The Cornflower Witch Chapter 207

Standing in front of the extremely weak “Thick Skinned Spider,” Hylial’s eyes sparkled with starlight. In a vision imperceptible to others, she saw the stagnant Core Abilities within the spider’s Fate Card and felt a stir in her heart.

If a ‘Fate Card’ represents one’s true self, then a ‘Core Card’ represents the unique experiences or achievements of that individual, or rather, the shining points that transcend mediocrity.

The petrified lizard before, and this spider now, became monsters through prolonged specific actions, allowing them to achieve the balance of the ‘Three-Phase Laws’. This means they completed a certain practical trial by their own strength and skill, condensing past experiences and achievements to forge a new core, stepping into the Third Rank.

This method of entering the Third Rank is rather crude, and the Core Abilities obtained are somewhat left to chance, with both good and bad outcomes. It is commonly used by most wild beasts and monsters.

Humans and other intelligent beings, after centuries of exploration and accumulation, have now mastered extremely complex and mature advancement methods. The Core Abilities obtained are also more diverse and can be customized, allowing the core and other abilities to synergize, achieving an effect of 1+1 > 3.

For example, as a gardener, her plant cultivation abilities are actually a superposition of the effects of ‘Dew Prayer Method’, ‘Branch Combing Method’, ‘Nature Sense’, and ‘Green Eye Potion’, creating a composite ability. This allowed her to cultivate multiple First-Rank plants while still in the First Rank.

This scenario might seem reasonable, but in fact, in a natural environment, it’s almost impossible. For this world, a First-Rank life form, whether animal or plant, is equal before the laws of the world. There is no hierarchical suppression or a chasm-like power gap.

If a First-Rank individual can cultivate several First-Rank plants in a short period, from the world’s perspective, this is equivalent to creating multiple ‘selves’ in a short time, like a person weighing 100 Jin lifting more than 300 Jin, which defies common sense.

However, some people can indeed do it, and in the current Transcendent system, it’s commonplace for a Second-Rank genius to defeat a multitude of enemies of the same rank.

So how can such a large power gap arise when ranks cannot overwhelm each other and abilities are limited to three?

The answer lies in continuous specialization and the use of knowledge, skills, and external objects to constantly strengthen oneself.

What appeared to be Hylial, a Second-Rank, fighting a Third-Rank Thick Skinned Spider, actually broke down to:

Hylial, boosted by a combination of ‘Moonlight Breath Method’, ‘Identification Eye’, ‘Alien Perception’, ‘Spatial Shuttle’, ‘Glimmergold Greatsword’, ‘White Flower Armor’, ‘Nameless Blade Art’, and ‘Demonic Blood Vine + Sprawling Vines’, against the Thick Skinned Spider, with its combined ‘Silent Steps’, ‘Blood Eyes’, and ‘Nesting Insect’.

Even though the Thick Skinned Spider had the advantage of rank, this advantage was countered by Hylial’s multi-faceted abilities, knowledge, skills, weapons, and vine seed enhancements, ultimately leading to its defeat.

Understanding what Core Abilities truly were, Hylial quickly thought of the various abilities she possessed.

Overall, her abilities, knowledge, and skills in the gardener path were very comprehensive. If she could obtain a Core Ability that further enhanced her cultivation abilities, she could further leverage her advantages to cultivate Second-Rank, or even Third-Rank plants.

However, if she were to choose a combat-related Core Ability, the advantage would not be so obvious, as she had not yet learned systematic combat techniques. If she were to pursue a warrior class, the typical ability combination would be ‘Breathing Method’ + ‘Special Combat Technique’ + ‘Footwork’. For example, Iona’s abilities were ‘Sun-Glow Breathing Method’ + ‘Gold Needle Blade’ + ‘Bee-Dance Steps’.

Other combat professions were largely similar, all built upon comparable foundations.

Looking at it this way, her first Core Ability should still focus on leveraging her strengths, choosing ‘Courtyard’ to enhance cultivation abilities. Then, she would expand her foundation, acquire various resources, and eventually circle back to accelerate the growth of her combat class abilities.

Ploughing and fighting go hand in hand, the girl inexplicably thought of this phrase. Cultivation was for better combat, and combat was for better cultivation; neither could do without the other.

Good economic development provided the resources to enhance combat power, and sufficient combat power was necessary to protect the fruits of one’s harvest.

With this in mind, the tasks ahead suddenly became clear, and Hylial felt a sense of relief, snapping out of her contemplation.

The huge spider in front of her, on the verge of collapse… she thought for a moment, then once again cast her innate ability, unsealing the stripped Core Ability and returning it to the spider. Soon, the sealed Core Ability glowed brightly again, and the weakened giant spider regained some strength, immediately starting to struggle.

Seeing the other party’s eyes and actions still filled with savage bloodlust, Hylial had to abandon her initial idea of sparing it.

After all, it had helped her test her ideas. She hadn’t wanted to kill it, but unfortunately, the spider’s intelligence was too low to comprehend complex emotions; it could only follow its instincts for feeding or killing.

She tried to communicate again, to no avail. Hylial shook her head, then drew her long knife and ended the creature’s suffering with a swift strike.

After dealing with the giant spider, Hylial looked around. The other low-rank spiders had scattered, likely frightened by the pheromones emitted by the dead giant spider.

In their not-so-bright minds, this girl was a monster who could kill the powerful “Mussel Sphere Spider,” and thus, someone they couldn’t possibly contend with. They had to flee quickly.

That was fine. The forest looked much cleaner now.

Hylial dismembered the dead spider, extracting the useful ‘Spider Poison Fang’ (Third-Rank, Excellent) and eight ‘Spider Blood Eyes’ (Third-Rank, Excellent). After cleaning these materials, she packed them into her leather pouch.

Remembering that this giant spider had dwelled in the forest for a long time, possibly accumulating treasures or hiding some resources, Hylial took out her lantern and began to search again.

The spiderwebs along the way were burned one by one. After clearing the dead branches and spiderwebs that obscured the forest canopy, the deep woods gradually became brighter.

The wind poured in from the sky, blowing away the scent of spiderwebs and white bone remains, making the air noticeably cleaner.

Walking through the fallen leaves and bones on the ground, Hylial carefully examined everything.

There were no weapons or equipment left behind here; even if there had been, they might have been completely digested by the spider, leaving no trace.

After about half an hour of searching, Hylial found nothing, which left her slightly disappointed.

She had expected a routine treasure discovery segment, she silently complained to herself, thinking it was probably due to playing too many games in her past life, cultivating unnecessary expectations.

However, just as she was about to give up, she found a severely corroded ancient artifact in the decaying soil.

The object looked like a metal cup, with strange serpents coiled on both sides. One serpent’s head was now broken off, and the side of the cup was corroded with a hole.

‘Corrupted Twin Snake Cup’ (Incomplete): You sense that this artifact carries the residual aura of both ‘Dead Ember’ and ‘Nightmare’ aspects. However, unlike what you’ve seen before, these two aspects are harmoniously intertwined on the cup, creating an icy, profound aesthetic that draws one in.