Max Talent Player

Chapter 54: Great Orc Warrior (2)

The Orc Warrior stood up, its nostrils flaring. Its body was nearly twice the size of regular Orcs.

Chwik?

It smelled like something delicious the smell of blood.

Chwiiiiiiiik!!

The Orc Warriors eyes turned red. It didnt see that the ones bleeding were fellow Orcs and became completely intoxicated by the smell of blood.

Hyukjin confirmed that the Orc Warriors eyes had changed.

It worked.

The Orc Warrior was weak to the smell of blood. With this much, it would instantly go completely bonkers. Now, it would start hunting its allies like a train running off its tracks.

Cruuuunch!

The Orc Warrior ripped off an Orcs arm and chomped it down whole, crunching down on bone.

Squeaaaaaaaal!

Its hapless victim squealed. The Orc Warrior grabbed it at the waist and began to consume it, chomping and munching from the head down.

Completely intoxicated by the smell of blood, the Orc Warrior became even more fevered.

Delicious things!

Delicious things!

Delicious things!

Only one thought, prey, dominated the Orc Warriors instincts.

The Orc Warrior roared, dark red blood flying out of its mouth. The Orcs began to flee in terror.

Chwiiiiiik!

A notice came in at the same time.

[The Orc Warriors innate ability, Orc Fear, has been triggered.]

Hyukjin grinned.

There it is. Orc Fear.

Actually, this wasnt an Orc Warrior-exclusive innate ability. It was a technique most boss monsters had. 

Normally, its an ability that freezes Players or makes them unable to flee.

But not right now.

Right now, its to prevent the escape of its delicious prey, the Orcs.

This Orc Fear wasnt aimed at them, the Players, but at the fleeing Orcs. As a result, Hyukjin and the others werent greatly affected.

And the Orc Warrior isnt a super high level boss monster.

He didnt know for sure, but he believed it was very unlikely that the Orc Warrior would use its fear move again. It probably had an extremely long cooldown. With the really high ranked monsters, they would fire fear at random and make things difficult for Players. But not the Orc Warrior.

The cooldown being extremely long basically means that its innate ability has been used up.

In that case, it would be much easier to face from now on.

Squeaaaaaal!

The Orcs became sacrifices to the Orc Warrior. The great beast chomped down Orcs as soon as it could grab them, as if the word satiety did not exist in its book.

[The Orc Warrior has evolved into an Advanced Orc Warrior.]

Breathing hard, Yeonseo asked Hyukjin, Can we really leave it be? Even though its body got bigger?

It was already a hulking lump, but it became even bigger.

Hyungnim. The definition of its muscles has become crazy high. I think its gotten a lot stronger.

Hyukjin nodded.

Fighting one Advanced Orc Warrior is better than fighting the Orc Warrior and its horde of Orcs. At least for us.

The choice he had made was to fight one general rather than hundreds of soldiers. That was Hyukjins choiceto fight one strong being rather than a multitude of weak ones.

This method is our path to survival.

He also knew its limits. It couldnt grow all the way to a High Orc anyway. If it stopped here, that would be great, but even if it grew a little more, it would stop at a Great Orc Warrior.

Its going to be dangerous anyway, so itd be fine to evolve into a Great Orc Warrior, at least

The perceived difficulty would be similar. Both the Advanced and Great Orc Warrior were monsters that he and his party members couldnt defeat at their current level without knowing the strategy, anyway. Both of them were strong. The perceived difficulty would be similar, but the quality of the items they dropped would be completely different. Since things had come to this, Hyukjin thought it would be good if it evolved into a Great Orc Warrior.

Cruuuuunch!

The now Advanced Orc Warrior was in a frenzy to murder and consume its allies. It ate yet another Orc, bones and all.

It didnt show the slightest interest in the Players, Hyukjin and his party members. That was because the delicious scentthe smell of bloodwas exceedingly weak on them.

Squeaaaaaaaal!

Inside the tent, the last Orc disappeared inside the Advanced Orc Warriors belly.

[The Advanced Orc Warrior has evolved into a Great Orc Warrior.]

It finally seemed full. Only then did the Great Orc Warrior begin to have an interest in the Players.

[A flash quest, Kill the Great Orc Warrior, has been triggered.]

[Kill the Great Orc Warrior]

Kill the Great Orc Warrior. You cannot kill the Great Orc Warrior with your current abilities alone. However, the Courageous Lion King will watch over your courage and guts.

Quest reward: Special ability Mettle

It wasnt a quest given to just Hyukjin. Yoohyun, Yeonseo, and Sunhwa got it as well.

Mettle.

Mettle: A persons grit and resilience in dealing with difficulties, no matter what they were.

This came out here?

There were a great number of ways you could acquire this ability. Hyukjin had also written up a plan to acquire Mettle, because it was one of the key abilities for Rankers. If you had Mettle, your resistance to mental attacks became much higher, and it would negate a good portion of boss monster fears.

I have to do it.

It was unexpected, but he was happy about it.

How unusual that the damned courage-lover is being helpful for once.

