Millennium Witch

I think it definitely is.

"why?"

"Because you said you'd buy me the latest magic terminal, but I haven't saved enough money yet." Rosalin made a face, then couldn't help but steal a glance at her teacher's expression. "Um, I'm not implying anything, absolutely not."

Yvette smiled slightly, lowered her eyes, and did not respond.

She had previously stated clearly in her conversations with students that she needed to use her 50 credits to purchase "Elemental Decay Completion Technology," so she couldn't possibly have any spare money to help the Hoffman family.

But the truth is, the welding torch found a new client in the neighboring Grey Harbor City, which gave her extra money after buying her professional books. She used half of that money to bribe officials, which resulted in a lighter sentence in court, reducing Regel's original sentence of at least 10 years to 6 years.

So where did the other half of the money go?

Well, looking at Goss, who hired a lot of money to hire lawyers but was still severely sentenced, the answer seems quite clear.

Rosalyn received no response from Yvette, but it seemed to be a reply in itself. Sassy lowered her head contentedly and continued to look at the street scene below the apartment building.

Then she saw Briel, dressed in a finely tailored Black Tower High School uniform, appear suddenly by the roadside with two little followers. They looked around, seemingly searching for someone, and after a moment of fruitless searching, they ran to Mrs. Susan's stall, each ordering a pancake with an egg and sausage, and then walked away while eating.

The twilight light fell on the three elite young men who were walking and talking, casting long shadows on the dirty road.

Looking at this scene, Rosalyn smiled and was about to say something to her teacher when she suddenly saw the world in front of her become unreal. The familiar room wallpaper, window frames, and the noise downstairs were like oil paintings soaked in warm water, slowly spreading and melting into a series of hazy and colorful swirling ripples of color.

“It’s over.” Yvette, dressed in a pure white dress, stood up and walked behind her. A brand-new magic ring adorned her slender fingers. Inside were professional documents worth 50 credits, crucial for the manor’s future energy supply.

“Yes, it’s over…” Rosalyn murmured, her expression dazed.

……

In the evening, the two returned to the real world, riding in a nearly wrecked magical motorcycle, all the way from the Blackwater District back to the manor in the Central District.

As they passed the ruins of the dilapidated Black Tower, covered in lush greenery yet still towering high, Rosalyn, sitting in the passenger seat, couldn't help but look up, lost in thought.

She recalled that for Hans and Marie, the Hoffmanns' greatest expectation for them was that they could advance all the way through Black Tower High School to the corresponding university, work at Black Tower Medicine, get promoted, and rise to the top of Ish City.

This is the limit of the Hoffmans' imagination for a better future, and this scene is almost impossible to recreate.

She suddenly felt a little sad, thinking that if one day she could cross the abyss and return to her hometown, she would build a tower there.

But it's not a black tower, it's a white tower, a tower like a lighthouse that can dispel all darkness in the night.

A tower that looks like a teacher.

Chapter 28 New Techniques

Perhaps because she had too many beautiful memories from her journey in the dream world, Rosalyn, after realizing that she would never see her two friends, Hans and Marie, returned to reality and fell into a long period of emo.

She lost interest in going on adventures. Apart from studying rune knowledge diligently every day, she spent most of her time sitting in a chair in the manor, then raising her face and staring blankly at the towering ruins of the Black Tower next to her.

Yvette didn't offer much comfort, as it was a normal emotional reaction. However, she would sometimes accompany Rosalind to the dilapidated dome atop the Black Tower, letting her see the post-apocalyptic city of Ish and experience the unique atmosphere of destruction followed by rebirth.

And so, four months passed.

As Ish Island transitioned from late summer to early winter, Yvette finally gained a basic understanding of "element decay and replenishment technology" and began repairing the scrambled element capacitors, energy storage plates, and other junk she had collected.

The repair process was quite lengthy, mainly because the technology involved so many intricacies. A slight mistake could lead to a failure during the repair process, rendering the battery unusable. After four or five large energy storage panels were destroyed, one finally completed its elemental replenishment, restoring it to its original form—a full 200 points of magic power, almost equivalent to a third of Yvette's, which it had salvaged from under a magical vehicle.

In this way, her initial ambitions were finally realized.

Yes!

From now on, she can finally use the electric grid to electrocute all those vegetable thieves!

