Serie was diligently preparing for her exams, striving to elevate her status within the Control Bureau to avoid persecution, while also hoping to leverage Lynette to make the Control Bureau's power serve her own ends.
So... what about the Witches?
Broadly speaking, it can be summarized in four words:
Eat, drink, play, and be merry!
Goluthos happily took over the vast flower fields of the New Reclamation Area, a satisfied curve appearing at the corner of her mouth beneath the Rabbit Mask.
She strolled through the swaying sea of black-glowing Fear Eater Roses, beginning her feast.
Fear Eater Roses are anomalies, but also plants.
Each Fear Eater Rose consumed transformed into pure nourishment, causing her Gluttony Count to skyrocket!
Gluttony Count: 7845 (+ continuously growing)
Attributes: Strength C → Strength C+ | Stamina C → Stamina C+ | Charm C+ → Charm B- | Agility D+ → Agility C- | Spirit D → Spirit D+
Although the marginal gains from Gluttony Counts decreased as her base attributes increased, Goluthos, this thousand-year-old girl, was already subtly showing signs of surpassing Zoya, an veteran Witch.
This was merely the result of consuming more than half of the New Reclamation Area's flower fields!
Within Saint Martan, there were still vast Fear Eater Rose plantations awaiting her!
Goluthos contentedly chewed on the chocolate-flavored Fear Eater Rose in her mouth; unlike consuming other things, which would grant progress in trait entries like "Hard" or "Digging."
She didn't gain any progress in characteristic abilities; instead, she received a brand new quest series—
Main Quest: Fear Eater Black King
Goal: Use Wasteful Devour to completely clear and absorb all Fear Eater Roses within Saint Martan, current progress 4.62%
Rewards:
Progress ≥30%: Gain a new ability branch—Fear Eater.
Progress ≥60%: Gain the Witch Domain "Abyss of Fear Eater."
Progress =100%: Evolution—Fear Eater Witch
This made Serie's heart leap.
The rewards for this quest were no less than those for Main Quest: Know Yourself and Your Enemy, and even seemed to surpass them, not only granting an entire new ability branch with a plethora of new abilities but also two mechanisms Serie had never heard of.
Domain and Evolution.
Unfortunately, unlike abilities, Serie couldn't open and view the details of the Domain, but it sounded incredibly powerful and oppressive.
As for Evolution...
Witches could actually evolve?!
Could only Goluthos evolve? Or... did all Witches have the potential for evolution?!
Serie's thoughts instantly diverged, and she leaned towards the latter.
If this hypothesis held true, it meant that every Witch clone under her command possessed growth potential far exceeding current understanding!
This was absolutely an astonishing discovery capable of overturning the existing order!
Of course, whether it was occupying the entire Saint Martan or devouring all Fear Eater Roses throughout the country, both seemed somewhat distant, but now with a grander goal, the flame of ambition within Serie's heart would provide her with an endless source of motivation.
Having discussed eating, next is drinking.
Our "veteran" Witch Zoya's attempt to quit drinking was a colossal failure.
After a brief moment of lucidity, overwhelming feelings of loss instantly dragged her back into the embrace of vodka.
She resumed her daily heavy drinking, getting completely drunk every day.
The only consolation was that this descent into despair didn't seem to trigger that damned Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; at least, there were no more hallucinations.
However, her perpetually gloomy demeanor, with empty eyes staring at the ceiling and the bottom of her liquor bottle, completely baffled Billie.
Even though their thoughts were fully interconnected, she still didn't understand.
Aren't... aren't all you Russians like this?
Acting like you're about to die every day...
It's just burning down a bar, isn't it? Killing a few thugs?
What's the big deal?
Billie was full of questions.
She naturally knew that Zoya's deepest pain was betraying Lev's trust and her unwillingness and suffering regarding her uncontrolled destiny.
But... Billie still didn't understand. She even asked her parents for money to give to Zoya so she could give it to Lev to rebuild the bar, but Zoya hesitated for a long time and then refused.
This made Billie even more confused. Whose stubborn white-haired donkey is this?
Billie had no choice; anyway, in her opinion, this was no big deal, so she just let her be.
Unlike the melancholic Zoya, Billie was naturally the one who was "playing."
Billie quite liked Zoya's half-dead appearance...
One could even say... it was bubbling with sexiness!
That decadent beauty, that fragmented sense of fragility, it just hit Billie's aesthetic sweet spot!
She even secretly hoped Zoya would become even more desperate, completely give up resistance, and become someone she could toy with and ravage.
Unfortunately... as soon as Billie reached out, wanting to offer some comfort, Zoya would swat her hand away.
She reached again, Zoya swatted again.
This went back and forth more than ten times, as if triggering some parry mechanism, a strict defense that left Billie quite helpless.
Kuchiha, observing from the side, was full of questions.
What are these two sisters doing at the market?
Billie didn't understand Zoya, and Kuchiha understood Billie even less...
Is this how you comfort someone?
Zoya was almost passed out, and Billie was here playing "You pat one, I pat one"?
As for the final "merrymaking"...
It clearly had nothing to do with Kuchiha, who had just experienced the pain of matricide.
Kuchiha was currently in a state of almost no emotion.
Perhaps the blow before her rebirth was too great, causing her to seemingly develop dissociative identity disorder, her entire being plunged into emotional numbness.
At first, she would be shy when facing other Witches, but now her shyness had greatly diminished, leaving only an instinctive, familial attachment to the Witches.
This led to her current daily routine being very simple: gathering fresh fodder for the Rabbit Spirit, and then... sleeping!
Not regular human sleep, but like a true rabbit, entering fragmented, shallow sleep anytime, anywhere.
She might be watching TV, her head nodding off for a few minutes.
Just two bites of food, her eyelids would droop, and she'd sleep for half an hour, even while walking, she could stand and enter a brief state of dormancy.
The entire Witch exuded an "low battery" aura.
So the "merry" Witch naturally belonged to the Joy Witch, little Ye Ningfu.
After these past few days, with Billie's relentless effort, she truly began to grow.
Stage: Germination → Seedling
Originally, she was just a tiny flower, no different from an ordinary seedling, only a dozen centimeters tall.
But now, she was over thirty centimeters, and between her petals, the delicate rudimentary forms of human-like facial features had quietly developed.
Unlike any other variant, and unlike the Beauty Rose.
Although the Beauty Rose resembled a person, its face was merely a sunken black hole, while Ye Ningfu had a cute little face.
Setting aside the variety, this made her more like a Sunflower Sister.
Except she didn't have that big, round face like the Sunflower Sister...
Oh yeah~ I'm Ye Ningfu~
Unfortunately, Ye Ningfu still couldn't speak. Serie tried to guide her to say something else from within Ye Ningfu, but the only thing that ever popped out was this catchy yet adorable self-introduction, which almost brainwashed her.
It inexplicably reminded her of a certain little sapling...
Are all you plants like this?
Hopefully, Ye Ningfu will be able to speak when she grows up.
Otherwise, having two mutes out of five Witches would be too...
Fortunately, there was even better news, which was—
As Ye Ningfu successfully entered the Seedling stage, the Joy Witch Ye Ningfu's ability panel finally unlocked.
She could finally learn abilities!
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I've posted 70+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right now but who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/SolyuraMT
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"