Chapter 60

"What is approaching our village in such a wild manner?" one of the village guards asked the rest of the squad of five individuals who stood guard at the front gate of the village. These guards were dressed in what could only be considered as homemade armor.

Each had a full set of body armor but were lacking any time of armor to cover their heads. Each guard held a weapon and a shield on their backs and sides, but all were in poor condition. It was clear that the village Leo started his journey in, was more well equipped when compared to this village.

However, if one were to look within this village, it seemed as if the citizens were living much better lives than the other one that Leo originally visited. The reason was simple, the other village would face an endless wave of monsters while this one was only living with the threat of the Spider Queen.

Unlike the random monster waves, the Spider Queen never launched a true attack against this village. This meant that the villagers were much happier, even though they were less likely to survive against the Spider Queen if she were to send her entire army against them.

"Hurry up and open the gates! We have many warriors with us who need attention before they pass away into the underworld!" Christopher was the first to call out to the guards as Leo's three-man squad continued to sprint towards the village gate.

"Wait, how is it possible?" recognizing Christopher, one of the guards gasped and was in deep thought for a moment before shouting to the rest of the guards at the gates. "They are from our village, hurry listen to what they are shouting and let them in!"

Quickly arriving, the citizens of the village were caught off guard as more and more of them recognized Christopher and the other warrior who once went on a raid to slay the spiders. However, what happened next, truly blew everyone away.

Using this time as the villagers around them were distracted from recognizing older warriors who they thought died, Leo quickly withdrew all the warriors who were still tangled in webs. Before arriving to the waterfall area, Leo decided to cut the webbings to allow each warrior's head to be shown. This way, the villagers would make the decision to help him start the healing process.

As he predicted, after only a moment, the villagers once recognizing their loved ones who they thought perished in the raid, jumped into action. Like a tornado, the villagers swarmed the warriors as they quickly cut them out of the webs while others ran to their huts to grab anti venom medicine.

After one hour passed, the warriors who were poisoned and tangled up in webs, were now resting on small beds made of straw and being given medicine to heal faster. Though it would still be several days until these warriors would wake up, the villagers were absolutely thrilled concerning this wonderful grace the heavens gave to them.

This commotion finally made its way back to the Chieftain's hut and shocked everyone inside. The Chieftain of this village was of course Maria's father, but he was much more formidable than what Leo would have expected. With an extremely chiseled body and heroic bearing, this Chieftain was a true leader who even wore an heirloom of his family; a bear's head over his head!

"Bring that child and those two warriors over to my hut. I wish to learn about how they were able to save so many of our comrades with only the three of them." Giving out his orders, the Chieftain sat back down on his throne before chowing down on a large piece of meat.

In this moment, Maria seemed to be in her own little world. "There is no way that kid was able to slay the Spider Queen so soon. What could have happened in there?" she pondered as she sat there silently next to her father and mother.

-Back in the center of the village-

"That is right, if it wasn't for Leo saving us, we would never have been able to come back here. If any of you declare him to be an outsider, we will leave along with him. He is the true hero and deserves to be treated as such!" Christopher shouted out to the citizens of the village who were giving the group a barrage of questions.

Hearing his words, all the villagers in this moment had their minds made up as well. For this person to do such a kind act for their village, he wouldn't be treated as anything but one of their own. And one by one the villagers surrounded Leo to personally thank him for his wonderful service.

Leo felt incredible relief once Christopher explained that he was the main individual who helped orchestrate this rescue mission. His previous experience in the other village made Leo wary about how this one would treat him. However, it seems that due to being in a less stressed environment, that these villagers were more appreciative.

"Warriors, the Chieftain wishes to meet you three right away. He is very pleased with what you have done for this village and wants to discuss how this all came about."

Suddenly a group of heavily armed individuals surrounded the crowd, trying to push them away from the group so that they could properly escort them to their leader. These individuals were considered the peak warriors of the village currently and were gifted above average armor and weaponry.

Looking towards Christopher and the other warrior he rescued, Leo wanted to see their faces hearing about the Chieftain wanting an audience with them. To his surprise, smiles appeared on both warrior's faces as they nodded and started to walk towards the northern part of the village.

Seeing that both warriors were relaxed, Leo followed behind them. Though he wouldn't lower his guard quite yet, he was interested in meeting Maria again and meeting her father for the first time.