With the first rays of the sun, excavations began for the foundations of the walls. Contrary to what any might imagine, this was not an arduous physical task but a mental one, as it was carried out with magic.
Fortunately for Raven, the magic from Conquest Online could be used in this world without restrictions. This meant that a fire spell could be used to create a bonfire and not simply to attack.
Then, with the combined boldness of Vesta Valdini, captain of the engineering troops, and Ilise Londinium, captain of the magic troops, both managed to use magic to carry out task that might otherwise have taken weeks.
"Raven-sama, the troops are ready to go."
As Raven contemplated the excavation, Nike approached to let him know that everything was ready.
"Let's go then."
Immediately, Raven and Nike mounted their horses.
"Good luck, Nii-sama!"
After bidding farewell to Freya, who was to remain in the camp as substitute commander, Raven and his troops departed to the east.
After the massacre against the goblins the day before, Raven had not only earned the absolute loyalty of the Kobolds, but had also discovered that in this world it was possible to gain exp to improve their level.
Additionally, upon returning to the camp after eliminating the goblins, Raven discovered that like him, both Freya and Nike had improved their levels.
A kind of share exp between members of the same party?
Probably this phenomenon worked in the same way for all Raven's army, however, being Freya, Nike and Raven who had the lowest level, level 1, probably this mechanism prioritized them three at the moment when distributing the exp obtained.
Therefore, without even possessing much knowledge of this world, Raven considered it best to raise his own level as high as possible for his own safety. Consequently, Nike and Freya would also raise their levels.
In Conquest Online, the player, his generals and troops could level up gaining experience in the battles, when reaching a certain level, class improvements could be made and with it unlock new skills.
With this in mind, Raven finally decided to take an aggressive stance and set his sights on the east, his goal, the orc settlement that Sareek Ankar had found during his exploration.
Conscious by simple logic that the Orcs would be a much more formidable rival than the goblins, Raven spared no expense in his attack, he takes with him and led the totality of his cavalry, which amounted to a total of two hundred riders. Of course, as each captain of one hundred riders, Morgana Karl and Sareek Ankar each rode at the head of their troops.
As the hoofs of the horses pounded furiously against the sand and the sun began to rise over the horizon, Raven focused his thoughts on what he was about to do.
The orcs were creatures more similar to humans than the goblins had been, he on this occasion would really test his human mind and his new body coming from Conquest Online.
(On this occasion... there is no margin for error...) - seeing Nike riding beside him, Raven compared the current situation with what happened with the goblins.
Forced to keep nothing to himself, Raven was accompanied on this occasion by Sareek Ankar and Nike, who, unlike Morgana Karl, would be quite difficult to deceive if Raven´s determination faltered during the battle.
"It will be our first battle together, Raven-sama" - noticing Raven's gaze, Nike exclaimed that comment with a faint smile that radiated happiness.
In response Raven simply nodded.
For Raven, Nike's statement was true, and it was not.
In Conquest Online, Raven had fought in a large number of battles alongside Nike, simply that that Nike was a simple NPC that moved according to the commands entered into it by Raven.
"It will be our first battle together, Raven-sama" -she noticing Raven's gaze, Nike exclaimed that comment with a faint smile that radiated happiness.
In response to Nike, Raven simply nodded.
Nike's statement was true and not at same time.
In Conquest Online Raven had fought in a large number of battles alongside Nike, but in these days Nike was a simple NPC that moved according to the programming made by Raven.
Of Raven's twenty generals in Conquest Online, Freya was the first, while Nike was actually the ninth.
Freya had been created to support Raven; whose character specialized in close combat. For this reason, Freya's design was so simple that it was actually a smaller copy with feminine features of Raven himself.
As for Nike, there being eight generals before her, Raven took more time both for design her and for choosing her skill tree.
If Raven were to be questioned directly about Nike's appearance and he had no choice but to tell the truth, Raven must shamefully say that Nike was one of the three generals he had meticulously designed based entirely on his beauty prospectus.
(If that person knew about this...) - feeling somewhat embarrassed, Raven could not help but remember someone who he often critical for possessing such a peculiar ambition as creating the perfect virtual waifu.
'nid-0' was the name, or rather the nick of that such a peculiar individual.
After being forced to give up his dream of creating a self-conscious Artificial Intelligence, and being condemned to reclusion for the agoraphobia, Raven dedicated himself to offer his services through the network as a developer of A.I.
Time before meddling in improving the basic Conquest Online A.I. for Ignis Game, Raven, whose nick was 'IndoorCrow', received an unusual task; to develop an artificial intelligence that could act as the perfect wife.
Motivated more by curiosity than money, Raven took the task. In this way he ended up meeting nid-0, a peculiar individual whose dream was to use the VRID to create a virtual world for himself and for the waifu whose I.A. was to be developed by Raven.
Feeling that he had somehow ended up fulfilling nid-0's dream for himself, Raven couldn't help but mock himself. He had mocked nid-0 and their dream on multiple occasions.
"Prepare yourself!!" -Nike's voice took Raven out of his thoughts.
The sound of just over two hundred swords being drawn caused a slight chill on Raven's back.
As if Nike's order had also been directed toward them, the little more than two hundred horses a snort loaded with resolution. Over their large eyes a flame seemed to ignite as their heavy bodies increased in speed and their muscles hardened.
As he centered his view to the front, Raven noticed the orc camp, which was made up of multiple structures that could only be described as yurts.
Raven quickly drew his Dark Sword of Tyr and his body automatically prepared for battle.
