Witch, Fireball and Steam Evil God

Chapter 304 World Completion Project
"Xiaobai, get out of the way!"

As dawn broke, a shout pierced the mist, but the white dragon's massive body, unable to dodge in time, was struck in mid-air and crashed heavily back to the ground. This time, its consciousness finally succumbed to the strain, and it closed its eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

"For a beginner, you've done very well."

Swallowtail Butterfly wiped the sweat from her forehead, her voice full of exhaustion.

While Ethan headed to the frozen lake, Charlotte was also busy. In preparation for tomorrow's battle, she took the initiative to visit Lady Swallowtail Butterfly late at night.

"But that's still far from enough..."

The repeated failures discouraged her, but as the number of training sessions increased, the Phoenix Tail Butterfly became increasingly adept at defeating her, allowing her to directly experience the differences between summoners.

Despite having stronger partners, she couldn't unleash their full potential or immediately see through their tactics. Her mindset inevitably changed during this process, from initially focusing on improving herself to hoping for even just one victory. However, even so, she failed to win even a single time before dawn.

This is the strength of the city lord's summoners; yet even such powerful summoners were defeated by the suddenly appearing mechanical monsters...

Charlotte couldn't help but think of Giovanni from Team Rocket. That young man, who looked only a few years older than her, had already far surpassed many city lords. Back in Tsukimori City, she had witnessed him kill the mechanical beetle with a single blow.

Compared to her, the title of "destined one" seems rather undeserved.

"This is the relationship between monsters and summoners. Excellent summoners can help monsters unlock their potential. Both sides are indispensable to each other."

As they spoke, the silver butterfly gracefully descended from mid-air and nestled affectionately on the swallowtail butterfly's shoulder. "She was my first companion, and every city lord I know has had such a companion."

The swallowtail butterfly seemed to recall some beautiful memories, and its gaze softened.

In fact, this silver butterfly monster is one of the most common monsters in Misty Forest County, just like the Mistweaver Antelope. She was born into an ordinary family, and after her coming-of-age ceremony, her parents could only give her a very ordinary monster egg. But that was the happiest day of her life, and she can still recall the excitement she felt when she held the monster egg.

During her years as city lord, she witnessed a change in the atmosphere among summoners. Nowadays, summoners are increasingly eager to obtain powerful monsters, and it would be best for them to skip the process of traveling and growing with their companions.

"Charlotte, do you know why the royal family stipulates that only summoners who have been approved by all the city lords are qualified to meet the Crimson Queen?"

"Because first, we need to filter out those summoners who are just pretending. Every city lord has a different tactical style, and summoners need to prove that they have the ability to deal with different tactical styles."

Charlotte answered immediately.

Just like Lady Swallowtail's fog tactics, which are essentially a tactic to deprive monsters and summoners of their vision, all the offensive methods that followed were based on this, and this later became one of the characteristics of Fogwood County.

Before acquiring her first monster companion, Charlotte was a battle enthusiast. She loved sitting in the courtyard with her father and listening to him tell stories about other summoners. Her father also spoke highly of Lady Swallowtail Butterfly, and it was hard to imagine that someone could raise a common silver-winged butterfly to the level of an ace.

Her father had asked her the same question, and Charlotte considered that to be the standard answer.

However, Ms. Swallowtail Butterfly, like her father, wore a silent smile.

Is there a problem?

"You'll have to find the answer yourself."

"But don't forget about elemental advantages, young summoner."

A discordant voice interrupted their conversation. An uninvited guest, leaning on a cane and shrouded in a black cloak, appeared in the battlefield in the backyard of the city lord's mansion. He clutched his lower back and walked unsteadily toward the two of them. "I saw the confusion in your eyes just now. You must be very curious that even powerful summoners like Lady Phoenix Tail Butterfly and your father could not defeat those mechanical monsters that suddenly appeared."

The cloaked figure paused, then said, "The answer lies in elemental advantage... I'm sure Lady Phoenixtail Butterfly noticed this in the market area, didn't she? Those strange things are like natural enemies to most monsters. Summoners can't unleash their true power in front of them. And Miss Charlotte, your partner... Ouch, be gentle, be gentle!"

