Holy Messenger

While he couldn't wait to start going on a hunting rampage, Paul knew that he had to get his priorities right in order to maximise efficiency. He was intending to be in it for the long haul after all! He couldn't possibly just keep hunting, eating, and sleeping in the wild. How would he be different from just another wild beast if he were to do so?

First, he would have to secure a base of operations. This would be where he rest and make preparations for his hunts. He would be able to store essentials like water and food there as well.

Thus before the night even ended, he was on his way to explore the area once again. This time he had a clear objective in mind – to find a suitable location where he could build a shelter. However, what he eventually found was even better than what he expected. After hours of walking, Paul finally saw some faint lights in the horizon.

Civilisation!

Rather than having to secure his own base of operations, it would be countless times more convenient to simply join an existing village!

Paul couldn't make out exactly how big the village was, but the sturdy wooden fencing ending with two burning torches near the gate was enough to tell him that the village was sufficient developed. There would certainly be no problem getting his necessities taken care of if he were to join the village. Thus Paul eagerly trod forward, but rather than the welcoming smiles that he was expecting, he was met with frowns from the two lookouts on duty.

"Hold it right there!" one of them shouted out when he spotted Paul happily making his way towards them.

Both lookouts were men who looked to be in their forties, wearing clothes made crudely out of animal skin. Each of them had a weapon tucked neatly at their side, attached to their leather belt. Seeing Paul approach, both of them immediately drew their weapons in wariness. One of them used a short knife while the other had an axe. They couldn't be considered buff, but they were definitely lean, and their muscles were defined, giving a hint about the strength they were hiding under those ugly clothes.

"Woah! Don't attack! I mean you no harm!" Paul immediately raised both his hands in the air in submission as he saw the weapons being pointed at him aggressively.

However, even as he said that, he started to break out in cold sweat. He knew he was in trouble – he had no idea what the other party was saying! What was that gibberish? Some native language? If that's so, then how was he going to join the village if he couldn't even communicate with them?

He naturally could not understand what was being shouted at him. What they were speaking was the native Human Tongue that Adrian and May had to learn from scratch, while Paul could only converse in English. And this also meant that the lookouts had no idea what he answered with either!

While Paul sighed in regret over how overly optimistic he had previously been, the lookouts had already made their way over, and were shocked by what they saw!

Paul had previously torn his sleeves to cover the wound on his neck, but the previous struggle with the wild boar had resulted in an even deeper injury at his abdomen! Since he hadn't felt any bit of pain from it, Paul had completely neglected the injury, leaving it exposed. However, both the lookouts could clearly see a huge gashing wound on this stranger's body. And the terrifying thing was that such a deep wound wasn't bleeding at all!

Undead!

A cold chill ran down their spine, immediately giving them goose bumps. However, they quickly threw away that thought. What kind of undead would raise their hands in submission like this guy? A zombie or skeleton would have just charged straight at them, mindlessly trying to devour any living thing that had blood flowing through their body!

But if this guy wasn't an undead, then they really needed to get him some help! Poor dude, he couldn't even speak coherent words anymore due his body being in shock from such heavy injuries!

In this remote village, they seldom had outsiders visiting. Those who did visit were usually hunters who had strayed too far into the forests while chasing their prey. While these hunters were usually friendly, some of them were arrogant and despised the villagers, thinking that they were ignorant people who did not know better about the outside world. These arrogant people would usually be overbearing and aggressive, and they were not welcomed by the villagers one bit. Thus to figure out what kind of person Paul was, the lookout had adopted an aggressive posture from the start as a sort of personality test.

However, was it really the time for a test of his personality right now? This guy might not have long to live if left untreated!

Paul was still panicking about what to do next when he saw the two lookouts tuck away their weapons and run straight at him with worried expressions on their faces.

This was a night filled with confusion for the genius engineer. Never had he been this clueless about what was going on around him. After being transported to this new world, he was now watching as the two lookouts carefully lifted him up and ran into the village with the previous hostility completely wiped from their faces.

It was late at night, so they did not encounter anybody along the way as they ran through the village. Knowing that they probably wouldn't understand him anyway, Paul simply kept his mouth despite really wondering where they were bringing him. Instead, he focused his attention on the houses that quickly passed them by.

The houses here were decently constructed with the main structure made of wood, and the roofs made of leaves that were tied together in tight bundles. The houses were small and the village layout was haphazard and disorganised, but the number of houses was surprising. With a glance, he could already see tens of houses. This meant tens of households, and if each household had 3 to 4 people, then that would already bring the village population to hundreds! And this was just considering the ones they had passed by!

The greater the village population, the more chances there were for there to be villagers with specialised occupations such as blacksmiths. And that would mean he would be able to get weapons, increasing the efficiency at which he could hunt! While he didn't know what the deal was with the two lookouts who were carrying him along, Paul was getting more and more convinced that it was a wise decision in approaching the village.

It didn't take long for the two lookouts to stop before a small house, shouting and hollering in some language unbeknownst to Paul.

