I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

"Anyway, I've already warned them. Joseph isn't stupid; he won't let them eat or do whatever they want."

Outside the Candy Castle lies a boundless forest. With Amber's help, Duke leaves the castle and arrives at the top of a towering ancient tree, gazing into the distance.

The witch, who was being used as a tool, asked, "But is that food really poisonous?"

"I never said they were poisonous!"

"Huh? But you told them not to eat it."

"We definitely can't let them eat. We just ate and can't eat anymore, how can we let them eat so comfortably?"

amber:"?"

"Ha, just kidding. If we assume Hansen is a bad guy, then his first offer of 'treating him to dinner' must have been ill-intentioned. It might not have been poisoned, but there might have been other issues."

Duke shrugged.

“If Hansen isn’t a bad person, then most of what he says is true, and he must need something from outsiders. That way, even if we don’t eat what he wants, we won’t push him to the opposite side of the adventurers.”

"After a simple weighing of the pros and cons, I think we shouldn't take the risk under any circumstances, right?"

"Yes...you're right, meow." Amber was a little confused, but nodded as if she understood, and said perfunctorily, "Whatever you say is right, meow."

“That won’t do, Amber. You need to maintain your ability to think independently.” But Duke suddenly became serious after hearing Amber’s perfunctory reply: “Only in this way can you become an independent woman, not dependent on anyone, and not feel like the world is collapsing just because you’ve been deceived by a scumbag.”

amber:"?"

Why is this notorious scumbag teaching me how to get over being emotionally deceived?

Is he implying that he wants to deceive my feelings?

Chapter Sixteen: Arsonist Who Will Spend His Life in Jail

Duke, gazing into the distance, had no idea what Amber was thinking, nor did he care to try.

He was currently observing the forest surrounding Candy Castle. The forest was vast, and even after several long-distance space jumps, they still hadn't seen its boundary.

However, according to Amber, this was not because the forest was so large, but because her sense of space was disturbed by some characteristic of the forest, making it impossible for her to determine the direction of instantaneous movement. She kept circling around and back and forth within a certain range.

Therefore, Duke changed his strategy and had her lead him to the top of the tallest ancient tree.

"But I still can't see the edge of the forest." Duke rubbed his eyes, which were almost blurry from looking at the forest, and said helplessly, "The area of ​​this forest is at least beyond my field of vision."

"What should we do then? Should I teleport you a few more times?"

No, there's no need.

He shook his head and turned to look at his inventory. Before participating in this witch's game, he had disguised himself and made some purchases. The 200 gold coins he got from completing the "Statues" game were a huge sum of money. Gold coins had considerable purchasing power; a fifth-ring magic scroll only cost 150 gold coins. His 200 gold coins could buy a lot of the items he needed, and even several low-ring magic scrolls.

This also shows just how outrageous the 1000 gold coin bounty offered by the Adventurers' Guild was!

This price is enough to hire someone to kill a secular nobleman (a knight or lord of a lower rank), but all it takes is to beat up Duke. In the eyes of all adventurers, this is much more cost-effective than risking participating in the witch's game.

Putting aside the tempting 1000 gold coins, Duke took out a magic scroll from his inventory. Amber glanced at it and saw it was a magic scroll for the third-circle magic spell Fireball. Then she watched as Duke magically produced a whole barrel of oil and placed it in front of the two of them.

"At worst, we can burn down this forest. Someone will eventually get restless and jump out."

amber:"?"

Amber: "...Your obsession with arson is a bit too strong, isn't it? Just how much do you like this joke?"

Moreover, Duke's obsession wasn't the only thing that was excessive; the methods he used for arson now far surpassed his previous self in the "Statues" game! Before, the tools he tried to use for arson were just a tinderbox and a bottle of wine, but in this Candy Castle game, he had upgraded his equipment, replacing the tinderbox with a magic scroll for fireballs and the wine with more effective oil.

He paid for it! He paid for it!

Amber initially thought he was just joking, but to her surprise, Duke said seriously, "I'm not joking this time. If there really is no other way, I'm going to start the fever right now."

"what?"

"I've looked at it. This forest is perfect for burning; there are many eucalyptus trees, and the climate itself is also..."

"No, how come you're so skilled at this? How many times have you set fire to mountains?!" Amber quickly stopped her, saying, "Isn't it inappropriate to do something like this?"

"Why not? This place has nothing to do with our world; it's just an independent alternate dimension, isn't it?" Duke raised an eyebrow. "Of course I understand that arson can land you in jail for life, which is why I've never tried it before. Now that I finally have a chance, why can't I even try?"

"...You really know how to torture people, you're too good at torturing them."

"Haven't you noticed yet?" Duke rolled his eyes and said with a hint of mockery, "This forest is too quiet."

