Chapter 21 - 21 Night Patrol
Editor: Exodus Tales
“At least, this is heavy enough to smash people.”
After hearing Lu Chen’s answer, the vault keeper had no choice but to help Lu Chen finish the check-out procedures.
After that, Lu Chen left with the weapon.
Right when he exited the vault, Lu Chen saw two muscular men already waiting for him. They were assigned by the Guard Squad’s leader, Ya, to guide Lu Chen in his first night patrol.
Lu Chen didn’t act arrogantly in front of them even though they weren’t Barbarian Blood Warriors.
“I’ll rely on you two to guide me on the night patrol’s culture.”
“Don’t worry, as long as you don’t make troubles, it should be all fine.”
The duo led Lu Chen out of the village while explaining the rules to Lu Chen.
“We patrol teams have our own prescribed routes. You should know this from your day patrols too, so I won’t repeat it again.”
“However, compared to the day, at night, the patrol areas are much smaller by half. At night, we just have to patrol around the village.”
“Remember, no matter what you hear at night, don’t think about it or even look over. At night, we will try to avoid as many troubles as possible.”
As he said, the other barbarian used a fire torch and lit up an oil lamp.
He was carefully shielding the oil lamp and said, “Never ever let the fire go away. There are wicked Evils looming in the dark. When there is light, they will keep distant, but when the light goes off, even Barbarian Body and Barbarian Bone Warriors go missing.”
“Disappear? Not dead?”
“No, there were no bodies on the ground, only fading footprints. No one knew where did they go in the dark.”
Just like that, the two barbarians were leading Lu Chen in their patrol duty while at the same time, explaining the situation to him.
However, as soon as they’ve exited the village, they lowered their voices and warned Lu Chen to never speak unless necessary.
“Sounds attract the Evils, so does the smell of blood. Hence, caution is of utmost importance.”
Because Lu Chen was already on the day patrols previously, the barbarians only pointed out the important points and didn’t repeat on any of the obvious matters.
It was only natural for them to think that Lu Chen would’ve known about the rest. After all, the day patrollers were trained to someday replace the older night patrollers. They were also taught some of the rules of the night patrol.
Lu Chen had the required knowledge too, however, he only heard of it from the mouths of others. Lu Chen needed to be in the night patrol and do it personally himself to truly understand the rules of the night patrol.
Thus, Lu Chen started his journey of becoming a night patroller with the other two barbarians.
It was dead quiet outside of the village. The three held the oil lamp and patrolled on their prescribed route like specters.
Soon, half an hour’s time passed and suddenly, Lu Chen’s pace stopped for a split second.
He looked up and saw in front of him, a small fire was quietly burning in the moonless night. Lu Chen squinted his eyes and realized that it was a fireball the size of a human’s head. The fireball was bright red and burning wickedly, hopping up and down as it moved forward.
When the fireball inched closer to him, Lu Chen even saw a human’s face smiling wickedly at him.
Immediately, Lu Chen drew out his metal sword and at the same time, placed his fingers on the edge of the sword. He was ready to cut open his skin and soak his blood on the metal sword to kill the Evil.
There were no other options left. After all, the barbarians were poor, the only usable means they had was their immense Vigor.
Thus, they could only fight the Evils with their own blood.
Fortunately, when one becomes a Barbarian Blood Warrior, their blood would be infused with intense Vigor, making it the best means against the Evils.
However, just right before Lu Chen was about to make a move, two palms appeared from the sides and pinned him down tightly.
He quickly looked over and realized it was the two barbarians.
Nervousness was all over their faces, they grabbed Lu Chen with one hand each and their other hand was waving swiftly with their eyes inkling at him to not make any moves.
Lu Chen hesitated for a second and chose to listen to the two “seniors”.
Then, the two barbarians were proven to be right.
The human-head fireball was moving closer and closer to the village.
But when it arrived some distance away, it stopped and turned unwilling to move forward any further as if it felt an irritating aura.
However, although it didn’t go any further, it didn’t leave either. It was attracted by the air of flesh and blood in the village and turned to hop around the village perimeter while keeping a distance.
On the other hand, the two barbarians dragged Lu Chen and quickly rushed back toward the village.
Soon, Lu Chen was brought back into the village by them. It was only then that the barbarians heaved a breath of relief and started panting heavily. While Lu Chen took the chance to voice his doubts.
“What’s wrong? Why aren’t we killing it?”
His question puts a smile on their faces. They exchanged a look and one of them answered, “Ah’Chen, strong you are. But the night patrol is not just all about power and strength.”
“That’s right. We are not meant to deal with all of the Evils.”
“The totem pillar in the village had an intimidating aura to the Evils. Most of them will not intrude into the areas protected by it. We, the night patrollers, are only tasked to deal with the Evils that dare to enter the protected areas.”
….
Lu Chen was quick to understand the situation more in their explanations. The Wild Bull Village’s approach toward the Evils was to stay vigilant, to be on the defensive, and to avoid alerting any of the Evils.
Lu Chen realized that with the totem pillar’s intimidating aura in addition to this conservative approach, the casualties among the patrollers were minimised.
However, while this reduced the casualties, it also had it downsides. Although the Evils didn’t dare to intrude the village protected by the totem pillar, having this passive approach would leave them a perennial threat to the village.
After that, in their patrol duty, Lu Chen could feel the increasing numbers of Evils lurking around the village.
Human-head fireball, scarecrows, broken umbrellas that could move freely on its own… There were all kinds of Evils roaming freely in the dark. In stark contrast, humans could only walk quietly and make every move with utmost caution.
Lu Chen couldn’t help but feel just how puny humans were in this world. They were no longer rulers of the world.
Or at the very least, not the only ruler.
The day belonged to the humans but the night, it’s the time of the Evils. I never thought the situation of this world had become so bad.
The patrols continued for another few hours. At the darkest hour of midnight, Lu Chen followed the two barbarians and arrived at the border of the village again.
The border referred to the outer rims of the totem pillar’s coverage area. Here, the aura of the totem pillar was at its weakest.
Therefore, the Evils lurking around here had the greatest tendency to assault any humans close to them.
Every time the patrollers were patrolling the border, the Evils would not even hide their ill-intent toward human. They were all hyped and ready to assault the patrollers.
But the two barbarians were used to it, they only peeked at the Evils and didn’t dare to say anything. Instead, they were carefully moving away from the Evils.
However, after moving back for a few dozen meters back, they suddenly realized they were the only ones making the move. The young talent that Master Wuzu ordered them to take care of wasn’t even behind them.