Chapter #53

AN: I have two chapters in stock and no muse for now. Just going to post these two before going back to the drawing board. Writing hundred years of witchering is stressful, especially so with a sore throat (Sick children are menace to society especially when they keep coughing at your face while asking for your phone)

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The Trial of the Mountains, much better known to Wolf Witchers as the Trial of the Medallion, served as an exam intended to verify what the adepts remembered from the previous stages of training.

Would-be Wolves needed to swim across a pond near Kaer Morhen, get through caverns inhabited by an old cyclops called Old Speartip without waking him up, then climb Troll's Head, deal with its mistrustful rock trolls, and get to a Circle of Elements. After activating their medallion at the Circle the Trial was complete.

All this was done in groups, as mentors believed that even though witchers were lone hunters they could still benefit from cooperation.

However there was an exception made for Zeno for he proved too strong and cooperative and his presence would mess up the essence of the trial.

So he was sent alone ahead of the others to be tested alone, thus Zeno left the keep by dawn and reached the pond.

Here out of the prying eyes, Zeno first got rid of the equipment he was given by absorbing them with his biomass.

Thanks to his powers he would never have to maintain his equipment since it will all be made with biomass.

[Exhibitionist] System muttered.

'...' Zeno couldn't deny the fact that he was technically naked.

After getting rid of the needless weight Zeno started to swim, and detected some drowners in the pond.

Zeno used a delicate Aard to increase his speed and maneuverability in water before he drew them ashore.

His biology allowed him to use signs in unbelievable situations since he wasn't exactly humanoid, and Zeno was taking advantage of it.

Normally witcher signs are crude and basic versions of magic but in the hands of Zeno they turned into something else, as Gabriel said the magic in this world comes from Chaos and Zeno represents Order.

Both of them merging together in balance actually makes them thrive instead of choking each other, allowing Zeno to pull off unexpected feats with signs.

'I wonder how it would affect actual magic.' Zeno wondered as he finally reached ashore.

The drowners too, left the water in a slow manner. They were basically water zombies and didn't possess much intelligence, thus didn't know they were being led around.

Seeing them all come out of the water Zeno lunged towards them and beheaded them in a swift manner.

Even humans could handle them in small numbers, let alone a witcher, not considering the fact Zeno was already stronger than your average witcher.

He didn't loot their corpses since he didn't have a way to preserve them, and their smell would probably wake the cyclops in the caverns.

Checking his mental map, Zeno started to navigate through the forest looking for the caverns nearby.

On the way he ran into a water hag it was no doubt looking for the group of drowners he had just killed.

Zeno wanting to try out the effects of Karmic Virtue on monsters coated his sword with it but the hag suddenly screeched and ran away.

[Hmm... We need more experiments. If possible we should find a higher vampire or something so we can get some actual feedback instead of unintelligible screeching.] System said.

'Yeah.' Zeno agreed, it was a pity that he didn't get to kill it since it would probably bother the candidates coming after him.

Shaking his head, Zeno moved along, picking some herbs and flowers on the way grounding them up in his body.

His collector's instincts were commanding him to loot all he can as a proper RPG character.

By the time Zeno reached the caverns he had a fine cyan colored dust in his hands made with the herbs he collected on the way.

'This should deepen the cyclops' slumber making sure it wouldn't wake up unless it was hit with a sword.' Zeno checked the dust with his microscopic vision once more before nodding in satisfaction.

{Wouldn't the children coming after get cocky because of this?} Ouryuu asked.

Indeed it seemed like a tragic plot twist waiting to happen but Zeno's explanation made things clearer for him.

'This dust would only work for ten minutes, by that time the kids would be barely out of the pons.' Zeno said while traversing the caverns

His new eyes helped him navigate through without needing much light coupled with nanosuit's night vision Zeno didn't have any problems seeing in total darkness.

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Finally, Zeno saw the cyclops, behind him were the medallions left by the witchers for the students to claim.

These medallions were forged by the witchers in the forge. The same forge where their swords and armor came from, which will be brought to ruins during the sacking.

'I really should find the time to back up every piece of knowledge before they get destroyed.' Zeno decided.

[Just let me out, I'll turn into a bird or something and sneak in. Since we don't emit much magic due to Karmic Virtue I can sneak in without problems.] System suggested.

