62. Bloodborne (Three-in-One)

As for what might be hidden inside the castle, this is what Linuo thought... Since the people here can make the Trial of the Grasses decoction, someone must know alchemy. Therefore, at the very least, there should be alchemy-related books or materials hidden here.

Moreover, after leaving the Kaer Morhen prison, no matter where he goes, he cannot do without one thing—money, and preferably a large amount of it.

"The warden's vault and a bank's vault are basically the same thing, right?" Linuo stood beneath the stairs leading to the main door, recalling the partial information provided by Y孙子日熊 (Grandson Hixiong). "The shift change on the second underground floor is every four hours. Grandson Hixiong should wake up in about an hour. I cannot afford to wait for them to come in."

He walked around the area and conducted a re-inspection.

There were only two ways to leave: first, go out through the front door; second, squeeze out through the sewage drain.

Linuo was not sure about the guards' deployment outside, so he could only make assumptions and deductions.

Because of the intruder (which was him), the guard's alert level must be very high. Even if he successfully reached the first floor, it would be impossible to leave openly without being noticed by the guards.

The sewage drain probably connected to the latrines above, and there would be diversion pipes inside the water pipes, making it the safest route to exit. However, if it were a competent leader, they would certainly have guards watch all nearby facilities like pipes. There was also a second possibility: the place where the pipes led might harbor monsters.

"A frontal assault isn't entirely out of the question, but I have no way of knowing if there is someone in the castle capable of smashing my kneecaps with a single club," Linuo thought to himself. "If my objective is to go upstairs, but they assume my objective is to escape, then going out through the front door becomes viable."

From the perspective of probability, Linuo possessed a certain gambling mentality; otherwise, he wouldn't have approached the corpse containing a map during the newbie screening.

On the other hand, he absolutely did not trust his own luck, so he had to do something to increase the probability of success.

"Assuming I want to go to the upper levels of the castle to find something, I must first walk out of from here and set up a simple diversion so that no one pays attention to me along the way."

He walked over to the cages holding the experimental subjects, leaped over the table in front of the cage, and found the keys to the iron cages in a drawer.

Then, looking left and right, he saw that the prisoners locked in the central large cage were either in a state of deep coma or dead.

On the left side of the U-shaped corridor, two guards lay on the ground, and one on the right.

"The smell of blood on their clothes is stronger than mine. It's better for me to wear my own clothes." Thinking of this, Linuo realized he had not yet acquired all the sensory functions of a Witcher.

A Witcher's eyes would turn amber like a feline's, granting them excellent vision even in pitch darkness.

Their sense of smell could clearly distinguish scents within hundreds of meters (differentiating between humans and beasts).

Their hearing was sharp, allowing them to hear sounds ordinary people could not.

Yet he only approximated these descriptions.

"The Witcher trials aren't over yet, are they?" Linuo took the folding stool out from under his robe and muttered internally: "After the Trial of the Grasses, there is the Dream Trial... I remember it seems to involve killing a certain number of monsters in the darkness... Is that where the sensory system is acquired?"

Next, he used the folding stool to strike a pillar near the steps, specifically one closer to the exit.

When he struck it for the seventh time, the 6% explosion mechanism was triggered. With a loud bang, a large chunk of the pillar shattered, the sound infinitely amplified in the enclosed environment.

At the same time.

The guard on duty outside the upper door twitched his ear.

Daring not to be negligent, he summoned the prison security officer and reported, "There seems to be a vibration on the second underground floor."

"There is an alarm on the lower level. If something goes wrong, someone will pull it," the summoned security officer, Zecrot, said listlessly, leaning against the wall, chewing on a cigarette, and shaking his leg.

"But the second underground floor was just cleared out, and the extra people were sent to protect the apothecary."

"Huh?"

"Did you forget? It was ordered from above."

"Damn it... I was just sleeping..." Zecrot beckoned to the men behind him, "You, you, and you—let's go take a look."

After they opened the heavy door and went inside, the very first thing Zecrot smelled was the thick, pungent odor of blood. "Bring the armed guards! Quickly!"

Soon, a first batch of fifteen armed guards entered the second underground floor.

Four guards lay near the corridor; no one would tend to them until the doctor arrived, but at a single glance, it was obvious none of them were alive.

Zecrot led the guards deeper inside, looking left and right. "Damn it, this is the price of withdrawing the guards."

Someone beside him said, "There's an intruder today, so everyone was pulled up to search."

