"My sister?" Bawu scratched the bottom of her horn in thought. "Is that so? Which sister of mine? You will pay dearly if you speak lies! "

"Healer Gula," I readily answered. "You have more than one sister?"

"No, only Gula." She croakily laughed as if her throat was lined with sandpaper. "You simpleminded youngling, it was obviously a test!”

“Eh? How was I supposed to know what your family tree looks like?”

“So it is Gula who sent you then? That would explain how you knew my name."

"Know your...?" My eyes darted upwards. That was right; she hadn't introduced herself to me.

Her name was on full display above her head, but there was no reason for me to know it, according to the lore. A youngling like me shouldn’t know about her unless someone told me. I should be more careful in situations like these because I might accidentally ruin my interactions with NPCs.

"Yes, Healer Gula did send me,” I confirmed. “The two of you look similar, so I assumed you’re her sister when I saw you.” Hopefully, that was the right thing to say. I couldn’t tell if they actually did look similar; all Mardukryons looked the same to me. That shouldn’t make me racist, would it?

“My sister…my sister…” Bawu paced in front of me. She cast many shadows on the cavern wall because of the different lights behind me. “I should’ve expected that this day would come!” She clenched her bony fist and shook it in the air.

“I sense there’s some misunderstanding going on here,” I said. “Is it because of the village guards with me?” I turned left and right, straining against the webs that wrapped my body.

I saw that I was in another laboratory more packed with mad scientist paraphernalia than the previous one—dangerous-looking instruments, books and scrolls, models or probably real skeletons of monsters. I also spotted cages and a couple of vats in my limited vision. They were empty. But where were the village guards?

“Gula has grown tired of me, hasn’t she?” Bawu furiously pointed her finger at me. “And now she told guards how to find me. After all that I had done for her? The treachery! The betrayal! The disloyalty! The—”

“I’m just going to stop your listing of synonyms and explain something,” I said. “Healer Gula didn’t betray you. She tasked me with delivering a message to you, but I accidentally ran into the village guards investigating the tunnels. I had to go with them, or else they would’ve been suspicious of me.”

“Your tale reeks of deception,” she said. “Guards here in the tunnels? They have no reason to be here! Investigating what? Someone must’ve told them that I was hiding here! And that someone can only be my sister.”

“They’re investigating your escaped experiments.” Then I narrated to her about the Blighted monsters spreading through the tunnels. I also told her about the sickness of Balasi. “And that’s why the guards are here. Don’t you know what’s going on?”

“These tunnels are my domain! Not a Borple can—yes, I don't know what's happening here," she said, suddenly switching to a soft voice.

My brows furrowed as her mannerisms changed in the snap of a finger. Her fury was gone. She crouched down and clasped her hands like a lovely grandma going to church. Even the way she walked shifted from a confident trot to shuffling her hooves as if she had arthritis. Can horses and cows get arthritis?

"Dear me, my pretties have escaped?" Bawu gasped in mild shock. "I've been so engrossed with my new project that I forgot to check on my other precious darlings. Old age hasn't been kind to me." It was as if she was a different person.

"Yes..." I narrowed my eyes at her. Was this why she was called the 'Mad Brewer'? It wasn't her evil-scientist experiments? "They have. Healer Gula is concerned about you, so she decided to send you a message. It was only a coincidence that I ran into the village guards. And it was also a coincidence that we found one of your laboratories. We were running away from poisonous smoke."

"Coincidence upon coincidence," Bawu said in a singsong voice. "Such a funny word. Coincidence." She did a little dance as she walked away, seemingly forgetting about me.

"My story does sound suspicious," I loudly said to get her attention back, "but it's the truth. I'll show you the letter from your sister!" Bawu stopped and turned around. "It's proof of what I’m telling you." I struggled against the tight binding. "If you can just release me so I can—let me try this." I opened my inventory with a thought command and selected the letter.

The parchment, rolled tightly and tied with a string, floated in the air. Bawu grabbed it, cut the tie with her long fingernail, and proceeded to read the letter.

She continued to sing, "Coincidence, coincidence, coincidence...oh, it is my dear sister's handwriting! How wonderful that she wrote. Even though I have my pretties, it is lonely here in the tunnels."

I heard the Carrion Golem grumbling louder and the Chimera Borpillar rapidly clicking its mandibles.

"They sound like a nice company," I said. "Does this clear up everything? Will you stop your experiments?"

Bawu sighed as she rolled the parchment again. "If little Gula says so. I don't want her to be angry with me," she said as if she wasn't disparaging her sister moments ago. "The box of Swineling meat pie she sent me a fortnight past was delectable. She might give me more if I do as she says."

"It's as easy as this? All in a day’s work," I muttered. However, there was still no notification that the Healer Gula’s quest was completed. Wasn’t it not only to deliver the letter?

