Chapter 404 - New VIP of the village
All the villagers looked very nervous, but no one had the guts to stop the adventurer from stepping into their small settlement.
"Can you show me the way to a food stall?" Liam also did not care about the several anxious eyes looking at him and patted the small kid.
"Maybe we can also take a tour of the village while we are at it huh…"
The kid looked at the two adults standing next to him who were probably his parents. Seeing that they no longer had any choice, they nervously nodded.
The kid as well gulped and started slowly walking. He kept turning back to look at the others, clearly hesitant.
Liam chuckled. He had a feeling that he knew how to make this reluctance disappear. "Here. Catch." He took out a gold coin from his inventory s.p.a.ce and tossed it to the kid.
Seeing the s.h.i.+ny coin, a bright smile instantly appeared on the little boy"s face. "Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir." He gulped and pocketed the coin.
Of course, he also suddenly became a lot more energetic and there was a spring in his step. "Sir, I will take you to the pond first. It is my favorite place in our village."
"Alright." Liam nodded.
The kid smiled from ear to ear and gleefully took Liam from one spot to another. Liam as well patiently followed him listening to all the drivel.
From the outside, the village indeed looked like a typical normal village. There was nothing off about the place, there weren"t any important buildings or significant monuments.
Everything was just ordinary. The name of the village was Boer village which was also not the one he was looking for.
But Liam had observed some of the crowd"s expressions change when he had mentioned Jeheriya village so he was not planning to leave this place just yet.
More importantly, the villagers here had deceptively low levels.
Liam knew very well that there were only a few settlements near the borders of the Kingdom and the inhabitants of these settlements had high levels, some even past 100.
Otherwise, the village wouldn"t be able to survive the harsh conditions.
So the presence of not even a single expert among the group of normal villagers was very suspicious.
Liam continued following the young boy as he led him everywhere. It was only a small village so the tour simply took a few minutes and they were back to the main street in no time.
"Thank you sir for visiting our village." Since the tour was over, the boy was about to return back to the crowd at the entrance but Liam abruptly pulled him back.
"Not so fast. I saw that we didn"t go towards the last row of houses?" Liam asked.
He might have been simply following the kid but he was also observing every small detail while he did so.
And clearly, the little kid avoided going over to that specific street alone.
"Hmmm? Nothing special over there for us to see?" Liam smiled.
He did not expect anything specifically but the kid started immediately fidgeting, once again becoming very nervous. This made Liam"s suspicions even stronger.
He no longer bothered with the small kid and quickly dashed towards that last row of houses.
He peeked here and there and went around the place. However, he couldn"t find anything out of place.
Finally, just as he was about to leave, he spotted a beggar sitting at the corner of the street. Liam immediately became alert and moved a few steps back.
He was able to see the levels of all the villagers in this small settlement but he was not able to see the level of this beggar.
"So this is the secret?" Liam calmly stood at a distance and observed the beggar.
The man was shabbily clothed, sitting on the ground with his head leaning against one of the thatched houses.
There was a vacant look in his eyes as he simply stared ahead. He did not even bother to turn towards Liam to take a look at the intruder.
It was as if he simply did not care what happened.
"Hmmm… this guy is either a no one or someone very powerful." Liam could tell that much from his experience.
"h.e.l.lo there, the weather today is nice." He walked over to the guy.
"Would you like some food?" He took out some food from his inventory, handing it to the beggar.
However, there was absolutely no response from the guy.
Liam tried to talk to him for some more time, even mentioning Jeheriya village and the alchemy master, but there was still no response from the guy.
Clearly, this discussion was not going anywhere.
Liam chuckled and casually walked away. He already had a feeling that he needed to go about this the hard way, but first, he needed some confirmation.
He reached the entrance of the village and the village chief and a few others were still standing around there, probably to make sure that he leaves and did not create any trouble.
"h.e.l.lo again." Liam smiled.
"Ah… thank you for visiting our village, sir." The chief looked a little relieved and a little anxious. It was written on his face that he wanted Liam to leave just like this.
But unfortunately for him…
"I am thinking of staying here for a while, chief." Liam smiled.
The man"s eyes immediately went wide.
He was about to say something when Liam interrupted him quickly, "I saw some beasts bothering you guys north of here, why don"t I take care of that for you first? Hmmm?"
The chief"s eyes once again bulged in surprise. He did not expect this. He quickly nodded with a small bow, "Whatever you please, Sir."
The others as well stared at Liam in shock and surprise as the man and the fox casually walked away.
The duo headed into the forests and before long, a huge viper popped out of a nearby bramble. It was a Level 40 beast.
"Time to unwind." Liam grinned and dashed forward. "Come out." He added and the next second a horde of undead souls appeared behind him.
Luna as well jumped off his back and started attacking the viper.
The Level 40 beast did not even hold out for a couple of seconds and dropped dead in an instant.
Liam closed the notification and then cleared some more of the th.o.r.n.y brambles in their path to get to the next beast.
In this manner, the group continued hunting and clearing the beasts in the region.
The experience points gained were not much since it was divided among many and also Liam was high-leveled, so he received fewer experience points when hunting beasts lower than his level.
But it did not matter because the entire event was nothing but a walk through the forests. No one even had to lift a finger and the job was completed quickly and easily.
In fact, Liam spent more time gathering some of the herbs that he spotted along the way.
They wandered in the forests neighboring the small village for another couple of hours and finally returned back to the village.
It looked like the village chief had instructed a few men to keep an eye out for Liam as some people were still gathered around the entrance of the village.
As soon as they spotted Liam returning back, one hurried over inside to inform the chief. The others prepared to welcome him when they finally noticed the huge corpse he was carrying.
It was a giant three-headed cow that had been terrorizing their farmers for months now. The three men couldn"t help but instantly rejoice on seeing the monster dead.
"My Lord." The three of them bowed, with their respect and affinity towards Liam quickly taking a turn for the better.
Liam chuckled. He was not surprised by this treatment. In fact, he had already expected it. "He He. This is not the only one. I have some more meat."
He dropped the huge cow on the ground and then took out a couple more humungous beasts and piled them up.
"We are having a feast tonight." Liam patted the guy and started walking back into the village. This time, however, no one blocked him. Everyone started treating Liam like an important guest.
Even the village chief became extremely courteous to him and welcomed him to his own personal mansion with open hands.
The whole village"s mood improved and a festive celebratory atmosphere hung in the air.
Clearly, the people in the village were starving without properly established trade routes to the main cities. So when Liam brought over so much food, they started wors.h.i.+pping him.
The villagers gathered together to cook all the beasts and the whole place looked like a carnival, with Liam as the chief guest.
"My Lord, we are extremely grateful for your kindness. Thank you. Thank you so much." The village chief groveled. "Please come this way and enjoy the feast with us."
"Ok." Liam smiled and followed him.
At the same time, from the corner of his eyes, he noticed a beggar staring at him with a mysterious glint in his eyes.