Chapter 176 Blood of the Mountain Stone
Yadai Town.

The estate of the Earl of Burns.

"Boom!"

An orange portal suddenly appeared in the center of the room.

The sudden change in space brought up a strong wind, which blew out the candles.

The silk curtains, valuable oil paintings, and bookshelves filled with rare parchment books were all shaking constantly.

"Da da da~"

With the sound of crisp footsteps, a young man wearing a long pointed hat walked out of the portal.

He is the vice president of Ban Ade College, a member of the Feren family whose titles span three countries, and the former son of the legitimate family, Janes Feren.

After Jaynes walked out of the portal, he looked at the empty long table in front of the king with regret.

When using the portal, he also intentionally expanded the fluctuations of tearing space, but he didn't expect that the king didn't have a meal.

"Ah! My dear 'Big Eater', what is it that has deprived you of your appetite?"

"Great Lord of Kaedwen, are you so anxious that you can send servants to rush me here?"

Jaynes looked at Hackathal cynically, and his tone sounded like that of a court jester.

Hackso didn't care, his face was serious:

"Three days ago, the guards I sent to search for the target encountered a group of rock trolls at the base and suffered heavy losses."

Jaynes leaned on the windowsill and looked at the king with a smile: "Uh-huh, so what?"

"I just got the news today..."

"Oh, that's really bad news!" Jaynes interrupted, his gloating smile getting even bigger. "It seems that the king's guards are not very kingly, are they?"

Jaynes didn't know why Hackso exposed his problem of controlling his guards to him.

But that didn't stop Jaynes from taunting the king.

Hackso had a blank expression on his face, not affected at all, and continued:

"After I learned the news today, I invited Dragon Slayer Soi to go with my army tomorrow morning to deal with those damn monsters..."

Jaynes fiddled with the guard's sword nonchalantly. "Hmm? Then what? You called me here just to cry to me that your soldiers were beaten by a group of monsters..."

"And Ms. Vera just came, and she's going to join in as well."

"Qiang!"

Janes had pulled out the sword halfway and his right hand trembled, and the sword slid back into the sheath.

Jaynes frowned, "What do you mean, Ms. Vera?"

"Willa the Sorceress, Vera of Toussaint, the Bloody Red Fox—Villa..."

"Sigh~"

Jaynes took a breath:
"Are you saying that the bloody red fox will join the team to defeat the rock trolls?"

Hackso nodded.

"This is impossible!"

"Ms. Vera is not a newly graduated witch apprentice from Aretusa. How could she be interested in exterminating monsters..."

"Even if she is short of alchemical materials... With her coveted wealth, she doesn't need to obtain any rare monster materials herself..."

"Even unlike those female sorcerers in the Warlock Council who appear to be quiet and elegant on the surface but are ambitious in secret, she has never shown any desire for power..."

"Ever since the Ailerian uprising, she has devoted herself to alchemy and made many achievements that shocked the entire wizarding world..."

"Do you know how many breakthroughs she has made in alchemy..."

As he listened, Hackso's eyes became strange.

Perhaps sensing the king's gaze, Jaynes paused and concluded:
"In short, Ms. Vera can't possibly be interested in conquering the rock trolls!"

Hackso was silent.

Of course, he was not speechless because of Jaynes's persuasion.

He was just not sure whether he should ask Ben Ade to find a different wizard to cooperate with.

"Couldn't Ms. Vera have come across my commission when she came to see Grand Master Soi, so she could have dealt with those rock trolls at the same time?"

"Impossible, Ms. Vera should be busy at this time..."

Before he finished speaking, Jaynes' eyes turned:
"Anyway, you just need to know that Ms. Vera is not going to waste her time accompanying that damn freak to hunt rock trolls."

Hackso looked even stranger.

"But Ms. Vera is at this manor now and will set out with us tomorrow morning."

Jaynes' expression froze.

Yes, since the sorceress is here, there must be something attracting her.

But it is absolutely impossible that it is because of the witcher or just these reasons...

and many more!

Jaynes suddenly looked up at Hackso:

"You mean the soldiers searching for the target encountered rock trolls at the base?"

Hackso looked unhappy, thinking that Jaynes was pulling his scar again.

But I didn't wait for his response.

