Chapter 490 - Skeleton Mounts
Outside of Sanctuary, a small team of elites was formed. They were under the lead of both Dakgu and Gurln. The two young orcs had grown a lot during Ed's absence and even moved past their constant fighting.
"I will show Ed what I am made of!" Gurln declared to Dakgu who just smiled mockingly. He was already the first Ed considered when it came to military matters. That was to say… He had nothing to prove! Gurln had lost from the start!
"You-!" Gurln's blood pressure nearly skyrocketed seeing the smugness in Dakgu. As it turned out, the two did not move past their squabbles. Dakgu just learned not to heed his words and mock him silently instead.
But these squabbles weren't bad, they in fact lightened the atmosphere and helped morale. The orcs were chatting casually and confidently as they awaited for Ed to finish his preparations.
Fortunately, they didn't have to wait too long. A cloud of dust could be seen running beside the Sanctuary wall. As the cloud grew closer, the shape the dust hid could be more keenly observed.
It was a carriage.
But the carriage was obviously not moving by itself. There were two pristine white figures running in front of the carriage at full throttle. They had four legs and even some fearsome tusks… they were boars! Undead boars!
A made sure to pass by the butcher and retrieved the skeletons of some newly killed boars. The dungeon would reclaim anything that died in under a day so the orcs had to kill their prey carefully at set intervals.
Making use of this, A managed to garner a couple of boar skeletons and Ed successfully created a powerful undead boar. These two undead boars and a single carriage were not enough to transport everyone.
The small teams of elites Dakgu and Gurln formed still had approximately 16 people. Tacking on Sharog and A who also had to follow… the number then increased to 19 since Reid would also have to join.
But it didn't stop there, Reid's buddy who was often hanging out at the bar for some reason found the courage to join them. The total number of participants for this small expedition was suddenly at 20.
This all created a headache. The lizardmen couldn't be left without a translator.
This was ultimately settled by Reid's comrade watching over them in an isolated part of Sanctuary much to his dismay. But given that Ed hadn't even met him properly the lizard would be in over his head if he tried to join them. Who told him to laze around if he wanted important jobs?
Back to the present, the carriage arrived in front of the orcs. The orcs now stood upright as they were reminded of the fearsome undead creatures Ed once made use of. The undead were powerful and terrifying. They all had to be on their best behavior!
Before they could think to lower their guards, new undead creatures started to appear from the void all of a sudden. These new skeletons came in all shapes and sizes but they had one thing in common.
They were all big enough for at least one orc to mount.
These bony mounts ranged from large centicrawlers to long snakes. Each of these creatures seemed incomparably scary to the orcs.
Part of the reason was that Bug or reptile, all the mounts were all ultimately powerful after Ed's series of improvements. They all had the charge skill among other speed and body oriented skills.
If Ed were to class the mounts they had to be at either Mid C-class to bottom B-class in the special cases.
"Dakgu, Gurln, as the leaders you can pick your mounts first" Sharog spoke as she alighted from the carriage. This carriage was carefully crafted by A with the help of Ed and the system space so it looked rather elegant.
All the orcs were captivated by Sharog's beauty as she stepped off the carriage and couldn't even think to argue against her obvious preferential treatment.
But even if they tried to argue, the two were leaders and one was Sharog's disciple so of course they got preferential treatment!
Dakgu and Gurln were apprehensive about riding the undead but after hearing Sharog's words as leaders they couldn't hesitate. Dakgu and Gurln both tried to gauge the strength of each mount to pick a better one than their counterpart.
"This one looks stupid, you should pick this one!" Gurln said to Dakgu who simply rolled his eyes. They all looked like skeletons! What do you mean this one looks stupid-?
"Huh? Oh, you are right. I'll take it!" The stupid looking one was a long fat snake that was currently curled up and awaiting instruction. As to why it was stupid… Gurln had never seen such a long danger noodle. It was ridiculous. The thing didn't even have legs!
