DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro looked over the group of Orcs as they slowly descended the mountain. Most of them were quite bitter about suddenly losing their home like that, and reasonably so. But overall, it seemed like they were going to be able to pull through. They did manage to grab a few necessities that they needed, or things that they were already carrying with them at the time the mountain caved in onto the village, so they at least didn't lose every small thing that they had.

As far as the Demon could tell, the elderly Orc that had been attacked up there didn't have that much more time left to live either. And everyone here knew that, including the elderly Orc himself. Even the children were aware. Some of them handled such things even better than the adults did.

Plenty of the Orcs were coming over to him to speak to the elderly Orc, saying goodbye to him properly. It was as if they were trying to use him as a conduct to say goodbye to all the others that died before, since they hadn't been able to foresee what was going to happen to them. Many died instantly, and none of the Orcs were able to even say farewell to their corpses. But if they told the elderly Orc, maybe he could pass on a couple of messages to the others in the afterlife. Eiro was sure that that was what went through their heads.

Soon, the sun started to go down, but the Goblin Village was luckily in sight. Well, it didn't seem right to call it 'Goblin Village' anymore, really. After all, there were Kobolds and now Orcs as well that would live there now too. And they were going to make use of a lot of spider-monsters to help out with their work. It was more correct to call this a 'Monster Village', rather than focusing on the Goblins at this point.

The moment that Eiro and the Highland Orcs arrived in the Village, there were a few issues with the Kobolds that recognized these monsters to be the ones that drove them out of their former home. But luckily, Eiro was able to use the translators of the respective groups, meaning the most intelligent Kobold as well as the Orc child, to make sure that each group understood what was going on.

Since the Mountain Goblins didn't have anything against the Highland Orcs in the first place, they were alright with having them there, even if they seemed a little bit jealous of their stature at times. Goblins were incredibly short, especially compared to these tall-built Orcs. Even the ones that prided themselves on their large stature were shorter than the average of these Orcs.

But a little bit of friendly rivalry was never a bad thing. Eiro brought the Orcs to a part of the village where it would be easy to excavate a few makeshift houses for the Orcs, and they could expand on that later on. They did have their own Earth Mage with them, after all. He should be able to figure some things out.

And then, while the other Orcs were settling in, Eiro brought the elderly Orc into the cave where Eiro's 'House' in this village was, this cave abandoned by a wizard, and laid him down onto one of the slabs of rock where he could sleep away into death later on. Of course, Eiro wouldn't do this for all of them. The only reason why he did this was so that he could have his peace and speak to the elderly Orc alone later on.

But for now, Eiro also brought the Orc child with him, since he was the representative of all of these orcs. Eiro had to introduce him to Gobo and Kitsue.

"Hm? This one is their chief? A child?" Gobo asked a bit surprised, looking the child up and down. Eiro slowly nodded his head as he placed his hand onto the young Orc's head, "Mhm. He's the child of their former Chief, and he's a rather smart one. He can fluently speak Common, and that without anyone to teach him. I didn't even spot any books there."

Hearing Eiro's words, it seemed like Gobo, Bavet and even Armodeus, who just returned from finishing up the carriage-upgrade, were rather surprised. Kitsue didn't really understand what that meant, though.

"How's that even possible, lad? You sure he didn't lie to ya?" Armodeus asked with a suspicious glare directed at the nervous child that quickly proceeded to hide behind Eiro when faced with that scary expression.

"Of course. At this point, there's no way anyone could lie to me and get away with it. It has to do with the skill you were so interested in, Armodeus. That 'Complete Tool Proficiency'. It seems like the true meaning of the skill was lost in translation, somehow. Each of these Orcs is assigned a Goal, even if they themselves don't know what it is yet, and they are given the knowledge and abilities to fulfill that goal. If it's to craft a specific grade of blade, then they will be capable of quickly learning all the techniques and tool-skills they need to make that blade, even without outside interference. If their goal is to kill a hundred boars, they will have all the knowledge they need to wield a weapon and how to find boars." Eiro explained, turning over toward the child that was still hiding behind him.

"That's right, isn't it?" He asked. The child slowly nodded its head, "...Y-Yeah..." It said, "B-But we do get a c-central 'tool'... Like swords, hammers, or saws... We know th-those at least... We get the knowledge to use th-those tools in the right way to fu-fulfill our goal..."

