Chapter 48: Don't Lie to Yourself
Mahakam had a grand banquet that evening.
Any dwarves were welcome.
Everybody was equal at this point, class and rank not being an issue.
The feast was overflowing with beer and barbecued meat.
It was a thank you and a goodbye.
The raucous banquet raged on late into the night before it finally died down. Afterwards, everyone was exhausted and needed a well-deserved rest.
Geralt was dosed with a huge quantity of wine and was intoxicated when he was brought back to the guest room.
Fortunately, Lynn slipped away half of the way.
Otherwise, he would have been intoxicated as well.
Lynn lay down on the bed and began organizing the loot of this mining trip.
First of all, there was the pile of ashes that the Crimson Plague Ghost was reduced to upon death.
These ashes were bound in felt by Geralt and Lynn and returned.
Of course, this wasn't because the two had bad taste.
But this wasn't normal ashes.
It was ghost spirit dust.
Essentially, any specter would emit this substance.
Ghost spirit dust was a form of alchemy material.
Provided buckthorn grass and fleawort were added, Petri's Philter could be brewed.
That was the potion that could enhance the Witcher's sign power.
Sorcerers could also use it with other alchemy materials to brew sorcerer potions.
Therefore, the price of ghost spirit dust was generally not cheap.
It was sold and purchased by the gram.
Looking at the whole bag of ghost spirit dust, Lynn happily stored it once more.
He could sell it to the sorcerers later and be rich once again.
Then Lynn produced a glass container with a cover.
Inside it was a red meat ball that looked like the thalamus of a brain.
This item was also a trophy that the Crimson Plague Ghost had dropped. It was called a mutagen.
Mutagens were extremely precious trophies to Witchers.
Sadly, not all monsters dropped this item.
Mutagens did basically three things.
First, they were utilized to prepare decoctions for the Trial of the Grasses.
Yes, that was the decoction required for the Trial of the Grasses, which turned common folk into Witchers.
Every school was different, since materials used in every school's decoctions were different.
But the commonality was that mutagens must be utilized to prepare decoctions.
Secondly, mutagens could also be utilized to prepare special decoctions.
Toxicity of this specific decoction was greater than that of the standard potions normally utilized by Witchers and obviously the effect was better.
For example, the Noonwraith decoction could shorten the duration of hypnosis, coma, and blindness among Witchers.
Another example was the Ekimmara decoction, which could suck out the blood of the enemy in order to heal one's injuries, etc.
Finally, mutagens played a very significant part.
That was to allow Witchers to perform secondary mutations.
Mutation was the biggest difference between Witchers and human beings.
While the rate of success at the Trial of the Grasses was low.
While even after so much hard work and at such an enormous cost.
The resultant Witchers were still far from the super soldiers in people's imagination.
Observe that there was a but here.
Witcher mutation was not completely useless.
Although Witchers could not be called invulnerable, their resistance to poison was several times higher than that of common people, and they could work with potions with various magical effects.
Mutation also gave them the ability to perform signs.
Do not be shallow and think that Witcher's signs were just tricks because sorcerers used to call them tricks.
Sorcerers may have such a thought since sorcerers were noble casters.
However, common people should not.
You may have been able to fool your brothers, but do not try to fool yourself.
Any Witcher who officially graduated had sign capabilities that were probably no worse than some guys who deliberately spread rumors and maligned Witchers thought.
Signs, after all, were the lone magic weapon for Witchers to fight monsters.
It was likely that the methods of dealing with monsters would not be as terrible as some guys who knowingly spread rumors and lies about Witchers said.
Finally, mutation also enhanced the physical skills of the Witcher.
Strength, agility, reaction speed, physical coordination, endurance, ability of physical recovery, immune system, resistance to poison, ability of sense, and other factors were all further enhanced.
All the above were the changes the Trial of the Grasses brought about to the Witchers.
Secondary mutation was to further enhance the Witcher's abilities based on the Trial of the Grasses.
The kind of improvement was also different depending on the mutagen injected during secondary mutation.
Mutagens were operationally distinguished into red, blue, and green.
Red enhanced strength, blue enhanced signs, and green enhanced vitality.
Each of the mutagens was assigned weak, normal, and strong.
And what Lynn was carrying at the moment was a strong red mutagen.
"Secondary mutation?"
As a human being from Earth, he must know where the formula for secondary mutation was.
It was located in the duchy of Toussaint, a place as beautiful as a fairy tale.
Of course, not only did Toussaint possess secondary mutations, but also master-level equipment designs for various schools, and also certain side missions which impacted the "future."
It was as if he'd need to be seeking out a chance to go visit the duchy of Toussaint sometime in the future.
Two days later, Lynn and Geralt, recovered fully from the battle in the desert mine, pursued Istrad's caravan down from the mountain and left Mahakam.
They took aboard a stop and Yarpen and his group, who had lingered in the village at the base of the Mahakam Mountains, and traveled towards the floating port in the northern part of the Mahakam Mountains.
The floating harbour was located in the Pontar Valley, built along the upper course of the Pontar River, surrounded by impassable bushes and forests.
In the floating harbour you, Istrad rented a boat so that they could travel downstream on the Pontar River to Novigrad.
The Pontar River, or the Pontar, or the Elven name Eithine, was one of the largest rivers of the Northern Kingdoms.
Just like the Yaruga River in the south, the Pontar River had begun in the Blue Mountains, flowed east-west, and poured into the sea near Oxenfurt and Novigrad.
The Pontar River, flowing through four countries, served as the northern boundary between the southern kingdoms of Temeria and Aedirn, and the southern boundary between Redania and Kaedwen kingdoms.
And the area where these four countries had met was given the name of the Pontar Valley, or just "Pontar."
The Pontar River had always been an important north trade stream at all times.
So the countries along the Pontar River had fought over the Pontar River in the past many times.
There existed a saying which had long been going around among people—whoever possessed the Pontar River would have the entire north at their command.
But even as that was the case, the Pontar River had never been in the hands of any one nation, and therefore the north had always been split until now.
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