Back in his room, Guilliman did not indulge in lust again, embracing the young widow for a morning exercise or anything of the sort.
He sat alone in the living room, legs crossed, eyes closed, assuming the Witcher's meditation posture, his right hand gripping the Axii Sign, and entered a meditative state.
At this rate, it would take about a day for those three scoundrels to be completely worn away.
This was the difference between intelligent beings and low-level monsters.
Low-level monsters mostly only possessed basic biological instincts and aggressive desires; they had no memory capabilities, nor much complex thought or emotion, with an intelligence level not much different from ordinary livestock.
To digest their souls, one only needed to absorb them directly, without any extra preparation, at most only making his emotions a bit more irritable for a short time, which was harmless.
The more than one hundred points of soul power he previously possessed were mostly collected this way.
But intelligent beings were different.
Their souls not only contained years or even decades of memories, but also tangled desires and thoughts; a large amount of information mixed together, like a ticking time bomb, very dangerous.
If their souls were absorbed directly like low-level monsters, the vast amount of information contained within these souls would explode like a bomb, directly impacting Guilliman's soul.
Not only would it cause him various negative effects such as mental disorder, emotional imbalance, and soul cracks, but in severe cases, it could lead to multiple personalities, soul damage, memory loss, or even brain death.
The first soul sublimation progress he gained was because of his inexperience at the time, directly absorbing the soul of that Temeria deserter.
The intense soul shock caused him to fall unconscious for several hours, followed by several days of mental weakness.
This was also because the other party was just an ordinary human soul, and his soul power was not strong enough.
Of course, doing so was not without benefits.
Risk and opportunity often coexist.
His reckless actions back then not only allowed him to gain a part of the deserter's memories, enabling him to understand many of this world's customs and history, but also directly gave him his initial means of self-preservation, [Temeria Military Swordsmanship].
Therefore, from then on, Guilliman decided that unless the target's memory contained extremely important information or abilities, he would not forcibly absorb the souls of other intelligent beings unless his own strength was sufficiently powerful.
He had to crush their souls into dregs like this before absorbing them to ensure safety.
However, in this case, apart from the soul power contained within, other memories and abilities would not be obtainable.
Time quickly came to early morning.
When the gentle morning sun shone through the window into the house, Madam Judith, who had been restless all night, also woke up.
The diligent young widow felt a bit ashamed upon waking because she had uncharacteristically not woken up early.
But she soon discovered, to her surprise, that her spirits were quite high, and the gloomy emotions accumulated from various past sorrows and angers seemed to have been swept away; her entire person became radiant.
Connecting this to the Witcher in the living room, who had mysterious magic and could conjure food out of thin air, and with whom she had been restless all night, she quickly suppressed her surprise and secretly glanced at the man who was meditating.
"You're awake, Madam Judith."
As if sensing the woman's gaze, Guilliman opened his eyes, a gentle smile on his face, and continued:
"Perfect, I'm also about to investigate clues about the culprit."
"Please tell me the address of the three hunter brothers' home. I'll still be staying here tonight, and I'll bring back some food then."
"You don't need to prepare dinner tonight."
Hearing that the Witcher would be staying here again tonight, Madam Judith's mind filled with the various embarrassing positions from last night, and her face couldn't help but flush slightly.
Just as she was about to give the address of the three hunter brothers and thank the Witcher for his help, she heard Guilliman say earnestly:
"Oh, and Madam Judith."
"The matter of payment is separate. You can go to the orchard during the day to confirm if the monster has been cleared by me."
"Not a single Oren of the twenty Oren reward can be short, alright."
...After leaving Judith's house, the first place Guilliman went was the home of the three hunter brothers.
No matter what game he played, his favorite part was always the time spent looting spoils.
Although those spoils weren't necessarily valuable, the sense of accomplishment from continuously acquiring unknown items, like opening a treasure chest or drawing a lottery, made him both expectant and delighted, a rare enjoyment.
Moreover, unlike ordinary farmers, in the Witcher world, where populations were sparse and beasts and monsters roamed, hunters, in addition to hunting, usually also took on multiple roles such as butchers, herbalists, tanners, and even mercenaries, making them quite rare multi-skilled composite talents.
They could not only frequently eat meat and possess strong bodies, but also earned a good amount of money by selling goods.
Though dangerous, in terms of treatment, they were probably only slightly worse off than the highly respected blacksmiths, and their living conditions were much better than other commoners.
And fortunately, for the convenience of hunting, hunters usually lived near forests, and guys like the three hunter brothers, with their bad temperaments and frequent misdeeds, preferred to stay away from crowds.
Therefore, Guilliman's scavenging operation went quite smoothly.
Using the Witcher's keen senses, he not only avoided potential witnesses nearby but also discovered the anti-theft traps set up around the house.
In the end, he collected about sixty-odd Oren in coins, a large amount of air-dried and tanned animal hides, animal teeth, animal meat, and some other materials and hunter equipment.
The total value was at least over three hundred Oren, virtually emptying the house of all valuable items.
If Guilliman hadn't had the storage space granted by the system, he wouldn't have been able to carry so many things.
However, precisely because of this, plus the three hunter corpses collected that morning, the total storage space of only one cubic meter was almost ninety percent full.
As a hoarder player who loved collecting various items, Guilliman now urgently hoped to accelerate the progress of soul advancement to upgrade his storage space as soon as possible.
Otherwise, it wouldn't be long before he would find himself in the awkward situation of being unable to take away his spoils.
And having resolved this matter, Guilliman no longer delayed, and while it was still early, he headed in the direction of White Orchard, as informed by Judith.
After about two hours of travel, the familiar yet unfamiliar village from the game gradually appeared before his eyes.