The Knight King Who Returned with God

Groktar, a warrior of the Blade-Axe Tribe, began his morning feeling refreshed.

"Khahahaha! Groktar crushed Galdin's skull!"

"That was a glorious strike with your axe, brother!"

Groktar offered a prayer for his fellow tribesman, whose skull he had split earlier that morning in a quarrel.

"You died fighting bravely, so the God of War will send you to the eternal battlefield."

After blessing the corpse of his fallen kin, Groktar headed to the river. To commemorate his honorable victory, he dipped a ladle into the river and drank.

"Groktar! Are you Groktar of the Blade-Axe Tribe?!"

A voice called out from across the river. It was an orc from a rival tribe—the Ironfist Tribe—one of their enemies in the current blood feud to decide the next High Chief of the plains.

"That's me! And who are you?"

"My name is Valbata! Valbata of the Ironfist Tribe!"

"Alright, Valbata! What is it you want?"

"Fight me! I will defeat you and bring glory to my name!"

"Hrmm, very well! Draw your axe!"

Groktar split Valbata's skull and drank the ale of victory.

Around him were many orcs like Valbata—challengers who had come to drink from the river, issued duels, and been defeated.

Maybe that's why...

"Hmm. The water tastes a bit strange today."

It had a faint sting, a slight itch—something about it just didn't sit right. But it was the only drinking water source available, so he couldn't be picky.

Groktar filled his water buckets and returned to the tribe.

And that's when the tragedy began.

Groktar soon realized his body was rapidly deteriorating.

Before lunchtime, he began losing sensation, blacking out multiple times.

Radiation in the water was destroying water molecules inside his body, generating an excess of reactive oxygen species.

Hydroxyl radicals, generated in large quantities, were destroying his cells in real time. A metallic taste filled his mouth—his taste buds had been disrupted.

In less than an hour, all the hair on his body had fallen out. He began vomiting, bleeding, and felt overwhelming fatigue.

His body felt as heavy as stone, his vision spun, and he could barely see.

"Urrgh... Shaman... get me the shaman..."

Groktar crawled out of his tent, pleading for help. But what he saw were dozens of his brothers, all suffering the same symptoms.

"Guooorgh..."

"Shaman...! Get the shaman...!"

They sought out the tribe's shaman—a man who normally ignored injuries in favor of enhancement tattoos—and begged him to lift what they believed was a curse.

"W-what...?! I don't know what this is! I've never seen anything like it!"

But even a shaman was helpless.

This wasn't a curse or spell.

It was the result of drinking from a river contaminated with highly concentrated radioactive material.

It was only because of the orcs' naturally durable bodies that they were even surviving this long—any other creature would've died just from the contaminated blood the orcs had vomited.

As the orcs on the plains died one by one from radiation poisoning...

"Glory to Lionheart!"

Dagdak dagdak!

The thunderous sound of a holy steed echoed across the plains, and a lance pierced straight through the orc shaman's torso.

"Urgh!"

The impaled shaman tried to cast a spirit spell against the assailant, but was thrown to the ground, rolling across the dirt.

"Exterminate these beasts! Don't let a single one escape!"

With a booming shout, the Hunters stormed the orc camp.

"F-Free experience points! Kill them all!"

"Can't believe it's this easy to take down orcs!"

The hunters, whistling as they witnessed a kind of orc death they'd never seen before, proceeded to slaughter the orcs one by one.

It wasn't a battle—it was a massacre. A cold-blooded extermination.

"Um... Your Majesty."

"What is it, Hari?"

"W-Will we be alright? If we kill orcs contaminated with radiation... we'll be exposed too."

"You mean the toxic substance? There's nothing to worry about."

Leon wasn't ignorant of radiation's dangers.

Yafi had thoroughly explained its effects, and how potent it was—enough to wipe out the orcs of the plains.

That's why Yafi had proposed contaminating the river and then waiting by the gate entrance.

"It doesn't matter. If the toxin is that strong, resting and eating crops blessed by Demera will cleanse us. More importantly, anyone under my banner gains the power to 'resist contamination.'"

"...Haha."

So... what happens to the quest, then? The dungeon's clearing conditions were completely shattered. At that moment, a message popped up in front of Hari.

[You have turned the entire Orc Tribal Alliance into enemies. You are now the public enemy of the orcs.]

