The Witch's Anatomical Notes

Chapter 90

The Wolf Pack and the Witch

When the sun finally rose completely above the horizon, this caravan of fifty carriages of varying sizes set out once again.

The convoy, fully loaded with handicrafts, would exchange them for the furs of the Finland Principality on the return journey.

At this moment, the wheels rolled over the snow-covered road, letting out creaking sounds.

A certain young scholar sat upon the cargo at the rear of one of the carriages, an ancient tome spread across her knees.

The cold wind swept up her silver hair, and the pages rustled between her fingers as delicate as green onions.

No one knew how long they had traveled before Lucy felt the hunger rising in her belly, when suddenly, the commotion from the rear of the caravan shattered the tranquility of the journey.

Immediately after, she saw Leo, the commander of the mercenary corps, galloping toward the back.

Lucy calmly controlled an eerie servant to follow after him.

She discovered that the rear of the caravan had actually come under attack.

It was a type of enchanted beast called Rotten Fang Wolves. The strength of a single creature was not great, with individual magical energy reactions only around 5°, but they were pack animals that always hunted in groups numbering in the hundreds.

Through the servant’s sight, she saw Leo brandish a greatsword and charge into the wolf pack. Wherever the sword passed, blood and flesh were sent flying.

The rest of the mercenaries quickly formed ranks, the clash of metal and the howling of wolves weaving into a single din.

The caravan, which had at first been caught completely unprepared by the beasts, gradually began to regain some composure.

On the road of commerce, things were never smooth, and this was precisely why they were willing to spend great sums to hire a mercenary corps.

"To think they even knew how to feint an attack."

Lucy, watching the battle with great interest, suddenly closed her tome.

While the mercenaries were held in check, more than twenty Rotten Fang Wolves were quietly closing in from the right flank of the caravan.

If they were to attack at that moment, it would inevitably result in heavy casualties among people and livestock alike, and the caravan would be forced to halt and regroup nearby. This would run counter to her intention to use this opportunity to leave the Kingdom of Cordova.

Seizing the moment when the driver climbed onto the roof to watch the battle, she leapt down from the carriage, lifted her skirts, and slipped into the dense forest.

A moment later, the agonized howls of Rotten Fang Wolves rose and fell throughout the woods, plunging the caravan into terror and chaos. Many drivers were spurring their packhorses in an attempt to flee.

Realizing he had fallen for a diversion, Leo turned pale with shock. Unfortunately, he was deeply entangled with the wolf pack and had no strength to return and assist in a short time.

He could almost foresee that what came next would be a massacre. Not only would all his commission be withheld, but his reputation would be utterly ruined, making it nearly impossible to secure another large contract.

Meanwhile, deep within the forest.

Lucy lightly traced her finger through the air, and a deep violet gate to another plane opened before her.

The Abyss of Nightmares no longer remained as empty as it had at the start.

On one side of the entrance, shelves neatly displayed organ specimens preserved in soaking solution. On the other side stood a complete set of potionology tools she had spent a fortune to assemble.

To replicate her laboratory as closely as possible, she had even specially commissioned an experimental table and a silver dissection platform identical to those in her dormitory.

Besides these, many supplies she had purchased before her departure were still piled up together, not yet organized.

In the distance, one of the cages held a rare two-headed vulture.

Lucy had encountered this creature on her journey when it was attacking a village, and she had casually struck it down and left it gravely wounded.

She had originally intended to kill it and dissect its enchanted organs for specimens, but on a sudden impulse, she decided to store it inside the Abyss of Nightmares instead.

Perhaps sensing Lucy’s approach, the two heads of the vulture simultaneously let out enraged howls, flapping their wings frantically and ramming against the cage bars in an attempt to attack.

But these bars, each only as thick as a thumb and seemingly frail, had been created by the Lord of Nightmares. How could a Tier-2 lifeform possibly break them?

Even after it smashed its heads until they bled, the cage remained completely unmoved.

"Be good now." Lucy pulled on gut-skin gloves, the scalpel twirling between her fingers. "You are, after all, the very first enchanted beast in the bird category of my future ‘living specimen laboratory’. If you die smashing yourself to bits, it will be most inconvenient for me."

Yet there was not the slightest trace of inconvenience in her eyes.

On the other side, the eerie servant dumped all the more than ten captured, unconscious Rotten Fang Wolves into a massive cage, leaving only one of them pinned to the dissection table.

Lucy, now wearing the plague doctor mask, stepped up to the table.

