Chapter #48

AN: Turns out it was Christmas today... Huh, I didn't realize it since it's not really a thing in my country. So Merry Christmas everyone!

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The next day Zeno was expecting even more training but that didn't happen, instead they were separated into groups and given education.

The ones who could already read were given books about Witcher work, like the kingdoms and the types of monsters.

The keep didn't have copies of the books so everyone got a different one, they were to switch once they were finished with theirs.

Zeno would have expected a handbook of some sort made by the mages to make things easier but it seems he expected too much.

The other group was those who didn't know how to read, which included a majority of the children. Not surprisingly Geralt knew how to read.

Zeno himself had the system decipher the written language in a mere second, and was good to go.

Written language was a mess in his opinion but the people talked English for some reason Zeno didn't care.

In this class, Zeno finally got to meet Lambert and Eskel, it seemed Remus didn't know how to read since he wasn't in the class.

Lambert was actually the son of a village healer just outside of Novigrad, nothing magical, just someone that knows a lot about herbs.

She had to give him away due to the law of surprise after his drunkard father was saved by a witcher of the school of the wolf.

He still bears resentment for that, Zeno is actually keeping an eye on him at Ouryuu request and help him out.

Zeno didn't push for details and told how he was dropped by a flying serpent. He had to make it something casual otherwise the Witchers listening to their conversation might get suspicious.

It was Eskel that surprised him...

"What do you mean, you grew up here?!" Geralt exclaimed.

"Yeah, due to some circumstances this place became my home for the past years. I had to help old man Myers with something so I wasn't here when you two came." Eskel calmly explained.

Due to growing up with the witchers, most of his childishness wore off but Zeno could see it in his eyes that he wouldn't refuse any childish antics.

No one in their group was curious about old man Myers...

"That's cool. So you just decided to go through with the trials?" Zeno asked.

"No, I was too young back then, at least that's what Deglan said. Now that I am old enough I will go through the trials." Eskel said with conviction.

"Yeah, we can team up against monsters once we're out on the Path." Geralt said with excitement.

He was definitely enjoying the company of an actual child compared to ever silent Zeno.

"That is if we survive." Lambert retorted dryly.

Zeno chuckled wryly seeing the two's faces drop at the mention of death and went back to his bestiary.

[I recorded everything.] System reported.

'I will have to read it on my own once to make it believable.' Zeno sighed and went back to his book, he was reading about Ruskalas and their mountain cousins Vilas.

{They don't seem that bad.} Ouryuu commented.

'Yeah, these two types tend to not attack unless provoked. They also dislike large populations, so it is hard to find them, some people even want them as wives due to the rumors about them.' Zeno explained.

Their reading time lasted until lunch where they had another batch of magic mushrooms and went running instead of hitting the books.

It was during this time the first casualties were had, some of the children couldn't stomach the mushrooms, thus gave them back in a disgusting manner.

Some of those who puked the mushrooms back had passed out immediately, they started to tremble like they had a cold before going still.

"Are they okay?' Lambert asked innocently.

Geralt and Eskel were looking at the children with grimm looks and seemed to not hear his question.

"They're dead Lambert, that's what happens when your body doesn't handle the mushrooms." Zeno calmly explained.

"Are we going to be okay?" Lambert asked himself rather than them.

No one answered, not even Zeno who knew Lambert would most likely survive, instead he was inspecting the bodies with a curious gaze.

'What do you have for me, System?' Zeno asked while observing the clear signs of multiple organ failure apparent on the children.

[Well, I can come up with some things that can alleviate the symptoms but we can't ensure the survival rate without learning magic.] System quickly gave him a report.

For some reason System could still access the nanosuit part of his bloodline while it was inaccessible for Zeno. Thus most of the work was left on the System.

[Most of the work was already on me!] System retorted.

'What?'

[Nothing!]

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Days passed as they learned about the monsters, the kingdoms, the ingredients used in the witcher elixirs.

Things that needed lots of studying were easy for Zeno who had perfect memory thanks to his system, non-magic alchemy was even more so since it was just discount chemistry.

And most importantly the physical training that just kept getting more intense as the days passed.

The number of children dropping dead has slowed down as their bodies got adapted to the food they were given.

The number of dead had picked up after they got to their actual training on the pendulum and the windmill, learning how to dodge and attack properly.

Some kids simply died while running the Killer Trail, some falling to their deaths, some were simply unlucky enough to run into monsters.

It was horrific to watch all these children die in several ways that somehow got more gruesome as the days passed.

It was a spontaneous combustion of a child during Sign training that broke the camel's back for Zeno, he decided to help them with their training, even if they might still not make it.

He just wanted to stop the guilt gnawing on his conscience...

{He's growing up.} Ouryuu said while sniffing on an imaginary tissue.

On the other hand Zeno had some trouble with the signs, whenever he tried using them some of his Karmic Virtue would be aroused and gush to his hands.

This resulted in his signs being abnormally stronger than the average which was the reason he kept failing on purpose while working out at night.

Zeno didn't know why this happened but he felt like he could find out when he finally went to Ban Aard to learn magic.

Anyhow, the training was paying off, Zeno calculated that their current strength was several times more than an average adult. Considering that they have yet to go through with the mutations it was pretty good.

Despite adjusting to the food, everyone had some type of symptom showing that their bodies were still struggling.

Zeno in particular was worse than anyone else because the magicians increased his dosage considerably after seeing he can still walk it off.

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Zeno's golden hair completely lost its original color becoming a sickly black and his skin color changed to pale gray, with his eyes that were always bloodshot, Zeno looked like he crawled up from depths of hell.

He regularly gave nightmares to a few weak minded children until they eventually died off from the training.

The other children didn't look much better but at least they wouldn't be mistaken for a monster by drunk witchers...

Zeno eventually discovered a way to harness the power of bullshit to come up with techniques that helped with the adaptation of the children's bodies.

"Vesemir, can you help me unstick Lambert's tongue from the metal pole?" Zeno asked Vesemir who was drinking.

"Why did he lick the pole again? I had to spend twenty minutes getting him out!" Vesemir drank the last of his beer from his cup and spat before getting up.

"It helps with the digestion of the herbs you guys are giving us." Zeno shrugged.

Getting his tongue stuck on a metal pole helps Lambert, Eskel needs to go to the bathroom only at nights. Keeping up a nasty grin helped Geralt digest the food better.

Zeno kept coming up with random shit that actually worked which baffled the magicians...

"Bullshit!" Vesemir spat but didn't say anything else and cast a weak Igni just enough to warm up the pole.

"Exactly!" Zeno grinned.