By a river deep in the Blue Mountains.
The shrieks and wails of drowners shattered the mountain stillness.
A silver sword viciously cleaved off a drowner's head, and Lynn pulled back, dodging another drowner's lunge.
Its blade-sharp claws struck empty air.
Lynn stepped forward again, gripped his silver sword in both hands, raised it overhead, and brought it crashing down.
Splurch!
Blood sprayed.
The silver sword split the drowner's skull.
A third drowner closed in on the witcher from behind.
Perhaps because he had used too much force just now, the silver sword lodged firmly in the dead drowner's head.
He could not pull it free right away.
But there was not a trace of panic on Lynn's face.
He turned and extended his right hand toward the drowner approaching from behind.
"Igni."
A torrent of flames blasted into the drowner's face.
It fell to the ground howling, desperately scooping up mud and smearing it over its face.
As though doing so could save its burned face.
Lynn planted a foot on the corpse and pulled his silver sword free.
Then he whipped his arm forward.
The silver sword streaked like a meteor, pinning the drowner to the ground and killing it.
The last drowner seemed to feel fear as well, turning tail and fleeing in an almost human fashion.
Lynn did not pursue it, instead checking the gains from the battle:
Attribute points: 4 (86%) → 5 (1%)
"It wasn't easy, but I finally saved up five attribute points."
After a moment's thought, Lynn decided to allocate them to "School of the Wolf Swordsmanship."
Signs and alchemy were important too.
But those two skills could wait until next time.
By comparison, improving his martial skills should take priority.
So Lynn imagined a finger and tapped "School of the Wolf Swordsmanship."
School of the Wolf Swordsmanship (Expert) → School of the Wolf Swordsmanship (Master/Limit) New perk: Comprehensive Enhancement (speed increased by 20%, strength increased by 20%, constitution increased by 20%)
A vast flood of swordsmanship memories poured into Lynn's mind.
Unlike before, the swordsmanship memories flooding his mind this time were no longer just memories of monotonous practice on the training grounds, but also included a wealth of combat experience, memories, and even lessons paid for in blood...
Fighting humans, fighting monsters...
One against one, one against many...
Bitter struggles against the odds...
Desperate counterattacks with his life on the line...
These precious memories, which others could only gain at the cost of scars all over their bodies, now poured into Lynn's mind as though they cost nothing.
Even after all the swordsmanship memories had been imparted, it was not over.
Lynn could feel that, although his body showed no visible changes in appearance, real improvements had taken place within it.
He pulled the silver sword out of the drowner's corpse and swung it a few times, then felt that his speed and strength had indeed increased by twenty percent.
"Wonderful."
Lynn's eyes lit up.
This is power!
A sudden jumble of footsteps rang out.
Lynn turned to look.
The drowner that had fled earlier had actually returned.
Not only that, it had brought a water hag back with it.
"So you went to get help." Lynn smiled.
Had this been a minute earlier, he would have needed to run.
A water hag was the sort of monster that gave even fully fledged witchers a terrible headache.
But after raising "School of the Wolf Swordsmanship" to "Master," he could not only rival a veteran witcher like Geralt in swordsmanship...
The twenty-percent increases to strength, speed, and constitution granted by the "Comprehensive Enhancement" perk gave him ample confidence as well.
Naturally, he no longer had to flee whenever he encountered a slightly stronger monster, as he had over the past few months.
"You'll make a good practice target."
As the last word left his mouth, the witcher lunged ferociously like a direwolf.
Before the dirt he kicked into the air could hit the ground, Lynn had already rapidly closed the distance between them.
The water hag's murky pupils contracted sharply.
It grabbed the drowner beside it and hurled it at the witcher.
Lynn swung his silver sword, cleaving the drowner flying toward him in half from its right shoulder to its left flank.
But before the blood and entrails spraying through the air could hit the ground.
The water hag, following close behind the drowner as a dark blur, had already slashed its sickle-like claws viciously toward Lynn's chest.
A water hag's claws could tear through any armor; flesh and blood were as fragile as paper before them.
The instant they made contact, Lynn would be torn to pieces.
Though the water hag was not an intelligent creature, its cunning tactic of first throwing the drowner as bait and then launching an all-out surprise attack was no less devious than an intelligent creature's.
Indeed.
Under normal circumstances, at this distance, at this speed...
There would have been no time.
But with "Comprehensive Enhancement," Lynn released his left hand from the sword and thrust his empty hand toward the water hag.
"Aard."
An invisible blast of air struck the water hag squarely like a warhammer.
Fingers bent, and skin split.
The water hag staggered backward as though it had run straight into a wall.
Although this opening lasted only a brief instant...
Although it could regain its footing in mere seconds...
In battle, even a momentary lapse was enough to decide victory or defeat.
The silver sword sliced through the water hag's neck like a hot knife through butter.
The water hag's head, bearing a complex mixture of rage, unwillingness, astonishment, and other emotions, flew into the air and fell into the rushing river with a small splash.
As the end of 1249 approached, everyone from the School of the Wolf returned to Kaer Morhen before heavy snow closed off the mountains.
They sat cheerfully together in the hall, enjoying good food and wine and sharing their experiences from the past year.
After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Lynn volunteered that he hoped to undertake the final stage of the witcher trials before the winter ended.
The Trial of the Medallion.
The Trial of the Medallion, also known as the Trial of the Mountains, was the third stage of the witcher trials.
Only those who completed the Trial of the Medallion were qualified to finish their apprenticeship and leave the mountains.
As Lynn finished speaking, the lively atmosphere around the table suddenly fell quiet.
Everyone, including Vesemir, looked at Lynn with surprise and confusion.
After all, he was still young, and if he wished, he could easily stay at Kaer Morhen for a few more years.
No one would say anything about it.
Witchers generally lived very long lives.
Eskel and Lambert might look like young men, but who would have guessed that they were actually about the same age as Yorinobu Arasaka?
As for Vesemir, even Saburo Arasaka would have to call him Grandpa.
Although most witchers had been transformed from humans, once they had completed the Trial of the Grasses, their perception of time was actually closer to that of ancient, long-lived races such as elves and dwarves.
Of course, Lynn had his own reasons for proposing that he leave the mountains.