15 Unscrupulous Old Man (1/2)

”It should be around 8 pm right now.” Rahul said and pointed at a dot in the map.

”This is where we are right now.” Then he pointed at another place in the map and said. ”This is a settlement that's connected to the highway. It's called Pali Village.”

”It's 40 something kilometers away from our current distance.”

”We can walk twice as fast as a normal human and we also have more stamina so it should not be a problem for us to walk this far.”

Indeed, if we start walking right now and cover 2km every hour. It should not be a problem for us to cover this much distance by 6:00 am tomorrow morning.

”After that we'll rest a few hours there and then take this road that detours around the village.” He said and pointed at a thin line on the map. ”There should not be many Abnormals around this road. If we're careful, we should not face have any problems here and might even gain some Crystals. What do you say?”

”Hmm. It's a good plan.” I said nodded my head in agreement. I also wanted to get back home as soon as possible.

”Very well then. Since everything has already been packed, let's start moving.” He kept the map in his tracking bag after which we left the old hut and continued on our journey.

This time we were focusing on covering as much distance as possible so we only killed 2 Abnormals throughout the whole night. They came across our path by mistake and lost their lives.

Rahul's calculations were a bit too humble and we reached the outskirts of the Pali Village at 3:00 am in the morning.

As per according to our previous plans, we were supposed to rest at the outskirts of the the Pali Village. And after we've rested enough we would take the bypath but when we came close to the village Rahul stopped walking all of a sudden, forcing me to stop with him as well.

'Maybe he sense something.' I thought and realized that his expression had soured all of sudden.

”You hear that.” He said and his eyes became vigilant as he tried to find something in the darkness up ahead.

I remained silent and focused all of my attention in listening but aside from a few barks from the dogs in the distance, I was not able to hear anything else.

But Rahul definitely heard something as his expression became even worse.

”Go back. Slowly” He slowly whispered in my ears. ”And don't make any noise.”

I had no idea what was up ahead in the village that scared him so much that he wanted to go back. But I knew that I couldn't possibly go wrong by trusting him so I stayed as silent as I could possibly be and followed his footsteps as we went back to the path from where we'd just come.

After going back a few hundred meters back, instead of slowing his steps he increased his speed and walked faster and faster until he was practically running.

I also sensed the urgency in his steps and started running along with him.

Although the bag in our back was heavy, we were still able to cover a lot of distance before we both finally got tired and stopped running.

By this time, we had already run around 4 kilometers, to the north, which was the opposite direction to where we should be heading.

After we stopped, I wanted to ask why we ran in such a hurry but was too exhausted to do so.

I threw my bag to the side, laid on the ground and panted like a dead dog.

”Damn it!” Rahul suddenly cursed while panting and kicked a stone on the ground.

”What happened Rahul?” I asked after getting back my breath. ”Why did ran from that place?”

Rahul had serious look in his face as he said in a grim tone ”That place has now become a habitat of the Mutant Beasts.”

”Habitat of the mutant Beasts?” I asked.

”Yes. Go to any other place filled with Abnormals. You won't ever hear any dog or mutant dog barking like that in that place.” He said ”Such a thing can only happen places where there are no Abnormals, or places which had already turned into the domain of Mutant Beasts.”

”But that was a human settlement so there must have been a lot of Abnormals in that place.”

”The fact that you can still hear those dogs barking is a sign that all the Abnormals in that area had already died and become food for the Mutant beasts. That area is now a domain of the Mutant beasts.”

I felt a chill down my spine when I heard that.

Demon beasts are far more dangerous than Abnormals because 1. They can see at night. 2. They have a strong sense of smell. 3. They still have their basic animal instincts and 4. They are much faster than Abnormals.

If you go inside a town filled with Abnormals at night then there was a high chance that you will survive the night. But if you go inside a town filled with Mutant beasts then you'd definitely die.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead and asked ”How many Mutant dog would it take towipe out a village filled with Abnormals?”

”It doesn't necessarily had to be Mutant dogs.” Rahul shook his head. ”It could also be Mutant Cows, Mutant Goats, Mutant Pigs or Mutant horses.”

”But… Aren't those animals herbivorous.” I asked.

Rahul laughed when he heard that and said ”Not after turning into mutant beasts. There is no such thing as a herbivore Mutant beast.”

”Plus, after the herbivorous turn into Mutant beasts, they're usually more dangerous than their carnivorous counterparts.”

”Why's that?” I asked.

”Size and numbers.” Rahul said. ”There are far more herbivores in nature than the carnivores. As for the size, I don't think I need to comment on that.”

”A mutant Dog can fight against a single Abnormal or even defeat the abnormal on it's own, but a mutant cow can easily crush a dozen of them before running out of gas. Do you understand now?”

I nodded my head as I realized that the Abnormals in that village had probably died in the hands of the animals they once used to raise.

'Haah!' I sighed as I realized that we had really been lucky back there. If by mistake any of those Mutant dogs had gotten out smell, the whole group of them would come chasing after our trail.

And looking at how even Abnormals were no match for their speed, we would definitely be surrounded by them before long and not meet a good end.

I looked at Rahul and asked ”Then what are we going to do now?”

He shook his head and said. ”What else can we do. We'll have to take an even larger detour. And do it as fast as possible. Those Mutant beasts won't stay there forever. After they've digested those Abnormals, they'll start moving outward in search for more food.”

He gave me his hand and pulled me up. ”Get up. We don't have a lot of time in our hands. The faster we cross this area, the better it'll be for us.”

—————

After taking a long detour that costed us four hours, we were finally able to put Pali Village behind us.

By this point, we're thirsty, hungry, exhausted and stunk of sweat.

I looked at the water bottle in my hand which had emptied out an hour ago. This was already the fifth time I was looking at it, hoping there to be a few water drops inside even though I knew that I had licked it clean.

'Damn! I'm thirsty.' If looked back in the direction of the Pali village and sighed. We had earlier planned to get some drinkable water from there, but we had to change our plans due to that unexpected event.

Not only were we not able to find water in that village, but we also had to run back 4 kilometers and then take a 4 hour long detour which exhausted the last of our water supply.

”Brother.” I said as I looked at Rahul who looked had a slightly better condition than me. But I knew that his water bottle had emptied out 15 minute ago very clearly since I was the one who did it.

Rahul looked at me and said ”Don't worry. We're travelling through the dry forest so it's only natural that there no water source nearby. But once we get out of here, it won't be that hard to find Drinkable water.”

'I won't mind even if the water's undrinkable.' I thought but didn't say it. I knew what he had said was true.