Orcish Totems

The next morning, Freya woke up early and after completing her daily quest, her stamina finally reached 40 stats, marking the end of her daily quests. She gave a look to her stats window. Her stamina and strength had left behind the rest of her stats by a large margin.

[Status Window

Player: Freya Einar

Age: 24

Title(s): -

Job: Elite Swordsman

Trait(s): Blessed by Mana, Keen Eyes

Level: 20

Stats:

Strength: 40 Agility: 22 Stamina: 40

Intelligence: 31 Dexterity: 25 Insight: 12]

Her Agility and Insight were her two lowest stats. As such, with the huge gap between her strength and agility. She decided to invest any future points in agility and insight stat.

In her team, currently she was first only in terms of her stamina, as she had discovered during the last few days. Morris had better strength, Maria had better agility, Ariane had better intelligence stat, having more mana and Alex had more dexterity.

She had no way to measure insight stat but she was sure that she would still to lose to her team if not for her second trait. But despite all of this, Freya was very satisfied with her speed of growth. A week ago, she couldn't even imagine standing in the same room as these people, let alone compare herself to them.

After her morning training, when the rest of the village woke up, Freya helped the villagers complete the shelter building that they had been working on while the team got ready to depart. With her help, the skeleton of the roof was quickly completed, and the rest was an easy task without her.

So Freya bid her farewell to the village folks and they thanked her for her help. She then quickly arrived at the western edge of the village, where they would depart. Her team stood there waiting for her. They were all sitting atop a horse each, as well the mercenary unit along with them.

Alex who saw Freya arrive quickly shouted, "Hurry up, Freya! We have to reach the town before sunset."

Freya hurried her way to a single unmounted gray horse and got up on it. With a quick greeting to the team, they raced their horses towards their destination. The horse neighed and galloped at their top speed through the open field toward the southwest.

The landscape quickly began to change on their way. The lush green vegetation became sparse, and the path grew rocky. Soon they were climbing a slope towards gray mountains in the distance. Freya, being new to the path they were taking, galloped her way towards Alex.

"Is Havenfall located in the mountain ranges?" She asked the archer.

"No, it's a small town located just outside the mountains beside a small river." Alex answered. "It located close to an Orichalcum mine in the mountain. That's probably why the Orcs are targeting it. But if you like, I could show you around the down once we deal with the orcs."

The handsome archer asked with a charming smile, but Freya only felt repulsed. However, Freya repressed her feelings and smiled back half-heartedly.

"Orichalcum?" Freya asked, avoiding his question.

"Ah, it's a rare metal known for its toughness. It is quite coveted among blacksmiths." Alex explained, "In fact, that is the only Orichalcum in the whole country. Most of this metal is found in Orc territory, so I imagine it must be even more valuable to them."

"I see, so you think they are after the metal."

"Yes, it is quite precious and make strong weapons. The captain thinks that is their target, but I have heard the women of Havenfall are also quite beautiful so it can be that as well." The archer finished with a lecherous smile.

'Orichalcum is a strong metal but it is especially perfect for Fire type magic weapons due to its ability to withstand quite high temperatures.' Art added to her knowledge. 'If that Orc captain is able to forge such a weapon, his standing among his kind will increase exponentially and he will surely return to his tribe without fear of execution.'

'How do you all of that?' Freya quickly asked.

'I was a blacksmith, remember.' The voice replied.

"Unfortunately, our kingdom do not have enough craftsmen that can work with the metal." It was Alex that continued from his previous point. "So it's mainly used as export to a neighboring dwarven country."

Alex would have continued, but the group was suddenly stopped by Captain Morris in the front. He called for Alex to the front, and Freya followed him.

At the front of the group, Morris, who had gotten off his horse, was crouching besides a tree examining something. "Alex, come here and see this."

Alex also got off his horse and walked towards his captain, closely followed by Freya. As they got close, a gruesome display of cruelty appeared before their eyes. A severed head of a goat was nailed to the tree with a wooden spear. A circle of blood painted around it and pool of blood at the foot of the tree.

"Rough day for the goat, huh?" Alex joked as he got close to examine it and instantly recognized the hidden message behind the gruesome display, "It's a freakish Orcish totem. They used it to scare away travelers from places where massacres are about to take place, and also a sign of marking their prey. You were correct Captain, Havenfall is their next target. We must protect its beauty!"

The Orcs were cruel, but a proud race. They had customs of warning their prey before attacking them. Unfortunately, these customs were very weird and humans would rarely understand their meaning. Alex, who was a beast hunter, did have some experience with Orc bandits, so the captain has asked for his opinion.

He then dipped his finger into the pool of blood and took a sniff, "It's fresh, it was likely put up not long ago. If we hurry, we may be able to find the Orcs that did this. It will likely be a small group. Perhaps we could obtain some info."

"Can you trace them?" Morris asked.

"Too easy for me, but we need to move swiftly." The archer answered proudly.

"Then go quickly and take Freya and Maria with you." The redhead ordered, "We will head to the down and ready it for the attack. If the group is small, capture one alive, if it's large, retreat back. We will deal with them together."

With that, the group split into two. Freya and Maria followed after Alex, and the rest of the group continued towards Havenfall.

Alex continued to follow the trail of clues and blood drop across the landscape. The three horse running with great speed as they came across other totems nailed to trees.

"Get ready, we are close now." Alex called out, "We will continue on foot."

The three adventurers got off the horse and tied them to a tree. They stealthily and silently followed behind Alex as he carefully moved behinds rocks and bushed, making sure they weren't spotted.

A few minutes later, Alex motioned for them to stop and pointed in the distance. Two huge, bulky orcs were busy creating another totem.

"Two of them." Alex whispered, "I'm sure we can take them, but there is no chance for a stealthy attack."

The tree stood lonely in an open field, there were no places to hide in a few meters radius. "What do you suggest?" While Alex was a good hunter, he wasn't as good a strategist so he asked their opinion.

"We will both take one while you support us." Maria suggested, but Freya stayed silent as she observed the orcs with her trait.

"Don't worry, Freya, I will protect you with my bow." Alex spoke with a toothy grin, confusing her silence for hesitance. Freya just ignored him and focused on the orcs.

[R'Unda

Level: 32

Job: Bandit]

The stronger of the two had an iron mace strapped to his waist and was wearing a leather pelt around him chest and legs. The large green monster was exception muscled, but also had an overarching stomach. Freya concluded his fighting style was focused on strength.

[B'Tula

Level: 30

Job: Bandit]

Fortunately, the second one was closer to her level so she could observe his weakness. He had a light green skin and less pronounced muscles but he was quite lean, giving an impression of speed focused warrior. He also had a small, thin sword on his waist, further strengthening her deduction. Freya got a chance to look at his back as a large scar on his upper back gave off a sickly green glow.

"I've got a better idea." Freya whispered with a smile.