Chapter 16: Wrong information?

    Eryndor opened up the document and gave them the number.

    "Well, fortunately it looks like this town didn''t rely much on farming livestock.

    "A few houses had cultivated chickens but they were easily dealt with by the people of the house themselves.

    "There are around a hundred infected animals. There isn''t an accurate number because some of the information isn''t reliable or their proof overlaps with others.

    "The infected animals mainly consist of dogs, cats, wild boars and a couple of bears."

    "Bears are bad news."

    Valentina spoke with a frown on her face.

    Eryndor similarly had a grim expression as he continued.

    "Yes, and on top of that, both of the bears are in the vicinity of the area which was marked red in the information package.

    "It is mentioned that we aren''t to intrude, and preferably not go near the red area at all."

    Seeing that everyone was deep in thought, he continued.

    "As for the abilities of the infected abilities, their physical parameters have seen an increase in all aspects.

    "They displayed intense aggression upon seeing any not-infected lifeform, excluding trees. Their teeth and claws transmit poison which acts upon the lungs.

    "They can be calmed down forcefully by waving big green leaves in front of their eyes. The aggression surfaces afterwards within five minutes of removing the leaves from in front of their eyes."

    Eryndor took a deep breath and kept aside his laptop, taking a piece of paper from a locker nearby and drawing a crude map on it.

    He then referenced the laptop and marked various spots on it.

    "Well, these are the spots where these infected animals are usually found. People are forced to stay indoors all the time, or carry a big leaf with them if it''s a necessity to leave the house."

    Paulina gave a side eye to Drakarion as she responded.

    "Makes sense. Even an aggressive cat or dog would be deadly enough for a person. Not everyone is like Drakarion."

    Drakarion took the remark in stride, smirking and lifting his head in an exaggerated gesture of arrogance.

    He then spoke as if it was obvious.

    There were no bears.

    All the other information was correct, with simply a minute degree of deviation in a few infected animals.

    But in the case of bears, even if he compromised on the range of other directions to increase it on the side of bears, he found no trace of them.

    Wrong information?

    Eryndor felt something was amiss about the whole situation.

    He endured the intense headache and fatigue holding back his body as he struggled to get his laptop on the bed.

    There are plenty of people who''ve witnessed the bear, but none of them seem to have any proof though.

    Normally he would have dismissed it. There was no need for proof if so many people input information about having seen the bear.

    Although the number couldn''t be said that it was the majority of the people of town or even half of them, it was still a lot.

    But why would so many people put such information? Or could it be that the bears have moved over deeper into the jungle or that I didn''t search quite thoroughly?

    The intense headache interfered with his ability to think logically but he was trying nonetheless.

    An idea finally struck him in a few seconds.

    He opened a new tab and searched if there was a local website for this town.

    If not that, he hoped to search for any kind of website or page which would have information about this town.

    After about a dozen minutes of searching, Eryndor finally stumbled upon pieces of information regarding the town.

    It was the kind of miscellaneous information not related to the mission so the Academy didn''t deem it necessary to include it in the information package.

    He went through the information thoroughly, making sure to also check the images with extreme detail.

    Finally after an hour of working hard, he gathered enough clues to form a point which was almost really the truth.

    All the people who talked about witnessing the bears are from the mayor''s faction.

    Eryndor felt genuinely confused.

    What was going on?