"I know!"

They arrived at the potion laboratory. The moment they stepped through the door, they saw Grandson Hixiong bound to a chair in the center, flanked by several shot-to-death guards.

The armed guards exchanged experienced, subtle glances. Two remained guarding the entrance, while the rest entered the room from both the left and right to inspect. Confirming it was safe, Zecrot walked up to Grandson Hixiong and noticed a wooden board placed upside down on his thigh.

Zecrot stepped back a few paces and motioned for a subordinate to flip the board over.

Then they saw three comical figures drawn on the board: a scrawny male in the center, a woman wearing a mask on the left, and a patch of black on the right.

Written in very "cute" handwriting above was: *Yours truly, Adam Ireland. I've taken the Trial of the Grasses decoction.*

A guard asked curiously, "Adam... is he the intruder?"

Zecrot did not answer. He noticed a string extending from the board into the bound victim's mouth.

"A boring cliché, putting the next theft note inside the victim's body so we have to take it out, just to make us take this group of intruders more seriously." Many half-baked "phantom thieves" had used this trick before. Zecrot followed the string with his eyes and gently pulled outward. "Strange, it feels stuck? Is something jammed in his throat?"

A reflexive reaction made him pull the string again. Only this time, there was a momentary hitch in resistance, and then the string was pulled completely out of Grandson Hixiong's throat.

He saw a button-sized circular pull-ring tied to the end of the string.

At the same time, the [Burst-Bead Bomb] with its pin pulled detonated inside Grandson Hixiong's body.

...

Within a minute of the explosion, everyone's attention was drawn to Zecrot's angry roar echoing from the deep room.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, Linuo quietly and silently climbed up from a corner.

Then, from behind a table, he picked up the folding stool standing there, folded it up, and walked out of the second underground floor as openly as if he were carrying a briefcase.

Passing by the prisoners' cells, he tossed the obtained keys into several of them.

Then he found an unpopulated corner, sat on his folding stool, and waited.

Previously, because the iron cages were unbreakable, the prisoners' only methods of escaping were digging tunnels or running out during labor. None of those methods had ever successfully resulted in a prison break. Even if a breakout succeeded, these escapees would have to face even more dangerous monsters.

However, if they had keys, for prisoners who were already living lives worse than death, breaking out frontally, seizing weapons, and charging out actually became the most suitable method.

The Kaer Morhen prison was essentially an experimental facility. Most of the prisoners captured here were bandits or ordinary people who had run out of luck, and they possessed an extremely intense desire for survival.

...

Two hours later.

Upon hearing the sound of the first prison cell being unlocked, Linuo stood up, carried his folding stool, and walked upstairs.

Three hours later.

The supreme commander, Andre, was dragged out of his room by his adjutant.

"The Trial of the Grasses decoction in the laboratory has been stolen, and several guards have been killed. We checked the sewers, and there are no traces of anyone escaping from there. Then... half an hour ago, thirty-six prisoners staged a collective breakout. The situation is temporarily under control, but you should come and take a look. This time, it seems we've encountered a premeditated harassment event with no clear objective." The adjutant led the way, gritting his teeth. "Damn it! It must be someone sent by the Sorceress Chapter to harass us. That fellow even left his name—Adam Ireland... This bastard... must have left accomplices hidden in the prison beforehand to coordinate from within."

"Can you be one hundred percent sure no one escaped in the chaos?" Andre asked.

"No, not a single prisoner or suspicious person got out, but the guards..."

"That settles it. The culprit disguised themselves as a guard. Which guard is currently off duty?"

"Tom Paige, the new recruit."

"Check along his trail to see if he has any connection to that Adam. If so, go deal with that Adam," Andre yawned. "Anyway, I'll go explain the doctrines of the Eternal Fire to the guards first, and you organize people to sweep the wilderness as soon as possible."

Not far away, Linuo stood up from his folding stool, put it away, and walked up the stairs leading to the top of the castle.

He had asked a guard along the way: the supreme commander here was a potion master who lived on the top floor. Standing before a door carved with exquisite patterns, he knew very well that Andre's room lay right behind it.

Linuo chose not to enter through the door. The absence of guards here meant the commander had set up traps or alarms inside.

Instead, he walked over to the edge of the corridor and climbed into Andre's room through a window.

"As expected of the supreme commander's room, truly luxurious."

