bookandnovel Chapter 48 The Ceremony of Advancing to Become the Witch of Fate
Chapter 48 The Ceremony of Advancing to Become the Witch of Fate
After the moment of treachery ended, the plaza where the camp was located.
The white orb of light emitted by the rust patrolman slowly dissipated in Lorraine's hand.
Besides the previous [Miniature Magic Battery], a second item was also discovered.
It was a metal sphere about the size of a fist.
The surface is covered with extremely intricate concentric circle patterns, and it is rotating slightly on its own, emitting a pleasant "humming" sound.
Even just holding it in his hand, Lorraine could feel the raging magical energy within the ruins becoming docile.
[Energy Resonator]
[Type: Engineering Component/Magical Artifact]
[Note: This is the core of ancient combined shield technology. It can forcibly pull completely conflicting energies (such as water and fire, light and darkness) into the same frequency, achieving a perfect dynamic balance.]
[Note: Who says you can't have your cake and eat it too? You're just not on the right wavelength.]
The data stream flashed through Lorraine's eyes.
The curve at the corner of his mouth grew wider and wider, eventually turning into a genuine smile.
"nice one."
He gently toyed with the spinning metal ball with his fingers.
"It's like getting exactly what you need."
If this mobile city is a home for everyone...
So this little gadget was a gift specially prepared for that little stray cat that was always shivering in the corner.
"Young master, what should we do with all this scrap metal?"
Victor's voice interrupted his thoughts.
The knight who was just moments ago wreaking havoc on the battlefield is now squatting beside a pile of robot wreckage, his eyes shining brighter than when he sees a beautiful woman.
He held a drive shaft that had been removed from the robot and flicked it with his finger.
when--
A crisp echo.
"Good steel!"
Victor exclaimed, "This is a hundred times better than the junk iron ore I used in Frostwolf Territory! If we could melt this down, we could forge a batch of plate armor for our plant army..."
As he spoke, his mouth was practically watering.
In this resource-scarce, frozen post-apocalyptic world, besides magic crystals, metals are the only hard currency.
And here.
High-purity alloy scraps were everywhere.
For the people of the White Wolf Clan, who were terrified of poverty, this was no ruin; it was an open-air gold mine.
"Then let's move."
Lorraine waved his hand dismissively, "Don't leave me with even a single screw, as long as it's usable."
"Okay!"
Victor yelled excitedly and turned to direct the plant soldiers, "Hey, you cabbage! Don't slack off! Lift that steel plate! Be careful not to scratch the magic runes on it!"
The entire square instantly transformed into a bustling demolition site.
Even Anna, who is usually quiet, rolled up her sleeves and carefully used her magic fire to cut through the alloy skeletons that could only be melted by high temperatures.
Lorraine looked around.
But they couldn't find that thin, gray figure.
"Where's Lyra?"
He asked Olivia, who was putting a rare metal into her clothes.
"It seems like they went that way just now."
Olivia pointed to a dark corridor at the edge of the square without looking up, "She said she was going to see if anyone could live there."
……
The corridor is very long.
The floor here is made of grid-like metal plates, which produce a hollow echo when you walk on them.
The air was filled with the smell of engine oil and dust.
For ordinary people, this oppressive industrial environment can be suffocating.
But for Leila, this place was unbelievably good.
There is no wind.
There is no snow.
There was no chill that could freeze you to the bone.
She was holding a tattered rag she had picked up from somewhere, and she was tiptoeing, carefully wiping a plaque on the wall.
The bronze plaque was covered in patina, but through her efforts, the original lettering was finally revealed.
【Employee Dormitory Area B-7】
Leila's eyes lit up.
She tried pushing the heavy, airtight door next to her.
squeak-
The old, dilapidated hinges made a screeching sound, but the door was still slightly ajar.
A stale but dry air rushed towards me.
Inside was a small room of less than ten square meters.
A metal bunk bed fixed to the wall, a rubber pillow that wasn't even completely rotten, and a metal table nailed to the floor.
Simple and crude.
cramped.
There were even a few shriveled rat carcasses huddled in the corner.
But Lyra seemed to see a palace and slowly walked inside.
She reached out her trembling hand and touched the cold iron bed.
Then, she turned around, leaned against the solid metal wall, and slowly slid down to sit on the ground.
Bury your face in your knees.
His shoulders began to shrug violently.
"Waaah..."
