Max followed the blood trail directly. As it extended further from the location of the battle, it thinned out, being limited to a series of sparse and itent crimson blotches on the forest floor. Fortunately, Max was an experieracker from his time in Hero of Liberation and could have followed the trail even if there had been no blood.

  Although the hillside dirt was tough and did not easily sink underfoot, orcs were heavy creatures so Max could still clearly see their tracks. It arent that over a dozen orcs had passed through here, so he proceeded quietly to avoid being discovered.

  Some kilometres ter, Max knew he had found his destination when he spotted pilrs of smoke billowing into the sky ahead. Pig a dire with high tree ce, he advaoward the smoke and surveyed the area.

  As expected, a rge orcampment protruded out from the hillside. There were no walls or palisades surrounding it, indig that the orcs were probably highly fident, or not expeg any sort of attack. Either way, this was fortunate for Max, as it afforded him a clear view of the camp’s interior.

  Large, primitive tents made from sticks and animal hides scattered the area, along with a few lit campfires which were being used to eat on long skewers. By Max’s estimation there were about forty orcs, plus any more ients and however many were not currently ihe camp.

  “Hm... Troublesome, very troublesome...”

  This presented a huge problem. There was absolutely no ce he could take on this many or a frontal assault. Even if he could, the patrol squad guards might already be dead by this point, which would render his efforts pointless.

  Right as Max was deg to just bring bae evidence of the orc’s presence, he spotted a human man by the edge of the camp, filing in panic as he inned down by a muscur orc.

  “HELP!! SOMEONE! ANYONE! W-”

  The screaming guard was swiftly punched and knocked out. Some other nced over momentarily, but quickly lost i when they realised nothing of iing was happening.

  “Sh*t. What are they doing?” Max squinted his eyes to see what the orc was doing with the man.

  The orc id the guard on top of a spear and ed a rope around him. It looked as though it was attempting to tie a knot, but was struggling to do so, as the rope was too small to manipute with its rge fingers.

  “Oh. Oh sh*t.” Max quickly got up and fnked around to the side where the man was being strung, grabbing some small stones along the way. He kly what that orc was doing; it inteo use the spear as a makeshift cooking implement.

  Advang in cover, Max came as close to the camp perimeter as he could manage, before taking a stone from his pocket and throwing it at a nearby tree.

  “What? What was that?” The orc stood and spoke gruffly. Upon sing the area, only some trees and bushes could be seen, which swayed naturally in the wind. Appearing to think for a moment, the orc lowered its rope before slowly moving to iigate the source of the noise.

  Thik!

  Suddenly, an arrow shot out from one of the bushes and pierced the orc’s Adam’s apple. The orc choked and wides eyes in shock, before a sed shot swiftly followed and struck its eye. The orc died and disied into particles.

  ‘That whole disiion thing is really ve, huh.’ Max didn’t think he could drag a body of that size, so it was good that he didn’t o hide the corpse.

  —??

  —Um what

  —???

  —2 SHOTS?!?!

  —Wasn’t this a lvl.20 area?

  Max didn’t have time to look at the chat right now. After briefly waiting for an opportune moment, he took aone from his pocket and hurled it high into the air, aiming for the opposite edge of the camp. firming some orcs were now looking away, he darted for the unscious guard, quickly disentangling him and dragging him back to a bush by his armpits. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like he’d been spotted while doing so.

  The man still hadn’t woken up, so Max gave him a few good sps until he came to.

  “Ugh? What? Where am I; am I alive?”

  “Shh. You’re alive but be quiet; we’re still ierritory.” Max twisted his head so he could see the orc camp. “You narrowly avoided being rotisserie food.”

  “Oh, thank-”

  “Be thankful ter, we haven’t escaped yet.” Max firmly trolled the versation since he wasn’t sure whether the orcs would soon notice their friend was missing. “I have some questions to ask you: First, are you injured?”

  “Me? No, I’m fine. But the others...”

  “Are there more survivors?”

  “Yes! They’re all in there.” The man poio one of the tents. “There were two sentries inside, but one of them took me away. If you killed that ohen there’s probably only one inside now. We save them, right?!” The man looked at Max with a tinge of hope and desperation.

  “Yes, we try. How many alive? What are their injuries like?”

