The Suspected Witcher

The battle was completely over when Ailin and Vesemir dismounted from the Greater Griffin.

The exhausted soldiers sat in twos and threes at the mouth of the valley, chatting and dreaming about the future.

This does not comply with wartime military regulations, because if attacked by someone with malicious intent, the army would inevitably suffer heavy losses due to being caught off guard.

But no military judge intervened, because the officers, including the military judges, were themselves very exhausted.

Facing a human army is different from facing a monster. The bloody and terrifying appearance puts a lot of pressure on the soldiers, even with Divine Art protection.

certainly.

More importantly...

Having lost the control of the Evil God and the Monster's Nest, the ghouls are clearly not the intentional beings described above. After scattering and fleeing, they will not launch a counterattack like a human army.

Even so, I was exhausted.

When they saw the Greater Griffin descending from the sky, they still gave it a very respectful welcome and burst into loud cheers.

"The Godslayer!"

"The Godslayer!"

"I also participated in the expulsion of the Evil God ..." Vesemir muttered on the Greater Griffin as he listened to the unified shouts.

"That's true." Ailin agreed.

If it weren't for Vesemir and the Greater Griffin helping him hold back the carnivorous creatures in the valley, there would certainly have been more twists and turns in banishing the Evil God.

"But then again," he changed the subject, "Famous witchers all seem to have some kind of title. Vesemir, I don't think I've ever heard of yours."

That's really strange.

In the original story, Geralt known as the "White Wolf" and the "Butcher of Blaviken." In reality, although the Witcher Master of the School of the Wolf had no intention of spreading their renowned name in Kaer Morhen.

But as far as he knows.

Grandmaster Soyer is known as the "Dragon Slayer," and Aristo, the vice-commander of the Witcher Company, is known as the "Raging Lion." Moreover, both Aristo and Soyer have more than one title...

Titles are often a summary of characteristics and achievements, and also a label that distinguishes one person from another.

After all, the surnames of people in the Northern Continent are difficult to remember, and there is a lot of repetition in human names.

As a centuries-old Witcher Master, he didn't even have a resounding title in a Northern Continent where even ordinary mercenaries had names...

Is this... reasonable?

Facing Ailin's probing gaze, Vesemir blinked his dark golden Cat Eyes:

"Never mind..."

"Unlike you young witchers, I'm past the age of showing off."

Then he lowered his head, pointed to the valley, and abruptly changed the subject:

"Ailin, look, the Sorceress's magic is so amazing. I wish we witchers could use such spells too..."

Do you know that your sentence sounds like you're reading it in a monotone way?

Ailin mentally scoffed, squinting at Vesemir's evasive, dark golden Cat Eyes, his curiosity growing.

What kind of mysterious title is this...?

"I need to find an opportunity to ask someone," he thought. "Aristo and Lady Vesemir should know..."

Then he looked in the direction Vesemir was pointing.

The soldiers were resting, while the priests were busy treating the wounded.

After several battles, the Sorceress, who still retained her exquisite appearance, was harvesting the body parts of the ghouls in the valley.

This is a great fortune.

Leaving aside the Giant Ghoul, the Rotfiend, and the Spiked Fiend, the former doesn't yield much material from harvesting, while the latter two, due to their self-destruction, rarely leave any materials behind.

However, Giant Ghoul are quite rare because of their cowardly and cunning nature, making them difficult to capture and kill.

The intelligent brains, hearts, bone marrow, and even flesh of ghouls are rare finds. Because of their inherent contradiction in alchemy—the "wisdom of the dead"—they are the main ingredients in many potions, especially those with "calming" and "intelligence-enhancing" effects that are useful to sorcerers, making them quite precious.

Vesemir was envious because none of the Sorceress had made a move.

The Giant Ghoul's own flesh and blood seemed to possess sentience, automatically categorizing and separating its grotesque corpse into various materials such as blood, flesh, bone marrow, and internal organs on the ground.

Then the Sorceress waved her wand, chanted a few incantations, and the materials disappeared into the valley.

Elegant and efficient.

Unlike Witcher, who, no matter how skilled they are at cutting materials, inevitably end up covered in blood.

"It's truly amazing."

Ailin casually agreed, squinted and glanced around, then had the Greater Griffin land.

Ianna, Tissaia, and Arthur stood at the edge of the ruins of the Elf Tower, intently watching the deep pit filled with rubble.

"What are you doing?" Ailin walked over and asked curiously.

