6kv Chapter 8 Ice Mirror Puppet
Chapter 8 Ice Mirror Puppet
It's another morning.
With the hum of the crystal ball at the top of the Witch's Tower, a pillar of crimson-gold fire tore through the cold wind and precisely struck a patch of snow not far away.
boom--!
The familiar chain reaction of explosions played out once again, instantly clearing away and vaporizing a large amount of surging, living snowflakes on the snow-covered plain.
"Done!" Anna clapped her hands, her fair face showing no signs of fatigue, but rather filled with excitement.
With the blessing of the Witch's Tower's domain, her magic recovery speed was astonishingly fast, her mental power was connected to the tower, and her perception range was greatly expanded.
For her now, this level of cleanup is almost as easy as breathing.
In just half a day, the two of them had collected nearly twenty magic crystals.
"Young master, we've struck it rich!"
Anna held the pile of newly exploded magic crystals, her eyes sparkling.
Just then, a unique trophy caught Lorraine's attention.
It was a fist-sized, pale blue crystal, lying quietly in the snow-white ashes.
It lacked the warm luster of ordinary magic crystals, instead radiating a chilling aura, making the surrounding snowflakes seem to solidify even more.
"What is this?"
Anna curiously poked it with her finger, and immediately felt a chilling coldness on her fingertip, causing her to pull her hand back as if she had been electrocuted.
Lorraine stepped forward and picked up the crystal.
The "Witch's Codex" in his arms remained silent, but an illusory page automatically turned in his mind, and a line of small golden characters quietly appeared.
【Frostheart: A rare material. Formed from a high concentration of frost elements under special conditions, it can be used for special upgrades in Witch and Witch's Tower】
Lorraine understood.
Fortunately, the appraisal function of the secret manual is free, so at least it's not a completely unscrupulous merchant.
He quietly put away the Frosty Heart.
In this world, most pioneers, even if they are lucky enough to obtain such rare materials, will only waste money by spending a lot of money to identify them because they don't recognize their value.
Information is the greatest wealth.
However, just as the two were preparing to go all out, they realized that something was wrong.
The once fearless living snowflakes now seemed to have encountered their natural enemy, circling the area around the outpost's demonic fire from a distance, not daring to approach at all.
At the same time, several blinding beams of light suddenly appeared at the far end of the snow-covered hills.
The beam of light shot straight into the sky, tearing through the clouds and standing out conspicuously against the gloomy sky.
Upon seeing these beams of light, Anna's face instantly turned pale.
"Young Master, let's... let's not go out today." She nervously tugged at Lorraine's sleeve, her voice trembling.
Why?
"I heard from the veterans in the castle that some powerful monsters have a strong sense of territory and will avenge their underlings. And we've killed so many living Snowflakes these past few days..."
Anna swallowed hard before continuing, "Those beams of light in the distance... they look really ominous."
In Anna's eyes, they now have a witch, a tower, and food; the future is bright.
As long as we proceed steadily and gradually accumulate strength, becoming a powerful force in the region is just around the corner. There is absolutely no need to provoke those unknown monsters that look incredibly powerful.
Lorraine did not speak.
His idea was exactly the opposite.
It's too inefficient to farm low-level monsters like Living Snowflakes; it only yields twenty magic crystals after half a day of grinding.
The bigger the waves, the more expensive the fish.
If we want to develop rapidly, we can't just focus on the leftovers right at our doorstep.
"Anna, go and get all the remaining magic crystals we have." Lorraine pointed to another open space next to the first witch's tower, her tone leaving no room for argument.
"Huh? We have to build more?" Anna was stunned.
"A first-tier witch's mental power can connect to a maximum of two witch towers simultaneously. Each additional tower means more firepower and more protection," Lorraine explained calmly.
Soon, under Anna's gaze, which was filled with both heartache and anticipation, the twenty magic crystals transformed into a beam of light shooting into the sky.
The earth rumbled, and a second, identical obsidian spire rose from the ground.
The two towers stood side by side, their crystal balls atop them gleaming in the sunlight. The area that the territory's buildings could attack instantly doubled, giving people an overwhelming sense of security.
Lorraine glanced at the area covered by the demonic fire at the outpost; there was no longer enough space to place a third tower.
One of the prerequisites for upgrading to a second-tier magic fire is having a second-tier witch.
It seems that if we want to continue expanding, we need to put upgrading Anna on the agenda.
He used his mind to ask the Witch's Codex a question, and a magic crystal instantly turned to ashes, clearly revealing the conditions for advancing to the second-tier Flame Witch:
Forty standard magic crystals, a second-tier potion called "Heart of Molten Core", and an ascension ceremony called "Sacrifice of the Flame".
To be honest, he had heard that witches needed special meditation methods to advance in rank, painstakingly accumulating magical power step by step before they could hold an advancement ceremony.
However, when it came to the secret manual, there were only a few conditions.
