The Only Good Orc is a Half-Orc

Chapter 64: The Plan – Part So, having not brought another tent, Olivia got onto figuring out if anything could be used to help kidnap Ameril.

Looking around, a lot of it wasn’t going to do much. An extra bag, rations and cookware wouldn’t help with taking down guards. It wasn’t until she got to the tool section that she managed to get some inspiration.

In her vision she saw all that she associated with a village from a fantasy work. Well, all that people working would use. There were hoes, fishing rods, watering cans and axes all with different variations laying on the shelves. They were just as she imagined, being made up of some sort of hard wood for handles of the tools like the hoe, along with a metal end. The watering can was very basic and was made entirely out of a green metal. She thought it had been painted in some way, but as she inspected it realised the metal itself was actually green.

Near all of this were other basic items that you would or might need for your profession. This included things such as rope and string of various sizes, bait for fishing and leather gloves and aprons.

And as she looked at this, ideas came to mind.

Her mind went back to the simple yet effective way of stopping a carriage she had seen in old films or fantasy shows, where you cut a tree so that it crosses the path, stopping carriages from proceeding. This would keep them trapped, especially if they did it behind them as well, stopping them from turning around and speeding away with Ameril.

‘We’re going to be in a forest, so with abundance of trees, surely that should work.’

So, picking up the axe she made herself miss the way all the people nearby shook as they watched the monster pick up a weapon. Why it only happened then when she had an actual massive weapon on her back she didn’t know.

Putting that aside, she decided to go ahead and grab a few more things that may be helpful for the mission. She took the thinnest but strongest ball of rope she could find, figuring that it would probably end up being used to tie the men up once they took them down.

But other than that, nothing else felt like it would help.

Walking away from that section she ended walking up to a group of people that parted to allow her through. She hoped it was because of kindness and not fear, but who knows. Eventually she came across several large jars all filled with various liquids.

‘Are these potions. Surely, they would be in the apothecary if they were though.’

As she looked through them all, a few were pitch black with others varying between grey, brown and a sort of off white. Looking at the labels, she discovered that the black ones varied between different inks for using a quill, and a few others was some sort of oil or tar, likely for a lantern or some such. The off-white one was actually animal fat, probably used for cooking and the like, while the brown one. Well, lets just say she decided to steer clear of it when she realised it was used for fields to help plants grow. She did not want to go anywhere near that.

The grey one however was something she couldn’t quite compare to anything found on Earth. That she knew of anyway. As she read its label, it sounded like it was the mucus of some sort of animal, the name of it not being given. It was utterly disgusting, but when she picked it up and gave it a little shake she expected it to be a thick and slimy, it being mucus and all, but it flowed very easily, almost like water.

She didn’t know if it would help, but an inquisitive part of her wanted to find out what it was and what it did. Som, she brought it up to the shopkeeper to ask.

“Hello, could you tell me more about this?”

The shopkeeper was a short gentleman with glasses, and once he readjusted them and himself having seen an Orc right in front of his face, he spoke back.

“Ah… I cant recall the creature it came from. It-it just happened to be one of the few things left over when a trader came. But while I don’t know where it came from, I can tell you it is quite interesting. It flows freely as you can see, but once it is outside of a container, it becomes very thick, almost solid. I don’t know why, but that is how it is.”

“Huh.”

‘That is odd. The way he said it, makes it sound like it becomes more viscous when exposed to air.’

Now that he explained it, it kind of made sense. They were able to get enough of the mucus to fill the whole the jar, to her that made it sound like it didn’t just come from the odd sneeze, but that it produced this stuff regularly. Possibly it used it to attack or defend itself, so that if you got this on you, it would be incredibly hard to move.

The gears in her head continued to move as she realised that this was something she could use.

…

With another look around the shop she came up empty, not finding anything else that could help her, so she took all that she had picked up to the counter and paid for it.

As it turned out, she had quite a sizeable amount of coin on her person. With what they had taken from the bandits and the reward of their capture and the selling of the left over gear, all of the stuff she brought only made a slight dent to it. But without some form of income, it would just continue to decrease as they stocked up on stuff every now and then, so it would only last for so long.

But for now, it was plenty, and having paid for it all, they left the store to the sighs of relief from many of the shoppers.

…

“Why did you by that jar of gunk?” Lyrika asked making a grossed-out face.

“Oh, I figured we could use it on the guards. If we pour some into smaller bottles and throw them, when they smash it should coat whoever it hits. Then, when they try to move, it should slow them right down.”

At that Philly’s interest was piqued, it now venturing into her territory of potions. Reaching over, she pulled the jar out from the bag Olivia was holding.

Philly just stared and examined it for a while as they walked, and tried to figure out where to go to next.

“I think it could work. We will need to get lots of bottles all made with rather thin glass if possible. We could also add a little something to help it explode when it shatters. If you throw it and it hits the ground, it will just seep into the dirt. But, you could make it so when it breaks, the liquid gets blown outwards, making it more likely to hit its target. We should head to the apothecary to get some bottles to use.”

With that, they automatically started to head towards their new destination. Hopefully it would have what they needed to make which Olivia figured were ‘sticky bombs’, it would also be a good opportunity for them to purchase any potions Philly didn’t have that could give them an edge or help them down the road.

“That sounds good. It’s a pretty big jar so we have plenty of it. We should leave some without an explosive…agent, so that if you can make a good shot, or are close enough you can shatter the bottle on them, it will end up coating them complet…”

Olivia drifted off as she said that, her brain turning as an improvement on it all was on the tip of her tongue. A way for them to better hit someone with the bottles, and, as it stands, something that could be very useful for Philly to go with her combat skills for any fights in the future.

“A slingshot.”

“A what?”

“That’s what we need. Do either of you know about a weapon which sort of has this shape”, Olivia mimed the Y shape as saying it wouldn’t work given the different language. “Then it has elastic and a little pouch you can place things in to fire them.”

“I mean it sounds like a sling, but I’ve never heard of something with, that odd shape you showed or whatever elastic is.” Lyrika replied.

Looking over to Philly, she gave a simple shake of the head as she inspected her pouch of bottles to see what could work with the new substance they had purchased.

‘Ok, well the Y part would be simple. Just need to find a branch in that shape and cut it down to size. The pouch again wouldn’t be hard, just a bit of leather. It’s just the elastic part of it. Would they have anything elastic in this sort of time. Probably not. But just because that’s the case doesn’t mean there isn’t something like it here. There might be something magical that acts the same.’

“Do either of you know of something long and thin like string or rope that when you pull it, it stretches and when you let go, goes back to its original shape?”

Again, her question was followed by a set of resounding nos and head shakes. Only this time, a third voice popped up.

“That sounds like the vines from a Chrysanium tree.”

All three jumped out of their skin and turned to find someone unexpected now with them.

“Milly…fancy seeing you here.”