The Witch of the Sewers
As Vermoor stepped out of the Magic Tower, he adjusted the thick stack of wanted posters in his hand.
The rough parchment was covered with portraits of criminals and detailed descriptions of their offenses.
'But how am I supposed to find them?'
Vermoor hesitated for a moment. Searching for criminals hiding in a city this vast was like looking for a needle in the desert.
For now, he decided to head toward the central plaza, where the crowds were thickest.
Sitting on the edge of a fountain that sprayed cool water into the air, he carefully examined the faces of everyone passing by.
It was said that a Barbarian's senses were extraordinarily sharp and that his eyesight could reach beyond distant mountain ridges.
Naturally, that was something of an exaggeration. Nevertheless, the saying reflected how keen their eyesight and powers of observation were known to be.
'Of course, there's no one here.'
But the criminals were hardly foolish enough to stroll openly through such a crowded place.
As Vermoor pondered his next move, he remembered Hyunwoo's book.
It contained all manner of knowledge about this world. In that case, perhaps it also mentioned some of the individuals wanted by the Tenever Magic Tower.
Vermoor took the book from inside his clothing and opened it.
First, he searched for information concerning Sylvrant and the Tenever School.
Then he examined the related entries to see whether any wanted criminals were mentioned.
[#Major Wanted Criminals of Tenever]
'There it is.'
He had found something.
There was exactly one person listed.
[#Lucas the Petty Thief: Disheveled brown hair, a faint scar beside his left eye, and a shabby brown coat. Frequently wanders the back alleys.
*Crimes: Assaulted an apprentice Mage who was running an errand and stole the items he was carrying. Although the stolen goods were common materials, the apprentice suffered such severe injuries that one of his arms was left partially disabled. Wanted in retaliation.]
Of all the criminals on the wanted posters, this was the only man mentioned in Hyunwoo's book.
Vermoor had initially assumed he must be an exceptionally dangerous criminal.
However, judging by the description, he was nothing more than an ordinary petty offender.
Of course, from the Magic Tower's perspective, his actions were utterly unforgivable. Still, Vermoor wondered whether such an insignificant criminal truly deserved an entry in Hyunwoo's book.
Then his eyes caught the final sentence.
That single line gave the name Lucas the Petty Thief an entirely different significance.
[*The starting point for unlocking the Linked Quest 'The Witch of the Sewers.']
Leaving the lively atmosphere of the plaza behind, Vermoor headed toward a place that reeked of decay.
The first thing he noticed was the overpowering fragrance of perfume.
However, his nose easily detected the true stench concealed beneath it.
The musty odor of mold, the metallic smell of blood, and the unpleasantly sticky remnants of Mana all mingled together.
This was Sylvrant's slum district, known simply as the 'Back Alleys.'
According to the book, Lucas hid himself in the darkness here, scurrying about like a rat.
'The air is heavy.'
The deeper Vermoor ventured into the alleys, the more oppressive the atmosphere became.
Shards of broken bottles littered the ground, and puddles of filthy water gave off a nauseating stench.
He could feel eyes watching him.
From behind walls, through the window frames of dilapidated buildings, and even from rat holes far too small for any human to enter.
And not all those gazes belonged to humans.
Some of the eyes flickering in the shadows clearly carried the presence of something inhuman.
'Hmm.'
This was indeed a territory that housed the Tenever School, one of the Four Great Main Schools.
Apparently, even among the slum dwellers and vagrants of the back alleys, there were people capable of handling crude magic or a magical device or two.
Unconcerned, Vermoor continued searching for the route Lucas was known to follow, as recorded in the book.
He inspected a foul-smelling tavern and noticed the remains of an extinguished campfire beyond a collapsed wall.
There was still warmth in the ashes.
At a staircase near a street corner sat an unattractive prostitute, casually smoking a pipe.
She stared openly at Vermoor, but he ignored her gaze and continued into a narrow alley.
At last, he found his target.
A homeless man dressed in rags, with a hat pulled low over his face.
He sat curled up on the ground, as though trying to shield himself from the outside world.
His long, bushy beard made him appear old, but the skin visible beneath it was surprisingly youthful.
And there was a faint, sweet fragrance surrounding him.
Such a smell could never escape a Barbarian's nose.
It was the distinctive scent of a particularly harmful kind of drug, commonly known as a narcotic.
"Lucas?"
Vermoor's voice echoed through the quiet alley.
The homeless man's shoulders twitched, and he turned a sharp gaze toward Vermoor.
Springing to his feet, he pulled a rusty knife from inside his clothing and charged.
"You motherf—!"
However, he was forced to stop before he could bring the blade down.
Seen from up close, Vermoor was more than merely a large man.
