Hunting Orcs

<You have defeated 1 armored ant. You have earned 3,000 XP>

'It's finally dead. Yep, this monster is a total nope. Killing it takes way too long!'

It had taken more than two hours to find this armored ant and kill it. Doing the math, its hourly rate was only 1,500 XP.

'God, that took ages. Okay, time to retrieve the magic stone.'

While muttering grumpily to himself, Allen struck the torso with his sword.

Clang!

A "Huh?" unconsciously slipped Allen's lips. The torso had only gotten a little dented instead of being penetrated. He tried a few more times, but to no visible effect.

'Uh-oh, is this short sword not good enough to even butcher an armored ant?!'

Although this fifty-silver sword did eventually bisect a joint, it was apparently incapable of cutting through the torso. After some time Allen gave up, partly because he did not want to waste any more time here, and partly because he was afraid he would chip his sword.

'In exchange for the Summons that I lost and the magic stones I had to expend to replace them, I learned that killing armored ants is extremely inefficient and that I can't even take out their magic stones. This is definitely a monster that you're supposed to use magic against, not physical attacks. If anyone's going the physical route, they'd have to use something like a great sword for more power.'

After concluding that the armored ant was an enemy that was beyond his current abilities and equipment, Allen looked up into the sky and found three Hawkins back from scouting.

'Hawkins, armored ants are a no go. Come on down if you found a single orc by itself.' One Bird E came down obediently.

Allen followed it to where an orc should be waiting. Sure enough, after twenty minutes of running, he came upon a monster with its back against a tree trunk taking an afternoon nap.

It was wearing very ragged clothing and had a face like a pig's. Its actual height was unclear as it was sitting, but there was little doubt it towered above the large majority of adult human males. There was a large spear on the ground next to the monster's limp hand. This was Allen's second time seeing an orc —the first was when he was looking for Cecil when she got lost close to a lake.

'Monsters sleep too? Oh, wait, I just saw Ageha's Ability work on the armored ant, so that question's moot. Well, works out great for me that the orc is already asleep. Tamas, come out!'

Allen called out fourteen Beast Es while once again peeking from behind a tree.

"Grrrrrr!"

The Beast Es, all fully Strengthened, surrounded the orc and started spamming their ability, Claw.

"Oiiiink!"

The orc screamed as fresh blood stained the brown fallen leaves on the ground.

'Nice, the 250 Attack is paying off! So, Claw definitely works against orcs.'

The fourteen-versus-one fight clearly did not need Allen to get directly involved. While watching on from a distance, he thought back to arm wrestling with Rodin and Gerda. Back then, he had beaten Gerda but lost to Rodin. At the time, his Attack had been a little under 300, leading him to guess that Rodin's must have been between 300 to 350. Whenever Rodin would deal the finishing blow to a great boar, he always made sure to use his spear. In other words, he needed his Attack stat and the weapon to kill a great boar.

'I see. I'm glad I did the arm wrestling.'

Even while Allen was wrapped up in his thoughts, the Beast Es continued their assault. Soon enough, the orc fell to the ground, causing a small rumble.

<You have defeated 1 orc. You have earned 1,500 XP.>

The Rank E Summons had successfully hurt—and even killed—an orc, a Rank C monster equal to the great boar.

'This is confirmation that I do possess the means to kill Rank C monsters.

'Based on the results of the arm wrestling back then and the state of this orc, I'm guessing that Claw deals 1.5 times normal damage.'

One of Allen's main goals for today was to confirm whether the Beast E Summons, which were specced exceptionally high in Attack, could be relied on as his main damage dealers. Their Attack, after being Strengthened, was 250, which was not all that high when compared to Rodin or the other members of Krena Village's hunting party.

It was true that orcs had much lower defense than great boars, but Allen had still worried whether his Summons' attacks could actually be effective. If it had not worked on either armored ants or orcs, then he was planning on going back to hunting goblins.

As it turned out, although the armored ant was indeed too difficult, the orc could indeed be brought down with normal attacks and Claw.