"You're back..." Ianna was the first to turn around, revealing a kind smile.

"Yes," Ailin nodded, "We've taken care of several Monster's Nest, but many ghouls escaped after the Monster's Nest were destroyed..."

"It's alright," Ianna waved her hand. "Take it one step at a time. We've already banished the Evil God, how can we be stumped by these ghouls?"

"But those ghouls..."

She glanced at Arthur and continued, "We might still need the help of your School of the Wolf to handle this."

"Lord Mason already said this before he came," Arthur continued cooperatively. He looked solemnly at Ailin and Vesemir and said, "Sir Ailin, Master Vesemir, please rest assured that Arland will pay a sufficient reward."

"The previous contract hasn't been completed yet," Vesemir shook his head. "The ghouls will be paid according to the agreed-upon reward. What do you say, Ailin?"

"Of course."

Ailin naturally had no objections. After all, in the last mission to eliminate ghouls, thanks to Ianna's favoritism, the reward for each Ghoul, Rotfiend, and Giant Ghoul had already far exceeded the usual level.

"On behalf of Lord Mason, I would like to express my gratitude to your sect for your help." Arthur's eyes showed gratitude.

Ianna looked at Ailin with satisfaction and chuckled, "Don't worry, Mason has plenty of money, and he possesses a rare quality even among nobles—generosity."

Commonly known as being a sucker?

Ailin thought to himself, "Ianna's smooth talk when I first arrived at the temple a week ago."

"As for your question..."

Ianna turned her head and glanced at the deep crater that Ailin had blasted in front of her.

Inside the deep pit, several Sorceress who hadn't processed the materials waved their staffs and chanted incantations, but nothing happened.

"We want to trace the origins of the Summoning Ritual," Tissaia de Veres said, arms crossed.

Ever since Ailin arrived at these ruins and started talking to Ianna, she has been staring at him with a strange look in her eyes.

It's like... it's like...

Ailin thought about it, and it seemed to be the same as when he saw his mentor discover a very promising research subject in his previous life.

Research materials...

I?

Under the increasingly fervent, almost mad gaze of Tissaia de Veres, Ailin couldn't help but shiver.

"Tissaia!" Ianna frowned and snorted.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Tissaia de Veres smiled gently and apologized, "It's just my occupational hazard..."

Occupational disease?

Ailin felt even worse.

"Dean..." The Sorceress emerged from the pit, her beautiful eyes lingering on Ailin for a few seconds before she hesitantly reported to Tissaia, "There's nothing there..."

Hearing this, Tissaia shifted her gaze and frowned. "Not a trace at all?"

trace?

Ailin turned his head to look at the bloody ruins in the deep pit and raised an eyebrow.

"We've all tried it," the Sorceress said, glancing at the other Sorceress who had come up. "It's very clean. Not only is it completely impossible to restore, but if I hadn't just witnessed it with my own eyes and felt the evil pressure of the Evil God, I would have thought that nothing had happened here and that it was just a dumping ground for ghouls."

She paused, then continued, "Our magic isn't very advanced, but the Dean should be able to find more..."

Tissaia shook her head. "Herbert Stamford's Restoration Spell on the same principle. At most, I can surpass you in the scale of my spellcasting because of my magic and Divine Power."

"But something that leaves no trace cannot simply appear out of thin air because the releaser has changed."

"What do you mean?" Ianna frowned.

The Sorceress explained, "According to magical deductions, not only has no Evil God ever descended here, no Summoning Ritual ever existed, but even the tower from the original elven empire era never stood in this valley..."

"Otherwise, you would at least see a broken tower restored to its original state by now, and perhaps the remains of the Summoning Ritual would still be standing on it."

"This...how is this possible?" Arthur stared incredulously at the deep pit.

Even setting aside the Evil God, there was a huge mass of flesh and blood mixed with pale bones exposed nakedly in the air in the deep pit.

On the occasional fallen rubble of the elven tower, elven-style carvings are clearly visible.

If neither of these two things exist, then what is he seeing now?

Hallucination or dream?

Arthur couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine.

The Sorceress, her brows furrowed in displeasure at Arthur's questioning of her professional abilities, said, "It is difficult for me to explain to an ordinary person like you the great magic created by Herbert Stamford, the founder of the Brotherhood of Sorcerers, to restore ancient ruins."

"But on a magical level, this place is just a pile of rubble and scraps of ghoul flesh... no... it doesn't even qualify as a ruin..."

