For I Am A Side Character - 121: Orcs in the Midnight Hunt - Part 1

Stress…

Stress was always common in Soril’s life.

Since the day that he was brought into this world, he had done nothing but undergo stress like a madman.

To train in the house of shadows was stressful.

To undergo the missions set out by God was stressful.

To fight demons and cultist was stressful.

And even at the simple life of attending the academy was a stress in of itself.

The only form of comfort he ever met in this world was Jessica.

Simply the thought of her made him smile…a smile that was filled with love and adornment.

And like so, she was one of the aspects that was keeping his morality sane.

So like an owl watching in the night, Soril watched over her. Keeping her safe in the time he had…

“Do you want to show yourself right now in front of your friends?” asked Sgt. O’riley as he walked by the darkness of the tree when sensed Soril hiding in its shadows.

“No, I just want to watch over them while I have the time.” said Soril as he whispered to his teacher.

In the silence and curiosity brought upon Soril’s recent attack, O’riley asked. “…So who attacked you?”

“…” despite his contemplation and hesitance to say anything, Soril figured that maybe it was okay to tell his teacher.

“…It was Conner, Conner O’niel from Class B.”

“…Really?”

“It was surprising to say the least. I don’t know why he attacked me, but one thing’s for sure, he had the strength that reached the rank of an S-ranked hunter. So be careful.”

“…S-rank?”

“Yeah, I don’t know how he got that power, but he’s now more experienced in combat than he was before. Don’t think of letting your guard down around him. He might be a threat to the academy.” said Soril as his tone was serious.

“Hmm, right. Thanks for the heads up.”

“…”

“Now, I know its not my business, but if you’re gone any longer, the academy will start giving orders in looking for you.”

“I won’t be long…in fact, by tomorrow, I’ll be sure to return.”

“Hmm, I see. Good luck out there.”

Right now, Class-C was able to find the flag mark, and so did the rest of the class. They made this their base camp.

To his surprise, Conner was back at the camp with the other Class-B students. The way they were acting right now was as if Conner never left the Group…

It was even more surprising to find the guild leader and their guiding advisor who was meant to safeguard the students, were also acting in on his undisclosed disappearance and return.

‘Conner must have done something to keep their mouths shut.’

But for now, even with that sort of mystery, Soril had to focus on the other person who made him come back.

Will Tucker.

Given the time that has passed since he asked for the specific location, he finally received confirmation as to where it was.

But Will didn’t have a smartphone with him. What he had was an old phone that didn’t have the function of a camera. So to gain the accurate information, Will had to write the location on a piece of paper.

Waiting until everyone was finally asleep, Will sneaked out of the base camp to meet with Soril. They meet in the outhouse where to a reasonable excuse, if Will were to be asked where he was, he would be saying he went to the bathroom.

In that moment, once Will opened the outhouse, he found that Soril was standing by the corner, in the shadows.

“Here’s the location. From where I sensed it was hidden, it was worn by a rather strong monster. An A-ranked, bipedal monster. I don’t know the specifics of it’s true nature and form, but you need to be careful. It’s located somewhere in the bad part of the forest.”

“Thanks,by the way, I’m really curious about how you got to find this specific of an information. How does your kind do it?” asked Soril.

“Hmm, it works like a vision I guess. Once I get the details of a needed artifact, its not impossible to find where it’s located. What I only really need is time and a limited amount of information.”

“That’s an amazing ability.”

“We were born with it. In some cases, we even help with finding the keys to the locked dungeons. Some of my kind are even working in the hunter’s association. Although he hides his identity, he’s helping out the world.”

“…Hmm, I see.” having said that, Soril started making his way outside, but before he could. Will turned curious.

“Umm, can I ask you something.”

“…What is it?”

“About this artifact that you’re looking for. I noticed that it felt the same as the other artifact  that the cult wanted me to find. Both were elven in nature, so tell me, why were you also looking for an Elven artifact?”

“…This is none of your business. I suggest that you walk away from being curious about my deals…Got it.” said Soril as he threatened Will.