"That's right. And in the case of this kid, his tool is the 'Pen'. Hence, since the Orc language doesn't have any written letters, he was made to learn a different language that did have letters. And that was 'Common'.′"

"...He learned a whole language just like that? Isn't that kind of cheating?" Bavet asked with a wry smile while in his humanoid form, "I remember that I had Common drilled into me for years on end to even understand some of it... How was it for you, Eiro?"

"Hm?" The Demon replied, "Oh, I could speak fluently roughly a week after I said my first word."

"...Of course you could."

"But to be fair, my language proficiency skill was boosted, so it leveled up a lot quicker than normal." Eiro pointed out, and Armodeus stared at the demon after hearing something that he didn't expect, "What did you just say? Your skill was boosted? How was it-"

"Ah... You met James, right? When you were staying at my manor? Well, he's the same James that adventured with Avalin back then. Those two with their other companion, Thomas, bought a special spellbook with one-time-use spells inscribed into them from Zaragon. One of those special spells was a skill-boost one. No idea how it works, though." Eiro explained swiftly, and a lot of different things just connected in Armodeus' mind.

"Th-That guy was the James that took you as a slave...? Really..?" Armodeus asked, "No wonder that there was such a tension between you two."

"Ah... No, that tension didn't come from that, rather it came from me... Well, killing those two." Eiro said as he pointed at the two Will-O??-Wisps floating over Gobo's shoulders. The white one started to glow softly as a young woman's gentle voice came out of it, "Eh... Sorry?" Ariella said.

Annoyed at the fact that his friend would react that way, Mikey exclaimed, "Ariella, don't apologize! He's the one that killed us viciously!"

"Ah, that's true..." The white Will-O'-Wisp whispered quietly. Eiro tried to ignore those two for now, hoping that the others would as well, "Anyway... He's going to be one of the three leaders of this village, with you, Gobo, at the head of them all. Understood?"

Gobo, like a moody teenager, looked back at Eiro after glaring at the Kitbold next to him for a moment, "Master, you truly want me to lead this village alongside... Her?"

"I do. I know you don't like her, but this is what I want you to do. Alright? Just try to get along. You don't need to become friends, but I at least want you two to not kill each other while I'm gone." Eiro asked of the Hobgoblin in front of him, who slightly grimaced in response, "...Fine."

Eiro let out a slight sigh, "I'll come here again when we're on our way back to the capital. I'll write you a list of what I want you to do and figure out until then. If you can't get something done, then at least give me a good reason for it." Eiro suggested. He already had a couple of things in mind that would be rather beneficial to this village's growth in the long-term.

After Eiro told these three a little more about everything that they needed to know about the situation and what was going to happen from then on, within the village and around it, everyone beside Bavet, Armodeus, and of course the elderly Orc made their way out of the cave.

The Demon scratched the back of his head as he turned toward Armodeus, "I assume everything with the carriage worked out well?" Eiro asked, and the Craftsman King immediately nodded his head in response.

"Aye, of course it did, lad. I'm sure ye're gonna be happy about those improvemnts. We'll be able to get to our destination a lot quicker now. Quicker, safer, and more comfortably." The elder Dwarf said smugly, grinning broadly as he thought about his creation. With a smile on his face, Eiro walked past Armodeus, "Thank you. I greatly appreciate it. You can just relax for the next couple of days, then. I'll drive."

"Sounds good." The Dwarf replied, as Eiro squatted down next to the elderly Orc that was laying on one of the stone slabs half-awake.

"Now... Old man. You know you don't have a lot of time, right?" Eiro asked. Armodeus and Bavet seemed a little bit confused as to what Eiro was trying to do, speaking to this dying, probably senile Orc that didn't even speak Common. But to their surprise, the Orc tried to sit up for a bit, "I'm not so clueless that I would not know that."

Bavet stared at the Orc and squinted his eyes, "What..? How can he-"

"He's an Orc that was created by one of the former Monster Kings. The whole Orc village is made up of the descendants of him and his comrades. It seems like this one was allowed to live for much, much longer than all the others, though." Eiro explained bluntly, "But that doesn't matter to me right now. I have to ask you a few things. There is little to no public knowledge out there about the state of the place the Monster King dwells in. And on top of that... I want to know about the abilities of the Monster King.. The abilities that he got after becoming the 'Monster King', what that title truly allows him to do."