Chapter 34: 34. I Am the Genius Myself
The duel, which everyone had been looking forward to, ended so abruptly that it caught them off guard. Everything happened too quickly; from the end of the countdown to the end of the match, it didn't even take five seconds. As a result, when the giant, illusory text announcing the end of the match appeared above the arena, everyone was momentarily stunned.
What was that? What happened? What did I just watch?
However, the three adults quickly snapped back to reality. A hint of surprise flashed in Anne and Adam's eyes. They had always suspected that Dorothy was extraordinary, having watched her grow up. But even they hadn't expected her to be this powerful.
Youfeiliya, on the other hand, was shocked and ecstatic. The Diviner from back then had truly not misled her; this daughter's talent far exceeded her expectations.
"Besides the Dragon's Breath, the core talent of Dragons, does this child also possess talents in time and space?"
Even though this was her own daughter, the Dragon Witch still gasped, feeling somewhat incredulous.
After all, since when were high-level talents so cheap?
The Witch's talent inheritance mechanism has always been jokingly referred to as a lottery in the womb, and in fact, it truly is a lottery.
All the talents and specialized abilities of both parents converge to form a massive ability card pool, and what the child needs to do is randomly draw several abilities from this card pool to inherit as talents.
As for the number of draws, this is determined by the Witch cub's aptitude. The better the aptitude of the Witch cub, the more draws she gets, and vice versa.
Normally, most Witch cubs get around 3-6 draws.
This might not sound like a small number, but if you look at the total number of abilities in the card pool, it becomes quite depressing.
According to the latest research in Witch talent genetics, the Witch's talent inheritance pool seems to be not just a second-generation pool, but a third-generation pool. This might not only relate to the Witch parents' generation but also to the recessive genes of both parents. In other words, the talents and specializations of the grandparents and maternal grandparents must also be included in this card pool.
Thus, the card pool formed by the talents and specializations of six adult Demonesses becomes quite enormous, with the total number of abilities possibly exceeding 200.
Moreover, among these more than 200 abilities, truly powerful talents and abilities might not be many, perhaps only a very few kinds.
After all, the stronger the talent or specialization, the higher the magic power required for its evolution. Normal Demonesses simply don't have that much magic power to squander. They can only choose a few core high-level abilities to evolve; other abilities are just made do with, trying to select some cost-effective mid-to-low-tier abilities.
And this leads to the mixed quality and chaotic nature of this huge card pool.
Therefore, to illustrate using the card pool of currently popular Magus Net gacha games, it's like a huge roulette divided into more than 200 sections, with fewer than 5 SSRs, fewer than 10 SRs, and the rest being R and N cards, and you can only spin 3-6 times.
So, how likely do you think you are to draw a top-tier ability?
Perhaps you might think this card pool is quite generous, and the drop rate isn't low, but the problem is, can an ordinary Witch family provide such a premium card pool?
SSR-level talents and specializations are not that easy to condense. A normal Great Witchusually has only one or two talents and specializations rated as SSRs. For the luxurious card pool example above, both spouses, and even the grandparents and maternal grandparents, might all have to be Great Demonesses to barely achieve it.
Moreover, considering the high degree of overlap in core abilities between Witch children and their parents, most Great Witch families are actually unlikely to gather five SSRs.
Yet, throughout the entire Witch World, the total number of Great Demonesses is less than five percent of the total population, making them high-end, rare talents.
Therefore, the ability pool of truly ordinary Witch couples might not even have a single SSR; if they have a few SR abilities for their child to try their luck, that's already quite good.
Of course, relatively, the pool provided by Apex Witch couples might be even more luxurious, but the problem is, Apex Demonesses are not that common. Excluding those ancient Demonesses who have retired and gone into seclusion, there are fewer than 200 active Apex Demonesses in the modern era worldwide. And among these fewer than 200 Apex Demonesses, how many pairs of lovers can there be?
Just like one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers, there are many friendships or rivalries among Apex Demonesses, but genuine romantic relationships are truly few.
Or is someone capable of forcing Apex Demonesses to breed like animals? That would be asking for death.
