Witcher: Master Kiliman’s Grand Ambitions-Chapter 5: Arrival at White Orchard

After returning to the room, Kiriman did not indulge in any more pleasures, nor did he cuddle the young widow for some morning exercise or anything like that.
He sat alone in the living room, legs crossed, eyes closed, assuming the Witcher’s meditation posture. His right hand formed the Soul Capture seal as he entered a meditative state.
At this pace, it would probably take a whole day to completely eliminate those three troublesome pests.
This was the difference between intelligent beings and low-level monsters.
Low-level monsters mostly only possessed basic instincts and aggressive desires. They lacked memory capacity and complex thoughts or emotions. Their intelligence was not much different from ordinary livestock.
To digest their souls, one only needed to absorb them directly without extra preparation. At most, it might make his mood irritable for a short while, which was no big deal.
Most of the over one hundred soul points he previously had were collected this way.
But intelligent beings were different.
Their souls contained memories spanning years or even decades, tangled with chaotic desires and thoughts. A massive amount of information was mixed together like a ticking time bomb—extremely dangerous.
If he absorbed their souls directly like low-level monsters, the vast information hidden inside would explode like a bomb, directly impacting Kiriman’s soul.
This would not only cause him mental confusion, emotional disorders, and soul fractures but could even lead to multiple personalities, soul damage, memory loss, or brain death in severe cases.
His first progress in soul ascension was due to his inexperience; he absorbed the soul of a Temerian deserter directly.
The intense soul shock caused him to lose consciousness for several hours and suffer mental weakness for days afterward.
That was because the other party was just an ordinary human soul, and their soul power was not very strong.
Of course, this approach wasn’t without benefits.
Risk and opportunity often coexist.
His reckless action back then not only allowed him to acquire some of the deserter’s memories—helping him understand much about this world’s customs and history—but also granted him his initial self-defense technique: Temerian Military Swordsmanship.
From then on, Kiriman decided that unless the target’s memories contained extremely important information or abilities, and unless his own strength was sufficient, he would no longer forcibly absorb the souls of other intelligent beings.
He had to grind their souls into dust first before absorbing them to ensure safety.
However, doing so meant that aside from the soul power contained within, other memories and abilities could not be obtained.
Morning soon arrived.
When the gentle morning sun streamed through the window into the room, Lady Judith, who had been tossed and turned all night, finally woke up.
The diligent young widow felt a bit ashamed for rarely waking up late, but she soon found herself surprisingly energized. The gloomy emotions accumulated from past sadness and anger seemed to have been swept away, and she was glowing with vitality.
Thinking about the Witcher in the living room who wielded mysterious magic and could conjure food out of thin air after their night together, she quickly suppressed her surprise and turned her gaze secretly toward the meditating man.
“You’re awake, Lady Judith.”
As if sensing the woman’s spying gaze, Kiriman opened his eyes and smiled gently, continuing,
“Just in time. I’m going to investigate clues about the killer.”
“Please give me the address of the Hunter Brothers’ house. I’ll still stay here tonight, and I’ll bring some food back then.”
“You don’t need to prepare dinner tonight.”
Hearing that the Witcher would stay here tonight, Judith’s mind flashed through the various embarrassing positions from the previous night, causing her face to flush slightly.
Just as she was about to tell him the Hunter Brothers’ address and thank him, Kiriman said seriously,
“By the way, Lady Judith.”
“Let’s keep payment and everything separate. You can go check the orchard during the day to confirm whether I’ve cleared the monsters.”
“The twenty Orens reward—every single coin counts.”
………………
After leaving Judith’s house, Kiriman’s first stop was the Hunter Brothers’ home.
No matter what game he played, his favorite part was always scavenging loot.
Although those loot items were not necessarily valuable, the feeling of constantly acquiring unknown items was like opening treasure chests or winning prizes—exciting and enjoyable, a rare pleasure.
Unlike ordinary farmers, in this monster-infested, sparsely populated Witcher world, hunters often worked as butchers, herbalists, tanners, or even mercenaries—versatile multi-skilled talents.
They frequently ate meat and had strong physiques. The money earned from selling goods was considerable.
Although dangerous, their treatment was only slightly worse than high-status blacksmiths, living conditions much better than other poor people.
Fortunately, to facilitate hunting, hunters usually lived near forests. Those with unpleasant personalities who often caused trouble, like the Hunter Brothers, preferred to stay away from crowds.
Thus, Kiriman’s scavenging went quite smoothly.
Using the Witcher’s keen senses, he not only avoided possible witnesses nearby but also discovered anti-theft traps set around the house.
In the end, he collected more than sixty Orens in coins, a large amount of dried, tanned animal hides, fangs, meat, and various other materials and hunting equipment.
The total value exceeded at least three hundred Orens, nearly emptying the house of all valuable items.
If not for the system’s storage space, he wouldn’t have been able to carry so much.
Because of this, along with the three hunter corpses collected that morning, his one cubic meter storage space was almost ninety percent full.
As a hoarder player who liked to collect various items, Kiriman was now eager to accelerate his soul advancement and upgrade his storage space as soon as possible.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be long before he faced the embarrassing situation of not being able to carry his loot.
After settling this matter, Kiriman didn’t waste more time. Taking advantage of the early hour, he headed toward White Orchard as Judith had told him.
After about two hours of travel, the village in the game—both familiar and strange—slowly appeared before his eyes.