Chapter 38: Chapter 38 Incident
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
(Just a reminder, Han Dong’s alias in the last chapter was [Aron.Andwa].)
The basic frame of the goggles is made of a kind of lightweight and flexible metal, coated with a layer of brass, equipped with gears, bearing structures, and adjustable straps for convenience of wearing and adjusting.
However, Han Dong is uncertain about the material of the lenses.
It’s probably not made of ordinary glass, but rather a special transparent material that can protect the eyes from being visually polluted by some special ‘wavelengths of light’.
With the goggles on, Han Dong considers an ‘important’ question.
Before the search.
Han Dong extends his hand, stopping Cass who’s about to start searching.
“I have a question, why did the ghoul hang the lady of the house at the front door?”
Cass explained according to the knowledge gained from books: “Mature ghouls have a certain level of intelligence. This ‘public display’ behavior suggests that the ghoul’s hatred of the lady has reached a certain height .
“If it were me and I really wanted to ‘publicly display’ my enemy, I would choose to hang them at the door while escaping in the middle of the night… By the time anyone discovers it, I’d have already gotten away.
There is no need to be so ostentatious.”
Han Dong’s argument makes sense.
If the ghoul is intelligent, why would it make such a conspicuous act, hanging the lady at the front door in broad daylight, isn’t that just like asking for trouble?
Han Dong continued to speculate: “Is it possible… it has already escaped?”
Cass immediately denied it: “Impossible! Due to the occurrence of grave theft, the security team has been investigating door-to-door recently.
They arrived at the scene first and saw the lady just being hung at the door, they even saw the back of the ghoul.
In a short time, more than thirty security personnel armed with guns completely surrounded this house, and there is no sign that the ghoul has escaped.”
Han Dong shook his head, “Not necessarily… the fact that it can’t escape from the sides of the house doesn’t mean it can’t escape somewhere else.
Didn’t you say before, this family are suspected of privately feeding the ghoul?
Since they were able to hide it for so many years, is it possible that the family’s basement has been modified to extend to another location.
Upon hearing this from Han Dong.
Cass suddenly realized, “It’s really possible! This is bad!!!”
Picking up his sword and shield, Cass immediately rushed towards the basement.
The person moved so swiftly that he didn’t look like he was fully covered in hindering armor… He dashed like the wind to the end of the foyer, found the hidden entrance to the basement.
Han Dong isn’t that quick.
He deliberately waited for Cass to go to the basement, then quietly released [Possessed Chen Li] who was contained in the Portable Prison.
“Miss Chen Li, please conduct a thorough search of the first and second floors of this building! If you find the ghoul, notify me immediately… Also, if you find any books involving ‘ghoul’ , always carry it with you.
If anyone intrudes during this period, immediately return to the prison.
If there really is a secret passage in the basement, please remember to follow up later.
Maintain a distance of no more than 10 meters from me… ensuring you can enter and exit the Portable Prison at any time.”
Han Dong simply speculated that the ghoul might have escaped from the secret passage in the basement… It does not definitely mean that there is one, so it is necessary to be prepared.
In addition, through testing, Chen Li can be immediately taken back to the prison within a range of ten meters.
“Alright.’
Before beginning the operation, Chen Li asked anxiously:
“I smell an evil scent throughout this house, won’t you be in danger by yourself? If you’re in danger … can I step in?”
“It depends on the situation, try not to come out as far as possible, and this knight I’m working with has some skills… there shouldn’t be any major problems.”
“Alright, be careful.”
Chen Li first went up the stairs, conducted a search on the second floor, looking for what Han Dong wanted.
Han Dong kept pace with Knight Cass holding the ‘Plague Doctor’s Short
Blade’… the moment he stepped into the basement, the scent grew stronger.
There are a large number of animal remains left on the floor of the basement, with some residue still hanging at the ends of the bone spurs, their residual heat not yet dissipated… obviously, the ghoul’s feeding process was just completed.
“Aron, you’re onto something! There really is a secret passage!”
Cass noticed ‘loose bricks’ on the basement walls by following the liquid traces on the ground.
After pressing them, a gloomy passageway filled with a putrid odor was revealed.
“This direction… could it possibly be extending to the cemetery?!
No wonder, even in civilian areas, the management of cemeteries is very strict. The Night Watch had at least three people and were allowed to use fire guns.
Just finding stolen corpses but no traces of disturbed soil, so they were stealing corpses from the underground area!
That’s problematic!”
Cass, quite experienced, turned to look at Han Dong behind him.
“Friend Andwa, if we successfully deal with the ghouls, I’m willing to give you 40% of the bounty… Also, the situation here is much more complicated than I thought.
If the incident occurred not here but in the cemetery… there might be more than one ghoul.
If we encounter two or more, we immediately abandon the mission and report to the Knight Academy to let stronger people deal with it.”
Han Dong nodded, “Mm… If this is the case, my previous guess was not quite right.
It is deliberate that the ghoul hung the hostess’s body at the door.
Revenge is one reason, and the second reason might be to deliberately lure people in. If there are multiple ghouls, they must be somewhat hungry.
Once they are full, they would run away from the other side of the cemetery.”
Cass nodded slightly, his complexion not looking so good, “You’re a bit frail, follow behind me… just provide remote support.”
It was clear that this Cass guy was a very righteous knight.
If there were real danger, he would choose to escape with Han Dong.
The walls of the secret passage were covered with black fungal filaments, and numerous spores were floating in the air.
Before entering, Cass reached out to touch the frame of his protective goggles on the right side.
Just hearing the sound of the gears turning, through precise folding and unfolding, a half-covered leather mask stored in the goggles immediately appeared and wrapped the area below his eyes, effectively filtering this type of fungi.
Han Dong followed suit.
A black mask immediately covered his mouth and nose.
“Let’s go!”
Cass took out a simple kerosene lamp, and, sword in hand, walked in front.
Han Dong purposefully used a piece of scrap iron from the basement to block the secret door, so it wouldn’t close automatically.
As the two of them ventured in.
At the basement stairs, Chen Li in cloth shoes slowly walked down…
They had not yet emerged from the passage when they were already hearing the sound of claws scraping and tongue teeth grinding.
At the same time, the quantity of fungal matter on the passage walls was increasing.
“Listen to the sound, there really is more than one ghoul!”
Truth be told, Cass was a bit scared.
However, if he needed to report to the Knights Guild about multiple ghouls existing in the lower part of the cemetery, he needed to collect enough information, and relying on hearing alone was not sufficient.
If the Knight Squad rushed over and the ghouls escaped in advance, Cass would face accusations of ‘[false] reporting’.”
“Friend Andwa, you wait here! You… can’t outrun a ghoul. I’ll go check alone. As soon as I find a ghoul’s nest, I’ll immediately retreat.”
“Alright.”
Cass went forward alone.
About ten minutes later, overlapping footsteps echoed from deeper within.
“Get out of here now!!!
Inside is a ghoul’s nest! There are over ten ghouls, we must report the situation immediately!”