The Villain has Perished

Due to my small size compared to the monsters, it was easy to sneak into the house of the Orc chieftain.

'Where is the Orc chieftain?' I carefully lowered the leaf and moved away from the window. The window opened into a corridor.

The inside of the Orc chieftain's house was surprisingly big. The floor was covered with a rug made of monster hide. Weapons of various sizes, along with monsters' heads, decorated the walls. Other than the strange scent, the house seemed rather empty.

I followed the scent and stood before a room. The house didn't have doors but simple monster hides to cover the entrance of the rooms.

'What is this scent? It's weird….' A strong, fishy odor was coming from one of the rooms.

Lifting the draping slightly, I peeked inside and saw a bed made of haystacks. On top of the bed were many naked female orcs laying half-unconscious, their bodies twitching and covered in slimy, wet….

'Fuck! What sort of cursed scene did I see!?' I cursed inadvertently and moved away from the room in a heartbeat.

It took a few solid minutes for me to come out of the shock and continue searching the house.

Other than the bedroom, there were three more rooms and one extra room which appeared to be a kitchen, or eatery judging from the amount of food stored there. It had piles of fruits scattered around that were almost reaching the ceiling.

A few minutes later my search ended but I didn't find anyone except the female orcs inside the house.'Where is the Orc chieftain…?'

'Did he go somewhere else?' Frowning, I massaged my temples.

My goal was to assassinate the Orc chieftain and disrupt the chain of command of the Orc tribe. The murder of the Orc chieftain and my previous actions would cause chaos in the Forest of Silence. I had made preparations so that the chaos would engulf the other large tribes too.

The Port to another world was located beneath Griffin's nest in the Inner Section of the Forest of Silence. However, entering the inner section wasn't simple.

The five large monster tribes covered every inch of the border of the inner section. I would have to cross through the large monster tribes to enter the inner section. Also, when I return, I would again need to cross through the large monster tribes to leave.

I was creating chaos to ease my journey. If the villages were busy infighting and searching for the unknown outsider, they wouldn't have enough troops to maintain the borders. It would make it easier for me to sneak in and out.

'Should I leave and check other places?'

The treants and hound wolves could clash with the orcs for only so long. I had left a few summoner cards back there to release more summons after the orcs eliminated wolves and treants. That way, the orcs would stay there for a bit longer believing that more enemies were hiding.

But tricks like these won't buy me too much time. The Orcs would return eventually.

Rumble—!

Suddenly, the entire house shook. Faint tremors came from directly below. The earthquake stopped in the next second as if the earlier tremors were a mirage.

'An earthquake? It shouldn't be possible inside the Forest of Silence. After all, the world spirit of this world protects this forest.'

Protection of the world spirit was the reason why this forest wasn't experiencing extreme weather conditions like the rest of the world. Droughts, storms, hail storms at places where they shouldn't be. The sudden and extreme change in weather was a sign of upcoming Coalescence.

'Can it be…' I ran back to the window and peeked outside. The five orcs were patrolling normally. 'They must have also sensed the earthquake, but they are patrolling unperturbed. That means earthquakes like the earlier one are common.'

I returned to the house and extended my mana sense in a downward direction. It was only a hunch, but maybe that wasn't an earthquake. It was something artificial.

'There is empty space below!' My eyes rose slightly in surprise. But I didn't dwell any longer and searched for a way down.

The Orc chieftain and the elder orcs must be in a meeting to create strategies for their future actions. It would make sense that they were having a meeting in a location that made eavesdropping harder.

Maybe the dispute between the orcs in the meeting caused them to clash, and created the earlier tremors.

'Orcs have large bodies so the hidden entrance must be massive too. And with their level of craftsmanship, the hidden entrance shouldn't be difficult to notice if I look carefully.'

It didn't take me long to comb through the house again. But I didn't find a hidden entrance.

'There is one room that I haven't searched.'

My face hardened at the realization.

I clenched my jaws and attempted to drag my feet to that room. But my body refused to move. The image of the nightmarish scene was imprinted in my mind. Just recalling it was sending goosebumps all over my skin.

'Goddarnit!!!' Settling on a compromise, I closed my eyes and entered the room using <Mana Sense>. That way, I won't need to see 'that' inside the room. It was an error in my judgment.

As soon as I entered the room, a graphic mental image of the room was created in my mind. With <Mana Sense> acting as my 6th sense, I could feel everything inside the room vividly. I swiftly found the hidden entrance.

But it didn't come cheap.

I ran out of the room while barely holding myself from retching. The mana sense helped me feel everything in detail, too much detail…

'Water… I need water.'

While I was in the kitchen, searching for water, I abruptly heard the noise of something heavy moving. It came from the bedroom.

The orcs were coming out of the hidden entrance, realizing that I hid behind the pile of fruits.

As I was far from the bedroom, I couldn't hear clearly. But I heard grunting and throaty noises. Judging from the number of voices, I inferred that the meeting had ended and everyone was leaving. However, their tones suggested that they were calm.

'No, it must be because they are too far away that their tone appears to be calm. Their village is under attack, no one would be calm in such a dangerous situation.'

