"If you truly find a way to significantly increase the survival rate of the Trial of the Grasses, allowing our numbers of Witchers to grow rapidly I know this will take at least ten years, perhaps even longer."

"But for us Witchers, decades or even centuries are but a fleeting moment."

"These days, monster hunting contracts are already not as good as before, and work is becoming harder to find. The employment environment will only get worse in the future, but then there will be more Witchers flooding the market, I'm afraid…"

Ox was not intentionally contradicting Lynn.

He was just worried.

When the Old Brotherhood split, the pioneers of the Viper School followed Anahid and left the Brotherhood.

But later, they betrayed Anahid, and after almost killing him, they continued to migrate south.

It was precisely because the Viper School, like the Cat School, didn't mind taking assassination contracts to survive…

Therefore, the Witchers of the Viper School were more realistic in their considerations.

Now, these Witchers were all considered Lynn's subordinates.

And Lynn couldn't possibly abandon the brothers and teachers of his own school.

This meant that Vesemir, Lambert, and Eskel would all join in.

This added three more mouths to feed.

And no matter how well Vesemir and those two Sorceresses did in improving the Trial of the Grasses, some of the children who came with them all the way to Kaer Morhen would surely survive the Trial of the Grasses.

Didn't this increase the population that needed to be supported?

What if the number of Witchers continued to increase?

Since Letho and the others did not know Lynn's financial situation, this made the realistic Ox unable to help but worry.

If this trend continued, it would only be a matter of time before the number of Witchers broke through fifty, or even a hundred.

And Lynn, could he pay the salaries of a hundred Witchers?

What if he went bankrupt? How would so many Witchers be settled?

Witchers now could no longer be said to be living, but surviving.

Work is already so hard to find now, so if the number of monsters becomes even fewer in the future, and the number of Witchers increases instead, wouldn't the situation be even worse then?

Ox's words were also the sentiments of Letho and Serrit.

The Viper School was different from the Griffin School.

The Griffin School could survive even without remuneration, as long as they had the gratitude of those they helped.

But the Viper School, having long lived in the more realistic, more cruel, completely impersonal, and coldly rule-bound Nilfgaard Empire, was accustomed to expecting the worst in everything.

Ox's words immediately resonated with the others.

Even Tissaia and Yennefer looked over curiously, wanting to see how Lynn would answer.

Although the Brotherhood of Sorcerers of this era was plagued by many ills, it still stood like a great mountain.

Therefore, in the eyes of ordinary people, spellcasters were lofty beings.

But in reality, only that handful of top Sorcerers at the pinnacle of the pyramid could monopolize all resources.

The lives of ordinary Sorcerers were not as comfortable as imagined.

Take Yennefer, for example.

Because of her reputation, noblewomen would come to her if they wanted an abortion.

Even though Yennefer's fees were much higher than those of ordinary Sorcerers.

But those noblewomen were willing to queue up to give Yennefer money.

Ordinary Sorcerers, without such a great reputation, could only rely on the knowledge they learned in the academy to become herbalists, Alchemists, or other related professions.

This was the current situation for most spellcasters.

Unlike the powerful Sorcerers in minstrel songs and street-side storybooks who could turn mighty armies to dust with a laugh, most Sorcerers in reality did not possess such strength, and most resources were monopolized by high-ranking Sorcerers, leaving them to scramble for the scraps that fell through the cracks.

Regarding this situation, the Brotherhood of Sorcerers never even thought about how to improve it.

Because high-ranking Sorcerers regarded low-strength ordinary Sorcerers as mere mortals.

Therefore, they never thought about what to do for those ordinary Sorcerers; they only cared about what these ordinary Sorcerers could do for them.

Thus, these two Sorceresses were also very curious, wanting to know what Lynn planned to do if he truly succeeded in mass-producing a large number of Witchers.

Facing the many gazes gathered upon him, Lynn smiled slightly.

He repeated what he had previously told Tissaia: that if he helped Istrad, Istrad promised to allocate a piece of land in Kovir to him.

Except for Geralt, Tissaia, and a few other insiders, everyone else was greatly surprised.

"Geralt, I remember you also participated in that escort mission. Is what this kid Lynn said true?" Lambert looked at Geralt in shock.

Geralt nodded.

Eskel asked, "Then do you think he will keep his promise?"

Geralt first shook his head, then nodded: "I… I don't know, but Lynn thinks he will, and I trust Lynn."

"Land, a territory belonging to the Witchers themselves."

On the other side, Letho, Serrit, and Ox all had their eyes light up, and their faces involuntarily showed a longing expression.

Even the former headquarters during the Old Brotherhood era—the Mograg Castle in the Kaer Tor Mountain Range—was not, strictly speaking, the Witchers' territory, but an ownerless land that the Witchers had taken over.

That's why Alzur and Cosimo were able to continue their plan of cultivating Witchers in that castle.

As for the various schools that split from the Old Brotherhood, this was even more so.

It was precisely for this reason that they needed work to support themselves.

But if they could obtain a territory, it would be different.

Just like the knightly orders bestowed with titles on the Continent, they could obtain most of the labor output from their subjects without engaging in production themselves.

This way, even if monsters were to die out completely in the future and no one posted monster hunting contracts anymore, they wouldn't have to worry about starving.

Of course, Letho and the other two never thought of becoming anyone's masters.

After all, Lynn was their employer now, and the head of the Tissen Family had only just reached an agreement with Lynn.

Although the Viper School was realistic, they were not rebellious, and through their contact with Lynn during this period, they realized even more that this impossibly young Witcher was unfathomable and terrifying.

Ever since the Viper School's stronghold was conquered by the usurper emperor of Nilfgaard, Letho and their ideal and goal had only been to rebuild the Viper School.

They had never dared to imagine that Witchers could even obtain a territory like a knightly order.

It was because Lynn harbored grander ideals than them, and he was not just boasting, but truly working towards this goal, that Letho and the other two had no improper thoughts whatsoever; instead, they held Lynn in even greater reverence.

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