The group wandered the streets in search of delicacies, but after several blocks, Lulu’anna realized there was a glaring problem.
She couldn’t find a single thing in this small market that caught her eye. Everything was crudely prepared—either simply stir-fried or tossed over charcoal—making even the school cafeteria seem like a fine-dining establishment.
What she found strangest of all was that everyone seemed to be selling Savory Salamanders.
She couldn’t wrap her head around it. Why was the entire street peddling these bizarre skewers? Why were the upperclassmen and teachers gorging themselves at roadside stalls? Was this stuff even edible?
Dorothy came to a dead halt in front of a barbecue stall, refusing to budge even when pulled.
She stared intently at the large and small salamanders sizzling on the charcoal. She let out a loud, heavy gulp.
“You’re actually going to eat that?” Lulu’anna asked, her face twisted in a grimace.
“Mhm!” Dorothy nodded vigorously.
“Suit yourself,” Lulu’anna muttered, exasperated. She pressed a Golden Spike Coin onto the counter. “My treat. Eat as much as you want.”
However, salamanders were cheap street food. The stall owner didn’t have enough change for a gold coin, so she had to swap it for silver coins before her roommates and Dorothy could finally get their hands on the roasted skewers.
While the other girls were still tentatively sniffing the aroma, Dorothy had already opened her mouth wide and bitten off a poor salamander’s head.
“The bones are soft! It’s delicious!” she exclaimed in surprise.
These salamanders, which lived in the crevices of rocks, were not only non-toxic but also made entirely of cartilage. Aside from the savory meat, they had a gelatinous texture similar to fish skin—a mouthfeel somewhere between a pig’s ear and a pig’s trotter.
The iron skewers were driven through the salamander’s tail and out through its mouth, the belly sliced open and the organs cleaned out. Even with basic seasoning, there wasn’t a hint of a fishy stench.
Dorothy clutched ten skewers, devouring them one after another in massive gulps. The other girls soon followed suit, abandoning their poise as they ate with relish, their lips and fingers stained with spices.
Lulu’anna felt a bit awkward. Given the disgust she had shown earlier, she felt too embarrassed to try a bite now.
“Are you finished? If you’re done, come with me to the general store!” she urged.
Having eaten her fill on Lulu’anna’s dime, Dorothy found it even harder to refuse.
Licking her fingers, Dorothy followed dutifully behind Lulu’anna, though she kept her neck pulled in and looked around nervously. She was terrified that Wang Yue might suddenly appear and demand to know whose maid she thought she was.
Fortunately, Wang Yue was currently occupied at the blacksmith’s shop, crafting a Witch’s Joy Wand, and had no time to catch her “cheating.”
***
The general store carried a bit of everything: stationery, snacks, trinkets, dolls, bedsheets, potted plants…
The shopkeeper was a lanky young man with a sharp gaze and agile movements. He kept the place impeccably tidy.
Lulu’anna asked if he had any high-grade pigments. He nodded, retreated to the back room, and returned with a box. The pigments were stored in glass tubes, their colors rich and vibrant.
Lulu’anna glanced at them and said, “I’ll take these. Do you have anything better? Gemstone powder, Tyrian purple, cochineal, things like that?”
“Miss Witch, the Evernight Realm doesn’t produce those things,” the shopkeeper replied flatly.
Just then, a man walked in from outside.
He stood nearly two meters tall with a broad frame, looking like a minor giant. However, his condition seemed dire. His skin was loose and sagging, looking like melting asphalt dripping downward. His breathing was ragged and he staggered as he walked, looking as though he might collapse at any moment.
His eyes were stretched unnaturally wide, yet his gaze lacked focus, resembling someone with severe nearsightedness who wasn’t wearing glasses.
The moment he entered, he lunged at the counter. His voice was hoarse as he wheezed, “Give me… makeup… fast…”
“Customer, what do you need? Makeup?” The shopkeeper looked at him with a questioning gaze.
“Hurry…” The man fished a handful of coins from his pocket—an assortment of denominations—and scattered them across the counter, where they clattered and spun.
Then, he went silent. His back arched and he began to writhe, as if suppressing agonizing pain. Sweat poured down his pale, thin face, merging into a large drop at his chin. Plop. It hit the floor, kicking up a tiny puff of dust.
The shopkeeper’s eyes darted as he assessed the situation.
