What witch? The Deadly Pharmacist!

Level 5 is the highest level of natural disaster, and the most representative example is the True Dragon.

However, starting from the fourth level, they basically only exist in rumors for ordinary people. In the entire empire, there are usually only a handful of reports of sightings of fourth-level monsters in a whole year, and sometimes even none.

Level 5 monsters are extremely rare; their mere appearance is enough to be recorded in history.

“Don’t worry, sir, I used to be a maze hunter.” Simon nodded to Leon.

“Check your belongings: maps, armor, weapons, lighting equipment…” Leon reminded them. “Oh, and take this too.”

As he spoke, Leon took out several small test tubes containing red powder from his person and distributed them to everyone.

"Sir, what is this?" Simon asked, holding up the test tube.

"It contains a feeding agent laced with magic essence," Leon explained. "Don't open it carelessly. This powder is extremely attractive to monsters. Once opened, they will swarm over. This is for your survival. If you encounter a dangerous monster, throw this out and break it. It will attract the monster's attention, and then you can take the opportunity to escape."

The main component of the red powder is mummy powder made from ground-up human mummies, mixed with a little Rena's blood, and then a little magic essence.

When Lena used to raise monsters, she discovered that her blood, when activated with a little bit of magic essence, had a strong attraction to monsters and could be mixed into their food as an attractant.

Monsters rely on the magical energy emitted by the labyrinth to maintain their magical power levels. Refined magical energy has a natural attraction for monsters. This is mentioned in the records preserved by the Inquisition. When the Church surveys the labyrinth, it sometimes uses the magical energy it collects to attract monsters.

The blessing of the blood oath also makes the witch's blood inherently attractive, and the addition of magic essence will multiply this attraction.

After feeding the monsters with human corpses, Leon tried using corpses, especially those of the blessed, along with this attractant. The attraction to the monsters was enough to drive them mad. If you sprinkled a little of this into the feeding pool, all the monsters would rush up to fight for the food.

"Remember not to spill it on yourself, or the monsters nearby will all target you and tear you to pieces," Leon said.

“Okay, thank you, sir.” Simon and his men thanked Leon while curiously examining the test tube.

The priest listened to their conversation silently, and while Simon and the others began checking their equipment, he stood up and leaned closer to Leon: "Hey."

Leon turned his head and saw the priest winking at him, so he followed the priest aside. Then the priest lowered his voice and said to him, "How much can you sell that tube of yours with the added magic essence for?"

"It's mixed with a little magic element, and it's worth around five or six thousand yuan on the market. Do you want it?" Leon asked.

“No, I meant you spent five or six thousand to save their lives?” The priest raised his eyebrows. “You should know that they only get an extra thousand pfennigs for this job, while Simon gets three thousand. If you give them this stuff, they’ll just tell you they used it and then keep it for themselves.”

“A thousand dollars is just for exploration work. It’s not unreasonable to use five thousand to save my life. This magic element doesn’t cost me anything. Last time I hired them to steal the carriage, I spent more than 100,000 dollars,” Leon said.

The magic essence used in these palatability enhancers was refined from the magic essence of the batch of monsters that died during the previous transport. Because they had never been fed to humans and had starved to death, the purity of the magic essence was only around 70%, which did not meet the Earl's requirements. It was better to use it elsewhere.

“All their work is done at their own risk. This time they’re asking for so much, even if they die, their lives are only worth this much.” The priest shook his head. “Also, about the last sum, Simon got 20,000, his subordinates each got 10,000, and the rest was my referral fee.”

"What!?" Leon's brows furrowed instantly. "They risked their lives, and you just talked their way out of it and got almost half of it?"

"The agency fee is settled in one lump sum, which is quite generous. They're incredibly grateful to me for introducing you as their employer," Father Auden said dismissively. "Do you think these thugs are anything special? I could introduce enough people willing to risk their lives for money to fill my church! If they don't do it, there are plenty of others who will. They don't have any other good jobs! They can only earn three or four thousand a month doing manual labor at the docks. If they want to earn a thousand or even ten thousand in one trip, do they think they can do it without risking their lives?"

