Volume 8: The Adventurers’ Guild

Chapter 100: The Treasures of the Orc Wizard

The soul strength of ordinary orcs was similar to that of orcs, and Donald didn’t care much about this reward. After all, even the smallest gain was still valuable, so he used the Soul Sphere to absorb it. However, the soul of the orc wizard brought him an unexpected surprise. As the most powerful tribal leader and possessing silver-tier strength, despite his limited intelligence, his soul power was even stronger than that of a bronze demon, adding nearly 2,000 units to Donald’s soul power reserve.

Hearing Donald’s words, Chris was surprised and looked at him with a strange gaze.
“It’s a innate spell? Could you be a descendant of some powerful being, Donald?” Donald quickly tried to find an explanation: “I don’t know either. Maybe my ancestors also had some sorcerer bloodline! But since my elders have passed away, I can’t find a definite answer.”
“That makes sense! It’s likely because of your sorcerer bloodline that you’ve progressed so fast at the beginning without any instability. But usually, sorcerer bloodlines are related to fire or ice. Could your innate ability be storm? That’s quite rare. Sometimes I even wonder if you’re descended from some powerful creature like a dragon!”
Chris quickly came up with an explanation for Donald.

While cases like Donald’s were rare, they occasionally occurred among mages. But after reaching the bronze rank, the advantages from bloodline power diminished significantly, and the progression speed should return to normal. All they had was an extra few innate spells that they could master without learning.

Donald cleverly attributed everything to his family’s bloodline. After all, he was the only descendant of the Merlin family, so there was no way to verify it.

As for why some ancient families had survived to this day, aside from having secret techniques passed down, it was because their ancestors had bloodlines from powerful creatures, resulting in a genius who could awaken their bloodline powers every generation or two.

The Merlin family had a documented history of at least 300 years. Who knew what happened before that? It wasn’t impossible for someone like Donald to appear.

“Lord Baron, the battle is over. Fifty-three orcs have been eliminated. Shall I take a few men in to check if there are any remaining monsters?”

Soon, the battlefield was cleaned up. The captains of the Bloodstone and North Wind mercenary groups came as representatives to report to Donald, their employer.

“No need. The two captains had better go with my guard knights to count how many orcs each warrior has slain. Once we return to the territory, I can give them the rewards they deserve based on their achievements!” Seeing that their employer declined their offer, the two captains couldn’t express their thoughts and had to follow Donald’s orders.

Donald had hired these mercenaries and adventurers solely for combat; they didn’t need to know anything else.

“Uther, stay behind. Kelsas, Clinton, George, Bush, the four of you come with me inside!”

Then he turned and asked, “Mage Chris, what about you?” Chris, who was examining the orc wizard’s corpse with interest, replied without turning, “The orc lair must be stinky, and there’s nothing worth seeing. I won’t join you in the mess!”

Donald nodded in response and led the four men into the valley.

The smell inside the orc lair was indeed terrible, but Donald didn’t care. After crossing the gully at the entrance and the central clearing, the five of them arrived at the cave where the orc wizard lived, deep in the valley.

Donald insisted on entering alone, without any outsiders, because during the two previous attempts to spy using the owl’s perspective, he had noticed a neatly cleaned cave behind the orc wizard’s position. The lower half of the cave entrance was blocked by two flat stones. Aside from their leader, not only ogres couldn’t approach this cave, but even their own kind couldn’t enter.

Although the owl’s view from the sky allowed only a bird’s-eye perspective and couldn’t reveal details, Donald guessed that perhaps these orcs, like goblins, liked to collect shiny items as treasures and hide them in their lairs. Given the strength of these orcs, their treasures would surely be far more valuable than those of goblins. If his guess was correct, it was necessary to go in and take a look. There might even be unexpected discoveries!

Clinton and the three summoning warriors stepped forward to clear the path, moving the two crude stone doors aside. Then Kelsas unleashed a burst of fire to burn away the weeds at the entrance, illuminating the interior.

A cave suitable for orcs to live in was naturally not small, especially one belonging to an orc wizard, who was larger than ordinary orcs. The entrance alone was over two people tall and wide enough for three carriages to pass side by side.

The cave wasn’t very deep and was semi-oval in shape. It was spacious enough for Donald and the others, but for the ogre wizards, it was merely a small room. The cave was kept quite clean, though it still carried the unpleasant odor of ogres. Aside from beds covered with straw for the ogres to rest on, there was also a pile of miscellaneous items inside.

