Miss Witch’s Devotion Has Gone… Twisted

Scarlett was crouched under a tree, her whole body curled into a ball, trembling incessantly. Naclis had to expend some effort to find her; she wasn’t waiting at the agreed-upon location.

”Scarlett...”

Naclis just called her name, and Scarlett was so frightened she threw herself flat on the ground, covering her head with her hands.

”I don’t know anything! I didn’t kill anyone!”

”......”

Seeing Scarlett’s reaction, Naclis actually felt a bit of relief. So she wasn’t the most cowardly one after all.

”It’s me, Naclis.”

Naclis stepped forward to help Scarlett up. Judging by her behavior, Naclis guessed she must have seen the scene in the courtyard. It was normal to be scared.

Scarlett had mentally prepared herself before coming, but the visual impact of the scene still somewhat exceeded her psychological expectations.

Even though she was this terrified, Scarlett still hadn’t run away, which made Naclis look at her with a bit more respect.”It’s over. The fight is finished. All you need to do is help move things. If you’re scared, we can bring the stuff out to you.”

”Okay...”

Scarlett didn’t try to act tough and agreed to Naclis’s suggestion. However, after Naclis left, she instantly felt a wave of helplessness again. It was as if there was something terrifying behind her, keeping her in a constant state of anxiety.

......

”Put on the black robes. The two of us shouldn’t show our faces at the same time. While looting, take some healing potions to treat any victims who are still alive. The people who come to investigate later, even if it’s just to investigate us, need them to stay alive.

”We can use their testimonies later to pin this on the ’Robed Figure.’ We remain pure and unsullied.”

”Okay.”

Anna nodded in agreement. She looked at the blood-stained longsword in her hand, somewhat reluctant to part with it. In the end, she reluctantly sheathed the sword and began the looting.

Loren and Anna searched every room thoroughly, only finding some treasures. Even among the victims in those houses, there were few survivors. For these people, being alive or dead didn’t make much difference.

The handful of survivors were kept barely alive by the effects of the healing potions, allowing them to survive.

By now, the Rotten Corpse Blood Haze had dissipated, so they were no longer in danger.

The entire house had been searched, and Loren also cross-checked everything against the list he had previously obtained from the King, confirming that not a single living person was left behind.

”Is this all?”

Several chests of treasures were piled in the main hall. Most of these were gifts sent by those nobles, but the real ’gifts’ were those who had already turned into corpses. The amount of treasure wasn’t much either.

Apart from the treasures, there were only a few syringes left, containing some pathogens, helpfully labeled with notes explaining their uses.

Loren felt it wasn’t that simple. He signaled Anna to stay quiet, then closed his eyes, carefully sensing something.

”A heartbeat...”

Right here in this main hall, there was a third heartbeat, and it was exceptionally powerful.

Anna reacted quickly, instantly drawing her longsword, warily looking around, an excited expression unconsciously appearing on her face.

”It’s here.”

After confirming the exact location, Loren opened his eyes and walked straight toward the altar made of stitched-together corpses in the center of the hall.

The heartbeat was coming from the center of the altar. It seemed this wasn’t an altar, but a giant womb.

Loren wanted to cleave the altar open with one slash. His longsword, enchanted multiple times, cut through human bone like butter, but now, facing this altar made of rotten corpses, it only left a palm-length gash. The altar was a full two meters wide.

This also made Loren determined to see what was inside. At this rate, it wasn’t impossible to cut this thing open.

”Let’s do it together, Anna. Let’s split this thing open.”

When Loren raised his sword again, he noticed the thing showed signs of healing. They had to speed up.

”Heavy Slash!”

Loren still had plenty of Mana left, so he directly used a martial skill. Heavy Slash was a basic martial skill, but its effect was decent at the moment. This slash cut a wound about a decimeter deep into the altar.

The moment Loren lifted his sword, Anna’s slash came down, also using the basic martial skill Heavy Slash.

Taking advantage of the strength boost from the potions before it faded, Loren struck while the iron was hot. The two of them worked like pounding rice cakes, their two longswords alternating chops. In a few minutes, they completely split the altar open, revealing what was at its center: a massive heart, as large as a human head.

Even Loren wasn’t entirely sure what this thing was, but he knew very well it was no good. Moreover, this heart was still growing. Some flesh and blood had already grown on the surface of the heart. Sure enough, this altar truly was a womb.

”Master Mentor, what should we do?”

”This is a good thing.”

Although Loren didn’t know what this was, he was certain it wasn’t ordinary. Loren squeezed into the altar and placed his hand on the heart, feeling its pulsation.

Simultaneously, a foul stench assaulted Loren’s nostrils. If not for the Antidote Amulet, his hand would probably have started festering by now.

”Take your grievances to the Outer Gods.”

Loren directly activated Pluto’s Mouth. The heart wasn’t that big and was quickly devoured by Loren. Loren also received the notification: Intelligence +5. If they had let this thing fully mature, the attribute gain would have been even greater, but dealing with it then would have been much more troublesome.

Name: Loren

Level: 15

Strength: 10 (+20)

Stamina: 21 (+20)

Agility: 14 (+20)

Intelligence: 23 (+30)

Mana: 4910/5200

Remaining Attribute Points: 1

Accessory: [Weeping Blood Wedding Ring]

Blessings: [Truth Discernment] [Pluto’s Mouth] [True Sight Eye]

Curses: [Shattered Love] [Scorn of All Beings]

Loren opened his status panel for a look. Now Intelligence had become his highest attribute. The numbers in parentheses were temporary attribute bonuses. Loren had previously drunk various potions that boosted different attributes. The temporary attributes gained from pill-popping had already surpassed his original base attributes.

At the same time, one thing caught Loren’s attention. In his Blessings section, there was a new entry: [True Sight Eye]. With such a distinctive name, Loren quickly guessed the blessing’s source was The Perpetual Observer. His ability to see through Luna’s cognitive interference was also most likely thanks to this blessing.

Now the benefit of having a huge Mana pool became apparent. Having just been through a battle, he had only used a fraction of his total Mana.

One Heavy Slash cost 10 Mana, and one Throat-Severing Slash was only 20. These low-level martial skills Loren could use until the end of time. He could fight all day without running out of Mana for a single basic attack.

Normally, at his level, having 200 points of Mana would be the absolute maximum, but Loren had over five thousand.

”Let’s just move the stuff out directly. There isn’t much anyway.

”Even though it’s not very useful to us, we’re already here.”

The loot Loren gained from this trip was indeed meager. However, gaining so many attribute points was a pleasant surprise. Although Loren had Pluto’s Mouth which could increase attributes, attribute points were still not that easy to obtain.

Minor monsters simply didn’t drop attribute points. Even elite monsters didn’t drop many, let alone the requirement that they be unable to resist.