Chapter 74: Proposal

"You happen to be enemies?" Echoing their laughter, these two didn't speak anymore. Maybe it was too tedious a task for them. Oh, or maybe they did speak: with their hardened warriors' bodies rather than with their mouths, the two of them entered battle stances.

That was their answer. And so, to my question about them being my enemies or not, I figured I could always find out myself. Showing off their broadswords, they faced me, and I acted the same as them, readying myself for battle. Calming their urging to be ominously chuckling, their faces became dead-serious.

Lowering my knees and shoulders, I adjusted my center of gravity, ready to fight, too. These guys wouldn't take me as an ally. They weren't foolish enough to do so. The duo of their two broadswords pointed in my direction. A minute passed, and aside from sweat glistening down our clenched jaws, nothing moved. Nothing at all. Dangerously considering the five meters between us, we faced each other from a distance, gauging the enemy.

When I stepped toward them, they stepped back. Were they cowardly, or taking my threat seriously? They were doing the latter. Being a threat felt good. They were within my range and I could burst out to them at any moment. I was being menacing.

But the two broadswords, which glared daggers at me, could probably keep me at bay. Five meters became four. The atmosphere was tense. It was true I could jump at the enemies whenever I wanted, piercing them with my sword, but the other way around could be true, too. I had better be cautious—that's how I approached life. After all, I lacked practical experience, and I was fully aware of it.

I'll fake out a blow, and lead one of them into attacking me… but which one? Gulping, I took a quick and strong step forward—the orc to the left did the same. It was a big step he'd taken. Three meters of distance were changed to only one. His whole massive bulk stepped in at once. With a wild stomp, the earth beneath my feet trembled… and right after that, the entire right part of his body was on the move.

All of it was put forward—his right foot, right leg, flank, and shoulder… and most importantly, his sculpted right arm and orcish longsword. I was only faking out an assault, right now, and so, my tiny feet quickly danced their way backward.

The right orc wasn't through with his attack yet. His shoulders and arm moved in a way I didn't expect, and just like this, I was nearly cut into two. With a boisterous and dull slashing sound, the tip of that broadsword failed to brush my neck by a hair's breadth. It was a close call. My old man warned me about that—I could call myself powerful, but I was still inexperienced.

He phrased it that way: 'Would a one-year-old little runt, even being as strong could be, ever beat the tired old man I am? Indeed not! And I needn't mention you haven't even reached the tender age of one-year-old, son!' Though it pained me to admit it, the old man was right.

He also told me he needed to observe how much I was worth from up close. To ascertain my level and see how well I would fare in a fight. And all of this was sought for the same reason: we needed to know our team's strengths more before we knew where to go and what to do with our lives.

But anyway, the blow the 'little runt' faked was no random maneuver from the inexperienced monster. Yeah, maybe it was a random attack. A feint would serve a purpose. Mine wouldn't. It didn't matter; I still had 'that' skill to get a hold on. As I just evaded the huge deadly sword—it didn't gash through me—my swift footsteps brought me backward again, and promptly—I tossed my sword away.

A question mark flashed above the left orc's head. His thick brows pressed down on his eyes, and he cocked his big head. Eyeing me suspiciously, his dark lips broke into another grin. Laughing, he, too, tossed his broadsword away.

Though I didn't pause to think about why he had done that, it definitely made me wonder whether he was stupid or not. I could get where he was coming from—he wanted a fair fight, and so, seeing how I insolently tossed my sole weapon to the ground, the idea was that he, too, could beat me empty-handed. Balling his hands into fists, he held them out to me, mumbling "Bigg…er!" with difficulty.

Shaking my head, I was tempted to laugh, too, when the orc then pushed his friend to the side, telling him not to mess up with his fight. Funnily enough, the bigger orc backed away. I liked these guys, they were having fun too.

Though, too bad for the left orc I wasn't going to play by his rules. Against a weakling elf, I could totally fight with fists only, but… against the huge beast an orc was, I wouldn't. Maybe. The old man told me to be cautious. Can't make him worry.

Dashing to the orc, I could more or less easily evade the punch he threw at me. Darting to either my right or left, his fists weren't as fast as my slithering limbs. Like this, we played together for a minute. Though I might have been faster than the thick red beast, I probably wasn't stronger than him. I mean, I was stronger for sure, but the thing was magic wasn't the end-all be-all of a fight.

Against such a huge beast, I obviously lacked muscles. When five large curling fingers grabbed the top of my head, and a devastatingly wide punch landed square on my stomach, I understood my opponent's strength. Well, at any rate, as I said, I was definitely stronger, I think.

It was by no means difficult for me to get back up, charge at the demi-human, activate my <Intimidation> Active Skill, get him to momentarily drop his guard and be paralyzed, jump behind the red beast, and then again assess another of my abilities, <Claw>—my fingernails turned sharp and spiky as knives—I made to stab the beast deep through the heart, and my hand dived in albeit with difficulty. The wild beast fell onward, and I followed down with him. The quest's indicator went up to three kills out of thirty.

