The Witch's Anatomical Notes

Chapter 98

Mine Hunt

When descending into the mine, Lucy had deliberately avoided the enchanted beasts along the way so as not to alarm the Gold-Eater Beast.

But on her return, she no longer had such concerns any enchanted beast that dared appear within her line of sight, whether at Level Zero or Level One, became her prey.

The sensory evolution of these subterranean creatures had diverged into two extremes.

One group had evolved sharp vision that still allowed them to see in total darkness.

The other had simply abandoned sight altogether, instead enhancing their sense of smell, hearing, and touch.

Although they were too feeble to have magical veins of any value, they nonetheless gave Lucy a deeper understanding of the underground ecosystem.

After all, this had been one of her purposes for coming here.

She climbed upward two more levels.

While she was carefully scraping the witchcraft moss growing on the rock wall with her dagger, hurried footsteps suddenly echoed from the distance.

Lucy did not pay them any mind.

Apart from a few restricted zones, there were still miners working in the Donau Mine.

It wasn’t until the sound drew near that a voice abruptly shattered the silence. “Miss Olivia, I finally found you!”

Lucy paused in mild surprise. When she turned her head, she realized it was Old Jack and Ash who had come.

Before she could speak, Old Jack was already explaining in a panic.

“Our trespass into the forbidden area has been discovered by the wizard lord of the Thousand-Eyed Tower. He’s bringing knights to search for you now… Those two fools went to the wrong mine, so we hurried over to warn you…”

Lucy raised her brows slightly, and in that instant, she almost immediately realized she had been betrayed by the two miner brothers.

Old Jack also realized he had let something slip, and his face turned ashen all at once.

He was the one who had brought her here. By rights, he also had to bear responsibility.

But Lucy did not make things difficult for the old miner.

The fact that he had risked his life to come warn her was enough to make up for his error in judgment.

“You two should leave first. If you don’t go now, I’m afraid it will soon be too late,” she said calmly.

Old Jack exclaimed in astonishment, “Miss Olivia, aren’t you coming with us? I know a shortcut…”

Before he could finish, he suddenly froze.

When he turned around, in the direction he had come from, pairs of crimson eyes lit up in the darkness.

He raised the miner’s lamp in his hand, and as the light swept over them, more than a dozen massive black hounds slowly revealed their forms, drool dripping between their fangs.

Realizing they had been tracked, Old Jack’s face changed drastically.

“Summoned beasts? That’s rather interesting.”

Lucy halted the restless wraith servants.

More than a dozen summoned beasts of the second life tier were somewhat too much for the wraith servants to handle.

Although they were fast and capable of invisibility, their offensive power was not high. Their most common tactic was to seize their prey, lift it into the air, and drop it to death.

In the narrow confines of the mine, their speed and stealth were greatly hindered.

Remembering something all of a sudden, Lucy spoke. “Didn’t you always want to come out? This is just the chance to see how your incomplete combat capabilities measure up.”

As she finished speaking, Lucy’s mind stirred slightly, and a massive glass jar appeared before her.

She reached out and pulled the wooden stopper from the jar, which was taller than a man.

Under the black hounds’ bewildered gazes, a humanoid creature with no sexual features, completely naked and bearing twin wings on its back, crawled out on all fours.

Its body was long and flexible, as though it were a boneless mollusk.

This humanoid monstrosity radiated an ominous aura. It hung upside down from the jar’s mouth, and on its bloodless, ghastly pale face, a gaping, grotesque grin split open all the way to its earlobes.

Such indescribable horror and dread caused Old Jack and Ash to go weak all over, cold sweat pouring down their bodies as if they were already corpses.

The pack of summoned beasts likewise bristled, whimpering in their throats.

But in the next instant, Lucifer had leapt down from the glass jar and was crawling rapidly across the ground toward them.

Awoooo!

Three black hounds lunged to attack at once.

Their fangs pierced the angel’s flesh in an instant, but Lucifer merely lowered its head to look at the hounds as if it felt nothing at all.

