The witchers came out of the east and swiftly moved to the west. They climbed across two mounds along the path the vines showed them and blasted off a few more patches of swamp gas.
Eventually, they arrived at a spacious wall with neat marble flooring. Unlike the crude and abandoned cave, this room was resplendent and exquisite.
The witcher stopped at the stairs behind the door and stared at a stone stele written in Elder Speech. Roy kept looking at it and easily recognized what it was saying thanks to his bloodline. "Look to the depths and be lifted up?"
As if responding to Roy, a cold gust of wind blew from within the hall. Roy cocked his eyebrow, while Letho fell silent.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Roy asked. It feels like the death throes of a man in despair. He walked down the wrong path and found it to be almost insurmountable only to be rewarded in the end? Is that what it is?
"Fanatical and extreme. That means danger. This is not good news." Letho looked at the center of the hall. Auckes, Serrit, and Felix were standing beside a cylindrical pillar. "Let's go. No time to waste."
***
"Did you find the key? Don't tell me you've been staring at this thing the whole time."
It was then Roy and Letho realized how terrifyingly tall the pillar was. It was at least thirty feet tall, connecting the ground to the ceiling. Patterns that resembled paddies were engraved around it. This place felt like it was a huge cage, but the spaces between the pillars were big enough for anyone to come and go anytime they pleased.
A humanoid stone figure stood between two pillars. They looked like cold, inscrutable giants hiding in the dark, staring into the future.
"We killed a wraith and found something." Auckes laid out an old parchment in front of Roy and Letho. The content read like a research journal.
'We started researching drowner genes as per the orders of our teacher—Irenues var Steingard. All subjects lose consciousness after they're fed with puffer fish toxin. Twenty-four hours after that, they lose all life signatures. It is impossible to go on with the experiment.
Taken by: Matteo Sigula.'
***
"Alright, we found a lead." Roy whipped the earlier parchment out and compared the two side by side. His findings excited him. "This guy's teacher was the same guy who bought the golem—Irenues var Steingard! He's the owner of this lab. He must have the key to the door!"
"Calm down, kid!" Serrit doused his excitement. "We've searched the whole place. There's nothing but this journal and a dumb wraith. Not even a mouse. We found no key."
"This lab has probably been abandoned for years. Who knows where the sorcerer might be?"
"See? Bombs are needed. What did I tell you?"
"No, wait. You ran into a wraith? So that means a body should be lying somewhere," Letho said.
"Sorry. We didn't find any bodies, but…" Felix approached one of the statues and looked up at the pillar. There was actually a lever there. "I found some doohickey." And he pulled the lever down.
The floor rumbled, and dust flew into the air. The statues that were facing the witchers turned ninety degrees clockwise.
"If we turn these in the right direction, we should get what we want: the body and the key."
"Damn sorcerers and their annoying contraptions. Alright, let's do this." Auckes went over to the lever on the west side of the hall. "I'm going to crack this case."
"When you can't even solve basic arithmetic questions?" Serrit scoffed. "You don't even know how many possible combinations there are. It's going to take you forever just to crack it."
Roy looked around. There are seven statues, and each can face four directions. Four to the power of seven. We're looking at the chances of… Roy's heart sank. "One in more than sixteen thousand combinations. Those are our chances."
Everyone was shocked.
"So what? We smashed the Trial of the Grasses. We have enough time to crack this." Auckes scratched his nose. He got fired up again in just a moment and pulled the lever on one of the statues. "Even if we're going with trial and error, it's still better than standing around and twiddling our thumbs."
"Hold it, you fool! Leave a mark! You do that without making records and I guarantee you'll forget how many combinations you made in an instant!" Serrit went and worked with Auckes, and Felix helped.
There was a fire burning within him. I must crack this contraption and meet that Cat in this accursed laboratory.
***
Roy stood in the same spot, staring around. He started brainstorming. All he knew was that a lab was hidden underneath the island, but he couldn't remember how he should crack the contraption that would lead them to it.
