Chapter 260: Horde

It had been ten days since Tristan occupied himself in the art of blacksmithing and now, he wanted to check on the Uruk force's progress. Coming together with him were Serene and Astrid, who these days seemed to always stick around to his schedule.

The trio swiftly exited Caerleon City and travelled to the camp via horse. As they got nearer to the camp, they could already hear the noises and shouts even though there was still quite a distance to traverse.

When the camp entered their vision, they could clearly see that it wasn't the same as the last time they saw it. The camp had been expanded by the orcs to three times its previous scale

The spot in the forest that was previously crowded with trees had become a wide, open clearing, which at the moment was muddy and full of filth. This spectacle was all thanks to the ocean of grey creatures numbering more than three thousands cramped in that spot.

Today, all of them were told to wear the prepared steel armor and get used to the blade weapons. It was obvious that most of them were still trying to get used to the armor as many looked uncomfortable with it on their body.

Even so, the sight of these three thousand grey creatures fully cladded from top to bottom with weapons would certainly make anyone who saw them involuntary gulp their own saliva. The mere fact that they only stood there in an orderly manner was enough to amaze and deter any layman.

When they arrived at the camp, Tristan could see the Forlorn elder Raika, the priestess of Thorn standing as she was the one who brought the rest of the Uruks under his order here. She was, after all, the one who had the most depth understanding regarding those grey creatures.

Not long after, the elven elder and the female high orc approached Tristan to brief him the current situation in hand.

In the last ten days, the Uruks had been constantly trained and sparred against each other to let them quickly get used to combat and activate the genetic imprint they had. They were also being taught the basic defensive and offensive formation during those training sessions, with emphasis on the ability to follow orders and formations with absolute discipline.

As usual, when the numbers involved were too big, the hordes gradually became too difficult to handle, which in return made the effort to train them increasingly hard. Thus, Karra reported that the Uruks were still not optimal to be deployed into battle.

Hearing about this issue, Tristan contemplated the solution and decided it was best to split the Uruks into divisions and smaller groups. That way, the burden of managing them would be less harsher because a small number of individuals was obviously easier to handle.

When Tristan was inspecting the Uruks while listening to reports by Karra and Raika, he was suddenly approached by a group of unexpected orcs. Eight familiar orcs, they were the High Orc younglins, the Rugrats.

"We have come to seek for our Chief Golug!" said the one who was standing in front of the group.

Golug was the title the orcs gave to Tristan.

His eyes turned to these orc kids while his mind couldn't help but walk down the memory lane. Even though only 2 months had passed since he last saw them, these Rugrats had grown at least another ten centimeters; an abnormal growth compared to humans. They were now almost as tall as a normal human adult.

"What do you want?" asked Tristan in a stern tone.

It was Rugrat 1, the biggest among them, who replied to his question.

"Chief Golug, we hope that we too can join the upcoming battle. Please allow us to do so."

Before he could say anything, the remaining Rugrats shouted in unison. "Please let us join!"

Tristan turned to Karra who stood next to him while gesturing to her, asking for her opinion. 

The female orc was silent for a while before she opened her mouth.

"Most orcs join the battle when they are five years old. Moreover, these younglings need a few more months to a year before they reach their maximum strength. So, I suggest not allowing them, Chief."

Tristan nodded his head slightly at Karra's words. He was never the one who judged someone by their age as he himself was already able to do adults' work when he was still teenager. However, it was a fact that he didn't see many High Orcs around.

Seeing how useful Karra was after he took her under his care, Tristan couldn't help but feel regret if he lost these younglings in the battle. But then, there was also no point raising them if they grew up to be useless.

He mulled over the options he had for quite some time before turning to the younglings. "If you all really want to be treated like an adult, then you must also accept the responsibility that came with it. All of you need to understand that there is no room for playing around. Even so, are you still willing?"

The eight High Orc younglings were clearly much smarter than normal adult orcs as they pondered and weighed Tristan's words rather than immediately accepting them as their normal brethrens would do.

"Yes, Chief! We are all willing!"

Tristan didn't reply to them and only gestured to Karra to handle the following. Thinking about this matter and the problem of the horde quickly becoming too big to control, he thought it was probably time to upgrade and organize the entirety of his troops.

Turning to Karra, he said. "Karra, quickly summon all the champions before me."

"All right, Chief."

While Karra went to carry out his orders, Tristan proceeded to check the amount of Blood Essence he still had, and found that he still had more than enough left.

[Blood Essence 45350]

Afterwards, he went ahead and checked the available upgrades for his Blood Monarch ability.

[Blood Monarch Innate skill]

[Blood Extraction]

[Blood Seal - stage 2]

[Blood Synthesis - stage 3]

[Blood Legacy] 

[Blood Summon]

[Upgrade Blood Seal to stage 3 required 10.000 Blood Essence]

[Upgrade Blood Synthesis to stage 4 required 50.000 Blood Essence]

Ever since the battle at Forlorn, Tristan had upgraded his Blood Monarch body twice, increasing it from stage 3 to stage 5. Now that he was going for another battle, he thought it would be the best time to upgrade his other skills. After all, another trump card in his repertoire would always be welcomed.

[Upgrade blood seal to stage 3?]

"Yes!'