Millennium Witch.

Chapter 72 - Spider Woman
Three years later.

It was a snowy morning when Yvette got out of bed and walked through the long corridor. She saw that the air-raid shelter was quiet, except for a black dragon lying in a pile of grass in the corner, occasionally making even breathing sounds.

It's about four in the morning, just as dawn is breaking. The puppets all have training rules that mimic human sleep, so none of them are awake yet. It's the perfect time for her to sneak out alone and begin her first exploration of Kux.

Pushing open the stone door of the air-raid shelter and inhaling the cold air, Yvette felt her drowsiness dissipate slightly. She turned to look down the snow-covered slope outside the valley floor, the exploration goal she had set when she first arrived four years ago. She was somewhat surprised that the start of her first exploration had been delayed for so long.

Fortunately, everyone here is a long-lived species. Four years is enough time for a human to finish a university, but for everyone here, including the dragons, it's not too bad.

Moreover, these four years have been quite fulfilling for her. It's been a very long time since she's been so fully dedicated to optimizing surgical techniques.

After all, even with optimization work, a technique of the 10 specification would often require a team of dozens of people working day and night for half a year to complete during the early civilization period.

She single-handedly optimized seven techniques in four years, something that even in the Origin Civilization, no one would believe.

However, there are still some shortcomings in its application. After reaching the 10 level, the operability and variability of the techniques have increased significantly. What I need to improve next is probably my combat experience...

Thinking about all this, Yvette walked down the snow slope. She didn't bring the alloy battle blade, because as a low-end military-grade weapon, its power was far inferior to that of the spell, only its durability was acceptable. She planned to keep the knife as a lasting souvenir.

Her main purpose in exploring Cooks was not to wreak havoc or to uncover all the secrets of the city in one go.

She wanted to gather some intelligence first, and if possible, she would come more often to replenish her mana through meditation. Safety was paramount in all of this.

Using the wind element, she flew to the outskirts of the city and looked at the city shrouded in white mist from afar. Yvette indeed felt the atmosphere described in the mission log of the divine benefactor.

There were no deformed creatures, nor any living beings. Rooftops, streets, and crooked billboards were all covered with a thick white blanket of snow. In the boundless silence, even the howling of the wind through the broken walls and ruins seemed to have frozen.

She landed at an empty street corner, her feet treading on the breeze, and moved at a pace that was neither too fast nor too slow, traversing the surrounding town and community, and approaching the city center.

After advancing about 20 kilometers, as the city center gradually came into view, a mutant finally emerged from the shadows and attacked her, firing an ice shard. Yvette, intending to test the Crimson Armor's defensive capabilities, neither dodged nor evaded, but instead raised her hand to grab it, shattering the ice shard in an instant.

"This aberration's attack power isn't high enough..." Yvette said with some regret. Looking up, she saw a humanoid aberration. It looked somewhat like a zombie dug out of the frozen ground, hunched over, its skin clinging to its bones, exposing some flesh, and with a purplish-red pustules on its head. Despite being only a first-tier aberration, it could condense ice shards for attacks; it certainly had some strength.

But the most powerful one was yet to come. After discovering that its attacks had no effect, the mutant seemed to be enraged. Dozens of ice shards rapidly formed around it and bombarded Yvette.

This mindless barrage of firepower made her see a bit of her past self in this mutant.

With a whoosh, countless icicles struck Yvette, creating shimmering icy mist, but had no effect whatsoever, seemingly only adding a special effect. She then raised her hand and snapped her fingers lightly, and a ball of flame exploded out of thin air on the mutant, burning it to ashes.

Hmm... Although it can use spells, its combat power is probably not even at the third stage, more like a 2.5-tier level. Even so, it's still quite special, considering that in other cities, this kind of mutant would probably just be a roadside fodder...

She was secretly surprised and continued forward, during which she was attacked by a few scattered aberrant creatures. But whether humanoid or beast-like, these first-tier aberrant creatures were all at least at the third stage in terms of combat power.

So, after walking only 10 kilometers, she hunted down more than 10 aberrations with the combat power of the third stage, which was almost equivalent to killing 10 Nest Masters. Fortunately, the process was almost all instant kills, and the swift and decisive attacks reduced a lot of magic consumption, preventing her from repeating the same mistakes in certain situations.

She also set some rules for herself, such as having to retreat unconditionally when her magic power is below one-third, and never using her Black Eye ability unless absolutely necessary.

Under these self-imposed constraints, she became even more meticulous in controlling her mana consumption.

About an hour later, as she finally approached the city center, a cold voice rang out from a building diagonally above her: "Who are you?"

Yvette looked up and saw a slender figure standing on the spire of a church building diagonally above, looking down at her. The figure was dressed in trendy, modern clothing, and if you removed the non-human parts from her body, she might look like a pretty high school girl.

Unfortunately, the eight spider legs and six red dot-like eyes ruined the beauty. If nothing unexpected happens, this should be the spider woman mentioned in the Divine Grace mission report.

