【A long-dead giant human-faced rat. It’spletely dead, and you realize that the “rat gue” it caused has vanished with its death.】


    【You suspect that the “rat gue” ability is rted to dreams.】


    “Killing in dreams equates to reality. It seems all the abnormal deaths in the town were caused by it. No wonder there were no rats. So, the town should be safe now.”


    Colin felt a wave of relief. If this creature were still alive, dealing with it would have been a significant hassle. Thankfully, the problem was resolved.


    Having seen plenty of abnormal creatures, Colin collected the giant rat’s corpse and stored it in Li Chou’s inventory. He no longer wondered how such a creature could grow sorge or how it defied science.


    Holding antern, Colin led his team into the dimly lit church. Immediately upon entering, they saw arge number of human bones, scattered densely across the ground, making it hard to find a ce to step. The doorway was blocked with piled-up chairs and benches, an attempt to fend off something, but it had clearly failed. The people had died horribly at the hands of the giant human-faced rat, leaving behind skeletal remains.


    In the enclosed space, Colin could almost hear the infernal wails. However, the area was unusually clean, with no mutated bodies or foul stench, which was odd given the mass death.


    Colin left after a quick search of the church, which revealed no secret rooms or basements. The only useful discovery was that in older times, the church primarily worshipped “Thorns” rather than the symbol of “Suffering.” There were no statues of the “Martyr,” only thorns. The architecture, however, was simr to the outside world.


    Another interesting finding was the missing statues. Their whereabouts were unknown, and Colin had no clues. “It seems there’s not much valuable information here. Now we can check out Watt Manor. The cannons should arrive soon.”


    Colin thought it would be a good idea to practice on the castle. If the situation allowed, he felt that covering the area with firepower to tten it would be the safest approach.


    After ensuring no more information could be gathered, Colin led his team out of the bone-filled town.


    They traveled for about three hours through the deste, dead forest before seeing the manor at the foot of a hill, now a ruin.


    “Well, this is…”


    Colin was taken aback. The manor was already in ruins, with the core castle reduced to a few walls, pirs, and scattered stones. Even as a ruin, they could sense its former grandeur.


    Suddenly, Colin’s attention was drawn to a specific direction in the ruins. At what used to be the main gate, severalnterns were discarded like garbage.


    【You realize these are thenterns from some survivors, discarded not long ago.】


    The previous group intended to explore the underground area? Did they perish here? Even their crucialnterns were abandoned. Colin guessed that something had attacked them, leading to the discardednterns.


    Survivors wouldn’t discard theirnterns unless something attacked and stole them, discarding thenterns afterward.


    Moreover, whatever attacked them was likely not another survivor, asnterns were valuable. Colin gestured to his team to move toward thenterns.


    Soon, they reached the gate and found thenterns, all physically destroyed.


    “Seventeennterns, all wrecked,” Lee said, surprised. “What did those people encounter?”


    He couldn’t help but feel scared. He had realized that without strength and a reliable team, this ce was deadly.


    Meanwhile, Colin and his team detected a familiar, nauseating stench of decaying flesh.


    The smell indicated either the corpses of the previous survivors or the existing mutated creatures in the manor. But Colin, seasoned in dealing with foul odors, sensed this one was old, not from fresh corpses.


    Turning his gaze from the ruinednterns, Colin noticed some footprints at the broken iron gate, looking somewhat human but deformed,rge and small, with dried, dark red traces resembling coagted blood.


    【You realize these creatures have some human traits but do not seem to be mutants.】


    If they aren’t mutants, what are they? Colin wondered but trusted the hint, knowing mutants wouldn’t care aboutnterns.


    “Whatever they encountered, it doesn’t look good for them now.”


    Colin led his team further into the area for more exploration. Following the footprints, they reached the ruins of what seemed to be a room with a noble crest on a wall. The crest was faded but showed a crowned lion, indicating it belonged to Watt Manor.


    Below the crest, two words roughly tranting to “pure blood” were engraved.


    On the floor was a dark stairway leading down, previously sealed with stones, now forcibly broken open from within, revealing a path below.


    The stench emanated from this stairway, and the footprints led down into the darkness.


    【This appears to be a family crypt of Watt Manor. You sense there might be survivors below.】


    A family crypt with survivors. Colin’s eyes narrowed. The best approach would be to st their way in with barrels of explosives, but that wouldn’t consider casualties.


    To save or not to save?


    At this moment, Li Chou, holding the scroll, suddenly shouted:


    “The cannon support is here!”


    Meanwhile, several figures scrambled out of a dark room below the Watt Manor crypt.


    “No time! Keep moving!” the leading man whispered urgently.


    But they halted in horror the next second.