When they approach the training ground, they saw Geralt just came back from his travel. He was currently talking to Triss about something.

“I’m sorry Geralt, but I can’t help her with my powers alone, we need help.”

Geralt didn’t speak and look at her.

“Look, this is awkward for me as well, but my ability to help Ciri was limited. Yennefer was our only hope.”

Geralt sigh and scratch his chin

“Your right”

“Geralt?”

Geralt looks at Ciri and frowns.

Ciri's case of uncontrolled trance was getting worse.

According to Triss, some great magic beings were dwelling inside Ciri. It’s was so powerful that Triss can’t even contain it. The only way they can help Ciri was to ask the help of his old sweetheart Yennefer.

Although was reluctant to agree, but with Ciri’s condition, he needs to set aside his pride and seek the help of his old flame.

“We will travel Ellander and it will be a long journey. Go and preserve your strength, we will leave tomorrow morning.”

Then he looks at Illyah.

“I want to come.”

Geralt just nod and pat her head.

She just pouts because Geralt always treats her as a child. Well with her child size, it can’t be helped.

Then he left and enter the castle.

She looks at Triss who was looking pale.

“Master-“

“Go and be ready."

“Understood”

-

The next day, Joan was walking with a large bag behind her.

“What are you- “

Ciri look at the bag and gawk.

“We must be ready anytime, so I brought all we need in our journey.”

Ciri mouth twitch looking at the giant bag. She just shook her head and approach Geralt, Triss, and Vesemir who was already waiting for them. Geralt and Triss were strangely quiet.

When Triss looks in her direction, she rubs her temple.

“I’m not going to ask; you better bring that yourself.”

“Yes, mam”

Triss just rolls her eyes and climb the horse.

“What's in the bag by the way?” Vesemir asks curiously

“Herbs”

“…”

“Go on, climb up.”

They both climb on their horse.

“Giddyup!”

Geralt kick the horse side and raise the reins making the horse gallop forward, they follow after him leaving dust along the way.

Vesemir watches their back at the last minute as their shadow can no longer be seen before he enters the castle.

-

While on the road, Triss frown when she felt pain in her stomach. She cringed when she felt another one, she guesses she has been food poison. She was looking pale while sweat starts to pool on her forehead.

“Wait!”

“Hmm?”

Geralt stops the horse and look at Triss.

“What's wrong?”

“Can we stop for a bit?”

“Sure”

All them stop at the road, Joan slid down the horse with her bag. She can feel the horse getting exhausted because of the overweight bag.

“Sorry about that, let me help you for a bit.”

Then she starts using healing energy on the horse. The horse began to relax neighing in happiness.

“Good boy” she rubs the horse side gently while looking at Triss.

Although she can heal Triss illness using potions, she still can take it, no harm done. It’s not like she was a narrow-minded woman trying to get revenge on Triss for trying to kill her over and over again. No, she was a decent girl who believes in karma and justice.

That’s why when Triss asks if she brought herbs for an ailment, she was sad to say that she forgot to bring anything that can ease her stomach pain, making Triss paler.

Ahh, I mean oh no! whatever should I do? Of course…nothing hahaha! Take it bitch! Feel the pain I experience for these two years!

So while they were traveling, they stop many times that Geralt was forced to help Triss by bringing her to his mount.

Triss looks gratified and lovingly at Geralt. Ciri just looks at these two and shakes her head. While Joan was staring at the sky with a gentle smile on her face.

-

They travel slowly because of Triss condition until they came upon an outpost.

“Halt!”

They were stopped before they can approach. Three patrolling soldiers approach them looking vigilant at them.

A soldier frowns when he saw the state of Triss is.

“Please leave, you’re not allowed to enter these premises.”

“Why?”

“Sorry lad, your companion seems to be sick”

“She just has little stomach pain, it’s not severe.”

The soldier vehemently shakes his head.

“Sorry, but you will need to find another way.”

Geralt frown and look around him.

The outpost was overflowing with merchants and soldiers. If they can’t pass here, they will need to take another long route to reach their destination.

“Why don’t you try the merchants? You might find some people willing to take you.” the other guard help recommend.

Geralt looks at the caravan everywhere.

“Thanks…”

He looks at Triss who was physically weak.

“Stay here, I’ll just check if anyone can take us.”

Then he leaves the three girls.

“Shall we inquire then?”

“And leave Triss unattended?”

Ciri sigh and look around curiously while Triss looks at her with gratitude.

Suddenly Ciri heard a commotion near her.

“I’ll just check it out for a bit.”