"Wh—!"

Quest change?

This was the first time Hari had ever seen a given quest change mid-progress. He checked the quest log.

[Hidden Quest: Exterminate all orcs in the field.]

"Y-Your Majesty! The quest... has changed."

Upon hearing Hari's report, the Lionheart King smiled with deep satisfaction.

"Excellent! At last, true justice has been established! Soldiers of Lionheart! The time has come to bring forth light and justice!"

There were still hundreds of orcs remaining. Leon fully intended to slaughter every last one of them.

───!!

Then it happened. In the heart of the orc encampment, where the tribes had gathered, something ominous began to stir.

The sky turned a sickly green.

"What is that?"

Leon, riding his Stallion, galloped toward the disturbance. There, he saw a group of orcs gathered.

"You! It was you! You're the one who cursed the river!"

Hundreds of sick and dying orcs, and in their midst, an orc shaman in a robe. The shaman glared at Leon and the hunters with bloodshot eyes filled with tears of rage.

"You vile wretches! Cowards! And you call yourselves warriors?!"

The orc shaman wept blood at the sight of his kin dying in such horrific agony.

Orcs were a race closer to death than any other. But this—this wasn't right.

Such disgraceful deaths were unacceptable.

"Ha."

Leon scoffed at the orcs' cries, as if the entire scene were ridiculous.

"Absurd. Beasts dare speak of honor?"

The gaze of a beast screaming in rage—filthy and base. To even meet such eyes was an insult to Leon.

"The noble countenance of the Lionheart King is not something for beasts to behold. Even if you bathed in blood and had your eyes gouged out alive, it would still be an unforgivable crime."

At Leon's chillingly cold judgment, the orcs trembled.

"I should at least give you a chance to curse your miserable selves and die in shame, filthy beasts."

"You arrogant wretch! Gokrak will not forgive you!"

At that moment, green light gleamed in the shaman's eyes, and a destructive energy burst forth.

"The beast casts forbidden sorcery!"

Leon didn't wait for the energy to finish building. He raised his holy lance and threw it at the shaman.

Several orcs rushed to shield the shaman, but the might of Leon's superhuman throw pierced them all, striking the shaman in the gut.

"Guhk! It's... already too late!"

The shaman had poured his very life force into the spell. The ritual succeeded. Space tore open.

"Gokrak is descending...! Our great shaman god will punish you all!"

Like a gate to hell itself, a pitch-black pit split through space. A massive exhalation from within began sucking everything into its depths.

"For the Shaman God!"

"For our fallen brothers!"

The orcs did not resist—they willingly threw themselves into the abyss.

"Y-Your Majesty! What is that thing!?"

"A live sacrifice, it seems. Beasts, through and through. So uncivilized."

"..."

"..."

Hari and the other hunters cast dull, sideward glances at Leon. They had many things they wanted to say... but they bit their tongues.

"Look upon it! Behold the mighty right arm and eye of Gokrak!"

[Hidden Quest: Repel the Orc Shaman God, Gokrak.]

Orcs are a mysterious race from another realm, with unclear origins.

Their traits are simple:

They are violent, love to fight, and have exceptional reproductive ability.

Though scorned as savage beasts, even orcs have gods.

One of the Three Great Orc Gods—Gokrak, the Shaman God.

He responded to the desperate summoning of an orc shaman who had inherited his wisdom.

It took hundreds of living sacrifices and thousands of orc souls just to summon one arm and a single eye.

And Gokrak saw it—within his blazing green eye, he saw the butcher of the orcs.

With his summoned mouth, he spoke:

[An intolerable existence. Must be eradicated.]

Gokrak's eye shone brightly and fired a green ray—targeting Leon.

But it was blocked.

The Blessing of the Shielding Arrow, a sacred spell that blocks a single ranged attack, intercepted the strike from Gokrak's gaze.

"[A being like me is granting you protection. Who is the god that protects you?]"

Gokrok realized that the force which had blocked his power belonged to a transcendent being. Though it came from a different dimension, it piqued his interest—something that could oppose his power.

"A being like you...?"

But Leon's reaction was dramatic. Even before a godlike entity, it wasn't fear or hesitation that surfaced—but fury.

All warmth vanished from his fresh smile, leaving only immense killing intent and rage.