Leon frowned as he sized up the priest. The concept of "capitalists who should hang streetlights" didn't exist in this world, so after thinking it over, he could only use the closest word: "You really are a bastard without an anus!"

Father Auden simply shrugged at this, after all, he was often told, "Dude, I'm your advisor, I'm saving you costs."

“I have my own rules for how I use people, so you can just sit here.” Leon waved to the priest, not wanting to say any more to him.

He then turned to Simon and the others who were ready and said, "Alright, let's go."

Simon suddenly froze: "Sir, are you going in too?"

“Of course, this is the property I’m going to use, so I have to take a look myself.” Leon said, putting on a protective mask, gloves, and leather armor made of headhunter rabbit skin.

Simon nodded and turned to one of his men: "You're in charge of protecting Mr. Fenrir."

"No need, I'll act alone. I'll be in charge of surveying this route. You can allocate the rest of the manpower yourselves." After giving the order, Leon picked up his lantern and walked towards the mine.

He possesses the power of a witch, making him immune to attacks from monsters. His cursed blood makes most monsters wary, so he is actually much safer acting alone than with these people.

Simon nodded, gave an admiring whistle, then waved to his left and right, and led his men to follow.

The priest shook his head, somewhat puzzled, as he watched Leon's retreating figure. He sat down again, picked up the food basket, and took out a sandwich and a small pitcher of light beer to fill his stomach. He was only responsible for showing Leon around the island, and he could relax for a while while they were surveying it.

However, less than an hour later, the sound of approaching hooves broke his leisurely time.

Father Auden looked on in confusion and saw two people riding horses toward them.

Both were young women. One was dressed in riding and hunting attire often worn by noblewomen, with a high-necked shirt and a lace scarf, over which was a double-breasted skirt. Underneath the long skirt were close-fitting riding trousers, and long boots. The clothes looked old, but they were well-matched. The other was dressed as a servant.

Upon seeing the exquisitely beautiful face of the young lady in her aristocratic hunting attire, like a work of art, Father Auden felt a sudden headache: "Oh, no..."

He put away the half-finished beer, dusted himself off, and got up. The person who came quickly rode up in front of him.

“What a coincidence, Miss Adele. I never expected to meet you here.” Father Auden bowed, after all, she was, after all, the daughter of a viscount.

“Father Auden, may I ask what brings you here to our estate?” Adele, daughter of Viscount Arend, stared at Father Auden with a serious expression and questioned him.

Chapter 92 Human Advantages Over Animals

Leon stepped into the middle of the maze alone, holding a lantern in one hand and wielding a scythe to clear the way in the other. The maze was narrow, but the vegetation was quite lush.

Moirai's power has made the biosphere in the labyrinth exceptionally rich, and these plants may contain plant-type monsters unique to the labyrinth, so extra caution is needed.

He peered deeper into the darkness, where only a few plants and mushrooms glowed, but his vision was clearer than he had imagined, as if an invisible moonlight was illuminating the night.

He looked behind him again, thought for a moment, and tried to cover the lantern first.

He found that he could still see quite clearly, and his night vision was significantly improved compared to usual.

"Could it be because of the potion?" he wondered to himself.

After receiving the prescription from Weiss, Lena collected the materials and tried to make the corresponding potion. She also experimented with the potion using chicken venom and rat venom.

The experimental results confirmed that the prescription given by Weiss could indeed cure the chicken snake venom without serious side effects. In fact, Leon had already taken the medicine once today.

He continued forward and suddenly heard several curses coming from afar. It seemed that Simon and the others had encountered some trouble, but the voices did not sound panicked, so it did not seem to be any serious danger.

Leon continued walking forward, when he heard a rustling sound above him. He raised his lantern and looked up, only to find the tunnel covered with a dense swarm of bats.

These bats are different from ordinary bats. Their bodies are blood red, their membranous wings are covered with black patterns like insect wings, their mouths are like sharp needles, and their necks are covered with downy hairs.

Vampire Mosquito Bats are small monsters that are very common in these tunnel-like mazes. It is said that they were mutated from native bats by the magic of Moirai during the process of maze formation.

