What Witch? This Alchemist is Breaking Bad!

Arend Island.

Waves crashed against the reefs as a ferry drew close to shore.

Fully armed men disembarked one after another, carefully climbing up onto the coast.

“Mr. Fenrir, it’s slippery here. Please be careful.” Simon, who had landed first, extended a hand toward Leon on the boat.

“It’s fine.” Leon waved him off and climbed up on his own.

“Hey, give me a hand!” Father Auden frowned and beckoned at Simon.

He was a little seasick.

Leon stood on the shore and swept his gaze around.

From here, one could simultaneously see River Valley County and South Harbor County, as well as the estuary between them.

There were several islands nearby.

Arend Island was the closest to the coastline, and geographically speaking, it actually had the potential to become a maritime transport hub.

There should originally have been a newly built dock here as well.

Half of a wooden pier remained submerged in the water, and several wrecked boats lay stranded and crooked on the pebble beach.

Debris was scattered everywhere, and seabirds circled overhead, crying loudly.

This dock had once been Arend Island’s most useful asset.

It had originally been built by the previous Viscount Arend for transporting ore, only to be accidentally destroyed by a tornado.

However, Arend Island could no longer produce ore anyway.

Due to labyrinthization in the mines, a large number of magical beasts had spawned inside, making extraction extremely difficult.

As a result, another important asset of Arend Island became completely worthless.

Worse still, the presence of the labyrinth made any other development projects difficult to carry out.

The priest had also told Leon that because of the labyrinthization of the mountain mines, the villages on this side of the island had already been completely abandoned.

The Viscount Arend’s residence and the island’s only two villages were on the other side of the island, and the population had dwindled to barely over a hundred people.

Although Arend Island covered a certain area and the labyrinthization disaster did not affect the entire island, having no industry meant no external income.

Life here was destined to be poor.

Those who could leave had basically already left, and most able-bodied young people had gone out to work elsewhere.

Only the elderly, the weak, and the sick remained, relying mainly on fishing and farming to survive, unable to pay much in taxes.

This led to the current Viscount Arend being destitute.

Potter had originally extracted a huge debt from this generation’s Viscount Arend, but now there was no hope of it ever being repaid, making it a bad asset.

However, the debt itself had arisen because Viscount Arend was a compulsive gambler who had been set up by Potter’s casino, so for Potter it came at no cost.

It was simply left there, and he could not even be bothered to send anyone to collect it.

The merchant consortium that inherited this debt also had no interest in it whatsoever.

The group set off from the abandoned dock and trekked into the mountains along the road originally built for transporting ore.

After two and a half hours, they finally caught sight of the mine entrance.

Along the way, there were roadblocks made of wooden stakes and warning signs about the labyrinth disaster.

Just as Leon was about to lead the group around the barricades, the priest stopped in place.

“I’ll stay here and wait for you.” As he spoke, the priest directly found a flat rock nearby and sat down, placing the lunch basket he had brought beside him.

Leon had come this time to conduct a preliminary survey of the labyrinth here.

He absolutely would not participate in work with this level of danger.

“You’re here for a picnic, aren’t you?” Leon joked, then turned to Simon and the others.

“You all know the task. This is just a reconnaissance mission—to understand the labyrinth’s structure and the types of magical beasts inside. If conditions allow, set up a supply point. You are not required to fight magical beasts. If you encounter a third-level magical beast, withdraw immediately. Understood?”

In the Church’s records, magical beasts were classified by danger level.

Level One was low-risk, essentially harmless or manageable by ordinary people—such as slimes, non-poisonous small fungal humanoids, labyrinth mandrake grass, living vines, bloodsucking mosquito bats, and the like.

Level Two posed a certain lethal threat to humans but could still be handled by armed personnel—for example, head-hunting rabbits, poisonous giant scorpions, giant spiders, poisonous slimes, cockatrices, man-eating plants, and so on.

From Level Three onward were magical beasts that even fully armed soldiers would find difficult to deal with, such as demonic wolves, griffins, manticore, gargoyles, three-headed hounds, treants—

Level Four magical beasts were terrifying creatures capable of wiping out an entire unit on their own.

Even a single one required elite Church knight orders to respond with full force.

They either possessed physiques and strength far beyond ordinary creatures, or had special abilities—for instance, drakes, wyverns, cyclopes, unicorns, hydras—

Level Five was the highest, the calamity class, with the most representative example being true dragons.

However, starting from Level Four, such creatures basically existed only in rumors for ordinary people.

Across the entire Empire, reports of Level Four magical beast sightings in a whole year were usually in the single digits, sometimes even zero.

As for Level Five magical beasts, they were rarer than phoenix feathers and qilin horns.

A single appearance would be enough to be recorded in history.

“Don’t worry, sir. I used to be a labyrinth hunter.” Simon nodded at Leon.

“Check your gear—maps, armor, weapons, lighting tools—.” Leon reminded them.

“Oh, and take this as well.”

As he spoke, Leon took out several small test tubes filled with red powder and distributed them to everyone.

“Sir, what is this?” Simon asked, holding a test tube.

“It contains bait mixed with mana,” Leon explained.

“Do not open it casually. These powders are extremely attractive to magical beasts. Once opened, magical beasts will swarm over. This is for saving your lives. If you encounter dangerous magical beasts, throw this and smash it to draw their attention, then take the opportunity to escape.”

The main ingredient of the red powder was mummy powder made from ground human dried corpses, mixed with a bit of Rena’s blood, and then infused with a small amount of mana.

