With the Eater dead, our next step was to return to the village. But just as I was starting to make my way back, Astrid stopped and gestured to the body.

"Leave it?"

"Yes. It's not like we can do anything with the body, anyway. Look, it's already starting to decompose," I pointed to one of the pieces that she cut during the fight. The leg was already putrid and let out a strange smell. "Basically, when you kill one of them, they start to decompose rapidly. I think it does that so no one would end up being able to eat it and get skills."

"Makes sense," Astrid replied just before we started heading back to the village.

Now that the Eater was dead, they would, hopefully, let us stay without being in jail. With our free time of walking, Astrid had a chance to check what she gained. But unfortunately, there was nothing special. No skill, and she did not even get extra points in Memory or Energy. It was just a basic level up. It sucked, but sometimes things happened like that.

A few minutes later, the walls of the village came into view. It was kind of funny to think how even if no one from this village should have ever seen someone from Madison, they still constructed their defenses in the same way. With an outer wall around the limits of the village and all the houses inside. Then very few things were as effective when it came to protecting your home as a wall.

Approaching the entrance, the two guards were still there. It was a nice surprise since one of those guards still looked completely and utterly terrified, and I could smell he had probably soiled himself. They gave us a surprised expression as we approached and asked.

"What happened? You're not bringing it here, are you?"

I shook my head. "No. We managed to trick a few wolves into attacking the Eater."

"Are you sure about that?" the guard who soiled himself asked.

I nodded. "If I was not, we would likely be dead already."

The two guards exchanged a glance, and the less scared one spoke up. "She does have a point. If they were being chased, they would not be as calm as they are now."

The other guard nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense. You two can get inside." He paused. "Wait, are not the two of you supposed to be spending the night in jail? Since the mayor is not around?"

"They have been released from jail," a voice came from a door that had just been opened. It was a man with shortish black hair. Some version of a black suit for his clothing. It was somewhat similar to what business people would wear in the old world, but it looked more handmade even if it was still stylish.

"Mr. Mayor!" the guard gasped. "We did not know you were back."

"I managed to get back tonight. I did not want to stay longer. And the two of them seem to have helped us deal with the problem."

The guards glanced back at us and I sighed. "You do not have to believe me. You're free to go check it out yourself."

Deciding it was best to just accept, they moved back and let us enter.

"I would like to formally welcome you into our village. Would you be so kind as to accompany me?" the Mayor asked.

"Are we in trouble?" I asked, half expecting him to complain because of our small prison break.

The Mayor smiled and said, "Not exactly. You did destroy one of our prison cells, even if it was one that we barely ever used. But I do have something in mind that you can do to pay back for the damages."

If he was going to ask me to give him the System, I would have to break a lot more than just one prison cell for it to be worth it. Not that he had any way of knowing about it, of course.

"I apologize for the bars, but not for what I did. I was not going to let that person back in the prison to talk to the kid like that," I replied.

He nodded. "I understand where you're coming from. That was something I would never have allowed to happen, but it seems that my brief trip gave the wrong people of this city some freedom for them to do what they liked. I promise you that matter will be handled accordingly. Although, I would like your help to free the man you imprisoned in the prison."

I frowned at that. If we were going to release that guy, he might as well just go back and do the same thing again. Or cause even more trouble. But seeing my hesitation, the Mayor continued, "And I would understand if you were too tired to do something like that today. Maybe we can attempt to free him in the morning?"

I nodded, he was starting to grow on me. "Yes, that would be agreeable. Escaping an Eater kind of took a lot out of us."

The Mayor chuckled while the guard by his side just kept staring at us. "I do not believe I ever seen someone being so cavalier about getting rid of an Eater. Even if it was just by tricking it to chase something else."

I smiled, trying to pretend his words were not working on buttering me up. Still, I glanced at Astrid just as she did the same. There was some recognition when our eyes met. Neither of us was really tired. We recovered well enough during the walk back after having killed the Eater. Realistically, we might even be able to fight another one. But it was late and proper rest was always helpful.

"Thank you."

We accompanied the Mayor as he walked across the village towards his residence.

His house was not grand or more well-kept than any of the other houses in the village. With one notable exception. There was a very gaudy manor to the east and something told me it belonged to the man that was trapped in the jail.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

A few people came by to greet the Mayor and ask what was going on. And the man reassured everyone that things were fine and he had everything handled. It felt a bit annoying not to be recognized for what we did, but at the same time, if people realized what we did, things could go sideways. Like they happened in Madison. Maybe those people did not even know how close they were to being killed by an Eater.

We followed the man into the house and noticed that everything was very simple. It seemed like the Mayor lived a very frugal life without many luxuries and he also did not seem to be married or have any children.

He lit up a small candle to illuminate the inside and pointed to a room in the back. "That's where you can stay. I have only a double bed there, and I do apologize for all the boxes. It's a bit of a storage area for the village. I'll bring you a couple of blankets in just a few moments."

I walked into the small room as he gave me the candle and, just like the man said, it was very small. There was only enough space to move around the entrance and then to the bed. Even if the room itself was quite spacious, there were so many boxes of various things, from clothing to woodworking supplies and even some old seeds that could still be planted if needed cluttering the entire place.

