The girl's name was Podenco.
She was an adorable little Perro girl with milky-white, shoulder-length hair and a slightly chubby, cute face. In terms of cuteness, she could even compete with Jessica. Although her clothes were very plain and simple, consisting of a top and a long skirt in muted tones, this did not detract from the little girl's disposition and good looks. Instead, it gave off the feeling of a countryside, girl-next-door, childhood-friend-younger-sister type.
According to her.
A long time ago, a large group of people fled far away to this remote place to escape the chaos of war in Bolívar and built the settlement that stands today. Due to a lack of communication with the outside world, and even infrequent contact with cities in other areas, they gradually became self-sufficient.
And Podenco had never left this village since she was born.
"It has the feel of a Peach Blossom Spring."
Lucas Reeve muttered under his breath.
"Peach Blossom Spring? Mr. Reeve, what is that?"
Jessica asked, puzzled.
"It's an old story. A group of villagers, also fleeing from war, discovered a world inside a secluded cave and then lived there happily, self-sufficiently."
"Wow~~"
However.
Peach Blossom Spring was at least a beautiful place.
But this place was not so beautiful.
There were rotting vegetables everywhere, and even the living ones looked as if they had been hit by frost, devoid of life.
Although the others were not as perceptive as Lucas Reeve.
The moment they entered the village and observed the surroundings, they could tell something was wrong.
The plants were withered and dead, showing little sign of life. Many villagers seemed to have lost their spirits, their expressions numb. This village was like an old man whose vitality had nearly drained away, on the verge of death.
To prevent any accidents.
Franka had quietly placed her hand on the hilt of the rapier at her waist, while Liskarm's grip on her flash shield was exceptionally tight, her senses on high alert to deal with any sudden situation that might arise.
Magallan spoke with great caution.
She had traveled to too many places.
She knew that different places had different customs, and some things should not be said carelessly.
She once visited a remote tribe in Iberia. At first, she got along well with the local villagers, but she didn't know which word later offended them. She was almost tied to a stake and roasted over a charcoal fire as a heretic, nearly becoming a roasted penguin.
So, they decided to introduce themselves as explorers, here for tourism and adventure. As for where they came from, they uniformly said Lungmen.
After all... Lungmen's reputation was decent, at least it had no enemies abroad.
As for Columbia...
Bolívar was in such chaos now, and half of it was 'thanks' to Columbia. If they said they were from Columbia, they might be chased away by angry villagers with clubs.
On this point.
Magallan was incredibly experienced because she had suffered for it before. At that time, she was almost burned at the stake. The angry villagers there were shouting things like "damn Columbian devils" while holding torches, preparing to "purify" Magallan.
Since the sun was about to set when they walked out of the forest.
After learning a bit more from Miss Podenco, the sky had completely darkened.
Surprisingly, the villagers here seemed to be afraid of the dark.
As the sun completely set and the dark night was about to take over, they all scurried back to their homes in fear. Even the children who were usually playing outside hid away in their houses. Not only were the doors locked tight, but even the windows were covered with wooden boards, making it impossible to see any light from the outside.
Podenco's expression also changed drastically.
Just as Magallan was about to ask what was going on in confusion.
Podenco, without explaining, quickly pulled everyone back to her home, locked the door just like the other villagers, and sealed the windows with wooden boards, leaving not even the smallest gap. Only the old pendulum clock on the wall could distinguish between day and night.
"What's going on, Miss Podenco?"
Magallan asked with confusion.
"Shh~"
Podenco placed a finger in front of her mouth, gesturing for everyone to be quiet. She was very beautiful, and her bright, gem-like, light-blue eyes held a hint of nervousness and fear.
Everyone was somewhat bewildered.
The stranger Podenco acted, the more suspicious it made them. As combat personnel, Franka and Liskarm's muscles were already tensed, and their minds were sharpened to their most acute state.
"You explorers have really come at a bad time..."
"It hasn't been safe around here lately. As soon as it gets dark, those monsters appear. It's lucky you arrived at our settlement before it got completely dark, otherwise, you might have been in danger tonight..."
This wooden house was very simple, with only one room. A wooden bed was placed in the corner, and next to the bed was a small table. On the other side of the room, against the wall, was a bookshelf filled with various kinds of books. In the empty spaces on the bookshelf, some small flowerpots were placed.
"Monsters?"
The group was puzzled.
However, after a brief silence, they all categorized these monsters as Originium creatures that these residents had never seen before. After all, there were many types of Originium creatures in the wild, and they varied from place to place. These villagers seemed to have lived in this remote area for a long time, cut off from information, so it was normal for them to not recognize them and treat them as monsters.
"They are the kind of monsters that appear out of thin air as soon as it gets dark. They wander around this area aimlessly, and whenever they encounter a living being, they will devour their soul."
"This..."
The penguin girl scratched her little head. In her mental bestiary, she had never heard of such a monster. There were plenty that came out to roam at night, but eating souls... that was a bit too fantastical, wasn't it?
As for Franka and Liskarm, they just looked at Lucas Reeve with doubt.
After all, there was a real, tangible soul right here.
According to Miss Podenco's account.
Their village was self-sufficient, so every household grew vegetables and fruits. There was even a large area of greenhouse fields in a corner of the village where they grew staple crops and raised some poultry. Although life was simple, it was quite happy.
The only drawback was the lack of interaction with the outside world. They lived the same life every day, saw the same things every day, and there were no new topics of conversation.
Miss Podenco was not old, but she had a very lively personality and yearned for the outside world.
But she had never left the village, let alone visited a small city in Bolívar, not to mention Columbia.