Seated a distance from that spectacle, with his legs crossed and a hand on his hairy chin, the bigger orc suddenly felt like loudly clapping his hands like a fool, like his brother hadn't just died. I just won a little game, and before my hand felt too hot, I pulled it off the beast, got back up, and faced the other orc. He looked over at me, grinning, and gave me an awkward thumbs-up. Confused, I asked him what his deal was. With the same funny accent I could barely understand, he said I passed the test.

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"You… passed da test!"

"I did?"

The result of my quick showdown with the slain demi-human made two things clearer to me. The Intimidation skill I had was just as the old man had described. Pulling some bits of aura out, I emitted kill intent toward an enemy. The skill could have its uses. Also, that Claw skill, used in a real battle, wasn't so useful, and I had better pick back my sword.

The beast's thick, darkish red lips formed into an O. He uttered a long Youuu having decided to speak his line again. "...Passed da test! When ah' saw you… You was a monster!" he said with grand gestures, illustrating the fact that I couldn't fool him. I was no human, right, but did that justify his non-attacking me? Placing a finger under his eye, he said something I didn't understand in orcish, but he probably meant he saw 'it'.

The old man told me my mana print, or something, was different than most people, as I was a drastically different creature. Maybe the demi-human could see a little of that? "We—me and friend—decided to test you. Friend died, but what? You passed da test. …Ah, true! Ah' take you to Chieftain, now! Will recruit you! Demi-human need strong soldiers to fight human!"

With a high chin and exposed neck, the orc was satisfied instead of scornful. I only grimaced at him the hard way. You might have confused my perplexed expression for one of disgust. Such a bizarre encounter on my first day out…?

Was that a way to beautifully get started in life? My eyes turned to a slit, and the demi-human spoke again. "Really, it no probs! Friend die, friend live… when youuu fight in da war… it no probs! Uh… Monster! Fight with us! Strong soldier!" Showing off the thick muscles and bulging veins of his upper arm, in a rather playful manner, the demi-human said I was as strong as him. "...You passed da test!"

It was an eerie reaction from someone who'd just seen their friend die before them. When I slayed that human's friend, from a minute ago, the way he reacted was the right one. As soon as he had seen his companion fall, even though we were in battle, it was like he had been shaken by the strongest of disasters.

His pale face, the rage in his eyes, his quick breathing, his shaking limbs—everything he displayed was negative. Now, that orc, on the other hand, was he simply stepping down after seeing this, with no care in the world, applauding me and telling me I passed some test of his, along with other kinds of nonsense? Yeah he did.

Cocking my head to the side, the eagerness he showed in loudly clapping his hands at me, like I'd just performed the best of spectacles, was quite wasted on me. As a matter of fact, I didn't know whether to cock my head and glare daggers at him with "Huuuh?!" or simply sit my butt down on top of the dead demi-human's back and ask him what he precisely meant by taking me to his chieftain.

At a loss regarding what to do, I decided to plainly ignore him. Jumping off my third kill's body, I went to pick up the paladin's shortsword I stole a while back. When I did away with the demi-human, the quest indicator went up to three, which meant the orcs could be considered enemies, too. As I did so, the bigger orc jumped up from his sitting position, too.

He was rather nimble for such a large beast. Thinking I'd kill that orc, too, I held my sword to his throat, rather listlessly. I needed to get the quest done, so I didn't think I should let the demi-human go. What was more, he was about to attack me beforehand… In the same manner your trash had to be taken out, your enemy had to be dealt with.

From there, the demi-human was the one looking over at me with the most confused expression ever. Jeez, was it his turn now? Just like I couldn't understand where he was coming from, with his little speech about me being a strong soldier, and so a potential good asset to fight against the human's threat, he must have been disturbed by my pointing a sword at him again, when he seemed to have forgotten all about our little conflict.

I mean, what was wrong with me? Couldn't I simply say 'Hey, yeah, look, I'm in, yo,' and go forward with whatever the orc proposed?

Pulling an amusing face, his grimace stretched all across his face. And so… the demi-human chose not to act as rashly as the monster. When confused, he didn't simply pick back his weapon to attack the enemy. Rather, he paused, nodded at me, grinned a little, and proposed the following: "Ah' will repeat da brobozal—"

However, I wouldn't hear him. There was no 'brobozal' or proposal to be repeated or anything. Giving strength to my legs, both the old man and I already knew about that skill, Quick Pace, so I didn't need to do any assessment of it, but I still used it.

Closing the distance between me and the orc, I swung my blade at him, but… what followed quite shook me off-balance. With no weapon, the orc parried my sword, and the maneuver was so graceful, coming from such a barbaric-looking creature, that it creeped me out for a second. And instantly after that, the demi-human pulled back, running away from me, saying he definitely would let the Warchief know. And man, he was a fast runner.

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