6 Chapter 5:

Still anyone who trusts a serpent deserves its bite. The wise see a creature for what it is, not what it says it may be. - Alice Hoffman

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The Next day

Current Year: 1252

I was woken up by the loud banging of a spoon beating against a pan. After a few moments of this, there was a man with a drill sergeant like tone to his voice yelling for everyone to awaken.

"Listen here maggots! A witcher never needs to be woken up! He or she always wakes up on his own. Never be taken by surprise! Today is your freebie! Anyone who isn't awake by the time I come through here each morning will have to run 20 laps around the keep. Now get your filthy mongrel ass's out of your beds!" The drill sergeant esque man yelled out with a healthy set of lungs.

I immediately jumped out of my bed and made myself presentable. I opened my door and immediately stood at the ready, just like a soldier would. I wanted to look like I was taking this training seriously. After all, respect is earned, not given. I want these witchers to like me. People teach you more seriously if they like you.

I stood with my feet planted firmly on the ground and my hands held sternly at my side. My eyes stared ahead at nothing as I tried to make myself look as emotionless as possible. The witcher who had woken everyone up looked at me as I was the first one out of my room. He looked me over and saw my stance. He smiled and patted my shoulder as he walked up and down the hall, yelling for the other trainee's to wake up already.

After everyone was at the ready and awake we moved our position to the courtyard where I presume they were going to give an introduction to the new class of potential witchers. Among my group I noticed around 10 individuals that made up the class. It's a shame that only around 3 or less of us would survive the trials. After all, only 3 in 10 witchers survive the mutations.

I looked around at my potential comrades to see if there would be any contenders. All of us were between 3-5 so it was rather hard to tell. I saw a boy with skellige attire who looked pretty tough, but he had an arrogant smile on his face. He had long brown hair and brown eyes, pretty average. He also had a slightly bulky build for his age. Usually the arrogant ones die the fastest though so we'll see how he fares.

Besides him, there were a couple of nilfgaardians. I knew they were from nilfgaard from the way they dressed. They wore all black. Only one of them stood out, he was around 5 and wore pretty well made clothes. He must be a noble's son that was given up through the law of surprise. Despite his possible noble background, he seemed to be taking this pretty seriously. He had black hair and green eyes, he also had a rather skinny build, but that can change with witcher training. I'll watch out for him.

There was one girl in our group who looked like she was from Toussaint, but judging from the fearful look on her face, I don't think she's too happy to be here. She wore brighter colored clothes than the rest of us, wearing peasant garb that was yellow in color. She was quite pretty and had long yellow hair and gray eyes. Curiously her hair looked nothing like a peasant, not being dirty at all. Perhaps someone fixed it for her? Something to watch out for.

The final contender was, of course, myself. I was three years old, but I was quite tall for my age, I also didn't possess an overly thin frame like most elves do. I was thankful for that, I had always preferred being a bit more muscly than thin. I liked to stay in shape in my last life, I hope to be in even better shape here. I had medium length raven black here that I usually keep slicked back, but I have my military chaperon on at the moment. My eyes were of course blue, like my mothers. I was turning out to be a pretty handsome kid. Hopefully I don't receive a scar like Eskel and ruin my whole face. That would be a disaster.

After I was finished analyzing everybody, Ivar made his appearance. He was after all the Master of the entire school, so he needed to be here for the introductions. He stood on the stairs to the front door to the keep, looking down on all of us.

"Attention all prospective witchers!," Ivar yelled out before continuing. "I know that all of you may be nervous, after all from this point forward you will be put through hell. Starting from today onwards you will be subjected to full on witcher training. You will learn swordsmanship, magic that we call signs, how to make potions and bombs, as well as stealth and assassination. Our main purpose as witchers is to fight the monsters that the world is not capable of facing. We defeat monsters, lift curses, and kill humans for coin. That is our purpose, and it will be your purpose soon enough. That is if you are willing to undergo the choice."

The young girl from toussaint behind me raised her hand to ask a question. Ivar looked at her and then motioned for her to speak.

"Master Ivar, what "choice" exactly are you talking about?" The girl from toussaint said, albeit a bit timidly. Ivar smiled and spoke again.