Could it be that the Witch's Secret Manual says that with this method, one can achieve perfect advancement without cultivation?
However, just as Lorraine finished all her preparations, a sudden change occurred!
The living snowflakes that had been raging in the distance suddenly went berserk, retreating in all directions like a tidal wave, as if fleeing some terrifying being.
Meanwhile, those blinding beams of light in the distance were hurtling straight toward their camp at an astonishing speed!
"They're coming!" Anna exclaimed, instinctively hiding behind Lorraine.
It wasn't until those things got closer that Lorraine could see their true forms.
It was a monster about two meters tall, made up of eight ice mirrors suspended in the air, resembling a prism.
It seems that the blinding pillars of light near the hill were formed by the reflection of sunlight from their mirror-like surfaces.
[Ice Mirror Puppet: Tier 2 Monster.]
The Witch's Codex gave the name of this monster.
"call out--!"
A beam of light suddenly shifted and locked onto one of the witch's towers.
The next second, a white laser, thicker than an adult's arm, suddenly shot out from the mirror on the puppet's chest!
boom!
The laser slammed into the wall of the Witch's Tower, causing the tower to shake violently. Even the light from the crystal ball at the top of the tower dimmed, like a candle flickering in the wind.
Lorraine's pupils contracted.
The power of this attack... at most five or six strikes would be enough to completely destroy a tower!
"Anna, fight back!"
"yes!"
Upon receiving the order, Anna immediately channeled the power of the two Witch Towers, and two highly compressed crimson-gold fireballs roared out, slamming into the Ice Mirror Puppet charging at the front.
However, a strange scene happened.
The fireballs collided with the mirror on the chest of the Ice Mirror Puppet. The mirror melted only slightly for a moment. Then, the two fireballs, which contained immense energy, were actually bounced back by the mirror and smashed into their own Witch Tower at an even faster speed!
Boom! Boom!
The Witch's Tower, already teetering on the brink of collapse, was struck squarely by its own attack, and immediately let out a mournful cry of unbearable strain, with spiderweb-like cracks appearing on its surface.
"How could this happen..." Anna's face instantly turned pale, her eyes filled with despair.
If you can't damage it, and your attacks are reflected back, how can you fight back?
Oh no! The house we just built, the two good days we've just had, are we going to die here with the young master?
"Anna, don't panic."
Just as the girl lost her composure, Lorraine's voice remained calm and steady, forcefully calming her flustered emotions.
In his view, the Witch's Codex had already provided the answer.
[Weakness: Its core is located at the junction of its feet and the ground, maintaining its ice mirror body by drawing upon the cold air deep within the earth. This junction is extremely intolerant of high temperatures. Severing its connection to the earth's cold air will cause the ice mirror body to collapse on its own.]
"Follow my command," Lorraine's voice was firm and unquestionable, "Attack the ground at its feet, not its body!"
Anna was completely stunned.
If you can't even break through it by hitting it directly, what's the point of hitting the ground next to it? Isn't that just a waste of precious magic power?
"Young Master?"
"Execute the order!" Lorraine hissed.
The sharp shout sent a shiver down Anna's spine.
But out of absolute trust in Lorraine, she no longer hesitated.
She gritted her teeth, forcibly suppressing the doubts and fears in her heart, and mobilized all her mental energy to shift the target of the two pillars of fire from the indestructible mirror body of the puppet to the inconspicuous snow at its feet.
Boom! Boom!
The blazing flames instantly melted the ice and frozen ground, burning two large, red-hot craters at the puppet's feet.
The next second, something amazing happened.
Having lost its connection to the earth's chill, the Ice Mirror Puppet seemed to have its skeleton ripped away in an instant, its massive body trembling violently.
The mirror-like surface on its chest dimmed rapidly, and then, with a "crack," countless cracks spread wildly upwards from its base.
Finally, with a loud bang, the two-meter-tall puppet shattered into a pile of crystal-clear ice shards.
Only one dark blue magic crystal glittered in the ice shards.
"This..." Anna stared at the unbelievable scene, speechless with shock.
As expected of the lord! Amazing!
"One crystal for each one," Lorraine smiled with satisfaction. "Good drop rate. Keep going, Anna, we can earn even more today than yesterday!"
With a clear tactic in place, the ensuing battle became a one-sided massacre.
Under Lorraine's precise command, Anna attacked east when directed and west when directed.
Her flames no longer attacked the puppets themselves, but instead, as if they had eyes, they specifically targeted the feet of the puppets.
As time passed and the mist of the moment of change slowly dissipated, the snow in front of the outpost was covered with glistening ice shards and eerie blue lights.
The two were counting their spoils, their hands trembling with excitement.
During this moment of upheaval, they killed dozens of Ice Mirror Golems, and together with the magic crystals they had accumulated, they broke through the fifty mark in one fell swoop!
"Fifty coins... I've never seen so much money in my life..." Anna was so happy she almost fainted.
