Blood Assimilation

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

"What dark place are you talking about, young man?"

"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 rays, and I was curious about who created such a place. And whether it belonged to someone or not.'

"Dark region, huh…?"

"Gramps, what is it? Did I say something wrong?"

"Ah, no. It's just that no one had seen or heard of this dark region you're talking about. Maybe it was 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 instead?"

'Hmm… This old man does not seem to be lying so was it really just my imagination. There was also that gaze on me since earlier. With these to 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 spell.'

'Although I have not seen illusory spell before, I have experience 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 with a pondering expression. 

At this time, Randy had decided to ask the old man about the dark location in the forest in hopes of finding out something regarding the entity that was observing him. 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 dark region within the forest.

"Anyway, why don't come out join us for dinner. Klara seemed to be attached to you these few days despite the fact that she was avoiding you from 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. Is this really your true appearance? I have never seen a human with such red hair before in these parts." The old man continued. 

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

'Maybe I should consider changing my appearance. Wait! For now, I think it is better to not change my appearance wantonly in case someone come 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 his decision and quickly stood and followed after old man to the dining hall. 

When they reached the dining hall, there were three other people sitting behind the table, a middle-aged man who appears to be in his forties, a woman who seemed to be in her thirties and the young girl whom Randy had saved before.

These were the family members of the old man. His son, daughter in law and granddaughter, respectively. 

Randy found out that the young girl was only fifteen years old and that the reason why she was in that forest was to gather some precious herbs needed for medicine concoction. 

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.

"You're all here. Come and have a seat. We should all eat before the food get 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 cooped in your room anyway. Come and let us eat!" The middle-aged man said in loud tone. 

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

"What? What's wrong with eating? They're already here anyway." The middle-aged man casually said as he took a bite out 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, these family were very nice people and did not treat him like a complete 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. 

He had requested from the village's chief, in other words, the old man regarding the language of their village because he could get used to the old man speaking in such a slow pace. 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 which contained their language alphabets and illustrations with 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 Language Book]]

[[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 about 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 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 in the incoming other world's knowledge that was about to pour into his brain at this moment. 

"Hm?"

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

'Now, how do I go about this? It seems like I need to learn the language directly after all.'