Chapter 5: Arriving at White Orchard
Back in his room, Geralt did not indulge in lust again, embracing the young widow for some morning exercise.
He sat alone in the living room, legs crossed, eyes closed, in the posture of a Witcher meditating, his right hand gripping the Axii Sign, entering a meditative state.
At this rate, it would take about a day for those three scoundrels to be completely worn down and absorbed.
This was the difference between intelligent beings and low-level monsters.
Low-level monsters mostly possessed only basic biological instincts and predatory desires, lacking memory or complex thoughts and emotions, with intelligence levels not much different from ordinary livestock.
To digest their souls, he only needed to absorb them directly, without any extra preparation; at most, it would make his emotions a little irritable for a short time, harmless.
The more than one hundred points of Soul Power he previously had were mostly collected this way.
But intelligent beings were different.
Their souls not only contained years, or even decades, of memories but also were entangled with chaotic desires and thoughts, a large amount of information mixed together, like a ticking time bomb, very dangerous.
If he were to absorb their souls directly like low-level monsters, the vast amount of information contained within these souls would explode like a bomb, directly impacting Geralt’s soul.
This would not only cause him negative effects such as mental disorder, emotional imbalance, and soul cracks, but in severe cases, it could lead to multiple personalities, soul damage, memory loss, or even brain death.
The first Soul Ascension progress he gained was because he, inexperienced at the time, directly absorbed the soul of that Temerian deserter.
The violent soul impact caused him to be unconscious for several hours, followed by several days of mental weakness.
This was still because the other party was just an ordinary human soul, and its Soul Power was not strong enough.
Of course, doing so was not without benefits.
Risk and opportunity often coexist.
His reckless action back then not only allowed him to obtain a part of the deserter’s memories, helping him understand many of this world’s customs and history, but also directly provided him with his initial self-defense method, 【Temerian Military Swordsmanship】.
Therefore, from then on, Geralt decided that unless the target’s memories contained extremely important information or abilities, he would not forcibly absorb the souls of other intelligent beings unless his own strength was sufficiently powerful.
He had to grind their souls into dregs like this before absorbing them to ensure safety.
However, in this way, apart from the Soul Power contained in the soul, other memories and abilities would not be obtainable.
Time quickly came to early morning.
When the gentle morning sun shone through the window into the room, Lady Judith, who had been busy all night, also woke up.
This diligent young widow, after waking, felt a little ashamed for uncharacteristically not getting up early.
But she quickly found, to her surprise, that her spirits were quite high, and the gloomy emotions accumulated from various past sorrows and angers seemed to have been swept away, making her whole person radiant.
Connecting this to the Witcher in the living room, who had been busy with her all night and who possessed mysterious magic, capable of conjuring food out of thin air, she quickly suppressed her surprise and secretly turned to look at the man who was meditating.
“You’re awake, Lady Judith.”
It seemed he sensed the woman’s prying gaze, Geralt opened his eyes, a gentle smile appearing on his face, and continued:
“Perfect, I’m also about to go investigate clues about the culprit.”
“Please tell me the address of the Hunter Brothers’ house. I’ll be staying here again tonight, and I’ll bring back some food then.”
“You won’t need to prepare dinner tonight.”
Hearing that the Witcher would be staying here again tonight, Judith’s mind conjured up various shameful positions from last night, and her face couldn’t help but flush slightly.
Just as she was about to give the Hunter Brothers’ address and thank the Witcher for his help, she heard Geralt say earnestly:
“Oh, and Lady Judith.”
“The reward is a separate matter. You can go to the orchard during the day to confirm if the monster has been cleared by me.”
“Those twenty orens of reward, not a single coin can be less.”
...After leaving Judith’s house, the first place Geralt went was the Hunter Brothers’ home.
No matter what game he played, his favorite part was always the time spent looting spoils.
Although those spoils might not necessarily be valuable, the sense of accomplishment from constantly acquiring unknown items, like opening a treasure chest or drawing a lottery, was both anticipated and enjoyable, a rare pleasure.
Moreover, unlike ordinary farmers, in the sparsely populated world of Witchers, where beasts and monsters ran rampant, hunters, besides hunting, usually also worked as butchers, herbalists, tanners, or even mercenaries, making them quite rare multi-skilled, composite talents.
They not only could often eat meat and maintain strong bodies but also earned a good amount of money by selling goods.
Although dangerous, in terms of treatment, they were probably only slightly inferior to the highly respected blacksmiths, and their living conditions were much better than other commoners.
And fortunately, for convenience in hunting, hunters typically lived near forests. Guys like the Hunter Brothers, with their bad temper and frequent misdeeds, preferred to live away from crowds.
Therefore, Geralt’s scavenging operation went quite smoothly.
Using his Witcher’s keen senses, he not only avoided potential witnesses nearby but also discovered the anti-theft traps set around the house.
In the end, he collected about sixty orens in coins, a large amount of dried and tanned animal skins, animal teeth, animal meat, and some other materials and hunting equipment.
The total value was at least over three hundred orens, practically emptying the house of all valuable items.
If Geralt hadn’t had the storage space granted by the system, he wouldn’t have been able to carry so many things.
However, precisely because of this, plus the three hunter corpses collected in the morning, the total storage space of only one cubic meter was almost 90% full.
As a hoarder player who loved collecting all sorts of items, Geralt now urgently hoped to accelerate the progress of Soul Advancement to upgrade his storage space as soon as possible.
Otherwise, before long, he would find himself in the awkward situation of being unable to take away loot.
Having dealt with this matter, Geralt no longer delayed, and while it was still early, he headed towards White Orchard, as informed by Judith.
After about two hours of travel, the village, both familiar and unfamiliar from the game, gradually appeared before his eyes.