  Max was familiar with this sort of rescue mission from his early days in Hero of Liberation. When it came to resg people from a rge number of ehe most important thing was mobility. If the prisoners could not outrun their captors, they would not be able to escape far. This situation here was already grim, sihese orcs were presumably stronger, faster and greater in han the human patrol members. Some seriously good strategy would be o make it out alive.

  “There are 9 of us, including me. 5 are retively uninjured, 3 won’t be able to run and 1 had his arms broken.”

  Max grimaced. From what the guard captain, Ken, had told him, he khat 21 guards had go on the expedition.

  “We spotted an orc stronghold to the north and attempted to withdraw so we could inform our captain at Novus Vilge, but we were caught by the orcs further south and brought here. I’m Edmond by the way. Did the captain send you?”

  “Yes, he did. I’m M... Gun, a summoned hero tasked with bringing you back.”

  “The hero summoning worked? That’s great news!” Edmond was ecstatic. “We might finally have a ce against the Demon Army!”

  “That’s right. But I just arrived here today, so I’m in the dark. I need you to tell me everything you about orcs; their weaknesses, strengths, et cetera; the essentials.”

  “Of course! Orcs are a strong race with tough skin and high vitality, but low intelligehey have no aptitude fic but have a strong sense of smell which they use to track down their prey. They are alsile. There are a few on strategies for dealing with them...”

  Edmond spoke quickly as he described the various characteristics of orcs, making sure to stay quiet as he did so sihe enemies were still nearby.

  —Lol when did this bee a soft-spoken ASMR video

  —10v50 ez

  —If they actually mao escape then the earth is ft

  Max formuted a pn while Edmond eaking. Acc to Edmond, orcs typically had extremely well-developed trag abilities, but the ones in this camp were new recruits in their early level 20s and were still in training. They also had a stroeran leader who was above level 30; Max made a o watch out for that one.

  The enemies’ strong sense of smell and trag abilities limited their escape options signifitly. A few different ideas entered Max’s head: He could do something like attack the orcs or start a fire to create a diversion while the patrol team tried to retreat with Edmond, or he could go along with them as a bodyguard and hope the orcs were slow to realise their escape. He could also try to just kill all the orcs by attag the camp with hit-and-run tactics, but the first two options seemed much more reliable sihe orcs had hostages. Also, taking on 40+ orcs robably not feasible with his current strength.

  The first option depended upon Edmond not being discovered when leaving the tent with the prisoners. Unfortunately, there wasn’t even time to set traps, as the NPCs might be killed during that time.

  Max cursed at his poor and limited options as he betedly processed Edmond’s words, making sure he didn’t miss anything important as the guy was still talking.

  “That’s about it. Was there anything else?”

  “O thing. How quickly you start a fire?”

  “Huh? A fire?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, it’s midday, and hasn’t rained in a while, so probably 5 minutes, or less. Why?”

  ‘Quick!’ Max was very satisfied. “I need you to make a signal fire as a diversion before we attempt the rescue. If what you said was true about orcs being dumb, it should take their attention away from the prisoners, and they might even send a squad to check it out.”

  “Y-yeah, that’s a good idea. B-but what about me?” Edmond seemed slightly ed.

  Max checked his map. “A few kilometres east of here, there’s a river that runs all the way down south. Set a fire to the northeast of here and then book it to that river. You wash off your st ier, follow it for a little while and then hide your tracks when you leave it.”

  “Right! Faul River! That’s a good idea.” Edmond nodded and approved of the pn. “Then, I’ll go now.”

  “Wait.” Max motioned for him to stop. “Take this with you for prote.” He offered him the spear from the orc.

  Edmond looked at it awkwardly. “N-no thanks. I’m not really ied in using the on I was nearly roasted over a fire with.”

  “Oh. Well, it wouldn’t have worked anyways. That rope would have burnt and broke instantly if it was held over a fire. He probably would’ve just killed you the normal way after that.”

  “...Right.”

  —LOL Edmond

  —Puy

  “I’ll still pass.” Edmond shook his head. “The vice-captain is far more profit than I am with a spear; it’ll be of much better use in the right hands.”

  “Alright, noted.” Max put the spear ba his iory. “Get going then. I’ll start the operatiohe smoke is visible. See you back at the vilge hopefully.”

  “Yes, Sir Gun!” Edmond gave him a salute, before taking off into the forest.