[Quest: Song of the White Griffin's Soul]
[Quest Type: Main Quest (First Ring)]
[Quest Description: Obtain the recognition of the Griffin School Grandmaster: acquire Monster Hunting Notes; begin reading Monster Hunting Notes.]
[Quest Progress: Recognition of Erland of Larvik, Grandmaster of the Griffin School (Completed)
Obtain Monster Hunting Notes (Completed)
Begin reading Monster Hunting Notes (Completed)]
[Note: Not all noble griffins can redeem their souls from the River of Fate.]
"Ding! Do you wish to complete the main quest: Song of the White Griffin's Soul (First Ring)?"
This was a prompt that triggered automatically the moment Allen's hand touched Monster Hunting Notes.
To be honest, this was the first time Allen had ever seen a main quest completed so easily.
A chained main quest that actually only required reading a book.
You had to know that the previous similar quest required three first-stage conjunction of spheres in the very first ring, and the elimination of all monsters that had "smuggled" their way in from another world.
It couldn't have been more troublesome.
Of course, if one really counted it carefully, the actual difficulty of Song of the White Griffin's Soul was not small at all.
First, obtaining the recognition of the Griffin School Grandmaster was no easy feat. Under normal circumstances, a witcher who did not belong to the Griffin School would not even get a chance to meet Erland, let alone gain his recognition.
Second, although Erland appeared very casual when gifting Monster Hunting Notes, in the original worldview this book was the Griffin School's secret manual—equivalent to the founder's never-passed-down ultimate art in martial arts novels of Allen's previous life, the core method upon which the school was built.
A witcher with sufficient foundations could found a new school with this book; secular kings and nobles could use it to form vast numbers of extraordinary troops.
Not to mention that sorcerers, in order to seize it, were even willing to pay the enormous price of unleashing a massive avalanche capable of destroying an entire fortress.
The reason Allen was able to gain Erland's recognition was also because he had paid a steep price in advance.
Saving the missing Griffin School witcher master Jerome Moreau, sharing techniques such as secondary mutation, and even using prophecy to allow the Griffin School to uncover a conspiracy and escape its originally tragic fate—
He had directly maxed out Erland of Larvik's favorability.
As for Erland of Larvik gifting him Monster Hunting Notes, Allen felt that this was not merely because he had gained Erland's recognition; otherwise, the two quest conditions would not have been listed separately.
Rather, it was because of what Erland said at the very end of the "Preface"—
He sensed Allen's ambition to rebuild the Witcher Order, and thus passed this Griffin School secret manual to him, allowing Allen to draw lessons from the rise and collapse of the witchers through Erland's first-person perspective.
Therefore, the "Main Quest: Song of the White Griffin's Soul" was not easy. It was simply that before the quest was officially activated, Allen had already been completing it.
Just like the first chained main quest, The World's Revival.
[Quest: The World's Revival]
[Quest Type: Main Quest (First Ring)]
[Quest Description:
Primary: Carry out three first-stage conjunction of spheres (must be completed).
Secondary: Eliminate all monsters smuggled in from another world (the quality and quantity of rewards increase based on the number of monsters eliminated).]
[Note: You are the path found by a dying world. It longs to return to its most prosperous form.]
When it was first triggered, two of the three first-stage conjunction of spheres had already been completed, so only one more fusion was needed.
After sorting through the cause and effect, Allen moved his will.
[Ding! Main quest Song of the White Griffin's Soul (First Ring) completed. Do you accept?]
[Quest Rewards: Legion Insignia of the White Griffin (Tier 1), Experience Orbs ×100]
[Ding! Main quest Song of the White Griffin's Soul (Second Ring) has been activated. Do you accept?]
-----------------------------------
"Legion Insignia of the White Griffin? And it's Tier One—"
Seeing a new term appear among the rewards, Allen froze for a moment, then shifted his attention to the inventory.
A rusted object carved with the head of a griffin—looking like the Griffin School's emblem—appeared in the inventory.
[Name: Legion Insignia of the White Griffin]
[Type: Legion Insignia]
[Tier: One (White)]
[Functions:
1. Sign Mastery: After the legion equips this insignia, all witcher Signs of the Legion Commander gain +1 level. The Legion Commander's witcher Sign levels are no longer counted toward personal level. Legion members gain a ×2 multiplier to the acquisition of Sign-type skill progress. Sign training speed is increased. Unlocks the restriction on improving Signs with battle merit points (legion members' Sign-type skills can be upgraded by consuming five times the Experience Orbs).
