"W-who m-could have done this?"

Jean muttered, looking at the clearing, partially covered with blood flowing from bodies with missing limbs. Horn, who was standing next to him, muttered with a sullen and sad expression on his face.

- I don't know, but it's definitely some kind of psychopath. I don't understand how a person could do such a thing at all.

- Yes…

While these two were talking, Alexander approached one of the nearest tours and squatted down. Reaching out to his chest, he examined the wound in his heart. Frowning and standing up, approaching another corpse, the man again looked at a similar wound.

Having come to some conclusion, he looked at the two-handed sword lying on the ground and picked it up. After examining the blade and swinging it a couple of times, the man nodded with satisfaction. Turning to the trio standing aside, Alexander shouted.

- Stop standing there, take everything that can be useful and let's go. Maybe the one who arranged it not far from here.

Recollecting themselves, the trio quickly moved to rob the corpses. Seeing the tracks and walking a little further, Jean suddenly saw an even more unpleasant picture. On the ground, in an abundance of greenish blood, lay a representative of the forest people. His chest and abdomen were exposed for everyone to see, showing the internal structure of the organs. The same autopsy procedure befell his head.

Although Jean had seen a representative of this race only a few times, but even so, he could not help but feel and notice the pain in the black eyes that the living being in front of him was experiencing.

- It's weird.

Jean's inner feelings were interrupted by a voice behind him, from which the young aristocrat jumped in fright. But quickly orienting himself and turning back, he said, pretending a smile.

- Alexander, be kind, don't scare me, please, I will be very grateful.

Answering with a shrug of his shoulders, Alexander with a serious face proceeded to the opened corpse and, sitting down, began to examine it. Jean, who came up a few seconds later, frowned and looked at the body.

- Why would anyone do that?

The man who was graying over the corpse, examining the wounds, calmly replied.

- I don't know, but whoever did it is definitely a professional. I can say that the incisions are made very carefully. – Glancing at the organ lying on the ground, Alexander continued. – It's strange, it feels like whoever did this wanted to know the internal structure. It looks like the wild masters of the healing rash that I met during the service. Due to the lack of support from the government or influential forces, some quite determined ones have to look for test subjects.

- Um, why would they open a person?

- I don't know for sure, but as I was told, when a certain threshold in the skill of treatment is reached, the user, for the treatment of any serious diseases, needs to know the internal structure of a person, I was also told something about unknown new diseases and that an autopsy is also necessary to study them. In order to study the structure, some wild doctors decide on an autopsy. As for state doctors, they are trained from books where this structure is already depicted. Although I think not all of them.

Having finished, Alexander picked up a bow from the ground and threw it to Jean. After taking the corpse of a representative of the forest people, he turned it over, trying to remove the quiver with arrows. Due to these actions, some internal organs, having no support, fell out.

Jean, seeing this, restraining his inner urges, turned away, cursing Alexander to himself. He, in turn, had already managed to remove the quiver stained with reddish-green blood and put the corpse back looked at his hands.

- Tc, how sticky. Let's go to the others.

- Uh, yeah.

Approaching Horn and Nabushi, who had already collected the most necessary items, which were two machetes. Glancing at them, Alexander said.

- Horn, I think until we find the spear, you'll have to use this. Nabushi is also better to take a machete. I'll get myself a two-handed. Turning to Jean, who was standing behind him, he continued. – You said that you are not bad with onions, so you should understand who gets the onion, but you need to wash the blood off.

– Hmm. - without saying anything, Nabushi easily turned the machete in his hand.

- Judging by the terrain, there should be a spring nearby, let's go look for it. Horn said, trying to get used to the machete.

- That's good, lead on.

Following the old man, the group moved further into the forest. After a little more speed, Jean caught up with Horn and asked.

- How do you know that there should be a spring here?

Looking at the young man, the old man smiled happily, wanting to share his wisdom.

- I was the elder of a village that was deep in the woods, how could I not know? Here you go to the forest to hunt, or to collect something, and then you take and get lost. A person without water can not survive for long, so from childhood you need to know how to survive. Well…

Jean's face, which had previously shone with curiosity, became darker with every word of the old man. After a couple of dozen minutes, when he reached a small loose hill, Horn stopped telling stories and stopped and trampled on the spot, said.

- We need to dig here.

- OK.

Jean muttered, his face expressing regret. Regret that he should have asked the old man a question in vain. Under the strangely cheerful gaze of Nabusha, he sat down and took a machete from the hands of the smiling Horn, began to drip a small hole in the loose earth.

After digging for a few minutes, Jean heard a murmuring sound. Smiling, he sped up. Ten minutes later, the whole group, sitting down near the spring, rested. Someone was examining his weapon, others were looking carefully around.

Suddenly, rising quickly from the ground, Alexander gripped his sword tightly and looked away. Seeing his actions, all the others caught themselves, got up from their seats, preparing for battle.

A moment later, a man ran out of a part of the forest, the hallmark of which was a missing hand. Breathing heavily, he shuffled his feet and tried to run with all his might. His face, in addition to pain, expressed horror. Noticing the group with Alexander at the head, the man rushed towards them shouting.

- W-wait, p-please, wait, I'm not the enemy!

Frowning, Alexander signaled the others to stay on guard. Waiting for the man to approach him, he asked.

- Who are you and what happened?

- M-my name is Greg, please listen to me, we need to run there... there…

- Calm down and say it normally.

Taking a deep breath, Greg said with fear.

- I barely escaped. Really, let's go, I'll tell you everything on the way.

Looking around the forest, Alexander frowned.

- Okay, let's go.

He was about to turn around when he heard Greg scream.

- Uh, wait, I can't run.

Frowning even harder, Alexander sighed, without words and under painful screams, picked up Greg and threw him behind his back like a sack. Turning to the others, he said.

- I think it's better to leave, I really have a bad feeling.

Having received the consent of the others, the group moved on. About fifteen minutes after the group left, a boy with white hair quickly approached the source. His handsome face, while remaining cold, expressed fatigue.

Stopping and looking around, he grunted and glanced in the direction where Alexander's group had gone, turned away.

"It is necessary to restore physical energy."