Chapter 4: The Petrifying Woman

Chapter 4:
The Petrifying Woman

 

AS THE STONE WOMAN returned to living flesh, I marveled at the effectiveness of the Stone Salve. The woman seemed a bit dazed as she straightened up and looked around, but she was strong too. It was hard to miss the muscles under her brown skin. When I looked into it, I found she was Level 107 and had several combat skills to boot.

“Where did she go?” the woman asked, eyeing us carefully.

“She?”

“Her bottom half is a snake and—actually, who on earth are you all?”

We explained the situation. She was clever, and she immediately understood what we were doing.

“Thank you for curing me. You can call me Aisha. I’m from a small town in the central part of the continent. I stopped here on a trip.”

“I’m Noir. We were really surprised when we arrived. Everyone in town has been turned to stone.”

“She did it. She has the face of a beautiful woman, but her lower half isn’t human at all…”

“A snake, right?”

“Yeah. She’s dangerous. Everyone who looks at her turns to stone. At first, I thought it was magic, but it was too fast and too powerful. I’ve never heard of a spell that could turn so many people at once. She approached me with her eyes downcast and asked, ‘Where is the House of Weldt?’ I told her I didn’t know. Then she raised her head and…that’s all I remember.”

It sounded like Aisha had been turned to stone the moment their eyes met. If this was the result of the snake lady’s skill, it was a pretty vicious one. Unless you had Petrification Immunity, you were done for.

Also, it turned out that all of this had happened only a few hours ago. We sure had incredible timing.

“I’m acquainted with the lord of Honest,” said Perrido. “I think it would be best if we went on ahead and informed him of the situation.”

“Mr. Perrido, do you know about the House of Weldt?” I asked.

“That I do.”

The Weldts were a noble family and Sir Weldt was the mayor of Landan. He was well-liked and always thought about the needs of his people. Not exactly the type to attract ill will.

“He was aggressive about eradicating monsters and keeping this area safe,” said Perrido.

“Now that might be something,” said Leila. “How would a powerful monster feel about that?”

Everyone fell silent. If any monsters in the area could speak, they might well also harbor a desire for revenge.

“Mr. Perrido,” I said, “could you take a few bottles of Stone Salve to Honest?”

“What do you plan to do, Noir?”

“I’m going to Weldt’s house to see what’s happened to the mayor.”

“Seems risky. What if you’re all turned to stone?”

“That’s why I want you to take the Stone Salve,” I said.

“Ahh, now I understand.”

If the worst did happen, Perrido could save us with the salve. Aisha was suffering from the aftereffects of the petrification, so she decided to go with Perrido to Honest.

“Don’t push yourselves too hard,” she said.

“Oh, don’t worry, if anything dangerous happens, I’ll run.”

Perrido told us where to find the mayor’s house, and off they went.

On our way across town, I started to worry. Should I give myself Petrification Immunity? I had just under 3,000 LP, and the S-Grade version would leave me really hurting, but I could get the A-Grade variant for only 1,200. I went for it. After all, it was best if we could avoid getting our whole group wiped out. I wanted to add the phrase, “renders gaze-based petrification ineffective,” but I didn’t have enough LP.

In one corner of a residential area, there was a large building that looked a little fancier than the others. That had to be the mayor’s house. The front door was wide open.

“You should probably keep watch,” I told the others. “I have the immunity skill, so I’ll go inside.”

“I’m going with you!” said Emma.

“All right,” said Leila. “Then I’ll go around back.”

Lola and Luna stood guard out front, in case any enemies tried to make a break for it.

We tiptoed into the house and quickly found a woman near the entrance who had been turned to stone. Judging from her outfit, she was a maid. We followed the trail of stone maids and butlers down the hall and up the stairs, then froze in our tracks when we approached a room at the back of the house. The doors were also wide open.

I listened carefully. I couldn’t hear anything, so I flattened myself against the wall and peered inside. There was no sign of either monsters or humans. When I found the courage to go inside, I found a stone man, reaching for something on a shelf. Emma joined me and looked at his face.

