A Bountiful Harvest and a Man's Awakening

"Bite!"

[Subdue the following monsters: "@#￥%&" LV?, "Summoning Ritual" LV92, "Corpse Lord" LV81, "Monster's Nest" LV79, "Spiked Fiend" LV73, "Grave Hag" LV67, and "Giant Ghoul" LV63!]

The weakness brought on by "Beast Roar: Berserk" made the System Notification in my mind particularly jarring.

The flood of settlement information, which he was already used to, made Ailin feel the same drowsy feeling he had when he first obtained the Witcher's Handbook and the settlement of the subjugation.

Suddenly everything went black, and my body swayed precariously on the back of the Greater Griffin, almost falling off again.

"Are you really alright?" Vesemir asked worriedly, supporting him and refusing to let go.

"I'm a little exhausted," Ailin stopped being stubborn, "But I'll feel fine after resting for a while when we get back to the temple."

Vesemir braced himself on his left arm, allowing his other hand to grip the Greater Griffin's mane.

"Why don't we go back first?"

"Ianna's situation should be wrapping up by now."

Vesemir tilted his head and glanced at the ground.

The shouts and clamor emanating from the valley where the Summoning Ritual took place gradually subsided.

Ghoul creatures are monsters that prey on the weak and fear the strong.

With so many soldiers, priests, and sorcerers around, those beasts are probably fleeing in disarray and won't attack the large crowd.

Otherwise, the hunt for Ghoul with Ernie and the Monster Hunter Army a few days ago wouldn't have been so difficult.

"No need," Ailin shook his head, giving Vesemir a pale smile. "I'll just sit and rest for a bit. Ianna and Tissaia are almost done too..."

He banished all the Evil God.

Leaving at this time is not like doing a project in your past life, where you single-handedly overcame the biggest challenge but didn't get to attend the final project completion report and celebration.

When it's time to reap the rewards, saving a little bit of insignificant effort results in losing a considerable amount of goodwill from subordinates and clients.

It's not worth it! It's not worth it!

Vesemir stared into his eyes for a few moments, and seeing the unwavering look in Ailin's eyes, could only nod.

Ailin breathed a sigh of relief and sat down.

After indicating that the Greater Griffin was hovering nearby, he closed his eyes in a meditative posture and opened the Witcher's Handbook.

moment.

"Whoosh~"

A barrage of system notifications appeared.

[Subdue the following monsters: "@#￥%&" LV?, "Summoning Ritual" LV92, "Corpse Lord" LV81, "Monster's Nest" LV79, "Spiked Fiend" LV73, "Grave Hag" LV67, and "Giant Ghoul" LV63!]

[Rewards Settlement: Victory over the enemy, base rating D, kill above level +3 to C, decapitation strike deterrence +3 to B, victory against overwhelming odds +3 to A]

Final rating: A

[Loot obtained: 1 @#￥%&'s Element @#￥%&, 1 Summoning Ritual's Flesh Core, 1 Heart Essence Fluid of the Corpse Lord's Heart, 5 Monster's Nest's Core Nucleus, 7 Spiked Fiend's Heart Essence Fluid, 1 Grave Hag's Heart Essence Fluid's Heart Essence Fluid the Giant Ghoul's Heart Essence Fluid of the Ghoul's Heart, 90 Heart Essence Fluid the Rotfiend's Heart, 12 Experience Orbs, 5 @#￥%&'s Chest @#￥%&, 5 Summoning Ritual Chest, 5 Corpse Lord's Chest, 5 Monster Nest Chest, 5 Spiked Fiend's Chest, 5 Grave Hag's Chest, 5 chests of the Giant Ghoul's Chest, 5 Ghoul's Chest, 5 Rotfiend's Chest]

"Still can't decipher the gibberish?" Ailin immediately noticed the strange characters that appeared right after the settlement. "There's not even a level..."

He continued looking back.

"The Summoning Ritual is complete. The Corpse Lord and the Grave Hag should be large monsters summoned by the Conjunction of the Spheres of the Rotfiend and the Giant Ghoul..."

"The large monster summoned by the Conjunction of the Spheres of the Ghoul was killed by a single tentacle during the Summoning Ritual, so it naturally won't be counted in my subjugation calculation, therefore..."

Ailin suddenly became excited:

"There's no mistake, the gibberish must be that big-eyed Evil God who calls himself the Seer Lord of Supreme Truth."

He knew that because they had arrived early, the Summoning Ritual must not have been completed, and with so many eyeballs sacrificed along the way, the Evil God was probably incomplete, or just a "divine thought" or "divinity," if the gods in the Witcher world had the concept of "divine thought" or "divinity."

Even so, it's still quite remarkable.

At least his title of "Godslayer" carries more weight than those heroes in epics who merely banished Evil God.

"No wonder the ' Lord of Supreme Truth ' unleashed such a powerful Mental Fluctuation at the very end... However..."

"[Demon Hunter] can not only kill various demons with a power that is close to the power of rules, but can even destroy the avatars of Evil God."

