Ed looked at Toronto, who took a deep breath before speaking slowly, "The place where the bodies were stored is the warehouse. I examined it carefully and didn't find any obvious clues, but there was something strange."

"The two bodies that were stored there had been completely dead due to an accident before they were placed in the warehouse, but in one corner of the warehouse, I found a pool of relatively fresh blood. Judging by the color and the condition, it looks like it was from earlier today."

Ed's pupils contracted slightly. Earlier today?

This meant someone had been injured today or perhaps killed by a monster?

Ed immediately moved to the village chief's side, his expression serious. "Village chief, I need you to gather all the villagers from outside the village and account for everyone."

The old village chief seemed to sense something was wrong and became flustered. He quickly shouted at the few villagers from earlier. Soon, those villagers scattered, heading out to inform the others working outside to return to the village and assemble.

Ed kept processing the information in his mind: the disappearances of villagers, the two bodies that vanished, the ghoul footprints disappearing, the terrifying sight witnessed by the little girl in the cage, and something among the villagers that made the girl so afraid.

All the information pointed to one thing: this wasn't just a simple monster attack.

How should he put it? Ordinary monsters lacked intelligence, or their intelligence was limited, and their strength was also restrained during the day, making them less active.

"By the way, village chief, have any children gone missing?" Ed suddenly thought of something and quickly asked.

The village chief thought for a moment, then shook his head firmly, indicating no children were missing.

This made things even more illogical. Children, being smaller and defenseless, were clearly more suitable targets for monsters than adults.

Yet, none of the village children had gone missing, except for Alice in the cage. She had seen something, but couldn't speak about it.

While the village chief was gathering the villagers, Ed shared the information he had gathered so far with Toronto and Anthony. He then led them to the warehouse the little girl had mentioned.

The village's warehouse was located at the far end of the village, right next to the fields. The large wooden doors were wide open, with no security measures in place.

Ed didn't go straight into the warehouse but instead stood in the nearby fields. He remembered the village chief saying that Alice had been playing in the fields and had seen something terrifying.

Ed constantly shifted his perspective, trying to put himself in Alice's shoes to see if he could uncover any further clues.

However, no matter how he adjusted his viewpoint, he couldn't spot anything useful or find any significant leads. The dense crops were obstructing his line of sight, creating a bit of confusion.

"Line of sight?"

"That's right, children's perspectives are different from adults'. Sometimes, they like to look up at the sky," Ed suddenly had a thought flash through his mind.

He crouched down to roughly Alice's height, then slowly looked up. All he could see was the roof of the warehouse and a large tree behind it, its branches full of leaves.

Toronto and Anthony watched Ed's odd behavior with confusion. Anthony couldn't understand what Ed was doing.

But Toronto, on the other hand, had a look of surprise in his eyes. He quickly ran into the warehouse, pulled out a ladder, and leaned it against the warehouse's outer wall, climbing up slowly.

Now, Anthony was left alone, feeling lost. He glanced at Ed in the field, then looked back at Toronto climbing the ladder, and muttered to himself, "What's going on? How come I didn't notice anything? Am I just that stupid?"

Just then, a startled shout came from the roof of the warehouse. Toronto called out, "Captain Ed, there's something new here!"

Ed quickly ran over from the field and climbed the ladder, with an equally curious Anthony following behind him.

When all three of them reached the roof, they were met with a sight that would haunt them forever. At the top of the large tree, several branches were covered with pale human faces—no, more accurately, human skin!

It looked as though the human skin had grown directly on the branches. Some pieces of skin appeared to be quite fresh, not fully merged with the tree yet. Parts of the skin, like the arms or legs, could still be blown by the wind, fluttering like white ribbons, swaying eerily in the breeze.

Anthony's face immediately turned ashen. As a Hunter, this was the first time he had ever seen such a sight. It was bizarre, an assault on his senses.

Toronto instinctively felt the urge to vomit and was desperately trying to hold his mouth shut.

Only Ed remained calm. To him, this wasn't that shocking—he'd played some horror games before, and those had far more disturbing and grotesque scenes. But those had been just games, not real life. What was happening in front of him was all too real!

