Demon Hunter: School of the Wolf

It was afternoon, and the air was hot and dry.

At this hour, the tavern was as crowded as usual.

However, it was somewhat strange that most of the tables were empty, but filled with slightly cold beer.

The drinkers were all gathered around the same old, mottled wooden table.

"Old Jet, the hunter from East Village, is dead too. He just died last night." A man sitting at the table surrounded in the middle whispered.

"Old Jet is dead!!!" One of the onlookers was surprised, "Because he had to hunt, wasn't the only silver fork in East Village in Old Jet's hand?"

"What's the use of a silver fork?" The people at the table took a sip of wine and sighed, "When the old village chief took the guards to collect the bodies this morning, I also went to see..."

"A family of five... The ground, walls, and beds were all covered with blood... Broken meat and bones were spread all the way from the bedroom... Ugh..."

As if thinking of the tragic scene he saw in the morning, the man retched.

After a while, he continued with a pale face:

"According to the old village chief and the guards, at least three water ghosts sniffed the blood of the pheasant that Old Jett shot yesterday and sneaked into his house in the middle of the night."

"Old Jett is just a hunter, not one of those monsters...hunters...hunters..."

"What's more, it was late at night when everyone was asleep..."

"When it was discovered, the silver fork was next to Jane...Jenny, whose abdomen was hollowed out...There was no blood on the silver fork from those damn monsters..."

After speaking.

The whole tavern suddenly became quiet.

Everyone was pale, without a trace of blood, like a newly dead body.

What happened to Old Jack may happen to each of them.

"Old...Old Jett was...really careless. How could he take the blood of the prey home without dealing with it properly?"

Someone was hoarse in his throat, as if he wanted to prove that it was the victim's own carelessness that caused this disaster.

"Don't you know him? His family of five depends on the money from the prey hunted by Old Jet, not to mention Jenny is pregnant again. The pheasant blood is a good tonic for making black pudding. How could he bear to throw it away?"

"And Old Jet's house is the farthest from the river in the entire East Village because of year-round hunting. Nothing has happened for decades. Who would have thought... eh..."

The continuous sighs seemed to be contagious, echoing throughout the tavern.

"The guards, mages, and the parliament are silent again?!!" Someone hammered the wooden table in indignation.

"Shh~" The others were so scared that they immediately covered his mouth and looked around carefully.

I found that in the dark far away from here, two mercenaries wearing leather armor and carrying long swords on their waists, who should be going to the front line for the bounty, were eating and seemed to have not noticed the movement here. Then I breathed a sigh of relief and scolded:

"Are you crazy? The last one who slandered those wizards has been wielding a broken silver fork and was torn into pieces by those damn monsters!"

"Do you want to die so miserably like him?"

The man who hammered the table groaned. Although he was a little unconvinced, he lowered his voice and complained:

"We pay so much tax every year to support those nobles and wizards, but they really don't care?"

"It's also good to hire a few monsters... demon hunters. I saw them when I went to Ban Ade to deliver goods in March. Those demon hunters killed water ghosts faster than we cut wheat."

When the others heard this, the expressions on their faces suddenly became much more positive.

However, an older man sitting aside shook his head:

"Don't think about it, the demon hunter won't come."

"Why?" Everyone said in unison.

The old man took a sip of beer and sighed: "Do you think the village chief can't think of this?"

"The village chief's family lives in the village like us, and they can't run away."

"If the demon hunter can really be invited, at this time of year in previous years, the village chief should have spread the news and issued a reward."

The drinkers gathered in the tavern looked at each other.

"It is said that..." The old man glanced at the mercenary in the corner and suddenly whispered, "The demon hunters and the wizards have a big conflict. A few months ago, the wizards didn't pay the bills for the water ghost monster rain, and those freaks don't want to come anymore."

"Ah! The wizards are so rich, but they don't pay back the money?"

"The richer the people are, the more stingy they are. Isn't that the case with the village chief's family."

"That's right. If you lend him a needle to mend clothes, you have to help sew the village chief's clothes..."

The topic gradually shifted to how stingy and fussy the village chief was...

