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He resisted the urge to add them all to his necrotic gauntlet. If the dead suddenly rose into a green storm of flying bones, the villagers would probably assume it was a doomsday sign, and he didn’t want the already suspicious villagers recklessly charging him with their pathetic wooden spears.

The skeletons underground were strangely not complete skeletons either, but it was more like they had been taken apart, mixed, and tossed there recklessly some time ago, now covered by a layer of roots.

“Did the knights do this?” he wondered, shocked at how much of the large bone mass there was.

Some of the skulls were smaller too, giving Jay a bad taste in his mouth.

“So merciless. Even the children.”

Jay stopped himself from shaking his head and frowning. He couldn’t show any signs that he knew of what lurked below.

Thankfully, the little girl by his side looked much more suspicious than he did.

She looked around nervously, holding her hands together and rubbing one of her fingers.

Even in her own village she didn’t feel safe.

“The knights must have terrified them. I wonder how strong they are”

It seemed that the knights would have to be strong enough to cull so many, but as for the purpose of the culling, he couldn’t be sure - perhaps too many villagers would be considered a threat.

Jay had analysed some of the villagers, and none were over level five. Most were level three or four.

Really not much of a threat to Jay or his skeletons, and it was to be expected for a level four dungeon.

It seemed that there were about thirty to fifty villagers left of the hundreds who had died here, and all of them looked as pale, sunken-eyed and starving as the next.

All of them look so poor too, their clothing mostly just tattered rags; some only had loin cloths left.

Finally, the gaunt hunter who had escorted them here came back.

It seemed like his whole attitude had changed since he returned, and he now greeted Jay with a smile.

“Welcome, honoured guest. Please, follow me to the village elder. He’s very excited to meet with you.”

He then turned to the girl, “You did a good job bringing someone so brave and strong here. You’re free to leave.”

The girl\'s face looked both excited and shocked, and she quickly ran off into the forest again.

“... what a strange little girl. Maybe she thinks the forest is safer than here.” thought Jay.

As Jay was brought into the village, he thought it was truly pathetic.

The houses were nothing more than huts, all looking like survival shelters made with bundles of sticks and some patches of mud.

A few closer to the centre of the village were made from wood, though it was not made from wooden planks but raw wood.

Only one house was different; its walls surrounded by stones which made it look much sturdier than the rest.

The only other structures were large, flat platforms, and Jay soon found out what the villagers were digging up the dirt for.

On top of these platforms were beds of dirt covered with different plants.

The villagers had to grow their food like this, above the creeping vines which would try to strangle them from beneath.

“It’s no wonder they all look so starved.” he pursed his lips, feeling like their existence was truly a pathetic one.

As Jay neared to the centre of the village he was soon greeted by a smiling man who was slightly taller than the other men but just as skinny.

Jay thought he looked quite young to be the village elder. He was probably not even forty years old.

He approached Jay,

“Hello, welcome to our village. My name is Grundel. My man tells me you intend to save us from the knights?”

Jay got to the point, he really just wanted to get the quest over with and collect his reward.

“Hello. I am Jay. Yes, but I need information first.”

“Ah, Jay, of course. Come, we have much to discuss.”

Before Jay had a chance to object he was already turned and walking somewhere, so he followed the man to one of the larger wooden huts.

“If the village elder lives here, I wonder who lives in the stone hut.” he thought silently.

Jay stayed near the doorway, barely stepping foot inside of the one-room hut.

After a quick conversation, Grundel offered him a place to stay and directed him to three people who had experience with the knights and their lands.

Apparently Grundel had not encountered the knights himself, and mostly tended to the precious gardens.

As for the place Jay was offered to stay and rest, he was soon brought to the stone hut.

As he approached it, he noticed a few villagers rushing out with some brown ragged sacks, probably moving someone else’s items out.

“Ah, don’t mind them. The stone hut belonged to a brave man who has since died. They are just saving his belongings.”

“Oh. What an honour, being given his hu..house.” Jay said, pretending to be flattered.

Truly, he didn’t really care about the villagers or the hut. In his mind they were just another stepping stone to getting some exp and getting out of the dungeon before too much time had passed in the real world.

After speaking to the elder some more he was directed to three people who would have information about the knights.

Elder Grundel left Jay alone to investigate, and went to attend to other duties.

The first person was a small and slender man, and was sharpening a wooden spear with a jagged rock.

“Hello. Do you have any information about the knights?”

The man squinted his eyes at Jay, as if answering was a waste of his breath, and went back to whittling the spear.

“Asshole.” Jay thought, but kept trying.

“Can you answer me? Or are you just going to whittle? You realise I’m trying to help you right?” He tried reasoning.

The villager ignored him.

Jay watched as his pathetic jagged stone barely dug into the wood, and had an idea.

“How about a little trade?” he slyly smiled.

Jay turned around, and stuck his hand into his bag - it was still being used to carry the black cube since it wouldn’t go into his inventory.

The bag was useful to conceal his powers, and his necrotic gauntlet came out holding a bone dagger.

Jay held it out, and the man’s eyes perked up, finally seeming interested.

“Tell me about the knights and you can have this.” Jay smiled, holding the grey-white dagger before his eyes.

Jay felt a bit sneaky, as he knew the dagger would run out of necrotic essence in about fifteen hours and the poor man would have nothing but some fragments of bones.

But Jay already decided this guy was an asshole, so conning him brought him some joy.

“About a day’s journey that way,” he pointed into the forest.

Jay asked some more questions but soon the man went back to whittling with his new knife, ignoring Jay once more.

Jay was only able to get information about the direction of the knights territory.

The knight territory was not as far as Jay predicted, though in the thick forest it would seem like a much longer journey - while their castle would have been much further away, deep within the knight territory.

The villagers hated the knights as much as they feared them, and apparently they were the reason for all the starvation.

The roots covering the forest floor and destroying all smaller plants came from under the walls of the knights castle; instead of being from each individual tree as Jay initially thought.

But if it caused starvation, why wouldn’t the knights destroy the tree and its roots?

Perhaps this was simply another control method - albeit a horrible one.

“Hmm, I better send some skeletons ahead to begin scouting.” Jay thought as he walked back.