"Master Hunter, something bad has happened! Someone's gone missing from the village again!" The old village chief hobbled over, leaning on his cane, shouting loudly.

Ed quickly asked, "Who has gone missing from the village?"

The old village chief immediately replied, "It's the blacksmith. I saw him this morning, but by the time we gathered, he had disappeared!"

From this, it seemed that Ford was likely fine. After all, Ford was fairly capable—he was a mid-tier Black Iron Hunter. Even if there were more than thirty ghouls hidden in the forest near the village, Ford might not be able to defeat them all, but he would certainly be able to escape.

Ed glanced around to make sure no one else was around before he asked a villager who had returned early, following Alice's mother, for more information.

The limping old village chief was quite puzzled as to why Ed was asking these questions, but he still answered honestly.

One piece of information caught Ed's attention.

It was about a young man named Fidel. He had been the one who informed Alice's mother that a Hunter had come to the village and was asking Alice questions—maybe he could even help her. This was why Alice's mother had returned at the crucial moment, interrupting Ed's inquiry.

Ed asked the old village chief to describe Fidel's appearance.

As soon as the old man finished speaking, a villager rushed over in a panic, shouting at the old village chief, "Chief! Something's wrong! There's trouble!"

"Someone just saw a monster outside the village!"

The old village chief was immediately shocked. He instinctively moved closer to Ed and, with a terrified look, said, "Master Hunter, the monster is outside!"

Ed seemed not to hear what the village chief said. He simply stared at the villager before him, gripped his steel sword tightly, and suddenly asked:

"You must be Fidel. Tell me, who saw the monster outside the village?"

Fidel was clearly taken aback. He answered, "I was in such a hurry to come over that I didn't hear who said it, but it seemed to be some kind of monster—fat, about 2 meters tall, a humanoid creature that crawls on the ground!"

Ed wasn't very interested in the details. He simply looked at Fidel with a hint of sarcasm in his eyes.

It was Anthony who, hearing the commotion, walked over. He caught the tail end of Fidel's description and immediately spoke up to Ed:

"It's a ghoul! It must be the ones we were informed about, the ones in the forest!"

Ed immediately turned around, his brows furrowing as he looked at Anthony walking toward him. He sharply reprimanded, "Who told you to come here? Didn't I say that you're in charge of staying under the big tree and keeping an eye on things there?"

Anthony froze, instinctively trying to defend himself, "There wasn't anything happening there, and I only came because I heard there were ghouls outside. I thought I could help."

He felt somewhat uncomfortable. Ed was the team leader, but he hadn't done anything wrong, had he? He'd just come to see what was going on. Was it really necessary for Ed to get angry and scold him?

There weren't any monsters in the village, and as a mid-tier Black Iron Hunter, there wasn't much he could do by just standing there.

Ed didn't feel like explaining himself. The reason he had told Anthony to stay there was that it wasn't just a crucial clue, but it was definitely important to whoever was behind all this.

Without thinking any further, Ed immediately started walking toward the warehouse. Toronto and Anthony quickly followed him.

But then Ed suddenly stopped, turned around, and said to Fidel, who had come to report, "You should come with us. If the monster outside the village enters, it will definitely cause chaos. We'll be able to detect it."

Fidel looked somewhat stunned. He glanced at the steel sword in Ed's hand, then nodded in agreement.

The limping old village chief didn't hesitate either. Right now, there was no place safer than staying near a Hunter.

Soon, the group arrived at the big tree near the warehouse.

Strangely, the disgusting, rotting smell from earlier seemed to have disappeared.

Ed immediately walked over to the tree, gripped his steel sword, and thrust it forcefully into the ground. When he pulled it out again, only normal dirt clung to the surface of the blade.

Toronto noticed this too. He quickly climbed up the ladder to the top of the warehouse and soon called out, "Captain Ed, the human skin is gone from up here too!"

Seeing this, Anthony panicked. He hurriedly climbed up to the warehouse roof as well. Sure enough, all the human skin was gone.

Even the pieces of skin that had fused with the tree were now completely gone, as if nothing had ever happened on the tree at all.

"How is this possible? I was only gone for a little while—how could it all be gone?" Anthony muttered in disbelief.

