Kiel stood holding his blade which was stabbed into the Orc's body.
As he saw light fades from the shamans' eyes, Kiel heard the prompt:
"Orc Grand Elder, Shaman Kroll Fireborn killed, 800 experience gained"
"Skill page gained"
Kiel immediately swiped the Skill Page into his ring. A habit he picked up from his past life to avoid dispute and being robbed.
Both by humans or even tower residents.
Getting up from the Orc Shaman body, he dug for Mana Cores in its head.
Lousy luck, nothing there.
Damien soon entered. He saw Kiel was digging for Mana Core and came up with nothing.
He raised his brows and kept his silence.
Then the City Lord proceeded to search around the tent with Kiel to loot the Orc.
Kiel saw this and smirked internally.
Looks like looting was not beneath the City Lord after all.
Unlike the City Lord who made some gains from the Orc stored skins, bones and some metal ores.
Kiel found nothing of value for him and left.
Before long the last Orc was killed.
The army was cheering in jubilation.
Finally they had permanently removed the threat from the city forever.
Kiel realized something was very wrong.
He quietly called :
"Tower of Extinction: Hell Clear"
#######
Tower of Extinction: Level Two.
Hell Clear:
Protect the city from destruction.
Kill all Orcs.
Kill the Human traitor.
Reward:
Chosen Item upgrade 1 level,
Bonus 1 Character Level.
Bonus Random Skill upgrade 1 level
######
@#$!$ WHAT??? NONE WAS COMPLETED?? How??
Kiel tried to keep his cool and he asked Damien to send scouts to spread out and search for Orc survivors.
Damien obliged, agreeing with his request and thus they camped at the Orc City for another 2 days.
Nothing. There were no more Orcs around and the humans were convinced they were safe.
Kiel was in dilemma, he could not provide concrete evidence that the Orcs were not wiped out while all evidence here showed that there were no other Orcs that escaped the city
Dejected, Kiel followed the army and returned to the city.
First thing he did when he returned was to try to raid the kitchen. He stocked up on wine, water and food, 1 cubic meter each.
The kitchen head chef was upset but didn't dare to say anything.
Next he went to the coin master to ask for a reward. Which was a dud.
The City Lord didn't seem to plan to give him any reward and all attempts to talk to Damien were rejected with excuses that he was busy with the war aftermath.
Hence he sneaked into the treasury at night to see if there was anything valuable.
Sadly, the war had sent the city close to bankruptcy.
There was nothing worth mentioning. There were no new or useful skill pages or stat enhancing bonus food or anything he could use.
He then left and sulked in his room that night.
After a week, he had learned the skill page he got from the Orc Shaman.
A true double edge sword. He had to really be careful using this skill.
During the week he had been searching outside the city for clues, even spending a few days in the forest but it was all for naught.
Seeing no result searching outside the city for the past week. He decided to try his luck in the city itself.
While searching for clues, he did not forget to spend at least an hour in the swordsman dojo and the martial arts dojo each.
He was also steadily improving.
However, he had a nagging feeling that something wasn't right with the 2 dojo masters.
They seem to start to feel more distant and less enthusiastic.
After another week, it couldn't get more obvious.
He had not even seen Daniel since he came back.
On top of that Ryujin had even blatantly suggested that he leave.
Feeling sad Kiel had planned to leave.
He had searched the whole city and still found nothing.
However the unresolved level requirements had him worried and unsatisfied.
He had searched outside the city, inside the city and even most of the city castle which he had stayed in since he arrived.
Well, one place he had not been able to check was the main hall. It was always tightly guarded around the clock.
Initially he had been suspicious but soon he realized that it was lined with precious artwork, golden sculptures and even had access to the main archives chamber.
His suspicions were answered. But tonight, he decided to check it anyway.
The night arrived and Kiel carefully sneaked into the hall.
It took him a while to check everything, behind the paintings, beneath the art pieces and eventually he found the throne the most suspicious.
In the area around the throne he could smell a faint scent of blood.
It was very faint and had it not been for Kiel being very sensitive to the smell of blood, he would have missed it.
Removing the carpets around the thrones, he found a parallel groove he could not explain.
After spending another 15 minutes he found a switch at the crown engraving at the top of the seat and pressed it.
Jackpot!!! The Throne moved to the side and revealed a spiraling stairwell that sinks down to the darkness.
Unfazed, Kiel slowly and quietly entered.
He descended for a long time and it turned out the cave was really deep.
The stairs opened up to a dungeon-like maze.
It took Kiel 20 minutes to reach the bottom of the stairs.
As he arrived, his nose was assaulted by a strong metallic smell of blood.
Kiel proceeded deeper into the cave while avoiding the patrolling guards.
After an hour of navigating the maze he reached a clearing.
It was a massive cavern with an altar in the middle.
Here, the smell of blood and rot was overwhelming, even for someone like Kiel who had been to many battlefields.
As he looked closer, what he saw left him stunned in disbelief.
The edge of the caverns was lined with cages.
Inside the cages were orcs and humans.
Emancipated, shivering in fear and bleak eyed.
Between the cages and the altar, were piles and piles of broken rotting bodies.
There were corpses all over the place, man, woman and even children both humans and orcs.
It was revolting.
Despite the strong smell, Kiel did not see much blood.
He noticed all the corpses were desiccated, drained completely of every single drop off blood they had.
It was then that his eyes were attracted to a glowing red orb floating above the altar.
From afar he couldn't exactly tell what it was.
Noticing the movements around the altar Kiel was filled with anger as he recognized a few of them.
The Swordsman Dojo Master, Rujin Sakamoto.
The Martial Arts Dojo Master, Shiryuu Yamada.
The city lord's son, Darrian Bloodseal.
And about a dozen other guards who are doing their bidding.
Everything clicked somehow.
He was reminded of Thorgen's story.
The necromancer was not dead.
Thorgen's and him getting the Inheritance Orb wasn't a coincidence.
It was all a ploy.
He had foolishly walked into a trap.