What exactly is the origin of "The Witcher's Handbook"?

Ailin frowned slightly.

Every time he thought he had discovered the limits of the Witcher's Handbook, the Witcher's Handbook would slap him in the face with the facts.

What rank would a skill capable of killing Evil God be?

More importantly, why choose him from among Witcher's Handbook of this caliber?

What is its purpose?

Could it also be White Frost?

Ailin closed his eyes, his index finger unconsciously tapping his thigh as he reviewed everything that had happened since obtaining the Witcher's Handbook, and speculated about it.

The ultimate conclusion of all speculations about the high-level powers in the Witcher world seems to fall on "White Frost"—this mysterious apocalyptic disaster.

"White Frost..."

He murmured to himself.

Now, his only way of accessing this concept is through the Wild Hunt.

"After returning, I'll still have to stay in Ban Ade's prison. If I can't obtain the Elder Speech from the Sorcerer's Memory, I'll have to learn it from Ianna or Vesemir..."

Ailin had a premonition.

Among the Immortal's Memory Crystal, he should be able to glimpse the true face of "White Frost".

"Let's keep reading..."

Ailin's attention returned to the system notification from the Witcher's Handbook regarding the completion of the subjugation.

The evaluation was only an A, which to be honest surprised him.

He originally thought that with the Conjunction of the Spheres, he could at least get another +3 settlement rating for Drive Wolves to Devour Tigers, which would at least give him an S-level rating and double the settlement reward.

However, the Witcher's Handbook does not seem to agree that the large monsters summoned by the Conjunction of the Spheres can constitute Drive Wolves to Devour Tigers.

"But then again..." Ailin thought, "Including the first monster that was killed by a tentacle whip on the cliff, I don't even know what the three ' Otherworldly Visitor ' look like, so they certainly didn't pose any threat to the Summoning Ritual or the Evil God ..."

On the contrary, the intense spatial fluctuations caused by the convergence of the latter two Conjunction of the Spheres actually did him a great favor.

The newly summoned Evil God's spirit and the physical body involved in the Summoning Ritual created a disharmony, allowing him to break free from the Evil God's mental constraints at a crucial moment, activate Balmor, and fully accumulate the progress for demon hunting.

"There are many aspects of this battle to expel the Evil God that require reflection and thought, but there's no rush..."

Ailin's gaze continued down to the spoils, and then he saw the glittering loot that almost filled his entire field of vision.

We're rich! We're rich!

Although such large-scale melee is very dangerous, the rewards are equally substantial.

Putting everything else aside, the Heart Essence Fluid the Giant Ghoul's heart alone is enough for Vesemir to use.

The more than two hundred Ghoul hearts were enough as a reward for the members of the Monster Hunting Legion to use for a long time.

Aside from the slightly low number of Experience Orbs, this was a great harvest. Even just the Experience Orbs Experience Orbs were a reward of 190 from completing the three hunting missions.

In total, this battle yielded 202 Experience Orbs.

Ailin took a deep, satisfied breath. The aftereffects of "Beast Roar: Berserk" seemed to have largely subsided under the soothing effect of the Experience Orbs.

He then glanced at the loot, his gaze returning to one of its @#￥%&'s Element —@#￥%&.

Then, with a thought, he jumped to his inventory and quickly found a cloud of mist.

A purple, hazy, and beautiful cloud, like the mist of a star cluster in the universe.

At first glance.

Ailin almost forgot to breathe; every cell in his body burst forth with an intense longing, like a lock finding its key, or a traveler trekking through the desert spotting an oasis.

"Gurgle~"

He instinctively swallowed.

What is this thing... he asked himself.

[@#￥%&'s Element Name: @#￥%&]

[type:?]

[Function:?]

[Note: Knowing too much before you have the necessary skills is sometimes not a good thing.]

Looking at the panel that had been identified, Ailin remained silent for a moment.

He was already close to reaching the pinnacle of Witcher prowess. No, with so many skills at his disposal, he even felt that his strength not only surpassed that of other Witcher Master but had even exceeded that of Grandmaster Soyer.

Given the School of the Wolf's standing among all Witcher schools in the Northern Continent, he should now be the strongest Witcher in the Witcher world.

"Isn't this level of strength enough?"

Ailin was itching to use this @#￥%&'s Element containing the gibberish right now.

However, remembering that he was still on the back of the Greater Griffin, he worried that using the element would make too much noise, so he suppressed his instinctive desire.

He stared mesmerized at the shimmering, purple, star-like mist in his inventory for a few moments, then took a deep breath:

"Soon, when I get back to the temple."

Then he opened his eyes, grabbed the Greater Griffin's mane, and stood up.

"Good Girl, let's go down." Ailin patted the Greater Griffin's neck.

The Greater Griffin responded with a cry, flapped its wings, and landed in the valley that was Light Spell and firelight in the darkness.

"Don't you need to rest a little longer?" Vesemir asked.

"That's enough," Ailin shook his head. "The shouts of battle have stopped, Mother Ianna should be wrapping things up."

valley.

