"Is everything the village head said the truth?" Azaroth asked.

"Yes. We weren’t able to get protein meat so the villagers sacrifice themselves once a month for others." Joyce said with a trembling voice.

Stallus frowned at her. "Why don’t you hunt monsters? Are there no crypt here?"

"The Greytown controls who hunt crypt or not and since we have refused to live in the town they don’t allow us to hunt In the crypt."

Azaroth shrugged. "Seems like a good deal. Why don’t you join the town? At least you’ll be able to eat meat."

"That’s because the town is worse! Everything is about who is powerful or not! There’s nothing like basic human rights. And we also have our own pride as a human even if we are weak!"

Azaroth don’t particularly see any pride in weakness so he just waved that away. If the Greytown is the center of this prison and they rely on power then it’ll be easier for them to do their mission but the problem is that they won’t just be fighting one person. They’ll be fighting numerous Awakeners who fought in the war.

Azaroth nodded at her. "Get out of here and don’t tell others what happened here. I will call for you once I’m ready. You’ll die if you do."

Joyce nodded quickly and ran out.

Azaroth finished the fruits and then turned to Catena. "How much meat do we have?"

Because before coming they stored everything food they could get their hands on since they don’t know what’s going to happen here.

Catena did a rough calculation. "A lot. We should be able to feed three hundred for six months. If it’s not meat they eat all day of course."

Azaroth nodded, then he told the rest of the team. "We can’t fight the Greytown on our own. The four of us can’t." It’s simply not possible, maybe if they are several levels higher then only one of them will be enough.

Stallus quickly caught on the plan. "You mean we need like soliders to take out the grunt so we can focus on the top Awakeners when we go for them."

"Exactly." Azaroth nodded. "We still don’t have enough information about them so we’ll settle here and build our strength until we are ready to take them on. We will change our plans later but right now we need meat shield for when we fight Greytown."

Alex looked at Azaroth and his sparkled. "You want to use the villagers?"

Azaroth shook his head and said without any hint of emotion in his voice. "No. I don’t want useless meat shield. They must at least be Awakeners, even if they are novice or else our enemies will just wipe them out quicker and focus on us."

Stallus hummed. "So it’s like clearing a crypt but this time you want us to be the boss so we’ll fight the grunts with our own grunts. While we bosses fight other bosses. Impressive."

Catena opened his mouth to speak but then he paused and then gestured to others to listen to what’s coming from outside. They did.

With their advancement their senses are also heightened so they picked out what Joyce was saying to others. "...they have some kind of enchanted tool! If we can get that away from the girl then we can kill the rest of them who are novice rank!"

"I’ve already informed the rest of the soliders and the last Initiate rank now that village head is dead will be here soon." The voice belong to an older woman.

Joyce said in a whisper. "We can ambush them since we won’t be caught by surprise anymore! They’re just kids who are drunk on the power of enchanted tools after all!"

They talked some more and said they’ll spring their attack after Joyce found a way to distract them.

Stallus raised her brows. "An enchanted tool. I wish."

"That bitch! How dare she betray us just minutes after she promises she won’t!" Alex said.

Catena looks at him. "Oh come on Alex, we both know you don’t trust her anyway."

Alex grumbled but he didn’t deny.

What they said struck Azaroth somehow when Joyce called them kids. Azaroth didn’t feel like a kid, a youngster. His experiences have wore away any innocence. Just like the others.

"What do you want us to do now?" Stallus asked Azaroth.

Azaroth thought about it then he brought out a short metal stick from the ring around his neck and gave it to Stallus. "From now on you will pretend to be using your powers from that. It’ll be like a enchanted tool to them. Alex and Catena, you guys will also pretend to have enchanted tools as well. And don’t forget to keep the power of your ’enchanted’ tool to initiate rank and your fighting power to that of Novice level."

The team nodded. Now they’ll pretend have initiate rank enchanted weapon while their core is novice. Azaroth continued. "About the initiate warrior that’s still remaining here then I’ll like to keep him alive since we don’t know when we’ll be able to get quality meat shield like that again." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Alex nodded. "We should hope he’s not as weak as the old man. How can an Initiate be as weak as him!"

Azaroth didn’t say anything but he remembered what the Crypt Master said. As initiate they are the strongest among their level. It wasn’t that the old man is weak. They are just much more stronger.

"We don’t yet know how powerful the Awakeners in this place is. Not to talk about those in the Acolyte and the next rank is." Stallus said. "You are right, Azaroth."

Then they called Joyce in after. She’s a good actress because her face is just as scared as when she left then. "My Lords!"

Azaroth wait until she raised her head. "I have decided. I will rule this place until I don’t want to anymore. From now on this territory and everything in it belongs to me."