Chương 20: B1 | Intermission 1

All around the various Cities in Tutorial #11453 Zryss the Fangsplitter feels exhilaration as he stands atop a large tower overlooking one of the many cities of the Tutorial. A city filled with green-skinned orcs for as far as the eye can see. It didn't take long for him to dominate the orcs all across the city with his power. Orcs follow the strongest orc around. They don't gang up on each other in groups but just fight one on one. It's simply their way of doing things.

And after a long battle royale, Zryss the Fangsplitter reigned supreme. As he always does. If there's one thing that bothers him, it's a few of the other factions that have shaped up over the past day. One of them, a faction of lowly humans, managed to push back against their efforts to claim their city. And they're actually succeeding at keeping the Orc King's forces at bay. Utterly ridiculous. He can understand the tree hugger elves pushing them away from their city, but the humans?

That utterly baffles the Orc King. Humans are weak. So very weak. And yet they're pushing his forces back? If he didn't need to focus on leveling up his King Profession right now, he would be out there leading his forces to slaughter them personally.

"Your Majesty! Word arrived! Deadly black bugs the Forest City!" one of the Orc King's less intelligent generals shouts from a lower balcony of the tower he's on.

"Our forces slaughtered instantly!" The Orc King frowns at the word of the bugs. He's seen plenty of them himself over the course of the second and the start of the fourth floor. The voidlings. And he's tried to fight them, but whenever he did, they would swarm in with more to surround him. They clearly didn't feel pain and would continue fighting no matter how many of them he killed. And they even had the fifth ranker, who was lower in rank on the leaderboards back on the second floor, with them.

Forcing him to flee in the end. After thinking it over for a second, he shouts down to the orc, "Leave the forest alone! Tear apart those filthy ratkin thieves who stole my brother's great crimson spear!" He ignores the orc as said orc rushes off to relay his orders, just reaffirming himself of this decision. Because he saw before that the top ranked user on the leaderboards, a creature supposedly known as a Void Crowne, was also at the Forest City.

And while he is confident in taking on the fifth ranker so long as he has his army, he isn't confident in taking on the fifth and first rankers at the same time. There's also no reason to risk it when they'll only be on this floor for a short period of time. Until they all reach Bronze Tier.

"Deep black bugs the size of wolves?" Akira Fuji, a young man in his late twenties wearing a set of silver leather armor, mutters with a frown as he sharpens his sword.

"Are they attacking our forces?"

"They are not, Lord Akira," Reginald answers immediately.

"So long as we do not provoke them, they do not attack or bother us in the slightest. It's the lizardkin who are more aggressive over there than the creatures known as voidlings." Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Wait, you said voidlings?" Fuji asks with a frown.

"Have you heard of them, My Lord?" Reginald asks in return, using the title the people under the tenth ranked have started calling him ever since he saved their lives.

"Yes," Fuji answers without pausing mid-sharpening.

"My mentor, Great Sage Arther, mentioned them. They are creatures of the Void Realm distinct from us, and are born with their hierarchy built into their very DNA. But most importantly," he glances at Reginald.

"They are ruled by one of the Five Rulers, and are known to be neutral until provoked all across the multiverse."

"Then should we make contact with their leader? It may make for a beneficial connection for once we leave the Tutorial," Rex, one of Fuji's closest consultants from before the System arrived, asks with his arms crossed as he finally looks away from the window looking out over the city.

"I suggest this course of action as well, My Lord," Reginald states.

"Their numbers seem capable of growing at immense speeds, and each one of them is powerful in their own right." Fuji doesn't say anything for a moment before he finally answers, "Agreed. I'll take a force of soldiers to meet their leader later." A knock echoes from the door to the room, following which a skinny man walks in and declares, "The Orc King just sent an army to attack the ratkin!"

"Good! Now they might be too busy dealing with those fanged bastards to continue stealing from us!" Reginald grumbles, and Rex nods his head in agreement.

"Keep an eye on their situation," Fuji says while finally putting his sword and sharpener away. Both of which he received from the dwarves, who they have already made contact with.

"Inform Elizabeth's side that she should send a representative to meet with the voidling leader as well." Despite having the largest faction of humans, he still feels that he should help the other human factions. Regardless of their decision not to join hands with him under his banner. They're all humans after all. And now they have to compete with who knows how many other species on a merged planet.

"Where are you going, My Lord?" Reginald asks while moving to follow. Fuji stretches a little before heading out the door while calling back behind him, "To hunt." And I might join the representatives after that.

"You little cat-finker! How dare you show up an' try ta order us around!" Redneck the Thirty-First shouts while slamming his fist down on the makeshift throne he had his Rat Guard make him out of the random bits of gold his subordinates stole from others in the Tutorial. Which was entirely their own fault for bringing that gold into the Tutorial in the first place and letting them steal it.

"You come 'ere askin fer help with your bug problem and now yer leadin' those green fangs here when we say no?!"

"No, Honored Redneck the Thirty-Third! We have nothing to-" the lizardkin delegate in front of Redneck shouts, trying to defend himself. Only to be interrupted by a crimson spear piercing through his shoulder from the angry ratkin after the ratkin leader jumps down from his throne in a rage.

"It's the Thirty-First! Redneck the Thirty-First! Now you're just gettin' it wrong on purpose, aren'cha, ya smelly lizard finking cat finker?!" Redneck shouts after stabbing the delegate and dragging the spear around in the wound to make it hurt as much as possible.

"How long were ya plannin' on betrayin us to tha pigs?! Huh?!" Redneck continues digging the spear around inside of the lizardkin's body, making him scream in pain for a while.

"Well guess what?! I dun give a finking pig shit about some fat pigs comin' to deliver themselves to our stash!" Redneck finally rips his spear out of the lizardman's body before kicking said body over and saying, "Get rid of that lizard stink. An' get rid of his friends too. But take their stuff before burning them. An' take their scales too. An' claws." The ratkin around the makeshift throne room rush to grab and drag the lizardkin away.

Only to begin fighting over the rights of the body after leaving the room as sounds of battle echo from not very far away. Where the other lizardkin can soon be heard screaming in pain before going silent. Redneck walks back to his throne before plopping down on it and resting his cheek on his fist, his elbow on the armrest as he grumbles to himself, "Heh, pitiful little lizards. Can't even kill some bugs. An' they thought they could actually take us?"

"Hey, Ratrat the Fourth, didn' we decide not ta bother with tha Forest City because we couldn' kill em bugs ourselves?" Redneck hears one of the ratkin around the makeshift throne room whisper not-so-quietly to another ratkin next to him.

"Pah!" Redneck spits onto the floor.

"I just decided those mere bugs weren' worth tha trouble ta kill! That's all!" A ratkin suddenly runs into the throne room from outside the building before shouting, "Redneck tha Thirty-First! Big problem! Lizardkin escaped to tha totem!" Redneck's eyes widen as he feels rage flooding him and shouts, "Catch that finking lizard!"

"Oh, uh, tha lizard's dead," the ratkin says, surprising Redneck.

"Tha orcs killed it while mutterin' about why there was a lizardkin 'ere in our city!" Silence fills the hall for a few seconds after the likely proof that the lizardkin did not, in fact, sell them to the orcs.

"Did we get tha scales an' claws of tha rest of them lizards?" Redneck eventually asks. And when he sees the ratkin nod his head, he just says, "Then all's fair in plunderin an' lootin. Now attack those green pigs! An' make sure to take everythin they have!" All of the ratkin in the throne room start to roar out their acceptance of his words before more ratkin outside of the throne room begin to charge in the direction of the orcs.