Chapter 39: Mutating the mutations of Mutagens...
After recovering briefly Reima heads out of the arena-like area and continues through the hall ways... In one room there is a statue of some unidentifiable person surrounded by candles... Ignoring it he comes across a split in the path, continue forward or head right, Reima remembers that the professor had dropped notes on the right path so decides to check that way first. He reaches some sort of boulder with a doorway just above it, the documents that he finds seem fragmented and don't provide much information, only that there is another Guardian to fight ahead of him. Reima climbs up the boulder and enters another large round room, he spies the Panther statue in the middle and draws his sword in preparation of it's obvious assault.
The statue turns black and leaps at Reima, but with him already being prepared for this exact kind of attack he stabs the sword deep into the Guardians chest, quickly killing it.
Reima "If they always attack like that this is gonna be a cake walk..."
He leaves the room and walks foward into a half collapsed floor, on his left is a large pit leading to who knows where.
Reima "If I remember correctly, there should be switches for a secret entrance here." He looks around at the stone buttons scattered around the room, due to him lacking a cross bow he uses a concentrated Aard blast like the one Geralt uses in the trailer to push them into the walls, eventually opening up the passage. He walks up the stairs and finds the dreaded portal room...
Reima "I'll just teleport up to the top.. But why aren't they on already?"
CRASH!
One of the many Gargoyle statues around the room come to life and start lumbering towards Reima.
Gargoyle "Intruder!! You will not leave here alive!"
He Blinks away as the Gargoyle tries to jump and crush him with it's large body.
As it tries to get up Reima stabs at it with his Silver sword which creates a loud screeching from his sword... "Yeah, I'm not gonna ruin my sword dealing with you.." He then channels the Elder Blood into an Igni sign before plasting it in the face with Turquoise flames. The expression on it's face changes from angry to horrified as the magic used to power it disperses, rendering the Gargoyle a lifeless statue.
Reima "Yeah, hows that?" He says as he covers his fist in Armament Haki and punches it's arm, causes it to shatter. He scoops up the shattered remains of it's hand and dumps it into the bowl of the alter in the middle of the room, causing the portals to light up.
Deciding not to mess around anymore he Blinks up directly onto the third floor and tries the portal the statue is facing. He finds himself inside the lab, still brightly lit from the candles and torches scattered around.
Reima quickly gathers up the notes that might assist him in doing this correctly and places the missing Crystals in their correct spots.
After a couple hours of listening to the Professor he finds that the machine is already ready to be used... The only thing required are the Centipede egg mutagens. Luckily enough, the professor seemed to be farming them? Or maybe fate wishes to assist Geralt in becoming even more badass. Either way, the Centipedes are in the cave through the hole in the wall. Reima decides it's not necessary to fight those annoying and possibly high level enemies and just quickly blinks through, steals a couple eggs and blinks back. He was so quick and silent in-fact that the Centipedes didn't even notice his presence.
After getting back to the lab, Reima sets up a couple distilleries that are lying around the lab and starts processing the Centipede eggs. He also uses the time waiting for them to finish to Distil the Arch Griffin genetic material he had taken from his most recent hunt.
Knowing this will take a couple days, he tries for first time to do a long distance teleportation without sight of his destination. After a few practise blinks he channels his power and tries to accurately depict himself standing on the shore not far from the underwater ruins.
A green glow envelops him as he pops out of existence leaving only shimmering Turquoise particles in his wake.
On the shore Reima appears a few meters above ground. After a hard landing he recovers and heads back to Beauclair to rent a room at an Inn while waiting for his Mutagens to finish.
Over the three days of waiting for them to finish, Reima spends his time practising long distance teleporting due to his apprehension of doing it across worlds for the first time. There had been a few mistakes such as teleporting to high, teleporting too low (Luckily only being submerged in water and not dirt), teleporting to the wrong location and Worst of all... Teleporting in the middle of a nest of Drowners and Water hags, he managed to kill a Water Hag before having to teleport away to safety due to taking numerous cuts, scratches and bites.
After the third day Reima sells his horse Epona to a horse merchant for a good price, stocks up on dried food and water before proceeding to teleport back to the lab.
The distillery seems to be finished and Reima decides to test and then use the Arch Griffin Mutagen before undergoing the Mutagen Enhancement. While testing it he finds his skin cells reacting fine to it, he tests various other things like, hair, blood, sperm and spit. No horrible irreversible mutations occur to any of the provided materials and so Reima injects himself with the Mutagen and sits down ready for agony...
After a while of nothing happening he feels a twinge in his muscles, like they were filled with lactic acid and gradually becoming numb. The effects end after an hour or two and he tests the changes to his body. Something Reima desperately wanted was an immunity to poisons, and while he didn't get an immunity, the Arch Griffin mutagen seems to have made him resistant to most poisons out there.
He also feels a lot stronger, if He had to put it in numbers he would say around 20-40% stronger than before.
After a long rest to let the Mutagen stabilise in his body he walks to the back of the Iron-Maiden looking device and puts the Centipede egg Mutagen inside before turning the various valves on the other machines to make them start working. He then takes off all his gear and lays it on the table nearby before entering the machine. "Please work" He mutters as he's enveloped by green gas as he shuts the doors to the device.
The experience of being inside is not painful but, more like hes getting a full body massage, especially in his lungs. Like someone is caressing his internal organs. After an hour of just standing there breathing in the gas, he starts to feel light headed. He manages to stay upright until the gas stops flooding the machine and he stumbles out of device groggily.
He stays knelt on the ground due to him feeling like he'll vomit if he stands. Reima's condition gradually improves and he finds the opportunity to test if the experiment had any significant changes.
The results from his observations are that he has even more increased strength, speed, duration and toxin resistance. His previous Mutagens seems to be reacting well and have even improved as a result. Reima plays around with his hair while thinking how cool it would be to write with it, when he gets the time he vows to practise it. He checks for any new effects and finds that his blood is slightly toxic, if anything that didn't have resistance were to consume his blood, it would quickly become sick and may even die without medical attention.
After almost an entire day of closely watching his condition for any side effects Reima decides it is a success. With most of his current goals completed he thinks about where he can go to get strong enough to face down the Wild Hunt... Maybe even save Vesemir. Reima thinks back to all the experiences hes had in Kaer Morhen and decides that no-matter what, he will force a happy ending.
Reima chooses to let fate decide his destination and concentrates on a place that has enemies with experience, a different way of utilising magic and opportunities for him to learn... Obviously he includes not instantly dying or being unable to escape but with vague parameters like this his subconscious survival instinct also contributes.
With his eyes closed his body releases more magic than he has ever used before, his entire body glows green as he vanishes from the lab.