Hearing the man's story Diedrich and Bella were both shocked.
Realizing something Diedrich asked, " How do you think he managed to kill everybody".
The man responded with "I think he poisoned our water supply, although I don't know what poison he used. I was the only one who hadn't drunken water that day from the main water source of the village and had instead drunk from a river while we were out on an expedition".
Diedrich agreed that was the most likely explanation.
The man on the bed seemingly reminiscing with a sad look on his face suddenly got a determined expression on his face and looked directly at Diedrich.
Seeing the serious look on his face Diedrich looked back at him.
"I have a proposition for you, if you help me take revenge on Jack then I will become a citizen of your village and my skills will be yours to use".
Intrigued Diedrich asked, " What will you do with Jack if we catch him?".
"Kill HIM", the man replied icily.
Diedrich found his answer surprising but not unexpected, the reason being that the man looked a bit feeble and passive making it look as if he normally was the peace loving kind of guy, but it seems his experiences had changed him.
Diedrich also agreed that Jack should be killed as he was a cold blooded murderer who lived close to his village's proximity and was also capable of poisoning his village's water supply, so getting rid of him was a must if he wanted to turn this place into a safe haven for his family, and getting a rank two artisan with it was just the cherry on the cake.
"So have you made a decision?", the man now asked with a hint of nervousness as he had calmed down and realized he was asking a lot from Diedrich.
Diedrich looked at the man and smiled as he said "We'll catch that bastard".
The man felt relieved as he shook hands with Diedrich when he suddenly heard another question.
"So what's your name?"
"Bill", the man responded.
...
Two hours later Diedrich was seen running along with 5 rank one soldiers and Bill riding a massive hog through the Jungle.
Their destination, Vine Village, the name Jack's previous leader had given the village.
After Diedrich accepted the deal, Bill told him that Jack had probably conquered the village, although Diedrich did not know for sure that was possible he wanted to take no chances, and thought it best to attack as soon as possible before he could spawn an army of loyal villagers.
Bill had to show the way as Diedrich didn't know where the village was, but since he was still weak and did not have the energy to run the entire way he decided to tame a boar he could ride using his ability.
It took him 1 hour to craft the insignia on a piece of wood Diedrich made and after finding the boar it took about half an hour for his soul to bind with the insignia making him able to control the boar.
In the meantime Diedrich gathered the villagers and explained to them the nature of the operation, although they accepted Diedrich's decision they were not thrilled at the idea of killing another human being, but after Diedrich explained to them that this was a new world with no police and that such type of people would continue if not stopped and after Bill told them how many people and children were killed, they started to support the decision.
Diedrich hadn't made Bill a citizen of Tarak as Diedrich hadn't completed his end of the deal yet, but he had tested the method of how he could make Bill a citizen of his village.
The method was relatively simple and he only had to be in physical contact with the other party and express his desire to make Bill a citizen of his village, making a prompt pop up for Bill stating [Yes] or [No] whether he wanted to join Tarak village, Bill declined for now, and Diedrich got a prompt back stating [Bill has declined].
Having confirmed it was possible Diedrich then took Bill, 5 soldiers, and his treant with him and marched to vine village.
It took them a total of 4 hours to travel to vine village, the village to the east of Tarak village in the direction of the plain Diedrich first spawned.
Along the way they encountered very few beasts and if they did cross Diedrich's path they were quickly cut down by him and his soldiers, boosting Bill's confidence in Diedrich winning against Jack.
Bill told Diedrich the skills he had seen Jack use, one was a sort of aura that would cover certain parts of his body, the aura made the covered regions stronger.
The second skill Bill wasn't sure of but he thought it gave him extra stamina.
Diedrich himself was not too worried, although Jack was a warrior, Diedrich was two ranks above him, he also still had his new trump card the vermillion poison cloud skill, and from what Bill told him he was still only tier 1.
Scouting Vine village from a discreet hiding place, Diedrich saw a group of 3 men walk out with some makeshift stick weapons, they looked haggard and indignant.
Diedrich decided to quietly follow that group, once they were a decent distance away from the village Diedrich and troops pounced on them, gaged them, and tied them up with vines.
The men didn't know what was happening and were obviously scared shitless upon seeing a bunch of people jump them.
Diedrich walked up to one of the men and released his gag while motioning him to stay quiet, otherwise he made a cutthroat gesture, although a bluff it was effective and the man decided to stay quiet.
Diedrich then asked, "How many people are there inside the village?"
"Two people", the man responded nervously.
"And that includes the village head right?"
The man nodded
"And where in the village is your leader?"
"In the living quarters, in his bedroom"
Diedrich was honostly surprised at the man's willingness to respond, he thought that villagers should have some sort of pre programmed loyalty towards their leader but it turns out he had been mistaken or maybe there was something else to make sure he asked " Why are you telling me all this information willingly, do you not care what we will do to him".
The man looked at him with an annoyed expression, "Care, no I do not care, the man is a mutt that should be put down".
Again shocked, Diedrich asked why, to which the man was more than willing to respond, "We were originally with 5, one extra woman and a man, however now we are only with 4."
"In the beginning everything was alright however not an hour later, Jack approached the woman who was in her twenties and asked her to join him in his bedroom, she clearly understood his intentions and refused, however he did not take it well saying things like I am your lord and you are there to serve me, as he grabbed her arm and tried to drag her to his room".
"Being in close proximity we heard everything and tried to intervene and pleaded for Jack to let her go but he said that we should know are places and not intervene, seeing that it wasn't working one of the men tried to stop him physically, Jack got so infuriated , that he beat that guy to death and then began to beat us saying we were insects, before taking the woman to his chambers".
"After that he told us to go gather or hunt something for him to eat if we wanted to live until tomorrow, knowing we couldn't survive alone in the jungle, after we recuperated from our injuries we decided to go and find some food, and that was when you ambushed us".
