A Hidden Village

After the boy had eaten and calmed down, Arthur uncuffed Dimon and sent him outside the village. The boy thanked him more than once but Arthur simply shooed him away.

This unexpected event took a bit of his time, so Arthur wanted to reinforce the village before going out hunting. He used his skill to turn the soil into rocks, making the village look like a fortress. However, he stopped the building of the rest of the village for now. The reason was simple.

This place was too close to humans. He wanted to relocate this village to the deeper parts of the mountain range, a more isolated place. He didn't want any mercenary or the like killing off his goblins.

Arthur left the village to hunt, and this routine was getting a bit dull. He wanted to challenge himself, but he also wanted to play it safe. Low-mid-tier monsters stopped giving him any stat points, only raising his level percentage a bit. Today, he started hunting middle-mid-tier monsters.

Taking one of them down needed a bit more work, but Arthur managed to kill it without any injuries. It was a poisonous frog that feasted on its victims after their death. Arthur used his protection rune against the poison and dodged what he can. Using his skills as well, Arthur was able to slay the frog in the end and absorbed its essence.

Returning to the village, Arthur found the goblins to be crowded around something. He made them make way and passed them, only to be greeted with a wounded Dimon.

The boy was riddled with claw marks everywhere and his clothes were ripped. He was breathing heavily, struck by a fever. Arthur looked at him for a good few seconds and then turned to the others. They all shrug their shoulders in avoidance as if they were saying 'we have nothing to do with this.'

"Is it that damn hard to take care of yourselves?" Arthur grunted and picked the boy up. Dimon groaned in pain but Arthur was busy complaining how every single person he met needed saving these days.

Arthur closed the hut's door behind him. The goblins looked at the hut fearfully since it was the first time their new lord was this irritated. After a few moments, they heard him shout out.

"Kira, come and spit!"

The wolf who was busy eating on the side carried itself with annoyance and entered the hut after Mero opened the door for it.

Inside, Arthur used his Heal-I rune on Dimon. He also cleaned his wounds and wrapped them in bandages after Kira licked them. Arthur then pondered for a while before he grabbed a bottle of water and used the rune on it. Using a primitive core, he fused the Heal-I rune on it.

[Healing water has been created. This water would double the natural healing of living tissues of whoever drinks it for ten minutes.]

Arthur made a mental note to sell this later on. He went ahead and had Dimon drink the water. His fever lessened greatly after awhile and Arthur left him to rest. He stayed by his side and kept using the Heal-I rune when it stopped working every five minutes. In the meantime, he also practiced moving his mana. It was a tedious and boring training, but he couldn't help it.

The night quietly passed as Arthur watched the boy slowly get better. He sighed again as he remembered himself back in the days when he had to go from one company to the other and beg to be hired. When he finally succeeded, he was thrown into cleared dungeons to look through the dirt for artifacts.

Times are rough. In the end, though, times change.

He made Dimon drink some healing water again before stepping outside. He went around strengthening some goblins that were especially hardworking before making dinner. Kira ate by his side as goblins nibbled on the food.

Arthur retired to his hut only to find Dimon has woken up. The boy was examining his wounds before being startled by Arthur's entrance.

"What happened to you?" Arthur asked behind his mask.

"Bear attack me."

His manner of speech was still broken, but Arthur could make sense of it. He sighed as he realized letting this boy on his own wasn't the brightest idea that Arthur had. He sat down next to the bedrock as he stared at Dimon.

"What happened to your village?"

***

After a night of piecing out Dimon's broken words, Arthur managed to understand the general events surrounding the boy. There was a village where Dimon lived inside the mountains. Arthur had no idea how he has never heard of these people living there, but Dimon said there was a 'mage' responsible for hiding them.

From Arthur's hypothesis, these were refugees that couldn't handle the expenses of living in the city and have taken shelter in the mountains. Many such tribes or villages hid in these parts away from civilization.

The events proceeding Dimon's appearance at Arthur's village's entrance could be described but nothing but creepy. It all started when the mage who kept their village hidden disappeared. They looked for him everywhere but to no avail, he was nowhere to be found.

The villagers returned after that and decided that they needed to move deeper into the mountains. Their plans were proceeding smoothly as they sent scouts to find a suitable place.

The following nights, several villagers disappeared. Every time night descended; a couple more would disappear. No matter if they stayed awake or not, it made no difference.

It was on one of those nights that Dimon woke up. He heard noises around the house only to find his family walking in their sleep. He tried to wake them up, but it was futile. They were like walking corpses, no signs of life except their breathing.

Dimon followed his family until they reached an ancient cave, hidden behind a grove. His family walked inside, but Dimon was too afraid to follow. In the end, he stayed the whole night there, hearing their screams. His terror froze his legs and he ran away.

Arthur had to stop his questions since the pubescent youth started crying and shivering. Arthur sighed and infused a stamina rune into him, strengthening his mentality.

The rest of the story was about how Dimon wandered around the forest until he found the village of the goblins. Thinking it was a human village, he wanted to ask for some food. The result was him being captured by the goblins.

"What do you want to do now?" Arthur asked after gazing through the window, it was well past midnight. The youth gathered his wits between his sobs and answered.

"I live."

Arthur expected him to say revenge or to find his family. However, it was also understandable that he wanted to live safely.

"But I want bury family." His broken mind seemed to accept that his family was most likely dead, but he still wanted to give them a proper farewell. Arthur nodded his head and stood up.

"I have no reason to help you," He stated flatly, Dimon shrunk under his apathetic stare. "However, it just so happens that I want to move out of this place." Dimon looked at him with confusion. "In return for guiding me to your village, I will help you find your family."

It wasn't that he was a saint. He was far from being one. However, humans had this trait called empathy. Losing his family so suddenly… Arthur saw his younger self in Dimon.

"But for now, you should rest," Arthur said before lying on the wall to sleep. It was a bit uncomfortable, but he couldn't ask the injured kid to move away. He felt Dimon's gaze on his body for a few minutes before it disappeared.