The noises of the orcs grew distant. They left the house. Just as I thought that, the sound of heavy footsteps started growing closer. From the heaviness of the strides, the orc coming in this direction was massive.

I withheld my urge to expand my <Mana Sense> and activated <Phantom Steps> to decrease my presence.

The orc wouldn't find me. After all, I had come prepared.

But…

'The orc, why is it sniffing here!?' I could hear the orc inhaling repeatedly as if searching for something. 'I should have any odor left on me after using the Odor Neutralizer. Then why…'

My face paled and I realized what was happening. The fishy odor from the bedroom had stuck on me!

Stomp—! Stomp—!

The footsteps stopped in front of the pile of fruits I was hiding behind.

Only a thin wall of fruits was separating the Orc and me. He was muttering something in an unknown language, and about to look behind the pile.

'I'll take the risk!' I raised my arm and channeled my mana. 'Summon baby tarantula!'

A baby tarantula appeared out of a magic circle. It looked around and immediately jumped out of the pile of fruits.

The orc shouted loudly at the appearance of the baby tarantula. Something whooshed and I heard the orc chasing away the spider.

'Haaah' I sighed silently. 'It wouldn't have been funny if I got caught in the middle of the enemy territory, not when each of them is stronger than my strongest summon and they have the numerical advantage.'

I was about to move when suddenly, a loud crash occurred at the door of the Orc Chieftein's house.

The source of the noise, an Orc, spoke loudly in a worried tone, "Chief! We are attacked! The Great Ape tribes declared war on us tribe!"

"It started." I whispered while in hiding.

The attack of the Great Ape tribe on the Orc tribe, it was the 2nd assault from my 3-front assault.

…..

….

…

..

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[Flashback - One day ago]

Sol swung his sword in a large arc and killed the final survivors of the small monster tribe he was raiding. This was the 8th small-scaled monster tribe he annihilated.

"Go secure the perimeters. Make sure no one saw us and if they did, kill them." Sol commanded his summons, Hound wolves and Jet Dragonflies, while canceling the Great Boars he had summoned.

Then he called Orca. "I'll extract the mana stones. You do your job."

A frown appeared on Orca's face and he nodded. However, deep inside Orca's gaze, fear was evident. It was unclear if he was afraid of the apathetic nature of Sol as he massacred hundreds of monsters nonchalantly, or if he was afraid to go against Sol's orders.

Taking out a knife from his pouch, Orca made a small cut on his left palm.

He let the blood drop and collected it in a large silver container filled with water from the lake.

Orca had been surprised when Sol created the silver container out of thin air and thought that Sol was a grand magician.

Though, in truth, Sol had bought the container from Shop. The container was a normal item without any special ability, so it didn't cost much.

"Why are we doing this at every village?" Orca couldn't hold it in any longer and finally questioned Sol.

Sol didn't answer him immediately. Instead, he walked up to Orca and stirred the water with a wooden stick. Then, Sol picked the blood-infused water and went around the village spraying it randomly.

He answered Orca after he was finally done. "Every monster tribe I've attacked belongs to the Great Ape tribe. They'll come here and look for clues to find me, but they will find only one clue: Orcs blood spilled from fighting inside this village."

The monsters of Forest of Silence have evolved to have a good sense of smell, strong enough to locate enemies from dozens of meters away. And every monster race has a different type of blood. Sol used these facts to his advantage.

His summons also bleed, however, their blood vanishes when the summons die or are canceled. As such, there was only one clue to be found, a clue Sol purposely left behind.

'...This was why he asked me about tribes belonging to the Great Ape tribe.' Orca thought.

Sol continued his answer while tending to his injuries. "The Great Ape will then think this: 'The Orc tribe is colluding with the outsider and attacking our villages to weaken us.' Then they'll attack the Orc tribe for revenge."

Listening to Sol, Orca nodded. No tribe would think that a human was working together with an Orc and creating a trap for infighting amongst the tribes.

But Orca stopped halfway through his nod. He said, "Still, it's too suspicious. The Great Ape tribe might assume that this is a trap of another monster tribe and they won't take the bait."

"The Great Ape tribe will be certainly aware that this is a bait. Nonetheless, they will attack the Orc tribe." Sol spoke with certainty.

"...Why?"

"Because I'm not baiting them but giving them a 'Justification' to attack the Orc tribe." A small smile appeared on Sol's visage.

"What does that mean…." Orca's eyes widened. He finally understood Sol's plan. "The Great Ape tribe are a clan of warriors whose sole desire is to fight against strong enemies. They also have a tough rivalry with our Orc tribe.

Till now, the 5 great tribes didn't attack each other because of the mythical ruler Griffin, but because of the 'Justification' of taking revenge the ruler won't stop the Great Ape tribe from attacking the Orc tribe."

After finishing his theory, Orca stared at Sol with quivering eyes. The more time he spent with this human, the scarier he seemed.

'It was as if he is a fiend hiding under human skin.' Orca gulped and thought.

A small smile appeared on Sol's face. "Correct."