"From what you said, I can say that those people are probably a hunting team that left a small village in order to hunt, but they met a problem, after all they are quite a small team, and if they were a squad from a city they would have been a lot more." Dan said what he concluded from what Nero said while they were running.
Because of the blood baths and the body tempering technique they were way stronger then a normal human, and even their speed was astonishing so for them crossing that ten km wasn't hard at all.
So after half an hour they finally get close enough to the group of men and they slowed down, they didn't go on their fastest speed as they understood that there might be a misunderstanding leading them to a fight which meant that they had to reserve their power at all costs.
The group was only two hundred meters away from them, which was quite a short distance, and they also had Nero so they didn't have to worry about losing sight of the group or anything like that.
"How is it, did you catch the scent of the village which those people are heading to?" Dan asked after they stopped running and started following those men carefully.
"No, I didn't catch anything, which means that their village is more then ten km away, it seems that we still have a long way to go." Nero shook his head as he answered.
"So what should we do? Go and talk to them now, or should we wait for them to make it to their village before showing ourselves?" Robin asked after he heard Nero's words.Dan didn't know what to do.
Each of the two choices had their advantages and disadvantages and he somehow wasn't able chose which thing they should do, so he didn't answer him instantly instead he turned silent and thought about it for a while before finally saying:
"Lets follow them for another hour, if we haven't reached their village by then, we will just show ourselves to them and act as travelers who lost their way or something like that, what do you think?"
His words were accepted by the others as what he said was convenient, after all they couldn't waste a lot of time waiting for those hunters to reach their village, and following them for an hour can be a good thing, because who knows the village might be closer then they thought, so they all nodded there heads showing there approval and started following the hunters without making any noise.
Of course while they were walking Dan kept on collecting fruits and harps that he thought of as consumable, he didn't know what might happen later or if he might have the chance to collect more then, so he decided to collect some while they were walking and of course he was going to take some with him to the ship later when they return.
Their team wasn't going to spend the night outside, instead they decided that when they would want to rest they would use Robin's ability to teleport back to the ship, relax and talk about what they found while out there, and teleport back to the place which they reached in the next day, it was quite a convenient use for Robin's ability actually and it made them relax and not have to deal about the problem of sleeping outside in an unknown territory with unknown dangers.
Finally an hour passed and as if he felt it Dan turned his head to Nero who shook his head showing that they were still far and that he didn't catch the small of the village yet.
Dan nodded his head before saying to them:
"Ok everyone it seems that we would have to go and talk with them right now, so get ready."
The others all nodded showing there understanding of what he had just said as they started moving faster.
They moved faster then before but that time they didn't try to hide their existence at all so their footsteps were heard clearly by those vigilance hunters who were in full attention and keeping watch over their surrounding.
The hunters all stopped moving and took a fighting formation expecting the arrive of their enemy, they were quite concerned about what was coming toward them, after all hey had already lost two of their comrades in an earlier fight and one of them was still injured with one foot in the grave already, those who were left of them were also tired or had different degrees of wounds, so they just wished that whatever was heading toward them it would be easier to deal with.
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The approaching creatures appeared, they were a group of four people, three men and one women, actually even before those people appeared in front of them the group of hunters understood that what was heading toward them wasn't a monster or a strong insect but instead a group of people.
"What are you doing here, who are you and what do you want?" One of the hunters shouted at Dan's group with an aggressive face.
He actually released a breath of relief when he saw Dan's group as he was able to see that they were only three men who didn't seem that strong and one woman, so the chance of them being of threat to him and his group was small, but he didn't let his guard down as he saw that they appeared as if they weren't from the area.
Katherine, Nero and Robin didn't understand what that man said as he was talking in another language, so all the three of them turned their heads toward Dan.
Fortunately he didn't let them down as he said in what seemed to be the same language as the one which was used by those people:
"Don't worry we are just some travelers who lost their way, can you answer some of our questions please?"
