The Ogre Settlement

After going past those apprentices, he suddenly remembered something.

Finding that he had gone beyond the reach of their sight, he stopped. It had been a while since he got Katty's signal. He had been planning to call her when he reached the river but after the battle with Fernando, he seemed to have forgotten it.

He took out his spellbook and turned to the last page yet as he poured his spiritual power on the spellbook and tried to contact her, he noticed that the signal was still weak.

'What happened? Is she that far that even after covering this much distance, it's only giving bad signals?' Aren contemplated silently but suddenly rejected his own thoughts.

'No, if she was that far then no signal will be given which means she is getting away from me. Not good, I have to stop her!'

Aren immediately hastened the process of contacting her. It didn't matter if the signal was bad. He just had to make his voice reach her.

Aren waited for a while and a cute voice again sounded in his mind but this time it came with an annoying buzzing effect.

"Bi... b..oth... A...n... zzz... zzz... I..."

It was as if the girl was speaking on a radio broadcast while he due to not matching frequency, couldn't hear what she was saying distinctly.

If the connection was this bad at his side, then it would be the same at her side so Aren without saying anything useless that might be misinterpreted, kept repeating what he wanted to say.

"Katty, don't go towards where you're going. Katty, don't go..."

However, as soon as he had finished saying for the second time, Katty again said.

"I'm...! ... oing tow... ds ...zzz lar... mo... zzz... ring. Co... f..st a... d mee... m-...!"

Suddenly the connection was cut off, it seemed the girl had slightly moved or was moving while talking. He frowned and closed his spellbook as he pieced together what he heard.

In about a minute, he got the answer but his worry didn't lessen. If what he figured was true, then the girl was saying that she was going towards a large moonspring.

The meaning, What he said must have been heard by her as ''Katty, Where are you going?''. The connection was lost for a brief moment when he said that so he assumed that she most likely didn't hear ''Don't go towards'' but instead heard the latter parts.

Was there really a large moonspring near the Ogre settlement? Even if there is, How did Katty know about it? Aren felt that there was more into the matter of saving Katty which he was ignorant of.

...

The Ogre settlement, Just 20 kilometres from where Katty was then.

It was a settlement of a small Ogre tribe having about 200 tribesmen.

If compared to other monsters, the ogres were still had brains. They knew how to live in tribes, how to make huts and how to hunt in groups. Although their techniques were crude and they can't give birth to a civilization, they were still one of the monsters who posed threat to humans.

This settlement of theirs had a territory of about twenty kilometre radius. A crude fence made up of thick log of woods was made around it which enclosed approximately 60 huts scattered on the area. In the middle was a large hut which could at least be considered as habitable by human standards.

This was the residence of tribe leader. A rank 2 ogre warrior who was about three meters tall.

Normally, a male ogre would be about 2.5 meters and a female ogress about 2-2.2 meters tall. Other than their tall build, the ogres had thick skin with thick layer of fat underneath it, which made them very difficult opponents. Their strength was also something to be noted about as rank 1 ogres normally had strength far greater than rank 1 humans. If their speed and intelligence was not so low, then ogres would have probably devastated other monsters like those dragons.

But there was a chance when a rare type of ogre would be born in large tribes.

An Ogre Mage!

This was an ogre blessed with the strength of its kin and intelligence on par with humans. It was like a high race which defied natural order and become an insanely powerful ogre with high potential.

Too bad, this type of ogre couldn't have children like it. No matter what an ogre mage did, it's strength and intelligence couldn't be passed down to later generations. That was why, even in large tribes of ogres, having two ogre mages was an extremely rare occurrence.

At this moment, the ogre tribe was preparing to go on a hunt.

Male ogres each having spiked mace, clubs and rusty swords, probably taken from some dead adventurers, on their hands were gathered near the ''gate'' which they had constructed.

As their tribe leader had said to not wander too far away on their hunt, these ogres were quite unsatisfied. As barbaric creatures, the idea of limiting oneself was not accepted by them.

Each were making indistinct sounds while waving the ''weapons'' in their hands as if voicing out their compliant.

At this moment, a large ogre about 2.7 meters tall holding a large club came near and stopped.

Bang!

He hit the ground with his club, producing a loud dull sound, which made all other ogres place their attention on him. Immediately, all ogres shut their mouth and stopped waving their weapons.

This was a rank 1 ogre warrior with great strength. He was one of the hunting captains assigned by the tribe leader.

The ogre's meaning of ''strong'' came from having taller height, bulkier muscles, loud voice and greater strength. As the captain had all of those characteristics, they had no choice to obey in front of the ''strong''.

After making these ''rash and youthful'' ogres which hadn't even reached rank 1 ''meek'', which would possibly not be under the definitions of humans, the rank 1 ogre captain took large strides towards the ''gate''.

As the earlier team had gone on the other area, they would have to hunt near the area where that python stayed. Thankfully, that python always stayed in one area and didn't bother with the surrounding monsters as long as no one got near it.

Although other ogres, who came in this hunt, didn't know about that fearsome python, the captain knew about it so he steered away from the path which led straight to it, intending to hunt some distance way.

Yet, he didn't know that someone had already trespassed their hunting grounds and was nearing their ''village'', from the path he had chosen not to go.