CHAPTER 89
Not a Bird, a Wyvern

A full five orcs descended upon them. That many orcs had been lying in wait inside the sand dune before charging.
‘More intelligent than I thought.’
If a mediocre hunter without any detection abilities had been ambushed, they would have been wiped out without even a chance to fight back.
He had heard that orcs weren't very smart and were just a race mad for battle.
Perhaps that instinct for conflict heightened their senses and intuition for combat.
"Kill! We will offer their heads to our god!"
"K-huuuung!"
A bestial roar echoed, and a change occurred. The orcs' already muscular bodies pumped up even further, their veins bulging.
The change visible to Jinwoo's eyes was even more dramatic; he could see the Erosion energy spread throughout the barrier gathering into particles and settling upon the orcs.
‘A blessing from the God of the Battlefield?’
Probably.
That meant these orcs served the God of the Battlefield and were working in the shadows for his descent. Though it was a bit too loud to be called "working in the shadows."
"Khahahaha!"
The power gained from the blessing was several times greater than the strength they originally possessed.
The sound of them kicking off the ground was now like a cannon shot, and a distinct aura coated the axes they held.
Whether they were drunk on power or simply lost their minds in battle, they charged without looking back.
Faced with them, the slender Rona looked like she would be blown away as easily as a leaf, but…
"Hmph."
It was the orc who brushed past Rona that tumbled to the ground instead. Unable to kill its own momentum, it buried itself in the sand dune and rolled over and over.
The orc, which finally came to a stop some distance away, was already dead, its eyes rolled back in its head. There were no major wounds on its body, only a small stab wound that had pierced its heart.
"Kuaaaargh!"
The ones that came for Jinwoo met a similar end.
However, Jinwoo's sword was not as neat as Rona's. The orc's body, bisected along with its flame, split diagonally and collapsed onto the desert sand.
Fortunately, the orcs showed no fear even upon seeing their comrades' deaths.
Thanks to that, Jinwoo and Rona were able to finish off the remaining orcs with just a few more swings of their blades.
"Hoo."
Rona flicked the blood from her sword and brushed her hair back.
Not a single drop of blood had touched her, but swinging her sword had caused more sand to get into her clothes. Her irritation level rose.
"Are you okay, Jinwoo?"
"I'm fine. They weren't that strong."
Jinwoo replied, recalling how easily Rona had dealt with the orcs.
No matter how much they were blessed by the God of the Battlefield and strengthened by the energy of Erosion, they were still just orcs from the 3rd Floor.
To Rona, who had faced dragons in the 5th Floor's Dragon Star Realm, it must have looked like a child boasting about getting a little stronger.
"Still, be careful. A lot of strong guys have gathered on the 3rd Floor recently."
But there was no guarantee that only weaklings were here. In fact, before Jinwoo returned, there were quite a few A-rank and even S-rank hunters on the 3rd Floor.
There was no guarantee that there weren't orcs of that caliber among them.
In fact, if the God of the Battlefield had been preparing for his descent more meticulously, he might have brought in strong orcs long ago. He wouldn't have started this with just these small fry.
Especially…
"Be careful of a guy named Vertus. He's a servant of the Lord."
"Vertus? You mean that Vertus? The eccentric orc who settled down on the 3rd Floor and practices healing magic?"
"So you know him."
"He was around back when I was active on the 3rd Floor. To think he's still here…"
Rona clicked her tongue. Hearing that, Jinwoo raised his guard a little more.
If Vertus was on the 3rd Floor when Rona was active, that was a long time ago. If he'd been active since then, it wouldn't be strange to think this descent had been in preparation all that time.
If he'd prepared for that long, he would have surely reinforced his forces.
‘Could the timing be because I took the Sky Sword's Scabbard?’
It could just be a coincidence, but somehow he felt it wasn't.
Perhaps his taking of the scabbard had upset the balance of the 3rd Floor, or maybe he had taken a sacred artifact the enemy was after, which made them accelerate their plans out of alarm. There could be reasons like that.
[Be careful… You have likely already become a target.]
‘Yeah, I probably have.’
Either way, as the one holding the Sky Sword's Scabbard, he was prey that they had to capture.
Moreover, though he didn't know if they were aware, Jinwoo also had the glass bead of the Moonlight Forest inside him. That, too, was part of a sacred artifact, a perfect item to make him a target.
[You must never, ever let them take it. Absolutely not.]
‘Of course… but your tone is a little strange?’
He had a gut feeling.
‘Did they already take the one in the temple?’
There was no answer. The heavy silence became unbearable, and Jinwoo asked again.
‘The sacred artifact in the temple, it hasn't been taken already, has it?’
[The God of the Moonlight Forest looks away.]
Oh, man. The situation seemed even worse than he'd thought.
No wonder she had called him so desperately; it seemed she was already pushed to the brink.
‘So if they take the glass bead inside me, they'll have the complete sacred artifact.’
[That's right…]
'Then shouldn't I have stayed away? If I stayed on Earth, they couldn't have taken this.'
[The elves in the temple… are in great danger.]
It seemed she had called him not so much for the temple itself, but to protect the elves defending it.
‘Alright, let's meet up with them first. The temple is straight this way, right?’
[The God of the Moonlight Forest nods.]
It seemed they had to find the temple before they could discuss anything further. Jinwoo and Rona walked silently in the direction she indicated.

