Disclaimer: I do not own the Witcher Franchise Games/Books/Series.
(AN: I couldn't update as much as I wanted because my siblings are using all the devices that can be used to write and post for their classes, apologies)
(AN: I am curious though, what items and weapons would you guys have chosen if you were in the same position as the MC? And why? I just want to know, nothing serious ^^)
Chapter XXI
I had to wait awhile before my order was placed in my table but it was definitely worth it, the food is definitely 1st class since all the ingredients used for it is fresh, it is definitely good considering that Vizima is under quarantine at the moment, the owner of the tavern is a brilliant businesswoman, the alcohol is ordered by purity, the watered down alcohol is the cheapest and it is what would be considered purified water in this world.
It is a bit early to get drunk so I ordered a watered down alcohol to push down the food I just ate, this is definitely one of the perks of being a Witcher in this world, food does not affect us like it affects a normal human being, the body of the Witcher consumes food 'effectively' without waste, all the positive effects of food is more prevalent while the negative effects are nulled, in other words a Witcher can eat all he/she wants and they wouldn't get fat, all women's dream/fantasy can be solved if they underwent Witcher mutation.
I am enjoying my meal and the oddly cheerful atmosphere of the tavern even in the middle of a plague, then, I am interrupted by someone placing down a plate in my table, he took a chair from somewhere and sat in front of me, he looks vaguely familiar but I waited for him to explain himself.
"This is a good place, the food and people, everything feels untouched in here, the owner is a very smart and resourceful woman for being able to maintain this tavern even if there is a lot of going on in Vizima" he said as he sliced the meat on his plate and placed it in his mouth using his fork.
I was going to reply back but he continued immediately after his first statement;
"I really like this place and if possible, I want to avoid something that would trouble this tavern and its owner, now imagine my surprise when a Witcher who caused trouble earlier this day came here directly after doing so" he finished while looking threateningly at me waiting for my excuse.
"I am not here for trouble, I was directed here by the landowner I am renting a room from, he told me that this place provides good food, now who are you and what are you talking about earlier" I answered back and also asked because I am quite impressed, in this world where communication is very limited unless it is by magic, this person received his news quickly.
He looks at me for a minute trying to determine anything from my facial expression but then sighed and replied back "I am Raymond Maarloeve a Private Investigator working here in Vizima, I was informed by one of my contacts of your arrival and when you broke those thugs' legs, please do understand my suspicion of you, everyone is quite jumpy recently"
"I see; do you think people other than you would also find out about me this quickly?" I asked back, to know if I have some kind of trouble to watch out for from unexpected foes.
"Probably, but a lot of them would just ignore it, it is not as eye catching as you think, a lot of fights is breaking out in the city, yours is just unusual to me, it is why I noticed it, I saw your eyes earlier and I was certain that you are the one that was described by my informant, a person who broke 8 people's legs with one swing of his unusual weapon, it was easy to find you from there" Raymond responded to my unanswered question as he continued to finish his meal.
"Impressive, do you know who those thugs are? Is there anyone backing them up? I would like to know, I'd rather not have them return and go look for the girls although I doubt they would be able to but who knows, plus I am invested in them already" I asked as I also returned on enjoying my meal.
"No, there is no one backing them up, they are just some local thugs whose been bothering everyone especially those girls when the plague began, I would have planned on making some soldiers I know take care of them and silence them completely but you finished the job before I could do so"
"That is good, and here I thought I need to investigate them further to look for someone backing them up if they have any, you made my job easier thank you" I told Raymond who is just finishing his meal, I am about to finish my food too before going back to the room I rented to rest.
"Normally I would charge you, but what happened was all convenient for the both of us, I just told you what would I have told the soldiers that I could've hired to take care of them" Raymond answered back while wiping his mouth and drinking alcohol because he already finished his meal, he was about to stand up and bid me farewell but I had to stop him before he did.
"Wait, are you perhaps working on a current project?" I asked because I wanted to hire him to go look for the Salamandra and Azar Javed, while I know who the key people and organizations in this world are, I do not know the specific details, as even Vizima from what I remember is quite different than the one in the game, it is more wider and spacious in here, a lot of details are not the same.
"I am working on a project albeit an unpaid one, it is quite personal for me" he stopped and answered me back; he then sat down again to finish our conversation before taking his exit.
"I would like to hire your services for a job, me and a friend of mine have been tracking down some thieves that stole something important from us, they led us here, they are connected to a killer called The Professor and a powerful mage we are yet to figure out who" I proposed to the PI, I was hoping to save his life too because he was quite a good person from what I remember of his history.
