It was obvious that the orcs just wanted to get home, making us push on despite the late time of day. Normally, we would have made camp by the time the sun was setting but, given that we were starting to move into their valley, we continued on.

Again, the Bright Hollow made the reason for its name clear, the light-coloured stones almost glowing in the dark. Even the footpath we were following was covered in crushed gravel from the same type of rock, its colour darkened by mud and earth, but still light enough to allow us to easily traverse it. Around us, I could almost feel the last remaining tension leave the orcs, making me wonder if they had forgotten that the original attack had to have happened in this area, but I couldn’t bring myself to rain on their parade, not as long as their relief didn’t endanger me or mine. If they wanted to rely on defenses that had failed already, I wouldn’t stop them, but I would remain vigilant and keep an eye open for ways out of the valley, if things went south.

The fight against the centaurs had shown me that fixed defenses and ambushes could be turned against the defenders, with the right preparations and I had made a mental note not to rely on such measures. I also remembered the videos about Kolyug and the troubles they had with that Fire Mage, getting forced to hide behind their walls while he set the land on fire. Part of me was curious how the situation would have ended, without the Grandmother intervening, on what I considered to be a whim, but there was no way to know. Not unless a similar situation occurred, or, if I truly wanted to know, I might be able to create such a situation once the beta was over and I had gained a lot of power in the life-version.

The main-path into the Bright Hollow followed the river’s gentle curve and, after maybe twenty minutes of walking uphill, we came to a bridge over the river. It made me nod in agreement, if an attacker used the footpath as an attack-route, using the river as a natural barrier and the bridge as a choke-point made sense. At the same time, it made me wonder if there were additional defenses further uphill, in case an attacker ignored the bridge and pushed ahead. It would leave them open to be flanked, though, so holding it would be necessary for an attacker, just like it would be for the defenders. Again, I wondered where the centaurs had attacked, for their attack to succeed.

Further uphill we went and soon, I was able to see that my original thoughts had been proven correct, the orcs had a serious defensive position in their valley. What had been gentle, grassy slopes, with fields and even some irrigation, had given way to a steep, rocky incline, the large, open area between the slopes had narrowed to the point that the orcs had decided that they could simply close off the whole width of the valley. At the point they had built their wall, it was only about kilometer wide, maybe less, maybe more, but even that was a serious engineering-project, one with impressive results.

Their wall was made from the same rock that had given the valley its name, bright stones, a good five meters tall, with torches and visible guards. It took me a moment to realise that, as impressive the wall looked, as useless it was, at least when compared to beings more powerful than the average native. While I had no illusions that the members of my group were amongst the truly powerful beings on Mundus, our travels had pushed us beyond what most achieved, simply due to the limited power-level of normal animals and the way the system worked. There was no way to grind EXP by killing millions of low-level boars, not on the Road to Purgatory.

In this case, it meant that a wall like the one in front of us was a small hurdle, easily overcome if desired. While I thought I would need magic to jump over it, to strengthen my body, Sigmir, Rai and Adra could likely accomplish that with just their physical bodies. It reminded me that the name of Sigmir’s class, before she had crossed the second Divide, had been Mountain Cleaver, making me wonder if she even needed to leap the wall or if she could take an even more straight-forward approach, if she so desired. It was an amusing idea, even if there was an element to it that made me feel a little sober.

Considering how useless the wall would be, I tried to compare it with the other walls and fortifications I had seen on our journey. Compared to the wall of Yaksha, it was superior, given that Yaksha only had a wooden wall, one quite a bit lower than the Bright Hollow wall. But, at the same time, I was aware that Yaksha was just a small town and one of the biggest predators of the region cared little about walls.

On the other hand, if I compared the orcish wall with the walls of Kolyug and the fortifications constructed by the Ashenforge-Dwarves, I could only shake my head in disappointment. The Dwarves had a similarly sized wall but overcoming the wall only meant that you would have to siege each dwarven-tunnel individually. And those tunnels, dark, narrow and confusing as they were, would give the dwarves a home-field advantage that would allow them to slaughter invaders at their leisure. Behind the orcish wall, I was able to see regular houses, flimsy compared to the squat dwarven bunkers.

However, all fortifications paled to what I had seen in Kolyug, the massive walls, fortified with magic and, in turn, a massive spellcasting-device on its own, with powers that I couldn’t even begin to imagine. Sure, that Fire Mage had been able to push the trolls into their walls but how the battle would have gone without the Grandmother’s interference was unknown. Again, just like I had a few days ago, I wanted to know just how well the magical defenses of Kolyug were.

Looking over to Sigmir, I had a feeling that the amused expression on her face was for similar reasons.

“We could take them.” Sigmir muttered, speaking softly so nobody would hear her.

“The wall? Certainly. But remember that there might be more than meets the eye.” I replied, even as I tried to see if there was anything magical about the fortification.

“And even if we would conquer it, what would we want to do with an orc-fortress in the middle of nowhere?” I continued, amused at the idea. Why would one want to conquer some random fortress, hell, what reason was there to conquer anything? Even if I had an entire continent under my control, if I wanted to get any use out of it, I’d have to administer the whole, bloody thing.

What would I gain in turn? Nothing, not really. Sure, if I had my own continent, I could acquire test-subjects for those interesting bits and pieces of magic that I wanted to try out, but that I could do with a little subterfuge and a lot of privacy, without going through the hassle of conquering some place.

My question made Sigmir pause for a moment, before whispering back, “Who said anything about conquering? The centaurs wouldn’t have raided here if they didn’t think it would be worth it, would they?”

“Not sure it works like that.” I admitted, even if part of me had to grin at her idea. Part of me wanted to just go for it, but a larger part didn’t like the unknown odds. The simple fact that the Clan had their own territory meant that I couldn’t underestimate them, especially with people like Dura Firebringer. We might be able to take her, if we stabbed her back, but she had talked of other shamans, of teachers and other fighters. No, it was just not worth it.

“Mhm, maybe you are right. Still, worth a thought, even with that Shaman, the orcs are not that impressive.” Sigmir muttered, a little dismissive of the Firebringer.

“Not worth it, love.” I told her, as we crossed another bridge, bringing us to the open gate.

“Let me welcome you to the Bright Hollow Clan.” Dura Firebringer spoke up, having waited for us at the side of the bridge.

“I hope you enjoy your stay, as my personal guests. You did my clan and me a great service, allowing us to recover our people and the stolen goods, while helping us to strike a blow against the centaurs who attacked us.” she declared, loud enough for the guards on the wall to hear her.

“Thank you for your hospitality.” Adra replied, taking the lead in a social situation, even if Dura Firebringer had looked at me while speaking.

“A few days of rest would be very welcome.” Adra continued, accepting the hospitality on all our parts.

Hopefully the orcs had a library.