In any case, he could earn Mettle with this.

As long as I can kill that monster, that is.

Raids were always one or the other. It came down to whether the foe died, or you did. Whether the monster died, or the Player did. It would only end with one or the other.

Its big.

It was about 3 meters tall, so enormous that it made even the giant Yoohyun look small. Yoohyun and Yeonseo stood on either side of Hyukjin, and Sunhwa stood right in front of him.

Boss. Hyukjin. This is gonna be fine, right?

Hyukjin didnt know.

We have to hope that our plan worked.

If it didnt? Then they would die here. There was no other way. In this scenario, which had changed because of the True Master of the Heavenly Demonic Mountain, there was no other way for them to survive.

* * *

Yeonseo regripped her sword. A bead of sweat ran down her forehead, traveling over her cheeks and down her nape. She stared at the Great Orc Warrior with a piercing intensity. It wasnt making any real movements yet. This was the calm before the storm, the moment before two forces collided.

Thump!

Thump!

Her heart trembled. Yeonseo kept her nerves stretched taut.

At least

The good thing was that the current situation was perfectly in line with what Hyukjin had schemed.

Hyukjin created this situation.

This was definitely the desired outcome of Hyukjins tactic.

Hyukjin said, Im going in.

Oppa. Wont it be better for me to go in? Im sturdier.

Hyukjin chuckled. Being sturdy means nothing. One hit, and itll be over, anyway. The level indication shows up as question marks to me.

The Great Orc Warriors level was around 37. Sunhwa as she was now would not be able to block a single hit from such a monster.

So its better for me to go, since I have a slight chance of being able to dodge.

Hyukjin moved forward.

Did it really work?

Seeing as the Great Orc Warrior hadnt moved this whole time, it did look like their plan worked, somewhat.

It ate a lot in a hurry, so its stomach must be very bloated.

And most likely

The Mutant Wolfs Fang should have taken effect.

The Mutant Wolfs Fang was an item Hyukjin had steadily collected ever since the Tutorial. It was also essentially the first item he acquired in the Tutorial Field.

[Mutant Wolfs Fang]

The fang of the poisonous Mutant Wolf. It possesses a fatal paralyzation poison.

The Orc Warrior had swallowed the Orcs whole. Hyukjin knew that it would do so in advance and had embedded Mutant Wolfs Fangs all over on the Orcs bodies. The reason why they left the Orcs alive, why they pulled them all the way into the tent, and why they made the Orc Warrior eat the Orcs was all for this outcome.

Hyungnim. Will that really have an effect?

A few wouldnt have made any difference.

He drew even closer to the Great Orc Warrior.

But this guy swallowed at least seventy fangs.

He didnt expect the fangs to be able to completely paralyze the monster. Mutant Wolfs Fangs were unable to completely paralyze a Great Orc Warrior, of all things.

But

They could greatly slow down the monsters movements. Hyukjin slightly lowered his center of gravity.

The Great Orc Warrior saw a Player coming near it. For some reason, its body felt sluggish, but it was fine. That puny human was nothingone bite, and it would be over. The Great Orc Warrior did not feel much danger.

Hyukjin used the special skill Flash Step by title switching. The monster ahead would be unable to react to his speed.

Whoosh!

The Great Orc Warrior swung its massive, 1-meter large club.

Its faster than I thought.

The Great Orc Warrior reacted a little to Flash Step. It was definitely a high-level monster.

But this much, I can manage.

It was only a little faster than he expected, not something he couldnt handle. Hyukjin whipped around to the back of the Great Orc Warrior using Flash Step.

Yeonseo!

Giving a signal to Yeonseo, Hyukjin swung his sword at the Achilles tendon of the Great Orc Warrior.

The monster raised its left foot, as if it had eyes on the back of its head. Then, it whirled rapidly around. Despite suffering from the effects of paralyzation poison, it evaded Hyukjins attack very easily.

In the meantime, Yeonseo used Heavenly Demonic Flying Step to get close.

That guy is aiming for Hyukjin.

Its back was unguarded.

My goal is the ribs.

She couldnt deal a fatal blow in one hit. They had to pare down the monsters health little by little.

Here I go!

But just then, the Great Orc Warrior swung down its arm.

Clang!

Its arm blocked Yeonseos sword. Even though it wasnt wearing armor, the sound was like steel meeting steel.

How can its body be so sturdy?

That meant at Yeonseos current level and attack power, she was unable to penetrate the monsters skin, especially the tough skin of its arm.

Hyukjin saw it all.

The look in its eyes has changed.

Those were not the eyes of prey being hunted. The beast in front was full of confidence. The Great Orc Warrior was convinced that it was the predator here. Even though its body didnt move as it wanted, it could catch and swallow these measly humans no problem. Those were the thoughts Hyukjin saw in its eyes.

The eyes of a predator.

He had been waiting for this very moment. They would only have one chance. In order to come this far, he had designed and painted the situation stroke by stroke.

Now.

The opportunity had come. Hyukjin moved, determined to make a miracle happen.