The Witcher: Darkness Falls

After the long journey and the late night talk with the Count, Leon was so sleepy that he slept until noon.

After dinner, he planned to leave the castle to find his dwarf friend.

However, before he could leave the castle, he was stopped by Stregobor.

Then he followed Stregobor into a small room in the castle.

A servant brought wine and poured it for them.

"Sicori is dead, right?" Stregobor asked directly.

"Yes, I killed him. Do you want to avenge him?" Leon said bluntly and became alert at the same time.

However, Stregobor shook his head and said, "No, he should have died long ago. Why should I avenge him?"

Leon still did not let down his guard. He took a sip of wine and asked, "What is your purpose? Are you just asking casually?"

Stregobor shook his head and said, "Of course I have my own purpose, but before I tell you, please allow me to ask how he died?

He's a great killer, you shouldn't be able to kill him."

Lyon did not hide anything and gave a brief account of the situation at that time.

Stregobor was delighted when he heard this and said, "He actually succeeded! Haha, the mutagen is the witcher's top-secret formula. I went to Kaer Morhen, but Geralt didn't give it to me."

Lyon looked at Stregobor and lowered his guard.

"Hehe, but from your description, the mutant potion he experimented with conflicts with the one prepared by the wizards of Styga." Stregobor said, "Otherwise, there wouldn't be such a serious rejection reaction."

"Styga? Where is this?" Leon asked. He had never heard of this place.

Stregobor recalled: "That is the real birthplace of the School of Cats, in the province of Ebbing. Do you know the origin of the School of Cats?"

"No, I know only a little." Leon shook his head slightly.

He knew a little about the history of the Witcher Cat School, but not much.

At least he had never heard of the place called Styga, nor had he seen it in Sikori's notes.

"Well, let me give you a brief introduction." Stregobor thought for a moment and sorted out his thoughts in his mind.

"The origin of the demon hunters can be traced back to more than 500 years ago. In the 1050s of the Resurrection Era, the first demon hunters were created in Lisberg, Temeria.

At that time, the demon hunters had not yet been divided into factions, there was only a demon hunter cult led by two talented wizards.

They are Cosimo and Alzu. Cosimo is Alzu's teacher. Both are high-level wizards, and they are both masters in the field of genetics.

Under their leadership, there is also the Brotherhood of Wizards, a wizarding organization from the past. With their funding, the witcher mutation potion has matured, and the witcher cult has grown rapidly as a result.

Fifty years after that, due to the large number of monsters on the continent, the Demon Hunter Cult flourished for half a century.

Demon hunters hunt monsters to earn commissions, and the rewards are generous, so there are more and more demon hunters.

However, monsters are limited. As the monsters in human settlements have been almost wiped out, the number of missions that demon hunters can receive is decreasing, and the commissions are also decreasing.

There are too many wolves and too little meat. The glory of the demon hunters is gone. They can't even survive by just earning commissions from hunting monsters.

To make matters worse, Cosimo and Arzuei also shifted their focus elsewhere.

After all, there are fewer monsters and their goal has been achieved, so there is naturally no need to continue paying attention to the demon hunters.

Their departure directly led to the subsequent disintegration of the Witcher Cult.

In fact, before they left, major problems had already arisen within the Witcher Cult.

As I just said, demon hunters were created to destroy monsters.

However, monsters in places where humans gather have become rare, the purpose of creating demon hunters has been achieved, and at the same time, demon hunters as a product of this era are no longer needed.

Do you understand what I mean?"

Leon nodded. Without monsters, they would no longer be needed.

Stregobor took a sip of the wine to moisten his throat.

He continued, “However, demon hunters have a long lifespan and great strength, and coupled with the exaggeration of some people with ulterior motives, demon hunters are regarded as monsters.

The demon hunter is in trouble and needs to find a breakthrough.

Some believe that the witchers should stay in Kaer Morhen and wait for the opportunity to arise.

Another group believes that demon hunters must take the initiative to take on tasks other than hunting monsters, which is a career transformation.

The two groups of people had different opinions, and thus conflicts arose.

The witcher, seeking change, left Kaer Morhen, but was unable to take the mutagen with him.

Eventually, they made their way south to Styga, and with the help of wizards there, they experimented with the new witcher mutation potion.

However, the Witcher Mutation Potion seemingly was created by Cosimo and Alzu, but was supported by the Brotherhood of Warlocks.

Therefore, the new potion did not work well, but instead created a large number of incompletely mutated monsters, and these monsters later became the Cat School Demon Hunters.

In other words, this is the root cause of the incomplete mutation of the Cat School Demon Hunters!

They were put into cages by Styga's wizards and subjected to various experiments to find out why the mutation failed.

There was a half-elf demon hunter who survived the cruel experiments. He crawled out from the corpse pile and sneaked into Stygga, releasing the other mutated incomplete demon hunters who were imprisoned in cages.

Because they were too weak at the time, they fled, hid, and accumulated strength.