As their name suggests, these small monsters mainly survive by sucking blood, and sometimes they also suck the sap of plants. If the magic in the maze is abundant, they can go for a long time without eating.

But if they encounter humans, they will attack like an enraged swarm of bees, swarming around people and attacking their weak points, tearing open wounds with their claw-like limbs and piercing their skin with their needle-like mouths to suck blood.

They are small and can be killed with a single slap, but a large number of them can be troublesome. People who are attacked often find themselves in a cycle where they kill a few and are immediately attacked by a group of them.

If you don't escape in time, you might even collapse from blood loss. In fact, people die every year from encounters with swarms of blood-sucking mosquito bats.

However, dealing with them is actually quite simple. Vampire-sucking mosquito bats are afraid of fire and light, and waving a torch can usually drive them away.

Simon and the others went in to investigate, carrying torches. They figured the shouts and curses they'd heard earlier were from encountering vampire mosquito bats, something they could handle.

Leon didn't rush to replace the lantern with a torch, because the blood-sucking mosquito bats didn't seem to intend to attack him.

Moirai's creations are extremely aggressive towards humans, but they usually do not attack witches blessed by Moirai, and may even obey the witches' instructions.

Long ago, when the church didn't know much about witches, they used the ability of a monster to attack a suspect to determine if the person was a witch.

However, a true witch can also control monsters to attack her to clear her name, and if a witch loses consciousness or becomes extremely weak, she is also likely to be attacked by monsters.

This foolish method was completely ineffective at identifying witches, and innocent people would only be harmed in vain. It was quickly abolished.

Leon had also tried to control monsters. Although he couldn't control a large group at once like Lena did with the Blood Pact, he could still control two or three monsters.

He focused his attention on a few mosquito bats, tried beckoning, and uttered a gentle murmur: "Come here."

Three mosquito bats stirred for a moment, then flapped their wings and flew to Leon's arm, where they lay docilely.

Leon carefully examined the three-headed mosquito bats, took a cloth bag and wrapped one of them up, preparing to take it back to collect samples. His main purpose this time was to understand the types of monsters in this maze.

Then Leon thought for a moment, took out a test tube containing his own blood, held it up, and tried to activate his ability.

In an instant, the blood turned purplish-red and showed signs of boiling.

In that instant, it was as if a bolt of lightning struck the tunnel ceiling, and all the vampire mosquito bats squeaked in terror and flew around in panic.

They desperately tried to escape Leon, gathering in groups and fleeing deeper into the tunnel, like a school of fish encountering a shark.

This effect made Leon smile with satisfaction. He put away the blood sample, it seemed that his blood also had a deterrent effect on wild monsters.

He continued deeper into the tunnel and discovered wriggling slimes and living vines twisting in the grass. He also encountered two giant rats as big as dogs, which fled warily upon seeing him.

He walked in for another ten minutes or so. There was still space inside, and it was becoming more and more spacious. Many bushes began to appear, and Leon could vaguely see broken stone pillars, which were man-made structures that should not have existed in this mine.

Leon took out the map and glanced at it, confirming that there was no such space on the original mine map.

This is not surprising, as labyrinthine underground spaces often change and expand, and sometimes they connect with some buried relics.

There is a folk tale that the labyrinth itself is alive, and that the power of Moirai transformed it into a gigantic creature that devours humans.

Leon put away the map and carefully ventured deeper into the area, where the real exploration was about to begin.

Their goal is to clear the maze, then send people to control it and turn it into a new monster breeding ground.

Thus, they must kill all the threatening creatures in the maze, and the most dangerous creatures in the maze tend to be concentrated in the deeper layers.

The surrounding space had become quite empty, and some ruins were beginning to appear, indicating that this place was indeed connected to an underground ruin.

Leon looked around, unsure of where to go, when suddenly a low growl jolted him awake.

He took out the test tube containing the blood of the curse and cautiously looked around. Suddenly, many eerie green lights appeared in front of him, like will-o'-the-wisps.

Leon squinted, his enhanced night vision allowing him to vaguely make out the outline of a wild beast.

