"Kill a witch?" Quinlan’s eyebrows furrowed. "That won’t be an easy task."
Jonah stood up. "Are you crazy? We can’t kill a witch. They are the esteemed high noble. We would all be executed!"
Siderius and Quinlan ignored Jonah. They re-entered the monastery through the hole.
"How were you able to break this wall? Me and the other guy tried to shove quite a few times but were unable to budge it one bit." Quinlan said.
"Explosives." Siderius simply said.
Magic could bend reality to their will. When Siderius arrived at the monastery, he noticed the ritual circle and was wondering if he should enter this evil place.
But then he saw the wooden gate change right in front of his eyes. The gate melted into the wall and became a part of it. One of the very signature abilities of Magic, it could shape and change physical matter.
Alchemy, with all of its miracles, couldn’t even do it to this day.
Then Siderius heard the cry for help from Quinlan and Jonah. The most update n0vels are published on novel fire.net
He was then offered a choice. To either enter the castle full of death or continue on the road.
The latter option posed a unique challenge as Siderius was afraid that the Panther from before might be tracking him. Dealing with an unknown threat that he knew nothing about was far more dangerous than a familiar witch.
So he entered the picture.
"Are there anyone else with you?" Siderius asked.
Quinlan nodded. "My bodyguard. His name is Bas."
"Hell if I know. He and a nun in this monastery went into the bedroom. The last thing I heard was their moanings. And then weird things happened..."
Quinlan told Siderius about what happened and the corpses hanging in the dining hall. Siderius’ gaze became more serious the more he heard.
"This witch is no simple witch. They had developed their power. They must be at least a witchling. Your friend is probably dead."
"Witchling? I don’t know about witch rank. But it is not easy to kill Bas. At least not with the power of these witches."
Siderius glanced at Quinlan. He heard a tone of disdain in his words. That was surprising. People in this world usually did not voice their disapproval of the witches out loud.
Siderius was reminded of Quinlan’s introduction from before. He did say he came from Everia, the neighboring kingdom of Eldoria. It seemed like it was a quite different country.
"He isn’t some ordinary bodyguard, isn’t he?" Siderius said. A mere human wouldn’t be able to stand a chance against a witch. Quinlan did not seem to be that arrogant to not know the difference. There must be a reason.
Say, friend. We haven’t learned your name yet."
"Call me Siderius." The hunter said.
Jonah followed the pair inside. "What are we going to do now?"
"We need to find the witch. But first. We need to know what we’re dealing with."
Siderius approached the ghoul again. He removed the arrow from its eye and put its back to his quiver. Arrows weren’t cheap to make. It would be a foolish thing to abandon a perfectly made arrow.
Siderius then laid the ghoul onto a table, using it as a temporary surgery station. He then took out the hunter’s knife for better dissection.
"What are you doing?" Quinlan asked.
"Just stay silent and watch."
Siderius skinned the creature thoroughly. As a member of the undead family, its skin had a natural resistance to cut, making it a perfect material to craft light-weight leather armor.
The other thing that was valuable in a ghoul was its stomach acid. In nature, a ghoul was a cannibal. Its stomach produced a high concentration of the spirit of salt, a specialized acid that was very useful in many alchemical recipes.
Siderius cut out its stomach then drained all of its liquid inside a tightly sealed crystal bottle.
This crystal bottle was made from Salt Crystallization and infused with the Earth element. A perfect container for a harmful substance such as the spirit of salt.
Quinlan observed Siderius with the utmost attention. He recognized that it wasn’t the first time Siderius dissected a ghoul and the hunter knew the anatomy of the creature extremely well.
This made Quinlan even more assured than before. He now knew that in front of him was a professional monster hunter.
Jonah, on the other hand, covered his mouth and looked away. The scene was too gruesome for him to handle. After all, the ghoul was no different than a human, anatomically.
Once Siderius had extracted all the spirit of salt, he slashed open the stomach.
The spirit of salt was filled with a lot of impurities in the creature’s stomach. Siderius would need to purify it soon if he wanted to use it.
Bones and flesh poured out from inside the stomach. The nature of the organs had malformed significantly but one glance and anyone would know those were the limbs of humans.
"This creature ate a human?!" Quinlan exclaimed.
"Humans, to be exact." Siderius said. "These limbs belonged to more than just one person.
This creature is called a ghoul. An undead creature that feasts on human corpses. However, it would not hesitate to eat a live one if it had the chance."
"Un...Undead? Like people raised from the dead?" Jonah’s lips quivered. This day just became more and more bizarre to him.
"Aye. That is correct." Siderius then turned toward Quinlan. "You said the people here hang themselves in the dining hall? Have you taken a good look at their food?"
"Their food? I didn’t get a good look. Why do you ask?" Quinlan’s eyebrows furrowed.
"Ghouls were once human. They could only change into this hideous monster if they participated in cannibalism and died a horrific death."
The thought of it caused Quinlan to shiver gently. If what this stranger told him was the truth. It meant there wasn’t only this one ghoul.
"Let me lead you to the refectory!" Quinlan darted ahead, his feet were quick.
Siderius followed right after. Jonah at the end of the group.
"Wait for me!" Jonah said.
The monastery was still shrouded in darkness. Quinlan and Jonah’s eyes betrayed them and they were hardly able to see anything.
Siderius, in contrast, saw everything clearly with his Nocturnal Ocula. He could observe even in total darkness.
This allowed him to see a figure in a black gown standing at a high window of the opposite building.
The black gown was a nun’s habit, a piece of thin fabric that covered their entire figure. Similar to what Mother Reverend wore when Quinlan first saw her.
Siderius grabbed Quinlan and pulled him back.
"Who’s there?!" He shouted.
Quinlan and Jonah both looked over to where Siderius’ gaze directed but they couldn’t see anything.
In Siderius’ vision, the figure left the window and disappeared.
"Who did you see?" Quinlan whispered.
"A nun. Thin. Tall. Can’t make out her face. Wear an all black habit." Siderius quickly described the woman.
"That is probably Mother Reverend! We should find her and ask her what’s going on." Jonah said.
"I wouldn’t do that if I were you. For all we know, she’s the one responsible for all this." Quinlan shook his head.
"He’s right. We need to continue to the refectory. Now!"
The trio continued their path in the dark corridor. They quickly arrived at the dining hall.
Jonah stopped in his tracks, eyes wide open. Quinlan clicked his tongue and clenched his jaw tightly.
"As I suspected." Siderius said.
The dining hall was empty. No corpse was there, only the bloody hanging ropes.