The screams died down.
Shana stood at the very center, surrounded by a pale green breeze. Everyone's condition was rapidly improving.
Seeing that things here seemed to be under control, Colin began tallying the spoils from the battle.
He opened his Inventory, and his eyes first fell on several special items, most of which had come from the mage.
The most eye-catching were the more than six hundred Twisted Flesh Mushrooms.
[You realize that these mushrooms might be combined with the Sunlight Mushroom you saw. The combination would greatly reduce their negative effects.] [Also, if you gave them to an alchemist of Stage Three or higher, they could be used to concoct a special drug that connected nerves.]
"So that's how this stuff is used. Too bad I don't have either of those things right now."
Colin muttered to himself, then looked at the other items.
A mage's robe, a staff, a few dozen Mist Points left after he'd just spent most of them, a Treasure Map fragment,
and a Twisted Soul.
"'Twisted Soul' looks pretty fresh. He must've gotten it today and immediately sent it my way. The mage wasn't a good person, but I have to give him credit for his dedication."
Colin toyed with the Shattered Staff in his hand, his gaze lingering on the mage's robe. He could faintly sense the power contained in the two items.
["Tattered Witch's Robe": While wearing it, your sanity will decrease to some extent, granting you mental protection three times that amount.] [Remark 1: As long as I'm stupid enough, I won't go crazy.] ["Broken Frost Staff": When used, it can unleash the Frost power remaining within it. Against enemies with less than 4 stamina, hitting them three or more times will freeze them for one minute.] [Uses remaining: 5] [Remark: Severely damaged and beyond repair.]
"Gear with a crowd-control effect. Not bad. Uh."
Colin instinctively used his ability to get a hint. A few seconds later, his body suddenly stiffened, and his expression turned strange.
[You realize that these two items came from the same person. After enduring the erosion of countless years, they would have decayed beyond use if not for their superb craftsmanship.] [You know too little about them to trace their origins, but you have discovered a negative effect.] [If the user of these items is male, he will gradually become more extreme with each use and over time. His masculine features will diminish, and there is a very small chance he will become female.]
These damn things were a set of items that should've been sealed away!
Colin quickly tossed both items into his Inventory and silently decided he would never use them.
Even if he had to jump out of a window, he would never put on those clothes or use that staff!
He didn't want to go from "Mr. Colin" to "Miss Colin."
And diminishing masculine features were out of the question, too!
If he hadn't realized these things might become important quest items, just like Kadish's Wooden Wheel, he would've put them up for auction right then and traded them for whatever he could get.
As for the Twisted Soul, Colin knew without thinking that it had come from the witch.
The hints for the two items might change after he completed the quest.
"Whether I do the quest or not, I'll crush this thing first, as long as it's safe. Let's see what kind of place produces something like this."
A twisted blue humanoid flame burned quietly in Colin's hand, giving off a pale blue light without any warmth.
Colin examined it several times from every angle, making sure that what he needed to trigger the quest was an Inspiration value above 9—not his little buddy—and that it wouldn't give Shana a new sister. Then he crushed it.
That familiar, hazy feeling soon washed over him.
"Where am I? Cough, cough. Where are my sisters?"
". . . I'm a witch. I came from—"
". . . What happened here? Why are there monsters everywhere? Where's the treasure? My sisters are still waiting for me."
". . . Don't be afraid. I'll stay and help you."
". . . I didn't spread the calamity."
"I want to go home."
In an indescribable, dreamlike scene, Colin seemed to see a beautiful woman in a witch's robe suddenly appear in this land.
Something had gone wrong when she arrived, and she had forgotten many things, but in the end, she remembered them.
She seemed to have come here in search of some treasure. But perhaps out of compassion, she had chosen to stay and help the local villagers resist the calamity.
However, someone had let the news slip, and the church learned of her existence. They believed she was the one who had spread the disaster.
In the end, she was executed by a knight order sent by the Suffering Church.
"The church really never does anything right."
Colin muttered to himself. So far, aside from Father Kadish, he hadn't seen them do a single good thing.
A quest had appeared on the scroll.
[Trigger Quest: Homesick Witch.] [Quest Requirement 1: Defeat the "Aberration—Suffering Citizen—Suffering Knight" wandering Silver Moon Bay, and take the Witch's Head from the shipwreck.] [Quest Requirement 2: Defeat the "Aberration—Witch's Head" inside the shipwreck.] [Quest Requirement 3: Return the Witch's Head to the Temple in Witch's Forest.] [Time Limit: None.] [Quest Description: After learning that the villagers refused to reveal the witch's whereabouts, the knight order from the Suffering Church began a massacre under the pretext of mining.] [In the end, they found her. As she died, she seemed to feel no resentment; she only thought of her homeland. So fulfill her dying wish and let her return home.] [Quest Rewards: Black Bread ×999, 1,000 Mist Points, Special Character Summoning Card, Title Gift Box ×1, Level One Temple Construction Blueprint ×1, 1,000 ml of Water of Life, Ancient Tree of Life Seed ×1.] [Hint: This quest is extremely difficult. You believe you lack a way to reach Witch's Forest, and you believe you lack the means to seal the Witch's Head. You believe the threat level of the Witch's Head exceeds that of the Bigfoot Lord Aberration.]
After reading it, Colin drew in a sharp breath, filled with lingering fear.
This quest overlapped with the "Revenge" quest he'd taken not long ago. If he'd gone to do it first, there'd probably be grass growing on his grave by now.
He could very well have run into the Witch's Head, a Lord-level Aberration at the very least.
"Good thing I'm clever and didn't rush in recklessly."
Colin secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
He took another look at the witch's robe and only then noticed that its many tears were indeed cuts.
There was a faint patch of dark brown grime near the collar. It looked like dried, discolored blood.
Clearly, it had come from the blood spilled when the beautiful witch was beheaded.
"Phew. I really can't take these trigger quests lightly. The descriptions make them sound simple, like I only have to kill a few monsters, but once you get there, it turns out they almost always involve a Lord-level Aberration."
"If I don't have enough information, I'll end up trapped with no way out, just like last time."
Before you continue