In the Upper City of the capital, Beauclair, inside a hall built from white marble, a wooden plaque mounted in a carved picture frame hung on the wall. It read:
"This building uses the Leitenbach Security System. Cianfanelli Bank is protected by Bruno Leitenbach's patented security system.
"Using anti-magic metal amplifiers to suppress magnetic fields and other occult mechanisms, it guarantees protection against all magical attacks, including hypnosis, mind control, witcher Signs, and even spells.
"Bruno Leitenbach Company, with us, no ambush will ever succeed!"
After reading the message, Victor smiled and shook his head. He turned to face the bowing and scraping bank clerk, took his deposit from the man's hands, patted him on the shoulder, and left Cianfanelli Bank.
"Thank you for your patronage, Mr. Victor. Please visit us again! 'We look after your money as if it were our own!'"
The bank clerk's farewell came from behind him. What he said was the motto of Cianfanelli Bank's founder, Amadis Cianfanelli.
...
Since it was a rare chance to enter the city, he had first made a detour to the bank to check the amount of his "amnesia allowance," and the result was extremely satisfying. Walking along the noisy, lively street, Victor stretched. Today, too, was a day full of energy.
At the market, he picked out a few kinds of fresh fruit to taste, pears, melons, and bananas. Before the witcher even approached Lollivier Square, his extraordinary five senses heard town crier Mr. Herold's passionate proclamation from afar.
"Good news! Good news, tremendous good news! People of Beauclair, you are blessed. Another new red wine will soon be released!
"From east of Zerrikania, across the Korath Desert, to this promised land flowing with fine wine and milk, the alchemist Victor, who has settled at Corion Manor, is full of passion as he seeks to recreate a mysterious foreign formula.
"It is said that their new red wine possesses an astonishing flavor unlike anything before it, and at the very least, it should earn a viscount's title. Even Her Grace the Duchess has expressed great anticipation after hearing the news! So you absolutely must not miss next month's public wine tasting in the square. Opportunities like this are rare!"
Regarding Count Crespi's all-out help in spreading publicity, Victor took a bite of the juicy melon and chuckled without taking it to heart. He was confident he had no reason to lose. This title was already his.
Once he was done sampling the fruit, he selected a few sweeter melons and fruits and put them into his herbal satchel. Then he collected his horse from the stable, left the city through the eastern Harbor Gate, and rode along the banks of the Sansretour River. Beside him were many women doing laundry, fishermen and fishing huts, and workers making dye.
...
"Then Princess Kikimore summoned her loyal sisters! At her command, they united as one and attacked the enemy who wished to harm their queen."
, Excerpt from Princess Kikimore and the Mountain Giant
Cornelius Brigg, a fragment from a dwarven children's fable
...
After galloping from morning until afternoon, passing through the village of Francollarts, the witcher encountered his first small bit of trouble when he continued east and entered Mère-Lachaiselongue Cemetery.
Several monsters were fighting villagers who had entered the cemetery.
The arthropod monsters were about knee-high and several feet long. They had hard shells, venomous fangs, and sharp claws. They looked like the enlarged love child of a spider, an ant, and a crab, magnified countless times.
They were several kikimore workers, insectoids that had arrived after the Conjunction of the Spheres and possessed the strongest sense of organization and hierarchy. Their social structure was somewhat similar to that of ants. In their three-tier hierarchy, workers obeyed the commands of warriors, while all warriors obeyed the queen.
The queen usually hid deep underground laying eggs, controlling the movements of every kikimore member. Considering that the ganglia of workers and warriors, which served as their brains, were extremely tiny and almost impossible to imagine being used for thought, one could assume that kikimores possessed some sort of collective consciousness.
Without hesitation, Victor jumped down from his horse, drew his silver sword, coated it with insectoid oil, and stepped forward to join the slaughter.
Kikimore workers themselves were not very strong in battle. When they were few in number, even commoners could handle them. However, the fight could not be allowed to drag on too long. Otherwise, once kikimore warriors appeared, things would become very troublesome. Those battle-specialized monsters could spray corrosive venom, and a moment of carelessness that let them spit it into your face would leave you disfigured.
With a witcher joining the fight, the battle soon ended. An older representative among the villagers came over. "Thank you for your help, witcher. May I ask how much payment you require? We are willing to pay. We will not accept you demanding our children."
