Chapter 305: The Treasure-Opening Ritual Before Departure

It was another night to remember.

By the afternoon of the next day, Lady Sheala, who hadn't taken a vacation in several consecutive years, was uncharacteristically not working. Instead, she remained immersed in sweet dreams with a satisfied smile on her face.

Geralt did not wake the sorceress; he left very quietly, not placing too much weight on the relationship between the two of them.

This encounter was, at most, a fleeting romance. Although as a man he had certainly enjoyed it, the primary reason for it was to win over Sheala, a talented sorceress. Even maintaining a physical relationship could make her trust him more.

Besides, this time, Geralt, as the boss, was fulfilling the desires of his key subordinates—one could even say he was showing consideration for his employees by distributing rewards.

After leaving the secret base in the cave, he did not immediately return to the castle. Instead, he headed straight for the Goddess Temple located in the center of the artificial lake, preparing to pray for a blessing from his dear Goddess.

Today was his lucky day, and it was time for the "lottery" ritual again. Six years of continuous drawing had made him accustomed to that tense and exciting atmosphere; he no longer treated it as a major event like he had in the past.

Of course, Luck was the most important attribute. Before leaving the secret base, Geralt had not forgotten to find an imprisoned death-row inmate and extract his Luck.

Most of these death-row inmates were purchased by the Geralt Chamber of Commerce from prisons across various countries, though some were bandits and robbers encountered by armed merchant caravans during transport.

However, Geralt had always been quite cautious in his selection of experimental subjects. A portion of the death-row inmates still had a chance to turn over a new leaf; only those who were truly heinous had their right to be human stripped away and were treated as test subjects.

The artificial lake was located behind Kaer Morhen castle, not far from the main keep. It was a palace Geralt had built specifically for the Lady of the Lake, making it convenient for him to meet his Goddess and cultivate their relationship.

At the same time, it provided an absolutely safe sanctuary for this holy Goddess.

Of course, he didn't say it like that on the surface. After all, to purify the dark power in his body, the Bird Goddess, the Forest Goddess, and the Field Goddess also came on schedule every month; at least on the surface, he couldn't show favoritism.

And it wasn't that Geralt was stingy or unwilling to build temples for the other Goddesses.

The main reason was that after getting to know the Goddesses in depth, he discovered that as Nymphs—magical beings—their need for material things was minimal. They didn't need food, didn't care for jewelry or gold, and didn't even need the faith or offerings of others.

They were better adapted to environments similar to their own domains; only by staying in an environment that suited them would they feel comfortable.

Lilith, the Lady of the Lake, was always so understanding, and she gave Geralt a Luck blessing quite smoothly. Moreover, she was used to it; every once in a while, Geralt would pray to her for a Luck blessing.

After arriving at Kaer Morhen, a place that was almost a paradise, the Lady of the Lake spent more time with Geralt than in the past. Furthermore, after the Divine Blessing ability reached level 5, the Goddesses also noticed the changes in Geralt's body.

They were surprised to find that this young witcher was actually transforming from a mortal toward the direction of a deity. This transformation was not yet obvious and was only a change in aura, but even so, perhaps out of an affinity for their own kind, the relationship between the Goddesses and Geralt became even closer.

However, being able to achieve such an effect was mainly because Geralt had spent Ability Points to light up the two skill specializations granted by the level 5 Divine Blessing skill.

Divine Blessing LV5: Alien Status Resistance +5, Mental Resistance +5, Soul Resistance +5, Charisma +5.

Divine Compatibility: Due to long-term intimate contact with divine beings, your body and soul have been imbued with an affinity for divine power. You have stepped onto the path of godhood and are transforming toward the level of a higher life form.

Effect: Talent cap significantly increased, Charisma +5, Alien Energy Resistance +5.

Body of God (Lesser): The power of divinity is powerful and mysterious. The body of a deity is worlds apart from that of a mortal. Although the divine power within the host is not sufficient, this does not hinder the nourishment this mysterious power provides to the flesh.

Effect: Physical lifespan +2000 years, capable of automatically repairing most non-fatal injuries over time, including limb regeneration, internal organ damage, bone fractures, and other severe physical trauma.

