“The monsters this guy met were Charybdes,” Jacob started.

“Is the government behind this too?” a guy asked from the small crowd.

“Yeah, pretty much. They are…” Jacob was struggling to find words horrifying enough to describe what those nightmares were. “They are very aggressive monsters and parasites. They attack humans and Demonic Beasts all the same. They look like mutated scorpions, with more legs and with teeth as sharp as they make them. If they brought down Fort Mountain in less than a week, St. Peter would be next. They eat, hibernate, evolve, and then eat again. That’s their life cycle. If they consumed every other inhabitant of Fort Mountain, there’s going to be a horde.”

“How do you fight them?” Marina posed the question, forgetting for a moment about the bastard now lying on the ground.

“You have to be extremely careful. They are not only poisonous but can also infest bodies, and alive or dead doesn’t matter to them. They will lay eggs in your flesh while you take a picnic, and their spawn will tear your muscles and tendons to pieces to feed. They will suck your bone marrow while you are still screaming. The guy said something that’s mostly correct: once they are deep enough in your flesh, the best solution is to simply kill the person.”

The Charybdes took after the name of the great Greek Monster, Charybdis. They had tentacles and a terrifying maw, but the nomenclature was mostly random. People had given them such a name because they had better things to occupy their time with: save their own life from such monsters. So, even though there was no more than a shallow relation between such creatures, the terror they inspired was still the same.

“They are equally resistant to Martial Techniques and Magic Spells. In addition, they are much tougher than any normal cultivator or mage.”

“Jake, what are we dealing with, then?” it was the first time since they had been out that Frederick spoke to him.

“Hell’s spawn, that’s what they call them. A single Charybdis can spawn an entire nest on its own. The bastards are hermaphrodites and simply lay eggs once they are well fed. To fight a Charybdis at the 2nd level of the Cockroach realm, you usually need at least three to six cultivators at the same level or two normal cultivators at the 3rd. Their attacks are vicious, but the main problem is the risk they pose to inexperienced fighters.”

Which all of you are.

Jacob didn’t say that part to avoid mass hysteria. He could already feel the fear brewing in their hearts.

“We need to go back and prepare. The Charybdes will come for the next big city in the region. St. Peter is not that populated, but it’s still the biggest settlement nearest Fort Mountain.”

I’ll probably need to share more than a few Cultivation Techniques.

Jacob was trying to come up with a plan, but it wasn’t easy. Either he waited for them to come to him, or he would have to move on them. He had hunted Charybdes so powerful that they had killed Dragons or Hydras. But he was now not even a fraction of the person he had been in his past life.

If I stay with St. Peter’s people, I’ll need to teach them very precious knowledge to avoid their deaths. This could result in further conflicts down the line and even disbelief. If they don’t follow my orders to the letter, we could find ourselves with an infestation on our hands even in case we won.

He remembered many scenes of family members forced to kill each other or face new Charybdes when a loved one was infected. It was one of the ugliest things he could remember from his past life.

I can’t bring them to St. Peter. F*ck, the risk is too big. I hope that my fear of sharing too much knowledge did not interfere with my choice, but I think I’ll need to go in the fu**ing nest and burn it down myself.

It wouldn’t be burning it down, not really. Instead, he would both have resources and extremely powerful warriors.

He eyed the ragtag group that had started now discussing the fate of their prisoner and wondered where he would find even one of the two.

Jacob tightened the grip on the sword, calming himself down. He would need to heal for at least four days before attempting a suicide mission like that.

Did he need the prisoner for information about the nest?

His hands itched to kill the bastard and get rid of such a scourge for humanity: murderers.

The irony is not lost on me, but at least I’ve mostly killed other murderers in my life.

Jacob closed in on Juliet and whispered something to her ear.

“Well, we need the bastard to get some more information,” Juliet announced, “now, let’s go back to St. Peter and plan for what’s next.”

He needed to appear a little less conspicuous, and Juliet had been the best cover since the day before. He made a gesture to the people who had fought with him in the temple. He had given to each one of them a Cultivation Technique with a value in the mid-70s. It wasn’t the best stuff he had, but it was enough to what they would face in the near future. If they revealed themselves to have the interest of humankind above everything else, he would provide those people with the best of the best he owned.

He had also told Joseph he would have a talk with him once they were back. Jacob was looking forward to that.