Rupegia Ch. 03: Royd’s Kerfuffle

Perfect timing. The orc is occupied with Liam, so its reaction is slow, and I manage to duck under its slash, slipping past him.

As I pass, I feel the orc gaze on me. I think it knows what I'm doing. I completely hide behind my shield, blocking my vision of what's ahead.

*Ptoon*, a dart hits my shield and bounces off.

Good, now that goblin is dead.

The vines grab both of its legs and hold it in place. It fired its blowgun and didn't dodge, so now I'm going to make it pay for it.

The goblin screams in terror and anger, then I reach it and savagely slash down diagonally. My sword slides through its skull and lops off a part of its head.

For a moment, I see its brain matter, then I immediately turn around and see Liam getting blown away several meters.

"NOOO!" Nour screams. He's striking the orc, but the monster is just effortlessly defending with its shield.

The orc has one big weakness, it's metal armor, it's vulnerable to electricity. I frantically remove a point from [Sword Use] and put it into [Electric Magic] while praying that Nour doesn't die in the next attack.

Now with a free hand, the orc savagely slashes sideways. Nour defends with his shield, then he gets splattered on the wall and all the air from his lungs gets expelled.

The orc doesn't finish him and instead jumps towards Rania. I cast [Lightning Bolt] and hit the orc's back. It immediately stops moving, then its body starts convulsing. It's stunned, but for how long?

I do a mad dash towards it and prepare to strike. I try to slash its neck but, it turns towards me at the same time and I only wound it. His shield suddenly comes towards my face and all I can do is meet it with my own.

A loud noise of metal hitting metal fills the dungeon, then pain flares on my shield arm and shoulder from the impact.

I'm forced to take a few steps back to maintain my footing, then I cast [Lightning Bolt] and the orc gets stunned again.

"[ICE LANCE]!" Rania screams with a cracked voice.

I see the orc jerk away with a speed I didn't think was possible, then a spear of ice suddenly pierces the orc's shield shoulder. It's a complete penetration right in the bone joint, and the spear is a good 10cm wide, so that arm is useless.

From behind the orc, I see Rania fall to her knees.

Was that an advanced spell? It certainly did a lot of damage to the orc.

Maybe she's inexperienced and is now suffering from mana drain like I did once, so this means I can't rely on her anymore. I need to kill the orc myself.

The orc roars in pain and anger, then he grabs the lance and pulls it out without hesitation.

I get up and cast [Lightning Bolt] again. The monster twitches, and even though it doesn't get stunned, that's enough of an opening.

I stab the orc in the groin, and I feel my sword sinking into flesh. It seems like this is a vulnerable area where the chain and plate mail don't have proper coverage.

The orc screams again and gives me a weak blow with his claymore that I defend with my shield, but it's enough to push me backward.

My sword gets jerked around, but I don't lose my grip on it, so it does even more damage to the orc as it's violently ripped out of its body.

"RAAAAAAH!" Liam screams.

A dagger flies towards the orc's face, but it deflects it with its claymore. Liam reaches the orc a second later and slashes towards it. The orc defends against the slash, but that's another opening for me.

I jump and slash towards its throat, but it evades again with an impossibly high speed, so I only manage to wound it.

The orc is bloody. Its chest is completely stained from the blood that's pouring from its two wounds on its neck, its legs are bloody with a large amount of blood flowing from its groin, its shoulder has a large gaping hole that bleeds even more than the other wounds. But even with all this, it's still fighting like a barbarian.

It kicks Liam again, who seems to be too slow to react, and he gets blown away a few meters, then the orc tries to counter my attack with its claymore, but I manage to parry it!

Is it losing strength? It did counter from an awkward angle, though.

"[SHOCKING TOUCH]!" Rania screams again with an even more cracked voice. That's a level 10 [Electric Magic] spell.

Suddenly, the orc starts to convulse, and I see Rania fall behind him. She must've run out of mana.

