I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

"Wanderers" is a general term for a class of professionals, including thieves, assassins, and tricksters. The original owner of Duke's body was a skilled and highly proficient thief. Although Duke did not practice thieving techniques during his month in the floating city, muscle memory still remained in this body.

In his skill bar, there was a skill called [Intuitive Evasion], which allowed him to sense danger to a certain extent and increase the chance of successfully dodging. With the activation of this skill, Duke keenly sensed a sense of crisis that made his scalp tingle, and without hesitation, he rolled to the ground.

Amber, who was beside Duke, was also attacked. Her reaction was slightly slower than Duke's, but she also realized the attack at the last second. However, the witch's evasion was much more graceful than Duke's. With a thought, she launched an instantaneous teleportation. She didn't travel very far, just catching up with Duke, who was rolling on the ground. Then, Amber grabbed the hem of his clothes and used it to perform a spatial jump with Duke.

The next moment, the two arrived a hundred meters away. Only then did Amber breathe a sigh of relief and look back at where they had been, wanting to know what had attacked them.

With her sharp eyesight, she quickly located the attackers. Her pupils contracted in surprise—the attackers were two human skeleton warriors wielding weapons made of bone. If Duke and Amber hadn't dodged quickly enough, those two sharp bones would have already pierced their bodies!

"Why are there bones here too?" Amber asked, somewhat puzzled. "We're so far from the battlefield with the bones and biscuit soldiers."

"Because we've been discovered."

Duke spoke curtly, lowering his center of gravity and gripping a dagger in his hand. His muscles tensed, making him appear like a cheetah, ready to unleash tremendous speed at any moment. His face wore a contradictory expression of solemnity and ease. The solemnity stemmed from the terrifying nature of these skeletal attacks—their bodies were so light they made no sound, and they exuded no killing intent whatsoever. These skeletal warriors were truly perfect as assassins.

The relief came from the fact that it meant the big fish he really wanted to catch had taken the bait.

The biscuit soldiers were under the command of Candy Castle. According to Hansen, the entire forest was his territory, so it was not surprising that his arson led to the biscuit soldiers. However, the skeletal warriors hidden in the mountains were definitely an unexpected surprise.

What faction do the Bone Warriors, who are sworn enemies of the Biscuit Soldiers, belong to?

Nonsense, it's the witch outside the forest, of course!

"These skeletons were definitely not ordered to attack everything they saw in the forest. Otherwise, why weren't we attacked when we were wandering in the forest before? If I'm not mistaken, they were ordered to 'lie in wait and secretly approach Candy Castle.' But they never expected that this foolproof plan would be exposed because of my fire."

"The exposed skeletal warriors naturally wouldn't sit idly by and wait to die, so their battle with the biscuit soldiers was a logical next step. But why did they suddenly attack us? The only explanation is either that these skeletal warriors are conscious, or that there is an intelligent 'commander' among them, or... that their master has also infiltrated us."

Duke gripped his dagger tightly and explained to Amber in a low voice. He remained absolutely vigilant because the skeleton warriors could be hiding anywhere in the forest, their ability to conceal themselves as absurd as a candy castle built from sweets and cookies.

After Amber nodded blankly, he didn't care whether she understood or not, and suddenly raised his voice and shouted:

"Lady Witch, do you agree with what I said?"

There was no response from the forest, but instead a rustling sound. A large group of skeletal warriors emerged from the forest, weapons in hand, and approached Duke and his companion.

Amber's face was somewhat pale. She gripped Duke's clothes tightly, ready to teleport him at any moment.

But Duke remained calm and continued shouting:

"Lady Witch, why don't you show yourself and have a chat? Perhaps we can reach some consensus?"

Duke was still ignored, but he wasn't annoyed at all. Instead, he suddenly laughed, flicked his wrist, and threw the dagger in his hand like a throwing knife in a certain direction.

"Stop pretending, I know you're there."

Duke looked in that direction, his dagger deeply embedded in a tree trunk. He waited quietly for three seconds, finally witnessing the witch's appearance—a hunched old woman emerged from behind the tree trunk. She perfectly embodied the image of an evil old witch from a story: aged, wicked, short, and obese, her face so wrinkled it could trap a passing mosquito. A dazzling green gem was embedded in her staff, emanating powerful magical energy.

