I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

"Are you really going to contact Joseph and his group to work together from the inside and take down Hansen?"

On the way back to the forest from the small village, Amber asked, somewhat puzzled.

“Of course not.” Duke shook his head and snapped his fingers at Amber. “I’m just using this as an excuse to go back to Candy Castle. Of the three options, I’m sure she’ll choose the worst one.”

"what?"

“Remember this: if someone tells you they have three strategies—superior, middle, and inferior—it means they're trying to trick you into choosing one of them. The other two strategies they offer either have too low a success rate, are too idealistic, or have too many side effects and losses. In short, after a simple weighing of the pros and cons, you'll obediently choose the strategy they want you to choose.” Duke grinned mischievously. “Of the three strategies I gave the witch, the superior one is too dangerous for her; she would never trust a stranger and venture alone into Candy Castle. The middle one would result in too much loss; Candy Castle could be destroyed, so she definitely can't try it.”

"So she obediently chose the worst option." Amber nodded in sudden realization: "You were plotting against her?"

"Yeah, and I don't trust her. Just like that candy the witch just gave me, I'd bet if I ate it, I'd be 100% controlled by her magic or some kind of curse."

"So you think Hansen is a good person?"

"Why?" Duke asked, somewhat puzzled. "Are you a black-and-white diode? Just because the witch is bad doesn't mean Hansen is good. Can't they both be bad? For one thing, I believe it's true that the witch said she loves to eat people. How much of the feast she prepared for us was made with human flesh?"

Amber was stunned. After hearing Duke's words, she subconsciously recalled the lavish feast, and her face changed instantly, almost vomiting. Thankfully, she had heeded Duke's warning and hadn't eaten a single bite of the food Hansen had provided, otherwise she would have already thrown up!

"If there really is an 'innocent, kind, and good person' here, I'd guess it's Grete."

"why?"

"intuition."

"Is it the intuition of a player?" Amber retorted. "Is it the instinct of a scumbag who can't resist hitting on a cute girl of suitable age?"

Duke: "..."

His reasoning was, of course, not like that. Although Duke was once a scumbag who dated five women at the same time, he has now turned over a new leaf and is more precious than gold. How could he do something like this, forgetting his principles for the sake of lust... Just take it as true.

"The core characters of this witch's game are Hansen, the witch, and Grete. So far, Hansen and the witch have revealed a lot of information, but Grete is the only one we know nothing about. Don't you find that strange?"

The conditions for completing different witch games vary, but they all follow the same rule: you must find the "core" in the alternate dimension of the witch game!

The alternate dimensions connected to the floating city are not complete worlds; they each have a core that constitutes them. To complete the Witch Game, you must start with these cores. Sometimes you need to destroy the cores, thus destroying the entire alternate dimension. Sometimes you need to meet the demands of the cores, resolve the problems that arise in the alternate dimensions, and let them naturally sever their connection with the floating city. Sometimes you need to repair the cores, and sometimes you need to use the cores to achieve certain goals.

As such, different witch games have different conditions for completion, which players need to explore one by one.

The core elements of the games vary; sometimes it's an item, sometimes it's several people, and sometimes it's even a specific event or piece of information.

For example, in the game of "Red Light, Green Light," the core of the alternate dimension is a pair of towering wooden legs, as tall as mountains or giants. When Duke uses "Pinocchio's Old Legs" to destroy them, he fulfills the conditions for completing the witch game and returns to the floating city.

In this Candy Castle game, the core is clearly these main characters.

Hansen, the witch, and Gretel.

Duke and Amber quickly entered the forest, which seemed to have been tampered with by a witch in the past. Casters would lose their sense of space here, and normally teleportation spells should be unusable. However, Amber, this oddball, could freely teleport within the forest—although her direction would be interfered with when teleporting over long distances, and she could only teleport short distances within her line of sight, or with her spatial coordinates predetermined.

Before leaving Candy Castle, Amber had memorized the spatial coordinates of the place. Once they entered the forest, they could be teleported back to Candy Castle with just a thought from Amber.

Soon, the two of them returned to the hall of the Candy Castle.

The mess caused by the battle between the adventurers and the biscuit soldiers has been cleaned up. The biscuit soldiers or biscuit butlers who were guarding this hall have disappeared, and the entire hall is empty.

"What should we do now? Go find other adventurers?"

