Beast Slayer Online: Initialization
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 111: Vizima, Round Two
Lannor entered Vizima for the second time.
This time he wore no hooded cloak. Only a loose over-tunic covered the armor beneath, hiding craftsmanship far too expensive for a common traveler.
Following the route the tavernkeeper had described, Lannor finished his midday meal on the road and reached Vizima’s harbor again just before nightfall.
He had dusted his brilliant silver hair with grime until it looked dull and lifeless. His eyes remained half-lidded, and unless someone stopped to stare at him face-to-face, those amber cat eyes drew little attention.
As he approached the harbor gate guards, Lannor drifted with the crowd toward one side of the entrance, ensuring only a single guard would interact with him directly.
Even so, when he neared the gate, he clearly caught the expression that flashed across the guard’s face, the brief jolt of “target spotted” immediately buried beneath forced calm.
So the city entrances really had been bought off.
Lannor was not surprised.
He had barely shown his face inside Vizima, but when power reached a certain level, digging up one man’s identity was no difficult task.
Still, the strength of Count Stessa’s influence had always been expected.
“Mentos. Activate Signs Auxiliary Function.”
“At once, sir.”
The witcher’s footsteps remained steady and measured.
The firewall Mentos had constructed against memory overflow had finally passed practical testing earlier that day. A massive amount of computational load had been freed as a result.
The Signs Auxiliary Function came online once more.
Beneath the tunic, the witcher’s left hand traced a Sign glowing faintly white.
The guard near the gate was trying hard to keep his expression neutral, trying not to alert the target.
But the instant Lannor drew close, the man suddenly became acutely aware that the buckle on his boot sat crooked.
Too crooked.
Uncomfortable. Ugly.
So he abandoned every other thought at once, crouched down on the spot, and began fumbling obsessively with the strap.
“No, wrong again ... this way? No! Again!”
Until Lannor tossed over the entry tax and walked through the gate, the guard remained locked in mortal combat with his own boot buckle.
By then he had completely forgotten that only moments ago he had planned to earn a handsome reward by reporting Lannor’s arrival.
“Current Signs Auxiliary Function sequence complete.”
Mentos’s calm artificial voice sounded in Lannor’s mind.
The witcher loosened the fingers shaping the Sign.
City guards were trained men who had seen battle. Under normal circumstances, the Axii Sign could not truly hypnotize their will.
But Lannor and Mentos had refined every single Sign extensively.
Among the School of the Bear, Lannor suspected no one used Signs more creatively than he did.
Yes, Axii was of little use against the truly strong-willed.
And in most cases, increasing the raw strength of Signs was unrealistic. Most witchers spent their entire lives progressing only from clumsy casting to practiced casting. Faster activation, greater consistency, but the actual power remained unchanged forever.
Yet during training, Lannor had noticed something.
Willpower fluctuated.
He never needed complete hypnosis against disciplined opponents.
In most situations, a tiny push at the correct moment was already enough.
And thus the current method had been born.
Under the Signs Auxiliary Function, Mentos analyzed the target psychologically before Axii activated.
Impatience. Irritation. Minor physical discomfort. Anxiety.
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