System of the Beast Slayer [litrpg Adventure]
Copyright© 1999 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 217
The Witcher carefully avoided the patrols near Foltest’s Castle and slipped without trouble into the villa of the Royal Advisor, Azar Javed.
Its master had already died by his hand, so there was no need to worry that breaking magical traps would raise an alarm.
Besides, according to Kalkstein, this Sorcerer from Zerrikania, a graduate of Ban Ard, had never joined the Brotherhood of Sorcerers. He kept his distance from the Brotherhood, and had no close Sorcerer friends either. Taking his inheritance would bring no trouble afterward.
The Witcher searched the place without restraint. His target was not only the laboratory. He turned over every room in the villa.
By chance, beneath the floorboards of one bedroom, he found a heap of scattered human bones, enough for perhaps a dozen bodies.
The surfaces of the bones were riddled with pits and scars where strange Potions had eaten into them. It was easy enough to imagine how much agony their owners had suffered while still alive.
Roy silently gathered up all the remains, intending to bury them outside the city.
“So Azar Javed had already begun human experimentation by this point. A cruel bastard.”
In truth, although Sorcerers possessed great power and long lives, they were bound by certain iron laws. This was the fundamental principle that allowed Northern Sorcerers to settle securely within human kingdoms, they were absolutely forbidden to coerce ordinary people into inhuman experiments on living bodies, most of them Black Magic experiments.
Unless such experiments were openly declared within the organization, safe in process, and carried out with the subject’s willing consent.
Any violation discovered would be judged fairly and equally, the usual punishment being shackling the offender in dimeritium for several centuries.
Plainly, this Sorcerer from Zerrikania had not bothered adapting to local ways or obeying Sorcerers’ iron laws. But he had concealed it so well that no one had known.
According to the original history, he should have lived another ten years or so, until he became one of Salamandra’s core members and began using living people in mad Witcher mutation experiments.
“Killing him ahead of time probably saved a hundred innocent lives.”
At the root of Azar Javed’s death lay Roy’s earlier talk with Adda. Because of that conversation, Vizima’s princess had made contact with the Lady of the Lake, and all the events that followed had diverged from history.
Vizima’s whole balance had shifted because of his interference.
“Azar is dead. Will Salamandra even appear in the future? And if there’s no Salamandra, then haven’t I indirectly done Kaer Morhen a favor?”
“So does the Wolf School, and Geralt, owe me one now?”
...
The outcome of the looting was rather different from what the Witcher had expected. In his view, most Sorcerers ought to be able to accumulate a respectable fortune by relying on their long lives and alchemical magic. On the one hand, that let them enjoy luxurious living. On the other, it let them pay for costly experiments and Spell Components.
Azar’s current status was still that of Foltest’s Royal Advisor, and the salary must have been generous.
By rights, he should have had a great deal saved up.
And yet, no matter how thoroughly Roy searched the place, he found only a small pouch of coins and sapphires, worth less than two hundred Crowns in all.
“A miscalculation. Azar must have kept the valuable things in Spatial Equipment carried on his person. And now the Knights of the White Rose have already taken the body back.”
The Witcher had come away on the wrong end of the bargain. Angered, he decided simply to pack up the rhinoceros head mounted in the laboratory, along with part of the grotesque organs preserved in glass vessels.
Some of them he recognized, White Widow and Endrega Worker mutagenic proteins, rare Spell Components.
There was also one Armored Arachas Mutagenic Extract, merely ordinary-grade, but enough to count toward the Mutagen required for class advancement, Mutagen (2/10).
As for written materials, besides Azar’s research notes from the last several decades, the Witcher also found an old leather manuscript hidden in a secret compartment, its cover marked with profound Elder Speech.
“Grrlu...” The little one sleeping on his shoulder gave a soft call and stretched a webbed finger toward the book.
“You can read this, Griffin?”
“Guh ... grrl ... grrl...” It stuffed its pink little finger into its mouth.
“This isn’t food. Endure it for now. Once we get out, I’ll get you some dried fish. And remember, you’re a proud Griffin. Being transformed is no excuse to start acting spoiled.”
“And if you turned into a dog, would you...”
The Witcher stroked the fishlike head and opened the book. “Gwen Alzur ray ... Alzur’s Thunder.” The first half of the book recorded in detail, in Elder Speech, the legendary spell Azar had used on Black Gull Island. The latter half described another spell of equal rank, Alzur’s Double-Cross.
Roy knew little about magic, but thanks to his solid Elder Speech, he grasped the general meaning. It was a terrifying summoning spell. Once fully cast, it could create a gigantic Magical Creature.
That spell, too, had come from the famous Sorcerer Alzur, one of the creators of Witchers.
Behind the spell was a historical note as well. Alzur had once used Double-Cross to summon a gigantic centipede. That monstrous beast swiftly destroyed half of Maribor, and to this day whole stretches of ruins remained there.
The power of a Forbidden Spell could well be imagined. Fortunately, part of this manuscript was missing. Had it not been, Azar would have attacked them with more than lightning and thunderbolts.
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