Finally, they returned when all the wizards in Styga thought they would never come back.

They began their revenge in one night, killing all wizards in Styga and taking away the experimental data. Then this group of monsters began their escape journey. "

Leon was silent. Is this the development history of the Cat School Demon Hunters?

It seems quite pitiful.

"In order to survive, they accept various commissions, including assassinations of nobles. As a result, the reputation of witchers has become extremely bad." Stregobor said.

Leon didn't say anything, he listened carefully.

"Lyon, you are different from Sikori. You have successfully mutated and your personality is not that extreme. But it is better to hide the Cat's Head Medal. The nobles hate it." Stregobor reminded kindly.

Lyon took a deep breath. He had never thought about these things. The cat head medal was hung directly around the neck.

He hid it under his clothes mainly because he didn't want it to swing around during strenuous exercise and hit his face.

Fortunately, most ordinary people don’t know anything about the Cat School or the Wolf School. They just hate all demon hunters equally.

"Thank you." Leon thanked him and brought the topic back.

"So, the problem occurred because the remaining mutant drug in his body conflicted with the new drug?" Leon asked.

Stregobor shook his head and said, "No, that's not the case. The new potion is in conflict with him."

Seeing Leon's puzzled expression, Stregobor patiently explained: "Do you know how big Sikorri is?

He was not one of the earliest witchers, but he was one of the first witchers of the Cat School, a failure created by those Styga wizards.

It has been more than four hundred years since then, and the mutation potion in his body has long been consumed completely.

It's his body, the mutation is incomplete. You know, the term "incomplete mutation" actually refers to the completely mutated demon hunter.

However, Sikori himself was a test subject. When he was in Styga, his genes had already been destroyed. The fact that he did not die showed that the mutation had ended and had stabilized.

Do you understand what I mean? That is to say, at the genetic level, compared to when he was an ordinary person, he has completely mutated.

His body had a violent reaction to the new drug he created, which made him weaker instead of stronger.

I see. That's really ridiculous.

"Then what do you want the formula of the mutation potion for? You don't need to mutate." Leon remembered his purpose.

This recipe seems to be very important, the wizards don't have it, and it has been guarded by the witchers.

At the beginning, Cosimo and Alzu did not publish the complete formula, but only gave it to the witcher for safekeeping.

Stregobor suddenly said dejectedly: "Leon, do you see my current situation? I don't have much time left."

Leon looked at Stregobor in amazement.

Stregobor showed a sad expression, but Leon didn't think he was lying.

He asked, "What's going on? Don't wizards have very long lifespans?"

Stregobor said dejectedly: "Leon, I am already 654 years old, which is a very long life for ordinary people. Even among the wizards who are still alive, there are few who are older than me.

We just have a long lifespan, just like the demon hunters, but that doesn't mean we won't die, do you understand?

And I am about to die, and the witcher's mutagen may allow me to live a little longer."

Leon looked puzzled.

He looked Stregobor up and down. He was indeed very old, and his whole body, including his staff, exuded a smell of decay, giving people the feeling that he would not live long.

The Demon Hunter's mutation potion is very stimulating to the body, and it is carried out in several stages, which may last for several months or even years.

Every time it is a double torture of body and mind, making life worse than death.

During this process, not to mention the elderly, even middle-aged people with weaker bodies would not be able to endure the painful torture and would die.

Leon frowned and said, “But if you take the mutation potion, you will probably die immediately.”

Stregobor shook his head and said, "You misunderstood me. Remember what I said just now? Cosimo and Alzu are not only high-level wizards, but also masters in the field of genetics. Mutation potions can turn an ordinary person into a demon hunter with a long lifespan. Your lifespan is almost comparable to ours.

We rely on the power of magic. As long as the magic seeds in our bodies do not wither, we will not die. However, there is almost no magic power in your bodies, let alone such an important thing as magic seeds.

But the reason you can live so long is that your genes have been changed by the mutation drug, turning you into some long-lived monsters.

I just want to get the formula of the mutagenic potion, study it carefully, and find a way to change my genes and extend my life."

Although what Stregobor said made sense, Leon felt that his idea was still not very realistic.

After all, even Sikori, the creator of the mutation potion, couldn't figure out the formula, and the wizards in Styga didn't figure it out at the time, so how could he figure it out?

Leon advised: "You might as well enjoy your life. You have lived for so long, and you are afraid of death?"

"Don't compare me with you. Of course you are not afraid. I haven't lived enough, so of course I am afraid of death." Stregobor was a little excited. Perhaps he realized his situation, so he apologized, "Sorry, I got a little excited."

Leon waved his hand indifferently, took a sip of wine, and then said: "What I mean is, you don't have many years left to live, so you may not be able to figure it out."

Stregobor said, "I don't even dare to use any powerful magic right now. If I try not to use magic, I can still live for another fifty years. If I really can't figure it out, I'll accept it."

“Ahem!” Leon choked on the wine and started coughing. “How long? Fifty years?”