Millennium Witch.

Chapter 30 - 30 - Woodlice
It's summer again. The azure sky is crystal clear, and the sunlight, like melting amber, pours down from the heavens, gilding the abandoned port with a golden edge.

Sixteen-year-old Rosalind stood atop a half-collapsed watchtower, silently observing the abandoned harbor below. The salty sea breeze brushed past her nose, and the tower walls below were covered with moss and ivy, dewdrops glistening in the sunlight.

Compared to when she first arrived six years ago, the girl is now undoubtedly much more mature and beautiful. She has grown to nearly 1.7 meters tall, towering over her former teacher by a forehead. Her delicate face has lost its childlike roundness, replaced by a calmness very similar to her teacher's, yet with a more vibrant and lively charm.

After looking down at it for a while, she leaned her notebook against the rusty railing and began to take notes.

"Grey Harbor City Port Area, a gathering place for aberrant beetles... They are all basic beetle forms, no evolved forms found... Their bodies are rotting, covered with flesh and blood... Their main attack methods are claw strikes and headbutts... Note: They prefer to stay in dark places such as containers and cracks in breakwaters, beware of sneak attacks..."

A moment later, having finished recording all the observation information about the mutated beetle, Rosalyn hummed an unknown tune and, like a gust of wind, left the top of the watchtower, drifting down to the abandoned streets of Gray Harbor City.

To observe and record information about various aberrations was a long-term task assigned to her by her teacher at the end of last year.

The main reason is that after a long period of training and with the support of military-grade weapons, Rosalind has become fully capable of surviving alone in this wasteland world. Therefore, she no longer needs to stay in certain restricted safe zones and can freely explore areas outside the central district, and even outside Ish City.

Of course, there are still two dangerous areas that must not be approached: the Ish Mountains and the city of Luya behind the Ish Mountains. These are two high-risk areas that even the teachers are wary of, and Rosalind, who has learned to think before she acts, will naturally listen and keep her distance.

Walking slowly through the rubble and debris on the desolate street, the sunlight sharply cuts the shadows of the ruins.

But in the next instant, two enormous woodlice suddenly sprang out from the shadows of the nearby ruins. These were two mutated woodlice covered in flesh and blood, more than a meter long, with blood-red heads that had no extra organs, only a gaping maw filled with sharp teeth, which transformed into two foul-smelling black shadows and lunged straight at the girl's head.

Rosalyn's face clearly showed surprise, but she didn't panic, because being attacked by suddenly appearing mutants while walking on the street was a very normal thing, and she was used to it.

Dark red glowing runes suddenly appeared on the surface of her skin and clothing. She immediately unleashed tremendous force, stomping hard on the ground and creating cracks as she dodged to the side, avoiding a fatal blow.

Then, she skillfully drew the alloy battle blade from its metal sheath at her waist. With a flash of blue light, the two mutated woodlice burst open like sacs filled with pus, splattering out a yellowish fluid. Rosalyn, who was prepared, used Wind Control to blow the fluid away beforehand, ensuring that not a single drop touched her.

"Hmph... Damn it, no matter how many times, it still scares me..." she muttered, using simple water magic to clean her beloved sword and sheathing it again.

Then she looked down at the two corpses of woodlice.

This is actually what is commonly known as a pill bug, but it is frighteningly large, and its head has a giant mouth with hundreds of tiny, sharp teeth. Even children who have played with pill bugs many times would probably be scared and suffer from trypophobia here.

However, Rosalyn wasn't staring at the two corpses to desensitize herself; she had seen far too many disgusting mutants over the years, and two giant woodlice were nothing to her.

What really puzzled her was that she hadn't found these mutated isow worms during her exploration of Grey Harbor City last year, but now they were appearing in increasing numbers, as if they were multiplying rapidly somewhere.

The key issue is that the mutants possess terrifying regenerative abilities and a lifespan that seems to grant them immortality as long as they eat. However, neither she nor her teacher has ever witnessed them reproduce. The primary source remains wild animals that reproduce and are then infected and transformed by the mutants—a cyclical process.

So why are there more and more deformed isow worms in Grey Harbor? As a student and seeker of knowledge who bears the expectations of her teachers, Rosalyn feels it is her responsibility to investigate and find out.

Try to gather some clues first, and retreat immediately if you discover any danger. Go back and inform the teacher...

She silently admonished herself, then walked into a small alley and picked up her magical skateboard that she had left there. Runes lit up, and the skateboard moved forward silently, carrying her through streets overgrown with iron ferns, beginning to venture deeper into Grey Harbor City.

