It must be said, witchers are definitely better at stealth than hunters. After all, most of the monsters they face are skilled at detection, and some are even ethereal or magical creatures. If they didn't have a few tricks up their sleeves, they wouldn't last long. And after undergoing the Trial of the Grasses, their human scent and body temperature were greatly suppressed.
"Hoo~" The blue flame slowly extinguished. Huihui sniffed the air inside the cave. As always, it was filled with a warm, food-like aroma. "Awo?!" She felt that something was off, but after sniffing around, she didn't detect any strange or abnormal odors. It was also possible that the Daimyo Hermitaur's fishy smell was too strong, preventing Huihui from smelling anything else.
"Hey, that thing, is it some kind of dragon?" "Hmm, possibly, but I've never seen a dragon like that before, and it's huge." Geralt narrowed his eyes, looking at the blue monster in the distance. "And interestingly, my wolf medallion isn't vibrating. What about yours?"
"Same here, my griffin medallion isn't reacting either. Also, Geralt, did you notice that the furnishings and utensils here may have been made by that monster? It may possess considerable intelligence and a wealth of emotions, rather than being a monster driven by instinct."
"Which also means it's more troublesome." Geralt looked at the silver sword in his hand. Witcher's silver swords are not made of pure silver. In reality, silver doesn't have a very good restraining effect on most monsters (with the exception of things like ghouls and wraiths). What really has a killing effect are the runic symbols engraved on the blade, especially when powerful runestones are inlaid as the core through the reserved mounting holes. The killing power of the blade will be further enhanced to an unbelievable degree and carry some special effects.
The role of silver is that it's an extremely good conductor of magic. Inversely, there's tungsten, a black, heavy, and expensive metal with excellent ability to block the effects of aetheric matter. By combining and processing these two metals in specific ratios, witchers create their silver swords, which can be enchanted and are highly effective at restraining and killing various monsters.
The principle behind the silver sword's design comes from what Geralt says to Ciri when he gives her the silver sword "Zireael" after completing the game. The addition of silver to the alloy steel, along with the inscription of runic symbols, allows it to effectively kill monsters and prevent them from healing. - Although, in reality, ordinary steel swords can also kill monsters...
So, the Leshens, for monster hunters, their damage seems lackluster, embarrassing their peers like Bear Grylls, but the Leshens are quite tough due to this reason.
Regardless, the silver sword's ability to kill and prevent self-healing must be based on the witcher being able to breach the opponent's defenses. This isn't difficult thanks to the runic enchantments. With specific runes boosting the sword, it can be considered a magic-infused weapon, capable of producing a near-high-frequency vibration damaging effect, allowing it to pierce through armor plating over 3 centimeters thick. For most monsters, this is almost always fatal; their thick hides and scales have difficulty protecting them well.
Once the defense is penetrated, the magical sword oils and runic symbols on the blade will inflict considerable and terrifying damage, with effects like burning, freezing, electrocution, and lacerating bleeding. Moreover, the sword oils can poison and weaken them. Within the monster community, witchers' silver swords are almost universally considered examples of "despicable, shameless, and low-down weapons."
But the problem is, even the most terrifying dragon a witcher has ever encountered is only the size of a cub compared to Huihui. Ordinary wyverns are less than 8 meters long with a 15-meter wingspan. Removing their slender tails, they are at most only about 6 meters in size. In other words, three witchers lying down would be about that long. - But Huihui is a monster with a body length of 28 meters and weighing over 30 tons, meaning that unless they hit her soft belly scales, the witchers' weapons are almost unable to pierce her skin.
And..."Geralt, I don't think your sword can pierce that...armor she's wearing."
Indeed, Huihui's body is also covered in a crystalline shell of polarized aether, equivalent to wearing light armor that protects the vulnerable areas of her body, which are also the intersections of aetheric magic. Even a hunter's jet-propelled katana would make a crisp ding sound and bounce back, let alone a witcher's slender silver sword.