2. Not activated (will activate after the Legion Insignia of the White Griffin increases in tier).
3. ————
————]
[Note: You think this is merely a legion-wide buff insignia? No. This is a spirit of destiny that should have died to greed, discrimination, and loneliness.]
"—Hiss!"
After clearly reading the effects of the Legion Insignia of the White Griffin, Allen sucked in a sharp breath.
Holy hell.
"Sign Mastery"—how was this just a single function?!
It was clearly five insanely powerful effects merged into one.
No level limit. A +1 to all witcher Sign levels—what kind of effect was that? After equipping it, just his current level-7 Quen Sign alone saved him 100 Experience Orbs.
The ×2 multiplier to legion members' Sign-type skill gains meant that one point of battle merit counted as two.
Unlocking the restriction on improving Signs with battle merit points—what was being unlocked wasn't merely the Sign limit.
What it unlocked was the overall upper ceiling of the witcher legion.
Although the five-times Experience Orb cost was somewhat exaggerated, in daily situations one would definitely still use battle merit points.
But that didn't stop this from being invaluable in emergencies, when targeted Sign upgrades could be deployed.
For example, suddenly encountering enemies weak to fire—upgrade Igni. Facing flying monsters—Aard. Against humans—Axii—
In certain urgent situations, even five times the cost—hell, even ten times—would be worth it.
Of course, what surprised Allen the most was not the above functions of the Legion Insignia of the White Griffin, but rather the line: "The Legion Commander's witcher Sign levels are no longer counted toward personal level."
"Phew—"
Allen took a deep breath and shifted his will to the Witcher Legion interface.
Sure enough, on the blood-red legion interface, an additional insignia module had appeared.
"Kree—!"
As if a great griffin spread its wings and cried clearly across the sky.
Once the Legion Insignia of the White Griffin was equipped, the Witcher Legion interface immediately erupted with brilliant frost-white light.
Allen instantly felt his whole body lighten.
He then switched to the personal status panel.
[Name: Allen]
[Age: 14]
[Title: Miracle Child]
[Level: 58 (−29)]
[Health: 100%, Stamina: 990/990, Mana: 1580/1580]
[Attributes: Strength 99, Agility 99, Constitution 99, Perception 99, Mystery 158]
[Affinity: Water 16 (Mana Source · Water 6%), Earth 19 (Mana Source · Earth 9%), Wind 11 (Mana Source · Wind 1%), Fire 24 (Mana Source · Fire 14%), Space 2, Nature 41]
[Special Skills: Monster Hunt LV6, Spatial Mastery LV6, Appraisal LV2, Tracking LV1, Spiral (1/5)]
[Signs: Quen LV8 (+1), Igni LV5 (+1), Aard LV6 (+1), Yrden LV4 (+1), Axii LV4 (+1), Otrup Sign LV8 (+1)]
With his Signs not only failing to weaken but instead becoming significantly stronger, his personal level dropped by a full twenty-nine levels in an instant!
What did this mean?
It meant that after today, Allen could once again gain rewards from hunt settlements when hunting monsters slightly stronger—roughly at the Alghoul tier.
It meant that most large monsters would no longer trigger penalties from the "bullying the weak" settlement evaluation.
It meant that the overall gains from this expedition to Dol Dhu Lokke would increase dramatically.
That's right—he had once obtained "Authority: Deception" (once per elven month, one settlement evaluation in a hunt could be erased), but that was nothing compared to gaining rewards in every single settlement.
It could even be said—
After obtaining the Legion Insignia of the White Griffin, Allen's gains from hunting monsters during this expedition would increase by at least five times. At the very least, five times.
In reality, it would likely be far more.
Because in hunt settlement calculations, a battle is evaluated based on the highest-level monster defeated; other non-large monsters, even if lower in level, still receive the bonus from the higher-level monster.
Most large monsters actually exceed level sixty, which makes level sixty a real threshold.
There was no shortage of large monsters in Dol Dhu Lokke, nor a lack of numerous swarm-type monsters. What it lacked, instead, were weak monsters in small-scale groups—such as packs of Drowners.
Because of this, before equipping the Legion Insignia of the White Griffin, out of a hundred battles only a mere handful would allow Allen to obtain a rating above "D." But now, after equipping the Legion Insignia of the White Griffin, in at least more than half of those hundred battles, the final hunt rating could reach "B."
These were two completely different levels of gains.
"And more importantly, the current Legion Insignia of the White Griffin is only Tier One—clearly, it can be upgraded—"
Allen returned to the Legion Insignia of the White Griffin interface, his mood visibly uplifted.