He didn't dare to look up at Ed, keeping his head down, unsure of what to do next.

Ed, however, remained calm. The events had already occurred, and there was no point in saying anything more. It was better to see if they could find any new clues.

Soon, after Ed had circled around the large tree, he noticed some strange cracks on the once-smooth trunk.

Without hesitation, Ed drove his steel sword into one of the cracks and forcefully pried it open.

At that moment, large pieces of bark instantly fell away, revealing a humanoid hollow about one meter in height.

Toronto and Anthony immediately walked over, curious about the hollow in the tree trunk. Previously, Ed had struck the tree with his steel sword, and the tree had shown no reaction at all. It had clearly appeared to be just an ordinary tree. How could it suddenly have a humanoid hollow?

As Toronto and Anthony were puzzled, Ed's voice suddenly rang out, "Where do you think you're going?"

Toronto and Anthony turned around in surprise, only to see Fidel, who had been following them, quietly trying to sneak away.

Realizing he had been caught, Fidel forced a stiff smile on his face and replied, "Master Hunter, I just suddenly remembered that I have some important business to take care of."

Ed, still holding his steel sword, slowly walked up to Fidel and stared at him closely.

With his Silver-tier Hunter's senses always active, Ed easily noticed the movements of an ordinary human. It was impossible for him to be fooled. The reason Toronto and Anthony hadn't noticed was because both of them had been entirely focused on the hollow in the tree. Ed, on the other hand, had kept part of his attention on Fidel the whole time.

Ed spoke to Fidel, his tone calm but sharp, "Are you human?"

Fidel nodded furiously, swallowing nervously as he answered, "Master Hunter, of course I'm human!"

At that moment, Ed's steel sword was pressed against Fidel's throat. A slight increase in pressure would be enough to sever his head from his body.

The limping old village chief, witnessing this scene, was filled with fear. He didn't understand why the Master Hunter was asking Fidel if he was human and why his sword was pressed to the young man's neck.

The old village chief opened his mouth to ask, but before he could speak, Ed said, "When you saw Alice react to me in the village, you realized that things were headed in a bad direction, so you hurried to notify Alice's mother to come."

"If I'm right, Alice is still alive because she can't die yet… or maybe she can't die right now?"

"You—no, you have accomplices. You used Alice's mother to threaten her. If she spoke, you would kill her mother, right?"

"For a child, that's an unbearable choice. If she stays silent, people in the village will keep dying. If she speaks, her mother will be killed."

Upon hearing Ed's words, everyone present was stunned. They had no idea what Ed was talking about.

How had Ed come to these conclusions?

Anthony couldn't help but speak up, "What about the ghouls outside the forest, and the erased footprints, and the monster that appeared outside the village just now?"

Ed didn't answer. He simply began to slowly slice through Fidel's skin with his steel sword.

At this moment, Fidel's face was filled with terror. He dared not meet Ed's gaze and kept mumbling that it was all a misunderstanding, all a coincidence, and that he hadn't done anything.

Of course, Ed didn't believe Fidel's words. He ordered Toronto to bind Fidel tightly.

Ed had never understood why Alice hadn't been killed, but when he had just seen the humanoid hollow in the tree, it had given him a much clearer idea.

The size of that hollow was exactly the same as Alice's size in the iron cage!

As for Anthony's question, Ed had a thought: there might indeed be a group of ghouls in the forest, but they had nothing to do with the disappearances of the villagers.

The footprints had been erased to mislead them.

But why strip the skin, flesh, and bones off the bodies of the villagers?

The information he had wasn't enough to perform a more thorough analysis.

While Ed was deep in thought, his Killer Intent Perception suddenly flared, warning him of an impending danger.

Without any hesitation, Ed reversed his grip on the steel sword, placing it at his back as if sheathing it into a scabbard.

"Clink!" The sound of steel colliding with steel rang out.

"Captain, danger!" "It's a monster!" Toronto and Anthony's voices sounded one after another.

There, bound tightly, Fidel's head was almost touching his back. He looked up, and a dark, monstrous creature with teeth as sharp as gold and iron was attempting to launch a second attack!

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.