[ Quest: Meeting the Mad Brewer ]

Following Healer Gula's instructions, carefully navigate the tunnels to find her sister, Potion Brewer Bawu. Deliver Gula's letter without fail to stop Bawu's experiments and prevent more Mardukryon injuries.

Requirements: Wear the [Notched Frostore Amuelet] when meeting Bawu.

Do not invite any suspicion of your Ancestral Flames

Right, there was Gula’s advice, almost a command, that I planned to disobey. I probably needed to return to her first so she could confirm that I followed her instructions before the quest was deemed completed. Quite understandable, I thought as I shrugged.

Or tried to. The webbing held my shoulders down. "Potion Brewer Bawu, can you please release me now?"

"Oh, I forgot about you, dear youngling!" She snapped her finger. “Melasbo, my pretty, please help our guest.”

There was loud scuttling and the noise of something heavy getting dragged across the floor. A large shadow fell over me. The Chimera Borpillar was definitely not pretty. It sprayed me with a vile liquid that started to dissolve the strings tying me.

"Eugh! Is there no other way to get rid of the strings?" I complained as I feverishly wiped away the gooey mess from my body.

"None, dearie," Bawu said as she looked me over in fascination. "Unless you’d rather the mandibles of Melsabo to cut it." She leaned down and cupped her hand around her mouth. “I don’t suggest it.”

“Good advice,” I replied with a grin. It’d be preferable if Bawu stayed like this instead of her crazed villain persona. Then I turned around to see the rest of the cavern. “What in blazing potatoes is going on here?”

Strange machines with gears, pumps, and colorful crystals emitted the strange lights I noticed earlier. These contraptions were hooked via pipes to massive cylindrical vats filled with blue liquid, each larger than the other containers I had seen before. They must be for Bawu's hulking monster creations, as I estimated that the Carrion Golem could fit inside one.

But these vats didn't hold other abominable pets of Mad Brewer Bawu.

"The guards," I whispered. Two of them shared one vat while our leader floated in another one. They were also caught? I thought they escaped from the sticky webs because they had a higher level than me. Nonetheless, the Chimera Borpillar was almost twice the level of a guard, and it seemed that we all had no chance of winning. I asked Bawu, "Are...are they dead?"

"No, dearie. Such an awful thing to say." She wore a mournful expression as if a Mardukryon could look anything else other than terrifying. "I wouldn't dare kill a single creature! Every life is precious to me."

"Maybe you can release them?" I cautiously said. "Uh, pretty please?" If I could save the guards, that'd mean more rewards for me and a good reputation with the village. But I was also wary of how Bawu would react to my suggestion. Just stay a nice grandma Mardukryon and don’t transform into the batshit insane villain part.

"Goodness, no!" Bawu exclaimed. She shuffled forward at a snail's pace, beckoning me to come along. "Your friends are resting right now. You don't want to disturb them, do you?"

"They can rest at their homes. I'll lead them back to the village."

"No, no, dearie. This is a better place for them. They'll feel invigorated and refreshed when they wake up as if they have new bodies."

I narrowed my eyes. "New bodies? That sounds suspiciously suspicious. Hang on...are you actually going to give them new bodies?"

"Of course, my precious youngling." She turned to me with a big smile on her face. The glow from the blue vats caught the shadows of all the wrinkles and cracks on her face, turning her into the scariest being I had encountered in Mother Core Online. There should be a law against Mardukryon's smiling. "A lovely gift from Bawu for their visit."

Would you look at that? Both of Bawu's personalities were mad! One was just easier to talk to than the other, but both were unhinged.

"I'm sure they'd rather not have a gift—" I began to say. Bawu stared at me with her four raving eyes about to bulge out of her head. Was her alter ego going to come out? "—because they visited you out of the goodness of their heart," I quickly clarified. "They wouldn't want any gift in return out of, um, politeness. Yes, politeness."

Her gentle demeanor returned. "But they already have their gifts," she slowly explained to me as if I was a child. Indeed, I was a youngling to her. "I can't take that back now. Look how much they enjoy it."

I wasn't sure if that meant the guards were at the point of no return, or she simply didn't want to release them.

"That reminds me,” she said. “I haven't given you a reward for delivering my sister's letter to me."

"If my reward is like them, then I'd rather—uh, I mean, my happiness at connecting two sisters is more than enough reward." I bowed as I pondered how I should proceed in dealing with her.

It might not be a bright idea to reveal my Ancestral Flame Arts; she'd definitely try to put me in a vat. That must be the reason for her sister's warning, and what a good warning it was. Perhaps I needed to do something before it to ensure I wouldn't end up as a zombie. As with Healer Gula, I should start by doing small favors for her. I should try my other plan.

"Potion Brewer Bawu, maybe we should do something about your escaped experiments? I can help because I'm such an eager and hard-working youngling that doesn't want to rest in a vat."