"Boom!"
The stone hammer chased after the witcher, slamming violently against the golem's chest. The impact caused the spell-carved cavern to tremble and quake.
Prepared for this, Allen braced his hands against the front while pressing his back firmly against the narrow cave wall, preventing the violent tremors from throwing him out of control, injuring him, or hurling him directly out of the cavern.
"Allen!!!"
"Allen, are you still alive?!!"
"Allen! Allen!!!"
The elven sorceress's voice shrieked in his mind.
"I'm fine…"
As the tremors gradually subsided, Allen replied in his thoughts, letting out a long breath as he loosened the taut muscles of his arms.
His internal organs had suffered slight injury from the resonating shock, a dull ache spreading through him. He frowned slightly.
"I'm fine, Lady Ida Emean."
"You're just like your mother, a lunatic!" The elven sorceress's tone carried both scolding and frustration, though the relief in her voice was unmistakable. "Far too reckless! What is here that could possibly be worth such risk?"
Allen did not answer.
Not only because objects tied to fate should not be revealed to outsiders, but also because he himself did not know what it was. Still, it was not exactly a matter of throwing his life away.
What Ida Emean had seen just now may have looked terribly dangerous in her eyes—
But in truth—
Although the Alghoul Decoction's effects had ended when a stone fragment struck his forehead, he still had the lingering effects of Maribor Forest, which accelerated adrenaline regeneration and hadn't yet expired.
The "Blizzard" potion's time-slowing gave him ample room to react, while the Wild Hunt's Warlord Armor ignored terrain and, combined with his exceptional attributes, provided a strong foundation…
That strange golem was adapting to his attacks. Did she think Allen himself hadn't been analyzing its attack patterns?
What looked perilous was, in reality, well within his control.
Of course, the cost was steep.
The Blizzard's time-slowing had been completely exhausted, and the Maribor Forest potion had just been forced to release its full potency.
Now Allen's body retained not a single trace of potion effect—only a body riddled with violent toxicity.
"Glug, glug~"
He downed a bottle of White Honey, and instantly the toxins flushed out through his sweat glands, forming foul-smelling, blackened sweat.
[Name: White Honey]
[Function: Reduces toxicity to zero, nullifies all other potion effects.]
The moment the foul sweat drained out, Allen's body went slack, nearly collapsing in the slick cavern.
Still, though the three potions had side effects, they weren't as crippling as Beast Roar: Berserk, which left him recovering for days afterward.
After a few deep breaths, his complexion steadied, and at least on the surface, he looked normal again.
He didn't immediately replenish himself with new potions.
The witcher's strengthening elixirs worked by exploiting his mutated regenerative capacity, forcefully overclocking organs.
In truth, each could be considered a small-scale version of Beast Roar: Berserk, but triggered chemically.
Yet his adrenal medulla, pushed to its limit by both the Alghoul Decoction and Maribor Forest, was at its extreme.
The heavy, floating weakness in his waist warned him clearly: those two potions could not be taken again any time soon.
Of course, outside of Alghoul and Maribor Forest, he still had other combinations.
Clink~ Clink~
Fingering through his satchel, Allen quickly set three potions and an Dimeritium Bomb within easy reach.
[Name: Cat Potion]
[Function: Grants vision in complete darkness, increases critical hit rate.]
…
[Name: Archgriffin decoction]
[Function: If mana remains, expend all mana to unleash a powerful attack. After normal damage is resolved, deal an additional 5% of the target's maximum health.]
…
[Name: Water Hag Decoction Formula]
[Function: When at maximum health, damage dealt is increased!]
All of this happened in an instant — the tremors from the golem's hammer strike had not yet fully faded.
"Are you sure about this?" Ida Emean's voice suddenly rang inside his mind. "Once you enter the golem's body, my escape spell will no longer be able to track you."
"But now… there's still time."
Allen took a deep breath and looked toward the darkness deep within the cave.
Ever since the call of destiny had reappeared, it had never ceased for a single moment, surging over him again and again like waves in a stormy sea.
"Of course…" he whispered. "I must be sure."
Ida Emean drew a deep breath at his words, glancing at the golem that now stood frozen, seemingly stalled because its "target" had disappeared. But it wasn't because of her spell.
The master-level magic she had unleashed — Aevenien's Spear of Retribution, which should have completely destroyed the obsidian core — had failed to work for some unknown reason.
