Slaughter

"Air, water, earth, fire, swirling around you... and ultimately leaving you? As expected, you're just an ordinary person."

"An ordinary person..."

The words echoed in his ears, and Roy sighed. "As a farmer's son, I was always meant to be ordinary."

"I wasn't sent to a Witcher as a Child of Surprise, nor do I have a quarter elf bloodline or excellent magical aptitude. If I want to establish myself in this world, I can only rely on my own efforts."

At this moment, his resolve to become a Witcher strengthened slightly.

Furthermore, after his first active Meditation, the template displayed a new notification:

You have successfully unlocked a new Skill:

Meditation LV1: This is a cultivation of body and mind. By entering a state of deep concentration, you can regulate your body and mind, accelerating the recovery of injuries, magic, and stamina. It also slowly improves coordination and increases affinity with Chaos Energy.

Note: Each time this Skill is improved, it will permanently enhance Constitution and Spirit attributes.

Roy's mouth opened slightly. This was the first time he had seen a Skill that could increase attributes.

He had to admit, he was tempted. He wished he could level up immediately and put a point into the Skill, but he quickly calmed himself down. He hadn't unlocked a magic point, so he couldn't cast Witcher Signs. Improving his Spirit attribute, which affected spell power, was meaningless...

Letho had been observing from the side, his keen Perception allowing him to quickly notice some subtle, indescribable changes occurring in Roy.

"What a secretive kid. But he belongs to the Viper School now. His secrets will eventually belong to the school and become the power for its revival."

The next morning, the two of them, along with a horse, left the wilderness and set off on the path towards Edessberg.

Traces of wagon wheels and horse hooves were visible everywhere on the path. Dense forests lined both sides, their leaves rustling in the morning breeze, carrying a mixed scent of soil and plants.

The wind grew stronger. As if receiving a signal, the burly man suddenly stopped and reined in the horse. He crouched down, his fingers tracing the marks on the ground. Then, he looked up at the empty space ahead, a hint of vigilance flashing in his amber eyes.

"Roy, get your hand crossbow ready for battle!"

Everything had been peaceful until now. Why was there trouble on this last stretch of the road?

Roy drew the string of his bow, made of beef sinew, nocking an arrow. He didn't feel much turmoil in his heart, perhaps due to Meditation, or perhaps the imposing figure ahead gave him confidence.

They continued forward. Roy quietly pricked up his ears, his body gradually tensing.

After only about two hundred paces, Letho stopped again. A fierce gust of wind whipped the black cloth on his shoulders high into the air.

"Screech—"

A sharp whistle pierced the forest. Almost simultaneously, a group of ragged men with sallow complexions rushed out from the grass on both sides.

Farmers, or some ragtag army?

They were dressed in tatters and looked extremely unkempt. Even the weapons they carried were comical iron shovels, hammers, and even pitchforks.

Their formation was chaotic, and they shouted incoherently as they surrounded the two of them and the horse in the center, their faces showing the ferocity of extreme hunger.

Then, a middle-aged man wearing a green leather hat, a yellow jacket, black pants, and a mole on his face stepped forward.

He held his head high and walked with an arrogant swagger, like a rooster showing off its magnificent posture.

"Lay down your weapons and get on the ground!" he commanded.

Roy gripped his hand crossbow, following his training, and secretly counted. The group surrounding them numbered about thirteen.

The burly man seemed not to hear him and, with his arms crossed, asked neither subserviently nor arrogantly, "Peasant rebel army, why are you acting like bandits?"

Roy listened thoughtfully. Peasant rebel army, or rather, revolutionary army? He had heard rumors in Kaye Village that Edessberg was in the midst of a peasant revolution. Could these be the people he was hearing about? They seemed to be on some kind of stimulant.

"Nonsense! What do you mean bandits? You're slandering us!" the leader shouted, his face flushed red, his voice righteous. "We are fighting for the great revolution, to overthrow the tyranny of Demavend and Tavik! This is a righteous act. If you are righteous people, then please lay down your weapons and offer your possessions to support this noble cause. If you resist, you are siding with the tyrants and are executioners. Honestly accept the judgment of your revolutionary brothers!"

Roy's cheek twitched as he heard this. He had never met such a shameless person, calling robbery a noble cause and those who resisted in self-defense as villains.

Only people from the west could be so brazen.

Letho frowned. In his long memory, very few people had dared to try and rob a Witcher.

In the past, he would have charged forward without a second thought, but with someone beside him now, a direct slaughter didn't seem appropriate.

Letho pinched the pendant around his neck and showed it to everyone present.

"Do you know what this is?"

The leader's eyes gleamed with greed. "It's made of silver? Throw it over here quickly!"

"Boss, he... he's a Witcher!" a scrawny farmer with a long chin suddenly pointed at Letho, his face filled with terror, stammering.

"What? This man is a freak, a mutant?!"

"Look at his eyes, amber, like a cat's eyes!" Hearing this, the farmers took a step back in unison. Roy's eyes twitched. He hadn't expected the word "Witcher" to carry such weight.

"Boss, Witchers can even kill monsters, we're no match for him!" another farmer said tremblingly.

"What are you afraid of!" the leader roared, his face flushed as he saw his subordinates' cowardice. "They only have one Witcher and a child."

"With so many of us, what are we afraid of?!" the leader said, taking a couple of steps back, his voice laced with false bravado. "Let's all go together. I don't believe they have three heads and six arms. One hit each, and we'll have them riddled with holes."

"Yeah, what are we afraid of?!" The farmers seemed to have found their backbone. They raised their hammers, forks, and shovels again, pointing at the two in the encirclement, but no one made the first move.