These eerie green dots are the eyes of wild beasts. Judging from their outlines, these beasts are similar to wolves, but larger and comparable to leopards.

Judging from the number of eyes, there were at least five heads appearing before Leon.

The dire wolf is a common high-level creature in the food chain found in the maze. It possesses an exceptionally strong body and powerful self-healing ability, and is immune to most poisons.

It is said that someone once put a captured wolf and a hungry adult black bear together, which led to a fierce fight in which the smaller wolf killed the bear.

In the labyrinth, the dire wolves usually travel in packs, which is why their dangerousness is on par with large monsters like griffins and manticores.

The monsters ahead were all low-risk level 1 monsters, but here we suddenly encountered a level 3 monster!

Leon had initially hoped the maze wouldn't be too difficult, but now it seems it will take some effort to conquer it.

Leon swallowed nervously and slowly took a few steps back.

The wolves watched it warily, not daring to approach rashly, and showed no sign of friendliness; Leon could sense hostility emanating from them.

But the hostility wasn't the aggressive hatred that monsters have for humans; it was more like the wariness of a wolf pack spotting a lone wolf.

Leon tried to focus his attention on a dire wolf and gave it the command: "Back off."

The wolf seemed to sense something and appeared confused, but after hesitating for a long time, it shook its head and quickly returned to normal, not obeying Leon's command.

Leon's expression turned serious. The witch's blessing could control monsters, but it seemed to have limitations. He couldn't directly control monsters of the level of the demon wolf.

But judging from what happened just now, if we slightly strengthen our control, such as by using Lena's Blood Oath Blessing, perhaps Lena could control the Dire Wolf.

However, witches are not entirely immune to attacks from monsters. The effect of witches not being attacked by monsters is more like being recognized by monsters as other monsters and not being treated as humans.

However, there is also a food chain relationship among monsters. Weak monsters will regard witches as more powerful beings and be afraid of them, but powerful monsters may not necessarily do so.

Based on Leon's current perception, he seems to be about the same level as a single demon wolf in the eyes of the monsters.

Leon continued to retreat, and the wolves showed no intention of approaching him further, seemingly having no intention of rashly starting a battle.

But just as Leon took a dozen steps back, a wolf that was noticeably larger appeared behind the five wolves. It pushed aside the others and began to cautiously and slowly approach Leon.

Leon's heart sank. This demonic wolf seemed to be the leader of the pack. It probably sensed that he, an outsider, posed a threat to its territory. Its hostility towards Leon was noticeably stronger, and it seemed that it did not intend to let him go easily.

Leon was a little nervous holding the test tube containing his blood sample. He wasn't sure if the poison-immune wolf would be afraid of his cursed blood. Perhaps it would be better to use a attractant to distract the wolf before making his escape.

After much thought, Leon suddenly had a new idea: perhaps he could combine the two methods.

Anyway, if we want to conquer this maze, we'll definitely have to find a way to deal with these demon wolves. Intelligence is the biggest advantage humans have over animals, and the same applies to monsters.

He put down the lantern, took out his blood sample and the attractant, opened the lid, and then quickly mixed the two together.

Before activating his ability, his blood had no deterrent effect on monsters, but once the attractant was activated, the aura it emitted immediately triggered the dire wolf.

All the demon wolves suddenly raised their heads, their eyes shining.

Leon quickly threw the test tube away, and all the dire wolves' eyes followed it closely. The moment the test tube shattered on the ground in the distance, the aura spread out, and all the dire wolves rushed towards it like madmen.

The lead wolf charged forward, licking the blood off the ground. The other wolves followed, only to be viciously bitten.

But the allure of the attractant was too strong, and the other dire wolves were unwilling to give up easily. Some tried to lick it secretly, while others bared their teeth at the leader in an attempt to resist. However, after being attacked twice, they finally became obedient, drooping their heads and retreating to the side, only able to watch longingly.

Leon silently retreated to a distance, watching the wolf leader lick the blood off the ground. At this distance, he could easily escape, and he still had several vials of attractant in his hand.

This time, however, he did not choose to run away. Instead, he focused his attention on the wolf leader who had finished licking his blood and silently activated his ability.