Chapter 25: Dominic’s Experimental Prison
“……”
A strange sight unfolded by the riverbank: a campfire, but one I enjoyed alone.
I sat close to the crackling flames, warming my cold body. To keep the fire alive, I fed it the discarded clothes piled on the ground.
They burned beautifully, like dry kindling.
It had been a while since I enjoyed the simple pleasure of watching a fire. Back when I worked at the company, it was trendy to go camping and unwind by staring into campfires on weekends. But unlike those peaceful times, tonight’s fire carried a heavy weight of unease.
I had interrogated the bandits one by one, and what they told me was enough to make my head throb.
‘This is why I tried to avoid Laup Forest at all costs...’
I’d ended up in the very place I wanted to avoid the most.
Swept away by the floodwaters, I had drifted along the river until I landed here.
That much was fine.
If I was careful and stayed out of Dominic’s path, I could have escaped this place without issue.
But...
‘So, you’re saying I can’t escape? What kind of bullshit is this?’
Every bandit had said the same thing. No matter which direction they walked, they couldn’t leave the forest’s center. The landscape repeated itself endlessly, like some cruel loop.
Even these scoundrels—used to operating in the depths of the forest—had become hopelessly lost.
It sounded insane, but unfortunately, I already knew the truth behind this phenomenon. This was why I had avoided getting too close to Laup Forest in the first place.
“Looks like I’ve fallen into that place...”
The more I gathered information, the more I became certain.
And I hated to admit it.
This wasn’t just some random corner of Laup Forest.
It was one of Dominic’s experimental prisons.
Dominic, the lunatic mage, had set up several magical prisons throughout Laup Forest, places where he kept his captured test subjects.
The experimental prison was sealed by an illusionary magic circle.
This magic circle functioned much like a fish trap—easy to enter but impossible to leave.
If I was trapped inside such a magic circle, escape was impossible. The entrance could only be opened by Dominic himself.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
I had unknowingly crawled into the jaws of a crocodile. No—more like that damn log had carried me into its mouth. But the result was the same.
And I couldn’t exactly knock on Dominic’s door and ask him to kindly let me out because I’d lost my way.
Despite surviving so far by some miracle, I couldn’t help but feel cursed. What else could explain my rotten luck? Maybe I needed to find a witch and have her lift whatever curse I was under.
‘There’s no turning back now.’
Being trapped inside an illusionary magic circle meant that my life was now in Dominic’s hands.
And soon enough, the chimeras would arrive.
There was only one reason for that.
Collection of test subjects.
Dominic used these prisons as temporary holding areas for his experiments, gathering test subjects from various places until there were enough to transport to his lab.
In other words, a lot of people had already died to feed his twisted research. And with each victim, Dominic’s army of chimeras grew larger and more dangerous.
The question was: could I survive long enough to evade the chimeras in this confined space?
‘Has anyone ever escaped Dominic’s biological research lab?’
Hell no. Not a single person.
I didn’t know anymore. The odds felt insurmountable.
I tossed a piece of wet jerky onto the fire. Even in this dire situation, hunger gnawed at me. It just proved that survival instincts were stronger than despair. As the jerky sizzled and turned golden brown, I bit into it, chewing slowly.
Then I heard the sound of trembling voices coming from the riverbank.
“P-please... spare us.”
“It’s so c-cold!”
“P-please! We’ll do anything!”
How long had I left them soaking in the freezing water? Two hours?
The river’s icy temperature had turned their lips blue. Huddled together and shivering in their bare skin, they pleaded for mercy.
I probably looked like the villain here. But strangely enough, I felt no guilt.
“Did you spare the people who begged for their lives?”
“……”
“You probably laughed in their faces and made them suffer more, didn’t you? Now shut up and sink into the water up to your necks, unless you want me to peel your skin off.”
During the interrogation, I’d learned about the horrific things these scum had done—kidnapping women, dragging them to their hideout, abusing them, and selling them as slaves.
Some of those women had disappeared during a chimera attack. Most likely, they were taken to one of Dominic’s experimental prisons, just like these bastards.
I didn’t care what happened to the bandits, but thinking about the innocent women filled me with rage. It had nothing to do with me, yet I was furious. Maybe that’s why I left the bandits in the freezing water—I wasn’t in a charitable mood.
‘They said there were more bandits trapped here, right?’
While passing through Laup Forest earlier, I’d heard rumors about a large group of bandits going missing.
Now it made sense—they were all trapped inside this experimental prison.
And, lucky me, I had drifted right into it.
‘What the hell do I do now?’
I had a few plans in mind after escaping from the gorge, but all of them were now useless.
I couldn’t avoid confronting Dominic. If I stayed in this prison, a clash with him was inevitable.
‘There are plenty of events tied to Dominic in the novel...’
The problem was the difficulty. Even the protagonist, Kamel Blazer, avoided Laup Forest in the early chapters, which showed just how deadly this place was.
It was like being a Level 1 character thrown into a Hell-difficulty quest.
If I were actually as powerful as the bandits thought—a five-star monster—things would be different. But with my current abilities, going up against Dominic would be suicide.
Dominic was more dangerous than even Kamel right now, not because of his personal strength but because of the army of chimeras under his control.
‘If Dominic’s started deploying his chimeras openly, it means their numbers have stabilized.’
The chimera army.
In the novel, the sheer number and strength of Dominic’s chimeras earned them the title of a “legion.” But Dominic’s true masterpiece was still in progress.
