Disclaimer: I do not own the Witcher Franchise Games/Books/Series; I only own my SI character.
(AN: I was honestly surprised at the support this fic is getting, and I am thankful for those who are trying to help me improve, I also thank those who gave their suggestions on a new fic, I already have some good ideas, 4 of them in fact but I need to polish them more before I started writing them, please keep the ideas coming in ^^)
(AN: I have noticed some errors as I continue writing this fic but I have already come so far with it, so I will have to commit with the current system this fic is using, I will try my best to make it bearable, and hopefully I can improve more for when I post a new story)
Chapter XIX
(Time Skip 4 Months)
Geralt and I arrived in the outskirts of Vizima, the journey had been quite long indeed, and it was majorly because of looking and accomplishing jobs on the path to earn our keep and finally looking for clues about the thieves that attacked Kaer Morhern, I could probably just inform Geralt but it is better for us if we stumbled upon it naturally and without me looking for some complicated excuse that would bud further suspicion down the road also Geralt's horse is a normal one that gets tired while mine is awesome.
Shadowmere on the other hand didn't get tired, even though he is carrying all of our items on him, he also maintained speed and did not slow down at all even after I added some more rations and other essential items on his bag.
The times that we were resting I took advantage of it to train myself more and learn from Geralt, as his memory of potion making and sign casting returned back to him, not completely but enough for him to let his muscle do all the work of remembering how to do it because he has crafted potions and casted signs for a very long time, it is already ingrained in his own body how to do it, all he needed is a nudge and off he goes.
I have grown stronger over the past few months, I even made my forms more precise and better overall, I have 5 of them at the moment, Form 1 for the basics, Form 2 for the advanced techniques, Form 3 concentrates on the sword and makes my unarmed combat techniques and signs a support for it, Form 4 is culminating Forms 1-3 in a single Form, and finally Form 5 focuses on my specialized sword techniques, I tried making a makeshift dark style, Vergil's iaido technique if I remember correctly, although it is only loosely interpreted as I did not focus it completely on the drawing style but also fighting with the sword even without its sheath.
I have also made great leaps and bounds in my Sign training as I have mastered its basics and already practicing its advanced forms, my mutated brain helped a lot in this regard as it assisted me to quickly adjust to the signs, I feel like my brain feels more reactive as I train it regularly like a muscle, plus meditating in the few places of power that Geralt and I found on our journey helps a lot too.
I have also created a movement sign and promptly called it Agii for convenience, its effects allow me to pump up my speed for 5 seconds approximately 5 times my speed, it has saved me more times than I can count in our hunts, I am also practicing its advanced form which allows me to dash in a single direction at the Flash's speed or at the speed of light, although it has a limit of 10 meters only, I of course trained with this sign extensively the most as it is my favorite one at the moment, I can make it so that I can control the dash distance within 10 meters, I am still mastering it as I would like to dash whenever I like, the major problem with it is that you can't stop the whole dash midway and you need to go through the whole dash, so if you have a tree in front of you and you miscalculated the distance? You would go splat.
I had Geralt help me experiment on the sign and he also gave me inputs in its creation, it was the longest I heard him speak, he also tried to copy it of course but it does not work as he doesn't know the basics behind its creation, he only knows some parts of it, I offered to teach it to him in depth but he refused and told me that it isn't his style anyway and wouldn't even begin to know how to measure the distance precisely and consecutively while in the heat of the battle.
I agreed with him of course as I simply created the sign to fit my combat style, not because I would like to improve the Witcher sign arsenal, I could've probably invented more sign's but using them and mastering them are entirely different things, I'd rather have few mastered signs than a thousand that I can cast but wouldn't even begin to understand how to fight with it.
I also learned some tips and tricks from the white wolf on where, when and how to cast the sign in certain settings or environment.
The one I dreaded the most is potion making, as it feels like I am back in my chemistry classes where I failed horribly in, I was trying my hardest to find a way out of brewing potions, but it is quite an essential thing for the Witchers and it left me with the only thing to do and that is to learn it, at first I thought I am not going to understand but my brain proved me wrong again and I learned everything that I needed to do, it felt like it was second nature to me, making a potion and consuming them, like it was programmed in my head but I didn't have any idea of it, not until I delved deeper into the subject, of course I did not learn potions alone but how to make some oil's for my weapons too, of course I wouldn't be able to learn how to craft oils and potions if I didn't know how to butcher or harvest the monsters and plants for ingredients, this was an easy subject to learn for me because I already have a working knowledge of it, we were taught from a very young age to butcher chicken and other farm animals, it was an insult in our village if you didn't know how.
With Geralt's help we made a bunch of different kinds of potion and oils that we kept in Shadowmere's bag, we take it out once we have a hunting job, given enough time and resources I could probably make something of my own, so I did try to make concepts when we have the free time on how to make other medical products.
