193. The Apprentice Tournament is Here!
"Of course, you're in too!"
Feeling the expectant gazes from Hughes and the others, Allen smiled and nodded.
"Wow, Allen, you're so kind!"
Fred immediately jumped for joy. Hughes and Bond also looked very excited.
Males!
Whether they're boys, young men, or grown men.
Who doesn't love powerful, cool-looking weapons?
With the testing of Northern Wind complete, none of the witchers were in the mood to go down the mountain to deal with the drowner materials. After all, they were all shattered into ice shards, and extracting suitable materials from them would be too troublesome. At least drowners weren't worth the effort.
After returning to the inn, Allen immediately took a few witchers back to his room. While crafting Northern Wind bombs, he taught them the recipe. In less than half an hour, Allen had made five more Northern Wind bombs and four dazed and hesitant Northern Wind apprentice witchers.
Northern Wind, which only required Alchemy Level 2, wasn't particularly difficult to make. No crucible was even needed. You just had to add the materials in the right order to distilled water, activate the magic, and stir.
After the second Northern Wind bomb was made, Allen wanted Vesemir and the three young witchers to try crafting one themselves. However, it seemed that the power of the Northern Wind had left too strong an impression on them.
The materials were also too expensive.
Even Vesemir shook his head repeatedly, refusing Allen's offer. And when Fred looked eager to try, Vesemir quickly stopped him, concerned for everyone's safety.
"A witcher can die from a monster's claws, but not from an alchemy accident!"
That was Vesemir's exact words.
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With the Northern Wind bombs completed, Vesemir politely declined Allen's offer of a bomb and then left the room with Hughes and the others.
"Ding ding~"
Allen opened his reagent pouch and carefully placed the Northern Wind bombs in. Sitting on the edge of his bed, Allen began to ponder. There were only eleven days left until the Apprentice Combat Tournament. In these eleven days, the main task was to boost the strength of Hughes, Bond, and Fred!
In terms of signs, the three young witchers had Quen, Igni, and Aard at Level 2, while the other signs were at Level 1.
As for swordsmanship, only Hughes had reached Level 3 in the Wolf School's two-handed sword style.
Although the focus of the tournament would be on the top contenders, with little chance of them specifically targeting these young witchers, things might be different with the Cat School. The Cat School witchers, who had just graduated from their apprenticeship, didn't have the rapid skill boosts that Hughes and the others had.
Their swordsmanship level was probably only at Level 1 in the Cat School's two-handed sword style. Even though the Wolf School's swordsmanship was designed for fighting monsters, it would still be better in combat than the Cat School's swordsmanship at Level 1.
However...
The witchers of the Cat School, who had a grudge against them and were a bit unhinged, would surely stop at nothing during the tournament. If they spotted any weakness, they would undoubtedly try to kill the Wolf School witchers.
For the sake of Bond and Fred's lives, Allen hoped to raise their two-handed sword skills in the Wolf School to Level 3 before the tournament started. That would give them the best chance of surviving the Cat School witchers' treachery.
But there was one problem.
To raise the two young witchers' Wolf School two-handed sword skills to Level 3 required 1,000 experience points. That meant 1,000 battle points. Allen mentally opened the Witcher's Logbook.
[Corps Name: Wolfpack]
[Rank: Tier 3]
[Battle Score: 1110/5000]
[Battle Points: 237]
[Skills: Loot Lock Level 1, Teaching Level 1, Resonance Level 2]
[Hunt Mission: Witcher III (Slay any monster 37/500)]
With only eleven days left until the Apprentice Combat Tournament, Allen had just 237 battle points. One drowner was worth ten battle points, which meant they'd need to kill eighty.
"The pressure's mounting!" Allen thought.
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Perhaps because the tournament was approaching, with the top witchers being the main focus, all enemy attention was on them. Allen and the others, who stayed in the orchard, didn't encounter any more unexpected events. Life started to settle into a routine.
Vesemir took on some tasks that earned them materials for Northern Wind bombs. Allen and the others sought out simple contracts here and there. They made a little extra money while gathering battle points to upgrade Bond and Fred's skills.
Allen initially thought it would be difficult to gather 800 battle points in ten days. But to his surprise, they managed to collect them in just three days. There was no denying it.
