“So, how long do you want these spikes to be?” Lorenz wiped the sweat off his forehead after lighting the forge.
“Around half a meter should do the trick. But I need them welded to a strong piece of metal at the bottom or they’re gonna be useless.”
“And you want seven or eight of them, right?” Lorenz looked up at the ceiling blankly while calculating the time for his work. “Yeah, that should take like a day and a half, normally. But who knows, maybe now that I’m stronger it’s not gonna take as long.”
Roy shrugged and looked outside at Jack and his team. “You can take as much time as you like, just make sure they’re properly sharp. They would need to stab a monster that’s even stronger than the ogres.”
“Well, I’ll try my best, but I can’t promise anything,” Lorenz replied while looking at the fire in the forge. “Also, how about you smear them with poison or something? I don’t think these spikes on their own are gonna do much more than your swords.”
Roy raised his eyebrow and nodded. “Good idea actually, thanks for that. I’ll talk with Mr. Jacob and see if he has anything.”
“Well, you do that. I’ll start working.” Lorenz took up the bellows and worked them to increase the heat in the forge.
As Roy made his way out of the workshop he noticed a rack of spears at the corner of the room.
“So, how long are we gonna stay here watching over Lorenz? Don’t tell me it’s for the whole day?” Jack asked with doubt and trepidation.
“No, Alfonse’s group is going to switch with you after six hours.” Roy looked at Jack with an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry that I’m having you do this, I know that you just wanna go back and hunt.”
Jack laughed Roy’s worries off, “It’s all good man. As long as it increases our chance of not getting wiped out by that red bear, then I’m all for it.” He then looked back at his group before continuing with a wide smile, “Plus, I can always kill some time with sparring. I checked earlier and my skill proficiency went up after I fought with you.”
“Wiped out? That’s a bit too dark man,” Hassan interjected while walking toward the two. “How strong is this red bear in the first place?”
Roy scratched his chin in thought. “Well, how to say this. I haven’t seen it fight, but I know that it’s pretty damn strong for two reasons. First, not only is it a boss, but it’s one from a quest that will give us a safe settlement. Just logically speaking, it must be strong.”
Roy paused and took a long breath before continuing, “Second, I almost pissed my pants when I saw it, and that’s after I had just decapitated the first ogre we fought. The aura it has is just on a different level—it almost suffocates you, you think you’re gonna drown.”
Hassan’s facial muscles tightened and his expression became more serious as Roy finished his explanation. “That’s… quite scary.”
Roy’s eyes quickly scanned through everyone’s faces. Other than Jack and Robb, both the knights and the volunteers were fidgety and anxious. They kept side-eyeing him and listening to his conversation with Hassan intently.
“That’s why we need to become strong. Those that are gonna fight the red bear will need at least rank Sentinel C in constitution. They also need to be used to fighting ogres and monsters that are bigger and stronger than them.”
“Well, isn’t that easy?” Jack interjected. He then looked at his group and said, “If you give us five days, we will get so strong that each of us can kill an ogre on his own. What do you say guys, are you scared?”
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Parker, a young man with brown curly hair, grinned and said, “With our pace, there is no need for five days, just give us four and I would bring you three ogre heads for souvenirs.”
The rest of the volunteers laughed and chuckled, while Hawk looked at the young boy with interest. “That’s some good confidence right there, but say that when you stop pissing yourself in front of goblins first.”
Parker’s face turned into a red apple. “Hey, I didn’t piss myself! That was just goblin blood that got on my pants.”
Roy couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing along with everyone other than the poor young man. “Good, good, I like the energy here. Anyways, I’ll have to go now. For your weapons, try the spears in the workshop and give them some time to see if you want to switch over. If you like your swords better, then that’s good too.”
The volunteers nodded at Roy’s words before Jack looked at him. “Take care of yourself.”
After Robb and Roy exchanged their farewells with the group, they made their way back to Roger’s house. The women and girls were running around doing chores such as cleaning clothes and heating up the leftovers of the boar. The old men and young boys, on the other hand, were building a palisade around the house using pieces of wood and logs that they brought from other destroyed houses.
Seeing their change of mood and activity as compared to the first day, Roy had a warm smile on his face. The group of the three young kids especially brought a smile to his face, as he saw them tirelessly doing pushups at the back of the house. Each pushup that they mustered took all of their energy, and when one of them cheated or didn’t go down low enough, the other two would immediately reprimand them.
Seeing that they were doing alright, Roy stopped staring at them and looked around for Dr. Jacob. He found him in his usual spot smoking his pipe on the bench and talking with Mr. Roger and the old tailor, Jeffery.
“Seems like the boys want you for something,” Roger gestured with his head toward Roy and Robb.
The doctor turned to look at the duo before standing up and saying, “Well, it must be something important.”
“Where have you been, you two? You didn’t come back for the whole night.” Jacob had a mixture of worry and relief on his face as he walked toward them.
“Well, we’ve been ogre hunting, but one of them was a bit stronger than the others,” Robb chuckled as he remembered the strength of the blue ogre.
Jacob’s mouth gaped and his eyes were about to pop out of their sockets. He hadn’t seen an ogre with his own eyes, but he heard many horror stories about them from Marth. To hunt such creatures for sport was beyond ridiculous.
Jacob put his hand on his chest. “You two are going to give me a heart attack. Just what went wrong with the world for two young boys to have to fight three-meter-tall giants.”
Roy laughed and said, “Well, the world did flip on its head. But it’s better to get used to it soon since even weirder stuff is gonna keep happening.”
“I guess that’s true,” Jacob responded while staring blankly.
Seeing the doctor deep in his thoughts, Roy cleared his throat. “Anyways, that’s not what we wanted to talk about. Mr. Jacob, do you have some poison? We need it for the fight against the red bear.”
Jacob shook his head to snap out of his daze. “Huh? Ah, poison. I do have some but it probably would do nothing to a five-meter-long bear. The only thing that could do some damage would be a lot of viper poison, and I mean a real lot of it.”
“If we bring you a bunch of dead vipers, can you do something with them?” Robb asked with a smile.
Jacob stroked his beard, “Yeah, I could probably do something with that. I would just need to take out their glands, which shouldn’t be too hard. But be careful with them, boys; one bite and you will be out for days.”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Jacob, we will be keeping an eye out for them,” Roy replied with a serious expression.
With their discussion over, the two made their way to the outskirt of the village and entered the woods. After a couple of minutes of walking, Roy heard a sound to his right and immediately took his sword. A red lynx jumped out of one of the bushes and pounced at the young boy.
As Roy and the lynx clashed, Robb dashed in and slashed its side open. The beast whimpered and rolled on the ground from the pain, but Roy did not show any hesitation. With one slash, he decapitated the lynx and the screams were no more.
Roy let out a long breath. The beast pounced at him right at the moment he wasn’t paying attention. If his reaction was slower, his face could have been scarred for life.
“It’s not the time to feel relieved yet.”
Robb’s words snapped Roy out of his reverie. He looked around him to find pairs of eyes staring at them from all directions. They were surrounded.