Ren inspected the barrier but couldn't deduce anything useful from it.
'Seriously, this clothing is too uncomfortable.' Complaining inwardly about the plain wool tunic he was wearing, Ren continuously shifted right and left, unable to stay still.
Sitting on a patch of grass near the barrier, he gazed at the sunset, the streaks of sunlight falling on his face.
"Sigh, guess I can only move forward now." In the next second, his eyes sharpened. "And only for myself, not others."
He stood up, brushed the dust off his tunic, and started moving towards the house where he had found himself after waking up.
His mind drifted as he moved towards the house. 'I will need to kill to survive; that's the only way. This world won't reward the strong, but the ones who have the will to live.'
The night passed silently with only the occasional sound of insects chirping, creating a vivid and calm atmosphere that felt like nature embracing the human itself, as if it wanted to get rid of all the exhaustion.
The next morning, he reached the entrance of a somewhat better house.
Made of bricks and wood, it had a thatched roof, tilting downwards from both sides with a complex design compared to the other houses. And timber beams were provided for additional support.
"What do they need to discuss? Don't tell me it's about my special ability." He knocked on the door once.
"Coming," Lina's voice echoed from inside and a few seconds later, the door opened.
Ren finally had the opportunity to look at the girl herself instead of her actions.
She looked a little petite with fair skin giving off a lovely vibe, but that's all. Around eighteen years old, so probably one or two years older than him.
Stepping into the house, he found the other three sitting around a circular wooden table, discussing something.
Even after Lina had gone to open the door, they completely ignored him like he wasn't even there.
Everyone, except Evan.
He glanced at Ren, gave a small perfunctory nod, and motioned him to sit.
"Tch, why do we need him? He hasn't even learned about his stupid powers. Wouldn't it be better to wait and find a different otherworlder?" Ronan asked in a displeased tone.
"We can't. And we don't know how many people have arrived in this world. So I am not going to take this risk just due to your over-cautiousness, Ronan." Evan shut him up completely with that single line.
Caleb didn't say anything and kept silent, probably thinking about something.
"Now, we need a plan to first reach the city-Highcrest in hopes of finding some shelter set up by the knights.
That's our only bet for now, so let's plan when to go." Lina started the main conversation for which they had all gathered.
"Why can't we move now?" Ren asked, a little surprised.
"Because of those Vermins, they were our people but now, they are just mindless zombies," Caleb explained with a dark face.
Ren remained silent and let him continue.
"This whole village was plagued by the infection, to be exact, only a single person who drank the water from the well. Later, he started showing signs of mutation, but everyone thought it was just some disease and didn't pay him any further attention."
Caleb exhaled lightly. The tension was still visible on his face signifying the effort he exerted to say those words out of his mouth.
"But three days later at night, that same man bit a lot of the villagers and created an army of vermin.
We five had gone to the nearby village to meet with our friends that day but when we returned, the whole village was empty."
The more Ren listened, the more his brows furrowed.
"And as soon as we entered the village, the blue panel appeared for all of us, marking this point as a safe zone. We thought of going to the nearest city as villages would have more chances of infection. But we couldn't."
Ren noticed that at this point, Caleb's hands were clutching the armrest of the chair so hard that veins started to appear and his skin had turned a shade redder.
"Everyone we knew, our mothers, fathers, and our whole family and neighbors, became one of them.
At first, we five cried, but slowly accepted the reality to survive, to let our people be freed from that curse, as we still don't know whether they are dead or alive."
"Wait. What do you mean you five?" Ren asked with a narrowed gaze as he processed the words.
"Oh, we forgot to tell you, Selene was also with us when we went to the other village. That was where her mother's family lived so she stayed back to live for a few more days and didn't return with us.
And now, we can't even take the risk of going to meet her. All we can do is just hope that she is still alive and doing well."
It was Evan who spoke now.
He certainly knew someone from the group would try to meet Selene, but the risk was too much. So he dismissed the idea before someone could even propose it.
"Now the path to the city and the village is blocked and filled with the vermins. We have levelled up and tried to defeat them, but there are too many of them that we had to retreat every time inside the barrier."
Lina clenched the hem of her dress with a bitter smile on her face.
Ren went silent for a few minutes, giving them a little time to cope before asking—
"So what level would I need to reach before I could take down a Vermin directly?"
Caleb was the first to reply, "You need constant growth. I have felt the monsters becoming more powerful day by day after fighting against them for three consecutive days."
Ren's eyes widened, finally hearing the crux of the problem which prevented them from going to the nearby city—Highcrest.
'This place is messed up.' Ren's lips twitched in frustration at being confined in a village.
"Alright, we can't waste any more time. We should get ready and try to find a way to the city in a week or else I fear they might become too strong." Ronan still shivered thinking about how the Vermins had lifted him by the neck some days prior.
If not for Evan, he might have already become one of them.
'So this is the hellhole I have to escape from, huh?' Ren was not sure whether he would be the one to survive or be the one to die.