curses and some magical afflictions. Banish forces undead and dark creatures back to whence they came. Heal can fix bones and severe organ damage. Warding at level twenty-four creates a symbol that stays dormant for a long time and can trigger some effects when disturbed, like a pillar of flames, a barrier, or even messing with their minds. Cless was almost at the end of the book. She flipped one more page and found a spell for level twenty-five. It used three times more pages than the longest one so far and that's it. End of the book. Did it mean she would have to go get the second volume? Why was there a spell for an odd-level?
Those were problems for when she returned to the town. Right now she had an orc horde to thin out. Cless knelt next to the graves and once more prayed for them. After half an hour, she stood and declared her intent.
"We are going to hunt more orcs. Kill a dozen, a hundred to avenge their deaths. The patrols around here should either vanish or intensify, we are going to find which will happen. These orcs will attack us if we stay inside our walls and do nothing. Who will fight?"
They cheered. After a while, Cless neared the edge of the hilltop.
"I just wanted to know how are we going to get down this hill."
The entire slope was covered in blood and gore. A few spots here and there still showed green grass, but there was no way to get down without getting dirty. But that applied only to Cless. The others were covered in dried blood.
"Slide. It's faster." Collin suggested.
"Nah, you can slide if you want to." Cless stuck out her tongue at him. "Silverfang, carry me down the hill."
They did. If their backs weren't all covered in blood and gore, now they were. The group went on their way and noticed that the woods were changed. The noise of birds and small animals disappeared. In its place, guttural shouts and the sound of metal clinking against metal and heavy footsteps.
Cless called for a halt and explained her the plan. "Orcs. Listen up. We are setting an ambush for them again. But I want to catch one of them alive. The smartest-looking one."
She put protection and blessing on all of them, including herself. As usual, she stood at the middle of the path and readied her bow. She felt it was easier to aim now and she felt a pang of guilt as it was due to the stat points she got from the dead boys. Cless felt she played with death in a too carefree way. No more. The first orc came into view, with a huge ax, metal armor, and helmet. She aimed at the gap in its helmet. The arrow flew and struck its eye. The orc fell. Before the arrow hit she was already aiming at the next one. Another kill. The third orc raised a kite shield right as the arrow reached it.
And the rest of the orcs in the patrol charged Cless. They had a piecemeal metal armor, with a breastplate that obviously didn't fit them haphazardly strapped to their chests. But if Balthus was right, these were stronger orcs than the others. Cless shot twice and took one more orc out of the fight. She measured she could shoot twice but instead she prayed.
"Hallow!"
The first orc, the one with the heater shield hesitated as he crossed the spell boundary. It was his doom. Cless put an arrow in its forehead. The others ran toward her, screaming and cursing. The Blind Eye guildmembers sprung their trap. The orcs were attacked on both sides as usual. while Cless shot arrows with pinpoint accuracy into the throats and heads of the orcs.
Half of the armored orcs were already down when her Dangersense Skill flared. Unsure of how to count five seconds, she decided to drop the Hallow spell and move. A ball of darkness flew through where she was standing and hit a tree behind her. She stood horrified for a moment as the tree wilted and shriveled, becoming a thin husk after just a few seconds.
Cless nocked an arrow and searched for the spellcaster. Not finding one, she shot an orc in the kidneys and decided to fight fire with fire. She readied a holy bolt and held the ball of divine magic on her hand. When another ball of darkness flew, she tossed the holy bolt at it. The two spells met and canceled each other with a burst of sound like thunder. Cless' ears rang but she chanted another holy bolt. This one was sent where she saw a brown clothed figure.
It hit and the creature screamed an unnatural wail. Another danger sense and she moved, an orc attacked where she was standing from her back. The scream broke the orc morale. The fight ended in a few minutes.
Cless went to look and found a thin, almost skeletal orc with purple skin. The holy bolt burned his face entirely. She pierced it with her blade but it didn't twitch. She picked it up by the brown robes and dragged it back to the path. Silverfang, Arnold, and Lawrence were holding an orc.
