I Became a Swordsmanship Genius in the Game

Chapter 89. Proving Qualification

Flutter—

The sight that met him outside the tent was nothing short of disastrous.

“Creon!! Damn it—!”

There was one who was wailing while clutching the corpse of a bloodied High Orc,

“Father…? Where is father?”

And a young High Orc who seemed to be looking for his father, who hadn't even left a corpse behind.

The survivors, with faces full of guilt, avoided the child's gaze.

A complete failure.

It was the sight of completely defeated soldiers, with hardly anyone having returned unscathed.

A moment later, Gracia walked out from among the gathered High Orcs.

In the hall filled with sadness and anger, silence fell for a moment.

One of the wounded warriors knelt before Gracia and bowed his head.

“…Please kill me.”

“Roxanne. Didn't I tell you to only locate the nest?”

“The Harpy Queen was resting in the nest at that moment… It is my fault for thinking we could take her on on the ground. I will repay with my death.”

Thud—! Thud—!

Even as Roxanne slammed his head on the ground, Gracia did not move.

By the time the blood flowing from Roxanne's forehead reached Gracia's feet, Gracia opened his mouth.

“That is enough.”

A formal apology and forgiveness to re-embrace the failure into the tribe.

It was to declare to the others that the act was over.

Roxanne's face, when he lifted his head, was covered in blood.

The current wound seemed larger than the one he had received outside.

Seeing that, Hyunwoo swallowed.

‘…That’s one brutal apology.’

Looking around, he and Lucas were the only ones watching with tense expressions.

Even Van, who had been away from the tribe for a long time, seemed to be used to such a sight.

Gracia met Roxanne's eyes and spoke again.

“Go and tell what you saw.”

The Harpy Queen.

From Roxanne’s mouth, a description of the king of those monstrous birds followed.

With the final explanation that despite almost all of the tribe’s warriors attacking, they couldn't even scratch the monster's body, let alone touch it, Roxanne made a miserable and sorrowful expression.

“And……”

Dripping blood, he turned his head.

Another warrior from behind came with a single feather.

“…We were only able to retrieve one of its feathers that was embedded in Creon’s body.”

“Hmm…”

Gracia looked at the feather and swallowed a groan.

The end of the pure white shaft was sharpened.

The crimson fur hanging next to the shaft was just as sharp.

It was no longer the feather of a living creature, but a single, huge weapon.

‘…And she can fire dozens of those at once.’

Hyunwoo, also looking at the giant feather, could picture the Harpy Queen.

It was easy to pinpoint its location.

‘The highest rocky mountain.’

Because its nest would be on the highest rocky mountain among the many mountains in the Montis Rocky Mountains.

Looking at the state of the feather, Hyunwoo could tell that the timing of the High Orc warriors' hunt was also wrong.

The fact that the ‘Harpy Queen’s’ feather was crimson meant that it was the period when it possessed its greatest strength.

In other words, right before its spawning season.

They would have had a chance if they had aimed for when it was weakened after laying its eggs.

Gracia looked at the feather for a long time and spoke.

“Prepare for the ritual.”

“Yes!”

The work of honoring the souls of the dead.

The entire tribe began to move in perfect unison at Gracia’s command.

A wooden altar, of unknown origin, was quickly built, and food and drink for the ritual were prepared.

There was nothing for the outsiders, Hyunwoo's party, to do there.

But, Van was different.

‘He’s not exactly an outsider, is he?’

He would be something like a ‘marginal man’ who hovered between them.

Hyunwoo nudged Van’s shoulder and gestured to the busily moving High Orcs.

Van, who had been hesitating for a moment, awkwardly approached them.

Perhaps because he had received Gracia's recognition, the atmosphere of shunning Van was gone.

Van, who had been awkwardly following what they were doing, was soon naturally mingling among them.

“Look who it is. Isn’t it Grogue!”

“…Good to see you.”

“When did you come back without a word?”

“Not long ago.”

Hyunwoo watched the scene with a pleased look.

The fact that the High Orc's ritual felt more like a festival than a somber atmosphere must have helped Van to fit in naturally.

Because to them, a warrior who had died fighting for the tribe was a glorious being.

Rather than the sadness of losing those warriors, loudly proclaiming their achievements was the procedure of their ritual.

The ones who had been cheerfully chatting, each raising their voices, fell silent in an instant.

“……”

The altar, which had been completed at some point, and the corpses of the dead High Orc warriors on it.

As Gracia approached the front of the altar, the hall was instantly plunged into silence.

As if the ones who had been laughing and talking just a moment ago had disappeared, it was a perfectly synchronized action like a single living organism.

A deathly silence.

Gracia’s loud voice cut through it.

“Death is another birth. Do not fear death, but accept it! Do not struggle, do not be afraid. Our strength will grow stronger through death—”

Fwoosh—!

As he raised his hand, the altar was instantly engulfed in flames.

Bright red smoke billowed up as if to reach the ceiling.

A moment later, the flames that had been burning without knowing how to die down, were instantly extinguished.

What remained was a pile of gray ash, similar in color to the cave.

Black smoke rose from the pile of ashes.

Hyunwoo looked at the black smoke and nodded.

‘Is that the soul of a High Orc?’

It was the true form of the ancestral god they served.

The rising black smoke lingered for a moment on the high ceiling of the cave and then scattered in all directions.

The black smoke was proof that the ritual had ended safely.

