Chapter 9-9- Hundred Years

After her first combat experience, Yvette became addicted to it. Every month, she would go "fishing" on the water platform two or three times.

Although she only tried it briefly each time and ran away after hitting twice, it did help her adapt to the feeling of fighting. She was no longer as flustered as in the early days and often bounced the ice to ridiculous directions.

And she also discovered the king hiding here, a deformed giant snake with rotten scales, more than 30 meters long, and a single eye on its forehead.

The appearance of this "One-eyed Snake King" greatly disrupted Yvette's escape plan, because its existence meant that if she wanted to leave using the "flying board" in the future, Yvette must be strong enough to face the attack from a giant beast in the lake.

This is really a lot of pressure for her at the moment.

…

Soon, another 20 years passed.

At this time, 73 years have passed since Yvette traveled through time.

Due to the threat from the "One-eyed Snake King", she reduced the frequency of going to the water platform to avoid being killed instantly by the terrifying giant mouth that emerged from the lake.

He practiced harder and harder, and finally on this morning, he accumulated 100 magic points and compressed a small magic core in his body.

According to the "rune siphon effect," a high-density magic core naturally attracts surrounding magical elements. Indeed, her cultivation efficiency has significantly increased, increasing by 2.5 magic points annually. At this rate, she could gain 250 magic points in just a hundred years—by then, perhaps even worthy enough to challenge the Serpent King.

Well, that’s all.

…

In addition to the breakthrough in magic power, during the past 20 years, Yvette also iterated the final forms of the three magic spells "Frost Bullet", "Flame Dance" and "Wind Walk" through debugging in her spare time.

Among them, the mana consumption of the "Frost Bullet" has been reduced to the terrifying number of "1", which truly means that as many points of mana as there are bullets. The attack method has also been adjusted, and multiple virtual launch points can be created when necessary, allowing the frost bullets to swarm out like a Gatling gun, creating a frost storm.

"Flame Dance" not only optimizes control and mana consumption, but also allows for a specific launch location. Through "Combined Rune Group" technology, each additional fire pillar consumes only 10 additional mana points, allowing for up to four simultaneous fire pillars, creating a "full fire" mode with 50 mana points.

As for "Wind Walk", it was renamed "Wind Control", which consumes 8 mana points per second and can be used to create strong winds. Whether it is to speed yourself up, float in the air for a short time, or blow away the enemy, it is very functional.

Unfortunately, Yvette did not master more advanced theoretical knowledge, nor did she have the assistance of advanced equipment.

Otherwise, she might be able to create magic that is more suitable for flying, bypassing the threat of the Snake King and escaping easily.

…

For more than a hundred years thereafter, apart from an offensive magic called "Thunder's Wrath", Yvette did not try to design new magic spells.

After all, instant magic requires two conditions: proficient memorization and massive practice.

Her current memory is limited by the "Thunder Wrath" with 500 runes. If she forces herself to remember the fifth and sixth spells, it will be very easy to confuse them and even mess up the spells she has already memorized.

Therefore, every day she repeated tasks such as "meditation", "magic practice", "going to the water platform to collect materials and rest", "watching the fights between the deformed monsters", and "spying on the snake king". She was calm and regular, and almost lost control of the passage of time.

Only during the coldest time of winter every year would she suddenly realize that another year had passed so unnoticed, so quickly that she could hardly form any memory anchors.

At this time, her magic value was close to 400 points.

That morning, squatting at the entrance of the facility, watching another year of falling snow, she thought that she might finally be able to try and experience the power of the giant snake in the lake.

…

During the long observation, Yvette had gained a considerable understanding of the One-eyed Snake King and discovered that this guy had no day or night habits at all. It seemed as if he didn't need to sleep and could emerge from the water at any time.

So she was very straightforward and walked directly to the edge of the water platform and threw some magic vines into it to see if she could lure it out.

The seduction took a long time, but Yvette was not discouraged because she knew that the giant snake must be down there, otherwise the other deformed creatures would not be so far away.

It was not until dusk that the pale, pupil-less, nightmare-like giant snake eye suddenly emerged from the water. Although only the tip of the iceberg was revealed, it was enough to make people shudder.

"roar--"

Without waiting or hesitation, the giant snake rushed out of the water in an instant, creating a splash tens of meters high!

Yvette was well prepared. With a tug of wind, she dragged herself a few dozen meters behind the platform, dodged the attack, and looked forward.

At dusk on the lake, a giant snake emerged more than ten meters from the water, looking down at her like a god looking down on an ant.

Then, the snake's snout split open from the middle of its jaw, and a bright red tongue spitted out. But if you look closely, you will find that this is not its tongue, but a dozen slippery tentacles entwined together.

After they separated, they rushed towards the direction where Yvette was standing like lightning, as if they wanted to roll the small and delicious prey in front of them directly into their mouths.

Yvette's nerves tensed, and she used Wind Rider to pull back once more. This was her first encounter with the king of the lake, and coupled with her fear of deep water and giants, she didn't dare to be careless. After dodging the tentacle attack, she immediately used her half-control, half-damage magic.

Frost Bullet, but in Gatling mode!

Blue pellets poured out from multiple angles, firing forty or fifty times in just a few seconds, freezing the snake's head and tentacles into an ice sculpture. The unbalanced snake's head slammed heavily onto the platform, shaking the entire structure.

Then, looking at the struggling giant snake, Yvette did not choose Flame Dance to help it escape quickly, but used another magic, which was also her only new achievement in the field of runes in the past hundred years - Thunder Fury!

This is a magic that is completely different from the previous ideas. It no longer pursues the ultimate mana consumption ratio, but instead maximizes the damage to single targets. At least within the specification limit of 500 runes, this is the highest damage she can do, and it also brings the highest mana consumption.

A full 240 magic points!

Use it once and half of the blue tube is gone!

As the spell was activated, a rune ring with a diameter of more than ten meters appeared in the air. A thick and dazzling lightning bolt fell from it and struck the still struggling head of the frozen snake, causing its body to stretch straight and twitch all over. Even though the ice shell had been broken, it was still in a state similar to paralysis and kept shaking.

Yvette held her breath, her heart pounding. With less than 100 mana points remaining, she couldn't cast Thunderfury a second time. So, she summoned the rune ring representing "Flame Dance" around her, preparing to cast Flame Pillar.

but……

Before she could attack further, the giant snake's movements had already stopped. It stopped twitching, its massive head hanging straight down on the metal grid of the platform. Its eyes and tongue tentacles had turned black, and a foul, burnt smell filled the air.

Is this...dead?

Yvette was shocked and confused, but she did not stop moving at all. She immediately used Flame Dance to bathe the half of the giant snake's body stuck to the platform with flames, doing her best to burn every inch of its skin.

It was not until the half of the giant snake's body that collapsed on the platform was completely burnt and had no breath left, and she threw it into the bottom of the lake with the Wind Rider, that she could finally be sure that this guy was probably really dead.

(End of this chapter)