Beast Taming

"One, two, three, four... seventeen, eighteen."

"Eighteen Orens, thirty-seven copper coins."

"Damn, what a poor ghosts."

Wayne counted the bloody Oren coins in his hand, snorted disdainfully, then wiped off the blood and stuffed them all into the money bag. After the battle, he rummaged through more than a dozen corpses on the ground but found only such a small amount of money on these guys, most of which came from the big fat man, leaving him quite distressed.

Such a meager amount of stolen money was a disgrace for a gang, even worse than what farmers might have. The devil dust bomb he threw out made him feel like he was losing money.

However, despite the little amount of money, other findings on the farm pleasantly surprised Wayne. Besides his own stolen mount Lucifer, he discovered two tied horses in the stable. Although they were common, selling them could fetch several hundred Orens. Finally, there was a sense that the effort was not in vain.

Wayne smacked his lips and walked towards the big wild boar.

He pulled out the dagger that Vesemir had given him, quickly cutting open the boar's throat and artery. After the blood was drained, he opened the boar's stomach with a knife, taking out all the internal organs and large intestines. His movements were swift, and he dismantled the wild boar into various ingredients in just ten minutes. After all, it is such a big wild game, it is a pity to leave it alone, and it is a shame to waste it. With such good cooking skills, these ingredients are enough for him to make many delicious dishes.

After dealing with the wild boar, Wayne put away the dagger and walked towards the inside of the farmhouse. At this time, the surviving gang of wild dogs had long since fled without a trace, and the surviving vicious dogs also disappeared. Only some personal belongings were left in the farmhouse, waiting for him to search.

After some searching, Wayne found the property hidden by those gangsters on the first floor of the farmhouse. About 40 pieces of Oren and some gold and silver jewelry were hidden quite secretly, and they might be the savings of those guys.

When he walked up to the second floor, he immediately saw a rather luxuriously decorated room. There were some exquisite decorations on the walls and on the table, and there was a king-sized solid wooden bed in the center of the room. Looking at the layout, it is probably the room of the fat man riding a wild boar.

Seeing this, Wayne immediately cheered up. However, before he could make a move, the witcher's keen senses told him that somewhere in this room, there was still a living creature—the faint sound of breathing and heartbeat faintly passed into his ears.

He sensed the faint sound and found that it came from a hidden wooden door inside a wooden wardrobe, and it was also a locked wooden door. Wayne thought for a while and didn't open the door immediately but chose to continue searching the property in this room.

He guessed that the private space behind the closet should not be an enemy but a poor fellow imprisoned by the big fat man. After all, the enemy would not lock himself in a secret room, and since he had been locked up for so long, he shouldn't care about being locked up for a while longer.

After some searching, the results were not bad. In addition to property worth hundreds of Orens, Wayne also found a metal iron box in the hidden space next to the bed through the slight trembling of the medallion.

Opening the iron box, there was a stave that looked like a dead branch of a tree, a book that looked like a hand-transcribed book, and a strange ornament that looked like an eyeball held by an eagle's claws. Wayne did not recklessly touch the two magic-like objects but picked up the book that had no magic response and read it.

There is no title, and the handwriting is scrawled like a dog crawling, but the content of the book quickly attracted his attention. This is a book that records how to tame animals. Not only does it contain methods of domesticating vicious dogs, horses, and other wild animals, but it also records some herbal medicine formulas, materials, and steps of some magic rituals, which is quite interesting.

From the looks of it, it should be the boss of the wild dog gang who got the method of taming the beast from somewhere and the notes he took down. Judging from these animal taming methods, the dead wood-like staff, and the grotesque ornament, Wayne speculated that they came from a druid.

As for the whereabouts of the druid, Wayne couldn't help but think of the living creature locked in the secret room behind the cabinet. Therefore, Wayne stuffed the book that recorded the experience of taming the beast into his bosom. As for the two magic items, he did not take them away. Instead, he put the metal box in a conspicuous position on the bed, then got up and went to the wooden cabinet, opened the cabinet door, revealing the locked wooden door inside.

Wayne didn't have the key to the wooden door, but it didn't matter. He directly raised his hand and placed an Alder's seal, shaking the wooden door into pieces.

Behind the wooden door is a small space; in addition to storing some food, there is also a wooden ladder leading to the attic. Wayne didn't hesitate anymore, turned around, found an oil lamp from the room, put a layer of Quen shield on himself, and carefully climbed up the stairs.

Before reaching the attic, an unpleasant smell of feces and urine came from above the attic. The space in the attic is quite small. Under the pressure of the roofs on both sides, there is only a triangular space left. In this small space, there are not only a simple straw mat and a broken quilt for sleeping, but also a figure huddled in the corner and chained.

White hair, hunched figure, old face, wearing a dark brown sloppy linen gown, as if to prevent him from speaking, a metal mask was put on his mouth and locked with an iron lock. Through the light of the oil lamp, Wayne recognized that he should be an old man in his 60s or 70s, but the old man may have suffered from physical problems due to the long imprisonment, and he looked quite weak.

Seeing Wayne with the oil lamp, the old man seemed to regain his energy all of a sudden. He stared at his bloodshot eyes and let out a sobbing sound from the iron mask. Looking at Wayne, there was a look of pleading in his eyes.

Wayne's expression didn't change much. After observing the iron mask on the old man's head and the thick iron chain, he confirmed that he couldn't open it, so he said:

"Don't worry, old sir. I am a witcher, and I have killed all the robbers here. You are safe now, and I will find a way to get you out."

Saying that, Wayne put the oil lamp in his hand on the ground to keep the light in the attic, and at the same time, it also made the old man less nervous. Then he continued:

"I'm going down to look for the key; otherwise, I have no choice but to rescue you from the chain without hurting you."

He looked into the old man's eyes and asked word by word:

"In the meantime, can you wait here quietly?"

Although he didn't know how long he had been locked up, the old man seemed to be able to maintain a good sense of reason. After listening to Wayne's words, the old man regained some calmness. The bloodshot eyes in his eyes faded a lot, and he became quite peaceful. He watched Wayne nod emphatically, no longer making any drastic movements and quietly sat on the straw mat that was probably used for sleeping, waiting quietly.

Seeing this, Wayne became more and more sure that this old man should be a druid who believes in nature. Otherwise, after being imprisoned for so long, it is impossible for ordinary people to be so calm when they meet the hope of getting out.

After communicating with the old man, Wayne quickly climbed down the stairs, looking for the key to unlock the chain in the farmhouse. After searching for a long time, he finally found it on the big fat man's body. This guy hid it quite secretly and stuffed it directly into the hidden pocket of his coat. If Wayne hadn't had a clear goal, he wouldn't have noticed this detail at all.

After he returned to the attic, he untied the old man's iron chain and mask. The first thing the old man did was to raise his trembling right hand, press it on his chest, chant a spell, and use a spell emitting green light to heal himself. It wasn't until a few minutes later that the light dissipated and the old man's mental state recovered a bit. He said in a very hoarse and weak voice:

"Thank you for saving me, witcher. My name is Keinster, and I am a druid. I have been trapped by this chain mixed with dimeritium for too long. Can you give me some food?"