"Doctor!" the lookouts shouted as they knocked on the door anxiously.

It didn't take too long before the door creaked open loudly, and an old lady appeared from within. She was dressed sloppily and her greying hair was in a mess. Her eyes were only half opened as she walked out lethargically, obviously not expecting to be roused from her deep sleep.

"I swear, if this is not an urgent case, I will have you fed to the dogs!" the old lady snapped unhappily.

"Doctor! This person is heavily injured! Please take a look at him!" the two lookouts were used to the incessant grumblings of the doctor and paid it no mind.

"This!" the old lady's half opened eyes went wide when she finally caught sight of Paul and how bad the condition he was in. "Hurry! Bring him in!"

The two guys didn't need to be told twice as they carried Paul into a small room and laid him down on a wooden bed. The old lady hurriedly went to fetch a bag of equipment before returning.

"What happened to him?"

"We have no idea either! He was already in this state when we spotted him!" one of the lookouts explained.

"Wait, he's not bleeding?" the doctor finally realised the strange situation, then saw that Paul had his eyes open the whole time. "You are awake? What happened to you?"

Paul could tell that this new lady was speaking to him, but he had no idea what she was saying! Looking at how anxious the few of them were and how he was being treated at the moment though, Paul finally realised that he had an uncovered wound at his abdomen, and that might have led to some misunderstandings.

"I think there's a mistake here. I'm actually all right," Paul moved to sit up, but was immediately pressed down onto the bed by the two lookouts.

"He had been speaking incoherently like that since just now! I think he had gone into shock from the pain!" one of the lookouts exclaimed.

"That's likely, first I will have to disinfect the wound and sew it up!" the doctor was decisive in her actions as she cut open Paul's shirt.

"What are you doing! Stop!"

Paul was slowly growing more and more alarmed!

Why was I being held down against the bed like this? Was this a way to treat a patient? Could it be that I was wrong about them? Maybe these people are cannibals or are trying to perform some form of dark experiment on me? I guess even I would have been interested in taking apart a body that doesn't bleed in order to analyse what it was made of, but there's no way I would let them do that to me!

With that thought in mind, Paul struggled even harder. But these two lookouts were no joke! Even among the villagers, they were the elites in terms of battle strength! Otherwise they wouldn't have been selected to be lookouts, having the security of the village placed in their hands. They held him down so hard that there was no way he could resist even as the doctor cut open his clothes.

"Stop struggling! You can hear us, can't you!" the doctor snapped irritably before she started cleaning the wound with water.

"AH…?" Paul shouted out as he saw the water being splashed onto his wound, but suddenly realised that he did not feel pain. Finally, he stopped struggling when he saw the lady started sewing up his wound. It seemed that this lady really was trying to treat him, but what's with the rough treatment?

"I swear! If this guy hadn't been moving about energetically just now, I would have believed that I am dealing with a corpse right now! How can he just lie there nonchalantly as I sew up his wound, and how can there be no excessive bleeding from such a wound?" the old lady was done quickly, apparently skilled and well trained in treating wounds.

"Isn't that right! We thought he was an undead initially and almost hacked him down!" one of the lookouts laughed in agreement. Now that the doctor was tending to this stranger, the tension from before had dissipated entirely and he was feeling relaxed now.

"Nonsense! Have you ever seen an undead just quietly let you carry them through the village?" the old lady rejected that notion immediately.

"Yes, yes," the lookout smiled helplessly. He had obviously also realised that this stranger was human, otherwise how would he dare to just carry him into the village like that?

Seeing how the atmosphere had lightened up, Paul decided that since this old lady was going to take care of his wounds, he might as well let her sew up the wound at his neck too. Seeing how he seemed to have calmed down and the wound had been treated, the lookouts didn't restrict his movement this time as Paul slowly reached out to take off the cloth wrapped around his neck.

However, the moment the cloth came off, the three pairs of eyes that were watching him turned wide in disbelief! All of them took a few steps back in alarm. The deep slit across this man's neck was not one that anybody could survive! No matter how strong a person was, when his neck had been cut through like that, the only path forward should have been death!

"This! How could he still be alive!" one of the lookouts exclaimed in shock.

Even the calm doctor stumbled backwards for a moment before regaining her cool, stepping forward to treat the deep neck injury.

"No, there is one possibility! Let me quickly finish treating his wound, and then you can bring him back to rest while I go meet with the chief!" the old doctor carefully tended to the wound as her eyes reflected an excitement that wasn't present before.

"What is this possibility?" the lookouts were obviously curious.

"I can only think that this unexplainable injury could be under an influence from some sort of divine intervention, thus stopping him from dying! As such, he could well be the one who was mentioned in the prophecies of our ancestors, holy messenger of the Beast Spirit Wrox who would deliver us from the darkness and towards endless fortune!" the old doctor's voice was trembling from excitement as she answered.

What craziness! To think that the prophecies from the past could actually be realised in her lifetime! It was her honour to be the one who treated the holy messenger of Wrox. If things went well, her name might even go down in history!