I'm too far to immediately slash at its neck again, but it's enough for me to aim for the groin. This time my sword pierces deeply, and I quickly try to pull it out, but it's stuck.

The orc screams while still convulsing from the spell. I give up on the sword and grab my dagger, then I jump and aim for its neck.

The monster is stinky and filthy, my right hand grabs onto the back of its huge head feels something sticky, and then its smelly breath hits my face. I ignore my disgust and savagely stab his neck. The skin is incredibly tough, and the dagger's blade isn't sharp enough to penetrate deeply, but I keep stabbing into the previous wound to widen it.

The orc stops convulsing.

Oh no, he's going to hit me. Is it going to be a punch? Or a stab? Or a slash? Or is he going to just grab my head and crush it?

I have no time to get away, so I can just bet I can it bleed enough before I'm killed.

"STOOOP!" Nour screams, and with the corner of my eye, I see him throwing himself on the sword arm of the orc, then hugging it with all his strength.

Thank you, Nour. You've bound the monster for me, so I'll use your opening.

I stab the orc's neck even more savagely, causing blood to spurt all over my face and chest. The orc's roar starts to die down as I split its neck open, then it falls on its knees. Its angry expression goes blank, and it starts to fall backward.

Oh no! Not that way, you'll crush Rania!

Both Nour and I pull the monster towards us, then it falls face down on its own pool of blood.

"You are now level 10."

Nour and I stare at him for a few seconds as we catch our breaths, then reality comes back to me and I rush towards Liam.

I kneel before him and apply [Regeneration]. He's alive, but unconscious. I have no idea if he's bleeding internally, so I'm just going to heal him until he wakes up, then I should try to wake up Rania next. It's best that everyone is awake, even if in pain.

Nour goes to Rania and pours a glowing blue potion into her mouth.

Isn't she going to choke on that?

She wakes up and coughs a few times, then she opens her eyes weakly and starts swallowing the potion properly. After she finishes drinking, her body starts shivering, and Nour hugs her tight.

Oh, okay. I guess that worked.

Liam wakes up a few seconds after, but he's too weak to get up. He slowly turns to me and mutters, "Poison..."

I think he got hit by the Swamp Goblin. This is why that monster is killed first while everyone hides behind their shields. Liam got poisoned during the fight and lost most of his physical strength.

I pull out a metal flask from one of my chest pockets and pour the thick dark liquid into his mouth. These metal flasks are for battle-potions. They're hardened so that they don't break during normal battle unless directly hit. This one contains an antidote. I got a little scared of the Mossy Fangpine and the Bush Babies, so I bought three. It's going to take around ten minutes for it to work, though, so I'm gonna keep healing Liam until then.

I drink a mana potion and continue the healing. My shoulder hurts, and Nour could be wounded too, but Liam is much worse, so he gets priority.

Rania stops shaking and Nour helps her sit, then he comes over to me.

"Is that [Regeneration]?" He asks.

"Yeah. I don't have a lot of mana and I'm not very experienced, so this is going to take some time," I respond.

He shakes his head gently. "Oh no, you already did a lot. Here, let me give Liam one of my potions." He kneels and helps Liam drink a red potion. I see that its glow is much stronger than the ones I have.

Nour returns to Rania, then a few silent minutes pass, and Liam gets strong enough to sit. "Thank you, kind Sir, but it's enough for now. Please heal yourself," he says.

I don't want to argue since my shoulder is hurting, so I just do as he says and use the last of my mana to ease my pain. The potion is still acting, so my mana is recovering faster than normal.

Once I stop healing myself, Nour turns to me and says, "Thank you, Mr. Ryder." His voice is shaky and his face is pale. " You could've run after killing the goblin, but you didn't. You certainly saved us, but especially Liam, who was going to sacrifice himself for us."

True... throwing myself on the orc's chest was certainly reckless.

I awkwardly rub my neck and respond, "I just... I didn't think I should run away."

"You have a noble soul," Nour softly says.

"Thank you..." Rania says with a hoarse voice.

