Lann and Bernie continued their daily work.
The young man had considered advising Little White in the tavern yesterday, but his need for White Hundred-Day Petal wasn’t too urgent yet.
However, thinking about it again, as long as they didn’t enter the forest around the village, the area around the main road was indeed relatively safe, so he let White busy himself.
The two once more searched for monster traces along the shore of Lake Fick.
At this moment, Lann sat at the bow of the boat, his heavy weight and armor causing the boat’s draft at the bow to be deeper than Bernie’s at the stern.
The young man was trying hard to press his temples.
Last night was another typical "Mentos stirring a cola bottle" kind of night.
After half a month of cooperative hunting, Lann’s skill in [Trace Detection] obtained from Bernie had reached 87% proficiency.
This proficiency, combined with the Demon Hunter’s extraordinary senses, had already elevated Lann’s tracking ability beyond what ordinary people could achieve.
Perhaps his knowledge of monsters was dreadful without a teacher’s guidance, but just in terms of tracking ability, he wasn’t at the bottom even among Demon Hunters.
With the computational power provided by Mentos, he could even, to some extent, replay events that occurred at a location within a week in his mind!
Not unlike Sherlock Holmes in the novels.
What concerned the young man most was the [Surgery] skill that related to his personal combat enhancement.
This skill, due to practice on Water Ghosts, Swamp Witches, and occasionally Ghouls and Corpse-Eaters, had now surged to 55% proficiency.
The numbers might seem small, but Lann’s goal wasn’t to become a reliable surgeon.
The primary goal was to perform surgery on himself, to implant that gene seed into his chest cavity.
Stable techniques, control over his own organs, precise cutting and stitching...
For Lann’s primary goal, this level of proficiency was actually sufficient.
"In other words... there’s only the Magic Potion left before the plan is complete."
Lann put down his hand from rubbing his forehead, rubbed his face to stay awake.
Just at that moment, a collision sound came from the boat bottom; the boat jolted and then stabilized.
"We’ve arrived; it’s time to get to work... by the way, didn’t you sleep well last night?"
Bernie was the first to jump off the boat, starting to adjust the small boat’s docking position.
"Not too bad... ah! Enough already, another marsh." The young man muttered.
Yesterday, while on the road, Bernie had detailed to Lann his process of hunting a pack of wolves.
How he tracked, identified traces, lured, and segmented the pack, according to him, he had used all his knowledge and wits in that instance.
Because the atmosphere was good then, he was talkative, and so explained very thoroughly.
It wasn’t so alarming, but Mentos’s analysis prompts hadn’t stopped!
By the time Lann lay down at night, a whole 20% proficiency surged in, the sensation was even more intense than the first day.
Their collaboration had now reached a stage of ease and familiarity.
Bernie held onto the sword’s hilt, squatting to examine traces.
After removing the bandage, he made himself a long leather glove; the one torn by Water Ghost was now reformed into a pair.
"This way, let’s go."
Before long, Bernie’s tracking technique had led the two to find a group of monsters.
No Swamp Witch, four Water Ghosts were eating dead fish and dead crabs on the marsh.
At this level, Lann dealt with them swiftly and efficiently.
It took only two minutes in total, and his silver sword was already thrust into the last Water Ghost’s mouth, the sword tip protruding from the back of its head.
Then, without dissecting the bodies, he trudged through the muddy ground towards Bernie.
Regarding monster materials from Water Ghosts, he was almost running out of storage.
And unless there were strange mutations or diseases, Water Ghosts contributed barely anything to the proficiency of [Surgery] skills.
"Let’s go; wearing heavy armor, I don’t feel like staying on this marsh any longer."
His feet sinking into the wet, sticky mud, the sensation made the young man purse his lips in discomfort.
Bernie was light all over, playfully watching Lann as they prepared to move to the next battlefield.
But just at that moment, from the dry roadway not far from the marsh, a shout suddenly came.
The voice accompanied by the sound of hooves hitting the ground.
Lann raised an eyebrow, these people were already quite close, but with his senses, he heard it at the same time as Bernie.