Dan actually released a breath of relief when he heard the language which that man used as it was a language he was quite familiar with, it was Russian.
"Travelers? Are you messing with me, how can travelers even enter this forest?" The man said.
He understood that the forest was a location that only hunters entered, travelers usually avoided it as if they were avoiding the plague, as entering it for them would mean absolute death.
"That's why I said we are lost, you see I think that we are still in the outermost part of the forest, that's the only reason why we are still alive, so can you please tell me the location of the closest city or village, at the very least we need a place for us to settle down a little and relax, even though we didn't meet any strong insects or anything like that, staying in the forest can be pretty hard on the mind." Dan said trying to act as normal as possible and not to look suspicious to them at all.
The hunters looked at each other and they found what he said a little bit acceptable, even though the chance of someone entering the forest without noticing was small as it was so obvious and almost all the people would do their best to stay away from it, the chance of that happening wasn't totally impossible so they didn't push any further.
"The closest town to the location here is ours, so you can follow us if you want, we will talk there." The hunter who was talking with Dan's group since the beginning said that after looking at his comrades and seeing them nod at him.
While Dan was talking with those hunters Nero and the others took a closer look at how they appeared and what they were wearing, all of them were wearing some type of armor but none of Dan's group was able to know what those armors were made of.
They also had different weapons in their hands some of those weapons were like swords while others seemed like spears or other types like that, but unlike the armors, they were somehow able to guess what those weapons were made of, as those swords seemed like the front limps of some insects, while the spears appeared as if they were the sharpened legs of some other insects.
Seeing that, they somehow got a clue about what those armors might be made of.
The died body that the hunters were dragging with them was that of a big beetle, it was way bigger then a cow and had a shinning shell which had many wounds, from their shapes and sizes Dan was able to tell that they were made by the hunters' weapons.
"Ok thank you." Dan said with a smile then he turned his head to Nero and the other and said:
"The closest town seem to be theirs, so we will go with them there, I will also try to see if I can get some information from them while we are moving."
Hearing him talk in an unknown language, the other hunters all showed vigilant expressions as the one who talked with Dan asked:
"What did you say to them, and what did you use?" They didn't now if those people would plot against them somehow so they had to be careful in what they do.
"Don't worry it's just that my friends don't know your language, we are from a far away place so I had to translate what we just talked about to them." Dan explained as he saw those people's expressions.
"You aren't from here?" the hunter lifted his eyebrows as he asked in an interested voice, he somehow guessed it when he saw how they appeared a little bit different but hearing the man say it himself he couldn't stop himself from asking.
"Yes, we are from quite a far away place, we traveled so far till we made it here, but unfortunately my friends don't speak your language and I'm the only one who understand what you're saying so of course I have to translate what's happening to them."
"So that's it..." the man said.
Dan didn't know if he believed him or not, but the man didn't say anything else about that, he just turned around and ordered the others to start moving again.
Not wanting to be left behind Dan and his group started walking behind them, they didn't walk with them and instead left a little bit of space between the two groups, it was because first they knew that those hunters didn't trust them and that it would be better if they stayed away from them, and second they too didn't trust them and didn't want to put themselves in any danger, even though they knew that probably those people wouldn't be able to do anything to them.
They walked for around half an hour in silence when suddenly Nero tapped Dan's shoulder, Dan who was walking in front was surprised but then he turned his face toward him as he asked:
"What's wrong, did you feel anything?" He knew that Nero wouldn't talk to him just like that, not when they were with those people who they had just met.
"I've felt a big creature ahead of us, it has a similar smell to this big beetle but it's different so I'm sure that it's an insect, and I can somehow say that it is bigger then this, if we keep going like this we will end up heading straight toward it." Nero explained, he tried to keep his voice small and gentle but he talked normally after remembering that the hunters weren't able to understand his words.
Dan's and the other two's expressions changed they didn't expect that they might meet danger after they had just joined the team.