Chapter 2: Journey and Preparation.
—
After talking to the village chief and the person who posted the notice, William quickly jogged toward the abandoned mill. From the description of the person that almost died fighting it, the monster that he will encounter is probably a Skeever, a native creature to the Skyrim province.
Thirty years of neighboring land is enough to make some creatures migrate into this place. Through the merchant ships that trade supplies from one continent to another, one or two of these Skeevers managed to land in this land, spreading their species.
So, William is not surprised if some monsters from a different franchise landed in this land. But the question is, are these Skeevers normal? Considering the Second Conjunction of the Sphere. If they are not normal, then this fight will be even tougher than he imagined.
Arriving at the abandoned mill, William draws his steel katana from the scabbard. Walking in front of the dilapidated door, he pushes it open with a sudden movement. Hearing multiple screeches and seeing one of them start running toward him, he quickly backs off into the open field.
The Skeever jumps toward him, and William slashes upward, aiming for its body. Feeling the tough resistance while trying to slash through its body, he quickly throws it to the side. Sure enough, this feels like fighting a Drowner, not at all the weakest monster that he imagined from the game.
Another Skeever jumps toward him. William slashes sideways, intending to injure it just like the first one. Seeing the cut that runs through its belly, making the creature screech in pain, he can be at ease—they are not a threat anymore. But suddenly, his instincts blur with warning.
Unable to react in time, his leg gets bitten by the smaller of these Skeevers. Swinging downward with his katana, he decapitated the rat monster. Looking at the bite mark on the leather armor, which is slightly deeper than what he hoped for, William's frown deepens.
Thinking that maybe taking a contract to hunt a monster will be a little bit harder and pose a challenge, he can only sigh. Turning his gaze back toward the whimpering Skeever that sooner or later will be dead from blood loss, he decided to finish it quickly.
—
[Four months later.]
It's already been four months in his journey across the northern continent. From Redenia to Ellander until finally Kaedwen, the final region before embarking on the ship. A lot has happened, especially after seeing the tattered leather armor in front of him.
Being on the Path sure isn't easy, even though he picks relatively weak monsters to hunt, like Drowner, Zombies, and Skeever. Maybe because this is real life where the concept of easier opponents is only applied in the game to fit the player into the world of that fantasy.
But he still endures to hunt these monsters because he knows this job is the only thing that gives money the most effectively and efficiently. Rather than being a merchant that sells from one place to another, making the journey become a lot longer than it's supposed to be.
Even then, it took four months, with many hiccups along the way, where he needed to be hospitalized fighting those monsters. If not for the distribution of Health Restoration potion that comes from Skyrim, which is already common in this land and easy to make by the alchemist, William might not be alive right now.
Dousing the campfire in front of him, he decides to sleep this early in the night because it is only one ride day away until he reaches Aard Morhen, a coastal city that is directly below Kaer Morhen, where the Witcher School of Wolf is supposed to be.
A place that can be said to be home to one of the protagonists who will later be the deciding factor for this world's demise by the White Frost. Thinking this far, he decides that if the chance arises, he will try to acquire information on his relationship progress with Ciri, the walking nuclear bomb.
Because from what he knows so far, the Nilfgaardians have just begun launching their second invasion. Which means there are still four to six years before those flying dutchman decide to go into full hunting mode, somehow bringing a natural disaster into this land.
Thinking about the villains that can wield frost magic with ease in the Witcher universe, his line of thinking couldn't help but be drawn toward one individual person. "I just hope the timeline will not become more messed up, and Geralt eventually kills Vilgefortz like in the canon. If not..."
Shaking his head and tucking himself in the blanket, William doesn't want to think further about the consequences if a maniac like him were to live. A person capable of moving mountains, creating permanent storm natural disasters with his magic, and having a collection of Djinn at his disposal.
"Sigh. What a drag…"
With one last lamentation, he finally allows himself to be brought into the dreamland.
—
Passing through the Aard Morhen city gate, he then finds an inn near the harbor. Upon arriving at the inn, he heads toward the stable area. Dismounting from the horse, he turns toward the stable boy, tossing a Ducat—a gold coin—and asks him, "Boy, could you tell me the location of Vivaldi Bank here?"
Catching the coin, the boy replies enthusiastically, "Right away, Sir! From here, you go to the left, then after the salon, go to the right. And…"
Listening to the boy until he finishes, he then ruffles his hair. Taking one Ducat from his purse, he tosses it into the boy's hand while thanking the hardworking gremlin. After doing that, he decides to bring all of his belongings into the inn, intending to rent a room.
Anticipating that the ship would not sail continuously every day of the week, he intends to gather as much information as possible concerning the protagonist of this continent and determine how far the timeline is from the book while waiting for the ship to be scheduled.
At the same time, he also wants to convert all of his money and gems into Septims, ensuring that he can conduct monetary transactions with ease in Skyrim later. He doesn't want to rely on the assumption that Winterhold has a convenient way to convert all of his money. Even if there is a method, the conversion ratio might heavily favor the Septim, so he doesn't intend to risk gambling his money and gems away like that.
After renting a room in the inn and placing all of his belongings, he walks through the stable boy's directions earlier and arrives at the Vivaldi Bank branch. Greeting the dwarf at the counter and stating his intentions, he then proceeds to do many menial and laborious tasks, such as signing papers and the like, because the amount of gems is just too huge for a simple conversion transaction.
Finishing the menial paper-signing task, he then receives four baby-sized chests filled with hundreds of coin purses from the dwarf. After thinking for a bit and realizing that the chests attracts too much attention, he decides to temporarily place all of his money at the bank until the scheduled departure of the ship.
So, taking just two purses of coins, he leaves all of his money at Vivaldi, knowing that it will be safe for the time being. After leaving the bank and thinking for a bit, William then decides to go directly to the shipmasters to negotiate the terms of traveling to Skyrim.
Presumably, he negotiates for a ship where the majority of the passengers are merchants. He knows that if he picks a ship primarily for cargo, his chances of being mugged and thrown into the sea are higher, given that the crew likely has close connections to one another.
So, asking for recommendations from nearby citizens, he finds several shipmasters who have high reputations and are trustworthy. Locating the persons on the dock of Aard Morhen, he then negotiates one by one while simultaneously verifying the information from those citizens.
Among those being recommended, he only finds two persons that he thinks are safe, drawing from his subsequent past life experience. Not only that, he feels kind of uneasy about the others except for those two throughout the entirety of the negotiation, perhaps due to his instincts trying to warn him. Who knows.
Finding the scheduled departures for five days later and two weeks later, he subsequently chooses the latter. The reason is that he wants to gather as much information as possible about the daughter-father white hair duo, so that he can plan his future actions in the Winterhold College if he is accepted.
With the reason being that this city is the closest thing he can get for information about the protagonists, so that later he can cross-reference what has changed in the canon timeline and get a clear picture of what was happening and whatever they did.
Bidding farewell to the shipmaster, he secures a good deal, only paying 120 Septims. Considering that the average monthly expenses for most people are 40 Septims, he can say that he only paid 60 Septims for the travel expenses.
Finishing his immediate tasks for the departure, it is time to gather information. Gazing upward at the distant mountain, specifically at the stronghold that stands proudly, his mind starts to move rapidly, trying to come up with a plan to gather the information one after the other.
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