Elder Blood Witcher

Vengerberg, the capital of Aedirn and trading hot spot of the north is a huge city. The uniform stone walls envelop the buildings and provide complete safety to those inside. Reima has Epona trot towards the gate before lining up behind the other traders and merchants trying to gain access inside. He examines the walls and finds many guards dotted along them, keeping an eye on any would be trouble maker.

Eventually it's Reima's turn in the line, the guard speaks to him loudly in a bored tone, "What is the purpose of your visit?"

Reima "Restocking supplies and finding temporary accommodation" he states in an equally bored tone.

The guard nods, "Very well. Go through." Before calling to the next person in the line.

Reima doesn't plan on staying in the city long, first he wants to distil the Basilisks genetic material into a suitable mutagen then he wants to repair his armour and weapons for any damage they might have sustained. Lastly stocking up on food due to his supplies being almost empty.

He leaves Epona in the care of a trustworthy looking stable hand and rents the nearing Inn he can find... He rents a room at the "Rabid Harpie"... The theme of weird monster related names continues... He then sets up the small distillery and places the genetic material inside. He then looks for a blacksmith to check and maintain his gear.

A couple hours later and Reima has completely restocked his supplies and had his weapons checked over and repaired of any chinks they may have taken. All that's left to do is wait for the distillery... It will take a couple days to complete so Reima decides to practise his Observation haki to observe the large number of people inside the Inn and outside on the roads. To improve his proficiency he tries to keep track of as many people as possible, when he looses sight of one, he picks another to focus on. A large headache later and he starts on his telekinesis practise, Reima slowly raises a dagger and a stone simultaneously in the air... It's slow, but it's improvement. This continues for three days until the distillery seems to have completed it's task.

Reima is rather leery of applying this mutagen to himself, the Doppler one made him realise how susceptible he was to large changes to his body... For all he knows taking this could turn him into some kind of lizard-man. To stop this from happening Reima devised a way to test it without risking any harm. He retrieves a clear vial and sheds some skin cells into it with a knife, then he lets a few drops fall onto the cells while observing their change... All seems well until the skin cells start rapidly mutating and forming small green scales. "Failure huh? Good thing I didn't just jam it into my neck... I doubt I could go anywhere looking like a monster. It's a shame aswell, I thought I could possibly gain the poison resistance of the Basilisk, but better safe than a mutated lizard monster.

A day later, Reima leaves to go back on the path towards Lyria. As he travels he slays the various creatures that try to impede him, Drowners, Wolves, Nekkers and even bears... The road is dangerous and seems to have it out for the irritated Witcher. Reima reaches the capital of Lyria... Lyria? He wonders who comes up with these names.. Who apart from Alexander the great names cities after the country they belong to? Regardless, Reima exchanges some Ducat's for Gulden at the local bank and restocks his supplies before heading out again. He reaches the huge river that he remembers should be the Yaruga? He doesn't find a bridge so he pays a small vessel to take himself and Epona across. Once on the other side Reima looks at the map he had bought in Ard Carraigh and follows the road to a large valley surrounded by mountains that leads to Toussaint. From what Reima can tell, this path is the only way you can access the country from the north.

He has Epona start trotting on the well worn path while being shadowed by the high valley walls.

As he travels through he suddenly hears a birdlike shriek which causes him to look up, blocking the sun is a large winged creatures with a lions body... A Griffin?

Must want to eat my horse! He quickly looks for cover and finds a small overlooking rock on the valley wall closest to him, It'll stop from aerial attacks so it will have to do. He has Epona gallop towards the cover before hopping off of her back to face the incoming beast.

It screeches at the human stupid enough to block it from it's prey and swoop's down to pierce it with it's talons, Reima manages to dodge the attack but not without getting scratched on the arm.

He looks at his wound as sees some kind of green fluid dripping from it.. "An Arch Griffin?" he mutters before the pain of the poison kicks in, he quickly reaches behind him and takes out a Golden Oriole potion he had brewed a couple weeks ago.

He downs it in one go before blinking a few meters away to dodge the next flying attack.

The Griffin doesn't seem amused at the pests ability to dodge it's strikes so it tries to land on top of Reima. He quickly rolls away from the falling monster as it hits the floor making it tremble for a moment. He unsheathes his silver sword and takes a low stance while staring down the angry Arch Griffin. He casts Quen to provide a buffer as to not instantly die from a wayward strike and charges the Griffin, who retaliates with a flurry of swipes from it's talons. With the help of Observation Haki Reima manages to dodge most of the strikes with minimal injuries due to his Quen sign and finally gets an opportunity to get some damage in during the Griffins lull in activity.

He slashes at the tendon in it's front leg and manages to severely damage it, causing the Griffin to stumble when it places it's weight on it.

Leaning heavily on one side it tries to crush Reima in it's beak but only manages to chew part of his surcoat.

He infuses Armament Haki into his fist and punches the Griffin in the face before following up with a stab to it's throat... The Griffin manages to receive the blade on it's thick mane which almost nullifies the blow.

The Griffin, seeing it has now become prey runs away and leaps into the air while trying to spread its wings. But due to the earlier damage to it's tendon the wing isn't able to fully extend causing it to crash heavily to the ground.

Seeing this, Reima blinks in front of it's dazed face and drives his silver sword through it's eye socket causing it to instantly drop dead.

Reima angrily kicks its head before dropping next to it while slowly drinking a Swallow potion, "Piece of shit... Can't I just go somewhere and not be attacked for once!?!"

A loud voice echoes further up the Valley path, "Hold it right there!"