Chapter 29

Heh, I never knew how oddly refreshing saunas could be. If it wasn't for sharing it with a bunch of other people I would have enjoyed it more. At least Ivar and Dogmeat were happy with their baths. The alternating between the heat of the sauna and the cold of the water in the pool next to it was bracing, to say the least.

With my business with Sigi done and errands taken care of, we went by the Sturgeon to pick up our horses and leave Novigrad before I attracted the attention of any more powerful and dangerous people. The absolute last thing I wanted or needed was to have to deal with the likes of Cleaver or Whoreson Junior. I wasn't sure I'd be able to restrain myself from killing the latter if I ever came across him. That scene where you found him in the game? Ugh. Nightmare and nausea-inducing, to say the least.

Honestly? If it wasn't for the fact he would be hard to find and I would likely have to cut through a small army I would have no issue hunting him down for things he will do and has already done with utterly no shame… then again if I let Destiny play out his criminal empire is taken over by Dudu and turned into some much less awful.

Either way, not worth the time right now. Still, I don't like thinking that Destiny is right in this situation.

Anyway, we made our way to the east side of the city and exited out the Gate of the Hierarch and into Farcorners. The Bits might have been the poorest and most cramped part of Novigrad but here it seemed like the city's unwalled ghetto where all the poor non-humans lived considering I saw most people living outside the walls of the city were dwarves, elves, and halflings. Still, while they didn't live in luxury they didn't seem that unhappy or in fear of their lives at least.

Weirdly enough they likely have Cleaver and his Crownsplitters to thank for that. The guy was really into coexistence among the various races. Even if it was enforced at the edge of an axe.

Anyhow, we rode through the district up northeast a bit until we came before the eastern bridge that would take us down the land route towards Oxenfurt, as was helpfully printed out on a nearby road sign.

We were about to cross it when something caught my eye in the river. It looked like… floating barrels? But they were just sitting in place and not going along with the current, which had to mean there was something keeping them in place.

Wait… no, it couldn't be… could it?

"Is something wrong Markus?" Ivar asked and even Dogmeat looked confused from where she walked along on the ground as I hopped off Griffin and handed him the reins.

"Ivar, go find a cart and pay whoever owns it enough to buy three more and come back. Something tells me it will be a worthwhile investment." I said with no further explanation as I reached for my Killer Whale and downed the potion in one go. I felt the burning feeling of the poison in my veins but I also felt as if I could breathe in deeper than before.

I walked up to the shore of the Pontar tributary, pulled off my boots, took off my swords, and most of my other gear other than my crossbow and placed them both on the riverbank - and dove into the river.

I wasn't sure if it was due to the Killer Whale or just Witcher eyes in general but other than being a bit more blurry it wasn't that hard to see in the water, barely bugged my eyes either. Also, as I swam towards the barrels sitting in the middle, I didn't even feel the need to breathe despite hard swimming for at least a few minutes.

Back in my old body I was lucky to hold my breath for 10 seconds while swimming, seeing as I wasn't the most active person, and assuming Witcher's were in peak human condition at least that meant they could beat the world record holder for it at 24 minutes. Add Killer Whale on top of that, and I might be able to hold my breath for almost an hour!

Dang. Witcher powers op, plz nerf.

Then again it made sense if they had to swim into a monster's lair or something, though honestly I would never want to face a monster in its preferred habitat if I could help it.

Geralt might be able to wrestle with kikimori in a swamp but drowners become a lot more scary in the water than on land.

Thankfully I didn't see any swimming around and as I got closer to the barrels I could confirm that they were being held in place by ropes that were tied to three large chests sitting at the bottom of the river. I knew it, a smuggler's cache in the same place as in the game.

I mean, it made sense I suppose, but then again anyone can see barrels from shore if they looked a bit more closely without Witcher eyes and maybe figure out something was weird… or maybe they just thought it was random barrels. I decided not to question it.

Instead I am going to do what any good murderhobo does, loot!

I cut the rope attaching a barrel to one of the chests and as it floated off with the tide I began the tiring process of dragging the heavy ass chest back to shore, and about 5 to 10 minutes later of fully abusing Witcher strength and not having to worry about breathing as much I was doing just that.

Ivar wasn't there but Dogmeat was stoically standing guard over my belongings which I just now realized that with Ivar gone I had left sitting there for any schmuck to be able to take. It's a good thing I had friends or else looting would be hard.

"Good girl. I'll give you a reward later, but in the meantime just keep doing what you are doing until Ivar comes back. Okay?" I said as I used the Xill Sign to transmit the message mentally as well.

'Guard smelly stuff!' was Dogmeat's reply. Heh, couldn't argue there, no such thing as laundromats here. Anyway, back to work.