"The choice, my dear, is the choice to become a witcher. If you accept the choice. You will begin training immediately. You will learn about monsters and how to fight, your diet will also be strictly augmented to a selection of magical herbs and mushrooms. If you deny the choice, you will be brought back to your country of origin and left with whomsoever will care for you. If that person who will care for you doesn't exist, then we will try and find an orphanage for you to stay in." Ivar carefully explained so that each of us understood what becoming a witcher meant.

The girl nodded at that and became silent once more. Ivar looked at all of us again and asked the question once more.

"Now, which of you will accept the choice to become a witcher?" Ivar asked.

I raised my hand and everyone, one by one, began to raise their hands themselves. Including the boy from Skellige and the Nilfgaardian boy. Even the girl from Toussaint raised her hand. It seems she has nothing to go back to in her homeland. Ivar nodded at all of our hands and stepped down off the stairs.

"Well then, your training begins now, all of you. Give me 10 laps around this castle! Move!" Ivar intoned.

I took off running, following one of the older witchers who was jogging alongside us. I made sure to regulate my breathing. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Finally, my witcher training is finally beginning!

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4 years later:

Current Year: 1256

I am now seven year old. These past few years have been hell, Witcher training really is a bitch. The school of the viper is known to be particularly intense. There was no mercy and no forgiveness. If you weren't perfect in the instructors eyes, then you weren't good enough. They frequently had us fight monsters. Nothing too crazy just yet. Just a couple ghouls, drowners and endrega. I heard that when we get older from the other witchers, they'll step it up a notch with trolls and grave hags.

Good new though, I can confidently say I'm the best in my class in every area, including swordsmanship, signs, alchemy, and stealth. Whether using one sword like most witchers do, or the dual sword style of The School of the Viper, I am the best in it. It's not surprising, I have great memory and I'm extremely power hun- I mean extremely hard working. Swordsmanship wasn't all I worked on these past few years though. I've also dived in head first to alchemy and magic. I've improved at a monstrous rate and am almost at the stage where I can create new potions. Give me three more years and I'll surpass Gremist's level in terms of alchemy. However compared to Gremist, our master alchemist at the school of the viper was in a whole different league. His name was Torsten and my god did he know his way around an alchemy lab. The man was a witcher after all and was creating new potions, poisons, and different mutagenic combinations on the daily.

"Harkon, get yer fookin ass in here and extract the mutagens from the Katakan corpse! It's going to spoil!" Torsten spoke while mixing together some herbs.

"Yes master Torsten, I'm on it!" I yelled back as I began my dissection of the vampire corpse in order to extract it's mutagens. It only took me a minute to make the extraction. I then gave the metal potion cup full of Katakan mutagen over to Torsten. He thanked me and then I bowed and left in order to continue my other training.

Besides my alchemy, I had dived head first into magic. I set aside practice each day for my sign training, and I got in additional practice by using certain signs while I was walking around or doing something else. Walk to the bathroom? Use Quen on the way there. Running around the field? Use Aard, Igni and Yrden while I was running my laps. Finally, I used Axii on some of the less than prominent members of my witcher class to have them do simple things like run around in circles or to have them suddenly sit down and clean their sword. I felt kind of bad, but I needed to practice somehow.

I also head read all of my mothers books on healing magic. This helped me stay ahead as I was able to heal my muscles at the end of particularly intense workouts. I did this in secret of course, best not to let a trump card like this be known. I knew I was a source and I was of a reasonably suitable age to practice magic without damaging myself. Figuring out how being a source worked was quite difficult though, I couldn't just summon storms of magic power. For now, all I had was an extreme talent for magic. Unfortunately, Witcher's aren't very focused on magic and only invite mages to the castle to oversee the trials.

Once I set out on the path, I'll have to find myself a teacher. My affinity is so great that at one point in time, I would be hunted down and captured in order to be taught magic in one of the several organizations throughout the land. Finding one won't be too difficult. Of course I'll have to make sure they don't dissect me first to try and figure out my mutations.

I was heading back to my room, finished with my training for the day. Tucked underneath my arm were several books I had gotten from the library about sources. I also had a couple of books on the different disciplines of sorcery. The library didn't have much in this field, but it was a start. I arrived at my door, but as I was opening it, I heard a feminine voice call out to me.

"Hey Harkon, do you think we could talk for a second?" Said the girl that was from Toussaint during the introduction ceremony. I think her name was Vivienne.