A faint sob echoed in the silent room.
It's not because I'm sad.
It's because I feel so at ease.
She felt so at ease that she felt like she was in a dream from which she could wake up at any moment.
Ever since she awakened her unlucky constitution, she has been called a "jinx" by others.
Wherever he goes, he brings misfortune.
It was in the camp in Lorraine that the mysterious lord successfully awakened her as the Witch of Fate, allowing her to barely have a few days of peace.
But that was just a temporary stay.
Even if she successfully awakens the Witch of Fate.
She still harbored a deep fear that she might be driven away at any moment, or executed for bringing disaster to the territory.
But it's different now.
This is a moving city.
It is a fortress forged from fine gold.
Here you'll find armored walls half a meter thick, and roofs that remain sturdy even after a thousand years.
Even he himself would no longer bring disaster.
"This place is nice."
A gentle voice suddenly rang out at the doorway.
Leila shuddered in fright and jerked her head up like a startled rabbit.
Lorraine was leaning against the doorway, playing with the metal ball in her hand, watching her with a smile.
"Young...Young Master!"
Leila frantically tried to stand up, wiping away her tears in a flustered manner.
"I...I wasn't slacking off! I just...just came to see if there was anything usable..."
"I didn't say you were slacking off."
Lorraine walked into the room, her boots clicking on the metal floor.
He looked around.
"Although it's supposed to be a dormitory for ancient workers, the standard is indeed a bit low."
He reached out and tapped the iron bed. "Too hard. I'll have Olivia grow some cotton and make you a soft mattress."
"No, no!"
Leila blushed with anxiety and waved her hands repeatedly, "This is great! Really! Before, in other settlements, I could only sleep next to a drafty tent... This is heaven!"
She was afraid Lorraine would think she was greedy.
For someone who has always lived in the mud, even a dry floor is a great blessing.
Looking at her humble appearance, Lorraine sighed inwardly.
This is the cruelty of this world.
When people's dignity is trampled into the mud, over time, they themselves begin to feel like mud.
"Layla".
Lorraine suddenly called her name.
"Huh? Here!" Leila instinctively stood at attention.
Lorraine walked up to her, but instead of teasing her as usual, she looked at her with a very serious expression.
"Do you think the White Wolf Territory is strong right now?"
Leila paused for a moment, then nodded vigorously:
"powerful!"
"Lord, you're the best! You can handle any monster!"
"Yeah?"
Lorraine smiled. "But what if I said that's not enough?"
He turned around and looked at the rusty porthole.
Outside the window, the wind and snow outside the mobile city are pitch black.
"What we just defeated was merely the city's 'gatekeeper'."
"And further north, the legions of Blade's Winter, one of Fimbulb's three winters, are gathering."
"The high-level monster 'Winter of Blades' Haji, which is about to attack us, is a fourth-tier powerhouse."
Lorraine's voice was soft, yet it felt like a boulder pressing on Lyra's heart.
"Fourth tier..."
Leila's face turned pale.
The highest-ranking person she had ever met was Victor, who was only at the third rank, yet he could already kill those mechanical monsters as easily as cutting melons and vegetables.
But... that monster is more than just Tier 3.
It is fourth order.
That was a legendary monster capable of single-handedly slaughtering an entire city.
"The White Wolf Territory now is like a child carrying a gold brick through a bustling city."
Lorraine turned around and waved the [Energy Resonator] in her hand.
"We've moved into this mobile city and have access to countless resources."
"But we're missing one thing."
He took a step forward, closing in on Leila.
In those dark eyes burned a flame called ambition.
"What we lack is someone who can keep our good luck going and make our enemies suffer bad luck so badly that they choke on their water."
"Victor is the one who covers the gaps in the camp, Anna is the one who provides firepower, and Olivia... well, she's a farmer."
"But if we can't maintain our current good luck, we'll be at a disadvantage if we encounter an enemy with special mechanics like the one we just met, or a truly high-level expert."
Leila looked somewhat bewildered.
She didn't know why the young master wanted to talk to her about these strategic things.
She's just a burden.
He's a good-for-nothing who only brings bad luck...
"so."
Lorraine suddenly reached out and grabbed Lyra's hand, which had become fair and delicate due to the witch's ascension ceremony.
The warm touch made Leila stiffen and her mind go blank.
"Laila, I need you."