His subordinates quickly inventoried everything in the cave. Aside from some magic cores that were still valuable, there were only dozens of oddly shaped stones. If taken to the previous life for exhibition, they might have attracted the attention of rock enthusiasts, but for Donald, they were worth nothing.

Feeling somewhat disappointed, he kicked a stone in front of him, only to hear a sound of hard metal hitting the ground after it landed.

“That’s strange! There’s something on the ground!”

The sound sounded different from the clashing of stones.

“Clinton, George, attack this area!”

Donald immediately ordered his two subordinates to strike that spot a few times.

Thanks to their growth over the past half year, the three summoning warriors who were first created had made significant progress. While living their daily lives, they hadn’t forgotten to train. Currently, Clinton, George, and Bush all had strengths above the advanced black iron level. Among them, Clinton had made the greatest progress, reaching the peak of black iron strength. He was just one step away from understanding the existence of “qi,” obtaining a sword qi seed, and becoming a bronze-level warrior.

The infantry steel swords, finely crafted by the Book of Truth, combined with the strength of Clinton and George, produced sparks when swung on the ground, leaving a sword mark less than half an inch deep. This surprised Donald and the others greatly.

Donald stepped forward to examine it closely and discovered that this dark stone was actually a piece of iron ore hidden among ordinary rocks. Under the light magic, such colored stones could be seen everywhere in the cave.

“Could there be a black iron mine here?”

Black iron was the most valuable mineral in this world, second only to precious metals like gold and silver. It was an essential raw material for forging most weapons. Compared to copper and hematite, which could only be used to make daily items and tools, black iron was much harder and stronger. There were other metals more suitable for making weapons, but Donald, excited, immediately used his limited knowledge of minerals to carefully survey the cave.

Soon he discovered that there was not only hematite here but also magnetite, which was even more common than hematite. Magnetite had little value, so Donald ignored it. At most, when mining hematite, he would extract some alongside it to give to the blacksmiths in his territory to make farming tools and such. Eventually, in addition to hematite and magnetite, Donald even found a small piece of blue-veined gold ore. “It’s a magical metal ore! I’m rich now!” What Donald didn’t know was that the reason the ogre chief had always declared this cave off-limits was precisely because the blue-veined gold ore had mysterious benefits for him as a spellcaster. This ogre wizard was originally just an ordinary, strong young ogre living in the nearby forests with his kind. One day, after discovering this valley and its caves, it became his secret place to store food. Ogres have large appetites, and often even the stronger ones can’t satisfy their hunger, so storing food is a common practice among them. Unlike humans, ogres are not averse to rotting meat, so they’re not worried about it spoiling. Since they spent most of the year in this valley and caves, often using them for shelter from the cold in winter and heat in summer, over time the magical power within this young ogre was stimulated by the blue-veined gold ore, gradually awakening until one day he was suddenly able to cast spells and gained powers far beyond his peers. Once this young ogre grew strong, he became the leader of his tribe. Believing instinctively that the cave brought him benefits, he ordered the ogres to move to the valley and claim it for themselves. As expected, over the years his magical power grew stronger, and he mastered more spells. After making this astonishing discovery in the cave, Donald ordered Clinton to block the entrance again, then summoned the two griffins stationed outside the valley to guard it, preventing outsiders from approaching the cave. After leaving the valley, aside from leaving a few people to keep watch, the adventurers and mercenaries rested at their original location to recover from the physical strain of battle. The strongest person present, the middle-aged mage Chris, was crouching in front of the huge weapon left by the ogre—a war club—observing it carefully and occasionally poking it.

Speaking of which, in terms of its shape, this isn’t even a proper weapon at all—it’s more like a crude model made by a child from clay. If some master blacksmiths saw it, they would surely scold the person who forged it for wasting such fine materials. The main body of the staff is made entirely from high-quality black iron ore; if melted down, this material could be used to craft ten excellent long swords. The protrusions and spikes on the surface of the weapon are also made from rare, hard materials embedded in the staff. Although these materials include metals, stones, and even the teeth of various magical beasts, they are all excellent materials that can enhance a weapon’s performance. Yet this club, crafted haphazardly by an orc wizard, resembles an object from an abstract painting, lacking even a basic club shape. “This guy’s club uses pretty good materials. You should give me some later—this is…” “Of course, Chris, I’m already extremely grateful that you’re willing to help. Just let me know if you want anything!” Before Chris could finish speaking, Donald interrupted him. Although Chris didn’t like playing tricks, that didn’t mean he was stupid. He immediately understood Donald’s meaning, guessing that Donald must have made some significant discovery in the valley. Thinking of one of the rare materials he had identified in the club, his heart was filled with joy.