Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"Ulag, are you done with your work? And who is this newbie? I haven't seen him before."

Sharog asked Ulag after he came to meet her while she was working in the community hall. She zeroed in on a stranger orc that was following Ulag like a shadow– barely visible and almost ignorable. Too bad for the stranger, Sharog paid especially close attention to tribe members like these who were usually up to no good.

Ulag greeted Sharog and explained to her the stranger's situation. Only then did she turn her inquisitive gaze away and stood in front of him.

"Our tribe doesn't take freeloaders, Mr. stranger. What can you do? Array management? Potion making? Hunting…"

Sharog received a nod from the stranger after she said hunting. She looked at the stranger one more time from top to bottom before commenting.

"Um… don't get me wrong, stranger. It's not that I don't want to give you hunting assignments. But you don't look like a hunter to me. Do you seriously want to take up hunting or would you prefer to stay in the camp and have it easy?"

'What the fuck is this lady monster saying this time?'

"The stranger orc," asked Alephee while staring blankly into space. That latter had acted as his translator ever since he had come in contact with Ulag.

'She is asking if you are sure about hunting or are you comfortable with something that wouldn't force you to venture outside this camp.'

At first, Eren didn't know how to reply to the lady orc's question while maintaining his image of being mute. Then he raised his left hand, stretched his palm open, and made a butcher-like slash action over it using his right hand to indicate that he was okay with hunting.

Sharog raised her almost invisible eyebrows and narrowed her eyes on the stranger. She then decided to test the guy using her scale as a measure.

"Alright. But let's have you fight with someone of your level before I can assign you anything. I want to know your battle skills so I can assign you proper tasks after all."

Sharog said and smirked at the stranger orc. She then patted his left shoulder with her hand before suggesting he follow her. They were going to enter the practice battlefield that was created in the heart of the camp.

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

Eren was lost after entering the Oni dungeon. The size of this dungeon was enormous. It looked like somebody had messed up big with space laws to create this subspace.

"Do you want me to help?"

A familiar voice sounded in Eren's head just when he was thinking about using his mana sense and letting it spread around him. The butcher smiled and replied.

"I don't mind the help. But how are you going to help me?"

Alephee chuckled before replying.

"It's simple. I'll use my soul sense to find you something or someone that can help you. And since it is soul sense, it won't get detected by monsters of this level."

"Do it."

Eren didn't waste time pondering over Alephee's help. He knew that she also sensed his urgency.

"Hmm. There are many monster races here. And some members of those races are not very far from here too."

Alephee commented as she processed the information she received from her soul sense. Then she had a hint of excitement in her eyes as she reported her latest finding to Eren.

"Oh… this is good. I found an orc nearby, 3 hours from here. It seems this is the orc's regular hunting area. Want to meet and talk to him?"

Eren was about to nod when he sensed that he had been forgetting the most critical weakness of his monster shapeshifting. He didn't know how to have a conversation in monster languages.

He had processed the memories of the orc he had ingested using his half-blood powers. But those memories were still fuzzy. Plus, knowing about the language and speaking it in a way that would not raise suspicions in the monsters' heads were two different things. So he couldn't count on that to have a one-on-one with the next orc he meets.

I should probably eat more of the monsters I want to create Blood Seeds from next time so I can refine their blood altogether. Then process the cherry-picked memories from all of them to build a believable monster of that race.'

Eren came up with a solution for his current problem that he could apply in the future. But that solution won't help him now.

"Hey, if it's an orc, maybe I can kill him and use my half-blood powers on him. That should help me understand the orc language better."

As Eren approached the orc, he decided to kill him. But Alephee sought a more peaceful solution.

"You don't need to kill an orc to understand what he is saying. I can do that for you using my soul sense."

Eren froze in his tracks when he heard Alephee's way of doing the recon without having to kill anyone for it.

"How can soul sense help one understand monster language? I'm not doubting you. Just being curious."

It didn't take long for Alephee to reply.

"The feedback from soul sense that you'd receive would be different from mana sense. Mana sense mimics all your five senses to give you a clear picture of your surroundings. However, soul sense extends far beyond that.

Imagine it like the communication that takes place between you and your demon beasts. This would be a case where you can communicate with everything and everyone around you to some degree. You not only share senses, but you can also stay in the know of each other's feelings. That's how soul sense could help you understand what people are saying without understanding their language."

Eren was impressed by the potential uses of soul sense. He wasn't even aware things like this existed in his previous timeline. Now he couldn't wait to awaken his soul sense.

The rest of the scene happened just like how Ulag experienced it. Eren still wanted to kill the orc and process any memories he might have had regarding this place. But things like that could always wait.

It was just that Eren was stunned when he first saw Ulag. That's because he acted way too human-like for a monster of his rank. This was not a normal sight for him.