"How many from the third group made it?"
Irgo strode over to Professor C and asked about the trial's results with some impatience.
"Only two... I'm very sorry..."
Looking exhausted, Professor C told Irgo the results. Hearing that only two had survived, Irgo lowered his head, his expression heavy. He had thought that at least four of these children, whom he had trained for four years, would survive and become witchers. Instead, only half as many as he had expected had made it. Even the child he had had the highest hopes for had failed to pull through.
Kharkov watched his saddened old friend, his lips stirring slightly, but in the end he said nothing. With a sigh, he turned and left the oppressive room, walking slowly to the courtyard.
At that moment, Yavi and the other children were not training in the courtyard but huddled together, discussing something.
"How many do you think will survive from the third group?"
"You're still worrying about the third group? Worry about whether you'll survive first!"
"I wonder if my beloved Nina survived..."
"Hey! What do you think..."
Listening to his companions chatter about what lay ahead, Yavi sat on a nearby barrel without betraying anything, hearing out their worries. In truth, he was not particularly worried. Six years had passed since he had come to Kaer Morhen, and his physical fitness had undergone a qualitative leap. Although Yavi was only twelve, his body looked like an adult's after years of training. Besides, Professor C had said before that he would definitely succeed, so he appeared quite calm. No one else paid Yavi any attention, either, each voicing their own thoughts.
Three days later, Kharkov led ten children to the entrance of the transformation laboratory. All ten were bare-chested and lined up outside the door. Looking at the children and their differing expressions, Kharkov finally sighed without saying anything.
"You can come in now!"
Professor C's voice came from inside the transformation chamber. Hearing that they could enter, the children hesitated, exchanging looks. Yavi made no move, either. For a time, no one dared to go first. Kharkov did not hurry anyone along; he simply stood there quietly without speaking. The atmosphere grew somewhat heavy. At this rather awkward moment, someone stepped forward and entered the transformation chamber with a resolute expression. A closer look revealed that it was Geralt. Once someone went first, another followed. Yavi followed close behind Geralt, slowly entering the transformation chamber.
Upon entering the dim transformation chamber, the first things they saw were ten specially made restraint beds and a huge vessel of liquid surrounded by the beds. The green liquid inside kept bubbling and churning. Numerous bottles and jars stood on the surrounding counters, the most plentiful containing the ingredients for the Trial of the Grasses decoction: Forktail spinal fluid, Manticore venom glands, albino Bruxa tongues, wild yam, ribwort plantain, and mandrake root.
"Choose any bed, drink a bottle of the Trial of the Grasses decoction, and then lie down on the bed."
Professor C's words held almost no emotion. He was as cold and stiff as a stone statue.
Yavi frowned at this. Professor C was not usually like this... Though puzzled, he still picked up a bottle of the Trial of the Grasses decoction and gulped it down in one go. It tasted intensely bitter, then immediately turned into the agony of a red-hot knife sliding down his esophagus. As he drank, Yavi's entire body even trembled slightly from the pain. After he finally managed to finish, Professor C ordered him to lie down immediately. The moment he did, the restraints on the bed seemed to come alive, automatically binding his body and limbs tightly to it. Then a fierce pain rose in his abdomen, and in an instant, beads of cold sweat covered Yavi's forehead.
Wait, why does it hurt so much?! Then Yavi's vision went black, and he fainted.
When Yavi opened his eyes again, a strange green glow floated across his vision.
He tried moving his fingers, only to discover that the restraints were still cinched tightly around his limbs. The leather dug deep into his flesh, and he could almost feel the sluggishness of his constricted blood. His throat felt as though someone had stuffed a handful of burning coals into it, and every breath carried the rusty tang of blood.
"Awake?" Professor C's voice came from above his head, inexplicably carrying a kind of... excitement Yavi had never heard before.
Yavi turned his eyes with difficulty and saw the old man's hunched figure standing before the laboratory bench, holding a test tube filled with dark golden liquid. The liquid spun of its own accord despite the absence of wind, occasionally giving off tiny sparks of electricity.
"Your reaction is more intense than expected, but it's perfect." Professor C leaned closer, Yavi's pain-contorted face reflected in his cloudy eyes.
"What is that? What are you going to do..." Yavi asked weakly.
"Don't worry. This is the second injection, made from Mother's Tears, wild rye juice, and cogon grass sap. Once you've had this injection, you can become a witcher." Professor C's voice gradually grew calm.
Then a pain stabbed through his forearm, and Yavi lost consciousness again. In his unconscious haze, he vaguely felt warm currents constantly roaming through his body, following his blood vessels between his internal organs, muscles, and bones. Wherever they spread, they brought a shattering agony.
"Yavi! Hold on! Imagine a lump of clay. To shape it, you have to wet it, or it'll dry out and crack. That's what the trial does. You could say it opens up your flesh. Only then can the mutagens shape it into a witcher." Kharkov's voice faintly reached Yavi's ears.
"Open up my flesh? Does that mean I have to accept it?"
Once he understood all this, Yavi immediately relaxed his taut body, letting waves of energy batter his bones, blood vessels, and internal organs. Although he had relaxed his body, the pain surged over him like a flood. Just as Yavi was about to lose consciousness from the pain-
"Ding! Host detected suffering immense pain. Activating the 'Horse Talisman.'"
The system's voice suddenly rang out in Yavi's mind, and a talisman bearing the image of a galloping horse appeared. Immediately afterward, the talisman shone with a dazzling light. Yavi instantly felt waves of soothing coolness rise within him, immediately erasing the pain throughout his body and enveloping the raging warm currents as they continued to travel through him.
At that moment, an incredulous expression immediately appeared on the face of Professor C, who had been observing Yavi all along. "What is this power inside him? The internal organs damaged by the magic are being repaired immediately, and it's even guiding the magic onward. Is it because of the Chaos Magic inside Yavi? That shouldn't be possible. Even an affinity for magic couldn't achieve such harmony..."
Time passed, minute by minute and second by second. The agonized grimace on Yavi's face slowly eased into calm, but the others were not so fortunate. Each gritted their teeth, struggling constantly in pain, while Professor C cast spells at the appropriate moments to repair the children's bodies, which kept breaking down under the impact of the magic, attempting to ease their suffering.