The journey to the Alva family territory went through many ups and downs, encounters with survivors, crises in the ranch, and the sudden blood moon.
These experiences made Xiang En and Andrea, who had been running around in fear for nearly two months, long for a stable environment.
On the eighth day of the journey, Xiang En upgraded his shield skill and boiling skill to level three, obtained two runes at each level, and successfully exchanged the skill "Fountain of Innocent", which solved the problem of drinking water.
With a stable supply of water and food, their moving speed steadily increased. After only eleven days of walking, they were almost at their destination.
Eleven days were not all smooth sailing.
The blood moon lasted for five days in total, and it was the pursuit from behind during those five nights that forced them to speed up and reach the border of Fiore Province within ten days.
On the way, they also encountered bison herds and many infected animals on the plains, and experienced several battles.
The battle process was lackluster, basically relying on the advantage of the steel fork's long hand to crush the zombie beast's stupid attack.
At this time, they saw a small town in the distance.
The buildings in the town are detailed, and there is not one higher than the second floor. At a rough glance, there are only a few dozen houses, which can barely be called a small town.
And this town is the destination of their trip. It is a town directly under the jurisdiction of Lord Alva's fiefdom and the only town managed by the Alva family.
They crossed the plains and ran all the way, from the endless grassland to the edge of the mountains.
This mountain range on the edge of the plains is one of the highest and most steep mountains on the continent. The province of Fiore is located under this mountain range. One-fifth of the province's area is blocked by the mountains, preventing the cold currents from far away. They could easily reach the plains, keeping the temperature in the Fiore province at a level where it would not snow or freeze.
"The town ahead, Marky, go take a look around."
Finally reaching this point, they were still nearly a kilometer away from the town, so Xiang En couldn't wait to issue an order to the tool man Ma Ji.
Marki had nothing to hesitate. He stood at attention, took off his backpack and walked towards the town.
Only Xiang En, Andrea, and Duncan, who had no sense of presence, were left there.
Turning to look at Andrea with tangled eyes and nervous expression, Xiang En couldn't help but sigh.
The closer she gets to home, the more nervous Andrea becomes, fearing that her family may have turned into monsters.
She was worried that when she returned home, she might see ruins, and a terrible doomsday would destroy everything she had.
Although Andrea had been mentally prepared when she was in the province of De Aire, when she really had to face it, her heart would become emotional and extreme.
The three of them waited silently. Ten minutes later, after investigating the situation, Marky hurried back with a surprised and weird expression, and brought them news that no one expected!
"What? Signs of human activity?"
Xiang En's expression was blank, but he soon returned to normal. He was not too happy, "Elaborate."
"Yes!" Ma Ji took a step sideways, pointed at the town, and said: "There are traces of burned corpses on the field ridge next to the town. The ashes are very fresh, maybe they were left in the past few days. Then I poked my head again I looked at a house and there were signs of moving inside, so I concluded there was someone in the town!”
Faced with the situation that there might be someone in the town, Xiang En felt that they should be more cautious. After all, similar people are not necessarily good people. Being cautious is what keeps him alive until now.
"Enri, do you remember how many people there are in this town?"
After knowing the traces of someone's activities in the town, Andrea bit her lip and looked restless and unsteady.
When asked suddenly, she was startled for a moment, and then said uncertainly: "There were three hundred people before I left? There shouldn't be more than five hundred people now."
A small town with no more than 500 people... It's barely fair. After all, it's a small town under the jurisdiction of a small lord. Andrea often mentioned in her memories that her family was very poor.
Taking a middle value, Xiang En would assume there are four hundred people in the town.
Since there are fresh traces of burning corpses, this means that someone in the town is consciously cleaning up those infected. It is unclear who it is.
Assuming that all four hundred people have turned into ghouls, it will definitely not be a small project to clean up these ghouls, not to mention the five-day blood moon not long ago.
He could only draw two pieces of information that were not very important.
The team that cleans up the town should be quite large, or they may be very powerful and have a lot of time. Before being unsure, it can be regarded as a team with a large number of people and strong strength.
And this team experienced the blood moon a few days ago. If they lived in the town during that period, they might be attacked by ghouls strengthened by the blood moon.
Those burned corpses were probably reduced to black charcoal now, and it was impossible to tell whether they were living people or monsters.
Xiang En feels that it is more likely that this team lived in a small town during the blood moon.
Some other information can be seen, but it cannot be judged too accurately and can be ignored.
Next, they would go to the town to investigate the situation in person, but before going, Xiang En needed to make some preparations.
He set his sights on the sparse woods not far away, waved to En, and asked Marky and Duncan to go over and cut down the trees for him.
The sparse woods were really sparse. At a glance, they could see the whole forest through the regularly spaced tree trunks. They did not find any zombies hiding in it.
But when they actually entered the woods and cut down a less eye-catching tree, some small creatures came to find them.
After spending a lot of time cutting down the trees, Xiang En directed Markie and Duncan to cut the boards, and he and Andrea went to find something that could be dyed.
After gathering the materials, Xiang En quickly painted and changed, cutting out the shape of the wooden board, and finally lit up his eyes with blood, using skillful techniques to quickly create eight trap totems.
With these totems, Xiang En had some confidence, and while there was still some time before dusk, they headed towards the town.
Ten minutes later, Xiang En and his party cautiously arrived at the edge of the town. There were still unburnt corpses beside the field. It was so dark that only the outline of a human figure could be seen.
Next, they entered the town again, advancing little by little, carefully observing the ordinary buildings around them, like frightened birds. If there was any sign of trouble, they would run away immediately.
Why run now
Nothing but familiarity!
Back in the town, what Xiang En saw with his own eyes was exactly what Marki said. There were traces of entry and exit in the building, and there were many traces of moving.
The tables and chairs were gone, as were the iron pots and casseroles used for cooking. They looked as if they had been looted.
They continued to go deeper and found many corpses that had been cremated on the spot but had not been burned. It seemed that the town should be safe.
"Hey! The first few!"
Suddenly, a heroic shout came from the other end of the street, frightening Xiang En and the other four.
After the four people turned around and ran a few meters, they were surprised to realize that the voice was the voice of a living person, and turned to look at the end of the street.
At some point, four figures wearing cloth and leather armor were already standing there, three men and one woman. Judging from their faces, the mental state of the four of them was not very good.
(End of chapter)