Under their terrified stares, Lucifer’s skin split apart, and several enormous maws lined with fangs devoured the black hounds into its body.

The brittle crunch of bones shattering instantly echoed through the mine.

Lucifer’s body twisted and deformed like a melting wax figure. The black hounds it had swallowed struggled, their shapes bulging beneath the flesh, but were quickly torn into fragments by more rows of teeth.

Blood slid down the pallid skin, gathering on the ground in a viscous stream.

The remaining black hounds whimpered as they backed away, instinct screaming that this creature before them was no prey—it was a predator of a far higher order.

...

In a cavern not far from the mine entrance.

Marco was sitting by the campfire, stroking the black hound he had summoned that lay across his knees. The firelight cast his sinister profile into sharp relief.

Although this pack of second-tier summoned beasts was rather low-grade, their overwhelming numbers had still earned him a place among the intermediate apprentices of the Thousand-Eyed Tower.

He had originally come to the Donau Mine on a dull courier mission, but hadn’t expected to stumble upon some amusement along the way.

Not far from him, the corpses of the two miner brothers twitched faintly as several black hounds stuck their heads into the bodies to gnaw at the flesh.

Even though it wasn’t the first time witnessing such a scene, the four Tower knights still swallowed hard in spite of themselves.

Marco let out a cold laugh.

Smuggling someone into the forbidden area was one thing, but those two fools had even led them to the wrong tunnel, and then tried to claim the bounty with their lies?

Utterly ridiculous.

Just as Marco was admiring his precious creatures feasting on the corpses,

one of the Tower knights suddenly drew the longsword at his waist. A warning voice came from beneath his helmet. “Who’s there! Show yourself!”

Silence—

In the darkness of the mine, only a soft rustling could be heard.

Marco’s brow furrowed. With a flick of his fingers, a globe of light shot from his fingertip, dispelling the darkness in the cavern.

And illuminating a black hound curled up at the entrance.

The four Tower knights froze, turning to look at Marco.

“Milord, this—”

Marco raised a hand to cut off his subordinate’s question.

“My dear child, where are your other brothers and sisters?”

The black hound’s body shuddered violently. Blood and entrails gushed from its mouth and nostrils, and the next moment, it was dragged back into the darkness by something unseen.

Marco’s expression changed drastically. “You lot go see what happened!”

The Tower knights exchanged a look, then gritted their teeth and charged into the darkness.

Marco rose slowly to his feet. The dozen black hounds beside him crouched low, throats rumbling in readiness for attack.

“Enemy attack!”

“What is that thing!”

“Ah—”

The screams were cut off abruptly, replaced by the sound of bones grinding in the darkness.

Cold sweat had already soaked Marco’s back.

He forced himself to project authority despite his terror and shouted, “I am a Level Five witchcraft apprentice of the Summoning School of the Thousand-Eyed Tower! If you know what’s good for you, you’ll show yourself at once, or else—”

Drip.

A drop of warm liquid fell onto the top of his head. He reached up to wipe it, and his palm came away crimson.

Realizing what it was, Marco’s whole body went rigid as he slowly tilted his head back.

By the light of his illumination spell,

he saw a winged humanoid monstrosity hanging upside down from a rocky protrusion near the ceiling, gazing straight at him.

Its neck was twisted a full 180 degrees, and its lower jaw was split into four sections like a dislocated maw. Clamped between its jaws was a black hound’s head, which it was still chewing.

“You… what sort of monster are you!”

Marco had lost all composure befitting a witch. Trembling, he hurled an attack spell.

It didn’t hit the creature but instead blasted apart the already fragile rock wall.

In an instant, tons of stone and dust collapsed in a thunderous cascade.

Marco scrambled away toward the tunnel mouth in desperation.

But at that moment, a brilliantly colored venomous fang pierced his defensive witchcraft.

A second fang drove through his chest while he was stunned for that instant.

In just a few breaths, Marco’s body was reduced by nerve toxins and corrosive venom into a putrid heap of foul-smelling pus.