Ch.190190. Yuan Shu (3)

And so, everything proceeded smoothly.

“I’m Gregory Aleinos. Just call me whatever you’re comfortable with.”

[Yes, Master!]

I formed a master-disciple relationship as part of our animal companion contract. The stone monkey, about 1.5 times my size, prostrated himself before me and declared he would show proper respect to me as his master.

Should I get him a cloud to ride on or a magic staff?

The thought of the world’s most famous monkey briefly crossed my mind, but I didn’t dwell on it since completing the contract was the priority.

Rather, from my perspective, forming the contract immediately seemed like the better option.

Anyway, just before finalizing the contract, I suddenly felt an indescribable, mysterious emotion welling up inside me.

With my limit of twelve possible contracts, this was already the eleventh. The feeling of having just one remaining was difficult to put into words….

Regardless, I skillfully proceeded with the magical contract.

The threads of magical power extended to bind the stone monkey’s soul into resonance, and as his mind was incorporated into the mental network, the power of magic gathered our spirits into one place.

My consciousness, having reached an advanced level and attained a certain state, completed the contract with remarkable ease….

“…!”

The transformation that occurred in the stone monkey due to the animal companion contract was more dramatic than any change I had witnessed before.

His skin, which originally resembled granite sprinkled with gold dust, now looked like granite with a golden hue. Judging by the mysterious transformation in his granite skin, the proportion of orichalcum contained within it seemed to have increased significantly.

Also, his large frame, which was originally 1.5 times my size, had somehow shrunk to slightly smaller than mine. However, with a height that must still be around 190cm and broad shoulders, he hardly seemed diminished.

Of course, since the matter that composed his body didn’t simply disappear during the shrinking process, it’s hard to consider this a real disadvantage.

With his reduced size, he’s less of a target for ranged attacks and better able to utilize the high mobility characteristic of stone monkeys and Taoist practitioners. The only downsides might be slightly reduced toughness and arm reach.

Even those disadvantages were offset by the compression of his muscles, skin, and entire body, which greatly improved his durability. The reduced reach could be easily compensated for with his strengthened leg power, so it couldn’t really be considered a loss.

Additionally, his rock-like skin, now more infused with orichalcum properties, provided defense comparable to wearing thick steel reinforcement around his body. Since it had excellent magical conductivity, it would also dramatically increase the efficiency and power of his Taoist arts.

Meanwhile, the transformation from the animal companion contract affected me as well.

Personally, the ability I most wanted to gain was Taoist arts. They have a structure similar to druid magic so I could adapt quickly, but the results achievable through Taoist arts are distinctly different.

While druid magic focuses on “magic” in the literal sense, Taoist arts are magical “combat techniques.” They have impressive power, but above all, they emphasize uniquely irregular and technical aspects.

The art of creating duplicates with low durability but definite physical form (equivalent to HP1 in game terms) using body hair.

The art of transformation, changing one’s physical form to resemble another being.

And the art of folding space to instantly travel great distances.

These three techniques, representative of Taoist arts, possessed creative powers not found in other magics, which is why I personally wanted to try using them at least once….

Unfortunately, the power I unintentionally gained this time was far from these Taoist arts.

Or more precisely….

‘Divine… magic?’

Finding myself suddenly able to use rudimentary divine magic, I struggled to make sense of this incomprehensible situation and somehow managed to piece together a theory….

‘…Is that why?’

After much consideration, I concluded that this ability to use divine magic was actually based on a faint divine lineage existing within the stone monkey—an ability that, I suspect, even he himself was unaware of.

Indeed, he doesn’t seem capable of using divine magic, which operates on fundamentally different principles. Even the divine magic I can now use is far from powerful—it’s basic among basics.

“Healing Light,” which emits a warm golden radiance from the hands to alleviate wounds and reduce bleeding.

“Hammer of Justice,” which releases a golden shockwave-like blast that deals greater damage to evil-aligned creatures.

And “Shield of Faith,” which deploys a golden shield whose durability increases in proportion to one’s faith.

Despite their grand names, all three are actually the first spells apprentice priests learn—the fundamental healing, attack, and defense magics of divine spellcasting.

The irony that I could directly use powers that even their original owner might not know he possessed was quite remarkable….

For now, let’s appreciate the fact that I’ve gained such versatile abilities.

※ ※ ※

And so, after the contract was completed with some unexpected developments at the end.

The camp remained relatively quiet for a while, but such peace was unlikely to last long.

Given the orcs’ particular obsession with combat and fighting, plus the fact that a warband led by the second strongest orc in their group had suddenly vanished without a trace.

Naturally, orcs came searching in this area, wondering what had happened, and of course, they were being dealt with as they appeared.

But as the frequency of orc appearances increased, we realized we needed to leave this campsite….

Which meant the day to dispose of the orc prisoners was approaching.

The issue of what to do with the orcs had been much debated, but in truth, the problem had somehow resolved itself quite easily without our intervention.

‘…What are these creatures?’

First of all, the goblins we had imprisoned alongside the orc prisoners were already in a situation where they needed to be killed, but they had long since been murdered by the orcs without us having to do anything.

To be precise, the green masses with their limbs bound in shackles had bitten and eaten them.

We had certainly provided plenty of magically created food, yet they still chose to crunch through the heads of goblins who possessed intelligence comparable to sentient beings….?

Beyond disgust, I was curious about why they would deliberately eat goblins, and upon investigation, I discovered these orcs were an even more violent race than I had imagined.

Enjoying combat and reveling in fights might seem ordinary, but these orcs went further with their vile and wicked nature.

Their mockery of the weak and overt expressions of violence—literally embodying the stereotype of “barbarism”—led them to eat goblins simply out of boredom.

They even fought among themselves to the point where some orcs had killed other orcs, significantly reducing their numbers from over 200 initially to just 83 remaining now.

With the situation developing in such a peculiar way, after some deliberation, I made the final decision on how to dispose of these orcs.

At first, I wanted to slaughter them all out of disgust, but it seemed somewhat wasteful to simply kill valuable orc prisoners we had captured.

Therefore, I decided to inject the orc prisoners with a compound made from hydra venom mixed with various plant toxins, putting them in a state of suspended animation before transporting them to headquarters in the rear.

Since orcs are remarkably tenacious as a species, they can survive in suspended animation, and of course, I didn’t forget to restrain them after inducing this state.

One might wonder what use captured orc prisoners would be in the rear, but surprisingly, such prisoners can serve many purposes.

They can be tied up and paraded around to stabilize the political situation in the rear, or used to boost morale that gradually declines as war drags on.

If they prove useless otherwise, they can be formally executed to soften the city’s atmosphere, or sold as slaves or experimental subjects to magic towers.

According to the customary laws commonly accepted in the Western Continent, orcs without citizenship or nationality of any specific country are legally classified as monsters—equivalent to mindless beasts—making such human trafficking surprisingly legal.

…Though it does make me feel somewhat uncomfortable.