The Witcher: Grinding Experience Starting as a Wolf School Witcher

Chapter 71 The Temple of Meritelli

The hunter Zachary noticed Mia beside Arwen, paused for a moment, and then exclaimed in surprise.

"You...you're Sister Mia from the Temple of Meritelli?"

"Oh, Goddess Meritelli, it's so wonderful to see you here! This place is very dangerous, what are you doing here?"

At this point, the hunter Zachary looked warily at Arwen, while also noticing the dried bloodstains on his body.

Arwen turned to look at Mia beside him. "You know him?"

Mia nodded repeatedly and said softly, "I know him. His hunting lodge is not far from the temple. Last year, he was gored in the calf by a wild boar, and I was the one who bandaged him up. Oh, and his child, Nannick delivered him too."

Seeing that the two were talking familiarly, and that it wasn't a kidnapping as he had suspected, the hunter Zachary scratched his head to hide his embarrassment and laughed.

"Mia, how can I face anyone after you expose my past like this?"

"Mr. Zachary, this is A..." Mia reached out towards Alwin's location.

"Raven," Alwin said first.

"Mr. Raven, my... friend, we have come here on the orders of our lord to hunt this pterosaur."

"Pterodactyl?"

The hunter Zachary's eyes widened in astonishment. He looked at the massive corpse behind Alwin, then at the surrounding corpses, and his mind went completely blank.

After a long while, he came to his senses, his gaze refocusing on the ferocious royal pterodactyl head, and he screamed.

"Gods above, plague above, my God, it really is a pterodactyl! How could you kill this beast?!"

……

The sun gradually climbed higher in the sky.

Sunlight shone on Arwen's black cloak.

He rode a mare slowly along a muddy path beside a small river.

The river surface shimmered, the willow branches swayed in the wind, and the riverbank was covered with dense, intertwined blackberry bushes.

Behind him, a carriage followed closely, and the sound of horses snorting could be heard continuously.

Mia rode a grey gelding, while the hunter Zachary and his companions drove dappled horses, pulling an open carriage with two wheels.

Lying on the carriage was the carcass of a royal pterosaur.

A gelding is a male horse that has been castrated. It is gentle in nature and is often used as a means of transportation.

As the group rounded a bend, their view, previously obscured by weeping willows, gradually opened up. The sound of horses' hooves quickened beside them, and Mia came to Alwin's side.

"We've arrived just ahead."

Arwen raised his head, and between the weeping willows on both sides sat a palace made of marble, with a huge circular archway and white stone walls carved with forest birds and beasts.

Directly in front of the palace, there is a circular pond made of alabaster.

Elsberg during the elven era, now the Temple of Meritelli.

The temple was located in a very remote area, far from the town, but there was a crowd gathered at the entrance; just by glancing around, I could tell there were at least a hundred people.

The boisterous noise could be heard from afar, and the temple doors were tightly shut.

Clearly, the crowd blocking the entrance was not devout believers.

"Infanticide, you wicked witch!"

"Get out of Cordwin! Get out of Franktal!"

"You are not welcome here!"

Alwin's gaze was cold as he whispered, "What's going on?"

Mia sighed. "The Temple of Meriteli has been quite unsettled lately because..."

Before Mia could finish speaking, the voices from ahead grew louder.

A red-robed priest walked up to the protesters and stepped onto the steps leading to the temple gate.

He opened his arms, his face devout, and spoke loudly.

"Oh, my fellow villagers, Meritelli was once a sacred place, where a goddess symbolizing life was worshipped."

"But now they have fallen, they have abandoned their faith, and they have cruelly murdered a child in a mother's womb."

Poor Shana, she eventually died of grief and resentment.

"Brave friends, who else can stand up for Shana now?! Only us!"

"Who can stop our future wives and children from suffering their cruelty!"

"Just us!"

"We shouldn't protest outside; it will only embolden them!"

"We should storm this temple of the evil god, drag these swindlers out, and send them to the stake!"

"Baptized by fire! Purified by fire! Reborn by fire!"

The pastor's voice was excited, his face flushed, and his magnetic voice captivated every man present.

"Kill! Burn this place to ashes!"

"This place is inherently inhabited by non-humans. These witches must have made arrangements with non-humans to stay here."

"That's right, they've bewitched my wife. She comes here a few days every month, saying she's not feeling well, and that she's doing some kind of prayer to avoid working in the fields—it's all bullshit!"

"She's trying to kill our children!"

"Kill them! Let their blood flow like a river!"

Protesters raised pitchforks and flails, some picked up stones and threw them at the temple gates, shouting and hurling insults.

"Charge in, kill...who the hell pushed me!"

A man dressed in coarse linen clothes shouted and was shoved aside with great force.

A tall figure squeezed into his line of sight, his black cloak stained with dried blood, and the greatsword on his back gleaming coldly.

The insults that were about to be uttered were swallowed back down. His face flushed red as he watched the other person push through the crowd and walk straight up to the red-robed priest.

The red-robed pastor looked at him, his eyes crinkled with wrinkles, and spoke in a loud voice.

"Righteous knight-errant, have you come to eradicate evil?"

The man in black raised his forehead, and beneath his black hood, a pair of wild, vertical pupils appeared.

The red-robed priest looked astonished as a pair of silver-studded gauntlets flashed out from under the other man's cloak, bringing with them a nauseating stench of blood.

The loose collar was grabbed by five fingers, and the flame pendant around her neck was torn off and scattered on the ground.

"Ah..." the red-robed priest screamed as his strong arms dragged him down the steps.

"Let me go...monster..."

"Help me! He's an evil god..."

Arwen loosened his left hand, raised it upwards, and gripped the red priest's chin with a slight force.

"Click."

The sound of a dislocated jaw could be heard.

The red-robed priest winced in pain, uttering incoherent, muffled sounds.

The protesters gathered around, and suddenly a pitchfork was pointed at Alwin.

"Halt! Where are you taking our pastor?"

Arwen stared at him. The man was tall and strong with muscular forearms. Although he was wearing coarse cotton clothes, his strong physique was something that tenant farmers could not afford to support.

Arwen drew his greatsword from above his shoulder and pointed it at the man.

"Get out of here."

The indifferent voice made the 'tenant farmer' swallow hard.

"Don't assume that you..."

A beam of green spiritual energy shot out from Alwin's eyes.

The tenant farmer's eyes glazed over. "I...I'll move aside..."

"This gentleman... just wants to talk to the pastor..."

The crowd of protesters was intimidated by Alwin's imposing manner and silently made way for him.

The red-robed priest struggled desperately with both hands, still pleading for help, making indistinct sounds.

"Waaaaah... Waaaaah..."

Hooves sounded from behind the crowd; Mia and the hunter Zakri had arrived in their carriage.

Zachary and his companions jumped off the carriage, nocked their arrows, and watched the crowd warily.

Arwen grabbed the red-robed priest and carried him to the carriage, lifting him up like a chick.

The other person kept whimpering, with a pleading look in their eyes.

Alwin used his forearm to press his head heavily onto the wooden plank of the carriage, squeezing his face until it was deformed.

The red-robed priest's eyes bulged out.

The grotesque head, resembling a lizard, was sticking out a thick tongue, and above its fangs was a lifeless, savage eye that stared coldly at him.

"Waaah..."

The red-robed priest rolled his eyes, his body shuddered violently, his trousers became wet, and a foul odor emanated from them. He then fainted.