The High Orcs who were watching had relieved expressions.

The power of the dead warriors would be passed down to them, so it was no different from them always being together.

The ones who had been nodding their heads quickly returned to their daily lives.

The end of the ritual was not tears, but a promise to live well in the future.

‘The power of relying on each other.’

It was not a concept, but they were even more strongly connected because they could always feel each other through the power of the materialized tattoos.

A strong bond.

The strength of the High Orcs came from here.

After the ritual, Hyunwoo took his party and returned to the tent.

It seemed that he should just sleep today without doing anything.

Just because no one shed tears didn't mean he couldn't feel their sadness.

* * *

The next day came.

Many warriors had died.

But, the tribe was filled with the noise of daily life instead of a sad silence.

“We’re going north today—!”

“Wasn’t it north last time too?”

“…Shut up! There must be something if we go.”

“That seems to be east.”

His sleepiness was completely gone at the voices of the warriors leaving the cave to find food.

Many warriors had died, but they were living their daily lives as usual instead of with longing or sadness.

Because the ritual for the dead warriors was for the sake of maintaining their daily lives.

It might seem cold to forget the dead so quickly, but from the perspective of maintaining social function, it could be seen as an excellent collective society.

“Hmm…”

Hyunwoo naturally woke up from his sleep at their boisterous departure ceremony.

He groggily sat up and looked around; Van was not there, and Lucas was sleeping peacefully.

Hyunwoo, who had come to his senses, recalled yesterday's events.

Yesterday, the High Orcs had clashed with the Harpy Queen and had returned with great losses.

Then Gracia would soon call for him.

‘I need to prepare in advance.’

Hyunwoo began to rummage through his subspace pocket.

A moment later, Hyunwoo took out a pair of earrings from the pocket.

⌜Earrings of Sephiros ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel-fire.ɴet

Grants the user the blessing of Sephiros to strengthen the body. Contains one use of the Light attribute magic ‘Holy Light’.⌟

‘Am I finally using this?’

It was the earring Jude had thrown to him at the end of their deal.

The ‘Holy Light’ embedded in the earring had the effect of increasing mental strength.

There had been several times when he could have used this earring, but since it was a one-time use item, Hyunwoo had postponed its use as much as possible and had kept it in his subspace.

He had faced a crisis when he was swept away by the polar night in the Kerno Gorge, but as a result of trusting and enduring with the ‘Shalman's Rope’, he was able to escape the crisis.

“This should be enough to endure, right?”

A strong ‘mental strength’ was needed to get a High Orc tattoo, and the Earrings of Sephiros would protect his life while the tattoo was being carved.

As Hyunwoo was fiddling with the earring, a rustling sound came from beside him.

“…What are you doing?”

Lucas asked Hyunwoo, shaking his messy hair.

Van had gotten up early and gone out to look around the tribe, so only he and he were in the tent.

Lucas, as a vampire who was weak during the day, was a heavy sleeper in the morning.

“What’s with you waking up so early?”

“The posture is uncomfortable. I should have just slept on the floor.”

Lucas frowned and twisted his body.

The hammock didn't seem to suit him at all.

Click—

Thinking that he wouldn't be able to fall back asleep, Lucas got up from the hammock and was preparing a teacup.

Trickle—

Even a tea set to brew tea leaves on a simple portable stove.

He might not care about other things, but he was thorough when it came to things related to tea.

He had a cup of tea and spoke with a much more relaxed face.

“So. Why were you touching the earring?”

I had quickly put it in my pocket, but he must have seen it in the meantime.

“…You saw?”

“I didn't know you had a hobby of cross-dressing.”

“What… it’s unisex, you bastard.”

“It looked quite fancy for that.”

“……”

Since it was an item of the Celestials, its basic appearance was quite fancy.

I thought he wouldn't be able to recognize it because it was small, but he had managed to examine it in detail in a short time.

“It's something I need when I get the tattoo.”

“I thought only High Orcs could get tattoos? It seems you were really planning on getting one.”

“They say that because they don't know the way.”

“Then can I get one too?”

“I don't know… I don't think the shaman would allow it.”

“……”

Lucas had a sullen expression.

It seemed he was quite displeased that he was the only one who couldn't get a tattoo.

Hyunwoo handed him the precious tea he had kept in his subspace pocket.

“Drink this while you wait.”

“…Hmph! I wasn't interested in such crude scribbles from the beginning.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Our noble vampire would say so.

Lucas quickly took the tea and began to brew a new cup with a satisfied expression.

A simple fellow.

“Hyunwoo.”

Van, who had said he was going to look around the tribe, had returned.

And, there was another person with him.

Heh heh—

Gracia let out his signature laugh and entered the tent.

“It seems you are indeed the guide who will lead the great High Orc race.”

Gracia held the red ‘Branch of Ramus’ in his hand and spoke.

“The more I look into it, the more… amazing this branch is. What do you think? How do you see this branch, guide?”

The Branch of Ramus.

The material item to make a weapon that could kill the Harpy Queen.

But, the answer he wanted was probably not that.

“An item that can avenge the dead warriors. I believe I came here because I obtained it.”

“Revenge……”

Gracia left a faint smile and turned around.

A sense of satisfaction could be felt in that smile.

“Follow me.”

Hyunwoo asked him as he turned his back.

“Is the qualification proven?”

“It is sufficient.”

Gracia nodded and went out of the tent.

It seemed he had earned the qualification to get the tattoo.