But that will be an issue for another time, as I was still mastering my potions efficiency, Geralt also taught and reinforced my knowledge on how to gather the materials needed in crafting not how the book taught me but on a more practical way, he also did the same with how to remove ingredients from animals and monsters we have hunted while we were on the road to Vizima.
On our downtimes with nothing to do I often asked for a spar against Geralt, we requested a blacksmith to make some wooden swords resembling our weapons appearance and weight and it is what we used every time we sparred, I find that I enjoyed it, the thrill of facing against someone better than you is still strong in me, Geralt is so skilled with the blade that he could also only use it without signs and still go toe to toe with me, we only did it once but it was a spectacle to see his swordplay in action against me, it is also good for me to spar with him constantly because of his sword skills as it spurs me to improve more and more until I can stack up against Geralt, nowadays we beat each other into a tie without the use of signs of course and just pure swordsmanship, it was a risky move on my part to speed up my skills with a full blown sparring immediately but it was worth it.
This also increased my confidence level in facing monsters, Geralt faced all kinds of monsters and he was able to slay them with his swordsmanship and now that I can keep up with him, that made facing monster's a little easier when we started doing so.
A great majority of monster slaying request comes from dispatching nekkers and drowners; they are the equivalent of rapidly multiplying vermin back on earth although we fought varying versions of them, they are still annoying due to their numbers and crowd mentality.
In our monster slaying adventures, I was given the chance to test out the Red Mortal Blade when we were investigating a wraith, they can't be killed, only affected with silver, other than that they can be put to rest by granting their last request, satisfying their thirst for vengeance or simply destroying the item that is tying the wraith to the mortal world.
The mortal blade ignored all of that when I drew it to slash the wraith who came my way, the moment the edge of my blade touched the wraith, it suffered and unable to move as the blade sliced through it completely, the red mist coming out of the blade then formed around its victim and cleansed it of its negative aura, the wraith now in the form of a beautiful woman ascended while its aura was eaten by the mortal blade, I felt it become sharper as it did so.
This happening didn't escape Geralt's notice of course as he asked me how I did it, I told him of the blades special ability and that I am the only one for now that can wield it as no one else had the ability to fulfil the requirement just yet, I was tempted to make Geralt try to unsheathe it but I remembered that he did not actually die as he was more like healed, he in a technical sense did came back to life but did not truly experience death, according to the games? Besides that I did not want to risk it so I told him that whoever draws the blade without its requirement being met that person would die immediately.
"And I haven't met the requirements?" Geralt asked really wanting to try if he can wield the blade; I shook my head no as I replied.
"I wish you had as that would give us more tactical options, but sadly you were only so close to it so please do not even attempt to draw it as you won't even be able to swing it once before you will die" I told Geralt as a warning in case he has the funny idea of using it to kill an Elven warmonger.
We had also encountered some Chort's and Leshen's and other gigantic monsters while we were travelling, we were able to find some bounty on them before we hunted them, this is where I used my Predator Bow to snipe them down, I was able to find a skilled enough blacksmith to make some steel and silver arrows and it is what I use as a substitute for my regular ones.
I had to shoot both creatures a total amount of 5 times before they went down and Geralt could deliver the killing blow, I practiced daily with the bow and I am now confident in hitting a moving fast target as I was practicing on small rats that I found in the forest or birds in flight which we also cook for food, I was also able to practice my cooking more and had even recreated some dishes back home that can be made with ingredients found in the forest.
I also practiced mounted archery on Shadowmere, I was able to do it easily due to Shadowmere himself being so obedient and synchronized with my thoughts, he knows what to do when to do it, also my archery and horse archery wouldn't even bud out without the bow itself, because I can't even begin to imagine the time and effort that I would need if I had a regular bow instead of it.
Aside from these I also had mastered both my concealed weapons and made Shadowmere carry the extra small bolts on him beside my extra sources of arrows and Predator Bow, I carry a small amount with me in case I run out of it but it hardly happens as I only need 2-3 and sometimes 6-7 if the circumstances really pushes it, practicing with the hidden blades was also easy due to my expertise in kali, I adopted the blade into my techniques and adjusted my style from there.
The best mastery that I have developed over the months is my skills on the grappling hook, I have practiced it extensively as we were passing through large trees, at first I had to combine it with my speed sign Agii so that I can perform a perfect hook mid-air but now I can survive any fall with my hook, I can also climb high structures easily.
Before I forget, my Agii sign played a very big role in my development as it helped me create more complex moves and techniques; it also sped up my practice time with all my ranged weapons.
