Chapter 102 Chapter 103 The Grove
The banquet was held in the suburbs, not in the castle, as the castle was built for defense and had very little internal space.
At the banquet, when honey-coated dragon meat was placed on the table, the atmosphere reached a climax. Many knights, disregarding their image, voraciously devoured their meals and drank heavily, igniting Jima’s appetite.
She used a knife to cut a piece of dark dragon meat and bit into it with force.
As expected of dragon meat, it was tough. The fibers felt like strands of thick rope, tightly gripping her teeth and getting stuck in between them. Jima, refusing to give up, chewed vigorously several times, feeling as if her teeth might fall out from the pain.
Sticking to her principle of not wasting food, she chewed hard several more times before finally breaking the fibers, swallowing the dragon meat forcefully, which scraped painfully down her throat.
She stared at the remaining dragon meat on her plate and said, “It’s the first time I realize that not wasting food is a bad habit.” It was this bad habit that had caused her to be overweight when she was still human.
The prominent figure, George, asked, “Want to switch to other meat?”
The dragon meat was coarse, and Jima could feel it scraping down her stomach. She replied, “Never mind, I feel nauseous just at the sight of meat now.”
The knights were engaged in a dragon meat-eating contest, and a knight named Sam was finishing off a bone-in piece of meat at an astonishing speed. He lifted his clean rib bone with both hands and tossed it aside.
Jima was puzzled: “Old pork is way tastier than dragon meat. How can they enjoy it so much?”
George replied, “They’re not eating meat; they’re feasting on scarcity and glory.”
Jima looked around the banquet and noticed that everyone had arrived, so she stood up and said, “Oh, I have something to attend to, this dragon meat is making my stomach ache.”
When George turned to look, Jima had already left the long table. The bright flames of the bonfire cast shadows on her back as laughter faded behind her. She stepped out of the light and walked alone into the dense night, her figure becoming a blur in the darkness.
After twenty minutes of walking, Jima arrived at a quiet grove she had previously scouted. It was separated from the banquet by a small hill, blocking the bonfire’s light, muffling the sounds, and concealing her from sight.
She lay down on the hillside, waiting silently for more than ten minutes to avoid being disturbed by any concerned male figures.
It was really annoying, especially Jenna, who was always applying some theory to treat “soul wounds.” I’m not in a hurry; hasn’t it been like this for so many years already?
Jima gnawed on some weeds, feeling uncomfortable in her stomach from the lump of dragon meat she couldn’t digest.
Jenna’s theory was effective; sooner or later, she would discover my identity. One George was enough trouble for me.
In the distant celebration, George still sat in his spot, the firelight illuminating him like a beacon in the crowd.
After confirming that George would not come over to spoil her moment, Jima descended the hill and quietly recited a spell.
“This place is peaceful and secluded.”
She could see a transparent membrane cover the grove, blocking any sound from the air. Silent and unnoticed, even the birds sitting in the nests on the branches were unaware.
Jima bent down and picked up a stone, throwing it at the bird’s nest. The startled sparrow fluttered away, yet it made no sound at all as it escaped. As Jima stepped outside the membrane, she saw that the nest remained intact.
This ability could isolate sound and create illusions, preventing outsiders from noticing what was happening inside.
Jima walked into the membrane and murmured to herself, “Finally, I can start experimenting with my new abilities. Before, to deceive the green dragon and everyone else, I couldn’t dare to use any of my new powers.”
After saying this, she reached for a vial of potion at her waist. This potion was meant to cover up traces of her experiments and ensure that none of her abilities were revealed.
In fact, she didn’t need to be so cautious; it was too troublesome.
But I must be wary of George…
For some reason, Jima felt a sudden sting in her eyes, and tears began to flow.
She stopped holding back, covering her face as she cried. In this private space, she didn’t have to hide her true self anymore. Jima cried more and more freely, tears flowing from her fingers onto the grass.
Not knowing how long she cried, Jima finally lowered her hands. After a small sob, her tear-soaked face began to harden in the cooling air.
The night wind blew through, drying the tears on her face.
Using a prepared towel, Jima carefully wiped her face and hands clean, then looked down at her chest, relieved that she had been careful enough while crying that no tears had stained her clothing.
She took down the only potion from her waist, sipped a small amount, and the bitter-sour liquid spread across her tongue. The puffiness around her crying eyes visibly improved as Jima took out a mirror to check herself under the faint starlight in the darkness.
In the mirror, she saw a cute and innocent girl’s face, with no trace of crying. She smiled slightly at the mirror, and the succubus in the reflection flashed her little white canines, her smile filled with the happiness of being well-protected.
Very good, not a single trace.
Jima put the mirror away, took a deep breath, and adjusted her state before opening her personal information system.
The interface floated in the air, appearing before her as she checked her status and abilities.
