"So, I need to earn your trust first. Alright, what do you want me to do?"

Swiftleaf smirks and says "If you want to prove you are a friend to the elves then you need to kill orcs. A lot of orcs!"

"Orcs? Sure, no problem! How many?"

Swiftleaf says "If you want to enter the village, bring me the ears of five hundred orcs!"

"Right or left ear? Where can I find the orcs?"

Swiftleaf says "Right ear! See where the mountains end to the north? That is where you can find the orcs. They send forces from there to the east to attack us and to the west to attack the humans."

"There are humans on this island?"

Swiftleaf says "Yes. Feel free to kill any you run into. They used to trade with us, but lately all they do is try to take us as slaves. If the orcs weren't at war with them as well we would probably be gone already."

"I will keep that in mind. I will be back with the ears!"

The elves look disbelieving as I start moving towards the north without saying anything else. It is obvious from their attitudes that they are expecting me to go off and die fighting the orcs. I can't wait to see their reactions when I return with the five hundred ears.

In fact, it might be worth it to kill more than that just to rub their noses in. While it may be petty, their attitudes just rub me the wrong way for some reason. Maybe it is because I am really not used to being looked down on by others.

Then again, they have no idea what a beastman is so maybe I am being too hard on them. From the sounds of it, if I was a human they would have tried to kill me. Instead, they are treating me like some kind of talking animal, but I'm not sure which is worse.

Being underestimated isn't necessarily a bad thing, but for some reason it really annoys me. It makes me want to shock and terrify them, just to see the looks on their faces. I am thinking that coming back with at least a thousand ears should do the trick.

If the orcs here are like the ones I fought in the captain's test then it will be easy. Since I am way stronger than I was back then killing a thousand orcs is cake. The hardest part will be finding that many orcs, or maybe not if they are at war.

Finding an army of orcs would certainly make things easier, but I will just have to wait and see. It's too bad it isn't undead, I can slaughter an army of undead in minutes. Orcs are almost as easy, if they are like the ones in the test anyway.

I suddenly realize I have been moving at close to high speed, I got distracted. It is probably alright, the elves should keep their territory cleared. Yet I still slow down and start paying more attention, just to be on the safe side.

It takes me until the afternoon of the next day to reach a spot overlooking the end of the mountains. The trees are thinner here and tend to be smaller, the underbrush is also thinner. What I can see from the top of this hill only gets worse as it goes north.

This area obviously gets a lot less rainfall and the area beyond the mountains is even drier. It is what is commonly called 'badlands' a flat dry area broken by multitudes of gullies and ravines. It is a hard terrain that is difficult to cross and easy to be ambushed on.

While I can't see any movement from here, there could easily be thousands of orcs hidden in the ravines. Since there is really no place to hide I just boldly walk down the hill and into the badlands. It isn't like I am trying to avoid the orcs, I want them to come attack me.

Them coming to me will be much easier than trying to hunt them down in the terrain. When I reach the first ravine I take a look inside and then I find it empty I lightly jump across. I don't want to reveal the fact that I can fly because I can feel that I am being watched.

After walking for a few minutes, orcs suddenly rush out of nearby ravines and surround me. The orcs are just like those from the trial, except their gear is human made and poorly modified. As the orcs approach I calmly draw Blitz and wait for them to attack.

The orcs seem confused, probably because I am not showing signs of fear or trying to run. That only lasts for a minute and then with a roar they all charge at me. A few hang back and fire arrows, but most of them miss even without me moving.

The few arrows that do manage to hit me simply bounce off my armor. So for now I ignore the archers and start cutting down the orcs as they reach me. I dodge some of the attacks, out of those that hit me only a few get through my armor.

On the other hand, every swing of my sword kills three or four of the orcs. Despite that the orcs continue to press forward and attack me relentlessly. Even though the orcs are all around me the archers continue to fire hitting the other orcs.

The more that die the more I keep expecting the rest to run away, but they just keep coming. This level of commitment is not something I was expecting from the orcs. Once all the ones attacking me are dead I run over to cut down the archers.

Even the archers don't run and fight to the last, it makes me think something is wrong. However, it doesn't stop me from walking around and collecting a little over a hundred ears. Once I have collected all the ears I turn and start walking north again.

117 Orcs defeated! 117,000 Exp gained!

I still feel like I am being watched, so there are probably scouts that watched the whole fight. If that's the case then I can expect the next attack to be a much larger force. At least, that would have made sense, but instead the next group to attack me is only fifty orcs.

After killing all of them and collecting their ears I can't help but wonder what is going on. I did notice that the two groups wear different symbols, so maybe the two tribes are at odds. That is about the only reason I can think of for the scouts of the first group not to have warned the second group.

54 Orcs defeated! 54,000 Exp gained!

However, it is a good thing for me if the tribes of orcs aren't working together. That means as long as I cross into a new tribe's territory, they will just attack me with whatever force is close by. Although, if I turn around and go back it is likely that I will be attacked by a larger group.

Facing a larger group would allow me to collect ears faster, but it is also more dangerous. After all, I am not invincible, just much stronger than the orcs individually. Enough of them can still wear me down and kill me, it would just take thousands at least.