Cornflower Witch

Chapter 293 The Tree Sprouts
Lantern Town, Greenhouse Garden.

Inside the hemispherical greenhouse with its varied diamond-shaped panels, patches of light blue cornflowers bloom. The base of the petals is wrapped in a deep floral tube, and the cornflower petals are distributed radially, eventually forming larger flower clusters.

Slender flower stalks, topped with clusters of flowers, bend slightly downwards. As far as the eye can see, cornflowers of varying shades of blue fill the view, making the greenhouse exceptionally beautiful.

In the central pavilion amidst the sea of ​​flowers, Hiltiya sat at a round stone table, organizing the knowledge she had learned.

Currently, the secret techniques and knowledge she has learned can be roughly divided into four major systems, namely:
The CuiMi Horticulture System includes methods such as Dew Inquiry, Pruning, Fertile Soil, Blooming, Vines, and Wild Growth.

The Moonlit Mystic System includes Silti's Spring, Moon Breathing Technique, and the 'Waiting for the Moon Ritual', among others.

The Castle Knight system includes breathing techniques, the Sword of Amor, and the Pure White Shield, Fearless Lance, Galloping Charge, and Sun Sword, which I recently cramed in—all inherited abilities of the 'Holy White Knights Hall'.

The alien arcane system includes abilities such as Astral Travel, Penetrating Ray, Pupil Lock, Fog-Breaking Eye, Intimidating Eye, Evil Eye Shot, Dark Vision, and so on, all of which were acquired through that ritual.

Based on this, she currently has the most abilities and the highest talent bonus within the Alien System, followed by the Emerald System, then the Castle Knight System, and finally the Secret Arts Under the Glowing Moon.

She has more abilities related to the alien system than she can use, which greatly enhances her combat power. Currently, her alien rank has been raised to the fourth rank due to the advancement of the 'castle' attribute. Unfortunately, she lacks the 'core secret techniques' related to the alien system, which prevents her from fully unleashing the powerful strength that the fourth rank should possess.

The core secret technique of the Hundred-Eyed Cult is the 'Demonic Pact,' which is to form a contract with the eye demons of another world. She didn't want to go down that path and waste her core abilities. Besides, even without a contract, she could still command those eye demons, so there was really no need for it.

After summoning the 'Griffin' last time, Hilti became very interested in the lost 'Astrology School'. Unfortunately, there are very few records about the Astrology School now, and she may only be able to find the things left behind by the Astrology School in some hidden ruins.

It seems that finding the lineage of the 'Stargazing School' is a very necessary thing, Hiltiya noted.

After examining the 'Alien' system, she turned her attention to the 'Castle' Knight system, in which she had obtained the core secret techniques from the 'Holy White Knight Hall'.

Each school of knighthood has a different core. The Iron Wall Crown Furnace is dedicated to banishing the Twilight Beasts. Many of its abilities and secret arts are designed to counter Twilight monsters. In order to deal with monsters with enormous physiques, they developed the ability of "Iron Body". In order to deal with the Twilight Beasts with the two major aspects of "Twisted" and "Alien", they created the Oath Secret Art "Sword of Amorish".

The Holy White Knights were originally the royal knight order of the Blazing Sun Empire, known for their noble character. Their enemies are often those skilled in various evils. Many of their abilities are designed to avoid negative influences, resist attacks in the mental realm, and also provide significant personal enhancements.

Speaking of which, she has a very good relationship with the Iron Wall Crown Furnace and the Holy White Knight Hall. Even if she doesn't join, she can still receive the inheritance of the other's school. Now that she has returned to the Dark Mist Mountains, she should visit the Iron Wall Cliff again next time she goes there.

Then there's the 'Radiant Moon' system. Most of her knowledge and abilities come from the 'Silverlight Church's' sacred text, 'Melleranko, Praying in the Lake.' She occasionally studies it, but not comprehensively. However, there's no rush for this. Many powerful secret techniques require her Radiant Moon affinity to reach 'fourth' or 'fifth' before she can learn them.

Finally, there's the 'Emerald Honey' gardener system, which she's devoted the most time and effort to. This is the system she's mastered and perfected the most, and it still has a lot of room for expansion. For example, she could look for opportunities to add 'Tree Sprouting' to combine with 'Vine Growth' and 'Wild Grass Growth'. Secondly, she could learn extended spells based on the 'Emerald Honey' attribute to enhance her combat power and develop special applications.

For ordinary people, each type of profession requires countless hours and energy to improve. The fact that she can master so many other abilities in her spare time while working as a gardener is already exceptionally lucky and shows great talent. Ordinary people simply do not have this kind of energy and resources.

Her primary task is to continue perfecting the secret abilities of the 'Emerald Honey' gardener. Secondly, she needs to improve her knightly skills from the 'Iron Wall Crown Furnace' and the 'Holy White Knight Hall'. Finally, if she has the energy, she will seek out and learn the secret abilities of the 'Alien' and 'Radiant Moon' attributes.

After analyzing her own situation, Hilti first sought out information on 'Tree Sprouting' to study.

This ability is one of the most widely circulated secret abilities in the Gardener class. Even without going to a specific school, you can find a lot of information and learning methods.

Similar to 'vines growing wildly' and 'grass growing rampantly', 'tree sprouting' is the ability to cultivate a large tree. However, it is more difficult than the previous two and requires 'fertile soil' to obtain a stronger supply of nutrients and root support.

"Therefore, I first need to use the 'Fertile Soil Method' to prepare a batch of spellcasting materials before I can use them to cast 'Great Tree Sprout'." Hiltiya read the information and murmured softly.

The common Fertile Soil method requires three basic materials: 'fish', 'water', and 'stone'. Among them, 'water' and 'stone' are easy to obtain, as she has her own 'pure spring holy water' which is very suitable as raw material. As for stone materials, because she is located in the Dark Mist Mountains, she can also buy a lot of 'gems' and 'special raw stones'.

Materials with the 'fish' attribute are the only ones that are scarce in the Dark Mist Mountains. She looked through the information on 'Tree Sprouting' and 'Fertile Soil Method', which explained that if the nutrients and properties required by the trees happen to match the materials with the 'fish' attribute, better results can be obtained.

So, which tree should we choose as the learning target?
Hiltiya thought of the two kinds of 'Golden Pear' and 'Frosty Blue Apple' planted in her garden. If it was 'Golden Pear', it needed 'Fish' with the metal attribute, and if it was 'Frosty Blue Apple', it needed 'Fish' with the 'Hibernation' attribute.

Are there fish with these two attributes in the Dark Mist Mountains? She went to the town's library and searched through the books and materials collected from the nearby outpost.

After some searching, Hiltiya actually found an inconspicuous record.

Within the 'Dark Sand Valley' base, there is a type of small fish at the bottom of the river that possesses both 'magnetic' and 'metallic' characteristics. They gain the ability to swim rapidly in the river by flexibly changing the magnetism of their metallic scales, which should be the fish that meet the requirements.

Unfortunately, this type of fish is not very valuable, and 'Dark Sand Valley' does not have a special collection or reserve of it. If needed, one will have to go there to find it oneself.

It just so happens that the town of Lantern is also going to exchange and trade goods with various outposts in the Dark Mist Mountains, so she went along to visit them for a while and tour the area.

I vaguely remember that the first task after the town was established was to prepare spring water for them to purify.

(End of this chapter)