I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

Duke raised an eyebrow, put the dagger into his inventory, and then helped Grete up as he collapsed to the ground.

She soon woke up, somewhat confused, and asked, "...Duke?"

"Yes, it's me." Duke looked at the cake princess in his arms and said softly, "Grete, would you like to leave this world with us?"

"I...am willing."

After Gret willingly uttered those words, the alternate dimension collapsed.

They finally beat the witch game.

Chapter Thirty-Seven: A Battleground of Bloodshed × Backstabbing Tournament √

Cecil yawned.

The witch's game lasted much longer than expected; she stayed at the door for over three hours, and the adventurers did not come out of the game room.

The Radiant Witch once suspected that they had all been wiped out inside.

Of course, this is impossible, because the gate to the other dimension has not reopened, proving that at least some players are still alive inside.

However, just as she was lost in thought and about to fall asleep standing up, the game house in front of her suddenly began to shake violently. With a high-frequency tremor, the game house was crushed into dust by the spatial tremors, and a group of adventurers appeared in front of Cecil.

Most of the adventurers looked somewhat bewildered, as if they didn't understand how they had managed to complete the game. Everyone was injured, but none of them were serious. The most seriously injured person was probably Austin, whose severed arm had grown back crookedly. Cecil, who was ready to use his ultimate move to save Austin, was left with nothing.

"Well, it's a good thing too."

She clicked her tongue, casually cast a few holy lights to heal their minor injuries, and then began counting heads to assess the losses:

"Fourteen people went in, and came out... wait? There's one more than that?"

Miss Radiant Witch was bewildered. How come the number of players participating in the witch game hadn't decreased, but rather increased? And soon, she spotted two incredibly familiar figures in the crowd.

One is her best friend Amber, and the other is her "ex-boyfriend" Duke.

Upon seeing Duke, Cecil immediately disregarded the situation of the extra player and shouted, "Wow! Duke, how dare you show your face in front of me?"

With that, she strode over.

Miss Radiant Witch is quite famous in the floating city. Her loud shouts immediately attracted the attention of passersby. Many people gathered around to watch the excitement as soon as they heard the name "Duke". Some even tried to sneak over to see if they could pick up a "corpse" to claim as a reward after Cecil beat up her ex-boyfriend.

But before the passersby could gather, a burly figure stepped forward. It was Joseph. With a dark expression, he said in a deep voice to the passersby who were approaching with their own thoughts, "What's so interesting about this commotion? Let's disperse."

"Why? You just want to break up like that?"

"Exactly, is it wrong for us to just look at a notorious scumbag?"

Joseph patted the large sword at his waist and sneered:

"Yes, I said we're breaking up, so what?"

Under Duke's command, the adventurers who had fought for three days in the Witch Game also stepped forward. They lined up behind Joseph, especially Austin, who had been saved by Duke. He excitedly drew his weapon, scaring away many passersby.

After these three days, the adventurers who participated in the Candy Castle Witch Game had a much different opinion of Duke, especially his reckless tactics at the end, which earned them immense respect. Under these circumstances, it was natural for him to be unfriendly to strangers.

They had just come from the battlefield, their bodies covered in blood and murderous intent. This sight caused the passersby who were originally there to watch the spectacle to reluctantly disperse, clearing out the onlookers.

"Joseph, do you think we should help them over there?" Austin breathed a sigh of relief as the onlookers dispersed, then pointed to the strange group of Duke, Cecil, Amber, and Gretel, revealing a somewhat eerie expression: "Isn't it a bit inappropriate to just watch our savior get beaten up by his ex-girlfriend?"

"It's even worse if you meddle in family matters." Joseph rolled his eyes and raised his arm, shouting, "Let's go, brothers, let's go drink after we get our prizes!"

Duke watched helplessly as the adventurers scattered: "..."

You bunch of disloyal bastards, I'll remember that!

Duke silently jotted down the names of Joseph and the others in his mental notebook, then awkwardly greeted Cecil: "Hello, Cecil, long time no see."