Linuo dusted off the shards of glass from his clothes, carefully inspected the room, and concluded: "There's an alarm at the door, and the main gate is shimmering with a faint light—probably some kind of magical trap. Aside from the bed and desk, bookshelves line every wall, mostly historical texts with a small portion dedicated to alchemy."

Linuo picked up a book, flipped through it, and the system's voice sounded in his ear:

[Alchemy Purifier Studies]

[Type: Skill]

[Learning Requirements: Perception 15, or a special identity related to magic]

[Description: Purifiers possess special knowledge to reduce the toxicity of alchemical potions]

"Alrighty~"

Linuo took out a sack he had picked up along the way, selectively tossed books from the shelves into it, and then shoveled a bunch of alchemy materials into it as well.

Finally, his gaze locked onto a wooden box placed beside the bed.

To call it a wooden box was more accurate to say it looked like a coffin.

[Portable Weapon Casket]

[Quality: Excellent]

[Effect: Up to three bound pieces of equipment can be placed inside. No matter how heavy the stored items are, their total weight remains a constant 12.5 KG]

[Description: A 1.5-meter-tall melee mage, weak in physical strength, was always a beat slower than others when carrying his axe that was taller than himself. In a fit of rage, he enchanted a coffin with a weightlessness spell, turning it into his weapon casket—though he forgot one thing: the coffin was 30 centimeters taller than he was.]

"This is a good item."

Linuo carefully checked the [Weapon Casket] for traps or mechanisms. Confirming it was safe, he slung it over his back.

Finally, he walked up to the safe, demolished it violently with his folding stool, and beheld stacks of money bags inside.

"Paper money has serial numbers; gold coins are safer." After inspecting them, Linuo gathered the gold coins together and stuffed them into the [Weapon Casket].

Slinging the straps of the [Weapon Casket] over his shoulder, he knew that while the guards were busy scavenging for dropped money, it was the absolute best time for him to leave this place.

At that moment, he noticed a gem emitting a faint red glow resting in the corner of the desk.

He walked over to pick up the gem, only to have his attention drawn by a black-covered book beneath it, with the word *Dreams* written on the cover.

"Dreams... I remember that links to the hidden world-view."

He opened the pages and was met with text that shocked him:

——The Conjunction of the Spheres generally refers to a collision between worlds of different dimensions, causing them to connect and interpenetrate directly. It trapped many creatures from diverse, disparate worlds within this realm—for instance, ghouls, grave hags, and higher vampires are all lingering remnants left behind by the Conjunction. These creatures carry their own unique ecosystems and are relics of a bygone era.

——According to Elven legend, humans—more precisely, the "Dauk" and the "Wozg" peoples—first appeared in this world during the Conjunction, their own worlds having been destroyed. Afterward, these people began colonizing the northern continent.

——In the year 1801, a second Conjunction of the Spheres occurred.

——Deep within a certain region of Velen, a strange city suddenly emerged into our world, filled with madness and distortion. Only a handful of individuals who retained their sanity told us that the place was called "Yharnam".

Linuo wanted to snap the book shut immediately.

Yharnam... *Bloodborne*.

[You have been detected coming into contact with an energy source of the Conjunction of the Spheres.]

[You have passively triggered a special quest for the hidden world-view.]

Suddenly, a palm-sized hexagram magic array appeared between the book and him. A sharp dizziness struck his mind, as if he were entering a spacetime tunnel, and all sensory perception of his physical body was ripped away.

[You are being teleported to a region within the current scenario related to the "Conjunction of the Spheres".]

[You may choose: Velen, Kaer Morhen, Rivia.]

In his daze, Linuo subconsciously tried to keep as clear-headed as possible. Among the three locations, the place closest to Marge and Chaibai was: "Velen!"

...

Meanwhile, Andre was explaining the faith of the Eternal Fire to the guards, soothing their emotions.

The faith of this group of panicked guards stemmed from deception.

"Fire kindles the darkness; the evil lurking in shadows shall be revealed beneath the light of flame and instantly burned to ash. Those who conceal errors or lewd works in darkness must stand naked before the flame."

Amidst Andre's emotional speech, someone noticed fine fragments drifting down from above.

"Brothers and sisters, let us pray together. May the flame protect all mortals and burn away filth. May the flame protect all mortals and warm the path. May the flame expose evil and cause evil to vanish in smoke!"

During Andre's final prayer, a gust of wind fortuitously swept across the sky.

