Chapter 46: Dominic’s Laboratory
They examined my face, moving their grotesque hands to get a good look, while another of them manipulated a crystal to assess my body. After a moment, a short gasp escaped one of them.
"High mana purity detected."
"Not that old, either."
"Physical abilities and balance are top-tier. Not suitable as mere fodder or raw material… We should transfer him to the master’s lab."
“It’s rare to get a first-rate specimen like this twice in a row. The master will be pleased when he returns.”
The appraisal concluded favorably.
Luckily, they hadn’t noticed that I was conscious.
But what did they mean by a “first-rate specimen” twice in a row? I had a hunch about who the other one might be.
I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder and looked down to see a large mark stamped there.
It was a symbol indicating “highest grade.” It was the first time in my life I’d been classified as top-tier, and the feeling was filthy.
The chimeras dragged me somewhere, gripping me tightly. I scanned my surroundings whenever I could, trying to gather as much information as possible.
There were countless people who’d been captured along with swarms of chimeras in this vast space, which was riddled with caves both large and small. They dragged me to one of the smallest caves.
Since I was marked as a premium specimen, they assigned a handler to accompany me.
After a while, we arrived in front of a massive iron door, where the handler finally stopped.
He placed his hand on the door, and it slowly opened with a heavy creak.
The handler stepped inside but suddenly froze, staring with irritation at something.
“What are you doing here?!”
Inside, another handler was leaning over someone on an operating table, wearing a sinister smile.
“A rare specimen has arrived. Want to have a taste?”
“Are you messing around again?”
“This one’s the best I’ve ever seen. Just look.”
The irritation vanished, and the handler who had brought me dropped me in the corner, disappearing toward his colleague. I could hear them snickering.
A test subject?
Oh, right. They mentioned another “first-rate specimen” earlier.
I tilted my head slightly to get a look, avoiding the watchful eyes of the chimera that held me. When I saw who was on the table, I felt my jaw drop.
Long, blonde hair spilled over the side of the operating table.
That hair color… it seemed all too familiar.
Damn it, please, don’t let it be her.
“The master will return soon. Isn’t this dangerous?”
“There’s plenty of time to enjoy it. It’s just a body that’s going to disappear anyway; who’s going to notice if we mess with it? Look at us—we’re monsters already. Don’t we deserve a little reward?”
“You’ve got a point.”
“Look at her skin. She’s one of those rare Dark Elves. Isn’t her body incredible?”
Apparently, even after turning into monsters, their lust remained intact. Seeing their twisted desires, I could tell these creatures still had remnants of human intelligence.
I let out a sigh, hearing the conversation between the handlers, filled with filthy intentions.
I was pretty sure I knew who was lying on that table. I wanted to warn these idiots that they were about to press the self-destruct button.
“Shall we start with her chest? Let’s unbutton her here…”
“Gyaaaaaaaah!”
Too late. Looks like she’s already made her move.
It was my cue to act as well. I jerked my body suddenly and shouted.
“Fenry!”
The moment their anguished screams echoed, I called out to her urgently.
It wasn’t because she was in danger—it was quite the opposite.
These creatures had some level of intelligence, which meant they could be useful sources of information. Killing them outright would be a waste.
“Don’t kill them…!”
Before I could finish my sentence, the chimera restraining me tightened its long arm around my neck. I quickly thrust my right arm into its open mouth.
Flash—!
“Gaaaargh!”
A burst of golden light erupted from its mouth, causing the chimera to convulse and collapse.
By the time I got to my feet, the situation was already over.
The handler who had been ogling her body was nothing more than a shredded pile of flesh and blood.
“Well, you really did a number on him.”
Fortunately, one of them was still alive—the handler who had dragged me here was pinned to the wall, a sharp object impaled through his stomach. He was screaming in agony, loud enough to be heard outside.
While gathering information was important, safety was a priority. Drawing attention could cause all the monsters outside to come rushing in.
I hurriedly approached Fenry.
“Chimeras will swarm here soon!”
“They won’t.”
“What?”
“I’ve blocked the sound.”
Fenry straightened her slim waist and nodded toward the surrounding area. Only then did I realize that a translucent barrier was encircling us.
A soundproofing spell?
‘If I could learn that, it’d be insanely useful.’
The practicality of magic hit me once again, but I had to let it go.
‘Magic’ was a realm I had no connection with.
Screeeeeam!
An agonizing, blood-curdling scream erupted behind me, enough to make me flinch.
When I turned around, I saw Fenry’s hand embedded in the handler’s chest, precisely where his heart would be.
Damn, she’s ruthless.
This woman was frighteningly decisive.
“Are you going to kill him before he even says anything?”
“You think he’s human? This much won’t kill him. I already tested it.”
“…Tested it?”
Did she confirm his anatomy by turning one of the other handlers into a bloody pulp?
What a terrifying woman.
Now I had yet another reason to avoid ever being her enemy.
I really needed to make a lot of money.
She smiled coldly, looking at the handler she had pinned.
She gripped his heart and pulled, causing him to vomit blood and beg for his life.
I never thought I’d witness torture like this up close.
“Where are the elves?”
As his heart was about to be ripped out, the handler started to spill everything he knew, as if he were a robot set to automatic. He even told her things she hadn’t asked about.
Now that I thought about it, this guy didn’t have a mana stone inside him—he had a real heart.
Had they skipped mind control or any other conditioning on him to keep him functional?
Well, that was good news for us.
“Fodder? They’re being used as fodder?”
Fenry’s expression hardened at his answer.
“Y-yes, regular elves are tossed in as fodder!”
“Fodder for whom?”
“I… I don’t know… Gyaaaaah!”
“Are you curious about what your heart looks like?”
