Even though the sun was high and the air was starting to feel a little hot, there was still a white mist dancing among the bushes of the Bog forest.
Trees as high as 23-25 meters can be seen everywhere, their thick and tall leaves block the sunlight that wants to hit the ground.
The sound of birds chirping, gibbons shouting, and the rattling of insects filled the bustling forest that afternoon.
The tall bushes made the hairs stand on end, imagining what creature they were hiding.
The steep and slippery road made it easy for those who passed it to slip, but the orc hordes passed it like they were crossing a flat road.
Their strong legs and heavy bodies gripped the ground firmly, making them not afraid of slipping.
Several orcs were seen jumping from one tree to another following the square formation below. They move from tree to tree with ease like they can beat monkeys in that.
Anna felt like she was in deja vu. It had been almost two months since she last entered the Bog forest. Anna will never forget her first experience and it gave her a valuable lesson.
But this time she wasn't accompanied by human teenagers and human adults, but rather a horde of big green-skinned orcs.
"ouch!" Anna's pained voice as she slipped.
"Nevare you okay?" Mige helped Anna to her feet.
"Nevare you always slipped because wearing that stupid thing. Why are you covering your feet with... leather? bark? What is this thing made of?" Swa pointed at Anna's shoes.
"Yeah you've slipped twice because of that stupid thing. If you cover your feet how can you walk?" Torgan supports Swa's opinion.
"These are called shoes, they are used to protect my feet!" Anna explained.
"Protect??!!" Swa, Torgan, and Kagan were shocked with wide eyes, then they laughed out loud while holding their stomachs.
"Don't tell me humans are so weak that they have to wear that thing to protect their feet when they walk?" Kagan wiped the tears that fell from laughing too hard.
"Uuhhh.." Anna couldn't say anything.
"Hey! What's going on down there? Did something happen?" Laya's voice was heard, he standing on a tree branch.
"Nothing happened! Nevare just slipped again!" Swa replied.
They heard the sound of the wind blowing behind them. Torgan who was at the rear quickly turned around and saw Moku.
"Why did you guys just get here? Speed up your movements, the orcs that have spread out have already arrived at Glittering Meadow and are waiting for you." Moku asked.
"Sorry Ku! we have a little problem" Mige reported and glanced at Anna.
Moku who understood they were late because of Anna, turned to her "Nevare, you still wearing your shoes? Bog forest is very slippery, lots of moss and wet soil everywhere, you better take it off.
Then you also don't need to wear clothes and leather armor at the same time. Bog Forest is very humid rather than cold, water will be trapped by your leather armor and can cause skin damage. So you better let it go.
You now have the endurance of an orc. You won't get sick just from a slight cold or a sore on your leg." Moku advised.
"Shut the fuck up! Don't you to tell me what to do!" Anna screamed, took off her shoes, threw them at Moku, and ran away.
"Nevare, wait for us!" Swa ran after her, as did Kagan, Torgan, and Mige.
Moku who was standing still while holding Anna's shoes could only look on with stunned eyes. He didn't feel like he was doing anything wrong but he was suddenly told to shut up and was pelted with shoes.
"I don't know why, but it seems you are not as smart as they say brother" Laya shrugged his shoulders and jumped another branch to chase Anna and the other orcs.
"If I know what woman think, I will become a god" Moku took a deep breath.
Not far from where the confused Moku was, Swa managed to catch up to Anna. Even though Anna already had a body on par with orcs, she still wouldn't be able to run away from the young orcs that were born and grew up in this forest.
"Anna don't run aimlessly you can get lost." said Swa.
"I know the way! I know the way!" Anna kept running without stopping.
"Actually you've been running in the wrong direction from the start" Kagan who had arrived chortled.
Anna stopped and caught her breath.
"I understand why you always run when you see Moku, he's scary.
You know? When I was a kid, Moku gave me a colored mushroom that made me convulse until I fainted.
After waking up, I saw Moku who was holding his chin and muttering strange things. Such as '...the body's immune system works...', '...muscle contractions occur...', and '...the dose is sufficient...'
Then he forced me to eat the same looking mushroom again, of course I resisted but he was very strong, and his eyes when he did that looked like he wasn't looking at an orc but a guinea pig.
Since then I've always stayed away from him and never ate anything he gave me." Torgan said with a frightened face.
Actually, at that time Moku found a dangerous mushroom that could make the animal that eats it die with a body full of the same mushroom.
Moku, who was infatuated with research on orc resistance, thoughtlessly ate the mushroom. He also fainted from convulsions, but after waking up he did not find his body cover by the mushroom.
He hypothesized that if the symptoms still occurred but the orc's strong immune system quickly killed the harmful elements and returned the body to its original state.
Therefore he couldn't test his hypothesis on his own body, because he wouldn't know what happened to his body when he fainted.
Moku was looking for a guinea pig, he found an orc kid with an innocent and stupid face. Moku tricked him by saying if this mushroom can make him fly into sky.
Torgan was very happy and ran screaming 'I'm going to fly! I'm going to fly!'. After calming him down, Moku gave him the dangerous mushroom.
