Chapter 56: Kaer Morhen Prison (Combined Chapter)

The moment the notification panel for his teammate's descent popped up, Li Nuo had already forcefully thrust the rod straight into the ghoul's oral cavity.

The special effect "Hyper-Crit" of the [Eye-Stabbing God Rod] increases damage by 1.2 times when hitting a weak point. Every creature's weak point is different; for instance, if an opponent were a futa, they would have at least one more weak point than a normal gender, so discerning the crucial weak point is a vital choice.

The reason Li Nuo did not attack the ghoul's eyes was that if the ghoul perceived itself to be in mortal danger, it would instantly regurgitate a cellular solution that rapidly transforms into a wraith hound.

These wraith hounds would obey the ghoul's commands and attack any creature the ghoul deemed an enemy.

Therefore, shutting its mouth was far more important than stabbing its eyes in the current environment.

Taking advantage of the moment to restrict the ghoul's mobility, he hooked a filthy quilt off the ground with his foot.

Then he released the rod.

The moment the quilt pressed against the muzzle of the gun, he pulled the trigger immediately.

With three consecutive bangs, the bullets pierced through the quilt and crashed into the ghoul's skull, blooming a deep red flower of death.

Fearing that the ghoul might not be thoroughly dead, he pulled the rod out of its mouth, jammed it back into the bloody mess of its skull, and churned it over and over again.

Cold sweat streamed down Li Nuo's face beneath his mask.

This was his first time facing a monster from the Witcher world. He loved preparing in advance, as that provided a strong sense of security to escort him through.

Yet toward the unknown, his heart was filled with intense caution.

The ghoul continued to emit wails, its tenacity of life truly astonishing.

Still not dead?

Still not dead?

Just die already!

Li Nuo shouted inwardly, even able to see white brain matter spilling out from the ghoul's face...

He was extremely nervous.

Please, let there not be a second phase.

From the perspective of the three escaped prisoners in the distance, all they could see was a guy wearing weird orange clothing and a creepy mask, toying with the corpse of a monster.

The three of them pressed themselves firmly against the wall, one by one, not even daring to take a heavy breath.

Each of them regretted the exact same thing: if they had known, they wouldn't have broken out of prison.

Only after the ghoul completely stopped struggling did Li Nuo let out a long breath and pull the rod out of the stringy, viscous brain matter.

"The ghoul didn't trigger its summoning form, its strength should be roughly on par with an adult lunatic among humans... But it's temporarily unclear whether all monsters in this world are this tenacious." Li Nuo's mind raced as he thought: "Things like quilts can't muffle the gunfire. If I face similar situations in the future without a good silencing method, it's going to be very troublesome... I need to make a silencer."

[Obtained "Gwent" Monster Faction: Ghoul]

"What the heck?"

Li Nuo distinctly felt that something had been added to the pocket of [Kenny's Orange Coat]. He took it out to take a look.

It was a Gwent card depicting a ghoul.

[Side Quest Triggered: Gwent Grandmaster]

[Quest Details: Defeat 6 groups of Gwent masters. A prompt will be issued when you approach a deck master.]

[Quest Rewards: Varying quantities of "Radiant Wedge Stone" and "Bone Marrow Ash" for each victory.]

Since "Gwent" was mentioned, one simply had to bring up the true name of the game *The Witcher 3*: *Gwent*.

Gwent was actually just a mini-card game within the video game, yet its addictive nature caused certain players to spend more time playing Gwent than the actual main game.

Moreover, this thing granted NPCs a mental fortitude buff comparable to adrenaline. No matter what the NPC was doing or what urgent matters they had, as long as you challenged them to a game of Gwent, they would drop everything in their hands to play cards with you, even if it were a life-or-death emergency.

NPC: (Heartbroken) "My wife and child have been abducted, I can't go on living."

Protagonist: "Don't worry, let's play a round of Gwent first."

NPC: (Enthusiastic) "Alright, let me show you my strength."

It was practically more potent than narcotics.

Li Nuo looked at the three idiots standing at attention like military posture recruits and asked, "Fancy a round of Gwent?"

***

"No, sir... We don't have Gwent cards." The tall guy's attitude in speaking became exceptionally pleasant; he even changed his address to "sir."

Li Nuo: "Then you've lost right from the start."

Li Nuo had merely thrown out a casual remark out of politeness, but the three of them misinterpreted it, thinking that whoever lost had to die.

Consequently, Li Nuo watched as these three dimwits stared blankly at him.

They're taking me for a psycho, aren't they? Li Nuo thought to himself, deciding to smoothly ride the momentum down the slope. "Let's get moving first. In a bit, I'll have some questions that require you to answer honestly. I'll have to trouble you all."