"what?"

Duke looked down, but standing at the highest point, he couldn't see any movement in the forest. The forest was too quiet, so quiet that there were no birdsong, animal roars, insect chirps... nothing at all, as if there was nothing in the forest at all!

At Duke's prompting, Amber also noticed this unusual occurrence. She cast a teleportation spell on her own, disappearing for about five minutes before returning to Duke's side, panting, "Indeed, I searched quickly for five minutes and didn't see a single animal in the forest. The forest is as silent as if it were dead; there's nothing there."

“No forest can exist without animals, birds, and insects,” Duke asked casually. “Give it a try.”

He clapped his hands gently, and Amber, understanding his intention, teleported him from the treetops of the ancient tree to the ground. He carried the large bucket of oil and splashed it on the trees within a certain radius. After creating enough distance, he took out the magic scroll for the Fireball spell.

Fireball is generally considered to be the most common attack method of mages, but in fact, the difficulty and power of this spell are not in the category of low-level spells. Fireball is a third-circle spell, and its casting time is one action. The most common fireball is a ball of flame with a radius of 20 feet (more than six meters). Such an attack is enough to make mages far ahead of other professions of the same level in terms of "destructive power".

Not to mention that Duke had already released a large amount of combustible fuel in advance.

"Boom—"

A bright flame ignited between Duke's fingers, and then, with a lock-on, a fully formed fireball slammed into its target. With a burst of flame and a deafening explosion, the fire engulfed the surrounding forest. Amber, after Duke cast the fireball, grabbed his sleeve and teleported him to safety, watching from afar as the fire flickered and thick smoke rose.

"Will anyone actually show up?"

"Perhaps."

Duke did not give a clear answer; he seemed to be pondering something and did not fully focus his attention on the burning forest in the distance.

He pondered the meaning of Cecil's words before sending the adventurers in.

Before letting adventurers participate in the witch game, the witches would conduct a simple assessment of the alternate dimension that the game connects to. Otherwise, if they encountered an alternate dimension where entering meant certain death, wouldn't it be pure suicide? There weren't any alternate dimensions that connected to the floating city before. If it weren't for the "extraordinary talent" of the witch in charge of the assessment, even with her experience, she might have failed in that one assessment!

This matter was kept secret, just like the true nature of the Witch Game was kept secret, but Duke, based on clues, guessed a bit of the truth.

Of course, the witches' assessments are not always accurate. For example, in the game of "Statues," the witches' assessments, such as "three-minute time limit" and "exit point," are fatally misleading. However, in most cases, the witches' assessments are quite reliable.

Duke will not stubbornly ignore these "rules of the game" and "hints".

This time, the hint given by Cecil was...

"Defeat the evil ones who disrupt the world order, eliminate the ambitious ones who covet victory, and rescue the innocent and kind-hearted people."

Who are Hansen, Gretel, the witch outside the forest, or any other character I don't know yet?

Just as Duke was deep in thought, a fish took the bait he had released.

Chapter Seventeen: Sorry, but money really can buy anything.

The burning forest was Duke's bait, and those who obediently took the bait and were about to be caught on the spot by Duke's sting operation were not any creatures.

Cookie soldiers appeared.

These strange creatures, which had previously fought the adventurers in the Candy Castle, now swarmed around the burning forest. Some of them had cute little hands grasping at water, sand, and other things, trying to extinguish the fire. However, since they were made of sugar biscuits, the biscuit soldiers melted visibly under the high temperature. Their originally round bodies gradually turned into ovals, and the patterns carved in the center of the sugar biscuits began to deform.

“Duke Duke.” Amber had clearly noticed the appearance of the biscuit soldiers, but she also noticed something else. Pointing to the burning bushes, she said with some surprise, “Look, there seems to be something in there!”

"what?"

Duke was slightly taken aback.

As a thief, his perception is only 11, which is 10 points above the average, so he's not exactly a nobody, but it's not particularly high either. Amber, on the other hand, is a different story. If Duke could see her attribute panel, he would definitely see that she has a very high perception—without a certain level of spatial perception, it would be impossible to use teleportation freely, let alone create her own unique spatial spells.

Therefore, despite Duke's careful observation, the new discovery was still about amber.

With Amber's guidance, Duke finally noticed what was hidden in the burning forest.

It was a human skeleton... no, more than one. When the dense forest was breached by the fire, a large number of skeletons came into view. Most of them were human skeletons, but there were also skeletons of various animals, such as bears, tigers, wolves, deer, monkeys, and so on.

