I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

Chapter 95 Sage Mode: Speaking with Integrity

【Item Name: Demonic Woody Plough】

[Item Description: No cat can resist catnip, just as no cake princess can resist mixed berry cake.]

[Item Effect: Stimulates the hormones of all creatures associated with the concept of "cat," putting them into an "excited" state.]

This is the reward Duke received for completing the first task after activating the daily task system.

This prop looks like an ordinary wooden stick, but it is actually a catnip stick used to help cats grind their teeth. It can put feline creatures that bite it into an "excited" state.

It was one of Duke's most prized possessions; whenever facing a creature associated with the concept of "cat," this catnip stick had the power to deliver a decisive blow. It would be perfect for dealing with a little black cat... but Duke never expected things to turn out this way.

Duke realized something was wrong when a naked, black catgirl bit a catnip stick and leaped onto him, which startled him sober.

That's right, the catgirl that this little black cat turned into not only has no clothes on, but is also black-skinned.

So, a black-skinned catgirl, huh... This brings me to the question of how much value Yoruichi Shihouin truly holds.

Of course, this little black catgirl is completely different in style from that famous black catgirl character. Yoruichi is the kind of person who is extremely lewd, while this little black catgirl in front of him is even smaller than Amber and has a chest as hard as Cecil's. Duke even felt uncomfortable holding her, I don't know if it's because she is underdeveloped or because she is too young.

Even with a naked girl in his arms, Duke remained completely unmoved and showed no signs of agitation.

Or rather, the dark-skinned catgirl disappeared before Duke could even begin his illicit affair.

The adorable catgirl form lasted only a moment before she reverted to her original form, transforming back into a shadow kitten.

"Meow……"

The little black cat was engrossed in chewing on the demonic catnip, its body twisting strangely. Duke casually pulled it into his arms, and the part of it that was in contact with Duke, just like when it had just stood on the ground, turned into shadow and merged into Duke's body.

But he didn't feel any discomfort. The kitten in his arms felt like a feather, just like a real shadow, weightless.

"Duke, am I seeing things?" Cecil asked, still a little dazed. "How come I just saw it turn into a cute little girl?"

Duke calmly examined the kitten in his arms and said in a serious tone, "You're drunk."

"Ugh... let's go home." Cecil was really drunk. Her face was flushed and she swayed in place. Her eyes, which had turned into mosquito coils, darted around, not knowing where to look. She took two unsteady steps and was about to fall. Duke, who had sobered up a bit, quickly reached out to support her, but Guangbao resisted: "I... I'm fine, don't help me!"

Duke was very obedient and immediately let go so that Guangbao could walk a few steps. After a few steps, the famous Miss Azure Star in the hunting world stumbled. If Duke hadn't caught her in time, she would have fallen flat on her face in a very cute way.

"You should take it easy, sir."

"I...I'm not drunk!"

"Ah, yes, yes, yes."

This time, Duke wouldn't believe Guangbao's words again. Drunken Guangbao was as stubborn as a platypus. He sighed, casually put the Judgment Angel that had been thrown on the ground into his inventory (otherwise he wouldn't have a hand to hold it), and then, with Cecil on one hand and the little black cat still gnawing on a wood sap stick in the other, he staggered back to Guangbao's house.

After much difficulty, Duke finally managed to pull out his key and open the door. He then carried Cecil to the sofa in the living room and put her down on it.

"Big brother, I've done my best."

Duke wiped the sweat from his brow. After all that commotion, he was fully awake. He began searching the room for blankets or something to cover Cecil with. But before he could, Cecil, lying on the sofa, suddenly uttered a muffled sound and reached out to tug at Duke's sleeve: "Duke... don't go..."

Hearing Cecil's voice, which rarely revealed loneliness, solitude, and vulnerability, Duke subconsciously stopped in his tracks, looked at Guangbao, who was half-asleep on the sofa, and asked gently, "What's wrong, Cecil?"

"I... ugh—"

"I'm out?!"