Ciri approaches the crowd who seems to be in the middle of the debate.

She put the giant bag down and stretches her body making it crack.

“Better.”

She looks at Triss who was still sweating.

“Your alright?”

Triss just nod and bit her lip.

Later Geralt appeared.

“Where’s Ciri.”

Joan point at the direction where Ciri is, Geralt look at the direction she points and frowns when he saw Ciri talking to some stranger.

“Ciri!”

Ciri looks back Geralt, then she said goodbye to the man and approach them. Geralt didn’t say anything and but remember the face of the man Ciri was talking too. Clearly, Geralt Dad mode has been activated.

“Let’s go, there was a caravan leading to Ellandar but it already left, we might still able to catch up with them if we go now.”

They didn’t say anything and start climbing their horse. They lead their horse out of the outpost and pursuit the caravan.

-

After trailing after the caravan, they finally catch up with them after a day of travel.

Before they can approach though, riders stop them midway.

“Who are you- “ a dwarf man riding a horse with an ax behind him approach them.

“Yarpen?”

Yarpen gawks and looks at the familiar white hair fellow.

“Geralt? Is it you?” then he laughs loudly

“Look everybody, it's our friend witcher!”

Everyone look curiously at Geralt and shouted in glee.

Soon the caravan stop and all of Geralt's old acquaintance approach them.

-

Soon the caravan begins its travel again along with four new companions.

Geralt was talking with Yarpen about the current political situation.

Ciri looks down as if thinking of something, Triss condition was getting better since the caravan has medicine for this kind of situation. Currently, Triss was resting.

“Do you think…Non-human and man can co-exist?” Ciri asks Illyah who was currently processing herbs.

Joan stop and tilt her head.

“Is that a political question?”

“Does it matter?” Ciri frown

“Yes, it matters,” she said

Joan continues processing the herbs by using a mortar and wooden pestle.

“In the belief of everyone is the same, Human and non-human were all living things, they have emotions, dreams, and hope. The non-human was not different from us”

“Right?!” Ciri became bright when she hears it.

“But…They were non-human. They were different from us as they were different from them. Us, humans were afraid of change and different. Because of that, we fear them leading to hate, and this hate transforms into the word we called racism."

"While the non-humans were keeping their traditions and keeping up with the time. Although they became civilized from ancient times, they still believe in harmony in nature. They are not greedy and their ability to reproduce was less than humans."

"We, humans were greedy creatures. We want something that others have. This is called resources. We gave birth like locust and start spreading our seeds around the world."

"While we were spreading our seeds like wildfire, the non-human is watching everything in the sidelines believing in their power that no human can defeat them and they can make them vanish as long as they have the so-called magic. It’s called arrogance."

"We began to expand built cities and make rules. Unlike the stable life of non-human, we progress fast, making the populations rise resulting in a lack of resources. Because of this, we used this hate we called racism to invade and kill discriminately that were non-human righteously."

"Before they knew it, non-humans were already in danger of extinction, and it's too late for them to fight back. They were forced to leave their homes and move into the inner forest or mountains to avoid the eye of human empires."

Ciri trembles as she heard Illyah every word.

“But it’s the natural way of the world, the strong become the victor and the weak become slave and bones. This is the inevitable cycle of the world we live in.”

“Can’t we stop the human from expanding? Are they not happy with what they have?”

Joan smirk hearing the naïve thoughts of Ciri

“Human won’t be happy as what they have, as I told you before, they are very greedy creatures.”

Ciri became quiet., unknowingly to them, others began to eavesdrop on their talk.

Triss was now awake and she heard everything, she looks complicated as she just sighs.

Outside the caravan, Geralt and Yarpen heard the conversation of two girls.

“Your girl…she was very smart.” Yarpen looks complicated as he looks back at the caravan.

“Yes, she’s too smart for her own sake.” Geralt said while looking ahead while pondering on Illyah’s word.

-

The caravan stop midway because it was almost dark and they need to stop.

Ciri quietly left the caravan to clear her head, but Geralt saw her and quietly follows.

Triss frowns and looks at herself.

“I need a bath.”

“You can ask them yourself”

Triss just snort.

“Where’s Geralt by the way?”

“He’s babysitting,” Joan said

Triss sigh and look outside.

“Humans…were complicated creatures. They were weak, but they were also strong.” She murmur

Suddenly Joan stops processing her herbs and looks around her.

“We got company.”

“Hmm?” Triss frown

“50 hostiles, they were approaching here fast.”

Triss became serious and stood up.