'You want a body now?!' Zeno asked while spreading the sleeping powder under the cyclops' nose.

[A small sacrifice for precious knowledge.] System replied with a resolute tone.

Zeno didn't have a reason to refuse and soon a small bird flew out of the cave with Zeno coming after it.

On Zeno's neck there was a silver medallion, a replica of the medallions in the game actually. There were many different medallions in the cave but Zeno couldn't take his eyes off this one.

'Now, it's time to deal with the rock trolls.' Zeno sighed remembering them from the game.

Using Axii was tricky in this part since there were two of them and the other could notice his partner being bewitched.

Zeno quickly made his way to Troll's Head and was immediately greeted by two trolls sitting over the hill with a boulder waiting to be dropped on his head.

Not wanting to bother with linguistically challenged trolls Zeno used a boosted Axii to target them both, it was just enough to make them not notice Zeno passing through under his invisibility cloak.

For some reason Axii was the only Sign Zeno had trouble with and couldn't boost it's power no matter how much he tried.

{It seems you simply suck at mind control stuff Zeno. Even the Silverlight you personally created was a bust.} Ouryuu gave him a mental pat on the back.

'...' Zeno was sad about this but had to agree with Ouryuu.

Soon he was at the top of the mountain where the Circle of Elements was situated.

Zeno put his medallion on the altar and lit the candles present on them with a quick Igni before he sat down to meditate.

An hour later his medallion gave a crisp sound indicating that it was activated, Zeno opened his eyes and wore his medallion.

He didn't have a way to absorb the medallions for now since the magic mumbo jumbo and the power of the elements they absorbed.

In truth he didn't need the medallion since he was capable of sensing magic and curses due to Karmic Virtue unlocking his supernatural senses but the medallion was a method of identification for witchers.

Zeno got up and looked down at the hill, the kids should have already done with the Cyclops by now and should be coming up the mountain.

Indeed soon Zeno saw the figures of his friends and the other candidates. The thing that caused him to frown was the fact they were all bloodied and some even had missing limbs.

'Deglan explicitly said not to wake the cyclops! The fuck happened?' Zeno was curious, he wanted to rush down and help but that would invalidate their trial.

So he decided to sit down and wait instead of going back to the keep.

He watched as Eskel and Geralt Axiied the trolls together while Lambert and Remus were carrying some of the heavily wounded children.

Once they reached where he was and put down their medallions Zeno was free to look over their wounds.

Thanks to his looting habit Zeno had enough herbs with him to make some basic salves to apply first aid.

He could have even made some swallow potions if he had looted the drowners he had killed.

By the time he dealt with the wounded an hour had already passed and the rest were ready to go.

"What happened?" Zeno asked Geralt who was wearing his medallion.

"Someone got arrogant, decided to poke the cyclops in the eye with his sword... You can guess the rest." Geralt explained his shoulders slumping.

The idiot who got arrogant was obviously dead but that obviously wouldn't calm the cyclops down.

"I really hate this profession..." Zeno heard Lambert mumbling.

He couldn't really offer any consolation to him, not when there were so many wounded.

"Alright, we can mourn later. We need to go back to the keep." Eskel said, bringing them out of their brooding.

"Right, follow me, I'll take the lead. You're all tired and look like shit." Zeno said and started to move down the mountain.

Since the trial was basically over, they didn't have to swim again and could stick to the land.

The path he was taking didn't cross with the trolls and with his extraordinary senses he could just avoid the monsters in the forest.

If he couldn't avoid them he would just have Ouryuu who was in the body of an firefly flash their Karmic Virtue scaring them away.

With nothing obstructing their way, it didn't take long for them to go back to the keep even with the wounded.

They were greeted by Deglan at the door, he immediately ordered the wounded to be taken care of.

Meanwhile he was listening to Geralt and co. as they recounted the events that happened during the trials.

Deglan couldn't give them any consolations either, the threat of death came with the profession and it was a good lesson for them to not get cocky.

Still it would be wrong to say he wasn't sad to see the children they trained get injured like this.

"Come on, you're all bonafide witchers now. Let's drink some booze, it helps." He could only offer a mug to each of them and hope they'll bounce back.