And lastly was my greatest achievement over the months, I am more proud of it than everything I have listed down combined, it is that I can now use both swords I have to produce sword waves, a mid ranged attack that has the potential to extend into a long range one, but its slicing power is diminished too much at such long ranges, I am not yet at Vergil or Dante's level in producing them but a sword wave at 7 meters? It is good enough for me and it is also a clue for me to follow when it comes to the sword wave that I have no idea how to improve it, I remember the first time I have discovered this technique.
I was in a middle of a fight with bandits who has a hostage at the time, this made me and Geralt stop and look at the hostages, we can't do anything to hit them as they were a good 6 meters away from us and there are multiple enemies holding them hostage, 1 on the left side and 2 on the other, even if I managed to hit the 1 on the left, the 2 left behind would finish the job and dispatch the hostage's, I contemplated making a sign but it is risky with a big chance that they would be successful in the execution of the civilians faster than I could cast.
I was feeling hopeless at the time and angry, great anger towards the bandits that would use the hostages in such way, I didn't think of it at the time but I drew my blade from its sheath and was able to produce a sword wave that cut off the heads of the 2 bandits and I was able to point my right hand on the other bandit located on the left and shoot the bolt loaded in my hidden wrist blades.
We had saved the day, earned our keep and I had a new technique to train with, I tried replicating the sword wave again and again till my hands were bleeding, I was able to do so until I had mastered it, it consumes stamina, the farther the wave the bigger the cost, having heightened stamina to cover the cost was good, I practiced everyday with it so that I can use it without worry next time, 7 meters is the most effective range I could get out of it, I can also increase its effective range but it would be a heavy burden on my body afterwards, even a mere 1 meter increase would make me kneel from the sudden loss of stamina.
The problem is not about the cost but the execution, I could probably lessen the burden and be more comfortable with it but it would take time for me to master the tricks needed to increase the sword wave's distance, I will have to be satisfied with it for now, take advantage and learn everything I can from the technique while also practicing daily to improve upon it.
In our journey Geralt remembered more but still only the basics, no important people or location, we had quickly became good friends due to our constant battle and saving each other's assess in a monster hunt, he plows every whore that he can find whenever we take a stop in a town, I don't fault him for it as I was also tempted to do the same because I didn't have to worry about sickness due to our immunity and would like to gain more 'experience' as Triss subtly put it but I really had to prioritize my training and often times I was too tired from my practice that I immediately go to sleep whenever I finish, it was a shame too as I saw some really pretty ones from some of the establishments we stayed in.
Drinking liquor has been a common activity and bonding moment for me and the white wolf, the problem of having no internet or phones, but I quite like it, drinking while looking at nature, or listening in on the people around us as they complain about their days of work on the field, it really is quite the experience I had these four months I also occasionally play the guitar Triss made for me on the road and tried to recall some songs from home it is a good past time whenever I can't train due to storms and other phenomena, I brought it with me and placed it on Shadowmere's back.
It was a long journey but not an unwelcomed one but now that we are near our destination, I drew my hood back and looked at Vizima in the horizon, I can also picture out a small village from the distance, which I assume would be Geralt's first destination so I had to act before we arrive in it;
"Geralt, I will take the long road and scout ahead see if I can scale up the walls and enter without anyone noticing, I will then look for you inside as soon as you are able to enter or immediately if you are already in" I told Geralt of my plan to avoid the future Grandmaster of the Flaming Rose.
I decided in our journey to avoid anything that has to do with the kid or grandmaster to avoid messing up the timeline, it is troublesome enough that I had already interjected with the plot and I don't want to make it worse by screwing up the timeline I haven't really thought it through but it would depend on future circumstances but I could probably mess with the Grandmaster himself but I will need to leave the kid alone.
Geralt thankfully nodded at my suggestion, we shook hands as we promised to look for each other once we are inside Vizima.
"Go, try not to get caught, I will be waiting inside" was Geralt's last words before we parted ways, I handed him back some of his items and kept the majority on Shadowmere as his horse can't carry as much, I then urged Shadowmere to sprint and follow the road leading to the walls of Vizima, hoping to find a place where there are minimal guards that I can scale up to without no one noticing.
'This is my first time alone in months hopefully the plot would still be faithful or else I would be confused as on what to do next, I already have a limited knowledge on the plot I don't want to make it more complicated and useless'
After a while of riding, Shadowmere and I found a good spot to scale the wall, it is quite high and there is no visible foothold or rough surface in sight, it is why there is no guards on the walls and just a few patrols that would pass through it occasionally, I motioned Shadowmere to stop and I dismounted from him, I kept every weapon on him and only brought the Yamato with me in case of emergency, I checked out and studied the wall I would be scaling from the ground, I focused on my hearing to listen on my surroundings and learn the timing of the guards rotating the wall, once I had all the information I needed I fired the grappling hook from my wrist blades and secured it.
I then started climbing the wall.