Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

'Here goes nothing.'

Eren who was in an orc form said to himself and passed through the semi-transparent mana layer. Thus, he disappeared from his previous place only to reappear inside the subspace.

Eren didn't know when or how, but suddenly his centre of gravity changed along with his surroundings as he walked through the semi-transparent mana layer. He found himself immersed in a body of water.

Eren quickly adjusted to his surroundings and got up on his two legs. He was standing at the bottom of what seemed to be a medium-sized lake. The part of the lakebed he was standing on had an array drawn over it using dimly shining crystals arranged in an almost star-shaped format. He had never seen or come across such crystals before.

Eren had his mouth closed and he had stopped breathing for a while to focus on his surroundings. He deduced that this strange-looking array was the entrance and exit of this subspace.

'Hm. This lake and the water in it seemed to be normal and no different from those found in this region of the Badlands. No risks so far. I guess I can swim upwards now.'

Eren thought to himself before starting to swim to the surface of the water. He didn't forget to remember the position at which he had appeared just now.

****************

"Haaaaah!"

Eren took a large breath when he reached the lakeshore. He looked around and found out that the scenery in front of him was no different than the Badlands he had come to this place from.

The same type of gigantic trees surrounded the lake that could be found in the Badlands. There was the same type of mountain ranges he had seen in the Badlands just before coming here. The moon and the stars along with the nightly ambience were the same as well.

What differed from the Badlands was the way he felt after coming here. He was using his mana sense in a limited capacity, restricting its range to his field of vision. He hadn't extended its range beyond that limit, lest some hostile force takes note of the foreign presence. But even without using the mana sense, he could feel that this subspace was dangerous.

'I'm already in monster form. Exploring this subspace should be easier for me than it was for Tumko and his team.

Altashia and others might get suspicious and start looking for me. It's already close to dawn. I don't have much time. I might as well check out a few things and see if I could get my hands on the artefact without aggravating any monsters.'

Eren thought to himself and started walking in a random direction. All while maintaining his image as an orc.

************************

Tonight was a night like usual for the drunkard Ulag. Hunting for Novice ranked Armadelo beasts that could only be hunted at night. Because during the day, they take the shapes of normal rocks using their inherent spells, making it difficult for any hunter to catch them.

Aramdelo beasts were 2 meters long, making them relatively medium-sized beasts. Their skin was used to make armour. Their mana core could be incorporated in various earth-element artefacts. Their meat could be used as an ingredient for creating earth-element arrays.

But when he was going to wrap up the last hunt and call it a night, he found out that he was not alone in the woods. He stretched his mana sense and found out that there was an orc looking at him from a distance.

Ulag found it strange that an orc was looking at him with keen eyes. That's because he was an orc himself. And he couldn't identify the guy.

Ulag shook his head and thought that maybe he had too much rum for tonight. Then he started approaching what looked like one of his tribemates.

"Buddy, give me a hand, vile you... eh... veelaaa... of for fushk's... fuck sake..."

Ulag was trying to say "will you" but ended up twisting the words because of the booze. He slapped himself first to give himself some clarity before speaking again. The slap seemed to have worked this time.

"Haah! So where were we? Oh yes. Can you help me bud? Store these two Armadelo beast bodies in your storage area. Mine is already full. Hahaha! Maybe I had too much to drink yesterday as well. I didn't empty the stock I had stored the last time."

Ulag said while approaching the orc. He had killed the beasts using array traps that would manifest sharp water-element javelins whenever the Armadelo walked over them. Ulag's daily routine included setting traps during the day and collecting his harvest at night. He was so used to the routine that he could do this even when he was drunk.

"Why are you getting so spaced out? It's me. Ulag. Did you drink too much as well? Hahahaha!"

Ulag approached his tribesman in a friendly manner. He wasn't sure why but he was feeling that there was something different about him. But the heavy alcohol he was drinking subdued his curiosity and sense of danger. So he only processed the information he wanted to process.

Ulag found it weird that even after talking so much to the guy, he didn't reply. He just stood there with blank expressions on his face. By now, Ulag could almost confirm that he was not his tribemate.

"Hm? Buddy? Are you perhaps from a different tribe? This part of the forest is assigned to our Durbag tribe as per the last Oni Festival's rewards. Were you not aware of this?"

Utter silence!

By now, Ulag had sensed that the stranger orc he had come to meet in the forest was acting strange. He took his javelin artefact from his storage space as a precaution and shook his head once again to get rid of his light drunken stupor.

Just when it looked like things were about to get tense, Ulag saw the orc opening his mouth and showing his somewhat chopped tongue. It took him a while to process that the guy couldn't speak.

"Oh, you can't speak? Why didn't you say anything sooner? Hahaha!"

Ulag laughed out loud. But then he understood the absurdity of his statement and felt awkward about it.

"*cough! I mean… um... what are you doing here? Are you looking for a place to stay? Were you renounced by your tribe?"

The stranger orc took some time before nodding at Ulag's statement. Only now did the hunter relax thinking that the stranger he had come across was only a stray that was looking for a tribe.

It wasn't like the orcs had many tribes here. They were near the bottom of the hierarchy at this place. With limited resources in hand and too many mouths to feed, orcs getting strayed from their tribes wasn't too rare of an event.

"Alright. Alright. We can't use my storage space anymore. And your storage space must have been stripped from you. So let's carry these Armadelo bodies on our shoulders. One for you and one for me.

I'll take you to Sharog after we are done with my job. Maybe she can find a job and a place to stay for you."

Ulag said and got back to tending to his harvest for the day. The stranger also followed his lead and eventually lifted one Armadelo body over his shoulder. Ulag nodded at him and started leading the way. Work was finished. They were heading back to his tribe's camp.

Ulag had no idea that the stranger orc he had invited into his tribe was way stranger than he gave him credit for at this point.

==============

AN: Thank you ppp999 for rewarding VEH with a magic castle. VEH's mass release in the next month will have you to thank for it.

On that note, I'm not sure I've thanked you in Author Note previously, but if I have, thank you Daoist930799 (brov, change your account name to something cooler already, lol. It's weird to address a bot-like name.) once again for gifting VEH with a castle at the start of the month. We will have a mass release tomorrow. ;)

Thanks, Venom30 for your consistent gifts. Also, thanks to Waakaranai, mehoffJackman68, FireEngine, 1706704236, _Dark_Mist_, Daxinjian, Daoist7x6p6b, Rumtwist, Darkswan, and GojoVir for your gifts.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all my top three GT donors and top 25 fans supporting VEH as well. I'll use your handle names or variants of them in naming new characters as a token of appreciation. Or you can suggest me the names that you prefer. Don't worry. Not all of the new characters will be monsters. ;)

Also, let me know if you have any objections to it. Cheers! ;)