"Urgh~"
The Witcher Apprentice braced himself against a larch tree, clutching his stomach as he dry-heaved nonstop.
He had originally been looking forward to this journey through the portal.
Before entering it, he had deliberately opened his eyes wide, afraid of missing some magnificent sight.
But the moment he stepped inside, heaven and earth turned upside down.
Sight, smell, touch, magical perception.
Every sense fed Ailin a sense of space, yet each one described a different space.
His vision told him he was moving straight ahead, while his sense of smell insisted he was taking a detour.
The wind direction he felt against his skin warned him that he was upside down...
The Witcher Apprentice had been miserable, unable to spare any attention to properly admire or observe the scenery inside the portal.
"Here."
The Sorceress handed him a bottle of emerald-green potion.
"Thank you."
Ailin did not think much of it and drank it in one gulp.
The instant the potion went down his throat, the disorder in his senses vanished.
After looking at the ornate bottle, Ailin wisely chose not to ask how much it cost and thanked her again.
The Sorceress shook her head without saying anything.
Once he recovered from his discomfort, the Witcher Apprentice looked up and surveyed his surroundings.
A lake reflecting the sky and clouds, a gently blowing cool breeze, and lush green vegetation.
This was Killer Lake.
Yet there were none of the corpses he had imagined seeing everywhere.
"The other side I visited before," Lady Vesemir said, seeing through the Witcher Apprentice's thoughts, "doesn't have many drowners left. You can conduct your experiment here."
"Was it really all right for you to kill so many drowners over there?" Ailin could not help asking.
"I didn't kill that Cyclops. They were only a few drowners."
The Sorceress's casual tone made the Witcher Apprentice swallow.
Only a few drowners?
That pile of bones probably belonged to more than a thousand of them!
Was this the legendary Crimson Fox?
Ailin marveled inwardly, though his face remained perfectly expressionless.
He took out the Drowner Whistle he had just made and gently shook it.
"Gwaah~ Gwaah~"
Only after using the Drowner Whistle did Ailin realize that the bait flute truly sounded like the call of the Drowners King.
Yet yesterday, the Drowners King had shown no ability to summon its companions like this.
Strange!
Putting away the Drowner Whistle, Ailin stood quietly and waited alongside the Sorceress.
After around two minutes, the lake surface began to "blow in the wind."
The emerald mirror-like surface suddenly rippled as it had yesterday, wave after wave spreading in their direction from far away.
"Lady Vesemir, are those ripples the drowners?" Ailin asked, pointing at them.
Lady Vesemir nodded and continued watching.
Ailin scratched his head.
They had already seen the Drowner Whistle's effect. Shouldn't they leave now?
"Lady Vesemir, are we not—"
"Yesterday, were these drowners the ones that chased you until you nearly lost your life?" Lady Vesemir looked at Ailin expressionlessly.
The Witcher Apprentice froze for a moment, then nodded.
At that moment.
The lake's formerly mirror-still surface was already covered in scarlet fins.
Though there seemed to be fewer than yesterday, it was clearly still more than Ailin could handle.
But the Witcher Apprentice did not try to persuade her again. It was obvious Lady Vesemir did not intend to leave yet.
He just did not know what exactly she wanted to do.
"Could it be for me?"
Ailin shook his head, dismissing the absurd thought as he mocked himself inwardly.
How narcissistic would I have to be to think that?
The first drowner had already stepped onto the grass along the shore.
It was only twenty or thirty meters from where Lady Vesemir and Ailin stood.
If it had been yesterday, it might already have been too late to escape.
Yet Lady Vesemir remained unmoved. She seemed to be waiting for something.
"Clang—"
Watching the drowners draw closer and closer, Ailin could no longer resist drawing Elsa.
Lady Vesemir glanced at him from the corner of her eye, her lips curving faintly as she said:
"Watch carefully, Ailin. This is true alchemy!"
Snap!
A bottle of blood-red potion suddenly appeared in the Sorceress's left hand.
Ignoring the ugly faces of the drowners now close at hand.
Lady Vesemir removed the translucent crystal stopper, her soft red lips moving slightly.
Then she blew gently.