When the blade split the chest cavity, this Rotten Fang Wolf, which had been stunned by the Screech of Agony, finally awoke in a dazed terror as it felt the strange sensation of being cut open.

It opened its eyes and looked around in panic at the unfamiliar surroundings, trying to struggle, only to discover that it could neither feel any pain nor move even slightly.

It could only stare in despair as the ‘demon’ before its eyes split open its belly and removed its organs one by one.

Farther away, that furious two-headed vulture gradually shifted from rage to fear.

"Teeth, tongue, tail have all undergone enchanted reactions... and you actually have three stomachs."

Beneath the living body, Lucy easily discovered the enchanted organs hidden within the creature.

By this time, the Rotten Fang Wolf on the table was already on the verge of death.

Having anticipated this, Lucy fetched a bottle of turbid potion from the potion table.

[Apprentice-Level Life Potion (External Wounds Treatment)]

Uncorking it, she poured the potion over the Rotten Fang Wolf’s gaping wound.

The Rotten Fang Wolf, about to escape the world through the release of terror, suddenly realized in its final moments that it had regained consciousness.

"Don’t be in such a rush. The dissection has only just begun." Lucy set aside the potion bottle and picked up the scalpel once more. "I recall that your teeth can spray a corrosive venom... Now, let me see how your enchanted organs operate."

Under Lucy’s coaxing and compulsion, magical sigils flickered on the Rotten Fang Wolf’s stomach. As magical energy circulated, a stream of yellowish-brown fluid spurted out from its two fangs.

After collecting it in a preservation vial, she determined that the magical reaction measured around 6°, enough to pierce most armor.

Lucy then carefully drew the magical energy circulation diagram of the Rotten Fang Wolf’s stomach into the Notes.

Then she continued, “Next, let’s activate the magical veins in your tail… eh?”

Only then did she realize that the Rotten Fang Wolf on the dissection table was already on its last breath.

She hurriedly poured out half a bottle of the Life Potion.

But this time, the Rotten Fang Wolf’s condition did not improve. It merely convulsed violently a few times in what seemed like a dying spasm before completely expiring.

Lucy stared blankly for quite a while.

“Dead!”

After carefully examining the corpse, she discovered that the cause of death was actually massive blood loss. The Apprentice-Level Life Potion could heal the trauma caused by the dissection but could not replenish the lost blood.

With this Rotten Fang Wolf’s death, the experiment to observe magical energy circulation under live conditions could no longer continue.

“It seems I need to refine another kind of potion that can replenish blood. It would be best to prepare some intravenous infusions as well, so I can transfuse blood while dissecting… Also, the dissection method itself needs improvement. I can’t keep creating such large wounds…”

In the past, when she dissected corpses, there was no need to care about whether the subject lived or died. But living specimens could not endure such reckless cutting.

Fortunately, enchanted beasts had extremely tenacious vitality. If it had been an ordinary grey wolf, it would likely have died beyond saving the moment she sliced open its belly to remove the organs.

She instructed the eerie servant to retrieve the Rotten Fang Wolf’s corpse and toss it into Lucifer’s cultivation vat to use as nutrient material.

Lucy recorded in her notes the cause of death in this first live dissection and the directions for improvement.

At this moment, she noticed that the group of captured Rotten Fang Wolves had woken up at some point.

They were all trembling from head to toe, curled into the corner of the cage, watching her in terror alongside the two-headed vulture that had witnessed the dissection.

Removing the plague doctor mask, the silver-haired witch showed a bright smile before turning and disappearing into the Abyss of Nightmares, leaving behind a group of pitiful, terrified creatures.

When Lucy “panicked” and ran back from the forest to the caravan, she arrived just in time to see Leo, the commander of the mercenaries, counting the wounded and the dead.

This junior knight’s leather armor was spattered with blood, though it was impossible to tell if it was his own or that of the Rotten Fang Wolves.

Upon seeing Lucy, he let out a deep breath of relief and quickly stepped forward.

“You’re unharmed?”

“Fortunately, I hid in the bushes and narrowly escaped.”

Lucy brushed the fallen leaves from her skirt, her panting perfectly measured.

After hearing Lucy’s explanation, the trace of suspicion that had just risen in the captain’s eyes instantly dissipated.

He then spoke in a pleading tone. “There are five severely wounded men. May I ask Miss Felicia to heal them?”

“Of course.” Lucy’s eyes curved into crescents. “That is the condition for letting me hitch a ride with your caravan, after all!”