Unboxing

Ailin had no idea that in the time it took to eat a single meal, he had already become famous throughout Kaer Morhen.

After calming down from the joy brought by the Essence, he turned his attention to the treasure chests.

Silently praying for the souls of the deceased apprentices to watch over him, Ailin opened the treasure chests.

[Ding! Drowner's Chest * 4 opened]

As the system's prompt sounded, four white lights flashed.

Rotten Meat * 1.

Rotten Meat * 1.

Lesser Experience Orb * 1.

Although he had long expected that the Drowner's Chest, whose name sounded so terrible, wouldn't yield anything good.

Still, two pieces of Rotten Meat managed to break Ailin's imagined bottom line.

He looked further down.

A Discussion on Twenty-Three Ways to Cook a Drowner * 1

Ailin: ???

"A recipe for cooking a Drowner from a Drowner's Chest? What kind of dark joke is this?" Ailin grumbled in his mind.

Besides, could Drowner meat even be tasty?

No, why would anyone eat Drowners in the first place?

Setting aside the discomfort of their similar body size to humans.

As standard carrion eaters, Drowners often frequented the sewers of human cities.

How twisted must one's taste be to be able to stomach it, let alone research twenty-three cooking methods.

It was simply unbelievable!

Purely out of curiosity, Ailin clicked on the item.

[Name: A Discussion on Twenty-Three Ways to Cook a Drowner]

[Type: Miscellaneous]

[Function: None]

[Description: The second book in the "Yummy Little Critters" series]

[Remark: Written by the legendary chef Troll Longer, a bestseller for over three hundred years]

Alright, so it was a Troll. That made sense.

Although there were many points to complain about.

However, since it wasn't a human recipe, it was trash.

Ailin continued to open the remaining treasure chests.

Having already gotten three pieces of trash, Ailin held no expectations.

[Ding! Drowner's Chest * 4 opened]

After three white lights, a brilliant golden light appeared.

?

Did something good drop?

Ailin quickly focused his gaze.

In the dazzling golden light, a whale charged from outside his field of vision, transforming into a blueprint amidst a whale's cry.

[Obtained: Rotten Meat, Lesser Experience Orb * 2, Killer Whale Potion Recipe]

Killer Whale!

He mentally opened the recipe.

[Name: Killer Whale]

[Type: Potion Recipe]

[Refinement Requirement: Alchemy LV2 (Not met)]

[Recipe: Dwarven Spirits * 1, Belle's Berry * 5, Sage * 6, Drowner Tongue * 5]

[Function: Upon consumption, increases underwater breath-holding ability and enhances underwater vision]

[Remark: Drowners escaped into the water again? Quickly down a Killer Whale potion!]

The recipe and its effects were the same as in his memory.

It really was that potion from the game!

"The Trial of the Mountains a month from now is secured!" Ailin excitedly clenched his fist.

Trial of the Mountains.

The final stage of the Witcher trials.

The subject must swim across a lake near Kaer Morhen, then pass through a cave inhabited by a Cyclops called Old Spearhead without waking its master, and finally traverse the territory of Trolls to reach the "Circle of Elements."

There, the School of the Wolf medallion will be activated, and it will warn the Witcher of the presence of monsters and magic throughout their future career as a Witcher.

Although Vesemir would certainly remind them of the key points for the Trial of the Mountains before the trial.

However, considering his own life, Ailin had specifically asked for many details two days prior.

From the description of the Trial of the Mountains, The main cause of the high mortality rate seemed to be powerful monsters like Cyclops and Trolls, but in reality, over ninety percent of the apprentices who died met their end at the very beginning of the trial.

The seemingly calm lake hid an uncountable number of Drowners.

While Drowners were weaker on land with simple attack patterns, they were incredibly difficult to deal with in the water.

They were fast and moved in packs.

To get through this section, trial-takers could only rely on Witcher senses and avoid being discovered by the Drowners as much as possible.

