The Divine Hunter Chapter 17: The first generation of witchers

Through the fog.

Letho of the Viper School appeared in a small room in a dark castle. The four walls were messily displayed with empty boxes, blankets, pots, pans, and wooden barrels.

In the corner of the room, a thin boy wearing a gray linen coat like a prisoner stood with his back to him on the barrel, struggling to stand on tiptoes, grasping the iron grating beside the window above the wall, looking through the iron fence, staring greedily at the bright sky outside the window.

"What are you doing, boy!"

The low and hoarse voice startled the boy and he almost fell off the barrel.

The next second, his body tensed up like a stick, his palms pressed against his thighs, he lowered his head and stared at his toes, but then quickly raised his head to glance at the intruder, his eyes clever and cunning.

"Sorry! Teacher, I didn't mean to hide here...I know I was wrong, please forgive me once!"

"What teacher?"

The bald man slowed down his tone, an ugly smile appeared on his stiff poker face, and he spread his hands to show that he meant no harm. He looked like a bloated and naive grizzly bear.

The boy immediately held his chest and let out a long sigh of relief. He looked at the bald man like a grown-up, "You thief, bald weirdo, where did you come in? The utility room door was obviously locked. Could it be possible to get in through the crack in the window?"

"Name..." Leisuo emphasized.

"Humph! Ivar!"

唰

The big man's face suddenly changed drastically, his cheeks tightened, and his eyes widened like two amber lanterns, blooming with a terrifying light like knives, passing over the boy's long and thin face with a pointed chin.

It looks familiar.

I can vaguely see the outline of Ivar in my memory, but there is no pair of iconic evil eyes, replaced by popular brown eyes with single eyelids.

The boy was startled by him, retreated to the corner, crossed his hands in front of his chest in a defensive posture, and stared at the bald man,

"It's your turn! What's your name?"

"Leso...where is this place?"

The boy's expression became more and more surprised, "Lisberg Castle."

"How is it possible..."

The bald man muttered to himself and fell into deep thought. He returned to Lisberg hundreds of years ago and met the arrogant Grand Master Ivar in his childhood?

Am I daydreaming?

"Why don't you speak?"

"Ivar, how did you get here?"

“There are so many problems, like an old woman!”

The boy pursed his lips and hesitated for a moment,

"Grandpa Cosimo brought me back..."

His expression instantly became very complicated, grateful and fearful.

"What about before that?" The bald man looked at the boy with a gentle gaze.

"Bai is so big, but his brain is as stupid as a pig! Can't you see? I...I am just a war orphan. I have been wandering for a long time. I was caught and tortured by human traffickers and almost died. Fortunately, my grandfather was in time. Saved me."

When he mentioned human traffickers, he gritted his teeth, like a hungry wolf cub, with hatred gleaming in his eyes!

"Are you still used to living here??"

“I had food and drink, but the teachers forced me to drink a bunch of colorful and messy herbs all day long. There are also injections, examinations, physical exercises, and punishments for disobedience."

"Grandpa Cosimo, Uncle Arzu always told us about plasticity." He cleared his throat, put one hand across his belly, and imitated clumsily and comically, "Time will take a price, and the old clay will get better and better." It gets harder and harder, and adults cannot transform it, but can only collapse into slag. Only young lives have 'plasticity'

"If I hadn't been able to eat as much as I wanted, I would have escaped long ago!"

Risberg, Plasticity, Ivar.

Leso felt certain.

The place where he is now is the legendary Lisberg Castle.

He is witnessing the birth of the first batch of witchers!

"Are there any other children besides you?"

A warm smile flashed across Ivar's face,

"There are thirty-seven more... Madok... Jagoda... Elan... Missy... Aiga... Fular... Anahad... Some are orphans, and some were sold to teachers by their parents. Is it my turn to ask questions now?"

……

The fog came in like a tide, interrupting the rest of the conversation.

……

Another dark secret room.

Vesemir fell into the same strange situation as Letho.

"You said your name is Aiga?"

He looked at the boy on the wooden bed who had a pale face, a small nose and small eyes, and was in a state of fever, with an expression of disbelief.

There is a vague feeling of the great master of the Wolf Sect between this guy's eyebrows.

"What do you mean, do you know other Aiga?" The boy looked at the other person's strange face in surprise. He was old, but without a single hair, beard or eyebrow, and there was a hint of strange kindness.

Vesemir was slightly absent-minded. He could not find Grandmaster Aiga in the fog, but he saw his childhood.