Having been cooped up in this small plot of land since childhood, she could only learn about the outside world through books. A strong sense of curiosity drove her, making this simple country girl naively un-wary.
When she saw them, a group of outsiders, and all of them beautiful women, she took the initiative to strike up a conversation. If it had been a group of burly male explorers, Miss Podenco probably would not have approached them and would have hurried home to hide.
"Miss Franka, is Lungmen very far away? Far from our Bolívar? I've read in books that Lungmen seems to be a very developed city."
Miss Podenco poured everyone a cup of flower tea. She grew these flowers herself; she was very good at gardening. Through self-study, she had basically become a renowned "botanist" in the village.
She curiously asked about the outside world, and Franka and the others answered almost every question. As for the Blackflow Sea of Trees, Magallan did not ask about it right away. As an outsider, she didn't know if this place was considered a forbidden area locally, so she couldn't ask rashly.
"About a few thousand kilometers away. It would take several hours even by plane."
"A plane..."
Podenco's eyes sparkled.
"Are planes those iron things that fly in the sky, like birds?"
"Indeed..."
"Are there really many buildings hundreds of meters tall in big cities? And do many city people work in these buildings? With high incomes and very fashionable?"
"Er... actually, they're all miserable corporate drones, working 996 and treating the company as their home. Their annual salary can't even buy a place the size of a butt in the city."
"Is your salary high, Miss Franka?"
"Er... it's a lot higher than a regular worker's, but..."
Franka pointed to Jessica next to her: "Jessica's annual allowance is more than my salary for several years."
Jessica blushed and retorted: "My monthly allowance isn't that much... only twenty or thirty million...."
"My bad, I was thinking too small. It's a month's allowance that's equivalent to my ten years' salary...
As for Magallan, she didn't join the chat. She took out a device from her pocket that looked like an earpiece with a single lens, like a pair of glasses, and put it on her ear.
Before entering the village.
Magallan had already habitually left one of her drones outside. These drones could not only film and surveil but also contained many types of weapon modules. Besides the basic machine gun, they even had Originium grenades and small missiles. This was also why Magallan dared to walk the explorer's path alone.
This drone was custom-made for Magallan by Raythean Industries.
It could share the camera's field of view to the glasses in real-time, and she could even control the drone's movement with hand gestures, completely eliminating the need for the cumbersome and conspicuous remote controls of older civilian drones.
As her finger commands changed.
The drone parked outside the village activated.
From within the drone, four smaller sub-drones flew out, entering the village from different angles.
They circled in the air for a while but found nothing unusual. The monsters Podenco mentioned did not appear either.
Just as Magallan was letting her guard down a bit.
Suddenly...
A strange, dark silhouette walked out of the black night from thin air.
"?!!!"
Magallan thought her eyes were playing tricks on her.
She refocused.
It would have been better if she hadn't. The scene before her almost made Magallan's scalp tingle.
More and more dark figures emerged from the night out of thin air. The camera witnessed them appearing from nothing...
"What kind of monster..."
Magallan frowned. She controlled one of the sub-drones to approach the ground and filmed these monsters that appeared from thin air at a very close distance.
They were entirely black, like charred human skeletons.
No flesh, only bones...
Within the skulls, a faint blue light continuously overflowed from the empty eye sockets and mouths.
"?!!!"
"Fuck!!"
Magallan's eyes widened.
She was genuinely terrified.
What kind of monster was this!!
Humanoid Originium creatures?
Even with Magallan's extensive exploration experience, she had never seen such a creature. And as these monsters moved, the vegetables in the fields in front of the surrounding houses, which still had a bit of life, rapidly decayed.
Magallan finally understood what was happening to these rotten plants.
How bizarre...
The drone's recording function was always on.
If this video were posted online, who knows what kind of sensation it would cause.
Suddenly!
One of the monsters seemed to notice her gaze, abruptly raising its head. Its empty eye sockets, burning with faint blue flames, met the drone's camera. This soul-piercing gaze seemed to be looking right at Magallan.
This eye contact lasted only for a second.
Magallan was so scared that she quickly cut off the network connection between herself and the drone, letting the drone's internal AI system control its departure. That recent gaze... left Magallan with cold sweat dripping down her back. She had a feeling that this monster was looking directly at her.
Perhaps...
As if to confirm Magallan's suspicions.
The sound of knocking suddenly came from outside Podenco's wooden house.
The sound was extremely intense. Under the constant pounding, the wooden frame of the house actually started to creak and shift.
"!!!"
Everyone inside the house was startled.
Without giving them time to react.
The next second.
The door of the wooden house was easily smashed open, and pairs of empty eye sockets burning with a faint blue light stared at everyone inside.
"What the hell! What is this thing!!!"
The sudden turn of events meant that even elite mercenaries like Franka and Liskarm couldn't remain completely calm, because they had never seen this monster before. It was even beyond the comprehension of a normal person.
A skeleton?
A living skeleton?
A skeleton with blue flames?
What kind of movie plot was this!!
And Miss Podenco was just an ordinary girl; she was directly scared stiff.
Just then.
A fiery, scorching spear flew in from a distance. The power contained within the spear made even an elite mercenary like Franka feel it was incredibly dangerous. The spear instantly pierced through the head of one of the monsters, and the head, burning with a faint blue light, shattered like glass.
The faint blue light within the head scattered like escaping fireflies.
A very familiar figure leaped down from a nearby rooftop, nimbly waving the axe in her hand and smashing another monster's head.
"Ceobe?!"
Didn't she leave?!