'Three Tamas got done in. But if I use Ageha and personally get involved, I think I can prevent any more from being wiped out.'

Allen approached the orc corpse to retrieve its magic stone. Now that he could take a closer look, he realized the monster was about two and a half meters in height. Unlike the armored ant, his short sword plunged into the orc's chest with little resistance. Out came a purple magic stone about the size of a ping-pong ball.

'Wow, I've become capable of hunting Rank C monsters within a year.'

This was a memorable moment for Allen. He had managed to kill a monster at the same rank as a great boar by himself. What was more, he had not relied on traps like he did for white deer. This was the result of his year of hunting goblins, raising his level, and diligently gathering Skill XP.

'Hold on, what am I thinking? I still have a long, long way to go.'

Allen caught himself just as he was starting to feel moved. Half a year ago, he had lost against Mihai so completely he could not even lift a finger.

The eight years he spent raising his level and skills had been easily surpassed by Mihai developing his Talent at Academy City for a single year. The two months that he had devoted to dungeon delving had given him more growth than Allen's eight years combined. During the practice match, Allen had truly felt the vast chasm between the growth rate of Normal Mode and Hell Mode.

'In this world, I can assume those who attend Academy City are particularly powerful.'

Mihai had been forthcoming with details about the Academy. In short, being Talented or Talentless was not the only determinant of strength in this world.

___

- Strongest: Have a Talent and are graduates of the Academy

- 2nd Strongest: Have a Talent but did not graduate from the Academy

- 3rd Strongest: Talentless but are blessed in terms of physical build and stats

- Weakest: Talentless and not blessed in build or stats

___

Fewer than one percent of people fit into the first category.

Categories one and two together made up less than ten percent.

The Academy had a strict entrance exam and cost tuition. To graduate, students had to clear several assignments, and those who failed were expelled. It only made sense that those who actually managed to graduate had very impressive Statuses.

The chivalric orders were generally composed of a mix of those in the second and third tiers, with those of the first tier serving as officers or at least officer candidates. Zenof and Leibrand both belonged to this category.

When Allen had heard all this, he had thought back to when the five-year-old Krena had completely overwhelmed Leibrand in a fight.

Leibrand was apparently much stronger than Mihai, but Allen had difficulty understanding this within the context of what he had seen. 'Was Krena actually that strong, or did the vice-captain go easy on her?'

The large majority of adventurers were in the third category. This made sense, as most people with Talents would enter government service or become employed in more professional roles.

According to Raven, adventurers in the second group could expect to go up to Rank B; if in the first group, then perhaps even Rank A.

'So there are still differences within Normal Mode... Well then, it's time for little old me in Hell Mode to continue hunting. Let's try attacking two orcs together. Hawkins, find me a pair of orcs within three kilometers.' Allen switched gears and drew his mind back to hunting. The day's hunting had only just begun.

In response to his command, the four Bird Es flew off into the distance.

***

Four hours later, Allen tallied his kill count for the day: one armored ant and fifteen orcs. That worked out to a total of 25,500 XP.

Ageha's Ability had worked on the orcs too, but not as effectively as it had on goblins. Whereas the chance of success for goblins had been around eighty percent, it was only sixty percent for orcs. However, Allen had confirmed that he could handle groups of up to three orcs together with limited casualties when he backed up the Beast Es with Insect Es, his iron balls, and his own direct participation.

'All right. It's about time to go home.'

Allen decided to break things up earlier than usual as he had come further away today, plus he still had to catch a few beasts to bring back for eating.

He looked up at the sun in the sky, one of the very limited ways to check time in this world with no clocks.

'Hm, when it was goblins, I had to work hard to get up to 25,000 XP. If I spend an entire day focusing on orcs, I might be able to get around 50,000. I should set my quota to forty orcs, then.' Ultimately, Allen concluded that hunting orcs was entirely viable at his current specs.

As of this day, the target of Allen's level grinding officially shifted from the Rank D goblin to the Rank C orc.