"A filthy thing like you dares to call yourself a god just because you're the chieftain of beasts?! KRAAAAAAAAH!"

Leon's brilliance flared. Stallion reared with a powerful cry and charged forward, the holy sword in Leon's hand.

"You vile beast! This Lionheart King shall never permit your existence!"

Leon's sword gleamed. As when he had poured holy water on it earlier, layers of radiant light gathered from all directions.

"[A mere mortal dares...!]"

Gokrok's right arm came crashing down on Leon. The sheer mass of it was a force of destruction. At the sight of the 20-meter-long arm descending upon Leon and Stallion, Hari and the Hunters were shaken.

"Y-Your Majesty?!"

But Leon charged ahead unfazed. His sword shone brilliantly.

The Holy Sword—granted by the deity of light and justice to his first knight—possessed more than just indestructibility.

Radiant Holy Sword—an eternal, dazzling symbol. This sword could cut through anything in existence.

"[What...?!]"

Gokrok's voice faltered with shock. It was understandable—even though it was only an incarnation, a mere mortal had severed his arm.

And the trait of the Holy Grail Knight: their sacred sword carried divine laws. A conceptual power that delivered true damage to anything it struck.

Even a divine incarnation would see its true body wounded if struck by this sword.

"[GRAAAAAAGH...!]"

"G-Gokrok, my lord?!"

The god cried out in pain. The orc shaman panicked.

"[Grrr... You...! So it was you... The orc butcher... the demon slayer!]"

Gokrok identified the attacker. Though of a different dimension, his reputation was so feared among demons that they trembled at his name. A demigod from a nightmare world where even the highest-ranked demons under the god of knowledge and curiosity had perished.

"[I shall retreat... but you shall pay dearly for your arrogance.]"

With those words, Gokrok withdrew his incarnation and returned to his own dimension. The orc shaman was left dumbfounded, having sacrificed thousands of orc souls to summon a god who had now vanished.

"L-Lord Gokrok... Lord Gokrok!"

Leon approached the shaman. The shadow cast over him made the shaman tremble.

"So this is the extent of the gods of you trash beasts."

"Y-You insolent...!"

The shaman couldn't even finish his words—Leon's holy sword cleaved off his head.

The orc shaman's head rolled, and Leon stared down at it with scorn.

"Tch, the beasts put up quite a struggle. You things were never meant to live."

[You have completed all hidden quests.]

All participants are granted the trait "Orc Hunter."

All participants are granted the trait "Man-at-Arms of the War Knight."

The Hunters were left speechless at the traits awarded. Traits were rare and precious to Hunters. While it was believed that repeated or specific actions could unlock them, receiving two traits as rewards?

This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.

[Orc Hunter]

Deal 30% additional damage against orcs.

[Man-at-Arms of the War Knight]

When fighting alongside a War Knight, gain 20% physical resistance.

And those stats were no joke. Though the orc-specific trait was somewhat situational, the 30% bonus was massive. And the War Knight trait? It granted 20% physical resistance—something usually reserved for tank-type Hunters, now granted to everyone.

"Holy shit... Jackpot."

As Koo Daeseong and the other Hunters stared blankly at their rewards, Leon shouted:

"Collect the spoils! Move quickly!"

Snapping back to their senses, the Hunters nodded. That's right—loot still remained.

Over 4,000 orcs had been slain. Even if orc-themed Gates were considered low-tier, that many orcs meant a mountain of loot.

With the dungeon's clearing conditions met, they needed to gather all the remaining items before the Gate closed.

"Hurry up! Prioritize high-ranking warriors and elites! Strip all shaman gear, no exceptions!"

"Ugh... If they'd died cleanly, a warlord's heart could've made a killer item..."

"Think radiated hearts are still usable?"

"Who knows? They said the holy rice would purify the radiation. Let's just haul it all out!"

The Hunters scattered across the plains with greedy eyes.

-Kkiruk!

Unlike the others, Hari and Yafi stayed behind. Hari wasn't interested in loot, and Yafi's focus lay elsewhere.

"Um, Your Majesty... What should we do about this?"

Hari pointed to the massive severed limb nearby.

The dismembered arm of the orc god Gokrok.

Even after Gokrok had closed the dimensional gate, it remained in the world.