I Became a 6★ Gacha Character-Chapter 555: Orc Must Die...? 5
We whispered to each other in the corner table of the café like inconsiderate customers who hadn't ordered a single drink and had even set up a mana barrier.
About the revelation from our enlightened one—the Buddha orc.
'Well, if he achieved enlightenment and created a sacred item, it makes sense he'd receive a revelation too.'
Akutuhum hadn't come to the Empire because of some special revelation or prophecy. With no way to clear up the misunderstanding and pursuers on his tail, he'd simply headed north in a desperate rush because it felt familiar.
Even knowing they would lose if they fought, they didn't want to kill meaninglessly after being summoned against their will. Rather than being caught in the Demon Lord's chains of hatred and causing conflict, they'd prefer to collapse and die in a remote place untouched by human feet.
With that mindset, they'd carved a Goddess statue for spiritual support while pushing northward through the mountains. Holy power had infused the statue, leading to enlightenment, but that enlightenment hadn't specifically guided them to the Empire. What Akutuhum had realized then was already shown in the quest window.
The hatred for the Demon Lord sleeping beneath an enlightenment as pure white as the mountain's eternal snow.
"To get straight to the point, the Heavenly King waiting on the 70th floor of the Tower is our kin."
"An orc Heavenly King? Why are you telling me this instead of the hero?"
"Because in the future I saw, you alone were facing the Heavenly King. Ah, nothing bad happens to your companions."
To put it crudely, Akutuhum was in a situation similar to commissioning a hit on someone. Of course, officially this was a provisional saint who had received the Goddess's revelation passing information to the holy sword's owner, but weren't heroes essentially a small elite team specialized in decapitation operations—cutting off the enemy's head?
That's what Akutuhum's subsequent words felt like. The 70th floor boss was an Orc Champion with the ability to separate party members. So when he uses that ability, don't worry and just kill him immediately... that kind of advice.
For someone who had achieved enlightenment, the killing intent he gave off when saying "kill him" was no joke. Was that why he was only 5★? Maybe completely abandoning even that hatred and achieving total liberation would awaken him to 6★?
[Execute the Orc Champion as Akutuhum suggested 0/1]
[Reward: hr1lp]
As I wondered why an Orc Champion would be in the deep forest, a hologram quest window suddenly popped up.
Whatever our scatterbrained Goddess was trying to convey to me through Akutuhum, the reward text was broken again. Still, it wasn't completely unintelligible—"hr1lp" was probably "help" or something similar. Even if I asked for an explanation of what was happening, she probably couldn't provide one...
But I could hardly call the Goddess an idiot since I hadn't practiced with the sword fragment she'd given me—that was my own stupid mistake.
A Goddess who misused her limited energy and couldn't properly deliver revelations, and the holy sword's owner who obtained sword skill fragments and a holy sword as quest rewards but never practiced swordsmanship.
Wasn't that a painfully petty match?
"These are the visions I saw while crossing the high mountain peaks. I hope they'll be of some small help on your journey."
"No, this is more than enough help."
As I was having these irreverent thoughts, Akutuhum was finishing his explanation. The 70th floor boss was an Orc Champion whose special ability was to create barriers that isolated party members and then deal with them one-on-one.
It's common RPG knowledge that a raid boss monster facing average users would naturally have higher specs than a solo player, since the boss normally has to face an entire party.
A one-on-one duel with a boss that should be handled by a party with tank, DPS, and healer working together. It would be especially troubling if a physically weak healer or mage had to duel a raid boss. But thanks to Akutuhum's information, I didn't feel particularly anxious.
'So basically I'm the one who gets dragged in? Then I'll just save the holy sword and beat the crap out of him.'
As long as it wasn't Irene or Han Se-ah getting pulled in, it should be fine.
"Um, sir...?"
"Ah, I'm sorry. I was so caught up in our conversation that I forgot. Please take this, and just clean up the table."
"Y-y-yes!?"
Maybe it was because we'd become those annoying customers who occupy a corner of the café without ordering a single drink, or perhaps the employee recognized the holy sword's owner.
After finishing our conversation and emerging from behind the partition, I hastily handed a gold coin to the awkwardly standing employee before leaving the café. Though managing my image for quests had become meaningless, I didn't want to be known as the holy sword's owner who was also an inconsiderate, problematic customer.