Closing his fingers, he traced a circle and swept a precise amount of money into his cash box, pushing the remainder back toward the customer in one clean, efficient motion. He then turned and rummaged through the back room for a moment, returning with a gold-plated makeup box which he handed over.
The tall man struggled to control his trembling fingers. After several failed attempts, he finally flicked the latch and threw open the lid.
His fingernails scraped a furrow into the powder compact. Staring into the mirror, he began smearing it across his face in erratic streaks. Apparently unsatisfied, he simply removed the entire cake of powder, crushed it in his palm, and frantically plastered it over his skin like a madman.
Seeing this, Dorothy felt a shiver run down her spine and hastily tried to bid Lulu’anna farewell.
“Stay and play with me a while longer!”
Lulu’anna didn’t even realize she had changed her way of speaking; her tone held a hint of pleading. In the past, she would never have uttered such words.
“Not today! My Master is still waiting for me. These things are very important, I have to go!”
Dorothy ran out in a panic. Once she was clear of Lulu’anna, she pulled out a handkerchief and wiped her mouth, desperate to erase any evidence. She knew if her Master asked a few pointed questions, her secret snacking would be exposed.
She jogged all the way back to the designated tea stall.
Matcha and Dina had already returned from their shopping. Several cardboard boxes were piled at their feet, sealed with tape and looking rather mysterious—clearly contraband.
Wang Yue was nowhere to be seen. It seemed her Master’s business was complicated and would take a while longer.
As Dorothy chatted with her roommates, the thought of the roasted salamanders returned. she swallowed her saliva, secretly planning to convince Wang Yue to treat her once she got back so she could get a second meal.
Inside the tea stall, several explorers were still gathered around the small statuette, discussing it with great interest.
“What exactly is this thing?”
“Could it be a contaminant?”
“Probably not. There’s no obvious abnormal reaction when you get close.”
“Has your team tested the contamination intensity yet, Baggins?”
“Baggins?”
A man with a clean-shaven head and beard—leaving only a shadow of stubble—looked toward Baggins and suddenly realized something was wrong.
Baggins didn’t look like he was listening at all. His consciousness seemed to have completely disconnected from the outside world.
In the short-haired man’s sensory field, Baggins seemed as if he had been shoved into a glass bottle. Even if someone screamed at the bottle, only a faint, distorted sound would reach the inside.
In an explorer’s experience, this abnormal state was one of the hallmark signs of losing control!
Baggins stared blankly ahead. His face began to deform—his forehead protruded upward while his jaw extended downward. The vertical stretch was so extreme that the skin of his face couldn’t take the tension and began to rip apart.
Under the horrified gazes of the onlookers, a wedge-shaped, blood-red bone sprouted from Baggins’ jaw. It immediately split along a serrated center line, dividing into two sharp, insect-like mandibles with jagged edges like serrated blades!
Splat!
His neck tore open in a circular rent. His deformed head soared into the air, dragging a flat, monstrous insect out from the cavity of his torso!
The monster’s shell was a deep green, like lacquerware or insect chitin. It resembled a Hallucigenia, with sharp bony spikes distributed evenly along the dorsal side of its trunk.
As this terrifying arthropod lunged upward, its spikes shredded the remains of the human body. It tore out chunks of black-red viscera and nauseatingly slimy intestines, spraying hot blood everywhere and creating a light mist of steam.
The headless corpse, its upper half completely burst open, slumped to the ground. It continued to twitch slightly as dark green blood and black clots pulsed from the severed vessels.
The short-haired man standing inches away let out a roar of absolute terror!
But he wasn’t looking at the monster or the corpse. He was looking at the small statuette sitting on the table!
That was the source of his dread!
“This statue is a contaminant!” he screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice cracking with fear.
The people in the tea stall scattered in every direction, moving so fast they were mere blurs. No one wanted to be anywhere near what was at least a Rank 3 Contaminant.
Meanwhile, the monster that had erupted from Baggins hit the ground, writhing disgustingly. Its many legs skittered across the floor as it lunged toward Dorothy and her friends!
Dorothy stood frozen for two full seconds before a delayed scream finally escaped her throat.
She turned to run, but her legs had turned to jelly. She could only tremble, unable to move a single step.
Matcha and Dina screamed incessantly. Faced with the sudden, horrific danger, they completely lost the ability to think, even forgetting to draw their wands.
It wasn’t that they were weak. Even an adult, without rigorous training, would be paralyzed with shock when faced with the sudden assault of such a nightmare.
At that critical moment, the sound of rapid footsteps approached from the side!
