59. The Last Witcher (Please Follow for Updates)

Striking so fast?

Before Reno could even utter a word, Anabiki Hikuma abruptly fired a crossbow bolt straight at him.

Relying entirely on instinct, Reno caught the bolt just as the tip was about to pierce his flesh, and then feigned being hit—falling to the ground... Ah, rather, dropping flat to play dead.

In the dim, gloomy room, a pungent and suffocating stench billowed heavily. Three guards were dead, Reno was playing dead, and the entire atmosphere became intensely oppressive.

"...Scared the hell out of me." Anabiki Hikuma lowered his hand crossbow. "Tom, hurry it up."

"You don't need to tell me." Standing in front of a table filled with glassware containing green pus, Tom Page said, "There are way too many [The White Honey Decoct / Witcher's Grass Decoctions]; we can't possibly take them all."

"Just pack as many as you can. We only have six inventory slots between the two of us, so snagging ten bottles should be about right."

"Whatever... Consider it a job well done for Adam anyway."

"Hurry up, I'm afraid more guards might stumble in!"

"Stop rushing me!"

The two quickly packed the potions. Tom Page muttered, "The toxicity of the [White Honey Decoct / Witcher's Grass Decoction] is genuinely insane. Look, the system prompt says no antidote can neutralize its poison; even if Adam gets his hands on it, he can't possibly drink this stuff."

Anabiki Hikuma replied, "We'll finish the errand he gave us, collect our gold coins and equipment, and what does the rest have to do with you and me?"

The pair quickly finished packing.

Stepping past Reno, they exited the room.

As he opened the door, Anabiki Hikuma asked, "What about the guards outside?"

"Kill the ones on the second underground level... Just don't alert the upper floors. Then the two of us will slip away under the cover of night. I'm bidding farewell to the damn Eternal Fire—this place doesn't even have any side quests." Tom Page walked out and used his hand crossbow to shoot the remaining three guards on the second underground level.

Blood completely soaked the area outside the cells.

"Watching people bleed actually makes me feel a bit excited now." Tom Page gave a self-deprecating laugh, but his expression suddenly froze. "Hey... go back."

"Brother, are you out of your mind?" Anabiki Hikuma asked.

"The last guard you shot in that room just now—he wasn't bleeding!"

When the two shoved the door open again.

They saw Reno standing before the potion table, chugging down the [White Honey Decoct / Witcher's Grass Decoction] bottle after bottle...

To become a witcher, one must pass the Witcher Trials.

The first stage is "Selection."

Enduring arduous training and strict dieting accelerates muscle growth and digestion, elevating the body's overall physical condition.

In the end, young witcher apprentices grow powerful muscle tissue comparable to that of a fully-grown adult.

The second stage is the "Trial of the Grasses."

This is the process where young witcher apprentices consume a specialized alchemical decoction known as "Grasses," triggering profound physiological and bodily transformations.

The "Grasses" affect the nervous system, requiring magic to strictly control the entire process.

The trials produce lightning-fast reflexes, speeds that ordinary people simply cannot match.

Seventy percent of initiates fail to survive—and that is within a controlled magical environment. Consequently, in the Eternal Fire's experiments, the lack of magical assistance likely caused the overall survival rate to plummet to less than ten percent.

All of the above information had already been organized in Reno's mind before he arrived here.

The danger of the [White Honey Decoct / Witcher's Grass Decoction] was too overwhelming even for players to bear.

Just as its system description stated:

[Name: White Honey Decoct / Witcher's Grass Decoction]

[Type: Item]

[Effect: Highly toxic potion. After consumption, health will drop by 5% per second. There is no antidote. After two hours, the toxicity will clear to zero, and the body will undergo genetic mutation.]

[Description: You drink it knowing full well it's poisonous. Are you an idiot?]

Players needed to endure for two hours, but their health bar would be completely drained in a mere 20 seconds.

Under such circumstances, unless you possessed several sacks of healing potions, the success rate could be considered virtually zero.

This also relied on another prerequisite: the speed at which healing potions replenished health had to exceed the rate at which the [White Honey Decoct / Witcher's Grass Decoction] drained it.