In this world, minstrels roamed everywhere, hosting impromptu live concerts and turning gossip into songs. Though the speed was much slower than the internet, once a rumor spread, there was no way to correct it, so it was better to be cautious.
'But why an Orc Champion? Wouldn't that overlap with the Dark Knight... oh.'
On my way back home after parting with Akutuhum, I gained a small realization.
Forest fairies and an Orc Champion.
Elves and orcs, meeting in a deep forest.
Ah, they're grouped by race.
※
Orcs and elves are inseparable races, as proven by the Goguryeo Watermelon Diagram depicting orcs being violated by elves.
Though full of internet subculture memes, this wasn't entirely wrong. If I remembered correctly, while there were orcs in ancient classical novels, the ugly orcs we typically think of were described by Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings, as corrupted elves.
Of course, in subculture, people use the setting of pot-bellied orcs from extreme comics trying to violate voluptuous elves, rather than Tolkien's setting. It's probably just a different species filter for the image of a pot-bellied middle-aged man violating a beautiful girl.
Checking the internet through the hologram window, it seemed that recently, elves violating orcs had become trendy as a way to break clichés, but anyway.
"Didn't you say you went to the market? Did you buy anything?"
"No. I just met and talked with Akutuhum for a bit."
"Akutuhum, that orc gentleman?"
When I returned to our lodgings after parting with Akutuhum, my companions, who had been huddled together gossiping, flocked to my side. From what they said, Han Se-ah was again roaming around the city to illuminate her minimap, while the others had been shopping at the market for snacks before gathering back at the lodgings.
For Han Se-ah, illuminating the minimap was a hobby, so whether her broadcast was on or not, she'd roam around any new place she saw. But for my companions, Erpheso didn't seem particularly attractive.
Since it was a major city whose specialty was imported goods from the Kingdom, it wasn't much different from the adventurers' city without the Tower. Thinking about Korean towns in America, while shopping might be convenient, the actual tourist spots wouldn't be within the Korean town itself but nearby.
"Yes. He said he received a revelation."
"...A revelation?!"
Irene jumped up in surprise at the mention of a revelation.
Akutuhum had discreetly told only me, worried about my isolation from the party and eventual one-on-one duel with the Heavenly King. He probably did this out of consideration, knowing that if the party was scattered and I was left alone, it could be dangerous, and the party members might worry.
Well, a two-year-old orc whose entire knowledge consisted of implanted memories and what he'd learned at the Temple wouldn't understand what it meant for a natural 6★ limited character to wield the holy sword. Though it made Akutuhum's consideration seem pointless, I still needed to explain to prevent my companions from being surprised.
As I told them about the revelation Akutuhum had shared, my companions began discussing it with sparkling eyes.
"So the next Heavenly King is an orc? One who isolates humans with space-related spells and hunts them one by one with his superior physique."
"Heheh, if he faces Roland, won't he just die? He'll be quite different from the Dark Knight who kept running away nimbly."
Contrary to Akutuhum's concerns, Grace and Katie grinned after hearing my story. They seemed pleased about the prospect of being forced into one-on-one duels with the boss due to isolating magical barriers.
After all, they'd seen the holy sword I'd deliberately wielded up close. Those who had seen it closer either turned to ash or mana stones, shattered by the holy sword, so they could be considered the people who best understood the power of a fully charged holy sword.
Even the usually cautious Irene spoke to me about various things, taking it for granted that I would win, just warning me not to be too careless.
"Do you have a sense of how strong this Heavenly King might be?"
"Since they're grouped as the Four Heavenly Kings, it's fine if he's a bit stronger than the Dark Knight. If he doesn't use weird magic and just charges head-on relying on his physical strength, I'll win."
That had to be the case—the 70th floor boss monster and Heavenly King, the Orc Champion, used barrier-related spells but was otherwise a pure warrior. According to Akutuhum, the barrier was used through an item, but his essence was that of a pure heavy armored warrior.
So among the Four Heavenly Kings, after the death of the Dark Knight—the agility character type focusing on swordsmanship and technique—the next one to step up was the Orc Champion, responsible for the muscular, physical beauty aspect. The Four Heavenly Kings typically consisted of one agility character, one muscle pig, one sexy member, and one shadowy strategist—that general pattern.
The large Orc Champion, who relied on muscle and armor and crushed opponents with his distinctive defense... he was a perfect opponent to slice up with the holy sword.
Enjoy the chappy!