Because of its low-altitude, low-flying flight and lack of conspicuous exposure in mid-air, Rosalyn did not encounter many dangers along the way.

However, as she approached the core area of ​​the port, a dense, unsettling rustling sound, along with inhuman roars, caught her attention.

Rosalyn immediately maneuvered her skateboard to climb up and landed on the roof of a nearby, relatively intact ruin. There she saw a sight that shocked her: hundreds of mutant woodlice were marching forward in a swarm, devouring all the animals and mutants they encountered along the way.

Afterwards, the satiated woodlice will immediately return to their original spot without being attacked by any of their companions, while the other woodlice continue to surge forward, their destination unknown.

Rosalyn was stunned. These mutants actually knew how to act together, had a common goal, and did not attack each other at all!
This is completely different from her impression of the basic aberration variants as "killing machines without self-awareness"! Impossible, how could this happen? Are these all evolved forms?

Rosalyn frowned, a strong sense of eeriness and unease rising within her.

In the teachers' classification, aberrations are usually divided into two levels.

The most basic type is called the "basic variant," or simply "basic type." Its characteristics include a deformed head, exposed flesh, head deformity, and a lack of self-awareness. It will attack its own kind and devour anything in its path.

The more advanced type is called "evolutionary," characterized by a reduction in the area of ​​exposed flesh, the evolution of new offensive or defensive organs, and a lower level of biological instinct for seeking advantage and avoiding harm.

Rosalind has dealt with both of these levels over the years.

The basic form is the most common, and she often defeats it instantly, just like the woodlice from earlier. Evolved forms are rare, and the difference in difficulty is significant. Powerful evolved forms can chase Rosalind away, while weaker evolved forms are only slightly more troublesome than the basic form.

But the current swarm of insects...

If we call them basal forms, they have the ability to recognize their companions and do not attack each other. If we call them evolved forms, setting aside their sheer numbers, their mutations are only manifested in the large areas of flesh and blood covering their heads and skin, which are entirely external characteristics of the basal forms.

Why is this? Is it a unique characteristic of the deformed isow sowbug, possessing some kind of ability to distinguish its companions using pheromones?

But if that's the case, why don't other insect variants have this ability?

Moreover, the direction in which some of the feeding members retreated was towards the Ish Mountains, which happened to be one of the two places on Ish Island that the teacher had seriously emphasized to her to be absolutely forbidden to approach!

Could this have anything to do with the dangers within the Ish Mountains?
Thinking of this, Rosalind had already begun to consider backing out—just in case, she should go back to find her teacher first!

But just as she was about to step onto her skateboard and fly back to Ish City, a malicious gaze suddenly alerted her.

She immediately looked up and saw a dark, human-shaped shadow standing on the top floor of a ruined building not far from her, staring straight at her.

It was a humanoid mutant covered in jet-black scales, and undoubtedly a top-tier evolved form! It had four pairs of dragonfly-like wings on its back, and two sharp bone knives at the ends of its arms. Its jet-black face resembled an iron mask with huge gray-white compound eyes, but one could still make out the outline of human-like features.

Wow... such a high level of evolution... it's probably the most evolved aberration I've ever seen, and it's far ahead of the competition...

Rosalind's mood subsided, and her well-defined right hand slowly moved toward the alloy battle blade at her waist, preparing to fight and retreat.

According to the teacher's assessment, the less flesh and blood a mutant has exposed, the higher its level of evolution. And the one that completely conceals all external flesh and blood is the monster at the very pinnacle of mutants, one that even the teacher must deal with with full force.

Rosalind drew her alloy battle blade and retreated step by step, trying to step onto the magic skateboard. But to her surprise, the humanoid aberration standing on the rooftop of the high-rise building did not stop her from escaping, as if it were watching a drama that had nothing to do with it.

Why wasn't there an attack? Rosalyn's vigilance and doubts deepened. She even suspected that the other party might have a limited field of vision, appearing to be looking at her but actually unable to see very far.

But in that instant, she suddenly saw that on the face of the humanoid deformity looking down at her, the mouth slowly curved upwards, revealing a tiny, anthropomorphic, contemptuous, and malicious arc.

That was a... smile?

Rosalyn doubted she was seeing things, but in the blink of an eye, the humanoid deformed figure vanished abruptly from the rooftop, as if it had never existed.

(End of this chapter)