「Welfare Instance Main Quest: None. Duration 15 days」
The familiar subtitles, and even more familiar to Lancer, was the smell of rotting plants in the forest.
"It's a forest again this time? But that's fine, at least it's better than being locked in a cage."
He was still wearing the previous cloak. After putting his things away, he changed into his bodysuit and picked up his long spear.
'First, I need to figure out which world I am in this time.'
——————
"Whoosh~ Whoosh~!"
The middle-aged man riding a warhorse looked increasingly grim as he heard the strange sounds rapidly approaching from behind him. At the same time, he couldn't help but look up into the distance.
'There's at least 1 kilometer to the outpost, but...'
"Whoosh~ Whoosh~"
The strange sounds grew louder and louder. He knew he probably couldn't make it back.
His comrades chose to stay behind and fight the green-skinned monsters to cover his retreat, but even so, they didn't seem to have bought much time.
"Hoo~!"
Taking a deep breath, he violently pulled the reins, and the warhorse beneath him suddenly stopped. He took the opportunity to draw the long sword from his waist and slashed fiercely towards his rear-side.
'Clang~!'
His original purpose was to catch the attacker off guard, but he seemed to have underestimated his opponent, because his slashing long sword only struck a stone axe. Then he heard a crazy roar and a flash of glaring green.
'Poof~!'
The ground beneath his feet was instantly covered with blood.
The tall Orc riding a Direwolf glanced at the headless corpse in front of him before throwing it away. Then he began to process the warhorse that had been bitten to death by the Direwolf. But before he could cut a few times, the Direwolf beside him let out a low growl. The vigilant Orc warrior quickly gripped his stone axe and cautiously observed his surroundings.
It must be known that even before arriving at this land, his Direwolf had saved him countless times, so he was more willing to trust his Direwolf than himself. However, this time his enemy was unusual.
"Swoosh~!"
A piercing sound of air being torn suddenly came. The moment he turned his body, a powerful force erupted from his side chest.
"Bang~!!"
The tall Orc warrior was forcefully impaled into the ground by the red long spear. The Direwolf beside him hadn't even reacted to what had happened before seeing its comrade, with whom it had spent every day, nailed to the ground. Before it could let out a long howl to mourn its comrade, a figure clad in silver armor charged over from a distance.
"Tear~!"
"Crack~!!"
The silver Lance pierced its waist, and after a grating clash against the spine, it was violently thrown off, crashing straight into a nearby tree.
The knight in silver armor did not relax at all despite killing the enemy in front of him. He cautiously inspected the surroundings. Only after confirming there were no living enemies did he remove his helmet.
The person who appeared here was undoubtedly Lancer.
He didn't pay much attention to the Orc's corpse in front of him, but instead first checked the headless male corpse. Lancer obviously didn't know the identity of the person, as he couldn't even determine his own location, but he still found a letter almost soaked in blood from the chest area that the man had protected even in death.
After opening the letter, Lancer couldn't help but frown.
Although Lancer could easily understand and recognize the writing of various worlds, perhaps due to the 'System', the handwriting on this letter was too illegible, so much so that Lancer couldn't understand its meaning.
'Looks like there's no way to find useful clues.'
He simply tidied up the corpse and buried it using a Runic spell, then looked at the other corpse.
Huge tusks, green skin, the corpse of a Direwolf nearby...
All of this indicated the identity of the other party —————— Orc.
Although Lancer himself was not a World of Warcraft (WoW) player, he used to play Warcraft III (WAR3) and Dota for a while. He was naturally no stranger to these green-skinned Orcs.
'Does this mean I'm in the world of WoW right now?'
Although he had a similar thought before, he was actually more confused now. Although he didn't understand the world view of WoW, as far as he knew, the time span of the entire 'game' was measured in tens of thousands of years, and the relationships between the various races in different periods were also different.
'As expected, I still have to go to a settlement.'
Lancer originally had no intention of looting the spoils given the simple weapons of that Orc, but then he felt a little strange again.
In his impression, Orc Wolf Riders shouldn't be a basic unit, should they? Why were they using a stone axe?
After picking up the axe, his expression suddenly became subtle.
「Shaman Blessed Stone Battle Axe
Level: D+」
In terms of quality, the weapon was even worse than the shield-crab spear he used before, but at least it wasn't an ordinary standard-issue weapon, so Lancer simply put it away.
After briefly discerning the direction, he continued to advance along the direction the human soldier had fled.
Since the other party was running in this direction, there might be a large force ahead.
A few minutes after Lancer left, a group of Wolf Riders, also riding Direwolves, finally arrived. After seeing the corpse of their kin on the ground, they were first in disbelief, followed by loud roars.
At this moment, it could be seen that the bodies of warhorses were hanging on the backs of their Direwolves. Undoubtedly, the comrades who had helped the middle-aged man draw the attention of the other Wolf Riders had chosen to flee separately. In the end, the scattered Wolf Riders gathered together but found that one comrade hadn't returned, so they followed the direction to find him.
They originally smelled blood and thought the enemy had been killed, but who would have thought that what they saw was the corpse of their kin?
Since the incident had happened, they had no other choice but to roar a few times to vent their frustration. They quickly collected the corpse and began to return.
——————
Riding quickly along the forest, Lancer saw an outpost after about a few minutes. This was undoubtedly his destination.
Following his usual practice, he would choose to first confirm whether the other party was hostile, but glancing at the letter hidden in his arms, he felt that he might be able to try a different approach.
Regardless of whether this group of people was good or bad, at least holding the letter should let him enter, right? Whether they were friend or foe once inside, he didn't know, but this actually didn't matter. He might even be able to gain a slight advantage by using forethought against lack of preparation.
And so, Lancer gradually slowed down his pace and slowly walked towards the post in front of him...