Yet looking at the environment, Lann felt it was normal.
Velen being coastal, the entire province frequently experienced high winds, and by the lakeside, due to air temperature differences, the wind was even stronger.
Now the fishy wind made the large trees at the shore rustle noisily, along with the wind’s own whistling, even with Mentos buffering the noise, it wasn’t very effective.
In under ten seconds, a well-dressed, brown-haired young man rode a horse the same color as his hair, appearing in front of them.
Sleek bear-skin shoulder cape, tightly stitched clothing, leather hat... a man of wealth.
And as commonly understood, wealthy individuals were generally perceived as unlikely to engage in violent acts personally.
So Lann and Bernie weren’t too tense at the moment.
"Gentlemen, whew! Thank you for allowing me to approach."
Seemingly the wind was too strong, disrupting his breathing on the horse, making the well-dressed young man’s speech halting and broken.
Yet, because of this, his smile appeared more approachable.
Bernie saw the Demon Hunter still fixated on his muddy boots, and took a step forward.
"Alright, friend, you don’t need to come closer, just stand there. On the road we ought to help those in need, for no one can predict when it might be their turn. But you also know the times are turbulent, a bit of vigilance is beneficial for us both. Yes, this distance is fine, I can hear what you’re saying clearly."
To show friendliness and trustworthiness, the well-dressed young man even controlled the horse to retreat a couple of steps.
"Who doesn’t agree? First Meretelli was desecrated by cannibals, now incidents of missing children have no leads, I understand your caution."
The well-dressed young man smiled and tightened his bear-skin shoulder cape, ensuring it covered his chest.
"Call me Willis, son of a Novigrad merchant."
"I only came to ask for directions, nothing else."
"I traveled from Novigrad and reached Lindenville Village, thus entering Velen, but my guide only brought me there, then fell ill and died. But my destination is Jiaomu Village; I heard there’s a powerful Witch Doctor there, and I’m here for him."
The young man rubbed his nose, unintentionally revealing three gold-glinted, gemstone-studded rings on his fingers, greatly enhancing his credibility of being from Novigrad.
After all, everyone knows the wealthy there are truly wealthy.
Bernie believed most of what he said, but was still somewhat puzzled.
"Lindenville? Why travel from Novigrad to Jiaomu Village, why not directly go to the inn at the crossroads? We are in the southern part of Velen; Jiaomu Village is northwest. The difference is quite..."
Lann, originally not inclined to care about the passerby asking for directions, suddenly felt something off.
Mentos sharply captured this sensation, instantly laying out several logical chains for reference.
His direction was too far off.
Wasn’t he just entering Velen? Why was he so clear about events that happened days ago?
Also, the sound of hoofbeats... wasn’t it just one horse?
What were the others doing?!
A sudden pounding of the heart, Lann’s heartbeat surged at that moment!
No time to draw the sword from behind, Lann stepped hard into the mud, not caring at all that the tremendous force buried his foot completely in the marsh.
A giant stride rushed towards Bernie!
No time to invoke Magic Seal auxiliary functions, not even time to use Bear School’s secret teachings.
At that moment, Lann could only use the most traditional Quen Rune—and then shield himself enhanced by the rune in front of Bernie.
Only after his instinctive reaction passed did Lann realize... his Quen Rune had deflected a Crossbow Arrow!
...But that wasn’t enough! The hoofbeats weren’t just two horses!
Who else was there?! What were they doing? Where were they?!
In a moment, his cat-like eyes rapidly scanned everywhere but found nothing.
Until a sound of flesh falling into the muddy water was heard from behind.
The pupils of the cat eyes contracted sharply, and Lann turned quickly.
Bernie lay flat on the ground with a dazed expression.
A Crossbow Arrow was lodged in his stomach!
And not far away, the well-dressed young man claiming to be Willis laughed heartily, drawing a sword from beside the saddle.
His bear-skin cape could no longer cover his chest.
A hand-shaped necklace slipped out from inside the cape.