"Indeed, I owe you my life," Liam says solemnly.

I'm getting a little overwhelmed, and I have no idea how to react, so I just smile weakly and nod.

The adrenaline is running out and the reality is sinking in. The orc should be on the eleventh floor, I don't know why the orc came here. I'm scared I'll meet another one, so I just want to go home as fast as possible.

"We need to leave this place. fast. These two monsters shouldn't be here; there's something wrong with this dungeon," I say.

"He must have entered the exit... multiple times," Rania says.

"And crossed multiple floors?! That's insane, how could such a rare thing happen repeatedly?" I question.

A monster could indeed enter the exit door on a dimensional dungeon like this one and appear on a lower floor, but that's something rare to happen even once, so for it to happen multiple times is a miracle. We won the lottery of bad luck to find him.

"Perhaps the lord has been skimping on his duties," Liam suggests.

The Lord manages the dungeons. If the monsters are not culled often, then dangerous monsters can appear, or like in this case, an extremely dangerous monster goes to a floor it's not supposed to be on.

"We need to report this," Nour says, then he stares at me intensely. "Mr. Ryder, do you have space in your [Item Box]? We need to bring these corpses to the guild. Since you did the most, the least we can do is to let you take all the rewards for these kills."

I raise my eyebrows in surprise and ask, "Is that really okay? I didn't kill them alone."

Nour nods and insists, "Yes, it's the least we could do for now."

I don't want to argue, so I just collect both corpses, then Liam and Rania stand up, and we start walking towards the exit. Fortunately, the exit is near.

Since I'm the one in the best condition, I lead the vanguard with Nour at my side. Liam is still too weakened from the poison to lead.

We kill two goblins on the way effortlessly. Having two people in the vanguard means that one tanks the attack while the other flanks. Our swords are also sharp enough that we can kill the goblins in a single hit.

We get to the exit soon after that. The guard near the entrance jumps in place when two completely bloodied adventures and two exhausted looking ones come out of the exit.

Nour does the talking. He mentions to the guards what happened, and their faces pale. Meeting the Orc Headhunter is a nightmare for the people around here.

--

Two guards escort us back to town. We wipe ourselves while walking, but enough blood seeped through our clothes that even a [Clean] can't remove it.

Luckily, the customs officers don't ask to look into my [Item Box] since I made a blunder and put the corpses into my "Items."

When we get into the hunters guild, one of the guards run towards the closest attendant and murmurs something, then they both hurry up the stairs. The presence of the guards and the bloodied adventurers attracts quite a bit of attention. Liam and Rania are looking better now, but they still look tired, while Nour and I look quite ghastly because we couldn't fully clean our armor.

A minute later, an old man and Sonny come down. The old man is short and skinny, his pure white beard protrudes from his jaw and makes men envious with its magnificence, and he lacks hair on the top of his head, but the pure white hair on the sides is well maintained. He wears simple velvet clothing, the same color as the uniform, with only the guild symbol embroidered on his chest as decoration.

The guards signal to us, and we all go towards the dismantling area. Over there, Gordon and his assistant are processing some meat and look our way with surprise on their faces when we enter.

"Well then, could you show us the corpses?" The old man asks. He gently motions with his hand towards the large, empty tables.

I pull out the bodies, and I hear a few gasps of surprise. The orc and goblin lost their equipment, but they're still recognizable as the dangerous duo due to their physique.

Curiosity gets the best of me and I take a look. The orcs genitals are completely shredded, and I feel pain between my legs just from looking at it.

"So, it's true. We really need to send a complaint to the Lord," the old man says, then he turns to me and smiles gently. "Now, then. My name is Silas, and I'm the guildmaster. Could you all take a seat and tell us the story in detail?" He motions us towards the benches on the wall.

We obey and retell our fight.

--

"Quite the predicament, Sir Nour," Silas says.

"Sir"? So it's really true that Nour is an important person. I just wonder why he didn't use his last name.

