Chapter #49

The mages and the Witchers kept their eyes on Zeno since Vesemir had told them about the golden serpent which Vesemir corrects as Dragon with Visenna's statement.

Since the Wolf School doesn't kill Dragons unless it is necessary, they were not suspicious of him but, it is still unusual for a dragon to deliver a boy to them a golden dragon at that.

"His resistance to the herbs is monstrous! I would have dissected him just because of his contact with the golden dragon and with this. I must see how he ticks!" The mage rambled while watching Zeno spar with Remus.

Zeno was clearly dominating the fight but he kept stopping and correcting Remus' footwork and pointed out his mistakes with his words, sometimes with his sword.

Remus was clearly improving on the spot which didn't go unnoticed by others.

The opportunity to spar with Zeno was simply too valuable, the children even started to compete amongst each other to earn their turns.

"Shut yer trap! You are too late for your scientific curiosity. He already started his trials. You can dissect him if he ends up dying during the trials." Deglan yelled at the mage.

This mage was a new recruit amongst the mages in Kaer Morhen, due to his youth he was still having bouts of rashness.

"Calm down young Tomas. You should know that witchers of this school don't hunt dragons in return they don't harm the witchers." One of the elder mages calmed down the youth.

At least that's what they were trying on the surface, the rest of the mages could see that the young mage was not convinced and would do something reckless.

And that's exactly what they wanted...

________

During one night, Zeno felt like he shouldn't sneak out and train his signs. It was a gut feeling, something he started having since he got his hands on Karmic Virtue.

And he was glad to have listened to his gut and kept pretending to sleep because one of the mages sneaked inside the stables.

Zeno cracked his eyes a little to see who it was and immediately had an urge to sigh. This was the youngest of the mages and someone Zeno hated with passion but he remained unmoving.

Soon the mage came to his side and started making hand gestures and said some chants in Elder Speech before Zeno felt some kind of force entering his body.

Weirdly enough the force was immediately annihilated by his Karmic Virtue, erasing all traces.

Mage was clearly surprised by this outcome but kept on trying until he was out of breath.

"There's something in him that keeps blocking my spells. It must be something the dragon left in him. " Mage talked to himself out of excitement.

Zeno was honestly surprised no child woke up from his loud and annoying voice.

"Hmm... I think I can get through this protection if I synchronize myself with the boy, but that would mean I would be sharing his pain too." Mage kept talking while making more gestures.

Eventually he put one of his hands on Zeno's forehead before he dropped to the ground, started convulsing while foaming at the mouth.

Right after that the rest of the mages barged in the stables and checked on the young mage. It was then Zeno realized why no children woke up, the others were using the young one as bait.

"No magical damage of the sort. This idiot messed up the sync and took all the pain to himself." One of the mages tsked and poured some elixirs down the young mage's throat.

"No, he didn't mess up. The residual energy shows that he barely experienced a glimpse before he fell..." One of the elders concluded and went silent.

The rest knew what that meant, it meant that this child was suffering unimaginable pain but he still persevered, he was still capable of helping others with a smile on his face.

"What did that damn dragon do to this brat?" Even Deglan who was watching from the back was shocked.

Next to him Vesemir was looking at Zeno with a complex expression, no doubt remembering the pain he suffered during his own trials.

'Damn, this doesn't even come close to disintegrating yourself repeatedly for a week.' Zeno grumbled inwardly.

{The fact that you know how that feels is wrong!} Ouryuu retorted.

[Anyway, I finally finished analyzing the food they were giving us... Well not the magical parts of it but from what I got we can actually make some concoction that can halt ageing on normal people.] System declared at that moment ruining the somber mood.

'I can just infect my loved ones and they will stop aging too...' Zeno said in dissatisfaction.

{You can help other people too, you know, there must be many people that could use your help...} Ouryuu said.

'I miss the part where that's my problem.' Zeno said grumpily.

{*Le Gasp*}

[Calm down, he is just grumpy because he didn't get to play with his signs.] System calmed Ouryuu.

________

So the months passed as the remaining children learned the trade, there were certainly more children surviving up to this point due to Zeno's involvement.

The magicians stopped bothering Zeno after the small incident with the young mage who was still in coma.

