The Witcher World: The Path to Domination Begins in Velen

Gretka lay on the edge of the lab bench, her eyes wide open. The liquid in the bottle glowed faintly blue under the magic light. She reached out to touch the bottle opening, but Kayla slapped her hand away from behind.

"Don't touch it, this isn't for you to play with."

Kayla sat on a high stool in front of the lab bench, opening her thick notebook. She was writing an observation log, the quill pen gliding across the paper.

The handwriting was neat and meticulous. Greta stood quietly for a few minutes, then her curiosity was like boiling water being pushed open from the edge of a pot lid.

"Will drinking this make you fly?"

Kayla didn't even look up: "No."

Kayla rubbed her temples with her fingers and looked at the potion on the table. "Don't ask anymore, just hand me the blue one on the table, be careful not to spill it."

Greta stood on tiptoe, cupped the pale blue potion in both hands, and carefully handed it to Kayla.

The bottle swayed slightly in her palm, leaving a thin trail of fluorescence on the inner glass. She paused to look at it for a while longer.

Something was floating deep within the dark blue potion; fluorescent green specks of light rose one by one from the bottom of the bottle, like scattered stardust.

She thought she had shaken the bottle and quickly placed it on the lab table. The bottle stabilized, but the fluorescent green speckles did not disappear; instead, they became even brighter.

As the starlight slowly gathered towards the bottle's opening, Gretka took a half-step back, and the starlight floated in the direction she stepped back, trying to follow her fingertips and flow away.

"Teacher, it's glowing."

Kayla's quill, which was about to dip into the ink, froze in mid-air. She put down the pen, turned around the high stool, and watched Gretka carefully extend her finger.

The light gathered at her fingertips, moving gently with her fingers as if drawn by a tiny gravitational force.

Kayla took the potion from her hand, her expression no longer languid but scrutinizing. She opened the drawer and took out another sample vial: "Try it again."

Gretka took the spare sample, and the fluorescent green specks reappeared, gathering above her palm and pulsating slightly.

Kayla watched the whole process from behind, her fingers covering Gretka's hand, feeling the elements flowing towards the girl's fingertips in a very small amount of motion—it was no accident.

Kayla tapped her knuckles on the table. The vial was a remnant of her research before the Gathering Hall collapsed—a potion for quickly testing a child's magical talent.

Previously, the selection of warlocks required experienced warlocks to conduct lengthy tests on children, which was time-consuming and extremely costly.

To this end, she developed a more convenient detection method, but before it could be widely adopted, the sorcerer became a pariah. She looked down at Gretka.

The tone wasn't that of someone who had discovered a talented child, but rather like someone assessing a subject they had long sensed but were reluctant to face: "Do you want to learn real magic?"

Gretka clenched her fist and nodded without hesitation: "Yes, I want to learn the real thing!"

"Then you're not allowed to run away halfway through learning."

Gretka shook her head frantically, her ponytail slapping loudly, "No, no, no!"

Kayla was silent for a few seconds, then flipped to the last page of her notebook, wrote a few lines in the blank space, put down her pen, and stood up: "I'll talk to Ron."

At night, Geralt was walking from his guest room toward the courtyard. As he crossed the stone path, Kayla emerged from the direction of the laboratory. The two met by a low wall. Kayla saw him, stopped, crossed her legs, and leaned against the wall, reverting to her usual languid tone: "White Wolf, I've made a major discovery." Geralt stopped, waiting for her to continue.

"The kid the sergeant brought back has a high affinity for magic, not just at the level of an ordinary sorcerer, but at the level that would allow the former Brotherhood to cut in line."

Geralt stood still for a moment, then said, "What, is Kayla Metz thinking of taking on an apprentice? That's not like you."

"Ha, who knows? I didn't even expect it myself." She turned to leave, then paused, turning back to point in Geralt's direction with her fingertip.

"By the way, the blacksmith Brom at the manor is a true master. If you're thinking of getting your tattered clothes repaired, you can go to him. But Brom doesn't just take on any job." Then he picked up his teacup and left.

Ron had just returned from the waterworks and was sitting at the table looking through the list of finished products sent by the workshop when Kayla knocked twice and then pushed the door open and came in.

She recounted the entire talent test process from beginning to end, from the activation of the potion to the elemental activation that had enveloped Gretka's fingertips.

She didn't make any decisions for Ron, but simply laid out the facts, including the whole story of how she developed this rapid testing system years ago.

After listening, Ron remained silent for a long time. "She can choose for herself, whether it's alchemy, potions, magic, or something else. I won't make the decision for her directly." Kayla nodded.

That evening, Geralt placed a roll of parchment on Ron's desk, with a cross knot tied around the edge.

Unfolded, it reveals an extremely neatly copied alchemy recipe, with each line indicating the required herbs, minerals, extraction ratios, and usage cycles. The handwriting is concise and devoid of any embellishment.

"Before the Trial of the Grasses, Witcher apprentices undergo years of intensive training, during which they take supplementary potions..."

It can effectively improve strength, physique, and recovery ability, and is equally effective for ordinary soldiers, but the dosage needs to be adjusted and reduced, since soldiers do not undergo subsequent mutation processes.

"The formula can be given to Kayla; she knows how to mix it. With this formula, qualified soldiers can be trained quickly."

"You saved Ciri, I owe you a favor." Ron picked up the parchment, scanned it from beginning to end, then folded it and put it in his pocket.

When Kayla heard about this, she came out of the lab, glanced at the list, and pressed her finger on the spot marked "Toxicity Reduction".

"The toxicity of this potion will naturally dissipate if a Witcher apprentice successfully mutates, and there's no need to worry about it if they don't succeed. However, it won't work for ordinary soldiers. The specific dosage needs to be tested and improved. I will monitor the first batch of people who take it throughout the process."

She refolded the parchment and put it back in her palm. "The formula itself is fine, and," she paused, glancing back in the direction of the lab she had just been in,

"This is enough to lay a good foundation for the little slug's magical education. Leave the improvements to me, but you owe me a big favor, Witcher," Geralt snorted through his nose without saying a word.

Kayla left with the parchment, still muttering about whether a certain potion formula could be changed to use varieties already grown on the estate.

A few days later, on an ordinary afternoon, in the direction of the herb garden, Gretka and the girl with pigtails were squatting together identifying herbs.

Kayla poked her head out of the lab window and called out, "Little slug, class has already started, and you're late again!"

Gretka jumped up from the edge of the herb garden and ran towards the stone house. The girl with pigtails chased after her for a couple of steps and called out.

"Can I come find you after school!" Gretka waved her hand twice as she ran, then rushed into the blue glow of the laboratory.