“Seems to match the description Mr. Perrido gave. He must be the mayor.”

“Well, that’s unfortunate. But we have some Stone Salve, so we should definitely use it.”

“Wait, Noir, what’s that?”

The room hadn’t really been disturbed, with the exception of one area. There were several shards of glass on the floor by the wall. No, it was…a mirror?

“Something seems odd about that area. If those came from a mirror, there has to be more of it somewhere.”

“Maybe the petrifying woman smashed it and stole something?”

That made sense. If I had to guess, the mayor had probably been reaching for that mirror.

“Hey,” said Emma. “Look at this.”

She’d found a bundle of parchment in a desk drawer. On closer inspection, it appeared to be the town records. It detailed how monsters had been appearing frequently around Landan; what soldiers had been sent to take them out; monster exterminations; the capture of a notorious thief, and so on.

It also described how Yga, the vice-captain of the mayor’s private guard, had been caught committing petty theft, and how resentful he had been when the mayor confronted him about it. The next day, he stole a great sum of money and goods and ran off, leaving only a note that read: “I’ll never let you live this down.” It sounded like an awful situation.

The papers included other issues the mayor was dealing with, among them, a description of a specific monster hunt.

“This must be related to what happened.”

Apparently, there were caves in the marshes to the east of Landan, and some particularly vicious monsters had taken up residence there. The caves were famed for their hidden riches, and a group had disappeared down there in search of them. Others were sent to investigate and discovered the first group had been turned to stone. Based on eyewitness reports, a woman with the lower body of a snake was responsible.

“It matches Aisha’s story. Sounds like the mayor tried to defeat her.”

“Seems like he had a plan too.” Emma pointed at a page describing the strategy.

The mayor had obtained an item that nullified petrification—a Reflect Mirror. It would reflect any spell back at the user. If he could get the petrifying woman to look into it, it might turn her to stone.

“How do you think she figured out his scheme?” I asked.

“No idea. Maybe she’s just really perceptive?”

“Hm, that could be it…”

But now that the mirror was destroyed, what could we do? Best to start by curing the mayor. I prepared to splash the Stone Salve on him when I felt a profound sense of unease.

“That’s weird…”

How had he been turned to stone while standing like this? He would have had his back to the woman and been staring at the shelf. There was a wall right behind the shelf. I couldn’t understand it.

“Maybe she doesn’t need to make eye contact, she only needs to look at someone. Emma, if that’s the case then—huh?”

I felt a chill run down my spine.

I turned around and looked at Emma. She stood exactly where she had been, but she wasn’t Emma anymore. She had been turned to stone.

The door creaked. The situation was even worse than I’d thought. The petrifying woman could probably turn people to stone just by looking at them, even if they had their backs turned. To make matters worse, someone—probably that very same petrifying woman—was standing in the door. She was clad in black with purple hair and exposed shoulders. She had a beautiful face, but her twisting snake’s tail was utterly grotesque. She matched the description exactly. Her eyes gleamed purple, and I investigated her with my Discerning Eye.

 

Name: Magra

Level: 95

Skills: Petrifying Gaze; Tail Whip

 

I hadn’t turned to stone yet, so I took the opportunity to investigate her most troublesome skill.

 

Petrifying Gaze: Consumes magic. Turns anything the user looks at into stone permanently. This effect is frequently ineffective against individuals with C-Grade Petrification Immunity and completely ineffective on those with B-Grade variants and above.

 

It wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d feared, and this confirmed that the ability wouldn’t work on me at all. She seemed a bit shaken when she saw I was still moving.

“Look into my eyes,” she hissed.

“I am, and I have been this whole time. Your Petrifying Gaze won’t work on me.”

“Tsk.”

What?! I’d expected a head-on assault, but instead, she just turned tail and ran.

“Emma, I’ll be right back!”

I felt awful about leaving her, but I couldn’t let the culprit get away. There was a crashing sound downstairs as the magra broke through the front door and out into the street. She was fast. I leapt down the stairs and dashed after her.

“You guys, that’s the—”

My words caught in my throat. Lola and Luna were already turned to stone. I saw the magra slithering away and chased after her.

