Chapter 168 - Dilemma

"Gramps, I meant to ask you this before. But what was that dark place in the forest?"

At this time, a young man sat in his room as he curiously asked the old man standing in his room at this moment.

"What dark place are you talking about, young man?" The old man asked in return, seemingly confused by the young man's words.

"I am talking about the dark region in the forest. When I was lost in the forest, I stumbled upon a dark region within the forest that was not affected by the sun's rays. I was curious about who created such a place? And also, whether it belonged to someone who lived in that place or if it was created naturally?" The young man replied.

"...Dark region, huh…?" The old man turned silent as he displayed a pondering expression.

"Gramps, what is it? Why did you turn quiet all of a sudden? Did I say something wrong?" The young man asked when he noticed the change in the old man's expression.

"Ah, no. It's just that no one had seen or heard of this dark region you're talking about. Maybe it was a figment of your imagination? After all, the sun may have been too bright that it affected your vision and perhaps, you thought you might've seen a dark region within the forest as a result?" The old man came back to his senses and quickly answered with an uncertain tone.

"..."

Listening to this explanation, the young man, who was actually Randy, did not say anything in response, and instead pondered to himself.

'Hmm… This old man does not seem to be lying to me, so was it really just my imagination? No, there's no way that was the case! There was also that gaze on me since earlier. With these facts, I can assume that either someone leaves in that dark region or an absurdly powerful monster had erected that dark region using their ability or some bizarre spell.'

'Although I have not seen an illusory spell before, I have experienced that faux world that can create a temporary world similar to the original world. Now that I think about it, I almost died in that place had I not left in time.'

Randy deeply thought all these with a pondering expression. 

At this time, Randy had decided to ask the old man about the location shrouded in darkness in the forest in hopes of finding out something regarding the entity that had been observing him since earlier. But it appears that the old man had never heard of the dark region within the forest. 

Randy pondered for a while when he discovered this fact. But no matter how much he thought about it, without enough information, he could not make any conclusion and that also meant that he could find out about the existence that might be in the dark region within the forest.

"Anyway, why don't you come out and join us for dinner? Klara seemed to be attached to you these few days even though she was avoiding you at the beginning." The old man suddenly said to him after noticing his expression as he came out of his thoughts. 

"But your appearance is indeed quite flashy, young man. Is this really your true appearance? I have never seen a human with such deep red hair before in these parts." The old man commented afterward. 

'Ah, so that's why they were so afraid of me and thought that I was a vampire? I thought it was because I could control blood.' Randy realized why those people acted aggressively towards him before when they had first met.

'Maybe I should consider changing my appearance back to my original appearance. Wait! For now, I think it is better to not change my appearance wantonly in case someone comes looking for me in the future just based on my current appearance. I have to be careful against unknown abilities or spells that exist in this world.' Randy firmly decided against this decision and quickly stood up and followed after the old man to the dining hall which was not far from where his room was located. 

When they reached the dining hall, three other people were sitting behind the table with food already arrange in portions on it. The first person was a middle-aged man who appears to be in his forties, the second person was a woman who seemed to be in her thirties, and then the young girl whom Randy had saved before.

These were the family members of the old man who brought him in the village. The middle-aged man was his son, the woman was his daughter-in-law and the young girl was his granddaughter, respectively. 

Randy found out after staying here for a while that the young girl was only fifteen years old and that the reason why she was inside that forest was to gather some precious herbs needed for medicine concoction at the periphery of the forest. 

But unfortunately, while gathering the herbs at the periphery of the forest, she ran into those people who according to the people in this village were forces from the church of light in this world.

"You're all here. Come and have a seat. We should all eat before the food gets warm." The woman said with a warm smile when she saw Randy and the old man coming toward them. 

"That's right. Brat, what have you been doing all day cooped up in your room anyway? Come and let us eat!" The middle-aged man said in a loud voice. 

"Hey, what are doing? Why are you already eating before father and the young man get here?!" The woman readily rebuked her husband when she noticed his actions.

"What? What's wrong with me eating? They're already here anyway, so what's the problem?" The middle-aged man casually said as he took a bite out of the meat in his hand.

"Why you…"

"Haha… Uncle Klemente is still the same as always." Randy commented with a smile as he joined them behind the table right next to the shy girl, Klara.

"Brat! What do you mean by those words?!" 

"Hahaha…"

According to what Randy had observed thus far, the people in this family were very nice and did not treat him like a stranger even though he had suddenly intruded on their village and now depending on their hospitality. 

…

Four days ago.

Inside Randy's room within the village. 

At this time, he had requested from the village's chief, in other words, the old man regarding the language of their village because he could not get used to the old man speaking in his slow tone of voice. Moreover, he wanted to learn the language of this world to fit in properly. 

Fortunately, the old man agreed to his request and brought him a pamphlet that contained their language's alphabets and illustrations with their corresponding names. 

At this moment, Randy held on to the pamphlet in his hand, and very quickly the system notification flashed across his eyes. 

[[Discovered a book containing a type of language widely used by the humans in this world]]

[[Would you like to record the contents of the book and comprehend them later?]]

"Yes." Randy replied right away. 

Afterward, when the recording process was done, he immediately urged the system with the intention of learning the recorded language. As for knowledge points, he still had some left after using 50,000 on the Traceless Form Technique.

[[Would you like to spend 100 knowledge points to comprehend the selected recorded language pack?]] The system immediately prompted.

"Yes."

With anticipation, Randy closed his eyes as he immersed himself in the feeling of the incoming other world's knowledge that was about to pour into his mind at this moment. 

"Hm?"

However, he was instantly bewildered when he examined the characters that came into his mind shortly after. He realized that although he could read them and understand some of the nouns, he could not completely form a sentence with them, and thus was immediately left in a dilemma. 

'Now, how do I go about this? It seems like I really need to learn the language directly from them after all..' Randy helplessly thought.