“Promoted to Witch.”
“You now have the talent to learn Herbalism, Alchemy, and Potion-making. You can visually see the components and magic within each herb, and you can now brew Witch potions. You can infuse your abilities into Witch potions, creating potions with corresponding effects.”
Previously, Jima had been researching and developing Witch potions under the guise of making magical potions. Her related skills had grown rapidly, now comparable to a mortal alchemist dedicated to learning for five years.
However, the finished products were few, as she had been figuring everything out on her own. The recovery potion she had just made was one of her creations; she had secretly tested it on an injured person with mediocre results, only capable of closing wounds quickly.
However, it was good for removing dark circles and reducing puffy eyes.
“Curse.”
“You can now curse anyone, but you must use a medium to convey the curse. If the same curse uses the same medium, its effectiveness will diminish. The closer the medium is to the target, the stronger your curse will be. Additionally, you can try to dispel curses.”
This ability performed well in real combat, and even the robust green dragon with significant immunity to magic could not escape its effects.
“Puppet Doppelganger.”
“By using your hair or nails to entwine them around a puppet you made yourself, in times of emergency, you can use it to block damage and become invisible for a short distance of up to ten meters.”
Its powerful effect left a deep impression on Jima, but it also consumed a lot of magical energy, and maintaining it required energy as well. If it didn’t interfere with combat, Jima could only sustain three puppet doppelgangers.
Aside from that, the drawback of this ability was that the puppet had to be made by her own hands, which annoyed Jima greatly.
“Secret Illusion Spell.”
“You can now learn how to use the illusion to ‘hide’ a place through incantations and other methods. What is shrouded by this spell cannot be perceived from the outside.”
Jima had tested this capability earlier; it could unilaterally block sounds from inside and create entirely normal illusions.
“Great for NTR, a sleeping husband would never suspect that just ten centimeters away, his wife is being forced to please another, even if she screams her lungs out.” Jima became excited, “One day, I will use this on George to mess with his wife, haha, hopefully on their wedding night.”
Just thinking about that scene made Jima release a heavy breath, her legs instinctively tightening.
That day she had consumed too much, and she hadn’t really filled her stomach. Coupled with George’s interrogation, she harbored a slight grudge against him, which is why she had been holding back, not finding George to satisfy her hunger.
“Divination.”
“You can now perform divination, and if there’s a medium related to the target, the effectiveness of the divination will increase.”
Jima had used the blood and scales from the green dragon to divine its lair’s location.
“But this explanation is overly simplistic.” Jima said, “There are many methods of divination; I’ll just try them all one by one.”
“Simulation.”
“Similar to materializing real objects through the power of lies, you can now use the power of lies to simulate an ability you are familiar with, but the effect is usually weak.”
Jima muttered to herself, “Again, a description that’s too simplistic and lacks necessary details. If there were relevant extraordinary items with similar powers, the effect would be much stronger; that green succubus must have used this ability to simulate the powers of a necromancer.”
“Wings.”
“Your wings can grow larger and grant you the ability to fly.”
Jima said, “Flying? Haha, just like a big rooster; I wouldn’t be able to jump off a building to commit suicide anymore. If it weren’t for deceiving that green succubus, I might have missed the growth spurts after leveling up and actually be able to fly.”
Jima sighed, “Alas, all my abilities are about creating trouble from behind the scenes, and I don’t have any direct means of attack.”
What if she encountered a swarm of orcs while walking at night?
She would first curse them with stupidity, then deceive them into believing she was a messenger of some deity, delivering a divine order that mandated them to play a game called ‘Chicken Dinner,’ with only one orc allowed to survive.
Wait, that won’t do.
If only one orc survives, what will I do?
Jima looked down at her delicate hands, confident she could choke a goose to death, but ten of herself couldn’t take on one orc.
Jima scoffed at herself: “Haha, my fighting power weakens the fewer people there are; I can only rely on others to do the dirty work. Is there really no way to shake off that guy, George?”
Rely on extraordinary items?
Forget it, I can’t exert the full capabilities of aggressive extraordinary items either; I might as well reserve the precious items for something else.
After thinking it over, she could only rely on her legion of simps.
Succubi excelled at this; historically famous succubi always had hordes of devoted simps serving them.
But when Jima thought about flirting with men, moving from one bed to another, it made her feel sick.
She endured a lot just to barely adapt to George and his prods. Did she really have to hold her nose and repeat this process thousands of times?
“Ugh… wait a minute.” Jima slapped her thigh and opened her extraordinary ability list, her gaze lingering on the “Simulation” ability.
“If I retrieve the extraordinary materials from my time as a demon lord from the Sanctuary, based on my understanding of myself, wouldn’t I be able to recreate my previous grandeur?”
Jima’s heart raced with excitement and anticipation.
