Chapter 164: Way of Living (1/2)

”Calvin! What are you doing over there? Don't stray too far away from us! This place is creepy as fuck.” Ricardo noticed that Calvin was nowhere to be seen. He stopped what he was doing and walked several steps backwards. There, he found Calvin walking towards them and he couldn't help but grumble out a complaint.

”I'm sorry...” Calvin scratched his head out of apparent embarrassment. He gave the surroundings one final glance before he turned his gaze away and joined Old Zhong and the others on what they were doing.

”How come they are so thick?” Heisenberg was already sweating. He was a Priest not a fighter like Old Zhong, Ricardo, and Calvin. There was a limit to how much strength he could exert. What's more, he had exhausted himself quite a bit when he used that domain in the Book of Light earlier. Of course, Heisenberg would never admit that he was exhausted.

He stood there, huffing and puffing as his swings gradually became weaker and weaker as time passed by.

Calvin noticed this and he couldn't help but smirk.

”Heisenberg, do you want me to give you a hand?”

”Do. You. Think. That. I. Need. A. Hand?” Heisenberg glared at Calvin.

Ricardo also let out a chuckle, ”You're not young anymore, old man... Give that blade to Calvin. We, young people, have more stamina than you. Unless we're talking about those things... You are clearly stronger than us when it comes to those things.” He smirked and winked at Calvin eliciting laughter from the latter.

Heisenberg's face flushed with crimson out of embarrassment.

He coldly snorted and reluctantly handed over the blade to Calvin.

After being exposed like that and embarrassed by Ricardo, how could he possibly continue to act tough and be adamant that he wasn't tired?

What surprised both Ricardo and Calvin was that Heisenberg didn't seem to be too depressed by the fact that he got replaced by Calvin. In fact, he was standing right behind them with his arms crossed in front of his chests. An imposing look was on his face as he stared at the three, making the scene feel like he was a boss making his underlings work for him.

”Ricardo, you missed a thicket there, it might hurt us when we move!”

”Old Zhong! You have to keep an eye out with your swings, are you trying to decapitate Calvin?”

”Also, Calvin! Your hands aren't moving!”

Heisenberg really did start to act like a boss and the three could do nothing other than roll their eyes at them. Ignoring his words, the three continued on their work and eventually. They managed to reach the end of the narrowed path, and according to Old Zhong. They only needed to trek for twenty more minutes until they arrived at the tunnels.

Old Zhong sighed in relief when they were finally out of the narrowed path.

”I'm so glad that nothing happened...” He wiped the sweat on his forehead and turned around to look at the others, ”We will be able to reach the tunnels in twenty minutes, but before I leave you three near the tunnels. I need you to listen to me. It has been ten years since someone visited the Village of Tulog. Usually, it's them that comes down the mountains instead of us going up there...”

”It would be incredibly strange for them to receive visitors from the outside world. But don't worry, I am sure that they will not harm you so long as you show them this paper...” Old Zhong took out a piece of rectangular paper and handed it over to Calvin.

Calvin's pupils constricted when he saw the yellowish paper.

It was because it looked similar to the Sigil of Protection that Madame Liz handed over to him!

The only difference between the two was the drawing on their surfaces.

Apart from that, they were basically the same and even the ink used to write on the surface of the two papers were similar!

Calvin faced Old Zhong with his stone-faced facade and asked, ”You said that it's been a decade since people visited the Village of Tulog? If that is the case, then how can you be so sure that they will still recognize us with this piece of paper?”

”Honestly, I don't know...” Old Zhong shook his head, ”But having that is still better than not having anything, right?”

”Yeah, that makes sense...”

”One more thing. I have to ask this question before you leave us once we reach the tunnels.”

”What is it?” Old Zhong smiled, ”Ask away.”

Calvin nodded, ”If we are able to reach the Village of Tulog through the tunnels, then what was that village on top of the mountain?”

Old Zhong turned serious, ”Did you enter that village on top of the mountain?”

”Nope...” Calvin promptly replied.

”I see...” Old Zhong continued, ”That village on top of the mountain is actually a decoy. I have no idea why that decoy is made, and I don't really want to know. However, we actually do not approach that decoy ever since one of us went missing when he entered that decoy on top of the mountain out of curiosity...”

”We didn't dare to send in any rescue to follow that ill-fated man into the village on top of the mountain, since we were scared.”

”Since then, we do not dare question the existence of that so-called decoy and we also do not dare approach it.” Old Zhong didn't seem to be lying when he said all of these. In fact, there was great fear in his voice. It was as if there was a powerful monster living on the decoy in the village at the summit of the mountain that he was so afraid of.

”All right, then...” Calvin could do nothing other than agree. The entire thing about this Village of Tulog was so strange and confusing that Calvin could do nothing other than agree to what Old Zhong was saying.

Ricardo and Heisenberg glanced at each other before Ricardo asked, ”Have you heard anything strange about the Village of Tulog...?”

”Like— how the villagers live?” Calvin couldn't help but glance at Ricardo when he asked such a crucial question.

Knowing how the villagers live would narrow down a lot of things. If the villagers were indeed cursed, then something inside them should've fundamentally changed. Those changes must be significant enough that it would be noticeable by anyone and using those apparent changes, the three could create solutions based on that information.

This was such a piece of easily-missed information, yet would contribute a lot to the investigation. For example, it was easy to deduce that someone had become a vampire if you noticed that they didn't seem inclined to eating human food. Of course, there were exceptions, but if that person vomited violently whenever their lips made contact with human food.

Then, one could deduce with a reasonable doubt that the person had become a vampire.