Thirty minutes later, and I had finished dragging the third and last chest ashore. My chest pumped like a bellows as I struggled to catch my breath.

Having actually dragged the damned things up it finally occurred to me that since these were smuggled goods it likely meant I just messed up someone's criminal enterprise… shit. Maybe there was a way to find out?

I looked over the chests and quickly found an odd symbol. It looked like a demented smiling clown head which meant this was likely Junior's goods since his gang dressed up as clowns. If that was the case I had no issue stealing it for my own benefit.

If it belonged to Sigi or the other two I would have tossed them back in the river and hoped it didn't connect back to me.

The sound of wheels drew my attention back to the road to see Ivar on a cart being driven by our two horses.

"Markus! I paid about 50 crowns for this cart so I hope whatever you found was worth it."

"Well, let's see then." I said as I picked up a big rock and smashed it against the lock holding one chest closed, breaking it off in the process due to rust and my enhanced strength. At which point I opened up the chest and found myself grinning and Ivar gaping a bit at what was inside.

Funny how what was labeled 'junk' in game could still fetch a high price in the real world. Two ingots of silver, check. A full set of china dinnerware, check. Two pouches of florens and one of orens, check. Oh, and a box full of fisstech. Of course. The former was carefully repackaged and placed in the chest; the fisstech I pulled out, carried a respectable distance away, and incinerated with a blast of Igni while staying upwind from the fumes.

The other chests held similar valuable goods from gems, jewelry, some ingots of other metals I didn't recognize, some rare alchemical goods, coins of various types, some things nobles would love like silk, dinnerware, etc and of course more fisstech which I happily destroyed. All in all it was a good haul.

"I'd say it was worth it. Wouldn't you?" I couldn't help but smirk at Ivar. The academic could only nod dumbly in reply, still goggling at the treasure.

---

With our newly acquired wealth onboard our cart and the one it belonged to behind us we kept up our journey across the bridge, past the Seven Cats Inn whose namesakes hissed at me at we passed (I swear Witcherverse cats used the magic they passively took in to make themselves super cute to population in order to spread across the world unhindered), and crossed another bridge into the local countryside.

From there it was a mostly uneventful journey for most of the day as he traveled along the road besides the odd person or so we passed along the way. It was nearing dusk when we finally arrived at the village of Carsten, its windmill being the most eye-catching out of all the buildings there.

Seeing as it was still little less than half a day's journey to Oxenfurt we decided to spend the night in the village's small inn to rest up for the last leg of the trip tomorrow.

I might have been a little overly happy about our haul since in order to make locals feel at ease about the Witcher in their little village I bought an entire round for everyone who wanted it, quickly becoming everyone's best friend while I sat with Ivar sipping my cider.

I went to sleep that night feeling satisfied and pleased with myself.

---

Of course, that was when I was woken up to loud knocking on my door and me grunting in anger at my sleep being disturpted.

I swear if the Wild Hunt itself hadn't arrived I was gonna… do something.

"What do you want?" I asked in a snappy tone as I opened the door to a well dressed man with some receding hair and beard looked at me as if all his prayers had been answered.

"Oh thank the gods, the Eternal Fire, and whoever else was listening! I heard rumors a Witcher was in the village but you have no idea how glad I am that it's true! Master Witcher, I am in dire need of your services!" the man said in relief.

"Okay, first off my name is Markus. Second, who are you to wake me up so early in the morning. And third, what's the issue you are desperate for a Witcher to handle?" I grumbled.

"Ah, right. Introductions. I am Luc Vegelbud of the Vegelbub family who lives in the manor just a little bit aways from the Carsten. I'm actually a bit of a black sheep in the family due to my business of running local horse races, gods know Aunt Ingrid is an absolute bitch about it and I think her prayers to see me fail have finally been answered because just the other day one of my riders and their horse was attacked and dragged off by a monster! If it is not killed my patrons will lose faith in my business and I will go under! If Ingrid sees that she will have no trouble tossing me out without a coin to my name!" Luc explained a bit frantically.

"Hmm, you get a look at the beast when it attacked?" I asked curiously.

"We all did! It happened on the racing track right as the rider and his mount were about to cross the finish line! It was a gods be damned manticore!" Luc stated.

Oh, damn.

"And when you say manticore…" I asked hoping this was just a case of mistaken identity of another less terrible monster.

"Large as a full grown horse, bat wings twice as wide as it was long, goat horns sticking out of the head of a lion and a vicious scorpion's tail dripping with poison. I was near certain I would die from shock on the spot! Half flew half dragged its prey away into the nearby forest, no doubt feasting on both as we speak!"

Oh, Damnnnnnn…..