He was already looking forward to what new abilities would be unlocked once the insignia was upgraded.
Judging by treasure chest quality—white, blue, purple, gold—even if there was no red tier, it should still be able to upgrade at least three more times.
Thinking of this, Allen quickly switched back to the system prompt—
[Ding! Main quest Song of the White Griffin's Soul (Second Ring) has been activated. Do you accept?]
Of course he accepted!
[Quest: Song of the White Griffin's Soul]
[Quest Type: Main Quest (Second Ring)]
[Quest Description: Read 20% of Monster Hunting Notes.][Note: Not all noble griffins can redeem their souls from the River of Fate.]
Twenty percent—roughly five or six volumes—
Allen glanced at the parchment books in his saddlebag and let out a sigh of relief. "It'll take some time, but it's not hard. Strictly speaking, compared to the main quests I activated before, Song of the White Griffin's Soul is so easy it's almost scary."
"Snap—"
Allen closed the first volume of Monster Hunting Notes in his hands. He had no intention of continuing to read right here at the entrance of the Wolf School stronghold.
Reading wasn't something that had to be rushed.
Monster Hunting Notes could be said to be something Grandmaster Erland wrote with heart-wrenching effort. There was no need to go as far as burning incense and bathing before reading—that would be excessive.
But to treat such a monumental work merely with a "complete-the-quest" mindset would be far too disrespectful to the Griffin School Grandmaster's painstaking efforts.
"Grandmaster Erland really gave me an enormous gift."
He glanced back once more at the brightly lit Griffin School stronghold, then lifted his feet and headed toward the Wolf School's base.
"Tap—tap—tap—"
Leather boots struck the cold, solid stone path. When Allen saw the ferocious wolf-head emblem of the Wolf School base under the firelight, his steps suddenly halted.
He abruptly thought of a question.
Since the Griffin School had Monster Hunting Notes, something capable of triggering the main quest Song of the White Griffin's Soul and granting the Legion Insignia of the White Griffin—
Did the Wolf School also have a similar Monster Hunting Notes, one that could allow him to obtain a Wolf School legion insignia?
And what about the School of Bear?
The School of Viper, the School of Manticore, and even the School of Cat?
They must have them!
Allen's eyes suddenly lit up.
How could only the Griffin School alone possess something like a legion insignia?
That wouldn't make sense.
The only concern was that while the Wolf School was fine—Sol, no matter what, would never refuse to recognize him—
Setting aside the School of Cat, which he had nearly wiped out.
Arnaghad of the School of Bear was cold and merciless; it would likely be extremely difficult to gain his recognition, let alone have him voluntarily gift a school inheritance.
Ivar Evil-Eye of the School of Viper, on the other hand, was the most likely—aside from the Wolf School—to recognize him.
After all, Ivar Evil-Eye had devoted his entire life to hunting the Wild Hunt, sharing the same aspirations as Allen.
Speaking of which, ever since the Wild Hunt first appeared in Flotsam, the Volta family of Novigrad had been searching for the School of Viper for half a year now.
Allen rubbed his chin, recalling that strange encounter in Flotsam.
The Volta family's gift to him—the steel sword Balmur—might often be disobedient, but there was no denying that it played a crucial role during the May Day Festival and in the banishment of the evil god.
"If things went smoothly, Ivar Evil-Eye should have already led the Viper School witchers toward the Northern Continent. If they're traveling by sea, they should be almost at Novigrad by now, right?"
Allen wasn't entirely sure.
The farthest south he had ever gone was Toussaint—and even that was via a portal.
He wasn't very familiar with the terrain south of Toussaint, nor with the war situations and monster distributions among the southern kingdoms. Any of these could affect a caravan's journey. If a road were blocked by war, monsters, or bandits, the trip could easily be delayed by a month or two.
"Let's not think about it too much," Allen shook his head. "Even if Ivar Evil-Eye has reached the Northern Continent, he probably won't come to the Wolf School directly. He'll definitely investigate on his own for a while to verify information about the Wild Hunt. Even if contact can be made, the earliest would be next year."
He stopped thinking about the School of Viper and brought his thoughts back to Monster Hunting Notes.
"Still, the Griffin School has records like Monster Hunting Notes. I haven't heard of other schools having anything similar—"
After pondering for a moment, Allen stepped forward and pushed open the doors of the Wolf School stronghold.
"No matter how the other schools are, the Wolf School's Grandmaster is right here."
"I'll ask Sol first—and secure the Wolf School's legion insignia!"
..........