With a "creak," the door opened, revealing the somewhat sleepy apprentice sorceress. She wore no makeup and had on a warm yellow linen pajama set printed with small bear patterns.
"Dick, you're really early! Come on in."
"I feel like it's not early anymore, and I've already eaten. Judging by your look, you haven't eaten yet, right?"
With that, Dick handed the prepared food wrapped in oil paper to the apprentice sorceress.
"You're really considerate." Xiya wore an approving expression, then explained, "I'm not like you Witchers. Tossed and turned for a whole day yesterday, hunting drowners in the morning and clearing out wraiths at night, my body really can't take it."
"Then can you still help me with my experiment today?"
"That shouldn't be a problem. Come into the room with me first."
After saying this, the apprentice sorceress turned around and walked toward her own room.
Viewed from the outside, this room was almost identical to Dick's.
Xiya opened the oil paper package, took out one of the pies, and started eating as she walked.
She ate while praising approvingly, "The taste of this beef pie isn't bad.
"By the way, it should have been sent over after an ox died of old age at a nearby farmer's home, right?"
The apprentice sorceress asked this for good reason:
In the Middle Ages, productivity was low. As the main plowing tool, oxen were not slaughtered casually; they were only allowed to be sold after an accident, or after dying of illness or old age, hence her question.
"I asked the peddlers at the market, and they said this ox died of old age."
"I knew it, I always felt this beef was a bit tough."
Xiya muttered to herself while eating her food, her cheeks bulging like a squirrel's.
Before long, a pie was down in her stomach.
She opened the door, and Dick looked out to see that the interior of the hut was clean and refined, with a faint floral fragrance in the air.
Next, the apprentice sorceress entered the living room and opened the door on the right: "So this is the laboratory. Wait for me a moment, I'll wash my face."
Dick nodded and entered the laboratory first.
The laboratory was not too large, equally neat and clean. A long iron table was placed in a corner, holding various experimental apparatuses, with various unknown plant cultivations beside it.
On the other side of the wall were two huge cabinets. One was a bookshelf filled with books, clearly used by the apprentice sorceress for her usual studies.
The other was a translucent glass cabinet displaying various items Dick could not name, which should be some other experimental materials.
The Witcher's eyes glowed slightly in the dim laboratory.
He looked around the place, feeling quite satisfied in his heart:
It seemed the potions and sword oils were secured.
Before long, Xiya walked into the laboratory. She had changed out of the pajama set with small bear patterns, wearing her usual formal long dress, and her face had been washed without any makeup applied.
Yet even just like this, she possessed the beauty of a freshly emerged lotus.
The apprentice sorceress walked up to an oil lamp and gently snapped her fingers.
Between her fingers, a spark suddenly appeared, igniting the oil lamp.
She walked toward several corners of the room in turn, lighting all the oil lamps there.
Following these actions of hers, the dim atmosphere of the laboratory vanished, becoming bright.
"I'm not like you Witchers, who possess extraordinary vision to see things clearly in the dark."
The apprentice sorceress offered an explanation, then she pointed at the window with its drawn curtains and said, "Some of my experimental items cannot be exposed to sunlight, or they will spoil very quickly."
"I understand." Dick nodded.
"Dick, who usually doesn't study or master skills, actually understands such a principle." Xiya gave a teasing smile, then said: "Then let's begin.
"First I want to ask, what do you want to make? At least to study alchemy, I need to know what you want to master."
"Sword oil, potions." Dick's voice was sonorous and forceful: "I want to master these two preparations we Witchers routinely keep ready."
"I understand. That's why I said that day, after you killed the drowners, you pried open their skulls-it turned out you were looking for drowner brains.
"Which means you've already prepared the materials. Well, at least a part of them."
"That's right, drowner brains and ghoul glands, I've prepared them both. I know there's a formula to make a potion that can restore our vitality as Witchers, known as the Swallow Potion, and its formula is..." The Witcher was about to continue.
"I know."
"How do you know?" Dick raised a question.
"Witcher, don't forget, even the process of ordinary humans becoming Witchers requires us sorceresses to assist. And to some extent, the birth of the Witcher Order was single-handedly brought about by us sorceresses. How could we not know those tricks of yours?
"Now take out your materials."
Hearing this, Dick nodded and pulled two pre-wrapped bundles of materials from his backpack.
"This is the drowner brain." Dick pointed to one package and spoke.
With that, he placed it on the experimental table.
"This is the ghoul gland."
Then he placed the other package onto the experimental table.
Xiya opened the cloth wrapping of the drowner brain, frowned as she looked at the grayish-white substance inside, and said with some dissatisfaction: "You should have kept them refrigerated, so that the shelf life of this material would be longer."
With that, she took most of the drowner brain, walked to the corner of the wall, and opened a chest.
Once opened, Dick could distinctly feel cold air radiating from inside.
Then, the apprentice sorceress carefully and slowly placed the drowner brain inside, closing the chest again.
She turned to look at Dick and explained, "This is a specialized magic chest used for refrigerating materials, supplied by energy stones at the bottom.
"Don't worry, Witcher, I won't embezzle these experimental materials of yours.
"Of course, sometimes I might use a little bit for research, but I'll leave you enough to use."
Dick nodded, feeling that this was very fair.
Xiya was providing the experimental equipment and teaching him alchemy at the same time.
strictly calculated, he was still coming out ahead.
The apprentice sorceress opened the other package containing the ghoul gland.
After a glance, she said nothing more, but after seeming to ponder for a moment, she looked at the Witcher:
"Ghoul glands don't need to be refrigerated, but they will become air-dried over time. As long as you keep them moist, it'll be fine."
Dick knew that Xiya was teaching him common sense regarding the daily preservation of these materials, and he nodded gratefully.
Then the apprentice sorceress said, "Let's get down to business now."
"What business?"
"Brewing the Swallow Potion, of course. First, we need to put on specialized gloves."
With that, the apprentice sorceress took two pairs of grayish-white gloves from the drawer underneath the experimental table.
She carefully put on one pair and handed the other to the Witcher.
Dick touched the handed-over gloves, feeling the smooth tactile sensation; it seemed these were made of a rubber-like material.
Many technologies surpassing this era seemed to have already been mastered by sorceresses, yet they had not been popularized.
For example, the rubber gloves right before him.
One had to know that rubber was only brought back to Europe by scientists in the 18th century.
Yet thinking that this was a magical world, and this continent only resembled the European Middle Ages of the original world, the premature appearance of many items not conforming to historical timelines was nothing strange either.
He didn't dwell on it further and put the gloves on his hands.
"Very good, you can already be considered initiated." Xiya cracked a joke that wasn't very cold.