Ed stood a bit far from the human-skin-covered tree trunk. He wanted to get closer and examine it carefully to see if he could uncover any clues. Just as he was about to move, a strong gust of wind blew through, rustling the leaves at the top of the tree. As the leaves shifted, Ed caught sight of a piece of human skin that hadn't yet fused with the tree.

That piece of skin was the freshest one, likely from one of the villagers who had gone missing today.

The three of them carefully examined the scene but didn't find anything else. Ed even drew his Mithril Sword and struck the tree trunk with it, but nothing happened. The tree appeared just like any other ordinary tree.

But how could an ordinary tree fuse with human skin?

The human skins lacked bones and flesh, making it impossible to discern any facial features.

No wonder Alice had been so traumatized. Even adults would be terrified by such a sight. How could a little child possibly bear it?

But why did Alice feel afraid of those villagers who had been with her mother earlier? Did she see someone among them climb onto the roof of this warehouse?

And also, the human skins here belonged to the missing villagers—so where were their flesh and bones?

Standing on the roof, Ed activated his Hunter's Senses. Aside from the bloodstains coming from the warehouse below, there was no sign of anything unusual.

Anthony was the first to jump down from the roof, with Toronto following closely behind. Neither of them could bear the sight any longer—it was just too much to take in.

When Ed descended, Anthony recovered his composure and curiously asked, "Ed, what were you doing just now? How did you know there was something unusual here?"

Ed glanced at Toronto and motioned for him to explain to Anthony.

Toronto was pretty sharp. After seeing Ed's actions, he had also come to the same conclusion. He thought it was something to be mindful of, and maybe, in the future, they could try to nurture this ability in him. He could turn out to be a valuable ally.

Toronto, watching Ed continue to walk around the tree, turned to Anthony and explained slowly, "Captain Ed thought about how a child's perspective differs from ours. If we were just looking around the warehouse normally, the roof would block our view. I only realized it after watching Captain Ed's movements."

After speaking, Toronto fell silent. He wasn't used to speaking so much at once.

Anthony's eyes lit up with realization. He admitted to himself that, compared to Ed, he really was a bit foolish.

At that moment, Ed made a new move. He drew his Steel Sword from his back and drove it forcefully into the tree's roots. Instantly, a thick, foul-smelling liquid began to seep out.

The smell was a mix of blood and decaying flesh, a scent so foul it almost made Ed want to vomit.

He furrowed his brows and swung his Steel Sword, shaking it off, then sniffed again. The smell was still there, so he simply held the sword in his hand.

Both Toronto and Anthony quickly walked over. Anthony, surprised, asked, "Ed, how did you figure this out?"

Toronto also looked at Ed, his curiosity piqued, but he couldn't come up with an explanation.

Ed sighed and briefly explained, "The weeds under this tree are more vigorous than the ones around it. Clearly, it's due to the nourishment from the blood and flesh. But what's strange is that the burial is so shallow, there should be a scent emanating from it."

"Could it be some kind of special method, or a monster's unique ability?"

Ed wasn't sure. When he had been examining the tree earlier, he noticed the abnormality with the weeds. Normally, even if there were weeds around the roots of a tree, they wouldn't grow so vigorously. Weeds would always lose out to the tree in terms of nutrients.

It was now almost certain that the missing villagers' flesh, skin, and bones were all here, with the tree. But why a tree? Why was this happening?

Ed's confusion deepened. When he had struck the tree earlier, it had seemed like a regular tree. Why was it like this now?

"Anthony, stay here. Toronto, come with me. We're going to the village to see who's missing," Ed ordered again.

This time, Anthony didn't show any expression or sneak any more glances at Ed. He stayed in place, quietly waiting.

Just then, Toronto, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up, "Captain Ed, Ford should be returning from the forest soon, right?"

Ed froze. He recalled the fresh blood in the warehouse and the newly discovered piece of human skin at the top of the tree. Could it be that Ford had run into some sort of accident?

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.