"Pah!"

The wooden table was slammed, and the turbid liquor in the cup of inferior beer swayed.

The indignant man stood up suddenly:

"No, the wizards are useless. Those who stay here are waiting to die. I want to move to the city with my wife and children..."

"There is a blue pot cover every day there, so it must be safe."

When everyone heard this, they were immediately in a commotion and started discussing moving fiercely again.

The old man drank the last of the beer in the cup slowly and asked only one question in a low voice.

"Do you have money?"

Instantly.

The discussion gradually stopped.

The man who stood up blushed: "I have strength, and I can always find work in the city."

The old man did not argue with him loudly, but said calmly:

"Since the blue pot lid was raised two months ago, the entrance fee has been rising again and again."

"The day before yesterday, my son ran errands for the village chief. After he came back from the city, he told me that if he wants to enter Ban Ade, the entrance fee has increased to five orens."

"Five Oren!!!" The man who stood up suddenly swayed.

He worked hard to save up money from mining and coal mining for half a year, but it only amounted to twenty oren.

"And..." the old man sighed, "people like us can still survive if we stay in the village."

"Ben Ader is the real monster that eats people."

"I have seen no one with our status settled in the city ever come back."

The old man's words made the surrounding atmosphere become negative.

"Then there's nothing we can do?" someone asked.

The old man held the wine glass and was silent for a long time, then sighed again and said:

"This is life..."

…

In the corner on the other side of the tavern, two people dressed as mercenaries were engrossed in eating unpleasant stew and hard bread.

But their attention is not on the food.

The sense of smell has been strengthened by water ghosts...a surge in the number of monsters...a surge in entry fees...the blue light curtain surrounding Ban Ade Academy...

"What a gain..." one of the younger mercenaries thought to himself.

From such a distance, you can accurately capture the information in the noisy or whispered conversations on the other side of the tavern, at least thirty meters away.

Naturally, the young mercenary cannot be an ordinary person.

"Ai Lin, you have so many fantastic ideas!"

Another middle-aged mercenary wearing a black wide-brimmed hat looked up at the young mercenary and sighed.

Yes.

These two mercenaries are actually Aylin and Vesemir.

The biggest feature, or perhaps the only feature, that distinguishes a witcher from ordinary people is actually the pair of cat eyes that resemble those of a beast.

And now.

Although Vesemir couldn't see his own pupils, Aelin's eyes opposite him had a pair of black human pupils, plus he had a scabbard on his waist that could be prepared in Kyle Village.

If it weren't for the school badge hidden in the leather armor, he would still be trembling slightly while suppressing it.

In a trance.

Just before entering the tavern, even he almost thought that Aylin had returned to his ordinary form and turned into a mercenary rushing to the battlefield for a bounty.

"It's just a little trick." Aylin smiled, and his mind suddenly fell into silence from a distance, separated from the drunken drinkers.

"This is no small trick..." Vesemir looked at his apprentice's eyes again with emotion. He moved his right hand up as if he wanted to touch his own eyes, but he thought of something and placed it flat on the table again.

Such an exquisite illusion was much more practical than the one Aelin showed him in Kaer Morhen.

"This... this... can we learn it?" Vesemir asked expectantly.

Aylin shook his head and was about to answer.

"Dong dong dong~"

Footsteps were approaching.

The two demon hunters fell silent at the same time.

"Guest, here are your jerky and jam pancakes." The tavern owner came over carrying a bulging sack.

"Thank you, how much is it?"

"Because the water ghosts have been raging recently, the price of these dry food has increased a lot. There are two oren and seven coppers in total. If you want more, just give me two oren." The tavern owner held the sack tightly in his hands.

Upon hearing this, Vesemir took out two silver coins and put them directly into his hand.

After the tavern owner inspected it, he handed over all the dry food with a smile on his face:

"I wish the war goes well, and kill those Aedian guys!"

"We will." Vesemir patted the sword on his waist.

The tavern keeper leaves.

"I'm afraid you won't be able to learn this," Aylin continued the topic.