The old witch, her face grim, demanded, "How did you know I was here?"

“Young people always need a few secrets,” Duke asked humbly. “Mrs. Witch, do you think this gives us the right to negotiate with you?”

"Hmph, how do I know you're not a spy sent by that brat Hansen?" The old witch snorted. Although her back was hunched, she walked with a brisk pace, quickly approaching Duke and Amber. "I've seen plenty of outsiders like you before!"

"Oh? What was the last group of outsiders like? Where did they go?"

"Who knows?!" The old witch seemed to lose patience with Duke's question, her tone becoming irritable. "You damned beasts are like cockroaches in the house, appearing out of nowhere and never finding your nest! They helped Hansen and me fight, and then disappeared!"

Duke wisely ended the conversation. He had finally managed to trick the old witch out of her, and he didn't want her to turn on him—given their combined fighting strength, they would probably only be able to escape by using Amber's teleportation.

He gave her a charming smile, and with his charm level of 18 (the basic attribute of a mortal can only be 18 at most, his charm is already the pinnacle of mortals), he was the nemesis of all appearance-obsessed people. Duke felt that if he were to ascend to the Throne of Heroes on the spot, the Noble Phantasm transformed from his deeds would definitely have a female-specific attack effect, from three-month-old little girls to eight-hundred-year-old grandmothers.

This perfect visual experience captivated the old witch, instantly extinguishing most of her initial anger. Duke's next words further distracted her from continuing to curse Hansen and the previous group of outsiders.

"Lady Witch, I have a plan to help you reclaim the castle that rightfully belongs to you."

Chapter Nineteen: A Lucky Blow

Duke fiddled with the dagger in his hand, which he had deliberately pulled from the tree trunk before leaving the forest with the witch.

This dagger was the weapon left to him by this body. According to the scattered memories Duke inherited, it was the original owner's family heirloom and the only valuable relic. Furthermore, Duke was only able to lure the witch, who had been hiding her whereabouts, out using this heirloom.

[Item Name: Lucky Dagger]

[Item Description: This dagger was once a family heirloom of thieves, protecting each descendant and ensuring their good fortune, helping them grow from petty thieves into notorious bandits. Hold it, and good luck will always be on your side.]

[Item Effect: Skill "Lucky Strike" allows the user to deliver a lucky strike using a dagger in any form, causing events to deviate in the user's desired direction (Cooldown: 72 hours).]

As a weapon, it's not very strong; it's neither sharp nor durable. However, the enchanted skill on this dagger is powerful enough. "Lucky Strike" is a high-end skill that only heroic-level rogues can use. It can interfere with fortune and even directly change cause and effect. Only rogues at that level truly have the confidence to contend with mages who have a wide range of methods.

Of course, the skills that come with the Lucky Dagger are far inferior to the Lucky Strike of a true hero-level rogue—the cooldown time is too long, and the effect is also much worse.

For example, Duke just hoped to lure out the witch who might be hiding there. In the end, thanks to a lucky break, the throwing knife he casually threw accurately hit the witch's hiding place, luring her out. But if Duke's judgment had been wrong, the witch wouldn't have been in the same spot at all. Without the premise that the event could have happened, nothing would have occurred.

If the lucky strike was delivered by a hero-level rogue, even if the witch wasn't present, she would arrive at the scene in a short time due to various legitimate reasons and coincidences.

That's where the difference lies.

Of course, despite the significant gap between him and a high-level Rogue, Duke, thanks to this Lucky Dagger, still got a taste of the thrill of being a high-level Rogue. The 72-hour cooldown also means that this Lucky Strike will most likely be his last use of it in this game.

Throughout the entire game of "Statues," Duke hadn't been forced to reveal this trump card, but now that the Candy Castle game had only just begun, he couldn't wait to unveil it. This wasn't just because he sensed the threat of death emanating from the bone warriors, but also because it was time to advance the plot.

"No one in my forest can use spatial magic. You'll never get out if you try to jump through space like that," the witch said slowly, her tone sarcastic, a mixture of jealousy, disdain, and arrogance. "I don't know what kind of weird magic you're using, but now that you've come to our world, you'd better behave yourself, outsider."

Amber glared at her, but ultimately held back from retaliating.

