The Necromancer Who Was Despised

‘There are people who do this professionally….’

Apparently, there are cases where they disguise themselves and raise them directly.

However, it doesn’t mean that you can neglect your duties as a knight….

‘It sounds like you are almost omnipotent.’

Of course, I can’t do such a thing right now with my injured leg.

“As the master has noticed, Athena is more suitable for an assassin than a warrior.”

“Right. Even if you do well, it feels like a fast warrior, not a solid formation.”

“Yes. Therefore, if the master permits, I would like to teach Athena the skills of an assassin.”

“Master, shouldn’t you be telling me that?”

“The one who ordered me to teach you was the master. You are also the leader of the team. If you don’t want to learn, then don’t.”

“I don’t hate it, but…”

Kayla, who had trampled on Athena’s small rebellion, looked at me with serious eyes.

“I knew you had talent in that area. If you can develop your talent, there is no reason to refuse. As I said, do your best. That’s enough.”

“I understand. Then, I will adjust Athena’s growth direction in that direction.”

Over two days, we grasp each other’s abilities and briefly match them.

When it was judged that we had a certain level of understanding of each other, I gradually began to release information related to hunting.

“As Athena said, the orcs move in units of tribes. They have their own territory and tend to live within it.”

If the territories overlap between tribes, they go to war with each other.

This is natural. It doesn’t matter if it’s a beast, a monster, or a human.

“If one hunting group disappears from their territory, they don’t just leave it alone, they track it down. That’s why it’s important not to leave any traces.”

If there are traces left and they are tracked down, they will have to fight a war with the entire tribe.

That’s why it’s not easy to capture orcs unless they are wanderers or stragglers.

‘Their individual strength is outstanding, and they act as a group.’

“For now, no matter how small they are, I don’t plan to fight the entire tribe.”

At my words, Athena and Kayla nodded.

Even though they are small, there are dozens of orcs. Even excluding the female orcs (female orcs are stronger than adult men), it was not a scale for us to deal with.

‘The hunters and warrior class that protect the village are over twenty.’

It’s hard with our current strength.

“I’ve roughly checked the territory. The first thing we need to do is check the hunting group’s range of activities.”

We have to start there.

“Once the range is identified… I’m going to ambush them.”

“Ambush?”

“I’m going to lure them with the beasts I catch through trap hunting. And… I’m going to throw a net.”

I had something I received from Kuman for that, and there was also equipment that Nelson had.

Since their physical abilities are excellent and they have weapons, it is not necessarily possible to catch them just by throwing a net.

I planned to restrict their movement with a net and then cast a curse.

Originally, the way I know is to put them in a net, spray poison, and use a long weapon to torment the orcs from a long distance so that they don’t die.

It’s quite complicated since we have to hear the smell and sound of the surroundings, and prepare for those who come to support them.

When a hunting group of orcs is attacked, another hunting group will come to support them if they notice.

In that case, the movement of the orcs becomes very simple.

Using this in reverse, the hunters set up traps at the crossroads and lightly capture the support group as well.

‘Nevertheless, the number of hunters should not be too many.’

The math doesn’t add up.

Orcs have sensitive noses and can quickly detect the smell of humans. If we are caught first, they will become the hunters instead.

So it was necessary to erase the smell, but the drug that erases human odor is quite expensive and not very perfect, so if the number of humans increases, there is a high possibility that the orcs will notice.

That’s why each and every one of them had to be excellent.

In addition to that, thorough preparation and a lot of practice are required. If each other’s hands and feet get tangled, they can be annihilated.

‘But now there is no reason to use that method.’

I’m a wizard. It’s only a 1st class, but it’s difficult to treat it as an ordinary 1st class.

‘I can use a few curse spells.’

With just a few preparations, the orcs, who cannot use mana, could not resist the magic.

If there is no sound, all you have to do is avoid the smell, and you can do that by knocking them down without seeing blood.

‘It’s easy with Kyla.’

Even if Kyla holds a club, she is not weak enough to be troubled by orcs whose movements are restricted by the net.

In the case of Atrina, she will throw the net and check if others are coming.

I explained the hunting process and each of our roles, and the two listened to me seriously.

“How many are usually in a group?”

“Usually four or five, but since it’s a small group, there are often three.”

The three-man hunting group is what we’re aiming for.

“If it’s about three, it won’t be difficult.”

Kyla nodded.

“But will it be that easy?”

“It’s possible.”

It’s enough.

At my resolute attitude, Atrina nodded as well.

“Okay. Let’s do it. Considering your skills and the teacher’s skills, even if we fail, it doesn’t seem like our lives will be in danger.”

“This is a chance to see the master’s magic skills.”

Perhaps because they have a high level of trust in me, both of them eventually joined my plan, and we began preparing for the hunt.

Since Kyla couldn’t scout due to her leg condition, she took over Tia’s exercise for the time being, and Atrina and I moved together to scout their territory.

“Amazing. Does this remove the odor?”

“It does leave a very small amount. That’s why monster hunters try to keep their numbers as small as possible.”

Only a faint scent remains, which even humans who have awakened mana can hardly detect.

However, since the species are different in the first place, the orcs often noticed it even if they were only five or more.

