Chapter 340: Strange Rise and Fall of Strength
The next day.

"Don't use your damn magic props near the magic materials I bought!"

A loud-voiced dwarf yelled at the solid stone gate of Vergen, forcing the checkpoint guards holding magic badges to retreat and allow a caravan to enter the city quickly.

He is the lord of Vergen, a dwarf forging master who was abducted by King Demaev II of Aedirn for his forging skills - Holden Qui-Gon.

Perhaps knowing that the witcher did not want to be involved in the war between the two countries, the dwarf Horton did not alarm the knights of the King's Knights who came specifically to ask the witcher to deal with the great griffin.

He arrived at the gate of Vergen early and saw that Vesemir and Arryn both looked like standard mercenaries with long swords on their waists. He found an excuse to ask the strict guards at the gate to let the caravan into the city.

Otherwise, the demon hunter might not be able to get away with it under the detection of various messy magic props in the hands of the guards.

"Master Horton, every caravan entering or leaving Aedirn must be inspected. This is the rule set by the higher-ups..."

"I don't care about those bullshit rules! Who knows if the little things made by wizards will destroy the structure and purity of the materials? I am doing this for that despicable and cunning little guy Demave II..."

Small dwarf with a big voice.

The outspoken Holden Qui-Gon forced the captain of the guard, who was armed to the teeth, to retreat step by step, and finally he had no choice but to let the caravan pass.

"Alright, Master Horton. Stop talking, stop talking. Let's just put it in. Just put it in!"

“You’re smart…” The dwarf crossed his arms and nodded in satisfaction, then shouted to a fat merchant, “Come in quickly and send it to the city lord’s mansion… My child can’t wait to be born…”

Charles, who was yelled at by the dwarf, looked confused for a moment.

He didn't know what the hot-tempered, bearded dwarf in front of him had ordered from him.

However, his many years of doing business and his experience in observing people's words and expressions made him notice that the dwarf's gaze was occasionally looking behind him, and he began to have some guesses in his mind.

"Yes... yes, Master... Horton." he said.

Then he called out to the waiters and the steward, whipped the horses and pulled the carriage into the carriage.

"Holden is apologizing!"

Vesemir led the horse and hid behind the caravan carriage. When he passed by an impatient dwarf, he quietly pressed his black wide-brimmed hat to signal:
"He rarely participates in Vergen's political affairs, let alone the guards at the city gates, who are sent by the king to check on spies and caravans."

Holden Qui-Gon sounds like the mayor of Vergen, but in fact the title of mayor is just a courtesy given by Demave II, and the real people who do the work are the humans sent by the king.

At this time.

The captain of the guard who was speechless after being scolded was holding a magic prop that looked like a badge, observing the people in the caravan vigilantly, and then looked at the dwarf who was urging him with a guilty look on his face.

Obviously.

He was doubting Holden.

"That's how dwarves are. They never apologize, but when they do something wrong they will find ways to make up for it." Vesemir smiled helplessly.

"Is Holden okay?" Ailin glanced at the captain of the guard out of the corner of his eye.

The man called a few of his men and was whispering to them, asking them to pass on the message to the checkpoint ahead and the king.

"Demavius ​​II thinks highly of him, so he should be fine." Vesemir said, "And once we deal with the great griffin, Demavius ​​II will not blame us."

After a pause, Vesemir retracted his gaze and whispered:

"Erin, as long as the great griffin disappears, even if no one sees it, someone in Aedirn will definitely guess that it was us who did it. Will it really be okay?"

"It's enough if we don't get discovered." Ailin held the reins, his mouth opening and closing slightly. "The great griffin is not a common monster. It's normal for it to suddenly appear and disappear."

"As long as we don't spread the word, no one can be sure that the Great Griffin was hunted by us."

Vesemir nodded, but there was still uneasiness in his eyes.

In this regard.

Arryn did not try to persuade him any further. The fact that Vesemir went against the principles he had upheld for hundreds of years and listened to him in hunting the great griffin was already beyond his expectations.

Of course he did have a more convincing reason, but it was not suitable to explain to the Master Witcher.

As long as they are not discovered, or even if they are discovered, as long as they themselves do not admit it, it is almost a hundred percent certain that they will not cause the trouble that Vesemir imagined.

after all……

Who would have thought... Who would have believed...

The Wolf School, which has always been upright and adhered to neutrality, secretly risked its life to destroy a giant griffin, just to avoid the bloody war from ending prematurely?

……

Since the caravan had already become suspicious, after unloading part of the giant ghoul's remains at Holden Qui-Gon's stone house, Charles consulted Arryn and Vesemir and left Vergen directly.

