Chapter 442: The Odd Orc Out

"I, and my fellow guild members, have decided to take over this city." Belladonna said plainly, as she led the Young Orc out of the Witches Hut.

"You are? Woah! I can’t believe all of you are here! I’ve been really wanting to talk to Lilith about a lot of things, but I never thought I would get the chance!"

"Ah, Well actually, You still won’t. While the guild made the decision, we are not all here. It is only myself, Figg the Druid and one of our lesser known members."

"Oh... really?" The Orc pouted slightly, his hulking form visibly deflating for a moment, before he perked up and tilted his head like a curious puppy.

"Wait, is that really going to be enough to capture the city? There are some pretty powerful roaming bosses here."

"I have no doubt it will be. We are the strongest for a reason." Belladonna laughed, giving him a cocky smirk.

"But we are on a little bit of a time crunch because of the upcoming tournament. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. But we want to have this done before then, and so I wouldn’t be against the help of you and your friends, or even the other players around here.

How many are there, and do you know of any that are sufficiently strong to form a good raiding party?"

"Oh, It’s just me." The Orc said with a cheery smile, seemingly completely unbothered by that prospect.

"Just you... You’re here alone?"

"Yuppers! Well, I wasn’t always. There were some people who spawned here before me, they were kind of nice. But they deleted their characters and posted on the forums that this is a dead spawn. So nobody came here after that."

"So, why didn’t you do the same?" Belladonna asked with a soft frown.

The Orc just shrugged and glanced around with a smile. "I dunno, I think it would just be mean to these people. I mean they’ve been nice to me, they treat me like family. It would just be mean to leave them just because it’s not the best spawn.

I mean there are definitely worse places, plus it’s nice to have a nice family, right?" He laughed, rubbing the back of his head.

"Yes, I suppose it is." Belladonna smiled softly. Indeed, without her family she probably never would have survived as long as she did. Not her parents, of course. Her mother was... not around, and her father was a completely useless bum.

But Jason. Without Jason she would have been utterly helpless, and would most likely be dead or in a much worse situation that she would probably prefer death to.

Heck, It could even be said that her guild members were family now, as corny as that sounded. Lilith definitely was, Vestra and Figg she saw as siblings in a strange sense, and Revenant. Well... Every family needed a weird cousin or strange uncle, right?

How long would she have lasted without those people to help her and keep her going? Would she have reached the heights that she did, or would she have given up and led herself to a life of weakness and self destruction without their support.

It was impossible to say, but she highly suspected it would be the case. If anything, she would be much more lonely and miserable.

With a gentle smile, Belladonna reached up and patted the young Orc on the shoulder.

"Why don’t you join me then, since you are all alone. I bet it’s been ages since you’ve partied up with someone, and by the looks of things you could really do with the levels.

Besides, I think having some local knowledge would do wonders for clearing this place out in record time."

"You mean it? You really mean it?! Yes! Yes I would love to! I get to play with the Baroness!" The Orc shouted, before he started to bounce excitedly with his hands clutched to his chest, as joy literally exploded out of him like fireworks.

Belladonna couldn’t help but laugh softly, as she sent the Orc a party invite, so that she could power level him a little bit as thanks for helping her, as well as a friend request.

Upon receiving them, the Orc froze mid-celebration. He visibly trembled as he stared at the notification in disbelief and looked up at Belladonna for confirmation that it was real.

When she gave him a small nod, he quickly hit accept before starting to vibrate with barely contained excitement.

[MeanGreenMachine has accepted your friend request!]

[MeanGreenMachine has joined your party {City Extermination Squad}]

Belladonna chuckled when she saw his name, to which the Orc immediately blushed and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"I knew from the start I really wanted to play an Orc. I didn’t really think about my name. But you can just call me Mac! Everyone here does."

"Haha, Well Alright then Mac. Come on, Daylights burning and we have some monsters to slay. Why don’t you start by telling me all you know about these Roaming Bosses."

They rushed out of the Orcish Camp, a departure that made the Orcs sigh in relief, but also deeply worried for their young companion and a little disappointed that it had not been them that was chosen for such a hunt. It was an odd time to be an Orc, unsure of whether they wanted to join this strange woman for the glory of the hunt, or to stay away from her where she was unlikely to kill them on a bloodthirsty whim.

As they ran, Belladonna had to slow herself down to keep pace with the considerably slower Mac, who was only level 43 even after all this time. The roaming bosses simply made it incredibly difficult to grind mobs, and according to himself Mac spent a lot of his time just enjoying the company of his ’family’ and getting to know them.

So honestly, a part of her couldn’t blame him for his low level.

However his time in that camp served her well, as he eagerly shared all of the details on the roaming bosses, which were not only the Undead that Revenant wished to enslave, but a few powerful creatures that would undoubtedly drop valuable resources and perhaps even high tier Source Remnants.

Everything that Mac told her, Belladonna relayed to the rest of her group, along with a brief explanation of what she had found and where she was getting all of this information.