Moments before the explosion.
The orcs stopped digging and finished their preparations. The short orc who was assigned to this operation by Chieftain Kuruck inspected the dug-out area when another short orc came up to him to report.
"The tunnel is done, and the powder is in place, by your orders Daruck."
The short orc, Daruck, was the fifth son of Chieftain Kuruck. The reason he was so short compared to the average orc was not because of his growth but because he was a child. Even as a child, he had already taken a leadership role among his people and led this plan.
"Get all the men ready and send word to my father we are starting."
All the orcs then moved away from the end of the tunnel as one orc lit a fuse before joining the rest of his men.
The spark of the fuse moved until it reached one of the small bags placed on the end of the tunnel, and the moment it made contact with the bag, a huge explosion shook the tunnel.
KA-BOOM
The roof of the tunnel collapsed, taking along the room that was above it. The passage then gave way to a path upwards. Daruck then gave the order to charge.
"ATTACK!"
The orcs roared as they ran out to the surface, weapons at the ready.
Hearing the explosions, Nataly ran to Sol.
"They are already here! Did you hear back from the Commander yet?!"
With a serious expression, Sol shook his head.
"What do we do? We barely have any soldiers stationed here. It’s just a skeleton crew!"
Thoughts raced through Sol’s mind, trying to figure out what to do. Sol then mumbled to himself.
"We need to protect the wounded, the non-combatants and stop them from taking the fort until reinforcements arrive. The only way to do that is…"
Sol glanced at Nataly and made up his mind.
"Nataly, keep an eye on the others."
"Wait, me?"
"Yeah, I’ll be back."
"Sol don’t g-!"
Before Nataly could finish talking, Sol had already used [Sprint] and was running towards the now collapsed medical ward.
As Sol ran through the open courtyard, he saw a few other soldiers running towards the explosion with the same intentions as himself. They all ran with weapons drawn, ready to hold back the intruders as long as they could.
Arriving at the now-demolished medical ward, the dust just settled as orcs charged out from the entrance. They looked around but were surprised to find only soldiers with weapons ready to meet them. Orcs, not being ones to shy away from a fight, charged directly at Sol and the soldiers.
Before trading blows with the orcs, Sol scanned them all with [Analysis] to gain a better understanding of his opponents.
Name: Nargol
Race: Orc
Talents: [Strong], [Hammer]
Level: 33
Name: Sodagh
Race: Orc
Talents: [Axe], [Undying]
Level: 31
Name: Abbas
Race: Orc
Talents: [Spiritualist], [Wise]
Level: 38
’About as Strong as a C-Ranker. If it was just a few, then it’s not a problem but…’
Sol looked at the hole in the ground as he saw more and more orcs appear. The faces of the soldiers who came to help paled as they saw over a hundred orcs. The 20 soldiers and Sol were at a clear disadvantage.
Regardless, they had to fight and resolutely charged at the orcs.
Sol ran ahead of the group and met the first orc with his Warhawk’s Talon and used [Cross Slash].
As his sword moved, it made deep gashes in his chest in an X shape. Because of his massively increased strength from [Gargantuan Strength], which was the equivalent of dumping 12 levels into his strength, his sword showed no mercy as it instantly slew the orc.
’No notification… I have heard of it before but it’s the first time I’ve seen it.’
There is only one way to level up with the system, and that is by killing other creatures and gaining experience, but there are exceptions to this rule. Humans, elves, orcs, dwarves, and many other races do not give experience if they kill each other. Because of this, a term has become popularized to refer to them as a whole, the privileged races. This is not the only difference of being one of the privileged races; another big difference is the ability to distribute available stat points wherever they choose. At first, people theorized it was a matter of sentience, but that was quickly shut down as races like goblins, kobolds, and lizardfolk are very much sentient. Able to create societies, language, and culture, these races even sometimes trade with the privileged races yet they for some reason aren’t included and can be slain for experience.
After killing the orc, Sol felt a tinge of guilt at killing again but he did not stop. Maybe it was because of the urgency of the situation, the fact he had killed others before or that they are not human but he has become less averse to killing. He also did not forget out of habit and used [Siphon], taking the two most useful skills before continuing to his next target.
Sol used [Cross Slash] on every enemy without worrying about the cost as he had drastically improved thanks to his dungeon experience. Thanks to his wisdom increasing the amount of mana and [Increased Mana Regeneration] influencing the rate in which he absorbs mana from his surroundings he was able to cast the skill with no regard.
Orcs fell one after another to his sword as he moved between the orc group using [Siphon] on any body he spots be it orc or human. He focused on increasing skills he already had but if he saw a good or interesting skill he didn’t hesitate to learn it.
[Tracking] leveled up! (5 -> 6)
Learned [Wisdom Up] Lv 2!
Learned [Heavy Blow] Lv 4!
[Agility Up] leveled up! (3 -> 4)
[Silent Steps] leveled up! (6 -> 7)
Learned [Crippling Strike] Lv 3!
Even though Sol was killing them quickly, their numbers were too much, and they were slowly losing ground. As more soldiers died eventually Sol was surrounded on all sides. He used [Parry] and blocked as many attacks as he could while still dishing out damage, but he still took many hits. If not for the fact he has the incredible combination of [Endless Vitality], [Physical Resistance], and [Natural Armor], he would have died by now. Even so, the hits added up, and his health was entering worrying levels.
Health: 367/900
Mana: 285/500
While it was true Sol was holding back in fear of exposing too much, even if he wasn’t, the outcome would have still been the same. If he tried to use magic, the surrounding orcs would interrupt his chant, and he didn’t have the weapons to use half of his other skills like [Power Shot] or [Earth Hammer]. Skills he could use were useless compared to [Cross Slash] and [Parry], so that was all he really could do.
Luckily for Sol, he was not fighting to win.
The orcs who saw he was getting more and more wounded taunted Sol.
"Hahaha! You were a worthy foe; it took many of our finest warriors to take you down. Too bad you die here!"
Hearing their preemptive celebration, Sol chuckled back at them.
"What’s so funny, human?"
"Heh… I was never fighting to win, just until they showed up."
With his [Mana Perception], he saw through the crowd of surrounding orcs a group charging towards him. They were the soldiers and adventurers from the frontline who came back to help.
The humans yelled as they charged at the orcs.
"Die orc scum!"