Regressor's Harem Of Vengeance-Chapter 45. Tracks.

Ray was currently deep within the forest next to Thornsville.

It was currently dawn and the sun had barely even poked its head out of the horizon, but Ray was easily moving through the familiar paths he and Mira had threaded a hundred times over the past few weeks while hunting.

Ray was trying to hunt a group of horned stags hence his reason for leaving home as early as possible.

These stags were large, aggressive deer-like creatures that had been raiding the village’s grain stores for days ever since he and Mira had ventured out to intercept Harvard and his guards.

The horned stags weren’t really monsters with skills, but they were creatures with a huge appetite.

Ray had been tracking them down for two days now, and right now, he had finally found their trail.

However, what he found alongside their trail made his brows furrow in worry.

In front of him were tracks.

Of course, not just the tracks of the horned stags but those of rabbits as well.

From what he could see from the tracks, thanks to his five years of experience in hunting for the elite warrior’s party as their errand boy, Ray was able to easily notice how these rabbit tracks overlapped each other chaotically.

It seemed like dozens of the rabbits had been fleeing in the same direction.

But it wasn’t only the stags and rabbit tracks he could see, he could also see the tracks of foxes, bears, deer, and a few other creatures moving in the same direction.

They all seemed to be running away from the deep forest and towards the village.

But since he hadn’t encountered them this morning, it meant that they had probably surrounded the village.

However, what troubled Ray the most was the fact that the tracks were still fresh.

From the look of things, it seemed like the tracks had probably been made about half an hour before he left home, which meant that whatever was chasing these creatures could still be on its way towards him.

Feeling a bit worried by this, Ray crouched down before a set of deer prints. He noticed how each print was deep, with a huge space between them, indicating that they had all been running at full speed from whatever had been chasing after them.

Ray stood up slowly and swiftly activated his <<Void Sense>> ability before spreading his awareness across the forest, hoping to detect anything, and he did.

But what he saw turned his blood cold instantly.

Not only was there a pack of wolves dashing in his direction, but a group of goblins and a couple of other monsters were right behind the wolves.

He could see how much the ground shook as something large and massive dashed through the forest too, but it wasn’t the only one, and this meant that whatever it was, it had friends as well.

Realizing this, Ray began to wonder why this was happening now.

In his first life, Marcus had delivered a letter to him weeks after he first received the letter about Mira’s death, meaning that the monster tide only appeared weeks after Harvard had visited the village. But right now, it hadn’t even been a week, yet monsters were heading straight for the village, and from what he could see, they were probably going to arrive tonight, meaning that he only had a few hours left to make sure his family was in the safest place, as far away as possible from the incoming stampede.

"Aw shit." Ray ran straight back home.

If things had changed.

If the monster tide was going to happen earlier than expected, Ray knew that he had to alert the villagers and his family.

If he had expected this a few days ago, Ray could have probably handled all the beasts on his own in a strategic manner, but since he barely had enough time to think or plan anything, Ray knew he had to at least alert his family.

Leaving them in the dark about the current situation could prove to be a dangerous move if he decided to battle against all the monsters on his own.

Because if he were really to stay behind and fight all those stampeding beasts, hundreds of them could easily move past him and head to the village while he was preoccupied with the others. And if they stormed into the village where the people would be taken unawares, hundreds of villagers would die that night, including his family, and Ray didn’t want that to happen.

In his first life, no one had expected the beasts’ arrival and it had cost so many villagers their lives, including his mother and sister’s lives. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

So the least he could do right now was to alert them of what was coming while hoping it would be enough to prepare them to hide or fight back.

And so, within minutes, Ray was able to arrive at the village.

Thanks to the fact that Ray was currently a level 10 Awakener, his strength and speed were way above a normal person’s stats, let alone the average person’s. Meaning that no one in the village would be able to pose a challenge to him in a race.

Anyways, looking up, Ray could see that the sun was just beginning to rise from the horizon.

The villagers had also begun to wake up and he could see smoke coming out of a few chimneys while a few baby sounds echoed from the houses of a few villagers.

Ray also saw a few merchants like Perry, standing outside Marcus’s shop but he didn’t stop to tell them what he had seen.

Instead, he made his way straight to the Village Head’s House.

The village Head was currently a female and she was one of the few elders in the village, besides Marcus.

Her name was Elaine and her house stood at the northern edge of the village square.

Her house was a sturdy two-storey building made of dark timber and grey stones, making it one of the most sophisticated buildings in the village.

But unlike the other village homes which had a modest design and appearance, Elaine’s house showed the difference in wealth she had from the rest of the villagers.

Finally, Ray arrived at the front door, then he knocked and the door opened in seconds.

Elaine stood in the doorway and Ray came face-to-face with the fully dressed elderly lady holding a gnarled wooden stick in her right hand.