Although the current state of Kaedwen, and indeed all of the Northern Kingdoms, wasn't as overrun with monsters as when witchers were first created, it was still better than in Geralt's later days.
Every riverside village had contracts for drowners. Many isolated farms were offering bounties for digging nekkers. There were contracts for wraiths haunting noble graves, so-called vampire castles, and foglets appearing on cloudy days...
As long as you weren't afraid of wasting time, danger, and the unpredictability of these tasks, you could always find a suitable witcher's prey.
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Of course, these weren't the main reasons Allen was able to gather battle points so quickly. The real reason was that Ban Ard was close to the Blue Mountains. And the elves hid in the Blue Mountains.
The warmongering and elf-hating King Henselt of Kaedwen frequently incited wars with the elves every few years. Not many elves died in these conflicts, but a lot of the conscripted farmers did.
The key point was that northeast of the orchard, about twenty kilometers away, lay a battlefield where battles frequently took place.
According to Bob, the innkeeper, many ghouls often wandered there. When Allen led Hughes, Bond, and Fred there, they found...
It wasn't just wandering ghouls.
Within a three-kilometer radius of the battlefield, there were three ghoul nests!
Fortunately, Allen was cautious and activated two tracking spells while searching for ghoul tracks, discovering the nests hidden by vegetation. Otherwise, it would have been a hard-fought battle, and Hughes, Bond, or Fred might have been seriously injured. But once they found the nests, things became much easier.
They used one of the nests to test how well Northern Wind bombs worked in destroying monster nests.
In the game, after all, only beehive bombs, Dragon's Dream, and Dancing Star could destroy monster nests.
After testing it, Allen discovered that after using Northern Wind bombs to kill the monsters in the nests, they could burn the nests with the Igni sign to destroy them as well. So, Allen used Northern Wind bombs to destroy the other two nests and then worked with Hughes and the others to kill the remaining ghouls.
[Hunt Mission: Ghoul I (Kill 101/200 ghouls)]
In one battle, they killed eighty-seven ghouls, and their battle points surged by 870.
As expected.
Not only did Bond and Fred's witcher two-handed sword skills upgrade to Level 3 early, but thanks to the Legion skill "Loot Lock Level 1," Allen also gained eighty-seven ghoul heart extracts, nine small experience orbs, and six ghoul treasure chests.
When the chest was opened, it contained two small experience orbs and four pieces of rotten flesh. The only regret was the North Wind potion worth nine hundred Orens. However, a few days after that battle, something strange happened.
When they discovered the nest, Vesemir, out of safety concerns, notified the mayors of several nearby towns, but due to the sudden situation, no reward was requested.
Somehow, the King of Kaedwen heard about this. He directly sent someone to Vesemir with a reward of eighteen hundred Orens, at a rate of six hundred Orens per nest. If Allen didn't know what kind of person Henselt was, he might have believed him to be a benevolent king who cared for his people.
Afterward, Vesemir received a letter from the First Senior, informing them that when the king's men brought the money, although the First Senior wasn't nearby, he heard from various sources about the king's generosity. It was obvious.
Not only were Allen and his group preparing, but their enemies were preparing as well.
Henselt used money and false goodwill to soften the First Senior's resolve and vigilance in preparation for the apprentice tournament's assassination. After consulting with Allen, Vesemir asked the king's envoy to exchange the reward for materials needed for North Wind potions.
In the end, they gathered twelve sets of North Wind materials at the price of one hundred and fifty Orens per set and took the opportunity to buy six more sets of materials. Before they even met, Henselt had already sent them a grand gift, enabling Allen and the five Witchers to become truly free with their supply of North Wind potions.
They just didn't know whether the materials Henselt sent would eventually become the howling North Wind that would blow against him.
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The next few days remained peaceful.
Allen continued to search for contracts, hunting monsters with Hughes, Bond, and Fred to fulfill them. However, since their initial goal had long been completed, their hunting targets became more specific.
[Hunting Task: Drowner II (Kill Drowners 490/500)]
To reserve enough for the apprentice tournament, with each person set to face two, they killed only nineteen Drowners to avoid triggering a Conjunction of the Spheres.
[Hunting Task: Ghoul I (Kill Ghouls 123/200)]
As for Ghouls, they killed twenty-two.
The reason for killing so few wasn't because the Ghouls were all dead. Although the nests were hard to find, in Kaedwen and along the border of the Blue Mountains, places frequently struck by war, Ghouls were far from being exterminated. The reason these Kaedwen Ghouls were spared was mainly because...
