Chapter 31: The Witch Who Infiltrated Alette’s Room

Arlette had always been a fast eater.

He swallowed an entire steak in just two or three bites.

When he was by the Lady’s side, time was the most precious thing in the world.

Learning skills, performing service, training his body—everything required time.

This remained true even now.

For a moment, Arlette felt a surge of intense anxiety regarding his own strength.

He understood his position very clearly.

Among ordinary adventurers, his strength could be considered top-tier.

Exceptional physical toughness, excellent combat skills, proficiency in various types of magic, and an intimate knowledge of monsters.

Any one of these traits was enough to allow him to crush an average adventurer.

But the competition they were about to participate in…

It was a dragon hunt.

Setting aside how many elites among elites this competition would attract.

Consider the dragon itself.

As a monster expert, Arlette naturally understood what that concept entailed.

Dragons, standing at the pinnacle of all monsters, possessed not only the strongest physical and magical resistance and devastating destructive power but also the ability to fly and an entire nest of subordinate monsters.

Crystal Thorn had only just stepped into the sixth floor and had already suffered greatly; Arlette himself had nearly perished there.

If they were to return to the dungeon for a second time in such a short period… other than a bit of experience that was better than nothing, the adventuring party could be said to have had zero growth in strength.

Going straight to the competition would most likely end in humiliating failure.

So, after considering all this, Arlette realized one thing.

If they wanted to change the status quo and achieve victory in the competition, Crystal Thorn needed a “core” strong enough to secure the win.

And that core could only be himself.

Only then could Arlette feel at peace.

“I… I must undergo a qualitative change.”

“Just staying like this isn’t enough to face the sixth floor of the dungeon.”

While thinking this, Arlette subconsciously pulled that wooden box out from his clothes once again.

“If only I could absorb it through the ritual…”

For a moment, two desires rose from the churning fire in Arlette’s heart.

The original longing to become stronger, buried deep in his body, mixed with the desire to win the dragon-slaying competition and bring the Lady back to how she used to be. The mixture almost completely swallowed his rationality.

“There is no more time to grow stronger slowly.”

***

Meanwhile, Vivian, who was hiding inside the wall in her spiritual form and watching Arlette, felt a flicker of doubt.

“What is the little knight doing…?”

Previously, although Vivian had frequently peeked at Arlette, she had missed the ritual where he upgraded his body.

However, in the next moment, Arlette slowly opened the wooden box. A dazzling, multi-colored light suddenly burst forth, painting the interior walls of the room in a kaleidoscope of hues.

“A Gem Dragon’s Reverse Scale?!”

Before Vivian could process her shock, Arlette had already begun laying out a formation within the room.

This time, he was determined to bite off more than he could chew.

He wanted that victory too badly.

He wanted the Lady to return to her original self too badly.

For that, he was willing to pay almost any price.

In just a few dozen seconds, the magic circle originating from the Blood Kin secret arts was drawn and activated.

Although Vivian was not familiar with Blood Kin secret arts, she could just barely tell that this was some kind of strengthening ritual.

After that, the process was the same.

Arlette’s forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat as he stared with extreme tension at the floating orb of colored light before him.

He knew perfectly well that the probability of successfully forcing an absorption was incredibly small.

But he still wanted to gamble.

To gamble on his success.

“This is the only way to quickly increase my strength.”

Thinking this, he took a deep breath and began to slowly draw the orb of light toward his chest.

“Please, you must succeed.”

However, at this moment, the hidden Vivian could no longer sit still.

“What is that idiot doing?!”

“Can a dragon’s reverse scale be absorbed directly without being processed?! He doesn’t even have an assistant by his side; this is too reckless!”

“He’s going to get hurt if this continues!!!”

However, before Vivian could intervene, the colored light sphere had already flown into the vortex in front of Arlette’s chest.

In the next instant, the greatest sensation of pain he had ever felt exploded from within Arlette’s body.