"Good job. You! Do you speak my language?" She asked the monster. It answered with his guttural speech and a spit to the side. The orc tried to struggle again, but it was useless. Cless asked again. Nothing. Then she glanced at him and bluffed. "He doesn't speak our language. Cut off its dick so our queen can devour his manhood and gain his power."
The orc winced. Cless smirked. "So you do speak our language. I'll offer you a deal. You will tell us what we want to know about the orcs in these hills. After we are satisfied, I will let you go back home without attacking you after you give me a tribute. You'll forget all about us after you go and you will go to the deepest territory you orcs live in."
"What tribute do you want, bitch? My manhood?"
"No. I want twenty thousand Class Experience Points." Cless told the orc. She wanted to ask for stat points, but the Skill wouldn't let her. The orc's life was not worth that much and she was already getting information.
"You can drain soul-power? Only our King can do that!" The orc was wide-eyed.
Cless bluffed again, "Maybe I should drain your entire soul then. What do you think?"
"I talk. I talk. I give you part of my soul-power then, witch!"
> Agreement reached. You received 20,000 Class Experience points. You reached level 23. +1 stat point. You reached Cleric level 25. +1 all stats. Search a trainer for an higher tier class or to keep advancing as only Cleric. Your professions leveled up.
> For defeating 14 orcs, you earned 2054 Class Experience Points. Your Exp contracts earned you 13,566 Class Experience Points. For using your Class proficiencies, you earned 3,000 Class Experience Points. You reached level 24.
They interrogated the orc. The size of the horde was bigger than they expected. It couldn't even be considered a horde, it was an army. Thousands and thousands of orcs, if that prisoner's tale could be trusted. The Orc King had dark magic and the one in the brown hood was one of his acolytes. That dark magic could drain souls to empower the Orc King.
Appaled, Cless ordered them to release the orc. It ran through the undergrowth in a straight line. The boys looted the orc bodies and broke the weapons they wouldn't take with them. Cless healed whoever needed healing and they kept on, hunting more orc patrols.
> Name: Cless (no surname)
>
> Race: Human.
>
> Level: 24 ( 278,394 / 300,000 Exp)
>
> Class: Cleric 25 (300,000 Exp / ** )
>
> Profession — Warmaster 11 (56,975 / 66,000 Exp) — Weaponmaster 11 (56,975 / 66,000 Exp)
>
> Base Stats — Strength: 26 (+1) — Agility: 26 (+1) [34] — Health: 38 (+1) — Intellect: 38 (+1) — Magic: 51 (+9)
>
> Available Status Points: 1
>
> Skills: [ Absolute Contract (S) ], [ Giant's Stamina (E) ], [ Trick Shot (D) ], [ Dangersense ⦅C⦆ ], [ Nimble Step (D) ], [ Eat Anything ⦅C⦆ ], [ Elven Longevity ⦅C⦆ ], [ Tinker (D) ]
>
> Proficiencies:
>
> Appraisal — Status: 22
>
> Crafting — Crude Weapons: 5 — Arrows: 1
>
> Magic, Cleric — Mending: 23 — Detoxify: 16 — Light: 21 — Turn Undead: 4 — Blessing: 12 (+2) — Holy Bolt: 12 — Purify: 9 — Protection: 16 (+2) — Hallow: 22 (+2) — Flametongue: 1 — Cure: 1 — Uncurse: 1 — Banish: 1 — Heal: 1 — Warding: 1
>
> General — Prayer: 22 — Scribe: 2 — Houseworking: 6 — Math: 3 — Reading: 8 — Forestry: 9 — Skinning: 7 — Herbalism: 3
>
> Social, general — Negotiation: 15 — Persuasion: 3 — Bluff: 6 (+3)
>
> Social, martial — Leadership: 22 — Intimidation: 21 (+2) — Tactics: 20
>
> Movement — Tumbling: 3
>
> Weapon — Long Blades: 18 — Short Blades: 2 — Unarmed: 11 — Archery: 23 — Spears: 3 — Maces: 22 — Staves: 4 — Axes: 9