The Demon Hunter Trial is divided into four parts, which everyone present knows well: the physical training [Choice], the physiological and genetic mutation [Grass Trial] and [Dream Trial], and the final exam-like [Mountain Trial].
The first three trials are similar, but the final [Mountain Trial] has different methods for different schools. Some schools will let the apprentice hunt a small monster like a water ghost alone as a test for the demon hunter career, while some schools will throw the apprentice into a dark monster's lair and let him survive for a night.
Lann naturally had not gone through the [Mountain Trial], or maybe Jeron regarded Lann's achievements on the mainland as his [Mountain Trial]. This answer sheet was indeed much more dazzling than that of other demon hunter apprentices.
The Wolf Clan's [Mountain Trial] is to pass through the cave where the "Old Spearhead" lives, go to the Ring of Elements to absorb the magical energy there to strengthen your own seals, and obtain the Wolf Clan's badge. However, the Cyclops living in the dark cave has extremely sharp senses, so many mutant apprentices of the demon hunter who survived the high mortality rate eventually died tragically at the hands of the Cyclops, who they were not strong enough to face.
This trial is very dangerous, but the Ring of Elements is indeed unique and worth the risk for apprentices. Although it cannot essentially enhance the power of the Wolf School's seal to obtain the seal power comparable to the Griffin School, it can give the Demon Hunter's seal some other special effects.
Lambert said: "My [Axis Sign] has undergone a gratifying change. When I first started out, I encountered two robbers. One of them pointed a crossbow at me, and the other was searching my pockets. I used the [Axis Sign] to make the guy with the crossbow shoot his companion to death, and then let him hang himself on a tree."
Even Cohen, who was a member of the Griffin School, couldn't help but gasp when he heard this effect. Making the hypnotic effect of the [Axis Seal] so strong that the caster could commit suicide without any defense was something that even Lann couldn't do now.
For the sake of the Ring of Elements, Old Spearhead has another way to die!
…
After dinner, the moon rose above the branches.
This time is not the right time to go out and hunt monsters. The ecology of Kaer Morhen is excellent. Not only are there small monsters like water ghosts and evil ghosts, but there are also real monsters with magical abilities such as swamp witches, harpies, and small fog monsters. Even large monsters such as fork-tailed dragons often appear.
Most of them were nocturnal animals, so even though the Wolf Clan was eager to hunt down Old Spearhead, they had to wait until the next day.
In the dead of night, there was another knock on Lan's door.
“Boom boom boom—”
The room was not soundproofed well, and Lan had already heard the soft footsteps at the door.
As soon as he opened the door, as he expected, Triss was standing in front of him with a smile on her face.
The sorceress's long fiery red hair seemed unable to conceal its color even in the darkness. It reflected the candlelight in Lann's house and also stirred people's hearts.
"I didn't come to see you during the day because I thought Ciri would miss you a lot and you would need some space to be alone." It was late at night, and Triss spoke softly, as if she was worried about disturbing the others in the castle.
"Don't you miss me?"
"Ha, after all, I met you in Novigrad and...we got along for a while."
"So you don't miss me anymore?"
Triss choked and smiled helplessly: "So that's why I'm here."
After saying this, Triss added: "I just went to see Ciri and had a chat with her..."
"What did you talk about?"
Triss recalled: "A lot. About our past, about our future together. I always wanted to treat her as a sister. She is very smart, and some things are unavoidable. We talked for a long time, and finally she asked me to come to you..."
Lan En chuckled: "You think of her as a sister? But from what I know, her relationship with Yennefer is more like master and apprentice, or even mother and daughter - and you and Yennefer are best friends, isn't this generational relationship too confusing?"
Triss stomped hard on Lann's foot. "What do you say about you and Geralt? You are also a witcher and an immortal. When you get older, you will know that this kind of thing is very common!"
How old are you? Lan didn't ask this question out loud, fearing that he would be hit by a fireball.
Enough of the small talk. Triss put her hands on her waist and looked around the dark castle corridor, then looked inside Lann's room: "Aren't you going to invite me in?"
Lan thought for a moment and said awkwardly, "The soundproofing of this room is not very good, and I have to go out to hunt demons tomorrow."
"It's okay. I just wanted to check if you've fallen behind in your magic practice. It won't be a big deal, and it won't take too much time... Just a simple chat."