But the danger noodle looked reliable and strong thanks to its thick bones. Best of all, wouldn't Dakgu be able to occasionally lay down and rest? The saddles that Ed put on all the mounts looked rather comfortable after all.
The materials they were made of mainly composed of octocrawler silk and some specially comfortable mushrooms. Ed was preparing for the day fungi wear would be in style.
"...Fine, you win" Gurln said giving in. He now only looked around casually and mounted an undead boar mixed among the mounts.
After the leaders, everyone else mounted all sorts of undead creatures. Although they had their qualms with the matter as soon as the mounts took off they no longer found any issues.
"Woohoo!!!" "ROOOOAR!!" "Giddy up Partner!" "Hey, slap the skeleton's butt not mine!" Some orcs had to share mounts but they all made do and had fun as the mounts sprinted off into the forest. Within moments the group of elites was dodging trees under the dark canopy.
In the middle of these elites were Sharog, Ed and A, as well as Reid. They weren't riding the carriage anymore though as the travel would become quite cumbersome.
"AAAAAAH!!!" Reid was letting out screams as he struggled to hold onto his millicrawler mount.
"Why damn many legs!?!" He screamed out.
"""Hahahaah!""" The orcs let out a boisterous laughter enjoying his suffering.
Some even tried to imitate his expression and gestures mockingly.
"Urgh!" One stood up and got hit by a tree branch.
By this point, A was no longer controlling Yoashk so the lizardmen was having a hard time controlling his expressions.
<"Your divinity… Are you sure they can be of help?"> He asked with some hesitance. These orcs were too wild and unhinged.
Ed was not able to personally witness these events but A did relay everything to Ed. The mushroom god himself was starting to harbor doubts.
'Did I make a mistake by letting two young orcs train and select elite warriors?' Saying that sentence did make it sound quite stupid in retrospect.
"Hey! Watch this!" Gurln said before his boar started to suddenly speed up.
"Huh!?! What did you do!?" Dakgu laid up in surprise noticing Gurln overtaking him.
"Hehehe! It's the power of the wind!" Gurln said joyfully finally getting one over Dakgu. In the sacred tribe he never once got to experience this feeling.
His childhood friend was too stupid so it never felt satisfying and ever since he disappeared the only orc his age Gurln got to interact with was Dakgu. This made for a natural bond between the two even if neither would dare to admit it.
"Hmph! Wait until I catch up!" Dakgu said before starting to generate lightning at his hands. He was trying to reinforce and infuse the snake with the power of lightning!
"Woah!" All he got was a very angry noodle.
"Hahahah!" Gurln laughed as he sped off before hearing an angry shout.
"Gurln! Behave!" Sharog shouted to him through the wind.
"Mast- Master! It's just…" Gurln wanted to come up with an excuse but he had to admit he was being a little too childish. This was an official mission.
"You like using the wind so much right? Why not boost the entire team?" Sharog suggested.
Gurln gulped, that was a lot of mana. He would drop dead from exhaustion if his master insisted on having him keep it up for the entire trip. But if he protested he really might be forced to do it for the entire trip!
Gurln silently began to exercise his power. Just like that the trip time was cut by at least a quarter. That was also in part thanks to Sharog''s own interference. She and Gurln both took turns lessening the resistance from the air.
'We are almost there' Ed thought a couple of hours later. He could tell that W was also nearing the boss room. It was now just a matter of an extra hour or two!
If they delayed for a second more they might fall behind W in fact.
'Hmm… We should stop now' W would know where to go to find him, as long as they were sufficiently close to the portal Ed's goal of meeting him halfway would have been achieved.
<"Reid, tell them to find a place to stop"> Yoashk said under the control of A. Reid nodded and relayed the intentions to Sharog who lessened their speed.
"We will stop at the next patch of tall grass!" They were long since out of the forested part so the only hiding spot was the tall grass.