The gentle palm caressed the boy's little head.

Just like Aiga did to him once.

"Aiga, where are your parents?"

"I, I am an orphan... wandering near Sidaris, and then Uncle Arzu brought me home."

"Do you like life here?"

He nodded vigorously, a touch of excitement appeared on his simple face,

"There are many brothers and sisters, and they have enough to eat. No one fights for a meal. Everyone has several new sets of clothes... After drinking medicine, checking and training every day, everyone can play together, Hide-and-seek, drawing... are much more interesting than the wandering days before!"

Aijia's sickly red cheeks showed a sense of sincere joy, but the back of his left hand resting outside the quilt was covered with shocking pinholes and bruises.

Vesemir shook his head.

Poor child, is this enough?

If you go to Gawain's house, wouldn't you faint with happiness?

"Isn't it painful to drink the medicine?" Vesemir looked at the scars on his body and sighed, "Can you bear it?"

"But I am also very happy! We will never be bored when we gather in the same room... Experimentation is just a little sacrifice and price, I have no problem at all!"

"I am very grateful to Grandpa and everyone. If possible, I want to stay in the castle. I want to be with everyone forever!"

……

"Your **** name is Anahad?!"

The cat vulture raised its eyes on the bridge of its nose, and its gray-green pupils looked at the tall boy in front of him who was about ten years old, seemed to be a bit precocious, and had broad shoulders.

Under the clean shaven head, the green face had round eyes. When his eyes widened, the whole room was illuminated by the light of sincerity and happiness in his eyes.

He also has thick eyebrows, a round nose, medium-thick lips, and a side face with a little baby fat.

Even if he doesn't smile, he still makes people feel happy and happy.

When he grinned and exposed his baby teeth, his enthusiasm and frankness made the cat vulture unable to help but want to follow the slight curve of his mouth.

What a cute little boy.

"Have I offended you in any way?"

Anahad was still mechanically lifting the dumbbell with his left hand, keeping his habitual bright smile on his face, looking at this weirdo who entered the castle training room from nowhere and called himself the Cat Vulture in surprise.

"No, you haven't offended me yet... I just didn't expect that the legendary cold-blooded and ruthless Grand Master of the Bear Faction would look like this when he was a child." Cat Vulture's pupils contracted and he sighed, "It's completely beyond me. Unexpected, how should we compete with each other on horseback? Use the big one to bully the small one?"

"Cold-blooded? Are you talking about me?"

Anahad suddenly turned pale, revealing a vivid look of guilt, which made people feel inexplicably distressed.

"No, no, I recognized the wrong person." Cat Vulture shook his head.

"Maybe you are right... I took the initiative to leave my parents who loved me and my dear brothers and sisters. I am a ruthless and unjust person."

"What does it mean to leave voluntarily?" Cat Vulture asked,

“This year’s harvest is too bad. No crops have been harvested. It’s almost impossible to open the pot at home, and the weather is extremely cold... If this continues, the five younger brothers and sisters will not be able to survive.” Perhaps Anahad is a person who usually lacks communication. Covering his face with his hands, he said what was in his heart in one breath, "I can't help it, someone has to make a sacrifice."

"I am the elder brother, the oldest child in the family."

"So, I sold myself to Grandpa Cosimo to leave the last money for the family. It was enough to survive several famine years and severe winters."

"Sell yourself, you are such a little genius!"

"Actually, it's not that bad here..." A cheerful smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, "Following grandpa to Lisberg is at least better than being sold to Skellige. Maybe in a few years, when the teachers finish the experiments, I can still go back and see my brothers and sisters."

"Little bastard, don't you understand what a cruel fate you will face?"

The cat vulture shook his head, suddenly stepped forward and pinched Anahad's neck hard, lifted his feet off the ground and kicked him, like a fish that was about to suffocate.

The eyes of the cat vulture are uncertain and filled with murderous intent...

If Anahad's life ended now.

Will this guy appear again in the future?

Obviously, before the mutation, he was still affectionate and kind, but he drank the coldest decoction.

Killing him would free him to some extent, right?

……

The bright light of the magic lamp illuminated the narrow desk in the corner of the room.

A boy of about ten years old was holding a small leather book and confronting a man opposite.

He is wearing a black cloak and is tall. Half of his face is hidden in the shadows, and the other half of his face reveals eyes with three-color pupils.