“I’m not letting you get away!” I shouted.

I raised my voice, loud enough that Leila would hear, but I didn’t wait for her to catch up. Instead, I gave chase as the magra disappeared down a side street.

“Agh?!”

I rounded the corner and was knocked backward. The magra had ambushed me and struck me with her tail.

“Hisss!”

Her hands closed around my head, lifting me up off the ground. She was so strong!

“Don’t get ahead of yourself!”

I kicked her in the stomach and she let me go. I managed to put some distance between us, and I turned to see that suspicious purple light in her eyes again. When she realized her skill wasn’t going to work this time either, she cried out in frustration. “Why won’t you turn to stone?! Why? Why?!”

“You just don’t know when to give up, do you? I have Petrification Immunity.”

“Get rid of it! Get rid of it, or I’ll kill you!”

Is she stupid or something?

Hadn’t the records in the mayor’s office said she was an unusually intelligent monster? Whether or not that was true, I couldn’t miss out on an opportunity to question her.

“Did you enter the mayor’s residence because you were afraid of the Reflect Mirror?”

“I fear no such thing! It was a hindrance, that’s all!”

Well, what she was lacking in intellect, she certainly made up for in pride.

“I’m impressed you knew he had it. Let me guess, you had allies in town?”

“I have no allies. Humans are inferior beings. A man named Yga told me of it, nothing more.”

“That name sounds familiar…”

Wasn’t he the one the mayor had caught stealing? And the vice-captain of the guard, too. Had he told her about the mirror to get back at the mayor? That didn’t seem quite right. Surely he’d known what would happen? Maybe he wanted revenge on the whole town.

“Can you tell me where Yga is now?”

“I neither know nor care. Now it is my turn: How did you learn this Petrification Immunity?”

She really was surprisingly detail-oriented. I bet it was a real shock that her signature attack had failed. This was a real opportunity. If I could goad her into losing her temper, it might be easier to take her down.

“I just looked at an ugly painting every night until I developed the skill naturally,” I said.

“A painting?”

“Yeah. It’s a painting of a hideous monster. It looks just like you!”

“I’m going to kill youuuuuu!” she screamed, charging right at me.

Maybe it was her human half that made her so emotional. She leapt in without any sort of plan, and I took advantage of it to fire off a flash of Blinding Light. At such close range, the light was overwhelming.

“Urghh!”

She flailed about, completely blind and clutching her face. That’s when I made my move, stabbing her through the chest with my two-edged blade. She collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath. For some reason, she started laughing.

“Ha! Ha ha ha ha!”

“What’s so funny?”

“They’ll never come back. If you kill me, none of them will come back.”

“I guess.”

“Does it not vex you that you cannot save them? Those girls who were with you will remain stone for all eternity.”

She meant Emma and the others. She was hoping that I’d break down when I heard that. What a rotten person. Although, I probably had given her a run for her money in the cruelty department.

“I already found a cure,” I said. “In fact, I’ve already started curing the villagers. Everyone will get a happy ending. Well, everyone except you.”

“Damn you to hell!”

She gathered the last of her strength and used her Tail Whip on me again. I countered it with a point-blank Icicle to the face. It was a much easier victory than I’d expected.

“Maybe I have my experience in the hidden dungeon to thank for that.”

Now that it was over, something bugged me: Leila hadn’t joined me. Maybe she hadn’t heard? It was unlikely she was petrified. After all, the magra had come out the front door. Leila should have been in the back.

I headed back to the mayor’s house and soon saw the source of the problem. There was someone else there with Leila.

“Please, I’m begging you, let me go…”

He was a well-dressed middle-aged man. He was pretty burly too, but all the same, Leila had him in an arm lock. When I got closer, I saw a sword on the ground. They must’ve been fighting.

“Leila, I took care of things on my end. What’s going on?”

“He was hiding. When I noticed him, he ambushed me.”

I bet he got one hell of a surprise. Leila was much stronger than she looked.

“What do you want?” I asked him.

“Save me, man!” he pleaded. “She’s got the wrong idea. She thinks I’m in league with that monster.”

