Chapter 93: The Orc Tribe

When Donald spotted the orcs, their lunch was nearly over. Perhaps they had already eaten two goblins as snacks to start, so they finished eating quickly and left, carrying the remaining half of their prey toward the northeast. A few goblins scavenging for leftovers were not satisfied, but out of fear of the orcs, they could only bark helplessly and follow closely behind their master.

Since the distance was no longer great, they could travel at full speed. But now, caution was needed. Donald ordered everyone to release their horses, letting them wander out of the forest back to the territory, while he and the others followed the orcs’ trail deeper into the woods.

An hour later, they reached a mountain range in the Green Cloak Forest, located in the northeast between Dalaran and the Baron of Red Maple’s lands.

“I think we’ve arrived!”

Donald, who was leading the way, suddenly stopped. Through the owl’s vision, he saw a valley not far ahead. The surrounding mountains were relatively gentle, and the valley’s entrance was well-hidden. Covered in purple, red, orange, and yellow vines and old trees due to late autumn, it looked like a paradise.

Yet this paradise-like valley was now occupied by savage and terrifying orcs. The valley was filled with smoke, and dozens of giant orcs lay lazily on the smooth rocky ground. A group of over a hundred goblins were at work, cleaning up the orcs’ excrement and food scraps, piling them together at one end of the valley.

In the gully at the valley’s entrance, bones of various creatures piled up—wild beasts, magical beasts, and a few that seemed to be human remains.

Seeing the situation in the valley, Donald’s expression turned grim.

“Lord, have you found the orcs’ nest?” asked Mage Moray when he saw Donald stop.

Donald nodded and said solemnly, “We’ve found their lair. But with our small group, we’re not even enough to feed them for one meal!”

“Are there many orcs?”

Donald smiled bitterly. “At least fifty. A dozen of them are smaller—probably female orcs and immature ones. The rest are adult male orcs. If I’m not mistaken, one of them is an especially huge, grayish-skinned mutant orc—likely their leader, the orc wizard mentioned by Mage Moray.”

The two mages also frowned upon hearing this. Such a large number exceeded their expectations. Just imagine what kind of force dozens of elite warriors at the peak of Bronze rank would represent—certainly not something that low-level mages like them, who hadn’t even reached the Bronze level, could match. Mutated ogre wizards generally had at least the combat strength of early Silver rank, and defeating them required even stronger Silver-level fighters.

With such limited forces, it was like throwing eggs at stones; acting rashly would mean certain death.

Donald certainly understood this as well. Having fully absorbed the power of the Fire Demon, his hidden strength had already reached that of an ordinary Silver-level expert. Once he used the Demon Transformation, his combat strength would reach the peak of Silver rank. Although it had a time limit, unless his opponent possessed some special secret technique, he would be invincible below Gold rank.

Donald calculated that he could at least fight off the ogre wizard while dealing with half of the ogres. The rest, including the old and weak, could be temporarily held back with the help of numerous summoned creatures and Uther and the others. After he eliminated the main force of ogres, he could then deal with the remaining ones.

However, although the three mages—Moray and the others—had shown some loyalty, Donald couldn’t predict how they would react upon seeing him transform into a powerful demon. Moreover, the number of magic cores needed to summon enough creatures to fight the ogres was astonishing—at least all his magic cores above level three would be consumed. Unless it was absolutely necessary, Donald didn’t want to waste these precious magic cores.

So he immediately decided, “Since the enemy is too strong for us to fight, let’s not alert them. Let’s return to our territory now!”

Mage Moray nodded in agreement first. Acting with a plan rather than recklessly, remaining calm in emergencies—these were the good qualities a great mage should possess. As for Uther and the others, they naturally took Donald’s orders as their own responsibility and would never defy his decisions.

Only Mage Dina seemed somewhat unwilling. Donald reassured him, “There’s no need to be disappointed. Finding their lair is already a significant achievement. Judging from their location, they are still far from the border of our territory, and they don’t often appear in this direction. So we still have some time to find a way to eliminate this threat from the ogres!”

Dina naturally understood this as well. It was just his personality that made him regret not being able to fight the ogres. Sometimes he really wished he were a warrior instead of a mage!