"I actually survived..."

Lawson Roche wiped the foul-smelling blood from his face and stared blankly at the silver blade in his hand, its golden sheen now completely faded, making it appear ordinary.

"Those damned Ghoul, some died and some ran away, of course you survived."

Sala squinted as she watched the last Ghoul disappear into the forest. She sheathed her longsword and leaned against the cliff face next to Lawson Roche.

Lawson Roche followed his gaze and saw the dark, deep forest, and couldn't help but shiver.

Just now, the Ghoul's sharp teeth, dripping with foul-smelling yellow saliva, were only a fist's distance from his face, then suddenly stopped, saving his life once again.

"Lord Sala, after those monsters started killing each other, they charged the lines so frantically," he asked, puzzled. "Why did they suddenly run away?"

"You do not know?"

Sala, panting heavily, raised her head, which was still a little dazed from the end of the battle, and looked in surprise along the blood-stained axe to Lawson Roche, who was covered in foul-smelling blood.

After a few glances, it was only from that face, which was covered in an indistinguishable mixture of blood and dust, that one could discern the person's identity.

"Yes, you shouldn't know." He disgustedly threw away the long, dark red strip of flesh from his shoulder, and continued, "This cowardly and bullying behavior is exactly what these damned monsters should look like."

"Having encountered so many of us and been beaten so badly, these monsters would have fled long ago in the past."

Seemingly recalling some unpleasant memory, Sala frowned and spat. "I chased them with my brothers for a month, and we didn't even kill a few Ghoul."

"What was the reason before?" Lawson Roche asked.

Seeing his interest, and since she didn't have any tasks to complete, Sala was happy to share her knowledge with him.

Unlike the Monster Hunter Army and the Guard Knight, the Throwers didn't actually know much about this mission, which was simply to prevent the Evil God from descending, otherwise Arland would be destroyed.

The key to recruiting people wasn't actually how eloquent the temple priests were or how detailed their explanations were.

Instead, it was backed by the reputation of the Duke Mason and the Temple of Melitele.

With plenty of time, Sala thought for a moment and then recounted in detail the process of eliminating ghouls with the witchers over the past few days, all the way to discovering the Monster's Nest and the Summoning Ritual.

It was also mentioned that the reason why the ghouls were so crazy was because Monster's Nest and Summoning Ritual could control them.

"So those monsters that suddenly fled just now were all because of...?"

"That's right," Sala said, raising his chin proudly. "Someone like you destroyed the Monster's Nest, or rather, Sir Ailin destroyed all of Monster's Nest."

"Really?" Lawson Roche instinctively questioned.

He clearly saw another, more mature demon hunter with a pair of dark golden, majestic beast eyes also climb onto the flying monster.

"Of course it's true!" Sala stood up abruptly, as if she had been provoked.

He seemed to have guessed Lawson Roche's thoughts and quickly explained, "I know Sir Ailin and Master Vesemir very well, why would I lie to you?"

"Do you know about the demon tide on the night of the May Festival...?"

Sala recounted Ailin's deeds one by one, leaving Lawson Roche completely stunned.

Ailin...

Was I saved again by that shy child at that May Festival?

To be honest, even after shouting "Godslayer" several times, Lawson Roche still found it hard to connect the ruthless witcher who "kills gods and demons" with the boy in his mind.

"Lawson Roche? Is that his name?" Sala suddenly asked from beside her.

"Huh?" Lawson Roche paused for a moment, then nodded. "My name is Lawson Roche."

"You're not a professional soldier," Sala said, recalling the middle-aged man's valiant performance in the battle just moments before. "The war is over. What are your plans? Would you like to join our Monster Hunter Army?"

Lawson Roche paused for a moment, stunned.

He certainly knew about the Monster Hunter Army, and he also knew that the army under Lord Mason had changed since May Festival.

The requirements for recruitment were very strict; they selected almost exclusively from veterans, not civilians, and the benefits were excellent.

If it were before getting married, he would definitely have agreed without hesitation.

But now...

Thinking of his wife and two children at home, Lawson Roche shook his head, intending to refuse.

At this moment.

A commotion arose in the valley.

A hideous and ferocious monster descended from the sky, flapping its wings.

As dawn broke, the brilliant golden light dispelled the mountain mists and shone on the monster and on the slightly disheveled but spirited young face.

The Witcher of this moment was no longer the shy and naive figure remembered, but rather...

Like a hero...

The heroes in the hearsay stories he told his children before bedtime.

But...

A child is a child. Does he have to rely on a child to save his hometown and his family every time?

Even if he was a witcher.

Are we always to be kept in the dark, until we're on our deathbed, without ever knowing why we're dying?

No!

He preferred to personally blow up the monsters that disrupted his peaceful life, just like he did today!

The crowd cheered.

Lawson Roche didn't join in the cheers. Instead, following the throbbing in his heart, he couldn't help but turn his head to look at the man who was just as disheveled as him, and pleaded:

"Lady Sala, I want to join the Monster Hunter Army!"