Lann sighed deeply: "That's hard to say."
In the corridor of the castle, the only thing that could illuminate the darkness was a long red hair that disappeared with a whoosh, and then there was a sound of a door being slightly knocked against.
Then, a violent and orderly wave of magic spread out from the room, and all the sounds disappeared instantly.
It seems that learning magic is still necessary.
The clouds in the sky were driven away by the moonlight. The moon seemed particularly excited tonight, and the light it cast was particularly dazzling. The evening breeze licked the trees in the mountains, and even in winter, there were signs of early spring.
With a "tick-tick" sound, water drops fell from the branches into the stream. The snow in the mountains seemed to have begun to melt, and the ice that blocked the water source began to disintegrate, making the water surge and gush out again.
…
The next day, early morning.
Lann raised his head and drank a bottle of [Tawny Owl], an alchemical potion used to restore magic power and vitality during battle. Blue veins appeared faintly around his eye sockets, making his face look even paleer.
Seeing Lann's behavior, Kolgrim wondered, "Isn't it too early to drink the potion now?"
Lann's alchemy skill [Patience Enhancement] has been maxed out, and he has long since ignored this level of toxicity. But he naturally couldn't explain this to his Snake Faction companions.
After thinking for a while, he said, "You know, I rarely drink potions in battle. But this is unavoidable, so I want to adapt to it in advance to avoid mistakes."
After saying this, Lann pulled down the hood of his great griffin cloak and rode to the front of the team regardless of Kolgrim's reaction.
Not all of Kaer Morhen's members were dispatched: Ciri stayed in the castle, as this level of demon hunting was too early for her. Yennefer stayed to continue Ciri's magic lessons, unwilling to miss a day of her child's homework.
Triss also volunteered to stay and look after the house, and no one said anything.
Even without two capable combat sorceresses, this team is still huge - two griffins, four wolves, four snakes, plus the druid Mossak. If such a team is given enough time, they can even conquer a small or medium-sized country without any damage.
Such a team is now running up along the mountain road of Kaer Morhen.
Crossing a small hillside on the edge of a cliff, looking down from the decayed wooden fence at the edge, you can see green fields covered with light snow, swaying pine forests, and hillsides shrouded in mist in the distance.
The spring in the mountains had begun to thaw, and from where everyone was standing they could hear the sound of gurgling water. The spring flowed through the canyon and merged into a wider river.
"The journey today is unexpectedly smooth." Vesemir walked at the front of the team. "Since a few days ago... about a month ago, the monsters in this forest have become particularly energetic. Many hybrid beasts that hibernate have come out to run wild. From time to time at night, we can hear them roaring in hunger or screaming in pain, disturbing our sweet dreams."
Hearing the old demon hunter's sigh, Lann couldn't help but echo it. This topic has been brought up many times, but this time it caught Lann's attention.
If this was only the case in Redania or Pontar, it wouldn't be a big deal. But if this happened to the border of Kaedwen, and the monsters happened just a month ago, Lann couldn't help but pay attention.
Because this shows that this "monster riot" may not be a regional event, but a global event, and perhaps Sintra needs to pay more attention to it.
…
Several black dots in the sky that looked like crows were hovering over the heads of Lan and his group, chirping and babbling. But if you look closer, you can find that these winged guys are in human shape.
The harpy is a type of hybrid beast. Compared to the griffin, which is also a hybrid beast, this monster is much smaller and has a weaker melee ability. However, it has a unique magical ability that can steal the dreams of creatures and turn them into crystals. Adventurers are keen to find the harpy's nest and steal these crystals to sell.
——Although they don't know how to read the dreams in these crystals, they know that the quality of these crystals is of the highest quality.
Lambert was annoyed by the noise of these harpies, so he took out his crossbow and wanted to aim at the sky, but these harpies seemed to know that such a large group of witchers was not easy to deal with, so they hovered precisely outside the range of the crossbow, leaving Lambert no chance to take advantage.
Lann chuckled, and with his left hand he took out a longbow as tall as a man. With a sound that made one's teeth ache, he pulled the creaking bowstring, aimed for a moment, and then -
“Whoosh.”
The arrow turned into a streaking meteor and shot straight into the sky at a speed that was invisible to the naked eye. With a shrill scream, a harpy fell headfirst with feathers flying everywhere.
