Demon Hunter: School of the Wolf.

Chapter 650 The new enemy is the strongest female sorceress?

This is not nonsense.

For Soy, and for any grandmaster of any Witcher school, the Cavern of Demons was a place that might fulfill the ideals of the Witcher Order when it was founded, but would bring no benefit whatsoever.

There are many monsters there, but because the area is sparsely populated, there are no quests available, so you can only consume resources without any reward.

On the contrary, villages and cities near the Demon Cave often receive numerous requests due to the powerful monsters that roam from the Demon Cave.

Therefore, the only benefit is the prestige gained on the northern continent.

Martyrs are always respected.

Of course. That applies to the general Witcher school. For the current Wolf School, what hinders its development is precisely the overly safe environment that Kaer Morhen has maintained for over a hundred years.

Members of the Demon Hunter Legion need to hunt a large number of monsters to gain battle achievements and battle points, but the most common monsters around Kaer Morhen are only water ghosts.

During their apprenticeship, Witchers benefit from training in swordsmanship, signs, and teamwork while hunting water monsters.

At a slightly higher level, ordinary witchers like Elni and Klar can no longer gain any improvement from hunting water ghosts.

Moreover, even if the water ghosts around Kaer Morhen spawn infinitely every day, each person can only catch a hundred or so water ghosts at most, which is a drop in the ocean.

Besides, there's no significant improvement; it's just for battle points. Hunting water monsters in a monotonous way is fine for a few days, but nobody wants to do it every day.

Elni and Clara are human beings, and they are the most unruly children, not emotionless monster-slaying tools.

therefore.

The members of the Witcher Legion, who had made significant progress after following Arryn down the mountain, even without much combat, experienced a precipitous drop in their strength upon returning to Kaer Morhen.

But it's unrealistic to expect Erin to lead them on hunts all the time.

Not only is Erin herself very busy, facing monsters that are now far more advanced than those of ordinary witchers, but she also needs to focus on improving herself, but the traditional witcher's method of accepting commissions, preparing, and hunting is also too inefficient.

It's impossible to always be wandering around villages and cities with a dozen or so armed demon hunters. It might work in the short term, but it would definitely cause problems in the long run.

The accumulation of multiple factors has inevitably slowed down the Demon Hunter Legion's improvement speed.

Ultimately, this is simply a matter of the Demon Hunter Legion's membership advancement mechanism and the traditional commission model of the Northern Continent Demon Hunters, which is no longer suitable for the Demon Hunter Legion's current needs.

Erin often tries to find ways to break through, and has achieved some results, such as the Legion skill [Awarding Medals] which is based on the Demon Hunter Legion member mechanism.

[Award of Medal]

……

[Active Effect: Grants the "Captain" title to one legion member. A previously granted title can be revoked once. (A "Captain" can lead ten members. As long as the members are within the "Captain's" influence range, the outcome of the battle is independent of the legion commander and calculated separately.)]

However, the effect was not significant. The [Medal of Honor] was obtained by upgrading the Legion from Tier 3 to Tier 4. If you want to upgrade further and have more squad leaders, the only option is to upgrade the Legion rank.

However, advancing a legion's rank requires battle achievements, which in turn require killing monsters. Since encountering monsters is rare, one can't obtain many battle achievements, thus returning to a vicious cycle.

When the mechanics of the Demon Hunter Legion's upgrade become difficult to understand and their effects become unpredictable, there is only one option left—

Step outside the Witcher's quest mode.

For example, finding places with a suitable quality and quantity of monsters to establish multiple long-term bases, raising suitable monsters for hunting, establishing a more centralized intelligence network, and setting up associations similar to "Adventurers' Guilds" in various cities, etc.

All of them seem feasible, but they also have significant problems, and most importantly, they all require long-term operation.

What Erin lacks most is time.

Of course, he also considered the endless stream of demons in the Demon Cave.

To be honest, when Zoe jokingly proposed his initial "naive" ideal, Erin was genuinely tempted and spent a lot of time thinking about migrating the school to the Cavern of Ten Thousand Demons.

But the conclusion is that it is not feasible.

The constant stream of monsters is what attracts Erin to the Cave of Ten Thousand Demons, but it is also the constant stream of monsters that makes it impossible to establish a stable base there.

Putting everything else aside, the lack of a stable place to rest alone would make it impossible for even top-tier Witcher Masters to survive in the Cavern of Ten Thousand Demons, let alone ordinary Witchers.

But it's different now.

If Ban Ade were to be teleported to the Cavern of Ten Thousand Demons, the Wolf School wouldn't even need to build a sturdy fortress. In fact, thanks to the city's terrain and Ban Ade Academy, the defenses would have sufficient depth.