Halfway through the journey, the witchers separated from the caravan, allowing Charles and Ryan's men to attract the guards' attention.

However, even if the whereabouts of the demon hunter were known to the people of Aedirn, it would not be a big deal.

This wasn't Kaedwen, where they had to constantly be on guard against wizards and nobles trying to get rid of them using war.

In Aedirn, the most extreme thing Demaev II could do was to force them to hunt great griffins.

of course.

It would be better if you could hide your identity.

Walking down the mountain and coming to a three-forked entrance, Vesemir was trying to determine the direction of the road.

Vesemir raised his black wide-brimmed hat with his index finger, identifying the road:
"There is a village not far ahead. Let's rest there for a day before setting off again."

"what do you think?"

Ailin certainly had no objection.

Now that we have entered deep into Aedirn, there is no need to travel day and night as before.

No matter how crazy the wizards of Ban Ade are, can they still pursue us to the enemy's territory?
Gee...

If a wizard were foolish enough to chase them into Aedirn, the roles of hunter and prey might be reversed.

"Okay, take a day off first and recharge your batteries."

As soon as Ailin finished speaking, the dusty young demon hunter cheered.

"Great! Life down the mountain is really not something a demon hunter can live. I haven't taken a shower in ten days."

"Yes, the blisters on the inside of my thighs kept popping, and they kept growing again. It was really painful."

"Me too. Every day on horseback feels like a year..."

"I meditate every day. I haven't slept well for many days..."

Vesemir's frown deepened. After hearing the last complaint, he could not help but scolded:

"Even if I find a place to rest, I cannot stop meditating. As long as I am not outside Kaer Morhen, I must use meditation to replace sleep..."

"Forget what I told you. Many demon hunters of the Wolf School died because they were careless in the wild..."

"Eric was killed by a swamp witch at night in Gos Velen, Tranwell screamed out his soul for the night spirits in Monte Calvo in Redania, and Eramos even had his throat bitten off by several wolves..."

Blah blah, Vesemir is talking at length.

The young witchers complained and looked at the young witcher who was meditating.

If you want to sleep, just go to sleep quietly when the time comes. Why say it out loud?
The small town called Dolai was not far away. The group played and joked around and stayed in a hotel in the town before noon.

After lunch, Ailin did not rest immediately. Instead, he bought a few bottles of dog oil and a few white amaranth plants from the herbalist in the town.

Mixed animal oil is not a commonly used type of sword oil. Although a few bottles were refined when the recipe was first obtained, they were not enough for nine demon hunters to use.

of course.

After all, the great griffin is a large flying monster second only to the dragon. Erin and Vesemir do not plan to bring other demon hunters with them as that would be too dangerous.

However, they had to make some preparations to prevent themselves from being helpless when they unexpectedly encountered a large griffin. Before hunting, preparing everything was a virtue that demon hunters should keep in mind.

It's a pity that he hasn't yet developed the formula for the honeycomb bomb, otherwise he would be able to gather the three official weaknesses of the Great Griffin in the game: honeycomb bomb, mixed animal oil, and Alder Seal.

The refining difficulty and requirements of mixed animal oil are very low.

Ailin, who was afraid of trouble, spent more than a dozen copper coins to borrow a crucible. He refined the sword oil in the herbalist's hut before returning to the inn.

"Bang~"

The wooden door was gently closed.

The room's soundproofing was not good, and shouts could be heard from the walls.

"Ajax, Hugh, Clay...tsk tsk...it looks like Ajax is going to be unlucky again." After listening for a few seconds, Ailin's mouth curled up.

After simply cleaning his body and washing away the fatigue of the past few days, the demon hunter opened the Demon Hunting Notes on a whim.

【获得战利品：巨食尸鬼的心脏精粹液*1、食尸鬼的心脏精粹液*37、腐食魔的心脏精粹液*8、经验珠*12、巨食尸鬼的宝箱*5、食尸鬼的宝箱*5，腐食魔的宝箱*5】

After rescuing Charles' caravan from the zombies in the old battlefield yesterday, he just glanced at the crusade evaluation and spent 3 battle points to upgrade the Quinn Sign to LV for the three young hunters except Elni and Kral.

As there were outsiders present, I had not had time to sort out the rest of the harvest.

"The essence of the heart of the Corruption Demon?"

After opening the system notification, Ailin took a quick look and his sight froze instantly.

When he was reading the crusade evaluation, he hadn't noticed that the Corruption Demon also left behind heart essence.

"This is outrageous. The Corruption Demon blew itself up in the end. How did they extract the heart essence?"

Ailin was baffled.

Heart essence and purification spirit are not generated out of thin air, they all come from the bodies of the monsters that were killed.