The results of the experiment confirmed his hypothesis. Torgan's body had time to grow mushrooms but quickly withered and died. Moku forced Torgan to eat the noxious mushroom several times to make sure it was true.
Based on that, Moku concluded that the orc body seemed to have its own consciousness and would fight back when there was a foreign object that wanted to seize control of their body.
"We better get back before a mutated animal smells us" Kagan interrupted Torgan's sad story.
Anna nodded. They also changed direction and re-formed the square formation with Anna in the middle.
"By the way. Nevare, how do humans classify mutated animals?" Swa suddenly asked.
"Why do you want to know?" Anna was suspicious, she had never heard Swa ask a question like this. Usually he always asks a childs questions like 'where did the baby come from'.
"Well... I...I ju..just want to know" Swa replied stuttering.
Anna looked at the back of Swa's head sharply, "It's not because you were asked by Moku to ask me that right?" Anna narrowed her eyes.
"Eh? Eh? I..I really just want to know hehehe" Swa scratched the back of his head which felt cold.
"Hmmm...." Anna grew suspicious.
The orcs glanced at each other, but neither of them helped Swa. Moku who was eavesdropping from afar was dripping with cold sweat.
Actually Moku asked his brother Swa to ask Anna. Previously, Anna had talked about the Golden Vulture which was classified as silver tier danger mutated animals.
But at that time Moku was more curious about how humans became mages and wanted to ask about it later. However they had a fight and Anna would stay away from him when he got close, so Moku lose his opportunity to ask.
Anna remained silent and their conversation was cut off, but not long after, Anna began to answer Swa's questions.
"Actually, humans also find it difficult to classify mutated animals. This is because animals that have the same race do not necessarily have the same organ mutations, their mutations depend on the environmental conditions in which they live in.
So humans classify it based on the level of danger and the number of mutated organs. Starting from the weakest mutated animals to the most dangerous ones, they are grouped into, Copper - Iron - Silver - Gold - Platinum - Mithril - Orichalcum - Adamantite.
Mutated animals copper tier danger has one or more mutated body organs but not more than three mutated organs.
They have a harmless nature and only attack to protect themselves. Therefore people make them as livestock or steeds.
Mutated animals iron tier danger, have 2 or 3 mutated organs. Most of them live as predators and hunt other animals. But there are also some of them that can be tamed.
Mutated animals silver tier danger, has three mutated body organs. They usually live a solitary life and have the same or more power as a mage with one constellation.
Mutated animals gold tier danger, have three or four mutated organs. They will live in the territory they control and are territorial. They had power comparable to a mage with two constellations.
I don't know the power of mutated animals platinum, mithril, orichalcum, or adamantite tier danger. But what is clear is that they have the power to change the shape of land with ease."
The orcs fell silent and praised The One who protected them. They never knew that mutated animals could be so dangerous.
If only there were silver or gold tier danger mutated animals that attacked them, there would certainly some be orcs killed even if Moku fought with full strength.
They couldn't imagine what would happen if the attack was from mutated animals platinum, mithril, orichalcum, or adamantite tier danger. It was very likely that the orc race would truly become extinct.
"Mige, how do orcs know if there are mutated animals around or not?" Anna asked back.
"Of course from the smell!" Swa jumped in before Mige could answer.
"Nevare, don't you smell them? Their smell is very clear, like a fishy and sour smell" Torgan asked.
Anna just shook her head, indicating that she didn't smell the fishy or sour smell.
"Maybe because your nose hasn't changed form to be like ours." Swa turned and pointed at his snub nose with two big holes.
"I think the change is just a matter of time, as your skin is getting greener now," Torgan hypothesized.
Anna shuddered at the sight of the hideous orcs' noses. She hoped her nose would never change like that.
Anna could still accept that her skin turned green, but if her mother-like beautiful face also changed, she would really cry for it.
'It's all because of that bastard!' Anna insulted Moku again in her heart.
"I think you're wrong Swa. Moku has the same nose as Nevare, but he still hasn't lost his orc sense of smell" Kagan gave a new opinion.
After evolving Moku's face changed to be more like a human than an orc. In fact, he was more handsome than all the men Anna had ever seen.
'Still he's an asshole!' Anna cursed in her heart again
"Yeah, how come?" Swa turned to look at Mige, as did Anna, Kagan, and Torgan.
Somehow, Mige's reputation as an all-knowing person was formed within this group.
Mige who felt the gazes of the four orcs, held his chin, and replied "well, I also don't know for sure, but Boku once asked the same thing to Moku who just replied 'smell has nothing to do with the shape of the nose'
So Nevare, there's a chance your nose won't change but you can have sense of smell like us."
"Really?" Anna was stunned and her eyes widened. She really wanted it to be that way.
"Well, like I said I don't know for su—"
"Hey! Don't chit-chat anymore we're about to enter Glittering Meadow!" Laya's voice sounded from above the tree branches reminding the Orcs who were busy chatting.
They stopped talking and became focused.