Therefore, theoretically, unless you possessed some kind of causal-effect miracle drug, or had someone constantly casting healing skills on you by your side while you persisted for two hours, players had no way to survive the toxicity duration of the [Witcher's Grass Potion].

Unless.

You possessed some special, unique capability buff.

The foul stench flooded his taste buds. After forcing it down with great difficulty, Reno sat on the potion table and pulled out a health potion from his backpack.

At that moment, Anabiki Hikuma and Tom Page, who had just stepped back in, stared at him in utter bewilderment.

"I'm guessing he's the infiltrating player," Anabiki Hikuma said.

"Oh, my God..." Tom Page raised his hand crossbow, aiming it straight at Reno. Cold sweat beaded on his temple as he squinted and muttered, "Directly chugging the [Witcher's Grass Potion] raw? This fucking guy is mentally retarded."

"Wait, wait, wait..." Reno casually tossed the empty bottle onto the floor. A stabbing agony now surged through every single inch of his muscle tissue, feeling as though countless insects were burrowing through and gnawing on his flesh and blood. Gritting his teeth, he managed to say, "Can we... pretend you guys never saw me, and I never saw you?"

"Sorry, I just saw gold coins." Tom Page switched to a piercing crossbow bolt.

"You really do have polite manners..." Reno sweated profusely from the pain, chanting silently in his heart: *35%...*

When it reached 75%, a beam of white light erupted from his body, immediately followed by the emergence of glowing red speckles.

The effects of the [Red Tearstone Ring] and [Critical Health Attack UP] activated simultaneously. Without missing a beat, Reno immediately triggered [Inner Potential], and bloody filth instantly burst forth from his pores.

At that exact moment, Tom Page pulled the trigger. The crossbow bolt tore away from the string, leaving a silver afterimage in the dim room as it slammed straight into Reno.

This scenario had been fully accounted for in Reno's calculations. One of the traits of [Kenny's Orange Jacket], which blocks a fatal blow, activated.

With the very last shred of his remaining strength, he jammed the needle of the health potion directly into his body.

All conditions were now fully met.

[Desperate Survivor] activated.

The agonizing pain in his body vanished in an instant, and the poison status that should have been present on his status panel was now completely cleansed.

However, one of the effects of [Desperate Survivor] is the complete removal of all abnormal statuses.

Therefore, the Witcher's Grass Decoction was of little consequence to Reno.

The health potion had already been injected into his body. [Desperate Survivor] deactivated instantly, and he simultaneously cancelled [Inner Potential].

From the moment the opponent's crossbow bolt struck him to the moment he deactivated [Inner Potential], a mere 2 seconds had actually passed.

"Hey... you stole my kill again," Anabiki Hikuma complained with dissatisfaction.

"I'll leave the next one to you." Tom Page swapped in a fresh crossbow bolt. Only he knew that the target was still not dead... Was it a passive skill like [Hardheaded] that blocked fatal damage?

He stepped forward, slowly raising his crossbow.

"Don't you dare play dead, you bastard..."

The very instant Tom Page's index finger pressed down hard on the trigger, a phantom figure flashed swiftly across his vision.

His crossbow was struck by a black iron rod, sending the bolt careening wildly into the ceiling. Amidst the sound of shattering stone slabs, he saw a pair of blazing amber pupils glaring at him at point-blank range.

...

[Genetic mutation 100% assimilated.]

[You have inherited the hallmark of a witcher.]

[All attributes +10.]

[The attribute enhancement cap upon leveling up has increased from "3" to "6".]

To Reno's left was the popped-up system panel, and directly ahead of him was Tom Page with a rigid, frozen expression.

Nothing else about him had changed, save for his pupils, which had transformed into serpentine, amber eyes.

...

Cintra.

Chaibai held the "Witcher Documentation" given to her by Reno, walking down an unfamiliar street.

Not far from her, someone in front of a tavern was recounting a tale about the "Witchers."

She heard someone ask, "So where are the witchers now?"

The storyteller replied with a hint of regret, "Centuries ago, witchers already went extinct. Because we have guns and bullets now; we don't need them anymore."

Chaibai lowered her head. "Extinct... Reno, your documents... seem to have a problem. Time has changed a lot of things."

As yet, no one knew that in the distant homeland of the Wolf School of Witchers, Kaer Morhen.

A century later, the very last witcher had been born.