“G-got it!” from Soril’s voice alone, Will could feel just how sharp his threat was. It was like his neck was being held by a knife…and all he could do was confirm in Soril’s threat.

“.…” without saying anything anymore, Soril left like a ghost in the wind.

But before he could leave, he visited Jessica one last time.

As the Class-C students were sleeping near midnight, one girl was found staring at the bright moon above. Separated from the others, she couldn’t sleep a wink.

With how they were no longer in the city and was found in the bustling forest, the sky was filled with more stars than usual.

It was beautiful…

But despite this beauty, Jessica felt lonely.

“…Soril.” she missed him. In less than a day, she has missed Soril.

In this dangerous forest, she didn’t know what to think of when Soril wasn’t be her side…

All she could do was worry…

Although she knows that he was safe…to see that he wasn’t here made her pale and sick.

‘…Why hasn’t he returned yet?’ Asking this of herself, she could barely sleep a wink.

But as she continued to gaze at the stars, she suddenly felt a wind blew behind her…

And she shook in the cold of the night.

Before she could find a blanket, to cover herself from the cold, a warm blanket fell on her back.

“..?” and when she turned, she saw that Soril was behind her.

”S-Sor-” but before she could say his name in surprise, Soril stops her by covering her mouth.

And along with this he gestured to her that she should stay quiet. By raising his index finger to his mouth, Jessica quickly understood.

In their agreement, Soril finally puts down his hand, giving Jessica the freedom to speak.

“Y-you’re back.” she said in a quiet voice.

“I won’t stay long though…I still have something to do before I can return.”

“Does it have to do with your mission?”

“It does. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you before hand, it was just the perfect opportunity for me to escape with reason.”

“Did you mean when you were attacked and taken away?”

“Yes…”

“I see. So who was it that attacked you. An enemy?”

“…I…I already told Sgt. O’riley his identity. If you have any questions about the attacker, I think its best that you get that information from him directly.”

“The sergeant? Why?”

“…I just can’t imagine that you would contain your emotions after I tell you…you can be pretty aggressive sometimes, so I worry.”

“Hnn- that’s mean of you to say.”

“It’s okay. You’ll know in time. For now, you need to rest. You’ve been restless since you arrived here.”

“I was just worried. I didn’t know what was happening to you before. But now that you’re here, I can rest easy.”

“I’m going to be okay…I promise you that I’ll return by morning. So you have nothing to worry about.”

“So by then, you will have completed your mission?” she asked.

“I will…I need to go now. The faster I finish my missions, the sooner I can return.” he said as he turned his back and started leaving, but before he could, Jessica reached out to his hand, stopping him from leaving.

“…w-wait.” having seen that Soril was safe, the weight in in Jessica’s chest lightened.

Yet still, seeing him leave made her worry yet again. Without any information about what he was going to do, she remained restless.

And Soril could see that all too well.

So without saying anything, Soril leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on the lips.

‘…!?’ Jessica was taken by surprise.

This show of affection, made Jessica realize that Soril cares…and he feels just as lonely as Jessica was when he wasn’t near her. This kiss made her feel a sense of connection that made her understand.

The kiss lasted for seconds…and as Soril pulled away, he could see her blushing sight.

“…I’m going to see you in the morning. This I promise you.” he said.

And from there, he walked away…

For sure, that promise made her smile, even though her expression was saddened.

And like so, Soril was gone.

It left Jessica with a less burdened chest…and now, in Soril’s action of his expression for love, he showed Jessica that he assured his promise.

***

As the moon continues to shine, Soril made his way to find the artifact.

He didn’t wasted anytime at all.

Running at a speed that was comparable to the speed of sound, it didn’t take him long to reach Will’s marked location.

And like Will’s assumption, the place that the artifact was in was a forest filled with dangerous monsters.

“Hmm, just as Will said, the place is crawling with high-ranked monsters even at this time of night.”

‘It was said in Will’s description that the artifact was worn by a monster that was on two feet…with that said, its possible that Will’s marked location might not be totally accurate.’

‘What if this monster is a wandering type. If that is the case, I’ll have a hard time looking for them.’