At that moment, every inch of muscle in his body felt as if it were being sliced by ten thousand blades.

To force an absorption while knowing the body couldn’t handle it naturally came with a heavy price.

In fact, it hadn’t even fully entered Arlette’s body yet.

It was merely stuck right above the mouth of the vortex, yet the energy it released caused Arlette unbearable agony.

“Hold on… I have to hold on…”

“If I lose consciousness, I’ll definitely die…”

Arlette’s body was already out of control; he couldn’t even manage to destroy the ritual formation.

Now, he could only rely on his will to hold out.

However, in the next moment, Arlette’s body began a total collapse.

The muscles throughout his entire body lost strength at the same time, causing his whole body to collapse onto the floor.

His mana almost stopped circulating at that moment, turning into a pool of completely stagnant water.

His five senses began to be stripped away. Even his heartbeat began to slow down.

Now, all he could feel was pain.

Just as Arlette fell into a near-death state, the agitated reverse scale suddenly stopped.

Then, as if it had lost all its external power, it dropped onto the floor on the spot, letting out a crisp “ding” sound.

At the final moment, Vivian had used a small spell to destroy Arlette’s ritual formation.

However, the other’s condition showed no sign of improvement.

Arlette seemed to remain in a near-death state.

“Damn it!”

If it were anywhere else, Vivian would have rushed out to support Arlette immediately.

But this was the Crystal Thorn base.

The moment she deactivated her spiritual form, she would likely be sensed by Meru.

That person already harbored immense hostility toward her.

And now, if she let them know she had snuck in, a massive fight would be inevitable.

Even if she explained everything, Meru likely wouldn’t trust her.

Based on her knowledge of Meru, that person probably wouldn’t care about Arlette’s life or death in the heat of the moment.

Vivian couldn’t protect Arlette while fighting.

“Is there any way to save this idiot…”

“Damn it, think, you stupid brain!!!”

For a moment, Vivian was frantic with worry.

“No, there’s no time to think!”

“Even if I have to kidnap him, I have to save his life!”

Thinking this, the mana within Vivian’s body immediately began to circulate again, ending her spiritual state on the spot.

She lunged out from the wall, grabbed Arlette from the floor, and placed him on the bed.

“You dummy, stay with me!”

The moment she touched Arlette, Vivian tore open his shirt and carefully inspected his chest.

She saw that at this moment, the skin on Arlette’s chest looked like porcelain that had been struck hard by a hammer, covered in cracks.

Those cracks were like ravines in a parched land—some deep, some shallow—but without exception, they all seeped blood.

Worse still, the injury was even spreading deeper into Arlette’s body.

If it wasn’t stopped, once it reached his internal organs, the consequences would be catastrophic!

“I can’t wait any longer.”

Looking at the expression on Arlette’s face, which was distorted by extreme pain, Vivian’s heart ached as if it were being scraped by a sharp tool.

“Endure it, it’ll be over soon!”

She whispered as she used spatial magic to take out a small glass bottle.

Inside was a thick, deep green slime.

This was the secretion of a “Resurrection Moth.”

The Resurrection Moth was an insect-type monster about the size of a pigeon.

The survival strategy of this moth was to live symbiotically with warm-blooded creatures, sucking their blood for nutrients.

Because they were large, they consumed a lot of blood.

To prevent truly harming their hosts, they would inject secretions into the host’s body while sucking blood.

As long as this secretion came into contact with a large amount of blood, it would trigger a powerful recovery effect, even allowing a person on the brink of death to be revived—hence the name “Resurrection Moth.”

These monsters were relatively rare, and their secretions were quite precious.

Vivian had spent over a year collecting just this one small bottle.

However, in the next moment, she uncorked it without hesitation and poured the entire bottle onto Arlette’s chest.

Then, Vivian spread her fingers and began to smear the sticky liquid over the wounds on Arlette’s chest.