"I may be able to find out something and I may know something, although it depends, what is your intention once you have found them?" this time Raymond has a look of seriousness about him, trying to hide the fact that we are looking for the same people.
"Eradicating them from this world was my intention along with the people who are behind them, it is quite troublesome but these people had the guts to anger Witchers, who says they won't do it again, they attacked us with the intention of wiping us out, they will suffer the consequences of their actions" I answered back in the same voice of seriousness to assure Raymond of my intentions.
"Good, come back here in the evening once the bards are performing, I will try to reserve a table for us on the 3rd floor, I will talk to the Owner, she will have one of her girls lead you to the table when the time comes" Raymond answered back, now relieved that he found someone who was willing and probably has the ability to strike back at his wife's killer and son's kidnapper.
'Now that I thought about it Raymond is just like the survivor from Fall out 4' I thought to myself before answering back, I had to take advantage of his knowledge of this place before he departs to wherever he will go in this time of the day.
"Before you go, do you know anything about card games in this place?" I asked curious on what kind of card game does this world follow, is it a poker game or a 'yugioh' ish card game?
"Ah a gambler are you? the popular one that will get you the most coin is probably Gwent, it's a card game that existed for a long time now, there are some people that would bet a lot of money and some rare cards and while most of them are from the high society you can't deny the coin that you will earn if you win one game" he explained.
I was surprised at this, surely a game of poker would be more sensible in this world rather than a Duel Monsters one right? I wonder what kinds of cards are used for the game.
"Ah I see, I wasn't able to get information about it as we travelled because we were quite a bit occupied at the time, do you know how to play?" I asked Raymond in case he has some cards, I would like to know what kind of cards are being used in this game, is it the same as in the Witcher 3? or different set of cards entirely.
"I have a deck on me, I was quite a player back in the day but I am not playing right now, I was quite busy with my personal job, you can have it, it is just collecting dust anyway, it is a bit of a unique deck, a Skellige one, I acquired it a long time ago when I visited Toussaint, a gwent enthusiast was promoting it and I was interested to see what a brand new deck can do so I accepted his deck" Raymond handed me the deck and I couldn't believe my luck, the Skellige deck is usually found end game, yet here I am, acquiring it already.
I received the cards and flipped them to see what kind of cards are they, they are quite normal, they follow the same effects as the one in games but there are no specific people mentioned in the cards, it is just a class or a job like Witcher, King, Berserkers and what not.
After handing me the cards Raymond offered to teach me how to play, so I accepted, he told me all the rules and how to win, the effects and such, the gameplay is the same as the one in game, I have to collect some rare cards in order to strengthen it but I know I can win against with those powerful cards with it.
Raymond also provided me some names that plays big time and their preferred places to visit during what hours, I can see that he gains some kind of entertainment value and amusement by telling me how to win, probably directed to the Nobles I am going to beat with Gwent, card games are very easy to me as it is one of my favourite past times when I was younger, my father and I often played with cards and board games.
The deck that I was given is quite a complicated set due to it being condition heavy, I wanted to have a nilfgardian one if possible but I can still work with these, I rebuilt it to my taste and bid Raymond goodbye as he left the tavern, we would be meeting later in the evening anyway so we didn't speak anymore lest we have some eavesdroppers in the surroundings, although I would sense them immediately due to my heightened hearing, it is still better to be cautious in these kinds of circumstances as we never know what would happen.
I paid the serving girl and also gave her a generous tip, not because she is quite the looker but because she really works hard in the tavern, she is quite effective in her job and efficient too.
I then went to look for the 1st noble I have on my list that Raymond has given me to challenge to a due…. uh I mean a card game, to check if it is worth it to play the game, I was able to find the noble at a whorehouse talking to some lass, I walked up to him and asked him;
"Are you Ryan? I was told you are a good Gwent player; I was wondering if you could play a round or two with me, unless what I heard is just some empty boasting by some crazed stranger?" I asked and mocked at the same time, if this guy is a decent person then he'll just take it as a joke and take what I have told him to be the ravings of a simpleton, but if he is like the majority of the nobles in the game is, then he would take the challenge because he won't let anyone insult his pride.
"How dare you? A peasant like you challenge me to a game of Gwent, do you really know who I am?!" the noble shouted as he stood and approached me.
