Chapter 2084: Leaving the Dungeons

Althea could start the plan now and rescue these women. However, she might have to go against a village of orcs and half-orcs, and she could not handle that.

Further, even if her level in the other side’s population tab was just level 13, she was already twice that level in reality, so if she actually went aggressive and hurt a citizen, she would definitely be punished.

The system’s penalties were never light, and she’d never sacrifice herself for other people outside her family.

Not to mention, even if she tried, the girls behind her wouldn’t be able to.

Considering she was there also to figure out a few things, then going at this carelessly was counterproductive.

Even the two level-15 half-orcs who had mixed in with the homecoming party had to be careful. Their strength was not special here, and their main assignment was to explore the place. Virion had assigned them to their own mission, and Althea couldn’t really rely on them.

As for their ’scent’ (i.e. the lack of the local scent) they’d just bleed themselves to hide the difference. This could work well with half-orcs and orcs because they, as a race, had some similar components.

It wouldn’t work on Althea, a human, so she still had to pretend to be a slave.

They had a limited time window to stay within the territory, and the longer they stayed the higher the chance they’d do something that’d get them penalized.

The gap between cities and villages was too wide, after all, and the penalties and standards to trigger punishments were definitely different.

Besides, the Lord could see the levels, and a group of level 30 was definitely a flag. While they didn’t know how often orcs actually read the Lord’s panel, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Only Althea and Garan (who had a masking token, not that others knew of it), as well as the two half orcs, would be safe from initial look, and they just had to stay low-key so the current Lord wouldn’t be compelled to check the names and the private details listed there.

And Althea was low-key, indeed. She was even behaving well inside a dungeon, the kind with tiny holes and slits above their heads for light and breathing.

Althea studied her current setting as closely as she could, especially while there was still some light coming in.

The room was large and without partitions, and the women were either sitting against the wall, hugging their knees, or splayed out on the ground in fetal positions, reflecting the deep fear and insecurities in their hearts.

There was a long trough that was connected to the stairs outside and extended to about half of the room. Most of the girls were near this area, though there were also plenty of women who put as much distance as possible from the door.

Rather, most of the ’older’ women were there, as if afraid of getting ’picked’ next.

Seeing many women now, she knew she could not just risk delaying even a day and letting them experience horrendous things, especially since it could really kill them.

Orc males were massive. No human woman touched by them would leave unscathed. It would be lucky if they didn’t become invalids after a few times.

After a while, an odd fragrance emanated. The listless women simply kept their eyes closed, entering deeper into slumber, while those awake started feeling a bit dizzy.

They instinctively looked for places to rest their bodies. Once they did, they would also fall into a state of deep sleep.

A few minutes later, emerald eyes opened up. Unlike the slumbering women, hers was filled with sharpness.

She looked around and observed the smoke settling down on the ground, confirming that none of the women were exempt from its effects.

This was sleeping smoke. Since she was dealing with village-level people, then there was no need to use her more expensive versions with very limited stocks, her standard low-level ones sufficed.

After confirming everyone was asleep, she then took out her green ’virus’ soap— the one that caused fake blisters—and then surrounded it with her water ability.

She increased the volume of her water ball and created an internal whirlpool that made it look like a transparent washing machine.

The soap melted, and bubbles were created, expanding the one-meter or so diameter sphere even further.

She passed this bubbly water ball over the slumbering women. It didn’t matter which part of their bodies it touched. Anyway, this wasn’t too diluted, so the effects were obvious.

Whether it slipped over their arms, their legs, or their heads, the effect was still disgusting. She could only hope the women’s psyche wouldn’t be so weak as to hurt themselves after it.

Yes, she decided to do something similar to how they rescued the slaves in Voumi back then.

What happened in Voumi wasn’t actually publicized, as it was too humiliating for Mafo and his cronies. Publicly, they just mentioned they had been scammed by someone from a powerful territory.

After Rowan took over, they kept the perception that way. They even subtly reinforced the false narrative.

They liked to keep as many cards as they could. Trying to hide what happened back then as if it never happened would be counterproductive; it would make enemies want to focus resources on researching it even more.

On the other hand, creating a misleading narrative from a branch of truth was much more effective.

Even if what happened was revealed (and it did spread to several ears), this place was pretty much on the other side of the globe, and they would not be equated together.

Of course, she’d have to fix this earlier in case they were the type to burn the illness.

Soon, the bubbly water ran out, with the last women only receiving sprinkles. However, even so, one could see rashes forming over their arms, and they looked quite disgusting.

Anyway, seeing as her job was done, Althea reckoned it was time for her to investigate more. Althea gently knocked on the door but there was nary a sound on the other side. The guard either ignored them or was slacking off.

She sighed and knocked repeatedly until the guards entered. There were two of them. The moment the door opened, her leisurely appearance cracked to a pitiful one.

Althea suddenly acted like she was dying. "We...we are all ill," she said. "Odd disease...our village... must...leave..."

Cough

Cough cough

The guards blinked and entered deeper into the dungeons, and only then did they see that not only was everyone asleep, they also had disgusting pus on their bodies!

"This—"

"What in the world—"

However, before the guards could even leave the room, the slumbering smoke reached their noses, making them feel groggy, and a shadow appeared behind them, finishing the move and knocking them unconscious.

Although they were also village-level, orcs had very different physiques, so extra hits had to be made.

If they were still troublesome, vines were prepared to strangle them. However, she didn’t want to risk it in case she triggered a penalty. Even her hits couldn’t show unnatural bruises or bumps. This was why she allowed them to fall down heavily, so their bumps and bruises had a source.

She’d rather have them believe no one attacked them so that the illness was more believable.

After this, she took one of the guards’ leather vests and wore it underneath the old-looking robe she was wearing. This was to get the ’local scent’ on her.

From what she had seen, this place did not have human visitors. So, if Althea walked around without the ’local scent’ on her, she might be tagged as a suspicious individual.

Althea headed out after locking the door, joining the other villagers. She appeared humble but had freedom to move around outside.

She hunched her back and looked down, her hair covering much of her face but showing enough of her scar.

Her eyes were sharp as she looked onto the large and dense village with bipedal beasts walking around, able to tear people in half.

The Humans here were all slaves, so she naturally could not be found walking around as if she owned the place. She certainly could not go around and ask for information directly.

Instead, she used a variation of the [Woodland Camouflage] skill.

She slowly improved on it because it was just too silly to use, but its functionality was indeed excellent.

Another issue was the orcs’ sense of smell, which was troublesome if she wanted to be hidden. There was no need to worry about that either because she just had to spray a special stealth potion that she made using wood elements.

This was inspired by Misha and was taught by her at some point.

Misha’s ability was mutated wood and had special effects. Althea naturally couldn’t do the exact thing, but her proficiency and pure strength in the element allowed her to mimic a few of its effects.

Basically, mind control was impossible, but creating specific scents—as long as Althea knew the composition, which wasn’t difficult for her—was not much of a problem.