Chapter 72-72- Spider Woman

Three years later.

It was a snowy morning. Yvette got out of bed, walked through the long corridor, and saw that the hall of the air-raid shelter was silent. There was only a black dragon lying in the haystack in the corner, breathing evenly from time to time.

It was now around four in the morning, dawn had just broken, and the puppets all had training rules that imitated human sleep, so no one was awake yet. It was a good time for her to sneak out alone and start her first exploration of Kux.

Pushing open the stone door of the air-raid shelter and breathing in the icy air, Yvette felt her sleepiness dissipate slightly. She turned her head to look down the snow slope outside the valley. That was the exploration target she had set when she first arrived four years ago. She was a little surprised that the start of her first exploration had been delayed for so long.

Fortunately, everyone here is an immortal. Four years is enough time for humans to finish a university, and for everyone here, the occasional dragon, it is actually not that bad.

Furthermore, these four years had been quite fulfilling for her. It had been a long time since she had devoted herself so fully to optimizing her technique.

After all, a 100,000-level technique, even for optimization work, would often require a team of dozens of people working day and night for half a year to complete during the period of origin civilization.

She single-handedly completed the optimization of seven techniques in four years. No one would believe this even if she told others in the Origin Civilization.

However, there are still some shortcomings in terms of application. After entering the 100,000 level, the operability and variability of the technique have greatly increased. What I need to improve next may be combat experience...

Thinking of this, Yvette walked down the snowy slope. She didn't bring her alloy war blade, because as a low-end military-grade piece of equipment, its power was far inferior to that of the magic, but its durability was acceptable. She planned to keep the blade as a long-lasting souvenir.

Her main purpose in exploring Kux was not to kill people or to find out all the secrets of the city in one go.

She wanted to gather some intelligence first. If possible, she would come more often so she could use more meditation to replenish her mana. Safety was paramount.

Using the wind element to fly to the outskirts of the city, looking at the city shrouded in white cold fog from afar, Yvette indeed felt the atmosphere described in the mission record of the divine benefactor.

There were no aberrations, no living creatures. The roofs, streets, and crooked billboards were all covered in a thick white velvet blanket. In the boundless silence, even the whimpering of the wind through the broken walls seemed to be frozen.

She landed at an empty street corner, and with the breeze on her feet, she crossed the surrounding town communities at a speed that was not fast, but definitely not slow, and approached the city center.

After advancing about 20 kilometers, as the city center gradually came into focus, a mutant finally emerged from the shadows and attacked her, firing a spur of ice. Determined to test the crimson armor's defensive capabilities, Yvette didn't dodge or evade, even reaching up to grab at it, shattering the spur in one swipe.

This aberration's attack power isn't high enough... Yvette felt a little disappointed. Looking up, she saw a humanoid aberration. It looked a bit like a zombie dug out of the frozen ground, with a hunched body, skin clinging to its bones, revealing some flesh, and a purple-red pustule on its head. It was only a first-level aberration, yet it could condense icy spikes to attack. It was indeed quite powerful.

And the more powerful one was still behind. After discovering that its attack did not cause any reaction, the deformed monster seemed to be angry. Dozens of ice spikes formed around it at a rapid speed and bombarded Yvette.

This mindless fire bombardment made her see some of her past self in this deformed body.

Countless ice spikes struck Yvette, stirring up a shimmering mist of ice, but they had no effect, seemingly merely adding a special effect. She raised her hand and snapped her fingers, sending a ball of fire bursting out of thin air onto the aberration, burning it to ash.

Hmm... Although he can use spells, his combat power is probably less than the third stage, at the level of 2.5. But even so, he's quite special. After all, this kind of deformed being would be just a small fry in other cities...

She was secretly surprised and continued to move forward. During the process, she was attacked by a few aberrant creatures. However, whether in human or beast form, the combat power of these first-order aberrations was above the third stage.

Thus, after walking just 10 kilometers, she hunted down over 10 aberrations with a combat power of the third stage, nearly killing 10 nest masters. Fortunately, the process was almost instant kills, and the quick and decisive attacks reduced the consumption of a lot of magic power, so she did not repeat some of the mistakes she had made in the past.

She also set some rules for herself, such as she must retreat unconditionally when her magic power is less than one-third, and she must never use the Black Eye ability unless it is absolutely necessary.

Under these self-restrictions, she is more careful in controlling her mana consumption.

Just like that, about an hour passed. When she finally approached the city center, a cold voice rang out from a building above her: "Who are you?"

Yvette looked up and saw a slender shadow standing on the spire of a church building diagonally above her, looking down at her. She was wearing trendy clothes with a very modern feel. If her non-human organs were removed, she might look like a young and beautiful high school girl.

But unfortunately, the eight spider legs and six red dot-like eyes destroyed the beauty. If nothing unexpected happened, this should be the spider woman mentioned in the mission report of the God's Grace.

