The Necromancer Who Was Despised

Even though Athena is smaller than Kyla, it wasn’t to the extent that adjustments couldn’t be made.

Additionally, I was able to buy a large quantity of the reagents I needed.

‘The nominal reason was to create potions for monster hunting.’

In reality, I cleverly mixed them in with items that many other monster hunters also buy, so they wouldn’t be linked to black magic.

As a side note, I handle the money.

We move as a team anyway, and Kyla is my slave, while Athena is bound to me by Tia and the oath.

No one objected to me managing it.

There wasn’t anything to spend money on around here in the first place.

I take care of all our food, clothing, and shelter.

Therefore, there were no obstacles to spending money.

“We’re going to be busy for a while.”

“But once this is over, we’ll rest for a while.”

“It won’t be rest, it’ll be training.”

“Training… “I’m looking forward to it.”

“Ugh… Master seems a little scary.”

However, Athena’s eyes were shining brighter than Kyla’s, despite her words.

To her, this could be seen as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

We got a whole bunch of the capture harpoons that we were lacking.

We also rented some packhorses and a commercial wagon, so our preparations were fine.

We also replenished our supplies in bulk.

Tia was disappointed when we told her that we would be busy for a while, but she didn’t say much since she’s not a little kid.

With Tia seeing us off, we resumed capturing orcs.

The atmosphere in the orc village was quite unpleasant.

Well, it couldn’t be helped since a quarter of the adult male orcs had been cut into pieces.

‘Five? ‘Six?’

That seemed to be how many were left.

Other than that, we couldn’t get an accurate count of the females and children.

“The situation is worse than I imagined. “The females have gone out to hunt.”

I nodded silently at Athena’s words.

“If their situation is bad, we’re the ones to welcome that.”

Whether it was due to the wyvern’s (perfume), the hunting route had changed from before, and they moved in larger groups, but as Athena and Kyla grew more accustomed to it, the captures continued without difficulty.

Like that, two days passed, and the village reacted.

“It looks like they’re trying to leave?”

“We can’t let them.”

We’ve captured more than ten orcs in the past two days. It seemed that they had acknowledged that this area had completely become the wyvern’s territory and were thinking of moving their territory itself.

Of course, I had no intention of allowing it.

I immediately returned home and took out every trap in Nenson’s house.

‘There’s an orc tribe over here, and over there is the habitat of the giant ents, so they’ll avoid it, and over here is… .’

It was obvious where the orcs could go.

We occupied the expected route and set traps.

The traps we had in stock had rusted, but it didn’t matter.

That wasn’t the end of it.

“… Wow, you’re really evil.”

“My life is on the line, so of course I need to be evil.”

I poured poison upstream of the river where the orcs got their water supply.

Of course, the poison was limited in quantity, so I released it at the right time for the orcs to come and get water.

It was possible because Artina was there to check the orcs’ movements.

‘To move the village, water and food are essential.’

As a result…

“… “They abandoned their young?”

It wasn’t a fatal poison.

Such a poison would have been obvious.

Since they were strong orcs, I used a strong poison…

‘It would only give them a slight stomachache and body aches…’

It would have had a stronger effect on the young, but not enough to abandon them…

“It seems that they are taking the situation more seriously than we thought.”

Artina seemed to dislike the sight of the orcs, her face slightly wrinkled.

There were about ten abandoned young orcs.

We ignored the orcs who had left and retrieved all the young.

“Is this almost thirty? It seems like we’ve captured more than those who left?”

In fact, the number of orcs who escaped the territory alive was only two adult males, seventeen females, and three young.

“We need to catch as many as we can.”

It would be impossible to catch them all, but I had no intention of letting them go. I planned to kill the ones we couldn’t catch.

“This time, Kyla won’t go alone. First, I’ll support you with magic, and then I’ll join you.”

“What about me?”

“You can shoot a crossbow from the trees.”

Artina’s skills are still lacking for a head-on fight.

Even though she can use mana, her body is still developing and she has no experience fighting orcs, so it was a natural choice.

“This time, we’re not focusing on capture, but on killing as many as possible.”

“We’ll only retrieve the survivors.”

We locked the young orcs in the base camp and immediately tracked down the ones who had moved.

The orcs hadn’t gone far.

Some were dead, caught in traps, and it seemed that they hadn’t gone far yet because they were wary of the traps.

‘Excluding the young, there are about fifteen left?’

Normally, it would have been dangerous for the three of us to confront fifteen adult orcs head-on.

However, the situation was much more favorable to us.

