Under the Horn Tree

"What's that rustling sound?"

It was the sound of salt grains slipping through fingers.

The crescent moon illuminated the House of Cadell. Beneath the tall Horn Tree in the courtyard stood three figures wrapped in thick cotton clothes. They bent their heads over the Horn Tree, which required several people to embrace, each holding a torch, letting the white salt grains slide through their fingers and over the rough bark…

A moment later, the intact bark bizarrely split open, the crack quickly widening until it resembled a vertical pupil. It suddenly blinked wide, then — swish — the corners of its eyes pulled apart. At the base of the Horn Tree, a half-human-height oval opening formed.

Roy shone his torch into the opening. A gentle slope led downward, covered in vines, fallen leaves, dead branches, and dirt. A strong, earthy smell wafted out.

"What now?" Roy turned to look at the two ladies in pink cotton clothes. He was also wearing pink cotton, looking quite comical, but what could he do? There were only two women living in the entire school; it was good of them to share a cotton coat with him.

He still had to follow the Witcher's instructions.

"If you won't say it, I will! We can't all go down…" Roy said in a deep voice. "One of us has to stay outside to keep watch and sprinkle salt around this Horn Tree to prevent whatever's inside from getting out."

"I have to go down…" Roy took a deep breath. He had a powerful weapon hidden in his inventory. According to the Witcher's notes, he had a real chance of killing the monster.

"This is my territory. That damned thing has occupied it for so long and even stole some of my children. This debt must be settled!" the middle-aged woman said, her face extremely serious. She crouched down and slid down the slope.

"Then you stay outside!" Roy jumped into the tree hollow before Faywen could speak. "Don't worry, Sister Faywen, I'll bring 'him' out for you!"

Roy slid down the dark tunnel, holding a torch in one hand and pressing against the soft slope with the other.

He slid down less than ten feet (3 meters) before landing smoothly.

The next second, the short boots on his feet got wet. There was standing water on the ground beneath the tree hollow, just covering his ankles, but the water was bone-chillingly cold. Roy couldn't help but gasp, shivering all over. No wonder the Witcher had told him to wear more clothes; the temperature in the tree hollow was a good seven or eight degrees lower than outside.

Roy swept his torch around and saw Cadell not far ahead, crouching in a defensive posture, beckoning him quietly.

They were in a dim underground space. The surrounding walls were covered in sticky mud, slippery moss, and vines. The pool of water was dotted with strangely shaped rocks.

Besides the wider central space, there were several narrow holes in the corners. How narrow? A person could only crawl on their hands and knees. Eerie croaks and hisses echoed from these holes, reverberating between the stone walls in the center.

Roy couldn't imagine whether this space had always existed beneath the Horn Tree or if the monster called the Child Hunter Ghost had created it.

He waded through the murky, cold groundwater to Cadell's side, scanned the holes, and a terrifying thought crossed his mind.

Could it be that each hole houses a Child Hunter Ghost?

No, the Witcher wouldn't screw over his apprentice like that. If that were the case, he would have mentioned it in his notes.

So, the Child Hunter Ghost is in one of the holes, strangling its latest victim with its vomit.

Roy exchanged a look with Cadell. Cadell gestured with his chin towards the nearest hole and silently took a dagger from his waist. The dagger was evenly coated with fine salt grains. Holding a torch in his other hand, he crouched down and crawled inside.

Roy followed closely. The hole was a narrow, cramped tunnel, no more than two feet high. As soon as he crawled in, the pants on his calves were soaked in icy water. The sticky mud on the walls pressed tightly against his shoulders, making movement extremely difficult.

They held their breath and crawled inward cautiously, strange hisses and flickering drafts of air coming from the tunnels ahead and behind.

Roy felt terrible, his face tight, not daring to breathe. How could he resist if the monster attacked from behind in this awkward position?

He could only keep looking back, lest a ghastly face suddenly appear from the dark tunnel.

Soon, they reached the deepest part of the tunnel without incident. It was a slightly drier, spherical nest covered in broken branches, leaves, and the bones of small animals.

Although the Child Hunter Ghost wasn't visible, there were traces of its feeding in the nest: human bones, small skulls, leg bones, and vertebrae piled haphazardly in various corners. Their size was much smaller than an adult's, and the surfaces were stained a strange pale yellow.

They clearly belonged to children.

Cadell picked up a bone, his face filled with murderous intent, his teeth clenched. She might have had other reasons for creating the school, but she truly spared no effort for her students.

They quickly searched two more holes, carrying the remains of the dead to the entrance of each hole as a marker after searching.

When they reached the fourth hole, halfway through, they heard a clear gurgling sound, like something vomiting.

They held their breath, and the torchlight illuminated a ghostly figure in the darkness.

It was a thin, elongated humanoid shape, its skin covered in black mud and moss, its limbs slender like branches. It was crouched like a dog in a corner of the nest, intermittently spewing a yellow liquid onto a bulging mass.

Illuminated by the torchlight, it immediately turned its face. Its cheeks were gaunt like a skull, its two black nostrils sunken inward, its bloodshot, pale eyes filled with malice and madness. Its lips had been torn away, exposing its gums. Because it had just vomited, its teeth were covered in translucent saliva.

Startled by the torchlight, it blinked and retreated into the shadows of the nest like a spider.

The two of them quickly pursued with their torches but couldn't find the creature.

Roy scanned vigilantly while Cadell frantically dug through the vomited mass. She unearthed a small, golden-haired head.

"Hey, child, can you hear me?" Cadell wiped the dirt from his face with her hand, revealing a thin, delicate little face. The boy's eyelids fluttered.