Rosalyn was quite resistant to this. She felt that it was fine to surround the manor, as a way to defend against the aberrations, but electrifying the vegetable garden would be too harmful to the small animals, which she couldn't bear to do.

But she couldn't disobey her master's orders. For some time afterward, whenever she saw the charred corpses of squirrels, wildcats, or certain birds near the vegetable garden, she could only sadly bury them and stick a wooden stake in them to make cenotaphs. Over time, cenotaphs appeared in every corner of the manor, making it look like a cemetery, which Yvette found quite unsightly.

Of course, for Rosalyn, there are many advantages to the teacher mastering the element completion technique.

For example, the most direct benefit is that the manor no longer experiences frequent power outages; at night, streetlights can be lit inside the manor and even on the streets of the safe zone outside the manor; and in winter, there are even heaters available, so people no longer have to wear thick clothes and use magic to warm themselves by the fire from time to time, as they used to.

If the dream hadn't ended so quickly, leaving no time to save up for other professional documents, Rosalyn would have suspected that her teacher could even manually repair some high-tech magical mechs and mechanical puppets, and single-handedly reproduce the pinnacle technology of the Origin Civilization.

Yes, she never doubted that her teacher was a genius.

……

Another year of cold weather arrived, and one morning around January or early February, a rare and intense blizzard struck Ish Island. The fierce winds whipped up thousands of snowflakes, painting the world a chaotic, leaden white.

But for the master and apprentice, who could use the heater for extended periods without worrying about power outages, this snowstorm no longer had the same destructive power as before.

Yvette sat serenely by the floor-to-ceiling window in the first-floor living room, enveloped in the warmth of the heater. Steam rose from her bone china teacup. Gazing at the howling wind and snow outside, a scene of tumultuous change, she sipped her tea with a relaxed and contented air.

A while later, when Rosalyn came downstairs and started preparing lunch for her teacher on time, Yvette suddenly called her over and transmitted three new spells into her magic terminal.

"Teacher, these are..."

“Three new medium-sized spells, which haven’t been optimized yet, but the structure is finalized. Your ring still has plenty of new storage space, so record them in first and start mastering them early.” Yvette took a sip of tea, her gaze still fixed on the swirling snow outside the window.

These are three new spells she designed after visiting the Origin Civilization, combined with new ideas and inspirations she found online. Each spell costs around 5, making them truly medium-sized spells.

Of course, she can also design higher-specification procedures, such as those at the 10 level or even those at the million level.

But it's pointless, because it's unusable.

This brings us to another crucial module of the magic terminal: the "Spellpoint Cache".

This is a special module connected to the "element chip" inside the terminal, much like the video memory of a graphics card, which directly locks the maximum spell size that a terminal can cast.

The ring Rosalyn is currently using is the complete "Sky Ring Y2" that she commissioned professionals to repair in her dream. It is a high-end magic ring with a full health pool of 120 million, but the rune point cache only gives her 6.

Therefore, procedures exceeding 6 units are not worth considering at all.

Even the new high-end ring "Black Tower S3" that Yvette bought in her dream earlier than "Elemental Decay Completion Technology" cost her 3 credits, but only gave her 6 rune points cache and 150 million storage space—the 3 level is already the highest level among civilian terminals—which shows how strict the technological blockade is in the industry chain.

This is normal, though. If compliant magic terminals on the market can easily cast large-scale spells with a power of 10 or more, what about military-grade equipment? How would it be classified and sold at a high price?

This is why the performance rating of a spell is so important when trading welding torches, because often gangsters don't have the resources to cast large spells and can only compete on the quality of small to medium-sized spells.

……

Because she prioritized cooking for her teacher, Rosalyn didn't sit down at the table until after lunch, after washing the dishes and drying her hands with a cloth. With excitement, she began to look up the three new techniques her teacher had given her.

In terms of user experience, the four spells of "ice, fire, wind, and thunder," which have been refined through countless trials and are now almost flawless, are quite useful and can be applied to the vast majority of combat scenarios.

Even so, the three newly developed medium-sized techniques still made Rosalyn's gaze sharpen, and she felt extremely excited.

First, the first new technique – the regeneration pump!

In short, it's a powerful self-healing technique. Yvette had previously developed a similar "Vitality Technique," and this is an upgrade to it. In addition to enhanced self-healing, it also conjures a regenerating heart outside the body, absorbing the blood flowing from the wound and returning it to the body, thus preventing various forms of weakness caused by excessive blood loss.