The feigned profound tone turned into a strange cry, and the cloaked man bent over like a shrimp as the silver-winged butterfly lifted him into the air. He could even see the disgust in the silver-winged butterfly's big eyes.

"Wait a minute, my back is really injured! No way, my disguise is perfect, there should be no way anyone could see through it!"

"Put him down."

Seeing that the cloaked man's screams seemed genuine, the swallowtail butterfly frowned and had the silver-winged butterfly put him back on the ground. The cloaked man then lay down on the ground in a slumped position, still clutching his lower back tightly.

After a moment, he slightly raised his face and asked unwillingly, "How exactly did you see through my exquisite disguise?"

"The flavor is too strong."

Charlotte also covered her nose in disgust.

She didn't know if it was just psychological; a few days ago when she saw the man in the white headscarf in Moon Forest City, she hadn't noticed how unpleasant he smelled.

"Don't push your luck! I went to the public bathhouse specifically to take a bath before I came, and this cloak is brand new!"

The white headscarf raised its tone.

For this, he was met with a lot of disdain at the public bathhouse. As soon as he entered, the summoners inside scattered in panic, fleeing the bathhouse with shouts of "Boss, your bathhouse is full of stinky mud!"

And the culprit behind all of this is Ethan!
Ethan was the first to say he smelled like stinky mud, and although the guy claimed he was just relaying the monsters' opinions, White Hood was sure it was a rumor.

He, with his white turban, is known for his vengeful nature, and he has already set his sights on Ethan.

"And what's wrong with your back and your cane? -- Stop, don't get up, just stay there and don't move, don't come near us!"

Seeing the woman in the white headscarf trying to get up from the ground, Ms. Swallowtail Butterfly lost her usual composure.

This creature, which looks human but smells like mud, is one of the few things that has frightened her in recent years.

We don't know if the smell is contagious, so to be on the safe side, we must keep a distance of more than ten meters from this unknown creature.

"He fell!"

"You fell? You were attacked in the city again?"

Swallowtail Butterfly immediately became alert. After the attack in the market area, the fanatical robot had also disappeared. She suspected that it might still be lurking somewhere in Mistywood County, so she specially increased the number of patrols and temporarily included some students from the classrooms in the patrol team.

"No, I fell while climbing the wall."

The man in the white headscarf complained, "Why are there so many patrols today? I almost got spotted while climbing over the wall!"

He just couldn't understand it. He had only climbed the wall of the city lord's mansion in the middle of the night. What was so suspicious about that?
This is perfectly normal for rock climbing enthusiasts!
Upon hearing this, Butterfly's eyelids twitched violently a few times, and her hands clenched into fists. She wished she could switch from a summoner to a berserker and give White Headband a couple of kicks. But on the other hand, she had to admit that White Headband did indeed have a keen eye for observation, which was probably why this guy was able to make a name for himself in the poaching business.

After a sigh, the swallowtail butterfly asked, "What exactly were you trying to say?"

"Perhaps Ethan... Sakaki isn't as powerful as you think. Maybe he just counters those weird things with his attributes, just like summoners are countered by them. Miss Charlotte, from what I've observed, your partner seems to possess the same power."

These words made the swallowtail butterfly fall into deep thought.

Monster races have always had a relationship of mutual restraint, but in the past, monster researchers only roughly divided them into land, sea and flying species. In recent years, some people have proposed a more detailed concept of monster races in academic journals, believing that the restraint relationship between monsters is far more intricate than they imagined.

The concept of "attributes" was proposed by the woman in white headscarves, and it was the first time she had heard of it.

What exactly do you mean by 'attribute'?

"Take those mechanical monsters as an example. They are made entirely of metal and have a strong resistance to blows. Most of the summoners' attack methods are ineffective against them. In my theory, monsters with the same characteristics can be defined as having the 'metal' or 'steel' attribute, and this white dragon possesses a certain attribute that can counter that attribute."

"But it is clearly a flying dragon."

The swallowtail butterfly pointed out the flaws in the white headscarf theory.