After waiting a while, seeing Yvette looking at her calmly without saying a word, the Spider Woman asked again, "This is the territory of the King of the Sea. Which monarch are you under? Who gave you permission to trespass like this?"

King of the Sky and Sea? Monarch? Is this a power structure within the high-level aberration variant?

The former is probably a more advanced, aberrant title, while the latter is called "Monarch"... Is this a rank, or a status?
Yvette was surprised that she could gather so much more information about the aberration in just one encounter, but she was puzzled as to why the Spider Woman didn't attack her immediately after she had fought her way in.

Is it because they are afraid that there might be "someone" behind them?
“Who are you?” Yvette asked. “I asked you first,” the Spider Woman said.

“My name is Ice Rain, and I’m a member of the Mechanical Race,” Yvette said.

"Do you think I'm stupid?"

“Alright.” Yvette was a little disappointed. It seemed that the higher-level aberrations were much smarter than mechanical puppets, and they saw through her flawless disguise at a glance. She decided to change her story. “Actually, I am a wild aberration. I don’t know anything.”

"Are you provoking me?" The Spider Woman's tone grew even colder. "You've performed at least four or five times in terms of 'promotion,' and you haven't sensed it? Telling such an obviously fabricated lie..."

Sensing? Sensing what? Could it be that the aberration gains some special information during its advancement phase, the so-called "promotion"?
Yvette said, "I'm not lying to you, I don't know anything. Can you teach me?"

"It's alright, no need," the Spider Woman said coldly. "Anyway, you're going to die soon, just be more careful in your next life."

After saying this, the spider woman slightly exerted force on the spider legs behind her, turning her into a dark shadow and rushing in front of Yvette in an instant. She then unleashed a strange black energy from her hand, which looked like a special spell composed of some unknown element.

Yvette, who had been preparing for this battle for years, was already waiting for it. She enveloped herself in wind element and clashed with the Spider Woman in the snow-covered ruins of the city. With each contact, three of her four layers of crimson armor would be shattered, only to be quickly replenished.

Her attack methods have become much more diverse than before. Sometimes she uses flames to forge flaming blades in her hands to strike, and other times she unleashes leaping lightning, which is then intercepted by the Spider Woman's black magic shield.

Countless magical elements spread across the street like rising and falling tides, washing over everything. Black, unknown elements were mixed in, like some kind of corrosive poison. Many ordinary elements that originally belonged to ice, fire, wind, and thunder would quickly turn black and then dissipate on the spot after coming into contact with these black elements, like the embers after a raging fire.

On the silent streets, smoke from explosion after explosion spread out, mingling with snow powder to form a black haze. The sounds of explosions rose and fell, but were quickly swallowed up by the cold wind.

Whether it was a few minutes or a dozen minutes, this thrilling contest came to an end as the two separated at the same time.

Shockingly, despite the fierce battle that left the streets in ruins and the snow covered with scorch marks and potholes, both men were completely unharmed, their clothes untouched, with only a thin mist of white vapor condensing from their breath in the cold air.

"You are indeed very strong. You are a fifth-stage aberration?" Yvette stood on a pointed building, looking down at the Spider Woman below, her black skirt fluttering in the cold wind.

"Pretty much," the Spider Woman said expressionlessly, then corrected, "After four 'promotions,' it's called 'Lord.'"

"What about the fourth stage?" Yvette thought of the Twin-Blade Demon, who used to call the fourth stage "Lord" when he was bragging.

"You really don't know anything?"

“I’ve lived on a remote island for many years and know nothing about the Aberrant society. Well, I haven’t received any of that ‘sensation’ you mentioned.” Yvette said, creating a white tentacle on her body to prove that she was indeed an “Aberrant.”

The Spider Woman remained silent for a moment, her voice as cold as ever: "But if you dare to trespass on the territory of the King of the Heavenly Sea, you will still die."

“Let’s talk about it next time.” Yvette shook her head. Her magic power was already close to the one-third warning line she had set for herself. In this battle, the Spider Woman’s performance was still unfathomable, seemingly in complete control. This made her somewhat wary, fearing that she might repeat some of the mistakes of the past.

After fighting for so long, enemy reinforcements should be arriving soon. Plus, this Spider Woman is incredibly strong; who knows what other tricks she might have up her sleeve… To be safe, we should retreat for now and come back later when we've replenished our mana…

With that thought in mind, she immediately transformed into a gust of wind, disappearing into the depths of the ruins at the street corner against the backdrop of swirling snow.

……

The snow is still falling.

Watching the enemy leave, the Spider Woman on the rooftop stood there expressionless, lost in thought.

Time passed in silence, and layers of snow covered the traces of the battle that had just taken place.

After a full ten minutes, having confirmed that the silver-haired girl was unlikely to suddenly turn around and attack, the Spider Woman took a deep breath, then swayed and spat out a mouthful of blood.

(End of this chapter)