By the time the orcs noticed the fast approaching horses, it was too late, the first charge was already on them.
Taking the head of the charge, Nike was the first to reach an orc.
With little time to react, the orc was barely able to see a silver flash that slipped over his body with little resistance.
As the cavalry passed through the orc camp, in a matter of thousandths of a second, each orc outside the yurts died with little understanding of what was going on.
The horsemen crossed the camp leaving behind them a total of forty dead orcs, among which were females and males alike.
As he made a broad turn in his trajectory with his soldiers to make a new charge, Raven saw a large number of orcs emerge from the yurts. The cries of alert and death of their companions now lying lifeless on the floor in a pool of green blood had invited them out.
By the time the cavalry again charges against the camp, the orcs were already aware of the danger, but did not have time to organize.
Not having the opportunity to eliminate an enemy during the first attack, Raven assumed on this occasion the front of the second charge.
"Raven-sama!" -seeing Raven assuming such a dangerous position, Nike hastened her horse to protect Raven.
"General Nike, concentrate in the battle!" -near her side, Nike heard Morgana Karl's scream.
On this occasion the number of orcs to be attacked far exceeded the previous number. There was no room for recklessness or for taking the time to unnecessarily try to protect a warrior.
Forced by circumstances and centered thanks to Morgana Karl, Nike squeezed her hands in frustration over the reins of the horse and the hilt of her sword.
Raven charged forward toward a huge orc holding a heavy two-handed axe. The orc did not try to move away from the trajectory and instead prepared to swing his axe.
Accustomed to fighting the riders of Lorenz's human kingdom on the wide plains, the orcs knew that all they had to do was focus their attacks on the horses to defeat the humans.
As a general rule, having in front of an enormous and intimidating creature like an orc, the horses tended to deviate their trajectory being at least three meters away from the creature. It was this moment that the orcs waited patiently to realice their deadly attack on the horses and, if possible, on the riders.
Once the great black horse in front of him had entered the radius of that distance, the enormous orc smiled as he felt hastily victorious. However, that broad smile froze once his eyes saw in greater detail the eyes of that horse.
Those eyes were not the eyes of a domesticated animal and forced to charge against an intimidating creature against its will. Those eyes were the eyes of a bloodthirsty beast that carried forward with the same will as its rider.
The orc felt a chill once that black horse ignored the three-meter distance and continued its charge impetuously toward him. For the first time in his life, the orc was afraid of a creature he planned to feed on after killing it.
Seeing the reflection of death in the eyes of that black horse, the orc raised his enormous axe in panic, but those few seconds he had spent immerse in those eyes were fatal. The horse's head crashed brutally into his chest, and before the sensation reached his brain, a swift and thin black shadow that he could scarcely perceive caused the world to start spinning out of control.
As the world in his vision spun out of control, the orc saw the rider's back moving away, while lying on the floor he noticed a shattered body whose head was missing.
Once his sight was fixed on the ground by a force to which he could not oppose, the orc opened its mouth in front of the lack of response of all its extremities. His throat produced no sound and instead, all his strength was extinguished while an inescapable dream forced him to forget everything...
The result of the second charge of the cavalry was even more brutal, this for the number of victims it caused.
The almost one hundred orcs who had trusted fully in their experience of fighting the Lorenzian riders perished when they were beheaded or crushed to death under the legs of those ferocious beasts that had the shape of horse.
Sleipnir, Haizum and Bucephalus were the three races of horses that, according to the background story of Conquest Online, had been personally created by the supreme god of battle for a single purpose, war.
As for the game, Bucephalus was the default horse while Sleipnir and Haizum were horses that could only be obtained in the game shop. Broadly speaking, the only differences between the three types of horses were the freedom of design, plus a special skill that had little impact on the game.
Sleipnir had a passive skill that reduced the MP consumption of any skill by 1%, while Haizum increased physical attributes by 1%.
It should be noted that both Freya and Raven ride Sleipnir horses, while Nike ride a Haizum. As for the two hundred riders and their two captains, they evidently ride Bucephalous horses.
After crossing the camp for the second time and leaving the ground underneath covered with greenish blood, the little more than two hundred riders made a new turn in their trajectory, however, a third charge did not happen. Raising his hand, Raven had stopped the third charge.
As he watched the shattered or decapitated bodies on the ground, Raven realized that he did not dislike. In fact, he was closer to euphoria because of the adrenaline.
The closest that sensation, he had experienced the first time he played CO, when during his first attack on a city controlled by the CPU, he eliminated with his sword a few enemies.
Of course, the comparison was very uneven, it was like comparing drinking an alcoholic beverage in virtual reality with doing it in the real world.
Whether it was because his present body was accustomed to it, or because the brutality in CO was barely inferior, far from experiencing any guilt, or some other kind of discomfort at having taken a life on brutal way, Raven was eager to experience that sensation again.
Soon more orcs began to emerge from the yurts, but these were mostly females, kids and other less muscular orcs.
"There still seem to be some left, Raven-sama, though they don't look so defiant."
Faced with the sight of new enemies emerging from his tents, Nike addressed those words to Raven.
"I suppose another charge will finish the job."
Just as Raven was about to order a new charge, a much big orc than those seen so far, emerged from one of the yurts with a huge axe in his hands.
That orc emitted powerful cries of fury while that he contemplated what happened. After fixing his eyes on the group of riders, he made his way towards them, stopping at a considerable distance of them.
"I am Ulkar, son of Borak and leader of the Black Ash Clan!"