22. Twins.
"Did he find it?" Leto couldn't help but ask.
The apprentice didn't speak, but his footsteps followed Vesemir's indicated location, walking east along the riverbank. Obviously, he found something.
"I don't know," Vesemir raised the edge of his broad-brimmed hat, his gaze lingering on Allen.
"After all, it's common sense that water creatures live by the water. Even if you don't track the traces, following the direction of the river, you can definitely find these water creatures."
Leto chuckled, "Want to bet? I bet Allen found the trace..."
"No bet."
Vesemir rolled his eyes and quickly dispelled Leto's fantasy. The same mistake, how could the master witcher make it twice?
Elsa was still dangling behind Allen. Ignoring Leto's disappointed expression, Vesemir walked to Allen's side and asked: "How is it, did you find it?"
"It should be east along the riverbank."
Vesemir neither agreed nor disagreed, then asked, "How did you judge?"
Allen pondered for a moment. Seeing the apprentice's silence, Vesemir thought he had guessed it intuitively. Little did Vesemir know that there was so much valid information in Allen's field of view that he didn't know where to start.
As he approached the traces, the red light that formed the paw prints danced and turned into small red dots. These dots combined into a pair of red legs below the knees, with webbed feet.
A few seconds later, these legs moved. The red claws fell from mid-air and landed on the grass. Some of the dots were shaken off and scattered on the grass around the claws. The main part also, at the moment of landing, reassembled the paw prints as if ants returning to their nest. This operation was really a meal.
Allen bent over and pointed to the green grass with red dots, saying: "The drops on these grasses are all mucus from the water creatures."
After looking at it for a moment, Vesemir brushed the green grass with his right hand and sniffed it in front of his nose: "Yes, with the stench of mud, it's from the water creatures."
He brushed over a few more green grasses.
Vesemir stood up, looked at Allen with suspicion, and asked: "How did you see with your naked eye that this is mucus from a water creature?"
"I have a clue!" Allen's face showed the standard look of ignorance, "Just use your eyes to see, isn't it simple?"
"Can't Master Vesemir do it?"
Vesemir was stunned for a moment, then quickly shook his head and said, "Of course, I can track the traces of water creatures, but..."
"Never mind, you continue. This is just to confirm that the water creature passed through here. How did you determine its direction of departure?"
The way the master witcher changed the topic was still so awkward.
Allen certainly wouldn't let go, going downhill, confidently saying: "Knowing the distribution of this mucus gives you the answer."
He stood up, his fingertips simulating the fall of mucus, and said to the curious Vesemir and Leto: "The mucus falls on the grass in a splatter pattern due to speed."
"Because of the direction of the slope and the vegetation's cover, it's easy to determine."
"This water creature is heading east along the creek."
Vesemir pondered for a moment at his words.
Allen's judgment coincided with the answer in his mind. However, the apprentice's judgment method was different from his.
Vesemir was silent for a moment, sighed, and said, "Your judgment is correct, but now let me teach you another method. Listen carefully..."
Tracking, the most important part of the knowledge passed down by the Wolf School mentors to their apprentices. This is often the secret that every witcher keeps, their means of livelihood.
In the past, only after surviving the Trial of the Mountains would apprentices have the opportunity to learn this knowledge.
After the second spring equinox of the Trial of the Mountains, the School would assign apprentices to witchers descending from the mountains.
Within five years, these apprentices would travel the continent with the witchers until the witcher deemed the apprentice ready to "graduate," becoming a true witcher.
The witchers of the Wolf School jokingly refer to this as the Trial of Travel. The relationship between witcher mentors and apprentices gradually becomes closer during these travels, as skills and experiences are continuously imparted and shared in contracts that involve life and death.
Ultimately, a unique mentor-apprentice relationship is formed within the Wolf School. Leto was once Vesemir's traveling apprentice. Vesemir himself was once a chief traveling apprentice. Of course, most witcher mentor-apprentice relationships can be traced back to the chief.
"Vision, smell, hearing, touch... A witcher's senses are flawless," Vesemir walked to the grass analyzed by Allen, "For example, what caught my attention in this thicket wasn't vision, but smell."
"Smell?" Allen sniffed.
Despite the modification of his body with potions, the scent in his nasal cavity was only the freshness of grass and the faint stench of soil.
"Yes, when I walked into this area, my sense of smell alerted me that something was wrong here."
Vesemir turned his head slightly, noticing the increasing movement of the apprentice's nose, and a slight smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"It's not about inhaling more air, you need to learn to distinguish."
Vesemir stood up, pressing his index finger on the right side of the apprentice's nose and said, "Close your eyes, control the mutated organ here."
At Vesemir's words, Allen closed his eyes, but he couldn't feel any mutated organ where Vesemir was pointing.
"Discard human cognition, you are a witcher, you can control your body more than you imagine."
With Vesemir's index finger pressing, Allen seemed to really feel different.
His heart beat rapidly, and blood carried energy throughout his body.
"I feel it!" Allen exclaimed with surprise.
There were actually "doors" on both sides of his nose!
Unfortunately. Originally, these two doors were about to open, but because of Allen's emotional fluctuations, they hid again. But it's okay.
"Ding, discovered skill: [Tracking] a clue."
"Would you like to spend 1 small experience bead to unlock the skill?"
Allen: ?
Allen quickly opened the character panel,
"Tracking LV1" was still in the special skills column.
Two trackings?
Allen was somewhat surprised, but still spent a skill point to unlock it.
At this moment. Vesemir felt the mutated organ under his index finger, but due to emotional fluctuations, it hid again. He comforted, "No need to force it, it's normal not to open it the first time. Try again tomorrow, but remember, you can only try once a day."
This training was supposed to be conducted only after the Trial of the Mountains. Allen hadn't even completed the "main course" potion transformation yet, so perhaps the mutated organ on the side of his nose hadn't been properly adjusted.
"Master Vesemir."
With his eyes closed, Allen's call of just six words carried the joy of discovering a new continent.
"What's wrong?" Vesemir asked in confusion.
"I... I smell it!"
.....
📢10 advanced chapters on p@treaon📢
For advance chapters: [email protected]/Uchiha_Itachi007 (replace @ with a)
23. Will It Work?
24. The Nature of Sorceresses.
25. Mirage Pearl.
26. Prophecy.
27. Master Vesemir is Too Fast.