The Cornflower Witch Chapter 205

The firewood crackled and burned. Hylial sat by the fire, turning the roasting meat over the flames.

Sniffing the aroma of the roast, she sprinkled a little more salt and spices, waiting for the meat to cook through.

In the darkness, a shadow slowly approached the girl. The silver-haired figure in her sight drew closer and closer until, a few meters away, it leaped out, its sharp fangs striking down abruptly.

“Clack!”

A crisp clack echoed in the air, indicating that it hadn’t bitten anything solid, but rather its own fangs clashing together in a surprised sound.

On the other side of the camp, Hylial leaped out of the air, landing on the ground with a slight startle.

Before setting up camp, she had transformed her Aspect into ‘Alien Star,’ which made combat easier and allowed her to escape in emergencies. She hadn’t expected it to come in handy so soon.

Now, by the light of the fire, Hylial saw the creature’s true form: it resembled a ‘white stink bug spider’ magnified many times, but its appearance was far more ferocious. Its body was covered in terrifying white fuzz, and its fangs were exceptionally large, tipped with a dark red hue.

However, what was most striking were its eight blood-red eyes. When the giant spider missed its attack, these eight eyes swiveled and locked onto Hylial, who had appeared not far from the campsite.

After identifying its target, it moved again, lunging at Hylial with astonishing speed.

In the blink of an eye, the spider’s shifting form reached her. Hylial’s internal alarm bells rang loudly, forcing her to once again use the ability of her ‘Alien Star’ Aspect, briefly traversing a tear in space-time.

After avoiding it again, she hadn’t yet regained her footing when the opponent attacked once more. This time, however, Hylial did not dodge. She took a deep breath, her blood circulation accelerating sharply. Gripping her hilt, she swiftly drew her long blade.

A clear, elegant knife arc flashed in the air, striking the spider’s forelegs, tearing several gashes. After a brief exchange, Hylial flipped and leaped, using a tree trunk to propel herself, soaring and twisting to avoid the spider’s subsequent attacks.

The sharp fangs gnawed into the tree trunk and then withdrew, leaving the once healthy tree to rapidly wither, its leaves turning yellow and black.

For the next few minutes, Hylial and the spider continued to fight in the forest. Empowered by the ‘Moonlight Breath Method,’ Hylial barely kept up with the spider’s speed, and using the sharp advantage of her weapon, she continuously inflicted wounds on her opponent.

If the fight dragged on like this, the giant spider would surely be defeated due to exhaustion.

As if realizing something was wrong, the spider suddenly stopped its pursuit and began to flee.

*Sigh*, running away again? Hylial couldn’t remember how many times she had encountered monsters that would flee.

Considering the purpose of this adventure, Hylial had to change direction and pursue the spider. But just as she drew near, a white silk thread suddenly shot out from its abdomen. In an emergency, Hylial’s figure flickered, avoiding the unknown silk attack. In just those few seconds of delay, the opponent ran further and further away, becoming impossible to catch.

The first encounter ended in a draw for both sides.

Stopping, Hylial looked at the end of the dark forest, shook her head, and returned to the camp.

She needed to figure out a new way to fight it. Fortunately, during their brief encounter, she had already analyzed the spider’s information.

Species: Spider (Variant)

Status: Sub-healthy (Limb injury)

Talents:

Silent Fur [Excellent]: The fur growing on its body can absorb sound, making its movements silent.

Fate Card: [White Fluffy Giant Spider] [Third-Order – Moth]

‘A huge spider lying in ambush deep in the forest, moving silently, cunning and ferocious.’

–

Effect: [Silent Steps Lv.6], a talent in its bloodline that allows your movements to be silent and grants a significant increase in speed.

–

Effect: [Blood Eye Lv.5], can directly observe the blood flow of living creatures, immune to the limitations of dark environments. Invisibility and concealment of presence are ineffective in its eyes.

Core Card: [Web-Weaving and Nesting Insect] [Moth]

‘You lurk in the forest, relying on woven webs and nests to attack and devour many opponents, making you the local Nesting Insect.’

–

Effect: [Nesting Insect], when in its nest, gains a significant increase in perception, speed, reaction, and stealth abilities.

Ability Cards:

[Trembling Fangs Lv.7] (Moth): You possess a pair of dangerous black fangs. When you bite an enemy, you can inject a toxin that causes limbs to tremble, leading to rapid death.

[Poisonous Saliva Silk Lv.5] (Moth): You can spray highly adhesive silk to build nests and paralyze opponents.

[Cocoon Melt Method Lv.6] (Moth): Allows you to wrap dead opponents in silk to form cocoons, then inject digestive fluid to dissolve them, making them easier to digest and absorb. (Nutrition +3, Aspect Ingestion +2)

—

“A Nesting Insect, huh?” Hylial found it quite novel. She had read descriptions of this advancement method in books, which required a creature to stay in a specific location for five years and defeat a large number of opponents during that time to condense this core card.

This was an advancement ritual that many creatures instinctively performed. Although the conditions were time-consuming, they were not overly demanding.

Nesting Insect, Nesting Beast, Nesting Dragon—all were manifestations of this advancement method. Once successfully advanced, as long as they remained within their nest, their strength would greatly increase, and external enemies would find it difficult to invade.

Although there were many benefits and the difficulty was not high, the drawbacks of this advancement method were also evident: it restricted the creature’s activity range, preventing it from straying too far from its nest.

There was once a powerful empire that leveraged this fact, specifically cultivating such monsters within tombs to guard them against grave robbers and intruders. Due to the presence of the nest, these tomb-guarding monsters would remain there indefinitely, even if they advanced further.

During their recent encounter, it wasn’t in its nest, so its strength wasn’t as great as other Third-order creatures; it was like a blank slate.

Understanding this, Hylial temporarily put aside the idea of pursuing it and began to consider how to deal with it.

If she had to fight it in its nest, the outcome would not be as smooth as before.

After sorting through the information, Hylial realized that the roasted meat on the fire had already carbonized and burned.

“Ah, my dinner.”

Left with no choice, Hylial took out another piece of meat to roast and cooked some oat porridge as her main meal to replenish her nutrition.

The rest of the night passed quietly.

The next day, upon waking, Hylial led her horse forward, continuing her search for the giant spider’s nest.

She took out the ‘Green Eye’ potion, dripped it into her eye, turning one eye emerald green, and then gazed into the distance again.

Countless plant spectrums appeared in her vision. Through her keen perception, she continuously analyzed them, finally discovering a clue in one direction.

“Found it!”

“That must be the big spider’s nest.”

She stopped, standing still and gazing into the distance. Her odd-colored eyes, one green and one blue, appeared exceptionally mysterious, exuding a strange allure.