After scratching his head for a bit, Abel decided that he would act as a decoy for the second time. As the mount wolf king started running, the blue falcon quickly took notice of him.
Meanwhile, a worgen scout was screaming over the distance. The troop he was in was relatively small, with about ten other orcs that were looking to retrieve the war drum.
A head wolfrider captain asked, “Did you find that wizard?”
The scout replied, “Yes, but he’s left his team with his mount wolf king. He was going east before, now…. He’s gone?”
The head wolfrider captain kept his composure, “Keep watching out for him, soldier. He’s probably hiding somewhere, so it’s best if you wait for him to come out.”
Usually, this same head wolfrider captain would’ve yelled at the scout for losing sight of the target. Things were different this time, however. The scout wasn’t one of his own, but someone that they borrowed from their clan. After losing the war drum, they were forced to use all they had to get their war drum back.
At the same time, Abel looked up towards the blue falcon and smiled. He didn’t care that it was watching. It’s not like they were going to go after him right away, so he just went on to examine the stuff he scavenged yesterday.
He set up a seclusion circle next to him, and the mount wolf king sat and rested. The first thing he decided to check on was the orc war drum. He wasn’t too sure of what it could do, but seeing how desperate the orcs were for it, it must’ve been of extraordinary value to them.
As soon as the war drum was taken out of the bone-made portal bag, a huge pile of death qi swarmed inside the seclusion circle. Abel wasn’t too worried, though. If anything, it was the death qi that should be afraid of him. It was the same for the mount wolf king. It was born in the Orc Empire, after all.
With a close look, Abel could tell that the war drum’s frame was made with rib bones. The upper and lower end was secured with spines, whereas the head of the drum was made with skins that were filled with death qi. As someone who had mastered the “resurrection of skeleton” spell, Abel had a good understanding of what these bones could do.
Take the ribs, for example. They were probably taken straight from the bodies of advanced priests. Also, judging from the amount of ominous aura that he was sensing, the way the priests died must’ve been both painful and extremely unpleasant. There was no way that it was from natural causes, but there really wasn’t a lot of things that could kill advanced priests.
From its size, the drum should take about at least ten advanced priests to complete. Without at least one thousand years, it would’ve been impossible to gather all the materials that were needed.
With a quick scan of his power of the Will, Abel found a marking that was supposed to indicate who the drum’s owner was. It was sealed with the owner’s own power of the Will, but it didn’t take much for his 240 power of the Will point to break through its defense. Soon, he was able to overwrite the seal and turn the drum into his.
A notification was suddenly sent to his brain. It was an instruction manual on how to use the orc war drum. Unlike the humans, orcs didn’t really have schools, so this was their way of passing down knowledge to their successors.
One of the orc priests started screaming on top of his lungs. Because of what Abel did, his dry, wrinkled face became even paler than before.
“My marking! Someone erased it!” he screamed hatefully.
“Can you tell where it is?” the head wolfrider captain asked. If they weren’t fast enough, the war drum would just fall into that human wizard’s hands.
The orc priest said with certainty, “The drum is still on the battlefield! We must go and get it!”
The head wolfrider captain nodded, “Yes, we will. As long as it is still here, we’ll have the chance to find someone that has it.”
Right now, the blue falcon could find the seclusion circle that Abel was hiding in. It couldn’t actually see him, though, so it had no idea of what he was doing.
Unbeknownst to the orcs, Abel was having a great time checking on the war drum. He was just starting to figure out what it’s used for. As a weapon that targeted the mind, beating this drum would mean cursing on those who had heard its noise. The further the sound, the stronger its effect would be.
When the orcs used the war drum, they would often have someone strong to hit it as hard as possible. This way, they could bring out the max power of the curse effect.
After taking out the drum hammers, Abel touched the drum head to see how durable it was. Usually, the orcs would be much stronger than the humans, but he was a whole new league above the vast majority of them. He wouldn’t want to destroy something like this with his monstrous muscles. That being said, without piercing the head with a legendary spear or something, it’d be very difficult to destroy this ten-thousand-year item.
With one hammer in each of his hands, Abel looked towards the blue falcons in the sky. He wanted it to be his very first target. The drum’s noise had a maximal range of fifteen miles, and the curse effect worked best within a ten miles radius.
“Drums! Cover your ears, men!” Head Commander Edi warned his team members.
K3303 said in doubt, “Wait, it’s not targeted at us.”
“Could it be K3516 that’s doing this?” K3305 asked.
K3308 nodded with certainty, “You bet it is! Now that he’s using it, I’m going to ask him to teach me how to use it when he gets back.”
Head Commander Bodley pointed towards the sky, “Look, you all! Look at that blue falcon!”