"Leave them to you?"
"Yes, leave them to me."
Hearing Ailin's affirmative answer, Leto and Vesemir looked at each other.
"What do you need drowners for?" Vesemir asked in confusion.
Ailin replied, "I want to try fighting three at once and take down several drowners in one go."
"Oh? Looks like someone was afraid his injured companions would be lonely and wanted to find a chance to keep them company."
Leto raised an eyebrow and smiled at Ailin.
"Are you sure, Witcher Apprentice? This time, there's no wager involving a silver sword worth 17,325 Oren."
"Leto!"
Vesemir glared at Leto, then earnestly advised Ailin.
"At your current level, you're not capable of dealing with three drowners at once."
After a pause, Vesemir continued trying to dissuade him.
"Even if you have Witcher's Eye."
"Fighting several enemies at once is not the same level of difficulty as killing a drowner with a steel sword. It requires more skillful swordsmanship and footwork."
"Haven't you heard that saying?"
"If monsters were truly clumsy, they'd be happy in packs."
Feeling Vesemir's sincerity, Ailin had a headache.
Time-Limited Quest: You, come at me together! (Kill Drowners 0/3) Quest Reward: Unknown
The Witcher's Handbook's quests always popped up without warning.
That had been the case with the previous Main Quest, "The Beginning of the Path of Monster Hunting."
This time-limited quest was the same.
The moment Vesemir said, "Clear them out directly," the quest had appeared before Ailin.
In a few minutes, the drowners would be dealt with, and it would be hard even to make up a temporary excuse.
"Don't worry, Master Vesemir. I'm confident," Ailin could only say.
Vesemir looked skeptically at the dried bloodstains on Ailin's face.
Confident?
Hadn't it been me who had just collapsed from exhaustion and fallen miserably onto a drowner's corpse?
"Ailin, if you make a mistake, I can still guarantee your safety against one drowner. With three, I can't be sure," Vesemir tried to persuade him again.
"Vesemir, let him try," the Chief said as he walked over from the wall.
"But..."
"Don't worry. Witcher's Eye won't be that simple." The Chief patted Vesemir on the shoulder and continued, "Besides, I'm here too."
Vesemir fell silent.
He did not know what Witcher's Eye was truly capable of, nor did he want to reveal that fact before the Chief.
After thinking for a moment, Vesemir ultimately agreed.
After signaling Ailin with his eyes to be careful, he and Leto moved the cages together.
Ailin let out a sigh of relief.
He had just switched to his silver sword when he noticed the Chief approaching.
The Chief glanced at the sword in Ailin's hand and said,
"If you win using the silver sword, I'll reward you with a custom-made leather armor."
After a brief pause, the Chief took out a pendant from behind his waist.
"But if you win using the steel sword, this Vera's Phantasm Pendant will be yours."
The magical accessory lay quietly in the witcher's palm, gleaming with an enticing magical radiance.
Even without considering its effects, Ailin could tell from Vesemir and Leto's envious expressions that this magical accessory was valuable.
Yet as he looked at the Chief's gentle smile, Ailin felt no joy. Instead, uncertainty and suspicion rose within him.
Vesemir was one thing.
Ailin had challenged him on impulse.
And Vesemir had not believed Ailin could win in the first place.
It was understandable for him to go along with it.
But why was the Chief of the School of the Wolf doing this?
Though he could not find much useful information in his memories,
a witcher called the Chief, despite appearing only middle-aged, had to stand at the pinnacle of the School of the Wolf.
Were the School of the Wolf witchers in the games righteous, and was everyone in present-day Kaer Morhen a good old fellow like Geralt?
Ailin was not that naive.
The children who had died in Ancient Sea Fortress could be piled high enough to drown all of Kaer Morhen.
Why would such a powerful figure favor an apprentice so much? What was he after?
Witcher's Eye?
Suspicious!
Extremely suspicious!
Wait!
Even Witcher's Eye had been brought up by this Chief. Not only was there no record of it in the games, none of the other witchers knew of that experiment record either.
For a moment, Ailin felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar, cold sweat instantly breaking out across his forehead.
"What's wrong?" the Chief asked with some concern.
"Uh... no, it's nothing." Ailin forced himself to remain calm.
"So, what's your choice?"
"Chief, are you certain I can win?" Ailin probed.
"I believe Witcher's Eye won't lose." The Chief raised his brows. "Besides, even if you lose, what do I stand to lose?"
From his tone, could Witcher's Eye really exist? Ailin became conflicted again.
Was this witcher truly supporting a junior for the good of the school?
That seemed plausible too.
Without concrete evidence, Ailin could only keep his suspicions buried for now.
"Can I carry both swords in and give it a try?" Ailin asked.
The Chief nodded.
Before entering the training ground, Ailin handed Elsa from his arms to Huus.
That silver sword was too long and too heavy for him to use properly right now.
Once everything was ready, Ailin walked to the center of the training ground.
He gripped his steel sword tightly, took a deep breath, and nodded to Vesemir.
Receiving the signal, Vesemir and Leto opened the cages at the same time. After dodging the drowners' attacks, they bent their right Middle Fingers and pushed forward.
Alde Sign.
Their movements were as coordinated as skilled workers on an assembly line from Ailin's previous life.
To be fair, drowners really were among the easiest monsters.
They had brains, but they were useless.
If they were far away, they pounced. If they were close, they clawed. If they got even closer, they bit.
Their attack patterns were simple.
After fighting them a few times, one could toy with a drowner by controlling the distance.
Of course, that only applied when facing a single drowner.
No matter what kind of monster it was, numbers made them difficult to handle.
Distance, terrain, stamina, attack frequency and methods, and other factors all changed continuously as the number of monsters increased.
Especially in a place like the apprentice training ground—a cramped area of less than a hundred square meters, with four creatures fighting within it.
Even maneuvering was extremely difficult.
The witchers outside the training ground also consciously moved away from the railing.
That left Ailin with no chance to "accidentally" shift the drowners' aggro.
After sidestepping the leading drowner's pounce, Ailin tried to use Monster Hunting.
But just as his mental power touched the magical field around the drowner, the second drowner's claws were already right before him.
He held his sword horizontally before his chest, blocking the claws smeared with murky bodily fluids. Ailin instantly adjusted his center of gravity, stepping back with his right foot to offset the force transmitted through the blade, then smoothly withdrew his sword.
The drowner, which put all its strength into every strike, was naturally thrown away by its own force.
By the time Ailin focused his mind on the first drowner again, the progress bar accumulated by Monster Hunting had disappeared.
Monster Hunting really had major limitations, Ailin thought.
Though he was thinking, Ailin's body did not stop moving.
He spun quickly, then the steel sword that had gathered force at his waist slashed fiercely outward, striking the last drowner's neck.
Though the steel blade only knocked off a few fragments, the drowner was still cut down.
In an instant, all three drowners were on the ground.
Seeing that clean, decisive scene,
Leto's expression outside the training ground quickly shifted from frivolous to serious, then to bewildered.
His gaze locked tightly onto Ailin.
Only after all the drowners had fallen did he turn his head uncertainly and ask,
"V-Vesemir!"
"Has this apprentice's swordsmanship gotten stronger?"
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