"Whoa there, no need to get all feisty, I am merely challenging you to a game of Gwent, if you really are as good as the rumours say then beating me won't be a problem, unless you are scared of showing everyone in here that you are just a regular punk who don't know how to play" I tried riling him up more, I so love these kinds of idiots, they are so easy to manipulate.
"Fine, you will regret ever challenging me commoner! You there! Bring us some table and bring the owner of this place! She will act as our judge and witness" the noble ordered everyone and chose a middleman/woman for our game before I could ask.
"We will play a set, I will bet my whole deck for 3 cards of my choice from your deck" I proposed and he acquiesced, I also betted a 1000 coins, in which he was taken aback.
"That is a lot of coins to bet for a single game, are you sure you want to? I will not be returning it back to you if I win" the smug noble asked back but I just nodded in return.
"Well we can increase it to 2000 but it seems like you are quite cheap and would probably go after me if you lose, I minimized it so that I wouldn't have to deal with a sore loser after I took all his money in a single set" I mocked again trying to make him fish out more coins for the bet.
"You asked for it, if you are that confident then let's make it 5000, do you have the guts to accept peasant?!" he sneered back at me trying to challenge me to accept his dare.
"Then let us have a good game then, but let us both give the coins to the judge I'd rather not have you running away with my coins after I win after all" I mocked again as I gave the coins to the Madame, she took the coins from both of us and it is quite the impressive amount, 97% of my savings is in that pouch so if I lost today then I would lose everything, I would probably have to be laughed at by Geralt once we meet up later on.
We both sat down in the table prepared for us and set down our cards, I can see the noble grinding his teeth from pure anger, he would have probably grinded me to shreds if he had the ability and if his looks could kill alone.
It took me a few minutes but I was able to win the game, these dumbasses don't know the concept of a sacrifice play, it is what won me the game, the noble had the look of horror and realization in his face that he couldn't believe at what had just happened.
"Wha….. how…... why…..." the noble kept asking himself wondering where he went wrong with his play, I took some of his more useful cards for myself making my current deck more powerful, playing gwent in this world could make me a millionaire if that is the kind of coin that every gwent players bet every time they play, and I had quite a bit of names from the list Raymond gave me too, I requested it so that he would only list down players who plays big and can afford it so I don't think I would be running out of opponents to exto…. uhm I mean to win some coins off.
I went and looked for my next target for the game, I could probably wait and play them all one by one each day but I thought it is better if I hit them all now while they don't know who I am, so I eagerly looked for the others in order to gain some sweet coin, I deposited the coin in Shadowmere's bag.
'I would probably have to deposit all my coins soon, I don't think I would be able to carry all these coins on me at all times' I thought as I changed direction towards the bank and look what kind of bank there is in this world.
I was met with four choices of bank and while I would love to go with the 2 others I have no idea of whether they are a good or bad one, I am quite drawn to the Vivaldi bank, the largest and best bank in the known world, they have a very good reputation but they are in a hostile take-over at the moment, I also know that there is a quest regarding this branch that would force Geralt to side with either the order or scoia'tael and my earned coins would be in jeopardy all the same.
I pondered for a while before I inquired inside, when I entered the bank I immediately noticed the guards and the professionalism the employees are giving their costumers, the process is quite fast, I approached a girl behind a desk of what I would assume is a customer service desk.
"Hello, can I ask a question miss?" I asked the lady.
"Of course, what can I do for you?" she looked up at me and stopped writing down something on her paper.
"Ah yes, I would like to ask, what would happen if I deposited my coins here but then it got stolen?" she widened her eyes in disbelief of hearing what I asked.
"Your fears are unwarranted, here at Vivaldi's, our costumer's coins are in the hands of the most secure bank in the known world…" and on she ranted about the gloriousness of depositing your riches with them.
"Ahem" I coughed to interrupt her "Please if you can indulge me of my question? What would happen in case and just in case, will the bank take responsibility from it and compensate from those stolen from?"
"Yes, the bank will return the customers money and items in the circumstance that the bank would be robbed, Vivaldi's has the capital and savings to do so, so you do not have to worry about losing your money Mr. Customer" she answered back my inquiry while maintaining her facial expression.
I nodded in response and asked where I could go to start my registration and begin to deposit my earnings, it was a quick process unlike the banks back in the old world, after finishing my transaction and depositing half my earnings I then proceeded outside intent on hunting down the other players Raymond had listed on my paper.
'Time to earn some more cash, I would probably start looking for an official Witcher work tomorrow' as I am a Witcher after all a professional monster hunter, and not a professional Duelist.