The answer was of course! It was a horrible decision. W was not stupid enough to fall for something that simple, he was Ed, an ex-human. That being said… whoever captured him must have thought differently.
'I can't think too much or it will be suspicious' W decided to fake it until he made it, in a more literal use of the term.
If he started walking straight towards the settlement whoever might be watching would know the direction which could help narrow or simply point directly at their target. At that point, he could be easily eliminated.
He wasn't strong enough to fight the assassin, though he couldn't ascertain that they were behind this, this left him no other option than to seek or wait for help.
'Then…' A smile secretly crept up at the corners of W's lips.
"HAHAHAHAHA" As to not make it suspicious he then let out boisterous laughter and gave the human a middle finger as well as made other obscene gestures. W was performing an exaggerated role of an orc.
Eon who was watching the orc from within a separate space was invisibly pissed off. W couldn't see him after all.
'I'll take him to Blurak' The tried and true strategy of the weak. If you are not strong enough then get somebody else to fight for you! It also just so happened that Ed hadn't seen Blurak in a serious battle so it wouldn't be detrimental to him in any way.
'You'll regret underestimating me' W dashed off like an arrow released from a string. The speed was unprecedented for an injured orc but W knew he was making a sacrifice.
His actions needed to follow a certain sequence. Stall, stop, continue, stall again, into the ogre's den!
Unbeknownst to W, Eon had no qualms with this arrangement. He did have a qualm with W however. Eon vowed to kill off the wild beast as soon as it took him to the desired location.
***
As the ideas continued to pour out, Ed listened silently. He was thinking about W, he was worried.
'We will only be on the offensive at this rate' The issue with that was of course that if W was still alive by this point chances were he wouldn't be any longer. W would be killed and while there was a chance for him to acquire the part from this distance he would rather not bet on it.
'Then how do I prevent that?' The current plans involved large overhauls and adding shining toys like the cannons Vorgarag made. These would be signs of life as well as signs of readiness.
"We need to be more lowkey" Ed said suddenly causing the others who were discussing to pause and give him weird looks.
The current plan was to make use of guerilla warfare to windle down the human troops. This required terraforming certain areas to make them more cluttered or in rare cases the opposite. Of course, there was also the option of not doing these things but it would limit their creativity.
Ed suggesting this meant that there were some benefits to this trade-off, however. Which Ed couldn't deny, there were benefits.
'The main benefit is me' W gets to survive. W was himself. He was only looking out for himself with that suggestion.
"The element of surprise is a powerful tool, we can't waste it by firing at the first chance" Ed added. His words contained some truth, the others only shared glances.
The current plan was to lure the humans towards carefully laid out traps in the settlement until finally making it to the would-be new walls. On those walls would be cannons set up by Vorgarag. The details about these traps were still rather vague but it was nonetheless a solid plan.
"You are not wrong... but what are you suggesting? That we power up the lethality of our first strike?" Vorgarag asked not entirely keen on the idea. This gave Ed the impression that Vorgarag was trying to go against him on purpose which was simply weird.
"That's a good start but it's not just lethality, it's incapacity." Ed found that this was an important distinction. By incapacitating the adventurers the lethality would only then depend on their efforts.
"...A giant pitfall?" Dakgu asked dumbly not entirely sure of what Ed could be getting at.
"Yes! But no…" The humans would be too used to looking for pitfalls after the unsavory experiences Ed put them all through.
The meeting continued for what most would consider a long while but the end result was nothing. With Vorgarag going against him and the other invitees simply watching from the side the end result was nothing got done.
"If we are building a wall the decision can't be delayed" Bulwud warned, the sun would soon reach noon but they had yet to finish. Bulwud's butt felt stiff from sitting for so long.
"Sigh… We'll build the wall but first…" Ed stood up from his seat. He started to bring out sets of fine orc iron armor.
"I made armor" Ed said gauging the looks of the orcs. For one they were unsure of when he got to measure their sizes, was there a chance that the armor didn't fit?
The women were usually the only ones worried about this but Bulwud had convinced himself he was packing some serious muscles. All the hard work on construction would give that result, even if not as exaggerated as what was shown in Bulwud's mind.
Ed found this to be a non-issue. The standard armor was made in different sizes so there were many options. For the likes of Sharog and Vorgarag however, he made separate arrangements.
[ Enchanted Runite Armor]
{ A set of armor made for the orc Vorgarag, the armor contains key traces of runite and was enchanted with strength. }
[ Widow's Robe ]
{ A black robe made using the silk of different arachnids. The compound silk contains magic absorbing capabilities. }
[Thunder Cry (Armor)]
{ A set of armor made for the orc Dakgu, the armor boasts extreme flexibility thanks to the scavenged harpy feathers infused into the fine orc iron design. }
Dakgu's armor was pretty much a speed variant of the general use armor sets. Vorgarag's armor boasted both magic power and strong defense while Sharog's spider silk robe contained strong magic absorption. These were Ed's masterpieces.
Shel who had long since been bored by the meeting finally showed signs of life. She knew it was too good to be true! Seeing the armor sets caused her to sober up once more, she needed to stop her hope from being pointlessly reignited.
"These are really awesome, but why bring them so suddenly?" Sharog asked as she caressed the smooth black robe.
"We need to plan how to distribute sets of armor to the orcs as well as take them into consideration for our plans" Ed only made armor that night but an increase in defense power was enough to positively affect their chances.
Dakgu who was admiring the simple and light set of armor Ed had given him decided it was his time to offer assistance.
"Ummm… The boar den is visited often so... distributing the armor as they come for lunch might be a good idea…" That was what Dakgu said somewhat quietly.
"Good idea" Ed said leaving the matter to him. As long as Dakgu didn't forget to distribute it he could focus on his next task, making weapons. But given the pressing situation, he would probably only be able to do that for those present.
After some more fine-tuning, the group was surprisingly able to finish their brainstorming and officially begin their plans.
'It's almost like I bribed them' Ed thought to himself before starting to head out towards Blurak's cavern.
'My blood supply is getting low' The Alivio herbs were also planted there so he had to go back eventually. His materials weren't inexhaustible After moving to the sacred tribe the path to the ogre cavern was never rebuilt so the orcs had stopped mining for crystals, not that there was much left, as well as retrieving the herbs.
'I can't make such a large array without sufficient blood' The meeting had Ed talk to Vorgarag about getting him better materials for formations which meant revealing the ogre blood. This blood was more powerful than that of boars and would help reduce the chances of failure so Vorgarag demanded lots of it.
Ed dashed off out of the settlement but he didn't forget to do some assimilating.
[Mana +23]
He was searching for an increase in attack power rather than defense so assimilating a tree would be wasteful. The last time Ed was forced to play around with Samuel causing the death of Vorgarag.
Luckily, the system was almighty. Otherwise, he would lose what was one of his only true friends in the hostile environment that was the dungeon.
'...something's wrong with Vorgarag' This thought led Ed to think back on his experiences with the fellow and while he had always been a confident one Ed couldn't say he was overly so.
Vorgarag would also go against him often but he couldn't recall him ever being that aggressive. Something had to be wrong with Vorgarag.
'I need to quickly collect the blood and come back' It would be bad for them to suffer from some sort of internal conflict at the moment of truth. Therefore, Ed had to get back quickly.. Which he didn't doubt he was capable of doing.