As an archer, Cless was out of arrows to shoot. As a Cleric, she was out of spells to heal. As a girl, she was out of fucks to give. Not that she ever gave many. Maybe once. But that time doesn't count.
They were on their second day of skirmishing against orcs after leaving the forest valley and the fifth day of their supposedly ten-day expedition. The good news of leaving the forest was that there were fewer scout teams prowling around and encounters happened with fewer orcs. The bad news was the range of these encounters and the quality of the opposition. They only encountered orc warriors, orc berserkers and orc dark mages in close quarters.
They had to move across the spurs, saddles, and draws of the hills to reduce their exposure. The stream of orc bodies they left behind was a trail in itself. Finding shelter for the night was less of a challenge than making sure they wouldn't track them. Fortunately, there were several nooks and caves in the rocky hills to hide a legion if the legion spread around the hideouts.
They were bunking up in a cave to rest for the remaining afternoon and evening. The stress of staying in a constant state of alertness and fighting on the move without much time to stop and recover was taking its toll. Even Cless that with her Skills combined could endure four times the physical toil than a normal person of her Stats was mentally worn out.
At least the days had been profitable but not in the monetary sense. Cless leaned against Silverfang furry chest to check her combined notifications.
For defeating 57 orcs, you earned 4,709 Class Experience Points. For using your Class proficiencies, you earned 16,000 Class Experience Points. You reached level 28. Your professions leveled up.
A quick check told her that the boys were all levels fifteen to seventeen.
"How many orcs did we kill so far?" Martin asked.
"Dunno, dude. I'd say a thousand," Joked Kevin. "But it was more like two to three hundred."
They shut up because they could hear grunts and shouts from orcish search parties. All of them smelled just like orcs. And there were fewer opportunities to leave a trail walking on the stony hills than on the soft valley ground. Cless wondered the size of that horde. Must be in the tens of thousands for the loss of two to three hundred of their numbers mean little. She expected the whole army of orcs to come and get them.
She opened her prayer book and mentally practiced her spell-prayers. She tried to read or learn the other two level twenty-five prayers but the knowledge just slipped from her mind as soon as she focused on something else. It was funny to watch her mind forget something after a moment, the feeling of it being right there but unable to recall it was frustrating. And she had better things to do so she quit trying.
They slept and ate. Another thing she had to rein in was the overeating. The boys wanted to eat double rations to sate their hunger but Cless forbade. They had the food they captured from the orcs but only Kevin was willing to eat that. Cless begrudgingly also switched to orc food and despite being disgusting, it was nourishing enough to keep her improved resource recovery rate.
It was very important because she was now not only healing and buffing but also shooting Holy Bolts as ranged attacks. They were really missing ranged support.
They reached the morning of the sixth day. Everyone had time to get a full night's rest and the moods improved somehow. Cless sent Collin outside to scout and after a few minutes, he returned giving them the sign to leave their shelter.
"We should go deeper," Collin told them. "The scouts are coming from the forest to help in the search. If they are withdrawing from the valley this could delay their invasion. Going deeper will help to avoid their search. maybe we could go north and around to come back home."
"That would take almost two weeks if possible," Lyle commented. "There is a reason the north woods are not well explored. There are monsters in the deeper forest."
"I know the way," Silverfang declared. "My pack fled the orcs to the north woods. The path is further inside the mountains, there is a canyon there. Dangerous floods in spring, not so much now."
Cless sighed. "Then it is decided. We are going deeper in the foothills to find this canyon and then cross around to the north."
They moved away from the region they prowled during the last days and even deeper in orc territory. Cless stood in the front of the group, sword in hand. Across a bend in the path they were taking between two hills, they found a band of orc berserkers. Wearing armor made of overlapping hides and favoring clubs, mauls, and greataxes, these orcs were easy to kill but also more dangerous than the warriors. They would charge and attack recklessly. Arnold's shield was bent and dented from soaking and deflecting the heavy blows.
Wasting no time, Cless fired a Holy Bolt at the face of the lead berserker. It was easy to identify the leaders, berserkers apparently grew in size as they leveled so the strategy was to shoot the biggest one. It literally melted its face and Cless triggered the Flametongue on her sword, charging to meet the berserkers with Arnold and Silverfang by her side. Two daggers flew on her sides, lodging themselves in the eye of one berserker and inside the mouth of a second one that was screaming. They ignored these two that were not down but momentarily incapacitated and moved past them to get the others. ]
Cless swung her flaming sword at one club-wielding berserker as Silverfang pounced the ax user at her left and Arnold rushed the other at her right, knocking his orc down. He then drove his black warhammer at the orc's unprotected knee and smashed the bone. She got distracted by that and missed her swing. Cless could barely dodge the orc's club slam but her higher agility and level gave her an edge and she barely made it by ducking underneath. Cless drove her flaming sword upward between the legs of the berserker, scoring a critical hit. The greasy furs came alight and she kicked the orc away.
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Behind her the two that Shane stabbed with his thrown daggers were already dead, mobbed by the boys that came after them. Silverfang was tearing the throat of his opponent and Arnold was pulling his warhammer from a dent in the chest of the last orc.
For defeating 6 orcs, you earned 991 Class Experience Points. For using your Class proficiencies, you earned 1,000 Class Experience Points.
At least berserkers gave good Experience. It was one thing Cless noticed. Sometimes monsters would give twice or triple the amount of Exp as others of the same level. But she had no time to do the math. They broke the berserkers' weapons and moved on.
They were going up, snaking around the hills. Ahead of them, they saw a guard tower made of stone and wood with orc archers manning them. There was a horn mounted at the side of the tower. She had to make a decision. Would her holy bolt damage the horn? She knew she could take out an orc archer and make it easier to take down the tower but there were three archers. One of them would sound the horn.