Next up is the second new technique—Crimson Armor!

This is a protective spell that increases the body's defenses. After use, a large number of dark red runes will appear on the surface of the skin, and the body's resistance will be greatly increased. It will have extremely high resistance to both simple physical damage and special damage from high or low temperatures, effectively preventing the aberrant creature from attacking and scratching the skin, thus avoiding dying without knowing why.

Finally, the third new technique – muscle decompression!

Like the Crimson Armor, this is a self-enhancing spell, but it leans towards offensive capabilities. After use, it significantly increases the user's strength, stamina, and even reaction speed. When combined with the Crimson Armor, it transforms the user into a melee mage, capable of tearing low-level aberrations apart on the spot.

However, the downside is that both Muscle Unlimited and Crimson Armor cost 20 mana each and last for 10 minutes. For Rosalind, whose mana has just reached 45, once she chooses this melee mage combination, the traditional four major spells of ice, fire, wind, and lightning are almost unusable.

Therefore, she could only hope that her teacher would complete the optimization of the mana cost ratio of these three spells as soon as possible, and put more effort into meditation.

Once she has enough magic power in the future, she can activate the Crimson Armor and Muscle Limit Break while unleashing the four top-tier spells of ice, fire, wind, and thunder. Wouldn't she be able to roam freely on the island? At that time, she can also explore more dangerous areas on the island with her teacher.

Chapter 29 Alloy War Blade

Two weeks later, on a frosty, chilly morning.

Outside, breath turns to ice, and the frost flowers that condense on the windowpane resemble intricate patterns sculpted from ice crystals, cutting and refracting the faint morning light, casting delicate and hazy rainbows into the room.

Standing in the warm indoor space, Rosalyn, who was about to leave, put on a thick cloak. Turning around, she saw that her teacher had also changed into a beige trench coat, with a gray sweater with a warm turtleneck underneath, which added a touch of intellectual charm to her slender figure that seemed incongruous with her face.

These clothes came from an underground warehouse in an abandoned clothing factory. Perhaps due to the powerful preservation technology of the original civilization, strange nanofiber materials, or some kind of special treatment, nearly half of the garments inside escaped the fate of microbial decomposition, photo-oxidation, and thermal degradation over the course of six hundred years, thus falling into their hands. Otherwise, with their almost zero knowledge of textiles, without warm clothes to wear in winter, they would have been stuck at home the whole time.

"Let's go, teacher!" Rosalyn announced enthusiastically after walking over and adjusting the teacher's collar slightly.

Today, their target is the eastern part of Ish City, near Grey Harbor City. According to what they learned in the dream, there should be a New Eden government military base on Ish Island there.

With the "Elemental Attenuation Completion Technology," Yvette plans to recycle some military-grade magical equipment to see if any of it is still usable. Then, she can repair the elemental capacitors and use it directly.

Of course, it largely depends on luck. If she finds a piece of high-quality military equipment that's still usable after 600 years, she'll just fix the batteries and take it home. If it won't start, then so be it; it's just a lottery after all.

Half an hour later, riding the magic-powered motorcycle, the two arrived at the entrance of the abandoned military base. Perhaps because the cold weather affected their movements, they encountered almost no attacks from the mutants along the way. The world seemed to have quieted down, turning into a vast expanse of white snow.

After entering the base and eliminating some humanoid aberrations along the way, Yvette entered several armories with their doors wide open. She tested each of the remaining magical equipment inside, but unfortunately, no matter how much magic she inputted, there was no response.

After checking several rooms, Yvette had a premonition that she might have to return empty-handed today.

However, at that moment, Rosalyn made a discovery in a spacious hall deep inside what resembled a large training ground.

It was a cyborg, but unlike other cyborgs, this one had two military-grade alloy blades on its hands. Upon discovering Rosalind, the intruder, it immediately activated the alloy blades, allowing Rosalind to clearly see the electric light on the blades and hear the striking buzzing sound.

Subsequently, Yvette, who arrived after hearing the news, disassembled the cyborg and discovered that after removing the flesh and blood attached to its body and the blades, there was actually a bionic mechanical hand underneath, which was essentially two alloy blades held in its hand and could be taken off and used directly.

"So cool..." After gripping the alloy battle blade and activating it, Rosalyn looked at the trembling blade and the lightning crackling from its cold light with an expression of amazement.

