Blood Assimilation

Outside the hut…

There was a makeshift kitchen on the side of the hut. A pot positioned on three-sided stones, serving as a firewood stove. The pot was currently used to boil water as the man placed edible, flavorful leaves and other seasonings in the boiling water, seemingly making some type of broth.

Liena, on the other hand, was busy skillfully cutting the meat after removing the skin of the giant rabbit-like wild beast. As she sliced the meat into reasonable portions, she casually started a conversation with the man.

"Have you heard of the recent monster attacks on the surrounding villages?" she broached.

Her sudden remark caused the man, who was busy adding condiments to the broth he was making, to spill all the contents into the boiling water. Ignoring the mess he made, he turned to look at Liena with a scowl on his countenance.

"Who told you that?" He asked, probing.

"I heard it from the villages we visited. We also heard the same account from the village nearby." Liena replied to man, her gaze meeting his gaze. Her firm gaze was devoid of emotion, concealing her thoughts.

Her deadpan countenance made the man uneasy. He quickly retorted: "That's a lie."

"What?" Liena sought clarification from his statement.

"I said it is an exaggeration. I… That monster only attacked one village. It wasn't multiple villages like you've heard." He asserted confidently, prompting Liena to look at him with a surprised expression.

At this point, Brawler Randy, who had just come outside after looking around the interior of the hut, heard the man, and he was also surprised by his statement. However, he didn't interject. He merely sat on a log in front of the house, pretending to be uninterested as he waited for them to be done.

Putting on a pretense, Liena doubtfully asked: "How do you know it was only one village that was attacked?"

The man, caught off guard, stood there blankly for a moment before responding while waving dismissively.

"I just know."

Seeing that they were still skeptical of his response, he explained: "I was there when the monster attacked our village, the one you just came from. After it attacked, I went to inform the other villages to seek support. When I arrived there, they didn't report having experienced what my village did, so they didn't heed my warning nor did they send reinforcement to aid us."

Pondering his words for a moment, Liena asked: "If you're from the village the monster attacked, why are you here? I heard that the monster escaped into this hunting forest from an old lady."

"This… That was because I pursued the monster to this hunting forest. It killed my family and kid when it first attacked. I wanted revenge." The man became agitated as he revealed his reason.

Realizing his unstable state, he paused, taking a deep, calming breaths before continuing with his response.

"Because that monster took my family away, after returning to the village, I chose to exact my revenge when I heard it escaped to this hunting forest. This is the reason I built a hut in this hunting forest, patiently waiting for it to appear. Even if I would die fighting it, I'll try my best to take it down with me."

The man uttered the last words with a mournful expression as if he were someone burdened with grief after losing his loved ones.

Liena and Brawler Randy observed his reaction silently without saying anything for a while. However, Brawler Randy looked at Liena briefly, holding back from expressing himself during this moment.

"Sorry for your loss." They both uttered in consolation.

After consoling the man for his loss, Liena and the man eventually had dinner prepared. When they finished dining, Liena and Brawler Randy attempted to leave, but the man once again insisted that they stay as it was already nighttime.

He explained that they might run into wild beasts in the forest during the night, and that even if they were expert hunters, they might lose their lives venturing out with poor sight during the dark night.

While the man was suggesting his opinion to the two of them, Liena's eyelids were drooping, almost as though she was overwhelmed by extreme fatigue, unable to hold herself back from dropping on top of the dining table, lying unconscious a moment later.

'It has finally kicked in! The bodies of people from the city are indeed very tough. They can take in a highly toxic poison, which could even knock out a wild beast, into their system and still remain active for an hour.'

Of course, the man didn't believe any word uttered by Liena. He admitted, he nearly fell for her tricks. Even if she tried to mask her mannerisms and attitude with the pretense of an 'outspoken' villager, she still gave herself away when she directed a subtle killing intent toward him upon their encounter.

After the Demon Seed transformed his constitution, he became sensitive to things like killing intent as that was the driving force propelling his actions to kill all before him. Therefore, Liena made a mistake in displaying even the slightest killing intent toward him.

Unbeknownst to him, under normal circumstances, Liena did not humor her targets and instantly attacked them upon identifying them. The only reason she went through this process was to educate Brawler Randy who seemed skeptical of her actions, though there was no reason she should have cared what he thought of her.

Watching the unconscious Liena, the man revealed an evil smirk, the corners of his lips curled up in a sinister smile, traces of disfigurement appearing on different parts of his face. He had fully shed the kind and friendly demeanor he carried throughout hosting his guests, slowly revealing his true self.

Even though the young lady had succumbed to the effects of the poison, he noticed the young man beside the young lady was still very active as though he wasn't affected by the poison, even though he took the poison he added to the water first. He squinted his eyes as he contemplated outright killing him, forgoing his kindness of not letting them die in a gruesome manner.

Closely observing the young man, he noticed that, aside from appearing bewildered by his partner falling asleep on the dining table without clearing the wooden plates, he looked unaffected by the effects of his potent poison.

This made him convinced that the young man was somehow immune to poison. He initially didn't want to kill and devour them while they were alive as that was too cruel, but that didn't mean he couldn't forsake his slight morality to devour and kill. The young man would only have to blame himself for having immunity toward poison.

If the young man had less immunity, he would have received a painless death instead of the cruel one that he was contemplating. However, right as he was about to take action, the young man's body swayed for a moment, as if overcome by drowsiness.

While that happened, the man looked bewildered by his state. Then, as if he had come to a terrifying realization, the young man forced himself to raise his head to lock eyes with him, a furious expression on his face.

"What did you do… to us…?" Before he could get answers to his incoherent query, he suddenly dropped on the table in the same manner as his partner before falling unconscious.