[The Heart of a Hundred Lives—Arena Huaton.]
This living weapon, born from Dominic’s madness and knowledge, would surpass five-star power once completed. However, the key to finishing Arena Huaton lay in one crucial element—the source of its power.
“The power source...”
Muttering the words aloud, I stared into the fire. As I watched the flames dance, a wild, dangerous idea began to form in my mind.
Since all my original plans were ruined, and I couldn’t avoid Dominic, why not try something insane?
‘What if I steal the power source for myself?’
The chances of success were slim—almost impossible, really. It was a hidden story arc tied to one of the novel’s ultimate powers, something I hadn’t even considered before because the risks were too high.
The relic of a successor. Arena Huaton’s power source.
“The Heart of the Immortal—Retonicalus.”
Dominic was obsessed with increasing the number of chimeras because he needed the heart of the immortal as the final piece of his creation.
“And I know exactly what that blueprint looks like...”
The only person in the world who knew Dominic’s endgame—other than Dominic himself—was me.
Night fell as I mulled over various possibilities.
Lost in thought, I hadn’t noticed how much time had passed.
It was time to move.
‘Let’s start cautiously and see how things unfold.’
After weighing my options, I concluded that stealing the power source with my current abilities was impossible.
Though I had knowledge Dominic didn’t, information alone wasn’t enough. Without the strength to back it up, it was useless.
I doused the fire with sand and stood up. My broken arm moved smoothly, with only minor discomfort—thanks to the potion I’d taken from the bandits.
After some rest and warmth, my condition had improved. It was time to act.
Before leaving, I glanced at the bandits, still shivering in the river. Killing them seemed unnecessary.
I didn’t enjoy killing unless it was absolutely necessary. I’d killed Donecolint because it was him or me, but I still found the act unsettling.
Their desperate, pleading eyes lingered on me.
If I left them in the cold water overnight, they’d probably die of hypothermia.
After a brief moment of indecision, I slung my bag over my shoulder. It was heavier now, filled with food and vials of Bethel’s Poison taken from the bandits.
Without a word, I disappeared into the forest, leaving the bandits behind. I felt their eyes burning holes in my back, but I didn’t bother to say anything. They were beneath my concern now.
“This should be far enough.”
Once I was sure I had vanished from their sight, I climbed a tree. From a branch high above, I perched silently among the leaves and peered down at the riverbank.
The bandits were still lingering near the water, shivering like rats in the cold.
At first, none of them dared to move, too fearful that I might return. But as time passed and I didn’t reappear, some of them began exchanging uneasy glances.
One brave soul made the first move, crawling out of the water like a half-drowned rat.
The others hesitated, watching closely. Then, realizing they had a chance, they scrambled out of the river one by one, dripping wet and gasping for air.
"Idiots." I smirked. This was exactly what I had been waiting for.
The bandits had no choice but to take a gamble—they had nothing to lose. Stripped of their clothes and supplies, their only option was to flee through the forest and hope to reach their hideout before freezing to death.
Sure enough, as soon as the first few bandits started sneaking off, the rest followed like a pack of frightened animals.
They scattered in all directions, but it didn’t take long for them to regroup and sprint deeper into the forest.
At the front of the group was their boss, leading the charge. Of course, that coward was the fastest.
I waited a moment, then quietly leapt from the tree, landing without a sound.
Now it was time to tail them.
I followed the bandits from a safe distance, keeping my presence concealed. There was a reason I let them go.
I needed to know more about the bandits trapped within Dominic’s experimental prison. And these fools were my best chance at finding their base of operations.
With no clothes, no supplies, and nowhere else to go, they could only run back to wherever their comrades were hiding.
And that was exactly what I needed them to do.
‘I have to assess their strength.’
Engaging them head-on was too risky. I’d bluffed my way through the earlier encounter by pretending to be a Five-Star, but I couldn’t rely on that trick again—not without knowing exactly who I was dealing with.
If there were smarter bandits among their group—or worse, anyone with a Three-Star or higher skill level—they’d see right through my enchantment. I had to be careful.
‘They mentioned there were quite a lot of them trapped here... How many, exactly?’
After some time, the dense forest gave way to a large clearing.
In the middle of the clearing stood a fortified encampment, built entirely out of wood.
The structure looked well-maintained—definitely not an abandoned place they had stumbled upon. This had been a functional base for a group of bandits long before Dominic’s magic circle swallowed it whole.
In other words, the unlucky bastards who ran this place were as screwed as I was.
I climbed a nearby tree to get a better view of the camp. From my vantage point, I could see the bandits rushing toward the entrance, shouting frantically.
“Let us in! Please!”
“We barely made it out alive!”
The sight of a dozen half-naked men yelling for their lives caused a commotion inside the camp.
I watched as more bandits poured out of the gates, armed and ready. My eyes narrowed.
‘There are a lot of them.’
Just from a quick glance, I could tell there were at least a hundred bandits in the camp. And it didn’t even seem like everyone was present—this was just the initial wave.
To make things worse, some of them looked competent. These weren’t just low-level thugs.
I stayed hidden among the branches, observing quietly. What I wanted to know was how they would react to the information that a “Five-Star monster” was supposedly lurking nearby.
Would they run?
No, that wasn’t an option. The magic circle trapped them just as much as it did me. There was nowhere to run.
That left only one choice.
‘They’ll band together.’
When weaklings face overwhelming strength, they instinctively group up. It’s a survival mechanism.