Looking at this face, the fog in Roy's mind instantly cleared… a buried memory became vivid again.

He suddenly realized, "I remember now, it was you who went missing, little Tom!"

The little boy who had greeted him on the first day, the one with the bright smile, the two prominent front teeth, the orphan who lived at the school.

For over half a month at the House of Cadell, this guy would review lessons with him after school every day. They had actually formed a bit of a friendship… "I almost completely forgot about you."

He ruffled the child's hair, a smile involuntarily curving his lips. The previous tension and fear vanished, and his mood lifted. "Glad I arrived in time! How are you feeling, little Tom?"

"Roy? Principal Cadell? What… what happened to me?" Tom opened his eyes groggily, his voice weak and feeble. "Be… careful…"

"What did you say?"

"Be… careful above!"

Pfft--

A ghostly figure plummeted from the ceiling without warning, tackling Roy and rolling him twice as it crumpled him into a ball.

He rose and fell.

Gaining the upper hand, it sat on Roy and raised its right claw. Under the firelight, its needle-thin, sharp claws glinted coldly as it slashed towards his neck--

Another hand intercepted its wrist mid-strike.

Roy's left hand, veins bulging, grabbed the attacking claw while his right hand conjured a souped-up Crossbow Bolt from thin air. Clutching it tightly, he thrust the arrowhead into its eye socket first.

"Waa--waa--"

The Child Hunter Ghost let out a strange cry like an infant's wail, white smoke billowing from its eye socket as dark green blood flowed out. It suddenly erupted with immense strength, breaking free from Roy's grip and screaming wildly as it charged into the tunnel beside them.

It wriggled into the tunnel with an extremely awkward posture, like a slippery loach, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

"Roy, you take Tom out of here first. Leave this thing to me!"

Cadell dropped the words, dagger and torch in hand, and pursued it along the blood trail.

"Whew... that was close, almost capsized in a ditch!" Roy let out a heavy sigh of relief. That sharp claw had almost sliced his throat just now; if that had happened, none of this would have mattered.

"Are... are you hurt?" a weak greeting came from nearby.

"Tom, don't worry, I'm fine." Roy wiped the cold sweat from his face, quickly rescuing the boy from the viscous vomit. He had no idea what principle caused this vomit, but its smell and appearance were somewhat similar to softened cheese. Roy casually scooped a fist-sized clump and stuffed it into his spatial storage.

Then, he carried Tom on his back and climbed out of the tunnel. They encountered no trouble on the way; the Child Hunter Ghost had apparently been chased by Cadell into some other tunnel.

Roy successfully reached the entrance of the tree hollow, grabbed a vine, and climbed the slope to hand Tom over to Faywen outside.

The woman was both surprised and delighted, quickly draping a jacket over the shivering boy.

"Roy, did you find..."

"No time to explain now, the monster hasn't been dealt with yet. I need to go help Cadell. Take good care of him!" Leaving the sentence unfinished, he returned to the tree hollow before she could ask further.

Following the blood trail, he found the two sides confronting each other in the deepest part of the fifth cavern. Both Cadell and the Child Hunter Ghost were injured. Cadell clutched his profusely bleeding abdomen with one hand while brandishing his torch for defense with the other, his face pale. He clearly couldn't hold on much longer.

The Child Hunter Ghost wasn't faring well either. It had lost an eye, and Cadell's dagger had inflicted dozens of fine cuts on its body, yet these wounds no longer bled.

Clearly, the salt on the weapon wasn't enough to be fatal.

Roy pondered for a moment and summoned his hand crossbow.

Zing-- An cold arrow struck the Child Hunter Ghost's knee. It trembled all over, half-bowing, and opened its bloody maw at the attacking Roy, letting out a threatening growl and feigning a lunge.

Roy ignored it, drew the string, nocked another arrow, and shot its other knee.

Within seconds, the Child Hunter Ghost was crippled. Even if it could heal itself, it would take time, and its speed wouldn't be fast for at least a short while.

"Principal Cadell, get behind me!" Roy retreated, continuing to shoot at the monster's legs.

Cadell looked confused but still obeyed Roy, maintaining a defensive stance and slowly retreating with him.

The scene now became two people retreating into the tunnel, while the Child Hunter Ghost hid at the very back of its nest. Twenty feet away, its skeletal, ugly face bared its teeth at the two of them, its devilish, dark claws waving frantically in the air, making threatening gestures.

It was like a mad dog provoked by humans. Despite its rage, it dared not charge forward, wary of the weapons and torch in the humans' hands.

When the distance between them reached thirty feet, Roy suddenly produced a green glass jar. After a brief charge, he threw it forward. The jar drew a straight line through the air and smashed into the Child Hunter Ghost.

Bang--

The glass shattered, followed by a short, intense explosion. Brilliant flames erupted throughout the entire nest. Fire snakes leaped and writhed wantonly, and the air seemed to ignite, the temperature rising several degrees.

The Child Hunter Ghost in the center instantly became a humanoid torch, radiating astonishing heat and light. It stumbled towards Roy and Cadell, groaning in pain, but its legs were already mostly crippled, and it couldn't keep up with their retreating speed at all.

The power of the Dancing Star was astonishing. Even sparks falling from it would quickly ignite the surrounding dry branches and leaves.

The fire grew fiercer and fiercer. Behind the tunnel, the entire nest was ablaze.

It walked in the fiery nest for about two minutes before collapsing on the ground, exhausted, turning into a pile of charcoal.

"Killed the Child Hunter Ghost. Gained 100 Experience Points."

Roy, who had already retreated to the entrance of the tree hollow, breathed a sigh of relief.

"We need to hurry and retrieve the bones of those poor children!"

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