Guided by the witch, Duke and Amber, who had been wandering around the forest for half a day, finally reached the edge of the forest. The skeletal warriors lurking in the forest also withdrew with their departure—the Candy Castle faction already knew of their existence, and continuing to lie in wait would only lead to an encirclement and annihilation. The witch was not willing to lose these useful subordinates.

Leaving the forest and onto the main road, they soon arrived at a nearby village. However, as soon as they entered the village, Duke and Amber frowned in unison. Upon entering the village, they were met with a pungent smell of blood. What followed was a shocking scene that made this ordinary little village seem like hell.

In the center of the village, a large number of skeletons were piled up. Moving skeletons carried the motionless corpses, skinned and fleshed them, and made them into complete skeletons. Then they were piled up on the high bone mound, waiting for the witch to come and turn them into moving bone warriors to offer their loyalty to her.

Upon witnessing this horrific scene, Amber's face turned deathly pale. She covered her mouth, nearly vomiting up the undigested food in her stomach. Duke, on the other hand, fared much better. He had never seen anything so terrifying before, but his calm demeanor allowed him to remain composed.

He avoided the horrific, bizarre, and absurd images, and looked instead at the buildings in the village. These buildings were still intact; although blood stained the walls of every house, there was no further damage… no, there were even people inside the buildings! Duke even saw smoke rising from houses.

"Where did these corpses come from?" Duke asked the witch. "They're not from this village, are they?"

“No… at least not entirely, hehehehe.” The witch grinned, letting out an extremely evil laugh. “How many people are in this wretched village? Killing them all wouldn’t be enough for me to control so many bone warriors! These corpses are what I found.”

"Found it?"

"That's right, I don't know if there's a war or something there, people are dying there every day, and you can find all sorts of animal skeletons." The witch curled her lip. "There are so many unclaimed corpses, so I just made use of them. Humph, what? You have a problem with that, kid?"

"Of course not." After hearing the witch's explanation, Duke shrugged. This guy might not be a good person, but he didn't seem like a madman who only knew how to kill. "Witch, can we find a place to discuss the plan in detail?"

"Come with me."

Duke and Amber followed the witch to her dwelling, the most "luxurious" house in the whole village.

This was originally the village chief's house, but when the witch arrived in the village, she seized the three-story house and made it her residence, demanding that the villagers fulfill her wishes every day. Unable to defeat this evil witch, the village chief and the villagers had no choice but to obey.

Upon entering the room, Duke felt as if they had returned to the Candy Castle, for the entire house was filled with all sorts of pastries, candies, and cookies. The witch, upon entering, reached out her greasy hand, grabbed a piece of cream cake, and swallowed it whole. Then, she began to tell Duke and Amber her story in a garbled voice:

"That candy castle was mine! That forest was mine too! Damn Hansen, that bastard stole my things."

Chapter Twenty: The Argument That People from Zuan Cannot Be Violent

After listening to the witch recount her story while devouring pastries, Duke finally understood what had happened in this world.

The beginning of the story is somewhat similar to the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel". After the death of their biological mother, the father of the two siblings married a stepmother. Under the stepmother's influence, the two siblings were abandoned. Although the brother managed to escape home once thanks to his cleverness, he was abandoned in the forest again and ended up in the Candy Castle in the forest because he got lost.

At that time, the owner of Candy Castle was still a witch. She generously adopted the two poor children, but she never expected to be deceived by the cunning Hansen. She lost control of Candy Castle and was driven out of her forest by Hansen. She could only stay in this small village year after year, creating bone warriors and hoping that one day she could take back Candy Castle.

Duke, of course, didn't believe the witch's one-sided story. The entire tale was filled with her subjective opinions, including her descriptions of Hansen, which were all incredibly emotional and mostly offensive. As for herself, she portrayed herself as a kind and pure person, adding numerous inexplicable good people and heroes to her narrative.

But do you think Duke will believe her?

In "Hansel and Gretel," the witch adopted Hansen and his sister because she wanted to eat them. But is this witch really so kind as to adopt two children for free? He had subtly asked the witch about her thoughts on cannibalism, but her reaction at the time seemed rather strange.

She popped a piece of chocolate cake into her mouth, a strange expression on her face, seemingly a mix of confusion and disgust, then muttered under her breath:

"What's so delicious about humans? Nothing tastes as good as desserts. Besides, I'm not some little lunatic..."