Victor shook his head and instinctively almost said he did not want money, but just as the words reached his lips, he abruptly realized that he could not. "Seven kikimore workers. I dealt with five of them. Six florins each. If you help me move them to the outskirts and strip their shells, I can reduce the price by one florin per corpse."
"Th-this amount, could it be reduced a little more?"
"No. This is already the lowest price. Also, I must remind you that kikimores usually do not actively attack humans unless you intrude near their nest. In other words, beneath this cemetery..."
The village representative's face went violently pale. At last, he no longer had any interest in haggling. And perhaps before long, he would need the witcher's help again.
Some time later, Victor mounted his horse and continued forward. The materials he had dissected outside the cemetery included but were not limited to dried black chitinous shells, glassy eyeballs with vertical pupils, needle-like fangs from bloody jaws, sharp claws convenient for digging, and most importantly, kikimore glands, which could substitute for endrega embryos in the preparation of Thunderbolt.
...
"Melitele, great mother, protect us from the harm of evil, from the disturbance of filthy and dreadful demons, and most importantly, from being carried off by katakans and ekimmaras..."
, Fragment from a prayer
...
Although he had been slightly delayed on the road, fortunately, the witcher still reached the banks of the Sansretour River before midnight and set up camp by the shore of the Valley of the Nine, placing his pot over the fire.
Taking out the materials he had bought from the herbalist's shop yesterday, he began brewing potions to counter vampires. Not long ago, while making wine on the estate, he had remembered that this land seemed to have quite a few of such monsters. Although, in theory, all of them would only be encountered after future plotlines unfolded, it was still best to prepare the formulas that countered them, Vampire Oil and Black Blood, just in case.
Vampire Oil was a blade oil. Combined with a silver sword, it could effectively cut into a vampire's body, while Black Blood was a violent poison that turned one's own blood into a deadly toxin. This way, during battle, if a vampire tried to suck the witcher's blood to recover its strength, it would be poisoned. It could be called a tactic that hurt oneself first in order to hurt the enemy afterward.
The reason Victor treated vampires with such caution was that they differed from the rigid image found in other fantasy works. In the witcher world, they were a flourishing species that had arrived through the Conjunction of the Spheres, and they came in all kinds of varieties, such as fleders, garkains, ekimmaras, katakans, alps, and bruxae.
Their common standard features, besides sharp claws, fangs, speed, and strength, varied by type. Some possessed many other abilities, such as mind influence, invisibility, teleportation, turning into mist, sonic shockwaves, and summoning bats.
And no matter the type, vampires were not afraid of wooden stakes or holy water. Those things only worked in legends and fables. Throwing garlic on them or drawing religious symbols was just as useless. Some vampires even enjoyed the taste of fresh blood with garlic. The damage sunlight inflicted on them was also very limited. Vampires disliked it and avoided it, but they absolutely would not turn to stone because of it.
The hypothetical enemies Victor wanted to deal with by brewing these potions were exactly these troublesome monsters. The female vampire who had been dealt with in Vizima by the witcher from the School of the Viper belonged to this species.
However, the most terrifying part was that all the ones mentioned above were only lower vampires!
Above them were truly peerlessly powerful higher vampires. Like the difference between humans, apes, and monkeys, higher vampires were a fully evolved variety, and every one of them was unique.
They were immune to magical detection, immune to all mental attacks and illusions, and sunbathing was a form of enjoyment to them. They were close to immortal. They could easily restrain their urge for blood and blend into human society to live. The only way to distinguish them was that mirrors could not reflect their images.
Astonishingly powerful individuals like that were difficult for even the strongest mages to defeat. Fortunately, they were few in number, and they were creatures that could communicate through language. Added to several hundred years of integrated life, they were actually very difficult to encounter in ordinary circumstances, or rather, very difficult to notice.
So there was no need to worry over nothing... probably.
...
The next day, facing the beautiful morning light, Victor tied up his horse and stripped down to nothing but an epoch-making pair of swim trunks. He put everything else into his herbal satchel, drank Killer Whale, a potion that increased lung capacity, then leapt into the Sansretour River to search for the underwater ruins of the Valley of the Nine.
Some time later, after surfacing once more to breathe, the witcher drank a bottle of Cat for easier deep diving, paired Tawny Owl with vitality broth to replenish his strength, and loaded his crossbow with a bolt while he was at it. This was for shooting drowners.
After struggling back and forth until afternoon, he finally dived again. This time, he was quite lucky. Before long, among broken walls and shattered pillars, he saw an activated portal emitting a faint water-blue glow.