No! Not entirely without effect. At the very least, the puncture marks from the strike had disrupted the golem's strange self-healing ability.
But that alone was far from enough…
Its current stasis was only because the hammer it had brought down upon itself left it uncertain whether Allen had truly been killed.
Once Allen began moving inside its body, this fleeting calm would instantly erupt into a raging storm.
If even the Spear of Retribution, the wrath of the original Elven King Aevenien, had proven useless, Ida Emean could not understand why Vera's child had such confidence.
"What a madman," she muttered under her breath. "But then… a great madwoman birthing a little madman — that's only natural."
"I'll help you," she sighed, sending her voice to him. "But in the end, whether you survive… that depends on you alone."
In the darkness, Allen curved his lips into a faint smile. "Thank you, Lady Ida Emean."
The elven sorceress only pressed her lips together, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, and drew a deep breath.
I must be mad too…
So then, child of miracles — let me witness with my own eyes how you create one.
The indescribable silence was broken first by the elven sorceress.
She swung her white-jade staff while swiftly retreating into the narrower passage behind her.
A dazzling bolt of lightning struck the golem's right arm, but its smooth, jade-like stone reflected it completely, the bolt rebounding into the cave ceiling.
Shards of rock and molten stone rained down onto the golem's head.
Though unharmed, the blow instantly jolted the golem awake.
"INTRUDER! DIE!"
Its scarlet gaze fell upon the retreating sorceress, then it hurled itself toward the narrow passage.
"BOOM!"
With a deafening roar, the stone walls before it shattered like foam, the impact grinding rock into powder.
Debris whirled through the air, dust and smoke rising in waves. But Ida Emean had prepared for this. She no longer wasted strength on futile attacks.
Prismatic magical light flared across her body, boosting her retreating speed severalfold in the blink of an eye.
Then…
The crystal atop her white-jade staff released a spray of amber rays that struck the ground before the golem's path.
In a flash —
Its massive right foot slammed down, only to sink deeply into the earth as though into a bog.
And that was not all.
With a thunderous but tightly compressed chant, sharp to the ears —
Two emerald beams shot forth, twisting into vines midair. They spread like nets, snaring the golem's claw and hammer, anchoring themselves into the cavern walls and rooting deep into the soil.
"Allen!"
The elven sorceress cried out.
At the sound, the witcher's cat-blue pupils narrowed to slits. He downed both Cat's Eye and Water Hag Decoction in a single swallow, forcing them down almost simultaneously.
Before the potions could even take full effect —
He stamped hard against the ground, charging straight toward the deepest shadows, both hands driving Balmur's blade into the narrow rock wall.
"ROAR!"
"INTRUDER! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!"
Sensing the overwhelming danger, the golem thrashed violently.
The two vine-woven magic nets didn't even last a second before being shattered apart by the overwhelming force.
Yet immediately afterward, four more green nets appeared to take their place, while the cave wall beside the golem's left claw and right hammer suddenly bulged, opening a gaping maw that swallowed both claw and hammer whole.
But these spells also couldn't hold for long. With the golem's furious struggle, they too were torn apart in an explosion of force.
Ida Emean did not speak. She continued retreating step by step, unleashing layer after layer of binding spells.
From the gem of her alabaster staff, bursts of multicolored light erupted one after another, as though inexhaustible: freezing rains to slow movement, slick pools of black oil on the floor, rings of resistance fire, tangling vines, sudden pits, violent gusts of wind…
Even in the records of Ban Ard or the Aretuza Library, one would hardly find such a vast array of restraining spells.
Her profound magical knowledge, and the deep heritage of the Aen Seidhe, were fully revealed in this moment.
Yet despite it all, the golem continued to roar, advancing with slow but unstoppable steps toward Ida Emean—toward the depths of the cavern.
Inside the golem…
Thanks to the armor of the Wild Hunt, Allen moved through the violently shaking passageways as if on level ground.
The tip of Balmur's blade slid effortlessly into the pale-gray stone, as Allen pressed onward toward the creature's core.
[Monster Hunt]Progress 1%, 1%, 1%…
After a few strides, the darkness around him slowly shifted under the effect of the Cat potion, turning into a strange, fur-like texture.
The waning effects of the Water Hag's decoction rapidly faded, restoring his strength.
