Later that day, Fasi returned to the castle, accompanied by three or four elderly men who looked to be about the same age as Kaping.
Based on Ed's understanding of Kaping, these old guys combined were probably around a hundred years old.
Looking at their unsteady steps and the setting sun, Ed always felt that they looked like they were there to freeload and mooch off him.
"My Lord Bishop."
Fasi trotted up to greet him and introduced the elderly men to Ed.
"After I returned to the village, I told them what had happened here, and everyone said I was crazy... But I really wanted everyone to see what was happening here, so I brought the village chief and the others along. Everyone in the village believed them."
So it was an "inspection team for the Midstream Village relocation project"?
Ed understood, but his expression remained gentle:
"Please feel free to wander around and explore. The area around the castle has been cleared by guards and soldiers; it's very safe now."
"Well."
The Midstream Village, who was in the lead, took a deep breath and then, led by Fasi, began to observe the situation around the castle.
He vaguely remembered visiting the area near the castle when he was a child. At that time, the baron had only been dead for a little over ten years, and legends about his family still circulated in the territory. The remains of adventurers could be seen everywhere below the flying castle.
And now, this place has actually become a bustling human settlement?
Even excluding the familiar faces from the Upperstream Village, there are still about twenty or thirty people here.
Although it didn't sound like a lot, he noticed that these twenty or thirty people were all young men like Fasi, and each of them was well-proportioned and full of energy.
In his limited understanding, this group of young people could already be considered a powerful force capable of establishing a small village. To be fair, if they were placed in Midstream Village, they would definitely dominate the area.
Moreover, they are members of the Tree Worship Church, backed by such a powerful force...
Thinking of this, the scales in his heart began to tip slightly.
Just as the old man began to struggle with his decision, a gasp suddenly rang out from the crowd by the river:
"I'll test it, what's that?!"
"I don't know, it was speared away by my harpoon!"
"That must be a fish, what else could be in the river?"
"Stop talking nonsense, okay? Can you compare a carp to a crocodile?"
"You call that a harpoon? It's just a short spear with a vine, a piece of junk used for spearing wood."
"That's also the culmination of my wisdom, unlike someone who went into the river to feel for wood and even swallowed some water."
"That's a problem with this body. Your brother here is a swimming champion in real life."
"Stop talking nonsense! The water's still moving. Go down and make a nest for everyone, hurry up!"
The Elite Warrior, soaking wet, clearly didn't want to use his own body to make a burrow. Looking at the small patch of water still bubbling, he somehow found a piece of raw meat.
"What's this, buddy? Why are you putting raw meat in your pocket?"
"I did this during the newbie quest yesterday, and I saved a piece to bake and eat, but I forgot about it. Now it seems to have gone a bit bad..."
"Damn it, I knew I wasn't wrong about you. It was your piece of junk that attracted that monster."
"Enough talk, I'll use it to bait the nest now."
Hearing this, the village chief roughly understood what had happened on the riverbank in front of him...
As a villager living by the river, the Midstream Village certainly knew that the rivers of this world were far more complex than they appeared.
It is normal for humans to live near water, but they also know that there are dangers lurking in rivers, so they only use the water and never swim in it, and even bathe in the river.
His ancient wisdom about survival told him that if the land where humans could live was already so dangerous, the water would only be more dangerous.
These Elite Warrior had clearly encountered something similar; some kind of unusual monster must have appeared in the river, interfering with their work.
For the sake of the village's future, the village chief decided to observe how these people reacted to emergencies.
Although he was very old and his fighting ability was not even as good as that of a Vine Sheep, it did not prevent him from roughly judging the strength of ordinary people.
The Elite Warrior did not disappoint him. As the half-rotten piece of flesh was thrown into the water, ripples quickly appeared on the surface, and a shadowy figure rapidly approached the location of the rotting flesh beneath the water.
There really are fish!
The moment it reached the spot where it was digging, seven or eight short spears were pierced into the water.
Seeing this, the village chief shook his head slightly; it was impossible to succeed this way.
Sure enough, the short spears that missed their targets quickly floated to the surface, demonstrating a remarkably low hit rate.
Only one short spear successfully hit the monster underwater, but a short spear is not a harpoon, and the blade does not have a barb structure. As long as the fish exerts force, it will definitely get off the hook.
Everyone was aware of this, so no one opened champagne at this point.
The problem now is how to kill the monster that's getting in their way of salvaging timber.
Just then, Duolin was also drawn to the scene. He looked at the short spear on the water's surface, which moved with the monster like a locator, and his right hand began to Alienation little by little.
"Oh, oh, oh, that's the move!"
[ Howling Pothos ], who was watching from a distance, already knew Duolin's thoughts. As a participant in the battle to annihilate the monsters in the wooden house, he had observed Duolin's Directed Alienation ability most carefully. It was because Duolin possessed a Directed Alienation ability that other guards did not have that [ Howling Pothos ] was able to immediately recognize him as the leader of that group of guards.
So when he saw the change in his opponent's palm, combined with Duolin's previous combat experience, he easily figured out what he wanted to do.
The guard, now skilled in ranged attacks, is about to fire!
[ Howling Pothos ] ran quickly towards the riverbank, shouting loudly to Duolin at the same time:
"Barbs, get some barbs out!"
Duolin's five fingers spread outwards, and a featherless wooden arrow, as thick as a finger, grew from his palm.
At the prompting of [ Howling Pothos ], the tip of the wooden arrow, which was originally just a pointed one, thickened and extended backward with barbs.
"Call out!"
The wooden arrow shot out, piercing the water and striking the bottom of the short spear.
The calm water surface suddenly rippled, revealing a chaotic mixture of red blood and brownish-gray riverbed silt beneath the surface.
The logs that were above the water to indicate the monster's location had changed from one to two.
"Attack! Attack!"
Suddenly, one of the players shouted, and four or five players threw the short spears they had just retrieved out again.
Because it was already injured, the monster at the bottom of the river was clearly less agile than before. This time, two short spears pierced the monster, making it move even slower.
Several players who were practicing Directed Alienation also ran over and handed their standard short spears to the players with higher strength values.
Soon the monster was impaled like a bull in a matadorate movie. It lost its last ability to struggle and slowly floated to the surface, like a stranded Lion.