These skeletons can move! Although they are symbols of corpses, they somehow possess the ability to move like living beings. They are like patient hunters hiding in the shadows, lying in ambush on the biscuit soldiers who are putting out the fire. Even as the flames engulf their bodies, they remain patient, waiting for the best opportunity to attack—the skeletons will probably launch their attack when the biscuit soldiers melt further due to the high temperature.

They were originally hidden in this forest, but before Duke set the mountain on fire, they concealed their presence very well. Neither Duke Amber nor Hansen, the owner of Candy Castle, knew that these things were hidden in this forest.

Just as Duke had predicted, the skeletons launched their attack when most of the biscuit soldiers had changed from circles to irregular polygons.

Duke had already witnessed the strength of the biscuit soldiers in Candy Castle. They weren't particularly strong, but they were definitely not weak either. Unlike the loosely organized adventurers who each had their own fighting style, the greatest advantage of these biscuit soldiers was their "quantity." Their tacit understanding, as if acting as a single person, gave these biscuit soldiers extremely powerful combat capabilities.

In this world of swords and magic, those with a level of 20 or higher are known as legendary powerhouses, each a figure renowned throughout the continent. The Floating City itself is the supreme sanctuary for spellcasters, and in the last decade, thanks to the Witch Game, it has attracted a large number of talented individuals from across the continent. Yet, even so, there are currently only four legendary witches within the city, highlighting the rarity of legendary status.

Before reaching level 20 and embarking on the path to legendary destiny, professionals are roughly divided into four stages:

The first stage (levels 1-4) of professionals can only be considered novices. Professionals at this stage still need to learn the basics of their profession and have not yet established their future path. Generally speaking, they are called recruit-level professionals.

In the second stage (levels 5-9), professionals have determined their own paths and become more unique, with each professional having a different career development path. This stage is also known as the veteran professional.

The professionals in the third stage (levels 10-14) are called elite professionals. Every professional in this stage is an absolute elite, standing out from the masses and becoming a trusted ace in every team.

The fourth stage (levels 15-19) represents the pinnacle below the legendary level, where each individual is capable of exerting their power in world-class events. Therefore, professionals at this stage are also known as hero-level professionals.

Duke is currently a Level 7 Veteran-level Rogue (Thief), which should be considered quite good, but among the professionals participating in the Witch's Game in the Floating City, Level 7 is really not impressive. The witch next to him, who can only teleport and doesn't know anything else, is already Level 8, and Joseph, who is second on the newcomer list, is a full Level 13, an absolute elite professional. In terms of combat power alone, one of them could easily take on ten Dukes.

Duke estimated that each of these biscuit soldiers was roughly equivalent to a level 5 warrior, and probably even weaker (because their bodies were much more fragile). He could easily take on one of them one-on-one.

However, even a large number of ants can kill an elephant. Once the number of biscuit soldiers increases, their combat power increases exponentially. With their seamless teamwork, super mobility, and fearlessness, the more they have, the greater their combat power will be.

Joseph's eleven adventurers could easily suppress twenty-odd biscuit soldiers, but when the number reached fifty, even if the adventurers could win, it wouldn't be easy. And if a hundred biscuit soldiers appeared in front of them, Joseph would probably have to fight and run. If it were a thousand, ten thousand... well, who could defeat that?

Of course, this has nothing to do with Duke and Amber. One of them is a thief who has been living off a woman for a month, and the other is a mage who is good at nothing but teleportation; fighting them head-on would be suicide.

For them, fighting must be avoided at all costs.

Fortunately, participating in the Witch Game doesn't necessarily require a high level or great strength. After all, in terms of strength alone, very few adventurers can compare to the witches of the floating city.

Mages are inherently powerful, and the witches of the floating city are even more extravagantly wealthy, bordering on the insane. They created this city floating in the sky a thousand years ago and have controlled the continent's airspace for millennia. For spellcasters, wealth often equates to extraordinary power.

Even today, four legendary spellcasters still reside in the floating city, along with dozens of hero-level spellcasters and countless low-level spellcasters. The power of this city is enough to rival that of a nation.

However, even such powerful witches could only suffer setbacks in the face of the strange rules of the other dimension, which fully proves that being rich and powerful is not omnipotent. They still lack many brains that can crack the secrets of the other dimension.

However, they quickly came up with a solution—to hold witch games and hire clever people to help them by throwing money at them.

Sorry, but having money really does allow you to do whatever you want.

Just as Duke's thoughts began to wander, the battle between the skeletons and the biscuit soldiers was about to erupt, and in an instant, the fighting became fierce. The skeletons' combat strength was roughly the same as the biscuit soldiers', but the biscuit soldiers were in such poor condition that the battle appeared somewhat one-sided.

Duke, who was watching the fight, suddenly felt a sense of danger from behind and instinctively rolled to the ground.

Chapter 18 Female Special Forces