The punch happened suddenly, and Damian did not even try to dodge, still not knowing what that was about. He did not want to fight with someone out of a sudden and hurt his reputation in the tiny village he was currently living in.
It barely hurt him with his powerful body, and soon Jannet came running from inside her house, grabbing Tray, "darling, what are you doing?"
"I-I don't know," Tray said as he looked at his wife's angry face, feeling like he had made the wrong choice.
Angry had gotten the best of him for a split second, which he regretted. "I don't even know if my wife and this Damian are having an affair! I should first watch," he thought.
Damian had noticed how Jannet looked at him other times, but it was nothing strange. He was handsome and a new person in the village, so it was understandable for people to look at him curiously.
But that did not mean Tray could go there and punch him in the face for doing nothing. Damian was only cutting logs for his house and suffered for it. It would not happen that day, but he made a mental note to find the opportunity and strike back at that guy for doing that.
Tray did not even apologize, leaving without saying a word, with his wife pulling him back to their house. Everything happened fast, and no one, even those who watched the scene, understood what happened.
An older guy came to speak with Damian, "young man, don't worry about this. We have always told her Tray is not a good person, but they are still together, so we must accept it."
"What do you mean? Does he have drug problems or something?"
"Yes, he did a few years back, but he is clean now, I think. Anyway, take this, my wife and I made you an apple pie!"
John was the type of older person who acted like a grandfather to everyone, and Damian felt a warmth inside his heart after getting the hot apple pie they made him, "thanks, John. I will give you some gifts when I have the chance."
"Don't worry about it, kid. Just take care not to get punched in the face again," John said as he left to take care of his farm.
A strange occurrence, and the morning was starting! Damian finished cutting the logs for his fireplace and oven, taking him around one hour, and then someone came from the nearby woods, screaming, "beasts, there are beasts here!"
It was a man, Kayle, and he was one of the people who hunted some of the beasts around the village to make it safer and get a food supply. Kayle was in one of these hunts that morning, and he returned to the town after escaping from the attack of mutated beasts!
"What happened, Kayle?"
All the people gathered in the village's center, and someone quickly came with the first aid, taking care of the wound on Kayle's left arm. Blood dripped from the injury, but it did not look bad.
Damian was also surprised to see such a thing. He had done his research to know the area was not a place with common mutated beast attacks. Why? There was no dungeon entrance around the site, and with the big city close, it was pretty clean of dangerous beasts.
"Something attacked me! It looked like a freaking little demon with wings!"
Kayle knew the wolves, the bears, the snakes, and all the animals that could hurt a man, but the thing he saw? It looked like those beasts that the TV broadcasted occasionally, with superhumans fighting them.
Damian, someone knowledgeable about beasts, guessed the creature Kayle talked about was an imp, a creature that looked like a minor demon who could attack with its claws and teeth and throw fire.
That was not usually found in those areas; it was a mutated beast from the dungeon!
"But I thought there were no dungeon entrances around this place. Could there be one here?"
The idea of a dungeon entrance near The Dawn headquarters was just incredible! Damian would not depend on other organizations to explore the dungeon and get its resources.
"Calm down, I am not certain of it, but I guess checking out will not hurt."
He asked Kayle everything that happened, trying to find the exact location of the so-called imp. That way, he would have a place to start researching the dungeon entrance.
Kayle did not know much about Damian, as the two never talked to each other, but everyone in the village talked good stuff about him, so he did not mind sharing what happened to him, going as far as telling the exact details.
"I will go alone; stay here to protect the people in case beasts attack," Damian said to Vanessa, Hazel, and Serana, who wanted to go with him.
Vanessa was the one most worried because she did not know the exact extent of Damian's power. Still, Serana and Hazel knew he was the leader of a new organization and was a mysterious person with plenty of tricks, so it was not with an imp that they would worry about.
Damian left the village alone, bringing some prepared food inside his spatial ring in case it took him longer to return or if problems arose during the expedition. It was best to be precautious, and Damian thought about all the outcomes.
"This is what makes me keep my head on my neck."
The attack had happened a little farther from the village but was still close enough to be seen as dangerous for the villagers. Kayle had run from the imp, and gladly he was someone with decent body training, meaning he managed to flee.
"So this is where the imp attacked him," Damian said, crouching and passing his finger on a burnt wild grass, presumably where the imp threw its fireball.
Damian was all alert, and then he heard a branch snapping in half, coming right behind his back!
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