Without hesitating for a second, Karen immediately grabbed the wooden bow and quiver hanging on the wall, sprinting toward the source of that terrifying sound. Before darting off, he only had time to turn back and shout loudly to his mother, who was standing blankly in the kitchen:
"Mom! Just lock the door tight and stay inside! I'm going to see what happened!"
Eleanor Blackwood was startled by the terrified scream just now.
She clutched her left chest tightly; it took a long while for her heartbeat to stabilize slightly. By the time she could react to her surroundings, her son Karen had already run far away. She anxiously furrowed her brows, hurriedly picking up the hem of her skirt and taking steps to chase after him.
On the other side, do not underestimate Karen because of his small stature; his legs pumped at an astonishing speed. In no time, he had arrived where a dense crowd of villagers was gathering at the central square.
Looking at the puddle of bright red blood spreading on the ground, the torn linen clothes, and the fiercely ripped wounds on the flesh, he couldn't help but suck in a cold breath. He narrowed his eyes for a closer look. The person lying gasping in that puddle of blood, wasn't that Thomas—the one who had secretly sneaked out to the wheat fields?!
Was Thomas truly injured this severely just by wandering around outside in the fields? Looking at those scratch marks, it was as if he had just provoked a pack of bloodthirsty magic beasts! It was too terrifying! Could it be that the agricultural area in this fantasy world contained such deadly danger?!
The crowd of villagers around began to discuss animatedly.
"What the hell is going on? Why is the boy injured this badly?!"
"I heard he crossed the boundary without permission to run out into the fields! May the Gods protect us, fortunately he only wandered around the wheat fields and didn't dare run into the Black Forest, otherwise there wouldn't even be a corpse left..."
"Wasn't there a strict law forbidding the children from stepping out of the village gate?! Sigh! This kind of injury is too severe... Where is the Alchemist? Has anyone run to call the Alchemist yet?"
"We're in big trouble! He slung his backpack and went up the mountain to gather herbs since early morning, who knows which mountain peak he's wandering on right now!"
Hearing those death-knell words, Thomas's mother, who was kneeling slumped beside her son, instantly had her vision darken, tears streaming down her hollow cheeks.
Karen gripped the wooden bow tightly in his hand, the emotions in his chest becoming indescribably complex. If he had known everything would turn out this badly, he would rather pray for the villagers to forever maintain the appearance of soulless NPCs like before! At least when rigidly programmed, the children wouldn't curiously run around everywhere, and as a result, wouldn't have to face the boundary of death!
Eleanor caught up to the scene. As soon as she pushed her way into the central square, she heard the helpless lamentations of the villagers. She swept her eyes over the condition of the wounds on Thomas's body, hesitated for a second, then spoke up:
"I have studied a bit of medicine and basic Alchemy. Thomas's mother, if you can place your trust in me, then..."
Before the offer was even finished, Thomas's mother lunged forward and tightly grasped her hands, nodding frantically like a drowning person catching a log, her voice hoarse from sobbing:
"I trust you! I completely trust you! Please lend a hand to save the boy, no matter what the final result may be... I will absolutely not complain a single word against you!"
Eleanor immediately stepped forward.
She pressed her hand against Thomas's chest to feel his pulse and the chaotic flow of Mana inside his body, then quickly recited a list of herbs. Fortunately, the Alchemist's grandson was still on duty at home. Although the boy did not know how to diagnose illnesses, he was incredibly proficient at classifying herbs and concocting Potions.
A low-level Healing Potion was slowly poured into Thomas's mouth. Combined with a few Mana channeling techniques to seal the acupoints and a hemostatic alchemical powder sprinkled directly onto the wounds, the bleeding on Thomas's body finally stopped.
Karen stood on the outer ring, staring blankly at his mother calmly commanding everyone to handle the situation. He was completely dumbfounded. His mother actually possessed the skills of a Healing Mage?!
But then he quickly rationalized it to himself. That's right! Ever since the mysterious system update recently, the NPCs in the village had all been stuffed with countless personal settings and completely new skill trees! It was perfectly understandable for his mother to suddenly be proficient in healing alchemy!
At this moment, he felt incredibly lucky again. Thanks to that random distribution algorithm, many villagers gained essential survival skills, and the system had coincidentally given his mother healing skills! Otherwise, today Thomas might have truly gone to meet the Goddess of Death.
A few days after the incident occurred, Karen brought a basket of apples to visit Thomas.
"Thomas, did you secretly cross the wheat fields to go into the mountains? That's very dangerous! Don't do such reckless things again next time!" Karen looked at the scars left by magic beast claws crisscrossing the other's body, unable to help but shudder in horror.
"Of course not, I'm not crazy enough to drag my own corpse up the mountain to feed it to giant monsters!" Thomas's face flushed red, his expression clearly revealing the grievance of being falsely accused: "I swear I only fought a single Spiked-Back Rat!"
"What?! A Spiked-Back Rat?!"
A Spiked-Back Rat! Wasn't that the exact quest target he had been painstakingly searching for all these days?! His father had promised that as long as he defeated a Spiked-Back Rat with his own hands, he would receive the freedom to enter and exit the farming area! No wonder he couldn't find a trace of this creature even if he overturned every brick in the village! It turned out they were all gathered in the fields outside!
"About hunting Spiked-Back Rats... with your current level, it's too early to even think about it! You right now absolutely cannot withstand a single attack from it!" Not knowing what terrifying memory Thomas had just recalled, his face suddenly turned pale white, shaking his head vigorously: "To survive when facing a Spiked-Back Rat, you must at least wait until you're fifteen or sixteen years old, only then will you have a chance of winning!"
Karen was truly astonished. In the system's character settings, Thomas was considered the one with the highest physical strength stats among the village's young generation of warriors.
Yet such a robust guy was beaten half to death by a rat?!
Could it be that the rats in this magic world had such terrifying attack stats? Or more accurately, was the Spiked-Back Rat actually a fierce and massive magic beast, completely different from the weak little mice in his past life?
Carrying curiosity and contemplation, he decided to go find his father.
"You want to go hunt a Spiked-Back Rat? If you have mentally prepared yourself, I will personally take you out there!" Mr. Blackwood threw him a sharp, evaluating look.
Recalling Thomas's haunting warning, Karen decided to take a walk around to consult for experience from the veteran hunters before actually going to battle.
"Ha! You found the right person! To deal with this kind of monster, you must have a proper tactical secret!"
An old man with a long scar on his face looked around, then bent down close to his ear, whispering mysteriously:
"You just need to take Spiked-Back Rat feces and smear it all over your body to mask your human scent. Then, no matter how you attack it, that monster will be disoriented and unable to chase after you!"
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