Upon realizing the monsters' hostility towards the only living person in that place, Nolan panicked. It was impossible to climb the walls of the Little Crack where he was, so his only option was to run towards Blackwood Village, where, luckily, the walls narrowed, and he could escape.
"ROAR"
"GRR"
"URGHH"
The many roars terrified Nolan as he ran, trying to dodge the corpses, most of which were still seated, attempting to rise. Nolan's luck was that most of them had their hands tied behind their backs, allowing him to push them aside and keep running.
Even without his hands, some undead tried to bite him as he passed, but Nolan successfully avoided them until finally the ravine began to narrow. Soon, he could barely walk normally due to his shoulders being pressed against the walls.
At that moment, as Nolan turned to the side, the undead that were chasing him quickly became wedged against the narrow walls, and Nolan used the small distance he had gained to begin climbing the walls.
Even in the dark environment, he used the opposite walls as support for his arms and legs, and quickly scaled the 4-6 meters of height using an amateur version of the stemming technique.
"Huff"
"Huff"
Nolan's heart was racing, and he was panting, but it wasn't from exhaustion, but from the fright he had experienced. It was the first time he had seen the undead so close. But there was something even more terrifying, and that was the fact that all the undead had already returned to life in less than a day…
Such a speed of transformation of corpses into monsters should only happen in places closer to the Main Scar… In the Small Cracks, like the one near his village, it took so long for this phenomenon to occur that most of the bodies decomposed before returning to life!
Taking one last look at the spot where his father had been buried and still hearing the roars of the dead, Nolan made a scaled-down version of the same religious sign he had performed during his father's funeral: three strokes, one on his forehead, one on his left cheek, and one over his heart.
"Praise the Scar!"
This scaled-down version of the funeral gesture, followed by the short "Praise to the Scar", was used daily by many in the kingdom, and this time, Nolan was truly grateful for this religion!
After all, if it weren't for the funeral mantra used at his father's makeshift grave, he might now have become one of those monsters!
Such a terrible fate, his death twisted and reversed, forever wandering as a cursed monster, suffering for who knows how long, was something Nolan wouldn't wish on his worst enemy…
"No! Those who killed my father truly deserved such a fate…"
After murmuring the words, Nolan left the Little Crack behind and moved slowly, lost in his thoughts. He entered the forest where the dangerous Viper had hidden during the day, and before he knew it, he was back in Blackwood Village.
Hesitating for a few minutes, he still chose to enter that place once more…
Ultimately, no matter what he was going to do, whether it was revenge or fleeing this place to avoid being ambushed again, he still needed to visit his home one last time, to visit his mother's grave and retrieve some personal belongings...
Using the shadows and alleyways, Nolan moved through the somber Blackwood village, which was full of houses made of the traditional and sturdy blackwood that was useful not only for its durability and resistance, but also for its special scent that repelled the terrible Lapha mosquitoes.
Nolan deliberately avoided the areas illuminated by the dazzling purple moon and some of the torches and bonfires lit by commoners outdoors, quickly arriving at a familiar house that at first glance wasn't much different from the others.
The commoners' houses always followed the same pattern for safety reasons; they had only one floor, so there were no stairs, and their walls and ceilings were made of thick black oak logs, mostly carved in various shapes to make their houses unique. The commoners also used a material resembling clay, with a minority using small stones for special parts.
Nolan's father had built this house over many years, little by little, room by room, and all the improvements made in recent years were to increase safety and comfort with his own help, while his father taught him the basics.
Nolan entered through the front door. He smelled the familiar woody scent that repelled the terrible Lapha mosquitoes, mixed with traces of herbs used in the commoners' meager cooking, and nostalgically observed all the rooms of the house until he reached and entered his parents' bedroom.
There, he closed the only window in the room that had been left open since early in the day when he was captured, and lit a dark-colored lamp that used fat as fuel. The lamp's light was quite limited due to the use of low-quality glass, since clear glass was something his family could never afford using the current barter system of Blackwood Village.
Nolan held the lamp and slowly approached his parents' bed. The bed was very beautiful, carved by his father himself from a rare reddish wood, and the mattress, though simple, was made of straw filling and was quite comfortable. He sat on the edge of the bed and took, from the top of a simple wooden piece of furniture, one of the most valuable objects the family possessed, also his mother's favorite item before she passed away: a small mirror.
Nolan checked his face in the mirror. His skin was pale white, perhaps from blood loss, but he still retained a faint tan on his face from prolonged sun exposure, a mark of his constant work in the fields and forests with his father. His amber eyes looked like two yellow flames after being illuminated by the dim light of the lamp, but the whites of his eyes were quite red, and he had heavy dark circles under his eyes.
On the left side of his forehead, a small white scar, about two and a half centimeters long, stood out. This scar was something he hadn't had before today; any kind of scar represented power and drew a lot of attention, so he planned to use his long, dark brown hair to cover it, but at that moment, he realized that his hair was almost black from being so dirty with earth and blood.
Observing his long, dark brown hair, nose, mouth, and chin that resembled his father's, Nolan also remembered his mother. She always praised him, saying they suited the eyes he inherited from her very well, along with the unique shape of his face. She always boasted that he would be even more handsome than his father when he grew older…
His mother's mirror, as well as the color of their eyes that they shared, made him remember her and wander for a few seconds before finally remembering why he had used that mirror in the first place. His yellow eyes turned to his neck, and what he saw next shocked him greatly.
There was a huge scar that ran from ear to ear; the fine, precise cut made by Zack's sharp dagger was already completely healed. To be more precise, it wasn't just healed; unlike the white scar on his forehead, the scar on his neck was golden, and like his eyes, it seemed to reflect the lamplight, as if it had been marked on his body using gold dust as ink.
Nolan immediately recognized that scar as the rarest and most powerful type of scar in that world, something only great Adventurers, Popes, and Kings possessed; a Golden Scar…