Because it's not as crowded as it was in Kaer Morhen.

He glanced around, took out the mirage, showed it, gave Vesemir a look, and then stuffed it back: "This is a magic item given by Ms. Vera."

"Well, that's such a pity." Vesemir looked at the slight bulge in Aelin's chest with regret and envy on his face.

After hearing the news, the dry food was bought, and all the purposes of coming to the tavern were achieved. The two demon hunters finished their respective pieces of black bread and the slightly salty stew, then got up and left.

"Squeak~"

The wooden door groans.

After walking out of the tavern, Aylin immediately saw the majestic city in the distance and the blue light curtain of the city that was still shining brightly under the scorching sun.

There is the most mysterious city in Kaedwen - Ban Ard.

Starting from Kaer Morhen and heading to Vergen, there is actually no need to pass through this city.

on the contrary.

Although Mirage's disguise is exquisite, the place where it is most likely to be exposed is the city with the most warlocks in the northern continent.

However, in order to clarify a problem, Aylin still persuaded Vesemir to set his first destination after leaving Kaer Morhen.

Why is it more than a month... No... It has been nearly three months since the Apprentice Fighting Competition at the Spring Equinox ended... Those Ain Els went to the Floating Port and to Elland like idiots. Virtue, but you just haven’t visited this place where the heavens and the earth meet and the fusion of foreign lands takes place?

Could it be that the target of the Wild Hunt is not the Gate of Ard Ghaith?

This is impossible.

The celestial meeting three months ago was spectacular, and the Wild Hunt hadn't appeared for hundreds of years, and it only appeared after that.

If it's too much of a coincidence, it's not a coincidence.

Or maybe the Ain Els are unable to lock down the target, so they are just trying to kill the mouse?

Aelin didn't quite believe it.

Would a monster tribe that had conquered countless foreign worlds not have the means to locate such a huge spatial fluctuation?

And now...

Looking at the blue light curtain that was so spectacular that it almost covered the entire city, and the time when the blue light curtain rose "two months ago" that he just heard, Aelin felt that he had found the answer.

This blue light curtain that rose after the Apprentice Fighting Competition should be the reason why the Wild Hunt was misled.

"Have you found the answer?"

Vesemir walked out of the stable with his horse and interrupted his thinking.

"Almost." Aelin nodded and stepped on the stirrup to get on the horse.

More detailed information may take five orens, entering Ban Ade, or even touching Ban Ade Academy to know.

Thinking of the coercive figures that appeared after the Apprentice Fighting Competition, Aelin felt that he didn't need to know so much.

As for sneaking into Ban Ade Academy, destroying the light curtain, finding some work for the wizards, and letting them fight with the wild hounds...

Although he was still helpless against the end of the white frost, Arlin still wanted to live well.

"Then go back quickly, those little guys are waiting for dinner!"

The demon hunter master got on the horse, squeezed his legs, and drove towards the country road opposite the blue light curtain.

"It's a pity for the city that suffered an unexpected disaster like Fugang and Elland."

Finally, looking back at the blue giant screen of Ban Ade, Arlin sighed, turned around and followed Vesemir.

But just at this time, an accident happened.

The moment he turned his head, Arlin felt that the corner of his vision seemed to flicker, and he subconsciously turned back again.

The huge blue light curtain that almost covered half of the giant city of Ban Ade flashed twice and disappeared directly.

"What!"

He exclaimed instinctively and rubbed his eyes again.

The conspicuous blue light curtain actually disappeared.

At this moment, the sparsely populated village also heard voices of amazement and surprise from all over.

"It's really not an illusion!" Aylin was extremely surprised.

Vesemir heard the movement behind him, tightened the reins, and stopped the horse: "What's wrong, Ai..."

The voice of the witcher master stopped abruptly.

Obviously, he also saw the changes in Ban Ade.

Aylin looked back and met Vesemir's eyes, with indescribable emotions in his eyes.

"I... We should be fine, but..." The witcher paused for a moment, and then looked back at the mysterious City of Thousand Towers.

"But for those wizards in Ban Ade, it's not certain!"