"Help us out, kid!"
"Something's off with this journal. Letho, drowners are supposed to be immune to poison." Roy wasn't planning on going through with trial and error. There must be a way to solve this. He asked a weird question. "So why'd the drowners black out and die after they were injected with puffer fish toxin?"
"I'm not a sorcerer, and I've never done any experiments like that, but what I know is puffer fish toxin is different from any other poison. It's a nerve toxin, and its power is unparalleled. That toxin works differently from any other poison. It doesn't corrode or hurt the flesh. Once it's absorbed, the toxin attacks its victim's nervous system and shuts it down. The victim is robbed of all life functions, and they die. Even drowners have nervous systems too."
"I see."
Letho went back to the lever pulling after he answered Roy.
Roy flipped through the journal and receipt, then he searched the hall twice, but he found nothing.
"Roy, you can't just slack off while everyone else is working their butts off." Auckes threatened, "Move your arse, or if we crack the contraption, anything valuable belongs to us. You're not taking anything."
Roy shook his head. He shrugged that little banter off and mumbled, "This is a complex contraption. There's no way the researchers could memorize them. There must be a clue."
But I went through the papers and searched the whole place. "Did I miss something?" What did I miss? He closed his eyes and imagined everything he saw ever since they came into this cave.
Two minutes later, he opened his eyes, and something glinted in them. "Wait a minute…" That cryptic message on the stele! "Look to the depths to be lifted up."
Look to the depths. That's it. These statues look like they're staring at something. So all I have to do is turn them around until they're facing the depths. That should unlock something. But what are the depths?
Roy looked around again. The uneven walls outside the hall had nothing resembling the depths at all. Which means…
He went past the witchers and entered the circular clearing surrounded by the statues. Roy hunkered down and knocked on the marble floor. It's hollow. "Alright, that's enough, guys. I think I get it now."
***
Two minutes later, the witchers turned all the statues until they were facing the center area.
A crisp crack was heard, and the floor parted to the sides, revealing a deep, dark pond in it.
There wasn't much light shining on it, and something seemed to be moving under the water. Ripples were spreading across the pond.
"So this is what the quote meant. This is the depths."
"We're getting too old for fast thinking. Gotta leave that department up to the youth." Auckes gave Roy's shoulder a pat of approval, and then he quickly cast a Quen shield on himself.
Auckes rubbed his hand and nodded at the pond. He swung his hand down and announced, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get down there and kill that monster!"
The Vipers hopped into the pond and created a splash, while Felix and Serrit stayed back as insurance.
The pond's surface started to churn and bubble. A few moments later, five drowners showed up on the surface, but they were all dead.
Thanks to his companions leaving the last hit for him, Roy made another one hundred EXP.
'Level 7 Witcher (1340/4500).'
They came back up dragging a skeleton draped in strips of cloth.
'Human skeleton.'
Even after he was dead for years, there was still magic swirling around his bones. He was probably a sorcerer before he died.
"I wonder if this was supposed to be the owner of this lab or his student." Roy looked curious.
"Who cares? We got the key, and now it's time to see that poor bastard." Auckes was holding the rusty key they got from the skeleton. He looked excited.
"How did he die though?"
"There are bite marks all over the bones." Serrit picked a fibula up and mused. "He fell into the pond for some reason and was devoured by the drowners."
No matter who this was, both Irenues and Matteo performed horrible experiments on drowners. The puffer fish toxin experiment was a prime example of that. Wonder if they ever imagined ending up as their test subjects' food. Look to the depths to be lifted up? Maybe. Or maybe this guy went to hell. "This is not a good sign."
Auckes puffed his chest out. As if reciting a poem, he said, "The architect, killed by the golem he repaired; the researcher, devoured by his test subject. Will we one day die at the hands of the very monsters we hunt?"
And that sent a chill running down everyone's spine.
"You shut your mouth!" Serrit snatched the key from him. "Let's get to that door."
***
***