Duke frowned and asked bluntly, "Little madwoman? Witch, who are you talking about?"

"Hansen, that brat loves to eat people!" the witch exclaimed, gesturing wildly—judging from her expression, this was unlikely to be a lie—Duke only heard her angrily curse, "He lives in my candy castle, yet he prefers to eat people. What a waste! If he doesn't like sweets, why did he steal my castle?!"

The witch's mental state seemed unstable, especially when eating sweets, sometimes calm and sometimes irritable, behaving as if she had multiple personality disorder. But at least two characteristics were vividly displayed in her—she loved sweets, and the reason she created that dreamy candy castle was because of this hobby; she hated Hansen to the core, wishing she could devour him alive, using Hansen to prove her theory that "human flesh doesn't taste good."

She kept hurling insults, mostly at Hansen, but also at everyone else—the villagers, the outsiders from before, the incompetent Bone Warriors, and even at Duke and Amber in front of them.

Even the most seasoned Zaunite players would be ashamed in the face of this foul-mouthed witch—because Zaunite players have to worry about censored words when typing, while the witch can curse as filthyly as she wants without any fear of being censored.

Strangely, Duke listened to her incessant cursing for a full hour without hearing her mention Grete, one of the siblings, once, as if she had only ever interacted with Hansen.

He recalled that Grete's presence at Candy Castle was also very faint; he didn't say a word, and even Hansen did his self-introduction.

Duke suddenly became interested in Grete.

"Duke, you brat!" The witch had finally finished eating and drinking. She wiped the cream from the corner of her mouth with her greasy hands, stared at Duke with her cloudy eyes, and asked, word by word, "What was your plan to help me take back the castle? Tell me about it."

Duke gave a mysterious smile and held up three fingers to the witch: "I have three strategies, the best, the middle, and the worst."

Upon hearing this, the witch's eyes lit up, and she felt that Duke's credibility was soaring.

Otherwise, why would ancient strategists use such rhetoric when offering advice? The primary reason is its high credibility!

"The best strategy is simple. Amber possesses a very magical spatial spell. We'll use this to take you deep into the Candy Castle. With our help, you can rush straight to that scoundrel Hansen and behead him in one stroke, completing a blitzkrieg decapitation operation."

Upon hearing the best option, the witch frowned and shook her head repeatedly: "What about the other two options?"

Duke seemed to have anticipated the witch's reaction, and he continued with a smile:

"The middle strategy is a bit more troublesome, but it's the righteous path. We can enter the forest and gradually burn down the forest surrounding Candy Castle, luring Hansen to continuously send out biscuit soldiers to fight the fire and provide relief. We can then use the high temperatures to gradually erode their strength, as the biscuit soldiers are fatally vulnerable. If Hansen later realizes he shouldn't continue firefighting, it doesn't matter; we can just burn down Candy Castle directly. He certainly won't be able to hold his ground, and then we can force him into battle. All losses can be made up for after we take Candy Castle!"

"No, no, no!" The witch waved her hands repeatedly upon hearing Zhong Ce's suggestion, her expression turning unfriendly. "What kind of bullshit is this!"

"Sigh, then we'll have no choice but to resort to such a despicable and underhanded tactic."

Duke made a helpless expression, shrugged, and continued:

"Actually, besides the two of us, there are some other outsiders who have come to this world. Although they don't believe Hansen is a bad person like I do, and they are currently guests at Candy Castle, if nothing unexpected happens, they will also be bewitched by Hansen and attack you, Lady Witch, just like the previous group of outsiders. But I warned them before I left, and I don't think they will easily believe Hansen's words... As long as you give the word, we will return to the castle, tell them the truth, and turn my foolish companions against us. Then, we can work together from the inside and outside to take over the castle."

"That's a great idea!" The witch finally relaxed her furrowed brow, clapping her hands with a smile. "Duke, go and contact your fellow out-of-towners. Then call me, and I'll send troops to help you!"

As she spoke, she took out a jewel-like candy and handed it to Duke.

"When you need to contact me, eat this candy. After you eat it, I will receive the message and rush to the castle as soon as possible!"

Duke smiled and nodded, accepting the candy.

Chapter Twenty-One: Although human XP is free