After waiting for a while, seeing Yvette looking at her calmly but not saying a word, the Spider Woman asked again: "This is the territory of the King of Tianhai. Which monarch are you serving? Who allowed you to trespass like this?"

King of Tianhai? Monarch? Is this the division of power among the high-level aberrations?

The former is probably a title for a higher-level deformed being, while the latter is called "monarch"... Is this a rank or a status?

Yvette didn't expect that she would collect more information about the aberrations immediately after the first encounter, but she was a little confused as to why Spider-Woman didn't attack her first since she had fought her way in.

Is it because he is afraid that there might be "someone" behind him?

"Who are you?" Yvette asked.

"I asked you first," Spider-Woman said.

"My name is Bingyu, and I'm a mechanical person," said Yvette.

"Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Okay." Yvette said with a hint of regret. It seemed that the advanced aberrations were much smarter than the mechanical puppets. They had seen through her flawless disguise at a glance. She decided to change her story. "Actually, I'm a wild aberration. I don't know anything."

"Are you provoking me?" Spider-Woman's tone became even colder. "Your performance has earned you at least four or five 'promotions'. Haven't you ever felt any sensation? Telling such a lie will be exposed at a glance..."

Sensing? Sensing what? Could it be that the aberrations, during their ascension, the so-called "promotion," receive some special information?

Yvette said, "I'm not going to lie to you, I don't know anything. Can you teach me?"

"It's okay, that's not necessary." Spider-Woman said indifferently, "You're going to die soon anyway, so just be careful in your next life."

After saying this, the spider legs behind the Spider Woman exerted a little force, turning her into a dark shadow. In an instant, she rushed in front of Yvette and slapped out a strange black energy in her hand, which looked like a special spell composed of some unknown elements.

Yvette, who had been preparing for years, had been looking forward to this battle. She wrapped herself in the element of wind and kept colliding with the Spider Woman in the snow-covered ruined city. Every time they came into contact, three of her four layers of scarlet armor would be broken and then quickly replenished.

Her attack methods have also become more diverse than before. Sometimes she uses flames to forge flaming blades in her hands to strike, and sometimes she sends out leaping thunder, which is then intercepted by the Spider Woman's black magic shield.

Countless magical elements spread across the block, like the ebb and flow of the tide, washing away everything on the street. Black unknown elements were mixed in, like some kind of corrosive poison. Many regular elements that originally belonged to ice, fire, wind and thunder would quickly turn black after being exposed to these black elements, and then dissipate on the spot, like embers after a raging fire.

On the silent streets, smoke from explosion after explosion spread out, merging with the snow powder into a black mist. The sound of explosions came one after another, but was quickly swallowed up by the cold wind.

I don’t know whether it was a few minutes or more than ten minutes, but this thrilling contest came to an end when the two of them separated at the same time.

But what was shocking was that such a fierce battle had left the streets in a mess and the snow covered with scorch marks and potholes, but the two men were intact, not even their clothes were dirty, and only the thin white mist condensed from their breath in the cold air remained.

"You are really strong. Are you a fifth-stage mutant?" Yvette stood on a spire-roofed building, overlooking the Spider Woman below, her black skirt fluttering in the cold wind.

"Almost." Spider-Woman said expressionlessly, then corrected, "After four 'promotions', it's called 'Lord'."

"What about the fourth stage?" Yvette thought of the double-edged demon. When that guy was bragging, he called the fourth stage the lord.

"You really don't know anything?"

"I've lived on a remote island for many years and know nothing about the society of aberrants. Well, I haven't received any of the 'sensation' you mentioned." Yvette said, creating a white tentacle on her body to prove that she was indeed a "aberrant."

The Spider Woman was silent for a moment, her voice as cold as before: "But if you dare to trespass into the territory of the King of Sky and Sea, you will still die."

"Let's talk about it next time." Yvette shook her head. Her magic power was close to the one-third warning line she set for herself. In this battle, Spider-Woman's performance was still unfathomable and she seemed to be at ease. This made her a little alert, fearing that she would repeat some of the mistakes of the past.

After fighting for so long, the enemy reinforcements are almost here, plus this Spider Woman is very powerful, who knows if she has any more cards up her sleeve... For safety's sake, I'll retreat this time. It won't be too late to come back once I've refilled my mana bar...

Thinking of this, she immediately turned into a gust of wind, went against the flying snow curtain, and disappeared into the depths of the ruins at the street corner.

…

The snow is still falling.

Watching the enemy leave, the Spider Woman on the roof stood there expressionlessly, not knowing what she was thinking.

Time passed in silence, and layer upon layer of snow covered the traces of the recent battle.

After a full ten minutes, after confirming that the silver-haired girl would not suddenly strike back, Spider Woman took a deep breath, then her body shook and she spat out a mouthful of blood.

(End of this chapter)