"Rock trolls are different from water ghosts. They are intelligent. In order to avoid retaliation, they rarely attack humans..."

"and……"

"Rock trolls usually live in remote mountains or caves. How did your people encounter them?"

Jaynes looked at the king seriously.

Hackso originally wanted to briefly describe the cause. After all, it was not honorable to sacrifice hundreds of elite knights and soldiers because of two petty thieves. This unruly wizard would surely laugh at him.

However, under Jaynes' insistence, he could only tell the whole story with a grim look on his face.

Rarely, Jaynes did not take advantage of the topic, but instead asked with a change of expression:

"How's the search going?"

"Humph!" He was furious when talking about this Huxo. "Three days ago, you told me that it would only take three days at most to catch them."

"Now my people have almost completed the search area you set, but still haven't found them."

Jaynes ignored Hackso's complaint and asked very quickly:

"Have you caught those two thieves? Or do you know what they are doing in the camp?"

At this time, Hakesuo also noticed something was wrong, and his expression became serious:

"what do you mean?"

"Perhaps what we are looking for is not on the ground all along," Jaynes gritted his teeth, "Ms. Vera may not be here for the demon hunters, her target is the gem!"

"Reject her, Hackathal."

Jaynes ordered in a serious tone.

"Who are you to give orders to your king?" Haxol scolded, pretending to be nonchalant, "And I have already agreed."

"what!"

Jaynes took a few steps closer:

"Have you forgotten the contract between us?"

"We will help you find the person and kill him, but the gem must belong to us, Ban Ade."

"Hakso, do you know the consequences of breaking the contract? Even if you are the king of Kaedwen, Ban Ader can..."

Feeling threatened, Hackso interrupted with an unpleasant look on his face:

"Of course I remember."

"But no matter why Vera came here, whether her purpose is the same as yours, she already knows the place."

"Would you rather allow a powerful sorceress to wander out of our sight?"

Jaynes was silent.

He looked at Hackso seriously for a long time.

"Don't betray, don't take chances..."

"If we don't get the gem, someone will be in trouble even if he joins Lady Vera."

Hackso sneered:
"Are you threatening me?"

"No, this is just an exhortation," Jaynes suddenly smiled, "a sincere exhortation!"

"Humph!"

Hackso snorted.

"In addition... no matter whether the two thieves who broke into the camp were elves or humans, and whether they were after money, to save people, or for our gem..."

"They've been in there for three days!"

"The night is long and full of dreams, my dear king."

"Why not move the hunting time forward to tonight!"

Jaynes gently brushed the oak table in front of the king with his right hand and suggested. After lowering his head and pondering for a moment, Hackso hesitated:
"But my army cannot tonight..."

"It's alright, my dear king, it's alright..." Jaynes interrupted gently, "Powerful monsters cannot be defeated by numbers. I will personally lead the wizards of Ban Ade to participate in the hunt."

……

Abandoned mine.

The mist, so faint that it was almost invisible, drifted against the cave wind into the gap between the rock troll's corpse and the rock wall.

"Whoo~"

In an instant, the fog condensed.

The demon hunter, carrying two swords on his back and holding an arm bone of strange proportions in his hand, squatted lightly on the ground, also squatting in a pool of blood.

“I guess I’ll never get used to the feeling of fogging in my lifetime!”

The witcher endured the discomfort of his stomach churning and looked not far away. He saw Aelin disappear and condense after turning into mist. Francesca, who was covering her mask in surprise, nodded.

Although it may cause physical discomfort, the hiding effect of atomization is really good.

At a distance of nearly twenty meters, not a single rock troll noticed him.

As for why not using mirage beads?
Ailin reached out his hand to the pool of blood on the ground.

He left a row of bloody footprints in Shanshitou's nest. Was he afraid that Shanshitou wouldn't know that he had stolen the house?

"Ding! Do you want to absorb the blood of the rock troll?"

Hearing the familiar system prompt tone, Ailin's eyes suddenly lit up.

It works.

He had just been worried about whether obtaining blood would require living blood, and whether it would require voluntary blood donations from rock trolls like big rocks, small rocks, and broken rocks.

After all, a summoning mission is not a hunting mission, and there is no need to hunt monsters.

"Roar!"

A roar came from not far away.

Mixed in with this were human curses, war cries, violent collisions, and the sound of metal clashing.