"Could it be because of that Evil God?" Vesemir glanced at the silent Ailin and asked.

"Possibly..." the Sorceress nodded, but then, as if remembering something, her tone became questioning, "But Herbert Stamford's Restoration Spell have repaired cities destroyed by Evil God, and..."

"It seems... this has never happened before in the magic usage log..."

She spoke with certainty, but at the end, she still looked at Tissaia.

"There's no record of 'Herbert Stamford's Restoration Spell ' in the spellbook," Tissaia acknowledged, confirming her memory.

Then he fell silent, head bowed in thought, as if pondering something.

The surroundings immediately fell silent.

A moment later, the Sorceress had finished organizing all the materials about the Giant Ghoul when someone suddenly broke the silence.

"Do you have the materials you want?" Ianna asked with a smile.

After looking away from the pile of Giant Ghoul materials, Ailin paused for a moment, then nodded without hesitation:

"I have a recipe that requires some ingredients from Giant Ghoul. Could Ms. Tissaia sell me some?"

The Giant Ghoul Decoction to manipulate adrenaline, greatly enhancing his strength, agility, and reflexes; this has become his most frequently used potion.

Other ingredients for the Giant Ghoul Decoction, such as buckthorn and Dwarven Strong Alcohol, are easy to find.

Even the Lesser Red Mutagen are provided by the Swamp Hag Mutagen Inducer and the Greater Griffin Mutagen Inducer; while not many, at least they have a source.

The only thing you really need is the marrow of the Giant Ghoul; if you don't find it, you don't get it.

However, he also knew that during the earlier meeting, the temple, Arland, and Aretuza had agreed on three points: as a foreign aid source who had come from afar and was not charging a fee, Aretuza had the right to use and control all monster materials used in the war, although...

He was the one who banished the Evil God.

However, Ailin was not short of money, and he had a commission relationship with Arland, but not with Aretuza. To avoid trouble and disputes, it would be better to just buy some directly.

Presumably, the Sorceress, as "comrades-in-arms," would not refuse.

"The formula?" Tissaia asked, intrigued. "Is it from that Sword Oil series?"

"No, it's a different kind of potion," Ailin added, seeing the burning look in Arthur's eyes. "It's highly poisonous and only witchers can drink it."

If only witchers can drink it, then it must be a recipe he came up with himself...

Tissaia glanced at Ailin in surprise. She had always thought that Vesemir's apprentices only knew how to make Sword Oil, a magical but crudely made product.

"A potion? There's already a finished product?" she asked.

Ailin nodded. Since only witchers could use the potion-making technique, he simply explained the function of the Giant Ghoul Decoction.

Manipulating adrenaline... an amazing idea...

Because of its exclusive use by witchers, Tissaia was certain that this decoction wasn't the brainchild of Vesemir, that Sorceress who hated trouble.

after all.

She's had a complicated relationship with the Witcher Soyer for hundreds of years, yet she hasn't created a similar formula for her lover. Could she possibly create one specifically for a Witcher alchemy apprentice?

"You're very good!" Tissaia nodded approvingly at him. "Vesemir has found a good apprentice... What materials does she want?"

"Giant Ghoul Marrow".

Tissaia glanced at the Sorceress who was finishing up and nodded. "When we get back, I'll have someone send over all the Giant Ghoul marrow."

They've all been sent over... Ailin roughly calculated the number of Giant Ghoul corpses he had just seen, as well as the terrifying price per unit of Giant Ghoul marrow, and was stunned for a moment.

Does he have enough money?

He actually only wanted to buy some, but the Witcher's need for the Giant Ghoul Decoction made it impossible for him to say "just a few dozen kilograms will be enough".

"How many Oren?" He swallowed hard.

Tissaia laughed, "We Aretuza are not that shameless, nor that poor."

"Actually, if you want them, I should give you all the materials for these Giant Ghoul, since you were the one who banished the Evil God."

"But..."

"Although Aretuza doesn't care about these materials and is doing this for the sake of the ancient covenant, she can't have come all this way for nothing..."

Ailin breathed a sigh of relief.

"Of course," Tissaia continued, "It would be even better if you could answer one of my questions as a reward."

"What's the problem?"

The witcher's body, which had just relaxed, tensed up again under the Sorceress's seemingly casual gaze.

"Tell me, Ailin," Tissaia's eyes seemed to glow with a faint light.

"You believe the complete disappearance of the traces is because of the Evil God..."

"Or is it because of you?"