Diedrich, Bill, and his soldiers were all furious hearing this, especially Karla who immediately wanted to storm the place, Diedrich stopped her as he knew she would lose against him, calming her down Diedrich decided to enter the village while his troops followed him, he had also unbounded the hostages as he saw no reason to keep them tied up, he also reasoned that the villagers probably had a loyalty for the village and chief however that was wiped out by the leaders awful treatment.
Entering the village was easy, as they had no fortifications asking Bill about it he said a bit embarrassed that his previous leader had not thought of it and it seemed like too big of a hassle, truth be told Bill was shocked when he first came out of his hut and saw the village as it was much more developed than Vine village.
Walking through the village Diedrich eventually arrived at the Living quarters and entered alone telling the others to stay outside, as he entered the interior of the living quarters looked the same as the one in Tarak village except that it was a bit smaller missing some bedrooms, but the Chief's room was still at the end of the corridor.
Meanwhile, in the master bedroom there was a man sitting on the end of the bed with only his pants on, while a woman was lying on the bed completely naked using the sheets to cover herself as she cried.
Looking at the scene, Jack became irritated as he said to her "You should be happy to be able to serve me your lord, so next time be a bit happier, otherwise you'll get punished".
Knowing how Jack punished the last man who tried to defend her, the woman began to cry louder, enraging Jack further however just before he was going to do another unspeakable act he heard knocking on the door.
"Well you're lucky, I was wondering when those idiots would return with some grub".
Jack stood up and walked towards the door, and when he opened it he saw someone he didn't recognize prompting him to ask "Who are y…"
Before Jack could respond he was met with Diedrich's fist in his face sending him flying against the back wall of his bedroom.
Jack had luckily managed to use his aura skill on his back before he hit the wall, reducing the impact although he had still fractured something.
Walking into the room Diedrich saw a bed partly covered with blood and a terrified lady hiding underneath some sheets, seeing the scene Diedrich became furious, as he saw Jack stand up.
"Why are you attacking me?"Jack asked, a bit apprehensive of Diedrich as he knew this guy was someone out of his league.
Making Diedrich respond with, "Filth needs to be exterminated".
Jack had managed to buy himself some time and seeing Diedrich defenseless except for some wooden bracers he grabbed his sword and tried to quickly slash at Diedrich as he wrapped his hands in a green aura.
Diedrich however quickly turned one of his wooden arm bracers into a shield stopping the blow although the sword slightly sank into the wood, surprising Diedrich as he didn't think Jack would be able to damage uncommon wood made from the Eutrepe tree.
After blocking the blow with his left hand Diedrich followed up with a punch to the stomach making Jack gasp for air, as Diedrich followed up with the Vermillion poison cloud skill, controlling it so that only a small amount was released from his mouth traveling towards Jack as he inhaled and absorbed it, momentarily blinding Jack as his eyes began to burn and leak blood.
Having incapacitated him, Diedrich turned one of his bracers into handcuffs and cuffed him as he was still crying out in pain from the poison.
Having wrapped things up Diedrich turned his attention to the woman, who was shivering in fear as she looked at Diedrich not knowing what he would do to her, looking at her Diedrich understood why Jack took her she had a pretty face with gorgeous long brunette hair and although the sheets were covering her you could still see the outline of some curves.
Looking at the terrified woman Diedrich, kindly smiled at her as he said she was going to be okay from now on and that they came to get Jack, noticing her thorn clothes on the floor Diedrich gave her Jack's shirt which was somewhere in the corner and switched his pants as he took Jack's bloodied ones and gave her his making Jack stand in his underwear.
Seeing that the woman was still terrified of him he sighed, dragging Jack with him he exited the room as he told her that he would send one of his female soldiers to help her if she needed any.
Dragging Jack outside Diedrich threw him to where the soldiers and Bill were.
Diedrich then walked over to Karla and told her the situation, she understood and entered the living quarters to help the woman.
The effects of the poison had by now worn off making Jack able to see Diedrich along with his troops, including Bill.
Seeing Bill Jack immediately understood what happened, "Bill you son of a B*tch, I should have killed you just like the rest!".
Jack went hysterical and continued to curse at Bill, seeing no end Diedrich ordered his soldiers to gag him with some vines.
Diedrich then looked seriously at Jack as he seemed to not understand the situation he was in, so Diedrich decided to hold a little tribunal, "Jack for your crimes of murdering the inhabitants of Vine Village and the devilment of an innocent woman you are hereby sentenced to death".
Diedrich then gave Bill, who said he wanted to be the one to execute Jack a spear and patted him on the back knowing this would be a trial not only for Jack but also for Bill.
Bill with a resolute expression began walking up to Jack.
Jack, knowing his fate, began to piss himself and cry as he continuously tried to beg for his life although it sounded like muffled gurgles due to him being gagged.
Standing in front of Jack, Bill took off his gag, making Jack start to think of all kinds of excuses to save his life.
"Any last words", Bill said.
"I am sorry please spare me, I have seen the errors of my ways, I will change, I will be good from now on, I was just like this because I was dropped in this crazy world, I was just scared!".
Hearing him plead Bill formed a conflicted look on his face as if he wasn't sure what to do anymore.
Diedrich seeing this was a bit disappointed in Bill and was going to do it himself, until Karla and the woman exited the living quarters, she now had clothes on but was still shivering and looked terrified.
"Squelch"
The sound of flesh being pierced entered Diedrich's ears as he saw Bill heavily breathing with blood splattered on his face while Jack was lying on the ground dead with an expression of shock plastered on his face.
After that, everyone went quiet, making a deathly silence prevail on the execution ground only broken by a woman who began to laugh hysterically.