For reasons unknown, he felt an ominous premonition and ended the prayer early.

Returning to his room and looking at the scene where his quarters had been nearly gutted, he stood at the threshold in a daze.

"Bastards..."

"At least leave me something! Those paper banknotes are souvenirs, you bastards! The gold coins are my savings!"

Andre gradually narrowed his eyes, forcing himself to calm down quickly.

He realized that the intruder was even more absurd than he had imagined.

Every action the person took seemed completely unreasonable, yet they were interlocked ring by ring, though their ultimate purpose remained entirely unreadable.

Behind such unbridled absurdity, there was invariably a deeply rooted motive.

This person was dangerous.

Grabbing a guard who still retained his sanity, Andre instructed, "Send word to the Church. Investigate that Adam Ireland and anyone he has contacted as soon as possible—killing them doesn't matter. Also... issue a bounty for me."

...

When he regained consciousness once more, the first thing Linuo did was hunch over and vomit.

He experienced a state closely resembling motion sickness.

Judging by the mechanics of the original work, it was akin to entering a teleportation array.

Linuo lifted his eyes; the surroundings were shrouded in oppressive darkness.

He quickly realized he was inside a cave, filled with a pervasive smell of putrefaction. Linuo stood frozen in place, having roughly guessed what the hidden world-view of this scenario was.

The Conjunction of the Spheres was one of the foundational origins of the *Witcher* world, causing products from countless unconnected worlds to collide.

To put it in popular terms: a crossover free-for-all.

"So, this provides the system with immense maneuverability. Even if things belong to entirely different world-views, or even completely mismatched concepts, as long as the 'Conjunction of the Spheres' exists, they can touch and intertwine."

"And because I came into contact with the 'Conjunction of the Spheres' in reality, it allowed me to directly trigger storylines related to the hidden world-view."

Pondering this, Linuo took a step forward.

[You have entered the "Dream" within the underground ruins of Velen. This is a dungeon maze, with a difficulty rating of Lv20.]

[This area contains a large number of "special" rewards. Please explore at your own discretion.]

"Fortunately, the difficulty doesn't seem that high..."

[You have triggered the final Witcher trial: the Dream Trial.]

[Quest Requirements: Kill at least 10 targets whose level is comparable to yours and who harbor hostility toward you, and finally leave the dangerous zone.]

[Quest Reward: Full abilities of a Witcher.]

Linuo looked at the interface and furrowed his brow slightly.

The animated film *The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf* recorded this piece of information:

Young Witchers, after undergoing the Trial of the Grasses, spend a night of agonizing, excruciating torment. Following a brief rest during the day, they are thrown into a swamp filled with monsters. The young Witchers must adapt to seeing in the dark night and ultimately survive through the long hours to be considered finished with the trial.

"Visual capabilities, olfactory capabilities—all sensory skills are unlocked during the Dream Trial," Linuo muttered to himself as he took off the Eternal Fire robe. "I remember there's also a 'Mountain Trial'... I suppose that trial won't be necessary."

The Mountain Trial was the exam used to activate a Witcher's medallion.

And he didn't even have a medallion.

"Anyway, getting through this part should mark the completion."

[A special friend is sending you a message, wishing to unlock shared inventories.]

"Chaibai?"

Linuo paused, figuring Chaibai must have run into some trouble.

"Agree."

[Unlocked...]

Before the system's voice could finish, a shadow suddenly flew out from a hidden, dark corner behind him. It emitted a buzzing sound like a mosquito and moved at blinding speed.

Linuo reacted instantly, casting [Quen], causing a faint yellow magical shield to flare up around his body.

The moment the assailant struck him, the magical shield shattered with a loud bang.

Simultaneously, Linuo saw the attacker's true appearance.

A giant fly with numerous compound eyes...

Not caring about anything else, he thrust his iron rod straight into one of its eyes at close range.

With his other hand, he pulled the standard Eternal Fire Church dagger from his waist, stepped onto the "fly", and began stabbing it wildly until the disgusting creature twitched and died.

The buzzing sounds grew louder and denser.

"Aren't these the fly monsters from *Bloodborne*?"

He raised his head.

In the dark cavern, three identical creatures were approaching.

Linuo stood up.

He put on the [Mask of Emil].

"All multi-eyed monsters, huh? This is a great chance to grind the level of [Eyeball Stabbing Stick]. From that perspective, hehe, this dungeon is fantastic..."