“We won’t go after Joseph and his group. They’re seasoned veterans, so we shouldn’t worry too much. Besides, given my reputation, the chances of us successfully cooperating with them are slim. It’s better for us to fight our own battles.” Duke paused for a moment. “We’ll go directly to Gretel.”

"Huh?" Amber exclaimed in surprise, then said with a dark face, "I told you you had your eye on that little girl... I didn't expect you to like those flashy cake dresses, Duke."

"No, I didn't, don't talk nonsense!" Duke exclaimed. "Am I that kind of person with no taste? I don't like that kind of dress at all."

"Oh?" To everyone's surprise, Amber suddenly perked up. The witch with cat ears suddenly leaned closer, her amber eyes sparkling with a peculiar light, and asked curiously, "So, what kind of clothes do you like girls to wear for you to see?"

Duke said firmly, "No."

"?"

"If you absolutely must wear clothes, please do so without clothing, thank you."

"..."

Amber looked at Duke in shock, then took two steps back in disgust, scrutinizing him from head to toe with a look of utter disdain.

This is exactly the effect Duke wanted.

Although Amber is an incredibly useful tool, and having a good relationship with her is definitely beneficial, Duke, who doesn't want any more emotional entanglements with the witch, doesn't want her affection level to remain at "enthusiastic." It would be best if it could drop a little and stop at "friendly."

If you can be good brothers, why do you have to be in a romantic relationship?

But before Duke could check if Amber's favorability rating in the favorability system had dropped, he heard the lewd elf in front of him shouting:

"How can you be sexy without clothes? It has to be that kind of clothing that's just barely touching the skin, with a hint of red thread constantly testing the limits. That's what creates that alluring beauty, that's what makes it irresistible. You just don't understand!"

"?"

"But being naked is great. It's the feeling of walking in a crowd as if nothing's wrong, enjoying the immoral feeling of having a secret that only you know, fantasizing about the devastation of being discovered, and then being threatened with it when you're actually discovered, making you do even more daring things... Waaah, it's so erotic! Yeah, I forgive you."

"???"

So that wasn't the look of someone "looking at a pervert," it was the look of someone facing heresy, wondering if their XP system could be compatible! You dirty joke sprite!

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Fairy Tale is Filled with the Words of "Cannibalism"

"Although those dark-skinned elves are full of lewd thoughts and have completely disgraced our elven race, I have to admit that their picture books and individual volumes are indeed quite good. No wonder they are so popular throughout the continent."

Duke's lips twitched slightly as he listened to Amber's sharp comments about his distant relative, unable to utter a single word for a long time.

Who on earth has such a lewd mind?!

The Drow Elves are an anomaly among the entire Elf race. They completely contradict the generally noble and elegant characteristics of the Elf race and control nearly half of the underground adult entertainment industry on the continent. However, in recent years, they have also been seeking industrial transformation and upgrading, and their biggest achievement is the adult picture book that has swept the entire continent.

It seems that Amber is a loyal fan of the top drow elf painters. In a short period of time, she has recommended no fewer than five artists' pen names and the names of fifteen excellent books to Duke.

"Never mind those elf princesses captured by orcs, maids captured by orcs, witches captured by orcs... wait, why are all the doujinshi you're reading this kind of art style???" Just as their conversation was about to turn into a comedy novel again, Duke quickly brought the topic back on track: "Let's get down to business."

"Oh."

The important thing, of course, is to find Grete's room.

The Candy Castle was huge, and Duke and his companion didn't know which room Grete lived in, so they had to use a clumsy method to find him little by little.

Amber held Duke's hand tightly, leading him through short spatial jumps as they quickly searched the Candy Castle. However, after they had finished searching the first and second floors, Duke sensed something was wrong.

"How many biscuit soldiers are there exactly?"

Duke and Amber hid in the shadows of a corner, observing the patrolling cookie soldiers. This was the third squad of cookie soldiers they had seen in the last ten seconds. Each squad consisted of six people, carrying candy spears and always on high alert. They would attack without hesitation if they saw any intruders.

They only searched the first and second floors, and conservatively estimated that they found hundreds or even thousands of biscuit soldiers. If the corridors of the Candy Castle weren't so large, they might not have been able to hold so many biscuits.

This castle has seven floors. If the upper floors are like the first and second floors, the entire castle would probably be able to hold tens of thousands of biscuit soldiers.