As he spoke, he considered severing an organ from the ghoul's body. In the original lore, monster parts could be exchanged for bounties, but he was the only one lacking any bladed tool. Left with no choice, he had to forcefully snap and tear off the ghoul's bloody head with his bare hands. Considering that his inventory slots were already full, he tore some fabric from the ghoul's camp to wrap around the still-dripping head and urged the other three to hit the road.

It wasn't until Li Nuo stepped into the tunnel ahead that the short guy whispered, "Should we just go back?"

"Go back to what..." The tall guy glared at Li Nuo's back, cold sweat trickling down from his hairline. "He has a weapon... and we need weapons."

Li Nuo's ears twitched.

Short guy: "You mean..."

"Shh..." Charlie lowered his head and followed along. "Without a weapon, he's just an ordinary person anyway."

Along the way, because of his somewhat bizarre attire followed by three timid prisoners, the scene looked bizarrely like a pervert leading sacrifices down the path of ritual offering.

At first, Li Nuo ignored them.

He kept looking at the new content popping up on his panel:

[Special Friend Feature: During the scenario, once every 24 hours, you can choose to link inventories. Once selected, your inventory and your special friend's inventory will be shared for 15 minutes.]

Li Nuo felt that this feature was, must be said, quite user-friendly.

Since he, Chaba, and Marger had descended upon different locations, with this feature in place, Li Nuo and Chaba could write some critical information on paper and place it into their inventory slots at any time.

What he needed to consider now was what kind of places the three of them, including himself, had descended upon.

Marger was in Novigrad, which in the original lore was a large northern city. In the year 1275, it sat at the mouth of the Pontar River and was the most important port in the North and even the entire continent, with a population of around thirty thousand, while merchants and visitors arriving there were twice that number. What it looked like now was anyone's guess.

Chaba was in Cintra, or rather, Kovir—wait, Chaba was in Kovir. Kovir had never appeared in the original work, but a certain side quest indicated that the sorceresses of this world went there later on.

"Pardon me, let me ask, what kind of city is Novigrad?" When Li Nuo turned back, all three fellows paused for a moment, especially the tall guy, who quickly pulled his hand back.

"A... large city in the north of the empire," said the bespectacled man named Charlie.

Seeing that Li Nuo didn't respond, he anxiously added, "It boasts two seaports, countless warehouses, twelve watermills, many slaughterhouses and sawmills, a super-large shoe factory, a mint, eight banks, twenty-nine pawnshops, ah... besides that, there's also, there's also a guillotine, a gallows memorial, sixty-five taverns, four theaters, three marketplaces, and thirty-six brothels!"

"And Kovir?" Li Nuo asked.

Charlie rattled off in one breath: "Kovir is located in the northwest corner of the empire's northern frontier, embracing the Bay of Praxeda. To the north are the Dragon Mountains, and to the west is the ocean, holding 80% of the world's gold. Because of its coastal location and broad acceptance of various immigrants, the glass and salt industries are also extremely developed. They established a port in the Bay of Praxeda, making it the trade hub of the entire continent. Thanks to strong financial backing, they possess the world's best spies and mercenaries. Additionally, present-day Kovir is the birthplace of the Sorceresses' Chapter!"

"Are you reciting a textbook?" Li Nuo asked.

Charlie immediately explained: "This humble one used to be a thief. Out of professional ethics, one must have an understanding of the situation in every city!"

Li Nuo said nothing more, his mind starting to spin.

The drawback of Marger's [Kenshi Character Creation Card] was that it separated players with "friend" status, but the advantage was also obvious: getting close to the secret treasures of this world.

Judging from the current information, Marger had descended upon Novigrad, though it was unclear what he was approaching.

However, Chaba's descent into Kovir certainly brought her close to the sorceress community. In the original lore, Ciri walked very closely with the sorceresses...

Perhaps the Elder Blood that traveled through time and space held its answers with the sorceresses.

Yet under the current era's background, it was unknown how the sorceresses had evolved. In the original lore, only women with ugly appearances or physical disabilities were sent to magic academies.

Within the magic academy, they would alter their bodies and appearances through magical means.

Because of the hardships of their childhoods, marked by the world's discrimination against sorceresses, resilient personalities were forged in them; the beautiful eyes of many sorceresses often flashed with anger.

However, these childhood hardships also made them vain, and the majority of sorceresses dressed in magnificent yet revealing attire.

In the Witcher world, commoner women would tie headscarves while noblewomen wore luxurious hats. Only two types of women kept flowing long hair—prostitutes and sorceresses—and they used this method to declare their independence to the world.

Kovir was where sorceresses gathered. To become a sorceress, one had to go to magic school, and to go to magic school, it was best to be disabled... Chaba was disabled.

Li Nuo had an epiphany. The [Kenshi Character Creation Card] was ridiculously overpowered... It allowed Chaba close contact with sorceresses, while allowing him close contact with witchers.

