The Divine Hunter

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A short while later, Letho took out a green, hairy elliptical item that was the size of a thumb.
“Lucky.” He observed the item closely, his eyes gleaming.
“First body, and we already got a mutagen.”

“Is that a green mutagen?” Roy was surprised to see something he was familiar with appearing before him.

“Yes.
A lesser one, but it’s indispensable in the Trial of the Grasses.
It can slightly increase a witcher’s life force and toxicity resistance.
Less than one in ten normal nekkers have a mutagen within them,” Letho explained.
“Now that we’re touching this subject, you ought to know that mutagens are split into three types: green, blue, and red.
And they’re further split into lesser, normal, and greater.
The stronger a monster is, the higher the probability of us getting a good mutagen.
The green mutagen that’s necessary for the Trial of the Grasses increases your life force and toxicity resistance.
Blue mutagens buff the signs, while red mutagens make you more agile.
Of course, the better the mutagen, the stronger the buff.”

Ah, so the mutagens strengthen Constitution, Spirit, Strength, and Dexterity.
He stared down in ponderance.
“How many kinds of mutagens does our school use in the trial?”

“All of them, but in different ratios.” Letho explained, “One to one for red and green.
Blue’s the least.” In other words, Viper School’s Trial of the Grasses would lean their increment toward Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and toxicity resistance, and at almost the same rate.
Spirit saw a lesser increment compared to the first few, while the others showed little to no improvement.
To put it simply, Viper School witchers leaned more toward close quarter combat and alchemy tools in battles.

I see.
No wonder Letho’s Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution are all over twenty.
No wonder I couldn’t see through the stats.
Roy was then reminded of a relatively villainous school, the Cat School.
Cat School witchers were renowned for their phantom-like reflexes and extraordinary swordsmanship.
They probably only have red mutagens in their trial so they can put everything in strength and dexterity.
Glass cannon mêlée, huh?

“What about the leshen’s mutagen then?” Roy knew Letho managed to extract a blue one from the leshen’s corpse, but he didn’t ask.

Letho knew what he was thinking about though.
“Probably using it to make a leshen decoction, or turn it into a greater mutagen for the trial.
Helps with the mana, see.
I’ll give it to you if your will and constitution make the cut before the trial.”

Roy was delighted to hear that.
“Wait, does that mean different witchers of the same school will show different levels of changes after the trial? Is it because of the quality of mutagens used in the decoction?”

“Yes.” Letho noticed Roy’s excitement, so he calmed him down.
“But the greater the reward, the greater the risk.
Greedily chasing for more power is just going to make the trial all the more lethal for you.
Stay calm.”

Roy thought about his Full Recovery passive.
I wonder… 

“That’s it for the trial for now.” Letho pointed at the sea of corpses around them.
“See if you can get some green mutagen from them.
It’s fine even if they’re lesser ones, since they can be merged and strengthened anyway for your trial.”

Roy went back to his roots in this case.
He imitated Letho and split open the skulls of the nekkers, rummaging through their mushy insides.
The grey matter, blood, and flesh squelched as he moved around.
He felt disgusted, for monsters smelled fouler than the livestock he’d had to deal with back in Kaer.

However, he managed to keep his composure and swept through the corpses thanks to his will.
After going through thirty something corpses, Roy only managed to get three lesser green mutagens.
He put them in his inventory, but before he could even catch a break, Letho was already pushing him to another round of dissection.

“Nekkers are really valuable.
Their hearts are indispensable in many decoction recipes.
Cut them out and let them dry.
Their lungs, liver, pancreas, and kidneys can be used in alchemy and some weapons forging.
Those parts can add additional effects to some of the stronger weapons.
Of course, the best of them will come from the leader of the nekkers.”

Letho stopped for a moment.
“Sorcerers use their eyes, ears, and tongues in their experiments.
You can make a tidy profit by selling those.
Don’t forget about their claws and teeth.
Once we get out of Smiack, we’ll get a decent blacksmith to make arrows out of those.
You’ll find them to be better bolts than the ones you usually use.
Oh, and their skin too — ”

Roy suddenly turned around to stare at Letho, his face plastered with blood.
Letho felt a chill running down his spine, and he told Roy, “I can see your pocket’s full.
Right, we can forget about the skin.”