The red liquid in the bottle vanished in an instant, and a cloud of dense red mist suddenly enveloped the Sorceress.
From afar, it looked like a fluffy red fox.
But moments later, the red mist blew toward Killer Lake.
Ailin finally understood what the Sorceress had been waiting for.
He had also seen the boundary at the far end of the surging drowner horde.
The Sorceress wanted to wipe them all out at once.
"Rustle—rustle—"
The sound of an autumn wind sweeping fallen leaves rose.
The drowners touched by the blood mist fell one after another as if they had lost their balance.
As they toppled over, their azure bodies rapidly shrank.
By the time they struck the grass and lake surface, they had turned into thumb-sized blue leeches with wrinkled skin.
Ailin stared at the scene in shock, an overwhelming tide of awe crashing into his heart.
Was this Vesemir's Transfiguration?
The famous magic Vesemir had mentioned, the Sorceress's signature spell?
Snap.
Another snap of her fingers.
The thinning, fading red mist rolled back and covered those "leeches" once more.
Like creatures sprinkled with a great deal of salt, the "leeches" rapidly shriveled.
After writhing in struggle a few times, they all fell still.
Then.
The dried leeches drifted slowly toward Lady Vesemir and Ailin along with the red mist, which had grown dense again and even more brilliantly scarlet.
"Rustle—rustle—"
Seeing the red mist carrying countless dried leeches toward him, the Witcher Apprentice's scalp tingled, and he instinctively stepped back twice.
Yet perhaps those two steps provoked the mist.
As though it were alive, it shifted direction slightly and flew toward Ailin.
The Witcher Apprentice could not hold it together any longer and cried out repeatedly:
"Lady Vesemir! Lady Vesemir!"
He truly did not want to become a blue leech like those drowners.
White would not be acceptable either.
"Don't worry..."
Lady Vesemir's voice rang out like heavenly music to Ailin's ears, but then the Sorceress continued:
"She won't hurt you..."
"Huh?" Ailin's mouth fell open as he watched the Sorceress nod reassuringly at him.
He was just about to turn and run.
But the red mist had already circled him once, and Ailin now did not even dare make the motion of turning around.
He was terrified that if the red mist touched him, he would turn into a leech.
No sight, no hearing, no sense of smell...
No wonder this spell had become Lady Vesemir's signature magic.
Just thinking about it was terrifying.
Fortunately, the red mist truly did not touch the Witcher Apprentice.
"Thud, thud, thud—"
The strange dried blue leeches kept falling, instantly piling into a mountain beside the Sorceress.
"All right, come back."
Lady Vesemir's voice sounded.
As if reluctant to leave, the red mist quickly circled Ailin twice more before bobbing up and down in front of him.
It was as if she were greeting him.
Then it swiftly gathered into the crystal bottle in Lady Vesemir's hand, becoming a bottle of beautiful red potion once more.
"She seems to like you." The Sorceress shook the bottle, chuckled softly, and teased him.
Only then did Ailin come back to himself. Cold sweat instantly broke out across his rigid body, soaking through his undershirt.
He gave an awkward smile and asked:
"It...?"
Thud!
The red liquid slammed hard against the bottle, and Ailin hurriedly corrected himself.
"She's a living creature?"
The Sorceress smiled and nodded.
"Yes, just like your Mirage Pearl."
Ailin opened his mouth, about to ask more.
The Sorceress raised a hand to stop him. "You'll understand slowly in the future. Let's go back and continue our alchemy lesson."
As she spoke, Lady Vesemir extended her right hand, about to snap her fingers and open a portal.
But after a moment of silence, the Witcher Apprentice shook his head and said:
"There's no need for the lesson for now, Lady Vesemir."
The Sorceress tilted her head in surprise.
"I already know how to brew that potion."
New author, new book. Please keep reading, comment, bookmark, and vote with monthly tickets!
Thanks to readers "Xiu A," "20180611173463287," "Half a City of Fading Ink," and "Spatula Dante" for their monthly tickets.
Also, it was time for some mutual promotion and a little sacrifice.
A good Harry Potter and Cthulhu Mythos fanfic.
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