NOVEL NEXT Chapter 59: Chapter 58
Chapter 58: Necklace Trembling
"This is really embarrassing." Lan shook the slippery blood off his gloves and frowned as he whispered. "I don't know how to make someone die silently and quickly, and I don't know how to prevent too much bleeding when someone dies. If it weren't for the sea's fishy smell, this blood would alert everyone."
"Skill Analysis - [Assassination], current proficiency 1%
Skill Analysis - [Stealth], current proficiency 4%"
"Sir, the logic contained in these two skills is far more complex than imagined. The learning cost without personnel guidance is very high, but now is not the time to find a teacher."
"You're right, Mentos."
Lan fixed the torch on the camp's fence. With the current lighting environment, the body would be invisible if it was slightly farther from the light source.
"Can't complain about what I don't have, let's continue."
Lan continued to infiltrate the camp. To achieve Mentos's suggested cleanup goal, he planned to eliminate some active patrol personnel first.
Ten minutes later. Under the dim moonlight and firelight, Lan crouched behind an empty tent. His ears heard the approaching footsteps. After silently estimating, as the patrolman passed the tent, Lan stood up and reached out. Again, he covered the opponent's mouth and nose with his hand, this time using a method that wouldn't cause bleeding.
With a "snap" sound, the man's face turned backward. His neck was directly broken.
Following the previous example, Lan fixed the torch on the camp's structure. This would prevent the torch from moving, but it was better than mysteriously losing many light sources in the camp, which could alert others.
The dying struggle this time was much smaller because the cervical vertebrae were broken, and the body was no longer controlled by the brain. But the residual nerve signals still caused the body to twitch for a while before stopping.
Lan gently exhaled, and his now deep black eye sockets wrinkled. The [Assassination] technique was still not ideal. After abandoning the dagger, he had used this method to eliminate seven more enemies. But he still didn't know how to break a human's cervical vertebrae effortlessly, just using brute force.
This was equivalent to direct wrestling with seven well-fed adult males, purely relying on physical strength. Although he could win, as a witcher, he was starting to feel a bit out of breath.
"Huff - after I kill this bunch of bastards, I must find an expert to learn from. Mentos, add this to the memo." Lan slightly calmed his breathing and ordered the AI in his mind. His tone revealed a rare sense of ease in the past two days.
Intense exercise accelerated blood flow to the brain, making one feel their thoughts jumping. And now, not only did Lan feel his thoughts jumping, but as he consecutively killed seven patrol personnel, his position was getting closer to the dark prison area.
White should be there.
The young witcher suppressed the impatience and excitement of nearing his target, and sneaked into a tent with people inside. In the dark tent, three sleeping men lay on makeshift beds of straw and animal skins. Inferior longswords, clubs, and spears were placed by the bedside, within easy reach.
"Trust" within the crime syndicate was a fairy tale. They were all ruthless scoundrels with no morality, who would trust whom?
The first one had his neck broken directly. The slight twitching and gasping woke the man next to him, but in the tent, Lan didn't think the massive bleeding would be noticed. So, the dagger directly slashed across the man's throat, leaving a deep, bone-visible wound.
To ensure he wouldn't make a sound, Lan used more force than usual, aiming to sever the trachea and vocal cords together. The blood spurting from the throat hit the tent ceiling.
Lan used his over 150-kilogram weight to press horizontally on the three bodies to suppress their dying struggles. The third person was also slashed across the neck during this pounce.
In the indistinct darkness, the tent canvas rolled slightly for a dozen seconds before returning to calm.
Lan wiped his blood-splattered face and walked out of the tent. The lack of skill made it messy, but at least the goal was achieved. He had already eliminated ten armed personnel. Even in the worst case scenario—with fifty people in the camp—he was close to achieving the "eliminate one-third" goal.
Soon, he could rescue White and retreat safely, then notify Phillip and turn around to kill all these traffickers and cannibals.
Lan's teeth clenched without him realizing it. His killing intent towards this group, which trafficked humans and ate them, severely injured Bernie, and kidnapped White, was so great that he couldn't see clearly.
If he wanted more gains, he would have to get closer to the large tent in the center of the camp. He didn't know the background of the "Head Eater". If he could slip away without alerting him, that would be the best. In this magical world, this guy might have made a name for himself by eating human heads. Lan didn't want to touch bad luck at this critical moment.
Slowly approaching the wooden cage prison area, Lan's low-light vision allowed him to see inside the cages. Large cages and small cages were put together, with most of the large cages holding groups of children.
These children, adhering to Velen's usual living standards, were malnourished and posed no threat even when clustered. The children were already scared out of their wits.
In the small cages used as compartments, there were mostly adults tortured beyond recognition. Some had parts of their limbs cut off, and some were already corpses, just piled there. Like pieces of meat in a butcher's shop for buyers to browse.
Lan wrinkled his brows as he walked past rows of wooden cages. The darkness here was extremely deep, and Lan always controlled his walking movements well. The people in the cages, although close, probably couldn't see him.
This was to prevent the imprisoned people from getting too excited and shouting. What these people had experienced, Lan didn't dare to think about. Most of them had likely already mentally collapsed. If they discovered him now, losing their minds and shouting wouldn't be the worst outcome. Before he could rescue them, it was better to let them know nothing.
But as Lan quietly passed by a small cage compartment,
"Witcher?"
A weak voice came from the cage, so hoarse it was hard to tell if it was male or female. Lan's cat-like eyes contracted sharply, and he turned to stare at the person in the cage.
With the current lighting environment, even with the potion, the witcher couldn't clearly see what this thing was.
Lan first thought of a monster. Many monsters could talk, and capturing a live one was very valuable. It was possible that the human traffickers also made some extra money. The young witcher hoped that this already tense rescue operation wouldn't be disrupted by a monster at this critical moment.
Fortunately, under the [Cat] eyes, Lan confirmed that it was indeed a person.
"You are really a witcher? Ha! What a stroke of luck!"
Slightly approaching, Lan suddenly felt the roaring bear head necklace around his neck, "rattling" as it moved.
***
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