195 The Barrio, A Place that was not as what He had Expected (1/2)

Day 22 – 5:38 AM – Mountain Village, Mount Malabito, General Nakar, Quezon

The sun was far from rising but the sky had already brightened to some degree. Mark stepped out of his house ready to go and do his explorations. After killing the tiger last night and storing it at one of the houses, he thought of making these people work early. At least for dismantling the unused houses to scavenge usable materials for the base he planned to build.

Looking at the sky at northeastern forest however, it was better if the newly arrived people avoid going out of the houses for today. It looked like that the three men last night made a mess at the hive of the hornets. Even though it was several hours already, he could see a lot of human head sized hornets flying around the forest looking for the intruders or possible intruders. Considering that these oversized insects had developed higher intelligence than their normal counterparts, it would be likely for these hornets that the intruders last night were humans.

In that case, if they spotted these people here, it would be a disaster. If he could, he should find a way to deal with those oversized hornets as soon as possible.

Walking in front of the house where he saw Huey came from last night, he pushed the door open. There, he saw the five people who seemed to have decided to stay in one house due to the incident last night. They had no idea whether the village was really safe or not making it better if they stuck together.

Looking at these people, it seemed that Huey and Trisha did not rest properly since they were worried about Jollene who was still unconscious. On the other hand, the other two men were sleeping with their back on the wall while holding unto their weapons.

'That's dangerous.'

Mark thought. If they were holding guns, it would be better since guns nowadays had safety levers but holding onto melee weapons was not really something to be recommended. If they got surprised and agitated after waking up, it would not be strange if they suddenly swung those weapons at the nearest person to them.

”Boss.” Huey greeted with respect. ”Are you going out?”

This guy noticed that Mark was fully equipped with his armor, backpack and weapons. It seemed that Huey was worried that they would be prone to danger if he left.

”Nicole's condition is different from your sweetheart so I have to search for medicine. I'm just here to tell you all not to go out of the houses too much and if you're going out, be fast and discreet. The giant hornets in the forest are agitated.” Mark said to Huey and the first sentence made him blush slightly. Mark then looked at the other woman. ”Trisha, right? I'll leave the pot of fish soup at my house. Just heat it and fill your stomachs.”

He then looked around the room. It seemed that his voice also woke up the two men.

”Any of you know how to dismantle animal bodies?”

Mark asked though he did not really have any expectations. Unexpectedly, the tall man who was called Ed raised his hands with a bit of hesitation.

”My family owns a dairy farm back at our hometown. Before I went out to Manila to study, I help in processing the body of make calves to make beef.”

”Good. I'll leave the body of the tiger to you. It's on the house I told you people not to use. The tools are also there. Dismantle it and be careful of not damage the hide. Is that clear?”

”Uhh, yes B-Boss.”

After telling them what to do, he went back to his house to pick up the still sleepy sylph. He told the same to Hallie who also did not sleep due to her taking care of Nicole despite the fact that she needed rest herself due to her wound. He left the village then afterwards.

His goal now was to investigate both the source of the red blobs and the barrio upstream while looking for medicine.

”Say, you don't know about the barrio upstream?”

Mark asked Amihan on his shoulder. After all, the little sylph knew about the town past the mountain but did not mention the barrio that seemed to be closer.

”I haven't been there. Also, the forest that way is a territory of an annoying person. If not for you my Lord, I won't even try to go near there.”

Amihan grumbled.

”Annoying person?”

”Yes! He's very annoying duende! He keeps calling me wife every time he saw me and always told me that he wanted a baby from me! Pwe! That's why I don't go into his territory and run away every time I saw him!”

Looking at her aggrieved face, it seemed that she was really annoyed with the guy. Mark on the other hand felt amused. He did not know if they would encounter that guy but the possibility was high. If Amihan's ability to hide herself from the eyes of mortals was affected by Mutagen, it was likely that other creatures with the same ability were also affected.

Anyway, he had no plans to deal with that guy. If he gets on the way and disturb him, killing him would be easy. In folklore, one of the things that made it hard to get rid of spiritual creatures was because they could not be seen. But if even these creatures were affected by Mutagen, that advantage was taken away from them.

***

It took almost three hours of walk and Mark finally had a glimpse of the barrio from the riverside. He saw another pathway before with what seemed to be a plantation up the mountains but Mark was sure that it was not the place he wanted to go and passed by it. According to Hallie's description, the barrio was beside the river and the crashed plane was suspended over the river like a bridge.