Over the next few days, Ivette began a thorough purge of all the Third-Rank Aberrations and Mother Nests across Ish Island, determined to devour every last one of them and leave behind nothing but shriveled husks.
Throughout the operation, Ivette gradually gained a better grasp of the finer details of her unique ability.
For instance, whether she increased the thickness and length of her tendrils or increased their number, the consumption of Mutation Factor would rise sharply. Moreover, First Stage Mutants had very low factor concentrations in their bodies. Sometimes, a single tendril attack would recover fewer Mutation Factors than it had consumed.
For another, the tendrils' hardening ability was not only useful for attacking; it was also quite effective defensively. From the standpoint of improving her combat strength, perhaps she needed to learn some close-quarters combat or fighting techniques from Rosaline instead—anyone more skilled could be a teacher. Although that would reverse their teacher-student relationship, she did not think she would feel ashamed.
What made Ivette feel even stranger was that she discovered a brand-new thing inside her body, similar to a Mana Core, and its source was the Mutation Factor.
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—super powerful.
So, the Mutation Factors that spread freely through other Mutated Creatures, invading and assimilating them, had obediently gathered together on their own once they reached her body. They had even lost their original activity and become a core she could use as she pleased?
Why was that?
Come to think of it, at the instant her consciousness sank during her complete mutation, she remembered choosing a black tendril in the depths of that dark ocean and abandoning a mass of black-red liquid.
What connection was there between those things?
Could they have been optional evolutionary paths?
She could not understand it at all, nor could she figure it out, so she quickly gave up thinking about it. Instead, she named the second core in her body the "Aberration Core," while the power contained within it was simply called "Aberration Magic."
Well, now she could be considered a dual cultivator of magic and mutation.
The purge lasted four days. It began from Luya City in the far north, continued through Grayport City and Ish City, then looped back to the Ish Mountains and the Corrupt Forest. During that long journey, a total of seven Third Stage Mutants perished beneath the feeding of the Pure White Tendrils.
Rosaline had not been able to help at all. The whole process consisted of her teacher walking up to a Mutant, bombarding it with spells until it weakened, then releasing a tendril to begin its wicked meal. After that, they could simply repeat the process at the next one.
Because feeding replenished her mana, her teacher—who had once nearly died inside an insect's stomach after exhausting her mana—had become something like a perpetual spellcasting machine. She no longer had to worry about running out of mana.
However, according to her teacher's explanation, the accident in the Corrupt Forest had not entirely been a miscalculation on her part. The Six-armed Demon at full strength had truly been a little too powerful. Even after sweeping through every Third-Rank Aberration on the island, she still believed the Six-armed Demon was leagues ahead of them, infinitely close to the legendary Fourth Stage. That gap in information had been the root cause of her near death.
Rosaline had not thought much of it at first. Although she had not seen it with her own eyes, she trusted every word her teacher said without question.
But later, whenever that life-and-death crisis was mentioned, her teacher would unconsciously emphasize the matter again and again. It no longer sounded as though she were explaining it to her student, but rather as though she were trying to convince herself.
It was obvious that her teacher still could not let go of that imperfect, near-fatal ending to the battle, Rosaline thought, but she did not know how to comfort her.
Because the truth was that they had simply been lucky. They had not mutated and had even evolved in reverse. Otherwise, they would have long since been lining up in the underworld to be reincarnated.
So perhaps only time could heal her teacher's psychological wounds.
After the great purge ended, the crisis was resolved, and the manor was suddenly filled with its old leisure and comfort once again.
And unlike before, Ish Island was truly free of danger this time. Ivette had thoroughly cleared out every area that had once been highly dangerous. Let alone herself, even if Rosaline traveled across the island alone on foot, her life would never be in danger—unless she ran into the sea, but that was another matter.
But just when Rosaline thought life had settled down again, on the morning after the purge ended, she had barely gotten out of bed when she saw Ivette sitting on the sofa in the large first-floor living room, seemingly wanting to say something yet hesitating.
"Good morning, Teacher. You're up really early today~" Rosaline greeted her as she headed toward the kitchen to make breakfast.
Then she heard her teacher call out to her in a somewhat strange tone. "...Rosaline."
"Mhm!"
"Are you free?"
"Hm?" Rosaline turned around in surprise. "If you need me, Teacher, I'm always free."
"Then later, come outside and teach me... swordsmanship." Ivette looked out the window.
"Huh?" Rosaline suspected she had misheard. In her eyes, her teacher was an omniscient genius. How could she possibly be worthy of teaching her anything?
But she immediately grew happy nonetheless and gave an emphatic nod.
And so, lessons in swordsmanship, cold weapons, and all kinds of close-combat techniques began abruptly that morning.
During that process, Ivette gradually realized that asking her student for guidance under the principle that the more skilled person was the teacher was not as easy as she had imagined.
The biggest reason was this—she was a genius in her student's eyes, but in truth, she was not.
Her foundation in rune knowledge and knowledge from various fields had come from over two hundred years of imprisonment in the Abyss Base. In that place filled with dim blue-green light, there was not much she could do each day. She stared blankly, read books, cleaned, and practiced magic. The days passed like that, and all her knowledge had been painfully accumulated through endless time.
And after she left that place?
During the several decades she had spent on Ish Island, ever since she discovered that no Mutants here could threaten her, she had immediately become lazy. She had found all sorts of books in specialized fields, but her actual progress had been slow. Being able to read for two hours a day was already a blessing. Although she had also repaired the manor, opened a vegetable garden, fixed vehicles, and done other things, the essence of it all had been to improve her quality of life—to live in a luxurious house, eat delicious food, own a Magitech Motorcycle with better endurance for rides, have electricity at night, and relight the ruined streets around the manor.
Yes, at heart, she was not a gifted Witch who had mastered every art. She was an ordinary person with average talent who had accumulated seniority through time, lacked initiative the moment life became comfortable, and could accept her student's service without the slightest guilt.
Now, with no external threats and already invincible on Ish Island, starting from scratch and following her student through a nine-to-five routine of hard training in cold-weapon techniques was a rather challenging matter. What was more, she learned slowly.
But she still decided to persist, even if it meant losing the divine idol's mantle she had once worn before her student.
As for why, perhaps the threat of death had given her PTSD, and she did not want something similar to happen again.
If this had been six years ago, she probably would not have acted this way. Sometimes, she had even thought in extreme terms that death was just death, nothing special. In this monster-filled, empty world, what meaning was there in spending hundreds or thousands of years on an isolated ruined island she could not leave? It would be better to reincarnate at light speed. Maybe she would even get another chance to transmigrate.
But now, she thought, she at least had to ensure her student's safety until some day in the future—perhaps years or decades from now—when the Aurora appeared again and Remnant Abyss reopened, allowing her to send her student safely home. By then, no matter what she did, she would no longer have any attachments.
Still, from time to time, she wondered about it. This special celestial phenomenon only appeared once every hundred years. She herself was one thing, but would Rosaline truly encounter it again within her lifetime?
If it never appeared again, would there really come a day when the white-haired had to bury the white-haired?
Whenever she thought of that tragic mood rooted in lifespan differences, her whole body felt uncomfortable. She even began considering whether she should sail out in the future and search for the Aurora in the wider world. But considering how dangerous the ocean was, it did not seem as though an expedition could begin within the next ten years. The deeper underground regions around the Abyss Base, however, could be explored once more.
And so, time flowed on, and half a year passed in the blink of an eye.
Before long, spring had come once more.
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