And while he said this, all of a sudden, a spear was fired his way in the complete dark.

“!?”

Having to dodge the attack, Soril jump off from the tree. Landing on the ground, he looked up to see that there were over a dozen monsters in the dark carrying weapons.

“…Orcs?”

Orcs trained to use arrows.

Due to their large build, the bow that they were using were three times the size and the arrows seen as ammunition were just as large as that of a spear.

‘How could I not sense them before?…no, the mosnter count in this forest is too dense, I completely ignored them…fuck.’ having noticed his mistake, Soril quickly readied himself to fight. By bringing out a sword and a shield, he was ready to take them on.

But before he could take his first action, the orcs went back into the dark and disappeared as if they were never there.

“…Concealment?” Soril thought that Maybe the orcs knew of a skill that enabled them to blend in with the dark and erase their presence as a whole, but when he activated his enlightened, domain, he found out that the orcs were no longer there.

“…What the- where did they go?”

He thought that maybe they just escaped and ran away…but that shouldn’t be the case, his domain was big enough to envelope their bodies inside. Making them detectable even from a large distances.

But to his senses, the orcs were gone.

“…What’s going on here?”

As he was confused by this, all of a sudden, another spear was fired from behind him.

But as the spear went at a fast rate, Soril quickly noticed this and caught it with his bare hands.

“…!?” the spear was poisoned on its tip.

When he looked for the orc who fired this spear, again, they were no longer in their presumed place.

‘…Are they that fast in running away?’

Feeling a bit frustrated, Soril decided to enlarge his domain even more.

And once he did, he noticed that in just  a split second after he expanded his domain, a dozen spears were sensed to be flying down at him from above. And the directions from where they were coming from was all around him.

Seeing that beign the case, he was curious as to where they were fired.

Soon enough, the spears fell to his body, but not a single one was able to pierce through.

His skin and flesh were too tough for even a simple spear to do damage.

All he did was let the spears fall and he concentrated all his senses in following wheere the orcs went.

At a final chance, he finally got a sense of one orc’s location…but as soon as he did, the orc disappeared.

“!?”

One moment, they were there…the next, their entire presence was gone.

“…Their popping in and out like a mole. For monsters their size, they shouldn’t be able to escape me senses that quickly…so how?”

Feeling a bit more frustrated as to how it was possible, Soril decided to let it all out.

Having let go of all his limits, he decided to find out how it was possible.

[Emissary Steps of the Ghost.]

The next spear that was fired within his domain, he was sure not to let go of this chance.

‘Concentrate…’

‘Concentrate…’

Feeling every fiber of tissue that was inside his domain, he didn’t want to miss any sort of change…

From the leaves wavign against the wind…

The small ants crawling on the floor…

Even some monsters found just resting in some bushes…

Everything was felt in that domain once he puts his mind into it.

The sensitiveness of all his sense were maxing up…

One small change…

One spear…

That’s enough…

As he got all his senses in gear, in that moment, he heard the strings of a bow being pulled behind him…

‘…There.’

And like an obsessed hunt, in just a single step backward, he rushed in at the speed of light.

Before the orc could even fire his spear-like arrow, Soril was already there.

“Gotcha!”

As he reached on his hand for the Orc’s throat, all but in a sudden chance, a portal was opened that swallowed the orc inside…

“!?”

That was it…that was the answer as to how orcs disappeared from time to time at immeasurable speeds.

Before Soril could even claim the Orc’s throat, the portal swallowed the orc in, leaving Soril missed.

“…Damn, so that was it? That was how those bastards did it.”

In that revelation, Soril couldn’t help but smile.

The only possible way that those portals were made was with an artifact…

Orc’s didn’t have the capability to use such abilities…but for Artifact, it was possible.

It was clear to Soril then and there that the Artifact he was looking for was probably being used by the orcs themselves…

It was incredible just how much of an advantage it was for the orcs to have one artifact against someone like Soril.

It made him smile just how thrilling it was to figure out the problem.

The Brass Elven Linking Chain was a teleportation artifact.