Even if the city is not complete after being teleported, at least the building materials such as bricks and wood will remain, which can greatly reduce the time required to build a settlement.

Moreover, this entire city is free, and it will inevitably be abandoned by Ban Ad and Hen Gedimidis, with no other force willing to take it over.

After the Wolf School took over, Ben Ade College not only wouldn't charge money, but would also have to say thank you. Ottoland and the Risberg Civil Partnership would also have to hold their noses and owe a huge favor.

The benefits don't stop there!

The Warlock Brotherhood will recruit a large group of powerful fighters to clear out the monsters in the Demon Cave for the Wolf School and open up supply routes, laying the foundation for the school's stable development in the early stages.

Any celestial convergence or interdimensional fusion can be released without any burden, without worrying about being discovered and affecting the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people.

In addition, the prestige gained from this in the northern continent, coupled with the timely release of the news that the death rate in the Wolf School's Grass Trial had reached zero.

No one can stop the Wolf School from achieving glory once again.

The Cave of Ten Thousand Demons is practically a god-given new stronghold for the Wolf School.

But back to the mission to rescue Ban Ade...

The Warlock Brotherhood will undoubtedly issue commissions to various Witcher schools, providing a good opportunity to strengthen ties between them.

……

To be honest, Erin is now even a little impatient to attend this grand event.

“It won’t be long,” Erin thought. “Although the Brotherhood of Warlocks is busy with meetings and passing the buck, it’s already October, and the rescue of Ban Ad is definitely going to happen before winter. Otherwise, if it’s delayed until the heavy snow closes the mountains in winter, the casualties will only be greater.”

“The Warlock Brotherhood are all intelligent people; they can’t be unaware of this.”

"so……"

"I just need to quietly recover and then wait patiently..."

Erin's blunt denial only made Vera suspicious.

However, since even the Warlock Brotherhood was still in a meeting, it was too early to say anything, so Vera didn't press the matter further and instead brought up another matter.

“Bruggi disbanded the dragon-slaying group yesterday, and the Ring of Maidalui has classified this as a suspected cursed mass hallucination…” Vera said carefully, “There aren’t many villagers around Ban Ade who have seen the black dragon, and I’ve dealt with them all.”

"No one will associate the black dragon with you until the Brotherhood of Warlocks rescues the warlock trapped in Dordurak." "Once the warlocks of Ban Ade are rescued, the memory of the black dragon will have long faded, making the connection difficult to make."

Vera is so reliable, she even took care of the cleanup for me... Erin felt a warmth in her heart, and then held her breath to listen to what she was going to say next.

Vera wasn't the type to take credit for him; what came next was the key.

“Vesemir, Dante, Jerón Morlü, Marie, Francesca Fantaby, Ida Emin, Wigofferts, Lydia van Bradwater, and Philba Ehrhardt are all reliable. I made them sign rather strict contracts, but there is only one person who did not…”

“Tessaya de Veres?” Erin asked in return.

“Yes, Tesaya…” Vera nodded slightly solemnly, “Tesaya also signed the contract, but to us, she herself is the greatest danger, and she has been trying to come to see you for a month, but we stopped her.”

"But……"

Vera paused. "She will always see you, and she definitely will. You don't need to explain anything to us, but you must come up with convincing words for her."

Tissaya de Veres… Erin murmured, head bowed.

Tissaya de Veres is indeed a problem.

The rescue of the free elf was a secret departure from Kaer Morhen, which she probably didn't know, and likely still doesn't, so we can ignore it for now.

In the original plan, the operation to rescue Henry Gedimidis would definitely not be kept secret from her, because she was the one who commissioned the mission, and Henry Gedimidis would eventually be handed over to her. Therefore, he had taken this into consideration and deliberately disguised himself as a Wild Huntman when rescuing Henry Gedimidis.

As long as we communicate well with Wigofferts and Lydia van Bradwater, at most it will arouse some suspicion from Tissaya de Veres, but it won't be a big problem.

After all, doubt takes time, and collecting clues to verify and refute also takes time, and time is on his side.

However, the fact that Renatinus's Wild Hunt could track his location forced him to take the risk, and in his haste, he couldn't think about how to deal with Tissaya de Veres afterwards.

Then the black dragon was summoned, and it appeared in Brugi, while Erin appeared in Amel...

The Wild Hunt's disguise was no match for Tissaya de Veris, and the complete disappearance of Ben Ad escalated the situation, making it impossible for her to ignore it, even if she wanted to.

It's inevitable that we can't hide it anymore, but that doesn't necessarily mean everything has been exposed.

To be precise, the Black Dragon was exposed, but the celestial convergence probably didn't happen. If Wigfordtz had left earlier, perhaps even Wigfordtz wouldn't have known.