‘Their physical condition isn’t that great…’

They were mentally exhausted as well.

In the end, even though they outnumbered us, they were the prey and we were the hunters.

They weren’t able to move quickly, probably because they were wary of traps.

Thanks to that, we were able to keep up with Kayla despite her slow movements.

“There’s a spear trap a little further ahead, so attack as soon as you get caught in it. Kayla.”

“Yes, Master.”

“We’ll attack first and draw them in. You wait behind the area filled with caltrops. We’ll lure them that way.”

Kayla, who lacked mobility, was better suited to this.

Caltrops were defensive weapons commonly called iron burrs. Since they were made of iron, they would deeply wound the soles of your feet if you stepped on them.

Their purpose was similar to landmines.

There was an area where they had been laid out to slow down their movement. We planned to have a full-scale battle there.

‘They don’t have a lot, but they’re not that numerous either.’

Kayla also knew roughly where the caltrops were spread out, and unlike the barefoot orcs, she had sturdy equipment, so she would be less affected.

“I understand. “I’ll go ahead.”

“I’ll leave it to you.”

After parting with Kayla, Athena and I quietly moved ahead of the orcs to where the spear traps were hidden.

“Will they get caught?”

“They will, if they’re pretending to be.”

Even though they were being cautious, they were just walking around slowly, looking at their surroundings.

They had fallen for every single hidden trap despite moving like that, so I figured they would fall for this one too.

‘They’re intelligent, but… they’re not very thoughtful.’

It was hard to notice just by looking with your eyes.

Because they were well-hidden.

If nothing else, they could have secured their vision with their equipment and prodded any suspicious areas beforehand.

All they did was trust their eyes and look around slowly.

Their limits were clear from that.

Athena and I each climbed up a tall tree and hid.

We held nets and watched the area around the spear traps, just like Athena had done before.

The orcs approached cautiously, and the orc in the lead got caught in a spear trap, creating a hole in its body.

“Kuaagh!”

The orc caught in the spear trap let out a loud scream.

The other orcs hurriedly retreated upon hearing that horrible scream.

“Now!”

I quickly gave the signal, and we threw the nets.

The orcs panicked and let out bloodcurdling screams, and Athena and I harassed them with our throwing weapons.

The orcs caught in the nets struggled, but we had targeted the young and exhausted females in the back row to begin with, and they couldn’t easily get out of the nets.

“Keeek!”

A different noise from before, filled with rage, echoed through the forest.

They had confirmed that we were the ones who set up the traps, and they were letting loose all the anger they had built up until now.

Humans, and so few at that.

One of the orcs, unable to contain its anger at the thought of being defeated by just two humans, picked up a spear and threw it at me.

Swish.

I dodged the window and began to run across the trees.

The orcs chased after us with shouts.

Those left behind didn’t even think.

‘Their eyes have turned red.’

It seemed like the anger that had been building up all this time had exploded.

‘I can’t let them get away completely.’

I glanced at Artina and saw that she was adjusting her speed, just like me, and lulling the orcs.

‘She’s doing well.’

Artina wasn’t good at fighting head-on, but she was excellent at this kind of thing.

Before I knew it, we had reached our destination, and the orcs discovered Kyla waiting for them.

“Kyaah!”

Kyla was human, so their anger turned towards her.

“Kyaak!”

She stomped on the iron bar with all her might, instantly turning their anger into pain.

The dozen or so orcs that had followed us stopped in their tracks.

I threw a dagger at their backs and landed next to Kyla.

Artina was aiming her crossbow from the trees.

Support me.”

Kyla answered briefly and then slowly approached the orcs.

The orcs hesitated at Kyla’s approach but then showed their anger again.

However, they weren’t stupid, so they moved cautiously.

But Kyla, with her sturdy armor, moved without hesitation.

Ping.

Pffft.

“Groan!”

An orc with a pierced nape of the neck collapsed.

Just before their gaze turned to Artina.

“Blind.”

My curse entered an unspecified number of them.

The effect was weak. I hadn’t spread any potion like before, and there were too many of them for the magic I had.

And I hadn’t used much magic for this spell, so there was no dramatic effect.

But they were already in a state where neither their minds nor bodies were normal. Even if the effect was weak, it was quite threatening to them.

And when Kyla rushed in, their eyes focused on her.

After her leg was crippled, she learned to counterattack after defending.

It was an inevitable choice for her, who had relatively low mobility.

But now, they also had low mobility.

That’s why Kyla went first.

Thud!

“Grrr… .”

An orc let out a beastly sound and blocked Kyla’s attack.