Millennium Witch.

Chapter 70 - 70 - Record
Upon entering the air-raid shelter, a musty smell, a mixture of rust, engine oil, and the dust of time, filled the air.

What greeted Yvette and Ice Rain's eyes was a vast, vaulted space with rough concrete walls covered in mottled water stains and peeling plaster. Dozens of magical puppets of various shapes and sizes were scattered throughout, their metal joints creaking as they moved.

Perhaps because their anthropomorphic appearance was so striking, their arrival caused quite a stir. Many puppets mistook them for divine benefactors sent by the Holy Temple, awkwardly bowing and greeting them incessantly. It took Bingyu a great deal of persuasion to clear up the misunderstanding.

Once the atmosphere quieted down, Yvette looked at Copper and said, "Mr. Copper, do you have any more information about Cooks? I'm quite curious about this city."

“Yes, Miss Yvette, please follow me.” Copper said, guiding Yvette to a dimly lit corridor on the side of the hall.

Yvette glanced at Ice Rain, who was enthusiastically telling the puppets about her travels, and followed him alone.

This corridor is the only route inside the air-raid shelter. The dim yellow light bulbs flickering overhead create an alternating light and shadow effect. On one side is a stone wall, and on the other side is a stone chamber with an iron door, giving it the feel of a dormitory or apartment. Without a doubt, all the puppets of the entire kingdom live here.

After pushing open the iron door of a stone chamber, Yvette was greeted by a small, stuffy room with shelves filled with books and a solitary white lamp on the ceiling.

"This is the kingdom's archives. All the books obtained by the citizens during their explorations are here, including the records of Cux's expeditions. You are free to look them up, just be careful not to damage them."

"Thank you."

"By the way, Miss Yvette, you and Miss Bingyu have come all this way. You can't just stop by for supplies and leave, can you? Would you like us to arrange rooms for you? We have plenty of rooms here, so you can stay here as long as you like."

"Well, thank you for your help."

"Okay, okay." Copper's voice sounded somewhat pleased. "I can finally have something to do."

After Copper Skin left, Yvette, who remained in the archives, used wind magic to ventilate the room until the air was fresh before turning her attention to a series of books and paper documents beside her.

Obviously, the paper here was also dug out of the ruins. Since the commercial paper had long since rotted away, the paper here has been specially treated and has a protective coating. It feels like plastic to the touch. Over the centuries, apart from yellowing in color, it does not affect the reading experience at all.

She skipped over some books on various cultural and entertainment topics from different periods of human civilization and immediately focused her attention on the exploration records of the Puppet Kingdom itself. The text on these papers was crooked and messy, and the outline of the Black Tide language could be barely made out, making it a bit difficult for Yvette to read.

After a brief look, Yvette discovered that most of the records were about the early days of the kingdom, detailing daily life in great detail, much like a diary.

But just as she was feeling slightly disappointed, a specially preserved file caught her attention. She picked it up and was immediately surprised to find that it was an investigation report by a divinely favored person.

“I am ‘Corbert Ironblade’, a junior investigator from the Black Tide Sanctuary Headquarters. This is my record of the events in Cooks City.”

"On March 3rd, sunny, my battle partner 'Thunder Wolf' and I arrived at the 'Kuks Family' in the Puppet Kingdom, met the person in charge, Mr. Copper Skin, and learned what had happened."

"According to Mr. Copperskin's description, a terrifying mutated creature called 'Mountain Whale' has been appearing frequently in Cooks recently, originating in the city center of Cooks, and its numbers are increasing rapidly."

"Since Cooks City is not located by the sea, theoretically there shouldn't be any opportunity for contact with whales. I suspect that there might be some kind of mysterious whale-like aberrant nest master within Cooks City. It uses itself as a template and, with the nurturing ability of the mother nest, might be able to create similar effects. There are many precedents for this in the Holy Temple records." "Since the nest master's behavior seriously threatens the survival of the local kingdom, I have decided to go with Thunder Wolf to investigate Cooks City in depth to confirm this and eliminate the source of danger."