He was actually brain dead, his brain got fried from overstimulation but the mages hoped to heal him with regenerative elixirs.

If organs like eyeballs can be regenerated the brain too could be healed but how much of the young man's memories might survive that was up to his luck.

Soon the first trial came to an end, the children's complexions had returned to normal showing they adapted to their new dietary changes.

"So it is time." Lambert said in a broody mood.

The trials had taken the rest of his childhood as the herbs stimulated their growth. The last time Zeno had seen him laugh out loud was the time Geralt and Eskel tied a bumble bee with a rope.

Lambert was laughing out loud as Vesemir beat the two for stealing his jug of beer to tie the bumblebee to it…

Zeno didn't know how a bumble bee was able to stay alive in this cold but he just said. "Magic bullshit I guess!"

"Yeah, it is the end of the first trial." Remus nodded in a somber tone.

Remus was a recent addition to their little gang, he flourished after he learned how to read and quickly caught up to them with a little push from Zeno.

"Next is the trial of the grasses. Normally it should have been ready already but the mages have been silent for a while." Eskel analyzed the situation.

Growing up here certainly had its perks, Eskel immediately knew there was something different than normal.

"Hn." Geralt just nodded, he was busy glaring at Vesemir who was jovially telling how he tanned their hides to other witchers.

It was the tenth time this week and the event happened two weeks ago...

"I had heard about something but don't know if it's true." Zeno said, gathering the gang's attention.

"I heard that some candidates would be asked to gather the ingredients for the mutagens themselves, those who could manage wouldn't have to fear dying during the second trial." Zeno explained.

It was something he read online many lives ago, he didn't know it was valid here since this world was a mix of everything he knew about Witcher series including the games and the shows etc.

Geralt who was a pretty normal looking boy was getting uglier by the day resembling more of his book self.

But his backstory is pretty much from the Netflix series. It was sensible to expect anything from this world at this point...

Soon Deglan arrived with a list on his hands, he kept stealing glances at their gang which made them all sweat cold.

"Zeno, please tell me you're joking." Lambert shook Zeno's sleeves in agitation.

Geralt and Remus were looking at Eskel who was holding his chin, seemingly lost in thought until his face darkened.

"Fuck..." Geralt cursed.

"Alright, gather around boys! I would like to inform you all that your first trial is finished. You will be given a week to recover and gather strength before going through with the second trial. Well at least you can start eating normal food now." Deglan said calmly.

The remaining children cheered, well at least they tried. Zeno was anxious that some of them might die from overwhelming emotions.

"However, there were some of you that showed exceptional results... For that we came to an agreement, those who would desire a little challenge will be given the opportunity to gather their own ingredients for the mutagens." Deglan continued.

The children were considering. They have trained for months and they were aware of their strength, if the ingredients were relatively easy to gather, some even thought about trying.

"The ingredients are as follows:

- Forktail spinal fluid.

- Mantacore poison gland.

- Albino bruxa tongue.

- Bryonia.

- Ribleaf.

- Mandrake root.

- Corn lily.

- Nightshade.

- Speargrass

- Wildrye.

- Wolfsbane.

- Albumen of gray scolopendromorphs.

Those who want to hunt for their ingredients may leave the keep at dawn." Deglan then nailed down the list of the ingredients on a board and left.

The children read the list and lost interest, meanwhile Zeno was considering it.

None of those monsters could kill him, at least that's what he could guess considering his Karmic Virtue would work against them.

"You're going to try?" Geralt asked, knowing his friend's death seeking tendencies.

"Well..." Zeno laughed nervously.

"We're coming too." Eskel suddenly came through dragging Lambert and Remus with him.

Hearing Eskel, Geralt nodded as well, showing his support.

"I suddenly don't want to try anymore..." Zeno deflated.

He can't have the main characters dead a century before the main story.

"Well sucks to be you, I guess we're one man down." Geralt smiled mockingly before going back to the stables.

He was no doubt going to pack his stuff. The monsters required for the mutagens could be found nearby, so they could walk.

The rest followed after him while sticking their tongues at Zeno who was looking at them with his mouth open.

"Those fucking idiots!" Seeing they're being serious Zeno chased after them and they left at dawn.

Only Zeno noticed Vesemir following them stealthily...