Balmur's blade began to drive deeper and deeper into the golem's body almost instinctively.
Then, at a certain moment—
…1%, 1%, 2%…
When the numbers suddenly changed, Allen's entire body trembled slightly, his eyes lighting up.
The ground beneath his feet suddenly froze for an instant—then convulsed wildly.
The pale stone walls surged, trying to regrow around the pierced wound, threatening to crush Allen into a smear of pulp.
From every direction pressed waves of hostility, forming a crushing force that distorted his senses until he could no longer tell up from down.
It was as if the golem truly had a mind of its own, doing everything it could to stop him.
Unfortunately for it, even if it made Allen blind, it wouldn't matter.
The surging pull of destiny itself guided the witcher forward.
Tap… tap… tap…
Amid the golem's furious roars, Allen's footsteps were almost imperceptible—yet each one made the creature shudder.
…3%, 5%, 8%, 15%…
[Monster Hunt]Progress 27%
Then Allen stood before a conical, spear-like hollow.
At the tip of the gray-white cone, faint golden-purple light shimmered.
That must have been the golem's core, the very core that had withstood the strongest attack of an Aen Seidhe sorcerer.
At this moment—
The cone's tip was visibly being filled with gray-white stone.
"Chh~"
Allen thrust his sword forward. Balmur sank deep into the stone, piercing a hole. Yet, as soon as he withdrew it, the hole immediately shrank shut, leaving no trace at all.
But it didn't matter…
[Monster Hunt] Progress: 49%
"Chh~ Chh~ Chh~"
Three more strikes.
[Monster Hunt] Progress: 71%
[Monster Hunt] Progress: 93%
[Monster Hunt] Progress: 100%
Unlike before, when the hunt reached full progress, there were no bloody footprints appearing on the ground. Only on the cone's tip remained a faint sword-mark shaped like Balmur.
At the instant the progress maxed out, the golem seemed to sense something. Its violent struggles suddenly ceased.
In the blink of an eye, three or four layers of vine-like nets wrapped around its entire body.
Then earth, wind, water, fire—one after another, elemental binding spells struck in succession.
It was only then that Ida Emean realized something was wrong.
She slowly stopped waving her staff, and her fleeing footsteps came to a halt.
The entire world seemed to grow silent at that moment.
"Haa~"
Allen exhaled deeply.
The rough, ancient tip of Balmur didn't so much stab as it gently tapped the cone shimmering with golden-purple magical light.
Silently, the glow dimmed, and the writhing stone around it froze in place.
"Ding!"
[Monster Group: "Moreau's Colossus" LV99, "Fanatic Lydia's Chaos Spirit" LV? — Subjugated!]
[Reward Settlement: Victory against odds, base rating D; Cross-level Kill +3 → C; Severing the Threads of Fate +3 → B]
[Final Rating: B]
[Loot Obtained: Fanatic Lydia's Element 1, Rebirth Soul of Gwendolyn, Maiden of Spring 1, Obsidian Magic Core of Moreau's Golem 1, Experience Beads 9, Fanatic Lydia's Treasure Chest 2, Moreau's Colossus' Treasure Chest 2]
The familiar chime rang in his mind. Allen, long accustomed to it, willed open his Witcher Journal.
And then he froze.
Moreau's Golem made sense… but what was this "Fanatic Lydia's Chaos Spirit"?
When did I kill that?
As his gaze shifted further downward, Allen was left even more dumbfounded.
Severing the Threads of Fate—he had done that just now? Could he really have cut something tied to fate itself?
And what was the Rebirth Soul of Gwendolyn…?
Wait…
"Lydia…" Allen furrowed his brow. "I feel like I've heard that name somewhere before…"
At that moment—
"Allen, you… succeeded?"
Ida Emean's tentative voice echoed in his mind, cutting off Allen's thoughts.
He closed the Witcher Journal and replied,
"Yes, I su—"
The telepathic message abruptly stopped.
Allen suddenly realized—
The call of fate had weakened, but it had not vanished.
........
📢Advanced chapters on p@treaon📢
For advance chapters: [email protected]/Uchiha_Itachi007 (replace @ with a)
1. 20 advanced chapters of The Witcher: Wolf School's Hunting Notes.
2. 30 advanced chapters of What year is this? You're still writing a traditional diary?.