The man returned with a few blankets being taken from a box in the room across from ours. "I do not have pillows, but you can use some of the blankets instead. And once again, thank you."

"Considering our first impression of this place, I was not expecting such a good welcome. I am happy to be of service," I smiled. Our intention was not to stop by here. Not really, just to stay for a night and continue our journey. But instead, we were able to save the people from the village. Or maybe not. The Eater was somewhat farther away and maybe it would have just passed by.

"If I may, before you go to bed, I would like to know what exactly happened with the Eater. Just so I'm aware of what we need to do," he asked.

"The guards told us where the Eater was. We found it, and it started chasing us. We had seen some wolves before getting here and were able to trick them into attacking the monster. I'm assuming you know about this particular behavior. If you attack an Eater, it will chase you until the end of the world. And that's what they're doing," I quickly explained, so Astrid would not have a chance to speak. I did not know if she was going to follow along with my lie or not. And it was better to be ahead of this kind of thing.

"Is that all?"

"What else do you expect? We have nothing to gain about lying to you. Our intention was just to stay here for the night and we would have gotten that either way. Or do you think we killed it?" I shrugged, knowing how absurd that sounded to anyone who did not have a System.

The man shook his head. "No, no. I just find it strange that you were able to do this much against the creature."

"That is fair, and I understand your suspicions. I promise we're safe and you do not have to worry about that. We are safe here, and nothing is going to harm us. Not when it comes to nature, at least."

He raised one eyebrow. "But we might not be safe when it comes to something else?"

I smiled. "We are going to sleep in a stranger's house. My grandpa used to say that is a bad idea."

The Mayor chuckled. "That is true, but I promise nothing will happen to you. And may I ask for your names?"

"I'm Cassandra," I replied.

"Astrid," my companion said in a serious tone. Her face icy and intense ever since we started talking with the Mayor.

"It is a pleasure to meet you two. I'm Sebastian and have been the Mayor of this village for 20 years already."

"Wow. Can you even call yourself a mayor if you're running things for that long?"

"We have elections every four years, as it was in the old world. But I always end up winning. It does not help the other person who wants to run is... well, you have met each other, actually," Sebastian sighed.

"Yeah. I understand why you always win," I nodded. If the man who was trapped in the prison was the mayor, I shudder to think what would happen with the people living here.

"Exactly. And I do apologize for the way I mentioned your need to repay for the damages. I would like to be more polite, but I had to be firm in public."

"That's fine. It's the kind of thing that's expected to happen. But if you're hoping that we can fix those bars ourselves, I'll say it again. We have no clue how to do that."

"No, no," the man shook his head. "I have another idea. You see, there are a lot of resources for us to use in the ruins of a nearby city. Even to this day, we are able to find things from the old world that can help our daily lives. However, recently it became a bit more dangerous to send any scout teams towards the ruined city. We have uncovered a large underground cave system and some particularly nasty creatures seem to be coming from there. You have shown to be capable of handling yourself against an Eater. Even if just tricking it to go away, it is already incredible. I was hoping you were able to accompany an excursion tomorrow. That way, we can find any supplies and take them back here."

I stared at the man for a moment. "I'm not opposed to helping you, but that feels like a lot more than just the damages. We can accept that much risk if we are not getting anything else out of it."

Sebastian nodded again. "Of course I'm not expecting you to. You are free to keep what you feel like you need. As long as it's not one of the two things that we have listed. Some supplies that we are in dire need of."

I glanced at Astrid, hoping to hear her opinion, but she just gave me a blunt stare, like a puppy waiting for their owners to decide if they were going on a walk or not. Still, I was not about to make this decision on my own. "What do you think? It's a bit dangerous but we might be able to find some interesting stuff," I touched her feet with mine.

Cassandra: We might also find some things that are worth a lot of SP.

Astrid replied right away. "Sounds interesting."

Turning back to Sebastian, "You just got yourself a couple of bodyguards. But I will be honest here our main priority will be our lives. We're going to help if we can, but if we find something that is too much for us, we're bailing. We will try to save the scouts, but if they decide to stay, that's on them."

The Mayor nodded. "I cannot ask you for anything more than that. I understand the dangers of traveling through a ruined city. And I can only imagine that the underground would be even more dangerous. If you can, do try to discover why we've been hearing some strange noises coming from the city from time to time. It's hard to explain, but I assure you that when you hear it, you will know."

"What does it sound like?" I asked.

"The best word for it is skittering. Very loud skittering."

The image of that strange spider that I killed flashed across my mind. I did not remember seeing it walk properly, only that strange movement during our fight, but maybe large groups of it would be moving back and forth. To make matters worse, it was one of the creatures that had access to the System. Proper access.

That might be even more of a problem than I hoped for, but at the same time a chance to get a lot of particles available quite fast. If I wanted to be able to kill all the Eaters, I would need to level up.

"Ok. I think we can handle anything that we might find. But if you agree with those terms, we can work together."

The Mayor thanked us again and left the bedroom, allowing us to settle in properly.

I waited a few moments, so he was far enough away before turning to my companion. "Are you really okay with us going there?" I realized that I went about the conversation only following what I wanted to do, with little to no input from her.

Astrid's stone face finally broke, revealing a large smile. "I am. Sounds fun. Ruined city. Never been."