This sort of water-blue glow represented a fixed point-to-point portal. It relied on a local magical spring for power, and both its safety factor and stability were quite reliable. Therefore, Victor did not hesitate before diving straight in.
A roaring ringing filled his ears.
The teleportation only took a single second.
Then he emerged in a spray of water.
The sudden shift from being underwater to having his feet on solid ground gave the young man an unreal feeling. Around him, eternal magical fire cages released orange-yellow light, and his extraordinary vision clearly perceived his surroundings.
This was a heavily developed rocky cavern. The ground had been leveled, and even had patterns on it. It was one hundred percent an elven ruin. The dry air made it uncertain whether he was still underwater.
Taking equipment from his herbal satchel, the witcher first fully armed himself.
Lowering himself to observe the portal and the messy footprints on the ground, he said, "It seems the grave robbers found something in Professor Moreau's coffin, and only then could they activate the portal entrance. It's hard to imagine how many more surprises this place has hidden... or frights, perhaps!"
Victor absolutely did not believe that a laboratory run by a mage would not have even the slightest defensive facility. So after hesitating for a moment, he took out a beautifully patterned white zircon from his herbal satchel, Keira's magic mark, held it in his hand, and used the Aard Sign to stimulate its magic.
After repeating the action several times, he stopped. Then he sat properly beside the magical fire cage and meditated while waiting.
...
It was unknown how much time passed in meditation when suddenly, using the zircon as a positioning point, a golden temporary portal opened with a roar. Keira Metz, wearing hunting breeches, walked out from within.
Victor opened his eyes. At first glance, her clothes seemed very unlike a sorceress's, correction, the neckline of this hunting outfit opened all the way down to her belly, and the zircon cross on her chest glittered captivatingly. Its visual effect was quite similar to Ves, that open-front girl. As expected of a sorceress.
She raised her chin and observed the surroundings, exposing her long, fair neck. Her attitude was disdainful and arrogant. "Hmph! Poor little Vic. As expected, you still need my help. Without me, do you not even have the courage to explore ruins?"
The blond-haired Keira wore light makeup today, with round earrings at her ears. The scent of rosemary filled the air.
"You are truly beautiful today!" The young man bowed slightly and controlled his voice, lowering it to ensure that the sentence sounded sincere and genuine. Then he extended his right hand, palm upward, in a hovering gesture.
Raising an eyebrow, Keira's light brown eyes glanced sideways as she proudly placed her right hand in Victor's. "...As if I needed you to say so. That heavy armor of yours also looks rather good when paired together. Roughness and splendor intertwined, typical Skellige style."
The sorceress's attitude clearly improved. She even returned the compliment from her superior position. As expected, regardless of whether her attitude was awful, or whether she said things meant to provoke people, the essential lubricant of communication at a first meeting, praise, had to be applied generously first. After that, everything became much easier to discuss.
His lips lightly touched the back of the sorceress's hand. After completing the hand-kiss, the witcher smiled and rose. "Thank you for your approval. Your opinion is very important to me."
Unfortunately, this bit of gentlemanly phrasing did not achieve the expected effect. Keira rolled her eyes faintly. "Enough, Vic. I've heard too much flattery of this level. Let's go!" Chanting as she opened a magical shield, she waved for Victor to lead the way. "Let's see what surprises this Professor Moreau's laboratory will bring us."
Rubbing his nose, Victor drew Blazing Strike, passed through an exquisite arched doorway, and moved deeper into the cavern.
The fact that he could invite Keira Metz to assist him had, of course, been arranged before he left Temeria. After spending that time together in Vizima, combined with Eagle Eye vision confirming her inclination as an ally, Victor had felt reassured enough to ask her to help explore the secret of "secondary mutation."
And she had indeed come as promised. From the way she was dressed, it could be seen that she had come seriously to help, and the few brief exchanges after they met also put him in a pleasant mood.
Following the clear footprints exposed in the dust on the ground, and listening to the faint noises beyond the wind in the cave, the witcher walked while explaining the situation. "I reached this place through an underwater portal, but I'm not the first person to enter the cavern. There are some grave robbers ahead. The portal was opened by them."
"Then are you not worried that they'll get there first and steal everything?" Although the sorceress said this, her steps remained calm and unhurried.
Victor shrugged. "To be honest, if any random grave robbers could take away the secret treasure, then that treasure definitely wouldn't be worth inviting you here."
In the dark cavern, Keira laughed softly.
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