The Full Moon Night

The Goat Inn was bustling with heat. Kraun pushed past two drunken men blocking his way and walked up to the counter.

"Old Jason, have those two outlanders checked out?"

He had come to find Geralt to ask if he would be willing to act as a sparring partner, but after knocking on the door for a long time, there had been no answer.

The innkeeper scratched his scalp, which was radiating a charming luster under the lamplight, and recalled for a moment.

"You mean that white-haired fellow? The two of them went out first thing this morning, said they wouldn't be back until tomorrow."

Had they discovered some monster and gone off to deal with it?

Kraun muttered to himself. A Witcher's income relied entirely on killing monsters, selling materials, and collecting bounties; they had no fixed income, much like those traveling tradesmen.

"Care for a roast lamb leg? It's a fat sheep we slaughtered this afternoon, fresh as can be."

Old Jason began to push his food. In his eyes, the young man before him was someone who didn't mind spending money.

"Hmm, forget it. I haven't had much income lately, and I have to pay cash for herbs. I'll come back to improve my diet once the merchant caravans arrive in the spring." Kraun was telling the truth, but the main reason he wasn't eating here was that the quality of the food was a cut below what he could make himself.

The skills of a Level 3 cooking master were nothing to sneeze at.

"Haha, you have to spend a little to get through the winter."

The two chatted for a few more moments before Kraun took his leave.

As the sky gradually darkened, Kraun withdrew from his meditation.

For some reason, he felt incredibly restless today while meditating and simply couldn't calm his mind. He had tried many methods, but none of them worked.

That sense of agitation could not be dispelled; instead, it showed signs of intensifying.

In such a state, he couldn't continue his meditation, so he had no choice but to stop.

The Hour of the Rooster was one of the most important times of his day. Since the sun rose too late in winter, his proficiency in the Golden Light Incantation relied almost entirely on grinding during this period.

Today was the night of the full moon, wasn't it? Shouldn't the power of the moonlight be at its most abundant? Could it be that I'm too weak to handle such a potent supplement?

Standing before the window, Kraun frowned and pondered as he faced the scarlet full moon.

He had been in this world for some time now, and Kraun had learned from the priest that after the great upheaval, the moon turned a ghastly crimson on the night of the full moon.

He recalled the inexplicable words the priest had spoken that afternoon.

'Tonight is the night when spirituality is most active. All sorts of strange things will happen. Do not do any extra training tonight; go to sleep early.'

"Awoo!"

In the distance, a wild wolf howl pierced the silence of the night.

Kraun's gaze delved deep into the distant night sky. For some reason, he heard tyranny and cruelty in that sound, along with wisps of lingering pain.

Unable to figure out what was going on tonight, he stopped obsessing over the Golden Light Incantation and went to bed to rest.

Late at night, Kraun was jolted awake from his sleep, his entire body drenched in sweat.

He had a strange dream where he fell into a dark abyss containing a deformed monster.

The monster was as massive as a mountain of flesh, its entire body shimmering with a ghostly green halo and covered in octopus-like tentacles.

On the tentacles, there were no suction cups; in their place were scarlet eyes and tiny mouths.

The eyeballs were yellowish-brown, embedded with narrow, vertical red pupils.

Inside the mouths grew sharp, triangular teeth.

The abyss was filled with whispers that drove one to madness, like the combined evil babbling of countless people in a dream.

An indescribable sense of gloomy malice enveloped his entire body, and he woke up with a start.

After waking, Kraun paced to the window.

His eyes beheld a scene that would drive a man mad.

Gray mist pressed down from the firmament, with twisted corpses floating within it.

Monsters stitched together from various corpses—human, avian, and fish—swam through the haze.

The light and shadows were faint, like phantoms, yet they gave off a sense of profound despair.

There was also a hair-raising murmuring sound frantically drilling into his ears, and a chill crept over his body.

"Hah!"

Kraun gasped, his body stumbling back two steps. Once he retreated into the shadows of the room, the terrifying imagery outside the window vanished without a trace.

Breathing heavily, he pressed his hand tightly against his chest.

A moment later, feeling his heart pounding like a drum, he waited for it to calm down before walking back to the window.

The world outside the window changed instantly, and the eerie imagery he had just witnessed appeared in the sky once more.

His heart began to beat uncontrollably again, even more violently than before.

Kraun retreated once more, sinking into the darkness.

What on earth is going on? Why am I able to see such an evil phenomenon!

Pressing his back against the wall, Kraun felt as though this world had become strange to him once again.

It was not just monsters and Evil Spirits that existed here, but things far more sinister and bizarre.

Yet, if the world was truly this terrifying, how did the ordinary people manage to survive?

Kraun walked toward the window again; he needed to verify something.

When he had woken from his nightmare, the crimson moonlight had been shining directly upon him. Whenever he approached the window, he could see the eerie sights in the sky and hear the maddening whispers. But when he retreated into the darkness, it all seemed like a mere hallucination, leaving no trace behind.

He had to confirm whether there was something wrong with the moonlight tonight.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, he repeated the process three times before Kraun stepped into the crimson moonlight without hesitation.

The whispering started up again, and the scene outside the window shifted like a changing curtain, transforming once more into a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

He shifted his body sideways, stepping out of the moonlight's reach.

Confirmed: the moonlight was the problem.

This must also be the reason why he had been unable to calm his mind while practicing the Golden Light Incantation under the moonlight at the hour of the Rooster.

A faint realization dawned on Kraun, and he decided to ask the priest about it properly tomorrow.

Outside Zack Town, in a mountain cave.

This was a mine that had been abandoned for many years; long ago, the town had produced pyrite here.

A thick silver chain hung from the stone wall, with golden runes flickering across it from time to time.

A tall, white werewolf was bound there, struggling frantically.

There was a long scar over the werewolf's left eye.

As the werewolf continued to struggle, the silver chain tightened, embedding itself deep into the creature's flesh.

It was unclear how much time had passed, but perhaps having exhausted all his strength, the werewolf stopped struggling and collapsed to the ground, his body twitching slightly.

A golden light began to glow outside the cave; the morning sun was rising.

The werewolf's body rapidly shrank, transforming into a robust man covered in scars.

A boy walked over, holding a pile of clothes in his arms.

He knelt beside the man, set the clothes down, and called out softly, "Teacher, it's dawn."

The man opened his eyes, his hand trembling as he shielded his face: "Alan, you cannot follow me anymore. I can no longer maintain my sanity during the full moon; the darkness in my heart seems to be devouring my soul. Staying by my side will only become increasingly dangerous. I do not know what I will become once I lose my reason entirely."