The Divine Hunter

It was a sunny day. A young man was standing outside Coral’s room sheepishly. He was pacing around, holding a stack of books in his hands. The boy gritted his teeth, pondered on the matter at hand, then finally took a deep breath and knocked on the door. “Roy, t-these are the books M-Miss Lytta wants. I got them from the library. Please have a look,” the boy stammered. He stole a sheepish glance at the room and finally saw the lady he liked. The boy grinned, almost drooling.

“‘The Arcane Mysteries of Magic and Alchemy,’ ‘Codex of Mirthe,’ ‘Dialogues on the Nature of Magic,’ ‘Natural Magic,’ and ‘Mystery of Mysteries.’ All present and accounted for. Thank you for your hard work.” Roy held the books carefully. He only managed to get his hands on them after pleading with Coral and agreeing to some shady terms. Then he looked at the lanky, freckled boy who was standing outside, fidgeting. Simp. Roy shook his head.

The boy’s name was Jarre. He grew up in the temple and was working as its librarian. He was also one of the few men in the temple. The boy was at the age where he was curious about girls, so he couldn’t resist Coral’s charm. He’d come over every other day with some excuse just to see her. If he didn’t know better, Roy would think he truly liked her, but he knew Jarre would eventually shift his attention to Triss Merigold, then to Ciri, who would immerse herself in cultural studies at the temple. He even tried to kiss the runaway princess in the future. He’s a playboy, that’s for sure.

Then he was reminded of something and huddled closer to Jarre. “Did you confess to Iola II like I told you to? I can see she likes you. You gotta seize the chance.”

Jarre blushed, finally looking away from Lytta. “Um… I… Well…”

“Come on! Be a man!”

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“I-I am!” Jarre tried his best to stand upright, but he still looked as thin as a bamboo stick. “I’ll confess, but I have something else to do today, so that’ll have to wait. Um, goodbye, then.” He looked at Coral one last time before closing the door and escaping the scene.

“Ah, youth.” Coral smiled at Roy. “He’s such an innocent child. Perhaps even more than you are.”

“Innocent?” Roy shook his head. That’s not a compliment. He smacked the books against the table. “Miss Coral, please stop teasing Jarre.”

“Whoops. I tried my best to keep my charm in check, but I still shine, no matter what I do.” She stood up and spun, showing her body off to Roy.

Roy pouted. “Time to talk business, my beautiful sorceress.” He patted the thick cover of the book.”

She wagged her finger. “Sorry, but you don’t have a talent for magic. It’s impossible to become a sorcerer with just some books and my teachings.” Coral had performed something like a test of magic affinity on Roy and realized his affinity was just slightly higher than any normal human’s. And that was probably thanks to the Child of the Sun. Roy was still far, far away from being a sorcerer. “Aretuza wouldn’t enroll you even if I wrote a letter of recommendation for you.”

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Roy licked his lips. “I’m not trying to be a sorcerer.” Even though he meditated every day, his elemental affinity had barely grown. He was still weak in terms of magic. “I want to power up my signs through systematic learning of magic.”

If a normal sorcerer’s disciple was a torch, then Roy was a match, and some of the more powerful sorcerers like Ciri and Vilgefortz were volcanoes. Sure, Roy was weak, but at least he had a spark of magic, unlike most people.

“Signs?” Coral was amused. “Those are just simplified spells. They aren’t real magic. Letho’s Aard can snuff out the fire in the hearth, but if I were to cast the same thing, I could send the flames flying into the sky and turn them into stars,” she said confidently.

Coral was exaggerating, but there was some fact in it. Compared to standard spells, the signs witchers used were weak. The only upside to them was that they were convenient. Roy sighed. “But I do have some affinity, so does that mean my signs will be stronger than normal witchers’?”

“That line of thinking is correct. I’ll teach you some basics of magic if you can remain sane in the next part of the trial, but the chances are slim.”

“The next part? You mean the viral infection?” Roy’s heart skipped a beat, and his face fell. Before he knew it, he had stayed at the temple for a month, and the hormonal injection had ended.

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“Have you looked at yourself lately?” Coral approached him, touching his forehead with her chin, and he felt her lips against his hair. “You got taller, and your face changed a little. And there’s also last night.” She beamed at him, but that only made him nervous. “I thought I saw someone come out of a bedroom last night, probably after they’d spent some time with one of the priestesses here. You’re an adult now, Roy.”

Roy was embarrassed, but only for a moment. “You were watching me?” After spending the month with her and getting teased all day, Roy was starting to build up some resistance to her.

“Oh, strong words, Roy. I was just concerned. Don’t be shy.” Then she turned solemn. “Save some strength for the pain down the road.”

“How dangerous will this be?”

“You’ll survive, since I’m around, but it’s still going to be painful.” Roy could still take the hormones, but he abhorred the virus. Nobody would contract any disease willingly, but witchers were an exception.

The viral infection was the second step of the trial. It was also the point where the trial would get more violent. Lytta put in a lot of effort to gather all the ingredients from monsters, and she developed it into a tube of blackish-green liquid. She called it the ‘Furnace Virus.’ It was also the first virus, so it was less damaging than the ones that would come in the future.

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Roy didn’t feel anything right after the virus was injected into his body. He could even listen to Coral’s lessons on ‘Natural Magic,’ but then, the symptoms erupted. Roy felt a stab of pain piercing his head, jumbling up his brain. Then his chest, throat, and stomach heated up. His skin started turning crimson, as if he were being burned in a furnace. It didn’t take long for him to be drenched in sweat.

Even his tongue was swollen from the heat. He tried to say something, but he couldn’t. Coral gave him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, but I can’t relieve you of your pain. This is mandatory. You have to go through this for a complete transformation. Any additional magic might worsen your condition.”

“I-I can take this!” Roy gritted his teeth, his eyes as wide as saucepans.