The Divine Hunter

ns 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.

“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.

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.