The First Open-World Hunt

It hadn't even been half a day since we left the city gate when the wagon came to a stop.

The bushes by the roadside rustled violently.

Green-skinned brutes suddenly appeared and blocked the wagon's path—a group of orcs armed with maces and axes resting on their shoulders.

These guys, who filled the role of bandits in this world, were some of the quintessential monsters that roamed the open world in groups and threatened travelers. We hadn't even gotten that far from Leator, yet the difficulty had suddenly risen from wolves to orcs.

I climbed down from the cargo bed and drew the heavy sword at my waist. I took up Physicalia, the magic sword Phila had finished attuning through the night.

"Graa. Graaak."

The orc leader raised his mace, and the orcs approached the wagon.

As an orc charged fiercely at my back and raised its axe high, an orc collapsed at my feet, smashing its face into the ground.

"I'll handle half."

"You can leave them all to me."...