Chapter 2

As I walked into the inn fully suited up and a towel still wrapped around my head I couldn't help but note how similar the basic setup looked to inns in games. The inn being the largest building in town but still catering to mostly locals and the odd traveler. Various people sitting around drinking, eating, talking, and in general living their lives.

Till they saw me of course.

Everything seemed to quiet down a bit as people noticed my armed and armored form, talking dying down to nearly nothing.

Here comes the glares, passive aggression, and outright hostilities from local peasants against the child stealing Witcher. I braced myself when I saw one larger man stand up from his seat and-

"The Witcher lives! He who slayed the foul beast! To the Witcher!" the man yelled with cheer while lifting his mug into the air.

"THE WITCHER!" the whole inn seemed to explode and suddenly everything became much more lively.

… What is with this village?

Deciding to ignore my breaking immersion I stepped around the now partying peasants as they threw thanks my way, patted my back, and in general praised me for my deeds. I felt decidedly uncomfortable since I wasn't a people person back home and for the fact that Markus technically died killing cyclops while I was here taking credit for it.

Made me feel like a bit of an ass.

I stepped up to the likely innkeeper, a chunkier looking man with a smile on his face, who stood behind a counter he likely served food and drinks from.

"Markus, glad to see you among the land of the living! What can I get you? It's on the house!" he asked me.

"I'm sorry, but do I know you? And before you ask I think that hit that nearly killed me gave me amnesia so I don't recall anything before today." I explained.

"What? Really? Guess that crone Helga can't fix that. Name's Peter, we weren't close or nothing, but we did talk a lot about cyclops before you went off to kill it. Even played some dice, though you were certainly a terrible player!" Peter laughed.

"Well I have no idea how to play anymore so I will have to decline any other attempts to steal my bizants." I said good naturedly.

"Another time then, I figure you are here about your horse? We took care of him right we did, my son kept him well fed and everything."

"Yes, thanks for taking care of him for so long and I promise to pay stable fees. Weird question, but did I say if my horse had a name or not?"

"Don't worry about it, ealdorman took care of fees. As for a name… I have no clue. If you told anyone it was likely my boy. You can ask him out in stables."

"I will… if that offer of a free meal is still open I could use some actual food after my long nap."

"But of course! Just got some freshly caught salmon and baked bread along with some greens. And you can't leave without trying some of Gramsby's famous cider and honey cakes!"

I nodded back excited… and more than a little glad that my new Witcher body means I don't have to worry about the non-existent health regulations of this medieval era. Last thing I wanted was to die of dysentery or something equally awful.

---

The food, while simple, was surprisingly quite good. I think I watched a youtube video once that described what medieval peasants ate and it wasn't so bad. I preferred fish to venison anyhow.

I walked out of inn licking my fingers and walked over to the side where the modest stables were. Most of the stalls were empty, but I did spot three horses happily munching away on some hay…

And I had no idea which one was mine. Perfect.

I looked around a spotted a young pre-teen boy that must have been the innkeeper's son currently shoveling shit out of one of the empty stalls. I was sure he wouldn't mind being taken away from that for a couple minutes.

"Hey kid, sorry to interrupt but I wanted to check out my horse." I called out to him and he looked up at me. He clearly recognized me and quickly put down his shovel to approach me.

"Master Witcher! Glad to see you are awake. I have been caring for Griffin real hard and I'm sure he will be glad to see you!"

I couldn't help but restrain my face palm at that. Markus named his horse Griffin. I had no words to that.

The boy, not noticing my mental sighing, lead me off to the horse stalled on the far right who didn't look up at all from hay he was eating.

I didn't know anything about horses other than the fact that Griffin looked in good health and had a nice golden coat… which made me the "Golden Griffin" who rode a golden Griffin.

… Well at least Geralt doesn't have to worry about being the Witcher with the dumbest title anymore.

"Heya Griffin, you miss me?" I asked the horse.

Griffin simply turned his head to stare at me for a second before going right back to eating his hay. Well then, seems like I have a cat in horse form.

Oh man, I just realized as a Witcher cats hate me now. But I love cats! Animals in general but still, not to mention most animals in the wild won't like me soon.

… Maybe I can get a dog and train it to be nice companion, though I would keep him far from any fighting because I would love him to bits just like Dogmeat.

"You want me to saddle him up, Master Witcher? Are you heading out now that the monster is dead and you are healed up?" the kid asked me.