Along the way, they encountered all sorts of things.
There were hostile orc groups like the first one, and there were also the corpses of dead hunters and elves.
Not the ancient skeletons scattered across the desert, but bodies that were only a few days old.
They saw many sights, but none of them could stop Jinwoo and Rona's advance.
‘The Lord of Light built a fortress with the monsters he gathered?’
He exchanged a lot of information with the God of the Moonlight Forest on the way.
Among the surprising news was the Lord of Light's current status. He had apparently used the monsters he had gathered over time to pack the area around his temple, protecting his sacred artifact.
It was such a monster-infested field that even the high-spirited orcs didn't dare think of breaking through.
‘So that's why he was handing out trials and gathering monsters.’
He recalled what Vertus had told him before he left the 3rd Floor.
Back then, Vertus had said the Lord of Light was gathering monsters and that they needed to keep an eye on his movements. He said he was someone to be wary of.
But in reality, the one with the ulterior motive wasn't the Lord of Light, but the God of the Battlefield whom Vertus served.
Did the Lord of Light figure out his scheme and prepare in advance?
"Jinwoo! Over there, over there!"
After traveling for some time, they arrived at a place where the temple was visible.
Jinwoo and Rona lay flat on a high sand dune, observing the area through a telescope.
A small forest that stood out in this desert.
The leaves were pale and looked weak, so it didn't seem healthy, but the fact that it was maintaining itself as a forest at all was remarkable.
However…
"This is bad…"
"They're completely surrounded, aren't they?"
The forest was in a situation that could not be called good, even as an understatement.
Surrounding the small forest, green-skinned orcs had completely encircled the area. They had even set up tents, looking as if they were prepared for a long siege.
"And they're organized. That means there's a commander."
The scene was reminiscent of an army.
Of course, it wasn't on the level of a human army with perfectly aligned ranks and files, but there seemed to be some degree of formation and a somewhat organic flow to their movements.
It was a sight that couldn't exist without both a strong commander and trained soldiers.
"Just getting in without being seen is going to be a chore…"
He couldn't see any path to sneak in. And trying to break through by force didn't look easy either.
"Is there any way to get in without being detected?"
"I'm not sure. Should we dig a tunnel?"
Other than literally starting to dig a tunnel from here, no other method came to mind.
Unless one was on the level of Kurenai Masato, it seemed very difficult not to be spotted. And it wasn't like they could go looking for Kurenai, who could be anywhere.
Jinwoo and Rona hid in the shadow of the sand dune and observed the other side for a while.
The orcs were only surrounding the forest and didn't seem to have any intention of attacking first.
"No matter how many of them there are, they can't beat us elves in a forest."
As Rona said, if a battle broke out inside the forest, the elves would win.
Everything in the forest would act as an obstacle for the orcs, while for the elves, it would bolster their strength and provide traps they could use.
No matter how strong they were or how numerous, it would all be for naught.

Because of this, the orcs simply set up camp and settled in. They sat right in front of the forest, leisurely tearing into raw meat as they waited.
It was an incredibly wise way to deal with an enemy holding a defensive position.
“...This doesn’t look good. Judging by the state of the forest, the elves inside must be having a hard time.”
“Aren’t elves fine with just one meal a day?”
“That’s only when there’s a forest nearby to replenish their energy. But right now, the forest itself seems so depleted of nutrients that it’s struggling to survive.”
Elves did not rely heavily on food for sustenance. They ate about one meal a day, but they had no need for more.
However, that was only possible because they supplemented their energy by absorbing it from their surroundings. It was why elves lived in forests, protecting them and coexisting with them.
But now, the forest itself was in an environment where it could barely survive.
Even to Jinwoo’s eyes, its colors looked faded and sickly. He could only imagine how it looked to Rona. It must have seemed like it was on the verge of death.
“How long do you think they can hold out?”
“Hmm… I’d have to get closer to be sure, but from here, it looks like they’d be lucky to last two weeks. If it rained, it might be a different story, but…”
This desert wasn’t just a desert; it was inside a barrier created by the Lord of War. Controlling the weather would be a simple task for the barrier’s master.
There was no way he would let it rain when the Moonlight Forest was on the brink of falling.
“Let’s scout the perimeter for now.”
“Understood.”
The two of them began circling the outside of the orcs’ encampment, searching for a weak point to infiltrate.
The enemy wasn’t a perfect army; there was bound to be a vulnerability somewhere.
—Bwoooooooh!
Just then, the sound of a horn echoed loudly. For a moment, Jinwoo thought they had been spotted, but that wasn’t it.
The orcs were all looking toward the forest, from which a large bird had suddenly shot up.
No, looking again, it wasn’t a bird, but a wyvern.
“Isn’t that Gorong?”
It was the partner of Poldre, the wyvern rider who had helped him a few times before.
Staggering as it flew, likely from malnutrition, Gorong struggled to gain altitude. The orcs immediately began firing arrows with powerful elasticity toward it.