“I… I really don’t know! I swear!”
The handler said that all he knew was that those thrown into the central pit were referred to as “fodder.” He seemed genuinely ignorant about the pit itself, even after she played around with his heart a few more times.
Having extracted whatever useful information she could, Fenry gave a sly smile.
To the handler, that smile looked like the smile of the devil.
“You… You said you’d spare me…!”
“When did I say that?”
Squish—
A dull, wet sound signaled the crushing of his heart.
The handler’s eyes bulged in terror before he slumped lifelessly.
Fenry casually shook the blood off her hands and bit down on her pipe.
Meanwhile, I quickly searched the laboratory around us.
This was Dominic’s private lab. There had to be something valuable here.
We were the only ones here, but around us were rows of operating tables meant to restrain test subjects, and various disturbing tools scattered across tables.
It’s horrifying.
The bloodstains everywhere made it feel like something out of a horror movie.
My gaze fell upon a large desk that seemed to belong to Dominic. I opened a few drawers and found a small metal box. It didn’t have a keyhole.
I could tell there was something inside, but how was I supposed to open it? Should I smash it? But it was likely a mage’s storage box, so handling it recklessly could be dangerous.
As I was shaking the box near my ear, a voice spoke from behind me.
“It’s sealed with a magic lock.”
“Can you open it?”
“If you give me half of whatever’s inside.”
“Aren’t we here to rescue Sharbadin?”
“I make a habit of collecting valuables along the way.”
She really was an insatiably greedy woman.
“Fine. But if it’s something we can’t split, we’ll share it instead.”
“Deal.”
“Keep your word.”
“What do you take me for?”
I know you all too well.
Reluctantly, I handed her the box. I didn’t have the skills to handle magical locks anyway, so I didn’t have much choice.
Fenry studied the box carefully, her eyes narrowing before she gave a slight nod. It seemed she had figured out how to unlock it.
After a few moments, light flowed from her hands, and with a soft click, the box opened.
Fenry’s eyes gleamed with anticipation, but as soon as she looked inside, her expression soured. It wasn’t what she’d expected.
Inside the box was a single notebook.
The cover bore an emblem of a burning heart. Seeing it, I let out a small gasp.
Dominic’s Chimera Research Journal.
This notebook contained Dominic’s entire lifetime of knowledge from his human experimentation.
For necromancers, dark witches, and black magicians who used human bodies as research material, this was an invaluable treasure.
Of course, only if one recognized its true worth.
“What’s this?”
Fenry flipped through the notebook with a frown.
Every page was blank. She couldn’t detect any magical enchantment on it either.
“It’s a dud.”
Seeing that it wasn’t full of sparkling jewels, her interest vanished.
She started flipping through the pages rapidly, as if she were about to toss it aside or burn it.
“W-what are you doing?!”
I could handle her being greedy and ruthless, but this was too much.
I snatched the notebook out of her hands and frantically patted out the sparks.
This insane elf had almost destroyed something priceless.
This research journal would eventually end up with the Shamans’ Nest in the protagonist’s faction, enhancing the power of shamanistic magic by two levels.
If I were Kamel, I’d be screaming to have her killed on the spot.
The protagonist knew the value of this research better than anyone.
“Look, you even singed the cover!”
“Who cares if I burn a blank piece of trash? Why are you looking at me like a dog desperate to go outside?”
“Don’t I have a claim to it too? At least give me some time to examine it.”
“Fine.”
She eyed me carefully, puffing on her pipe.
Did she sense something from my reaction?
Knowing her perceptiveness, it was possible.
To reveal the contents hidden on the blank pages, special techniques were needed.
But like hell I was going to tell her that.
“Let’s keep moving. Sharbadin is probably near the ‘altar.’”
“Altar?”
My attempt to change the subject worked.
The survival of that mysterious notebook was less important to her than Sharbadin’s life.
I began sharing bits of information from the novel with her. Since the handler had already revealed some of it, it was easier to weave in details naturally.
“The pit they mentioned as ‘fodder’—they also referred to it as the ‘altar.’”
Fenry’s brows furrowed.
An altar implied a place of worship, a site of reverence.
“So Dominic’s worshiping someone, huh?”
“The important thing is that Sharbadin was thrown into that altar.”
Despite her beauty, Sharbadin was just a regular elf without combat abilities.
They probably categorized her as ‘fodder,’ and in the story, her remains were found at that altar.
Sharbadin was likely still there, trapped in the altar.
‘The question is whether she’s still alive.’
I knew she had been captured two days ago.
With so much time passed, her survival wasn’t guaranteed.
“If they tossed her in as fodder, there must be something there that eats it.”
“Let’s just hope that thing is weak or has indigestion.”
Apparently, hundreds of non-humans were thrown into the altar pit alongside Sharbadin two days ago.
That was the only glimmer of hope.
‘After all, there’s only one creature in there that’s a real predator.’
We had to move quickly.
Even if she were dead, it would be a shame to leave without trying. But I was more concerned about my own time limit.
Fenry blew a cloud of smoke in my face, a gesture I’d learned by now meant she was annoyed.
Annoyed?
Of course, she would be.
And for good reason.
“It’s going to be tight, huh?”
“The deadline for immunity is still a day away. We have plenty of time to find Sharbadin.”
“Hmph!”
If I found Sharbadin within a week, I’d get both the immunity from her fate and the token.
But that also meant that six days had already passed.
“Right, just one day left until the week is up. Which means I spent six days in that filthy stomach.”
“……”
“Do you want to guess what I was thinking about as I starved in there? Hmm? Didn’t I start fantasizing about tearing someone apart?”
Shit. She’s been holding a grudge this whole time?
What a petty woman.