Silas turns to me and smiles as he says, "And we all benefit from having someone like Mr. Ryder among us."

I'm bad at being praised. Should I say something in response?

Sonny smiles wryly and says, "A Gray Berserker, and now an Orc Headhunter. You're giving us a surprise after surprise. Though I wish it was of a different kind when talking about the orc."

I chuckle and respond, "I think I just have bad luck."

The fact that I've been isekai'd should be evidence enough of my bad luck.

"Depends on the perspective. Those two monsters are really valuable, and the prestige that comes from killing them is not small," Sonny replies.

"I just want a calm life," I say in a low tone.

Gordon laughs while butchering the orc, then Sonny murmurs something and casts a spell. I don't know what spell it is, but he starts talking towards nobody while looking at the orc. He suddenly turns around and says, "The spirit confirms it, he was killed at the sixth floor."

So mages can talk to monster spirits, too? I know that I only need a few points in [Spirit Magic] to be able to weakly communicate with spirits, but a monster spirit being able to talk is new to me. I guess this is really useful for information gathering.

"Have you decided how the bounty is to be shared?" Sonny asks.

Nour shakes his head and replies immediately, "Oh, we aren't taking the money. Mr. Ryder saved us, so all the reward goes to him. Now, if the talk is over, we'll take our leave. We're all extremely tired, and we all we want is to rest."

"Oh, it's done. The rest is with us," Silas responds with a nod.

They didn't even let me reply.

Nour turns to me and smiles gently as he says, "Then we'll be off. Mr. Ryder, one last thing. Could you come here to the guild tomorrow before noon? I'd like to properly give you my thanks and reward you."

I'm taken aback, and I stumble a little during my response, "I-Is that right? Sh-shouldn't the bounty reward be enough?"

His handsome face looks at me warmly and humbly. "That's just money. You saved our lives, so I should at least reward you a bit more. Please, just come tomorrow."

I sigh and nod. "Alright then. I'll come."

He grins, pleased with my response. "Thank you. Then I'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye, Mr. Silas."

Nour and his companions give Silas a quick bow and leave.

Sonny comes towards me and says, "Now, then. The reward for a runaway monster of threat level five is five gold. His corpse is going to sell for three gold and the goblin for one gold."

That's a huge amount because runaway monsters are a serious threat to everybody. The orc skin sells for a lot, and this one, especially, is way tougher than normal.

I also take this opportunity and bring out all my remaining proofs of extermination. It all sums up to four silver and a bunch of copper coins. A pittance in comparison to the orc, but at least I recouped the loss from the days that I didn't sleep at the inn.

Silas spends this short time simply observing me. It seems that I've already caught the eye of the guildmaster, but I'll be laying low for the week, so no grand feat will come while I simply relax and train safe and sound inside these walls. I also don't believe in jinxing, so I can say this with confidence.

After I take my money, I say my goodbyes and leave.

--

It's almost night, so I go towards the inn's bathhouse and get a few concerned glances when they see my bloodied armor. I'll leave the cleaning of the blood for later, so I take out a fresh set of spare clothes after I take a wash.

Today, I order a drink while eating. They only have something similar to apple cider currently since the juice ran out, and there's not much wine in the town.

I eat my meal with happiness, not necessarily because it's good, but because I'm happy to be alive. Once I left the guild, I felt like a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders. All I want is some comfort and love, away from being in situations where I have to frantically stab a disgusting orc in the neck.

The innkeeper's daughter seems to be extra lovely to me this dinner. I learn that her name is Selina, and starts some small talk, but it doesn't last long because she's too busy.

Once she leaves I just decide to enjoy my meal: a vegetable salad with a lot of cooked beans and some chicken sauce. The vegetables of this season seem to be slightly sweet, similar to carrots and pumpkins. They go well with the beans and extra well with mutton, but today there's none. Instead, I have marbled Rabid Rabbit meat, and it's of a much higher quality cut than the one sold at a stall.

After eating, I drop on my bed and go to sleep immediately.