Now, with Lord Donald urging him and Moray, whom he always respected, giving him a subtle signal, he had no choice but to say, “Alright! Lord, but next time we deal with the orcs, you must include me!”
Donald shook his head and smiled, “Of course! No one is more important than Mage Dina!”
With that, the group of sixteen quietly left the valley and headed back the way they came.
Upon returning to his domain, Donald did not seek help from his teacher or others right away; instead, he sat in the lord’s mansion and pondered.
Between the Black Iron rank and the Bronze rank lies the threshold between junior mages and intermediate mages. Crossing this hurdle is very difficult—usually, 80% of mages get stuck at this stage and cannot advance for many years. Even mages like Moray and the other two, despite having the medicines, equipment, and materials provided by Donald, were still some distance away from meeting the requirements for the Bronze rank.
As for himself, if he did not reveal his abilities as a Demon Hunter, the most powerful spell among his magical skills was still Frost Nova, an innate spell granted by the Book of Truth.
There was no other way—his time as a mage was still too short. After advancing to Bronze Mage, he only knew five level-4 spells, all of which were supportive or defensive in nature. His only truly powerful offensive spell was Frost Nova, which was equivalent to a level-5 area attack spell.
However, Frost Nova belonged to the category of area-based combat spells, so its attack power against individual enemies was not very strong—maximal around that of a level-3 attack spell. Its real strength lay in its freezing effect, which could effectively immobilize enemies within its range.
But Donald knew that despite his strong innate abilities and physique, his magical power was limited. Without rest to recover, he could at most cast Frost Nova three times in a row before his body could no longer bear it.
For those at the Silver rank, the power of ice and frost would have little effect. Unless he himself advanced to the Silver rank, the power of his innate spells would naturally increase as well.
“The mental strength required to advance from the peak of Black Iron to the Bronze rank is more than ten times greater than before. One can learn more powerful level-4 spells. With the white crystal ring given by my teacher, I can even cast some level-5 spells despite being below that rank. But all of these require considerable time to learn and master before they become part of one’s true strength.”

“The best way to improve my strength at the moment is to reach the beginning stage of Bronze. With my Soul Level rising by another tier, I can choose a permanent innate spell again, which can be used against those annoying native monsters.” The first one is a survival skill, the second is a area-of-effect attack skill for controlling the battlefield, and the third is a special skill. So this time, Donald decided to pick a more powerful attack skill to compensate for his lack of effective offensive options. Thus, Donald said to the empty room, “Book of Truth, display the skill list!” As soon as he spoke, a golden screen appeared before him, listing various skills from the game’s world of monsters. “The skills of the Paladin are ruled out first; with Uther around, choosing Paladin skills would be redundant.” “I already possess the most powerful skills of a Archmage, so the others aren’t necessary choices.” As for the Flame Strike of the Elven Prince, it was indeed good—wide range, strong attack, and could last for a while—but Donald had other plans for the Blood Mage, so he naturally wouldn’t choose that skill. The skills of the Dwarf King conflicted with the Mage class, so they were also skipped. After eliminating the four great human heroes, the list continued with skills from the other three races and neutral heroes. Although there were many unique skills among the non-hero units, their development potential was far inferior to that of hero skills, and most were auxiliary skills or racial abilities, so they were dismissed by Donald. Since he intended to choose a powerful attack skill this time, most of the auxiliary skills were skipped. Among all racial skills, the most powerful in terms of attack strength was undoubtedly the ultimate skill of the Orc Swordmaster, Blade Storm. Donald estimated that using his own Twin Blades as a Demon Hunter should yield results comparable to the Swordmaster’s single sword. However, since it wasn’t a specialized Swordmaster skill, there would surely be a significant difference in power. The Prophet’s Earthquake came in second, with effects no less than Blade Storm, though it mainly manifested as an earthquake rather than direct damage. Yet, the ability to change the natural world on one’s own was something that even a Level 6 war spell like Earthquake required, and such a powerful spell usually needed at least a Silver-tier expert to cast alone. Therefore, Donald strongly favored such war spells that could cause widespread catastrophic damage, as they were not only ideal for dealing with swarms of enemies but also allowed him to experience a god-like control over life and death.

After considering several similar ultimate abilities, Donald abandoned the Moon Priest’s Starfall and the Fire Lord’s Volcanic Eruption, choosing instead the Naga Sea Witch’s Tornado ultimate.