Chapter 2: The First Hunt and a Grimm's Awakening
Adam, still buzzing with the sheer, unadulterated glee of having Ciri—the Ciri—as his reluctant sidekick, wasted no time. The first order of business, after a surprisingly decent breakfast prepared by the mansion's phantom staff, was a trip to the System Store.
"Alright, System," Adam muttered, staring at the mental interface. "Time to get serious. Or, you know, as serious as one can be when buying industrial-strength body-dissolving acid from a magical video game menu." He selected the Acid of Dissolution.
[ Item Acquired: Acid of Dissolution. Inventory Updated. ]
"Excellent!" Adam practically clapped his hands. "Now we're talking. No more messy cleanups. This is efficiency, Ciri. This is how you adult in a world of monsters."
Ciri, who was sharpening her silver sword with a stone she'd magically produced from… somewhere (Adam decided not to ask), merely grunted. "You speak of efficiency, yet you spend days hitting trees. We have work to do, Witcher. There are whispers in the city. Bad men. And I feel… restless."
"Whispers? Oh, you mean the news," Adam corrected, pulling up a local news app on his phone. "Yeah, I saw it. Petty criminals, drug dealers, the usual Portland flavor. Perfect for our Level 0 grind." He tapped his chin. "Okay, Ciri, tactical briefing. We hit the docks first. Low-level thugs, easy XP. I'll draw aggro, you flank left, use your superior agility. Think of it like a raid, but with less loot and more… dissolving."
Ciri paused, her sharpening stone scraping against the blade. "What is 'aggro'? What is 'XP'? And what is a 'raid'?"
Adam sighed dramatically. "Right, no video games in your universe. Okay, 'aggro' means I'll make them mad at me so they focus on me. 'XP' is experience points, which we need to level up. And a 'raid' is when you go into a bad guy's lair and kick their teeth in. Metaphorically. Or literally, depending on the bad guy." He grinned. "Just fight, Ciri. Fight like you always do. And try not to get any on the rug. Or, you know, on yourself. This acid is surprisingly effective."
Their first few nights were a blur of quick, brutal efficiency. Adam, still getting used to his newfound strength and reflexes, found himself surprisingly adept. A punch that would have merely bruised in his old life now sent a grown man flying. A knife slash, aimed at his arm, barely broke the skin, healing before Ciri could even finish her worried grunt.
"See?" Adam said one night, after disarming a particularly aggressive drug dealer with a casual flick of his wrist. "Flesh wound. Barely felt it. This Witcher durability is the real MVP."
Ciri, who had just dislocated the dealer's shoulder with a precise kick, raised an eyebrow. "You are… resilient. For a human."
"I'm not just a human anymore, Ciri. I'm a transmigrated human with a System. It's like a human, but with extra steps. And less dying. Hopefully." He then proceeded to pour the Acid of Dissolution onto the unconscious criminal. The organic matter began to hiss and bubble, quickly turning into a dark, viscous liquid that seeped into the concrete. Adam hummed a cheerful, slightly off-key tune as it worked. "Well, that's one way to avoid paperwork. Take notes, Ciri, efficiency is key."
Ciri just shook her head, a faint, almost imperceptible smirk touching her lips. "You are… strange."
"It's my brand, baby. Embrace the chaos."
Meanwhile, in a completely different part of Portland, Detective Nick Burkhardt was having a very different kind of day. It started subtly, with a woman's face momentarily shifting, her features elongating, her eyes turning a predatory yellow. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and the image was gone. He dismissed it as fatigue. Then it happened again, and again. A man on the street, his face contorting into something wolf-like. A woman in the park, her skin rippling like scales.
"What the hell is going on?" Nick muttered to his partner, Hank Griffin, who was, as usual, oblivious.
The strange visions were coinciding with a gruesome serial killer case. Young women, abducted, murdered, and left with strange, almost animalistic wounds. Their investigation led them to a deserted warehouse, a place that reeked of something primal and wrong.
Back at the mansion, Adam was checking his System.
[ Kill Count: 6 Human Equivalents. Kills to Level 1: 0. ]
[ Level Up! Current Level: 1. Kills to Level 2: 2. ]
"Boom! There it is!" Adam exclaimed, pumping his fist. "Level 1, baby! Who's the Witcher now?"
Ciri, who was inspecting a small cut on her arm from a particularly feisty thug, looked up. "Does this mean we find more… interesting prey?"
"Oh, you bet your silver sword we do," Adam said, a glint in his eye. "Because according to my highly reliable, totally not-from-the-future intel, things are about to get really interesting in Portland. And by interesting, I mean 'monster-of-the-week' interesting. Get ready, Ciri. The show's about to begin."