Capítulo 8: Chapter VIII
Sitting at my desk, I wrote a quick letter back to Lydia. She had told me of her concerns over Nessa spending so much time at the house of the queen of the night. It was a brothel, but Nessa swore she was only a barmaid along with her friend Lily.
Besides teen sister drama, Lydia wrote about the suffocating Vesemir. The rough witcher had acquired a soft spot for her during her pregnancy. I think it was due to a similar reason that Raza took a liking to me. Witchers are stripped of the ability to make a family. This makes some witchers cold and cruel, while others develop an attachment to people to ease that buried pain.
Finally, Lydia worried about the baby. She was growing a bit fast and ate triple her usual servings during meals. Honestly, it was nothing to worry about, as long as she was strong and healthy, she would be fine.
When I finished, the letter came out to be a page and a half. Though, I still hadn't told her about Adda. The last thing I needed was an emotional Lydia coming to White Orchard to eat and talk about baby names with her sister-wife. Adda, on the other hand, didn't want to share at the moment, so she had no objections.
Folding the parchment and sealing it with wax, I gave it to a servant, to have it sent to Vizima.
'Inventory open. Book of Life.' I summoned the leather-bound book from my inventory.
Looking through all of the diagrams I had already completed, I tried to find a modern metal that came remotely close to the traits of my new sword set. Shard, hard, flexible, durable, light, and it never seemed to dull. I began to play with compounds and but came up with nothing, again.
Put my swords out of my mind. I called forth a microscope I created and examined the blood of the level 26 alghouls. Recording everything I observed. I then moved to sequence the DNA. The continent had created a more magical way to isolate genes. The same way the inspected mutagens, a mix of alchemy and crystal.
Mixing the monster parts in ducal water, straining the liquid, add mandrake the stain again, brew on fire with the fifth essence until it thickens. Finally, the mixture is poured over a crystal tablet, and with a little magic, the DNA shines for about two minutes before it evaporates.
Two minutes is all I needed. Putting the book of life back in the codex, the codex automatically updates the book with a replica of the sequencing. Once I'm finished. I compare the level 26 alghoul to the level 10 alghoul I killed with Raza during my first year on the continent. It's a process, but it's something I enjoy. Every monster I ever killed is in the book of life along with every weapon and armor diagram, or alchemical substance I ever wanted to craft.
I studied and theorized for a few hours then closed the book of life. I never focused on the book too long or I would start to think about the elder blood gene. It was like a needle in a stack of needles. A gene that couldn't be isolated. I had long discovered the Aen Elle gene. It was the only elven genes I had in me. With blood from Ida, I'm currently working on the differences between Aen Elle and the Aen Shide. But without a pureblooded Aen Elle, there wasn't much I could figure out.
To not fully understand what I am is the worst feeling in the world, but nowhere near as bad as being weak. With a single thought, light Armor appeared on my body, followed by swords set.
A few moments later, I found Toruviel and gave her a flare-stick. All she had to do was pull the string and three read flare would be launched in the sky in the event of an attack.
________________________________________________________________________
White Orchard Woods.
After my run-in with the alghouls, I realized that the fastest way to gain XP were life and death battles. But just any life or death battles, the monster has to outrank me.
Five level 26 Alghouls granted me nearly 70,000 XP. The best way to level up and figure the value of each monster is to hunt. For two months, I had made quite a few silver beartraps. Coating them in a variety of monster oils, I placed them throughout the dark spot in the woods. Instead of using my swords, I'm now using silver-tipped arrows. Finally, I used the alchemy tab to concoct monster lures and the viper's school favorite night raid potion, Cat. It allows the user to see in total darkness.
Dropping the necrophage, Ogroid, Insect, and relict lures in trap infest areas. I climbed a tree and waited for the party to begin.
Nekkers were the first to arrive. Using my charge ability, I shoot enhanced arrows into their hearts and heads before they could trip the traps. Soon Nekker warriors and Alghouls appeared, followed by drowners and foglets.
Tossing out superior dragon's dream bombs. The area became polluted with combustible dust. Snapping my fingers, the tip of my arrow caught fire. Nocking the arrow and drawing back the bow, I waited as monsters flocked and they began to fight amongst each other.
levels from 25 to 31 shined in my eyes as I watched the monster congregation.
Swish! Releasing the arrow, it cut through the wind, and the moment the flaming tip touched bust cloud...
Boom! the are lit up like the sun had touched the earth. A wave of fire bathed the area and the agonizing screams of the monsters shattered the silence of the woods.
Jump from tree to tree, I made my way to the sea of flames and tossed pouches of oil onto the monster to prolong the flames, followed by Superior Dancing Stars, Superior Grapeshots. Flesh and bone flew across the death pit as my bombs wreaked havoc.
Arrow after arrow, I sat on my perch and dropped monsters at a rate that would make Raza jealous. When the flames died down, the monster still alive was charred and some of them were cripple in bear traps. Using the last of my arrows, I took out the alghouls. Those bastards began to heal themselves and I couldn't let them win.
