“Do shaman not carry a staff?” Diviner Houkyu asked.

“I usually do, but… I fight a little differently now.”

Diviner Houkyu carried a colorfully painted wooden staff. Except for the bright colors, it looked similar to Freya’s shaman staff. The spirit bird who had swooped over her head earlier sat at the top of it.

The trail they followed appeared well-traveled, but new vines were already trying to claim the space. As they got further outside the city, large trees—much bigger than any Freya had ever seen—began to crop up and made enough shade to discourage a lot of vine growth. Instead, all kinds of mushrooms and mosses covered the forest floor.

“What exactly have you been seeing in this part of the forest?” Infamous Biscuit asked as they walked. 

“Well,” Diviner Houkyu said, scratching his cheek. “There’s this cave I used to go to for white cave moss, but recently strange things have started to happen around that area. It started with seeing strange large figures that seemed to vanish before I could figure out what they were. But now it’s even odder; I can’t seem to find the cave. I follow the trail straight to it, but I always end up missing it somehow.”

He shook his head in frustration, “I even sent Pekkae here out to look from above, but it seems impossible to find now.”

Pekkae, the spirit bird, seemed to ruffle its feathers in agreement. 

Heilong gave Freya a knowing look and whispered, “Probably some kind of game perception filter to keep NPCs out.”

Freya bit her lip in concern. She tried to console herself that at least the game mechanics were trying to stop non-game people from entering the site. Still, if he saw figures, how far from danger was he?

“How far is this cave?” Infamous Biscuit asked.

“There’s still a ways to go. It’s at least another-”

Freya bumped headfirst into Diviner Houkyu. Peering around him to see what made him stop, her blood froze.

A large armored figure stood just a few meters from them. She recognized it from her most recent dungeon experience—an orc.

Green-skinned but mostly covered in silver armor, the orc stared straight at them.

[High Orc Spearman Scout]

[Lvl 14] [500/500]

It charged.

K13 ran from the back of the group to the front. Heilong grabbed Diviner Houkyu and dragged him back.

The berserker and orc clashed. K13 used one of his giant axes like a shield from the orc’s spear while chopping with the other.

“Heilong, keep a lookout for others! Freya, watch out it might not be fully aggroed!” Infamous Biscuit barked out.

Hesitating a few more seconds, Freya watched K13 strike at the orc, but he was unable to make a dent in its armor. The orc’s health bar had barely dropped at all.

The high orc looked down at K13.

Hurk hurk, it laughed. Then pounded its chest armor. 

Freya started off with a running Shockwave kick. The orc hunched over, grabbing its shin.

[High Orc Spearman Scout]

[Lvl 14] [380/500]

Surprised it had taken so much damage, Freya kept attacking.

However, all her subsequent kicks and punches hardly affected the orc. It’s health bar stayed steady.

Rolling away to let K13 re-aggro it, she carefully watched the monster’s HP points. Most of K13’s ax swings either didn’t do any damage or only a single health point or two came off.

Even Heilong’s well-aimed arrows that got between its armor didn’t do much damage.

“I don’t think there are other orcs in the area. I’m using my Mark!” Heilong shouted out.

Her next arrow induced the red halo of her Mark skill around the orc. Still, the monster wasn’t taking much damage. Infamous Biscuit healed K13 then joined in the attack, bludgeoning it with his staff. Despite the barrage of hits from all four of them, the orc’s health bar barely budged.

[High Orc Spearman Scout]

[Lvl 14] [323/500]

Freya’s Shockwave skill finally finished its cooldown. As K13 backed away from it, she came forward and punched, releasing her qi right into the orc’s chest.

Urk!

The large orc stumbled back and grabbed at its chest with one hand.

[High Orc Spearman Scout]

[Lvl 14] [190/500]

“Wow, your shockwaves are really affecting it,” Infamous Biscuit said. He ran forward and hit with his staff.

Surprisingly his hit also did a fair amount of damage. K13 came forward and slammed his axes into the orc’s chest plate. The armor broke.

Backing away, the orc defensively held out its spear, but everyone sensed its weakened state and renewed their attacks.

Finally, one last kick from Freya made the orc disappear into a cloud of smoke.

All of them scanned the area. Bird calls and the croaking of frogs slowly returned to the forest. 

“That- that was, was that an orc?” Diviner Houkyu asked. He leaned heavily against his staff and stared at the spot the orc disappeared. 

“Yes, it was,” Freya answered frowning.

“What is an orc doing here? I thought they were extinct! Something in history textbooks! A relic of the past!” Diviner Houkyu said, his panic increasing with each sentence.

“A high orc too, I haven’t heard of them before,” Infamous Biscuit grumbled.

“It seemed more intelligent and had thicker skin,” Heilong added, retrieving her arrows from where the orc fell.

Infamous Biscuit shook his head. Then his gaze fell on Freya, “Are your hands okay?” 

Freya looked down. Blood dripped from her knuckles. The orc’s armor wasn’t the softest thing to punch. At least it looked worse than it felt. She found the injury oddly satisfying but said, “I can heal them myself.”

Casting her Self-Heal skill, she watched the bleeding stop. She reminded herself to ask Yina for a pair of gloves when she got home. But for the moment, there were other pressing problems.

“What was it doing here?” Freya asked, “We’re not in a practice field, and Diviner Houkyu said we’re still far from the cave where the dungeon probably is.”

Infamous Biscuit rubbed his beard, “It is concerning.”

“There haven’t been any cases of monsters escaping from untouched dungeons as far as I know,” Heilong said, adjusting her ponytail. “But given Houkyu’s vision about Kai Nai being in danger…”

“We should investigate,” Infamous Biscuit agreed. “But I am concerned the dungeon might be above our level. This scout was a level fourteen monster, and it was strangely difficult to take down. Freya’s Shockwave skill sure seemed to hurt it, but I don’t know why.”

“Maybe high orcs are weak to Meridian Manipulation skills?” Heilong suggested.

Freya recalled the way the orc staggered each time she used her Shockwave skill, “Different monsters and even people can be more or less sensitive to their meridian lines being damaged. It’s possible.”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Infamous Biscuit said. “But let’s go investigate anyway.”