Chapter 266: 264: For training.

"...I don't know what you are talking about," the old village head averted his eyes.

Even if Ozul couldn't sense his emotions, it was obvious that he was lying. Even the surrounding herd of mercenaries clicked their tongue at his blatant lie.

Still, they had confirmed that there might really be some truth to the rumors about there being a strong Magical Beast near this village. Unlike Ozul, most of the mercenaries here had come here to investigate the situation only.

They had already confirmed the gloomy atmosphere around the village and questioned quite a few other people. Even if the village head didn't say anything, they had enough evidence to prove the rumors.

Ozul felt the extreme anxiety and fear building up inside the old man. It was apparent that he wouldn't get anything out of him even if he pressed him for answers.

Choosing not to waste his time on useless threats, Ozul left the old village head and walked away with Raven and Blaze following behind in confusion.

They didn't know what was going on and what these rumors about 'Blood Panther' were.

After Ozul left the scene, some of the remaining mercenaries tried to threaten the village head and again questioned him, but the old man was adamant.

Sometime later, the mercenaries gave up and went back to report their findings. They weren't some villains who would start torturing the old man for answers.

Meanwhile, Ozul waited for it to get dark together with the clueless duo who didn't receive any answer from him even when they asked him.

The three spent this time while idling away around the village head's house. When it had finally gotten dark, Ozul decided to give another visit to the old man.

Since it was a village, there weren't many lights around the house. It was mostly dark.

Ozul didn't bother to knock on the door. He used the Ball of Purity to unlock it from inside.

The wooden door was old and shabby. Unlocking it didn't cause any disturbance, but a loud creak followed when he pushed it open.

"W-who is there?!" a shout came from inside the house.

However, Ozul casually closed the door after entering together with the duo. Inside, there was a small lounge and the village head looking at them with horror written on his face.

"W-w-what are you doing here!? I... told you! I don't know anything about this B-blood Panther you speak of!" old village head shouted while pointing his shaking finger at Ozul.

"Listen to me first," Ozul calmly spoke as if he hadn't heard what the old man was shouting earlier.

"I don't have to listen to anything! Get out of my house!" the village head's face reddened as he pointed towards the door.

But behaving like that proved to be a mistake when he felt the atmosphere around him starting to get cold and he noticed four eyes behind Ozul glaring at him like he was already a dead man.

The village head gulped in fright, but fortunately for him, Ozul didn't mind his hysterical attitude.

"Listen here, even those mercenaries can guess that there is indeed a strong Magical Beast somewhere around this village-" Ozul was explaining patiently when the village head immediately cut in.

"Y-You! You don't know anything! That monster will probably eat everyone if we tell others!" he cried before immediately putting his hands on his mouth.

Although he stopped himself, Ozul at least learned that the Beast might have threatened the villagers not to tell about his location.

The information that he had received told him that the Blood Panther regularly demanded a sacrifice from the villagers, so they had to be aware of its location if they had to give it a sacrifice every week.

However, it had turned out that only the village head and a couple of his trustworthy people knew the exact location of the Blood Panther.

What Ozul didn't understand was why this Blood Panther was doing all of this. If it was really a Rank-9 Magical Beast, then there was no need for it to torment a village of ordinary people like this.

"We are going to find it anyway. If you tell me its location now, it will only save me time. Otherwise, I don't mind spending another day searching for it," Ozul replied with an indifferent face.

If the village head really wouldn't help, then he could only search the Beast himself. With his senses, it wouldn't take more than a day to find it amidst the surrounding mountain ranges.

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The village head remained quiet for a few moments before he hesitated and spoke, "B-but... are you sure you can defeat that monster?"

This single question took a lot of courage from the village head to ask.

He was forced to choose one of his fellow brothers and sisters to sacrifice every week for that monster. There were many who tried to defeat the monster but no one succeeded. Instead, with each person trying to end the monster's tyranny, it provoked the Beast even more.

It had come to the point where most of the villagers were too afraid to even talk about it before others for the fear that their family might become the next victim of the monster's wrath if it found out.

Such was also the case with the village head.

"I want to train these two behind me. A Rank-9 Beast would be perfect," Ozul answered truthfully.

For a few seconds, the village head and even the duo felt as if Ozul was only joking with them.

But who was Ozul? Had he ever joked like this before? With this realization, the sense of impending doom took over them as they couldn't help but take a step back unconsciously.

"Huh?" the old village head doubted his ears for a few moments before anger took over again. He wasn't in the mood to entertain sick jokes while their lives were on the line.

"Anyway. After we are done with it, I will finish it off. Don't worry," Ozul reassured the village head who was still uncertain whether to believe a random person popping up at their door in the middle of the night like this or not.

"I... can tell you its location," the village head muttered after contemplating for a while.

Ozul stood up and was about to ask him to immediately show them the way when the old man continued, "But I have a condition."

"Condition? What condition?" Ozul squinted his eyes at the old man.

In his mind, this old man wasn't in a position to make any demands. But he still decided to at least listen to him.

"If you fail... don't ever tell that monster who informed you of its location," the old man looked in Ozul's eyes with resolution.

The village head himself was old and didn't have many years to live anyway. However, he, as the head of the village, had the responsibility to protect as many villagers as he could.

The last thing he wanted was to see the village get reduced to ashes in front of his own eyes.

"Alright. You have my word. If anything goes wrong, your name will not appear anywhere. We only mistakenly stumbled upon its dwelling place," though Ozul knew that the chances of anything going wrong in a fight against a Rank-9 Beast were close to none, he still assured the old village head who was not aware of his strength.

"Thank you... It is the middle of the night, I will tell you its location tomorrow," the village head finally sighed in relief. Although he didn't fully trust these three people in his house right now, he couldn't help but feel that relying on them was the only chance he had to save the village.

"Why don't you stay here for the night? I have enough room for all of you?" the old man offered politely, expecting the three to refuse his offer since his house actually wasn't big enough for three more people to spend their night comfortably.

"Alright then. Where is my bed?" Ozul readily accepted the offer, stunning the old man in his spot. He didn't know that they would be so swift to reply.

But after thinking for a while, he could at least arrange for them to sleep in his house.

There was only a single extra bed, and Ozul didn't hesitate to choose it immediately as he told Raven and Blaze to sleep on the floor if they wanted to.

The duo didn't really need to sleep anyway. So they instead stayed up while listening to the old man describe things in detail to them.

According to him, it had only been a month when the Blood Panther suddenly showed up in the village and destroyed more than half of it in a single swing of its paw.

Unlike what everyone thought, the Beast didn't continue to destroy everything. Instead, he only threatened the whole village to offer him a human sacrifice every week, otherwise, it would also destroy the remaining half of the village.

From then on, they had already given the Blood Panther 4 people as sacrifices. Three of whom were elderly who volunteered fearing that their young generation might be chosen if they didn't go.

Many of the villagers just ran away to another settlement, but most of them couldn't afford to migrate like others. They had no other choice but to live in this cursed village under the constant fear of the Blood Panther.

'Well that explains the gloomy atmosphere around the village...'

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