"Not quite yet, gonna spend some time here before I head off. Just wanted to check on horse before I did anything else. Keep up the good work kid." I complemented and handed him a single bizant.

From the way his eyes lit up from just a single coin I figured I made that kid's day.

Now I had a few errands to run and then some thinking to do.

---

As I sat on the bed in my rented inn room I finally let myself relax more and really dive into my thoughts about the situation I now found myself in after my earlier freakout of truly out of my system.

First off I was quickly getting used to new super senses and hopefully would no longer need the towel around my head in a few more days. Though I would have to be careful dealing with major sensory input in the future. Last thing I wanted was passing out due to terrible smell of a monster shit pile or a corpse, not even going into what I will have to deal with mentally when I come across a dead body of a person or even kill someone.

Let future Markus, deal with that.

Second was going over today's various purchases around the village to stock up for whatever life I choose ahead of me. Mainly stopping by the local blacksmith for oils and such to maintain my swords along with purchasing an armored cap to protect my head. I realized that Witchers actually had a good reason not to go with full helmets since it would restrict their various super senses they could use to tell when threat was coming and avoid it, but the cap wouldn't cover my ears, eyes, or nose. Besides, if I did have to tank hits I trust the Quen sign more since I made sure to get the level three version of it.

Sadly he didn't have any crossbows in stock and didn't know how to make them, will need to buy one later.

I also stopped by Helga again to buy some herbs and other ingredients, and Peter to get some food supplies that will last longer on the road and various alcohols to act as alchemical bases. I made sure to make more than a few enhanced potions thanks to my level 3 in it, but sadly since I didn't choose any Dark Alchemy levels I could only make basic oils and bombs. I also bought a few more general supplies, but Markus was pretty stocked up beforehand so there was little work to be done. All in all, when I did hit the road I felt comfortable that I had a reasonably good stock of resources for a variety of situations.

Finally came the big question, what the heck did I do now?

I had no illusions about the setting of Witcher I found myself in. The world was a shitpile on a good day with all the conflict, political maneuverings, casual racism, terrible monsters and magic, Wild Hunt, the world-ending White Frost, and likely a bunch of other things I'm missing since for all that I was a fan of the series I did not know all the lore.

What I wouldn't give for the wiki database to be in my head right now.

On the plus side I was a Witcher who had the instinctive basic training Markus had along with the purchases from CYOA. While I didn't excel in anything besides Signs and some alchemy I still knew how to track, fight, how to harvest parts from monsters, and other important Witcher things. I had to focus on finding it in my mind but I figure in time, with training and experience, it could become instinct.

And I would need to use said skills to survive in this world and make a living since unlike others I was no Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I had no knowledge to reproduce anything from my own world beyond basic concepts and I doubted anyone besides maybe gnomes could figure something out from them. Even if I did, I wouldn't feel comfortable introducing some things like guns or anything. I also had no interest in being a farmer or anything like that since I'll be honest, it sounded dull as hell.

At least fighting monsters will be a good use of time and a way to live now that I no longer have internet… just admitting that hurt my insides a little bit.

I guess if I was really desperate I could put myself in front of the canon train for hope of getting Ciri to transport me to a more modern world if not my own, pretty sure it was hinted she went to the Cyberpunk 2077 world while hiding from the Wild Hunt.

On the plus side of all this is that I was in Kovir and Poviss, a northern kingdom which to my knowledge was quite stable during the whole course of the games. It was a rich country too due to being the main supply of tons of metal and other resources. Heck, it was where Triss and other mages ran to when they were being hunted down by zealots. It might also respect Witcher more than most kingdoms since Griffin School earned its name hunting down local griffins that made life hell for locals centuries ago.

I could take my time learning the ropes here on my own and avoid all the craziness that was further down south till at least till Ciri returned to world.

Of course, trial and error learning on my own was kinda a scary thought and if I was being honest, for all that canon is super scary at least it was familiar. I didn't know dick about Kovir and Poviss beyond short lore post from games after all. For all I knew there was a super secret doomsday cult or something up here running the whole kingdom with an irrational hatred of Witchers, I know local mages did at least since they dropped an avalanche on the Griffin School's keep.

Uggh, why can't deciding be easy?!

I needed to sleep on this, maybe spend a few more days in Gramsby doing odd jobs to figure myself out some more. All I knew was that right now I couldn't think straight and maybe by morning all this would have been a dream anyway.

I can hope at least.

---

No such luck.

Also, I discovered that notice boards are apparently the anonymous sex chatrooms of villages. That was a fun discovery.