"Igni probably won't be effective; she's not ethereal. Yrden's binding power would also have a hard time restraining a monster like this. Quen, honestly, I'm not very confident I can withstand a single blow from her. As for Aard... have you ever tried using Aard to push open a city gate?" Zerin, speaking from the perspective of a Griffin School witcher specializing in sign magic, indicated that his skills were probably useless against this damn thing.
"Perhaps Axii could be of some use. By the way, since she built this nest, that means she's not a completely mindless beast. Maybe... we can talk to her?"
Witchers aren't assassins or mere bounty hunters. They don't rely solely on their swords. Even with the aid of signs and potions, they aren't invincible. The legendary witcher Geralt himself was once taken down by a farmer with a pitchfork, and his body bears numerous horrific scars left by monsters.
Therefore, appropriate speech and negotiation are also a major weapon for witchers. This is especially true of the Griffin School, as they prefer to solve problems with Axii and their silver tongues rather than drawing their silver swords and going on a rampage.
"Well, then, this job is yours." Geralt patted Zerin on the shoulder. "What? Me?" Zerin walked forward with a wry smile. With such loud talking, it's impossible that Huihui wouldn't notice.
A wet nose approached Zerin, sniffing him intently, and then let out a huge sneeze. "This idea is terrible!" Huihui didn't mean anything else; it was simply that this guy's scent was too foul and carried a pungent smell of potions. It had all sorts of smells, just nothing human, which made Huihui a little confused and bewildered.
"What should I say next?" Zerin looked up at the dragon, as tall as a tower. Amber-colored dragon eyes looked at him curiously. Huihui's territorial awareness wasn't strong, or rather, most Alatreon, especially the male ones, didn't have strong territorial awareness, except for the females during the nurturing period. Those were violent individuals who would beat up anyone who entered. Huihui clearly didn't belong to this violent category, so she was curious about how this human had entered her nest.
Of course, curiosity doesn't override hunger, so Huihui reached out a claw and tore off a large piece of smoked meat from a hanging rack, slowly chewing it. Her cheeks bulged high, and she ate slowly and with relish. Huihui is a gourmet, and a gourmet isn't necessarily a glutton. So, when it came to smoked meat and spicy dried meat, which become more fragrant with every chew, she didn't mind eating slowly and elegantly – making Zerin hungry just watching her.
"Wanna... wanna play a round of Gwent?" "Awo?!" Huihui lowered her head and looked at the cards in Zerin's hand, a puzzled expression on her face. "Hey~, calm down, we don't want to hurt you, and we don't mean any harm. I'm just saying, wanna play a game of cards? It's a lot of fun."
"If you don't like that, I have some wine here, wanna try it?"
Alcohol is also a major weapon for witchers when dealing with monsters. Whether you smash it over their heads and ignite it with an Igni sign or get the target drunk and take advantage of the situation, it's a good tactic. Besides, it's also a powerful tool for preparing potions, magic bombs, and lures.
It must be said, Zerin played a good card. Huihui loves wine, but the Scion doesn't let her drink it, and her own brewing skills are subpar, resulting in sour flavoring sauces instead. But, that wine bottle was too small. After thinking for about a minute, a blue aetheric light illuminated, and a young dragon girl with blue hair appeared in front of Zerin, reaching out a small hand to grab the bottle of wine in his hand.
"Wow~ that's... indescribable." Geralt stated that he had never seen a monster with this kind of shapeshifting ability. Well, monsters that can shapeshift into humans are common; higher vampires and dopplers are all capable. But for something so large to turn into such a small human girl is truly rare, and she's quite cute, too. If she weren't so young, he might even think she was a sorceress skilled in shapeshifting.
"Glug, glug, glug~" A large bottle of Eastern East wine was downed by Huihui, with no reaction on her small face, as if she had just drunk a bottle of water. By human standards, Huihui's alcohol tolerance was unmatched; it took half a cartload of liquor to get her drunk during her time with the Ishgardian knights.
