Chapter 135: I Want to Hold an Umbrella for Others
Geralt returned contentedly to the villa in the upper city that Lynn had previously told him about.
He had just opened the courtyard gate and led Roach inside when a little girl came running out to greet him.
She even bowed to him.
"Are you Sir Geralt? Master Lynn and Master Berengar have been waiting for you for a long time."
Geralt was immediately stunned.
In his decades as a witcher,
he had been called "mutant," "freak," and "monster with cat eyes" so many times that he had lost count.
But the number of times he had been treated with such respect was pitifully small.
Kassia helped him take off the two swords he carried on his back.
Those longswords that witchers could wield with ease still seemed a bit heavy for a child.
Kassia could only carry one at a time with both hands to place it on the weapon rack.
After Geralt placed his mud-stained boots at the door and put on the indoor shoes Kassia had prepared for him, she led the way.
"Please follow me, Sir Geralt."
The two arrived in the hall.
They saw Lynn and Berengar carrying plates of prepared food and placing them on the table.
"You've come at the right time, Geralt. I was thinking of leaving some food for you if you didn't come back soon."
"Kassia, you sit down too, let's eat together."
The girl nodded obediently.
The four sat down at the long table.
During the meal, no one spoke, only the sound of chewing food could be heard.
After dinner, Kassia skillfully put the dishes into a basket, then carried the basket to the kitchen to wash them.
Berengar went to the kitchen to help.
Only Lynn and Geralt remained in the hall.
Geralt glanced in the direction of the kitchen: "That child, is she your unexpected offspring?"
Lynn wiped the table with a cloth and said, "How could that be? I just took her in."
"Then have you thought about her future? Do you plan to train her to be a witcher?"
"No, women cannot become witchers of any school other than the School of the Cat. You know that better than I do."
"So you want that child to undergo the Trial of the Grasses of the School of the Cat?"
Lynn stopped wiping the table and looked at Geralt.
"Of course not, Geralt. What are you thinking? I'm not an emotionless witcher of the School of the Bear. Naturally, I wouldn't just watch the little one who trusts me undergo the Trial of the Grasses with a survival rate of only thirty percent."
"It's just that in this rotten era, I will teach her martial arts. She's an elf. Even if she doesn't become a witcher, with her long lifespan, as long as she's willing to study diligently, no matter her talent, she will possess melee combat abilities far beyond ordinary humans."
Geralt breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'm sorry."
"I accept your apology."
Actually, it wasn't just Kassia.
If Lynn encountered other apprentices suitable to become witchers in the future, he would also treat them with caution.
He knew that the formulas for the Trial of the Grasses of all schools were flawed.
It was just that the degree of the flaws varied.
That was why the survival rate was so low.
Therefore, before improving the formula for the Trial of the Grasses and significantly increasing the survival rate, he would not let any child undergo the Trial of the Grasses.
He was joking. Lynn himself had been rained on, so how could he tear someone else's umbrella?
There wasn't much nightlife in this era.
Even in a city like Novigrad, nighttime entertainment was nothing more than playing cards, boxing, or having deep conversations about life with the opposite or same sex.
Lynn wasn't interested in any of that.
After cleaning up the living room, he went back to his room.
As he stood in front of his room door, the snarling wolf head medallion hanging around his neck suddenly trembled violently.
He was startled at first, then his expression returned to normal.
He pushed open the door.
Sure enough, he saw a beautiful figure sitting at the only table in his room.
Unlike before, the sorceress wasn't wearing her usual tight-fitting attire for ease of movement, but had changed into a deep green, deep-V gown embroidered with golden patterns, revealing a noble air.
"How did you know I was coming back today?"
"I just knew."
Triss huffed triumphantly.
She would never say that since the first snow melted, she had been opening a portal almost every day for nearly half a month, teleporting back to her Novigrad house from Vizima.
Just to see if Lynn had returned.
"Have you eaten? If not..."
The witcher's words were cut short by a passionate kiss from the sorceress.
Lynn instinctively wrapped his arms around Triss's slender waist.
He only released her when she was a little out of breath.
"Bad man."
Triss poked Lynn's chest hard with her finger.
Then she took a journal from her lady's purse and placed it in Lynn's hands.
"Here, the thing you wanted."
"So fast?"
Lynn didn't hide his surprise.
Being the language of an ancient race, Elder Speech (Elven language) had a different level of difficulty compared to Dwarvish.
The former was at least several levels harder than the latter.
This was because Dwarvish wasn't very complex.
Due to the dwarves' straightforward nature, as long as one mastered the common words and grammar of Dwarvish, they could almost be considered an expert in the language.