"Yes, it's been a long time." Cecil nodded sinisterly. "I haven't seen you since I beat you up last time. I heard you've hooked up with another witch in just a few days?"

"This is pure fabrication, and I've already handed it over to my lawyers," Duke immediately and righteously denied. "I'm going to pursue legal action against the person spreading this rumor. Where's my lawyer's letter?"

Cecil sneered, "Then what's the deal with this amber?"

"...I don't know her. Who is she?"

Amber, who had been watching the commotion with a smile, raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. Then, her expression changed dramatically as she adopted a tearful look, her eyes brimming with tears and her vision blurred. In an extremely resentful tone, she said, "Brother Duke, how could you do this? Last night on the bed, you said you wanted to spend the rest of your life with me. How come you turn your back on your lover today after seeing your old flame?"

Cecil: "!"

Duke: "?"

I'm just using you as a tool, isn't it? Is it really necessary to retaliate like this?

Duke looked at the last person present with tears in his eyes. Although the chances were slim, he could only place his hopes on the Cake Princess, hoping that Gretel could testify to his innocence.

As he looked at her, Greta was curiously observing the streets of the floating city. Having lived almost her entire life in the Candy Castle, she had never seen streets like these before.

Even late at night, the streets were still brightly lit and bustling with people. Her attention was drawn to all sorts of novelties, and she didn't notice Duke watching her at all.

Instead, Cecil's gaze was drawn to Grete by Duke's, where she saw the slit in the chest of Grete's dress, revealing a large expanse of her ample bosom. She frowned, stepped between Duke and Grete, and said with an unfriendly expression, "What are you looking at, you pervert!"

Duke didn't even realize what Cecil meant, but Gret, whose attention had been drawn to her, quickly understood what this kind and pretty lady meant. She didn't bother to cover up her chest and instead casually delivered the final blow to Duke: "It's okay, he's seen it before. It was Duke who cut it open."

Duke: "?"

It's one thing for that cunning elf to deliberately betray you, but who would have thought that you, the cake princess with thick eyebrows and big eyes, are actually a natural-born devil?!

As the Radiant Witch's expression grew increasingly hostile, Duke was about to explain when a sharp pain suddenly shot through his chest. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, and his entire body, especially his chest, began to undergo violent distortions.

"not good!"

Amber's expression changed slightly. She grabbed Duke's arm and, with him, vanished from the spot.

"what?"

Cecil the witch was stunned for a moment, but before she could do anything, Amber teleported back alone, picked up Grete and left, disappearing from the spot again, leaving Cecil with only one sentence: "I'll come to your house tonight to confront you, just you wait."

"what???"

What are you going to reveal? Are you going to reveal that you're dating your best friend's ex-boyfriend?

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Courting Death is the Primary Productive Force

"An unfamiliar ceiling... Oh, I've seen it before, so it's alright."

Duke opened his eyes and sat up in bed, just in time to see Eve, the potion witch, shaking a test tube in her hand. Her attire was similar to the last time they met; she was still wearing a tall witch's hat, a turtleneck sweater and a white lab coat on her upper body, and fitted trousers on her lower body, revealing her perfect leg curves.

Upon seeing Duke awake, Eve greeted him with a smile: "Oh, isn't this our legendary living gentleman from the Floating City? I heard you've gotten yourself into another mess this time?"

"...Is it possible that the potion you gave me was too strong?"

“I don’t deny that. The healing potion I gave you is indeed a newly developed medicine, and it seems to be much more effective than expected. However, I have calculated the dosage. If you take only one pill, there will be no problem. Taking two pills will at most cause your body to deform and feel uncomfortable for a few days. I think it’s a worthwhile deal to exchange a few days of discomfort for a miraculous medicine that can heal fatal wounds.”

Eve shrugged, but quickly changed her tone, clicking her tongue in amazement as she exclaimed:

"But I never expected that you would stab yourself in the heart first, then take two potions, turning yourself into a half-dead living dead, and then use necromancy on yourself to 'manipulate the corpse,' which directly caused your body to go completely berserk... Are you a madman?"