However, even though the trial took place during the day and the Witcher apprentices' eyes had been modified by drugs.

The dim and complex underwater environment would still make it difficult for them to detect potential dangers.

Furthermore.

Swimming across the lake would take at least three hours.

Physical fatigue combined with mental tension and fear made it impossible to maintain focus for an extended period.

If any apprentice was slightly careless and attracted the attention of monsters, the apprentices in the trial could be wiped out entirely.

After all, although the trial's mortality rate was fifty percent, it didn't mean that if only half the people died, the rest were guaranteed to pass.

The Trial of Grasses even had a ten percent lower mortality rate than the Trial of the Mountains.

But out of Ailin's batch of over forty apprentices, only four ultimately remained.

So, Even with a cheat, Ailin still lacked confidence before obtaining the Killer Whale formula.

However, things were different now.

As long as he drank the Killer Whale before the Trial of the Mountains.

His breath-holding ability combined with underwater vision.

Ailin's underwater detection range might even be wider than that of the Drowners.

As long as he didn't encounter the bad luck of making eye contact with Old Spearhead the moment he entered the cave.

Ailin believed he could pass the Trial of the Mountains one hundred percent.

A strong sense of confidence surged from within him. Taking advantage of his good fortune, Ailin opened the general treasure chest, racing against time.

A white light flashed.

[Ding! Acquired: Lesser Experience Orbs * 10]

Tsk, it's acceptable, at least it's better than rotten meat.

Ailin comforted himself with disappointment, then opened his character panel to check if his evaluation had changed.

[Name: Ailin]

[Age: 13]

[Title: Child of Miracle]

[Monster Hunting Level: 2]

[HP: 100% Stamina 62/62]

[Attributes: Strength 5.5 (+0.2), Agility 5.6 (+0.2), Constitution 6.2 (+0.6), Perception 7.9 (+0.7), Mysticism 3.5 (+0.2)]

[Special Skills: Monster Hunting LV1, Appraisal LV1]

[Skills: School of the Wolf Two-Handed Sword LV2 (0/500)]

[Formula: Killer Whale (Unavailable)]

[Items: Drowner Heart Essence Potion * 2, Rotten Meat * 3, Lesser Experience Orbs * 31, "A Discussion on Twenty-Three Ways to Cook a Drowner"]

[Evaluation: Scrub!!]

The evaluation was missing an exclamation mark.

Did he go from a third-class scrub to a second-class scrub?

Ailin dejectedly put away the panel and looked out the window.

The golden rays of the late autumn sun slanted onto the opposite tower.

There was still a long time until the "dinner" in the evening.

The time saved by the essence potion definitely couldn't be wasted.

But if he just left like this, wouldn't it seem too special, too attention-grabbing?

Ailin felt a bit conflicted.

Low-key?

Or high-profile?

That was the question.

After carefully weighing the pros and cons, Ailin made up his mind.

"Time waits for no one."

"Before the Trial of the Mountains, every extra moment I have increases my chances of survival."

"Besides, my performance this morning was already special enough."

With his mind made up, Ailin got up, changed his clothes, slung Elsa over his shoulder, and headed out of the dormitory.

"Ailin? Where are you going?"

Huus, his face pale, heard the movement.

Ailin paused for a moment and replied, "I have something to take care of."

"Oh, oh."

Huus's consciousness wasn't fully awake yet.

Only after Ailin's figure, sword on his back, disappeared through the door did he react.

Huh?

Didn't Ailin skip lunch?

Why could he move so freely?

Huus wanted to chase after Ailin to ask for clarification.

But the next wave of pain suddenly struck, and the agony he felt while distracted was even worse than before.

"Creak~ Creak~"

With the bed boards shaking violently.

Huus abruptly curled up, gritted his teeth, and could no longer spare any energy to think about anything else.

Newcomer, new book, please follow, recommend, and collect! Internal review passed, please rest assured to invest!