"This is Lisberg? So you are Elan?" Cohen stared at the lifelike goshawk tattoo on the side of the boy's face, and goosebumps appeared on his skin.

"Are you a new teacher? Why have I never seen you before!"

Elan held the "Knight's Guide to Virtue" in front of his chest, his eyes alert,

Gu/spanI am your future disciple.

Cohen murmured in his mind, then endured the excitement of seeing the young version of his idol and showed a sunny smile,

"My name is Cohen. Ellan, can you tell me why you are here?"

"Don't try to trick me, why should I tell you?!"

Elan spat on the ground with a stubborn expression and shook his head in disdain.

"Don't be nervous, I just want to chat with you. You answer first, and in exchange I will do you a favor later. You see, I am an adult."

The sincerity in Cohen's words moved him.

"Keep your word! Otherwise, I will sneak attack you to death every day without sleeping!"

Ellan mumbled, seeming to recall a painful memory, and a trace of struggle appeared on his face with a straight nose and sunken eyes full of exotic style.

"What else?! My mother, a pirate of Skellige, who was rougher, hot-tempered, and more powerful than most men, took me on a ship and raised me until I was ten, waiting for me to inherit her temper. , but she got tired of me, couldn't stand me, and regarded me as a burden that was free to eat and drink... Arzu happened to be passing by and offered a high price, which was what she wanted!"

Elan looked at the incredulous Cohen, with a hint of mean pleasure on his face,

"Yes...my mother sold me."

"That hypocritical Arzu brought me into the castle, threw me this shabby book, and asked me to study it all day, talking about self-cultivation, and even smiled at me hypocritically, saying that I was very similar to him. '! But I know that he is secretly planning something evil, and he is using poison to harm me!"

Is this really the founder of gryphons with a decent style and chivalrous virtues in the future, Elan?

The corners of Cohen's mouth twitched.

Isn’t this just an irritable boy who has entered puberty early?

The only exception is the chaotic energy that pervades his body. He is a source of magic!

"Elan, how do you get along with the other children?"

"Except for Jagoda of Aden, the other brats are just a bunch of unweaned children, fools who don't understand anything. They are fed a lot of poison every day and are treated as pathetic experimental subjects, but they are... The mage burst into tears of gratitude!"

"You want to ask me how I get along with them? This castle is like a dim chicken coop. They are the noisy and annoying group of roosters, hens, and chickens!"

Cohen was silent.

Although Elan spoke rudely, his words were not harsh. The medicines tested by Green Grass were no different from poisons. Especially since they, as the first batch of experimenters, used imperfect decoctions and endured the greatest risk of death.

"Who is Jagoda?"

"A girl who has the same problem as me, the best person in the world, treats me better than my heartless mother! When I leave this prison, I will marry her!"

Elan said with a serious face, as if it was a matter of course.

"A girl from Jagoda is also participating in the experiment? Drinking medicine and checking her body every day?"

Cohen remembers that there were no girls among the first batch of witchers.

Until the later Cat Pie.

After hearing this, Elan took a deep breath and bit his nails nervously, with a trace of worry on his face.

"Yes! Twelve girls reacted much more violently than twenty-six boys. The poison is more harmful to them!"

"The pain they endure is worse than giving birth!"

Elan paused and looked directly at Cohen,

"It's your turn to redeem your promise. No matter what, let Jagoda take a break. Don't let the mage fill her with medicine in the past two days. I beg you!"

"I try my best!"

Cohen’s words were drowned in the fog.

However, the scenes in the fog appear irregularly and with great leaps.

This is destined to be a promise that cannot be fulfilled.

……

Hazy drizzle enveloped the fortress between the cliffs.

Several magic crystal chandeliers on the ceiling sway with light, illuminating the laboratory on the top floor of the castle.

Arzu and Cosimo stood side by side in front of the window sill, scanning the cemetery on the side of the mountain below. Among the dense tombs, there was a new tomb

A hunchbacked man is slowly burying a small, breathless body with a shovel.

Her eyes were rounded, her facial features were distorted, and her face maintained a frightened expression. It was obvious that she had suffered a lot before her death.

Arzu took a deep breath, lightly scratched his fingernails on the sheepskin manual, and Jagoda's name was cut in half.

Ten more cracked names can be seen next to this page.

"Do you regret it, Arzu?"

Cosimo looked at his disciple kindly.

