Jake had drifted peacefully into sleep. He expected to sleep until morning, but that wasn't going to happen.
Word of a man sleeping at the edge of the village had reached the head of the village, and so the men that lived there picked up their swords and hoes, rushing toward the forest—over twenty of them.
If they had learned anything from their life in the village, it was that barely anything good came from the forest. All it bred was disaster.
Jake was sleeping, blissfully unaware of what was about to go down. Crypt stood guard. He readied his spear as the men got closer.
The rushing men saw Crypt standing there with a spear in hand. The pressure his body exuded sent shivers down their spines.
They all came to a stop. They pointed their weapons at him, and one of the men came forward to speak to Crypt.
"Who the hell are you and what are you doing in this village?" he asked, yet Crypt gave no answer. He stood there, not wavering at all.
"Won't you respond? What are you doing in our village?" the man asked again. He wanted to sound as brave as possible—inside, he was shaking at the sight of Crypt.
Yet Crypt said nothing. He simply stood his ground, following his instruction to protect his master to the letter.
[Hey, stupid, you might want to wake up before Crypt annihilates the entire village.]
The system yelled right into Jake's mind and forced him awake. His eyes shot open; he immediately got up and looked around.
"What's happening?" he asked. His fuzzy gaze cleared up, and he saw Crypt standing right in front of over twenty villagers.
"Oh shit." He rushed up to them and pulled Crypt back. He raised his hands as a sign of surrender. "I'm sorry for whatever inconvenience my servant may have caused you," Jake said out loud.
The funny thing was the fact that he had never learned their language, yet when he spoke, they understood—and when they spoke back, he understood. It was the same thing when Crypt was alive.
"No, no, no, the misunderstanding came from our path. It seems he was only doing his job to protect you. My village has been through quite a bit, and so we are very cautious, especially with new people.
This period has been especially terrible, and so we try to block off all outsiders," the man explained.
"I see, I understand that. The issue is that I don't really know anywhere or have anywhere to go. I'm not from here at all, and so I've been trying to gather information. That's why I headed here," Jake said.
He stretched out his left hand for a shake—a sign of respect, to make a better impression during their first meeting—but as his hand reached the man, the man's eyes caught a glimpse of the tattoo on the back of his hand.
He grabbed the hand and turned it. He laid eyes on the tattoo, and his eyes widened in shock, fright, and hate.
"You are one of them. YOU ARE ONE OF THEM!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. Instinctively, he lifted his sword and slashed down with all his might. His eyes shone under the dim moonlight, as if he had been possessed by a demon.
Jake watched the slash come toward him. He wasn't going to dodge that with his own body—he wasn't fast enough. But then again, that slash couldn't hit him even if it tried hard enough.
Clang.
Crypt stepped in and blocked the slash, his gaze locked on the man that attacked. He pushed the sword back and spun his spear in one motion.
He kicked the ground, traveling over a meter in half of a half-second. The man couldn't even react—in his own view, Crypt had teleported.
The spear thrust came toward his gut. Crypt was ready to end it all now.
"Crypt, don't kill," Jake spoke right into Crypt's mind. With the new directive, Crypt had to change his stab into a slash and use the broad side of his spear to smack the man across the face and send him flying.
Crypt stood there at the center, his spear held in one hand behind his back, his legs slightly apart and his head tilted slightly upward.
'What the hell is with that pose?' Jake wondered.
The village men were enraged at what had happened. They all pointed their weapons at Crypt, but after seeing what he could do, they didn't dare take a step forward—well, not until the man who had been smacked got up.
His face was swollen and his nose bled. He looked at Jake and pointed at him. "That man, he is one of them—the Chosen—the ones who take the Hundred Trials. He is a bringer of calamity. I saw the mark on his hand!" the man yelled.
His words traveled, passing through the ears of everyone present. What followed was a silence—a silence that could only be found in a graveyard.
It seemed all hesitation, all fear, all holding back that the people had shown vanished the moment they heard this. They all started rushing for Jake, their intentions clear—to rip him apart.
"Shit, what the hell?" Jake immediately summoned his undead skeletons, and the instruction he gave them was to not kill. He also gave the same instruction to Crypt.
Crypt still stood in his pose. He didn't move until about four men tried to flank him. He lifted his foot and kicked the tip of the spear. It flipped through the air and he caught it.
He drew one leg back, and also took the spear backward, and in one swift motion, he swung the spear with the broad side, slamming into the four men in one swing. The four of them were immediately sent flying.
But he wasn't done. He leapt into the air, flipped his spear to the base, and made one thrust. Yet it somehow hit all four of them in their chests and slammed them into the ground.
He landed, his feet barely touching the ground before he had already locked on to the next target.