Chapter 373: Goodbye Sherris
On the road, we found there were more and more mercenaries coming out, as well as hunters in beast skin clothes holding crossbows and fire guns. They were hunting monsters everywhere, and there were still quite a few people hunting in the wilderness.
We stopped a hunter on the road and asked. They said it was the hunting season, when beasts come out to hunt, store nutrients, and stockpile food to get through the winter. At this time, both magical beasts and wild beasts are at their fattest.
This is also the time for hunters to go out in full force for a big harvest. They are counting on a great harvest now. As long as they hunt valuable prey, they can exchange it for enough coal and firewood and stockpile enough food to have a good winter.
The increase in monsters in the wilderness is actually good news for them, as it represents a greater opportunity for a high yield. Monster materials have always been very valuable.
Unexpectedly, the appearance of monsters could also be a good thing. I hadn’t expected this, but it was also good for us, because we weren’t attacked by any magical beasts along the way and arrived at the village smoothly.
By the roadside near the village, we saw a girl, covered in dirt and somewhat ragged, sitting by the road. Seeing us ride over, she stood up: “I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
“Sherris?” I asked in surprise. I almost didn’t recognize her; she was quite different from before.
Previously, she was a cute village girl, but now she was covered in dirt, with a face smeared with black mud, her flaxen hair messy and matted together.
Sherris’s clothes looked like they had been torn by the jungle, and there were scratches on her body. Her fingers were covered in more black dirt, and she looked much thinner.
“It’s me. Follow me. You can’t go directly to the village; you’ll be discovered by Moore,” Sherris said hurriedly, her voice hoarse.
“Wait a moment, what happened to you? And how did Moore discover us?” Sebastian asked. Moore was the name of the Outsider who looked like a toad.
“Let’s leave here first. Moore’s informants will be here soon. I’ll explain later,” Sherris said, leading our horses out of the village.
We didn’t know what had happened here, or about Moore’s informants. We could only let her lead us to a hidden hillside nearby. She moved aside the covering straw, revealing a secret cave.
“This is…?” Sebastian sniffed the air, guessing what it might be. He also looked at the surrounding land, with obvious irregular claw marks on the freshly dug soil.
“This is a tomb, which I dug open to use as a temporary shelter,” Sherris said nonchalantly. No wonder she looked like this, and could dig open a tomb with her fingers. Was she using the abilities of a ghoul?
“Hiding? Are you hiding from Moore?” I asked. Seeing Sherris like this after only a few days, I had no idea what had happened in the village.
“Yes. Without my father and uncles, his ambition has been fully revealed. He’s not pretending anymore and has already taken control of the village. The surroundings are full of his informants, and they are hunting for me now,” Sherris said.
I never expected that the situation would change so drastically in just a few days. I had forgotten to look at the problem dialectically. We were making preparations, but Moore wouldn’t just sit idly by while we prepared based on the situation from a few days ago. He would also take action.
Now, plans couldn’t keep up with changes. We could only see what Sherris had to say. Only she knew the situation here. Thinking that she, a weak woman, had to survive alone under the pursuit of followers of the Evil God Xath’gwa, and possibly even his Kin, I felt heartache and sympathy when I saw her state. We hadn’t been able to take her with us before.
“By the way, what have you been eating these past few days?” Jayad suddenly asked. I was about to say she could eat fruits or catch fish and small animals, but seeing the dirt on her lips and the gray-black on her face, I shut my mouth.
“I’ve discovered that your aura has become much stronger, incomparable to a few days ago,” Jayad added. He activated his Evil Perception again, and this sentence was actually for me. Jayad could tell what I was thinking at a glance.
Despite becoming so thin, living in a tomb, and not eating or sleeping well, she had become even stronger. What Sherris had gone through was imaginable.
“What do you think? What can a ghoul eat?” Sherris said with a hint of sarcasm, clenching her fist. “To avenge my father and my people, strength is necessary! I have no choice.”
I thought her choice to awaken her ghoul bloodline was understandable. After all, she already had half ghoul blood, and even her mother had turned into a ghoul. This was just a matter of time, and now it had happened sooner.
Claire’s expression was somewhat unpleasant, and she seemed about to vomit, but in the end, she said nothing. Sebastian changed the subject, “Tell us, what’s the situation in the village now?”
“There are many toads around the village. They are Moore’s informants. As soon as they see us, Moore will know where we are. I was discovered by him several times before I realized the toads were informants,” Sherris said.
As expected, it was toads. I remembered the Blood-Eye Frogs I encountered near the village the first time I came here. They were likely connected to Moore.
“Then, Moore seems to have bewitched the villagers. He’s preaching among them and trying to open the Master’s tomb. But because I was alone and helpless, I didn’t dare to get close, so I don’t know how far he’s progressed,” Sherris added.
“Don’t worry, we’re here now, we’re your reinforcements. Let’s go together and take him and that monster down,” I encouraged her.
“But I can’t enter the village for now. It’s surrounded by toads, and we’ll be discovered no matter where we approach from. I originally wanted to dig a tunnel back to the village, but I’ve only dug halfway,” Sherris said, looking at her hands apologetically.
People say that children of rats are good at digging holes, so ghouls are naturally skilled at digging burrows. But the problem was that Sherris had only recently awakened as a ghoul, was not yet skilled at digging, was young, lacked strength, and was short on time.
I looked into the depths of the tomb. There was an already opened hole, with fresh soil piled beside it, and it seemed bottomless. I asked, “Is that the hole?”
“Yes, but I haven’t even dug halfway,” Sherris said helplessly.
“It’s okay, leave the rest to me. We’ll dig our way into the village,” I said, patting my not-so-large chest.