"There is no regret at all. To eradicate the monsters in the world and save all compatriots, sacrifices and prices must be paid! This is also their trial. Their previous lives were miserable and pitiful, and they were like ants who were ignored by everyone. Ignoring it is insignificant. But as long as they get through it, they will transform, possess superhuman strength, and better survive in this dark world."

He put away the roster, and an old lily badge appeared in his palm. His fingers slowly moved and rubbed, "I have a hunch that there will definitely be a winner in this mutation transformation!"

After firm words.

Screams came and went.

More than twenty operating tables were filled with "trial subjects," all children under ten years old, with leather straps binding their limbs. Coughing, wheezing, shaking and sobbing.

People wearing surgical aprons and beak masks shuttled back and forth in front of the operating table, carrying bottles of boiled medicine and pouring them into the mouths of the testers.

The fingers flashed with colorful magical light, passing over the body of the experimental subject and recording data.

……

Roy stood at the entrance of the laboratory, his figure buried in the fog.

During this time, he witnessed a series of cruel experiments conducted by the mages in Lisberg.

Compared to the Trial of Green Grass in Gawain's House, the level of bloodshed and pain here is ten times higher.

A variety of horrifying drugs with uncertain risks were poured into the bodies of the test subjects.

Sadly, he was unable to intervene and after multiple attempts he determined that whatever effort had been made in the previous scene.

It is difficult to have the slightest impact on the next scene.

He became a complete bystander hiding in the dark.

His eyes were filled with compassion and empathy as he passed over the operating tables one after another.

A group of immature trialists were either struggling and wailing, or shouting in terror, or convulsing like an epileptic fit, vomiting blood and foam at the mouth, or crying in silence.

Among the group of mages, in addition to Arzu and Cosimo, he also saw the familiar Ortolan.

"Grandpa Cosimo! Uncle Arzu, I'm in so much pain, I'm going to die! Help me! Help!"

Ivar wailed desperately, and suddenly roared fiercely,

"I haven't killed all the **** human traffickers in the world, I haven't ended all the wars yet, I don't want to die!"

"My Jagoda, give her back to me! You beasts, devils!"

The tears and snot on Elan's face covered the tattoo on his side, and he glanced at a group of experimenters with splitting eyes, blazing anger in his eyes!

"Woooo..." Aijia on the operating table swayed like a fish jumping on the shore, turning his head constantly to look at his companion who was tortured to the point of death,

"Hang on, brothers!"

Even though he was in so much pain, he still weakly cheered for everyone, "Stay alive! No one should be left behind!"

Anahad straightened his body, his eyelids twitched, his temples stung like needles, his eyes were crooked in pain, his mouth was slanted, and he was sweating profusely. It was like there was a knife cutting his flesh one by one!

The scene of the family members saying goodbye appeared in front of them.

"Father, mother, Frazier, Kadur, wait for me, wait for me to come back!"

Roy sighed and turned his eyes to the shadows on the other side of the door.

He always felt that there was someone there.

But he can't see...

At the same time,

Leso, Vesemir, Cohen, and Cat Vulture, who were hiding in the mist of the same door, all looked at each other's positions.

Even though they were both at the entrance of the laboratory, they couldn't see a hair on each other's face.

It seems that there is a mysterious barrier, and it seems that they are not in the same world.

……

The mist changes and squirms.

Time flies by in a blink of an eye.

In the brightly lit laboratory, the scene of the first grass trial in history moved forward quickly

Every time the witchers blink, several days of trials pass.

The experimenter wearing a beak mask kept administering drugs, examining, and moving the corpses.

There are more and more tombs under the castle, and the number of children on the operating table is decreasing day by day.

On the thirtieth day, all the girls in the trial died, leaving only twenty boys. Sometimes they claw at their clothes manically and yell, sometimes they are eerily quiet.

On the fiftieth day, five more boys left, and the remaining fifteen boys fell into a deep coma without exception. He rarely wakes up and starts vomiting until only bile is left in the vomit.

On the seventieth day, there were ten children left, suffering from epileptic seizures, bleeding from seven holes, and dull eyes.

Over the next two weeks, five more names were crossed off Arzu's roll call, but his remaining symptoms gradually stabilized.

Breathing steadily, face rosy.

Ninety days later.

The only five boys left among the original thirty-eight children woke up from the nightmare trial covered in sweat, and they opened their numb eyes.

The pupils are colorful, vertical and sharp, shaped like wild beasts.

The five first-generation demon hunters were born under the witness of their descendants in the mist

They are called Madok, Elam, Aiga, Ivar, Anahad...