His arms were as thick as logs and covered in scars, while his chest muscles were so enormous that it looked as though he had concealed a suit of armor beneath his skin.
"……!"
This was not an opponent he could defeat with a single rusty knife.
Instinctively sensing his impending defeat, Lucas threw the knife aside and fled down the opposite alley as fast as his legs could carry him.
BOOOOM―!
Before Lucas could even turn the corner, the wall directly in front of him collapsed.
A 'Fireball' launched from Vermoor's hand had smashed it to pieces.
Lucas fell backward into the cloud of dust, landing hard on his backside.
As Vermoor approached, casually tossing another stone into the air and catching it, Lucas began trembling.
He raised both hands above his head in surrender.
"I surrender! I surrender!"
Vermoor seized his hands and began tying his arms together.
However, just as he finished securing one arm, something strange happened.
An unusual symbol appeared on Lucas's wrist, and the arm began swelling.
"What trick are you trying to pull?"
"N-No! I didn't do anything! What's happening to my hand……!?"
Lucas screamed in confusion.
Even as he cried out, the skin on the back of his hand split open, revealing a slimy mass of writhing tentacles.
Ominous Mana surged from his wrist toward his forearm and shoulder at a terrifying speed.
Watching his own hand transform into a monster before his eyes, Lucas began foaming at the mouth.
Vermoor drew his sword without the slightest hesitation.
The thick, axe-like blade sliced through the air and severed Lucas's arm at the shoulder.
SLASH!
"AAAAAAARGH!"
Blood erupted like a fountain, and Lucas rolled across the ground in agony.
Fortunately, he was still capable of feeling pain.
The fact that the severed shoulder hurt meant Vermoor had successfully removed the arm before it ceased to belong to Lucas.
SPLAT! SPLAT!
The severed arm writhed in a pool of filthy water.
It had already lost its human shape, transforming into a grotesque mass resembling several intertwined octopus tentacles.
Perhaps a single arm had not provided enough nourishment.
The tentacles lunged toward Lucas again.
"Aaagh!"
Vermoor stepped in front of him.
BOOM!
Swinging his sword with greater force, Vermoor shattered the mass of tentacles with a blow that made the air explode.
The scattered remains continued to writhe.
Vermoor brought his sword down deeply into the head of the largest fragment, delivering the finishing blow.
Green and purple fluids splattered everywhere.
At last, the monster's presence completely faded.
"Huff, huff…… Ughhh……."
Lucas stared at Vermoor, his teeth chattering uncontrollably.
Wiping the filth from his sword, Vermoor calmly asked,
"Hmm. Will you come to the Magic Tower?"
"I will! I'll go! Please, just spare my life…… Please!"
Pleased by Lucas's willingness to enter the very Magic Tower he had wronged, Vermoor nodded.
He took out a medicinal salve made by crushing herbs together with a sticky paste and generously applied it to Lucas's wounded shoulder.
Then he tore strips from Lucas's clothing, tightly bandaged the wound, and hoisted the man over his shoulder like a sack of luggage.
Perhaps the effects of the transformation were finally catching up with him, because Lucas's eyes began to cloud over.
Carrying the feverish man, whose body was burning hot, Vermoor hurried back to the Magic Tower.
When Vermoor returned to the Magic Tower and deposited the blood-soaked Lucas on the floor, Elsie could hardly contain her shock.
'He said he'd bring them back alive, but he really means barely alive!'
While she stood there in disbelief, Vermoor untied a cloth bundle and showed her several pieces of the tentacle monster that he had collected separately.
"This is……! Mr. Vermoor, what in the world is this!?"
Elsie immediately summoned a healing Mage and asked Vermoor to explain what had happened.
There was no reason to conceal anything.
Vermoor told her what he knew.
"There was a monster living inside his body. When I caught him, a strange mark appeared, and one of his arms transformed into a tentacled creature."
Borrowing a quill and parchment from the Magic Tower, Vermoor drew the symbol he had witnessed.
"According to Lucas, he obtained some narcotics from a witch hiding in the sewers and consumed them. I suspect that may have been the cause."
Lucas had never said anything of the sort.
He had been unconscious from his fever for quite some time.
Vermoor was simply presenting information from Hyunwoo's book as though it were Lucas's testimony.
"A witch!"
The moment Elsie heard that word, her expression visibly hardened.
This was Sylvrant, home to the headquarters of the Tenever School.
The possibility that a witch was lurking in the sewers beneath their very feet was both an enormous humiliation and a serious threat.
"Mr. Vermoor, you've stumbled upon something enormous with your very first commission! This is no ordinary matter. I must inform the Head of the School immediately and have a search party dispatched!"
Elsie hurried away.
However, she did not forget to call back to Vermoor.
