Chapter 418: Same as When They Came

"Woo..."

The cold, damp sea breeze wove through the craggy reefs, and the sharp, whistling sound, like the wailing of ghosts, echoed faintly in the air.

The continuous sound of the tide had long since become some kind of white noise that the islanders who had lived by the sea since childhood subconsciously filtered out of their minds.

But at this moment, those "splash" sounds of water shattering, which seemed as if they would never stop, were so noisy and ear-piercing, making people irritable.

Steven, the village chief of Crag Village, stood at the very front of the entire team.

His right hand gripped an iron sword that was well-maintained but showed clear traces of age on the hilt; his left hand held an iron-inlaid wood shield that was equally old and mottled.

Behind him were more than a dozen villagers holding various weapons, scattered and filling the gap, their expressions nervous; before him were crudely arranged traps, and further ahead were the reef cliffs and the vast sea.

According to the plan, Steven took more than a dozen young and strong men from the village and blocked the other exit of the cliff area in the northern part of Crag Island.

Compared to the villagers in remote inland villages who used pitchforks and iron pots as weapons and armor.

The fishermen of Crag Island, who lived on the ocean, often had to face pirates and monsters, and were only five days away from Shoal Bay, were significantly better equipped.

At least what they held in their hands were proper weapons, and some even wore ancestral studded leather armor.

Coupled with the somewhat unfamiliar standing formation and the temporarily built wooden traps, the dozen or so people standing together looked quite like something.

It was much more decent than the armed fights between remote villages in his impression and could be considered to have some combat power.

But in the current situation, the atmosphere among the villagers had frozen to the extreme.

A suffocating high pressure filled the air; every sound of the wind and every wave of the tide made them increasingly nervous, and even the cries of seagulls occasionally coming from the high sky in the distance could scare several villagers with poor psychological quality into a shiver.

As for the reason...

Naturally, it was that terrifying monster that had just attacked Crag Village and even snatched away an adventurer.

Based on the scene described by the boy named "Colin" earlier and the judgment of the "professional" identity of the snatched adventurer, the danger level of this monster might be much higher than he had expected.

Steven did not know why, even though it had broken directly into the village like today and no one could stop it, this monster had behaved so cautiously before, only attacking lone residents outside the village.

Was it testing, or simply teasing and torture?

He couldn't figure it out.

But what was certain was that if this dangerous and ferocious monster charged head-on, everything they had arranged here—the traps on the ground, the cheap and simple equipment in their hands—would be of no avail in the face of the chasm-like gap in strength between them.

Now, for him and the dozen or so villagers he had brought behind him, the safest plan was actually to actively retreat, abandon this pass, and return to the village to wait for news.

However...

Steven's body stood in place, but his head turned inadvertently, his peripheral vision glancing at the middle-aged man with a heavy expression and dark skin not far beside him.

That was "Gregori," the captain of the Black Gull.

At the moment, the other party was also bringing his crew to hold this place together with his people.

Gregori would absolutely not agree to Steven's proposal to retreat; regarding this point, he had already known through the brief exchange and probing with the other party just now.

As a cargo ship captain sailing on the ocean, almost every trip required dealing with adventurers, so reputation was crucial.

If he were to shrink back from the crisis now and abandon the mission entrusted to him by his fellow adventurers, his reputation among the adventurers of Shoal Bay would plummet to rock bottom. He would never again find an excellent, reliable adventuring squad to cooperate with, and would only be able to hire adventurers of equally poor reputation and dubious quality.

For Steven himself, he had similar concerns.

The pressure on the villagers was very high, but the pass ahead was empty, without the slightest sign of the monster appearing; perhaps the monster had fled directly into the sea, or had been solved on the spot by those few adventurers?

Although the possible result might be tragic, the probability of them needing to face the monster head-on was estimated to be only fifty percent.

But if they retreated in the face of battle... the villagers of Crag Village certainly wouldn't have to face the danger of the monster at this moment, but the probability of offending those few adventurers was one hundred percent.

To some extent, this might be a worse result than facing the monster head-on.

On this chaotic sea area, the boundary between adventurers and pirates had never been that clear.

To put it bluntly, if a few adventurers entered the village, killed people, snatched things, and sailed away, who could stop them?

They had no room to resist.

The atmosphere between the villagers and the crew was too heavy; as if sensing Steven's thoughts, the Black Gull captain Gregori took two steps forward, patted the other party's shoulder, and comforted:

"Don't worry, the 'Silver Claw Osprey' squad accompanying the ship this time are all veteran adventurers who have already obtained professional levels and have handled many similar missions, so they are very experienced."

"The combat capabilities of the other two are even stronger; we verified this point when we were still at sea."

"Nothing will happen, just wait patiently; it's not impossible to help you solve that monster by the way."

Hearing this, Steven's originally gloomy face looked slightly better, feeling that what the other party said made some sense, and he nodded toward the dark-skinned middle-aged man in front of him.

"I hope so."

Gregori's heart was actually far from as calm as his face expressed.

Having sailed for many years, his experience in various aspects was incomparably rich, and he had encountered countless monsters.

With such experience, even if he himself had not obtained a professional level and was not considered an adventurer, he could roughly estimate the danger level of various monsters.

When he heard the loud noise in the village and rushed to the scene, he carefully inspected the traces left by the monster's battle with the Half-Orc Guka on the field.

This Half-Orc professional, who had always been reckless, was clearly at a disadvantage in the confrontation with the monster; in just a few dozen seconds, when he was snatched away by the monster, he was afraid he had already suffered serious injuries.

And this meant that the actual combat power of this monster had far exceeded the range that ordinary professionals could handle.

Even if the adventurers who chased after it plus that Halfling totaled three, in the situation where Xia Nan, who was clearly stronger in the team, left the team alone and disappeared, could they really steadily take down that monster?

Gregori actually had no bottom in his heart.

As if thinking of something else, he looked toward the cliff wall ahead, and seeing no movement, his gaze turned to the village chief Steven beside him once again.

Hesitating slightly, he then spoke slowly:

"After this time is over, if that monster... has no result."

"I suggest you still leave here first and wait until the adventurers who accept the hunting commission from the Association handle it before coming back; otherwise, it's too dangerous."

In the situation where the monster's danger level was known to be extremely high and difficult for ordinary civilians to handle.

Not long ago, it was only tentatively attacking lone villagers, but today it dared to actively break into houses in the village.

This meant it had gradually realized that the villagers could not pose a threat to it.

If their group came a few days later, it was hard to say if the whole village would be eaten up by the increasingly aggressive monster. ===== CHAPTER 419 =====