Monarchs of Above and Below (On Hiatus)

Chapter XXIII: The Witch's Hut

The steps to the common room creaked slightly as Matthew stepped on them towards the hearth and the cauldron that rested above it.

The simmering stew was an odd brown with several herbs swirling around within.

A wooden ladle hung from a side hook of the cauldron.

An intrusive thought in the back of his mind wanted him to have a taste of the substance, but the hunter quickly shoved the thought deep into his mind.

Matthew looked around the hut from the common room once again.

On a far wall was a small cubby in the wall filled with a table and shelves.

Several vials and various alembics propped above strange sigils written on paper were scattered across the table.

The wooden shelves were filled with jars full of various liquids, substances. And parts from magic beasts.

There was a jar filled- and nearly overflowing- with large cricket-like legs, some of which still twitching as if to escape their confinement.

Another jar was filled with pickled eyes with multiple pupils all over its sclera. Matthew swore a few of the eyes followed him as he approached the alchemy table.

He scanned over the contents of the table once again.

The wall behind the table was a window that revealed the dense forest beyond. In the windowsill was an opened book. The edges of its pages were old and parts of the ink was faded and hard to read. The cover was made of cured leather and stretched as he turned to look at its cover- which was blank.

Astoundingly though, the book was in English. It was hard to read due to the faded ink, but it was still definitely legible.

However, that didn't let Matthew understand what he was reading.

He was no scientist, despite his 'intelligence' stat having gotten higher as he leveled up, it hadn't actually made him smarter. But nonetheless he wasn't an idiot. He knew some basic math equations, though his brain had mainly lost any form of algebraic knowledge after his junior year of highschool.

Even after the awakening of mana throughout humanity and the appearance of gates, most laws of physics, matter, and the like stayed the same. Flames summoned from the mana of a mage could be doused with normal water just as any normal man-made flame, with a few exceptions from high ranking hunters who could augment their flames to make them intake less oxygen and exude more heat- overall making them harder to put out.

In general, with the implementation of mana, it added new things to take into account when thinking of how the world works- not necessarily changing them outright.

But the equations on the page just seemed impossible. They weren't necessarily difficult to understand, but difficult to produce.

"How do you manage to make fire a liquid? And.... boil it?"

Then Matthew heard the creaking of the front door.

Instinctively, Matthew turned and leaped towards the door, grasping his spear to attack whoever stepped through.

The tip of his spear stopped a few inches from someone's neck.

They were not a magic beast, nor some humanoid creature manifested by the dungeon, but a person.

She had long green hair that went down to the center of her back. She wore a green and brown mage's robes that were stained in several layers of dirt. She stood about an inch higher than Matthew's relatively short stature. Strung across her waist were several leather satchels as well as a leather book similar to the one near the alchemy table.