Soon, a small portion of the slime began to combine with the blood seeping from Arlette’s wounds, producing a regenerative effect.

But then a problem arose.

Arlette was bleeding too little; the regenerative effect couldn’t keep up with the speed at which the injury was spreading.

“No, I need more blood…”

In the next moment, Vivian used magic to manifest a wind blade without a second thought, slicing the vein on her own wrist.

Instantly, a large amount of dark red blood surged from beneath her fair, delicate skin, pouring onto Arlette’s chest.

Upon contact with Vivian’s blood, the slime on Arlette’s chest reacted instantly, expanding rapidly and releasing even more regenerative effects.

Only then did the injuries on Arlette’s body finally stop spreading and begin to gradually regenerate.

The fresh cut on Vivian’s hand also brushed against the healing effect and began to mend.

The originally deep green slime also gradually turned into a faint pink, releasing a soft, fragrant scent.

“Phew… I’m exhausted. At last, the wound is suppressed.”

Vivian complained, but her hands didn’t stop their rubbing and kneading.

Her slender, beautiful fingers were sunken into the slippery, sticky slime.

Every time her palms moved up and down, a “squelching” sound echoed, and sticky threads like spiderwebs even stretched through the air.

This strange sensation made Vivian blush involuntarily for a moment.

“It’s almost like… some kind of…”

“Lubricant…”

Looking at the face of the unconscious young man before her, Vivian felt her body temperature rise significantly, and her mind began to wander.

“No, no, I’m saving someone, I can’t think of these messy things!”

After a few seconds, she suddenly snapped back to her senses and shook her head to refocus.

Vivian thought the strange thoughts in her mind were her own problem.

In reality, she was unaware of something very important.

To increase the number of life forms they could live with and thus expand their species, the secretions of the moth didn’t just have regenerative effects.

…They also had the effect of arousing the most primal desires of a living being.

This was another reason why they were so highly sought after and expensive on the market.

That fragrant scent was the sign of it taking effect.

However, Vivian didn’t realize that her body was already starting to have problems; her heart was only filled with joy at Arlette’s improvement.

Even though the external wounds on Arlette’s body had basically healed and his breathing had slowly stabilized, Vivian was still not satisfied.

“I’m still a bit worried… I’ll rub it on a bit longer.”

She continued to move her wrists, gently circling over Arlette’s bare upper body.

However, as the minutes passed, she felt her body becoming more and more strange.

“Why… is my face… getting so hot?”

“My legs… my legs are so weak…”

Vivian’s vision began to blur, and her legs became weak and started to tremble.

She even felt an overwhelming urge to shed her clothes.

Just as she tried to steady herself, her ankle gave way due to the weakness, and she suddenly slipped.

“Puff! Cough, cough…”

This fall caused Vivian’s entire upper body to plunge into the slime on Arlette.

Although she managed to brace herself against the bed frame in time to avoid slamming her body into Arlette, her body ended up directly smeared with the pink slime.

In an instant, her cheeks, hair, and even her clothes were covered in the substance.

The viscous droplets clung to her fair skin and soaked into the fabric of her exquisite clothing, making Vivian look as if she had been attacked by a slime.

“So dirty… damn it!”

“Pui, pui, pui…”

However, something even worse followed.

When she tripped just now, Vivian’s heel had accidentally caught on the chair in the room behind her.

By the time she noticed, the thing was already wobbling on the brink of falling over.

Which meant…

“Thud!!”

In the next moment, the chair hit the floor, letting out a sharp, jarring noise in the quiet night.

With a flushed face, Vivian turned her eyes toward the chair in a daze.

“I-It’s over…”

“Spirit form, spirit form!!”

She desperately chanted the incantation, but the mana in her body seemed to be affected by that heat, refusing to obey her command and failing to form a complete spell.

In the next moment, the worst-case scenario happened.

Barely ten seconds after the noise, the sound of hurried footsteps came from outside the door.

Someone was coming.