Besides the magic crystal, Lorraine also found an ancient card emitting strange energy fluctuations among a pile of ice shards.
【Witch's Tower Overload Card (Disposable Item)】
[Effect: Overloads the Witch Tower within the camp, tripling its attack efficiency and power for two minutes.]
[Negative Effect: After the overload ends, the Witch's Tower will enter a 30-second cooldown period during which it cannot attack or defend.]
Lorraine carefully put the card away.
Three times the power, a burst of power in two minutes.
If used correctly, this thing can be a game-changer; if used incorrectly, its 30-second cooldown can be a death sentence.
However, it does give us an extra powerful trump card.
Lorraine slowly turned her head to look at the other item that the Ice Mirror Puppet had dropped.
[Architectural Blueprint: Magic Farmland]
[Effect: Gathers trace amounts of magical energy from the earth's veins, transforming barren land into primary spiritual soil, significantly shortening the growth cycle of ordinary crops, slightly shortening the growth cycle of magical plants, and having a very low probability of inducing beneficial mutations in crops.]
nice one.
In this godforsaken place where even the soil can freeze as solid as iron, growing crops requires not only the Witch's Tower to withstand the wind and snow, but also the soil's fertility.
With this, the hardy barley that Olivia left behind finally had a real purpose.
"Young Master, these are... blueprints for a special building?"
Anna leaned closer, looking at the blueprint. The light in her eyes briefly shone before quickly dimming again.
She sighed and handed Lorraine the freshly baked dry rations.
"It's a pity that these functional buildings that drop from monsters are different from the Witch's Tower."
Tower construction is one of the basic skills of the lord class; it doesn't even require blueprints—you can just pile them up mindlessly as long as you have magic crystals. But this kind of farmland… belongs to alchemical construction.
Although Anna came from a humble background, she had been exposed to that large family from a young age and had learned some common sense.
"Blueprints alone are useless; we must know the specific alchemy formula—"
"What kind of catalyst is needed, what kind of magical beast's blood is needed as a catalyst, and what proportion of elemental soil is required... these are all closely guarded secrets by those alchemists."
She shook her head, her tone full of regret: "This blueprint alone is just a piece of waste paper. If we were to buy the formula, those greedy alchemists would probably drive us bankrupt."
Lorraine took the dry rations and took a bite. The texture was rough, but he chewed it with relish.
"Who said we were going to buy the formula?"
He swallowed his food, casually slapped the blueprint that Anna considered "waste paper" on the table, and a smile appeared on his lips.
"Anna, don't just stand there. Go outside and break off a few pieces of dead pine branches, the kind that have been buried in snow for at least two years and are black in color."
"Huh?" Anna blinked, thinking she had misheard. "Dry branches? To use for firewood?"
"Use it to build farmland."
Ignoring her confusion, Lorraine continued, "Also, when you killed those living Snowflakes yesterday, didn't you leave behind a lot of black ash? Go and collect half a bag of it. Remember, it has to be the finest kind of ash."
Anna opened her mouth, as if to ask what the pine branches and insect ash had to do with the magnificent alchemical farm.
But seeing the young master's confident expression, she swallowed back the question that was on the tip of her tongue.
"Yes, young master."
The little maid wrapped herself tightly in the oversized fur cloak and ran out into the wind and snow.
After sending Anna away, Lorraine didn't sit idle either.
He picked up a shovel, pushed open the door, and walked straight to the newly turned land below the Witch's Tower.
There, just yesterday, Anna had devoutly planted rows of hardy barley seeds.
Lorraine walked to the edge of the field, and without the slightest hesitation, he turned over the soil that had just been buried with a shovel.
With that one shovel stroke, the once smooth ground instantly became pitted and uneven.
He moved swiftly, as if he had a grudge against these seeds, digging up the precious wheat seeds that hadn't even had a chance to sprout yet, one by one, and casually tossing them into the wooden bucket next to him.
"stop--!!"
A sharp, angry shout came from not far away.
Lorraine stopped what she was doing, leaning on her shovel as she turned around.
The familiar beast-drawn carriage was seen parked outside the outpost again.
As Olivia stepped out of the car, her once dignified aristocratic demeanor vanished completely.
She lifted her skirt and trudged through the deep snow, her emerald eyes blazing with fury at the mess on the ground.
"Lorraine! What are you doing?!"
Olivia rushed over, her voice trembling as she looked with heartache at the seeds covered in mud in the bucket:
"This cold-resistant barley variety No. 3! It's a superior variety that I spent three whole years cultivating, failing thousands of times! If you... if you don't want it, you can simply give it back to me. Why are you ruining it?!"
She was absolutely furious.
Yesterday, seeing the solemn way the man accepted the seeds, she thought she had found a kindred spirit and that the spark of agriculture could truly be ignited in this wasteland.
The results of it?
It's only been one night, and this guy's already digging up roots here?!