"One last warning, lay down your weapons!"

"And let you slaughter us?" Letho lowered his head and shook it. Seeing this, Roy slowly moved behind him. He wasn't a Witcher, and for his own safety, it was best to let the big guy take the lead.

"I can smell the strong scent of blood on you. You've done your fair share of killing and robbing, haven't you?" Letho said in a deep, dry voice devoid of emotion.

"Bastards, they resisted! They brought it upon themselves!" the leader still argued, "For the great revolution, sacrifices are sometimes unavoidable!"

Letho finally stopped speaking. His right hand's five fingers moved nimbly like a snake, and before anyone could react, he traced a Sign.

A triangle of red light shot into the leader's eyes in an instant.

Then, a terrifying scream echoed through the field. A farmer clutched his abdomen, staggering backward step by step, his face filled with disbelief.

Opposite him, the leader, wearing a green cap and with an arrogant demeanor, stood with vacant eyes, holding a bloodied longsword like a puppet.

"Ah... The boss has been controlled by the Witcher!"

"Riel was killed by the boss!"

Under the farmers' horrified gazes, Letho slowly drew the Steel Sword from his back, not his usual dual short swords.

The broad blade flashed with a cold light.

The Witcher lunged forward like a brutal predator, charging into the flock!

Whether it was Strength, reaction time, combat skills, or experience, the clumsy farmers before him couldn't even compare to a fraction of Letho's. Letho transformed into a human meat grinder. Wherever he went, severed arms and legs, scattered flesh, and splashing blood stained Roy's eyes.

On the narrow forest path.

Each swing of the sword brought a gasp, a life.

The terrified farmers fled desperately, but how could they escape a Witcher of the School of the Viper, known for their Agility? All that could be heard were continuous wails and pleas for mercy from the woods.

Roy's body froze. He had killed many animals, but they were all livestock and wild beasts. He had never killed a person before.

And now, a group of people were being slaughtered one after another without resistance. No matter how much pain and despair the farmers expressed, Letho, with a cold face, remained completely unmoved, stubbornly swinging his Steel Sword.

He hadn't used potions or Signs, relying purely on instinct.

Was this the same person who meticulously taught him herbalism and crossbow techniques, and who hypnotized him every night to teach him Meditation?

Perhaps this was the true way of a Witcher... capable of hunting down monsters that plagued the land, and showing no mercy to certain humans as well.

Roy gripped his hand crossbow, took a deep breath, spread his legs, and suspended his arms, assuming the standard stance for shooting a crossbow, as if he had practiced it hundreds of times.

One lucky survivor stumbled past Letho, his face smeared with blood, a mixture of breakdown and hope in his expression. He charged towards Roy.

"Catch him! Catch this child! Use him to threaten the Witcher, and you can survive."

He staggered, his body tilted, barely maintaining balance. His other hand trembled as he reached out, reaching, as if to grab the child's neck.

One step, two steps, he was about to grab him!

"Whoosh--"

A sharp whistling sound cut through the air. The farmer was hit head-on as if by a battering ram. His entire frame jolted backward, then he threw his head back, spread his arms, and collapsed limply to the ground.

In the center of his wide-open eyes, a crossbow bolt with fletching pierced his skull.

Gained Experience Points: 20, LV2 (300/1000)

Roy exhaled the half-breath he was holding, then inhaled again, using his hands and feet to draw the string and nock the bolt, aiming at another target.

Ten minutes later, the merciless slaughter finally ended.

Letho took out a blue cloth and slowly wiped the blood from his Steel Sword.

Roy sat beside him, his expression blank, his black hair and clothes still stained with blood.

"Hoo--" After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly let out a deep sigh.

Letho said coldly, "Have you seen it now? This wretched world? There's no right or wrong. If we don't exterminate them all, if we let even one escape back to Edessberg, our path ahead will be difficult."

Seeing Roy still staring blankly, he sighed, "I smelled the strong scent of human blood on them. These people were no saints; they've done their share of robbing and killing. Will you feel any better now?"

"I'm fine, just a little unaccustomed," Roy said sincerely, feeling no pity for the group. Otherwise, who would pity the innocent souls they had killed?

Letho praised him, "Also, those arrows you shot just now were good. You haven't forgotten what I taught you."

Roy had shot three wounded farmers trying to escape.

He remembered the breathing rhythm for firing, releasing the trigger at the moment his exhale was about to become heavier. His shots were steady, taking three lives with three arrows.

Actually, he could have killed more, but he hesitated at the end. It was his first time killing a person, and he couldn't be as stone-hearted as Letho.

Twenty Experience Points for a life, the same as a ghoul. After three lives, his Experience Points increased to 340/1000.

Roy suddenly felt a sense of absurdity. In a way, all beings were equal to the template, just cold data.

Shortly after, the bodies of all the attackers were moved by the two into a large pit in the woods. Then, Letho poured some dog fat on them and ignited it with the Igni Sign, burning them to charcoal.

This was to prevent the spread of plague and attract ghouls.

Letho also collected all the property looted by this group of bandits, nearly 100 Crowns.

A large amount of money and Experience Points. The spoils from this killing spree exceeded expectations. But Roy didn't want a repeat.

"Kid, counting the ghoul brains, you can have half." To Roy's surprise, Letho gave him 50 Crowns.

"Third lesson: spoils must be distributed fairly," Letho said solemnly. "When you become a Witcher yourself someday, and don't want to turn on your partner, never let greed blind your eyes."

Roy initially wanted to refuse, a sense of foreboding inexplicably rising within him. Letho giving him money seemed to have another deeper meaning.