“You’re following better than I thought.”

“I’m from a nomadic tribe, but my father also worked as a hunter. In fact, I had no choice but to do it because I would have starved to death if I hadn’t hunted.”

I knew that she had hunting experience, so I wasn’t surprised.

“Well, he’s gone now.”

Athena spoke in a relatively calm manner.

She didn’t ask for the details. Instead, we focused on the orcs.

“They really are small in scale. Don’t you think there are less than 100 in total?”

“They operate three hunting groups.”

Considering their small scale, they operated a lot of groups.

At least eight people were always guarding the village.

Therefore, the number of hunting groups changed often.

“It seems like the least number of people come to this area.”

The map that I modified from Nenssen’s showed that there were definitely no monsters that posed a threat in this area.

The orcs must have known that, and therefore they seemed to have assigned fewer people to this area.

We had spent five days on just this reconnaissance.

We didn’t forget to make the necessary items for hunting in the meantime.

We prepared capture nets, odor-removing potions, potions that helped with using magic, and even monster perfume.

The monster perfume wasn’t a big deal. As the name suggests, it was a perfume that created a scent similar to that of other monsters.

This was the wyvern version.

‘After all, wyverns are the orcs’ natural enemy.’

The compounding method varied depending on the monster, and I didn’t know everything, but I did know quite a few compounding methods.

One of them was wyvern.

I planned to leave it behind where we hunted.

‘This way, it’ll be the perfect crime.’

The orcs would never dream that we did it.

After preparing so thoroughly, we moved into the orcs’ territory, escorted by Tia.

Athena was worried about Tia staying alone, but we couldn’t bring her with us.

‘Sending her to the pioneer territory temporarily isn’t a good idea either.’

Kuman might think it was strange.

Instead, I covered the area around her house with traps, and instructed her to run to the basement if anything happened.

‘I gave her the key, too.’

If she ran inside, she would find out that I was a black magician, but it was much better than losing Tia and having Athena break down.

I would find out eventually anyway. I just wanted to hide it until the territory collapsed.

And so, we entered the orc territory that we had targeted.

“Something… the atmosphere is strange.”

Kyla looked at Athena and me as if something was wrong.

Since the two of us had been the ones to scout out this place, it was a natural reaction.

However, Athena and I couldn’t answer.

Something must have happened to the orcs.

I told the two of them to set up a base camp and then infiltrated the interior of the orc territory.

‘The atmosphere is chaotic.’

I had felt it at the entrance, but it became more certain as I went deeper inside.

‘What the heck happened in just one day?’

The quest deadline was only a few days away.

This is a mission that absolutely must succeed.

Kuman has invested a lot, and if I complete this mission, I too have a lot to gain.

Not only money, but above all, I will have the opportunity to build trust and connections.

This is something that takes time, but this single mission could save me a great deal of that time.

I couldn’t let such an opportunity slip through my fingers.

As I headed inside the territory, traces of battle could be seen everywhere.

I took a slight risk and dug deeper into the territory.

‘… There’s been a war.’

It seems like there was a fight between Orc tribes.

I climbed a tall tree and observed the tribe from within.

‘One, two… ‘

The number of tribe members had decreased considerably.

Furthermore, there were many injured Orcs, which suggested that they had indeed fought with all their might.

‘But it doesn’t look like they’ve been annihilated?’

The worst-case scenario would have been for the Orc tribe to collapse and be absorbed by a larger tribe, but that didn’t seem to have happened.

Judging by how they had held out, it was possible that they were of a similar size, or perhaps they had been attacked by monsters other than Orcs.

‘Well, judging by the fact that it’s mostly males who are injured… it’s probably the former.’

When one Orc tribe loses to another in battle, all of the adult males are killed, the children are taken as slaves, and the females are taken as spoils of war.

This is why, when a war breaks out between Orcs, the males fight for their lives, literally.

The strange thing is that there are no Orc tribes of a size that could adequately challenge them in this area.

‘Has an existing tribe split up? Or has a new tribe moved in?’

Both were possible scenarios.

However, I didn’t have time to investigate that in detail now.

Just in case, I tracked those who had invaded the territory.

‘The war might not be over.’

However, it seemed that they had abandoned the area altogether.

‘They’ve left.’

Then suddenly, a thought occurred to me.

‘This… ‘could be an opportunity for me?’

The tribe I had been after had been weakened by the aftermath of the war.

In particular, the adult Orcs, especially the males who mainly go out hunting, had been heavily injured.

Even in that situation, they wouldn’t be able to give up hunting, so they would eventually have to go out… .

‘If they’re weakened… wouldn’t they be easier to catch?’

If the adult males were gone, the Orcs in the village would starve.

They might have some food in storage, but… .

‘I could capture them as they come out.’

The females aren’t weak, but they are weaker than the males, and with time, it wouldn’t be impossible to capture them all.

‘Anyway, if the tribe itself disappears, there will be no one to take revenge.’

Orcs don’t seek revenge for their entire race, only when members of their own tribe have been wronged.

Kuman’s request was to capture as many Orcs as possible.

Once I fulfill the quota and then grab more afterwards… .

‘This is fine.’