They walked for a while longer.

***

Li Nuo halted his steps, and the three men behind him stopped as well.

He took the folding stool off the straps on his back, sat down, crossed his legs, and asked, "One more question, tell me about what's going on with Kaer Morhen Prison."

"Are you talking about... the prison we're currently in, sir?" the short guy blurted out first.

Li Nuo: "Yeah, wasn't this place originally the territory of the Wolf School witchers?"

The short guy said, "...The Kaer Morhen region is currently an unmanaged zone; there are only rumors that the Eternal Fire Church has always been searching for witcher potions here..."

Charlie said, "They found them long ago."

The tall guy asked, "How would you know that?"

Charlie initially wanted to push up the bridge of his glasses, but catching sight of Li Nuo's face, he shrank his hand back awkwardly and whispered, "People like us frequently get dragged away to be test subjects for potions."

"Know the location?" Li Nuo asked, thinking that if necessary, he needed to find things that could turn someone into a witcher.

Charlie shook his head: "Sorry, sir... We aren't qualified to know."

Li Nuo bent down intending to pick up a stone, and the short guy immediately picked up a stone a step ahead, holding it up with both hands.

"Ah, thanks..." Li Nuo was somewhat unaccustomed to being catered to hand and foot, but he didn't know that the more polite he was, the more dangerous the message he transmitted to the three fellows opposite him: a guy who dared to play with a monster's head and possessed manners was sometimes the symbol of a psycho.

"Would you be so kind as to describe the internal roads and external layout of Kaer Morhen Prison for me?"

The tall guy said, "Um... sir, I don't mean to object, but won't there be guards chasing after us?"

"It's very likely they know there's a ghoul here. If we had chosen another fork in the road just now, we might have had to face an even trickier monster." Li Nuo explained simply. Ever since seeing the ghoul, he felt that perhaps the prison master wasn't afraid of anyone escaping through the "tunnel"; this place was likely swarming with various monsters, and moreover, they were artificially farmed.

Raising monsters as guards meant you only needed to feed them living people without wasting money; any capitalist would love this business model.

About ten minutes later.

Through their descriptions, Li Nuo deduced a rough internal roadmap. Looking at the planar layout and elevation drawings sketched out on the ground with stones, he could roughly infer some information:

Kaer Morhen Prison was an old, dilapidated castle. The outdoor compound was the prisoner work zone, the first floor was the gathering area for soldier guards, and the second floor and above were areas for high-status individuals. Starting from the underground area was the prison proper—very small and cramped, with a depth of only about 30 meters. Further down, there was another zone, but no one knew what it was used for.

Without a doubt, the underground area was highly suspicious.

Kaer Morhen contained the recipe for the [Blinding Powder]—or rather, the [Trial of the Grasses]—essential for becoming a witcher in the original lore. To obtain this now, Li Nuo had two choices.

Escape and then return to the prison under a legitimate identity.

Or go search for it right now.

He analyzed inwardly: "The safest bet is to get out first, though whether I'll have the life to come back is another matter. If I choose to go look for the [Trial of the Grasses] right now, the difficulty will probably be high as shit... But... if the reward really is becoming a 'witcher,' it wouldn't be a loss even if it made me eat shit."

Having made up his mind, he stood up and put away the folding stool. The usefulness of these three guys had come to an end.

He turned his head to look at the three of them and asked, "Right, did the three of you just whisper among yourselves about killing me and taking my weapon?"

As the words fell, Li Nuo didn't give these three geniuses any time to prepare; he swung the iron rod in a full arc, smashing it against the head of the closest short guy. The fellow's eyes bulged wide, blood gushed from his head, and he collapsed onto the ground.

"You! Ah—!" Before the tall guy could react, his hand was pierced by the iron rod and pinned to the rock wall. Li Nuo swiftly reached for his neck, applying the [Basic Joint Technique] on someone other than Chaba for the very first time, snapping the tall guy's neck with a crunch.

With his head drooping, the tall guy sank to his knees on the floor. Li Nuo pulled the iron rod out of his palm, letting him slump onto the ground.

Then he turned his head to look at Charlie.

The thief had collapsed to the ground, his legs turned to jelly with fright, constantly scooting backward on his back in an attempt to distance himself from Li Nuo as he explained: "They did say they wanted to take your weapon, it wasn't my idea! Sir, spare me! It's just the law of the jungle, whoever holds the weapon holds the power of life and death, but I never actually thought about—"

"Don't panic." Li Nuo squatted down in front of him, asking in a steady voice, "You're a thief, right?"

"Yes! But I've never killed... no, I've killed a few people, but who doesn't kill in this world... even if..."

"Shut up."

The moment Li Nuo's words finished, Charlie covered his own mouth with trembling hands.

"Since you're a thief, would you mind teaching me 'stealth/thievery' skills, please?"