Back when Rena used to raise magical beasts, she had discovered that her blood, once activated with even a tiny amount of mana, had an extremely strong attraction to magical beasts.

It could be mixed into feed and used as bait.

Magical beasts relied on the mana emitted by labyrinths to maintain their internal magical power levels, and refined mana had an innate attraction to them.

This was mentioned in records preserved by the Inquisition.

When the Church surveyed labyrinths, they sometimes used confiscated mana to lure magical beasts.

The Blessing of the Blood Pact also caused a witch’s blood itself to possess a certain degree of attraction.

When combined with mana, this attraction increased severalfold.

After feeding magical beasts with human corpses, Leon had experimented further.

Using corpses—especially those of the blessed—together with this bait resulted in an attraction strong enough to drive magical beasts mad.

Sprinkle a bit of this into a breeding pool, and all the magical beasts would surge forward in agitation, scrambling to feed.

“Remember not to spill it on yourselves, or every magical beast in the vicinity will lock onto you and tear you apart alive,” Leon said.

“Understood. Thank you, sir.” Simon and his subordinates thanked Leon while curiously examining the test tubes.

The priest listened silently to their conversation.

When Simon and the others began checking their equipment, he stood up and moved closer to Leon.

“Hey.”

Leon turned and saw the priest giving him a meaningful look, so he walked aside with him.

The priest lowered his voice and said, “That tube of yours mixed with mana—how much can it sell for?”

“It’s mixed with a bit of mana. Market price is around five or six thousand. You want one?” Leon asked.

“No, I mean, you’re spending five or six thousand to save their lives?” The priest raised an eyebrow.

“You should know they’re only getting an extra one thousand Fenni for this job. Simon gets three thousand. With something like this, they’ll just tell you they used it and secretly stash it away.”

“One thousand is just the reconnaissance pay. Spending five thousand to save a life isn’t inappropriate,” Leon said.

“Mana costs me basically nothing. Last time I hired them to rob a carriage, I spent over a hundred thousand.”

The mana used in these baits had been refined from the batch of magical beasts that died during transport earlier.

Because they had not been fed humans and had starved to death alive, the mana purity was only around seventy percent, failing to meet the Earl’s requirements.

It was better used elsewhere.

“All their jobs are done at their own risk. This time they asked for so much—if they die, their lives are only worth that much,” the priest shook his head.

“Also, from the last payment, Simon took twenty thousand, each of his men took ten thousand, and the rest was my referral fee.”

“What!?” Leon’s brows immediately knitted together.

“They risk their lives, and you take nearly half just by talking?”

“Brokerage fees are settled in one go. That’s already quite conscientious. They’re grateful to me for introducing you as an employer,” Father Auden said indifferently.

“Do you think these thugs are that impressive? I can introduce enough people willing to risk their lives for money to fill my church! If they won’t do it, plenty of others will. This is the only thing they can do! Working as dock laborers, they earn only three or four thousand a month. If they want to make a thousand or even ten thousand in a single run, how can they do it without risking their lives?”

Leon frowned as he sized up the priest.

This world did not have the concept of “capitalists who deserve to be hanged from lampposts,” so after some thought, he could only switch to the closest term: “You really are a bastard without an asshole!”

Father Auden merely shrugged at this.

After all, people often said such things about him.

“Buddy, I’m your advisor. I’m helping you save costs.”

“How I use people is my own rule. Just sit here,” Leon waved him off, unwilling to talk further.

He then turned to the fully prepared Simon and the others.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Simon suddenly froze.

“Sir, you’re going in as well?”

“Of course. This is an asset I intend to use. Naturally, I have to see it for myself.” As Leon spoke, he put on a protective mask, along with gloves and leather armor made from head-hunting rabbit hide.

Simon nodded and turned to one of his men.

“You’re responsible for protecting Mr. Fenrir.”

“No need. I’ll move alone. I’ll survey this route. You can distribute the remaining manpower yourselves.” After issuing the order, Leon picked up a lantern and walked toward the mine entrance.

He possessed a witch’s power and would not be actively attacked by magical beasts.

His cursed blood could deter the vast majority of magical beasts.

Moving alone was actually safer for him than moving together with these people.

Simon nodded, let out an admiring whistle, then waved to either side and led his men after him.

The priest watched Leon’s back with some incomprehension and shook his head.

He sat back down, picked up his lunch basket, took out a sandwich and a small flask of light beer to fill his stomach.

He was only responsible for bringing Leon to inspect the island.

While they conducted their survey, he could relax for a bit.

However, less than an hour later, the sound of approaching hooves shattered his leisurely moment.

Father Auden looked over in confusion and saw two people riding horses toward him.

Both were young women.

One wore the riding hunting attire commonly worn by noblewomen—a high-collared shirt paired with a lace cravat, topped with a front-buttoned dress.

Beneath the long skirt were fitted riding trousers, and long boots covered her legs.

Her clothes looked old, but the coordination was good.

The other woman was dressed as an attendant.

When he saw the exquisitely sculpted, art-like face of the young lady in noble hunting attire, Father Auden immediately felt a headache coming on.

“Oh, no—”

He put away the unfinished light beer, patted his backside, and stood up.

The two riders quickly reined in their horses in front of him.

“What a coincidence, Miss Adele. I didn’t expect to run into you here.” Father Auden bowed.

After all, she could at least be considered the daughter of a viscount.

“Father Auden, may I ask why you have suddenly come to our family’s territory?” Adele, the daughter of Viscount Arend, stared at Father Auden with a stern expression as she questioned him.