"Shane, can you take out that horn?" She asked in whispers.
"Too high," He answered. "The dagger won't have any strength if it can even reach that far."
"I'm taking down the archers and running a risk of them playing the horn." She got thumbs up from the boys. "Silverfang, can you climb that tower? Get ready to run after the archers shoot their first volley."
Cless waited for a time when two of the archers were further away from the horn and shot her Holy Bolt at the one closer to the warning system. The orc clutched his face and fell on his back on the tower floor. The other two looked away to see what happened to their comrade instead of looking for what did that and a second orc was taken out by another Holy Bolt. Startled, the third one ducked under the tower rail and out of sight.
"Silverfang, go!" The werewolf bounded on all fours and dashed for the tower. Cless moved ahead carefully. Soon a muffled set of grunts came and Silverfang waved from the tower.
Cless reached the tower and ignored the notifications. These three orcs were worth a hundred and forty-five Experience Points to her. Orcs had this habit of shoving the shitty jobs onto their younger and lower leveled members. Worse for them. She climbed up and took a look. There were other watchtowers in the distance, atop the other elevated places. These towers were too far away to see them there, Cless could barely see movement in them. She could see the river valley all the way down there and the treetops. And back at the foot of the mountains, she could see...
A town? There was no palisade but there were stone houses and even smoke coming out of some chimneys.
But more importantly, these archer towers were packed with arrows. And one of them had a composite longbow, too well made to be orcish. Probably some loot taken from an adventurer. And not it was hers. Cless didn't count but she took around two tied bundles of a hundred arrows and the three archers' quivers. She wondered and maybe the scouts used the towers as resupply stations for their arrows. The ones in the archers' quivers were of better quality than the ones the scouts used in the valleys. Orcs were greedy and selfish creatures, she thought.
"There's the forest, the hills, the other watchtowers and this town that is obviously inhabited," Cless informed her guild after she climbed down the tower. "Where should we go?"
"A town? Here in the mountains? Impossible. We live in the frontier of human territory!" Lance pointed out.
"Go upstairs and take a look if you don't believe me," Cless ignored them while she tested her new composite bow. It took more strength to pull the string but she could use it. Should have great range.
They did in groups of three or four. Some joker dumped the orc bodies and they rolled downhill making a series of cracking and squishing sounds as the bodies broke down. Someone laughed and a slap soon followed up with a "Shut up, moron!" interjection. Cless giggled. Boys surely grow fast, didn't they?
Everyone came down and Andre took the horn with him. "What? It could come in handy!" He defended himself.
"Good. We can take the other towers to get more arrows. Someone with good Agility should take a bow and start training. The groups of orcs around here have fewer monsters and we can set you aside to earn proficiency with the bow."
"We should investigate the town," Said Lyle. "It can't be an orc town, the orcs are new in these woods."
"Silverfang, do you know anything about that town?" Cless asked.
"Small people lived there. They went down in the mountain belly and back with metal. They were not tasty so we didn't hunt them. Deer in the valley and forest much better and not as hard. Then orcs came from the south and slaughtered small people to make way for even more orcs."
"That town is where the orc chicks should be holed in," Kevin suggested.
"What do you mean?" Asked Lawrence.
"C'mon. We killed three hundred orcs so far, didn't you notice they are all guys?" Kevin replied.
"There are no orc females," Silverfang informed. "They are all... guys."
Shocker. "Are they all gay?" Collin asked.
"Nah. The stories say they only breed when they find a female knight." Lyle added.
"And how the fuck they know when they find a female knight? That's stupid fairy tales for you," Collin dismissed.
"I think they rape any female of other species they find," Arnold innocently concluded.
Cless shuddered at the R word. It brought all sorts of bad memories, like being trapped and helpless, the bruises around her wrists and the deaths. Maybe she still had a few non-physical fucks to give. She used her Tinker Skill and hacked the tower supports in spots hard to see until the structure's stability was compromised. If some orcs tried to climb the tower, it would collapse.
"Let's take over the other towers and gather more arrows. Then we investigate the town," She decided.
> Name: Cless (no surname)
>
> Race: Human.
>
> Level: 28 ( 386,250 / 406,000 Exp )
>
> Class: Cleric 25 (300,000 Exp / ** )
>
> Profession — Warmaster 12 (67,748 / 78,000 Exp) — Weaponmaster 12 (67,748 / 78,000 Exp)
>
> Base Stats — Strength: 17 — Agility: 17 [23 (+1)] — Health: 27 — Intellect: 38 — Magic: 78
>
> Available Status Points: 3
>
> 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: 25 — Detoxify: 16 — Light: 24 — Turn Undead: 4 — Blessing: 16 — Holy Bolt: 24 (+6) — Purify: 10 — Protection: 19
> — Hallow: 25 — Flametongue: 1 — Cure: 1 — Uncurse: 1 — Banish: 1 — Heal: 1 — Warding: 1 — Revivify: 10
>
> General — Prayer: 27 (+3) — Scribe: 2 — Houseworking: 6 — Math: 3 — Reading: 12 (+4) — Forestry: 9 — Skinning: 7 — Herbalism: 3 — Sabotage: 2 (+2)
>
> Social, general — Negotiation: 15 — Persuasion: 3 — Bluff: 6
>
> Social, martial — Leadership: 27 (+3) — Intimidation: 21 — Tactics: 26 (+3)
>
> Movement — Tumbling: 3 — Stealth: 3 (+3) — Sneak: 3 (+3)
>
> Weapon — Long Blades: 23 (+5) — Short Blades: 2 — Unarmed: 11 — Archery: 26 — Spears: 3 — Maces: 22 — Staves: 4 — Axes: 9