System's POV
chapter-87-1

It was almost sunrise when Thirteen left the Orc Stronghold.

He had found the location where the Orcs stored their weapons, and he made sure to take as many as he could.

His storage space was limited, so he couldn't take many of the weapons that were available.

The seven-year-old took two short bows and three quivers of arrows.

Most of the weapons of the Orcs were either too big, or too heavy for the children to carry, so he took five daggers and five short swords.

He wanted to take more, but his storage space was already at the maximum capacity.

It was mostly filled up with food, water, and the Monster parts that Thirteen deemed to be too valuable to be left behind.

Fortunately, the wooden carts that Bruno was guarding at the cave were also filled with smoked meat, and water, which would help sustain the teenagers for a while.

He didn't plan on sharing his personal resources with them, with the exception of Cristopher and Harry, whom he planned to save.

Since he had already considered Cristopher his subordinate, he had no intention of leaving him behind.

Harry was the only son of his father's best friends, Elijah and Vivian, so he couldn't possibly ignore him either.

He would help the children to the best of his abilities, but if any of them wished to oppose his orders, he would kick them out without a second thought.

Heck, he was even willing to leave with Cristopher and journey on their own, while leaving the kids under Harry's command.

Since he belonged to the Remington Family, which was one of the Five Monarch Clans, they would be more willing to listen to his orders, than the order of a seven-year-old boy, who was not even old enough to be considered a Wanderer.

It took Thirteen nearly an hour to return to the cave where the Ogre was guarding their belongings.

When Bruno saw him, the Ogre had shown a relieved expression, which Thirteen found cute.

"Listen, Bruno, your Master has been captured by the Orcs," Thirteen said. "But, don't worry, we will go and save him. However, you need to listen to me very closely, so that we will succeed in our rescue operations."

The Ogre nodded his head obediently because he now knew better than to oppose Thirteen's command.

"I will take you to a place that will allow you to observe the Orc Stronghold safely," Thirteen said. "If you see any Human children leaving the stronghold, wake me up at once, okay?"

Cristopher being captured was not part of the plan.

Because of this, he would ensure that Bruno's hiding spot would be perfect, allowing the Ogre to observe without being discovered by the Orc Hunting Parties, who frequented the region.

After bringing the Ogre to the location that he deemed very safe, he went back to the cave to rest.

In order to help save the children, he needed to return his body's performance to its peak, and that could only be attained by eating and sleeping.

At around noon, the Ogre returned to the cave and woke Thirteen up.

He told him that he felt Cristopher's presence inside a wooden wagon that was being pulled by two Houdini Mustangs.

The Ogre didn't see any other Human because the Wagon didn't have any windows, but since he could feel that his Master was inside it, Thirteen assumed that the other teenagers were also with him.

'I can't take these carts with me because Bruno and I need to travel without being burdened,' Thirteen thought. 'It is regrettable, but I need to leave them here.'

Thirteen sighed before wearing a hat made from animal skin to protect his head from the heat of the desert.

"Let's go, Bruno," Thirteen ordered. "Let's go save Cristopher."

Cristopher, who sat at the shaking wagon with his hands tied up, perked up when he felt a familiar connection following them from behind.

He subconsciously looked at the path behind them, hoping to see a glimpse of his Avatar, Bruno, who was keeping a certain distance from the wagon.

"What are you looking at?" A Barbarian that was tasked to look after the children, and made sure that they didn't do anything funny asked.

"Nothing," Cristopher replied before lowering his head like a scared boy.

The teenage boy, who had tried to shout and allow the Orcs to capture Thirteen, was seated in front of the chubby boy, and looked at him in disdain.

'Still hoping that a boy younger than you will come and save you?' the teenage boy thought. 'How delusional.'

Because of the threat of the other children beating him up, he decided to shut his mouth. However, he didn't believe even for a second that the boy, whose name was Zion Leventis, would come to rescue them.

Several hours later, the wagon came to a stop in order to rest for the night.

The Houdini Desert was a dangerous place, and traveling at night was sometimes more dangerous than traveling during the day.

Unlike the Orcs, who had Dark Vision, the Six Barbarians, who managed the two wagons, were unable to see clearly at night.

Because of this, they started to set up camp, and assigned three people for night duty, while the other three rested to swap with them at a later time.

"Where are you going?" One of the Barbarians assigned for night duty, asked his comrade, who was walking towards a boulder in the distance.

"I'm going to take a dump," the other Barbarian replied without even bothering to look at his comrade.

When he approached the boulder, he immediately crouched down to do the deed.

However, just as he was about to relieve himself he felt something pierce his throat making him grunt.

The two other Barbarians heard it, but they just thought that their comrade grunted because he was trying to push down a big one, making the two of them chuckle.

The Barbarian who realized that an arrow was stuck up in his throat, tried to shout, but it was impossible.

The arrow was stuck in his windpipe, and also carried the toxin of the Purple Desert Scorpion, whose deadly sting had a strong paralysis effect.

A moment later, another arrow struck the Barbarian, this time, piercing his chest.

The Barbarian was still young, and was only at the Adept Stage, which was only a rank higher than a Rookie.

If the first arrow was dipped in the toxin of the Purple Desert Scorpion, the second arrow was dipped in the poison sac of the Yellow Striped Dusk Brute.

One was meant to paralyze, the other was meant to kill.

Thirteen knew that if he shot the poisonous arrow first, there was a chance that the Barbarian would be able to alert his comrades, so he played it safe and used a paralyzing arrow first, targeting the latter's neck, preventing him from shouting.

Of course, he could aim for the head, and eyes, but the skulls of barbarians were very tough, so he wasn't confident that he would be able to pierce it with his arrow.

This savage tribe would often use their heads to head butt their opponents, so their skulls had evolved to the point where it was strong enough to allow the Barbarian to survive an arrow strike.

As for the eyes, the Barbarian might scream in pain before he died, alarming his companions.

'One down,' Thirteen thought as he remained still in his hiding spot.

He knew that one of the two Barbarians would come to check why their comrade was taking too long to do his business.

When that happened, he would launch another sneak attack, bringing their enemies down to four.

He didn't know if he could take all three watchers at once without waking up the other three.

But, he was up for the challenge.

Right now, his priority was to weaken the opposing party by killing as many of them as possible.

If he could bring their numbers down to two, the chances of winning were high.

However, he had sensed that one of the Barbarians had the Rank of an Elite, which meant that he was at least as strong as a rank 3 High-Orc, which could pose a problem for his rescue mission.

Even so, Thirteen wasn't fazed.

As long as he could land a hit or two on the leader of the Barbarians, it would only be a matter of time before the latter succumbed to the poison that would spread inside his body.