"But soon I discovered that the mystery and eeriness of Cookes City exceeded my expectations."

"During the process of entering the city, I flew along in the Thunder Wolf without being attacked by any aberrations. This is unusual in my past experience. Low-level aberrations in the Cooks seem to be very rare, but I didn't feel anything unusual at the time because I was in a hurry to get to the city center. I just judged that it might be due to the cold weather."

"When I was about 30 kilometers away from the city center, I encountered my first aberration attack. It was a stage one humanoid aberration with distinctive features, which I shouldn't have recorded separately."

"But what's strange is that this humanoid aberration has an astonishingly high combat power and can use magic attacks. Its combat power is no less than any third-stage aberration, making it difficult for me to determine its true stage."

"After quickly eliminating this aberration, I became more vigilant and continued deeper with Thunder Wolf, successively taking down several other low-level aberrations with similarly abnormal combat capabilities. In a normal urban area, this would be equivalent to several Nest Masters."

"Then, continuing deeper, about 10 kilometers from the city center, I encountered a mysterious woman."

"That woman was undoubtedly a humanoid mutant, resembling a combination of a human girl and a spider, with six red eyes and eight spider legs on her back. Strangely, she was dressed in human clothes, just like me, and her behavior was completely different from that of a normal mutant creature. If it weren't for the eight spider legs on her back being so conspicuous, I might have thought at first glance that the Creator had been resurrected."

"What's even more incredible is that this spider woman's combat power is astonishing. In just one exchange, she used a black energy attack to shatter the thunder wolf's defensive barrier and blast us all underground. From this point of view, she is at least a fifth-order or higher aberration, worthy of being included in a separate number."

"Due to the vast difference in combat strength, after crashing into the underground city ruins, Thunder Wolf chose to eject me and stay behind to cover the retreat. I did not refuse his proposal because someone had to bring back information about this mutant. Moreover, both Thunder Wolf and I suspected that this Spider Woman was not the Nest Master of Kux, and that there might be an even more terrifying secret hidden within the city."

"After that, I recuperated in the local kingdom for a while and conducted several more explorations in the surrounding areas, but I never saw any trace of Thunder Wolf again. He is probably really dead."

……

After reading the handwritten task report, Yvette's eyes narrowed slightly.

She was quite wary of the God-givers, especially the magical mechs they partnered with. Firstly, using her Black Eye ability on them would be a complete waste of time and energy. Secondly, they were probably equipped with military-grade combat gear, and she didn't know if she could win if she fought using only mage abilities.

And now, there exists a super mutant within Cooks City that can easily kill a Divine Grace and his partner, a magical mech? And it's estimated to be at least at stage five?
She hasn't even seen a fourth-stage aberration yet, is she going to jump to a fifth-stage aberration so soon?
Judging from the exaggerated description of the opponent instantly defeating the Divine Grace and the Magical Mech, even using the Black Eye ability, she doesn't seem like she can win with a sure thing...

Putting down the documents, Yvette hesitated. Her purpose in traveling, besides finding an apprentice, was to devour the aberrant creatures and accumulate more aberrant magic. The bizarre situation in Kux gave her a sense of impending doom; rather than delving deeper into the city's secrets, skipping this place and heading to the next city seemed more in line with her safe and stable leveling strategy.

After all, she's not going to die, and she has a long lifespan to slowly endure it, so why not be more cautious and take the risk?
but……

The thought that her student had become the strongest person in the world and had disappeared in the Land of the End made her feel that it was worthwhile to try harder. If she were too lazy, she, as the teacher, would not be able to help her student if he encountered danger.

She decided to live here for a while, ensuring her safety, and then conduct a thorough investigation. Perhaps she could find the root cause of the abnormality of the Cooks' variants...

(End of this chapter)