Aftermath

Everything that followed went smoothly. The defeated Red Eye Tribe Orks were barely any better than blind Snotlings, running around the wasteland in blind confusion before being caught and beaten down one after another. Of course, not every pursuer did things that way. Green Tooth and his Squig cavalry only knocked their enemies down, then dipped their hands in white paint and pressed handprints onto their chests or backs. If they were willing to surrender, they got beaten a little less severely.

No matter what, the expeditionary force sent by the Red Eye Tribe had been completely wiped out. The Orks who made it back alive would inevitably face Agugu's wrath, so most of those lucky enough not to die or get captured fled to other tribes. By the time Agugu learned the news, nearly fifteen days had passed.

"Lu Cha, that useless git! Aluba too! You're all useless!!!!"

After venting his rage meaninglessly and using the blade-claws on his left hand to cut all the cowards who had fled back into pieces, Agugu calmed down a little. Though he desperately wanted to gather everyone at once, destroy that damned White Hand Tribe, and chop off Guk's head, reality would not allow it. The neighboring Biting Blade Tribe and Blood Skull Tribe had both recently noticed unusual movements on his side, forcing him to keep stirring things up around the humans and put on the appearance that he was about to launch a Waaagh!

If he did not send out the entire tribe at this time, then even moving half the Orks would immediately alert those two damned nuisances. At that point, forget the Waaagh! Whether this tribe could even continue existing would become a question.

Agugu pondered for a long time, only to grow angrier the more he thought. According to the Orks who had returned, the White Hand Tribe had lured them beneath the fortress, then used the fortress's long-range firepower to strike them while arranging an ambush on the flanks. Even Agugu himself found it difficult to fight such a battle. If he sent Orks over again, their numbers would need to increase severalfold, and he would have to lead them personally. Thinking of this, Agugu could not help cursing Lu Cha viciously again.

A hundred thousand Orks—was that a lot? Was it too few? Agugu himself had no real sense for numbers, but he could clearly see the losses in equipment.

"Boss! We gotta hit back!"

"Krump those bastards!"

Before Agugu could speak, the bosses below began clamoring.

"Shut up!"

Agugu irritably smashed a huge barrel of liquor onto the ground, then swept his vicious gaze over every boss and shouted:

"I'm definitely gonna kill that white Freak Boy! But before that, we need more Orks! More Big Choppas, more Big Shootas! Nose-Pusher, Cha Big Hammer! You two go to the Biting Blade Tribe and Blood Skull Tribe. Tell them the White Hand Tribe has ties to the human Shrimp, and they might help the humans during the Waaagh! Let them deal with it!"

"Right!"

The two bosses had barely left when another boss stepped forward. His outfit was extremely unusual: he wore a human military greatcoat. The clothes were rather small for an Ork and looked ridiculous on him, but that did not stop him from trying his best to stand straight.

"Sir! I don't think those two tribes will send even half a Snotling!"

"Beluf, how many times have I told ya not to talk like a human! I know they won't, but they at least need to know such a guy exists!"

"Understood! Sir!"

"How many times do I gotta tell ya!!!!!"

While Agugu was throwing a fit over there, Guk was also furious, for a very simple reason—Diego had vanished.

Ever since that day, Guk had never seen the human again. He had searched the entire fortress but found no trace of him, and no Orks or Snotlings had seen him either. Clearly, he had really left this place.

Guk was confused, and he was angry as well. Diego had been his only window into the outside world. Without that human, he would have to return to a state of ignorance, and he would no longer be able to obtain more steel or technology. Honestly, that was a huge, huge loss.

But the human was gone in the end. No matter how furious Guk became or how much he stomped around, there was nothing he could do. Just as Diego had said, there was no need to dwell excessively on meaningless things. So, he still had many unfinished matters to continue, such as the selection process.

Though this had been proposed by a human, Guk had seen its benefits during the war. There was no reason not to continue it.

Therefore, before the war had even been fully wrapped up, Guk announced the resumption of the previously interrupted selection process. He further expanded its scale, bringing the captured Orks into the system as well. Since quite a few Sergeants had been lost, the selection began again from the start.

Besides that, there was the captured equipment. The Red Eye Tribe really was a relatively "wealthy" large tribe. Their Orks generally had decent weapons, and armor was fairly widespread among them. Aside from what the Orks had taken for themselves, the leftovers collected from the battlefield alone filled dozens of carts with weapons, while all kinds of protective gear stuffed the warehouses to the brim. Guk sent the badly damaged pieces to be reforged, while the better-preserved ones were partly awarded to the various Sergeants and bosses. In the end, these things would still fall into the Orks' hands.

The rest was kept in storage, because Guk would soon carry out a massive army expansion plan, and these supplies would be its foundation.

The final matter was expanding the underground space beneath Blackstone Fort. As the number of Orks grew, Guk did not need to worry about food and drink. But Squigs also needed a great deal of food, and Green Tooth and his Orks liked cultivating strange varieties. To handle that, mushroom production needed to increase. Mushrooms could only grow in dark places, so Guk had One-Ear lead the Snotlings in digging around underground. After all, digging holes was what Snotlings did best.

In the blink of an eye, more than twenty days passed. In the huge banquet hall, Guk and all the Sergeants, Guards, and bosses were stuffing themselves and drinking wildly. Brightly colored metal helmets gleamed in the firelight. A gathering of several thousand people could not possibly be anything but lively, though it kept the running Snotlings so busy that they panted breathlessly and could barely straighten their backs.

"Come on! Drink!"

