9. Of Swords And Dumplings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg_QERhSPpc Location: Novigrad, northern city. Talk about your 'blink n' you'll miss 'em' quests, this extremely long series of fetch quests and sword fights is only accessed through talking to one Hattori in Novigrad, located near the south wall of the city as a yellow exclamation mark. Instead of being story-focussed or having a large narrative pay-off, Hattori is set up as a former elven sword master-turned-dumbling roller who you can tell laments he's left his former profession behind. With some words from Geralt you can set things in motion to get the elf forging again, but this means dealing with the gangs of the city in order to set up some trade routes. The hardest part comes in defeating a gang of 20-plus level Dwarves as they bust in on one of these meetings - something that might put off you low-levellers, but just be sure to hang back, always have Quen active and keep dodging. You'll make it through eventually. Once this is out the way it's mostly a series of fetch quests and a couple of fisticuff brawls before Hattori finally makes something for you (in itself taking another in-game day to prepare), but it's totally worth it if you happen across him around the level 10-15 mark.