Because the two skill specializations granted by Divine Blessing were very powerful, Geralt used an extra skill slot and a total of three Ability Points to retain both of these skill specializations.

The reason he was so generous, using up three precious Ability Points, was mainly due to the large amount of experience points accumulated from ordinary tasks over these three years, and the fact that the two Epic-level tasks within the Wizard World had been completed quite well.

Not only did they grant a large amount of treasure chests and experience rewards, but they also successfully raised his level by three, reaching level 23.

【Rebuild Witcher Order】

Progress: 5/10 Next stage reward: 1,000 experience points, 2 Ability Points.

Current rewards obtained: 2,000 experience points, Master-level Treasure Chest *4.

The task of rebuilding the Witcher Order was quite long. Although the current strength of the Witcher Order could be considered quite formidable, in the system's evaluation, it had only completed about one-half. Every subsequent stage of improvement would be even more difficult.

And the rewards for this task became more generous the further one went. Now that it had reached the fifth stage, it even started using Ability Points as rewards directly, which made Geralt quite happy.

He had already deeply experienced the preciousness of Ability Points. As time passed, although he could learn various skills without bottlenecks, he could only drool over those powerful skill specializations because he didn't have enough Ability Points to acquire them.

Moreover, after the lesson from the Dark World, Geralt had some trepidation regarding the consequences of drawing new Magic Nodes. Fearing that he might open an even more terrifying and desperate world, he had not yet made up his mind to open a new world.

However, if he could obtain Ability Points by completing high-difficulty tasks, this was undoubtedly a quite exciting thing for him.

As for the special task 【Rescue Elves】 involving Francesca, Geralt had also completed it well.

Through three years of effort by the Cat Claw Mercenary Group, nearly 30,000 non-human beings had been rescued. As the key targets for recruitment, the two countries of Temeria and Kaedwen had been almost completely swept, leaving only those non-humans who still had nostalgia for their homes and held fantasies about human kindness living in their original places, refusing to leave.

And Geralt's points had reached over 25,000, enough to exchange for two Epic-level Treasure Chests and 6,000 experience points.

It just so happened that he might encounter powerful enemies during this trip, so he simply exchanged for these two Epic-level Treasure Chests and 6,000 experience points, successfully raising his level to 25.

Geralt (23 years old) Profession: Witcher Level: 25 (153/2500)

Ability Points: 13 Attributes: Strength 82, Agility 58, Constitution 57, Spirit 72.

Skills: Swordplay LV15, Signs LV11, Mutation LV14, Gwent LV12.

Special Bloodline: Elder Blood (Primary Unsealed), Advanced Unsealing requires 30 Ability Points.

Bloodline Powers: Blink, Source, Dimensional Travel.

Subsidiary Skills: Archery LV11, Cooking LV13, Planting LV8, Riding LV12, Blacksmithing LV6, Alchemy LV6, Taming LV10, Spellcasting LV4, Magic Knowledge LV6, Divine Blessing LV5, Alien Language Proficiency LV2.

During his recovery, Geralt practiced Swordplay and Archery the most. As his personal magic teacher, Ranni also forced him to learn a lot of Magic Knowledge, so these three skills had grown the most, increasing by several levels.

His previously lagging Swordplay skill had even surpassed his Signs level in one fell swoop, becoming the highest-level skill among the four main witcher skills, and had already unlocked the third stage of skill specialization.

However, because he had to save Ability Points, he had not lit up the skill specializations for many skills.

Although he hadn't lit up the skill specializations and could only use Chaos Magic to a limited extent, Geralt's strength now was actually much greater than it had been three years ago.

The main reason was that under the nourishment of Hell's power, combined with the improvements brought by leveling up, his physical attributes had almost doubled, basically reaching more than seven times the physical attributes of an ordinary strong man, and in terms of Strength, it had almost reached ten times.

It is no exaggeration to say that even if Captain America came, he could rely on his current physical fitness to go toe-to-toe with him for three hundred rounds, and could even rely on his own strength to arm-wrestle those huge giants.