It was almost an hour later when Duke cleaned up the mess Cecil had made and finally settled Guangbao down to sleep on the sofa. Duke made a very wise decision in this regard:

"I've decided to quit drinking. Even if I don't quit, I'll never drink with Guangbao again. Thank you."

After tidying up the room, Duke took the Judgment Angel out of his inventory and hung it back on the wall. As soon as it was removed from the inventory, the runes on the Judgment Angel's blade emitted a soft holy light, warning of the presence of an "evil creature" nearby. Only after being reminded of this did Duke finally remember the little black cat that had come in with them.

He quickly turned around to look for the little black cat, and soon found it behind the sofa with a "perfect cat life" expression. The demonic catnip was casually tossed aside, clearly indicating that it had completed its task admirably, which was why the little black cat looked like it had entered a sage mode.

Duke casually put away the demonic wood catnip and asked curiously, "Can you understand what I'm saying?"

This was his first time communicating with an elemental being, and he had no idea what level of intelligence this kitten possessed.

"Meow."

The little black cat nodded lazily, indicating that it understood.

Do you have a name?

"Meow meow."

The black cat shook its head.

"Then I'll call you Little Black."

"Meow meow meow meow!"

Little Black waved its paws to express its displeasure. Duke guessed that its meows, translated, probably meant—

"Dissent from Ali!"

However, given that the communication between the two parties was one-sided, and that this was Duke's territory, there was absolutely no option for them to object.

"Then it's settled." Duke said with a smile, "Little Black, how about you follow me from now on?"

"Meow……"

Xiao Hei's listless voice showed that it had no interest in it.

"How about I let you gnaw on some magical catnip once a week from now on?"

"Meow." The little black creature, in its sage mode, spoke with unusual firmness, raising its front paws twice in quick succession, "Meow! Meow!"

"Okay, twice a week, deal."

Despite the language barrier, Duke and Xiao Hei reached an agreement, and both enjoyed themselves.

He reached out and hugged the little black cat, leaving Cecil, who was already asleep, alone, and prepared to set off home with his newly acquired Pokémon. He led the little black cat out of the room, locked Cecil's door, and prepared to leave before nightfall, but just then, he smelled a putrid stench.

Is something broken?

Duke muttered something strange, but in the next instant, a putrid, fishy wind blew towards him, and a decaying arm reached for Little Black in his arms!

Chapter Ninety-Six: The Cat Who Steals Fish

The moment that decaying arm reached out to grab him, Duke understood.

From the very beginning, the light of the angel of judgment was not aimed at the obedient little black dog in his arms, but at the thing that suddenly attacked them—the zombie!

"Why are there zombies in the floating city?" Duke rolled to the side with Little Black in his arms, throwing a dagger out of his pocket and shouting, "Mage's Hand!"

A transparent ghostly hand appeared as Duke shouted, grabbed the dagger that Duke had thrown, and stabbed at the zombie without hesitation.

Duke took advantage of the job change opportunity provided by the system and became a trickster instead of a thief.

Tricksters are no match for true spellcasters. Generally speaking, a level 7 wizard can already use 4th-level spells, while a level 7 trickster can only use 2nd-level spells at most. Moreover, most tricksters who are rogues have no way to learn spells and can only play a few spells in their entire lives.

But Duke was different. He was in the floating city, a holy land for spellcasters, and had many spellcaster friends around him. He had no shortage of ways to learn spells; the only thing he lacked was his level. During his week of recuperation, he was so bored that he summoned the saint Megan every day to have her teach him spells, practicing with her daily.

And as it turns out, Duke's talent as a spellcaster is indeed very high.

The dagger thrust out by the mage's hand was easily dodged by the zombie. Unlike ordinary zombies, it was extremely agile and fast, clearly controlled by a necromancer nearby. Duke didn't draw his neon weapon; before being forced to use his strongest attack, he wanted to test the results of his special training.

Duke pulled out a small amount of spider web from his inventory as a spellcasting tool and crisply chanted the incantation:

"Spider Web Technique".

