“Gulp…”
Finishing off the last few drops at the bottom of the wooden cup, Krexia placed a silver coin on the table and turned to leave the tavern.
From the snippets of conversation she overheard between the bartender and the mercenaries around her, she had already gathered enough information.
That day, her magic depletion had lasted only about a minute, yet the small amount of leaked Witch’s Power had caused at least a double-digit number of monsters in the Mageling Forest to mutate.
That number might have been insignificant in the vastness of the Mageling Forest, but the problem was that these mutations were concentrated near the forest’s outer edges.
These mutated creatures were generally around fourth-tier in strength, and driven by an intense desire to attack. They spared no one—not humans, and not even lower-level monsters.
It was precisely because of this that the mercenaries and adventurers entering the Mageling Forest today suffered heavy casualties.
For the first time, Krexia tangibly felt the danger of the primal Witch’s Power inside her.
It could cause monsters to rapidly mutate, strengthen, go berserk, and transform into killing machines that mercilessly slaughtered all living beings without discrimination.
“Kosan, what were you thinking when you gave me this power back then?”
Krexia didn’t feel particularly happy about gaining this power.
In her eyes, she only needed to rely on the stronger magical talent granted by this body, combined with her creative ideas about engraving magic items and a bit of intelligence.
With some time and effort, it would be enough for her to exact revenge on that foolish Third Princess.
As for the possibility of the Third Princess ascending the throne, she hadn’t even considered it.
Although the Empire of Huangyu was impressive in some ways, occasionally producing geniuses that could make one’s head spin, it was still filled with normal people as well as many talented strategists and prodigies.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t have managed to hold its ground against the enormous threat of the Blood Clan for nearly a thousand years and still remain unscathed.
So this Third Princess, who clearly didn’t seem reliable, had absolutely no chance—none, none at all—of ever ascending the throne.
To be honest, her only real worry was that before she fully developed, this stupid and bad princess might die in palace intrigue.
Then she would be left with this power, no way to take revenge, a heart full of regrets, and forced to dig up graves in the Grave of Emperors to vent her frustration.
“What was I thinking back then?”
Kosan’s playful voice echoed in her mind.
“You wanted to come back to life and take revenge on the princess, right? I’m not trying to discourage you, but with the strength you showed at that time, even if you spent two hundred years building up power, you wouldn’t necessarily have had the chance.”
“Without my power, your revenge would be hopeless this lifetime.”
“As a native noble who grew up in Leia Principality, you must have heard of the Heavenly Knights, right?”
Of course she had. They were known even to ordinary people.
The Royal Knights loyal to the royal family, among whom the top ten formed the Empire’s sharpest edge, known as the Ten Swords of the Empire.
It was said that each of them possessed extremely powerful Bloodline Awakening abilities, with combat strength capable of taking on thousands single-handedly.
But these were only rumors. Krexia had never seen a Heavenly Knight with her own eyes and didn’t know their exact combat power.
The term Bloodline Awakening itself was already quite unfamiliar to her.
She had never studied it or heard much about it; the books at home contained no records of it, only vague mentions that it was some kind of extraordinary ability.
“Your overall combat power, not counting the power I granted you, is roughly below fifth-tier, and that’s only against other mages.”
“Also, that includes your ability to quickly create complex magic items.”
“Based on all the information I’ve gathered about this world so far, a Heavenly Knight, without using any Bloodline Awakening spells, maintains a baseline combat power of eighth-tier.”
“Frankly speaking, it would be easier for them to crush you than it is for an ordinary person to crush an ant.”
As Kosan continued, Krexia’s restless heart gradually calmed down.
She knew revenge would be difficult, but she hadn’t expected it to be this difficult.
Still, she wasn’t exactly sure just how difficult.
Because on paper, just one Heavenly Knight alone would give her a headache for a very long time.
Eighth-tier—what kind of concept was that?
She didn’t know.
She only knew that when facing a monster one tier above her, she would be guaranteed to lose and have no choice but to run.
She only knew that the difficulty of learning magic rose exponentially with each tier, meaning she’d have to study for a very long time.
She only knew that no matter what, she absolutely had to kill that despicable princess.
The idea of eighth-tier was too vague to her.
“What, do you think my power isn’t strong enough?”
Kosan said softly.
“No, it’s strong. Being able to almost effortlessly cause monsters to increase their tier and strength is something I’ve never heard of.”
“It’s just… I don’t know why, but this power you gave me makes me uneasy.”
“It’s as if once I use it, something terrible will happen.”
“Those mutated monsters… they give me a very uncomfortable feeling.”
“More uncomfortable than the Third Princess?”
“Ah, no,” Krexia denied briskly. Mentioning the Third Princess immediately swept away those slightly negative emotions.
“Then what are you hesitating for? Accept this power as soon as possible. It will only benefit you.”
“But you said my soul and body haven’t fully synchronized yet, so I can’t accept this power fully, right?”
“That’s true. Your body hasn’t completely adapted to your soul. In this state, you’re like a vessel with a hole in it, unable to hold what it should.”
“So you have to temporarily use mana as a ‘patch’ to cover the hole.”
“However, even if you can’t fully accept the Witch’s Power yet, I can let you experience this power early on.”
“Once you’ve tasted the authority and satisfaction this power brings, it won’t be too late to think it over carefully.”
Kosan’s tone was full of coaxing, like a strange aunt tempting a little girl with a lollipop.
“Believe me, after experiencing this power, you’ll fall in love with it.”
Krexia thought for a moment.
The Third Princess—no matter how absurd she was—was still a member of the royal family. Being part of the royal family meant she wouldn’t be lacking in top-tier protection.
And such top-tier protection, even if not at the level of the Ten Heavenly Knights, certainly wouldn’t be much worse.
To catch up to them would probably take her a long time.
Since that was the case, why not make use of the power she already had?
She figured that once she fully controlled this power, incidents like today’s monster mutations and chaos wouldn’t happen so frequently anymore.
With that thought, Krexia nodded.
“So obedient. No wonder you’re the one I chose.”
(3/3)