The Master of the Scent
Homunculi can imitate humans. With a certain level of intelligence, they can mimic behavior, however imperfectly. They can even replicate the abilities of those they consume. But fundamentally, they are not human. They do not bleed, and naturally, they possess no organs. Only a brain.
In the game Bethesda Academy, homunculi constantly evolve. Eventually, they reach a point where they can hold conversations with ordinary people without any sense of discomfort. At that stage, distinguishing them becomes even harder.
In fact, by the time the homunculus incident occurs in the game, they have already evolved to the level of fluent speech. The longer the extermination is delayed, the more that initial sense of unease fades. That’s why finishing the event quickly is crucial.
“I didn’t smell it myself, but the fact that it had a scent distinguishable from normal people means the homunculus’s evolution is still incomplete…”
If I hadn’t come with Sane, I would have completely missed this homunculus.
‘Did the homunculus incident actually start earlier than I thought…?’
In the story, the homunculus incident truly begins at the end of the second semester—roughly a month from now.
The homunculi that suddenly swarm the Alchemy Department building attack the students present there. The homunculi themselves aren’t particularly strong in combat, but their ability to evolve and split is the real problem. The main body that grows by devouring students eventually reaches an overwhelmingly powerful level.
The fact that the professors were absent because they were preparing for the ranking matches at the end of the first semester only worsened the damage.
In the game, while my playable characters held back the main homunculus body, the supporting NPC allies prevented the split entities from escaping the Alchemy building.
Sane looked at the male student’s corpse—or more precisely, the remains of a homunculus—and asked me,
“Logue. Do you know what this is?”
The homunculus was still twitching, as if not yet fully dead.
“It’s a homunculus.”
“…Homo… what?”
Sane seemed unfamiliar with the word. It probably wasn’t a term people commonly encountered. Or perhaps, in this world, the word “homunculus” didn’t even exist.
“Simply put, it’s an artificial lifeform. One with self-awareness.”
At my words, Sane flinched in surprise and asked again.
“An artificial lifeform? Creating artificial lifeforms is a strictly forbidden field, except for golems. If you’re caught even touching it, it’s a death sentence!”
“…I suppose so.”
The homunculus in the form of a male student was still twitching because its brain hadn’t been destroyed yet.
“At least it’s not human…”
I immediately stabbed the area corresponding to its brain with my spear. The male student melted away like liquid and vanished.
A homunculus might have already escaped the Alchemy building. We needed to start investigating right away, but since I didn’t know when they had first appeared…
“Sane. Before we got here, did you not catch that unique smell you mentioned the homunculus gives off?”
“…No, not yet. But seriously, you really can’t smell this awful stench? If this homunculus had been wandering around outside, I would’ve noticed it immediately.”
I couldn’t smell anything at all. Was my sense of smell that dull?
“…At the very least, after entering the academy grounds, I haven’t smelled it anywhere except inside this Alchemy building.”
Since its evolution was incomplete, it was distinguishable even at a glance. Of course, I hadn’t noticed at first…
If a homunculus had gotten outside, it would have caused a huge commotion. It was probably safe to assume none had escaped the building.
“It would be nice if this was the main body, but it’s too weak for that. It’s more likely just a victim attacked by a split homunculus.”
Still, something bothered me. If the homunculi had appeared earlier than in the game, how had no one discovered entities like this male student before the main incident?
‘Maybe they were found, and the academy covered it up?’
In a passing line in the story, it was briefly mentioned that several Alchemy Department students went missing before the homunculus incident occurred.
Moreover, as Sane had said, homunculi research was a forbidden field punishable by extreme penalties. If such a thing happened at Bethesda Academy—the greatest academy on the continent—the school’s reputation would plummet.
Considering how corrupt the academy’s upper management seemed to be, it was entirely possible they had known about the homunculi and concealed the truth before the incident exploded.
Besides, most Alchemy students were commoners. Unlike magic or swordsmanship, where early education was crucial, alchemy had a relatively low barrier to entry for commoners. Covering up the disappearance of a few commoner students wouldn’t have been too difficult for the academy.
‘Wait… what about Liana?’
Liana was the type of student who always stayed behind in the lab after class to continue her experiments—a truly diligent person. And right now, classes had only just ended not long ago. The male student we just encountered had probably been attacked after staying late in the lab as well.
Then…
“…Huh? Logue! Where are you going?!”
A sense of foreboding hit me, and I immediately headed toward the second-floor lab that Liana frequently used.
In the game, before the homunculus incident fully erupted, there was a random event where Liana would go missing from the Alchemy building.
‘What if that happened because she was attacked by a homunculus before the academy could deal with it…?’
It was an event that rarely triggered, and when I had originally played Bethesda Academy, there was a heroine event around this time where Liana became involved with the Hero.
In other words, under normal gameplay, it was an event you would almost never encounter. That’s why I had overlooked it.
But I had forgotten that this world wasn’t the game I used to play.
I cursed my own complacency and quickened my pace. Liana was in danger.
“He’s not here again today…”
At this point, maybe he simply didn’t care whether he got kicked out of the academy or not. After class, I had gone straight to Logue’s classroom in the main building, but as expected, his seat was empty. It was so clean there wasn’t even a trace of use. It looked like he hadn’t even come to school today.
‘Guess I should head to the lab…’
Lately, the more experiments I did, the more it felt like my mana was increasing. My potion crafting seemed to be improving too… Was this what they called riding a wave of momentum?
I entered the Alchemy Department building. When I reached the second floor, I saw a male student with a lifeless expression trudging down the hallway. His eyes were unfocused; he looked extremely tired.
‘I heard the professors have been working the graduate students hard lately… Is he one of them?’
I swore to myself that I would never become a graduate student and opened the door to the lab.
“…What is that smell…?”
The lab always had a musty odor, but this one was different. There was a faintly sweet scent mixed in, but it only made the overall stench even more revolting.
‘Did someone spill something while experimenting?’
I opened all the lab windows wide and began my experiment. This time, I planned to increase the mana ratio in the stamina potion a bit more. Lately, it seemed like that person needed a lot of stamina potions…
‘Why does Logue need so many stamina potions anyway?’
Every time he came to see me, he would take several of those strange awakening potions along with the stamina ones. No matter how many I made every day, it was never enough.
“Sane!!!”
…A noise came from downstairs. Was someone calling for another person? It sounded a little like Logue’s voice… But why would someone who hadn’t even come to school today be in the Alchemy building? That didn’t make sense.
I didn’t know why Logue kept popping into my head so often lately. Maybe it was because I hadn’t seen him in a while.
“Ugh…”
The smell that had filled the lab was growing stronger. It was so bad I couldn’t help but frown. Looking around, it seemed to be coming from the drain in the sink.
‘Did someone pour chemicals down a clogged drain?’
Sometimes potion residue would clog the drain and cause backflow. The moment I approached the sink to check on it…
“Liana!”
A voice urgently calling my name made me turn around. The owner of that voice was Logue. He was breathing so hard he could barely speak properly as he searched for me.
“…Logue? What’s going on?”
“Liana, look behind you!”
Behind me? Logue pointed behind me and shouted a warning. I naturally turned to look—and goosebumps erupted all over my body.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!”
What entered my vision was a formless creature resembling a slime. It was crawling out from the drain connected to the sink.