CHAPTER 35: HOPE

Tyler didn’t waste his time on these dead monsters. He immediately dashed towards the horde of monsters at the other side of the village.

Using his lightning cloak, his speed was quite fast.

In an instant, he found ten spirits and quickly destroyed them. If these spirits weren’t attacking normal humans, he would’ve let his team face them.

But right now, they were either killing or eating those humans.

So, he was in a hurry to end the invasion of the monsters and spirits. It took him less than two minutes to completely wipe out all.

After he finished the job, the monsters’ dead bodies remained on the ground while spirits were absorbed in the scrolls.

The attack of the monster wasn’t shocking for these people. They were just shocked that they were still alive after that attack.

They lived with the mindset that one day monsters would attack them.

Those who couldn’t afford to live in the country were just living with a risk of an outbreak.

Outbreaks were dangerous because they could happen on any day.

So, surviving the outbreak was quite surprising to them, but looking at the state of their village, they weren’t happy either.

They couldn’t get happy.

At least, if they had died, they would die with peace in mind.

Now, they had to survive, even just for their children.

Looking at their expressions, Tyler remembered the previous outbreak. They had the same expressions.

They weren’t the kind of people who would give up easily, but they knew their hard times had just arrived.

Before they recovered, his team had arrived.

"Lord, you ran too fast!"

Rose complained as soon as she caught up. But seeing nearly a thousand people alive, she quickly changed her words.

"I am glad you ran fast."

Looking at those villagers, Tyler spoke.

"My name is Tyler Grant. I am the City Lord of Shadow Totem City. A year ago, my city was just a village that went through an Outbreak."

"Only five hundred survived. I managed to turn my broken village into a city. I believe I can do the same with yours."

"But it will take you some time to recover. So, I will leave one of my men here."

"We will take the corpses of half of the monsters. Use the other half for cooking and improve your strength."

"If you want to rebuild your village, you need strength. I should return in a few days. Martin, you stay here!"

"Yes, Lord!"

Martin shouted while the villagers weren’t even able to react before Tyler and his group started taking half of the dead monsters.

Soon, they left the village.

Only after they left, one of the villagers approached Martin and asked.

"Lord Martin, does your Lord plan to take over our village?"

Martin nodded and remembered something, shaking his head.

"It is a bit hard to understand. You could say he is going to take over, but there are certain circumstances that he needs to explain to you."

"For now, gather your people and start cleaning those monsters. Because of the attack, you must be feeling weak."

"After you eat and recover, give a proper funeral to dead villagers."

Hearing his words, the villager sadly lowered his head and conveyed the message to the other villagers.

Soon, they started cleaning those monsters. Because they didn’t want to eat between the corpses of their fellow villagers, they left the village.

Martin also followed them far away, where they started cooking the monsters.

Soon, their food was ready.

While eating, those people were still depressed. Looking at their expressions, Martin spoke.

"If you remain depressed, you will not be able to change anything. Because I have faced the same depression as you."

"My Lord has already mentioned this. Our city faced a similar attack a year ago. It took us months to recover."

"And, we were only able to do so because of our Lord’s constant encouragement."

"I am afraid to tell you he won’t be able to do the same with you. He won’t even stay here for long."

"So, you need to come to your senses on your own, recover on your own, so that you can continue living."

"But I can promise you one thing. Our Lord will make your life better."

Hearing that, some people tried to cheer up, but many children kept sobbing while eating their food.

It was hard for them to go through this traumatic event.

Only the older ones managed to recover quite well. One of them, the same one from before, approached Martin.

"Lord Martin, my name is Salim."

"Just call me Martin! I forgot to correct you before. Except for our Lord, you are not allowed to call anyone else Lord."

Martin replied with a dead serious glare.

Even Salim was stunned by such words.

He knew that the young man held a high status in Martin’s heart, but this was just pure loyalty.

But he was a man in his forties. He had seen many things, gone through different life situations.

He quickly collected his thoughts and said.

"Mr. Martin, if you save us now, the outbreak could happen at any moment. If your Lord isn’t going to take over our village, we can’t protect ourselves."

Martin nodded his head and said.

"You understand it well. But our Lord has already decided to gift a Natural Fruit to a certain individual of your village."

"He will give you a trial, and if you pass, you will become his direct subordinate."

"He will also invest in a Golden Light Formation for your village. And, slowly, he will help you develop your village."

"Though things like raising more hunters are something you would need to do on your own."

"That’s why you should eat more of this meat. These meats can improve your strength."

"The stronger you get, the more of you can enter the Eternal Forest and get fruits for your village."

Hearing that, Salim was stunned, and so were some other villagers near him.

They never expected this new Lord to grant them a Natural Fruit.

What was Natural Fruit? It was their ticket to become a hunter.

Hunter could gather more Natural Fruit, more monster meat, and more wealth for the village.

After this outbreak, they never thought of recovering.

They were just confused about how they were gonna survive. But now, not only were they given a chance to survive, but also grow stronger.

Salim wanted to ask more, but when he thought about their previous words, he decided to talk to their Lord directly.

Instead, he focused on eating more meat.

........

While the people of the previous village had settled, Tyler and others quickly approached another village.

Unfortunately, this village was empty just like the previous one.

This time, they didn’t waste even a second and dashed towards another village.

Just like before, Tyler kept increasing his speed and quickly found the outline of the next village.

But he was surprised to find that these monsters hadn’t even surrounded the village.

Instead, they were also approaching this village.

But the spirits had already captured a part of the village. This group of spirits was trying to devour the souls of those humans.

And, just before his eyes, Tyler saw nearly fifty people lose their souls at once.

His eyes almost went blank with intense rage burning his heart.

But he quickly controlled his emotions, ignored the monsters, and used his full speed to appear in front of the spirits before they could harm more.

Normally, he would be more calculative about his moves, but right now, he just wanted to burn these spirits.

Before they could even digest those souls, he wanted to destroy them.

Even if it meant burning those dead humans on the ground.

[First Skill- Fire Dragon Roar]

Tyler spat out a narrow stream of fire that slowly turned into a huge wave. It kept moving towards the spirits at an astonishing rate.

The sheer size of this wave was enough to cover several houses at once, and he was holding back.

He didn’t want to burn humans who were alive.

"Ahhhhh!"

When the flames touched those spirits, they tried using different skills. Some even released powerful ice barriers, but the heat of his attack melted the ice.

Water flooded and boiled into the mist. The hot mist and the tsunami of fire kept moving forward, burning those spirits on the spot.

As he killed those spirits, Tyler turned the other way. He saw fifty of those monsters stopping their path.

When they saw Tyler, they naturally felt his deadly aura.

Only two monsters walked forward. Unlike the previous group, this group had two Mountain Level Monsters.

"Everyone, run behind me! Run with your lives!"

His voice sounded throughout the village.

They didn’t see him until they saw the tsunami of fire. It was only then that they realized a hunter had arrived to save them.

Even if it was just one hunter, he gave them hope.

A hope of survival!