Lorraine's voice was deep and powerful, each word like a nail driven into her ears.
"I don't need you to clean."
"You don't need to pick up trash either."
"I want you to be the White Wolf Clan's trump card."
"I want you to advance to the second tier. If possible, I hope to help you advance to the third, fourth, or even higher tiers in the future."
boom!
Leila felt something explode in her head.
She stared blankly at Lorraine, her lips trembling, unable to utter a single word for a long time.
Promotion?
she?
She was once treated like a rat in the street?
"But...but..."
Lyra's voice trembled with tears as she tried to pull her hand back, but Lorraine held it tightly.
"My lord, have you forgotten? You told me this in private before!"
"Although I've awakened, there are still two opposing forces—good fortune and misfortune—fighting within me!"
"They're like...like two enemies! They can't merge at all, and without merging, there's no way to advance to the second tier!"
Leila became more and more anxious as she spoke, and large tears streamed down her face.
"I can't... I really can't..."
"If I force a promotion, and things get out of control, not only will I die, but I'll also implicate everyone... and this new city..."
"I know."
Lorraine interrupted her.
He raised his other hand and held the buzzing, spinning [Energy Resonator] up to Lyra's eyes.
The intricately rotating concentric circles on it were reflected in Lyra's terrified gray eyes.
"It didn't work before because I hadn't found the 'glue'."
A smile appeared on Lorraine's lips.
"But now, we have this."
"Layla, look at me."
"Since God has given you the most messed-up fate, making you a jinx, even promotion is so difficult."
"Then I'll help you get rid of this damned fate..."
"Re-weave."
……
after a while.
"Fifteen hundred?!"
Olivia's screams even drowned out the occasional roar of steam in the moving city.
Inside the cabin at the camp, this agricultural witch, who was always known for her elegance, was now jumping up and down without any regard for her image, pointing at Lorraine's nose, her fingers trembling.
"You're insane! You're absolutely insane!"
"Lorraine! That's 1,500 magic crystals! Not 1,500 cabbages!"
"We just cleaned up the entire battlefield, and with what we had saved up before, it only comes to a little over two thousand!"
"You're actually going to throw our entire savings into this one promotion ceremony?!"
Olivia's heart ached so much she was practically clenching her teeth.
Her pale green eyes were bloodshot, as if Lorraine was about to cut not the magic crystal, but her flesh.
For a logistics manager who was used to hardship and had to break even a single seed in half, this was a different story.
This is simply wasteful!
It's a crime!
"Stay calm."
Lorraine sat in the chair, holding a drawing in her hand, without looking up.
"This is an investment."
"Investment my ass!"
Olivia, in her desperation, blurted out, "For a normal witch to advance to the second tier, even someone as exceptionally talented as Anna in the elemental realm, it would only consume a few hundred magic crystals at most!"
"Even for special types, nine hundred is the highest possible!"
"You're going to give Leila 1,500? That's several times the normal amount! Are you planning to overfeed her?"
It's no wonder Olivia reacted so strongly.
In this world, magic crystals are energy, currency, and life itself.
Fifteen hundred magic crystals are enough to rebuild the territory.
"no the same."
Lorraine finally put down the blueprints in her hand, raised her head, and her eyes were frighteningly calm.
"Olivia, you are a witch, you should know the most basic law of conservation of energy."
He placed a cup on the table.
"For Anna and the others to advance, all they need to do is fill a cup with water; when it's full, it overflows. That's how they advance."
"But Lyra..."
Lorraine picked up the second cup and placed it next to the first one.
"There are two cups inside her body."
"One contains the ultimate 'good luck,' and the other contains the ultimate 'misfortune.'"
"The water in these two cups not only cannot mix, but also repels and annihilates each other."
Lorraine's voice turned serious.
"If I want her to get promoted, I have to fill two cups with water at the same time."
"Moreover, the speed must be fast, the quantity must be large, and even the energy injected into the two cups must be exactly the same."
"It is necessary to forcefully break through the critical point at the instant when these two forces collide and produce a repulsive reaction."
Lorraine pointed to Lyra, who had been cowering in the corner, too afraid to speak.
"If the allocated energy is insufficient, even by just a tiny bit."
"One force will instantly devour the other."
"At that time, she will either become a source of misfortune that only brings disaster, or a harmless mascot."
"What I want is the Witch of Fate."
"It is a god who can control this contradictory power."