"No one has ever stipulated that a monster can only have one single attribute. In addition to having the 'dragon' attribute, it also has another unknown attribute that can counter mechanical monsters."

The man in the white headscarf became more and more excited as he spoke, "In other words, as long as we can understand this unknown attribute, we can form a counter-relationship with mechanical monsters!"

........................

Meanwhile, on the other side.

"Old Sen, don't you think something's a little strange?"

Upon leaving the tomb and returning to the surface, the intelligence expert Rowena asked, "Was it this cold here before?"

"It must be the result of the teacher's ice elemental magic."

The lake remains frozen.

"No, I'm her partner and I know her magic very well. After the domain magic is released, the altered temperature will gradually rise until it returns to normal. We've been under the tomb for so long, the outside temperature should have recovered by now. Also, look under the ice, were there so many fish before?"

Upon hearing this, Ethan looked down and saw a school of fish struggling towards his feet. They looked very happy, as if they wanted to break through the ice to reach him.

He seemed to be deep in thought. After a moment, he picked up the cat from his shoulder, bent down and put her on the ice. As expected, the fish swarmed towards the cat.

Immediately afterwards, a strange feeling came through his eyes.

Perhaps it was because the fish under the ice were too dense, or perhaps it was because he hadn't slept well for the past two days, but he kept his eyes closed for a long time before he could barely open them.

When he opened his eyes again, the cat was not far in front of him, looking up at him curiously.

This time, however, there were many words floating in the air behind the cat, just like the skill panel that appeared out of thin air when he first practiced the fireball spell.

『Ice Koi (Water/Ice), Level: 11』.

Many words were stacked together, and the numbers after the grade kept jumping back and forth between 10, 11, and 12.

"They definitely didn't look like this before!"

Rowena said with certainty, "They used to be red, how come they've turned blue now? And the patterns on the fish scales have changed too, they're much neater than before!"

She came with a tourist's mindset, and even tried to interact with the fish below through the ice.

The monsters in this plane are much smarter than those in their world. Although most of them cannot speak, even the lowest-level monsters can understand human intentions. In the Empire's monster atlas, this is a kind of intelligence that only a few high-level monsters can awaken.

Your intuition is correct.

Ethan responded that perhaps it was because they had taken the abandoned case from the tomb that the world was indeed changing. Before this, he was quite certain that the monsters in this world did not have the concept of attributes, and breathing fire and spitting poison were just innate skills of a very small number of monsters.

And now, it seems that natural elements are returning to the world.

Influenced by the magic of the Winter Domain, the monsters near the lake have developed the attribute of "ice," which is probably why they are drawn to winter.

"I knew it... Hey, look over there!"

Rowena suddenly accelerated and flapped her wings, flying towards the shore.

The Crazy Robots remain frozen, displayed like tourist attractions on the frozen lake. When they emerge from the frozen lake, the mist that lingers around the lakeside has dissipated, replaced by slowly falling snowflakes, which seem particularly out of place in this season.

Beside the frozen robot, they found a pure white antelope. The part of the antelope's abdomen that had been cut open had turned into a layer of ice, through which they could see a core beating like a heart. The soft tubes that looked like worms were gone, and the antelope's horns and hooves had also turned into the same kind of cold ice.

『Snow Antelope (Ice), Level: 25』.

Ethan remembered that this monster was originally called the Mistweaver Antelope, whose innate skill was to attract mist, hence its name. Now, it could still vaguely make out its original outline, but it had completely transformed into a new species.

This made him quicken his pace back to the city.

As dawn broke, the Misty Forest County was already bustling with activity. Summoners and their monster companions came out to the streets, adjusting to the sudden change. Among the crowd, he spotted a familiar figure.

Lady Swallowtail Butterfly also noticed Ethan and the others, and immediately walked towards them, accompanied by the silver butterfly that was taller than a human.

『Silverwing Butterfly (Insect/Fairy), Level: 64』.

Upon receiving the report, she went to the street immediately. The summoners' monsters had all undergone varying degrees of change. Some could breathe fire, some could spray water, and their fur had changed color, making them look like a new species that was neither one nor the other.

"What exactly did you do?"

(End of this chapter)