Yvette was also surprised. After searching for a long time without finding anything, she thought she was going to return empty-handed. Unexpectedly, she got equipment from the mutant for the first time.

From this perspective, although cyborg variants are often more threatening than biological variants, there are things that can be recovered, so we can target them more in the future.

"Teacher, what do you think of this knife? Is it powerful?" Rosalin asked curiously, stroking the now calm blade after turning off the combat mode.

"It's alright." After connecting and checking the parameters using the magic terminal, Yvette nodded slightly.

This knife is called "The Ripper Type VII". It belongs to the New Eden United States' self-developed military weapon series and has two effects: "high-frequency oscillation" and "high-voltage current".

Since the magic circuits were unreadable, and even if they were forcibly read, they would be encrypted gibberish, Yvette could not determine the specifications, quality, and actual parameters of the two attached spells. However, judging from the effect of just a casual test, if paired with "Muscle Unlimited", its power would be no less than that of Thunder Fury, which she herself cast. It should be able to kill a basic type of aberration without any problem.

However, the battery degradation issue hasn't diminished at all. It's clear that its previous usability was due to the aberration directly powering it. Now, separated from the battery, the element capacitors are no longer effective.

Moreover, the energy consumption rate of "high-frequency oscillation" and "high-voltage current" is indeed a bit fast. If the battery is not replenished with elements and is used directly on Rosalyn, her mana bar will probably be depleted in half an hour.

……

After searching for a while and confirming that there were no new findings, Yvette returned to the manor with Rosalind before noon and quickly began replenishing the elements, restoring the two military-grade magical equipment to their perfect condition.

In the afternoon, watching Rosalind enthusiastically studying various blade slashing techniques in the cold wind of the manor, Yvette silently decided to expedite the optimization of the "Crimson Armor" and "Muscle Unlimited" spells.

This wasn't entirely for her apprentice's sake; in fact, even she herself was somewhat tempted by these two military weapons from the Origin Civilization.

after all……

Which boy can resist the allure of swords?

right!

Of course, from a practical point of view, the spell bombardment composed of the traditional four spells of ice, fire, wind and thunder is definitely much more useful than the alloy battle blade in hand, and the firepower is not even in the same league.

But having more options is always a good thing.

……

Time flies, and before we knew it, three months had passed in the blink of an eye. The season had also changed from the snowy winter to the late spring and early summer.

After a period of careful iteration, the two spells, "Crimson Armor" and "Muscle Unlimited," were finally optimized to a level very close to their limits, with a significant reduction in mana consumption.

In particular, Yvette thoughtfully changed the coverage mechanism of the "Crimson Armor" - now even the clothes on your body can be protected, so there is no need to worry about the clothes being torn off due to intense battles.

Rosalyn was very happy about this, because she had begun intensive training in swordsmanship and close combat.

It's not that she wants to change jobs. In fact, melee weapons and magic training don't conflict. It's just that her magic pressure is very low right now. With the same spell and the same amount of magic power, the effect she produces is far inferior to that of her teacher.

However, using the two enhancement spells that come with the Alloy Blade is different. The magic pressure of "high-frequency oscillation" and "high-voltage current" both come from the input of the "high-voltage capacitor" inside the blade, allowing her to have destructive power no less than her teacher simply by swinging the blade.

Driven by the simple desire to "share the burden with the teacher," she naturally preferred to use this weapon that would allow her to unleash greater immediate combat power.

Yvette, on the other hand, quietly gave up on this option after practicing melee weapons for a period of time.

Yes, it takes too much time. With that effort, she could do many other things.

Having recently completed comprehensive optimizations of the "Scarlet Armor" and "Muscle Restriction" techniques, her next goal is to optimize the "Regeneration Pump," adding an emergency treatment capability for infections caused by the aberrant virus.

However, the problem with this research direction is that she knows nothing about the mysterious virus that causes organisms to mutate, only that it can be transmitted through blood, so she has to be careful not to be torn open by the mutated virus.

Therefore, in order to study the filtering or purification effect of the "regeneration pump" on this mysterious virus, biological experiments on various small animals will likely be indispensable for a long time to come.

……

And so, in the verdant manor atop the wasteland, the daily lives of the master and apprentice returned to tranquility. Exploration, meditation, learning, experimentation... day after day.

In this comfortable rhythm, three years passed by in a flash.