In human terms, that would be enough to knock out an entire reinforced battalion of knights. However, if you consider her size, metabolism, and draconic constitution, Huihui is practically a "one-drink wonder" – having exceptionally low tolerance.
"Not enough." Her amber dragon eyes looked at Zerin without emotion. Clearly, if he couldn't produce more alcohol, the conversation was over. "I have another bottle here."
"But, before drinking, could you tell me a little..."
"Huihui wants that!" The young dragon girl stubbornly pointed at the bottle in his hand. Geralt gave a wry smile. "Alright, Zerin, at least we know her name now."
"Then, how about a game of Gwent? If I win, I'll give it to you; if you win, you answer one question."
Huihui and the Warrior of Light often made similar bets, for example, when training Huihui's dragoon jumping skills, or when they needed Huihui's help with something. The stakes were usually various foods or rare condiments. Sometimes Huihui would lose, and sometimes she would win.
"Gwent?"
"Don't worry, I'll teach you how to play..."
"You lost. You have to tell me, where is this place?"
"Home," Huihui said frankly. "I mean, what's the name of this place? What is it called?"
"...Don't know," Huihui indicated that she had no idea what he was asking. As a dragon, she wouldn't give the same thing many codenames like humans do. The reason she considered Huihui to be her codename was simply because when the Warrior of Light called her "Huihui," it was when they were going to give her food.
"You lost again. Okay, we'll try another question: Do you know anything about those yellow-furred monsters? What kind of monsters are around here?" Huihui clearly hadn't learned human cunning by pointing out that these were two questions. After thinking for a moment, she answered his question from the perspective of a gourmet: "Yellow? Soft meat, tasty."
"..." Geralt and Zerin both felt that the answer seemed to be coming from a skewed perspective. "Then, what kind of monsters are around here?" This was also something they urgently needed to know.
To ensure that nothing too difficult slipped through the Conjunction of Spheres, which would cause a lot of trouble. - In fact, at that moment, a Rathian (雌火龙) was flying over the town, with burning buildings below and corpses lying everywhere, their faces blue from poison. Hunters of the Eternal Fire bravely charged forward, only to be easily swatted away by the huge monster's tail. The sharp, poisonous tail caused every injured guard and hunter to die a gruesome death within seconds. - Well, compared to other monsters, the Rathian was considered a minor nuisance.
Huihui thought about this question for a long time, eating enough food to feed two infantry companies in the process. Then, she described stutteringly, "Many water places, big shells, tasty, hard to catch; many tree places, spit fire, tingly, not tasty; many mud... many tasty, easy to catch... big fish, very big fish."
"..."
"..." The two witchers fell into a long, awkward silence.
None of the questions they cared about had been answered. "Then, one last question: Are there any human settlements nearby, beings that look like us?"
"Settlements?"
"Places where many humans live together."
"Over there!" Huihui answered this question quickly. She'd bombed that area once a day before, she knew the road like the back of her hand. "Thank you very much, this bottle of wine is a token of our appreciation."
After leaving the dragon's nest, Geralt said, arms crossed, "Incredible, you actually taught a dragon to play Gwent."
"Er~""But even more incredible is that she's surprisingly easy to talk to."
"I think the wine played a big part."
"Wine always plays a big part." This is a famous saying among witchers. All sorts of wines and dwarven spirits (distilled liquors) are needed as solvents or additives in potion-making and alchemy.
"Alright, I'm going to take care of that damn Leshen. You go set up your damn equipment, and then we'll head back as soon as possible to grab a bite and take a nap."
Geralt and Zerin had different tasks. Zerin was to help the academy and sorceresses collect data and samples related to the Conjunction of Spheres and teleportation phenomena, while Geralt had taken a contract to kill a Leshen and retrieve the client's keepsake. And that Leshen had wandered into the portal that Zerin and his colleagues had opened...