Grak, sitting closest to Guk, raised his liquor barrel again. That fellow had been sulking for some time recently and had tormented the Orks under him terribly. Only after Guk personally stepped in and gave him a brutal beating did he settle down.

"Drink!"

Guk drained the liquor in his bowl in one gulp, then looked over the more than three thousand warriors selected below. He felt deeply pleased. He now truly possessed a sense of "rule." After the previous battle, the White Hand Tribe's numbers had not decreased but increased instead, swelling to somewhere between one hundred and fifty and one hundred and seventy thousand.

"Tell me, if I went and fought Agugu now, could I win?"

Guk asked Aluba. The Freak Boy, who was chewing on a roasted lizard leg, thought for a moment after hearing the question, then shook his head.

"I reckon ya can't."

"How many Orks do ya reckon it would take to beat him?"

"That's hard to say. Red Eye's fortress is even bigger than this one, and it's got more stuff too. Agugu would fight ya beneath his fortress, just like how ya fought Lu Cha before."

"Hmm."

Guk nodded, agreeing with what he said. Though the Red Eye Tribe had not sent out any major forces during this period, small harassment squads still appeared from time to time. Green Tooth had fought them several times and chopped off quite a few heads. But as Aluba had said, Guk did not have the strength to launch an expedition against Red Eye, while Red Eye could not do much to Guk for the time being either. The situation had reached a stalemate.

"Then tell me, will Biting Blade and Blood Skull come attack us?"

"I reckon they won't. The bosses of those two tribes are famous slippery gits! Don't even think about getting them to do work for someone else."

"Then will they go fight Agugu?"

"Even less likely. Agugu's really bloody vicious in a fight. He's tougher than those two slippery gits."

Realizing that this matter could not be resolved anytime soon, Guk simply stopped dwelling on it. All he needed to do was build up his strength. One day, he would fight his way over there.

"But I gotta say, Boss Guk, your methods are a lot like some other guy's. He also really liked copying the human Shrimp way of doing things. Every Ork under him loved talking with their arses sticking out, and they were always going 'sir, sir.'"

"Oh, there's someone like that? Tell me properly."

"Boss! Boss! You gotta come take a look!"

Just as they were drinking merrily, One-Ear came scampering over, looking utterly panicked.

"What is it?"

"Down below, a hole!"

"A hole?"

One-Ear waved his hands around and explained for a long time before Guk finally understood what he meant. The Snotlings had been digging downward when part of the ground suddenly collapsed, revealing a pitch-black opening. Wind was even blowing out from inside, so it was clearly not a dead end.

"Take me to see it!"

Guk immediately stood up, and his entourage followed along to join the excitement. When they arrived at the underground area, layers upon layers of Snotlings had already gathered there.

"Move! Move! Boss Guk's here!"

The instant One-Ear spoke, the Snotlings scattered in all directions. Of course, they did not go far. Instead, they hid behind rocks and peeked at Guk.

"It's right here!"

It really was a hole, though it was only just large enough for a Snotling to crawl through. Guk took a torch and tossed it inside. The firelight bounced and skipped as it descended, flickering before slowly vanishing into the darkness. Clearly, it was quite deep down there, but it was not a vertical drop. There were places to put one's feet.

Suddenly, Guk remembered where One-Ear had come from.

"Wait, ain't this where you came from?"

"I... I dunno, 'cause it's really big down there. Maybe this is far from where my old tribe was."

"Get a few lads and go down to have a look. Tell me when you find something."

Guk was not especially concerned about what lay below, but those Black Snotlings were quite useful. They were better than the surface Snotlings in every way. It would be good if he could get more of them.

"Understood, Boss!"

After signaling for him to get to work, Guk waddled back with his belly sticking out. But on the way back, he heard an Ork bragging to several others. Bragging was not unusual, but what he was saying drew Guk's full attention.

"I'm tellin' ya, that time I snuck beneath a human fortress. Know what was in that fortress? Big Shootas everywhere! And Big Bang-Bangs!"

"What's a Big Shoota?"

"It goes BANG! Then your head's gone!"

"What about a Big Bang-Bang?"

"It goes BOOM! Then all you got left is your head!"

"That powerful? Then how'd you survive?"

"I went at night. Those Shrimp are blind at night—they can't see anything without fire. I ran from over here all the way to over there and tore down loads of their walls along the way."

Guk listened for a while, then motioned for Grak to bring that fellow over. The moment the Ork saw Guk, he turned to run, but the nearby Orks immediately pinned him down. Grak carried him by the neck all the way to Guk.

"Boss Guk, don't kill me!"

"I ain't gonna kill ya, but if ya run again, I might!"

"I... I got it!"

Guk took a bowl of liquor and handed it to him. Only after watching the Ork drink it all while trembling did Guk speak.

"You've been to human territory?"

"Yeah, Agugu often makes us go cause trouble!"

"What are their fortresses like?"

"Um... really, really big. Especially, especially long. Not that tall, not as tall as ours. It's just a sloped dirt mound, but there's lotsa trenches and dips."

As he spoke, the fellow spread his arms as though trying to describe it, though he only looked ridiculous.

"What does that Big Shoota look like? Is it an iron tube with some pieces of wood?"

"Eh! Yeah! Boss Guk's amazing! That's exactly it."

"What about the Big Bang-Bang?"

"It's an even bigger iron tube, without wood. It shoots iron balls bigger than our fists. If it hits ya, ya just disappear! And it can shoot really far."

"I see..."

After hearing this, Guk's expression immediately turned savage, frightening the Ork into thinking he had said something wrong.

"Diego, so you tricked me!"