Pulling back my last arrow, I fired at a level 29 alghoul that accelerated its healing by eating the charred flesh of the monster next to it. Whistling through the air, the arrow closed in on the Alghoul but a Nekker warrior suddenly stood up and took the arrow in its chest.
Without hesitation, I pulled a superior northern wind bomb out and dopped on the battlefield. Instantly freezing everything. With only 20 seconds of freeze time, I drew my longsword and blinked from the tree and appeared next to the Alghoul. Shink. I cut an arm from the monster and the decapitated with a charged blow. Blinking to and fro, I delivered instant kills to the high-level monster. Though, when I approached a level 25 beast I was saving for last. It burst from its ice prison and used its hind legs, it props itself up and whips it's deadly tail into my side, hurling me into a tree.
Snap!
"Ahhhh! Fuck!" I shouted.
When my body hit the ground my right arm landing in an untouched bear trap that snapped my arm like a twig. Unable to pull it off, I recalled the trap into my inventory to free myself.
Putting a vial of fisstech to my nose I snorted to numb the pain and my focus ability calmed my mind. But it didn't last long as the claws of Nekker Warrior ripped through my thigh, poisoning my blood. My body tensed and I shouted as its claws grazed my thigh bones.
"Ahhh!" Shink! I drove my short sword through its skull the blinked away. Rising to one leg, I blinked again and tackled the large Endrega. Climbing onto its back, adrenaline took over. Stabbing the sword into its back, I used 'Ard' over and over and over again.
Boom. Boom. Bang. The telekinetic push exploded from its chest after turning its insides to mush.
Immediately pulling out a waterskin, I drank the contents to the last drop. I then drank a jar of white hiney to nullify the poison in me. It took a moment but the bleeding soon stopped, and eventually the wound heald after half an hour. Thankfully the fire burned away the lures or else I'd be monster chow.
Standing up I checked for any survivors and found a Ghoul crawling away. I promptly put it out of its misery and began to collect the bodies of all of the dead monsters.
Now that I wasn't in combat the notification came rolling in.
[Advanced to Level 20 -1 talent points available]
[Advanced to level 21 -2 talent points available]
[Advanced to level 22 -3 talent points available]
[Advanced to level 23 -4 talent points available]
[Advanced to level 24 -5 talent points available]
[Advanced to level 25 -6 talent points available]
[Advanced to level 26 -7 talent points available]
[Advanced to level 27 -8 talent points available]
[Next Level up: 20,000/406,000]
I laughed like a maniac. With assassination techniques, no matter the level, if you catch them off guard and hit the right place, death finds them all. In the end, 10 Nekkers, 12 Nekkker warriors, 14 Drowners, 12 Arachas, 4 Endregas, 8 Alghouls, 2 Ghouls, 4 Folgets, and a Water Hag had died at my hands.
The bigger the level gap the more XP I receive. I could probably kill a lever 26 Nekker warrior now and get a measly 1,000 XP. The codex seemed to do its own thing and its algorithm was an enigma to me, besides the little information I knew about the quest function.
Climbing into a tree, I ate a chicken leg, a piece of bread, some cheese. Nearly dying makes you hungry. It was now nightfall and I had another area laced with traps and lures. But, I didn't want what it was offering. At least not right now.
Opening up the character chart, I took a look at my skill tabs.
[Combat]
[Magic]
[Alchemy]
[General]
[Mutagens]
The 'Mutagens' tab. The most neglected tab in the codex. For now, it was going to stay that way. I didn't want to add any point to the 'Magic' Tab until I became more accustomed to other magic, though demonology was a new magic skill I acquired due to my studies of the Goetia gifted to me by Raza.
Magic is a skill like sex. It's something I want to develop naturally through practice if I can help it. The 'General' Tab, the only skills in the general tab that can be updated is 'Sensor 1/5' and 'Durability 1/5'. But with every level I achieve, my attributes to increase around 3 percent. This means I'm an entirely new warrior and I need to get accustomed before jacking my strength up again.
This leaves Alchemy and Combat. Combat was a tab that was nearly completed. I didn't need talent points to allow me to do what I already knew. Millennia of combat experience was something the codex couldn't ignore. Alchemy consisted of four tabs. Brewing, Oil preparation, Bombs, and Herbalist.
Brewing 2/5
-each level increases brewing success and potion effects by 10 percent.
Oil Preparation 3/5
-Each level increases oil toxicity by 10 percent
Bombs 3/5
-Each level increases damage by 30 percent
Herbalist 0/5
-Each level increase plant growth by 10 percent
I add 3 points to brewing, 2 points to oil preparation, 2 points to Bombs, and 1 point to Herbalist. The Alchemy tabs then updated and present new skills.
Brewing > Potion Master 0/10
Oil Preparation > Poisoner 0/10
Bombs > Chemist 0/10
Herbalist 1/5
Estado de energía semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Piedra de
Poder