Millennium Witch.

Chapter 41 - Spring has arrived once again.
Over the next few days, Yvette began a massive cleanup of all the third-order aberrations and mother nests on the entire island of Ish, determined to devour them all and turn them into withered shells.

During the execution of this operation, Yvette gradually mastered the details of her unique ability.

For example, increasing the thickness, length, or number of tentacles will significantly increase the consumption of aberration factors. Moreover, the concentration of aberration factors in the body of a first-stage aberration variant is quite low. Sometimes, a single tentacle attack may result in the aberration factors being used up rather than the aberration factors absorbed.

For example, the hardening ability of tentacles is not only used for attack, but also for defense. So from the perspective of improving combat power, she may need to learn some close combat or fighting knowledge from Rosalyn. In any field, the expert is the teacher. Although the master-disciple relationship will be reversed as a result, she does not think she will feel ashamed.

What struck Yvette as even stranger was the discovery of a new, magical core-like entity within her body, originating from the aberrant factor.

Therefore, the aberrant factors that spread, invade, and assimilate wantonly in other aberrant organisms become obediently aggregated automatically in her body, losing their original activity and turning into a core that can be used at will?

Why is this?

Speaking of which, in the moment when her consciousness sank during the complete distortion, she remembered that in the depths of the dark ocean, she chose a black tentacle and gave up a mass of black and red liquid.

What is the connection between these two things?
Could this be an optional evolutionary path?

She couldn't understand it at all, nor could she understand it, so she quickly gave up thinking about these things and instead named the second core in her body "Aberration Core," and the power contained within it was simply called "Aberration Magic."

Well, this can be considered a dual cultivation of magic and mutation.

……

The cleanup operation lasted four days, starting from Luya City in the far north, continuing to Grey Harbor City, Ish City, and then back to the Ish Mountains and the Corruption Forest. During this long journey, a total of seven Stage 7 Aberrations perished from the pure white tentacles' feeding.

Rosalind was of no help whatsoever. The whole process was that the teacher walked up to the aberrant, bombarded it with spells to weaken it, then cast a tentacle to begin its evil feeding, and then the process could be repeated to move on to the next one.

Because the absorption process replenishes mana, the teacher, who had almost perished in the insects' bellies due to exhaustion of mana, has become a perpetual motion machine of magic, no longer needing to worry about running out of mana.

However, according to the teacher's explanation, the accident in the Corrupted Forest was not entirely due to her miscalculation. The six-armed demon in its prime was indeed a bit too powerful. After sweeping away all the third-tier aberrations on the island, she still believed that the six-armed demon's strength was far ahead and infinitely close to the legendary fourth stage. This information gap was the root cause of her near death.

Rosalyn didn't think anything of it at first. Although she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she unconditionally believed her teacher's words and never doubted them.

But later, whenever the teacher mentioned that life-or-death crisis, he would subconsciously emphasize it repeatedly, not as if he were telling the students, but as if he were convincing himself.

It was clear that the teacher was still troubled by the imperfect and near-death ending of that battle. She wanted to, but didn't know how to comfort the teacher.

The truth is, they were lucky, so they didn't mutate, and they even evolved in reverse. Otherwise, they would be queuing up to be reincarnated in the underworld by now.

So perhaps only time can heal the teacher's psychological trauma.

……

After the major cleanup was completed and the crisis was resolved, the former leisure and tranquility returned to the manor.

Unlike before, this time, Ish Island is truly safe. All the previously high-risk areas have been thoroughly cleared by Yvette. Not to mention her, even if Rosalind were to hike alone on the island, she would be absolutely safe—unless she went into the sea, which would be a different story.

But just when Rosalyn thought things were settling down again, the morning after the big cleanup ended, she got up to find Yvette sitting on the sofa in the first-floor living room, looking hesitant to speak.

"Good morning, teacher. You're up so early today!" Rosalyn greeted her and headed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.

Then she heard the teacher call her name in a somewhat strange tone: "...Rosalyn".

"Mmm!" "Are you free?"

"Huh?" Rosalyn turned her head in surprise and said, "Teacher, I'll always have it if you need it."

“Then come out in a bit and teach me swordsmanship.” Yvette looked out the window.

"Huh?" Rosalyn thought she had misheard. In her eyes, the teacher was an all-knowing genius. What did she do to deserve teaching the teacher?

But she immediately cheered up and gave a loud "Mmm".

……

And so, the course on swordsmanship, cold weapons, and various close combat techniques abruptly began that morning.

During this process, Yvette gradually realized that seeking knowledge from students with the mindset of learning from those who have achieved success was not as easy as she had imagined.

The biggest factor is that she is seen as a genius by her students, but she is not.

Her knowledge of runes and various other fields came from her more than two hundred years of imprisonment in the Abyss Base. In that place filled with a bluish-green light, there wasn't much she could do each day: daydream, read, clean, practice spells. The days passed by like that, and all her knowledge was painstakingly acquired through long periods of time there.

And what happens after you leave there?

During her decades on Ish Island, after discovering that no aberrations posed a threat to her, she became quite laid-back. She did collect books in various professional fields, but her progress was slow; she was lucky to study for two hours a day. While she did engage in activities like repairing her manor, tending her vegetable garden, and fixing cars, her core motivation was to improve her quality of life: to live in a mansion, eat gourmet food, own a long-lasting magical motorcycle for rides, have electricity at night, and be able to relight the ruined streets surrounding her manor.

Yes, in essence, she is not a genius witch who is proficient in all methods, but a lazy person with mediocre talent who relies on time to gain seniority, lacks initiative when she is in a comfortable situation, and is content to have her students serve her.

Now, with no external threats and already invincible on Ish Island, starting from scratch and following students, working nine-to-five to diligently practice cold weapon techniques, is a truly challenging task, especially since she is learning very slowly.

But she still decided to persist, even if it meant losing that divine idol-like aura in front of her students.

As for why, it's probably because the threat of impending death caused her to develop PTSD, and she doesn't want something similar to happen again.

If it were six years ago, she probably wouldn't have thought this way. Sometimes she would even think to extremes that death is no big deal. What's the point of living for hundreds or thousands of years in this monster-filled, deserted world, on a ruined island from which there's no way out? It would be better to be reincarnated at the speed of light, and maybe even travel through time again.

But now, she thought, she must at least ensure the safety of her students, until someday in the future, years or decades later, when the aurora reappears and the abyss reopens, she can safely send them home. At that time, she will have no more worries, no matter what she does.

However, she would occasionally wonder if Rosalyn would ever encounter such a rare celestial phenomenon again in her lifetime.

If we never meet, will there really come a day in the future where an elderly person outlives another elderly person?

The thought of that tragic sentiment based on the theory of lifespan made her feel uneasy, and she even began to consider whether she should go to sea in the future to search for the aurora in a wider world. However, considering the treacherous ocean conditions, a sea voyage seemed unlikely to be launched within the next ten years. Exploring the deeper underground areas near the Abyss Base, on the other hand, might be a viable option.

……

And so, time flew by, and half a year passed in a flash.

In the blink of an eye, spring has arrived once again.

(End of this chapter)