Althea, Garan, and the others arrived back to the territory, feeling heavy. Althea didn't even bother fighting when Garan carried her to the bathroom so they could bathe together.
The lovemaking was particularly wild in the bathroom and she reckoned it had to do with him being reminded of that accident again.
He had been trying to comfort her, but it was no doubt he was a little anxious.
It had to be said that Althea knew her husband well. Garan was indeed anxious—reminded of his childhood helplessness—and he wondered if Fargo was as big as he was to the young him.
Even if he was big and strong now, a part of him worried if the strength gap was still just as big.
Inevitably, he also looked for comfort, and he also wanted to feel Althea's presence more—causing a very strong libido.
About half an hour later, Garan calmed a bit, gently washing her legs under the water. Relaxed, Althea's neck rested on his generous chest, and she looked at her panel to see what she could prepare immediately.
She looked at her many golds and how much she probably earned from the aborigines alone.
With this, the husband and wife planned the max defenses in her next upgrade.
There was a limit in the manpower they could mobilize, but she could make the territory and buildings themselves as powerful as they could get—at the very least, as impenetrable to their enemies as possible.
She even decided to add level five walls on small spots within the territory. This way she would have sentries in the middle of the territory, acting as watchtowers.
But… looking at her husband, hugging her tightly, particularly in heat, she decided to defer it until later.
Fortunately, she would remember to put them out before a war.
….
At this time, Gochi and Amos were following the mysterious group of people.
Amos was actually thinking that Gochi was maybe overreacting at first, but then they followed them long enough to see that it wasn't the case.
One of the notable things about system buildings was that they had much better insulation than others—probably due to everyone's improved hearing—and was therefore made it much harder for them to eavesdrop.
It was just that Gochi had very sharp hearing and Amos could read lips—a skill he developed growing up in his environment—so they could actually catch parts of what these people were saying.
They soon confirmed that these people were hostile, speaking about where the wells were and which parties seemed greediest. They also spoke of when to cause chaos and how to maximize their kills.
Then they heard the word Fargo a few times and they knew exactly where these people were from.
Speaking of, the two of them had to wear large cloaks bought at the fabric store because they—especially Gochi—were just too eye-catching.
They listened well, thinking they were very subtle. For a while, they seemed to have succeeded, until—
"Gochi! Amos!" The two flinched when they were called. It was Mimi, being energetic as always.
"Shhhh!"
"Shhhh!"
Mimi blinked, mimicking the two men, "Shhh!"
She had seen her favorite fox tail below the table, and immediately recognized the two. She liked Gochi very much and, because they were in a restaurant, she thought he was on a break or something.
"Quiet," Amos said, quietly, as he covered her mouth before she said anything else.
The little girl nodded. Such secrecy excited her very much.
"Watcha doin?" She asked, but in a semi-whisper she thought was quiet.
Amos tried to hold down an exasperated sigh. "Don't talk anymore," he said, "I'm trying to catch bad guys."
The little girl's eyes widened at the word, extremely excited. "Bad guys?!" She squealed behind his hand, but then immediately shut her mouth when she realized what she said.
They heard a clutter and saw the men had already stood up and left, probably hearing the commotion.
The men were very fast, expertly waving through the crowd. They very quickly disappeared from their line of sight and Amos cursed a little.
Unfortunately for the suspicious men, Gochi also had a very good sense of smell and the two immediately ran out to follow to the right direction.
"Here—" Gochi said, though he just went straight in the direction. Amos immediately ran after him, though struggling to follow.
It took Gochi a couple of minutes but he soon found them among the crowd. With a soft growl, Gochi immediately lunged—pretty much teleporting above them.
The enemies noticed too late when a shadow already loomed over them.
BANG!
The next thing they knew, they were already stepped on by a massive 'man'.
"WHAT!"
"AH!"
They tried getting up but they were all punched down, and they felt too dizzy to do anything. Then they felt a massive impact and they realized they were punched dizzy before they could absorb what was happening.
BANG!
BANG!
While the spies were being confused, the move fell under many bypassers' eyes.
"So… cool."
"I didn't know you could beat people up in the territory," said a new arrived person, and he was answered by the stranger next to him.
"Guards can, apparently."
"Another reason to aim for it."
They were not wrong, and Althea paid a hefty sum to add this exception in the rules and regulations tab.
Of course, there were plenty of others who were alarmed by the show of violence.
"It's a little scary though?"
"Yeah… what if a guard decided to hurt someone?"
While the crowd whispered, Amos finally appeared in the scene.
Amos' eyes twitched as he looked at Gochi beating up the men (holding punches, obviously) and he looked at the bystanders who donned different expressions on their faces. He cleared his throat to explain the violence.
"They're spies from Fargo!" he said, "They were planning on poisoning our wells!"
"WHAT?"
At this, all the doubts were gone and if food wasn't so precious here, they'd have thrown some to the men's faces. Someone even wanted to join in hurting the men when he was held back.
"You're not a guard. Wanna go to prison?"
"Ah, right."
"Let's get those slots this time!"
"Yeah!"
In the meantime, while citizens fantasize on beating them up, the men could only passively accept the beating. Gochi was holding back his punches a lot, otherwise they'd be dead by now. At the same time, he also knew how to hurt them most and the men were dizzy in pain.
Even when they were hauled up, they could barely absorb anything, and only snapped out of it a bit when they were already being tied.
They were specialized ropes (since metal was still too expensive at this time) that were knotted in a way that'd get tighter the more one struggled.
"WHAT?!"
"LET US GO! PTOOEY!" Another one yelled, then spitting out loose tooth.
"WHAT IS THIS?"
They lost their voice when the big man from before loomed over them.
Then they saw his sharp fangs and tails, his sharp beastly eyes sending shivers down their spine.
Not a human!
They hadn't been in Altera long enough to know most of the details. They didn't know there was an orc here, and seeing such an odd creature naturally shook them.
They were pulled towards somewhere in a daze, for some reason unable to move as if paralyzed, except their feet were moving.
Some people thought the men were just scared, but they forgot these were terrorists who had blood on their hands.
They could be shaken by Gochi, but scared to utter obedience? Of course not.
This was thanks to Gochi's orc skill—Partial Paralysis.
Orcs and half-orcs would gain one Orc-skill after reaching level 10. This was Gochi's, though it hadn't been very useful before.
It was a skill that had a success chance of 20%, but for some reason, it worked well at this time.
He might not be able to decide what would be paralyzed, but since the men were so shocked at his appearance, it was their mouths or their will to fight that had been affected.
While they were being hauled somewhere, the men could only watch their own bodies move, unsure what fate would meet them.