A thick, sticky web was summoned by Duke and slung over the zombie. The zombie possessed immense strength, but it couldn't escape the viscous web and could only struggle desperately. Before it could break free, Duke completed the incantation for his next spell:

"Burning rays".

Three beams of fire struck the zombie bound by the web spell, and it was burned to ashes by the intense heat before it could struggle for long.

This is just an ordinary zombie, not particularly powerful. If there were dozens of them, it might be troublesome, but if there's only one, it's not difficult at all.

Just then, Duke suddenly remembered something and looked at his mission system.

Daily tasks refresh at midnight every day. Although Duke always passively ignores the system and avoids doing daily tasks whenever possible, he still can't resist checking what the daily tasks are for each day out of curiosity. And today's daily task, a choice between two options, included one that had previously puzzled him:

[Mission 1: Investigate the source of the zombies appearing in the floating city.]

Duke hadn't understood the meaning of the mission in the early hours of the morning, but now he finally did.

"So you were waiting for me here?"

Duke muttered something to himself and casually accepted the task.

[Mission to be accepted: Cherish life, stay away from yanderes.]

[Mission Objective: Investigate the source of the zombies appearing in the floating city.]

[Task Reward: Name Change Card (Valid for 24 hours)]

Looking at the name of the mission, Duke suddenly felt a chill for some reason.

"Meow!"

Suddenly, the little black dog he was holding struggled and started barking in a certain direction, as if something was there. Duke instinctively looked in the direction the little black dog was pointing, and then he saw... seven or eight decaying zombies and five or six sleek skeletons emerge from the shadows one after another.

He swallowed hard, let Little Black jump onto his shoulder, patted Little Black's head to comfort him, and then took out the Lucky Dagger and Neon from his inventory, holding the revolver in his left hand and the dagger in his right.

"What's going on? The floating city has been overrun by the undead army? How come there's suddenly a horde of ghosts and an undead plague?" Duke squinted, scrutinizing the zombies and skeletons approaching them. "And right next to Cecil's house? How audacious!"

If Cecil hadn't fallen asleep, Guangbao could have easily solved everything with a single shot... Something's not right. Thinking about it, Cecil's sudden drunkenness is clearly abnormal. Although she's not exactly an invincible wine connoisseur, she shouldn't be so easily rendered unconscious, right? Duke drank much more than her, and he's only slightly tipsy.

"Did someone drug her?"

Duke frowned, twirled his revolver with a flourish, and raised the muzzle to aim at the zombies and skeletons in front of him.

In the Battle of Candy Castle, he once led an endless army of bones to fight against an equally endless army of cookie soldiers for three days. Compared to the strength of that army over those three days, these zombies and skeletons were nothing but child's play.

Since completing the Cinderella game, Duke hasn't used Neon. The order of bullets remaining in his magazine is: sheep, explosion, healing, instant death, and soul. If the battle begins, he plans to sheep the zombie at the front and then use the explosion to take down these half-baked undead creatures.

"Meow!"

But just as Duke was confronting the zombies and skeletons, the little black dog perched on his shoulder suddenly bristled and let out another warning cry. At the same time, it transformed into a shadow and darted from Duke's shoulder to the ground beside him.

At the same time, the instant Xiao Hei made a dodging motion, a black bead condensed with negative energy grazed Duke's shoulder and struck the wall of the house behind him. With a piercing corrosive sound, the wall suffered massive dark corrosion damage and quickly developed a large hole.

Duke didn't sense even a hint of killing intent in the attack. By the time he realized he was being attacked, his back was already soaked with cold sweat.

Without the slightest hesitation, he aimed the neon light in his hand in the direction he had just been, about to launch a lucky strike and use the Polymorph to fight the enemy hiding in the shadows. But at that moment, the sound of high heels clicking on the ground rang out, and the attacker walked brazenly in front of Duke.

She glared at Duke resentfully, then gritted her teeth, raised her staff, and aimed it at the bristling little black cat on the ground.