Although Ottoran certainly knew that the Wild Hunt who summoned the Black Dragon and the Wild Hunt who summoned the Celestial Sphere Convergence were the same person, he did not know that the Wild Hunt who summoned the Black Dragon was him.

Furthermore, Ottoran is still trapped in the Cave of Ten Thousand Demons, so we don't need to consider him for now.

Now there's only one question left.

What does the ability to summon a black dragon mean to Tissaya de Veres?
“I’ll think of a good explanation,” Erin said carefully. “Since Ms. Tessia told you that you were stopped, there shouldn’t be any major problems…”

Vera nodded, then instructed, "Think it over carefully, and it would be best if you could tell me what you've decided."

"I will." Erin nodded, then suddenly thought of a question:
"Actually, I've always had a question..."

“Ianna and Ada Emin both know... know my identity. Ms. Tessaia is also a long-time friend of yours, and she has proven to be very reliable. Why would you keep it from her?”

Erin looked into Vera's burning red eyes.

Vera remained silent for a long time, then sighed: "It's precisely because Tisaya's character is so reliable that we kept it from her..."

"She's not a bad person..."

"Sorceresses are often ostracized by those around them and even their own families due to the chaotic magic they possessed in their childhood. This leads to their extreme personalities and narrow-mindedness, which in turn fosters a strong sense of self-esteem and contempt for all mortals. Furthermore, because they are often deprived of their reproductive abilities, they obsessively pursue money and power..."

Vera paused, looked into Erin's eyes, and said frankly, "I am also a sorceress, and I am no exception."

"But Tissaya is different. She has always been the kind of most righteous character who only appears in chivalric romance novels, helping the weak and rescuing the vulnerable, and wholeheartedly maintaining order..."

"Most of the time, this is not a bad thing."

"But when you stand against the order, no matter how deep the past feelings were, or how great the contributions you made, she will deal with you without mercy..."

Erin paused, feeling both amused and exasperated.

Vera seems to think of him as some kind of villain. But thinking about it, an ability like the Conjunction of the Celestial Spheres, if unrestrained, would indeed make him very suitable to be a villain.

The prophecies of the Son of Miracles, such as "non-human beings bring blood and fire," "destroyers of nations," "land will be trampled and divided," and "cities will be burned," certainly don't seem to belong to any righteous person.

Not to mention the black dragon's claws and fangs, legends of world destroyers, and so on...

Who knows, in Tissaya de Veres's eyes, I'm already a world-ending villain...

Erin chuckled to himself.

But to say that Tissaya de Veres is a savior of the distressed and so righteous that she can't tolerate even the slightest imperfection seems a bit strange.

Aside from the Church of the True God and the Druids, which extraordinary organization in the Northern Continent doesn't have some involvement in the gray market? The Risberg Civil Cooperative, known for its genetic mutation studies, openly conducts biological and human experiments.

“It’s not about good and evil, it’s just about order…” Vera seemed to have guessed what Erin was thinking and said softly, “She doesn’t care about justice or evil, or maybe she used to, but now she’s compromised to the point where all that’s left is to maintain order.”

"Eirin, we know you're a kind child..."

Vera raised her hand as if to pat Erin's head, but her hand froze in mid-air before she lowered it.

“In early spring, after the apprentice fighting tournament in Ban Ade, Zoe and I realized that you would not only fight to the death for your companions, but you would also feel sad for those mortals who discriminate against witchers and get hurt by mistake.”

"But don't be fooled by Tissaya de Veres' past; it's dangerous, very dangerous!"

“I understand!” Erin nodded vigorously. “I will think about it carefully.”

Vera nodded upon hearing this, seeing that he had taken the matter to heart, so she didn't say anything more and summoned a thick parchment book:
"I will be leaving the Ring of Maidalui tomorrow to vote on the person to rescue Ban Ad. I estimate it will take two or three weeks before I return. I will hand over the Ancient Language course to someone else."

"Marie, Francesca, Ida Emin, who would you like to be your teacher?"

The sudden turn of events startled Erin, who was still pondering how to deal with Tissaya de Veres. Seeing Vera's slightly mocking gaze, he gave a wry smile.
“I want to learn ancient languages ​​as soon as possible, so I'll go with Ms. Ida…”

“A wise choice.” Vera smiled slightly, then asked another question:
"Before you leave, besides the ancient texts, is there anything else you need me to do?"

Erin thought about it and actually came up with two:

"I'd like to know how the meditation methods of witchers differ from those of druids? Is there any way I can learn the druid's meditation method?"

"besides……"

“Master Jerón’s birth mother, Lydia, once visited the Ring of Maidalui. Who should I discreetly inquire about her whereabouts?”

(End of this chapter)