Chapter 169 Tracking Talent

"Wow~!" When the giant crocodile was finally brought into the city by Keen and his group—with the fake dragon and Kuru pulling desperately from the air, and over a thousand villagers pushing together with various tools from beneath the city wall—a tremendous cheer erupted from the crowd.

This tier-two magical beast was colossal and possessed a fiercely intimidating aura. Yet, even such a ferocious beast was easily captured by Lord Keen and his companions, wasn't it?

The villagers felt an even deeper admiration for Lord Keen's formidable strength. But upon second thought, he had even subdued a dragon, so what was this by comparison?

Prides of triumph beamed from every face.

Datlas—they only learned its name after tossing it into the beast pen—was indeed a tier-two water-attribute magical beast!

Taming it would require over two hundred hours, which was entirely expected given its immense combat prowess.

"Alright, alright! Everyone disperse and stop gathering around! Such events will become common occurrences from now on, nothing to gawk at!" Keen turned around and shouted loudly to the villagers. "Get back to whatever you were doing. Don't you all have your own tasks to attend to?"

Upon receiving the order, the villagers immediately scattered. Though deeply intrigued by the tier-two beast, they would never disobey any command from Keen.

Though he would have loved to capture another tier-two beast, time was slipping away rapidly.

Checking the in-game virtual interface, he saw it was already around 3:00 PM, leaving a mere two or three hours before sunset.

They had set out at dawn and only managed to secure a single tier-two beast by afternoon; there was simply not enough time left for another!

"Zorma!" Keen paused for a moment, then turned around.

"Present!" Zorma immediately stepped forward respectfully.

"Come with me outside the city to investigate the matter regarding the zombie!" Keen instructed him. "We cannot allow any potential danger to linger around our settlement."

"Understood!"

"Buddy, take the town guards to the outskirts of the forest and assist the kobold troops with the patrol!"

"Sir!"

"Wolf, you are responsible for supervising the training of the new recruits!"

"Obeyed!"

"Karl, go patrol the mining area!"

"As you wish, my master!"

Having made his arrangements, Keen immediately leaped onto the head of the fake dragon and commanded it to take flight into the sky.

Zorma quickly mounted his manticore and sprinted wildly below, chasing after them.

One in the air and the other on the ground, the two men soon returned to the vicinity of the blood pool they had discovered earlier.

After landing, Keen asked Zorma, "Can you track that zombie using its footprints?"

"I shall do my utmost to try!" Zorma immediately bent down to inspect the ground closely.

Keen himself was not particularly skilled in tracking, so he had no choice but to pin his hopes entirely on Zorma.

However, Zorma's expertise seemed rather limited. Though he led Keen along the trail of footprints for a while, as the tracks grew increasingly faint, he began to hesitate. When the footprints vanished completely near a pool of water, he lost every shred of his earlier confidence.

After struggling for over half an hour, Keen finally said with a helpless sigh, "Forget it, let's head back to the city for now! With so many people in town, surely one or two of them must excel at tracking?"

"Yes!" Zorma's weathered face flushed red with shame over his failure to track down the zombie.

Keen immediately returned to the city and gathered all the residents, inquiring if anyone possessed exceptional tracking abilities.

At that moment, among the crowd, Tina's expressionless companion Pelin stepped forward. "I have some confidence in my tracking abilities."

"Really?" Keen was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected the volunteer to be one of his own women. Venturing outside was perilous, however, so he preferred to avoid taking them along whenever possible. He turned to the other villagers instead. "Is there anyone else confident in their tracking skills?"

After calling out several times, the villagers simply looked at each other in silence, with no one else stepping forward.

Seeing the sun gradually sinking westward, Keen knew this approach was getting them nowhere.

Though seemingly weak, Alex's zombie could actually resurrect and could only be killed by a strike to the head. Having such a monster roaming near the city would spell disaster if it harmed any villagers! After all, every day villagers had to venture into the nearby forest to gather fruits or chop wood for fuel.

To locate the zombie and deal with it as swiftly as possible, Keen reluctantly decided to bring his woman along, despite his misgivings. "Very well, Pelin, you will come with me!"

"I want to go too!" Tina and Pelin had been inseparable lately, so the moment she heard Pelin was allowed outside, Tina could no longer sit still. Spending every day cooped up in the city, only occasionally taking strolls along the outer walls, had grown thoroughly suffocating for her.

"Must you come along? Be a good girl and stay home, won't you?" Keen hurriedly said to Tina.

"Keen~ I want to go too!" Tina tugged at his sleeve, swaying back and forth while acting coquettishly. "I promise to stay right by your side, and I can use my magic to help you!"

"But it's very dangerous out there!" Keen argued.

"Well, it's not like I can hide away inside forever, Keen~!" Tina's pouty charm was truly lethally adorable.

Though worried, Keen reconsidered and realized Tina had a point. No matter how much he pampered her, he couldn't treat her like a canary kept trapped in a cage. Venturing out was dangerous, but as long as she stayed close to the fake dragon, there shouldn't be any major problems! With that thought, he finally nodded and said, "Alright! You may come with me, but remember this: you must never leave the vicinity of the dragon!"

"Yay! Thank you, Keen!" Tina happily wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a firm kiss on his cheek.

"Lord Keen, might you take me along as well?" Christina stepped forward, her expression filled with anticipation.

"Please tell me you're not going to ask as well? We aren't going out for a leisure stroll!" Keen said in a troubled tone.

"Lord Keen, aren't you setting out to hunt down a zombie?" Christina reasoned. "Though such a request might seem unreasonable coming from a captive, we priests possess the ability to purify the undead. Perhaps I can be of assistance to you!"

"Oh?" Keen pondered for a moment. "That's true! Can you genuinely handle the undead? What kind of specialized skills do you have against them?"

"Skills?" Christina thought for a moment. "Are you referring to magic? Our holy-attribute magic serves as a positive buff for ordinary creatures, but for dark-attribute undead, it acts as a purely negative attack! Take the healing spell, for instance—it can be used to mend a companion's wounds, yet it can simultaneously inflict massive damage upon the undead!"

"Theoretically speaking, that is correct..." Keen thought to himself that the online games he used to play possessed similar mechanics. Among all classes, the priest—seemingly the weakest in direct combat—truly became the main powerhouse when facing undead creatures!

Since Alex had turned into a zombie, bringing Christina along logically seemed like the correct choice.