Baiting the Beast

TANG!

The reverberating sound was louder than he expected, making him tense. Quickly pulling the rivet back and gripping his bow, he froze, stifling his breath. Heavy footsteps echoed through the chamber, growing closer.

One of the massive gray-skinned creatures entered, its sheer size making Joseph’s heart hammer again.

From his vantage point, he studied the monster further, weighing if his simple bow could even stand a chance. Dubbing it an ‘orc’ purely because of its monstrously large frame, and lack of a better term, it resembled the fantasy usual archetype—a hulking humanoid with a bull-like frame—but its features mixed with something stranger, more primal.

Patches of ragged fur ran along its arms and stomach, coarse against the rough hide. Its muscular form radiated raw strength, yet the tufts of fur lent it a primal, almost feral look.

Fangs the size of daggers jutted from its gaping maw, framed by greasy, rope-like hair. Two sharp, curved horns protruded from its forehead, giving it a demonic sort of presence. It was as though an orc had been fused with a minotaur—and perhaps something even worse.

His mind raced as he analyzed its anatomy.

'The horns likely mean its skull and neck are reinforced, or at least tougher than expected. Getting a solid hit there’s unlikely. The throat may be a weak spot, but from this angle, hitting it cleanly is impossible. The chest looks very developed as well, lots of muscle, who knows how thick the hide is, and that’s not even considering bone structure. Without a corpse to study, I can’t even assume its heart is even in the same place as a human’s.'

He shifted focus lower. 'The back of the knees… possibly vulnerable, but at most it would only cripple its movement. If it calls reinforcements, I’m done for so killing blows are my only option.'

His gaze flicked to the heavy metal rivets stacked nearby.

'One of those could work. Dropped from high enough… it may get enough force to pierce its skull or hide. But setting that up without being noticed? Almost impossible… I mean, there’s a chance but…'

Exhaling slowly, he eased the grip on his bow.

'For now, I’ll observe. If one of those goblin-like creatures show up, I may stand a chance. Plus I would also be able to test out this bow properly, that would at least give me a baseline for how much damage I can actually do.'

So he watched the horned orc for nearly an hour as it lazily roamed in and out of sight. Once it finally left, he rested and began to carve a rough plan and schedule into the wall. With determination, he eventually moved onto training.

He pushed through an hour of squats, sit-ups, and other bodyweight drills to build core and leg strength. Then he switched to sword swings, his arms struggling with the weapon’s weight after the earlier workout. His balance wavered at first, but he pressed on, determined to adapt, it also helped that there was little else he could do.

After nearly ninety minutes of exercise, he rotated through his fruitless mana experiments. Using that extra time, to let his body recover in case he needed to run or fight, though with no food and very limited fluid sources, he wasn’t fully confident exercise was an optimal choice.

Retrying a short while later with the rope and rivet, he waited for the heavy footsteps to return. When another horned orc entered, and though his heart raced again, the initial fright faded quicker this time.

He loosened his grip on the bow and simply waited until it passed, before resuming his routine. He didn’t exactly know the endgame of his plan yet, so he could only hope a smaller creature came by eventually.

…

Waking up an unknown time later, he winced as his entire body ached, and his head throbbed with dehydration. He drank what little he could salvage from the floor until the pain eased, then turned to a less pleasant necessity.

Survival was rarely comfortable, but he managed as best he could with the few spare items he had. Afterwards, he tried the rivet bait again—another “failure,” as only a horned orc appeared. The cycle repeated: bait, training, mana practice, rest. Day after day, only the horned orc-like creatures came.

Hunger gnawed at him, his stomach churning as his skin tightened around his still-quite-large frame. Each sighting of the horned orc bred more and more doubt about his methods. Impulses to risk an attack grew stronger over time.

When he next awoke, he knew a decision had to be made.

'I’m no novel protagonist. I shouldn’t expect today to magically be different just because I’m desperate. My luck’s always been bad, and those goblin-creatures probably won’t come this close anyway…'

Drawing in a sharp breath, he steeled his nerves.

'I guess I have to risk it against an orc. A trap’s my only chance. I’ll drop one of the large rivets with a rope and pray it works. If it fails… I’m either finished or right back to square one.’

Resolved, he gathered all five of the largest rivets, each over a meter long. He tied one to a rope anchored at the strongest point he could find, leaving it dangling just at the edge of the scaffolding. The other four he set aside as a last resort.

His heart pounded as he stared at the setup.

'The sound alone could give me away. Even a small rivet echoed through the chamber. If this misses, I’ll draw every monster in the area… but this is the only shot I have.'

He gripped the rope tightly, trying to calm his racing pulse as he waited for his chance. Grabbing a few blood-soaked rags he let them fall into the target zone below, then released the small rivet.

Moments later, right on cue, a horned orc entered, sniffing the air and scanning its surroundings. Joseph’s pulse thundered in his ears. The creature paused near the lure, lowering its head toward the ragged scraps—but frustratingly stopped just outside the target zone.

His heart spiked. He grabbed a small pebble and dropped it close to the wall, hoping with everything he had. The faint clatter drew the beast’s attention as the small rock struck the ground in front of it. Slowly, the orc lumbered another step forward—just enough.

He swallowed hard, forcing his shaking hands to steady as he shifted the suspended rivet into position. Then… he let go.

The heavy metal screamed down, the rope whipping free as gravity did its work. The rivet struck with lucky precision, splitting through the orc’s skull and driving deep into its spine. The monster dropped like a felled tree, its massive frame twitching once before lying still, stuck completely straight.

Not wasting a moment, he lowered another set of rope with a crude noose tied at the end. Maneuvering carefully, he looped it around the orc’s head and braced himself, hauling upward with all his might. The noose cinched tight against the skull, locking in place as he began the agonizing process of dragging the corpse upward.

The weight was overwhelming. Sweat poured down his face as his arms and legs trembled, his footing slipping on the boards. His body screamed at him to give up, but the thought of food and water kept him clinging on, just slowly, inch by inch raising the corpse up.

His grip faltered, panic flooded in. In desperation, his mind raced for a solution. The answer struck like lightning.

"Status!"

A translucent screen flashed before him:

Name: Joseph

Class: Classless

Title: None

Level: 1 → 3

Vitality: 5
Strength: 4
Dexterity: 2
Agility: 1
Magic: 3

Available Stat Points: 0 → 20

Active Skills: None

Passive Skills: None