The morning light, dappled through the treetops, sprinkled onto Serie, gilding her with a hazy golden edge.
Sweat trickled down her delicate jawline, dripping onto the snow and melting into small pits.
Ilena watched, mesmerized, unconsciously biting her lower lip, her breathing becoming light, afraid to disturb the scene.
Naturally, nothing out of the ordinary occurred.
"Here." Serie suddenly turned, neatly stacking the chopped firewood at Ilena's feet.
Ilena jolted awake from her trance, and as she frantically took the firewood, her fingertips accidentally brushed against Serie's hand—the heat made her heart skip a beat.
"Th-thank you…" she stammered, her cheeks burning redder than the hearth.
Serie watched Ilena's hurried retreat, then raised a hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead, lowering her gaze to the 'Tasks' interface.
"Main Task: Know Thyself and Thy Enemy"
"Objective: Explore the Supernatural Anomaly Containment and Control Bureau. Current Progress: 5.42%"
The number made her frown.
Last night, Lynette clearly took her on a tour of the entire living area; although it wasn't a thorough exploration, it at least helped her familiarize herself with the paths.
Yet, it only increased by so little...
Those generous task rewards were indeed not petty favors that could be easily obtained by simply strolling around.
Serie sighed softly, but there was also good news.
"Objective: Increase the Mad Eater Witch's Gluttony Count to 3000 (Completed)"
"Reward: Ability Point * 2"
The Mad Eater Witch had completed the task of "Eat More to Be Healthy," and the value of leaving her to eat on autopilot was still increasing.
Her gaze shifted downward, and the corner of the system interface displayed the currently accumulated rewards:
"Ability Point: 3"
"Attribute Point: 1"
"It's about time I add some fuel to your fire too…" Serie murmured softly, opening the 'Abilities' interface.
Zoya, her great hero who had braved life and death with her, truly deserved a proper upgrade.
There were still three different upgrade branches—
"Fury (This is the only emotion that remains intact in your fragmented mind; indulge it to your heart's content): 'Raging Fire' (Unlearned) → 'Blazing Charge' (Details available after learning the previous ability) → 'Unlocked' → 'Unlocked'…"
"Evil Fire (You are a blazing fire, uncontrollable, unpredictable, and highly destructive are your true colors): 'Flying Fire Meteor' (Unlearned) → 'Raging Flame Remnant Body' (Details available after learning the previous ability) → 'Unlocked' → 'Unlocked'…"
"Hero (Even if it's hard to suppress your evil nature now, you will never forget that you were once a decorated soldier, nor will you forget your comrades who have turned to ash): 'Boris's Glory' (Unlearned) → 'Ivan's Precision' (Details available after learning the previous ability) → 'Unlocked' → 'Unlocked'…"
Serie began to examine these abilities—
"Raging Fire": Slightly increases stamina, slightly reduces spirit, allows fury to replace all your emotions and thoughts, greatly increases all attributes except spirit and fire damage for a short period, greatly reduces spirit, then burn everything in sight!!!
"Flying Fire Meteor": Slightly increases agility, greatly increases fire propulsion. You will transform into a blazing fire, capable of brief flight like a meteor, with up to three aerial accelerations. Your flight path will leave behind scorched areas, and upon impact, trigger a 5-meter radius explosion. Damage increases with fall height.
"Boris's Glory": Slightly increases charisma. This is an unyielding will from the iron torrent. You will inherit the most precious quality from old Captain Boris, the leadership charisma that made the entire company willing to charge into hellfire with him. You can easily boost anyone's morale and make them believe in you.
Serie looked at these three abilities and began to ponder.
"Raging Fire" was indeed a very strong ability, almost identical to "War Frenzy," also boosting all attributes, except it didn't boost spirit and instead greatly reduced it. It was suitable for a last stand but not for Serie to learn right now.
After all, the Debuff of 'indiscriminately burning everything in sight' was too severe.
Serie didn't want to affect Ilena and Marfa Grandma.
Temporarily passed.
Then there was "Flying Fire Meteor." Serie almost didn't hesitate to choose to learn this ability.
This was an extremely rare displacement ability, very convenient whether for disengaging from combat, launching a surprise attack, or simply traveling.
There was absolutely no reason not to use an ability point here.
Lastly, "Boris's Glory." It sounded like there was a story behind it, but Serie had almost no memories of Zoya's past, only remembering that scoundrel Igor.
In terms of ability alone, it was actually quite strong, but the problem was that Serie didn't need it for now.
Her charisma was already very high, and she didn't need to command thousands of troops, nor did she want to be some battlefield leader.
Currently, Serie only wanted to protect the small wooden house in front of her, filled with the scent of bread.
After an entire round of upgrades, she had only used one ability point, which left Serie feeling a bit helpless.
Perhaps Zoya's innate basic abilities were already powerful enough, leading to the abilities not providing a particularly significant boost compared to the Mad Eater Witch and Serie herself.
In gaming terms, Wildfire Witch, Zoya was a numerical powerhouse in the early stages.
Even without learning any flashy abilities, her simple, unadorned flame burning was enough to handle most enemies.
With no other choice, Serie could only turn her attention to the newly unlocked "Tier 2 abilities."
So far, the only Tier 2 ability Serie had learned was "Fear Claw."
Most of the others had not had their prerequisite Tier 1 abilities learned, resulting in them remaining locked.
However, a portion had already been unlocked, and perhaps Serie could find a few among them that she could use now.
They were—
"Raging Flame Remnant Body" from the Wildfire Witch's Evil Fire branch, "Gluttonous Feast" from the Mad Eater Witch's Gluttony branch, and Serie's own "Twin Phantoms" from the Leader branch and "Desire Amplification" from the Maiden branch.
"Raging Flame Remnant Body": Slightly increases stamina. You can completely transform parts of your body into fire, briefly gaining immunity to all physical attacks, including blunt force, slashing, and piercing, and completely healing all injuries to that part of the body. The higher your stamina, the more parts you can transform into fire.
"Gluttonous Feast": Slightly increases the Gluttony Count gained from "Wasteful Devour." In your eyes, the world is pieced together by feasts. Now you can precisely locate the best feast nearby. Follow the scent, go there, and have a grand meal!
"Twin Phantoms": Slightly increases spirit. You will be able to control up to two bodies simultaneously, rather than just executing simple commands. This will consume 80% of your mental power, but you will also gain a "comrade" who is 100% compatible with you, because she is also yourself.
"Desire Amplification": Slightly increases charisma. You can greatly amplify the desires that all nearby creatures have for you, whether it's appetite, possessiveness, curiosity, bloodlust, or… reproductive desire. They will be driven insane by intense desires, but the prerequisite is that you can bear the cost.
So... which one should she choose?
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