The demon hunter hiding behind the body of the rock troll was not distracted by the noise.

Atomization, current, atomization, current...

Ailin held the little mist demon's arm bone tightly and moved back and forth among the corpses of the rock trolls.

During this process, he noticed that most of these rock trolls died from cut arteries and excessive blood loss.

Retracting his gaze from the scorched and blackened cut wound, Ailin looked at the wound that could only be caused by a weapon containing extremely high purity silver, and thought:

"In addition to inviting demon hunters, the human army does have other ways to deal with large monsters."

[Ding! Mission: Summoning I (Collect Rock Troll Blood 10/20)]

Collect all the blood from the seven bodies.

Ailin breathed a sigh of relief and looked intently at the core of the fierce battlefield.

Three tower shields taller than a person were erected side by side at the entrance of the cave that was only wide enough for five people to pass through, blocking the place tightly.

A faint magical aura flows on the huge black shield.

This is definitely not an ordinary tower shield!

The demon hunter thought.

next moment.

"Crack!"

Shan Shitou broke the three-meter-high stalagmite with his bare hands and smashed it towards the center of the tower shield.

"Boom!"

The sound of metal colliding was countless times louder than the temple bells in the previous life.

"what?"

The demon hunter's blue cat pupils shrank drastically.

The tower shield in the center seemed to be rooted in the ground like the other shields, not moving at all.

"What exactly are these three shields?"

Looking at the faint ripples in the center of the shield, Ailin was extremely surprised.

"boom!"

After this blow, the rock seemed to lose some strength and dropped the stalagmite to the ground.

"Whoosh!"

At this time.

Several arrows with flashing silver arrowheads suddenly shot out from behind the shield wall.

But most of them were blocked by the hard stone shell of the mountain stone, and a small part shot into some non-fatal parts.

Arrows shot at other rock trolls were also blocked by the trolls' hard shells.

Due to their small size, not even a single rock troll was injured.

no doubt.

Such a skilled and ineffective exchange of offense and defense between the two sides must have happened many times.

"Just why?"

The witcher was curious.

"The rock trolls were forced to fight. Why did the Kaedweni army do such a thankless task of harassment..."

"and many more!"

"Harassment?"

Ailin suddenly discovered that although the rock trolls on the front line of the battle looked aggressive.

However, judging from their attacking posture, they are obviously not as powerful as they were three days ago.

[…Trolls…don’t eat…humans…]

Dashitou's words suddenly popped into my mind.

Yes, rock trolls are ogres in most monstrosity books though.

But according to Big Rock, most rock trolls don't eat humans unless they have to.

Thinking of this, Ailin was stunned for a moment and looked around.

indeed!

Although the cave was in a mess like hell, there were indeed no signs of humans being eaten.

"The Kaedweni soldiers' purpose is clear."

"They're consuming these rock trolls!"

Let them starve, let them be tired, let them lose strength, and finally find an opportunity to kill them.

Not only that.

The raging flames ignited by the torches burned the places where the corpses were most densely packed.

It was a net that grew tighter and tighter, and the rock trolls had no way of escaping.

"What a pity those soldiers are my enemies!" Arlin thought. "They are even more powerful enemies than the rock trolls."

Every soldier who survives here may become a sharp arrow in the hands of the King of Kaedwen in the future, piercing the heart of Kaer Morhen.

then.

The demon hunter had an idea.

"Puff puff……"

There was a slight sound of landing, accompanied by a strong stench. Large chunks of rotten flesh piled up behind the body of the rock troll, in the blind spot of Francesca's vision.

Eighty percent of the inventory in Ailin's inventory was dumped out.

Judging from the appetite of the big stone, this amount of rotten meat is enough to feed the twelve rock trolls for ten days.

This still includes the consumption of rocks.

"I wonder if the king will like this gift from me?"

Ailin couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth.

Subsequently.

The demon hunter took out the arm bone of the little fog demon and planned to turn into fog and leave.

suddenly.

The image of the rock being wounded by the silver arrow appeared in my mind.

Instinctively looking at the pit about five meters ahead, the demon hunter squinted and stared for a few seconds, then his eyes suddenly lit up.

There was a shallow pool of blood in the pit.

"It's the blood of the mountain stone!"

(End of this chapter)