Chapter 25: The Orc Camp

He was just one of the countless gold farmers. He knew this path so well that he could navigate it with his eyes closed, remembering the exact location of every black bear, dire wolf, flower-kissing spider, and herb along the way.

The two men ran swiftly through the forest, reaching the edge of the woods and the start of the hilly terrain after more than three hours.

"Alright, this is where we need to be," Lu Yang said, coming to a halt and speaking to Xiao Liang behind him.

At this moment, the sky was barely brightening as the sun rose in the east, and the landscape ahead became clear. Xiao Liang gazed forward with curiosity, but the moment he realized what kind of monsters he was facing, he couldn't help but swallow hard.

"Boss, what kind of monster is that?" Not far in front of Xiao Liang, a hulking creature, standing fully half again as tall as he was, was busy dusting off its body.

The giant creature had the head of a lion and a powerful human-like torso. Its skin was green, it wore a tiger-striped cloth skirt around its waist, and it held a white bone club in its hand—a club that was thicker than Xiao Liang's own thigh.

"The monster in front of you is called an Orc," Lu Yang said. "It’s a level 15 mob."

Orcs, the pitiable race described in the chronicles of *Second World*, were the remnants of a war between orcs and humans, currently serving under the orc banner as enemies of mankind.

"Boss, how are we supposed to fight that?" Xiao Liang asked. He had a feeling that a single finger from the Orc would be enough to kill him.

"Don't be afraid," Lu Yang replied. "Do you believe me if I say I can kill him without taking a single point of damage?"

"Huh?" Xiao Liang’s eyes were filled with astonishment.

"Watch me," Lu Yang said confidently.

In his previous life, Orcs were known by players as "melee meat grinders." With their massive 200-point damage output, impressive movement speed, and extremely high health and defense, they were impossible for warriors and average thieves to handle alone. It usually took a well-coordinated team of players to defeat them.

However, Lu Yang had his own method. He remembered a video released by a player in his past life. In the video, five fire mages used *Pyroblast* in rotation, utilizing the knockback effect to keep an Orc pinned in place until it died without ever taking a step.

Although Lu Yang was alone, his casting speed was only 0.7 seconds—faster than the combined alternating speed of five fire mages. Arriving at a spot 30 yards from the Orc, he channeled the magical energy within him and chanted the incantation. After 0.7 seconds, a massive ball of fire manifested in his hands.

"Pyroblast!"

The fireball shot from Lu Yang’s hands and struck the Orc squarely in the head with a "thud," sending the creature stumbling back a step, nearly toppling it to the ground.

"-135"

"ROAR!" After taking massive damage, the Orc locked onto the direction of the fireball and found Lu Yang. It let out an angry roar and charged, club swinging. But before it could take more than one step, a second *Pyroblast* landed precisely on its head.

"THUD!" The Orc was knocked back to its original position.

"ROAR!"

The Orc grew even more furious, taking long strides as it charged again, but after just one step, another *Pyroblast* struck its body, forcing it back to the same spot.

The Orc was simple-minded and lacked adaptability; it only knew how to charge forward. Consequently, relying on his lightning-fast casting speed, Lu Yang fired over a dozen *Pyroblasts* to kill the 2,000-health Orc right where it stood. Until its death, the Orc never managed to get a single step closer to Lu Yang.

System Notification: You have gained 286 experience points.

"Boss, you are too powerful!" Xiao Liang said in admiration.

Lu Yang smiled and asked, "How much experience did you get?"

"I got 262 experience points. This is so much faster than leveling up on mobs outside," Xiao Liang exclaimed.

Killing a level 1 mob only granted 10 experience points, and each spawn point only offered one monster—sometimes one he couldn't even manage to claim—followed by a 15-minute wait for respawns. Here, Lu Yang was killing a monster in less than a minute, granting 262 experience points. A single kill here was worth hours of grinding outside.

Lu Yang, however, was somewhat dissatisfied. He did the math: a level 15 monster normally gave 280 experience. With Lu Yang at level 5, the 10-level difference granted a 100% experience bonus, totaling 560 points. Split evenly with Xiao Liang, it came out to less than 300 points, which meant Xiao Liang wasn't gaining as much as he could.

"The leveling speed here is still too slow," Lu Yang said. "Follow me; I’ll take you to a place where we can level up even faster."

"Huh? It can get even faster?" Xiao Liang felt his imagination couldn't keep up.

"Of course," Lu Yang said. "You have the Snake Venom Bead; our leveling speed can increase by at least five times. Follow me, I’ll take you to a spot."

"Oh, okay," Xiao Liang hurried to keep pace with Lu Yang.

The Orc Hills were, in reality, an orc city. If viewed from above, one could clearly see the inner and outer sections of the city. In the hills of the outer city, there were countless caves where the Orcs lived and rested, housing a massive population of them.

Normally, players would hunt in these caves, but among the many tunnels, there was one that contained a bug.

In his previous life, a god-tier thief had been hunted by several Orcs while soloing them with superior technique. When he was cornered and certain he was going to die, he noticed a gap behind a boulder in the corner. He jumped inside, and to his surprise, the Orcs couldn't hit him at all. Later, he used this bug to easily slaughter Orcs with his bow for rapid leveling, only revealing the bug after he had moved on to other areas.

Bringing Xiao Liang to the Orc camp was exactly for this purpose; he intended to use this bug to grind.

The two fought their way to the entrance of the cave. As soon as they stepped inside, three Orcs at the entrance spotted Lu Yang and charged, brandishing their bone clubs.

"Boss, what do we do?" Xiao Liang asked nervously. There were many Orcs in the cave, and if they were to scatter and run, they would easily aggro the others.

"Stand there and don't move," Lu Yang said, unbothered. He chanted rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, three *Pyroblasts* flew toward the three Orcs one after another. The Orcs, who had barely taken two steps, were knocked back almost simultaneously. Lu Yang continued his incantations, and before long, he had struck them all down.

"Phew, that scared me," Xiao Liang exhaled in relief. "Boss, there are so many Orcs here."

Beyond the entrance, the corridors on both sides of the cave were nearly packed with them.

"This is only a few dozen," Lu Yang said. "Keep moving inside—there are hundreds more."