Ten days had passed!
The Wolf School and Cat School Apprentice Duel Tournament had arrived!
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Morning.
The spring sun was warm, and the breeze was pleasant. The inn, famous for its unique and delicious broth throughout Orchard Valley, was crowded with people this morning. However, among the seated patrons, apart from a few quietly focused on their meals, most people's eyes would occasionally glance at the five distinct Witchers with dual swords sitting in the corner of the inn's ground floor.
Thud~
A wooden plate was gently placed on the table. The Witchers stood up. Bob, who had been watching the scene from behind the counter, quickly walked into the back room and grabbed a basket of still-warm bread, running over.
"Leaving already, Master Vesemir?"
"Take these loaves with you; Mary just baked them. You can eat them on the way..."
Vesemir sighed slightly.
"Bob, thank you so much for your kindness, but we're heading to Ban Ard. We'll get there before noon on horseback, so we won't need..."
Unfortunately, Vesemir's words had no effect. Bob simply blocked him, refusing to let them leave unless they took the bread. Left with no choice, Vesemir accepted it.
As soon as the Witcher master took the bread, it was as if the world around them came to life. A large group of people in the inn stood up all at once, their faces full of gratitude.
"Leaving already, young Master Witcher? Safe travels!"
This was the widow next door, who washed clothes for others and raised two children on her own. Allen had killed the Drowner that tried to steal her child when she wasn't paying attention. Of course, she didn't know Allen's identity as a Witcher master. She only called him that because the innkeeper addressed Vesemir as "Master Witcher."
"Young Master Witcher, here's some powdered pearl and allspice I managed to find. Please accept them..."
This was Will, the owner of the Orchard Valley Apothecary. He had appeared in the illusion before, as he was once Sardia's student. Allen had also bought saltpeter from him. A few days ago, when Allen was hunting Ghouls, he had saved Will's apprentice, who was also his son, while he was delivering herbs for the apothecary.
Since the rescue happened after the monster was slain, no reward had been requested.
After a few moments of thought, Allen accepted the carefully packaged herbs.
It wasn't just Allen.
Hughes was also getting his head affectionately rubbed by an elderly woman, while a little girl beside her stared at Hughes with wide eyes.
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And it was the same for Vesemir, Bond, and Fred. Every person in that inn had been helped by these Witchers. They had all heard rumors and had come to see Vesemir and his four disciples off.
Over the past few days, due to the active efforts of Allen, Hughes, Bond, and Fred, a large number of Drowners and Ghouls had been eliminated.
Don't be fooled into thinking that these two types of monsters, being the lowest-tier creatures, couldn't compare to the fiends, werewolves, or nekkers from 'The Witcher 3'.
In this real world, the greatest threats to the farmers and common folk in villages were these frequent, low-level monsters. How many families had lost children dragged away by Drowners while they played near water?
Which village didn't have farmers cruelly killed and devoured by Ghouls during harvest time?
Especially the Ghouls.
In recent years, thanks to Henselt's war mongering, the number of Ghouls had increased significantly.
In packs, their courage had grown too. In the past, Ghouls would flee at the sight of a large group of people, but now that tactic no longer worked. It now took at least ten people to drive them off.
As a result, when Allen and his team blew up Ghoul nests and later hunted Drowners and Fiends, the Wolf School Witchers' reputation began to rise among the villages around Ban Ard.
Many villagers started to realize that while both were Witchers, the righteous Wolf School was vastly different from the deranged and murderous Cat School, whose members often behaved like lunatics.
Rumors of Witchers being cold, heartless mutants were also being challenged and refuted by the people themselves.
Reflecting on the change in the villagers' attitudes over the past few days, Allen and the other Witchers mounted their horses, escorted by the grateful crowd, and departed Orchard Valley. It wasn't until they reached a signpost that Allen snapped out of his thoughts. Looking back at the people still watching them leave, he sighed softly. "Just a few days of killing monsters, and we've earned so much respect..."
"No wonder the Wolf School Witchers are so envied."
....…
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194. Ban Ard Academy.
195. Alzur Tower.
196. The Cat School is Here!
197. Sword and Sword.
198. The Match Isn't Over, But the School of the Wolf Has Won.