The annoying sound in the sky suddenly disappeared, and the sky suddenly became clear. Lan Enzong immediately checked the harpy that was shot down, and it was still flapping its wings.
This is an extremely hideous monster. When the harpy is in the sky, you can vaguely see the curves of a girl's body, but when you look closely, it makes you vomit. It has a sharp beak on its face and a bald forehead; its wings are indeed beautiful, but its limbs and torso are wrinkled like old tree bark, with sparse feathers scattered around.
Looking at the arrow that pierced the harpy's throat, Lambert couldn't help but whistle: "Good bow, good archery!"
Feeling that Lambert seemed interested in his mahogany bow, Lan shrugged and handed it over. Seeing the wolf-faction demon hunter using all his strength to tremble and open the bowstring, but still three or four points away from the full string, Lan couldn't help but joked:
"If you leave this bow empty, you must compensate me with a new one."
Dry release refers to releasing the bowstring after the bow is pulled open without an arrow. This will cause the force originally used to support the arrow to fly out to the bow, causing damage and greatly shortening the service life of the bow; for some bows that are at the critical point of being scrapped, there will even be a "bow explosion" situation, causing a large amount of wood fiber fragments to fly towards the archer's face, causing life-threatening.
Lambert's face turned red because of the force he used. Finally, he had no choice but to carefully slowly release the bowstring to restore it to its original state and praised again: "Good bow. You have good strength too. I heard that the Griffin School should specialize in magic signs, but I didn't expect that there would be such good archery skills."
"I'm a knight. It's normal for a knight to be good at shooting, right?" Lan shrugged.
This remark elicited a response from Cohen. Apparently, this fellow from the Griffin School had also studied this skill under Kelda's instruction.
"Then knight, may I ask what should we do with the body of the harpy? We don't want to waste time dissecting the body here."
"It's very simple. Let's talk about it when we get back."
Lann reached out and held down the harpy's body, and with a flash of light, he put it into the [Inventory].
This action caused the Wolf Clan members who saw it for the first time to murmur in amazement, while the Snake Clan members who had long been accustomed to it developed a sense of superiority for some reason.
Lambert turned his gaze to Cohen: "Will you?"
Cohen's eyes were filled with disbelief at the moment: "This is not the method of the Griffin School... It should be the source of magic? Or the blood of the ancients?"
Lambert fell into deep thought: "Does that mean Ciri will learn it in the future? It would be really convenient to have this skill when going out."
Lann laughed mischievously, "Maybe. You can look forward to it."
Mossak and Vesemir looked at each other and shook their heads helplessly at the entertainment activities of the "young people" in front of them.
“Alright, alright, boys, stop messing around. It’s rare that we have so many people today, so these monsters don’t dare to approach us.” Vesemir said seriously, “Some time ago, we didn’t even dare to let Ciri run in the forest alone. Whenever we go out, she must follow Geralt and another boy.”
"We are lucky that no monsters have come out to attack us now. We should hurry up and make the most of this opportunity."
Indeed, after living near Kaer Morhen for so long, even the most low-intelligence monsters have the basic instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm. If a lone wolf from the wolf faction acts alone, there may really be blind monsters that come out to attack. But this huge group of people is too deterrent, and the number alone is more than some small beast tribes.
You have to know that wolves and water ghosts also live in groups of three or five, and a normal demon hunter can take out such a small group alone, not to mention so many demon hunters gathered together.
So it’s no wonder that the journey today was so peaceful.
But everyone in the Wolf Faction knew that when the older generation gave a lecture, there would always be young people with no sense of hearing who would come out and refute them.
This time, it was not a young man who refuted Vesemir, but a slightly distorted voice:
“Ah!! Help, help!!”
This immediately aroused everyone's vigilance.
The voice sounded like a little boy, and the cry for help was so miserable that any kind-hearted person would not remain indifferent. But the voice was strangely distorted.
In Mossak's words, "It seems to be a sound that can only be produced by a projection created by a magic communication device, or to put it more directly - it is a sound simulated by magic."
Everyone present is an experienced hunter. When the elements of “wilderness”, “little boy”, “magic simulation” and “call for help” are connected, who would not know what is happening?
"Little fog demon." The experienced Vesemir said firmly.
