Everyone in the settlement isn't a fool and some of them know there's still another possibility that exists different from what Elder Henry said. But they all didn't burst the bubble and decided to wait it out, to see what would happen. As the people in the settlement are waiting for their fate patiently.
...
A few days later.
John arrived at a paradise island and looked at the island with no obvious traces of people, who used to patrol around the island. So, he used his heat sense to see if the people were on the island or if they had all left from here. John heaved a sigh of relief, seeing the dense heat signals, and swam toward the settlement.
He looked at the people in the settlement with a surprised expression. A lot of them lost the peaceful nature they had when they last saw them. So with a puzzling expression, he looked at all the people and waited till nighttime. He looked at the gathering hall, where all the senior members of the tribe were present.
When the sun disappeared and two bright silver moons appeared. When most of the people in the tribe returned to their homes. John released poisonous fog in a very light dose making everyone in the village unconscious often than those who were present in the gathering hall.
...
The elders in the gathering hall looked at the animals and insects that were losing consciousness in the surroundings with puzzled expressions. One of the elders walked out of the gathering hall a certain distance to inspect. The elder suddenly felt that his strength was leaving his body and in a moment, he sat down on the ground and lost consciousness.
Seeing that one of them passed out, other elders in the gathering hall ran toward him. But Elder Samuel looked at them coldly and said "Don't you guys see, that there's something in the air that made him faint? Why are you all so keen to get poisoned?"
Hearing this, some of the elders who wanted to run toward their fallen comrade stopped and looked very uncomfortable, for not being able to help their compatriot. But they also looked at the surroundings and realized the seriousness of the situation and one of the elders asked with trembling hands "Is this the action of the gigantic snake?"
The other elders who were still in confusion also got clarity and nodded their heads with seriousness "It's possible as we haven't faced this type of scenario beforehand."
The elder Henry suddenly said to them in a little apprehensive tone "Guys look, James didn't die, he's still breathing."
Hearing Henry, all of them looked at James who waited outside the gathering hall with surprise, and then one of them said with a little relief "So, he's alive."
They all saw some of the animals and insects die outside the gathering hall and considered that their friend also died. But seeing the breathing James they all heaved a sigh of relief. Then they all waited without knowing what to do, as they didn't know if it was the snake's action or something else. Just as they all stood confused a huge shadow covered them.
...
John looked at the group of old people with scrutinizing eyes. Then lifted his camouflage and showed his true form to the puny humans. All the elders looked at the gigantic snake, that blocked the twin moons with its two crimson eyes that brought ominous feelings to whoever looked into them, with awe and fear.
Elder Samuel came forward and kneeled before John, still inside the gathering hall, and said piously "O Lord snake, I didn't know the reason for your presence at our humble island."
John looked at the kneeling elder who worshiped him like a god, and then he brought his tail forward and stopped before the fainted James'. All the elders looked at this with horrifying expressions on their faces. As they all thought, the snake was gonna eat their companion.
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Some of their eyes reddened, as they were ready to fight against the snake with all of their strength. But to their surprise, the tail of the snake stopped before James' body and a bunch of small white transparent needle-like tails came out and inserted themselves in James' brain and the spine. Then John closed his eyes and looked at the memory of the fainted elder like looking at a movie.
In James' memory, he found that elders aren't born in the paradise island. They were all born on the ship, and they only know they are from the kingdom of Vika and came to this paradise island as a subject of the Highness Carl Vika from royal lineage. They seemed to not know the specific reason for their travel.
There are some details about the ceremony and strong people. He also found out about, the royal family and mutated people. But there are no well-explained details about them. He skipped most of the personal memories and only looked at the kingdom details and other important details. Then John took back his tail from James' body and looked at other elders.
Seeing what John had done to James', they all understood that the gigantic snake was not here to hunt and eat them. It probably is here to read their memories and know more about something, that it needs to know. The elders all showed gloomy expressions on their faces, as nobody likes to let others read their memories, and there are always some things that they hide from everyone and don't want others to know.
But considering, the memory is read by an animal that doesn't know much about human morals and societal norms, they all felt a little better at this thought. John moved his small needle-like tails towards the elders in the gathering hall. Everyone looked with apprehensive expressions on their faces. Luckily some people have little courage, even in the face of the gigantic snake.
Elder Henry came forward and let the small needle-like tails be inserted into his body, as he slowly lost his consciousness and slept there. John read his memory and found that he also doesn't seem to know much about the kingdom and royal family other than they are strong and Henry has very deep knowledge about the ceremony. After reading all the important memories, John took out the tail and inserted it into other members.
He repeated the same process multiple times in the bodies of all the elders and read their memories for important details. After an hour or two, John departed from the settlement and moved towards the sea without reading the memories of the remaining fainted people in the settlement, as he found from the memories of the elders, that only the elders are the generation of people, who know outside world. The others in the settlement are oblivious to the presence of the outside world.
John swam towards his birthplace, at a slow pace while thinking and organizing the details, he gathered. From the memories of the elders, he found that they all came here under the order of Carl Vika. Only the parents of the elders may have some common knowledge and a basic understanding of the world.
The elders in the settlement are very young at that time and they don't seem to have many details about the kingdom. They have limited knowledge, which also learned from the books in the treasury. John learned that the main power system of this world is natural mutation in birth and acquired mutation which is gained from the ceremony. The last is a highly evolved species who were all born with various abilities.
John is a little disappointed to learn that there's no method to improve his strength rapidly, from what he learned, he also thought, even if there are such methods. It wouldn't be for him, and common people would have known about it. With various thoughts and expectations, John moved towards his birthplace.
...
Meanwhile, on the paradise island, all the elders showed grinning expressions on their faces. Other than James, everybody else is awake, one of the elders said emotionally "I didn't expect we would live another day, after seeing the gigantic snake. But luckily for whatever reason, the snake didn't eat us."
The other elders also nodded their heads at the statement. Even if countless pieces of evidence prove that this gigantic snake didn't prefer their meat, who would have such rational thoughts facing such an enormous snake? After an hour all the poisonous fogs in the settlement dispersed and some insects and animals with strong resistance to the poison began to move.
Seeing this one of the elders covered his nose with a cloth, dragged James' body into the gathering hall, and splashed some water on his face. James opened his eyes in confusion and asked others "What happened?"
To his question, everyone else in the hall laughed aloud with a happy expression on their faces. They were all relieved that the poisonous fog didn't kill people. James' looked at the laughing people around him with a bewildered expression on his face and decided not to ask anything, as he took a rest.
Seeing his expression, others explained to him what happened, after laughing for a few moments. Hearing that he got poisoned, James' face paled a little bit and then hearing about the description of the size and abilities of a gigantic snake, his face got even paler. Only after hearing that snake left from here, did he relax a bit.