But Elder Speech was different. Because the elves considered themselves the most excellent and noble race, they deliberately made the learning and application of Elder Speech artificially difficult when they invented it.
To put it simply, they didn't speak plainly.
As long as they could use flowery language, they would never be direct.
Not to mention that to cater to elegance, a sentence usually contained various metaphors, allusions, and so on.
This meant that even if you reached level eight in Elder Speech, it was useless.
You still had to continue studying elven culture and history.
Only by memorizing all those things could you truly understand what these long-eared people were saying.
Seeing the surprised expression on Lynn's face, Triss's heart felt as sweet as honey.
She had stayed up late working overtime just to see Lynn's current expression.
"Do you still have unfinished work at the Vizima court tonight?"
The sorceress vaguely guessed the reason for the witcher's question, and a look of anticipation appeared on her face.
"No, what do you want to do?"
"Of course, to offer my most sincere thanks."
Accompanied by the sorceress's charming laughter, the witcher extinguished the lights in the room.
...
Late at night.
Lynn tiptoed out of his room, gently closing the door behind him.
He went to the living room and lit a candle.
By the dim, flickering candlelight, he opened the journal Triss had translated into Common Speech.
Then he read every word on the journal.
The journal wasn't thick, but the amount of information it recorded was extremely valuable.
It turned out to be a Phoenix Guard manual.
The Phoenix Guard was an elite legion under the Sun Dynasty, the most powerful imperial period in the elves' long and ancient history.
The first lesson every elf learned after starting military training was archery.
Only after mastering the use of the bow could they become a member of the archer units.
Only the most outstanding archers could be selected into the Phoenix Guard.
They were skilled in using longbows to shoot deadly accurate arrows, ensuring that every arrow could cripple or even kill the enemy, bringing death from the air.
The service time of the Phoenix Guard even exceeded the lifespan of many humans.
Unfortunately, after the last royal family member of the Sun Dynasty passed away, the empire fell into internal strife to争夺王权, and the Phoenix Guard was forced to join the civil war.
These noble warriors no longer rained down arrows to protect their country and people.
Their hands were stained with the blood of their compatriots.
Since then, the entire Sun Dynasty had declined, then been annexed by other elven city-states, and finally disappeared into the long river of history.
"Archery?"
The original of this journal was placed in the gold-filled secret chamber, so it was obviously a valuable item.
However, what Lynn didn't expect was that it would be a high-level archery technique that had been lost even among the elves.
With such a good thing, he naturally wouldn't refuse it.
The witcher's advantage wasn't just swordsmanship, but also a variety of fighting methods:
Signs, potions, alchemical bombs...
Archery could make up for the witcher's shortcomings in long-range combat.
He had been considering whether he should buy a crossbow before.
But now that he had this Phoenix Guard manual, it was even better.
So Lynn simply didn't sleep.
He began to study the Phoenix Guard training methods recorded at the back of the journal.
This study lasted all night.
When dawn broke and Kassia was preparing breakfast for everyone, she noticed Lynn, who had stayed up all night studying in the living room.
But she didn't come over to disturb the witcher.
Instead, she quietly placed a cup of hot tea and a plate of snacks on the table later and left.
After a while, Lynn closed the journal and called up the attribute panel.
But to his disappointment, no new skills were added to the attribute panel.
Lynn was thoughtful.
"It seems that to be recorded on the attribute panel, just reading through the training methods in the journal isn't enough. I have to practice it myself."
He couldn't wait to grab a bow and practice in the yard.
Unfortunately, the villa didn't have any extra weapons prepared, so he had to wait until nine o'clock in the morning when the blacksmith shops and weapon shops in the city opened before buying one.
At this time, Lynn noticed the tea and snacks on the table, as well as the thin figure busy in the kitchen.
He ate the breakfast Kassia had prepared for him, washed the dishes, and went to the stable to feed the horses.
Then he returned to the bedroom with another breakfast Kassia had made.
He spent a few more tender moments with Triss.
After the sorceress reluctantly returned to Vizima through a portal,
he finally caught up on a few hours of sleep on the still-warm bed.
...
When it was ten o'clock in the morning, Lynn woke up on time.
He went to the market and bought a hunting bow and enough arrows.
While Geralt went to buy supplies for their long journey, Lynn practiced in the courtyard.
A few hours later, Lynn's efforts finally paid off.
[New Skill: Phoenix Archery (Novice)]
He didn't hesitate to allocate attribute points to the newly acquired skill.
[Attribute Points: 12 (30%) → 4 (30%)]
[Phoenix Archery (Novice) → Phoenix Archery (Master/Limit)]
(End of this chapter)
....
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