Jason waited for a while so the young man could calm down and asked him again.

"Hey, can you tell me who are you and what are you doing here? Are you one of the survivors of one of the villages around here?"

As he heard Jason's last words his eyes teared up again.

"The.... village.... I... I couldn't protect it. They all are dead.....ughh....

Jason noticed that he was beginning to loose him again and he didn't have time for that. He crouched down and easily moved his arms out of the way.

"What...are you doing?" said the young man as he looked at Jason with fear.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you, but I don't have time to hear you weep , so I need my answers now. Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

The young man stared at Jason for a while before he relaxed and closed his eyes with a pained look on his face, before slowly speaking.

"My name's Giro, I'm a resident....was a resident of Bedo village. I was born and raised there, and when I came of age I gained the Class of Warrior. I was so happy about that because I would be someone people admired.

My first quest I accepted as an adventurer was to protect my own village , but...." the young man opened hie eyes wide as he gritted his teeth" But now there is nothing! It was all destroyed by those Dark Church bastards, uhhhh....ughhhhh..... bastard's!"

Jason blinked not in surprise as he had known that the surrounding villages had met their end, but he still didn't know what was he doing here.

" I got it, but I still don't know what are you doing here. Did you run away when the fighting started?"

"NO! I'm no coward and I fought to the end, but it was futile." said the man as his eyes became unfocused, as if he was thinking of something, but he soon snapped back and continued his story.

"Their numbers were to big for us and we were defeated quickly. Most of the villager's were killed, but the adventures such as myself were spared. We transported deep into the forest, before we were tied up and locked in some sort of underground tunnels. It was dark, as dark as the darkest night....."

The young adventurer , Giro continued to tearfully tell his story , but all Jason could hear was Dark Church and underground tunnels. It was something he didn't think about, but when he did he frowned as it didn't make sense.

' I know that the better the corpse the better the zombie that is produced , and an adventurer is definitely stronger than a Farmer , but why lock them up?  Also, it seems that this has been planned for some time as they have secret tunnels so close to the city. 

Is that how they transported all their troops to here?' thought Jason as he once again moved his attention to what Giro was saying.

"We survived in that condition for.....I don't really know. Maybe it was 4 days, 3....I don't really know , but after all that time we were dragged out of the tunnels. At that point because we were barely fed and given any water we didn't have that much strength to resist as those bastards brought us out. I still remember how happy I was to see the sun again.....

"Yes yes , and then? What did they do then?!" said Jason as he felt he was getting to the good part.

"Then....they started killing us. One by one, after they made us kneel of course. A quick stab to the heart with a dagger and most of the adventures were killed. I was also waiting my turn, but hah.....fate is such a cruel thing!" said the young man with a shaky voice." As there were only me and one other adventurer left, the Dark Church bastards were suddenly attacked by goblins. There was a lot of them, even hobgoblins.

 They attacked the bastards and in the flurry of it all we managed to escape, but we went in different directions. I ran and ran for as long as I could, but I couldn't continue anymore and fell to this place."

"So that's what happened huh? Well I guess you're pretty lucky, but I have one more question. How do you prefer to d..."

Jason stoped in the middle of his sentence as the usual sharp pain coursed through his head. It made him stop and reflect on what he was about to say, to do.

' I have already received the information I want from him, and by taking him with me it's most likely guaranteed that the Dark Church with come after him. He knows to much.

If I leave him here the Dark Church with most likely find him and there is no guarantee that he will keep his mouth shut. This also means that the Dark Church with come after me as they would definitely tie up any loose ends. If they find out that I'm responsible for foiling their plans once before, I'm sure that they will make a business to kill me, and I'm not in a mood to be poisoned or to be killed in my sleep.

The only way to get rid of this problem is to.....kill him, but I don't really feel like it.' 

As Jason decided on Giros fate, the later licked his dry lips and his stomach grumbled.

"Uh , can you get me some food and water? I'm starving....

These words made Jason stop thinking ,sigh in dejection and decide that he was not going to take his life. He then understood that he had really changed since he came to this world, knew how he had changed, but he didn't feel different. It made him worry.....

"Of course you can have food and water, a much as you want. Just wait a minute....." said Jason as he turned back to where the fox was and had a little chat with him.

(So he is someone who escaped from the Dark Church huh? I would have never guessed that.)

"Yeah, me neither. 

Still, fate is what brought him to me and I won't abandon him here. I'll take him to the treehouse, and you're going to help me." quietly said Jason, mixing lies and truth.

( What if I don't want to?)

"Hehe, then I'll get all the rewards then." said Jason as he rubbed his hands in delight, making the fox angry. " I just thought that we would share the rewards for bringing him to the elf, but since you don't want to.....

(Hmph, such an unpleasant human.

Fine, what do I have to do?) said the fox displeased as this was not the first time he was following Jason's orders.

..........

In less than one minute Jason was helping Giro through the forest, moving as fast as possible  while on the meantime the fox was erasing their tracks as best as he could.

"Hah...hah..." fake panted Jason as if to look as he was struggling to support Giro who was really struggling to move, but he was happy, truly happy.

"Thank you.... really thank you for saving me. Most people wouldn't have helped me after I told them the truth.... but you did."

Jason gave a glance at the young man who was about his age and sighed internally. He felt bad for thinking of killing him, but that feeling didn't last long.

"You don't have to thank me, just tell her what you've told me. And I suggest that you don't lie."

"Her?" questioned Giro , but Jason didn't answer and just continued forward. Giro understood that Jason didn't want to talk more about it and wondered who this woman was.

' Is the woman he mentioned someone powerful....

Wait, now that I think about it, he didn't seem that surprised when I mentioned the Dark Church. Is he part of some rescue party? But he didn't say anything.

More strange is watching someone go unarmed into the forest. Even very powerful adventures carry at least a sword, but he doesn't carry anything. It's pure insanity..... but he doesn't seem insane to me.

Maybe he is a Pugilist? I heard that they detest weapons and are very proud of their body, but still.....'

Numerous thoughts passed through Giro's mind as well as Jason's mind, but both were oblivious to the danger they had evaded.

..........

Three hooded figures moved slowly through the forest. The one on the front had his face covered with a blue cloth and had a longsword on his hip, while the other two revealed their pale and dead faces to the world. 

One of the two unmasked was holding a short bow while the other was holding a big and wide sword that fit with his big stature. They both followed the masked one without even taking a breath, until he stopped.

".......

He stared at the ground that clearly looked disturbed and even noticed a bloodstain on the ground, but he didn't notice any other footsteps. 

'Where the hell is that little bastard? Did he get eaten by monsters? No no, the lack of footprints makes that impossible. The footprints have to be here...... unless he suddenly decided to wipe them? '

He crouched down and tried to look for something, but he couldn't notice anything. He didn't give up though as he circled around the area trying to look for any trace of the rat that escaped when he stepped on a branch, and immediately stopped.

"This...

The man reached down to pick up the branch and brought it up to his face. He saw that it was still very tender and not dry at all as a fallen brach should be, and the leaves were all green meaning that the tree this was from wasn't diseased.

This made the man frown hard.

' This only means that someone, very recently has cut it of. Someone else..... someone who could have helped him. ' thought the man as he coldly looked at the surroundings.

' With no way to track the rat any longer it's going to become problem. The news may reach the city and our plan may be cut short, but it's not over yet. If I cut of the tail right now, I may be able to save the head.

 It'll cost us, but it's better than nothing.' thought the man as he immediately returned the same way he came. The two deathly pale figures followed after him without a word.