Originally, in the atmosphere of the noble’s grand wedding, the city before Malin’s eyes should still be soaked in a welcoming ambience, yet now there wasn’t a sound throughout the city, as if it were a city of the dead.
This reminded Malin of Carterburg from his dreams, but there, at least, there were mechanical voices, unlike here, where the silence was only broken by the sound of their footsteps.
Silent Hill had no outer walls—unlike Carterburg. Carterburg, from its beginning, was a frontier settlement, surrounded by Spirits and hostile neighbors. Even in modern times, it needed walls for protection, to prevent the wilderness Spirits from invading.
But Silent Hill was different; it was in the Central Administrative Province, where any Spirits bold enough to challenge humanity would be swiftly dealt with, to the point that Malin had heard Spirits in the Central Administrative Province actually steered clear of humans. Only those Spirits that drifted in would dare attack humans without fear, and of course, their fate was but death.
The walls of Silent Hill tightly enclosed the Temple District, the Noble District, and the Administrative Commerce District, leaving several other residential areas without walls.
The path that Malin and his group needed to take was through these residential areas to reach the Temple District.
Crossing a few patches of farmland, Malin glanced at a roadside farmhouse, and peering in through a window, he couldn’t make out anything. He activated a thermal sensing spell formation and then saw one or two very blurry figures inside—Insectoids are cold-blooded, even if their hosts are warm-blooded creatures. But once the transformation is complete, they no longer emit as much heat as before.
This should be a fairly safe testing environment.
Malin called over the two instructors and shared his findings with them. Instructor Meckel and Instructor Aemet Selk nodded in agreement with Malin’s plan.
So Fio and Blood Roar stepped forward, knocking on the door with the back of the axe.
Unexpectedly, Malin did not notice any movement from those few figures.
The two instructors hiding in the side wagon also poked their heads out, Instructor Meckel expressing his doubts, "They can’t hear?"
"Unclear, maybe try breaking down the door?" Malin ordered his axe to attack the door, and turning the axe around, Fio and Blood Roar struck the door, and as soon as the door was split open, the Insectoids inside screamed. Bursting through the door, they turned their heads left and right under the sunlight, seemingly trying to find the perpetrators who broke it down, completely oblivious to the axe right in front of them.
They also did not notice Malin standing not far away.
"Hey," Malin spoke, his voice not loud, but definitely clear enough for them to hear—if they were still human.
This time, the Insectoids turned their heads to look at Malin then strode toward him in large steps.
The largest one, in passing by Fio and Blood Roar, was split into two halves. Malin flipped the smallest Insectoid with his hand crossbow; the armor-piercing crossbow arrow worked very well, and the head seemed to be these creatures’ fatal vulnerability.
The remaining two Insectoids leapt high and then got caught in a net made by the World Tree Sapling.
Fio ran over, happily chopping off the heads of the Insectoids peeking out from the net.
By this time, Malin had basically figured out the characteristics of these Insectoids.
Firstly, the Insectoids had essentially no vision, or rather, they lacked it in daylight and brightly lit places. Before Malin made any noise, none of the Insectoids noticed him, even though he was standing less than thirty meters away from them with nothing in-between, neither crouching nor lying down.
Secondly, their ability to locate the source of a sound was a significant weakness. They had no reaction when the axe knocked on the door, and only sensed something when the door was split open, but they had absolutely no reaction to non-living things, even when Fio, with Blood Roar, hopped and danced right in front of them.
Third, their method of attack was completely instinctive.
Malin and the instructors pried open the chest carapace of an Insectoid, finding the bug embryos within. The host that was a mother bore larger embryos than her husband and child, possibly having been the first in the family to get infected.
This also proved that the young man they had met was definitely not in his right mind. As Malin crushed an embryo under his boot, he heard the faint sound of crying once again.
This time, there were accompanying whispers in the crying.
But it was only for a moment.
"Next time, we’ll break down the door directly to see how Insectoids react when they see humans in darker areas," Malin said to the two instructors.
"Wouldn’t that be too dangerous?"
"No worries, I can handle it."
Malin obviously wasn’t boasting. In another farmhouse, Malin confirmed the presence of three Insectoids inside. The two instructors stood on either side of the door as cover, then Malin kicked the door in, stepping forward with a shield formed from the World Tree Sapling and his hand crossbow ready.
The Insectoids charged at Malin, screeching. The first one died once again to an armor-piercing crossbow arrow, Blood Roar sliced another Insectoid in half at the waist, then extended legs entangled the Insectoid’s legs, and as it toppled forward, Malin’s now-free hands grabbed the creature’s neck, twisting it off.
The Insectoid with a broken neck didn’t die, but it lost control of its body and could only writhe and howl on the ground.
The Insectoid severed by Blood Roar didn’t die immediately either, but it had no strength left to act; its protruding organs were the cause of death, and Malin even spotted a sac-like structure within, holding embryos.