Therefore, to summarize, if a normal Little Witch is lucky enough to inherit one or two SR talents, she is already a one-in-a-hundred genius. If she is lucky enough to inherit an SSR talent, she is directly a one-in-ten-thousand peerless genius. If she is even luckier and not only has an SSR talent but also a few SR talents, that would make others so envious they would call her a monstrous talent.
As for two or even more SSR talents? That's already beyond human; it would directly be recorded in the annals of Witch talent history.
Youfeiliya herself was a monstrous talent back then. With 10 innate talents, she drew 10 times, getting 1 SSR, 4 SRs, and 5 Rs. Coupled with her innate magic power of over 10,000, her birth caused a sensation in the Dragon Kingdom. She enjoyed the attention of all, and everyone in her family unanimously believed she was the hope for restoring the family. She was able to directly take over the patriarch's position right after coming of age, and no one dared to challenge her.
Good talent means you can do whatever you want.
But now, her daughter is even more outstanding than her. This is almost certainly two SSR talents, and both are among the strongest, top-tier ones within the SSR category. This is just outrageous.
This is why Youfeiliya couldn't help but be excited and ecstatic.
No, I can't let this child waste her talent anymore. Although her magic power aptitude is a bit average, it's not a big problem. Magic power, besides natural growth, can also be accelerated by spending money.
An average Witch family might not be able to afford that much money, but the Dragon Witch is not short of money. Youfeiliya has developed her family for so many years and has nothing but money. As long as she continuously provides Dorothy with rare treasures, her daughter's low magic power problem can be quickly compensated.
Even if this method of accelerated growth by spending money can only be used in the early stages, as treasures that work on Demonesses above Great Witch are truly rare and priceless, it's still enough. First, let's spend money until she becomes a Great Witch.
As if already seeing her daughter shining brightly and dominating an era, Dragon Mom was exceptionally invigorated at this moment. She now wished she could immediately drag her daughter home and begin nourishing and intensive training.
However,
How should she handle the promise she just made to her daughter: that if she defeated Sophia, she would grant her freedom? She couldn't possibly go back on her word. Their mother-daughter relationship wasn't very close to begin with; if she went back on her word, the child might directly sever their relationship.
Youfeiliya was momentarily caught in a dilemma.
Tsk, it's all this disgraceful disciple's fault for being so useless. You, with 290,000 magic power, were instantly defeated by a newcomer with 10,000 magic power. Sophia, aren't you ashamed? When you get back, your training will be super-doubled for a year.
On the other side, Adam and Anne naturally also discovered the terrifying nature of Dorothy's talent. The couple exchanged glances, then Anne stood on tiptoe and patted her husband's back comfortingly.
"Don't think about it. You can't afford to raise this child, and neither can I. Let's leave her to her birth mother. Only an Apex Witch can provide her with the best educational environment and sufficient growth resources."
The petite Vampire Witch conveyed this belief, and Adam sighed in response, acknowledging the truth.
Thus, in the audience, the three adults fell into a mysterious silence. Only Alice, who lacked experience and understood nothing, began to cheer after she recovered.
Although she had no idea what happened, it seemed her older sister had won, and that was enough.
"Woohoo, Sister NB, YYDS!"
The Little Witch cheered excitedly, using words she learned from her sister.
However, it wasn't just the audience who were surprised by how quickly the match ended; in fact, even the two duelists themselves hadn't fully recovered.
In the arena, Dorothy looked around suspiciously, starting to wonder if she had fallen into an illusion. But that didn't seem right; she hadn't heard of Angel Witches having any illusionary talents; she wasn't a succubus or a fox spirit.
So, did I really win?
That's even more impossible. The sensation wasn't right. This wasn't like fighting an Angel Witchwith 290,000 magic power. Such a fragile sensation felt clearly like a newbie Witch with around 10,000 magic power, similar to herself.
So, what exactly is going on?
She suspiciously and cautiously scouted her surroundings, not daring to be careless in the slightest. Even the words 'Match Over' above her head were taken as an illusion meant to deceive her.
She was squeezing out her last bit of magic power, preparing to cast a spell to break the illusion.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the Angel Witch, Sophia, who had been protected and teleported back to the lounge, now perfectly intact again, also fell into contemplation.
Who am I? Where am I? What did I do?