Chapter 23: 23.Will It Work?
Allen closed his eyes.
The smell, through the mutated organs on the side of his nose, painted a colorful picture in his mind.
The blue arc was the stream. The green line was the grass. And the extremely deep brown block, that was the scent of the dark soil.
Allen had never understood synesthesia, a rhetoric common to both worlds, so deeply. He felt as if he had crossed over again, reborn once more.
The heavy burden of the mountain trial, which had always weighed on his mind, seemed much lighter now.
Allen immersed himself in the world of smells for a long time before he finally opened his eyes.
Vesemir and Letho, smiling, stood on the grass, waiting for him to return from the hypersensitive world.
"How do you feel?" Vesemir asked.
"Fantastic!" Allen affirmed without hesitation, then emphasized, "Like being reborn!"
Allen's words inexplicably hit Letho's funny bone: "Hahaha, you apprentice, you have a way with words, sounding all scholarly like a wizard, who taught you..."
"Letho! Do you really have a death wish!"
"Sorry, I forgot again." Letho apologized quickly, looking grim.
Not being able to speak freely seemed more painful for him than death. Letho's pitiful look and the joy of opening a new world made Allen unable to hold back his laughter.
Hearing the apprentice's laughter, Vesemir was stunned for a few seconds, then laughed heartily as well.
Only Letho, with a gloomy face, looked at the laughing master and apprentice like a resentful wife, helpless against them.
...
The autumn sun was setting. The red glow shone through the branches of the withered trees, illuminating the witcher apprentice.
After dealing with this batch of drowners, Allen and the others would return to Kaer Morhen. No, actually, only Allen and Vesemir would return to Kaer Morhen.
Spring was not yet here, and Letho would soon embark on his journey of playing hide-and-seek with the sorceress alone.
"Splish"
A cold gleaming dagger severed the last drowner tongue.
Allen put it in his material bag.
At this moment. Vesemir and Letho had already knocked out the selected drowners and put them in burlap sacks.
"Let's go, Allen, we're going home." Vesemir patted the sack in his hand and called out.
Letho looked longingly in the direction of Kaer Morhen: "Home, I wish I could go back to Kaer Morhen too."
"Come back with us!" Allen joked.
During the afternoon hunt, Allen had already bonded with Letho.
Vesemir might still carry the burden of a mentor, but Letho had completely let himself go. As he put it: "Not letting me speak is worse than killing me, would the respected Lady Vella really kill me?"
Though he spoke without thinking, witcher Letho was definitely someone to trust.
Or perhaps Letho was trustworthy precisely because he spoke without thinking?
Allen pondered this for a long time, finally concluding that it might be an unsolvable chicken-or-egg question, and pushed it out of his mind.
Letho rolled his eyes at these words, sighed gloomily, and said nothing.
Following Vesemir's arrangement, Letho picked up two sacks and headed back.
Allen also carried a sack, following the two witchers. Seeing that neither was paying attention to him, Allen took the opportunity to open the Witcher notebook to organize his findings.
[Name: Allen]
[Level: 4]
[Special Skills: Monster Hunting LV1, Identification LV1, Tracking LV1]
[Skills: School of the Wolf Two-Handed Sword LV2, Quen LV1, Tracking LV1]
[Items: Drowner's Heart Extract*29, Small Experience Orbs*134, Drowner Whistle *2...]
[Rating: Weak!!]
As expected, there are indeed two Tracking skills!
Allen focused and sensed them. Although they had the same name, these were essentially two completely different skills.
The special skill Tracking was a knowledge system attached to the Witcher notebook. It could be said that this was a manual for tracking using the Witcher notebook.
The ordinary skill Tracking was more akin to tracking prey by developing the mutated senses of a witcher.
Through comparing these two skills, Allen gained a deeper understanding of the difference between the Witcher notebook's special skills and ordinary skills.
These two types of skills were vastly different. But in Allen's mind, the biggest difference was only one point.Ordinary skills belonged to Allen, while special skills belonged to the Witcher notebook.
Skills like two-handed sword, Quen, and ordinary Tracking could be used even without the Witcher notebook. But as for Monster Hunting, Identification, and special Tracking, Allen didn't even know their principles of use, let alone mastering them.
Although the Witcher notebook was his external aid, not being able to fully control these special skills occasionally gave Allen a slight sense of loss of control.
Of course. This did not prevent the witcher apprentice from utilizing it. The most crucial thing now was to pass the mountain trial.
Thinking of the trial, Allen sighed in his heart and turned his attention to the small experience orbs.
In the afternoon, they had found three groups of drowners. Besides the initial eight, there were 13 more slain by Allen's sword. Unfortunately, without the task bonus, and with his character level having risen another level, the evaluations for the remaining two hunts were not high.
The best items from the loot boxes were just a drowner whistle.
"To unlock alchemy, I still need 9890 more small experience orbs. Today's total gain is about 100..." Allen silently calculated.
Still not enough!
Unless the morning alchemy classes reduced the required number of small experience orbs by ten more each day.
While thinking this and that in his mind, Allen arrived at the parting point.
"Vesemir, Allen, I'm leaving."
Letho looked up at the majestic castle in the distance, then turned his head to bid farewell to the two.
"Perhaps the situation is not so bad, Lady Vella has a good temper after all..."
Just as he made a new friend and now had to leave, Allen was a bit reluctant and wanted to persuade him to stay.
Although sorceresses were known among witchers for being vengeful and ruthless, in Allen's impression, Vera had always been a knowledgeable female figure.
Especially after dressing conservatively, except for not wearing glasses, she looked much like those graduate student seniors from his previous life.
With Vera's appearance, she must still be the most beautiful one.
"Allen..." Vesemir stopped Allen's attempt to persuade, "I believe Lady Vella is not as terrible as the rumors say, but it's useless. Letho must leave."
"Why? Even if Lady Vera really found out, I could plead for Letho..."
"Hahaha, Allen, I didn't expect you to be so reluctant to part with me!" Letho laughed, vigorously ruffling Allen's black hair, interrupting him.
Allen struggled hard, but still, like a blue-eyed kitten, was roughly ruffled for over ten seconds. His strength was still far inferior to Letho's.
"But it's unnecessary." Letho let go of Allen, "Vesemir is right. If I don't leave, there will be big trouble, and this has nothing to do with the sorceress's personality."
He raised his hand to stop Allen from continuing to persuade. Facing the golden-red sunset, Letho turned and walked down the mountain with a feigned casualness.
But after taking only a few steps, he turned back to look at Allen, smiled, and said: "Allen!"
"Next year, I will definitely see you at the long table in the castle hall."
This was a statement, not a question.
But after being stunned for a moment, Allen responded solemnly, as if answering a question: "You will, Letho."
"You will definitely see me again next year."
"You definitely will."
...
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24. The Nature of Sorceresses.
25. Mirage Pearl.
26. Prophecy.
27. Master Vesemir is Too Fast.
28. No Alchemy Class?