I looked at her, I was honestly surprised she had survived this long. I thought for sure she would have died from the choice itself. Magical mushrooms do not agree with most people, two of the not so noteworthy Nilfgaardian students died about a year back. Heart failure from their bodies failing to adapt. I smiled at her.

"What would you like to talk about Vivienne?" I asked with a chipper tone. I was acting, I actually didn't enjoy her company too much. She has mainly gotten this far by relying on the noble Nilfgaardian boy and the boy from skellige to help her. They seemed to have formed a trio focused on protecting her. I would not become the fourth member.

"I was wondering… would you mind helping out with my sign training? I'm having trouble and Master Vormis said you were the best sign user he's trained in quite awhile." She said with an inquisitive and playful tone.

Well, we might have a little manipulator on our hands after all. She wore peasant garb when she arrived here, but maybe she's a noble? I remember her hair didn't look like a peasant. It doesn't matter, she is attempting to gain my trust so that she can become more powerful with signs. Tips from a prodigious student can be quite insightful and might help her become much stronger. She even tried to butter me up by saying I was the best student in this generation. Honestly I didn't expect the timid girl I saw at the introduction ceremony to turn into such a schemer. I'll just give her some simple advice and move on.

"Well the key to perfecting your sign usage is constant practice, try and use signs even when you don't have to in order to improve." I replied back to her, keeping a smile on my face at all times.

Vivienne stared at me and I swear I saw her almost scowl for a second before she spoke again with a smile.

"Thank you for the tip Harkon, but I was wondering if you could put some time towards training with me yourself." She said, exacerbating her point home.

This time it was me that almost scowled, but I managed to hold it back by the skin of my teeth. This bitch, don't you know that no means no.

"I'm sorry Vivienne, but my studies and my free time are already stretched thin as it is, I don't think I'll be able to personally train you." I said again, this time with sorrow in my voice. I was acting of course, but god damn this girl just couldn't take the hint.

Vivienne looked at me again before she smirked. A smirk that a regular seven year old, or actually I think she might be nine, probably shouldn't make.

"Are you sure about that?" Vivienne said. As she did so the Nilfgaardian boy named Svend and the Skelligan boy named Ulf appeared around the corner of the hall.

They both walked up behind her and stared at me. This situation wasn't looking good. I was the tallest one here, but only by a couple inches. Ulf was second best in the swordsman class, right beneath me. The same goes for Svend, but in terms of signs. Vivienne was also very prodigious in her alchemical work, right behind me of course. I'll be honest, if I have to fight all three of the witcher trainees right now, I'll probably lose. I'm good, but I'm not the best yet. I'm still only seven and facing off against three witcher trainees at seven years old with my level of experience and without having undergone any mutations was just plain stupid.

I glared at Vivienne before giving up with a sigh. She had planned this and I had no contingency. I didn't have any bombs or my training sword on me. I'll have to get strong and be more careful in the future so that shit like this doesn't happen again. I thought I was safe because despite the harshness of the witchers, they look out for each other. This was a valuable lesson though, I won't be caught off guard like this again. I stared at Vivienne again before smiling.

"It looks like my schedule has just cleared up. When would you like to start?" I said with the frostiest smile I could muster.

She smirked at me, likely realizing she had me right where she wanted me. Damn it, this sucks.

"That's wonderful! Let's meet in the training ground in thirty minutes, ok?" Vivienne said with a chipper smile.

I nodded with compliance and watched them all slowly walk away, Ulf was smirking at me while Svend had a look of pity, they probably did this because they were jealous of me being at the top of the class. As they walked down the hall and disappeared around the corner, the smile on my face faded. What was left a cold and utterly hateful one that screamed murder. Those three didn't realize it, but soon they would know. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even next year, something will happen. Poking a serpent and expecting it not to bite is foolish, they'll soon understand that lesson when I'm done with them.

A plan formed inside my head. A plan that will assure me of victory without even having to lift my sword. I couldn't kill them, at least not directly. It is considered taboo for witchers to kill other witchers. There are other ways. Everyone has accidents, even the most careful.

There was a fire burning my heart. My hatred and anger was threatening to overflow. Anger is useless, it simply clouds your judgement. Hatred on the other hand, well, if you use it intelligently hatred can become a great weapon. I needed to temper it like you would a sword, I had extreme amounts of hatred for humans in my past life, my mother tempered that side of me with her kindness in this new one.

Unfortunately mother, I have work to do.