- No, my companion finally made a decision.
- But there are a lot of you here, and Rung is alone. Do I need it? I don't need it... for anything. What will I have with it?
- Is he an orc, not a Jew? Although, it would be stupid to expect someone for someone, especially a stranger, to do something for free.
- What do you want?
- Will you give me everything I want? - The orc grinned again, and already frankly mockingly.
- Within reason. The payment has to match the service," I bemoaned back, showing my fangs. The orc cheered approvingly.
- Okay. Not far from here lives the tribe Karoslin. They are relatively weak, but there are more of them than Ravshayev. Bring me the heads of their leader and the elder shaman. If you do, I will teach you. If you die, then you would be a weak student and I don't need such a student, - yes, the idea of "asking to be a student" to this orc doesn't look very clever anymore. There won't be any problems with the leader of the savages, but their shaman is another conversation.
- Guarantees?
- I'm old, but I don't suffer from scarcity! If you have enough cunning and strength to decapitate the tribe, which is more than Ravshayev's, then you can cause us problems. Let them have a shaman more worthless than dandruff from my armpits, and his student, in general, is worthy only to be fed by cave slugs, so that not to defile his pathetic face surrounding the walls, but their warriors are numerous. It's stupid to fight a creature that can kill the top of the tribe, but it's wise to have him as an ally, I thought about it. The orc's speech contained a lot of pitfalls, in particular, what would prevent him from sticking a knife in my back while studying? After all, then I will be on his territory, where it is not difficult to prepare a trap. What if he wants to sacrifice me? On the other hand, the offer was quite profitable, even if it was risky, besides, I couldn't feel the emotions of the sorcerer of lies, though it doesn't say much about it - in empathy I'm still very "green", and what will prevent me, if necessary, to pull the same thing with him?
- Well, I agree. Tell me about it to the tribe, the shaman said again. This time in a clearly satisfied makeup.
- Well, listen, he-hee...
Rung said a lot about the territory where the enemy tribe is located, as well as about themselves. Generally speaking, after listening to his story, I was left in some bewilderment. I suppose the old man exaggerated or rather underestimated the talents of his colleagues, but even so, it seemed that if Rung had wished and he could have paid his neighbors a "courtesy visit" a long time ago. So what was the problem? The internal problems of high orcish politics? Oh, I doubt anything...
Of course, I didn't rely on the words of my new acquaintance and decided to observe the life of the new tribe for a while. And what can I say about the Karoslins? There were... a few of them. More than Ravshayev, that's right, especially with goblins, but you can't even say that there are countless hordes of hordes at a very high stretch. So... a bunch of hanging around, without any visible system, armed with anything to get them.
They were located in one big hall, which used to be either a workshop or a warehouse. Now there was just a camp, just like on the surface; with tents, fires, stench and even vegetation - the edges of the hall and a few nearby corridors, filled all sorts of mushrooms, from very small, going for food, to natural giants, serving as a source of firewood orcs. By the way, the upper tiers with "wooden mushrooms" were much more modest, but the food was grown everywhere only somewhere possible. As a matter of fact, half of the goblins I have seen so far we're only engaged in breaking up mushroom beds and taking the shit out of the places of residence of my older comrades.
The local people's life was not shining with originality either. Someone gathered in gangs went outside the tribe's territory, someone, on the contrary, returned. With or without prey, whole or barely moving his legs. In general, life was boiling and the whole place resembled an anthill, except that the "ants" were extremely angry and ugly and did not hesitate to break the skull of a colleague because of a favorite thing or a bad mood ...