Perhaps because Lann was young and he had heard that he had not received a complete witcher education, Vesemir played his role as a mentor:
"The little fog monster is a kind of corpse-eating creature, often appearing in swamps, mountain passes, or coasts. They are monsters that can create clouds and fog, and can disappear in the fog at any time and launch sneak attacks without warning. Using the [Alder Seal] can effectively cause damage to them."
Lann had actually read the monster encyclopedia carefully, but he was still happy to cooperate with the elders' teachings, nodding happily as if he was learning.
At this time, everyone had arrived at the lake in the middle of the canyon. There happened to be a swamp of moderate size. To get to the cave where Old Spearhead was, they needed to take a small boat.
There was mist rising by the lake, which was a normal sight at the humid lakeside. However, combined with the cries for help coming from not far away and Vesemir's science popularization, it all had a bit of the flavor of a horror suspense film.
But this time, maybe the demon hunters are the "horror."
“Ah! Help!!”
The cries for help continued.
Lambert let out a long breath. He was particularly excited today. "It's just right for us to warm up before dealing with Old Spearhead. There won't be more than three little fog monsters in the same area. Who of you is interested in coming?"
Lan En thought about it and raised his hand: "I just don't have [Little Mist Demon Decoction] yet, I'll make up for it this time."
The others no longer showed any interest in this, but they expressed their willingness to provide cover for the two men to avoid being ambushed.
The crowd followed the sound of the cry for help and soon a little boy appeared in front of them.
“Ah!! Help!!!”
This was a little boy of about ten years old, no taller than Lan's waist, shirtless and shoeless, like a hunter's child who had strayed into the forest.
The demon hunter badge on his chest vibrated slightly.
Before Lane could respond, Lambert strode forward and shouted in an emotional voice: "Oh! Child, what's the matter with you? Are you all right?"
Not far away, Geralt and Eskar looked at each other and shook their heads helplessly.
The fog around them grew thicker and thicker, and the little boy's cries for help grew louder and louder.
Lambert walked closer and suddenly saw the little boy's face clearly, and his eyes began to tremble.
His expression suddenly became sad and gentle, but his wrists became stronger. He drew the long sword behind him and murmured, "It's okay, you are safe."
"Ah! No, no, help!!"
The little boy's body suddenly trembled distortedly, and then turned gray and slowly disappeared like a phantom.
Then, a ferocious monster taller than Lambert suddenly jumped out from the fog.
Although the Little Fog Demon has the word "small" in its scientific name, its body is not slender. Even if it hunches over, it is still about two meters tall. Its head takes up almost a quarter of its body, but its limbs are extremely slender. It has pointed ears like a bat, and its face looks like someone has torn off a layer of skin, leaving its eyeballs, nostrils, and gums nakedly exposed.
What was even more shocking than its ugly appearance was its claws. Lambert knew that those were sharp claws that could fight head-on with the sword in his hand.
Without hesitation, he cast a [Quen Seal] on himself, and then swung his sword. The tip of the sword cut through the air with a sharp whistle, but it only shattered an illusion.
The hunched figure crouched down and blended into the fog that was everywhere around him.
"Hey! Lan, does the Griffin School have any way to deal with this kind of situation?"
Lann raised his left hand slowly and made a special gesture: "Vesemir seemed to have said that this monster was afraid of the [Alder Seal]? This happens to be what I am good at."
[Alder Sweep·Magic Burst]!
It was as if a large-yield alchemical bomb had been dropped on the shore, and the huge impact expanded in all directions with Lann as the center. The soil and grass were violently lifted up and thrown away, and even a not-so-thick pine tree was uprooted; the lake water more than ten steps away seemed to be hit by a heavy hammer in the air and suddenly sank, creating a small waterfall with a "clatter", startling a few wild fish.
As expected, the fog around the lake was cleared away, and the view became clear.
Three lonely little fog monsters hunched over, exposed in front of everyone like naked little girls.
Vesemir calmed the frightened horse and looked at the sunken soil around Lann, where not a single blade of grass could be seen. He twitched his lips slightly and said, "The [Alder Seal] I'm talking about is not this kind... Never mind. The effect is not much different anyway."
Geralt and Eskar looked towards Cohen.
The Griffin School Demon Hunter, who had been away from the Kel Siren for a long time, said hesitantly: "Master Kelda should be able to achieve this level..."
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