The witchers came out of the east and swiftly moved to the west. They climbed across two mounds along the path the vines showed them and blasted off a few more patches of swamp gas.
Eventually, they arrived at a spacious wall with neat marble flooring. Unlike the crude and abandoned cave, this room was resplendent and exquisite.
The witcher stopped at the stairs behind the door and stared at a stone stele written in Elder Speech. Roy kept looking at it and easily recognized what it was saying thanks to his bloodline. “Look to the depths and be lifted up?”
As if responding to Roy, a cold gust of wind blew from within the hall. Roy cocked his eyebrow, while Letho fell silent.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Roy asked. It feels like the death throes of a man in despair. He walked down the wrong path and found it to be almost insurmountable only to be rewarded in the end? Is that what it is?
“Fanatical and extreme. That means danger. This is not good news.” Letho looked at the center of the hall. Auckes, Serrit, and Felix were standing beside a cylindrical pillar. “Let’s go. No time to waste.”
***
“Did you find the key? Don’t tell me you’ve been staring at this thing the whole time.”
It was then Roy and Letho realized how terrifyingly tall the pillar was. It was at least thirty feet tall, connecting the ground to the ceiling. Patterns that resembled paddies were engraved around it. This place felt like it was a huge cage, but the spaces between the pillars were big enough for anyone to come and go anytime they pleased.
A humanoid stone figure stood between two pillars. They looked like cold, inscrutable giants hiding in the dark, staring into the future.
“We killed a wraith and found something.” Auckes laid out an old parchment in front of Roy and Letho. The content read like a research journal.
‘We started researching drowner genes as per the orders of our teacher—Irenues var Steingard. All subjects lose consciousness after they’re fed with puffer fish toxin. Twenty-four hours after that, they lose all life signatures. It is impossible to go on with the experiment.
Taken by: Matteo Sigula.’
***
“Alright, we found a lead.” Roy whipped the earlier parchment out and compared the two side by side. His findings excited him. “This guy’s teacher was the same guy who bought the golem—Irenues var Steingard! He’s the owner of this lab. He must have the key to the door!”
“Calm down, kid!” Serrit doused his excitement. “We’ve searched the whole place. There’s nothing but this journal and a dumb wraith. Not even a mouse. We found no key.”
“This lab has probably been abandoned for years. Who knows where the sorcerer might be?”
“See? Bombs are needed. What did I tell you?”
“No, wait. You ran into a wraith? So that means a body should be lying somewhere,” Letho said.
“Sorry. We didn’t find any bodies, but…” Felix approached one of the statues and looked up at the pillar. There was actually a lever there. “I found some doohickey.” And he pulled the lever down.
The floor rumbled, and dust flew into the air. The statues that were facing the witchers turned ninety degrees clockwise.
“If we turn these in the right direction, we should get what we want: the body and the key.”
Two minutes later, the witchers turned all the statues until they were facing the center area.
A crisp crack was heard, and the floor parted to the sides, revealing a deep, dark pond in it.
There wasn’t much light shining on it, and something seemed to be moving under the water. Ripples were spreading across the pond.
“So this is what the quote meant. This is the depths.”
“We’re getting too old for fast thinking. Gotta leave that department up to the youth.” Auckes gave Roy’s shoulder a pat of approval, and then he quickly cast a Quen shield on himself.
Auckes rubbed his hand and nodded at the pond. He swung his hand down and announced, “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get down there and kill that monster!”
The Vipers hopped into the pond and created a splash, while Felix and Serrit stayed back as insurance.
The pond’s surface started to churn and bubble. A few moments later, five drowners showed up on the surface, but they were all dead.
Thanks to his companions leaving the last hit for him, Roy made another one hundred EXP.
‘Level 7 Witcher (1340/4500).’
They came back up dragging a skeleton draped in strips of cloth.
‘Human skeleton.’
Even after he was dead for years, there was still magic swirling around his bones. He was probably a sorcerer before he died.
“I wonder if this was supposed to be the owner of this lab or his student.” Roy looked curious.
“Who cares? We got the key, and now it’s time to see that poor bastard.” Auckes was holding the rusty key they got from the skeleton. He looked excited.
“How did he die though?”
“There are bite marks all over the bones.” Serrit picked a fibula up and mused. “He fell into the pond for some reason and was devoured by the drowners.”
No matter who this was, both Irenues and Matteo performed horrible experiments on drowners. The puffer fish toxin experiment was a prime example of that. Wonder if they ever imagined ending up as their test subjects’ food. Look to the depths to be lifted up? Maybe. Or maybe this guy went to hell. “This is not a good sign.”
Auckes puffed his chest out. As if reciting a poem, he said, “The architect, killed by the golem he repaired; the researcher, devoured by his test subject. Will we one day die at the hands of the very monsters we hunt?”
And that sent a chill running down everyone’s spine.
“You shut your mouth!” Serrit snatched the key from him. “Let’s get to that door.”
***
***