“Monster?”

“You’ve seen all the people turned to stone, haven’t you? The monster’s the one who did it.”

So he knew all about it, but somehow he was totally fine.

“What’s your name?”

“Tamzan.”

I used my Discerning Eye to be sure. It revealed something very interesting: his name wasn’t Tamzan, it was Yga. Did he even feel guilty about lying to me like that? Did he feel bad about any of this?

“Noir, should I let him go?”

“No, hold him for me. I’ll tie him up.”

“What?! Why?!”

I pulled some rope out of my Pocket Dimension and bound his arms and legs. He didn’t appear to have any special skills, so the rope would be enough. When I told him what I saw in the mayor’s records, and what the magra said, Yga went into a panic.

“Please! Please, let me go! If it’s money you want, I have plenty. I’ll give you half! I’ll make you rich!”

“Double it, and even then we’d turn you down.”

He’d risked the lives of everyone in town for his own petty revenge. To make matters worse, he wasn’t even justified.

Instead, I left him in Leila’s capable hands and went about helping our friends. They all returned to normal as soon as I applied the Stone Salve. Emma and the other girls didn’t even remember being petrified.

When I was sure they were all right, we returned the mayor to his original form. He was a serious man, around fifty.

“What on earth…? And who are you all?”

“Good afternoon, let me explain.”

I went through the whole thing while the mayor turned white as a sheet. When I told him that we could cure all the villagers with the correct ingredients, he let out a sigh of relief.

“Another win for Noir!” said Emma.

“I knew you’d save me, Mr. Noir!” Lola agreed.

“We didn’t really stand a chance on our own,” Luna sighed.

I got a bit distracted by all the lavish praise. It took me a moment to remember that we’d caught Yga. When I told the mayor, he dashed out into the backyard at full speed.

“You complete and utter fool!”

He pummeled Yga with his fists until the other man begged for help. None of us lifted a finger.

“If you hate me, then hate me!” said the mayor. “Don’t drag the entire village into it!”

He was a good leader. The townspeople could rest easy from now on. We could probably leave him to deal with Yga. I used the remaining ingredients we had to produce more Stone Salve, and we went about curing townspeople until the sun went down. By then, several hundred people were back to normal, and I’d run out of ingredients. We’d have to wait for assistance from Honest before curing the rest.

“Noir,” said the mayor said over dinner. “On behalf of the town of Landan, I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to you and your friends. You have saved us!”

“Thank you very much!” echoed the restored villagers.

I smiled. It was good to be able to put my master’s powers to good use.

 

***

 

The next day, Perrido returned with a large group of soldiers. When they saw all the stone people still standing around the town, they were at a loss for words. As it turned out, some of the townsfolk had survived unharmed—either by escaping the town or by hiding. It was great to have some more good news.

“You really did it, Noir,” said Perrido. “You did your father proud. Now, do you think you could work your alchemical magic on these?”

Somehow, Perrido had talked the lord of Honest into giving him large quantities of the materials we needed to make more Stone Salve. While I was working, though, it occurred to me that I could make much larger batches if I had a larger vessel. After that, the work was done in just about two hours. All that was left was for the soldiers to distribute it to the affected townsfolk.

As for us, it was time to head on for Honest at last. I was so tired that I fell asleep in the carriage but, as I slept, I felt something soft on my cheeks. I opened my eyes to find that Emma and Lola were kissing me.

“Wait, what?”

“Oh, sorry for waking you,” said Emma. “Just, you know, gotta earn that LP, right?”

“You must’ve used up a whole lot of LP in town, Mr. Noir. I wanted to do all sorts of things to help, but someone wouldn’t let me.”

“Excuse you!”

They both seemed pretty worried about my LP. That was kind of them. I had used a lot recently, so I was grateful to have it replenished.

“I came up with a really good idea for earning you some LP,” Lola whispered in my ear. “Let’s try it when we get to Honest. But let’s make it our little secret.”

She punctuated her promise with a wink. I nodded and tried to go back to sleep, but my heart was pounding too fast.