“Warn the others”

“I already did.” While they were talking, Joan already informed everyone around her with telepathy.

She opens her bag and pulls out a crossbow and her potions she stored.

Thunderbolt potion – increase 30% attack power- 30-sec duration

Tawny oil – increase 5% stamina regeneration – 30-sec duration

These two potions were one of her creations since she has learned alchemy. She tried creating more superior than them but due to her limited use of [Mind Enhancement] skill, she can only create 1 superior potion a day. Unlike superior potions, she doesn’t need to use her [Mind Enhancement] when creating normal ones.

As a rule, to brew a potion, you need intense training in concentration and high intellect when creating one. Alchemist needs high wisdom to memorize and control their flame on the right amount. So that means the wis stats of mages were higher than 30 were required when working as an alchemist.

While you were concentrating on the details of the potion, you also need to maintain and control the fire using magic.

In this era, temperature control or oven wasn’t built yet so you have to rely on yourself to control the fire. Thankfully she has D rank energy regeneration so she doesn’t need to be worried about the energy getting siphon easily. Thanks to this, she has learned the skill;

[Fire energy (D)] - Using an unconventional way, you transform your energy into the fire. You can now control fire more convenient. Decrease 30% energy consumption when using this skill.

She has D rank energy, but her body was only 20 stats. Although it’s double the average human energy, it can’t compare to a certified alchemist who their body was overflowing with mana. That’s why when Triss found out her energy was only for a lower class mage, she began using her as an experiment. Yes, she became a guinea pig because she was only durable.

As the more potions became complicated, the more concentration she needs to invest. Due to her ranking up [Mind Enhancement], she can only use it in 1 minute. After that, she will experience severe headaches making her lose concentration. That's why she can only create one super potion a day. Whenever she attempted to use her brain again, she experiences nausea and dizziness making her unable to do any activities for a day. So if it's not important, she doesn't want to use her brain enhancement when creating super potions.

Last but not the least, the alchemy circle. The alchemy circle has a different essence of elements called the interaction. Using the ingredients you have created, you mix it along with the alchemy circle you have chosen and let the ingredients absorb its natural energy, that's how the effect of the potion created.

There were different kinds of circles used to create potions, some need a combination of alchemy circles to create a more complicated potion. We called them advance alchemy. By using them, we can create a stronger potion we called enhanced potions.

Sadly, she can't create one, first, she needs someone to teach her to advance alchemy, second; her current wisdom stat only allowed her to create normal potions. Creating more superior need higher stats of Wis which is far from happening. Not to say about enhancing that was way more complicated than superior in creating the potion.

Suddenly there were commotions everywhere. The guards began to gather around the caravan, although they were doubtful, they still follow the order of their leader. They look around the forest vigilantly. All they heard was the rustle of trees.

When they began to doubt if there was even an enemy, they heard the sound of “twang”

Subconsciously they raise their heads and their eyes bulge when they saw arrows flying to them.

“Enemy attack!”

They immediately raise their wooden shields on time when the arrows hit them.

Then their enemies appeared rushing out of the forest; they have long pointed ears and wearing leather armor. They have a bow on their back with a long sword in their hand.

“Scoia'tael!”

“Bastards, kill them, boys!”

“Arrgh!” the dwarf pulls out their axes behind them clash with the elves.

The other humans began to draw their swords and clash with the incoming elves.

Joan heard the clash of blades outside. She gets out of the caravan while Triss tried to stand up but shaken due to dizziness, she still recovering from her illness after all.

“Don’t force yourself milady, you’ll do no good in your condition.”

“And you can protect me?”

“I’ve been trained by Geralt for two years, it must be something”

“Hmm True…” Triss look at her condition and sat up at the edge of the caravan. She can’t directly join the battle, but she can support them momentarily if the situation becomes dire.

Joan began to load the crossbow with bolts and use her skill true shot continuously, although, without mind enhancement, she can’t calculate the exact route and their movements, the true shot was enough for these cannon fodder.

When she activated the skills, she saw two routes leading to two elves. With weapon mastery D, she raises her crossbow and starts shooting two targets every second.

[True shot] was a skill that will randomly hit an enemy, if she’s lucky, they will be shot in the head or their heart directly and if not, they will be hit in random parts of their body.

The elves seeing their companion getting hit by a bolts look at the direction where it came from, they saw a little girl shooting bolts at them.

“Kill that child!”

The other elves run and approach her.

She drops the crossbow and drinks the two potions, she became stiff and black veins began to spread inside her body, she grits her teeth and pulls out her two silver swords from her back.

“Let’s play!”