So here's the question: if the skeletal soldiers were created by the witch through a spell cast on corpses, what about these cookie soldiers? There must be a cookie factory in this castle that operates 24/7 to produce so many soldiers.

“With so many biscuit soldiers around, our operation will be discovered sooner or later,” Duke said in a deep voice. “Amber, forget about concealment. Let’s go straight to the top floor of Candy Castle.”

The witch, who was being used as a tool, nodded. The next moment, she took Duke to the top floor of the Candy Castle, but an accident happened.

Amber was unaware of the interior layout of the Candy Castle, so she simply arrived on the seventh floor, unaware of what the castle's owner would interpret as her teleported destination.

Whether they were lucky or unlucky, this teleportation hit the bullseye. As the scene before him blurred, Duke looked closely and saw that Hansen was right in front of him!

This is Hansen's room.

How did you get in?

Hansen made a surprised sound, but his voice was somewhat muffled, sounding somewhat like the old witch who was cursing while eating cake. He was also holding a knife and fork and was indeed eating dinner, but compared to the desserts and cakes the witch was eating, what he was eating was really too horrible.

Blood was dripping from his mouth, blood was dripping from his hands, blood was dripping from his whole body, and the whole room was filled with blood and wails.

The cannibalistic madman is enjoying his dinner.

A man, half of his body mangled and covered in blood, was lying on the ground, groaning weakly. Pieces of flesh had been ripped from his right arm, leaving only bone. The same thing had happened to his left thigh. His abdomen had been ripped open, and blood was gushing out.

Hansen was eating his own internal organs. Amidst the blood and gore, Duke couldn't tell whether it was a liver or a kidney, but he recognized the face of the man on the ground—the adventurer who had recognized him.

The adventurer, on the verge of death due to blood loss and organ depletion, seemed to be experiencing a final burst of energy before death. He struggled to lift his head, trying to recognize who had entered this hellish place.

The adventurer who had recognized Duke's identity once before succeeded once more.

With his last ounce of strength, he forced a few syllables out of his blood-soaked throat, uttering a faint, barely audible warning:

"Du...run..."

Amber was terrified by the sight, but the madman who loved to eat people alive wouldn't hesitate. Hansen threw down his knife and fork without hesitation and pounced on Duke and Amber.

With a single movement, Hansen displayed the prowess of a high-level warrior. The speed and terrifying aura he unleashed at this moment even surpassed that of Joseph, a level 13 warrior. His sudden attack left Amber, who was already stunned, completely blank, and she even forgot to activate her teleportation spell.

At this critical moment, Duke reached out and pulled Amber, who was exposed in front of Hansen, into his arms, wrapping his arms around her waist to dodge.

Still calm, he held Amber with one arm and took out a magic scroll from his inventory with the other, casting a spell directly on Hansen.

A magic scroll for a third-circle spell costs about 50 gold coins, but it's cheaper in the floating city, at least 30 gold coins.

Before participating in this witch's game, Duke spent most of the prize money from the wooden dummy game on five third-circle magic scrolls, three of which were fireball spells. He used one in the forest before, and the second one on Hansen.

"boom--"

The dazzling wave of fire engulfed Hansen's body, while Duke seized the brief moment to rush towards the dying adventurer with Amber in his arms.

"Give up, he's beyond saving, hehehe." Hansen's voice rang out. He seemed completely unharmed despite taking a fireball. "You two are so delicate and tender, you look much tastier than him. Stay and become my food."

"Shut up, you lunatic!"

Duke tore open the second magic scroll without hesitation, while gesturing for Amber to grab the adventurer lying on the ground.

In the cramped room, the Fear spell erupted, automatically generating the illusion that Hansen feared most.

His greatest fear was Grete!

Grete's vision appeared between Hansen, Duke, and Amber.

The illusionary Greta wasn't wearing that extravagant cake dress, but rather a normal dress.

Upon seeing his sister, Hansen instinctively took a half-step back, but as a high-level warrior, he quickly realized that it was just an illusion. He tore the illusion apart and pounced on Duke and his sister.

But only a moment's hesitation was enough for Amber to regain her composure and teleport.

Hansen's attempt completely failed.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Don't Take the Prescription Drugs Your Ex-Girlfriend's Best Friend Gave You

Using two magic scrolls, Duke and Amber escaped from Hansen's room with the barely alive adventurer.