"Please wait here for a moment! We'll probably need more of your testimony!"
With that, she disappeared.
The entire Magic Tower soon erupted into a commotion, as though someone had stirred up a hornet's nest.
But Vermoor did not wait.
He left the Magic Tower.
Elsie had asked him to remain, but leaving everything to the Magic Tower would take far too long.
[#Linked Quest, The Witch of the Sewers: A Quest to locate and eliminate the witch who has established her lair in the sewers.
The narcotics distributed by the witch are substances that transform human flesh and bones into materials for creating magical beasts. The player must locate infected individuals one by one and gather information.
Some of the infected individuals are children of nobles, making access to the Inner City essential. Since the player requires sufficient social standing to enter the Inner City, build fame beforehand and secure the necessary status.]
"Nobles, social standing…… How troublesome."
The book's guide was thorough.
It laid out the conventional route: patiently gather evidence, build a reputation, earn the trust of the nobility, and finally eliminate the witch in spectacular fashion.
However, the witch would continue producing her narcotics throughout that entire process.
Even at this very moment, the body of some unknown victim might be transforming into a tentacled monster.
The book warned that tracking down the witch's hiding place was extremely difficult.
Sylvrant's sewer system was a maze of interconnected passages, some of which connected to natural caverns older than the city itself.
There were traps laid by the witch and barriers that suppressed Mana.
Furthermore, the witch was not the only creature hiding down there.
[*Even after painstakingly following clues to a location, you will frequently discover an entirely unrelated entity. To pinpoint the witch's location, investigating the noble's child she is currently devoting the most effort to is essential.]
The book contained a detailed strategy for completing the Quest.
However, Vermoor found the entire process unnecessarily troublesome.
He already knew his enemy was a witch, and he knew she was somewhere in the sewers.
In that case, all he had to do was go down there and find her.
Besides, he had just obtained a clue.
A smell.
'I've memorized it.'
The scent of the narcotics distributed by the witch.
A Barbarian's nose would never forget even that faint fragrance.
Drops of some unidentified slime fell steadily from the ceiling.
Beyond the moss-covered walls, the rough stone surfaces of ancient caverns older than the city itself were exposed.
Countless unexplored passages intertwined like a spiderweb.
All manner of filth and the discarded remains of magical experiments flowed into this place, creating a bizarre ecosystem.
"Oh, my aching back. I swear, I'm getting too old for this."
An old woman dressed in rags sat hunched over a stone mortar, her crooked back bent almost double.
Her hands moved tirelessly as she ground dark green herbs into a paste.
To an outsider, she might have looked like an ordinary grandmother gathering medicinal herbs in the mountains.
A powerful fragrance spread from the contents of her mortar.
"How much longer must these old bones endure such hardship? Oh, when I was young, there were plenty of men willing to do things for me…… How I miss those days. How I miss them."
What she was making was no ordinary medicine.
She was preparing a 'Living Narcotic,' created by carefully infusing mutated herbs grown in the underground caverns with drops of her own Mana.
From selecting the ingredients to treating each one with Mana, every step had to be performed by hand.
As a result, she could produce only five or six bottles a day.
Yet she was in no hurry.
"So what if I can only make a little at a time? Once just ten percent of those Sylvrant fools have these little darlings inside them…… Hehehe, this old woman will be able to return to her prime……."
She patted her shoulders before taking up the pestle once more.
The pleasure of slowly corrupting people, one by one, was the only thing that kept her going.
Just then, an old wooden plaque hanging on the wall began rattling violently.
"Who's coming at this hour? Have those Magic Tower fools already caught a whiff of me?"
Grumbling, the old woman reached out with surprising speed and snatched up a nearby rat.
She immediately infused it with Mana, transforming the creature into her eyes.
The familiar scurried away toward the location where an intruder had appeared.
Before long, the rat's eyes revealed something unexpected.
It was neither a Mage dressed in magnificent robes nor a holy knight clad in gleaming armor.
"Oh, heavens above! What in the world is that thing?"
The old woman's mouth fell open.
A man so enormous that he looked as though he had swallowed an entire bear.
A savage clad in animal hides, his upper body covered in hideous scars.
The man strode through the labyrinthine sewer passages without the slightest hesitation, as though he were casually walking through his own home.
Watching the Barbarian approach her location without taking a single wrong turn, the old woman hurriedly projected her voice through the rat.
[……Who are you?]
A bluish gleam flashed from within the darkness.
"Are you the witch?"
[What kind of lunatic willingly crawls into this foul-smelling sewer? If you're a savage, then act like one! Go galloping across the grasslands and suckle on mare's milk!]
Instead of answering, Vermoor tightened his grip around the hilt of his sword.
Above his head, countless masses of tentacles came pouring down like rain.