He had experimented with it.

Purification Spirits are created immediately by an unknown method when a ghost-like monster is killed.

However, the heart essence will be extracted from the heart only after the settlement.

With Ailin's current authority, he can also choose not to withdraw during a short period of time during settlement.

But what about the Carrion Demon?

The Demon Hunting Notes pieced together the remaining fragments on the ground and the body fluids of the Corruption Demon?
Thinking of this possibility, the demon hunter remembered the foul-smelling body fluids of the rotten demon and suddenly felt a little nauseous.

"Forget it, let's not think about it. There are more secrets in the Demon Hunting Notes than just this one."

Ailin shook his head, suppressed the nausea, and took all the essence of the corrosive demon's heart with a thought.

really.

The heart essence of the foul-smelling corrosive demon is still foul-smelling.

The moment the essence entered his throat, the demon hunter almost vomited. It was just like swallowing an old smelly sock wrapped in a rotten egg.

After using one portion of the Corruption Devil's Heart Essence and finding that there was no problem, Ailin gritted his teeth and used up all the remaining seven portions of the Corruption Devil's Heart Essence.

moment.

It felt like hundreds of rotten eggs were smashed into pieces in my stomach.

The demon hunter was so frightened that he immediately held his breath to resist the strong nausea that was coming up.

"grass!"

He closed his mouth, held his breath, and cursed in his heart.

Then, with a thought, you see the moment the attributes change.

The demon hunter's expression suddenly became distorted and complicated.

[Name: Ailin]

【Level: 50】

【生命值：100%，体力值610/610，魔力780/780】

[Attributes: Strength 66, Agility 61, Constitution 61 (-4), Perception 75, Mysticism 78]

【亲和：水15（魔源·水5%）、地10（魔源·地0%），风9，火6（+2），空间2】

Not only did the attribute not increase, but it was deducted by four points.

but!

but!

The heart essence of the gorge demon can actually increase affinity with the fire element!

Although eight portions of essence only increase two points, this is affinity with the fire element!
Except for the purification spirit of the one-eyed ghost spirit and the purification spirit of the giant devil spirit, which can evenly improve the four elements, none of the other large monsters Ailin encountered could improve the affinity of the fire element.

What's more, the Corruption Demon is not a large monster.

For the first time, the Demon Hunter saw hope that the affinity of the four elements would exceed ten points within this year.

I don't know if there will be some strange effects after all four types of magic power exceed ten points...

But in general, exchanging four points of constitution for two points of fire element affinity is worth it!
But then the question is...

"According to the limit of twenty attributes of ordinary monsters, I still need to find twelve more scavenger monsters and eat twelve more..."

The Carrion Demon is not so difficult to deal with. Although it is rare, it can still be found. However, the last one...

"Aftertasting" the faint stench still rising in the esophagus, Ailin's face turned a little pale, and he quickly moved his mind.

[Do you want to use Giant Ghoul's Heart Extract*1? ]

The cold liquid immediately poured into his throat.

As it slides through the esophagus, it is constantly absorbed by the inner wall, while also washing away the faint nauseating stench.

Before it could flow into the stomach, it turned into a hot stream and spread throughout the body.

【生命值：100%，体力值640/640，魔力780/780】

[Attributes: Strength 69 (+3), Agility 61, Constitution 64 (+3), Perception 75, Mysticism 78]

【亲和：水15（魔源·水5%）、地11（魔源·地1%）（+1），风9，火6，空间2】

"Whoo~"

The stench of the corrosive demon's essence was washed away, and the demon hunter breathed a sigh of relief, turning his attention back to the spoils he had obtained.

"I have twelve more experience beads... Now I have ninety-eight experience beads, and I am still two short of that..." He opened the inventory and looked at the number of small experience beads, "or if I can collect one hundred and twenty small experience beads, I can collect a hundred experience beads and master the next roar of the Roar Path - [Beast Roar: Whisper of Life]."

"It's better to have two experience points," he thought. "I don't know what kind of evaluation I will get if I capture the big griffin..."

As for the remaining treasure chests of giant ghouls, carrion fiends and ghouls, it is better to collect them first, and after catching the giant griffin, fly directly to the Temple of Meliteli to open the chests.

After counting the harvest, the demon hunter put away the demon hunting notes with the expectation of completing the next beast roar of the Way of Beast Roar.

The window of the room faces north.

The scorching summer sunlight slanted through the wooden window frames, illuminating every speck of dust in the air in the room.

As the witcher looked through the window toward the blue mountains in the distance, he suddenly thought of a question.

Nearly a week has passed, has the Wild Hunt gone to Ben Ader?

(End of this chapter)