Clearly, she had heard the whole story of the witch game from Amber, and knew what incredible things Duke had done to complete it. Eve clicked her tongue, looked Duke up and down on the hospital bed, her gaze lingering on his head for a moment, revealing a hint of fanaticism.

For some reason, Duke felt that she was thinking about how to dissect herself and study the structure of her brain.

"Haha..." Duke chuckled awkwardly. "Isn't this because I trust you? As long as I can complete the Witch Game, Amber can always send me to Miss Eve in an instant. I believe that no matter how badly I am injured, you can miraculously bring me back to life."

“Describing the facts isn’t exactly a compliment.” The witch waved her hand, finally suppressing her urge to dissect Duke, and earnestly advised, “However, given that you, this notorious scumbag, have stolen the hearts of too many witches in the floating city, I suggest you don’t push yourself so hard next time.”

She paused for a moment, then added:

“At least don’t let me see you twice in three days at the clinic, Mr. Duke.”

“I don’t want this kind of thing to happen so often either.” Duke could only laugh awkwardly and change the subject, “By the way, what about Amber and Gretel?”

"Amber took that cake princess to the city lord's mansion. You don't actually think that bringing back a living person from a witch's game doesn't require any review or approval, do you?"

Eve smiled and spoke first, before Duke could become anxious:

“But Grete is very lucky. She saved our sisters and helped you this time as well. The city lord won’t make things difficult for her, and she should be able to get her identity certificate soon. Amber understands this too, so she asked me to pass on a message to you: ‘I’ll bring Grete to your house for a free meal tomorrow.’”

"That's good." He breathed a sigh of relief.

"A spellcaster from another dimension? Her spells must be unique and different from those in our world, right? Heh, it seems we'll soon be welcoming a new witch sister."

Upon hearing this, Duke's expression suddenly froze.

He sensed something was wrong and quickly opened the system interface, bringing up the favorability system.

Amber's favorability rating did not decrease as Duke had hoped, and remained firmly at the [Passion] level.

After Duke's "social death," Cecil's favorability rating dropped from "friendly" to "dislike."

Below the list of witch ex-girlfriends with varying degrees of affection, there is a new name and an affection level that makes Duke's scalp tingle.

Grete's favorability rating: Passionate.

Duke: "..."

Things are going bad!

……

Duke returned home alone.

He spent a long time at Eve's clinic, but not for treatment; he was buying potions.

The Potion Witch truly lived up to her reputation as the most famous healer in the Floating City. Her healing methods could only be described as miraculous. After Duke woke up, his fatal wounds, the aftereffects of the potion, the remnants of the undead and necromancy, and so on, had been almost completely healed.

Duke had originally planned to buy some of the same healing potion from Eve, but he didn't know if the new potion was genuinely out of stock, or if Eve, knowing about his glorious exploits in the last witch game, was too afraid to sell him such a drug with severe side effects again.

Unfortunately, he could only buy some reliable and mature potions, which had various effects: antidotes, mana replenishers, blood tonics for those who had lost too much blood, wound heals, and so on. He also bought a burst potion.

[Item Name: Burst Potion]

[Item Description: This potion is made by the Witch of Magic Potions; it is guaranteed to be of the highest quality.]

[Item Effect: For 30 seconds after consumption, increases Strength and Agility by 5. After 30 seconds, enters a weakened state for approximately 1 minute.]

This potion is very powerful. Although it also has side effects, the exaggerated effect of increasing strength and agility by 5 for 30 seconds after taking the potion is enough to make everyone ignore the mere one minute of weakness.

Or rather, it's astonishing that such a powerful potion has so few side effects.

Eve truly lives up to her reputation as a veteran among the Floating City Witches. She is at least a Hero-level alchemist—any professional who upgrades to Hero level in any life skill is a national treasure, whose importance is even greater than some legendary professionals!

At times like these, Duke couldn't help but marvel at how incredibly wealthy the floating city was.

Finally, Duke left the clinic and returned home after Eve said "Thank you for your patronage".