Chapter 49: Harvesting Souls (1)

For Donald, who possessed equipment like the Soul Sphere, the ideal place to harvest soul energy was a location where a large number of creatures had died—preferably not naturally, but out of necessity or coercion. Only in such places would the quality of the remaining souls be high, and souls filled with negative emotions such as sorrow, anger, fear, and pain were even better!
The stronger the emotions binding the deceased before death, the easier it was for their souls to remain in the main world, and the greater the soul energy they contained. As for the negative energy unintentionally absorbed by these remaining souls, it would be filtered and purified by the Soul Sphere during the harvesting process, leaving only pure soul energy—something that had no effect on Donald at all.
Therefore, aside from sites like the mass slaughter grounds from his past life, what could be better for harvesting souls than a battlefield filled with intense fighting?
With a delighted expression, Donald said to Uther beside him, “Now we won’t lack soul energy for permanent summons. If we let all these dead orc souls dissipate uselessly and return to the so-called Orc God’s embrace, wouldn’t that be a huge waste? I heard that Orc God has already fallen to the human gods—harvesting orc souls shouldn’t be a problem!”
“Even if that Orc God hasn’t fallen, there are still human gods to deal with. They won’t bother me, a mere mage. If I can gather tens of thousands of orc soul fragments, won’t I be able to permanently summon an army of loyal magical beasts?”
Filled with excitement, Donald waved his hand and ordered his troops to move forward.
After dealing with those three orc spearmen, and with the help of the troll shaman-controlled sentry guards and hidden traps, Donald encountered several more groups of orcs as he advanced. All thanks to the sentry guards scattered throughout the forest, which kept a watchful eye on the surroundings, allowing them to detect any movement in advance. Alternatively, the orcs would trigger hidden traps and fall into an ambush, after which Donald would summon creatures to easily defeat them, before stepping forward to harvest their souls and ordering his men to collect the loot.
After killing several waves of orc scouts, this could be said to be the greatest loss he had caused since arriving in this world—but Donald felt no remorse at all.

Humans and orcs are inherently enemies, two races that cannot coexist. Not only humans, but also intelligent races like elves share the same relationship with orcs. First, the orcs’ cruelty, violence, and innate aggression make it impossible for races like humans to live in peace with them. Second, given their terrifying reproductive rate and relentless appetite, once they grow stronger, there will likely be no place left for other intelligent races on the continent.

According to the ancient high elves, orcs are a race that cannot achieve balance with nature—they only know how to take without giving back. If left unchecked, they will eventually devour the entire material world.

Thus, orcs are a cancer in the main world, a plague of pests. Such enemies must be dealt with mercilessly; showing them sympathy only invites trouble.

Moreover, Donald usually let the summoned warriors take action, so there was a emotional distance between him and the battles. After all, he didn’t want to become a bloodthirsty murderer either.

Of course, even if faced head-on by orcs, Donald wouldn’t feel fear at all.

At that moment, Donald eliminated a few more orcs and pointed at their corpses, asking Uther, “My knight, what do you think of the orcs’ combat strength?”

“The orcs’ vanguard usually consists of longspearmen or slingers—ranged troops that are perfectly suited to mountainous and jungleous terrain. Human infantry and cavalry cannot exert much combat effectiveness in such an environment. While human scouts are far more skilled than the barbaric orcs, they lack strength compared to them.”

Donald nodded upon hearing this. Uther continued, “As for the enemy’s main force, based on the knowledge given by my master, it consists of even more powerful orc axe warriors. Though called axe warriors, given the orcs’ poor metallurgical skills, only their elite troops can wield iron axes. Most others use war clubs, stone axes, or even just thick wooden sticks. Even with their average black-iron-level combat strength, such an army would be a nightmare for ordinary human armies.”

“If you had an equal number of human infantry, could you defeat such an orc army?”

Uther answered without hesitation.

“No! Although infantry soldiers are elite, their individual combat strength is far inferior to that of the orc main force. With the same number of soldiers, the chance of failure is over 90%. Even the 10% chance of success assumes the success of tactics like traps.”
“Of course, the warriors summoned by my master are unmatched in quality and discipline by most armies in this world. If I could be given a few warriors of different races—no high requirements, just third- and second-tier troops working together—I’d have an 80% chance of defeating an equal number of orc main forces head-on.”
Upon hearing this, Donald knew Uther’s analysis was highly accurate. Throughout the years of war against the orcs, humans had always been at a disadvantage. Only by relying on their large numbers, advanced weapons, and powerful magical forces could they repel the orcs’ relentless invasions.
That’s why, whenever the orcs invaded, it was the vanguard scouts who suffered first. Often, uncovering the orcs’ movements required the sacrifice of dozens or even hundreds of scouts. This was why those in the fortress regarded reconnaissance missions as death sentences, and it was precisely this that allowed people like Bolton to trick Donald into falling into a trap.
Unfortunately, the orcs had made a clever plan this time, only to encounter Donald, an anomaly who could summon any combat-ready troops from the game world at will, wiping out nearly half of their vanguard forces alone.
With such achievements—not only the hundreds of orc heads collected in the spatial imprint but also the faint black smoke in the Soul Sphere now coalescing into a small stream of gray-black vapor—these were the soul forces resulting from the purification of those orc soul fragments.
After harvesting the soul fragments of hundreds of orc vanguard soldiers, Donald’s group advanced several kilometers westward, beyond the range of the sentry guards they had set up earlier. Almost all the orcs in that area behind them had been eliminated.
As he ordered the six troll shamans, whose magical energy had mostly recovered, to advance further and set up sentry guards and static traps, they detected something approaching from behind. The sentry guards could only detect the presence of creatures but not discern their details. What they saw were merely dots of light, differing in color depending on size, strength, and whether they were allies or enemies. So Donald summoned an owl to fly backward and share his vision.

Soon, Donald spotted the traces of those creatures, but they were not the remaining orcs he had imagined, nor were they humans in black moving stealthily. Given their skilled and agile movements, they must have been elite soldiers from a human army.