After leaving the Goddess Temple, Geralt's Luck had reached about 60 points. He did not delay any further.

The preparatory work was finished, the treasure chests were ready, and because of yesterday's indulgence, the time was approaching dusk. If he didn't go to open the treasure chests now, he feared there wouldn't be enough time.

After entering the castle, Geralt walked quickly up the stairs, climbed about sixty meters of stone steps, reached the top floor of the castle, and arrived at a huge terrace protected by a magic barrier.

After dispelling the magic barrier, everyone could clearly see that in the center of the terrace, there was not only a marble altar that was decorated extremely luxuriously but also looked quite solemn and full of ritualistic significance.

Moreover, around the altar, countless gold coins were piled up into a huge golden beach large enough to submerge one's calves.

With the help of the dazzling light of this gold, the "class" of this altar was raised by several levels.

Geralt took a light breath, first went to the luxury bathroom on the other side of the terrace to bathe and change, and then sat piously in the center of the altar. After a prayer, he began the treasure-opening ritual.

The number of treasure chests that needed to be opened this time was not large. Because he had been recovering at Kaer Morhen for the past three years and hadn't performed any high-difficulty tasks, most of what he had obtained were Ordinary Treasure Chests, and the number of Expert-level Treasure Chests was quite scarce.

The Advanced Treasure Chests he had on hand now were only the one Master-level Treasure Chest obtained when rescuing Yennefer, and the two Master-level Treasure Chests rewarded for rebuilding the Witcher Order. Although this task had rewarded a total of four Master-level Treasure Chests so far, the previous two had already been used during the last treasure-opening.

Three Master-level Treasure Chests and two Epic-level Treasure Chests—although the quantity was quite scarce, in terms of quality, it was definitely one of the best levels in the past six years.

Ding! Treasure chest opened, Master-level Treasure Chest *3.

Obtained: 6,868 Ducats, Intelligent Armed Magitech Knight.

As the three Master-level Treasure Chests in the system disappeared, a huge Magitech Knight, about three meters tall and composed entirely of silver-white metal knight armor, appeared in front of Geralt.

It held a black Dragon Cavalry Spear that was a full six meters long, and wore a fiery red flame-colored cloak on its back. At the eye positions of the full-coverage faceplate were two huge sapphires, faintly flickering with magical radiance.

After appearing in front of Geralt, this imposing behemoth paused for a few seconds, then, as if receiving some order, knelt on one knee toward Geralt, and the huge black knight spear in its hand was also placed on the ground.

A hoarse male voice that seemed to be squeezed out of steel came from the faceplate area of this puppet knight.

"Serial number 10086, Magitech Knight Heral, reporting for duty."

"Master, I await your orders at any time."

Hearing the voice of the Magitech Knight in front of him, Geralt, who had been feeling a bit depressed because the three Master-level Treasure Chests had only produced one item, couldn't help but raise his eyebrows in surprise.

Although it was just one conversation, he could tell.

The Magitech Knight in front of him, whose entire suit of armor was engraved with magic inscriptions, was clearly not an ordinary item, nor was it a cold magic prop; it was highly likely a magic combat machine with a considerable degree of intelligence.

Although he didn't know the extent of its intelligence and combat power, just from this point alone, the magic civilization that created this magic puppet knight was far beyond all the spellcasters in the Wizard World.

Geralt pondered for a few seconds and asked tentatively:

"Heral, where do you come from? Tell me your information."

Hearing Geralt's question, the Magitech Knight kneeling in front of him did not pause at all, and answered in a voice without any ripples: "Master, I come from the ZDX5479 Galaxy, Planet 532. I am an armed Magitech Knight manufactured by the Stephente Company of the Magic Alliance, mainly responsible for various types of combat missions."

"Because I am currently out of the connection range of the intelligent magic network, many functions have failed."

"I have now entered offline mode. As long as it does not violate the laws of the Magic Alliance, everything is subject to the Master's orders."

The intelligent system performance of this Magitech Knight was quite excellent. After hearing Geralt's question, a series of answers burst out immediately.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 306 =====