A Century

—9— A Century

After getting her first taste of battle, Ivette became almost addicted to it. In the months that followed, she went "fishing with explosives" on the Water Platform two or three times each month.

Though she only ever tested the waters, landing a few hits before fleeing, it truly helped her adapt to combat. She was no longer as flustered as she had been in the beginning, frequently firing Frost Bullets wildly off target.

She also discovered the ruler hidden here: a mutated giant snake with rotten scales, over thirty meters long, and a single eye growing from its forehead.

The appearance of this "One-Eyed Serpent King" greatly disrupted Ivette's escape plans, because its existence meant that if she wanted to leave on the Flying Board in the future, she would need enough strength to face an attack from a giant beast of the lake.

That was quite a lot of pressure for her current self.

Soon, another twenty years passed.

It had now been a full seventy-three years since Ivette had arrived in this world.

Because of the threat posed by the One-Eyed Serpent King, she reduced how often she went to the Water Platform, lest she be instantly killed by some terrifying maw bursting from the lake.

She also trained harder than ever. Finally, one morning, she accumulated one hundred Mana Points and compressed a tiny Mana Core within her body.

According to the theory of the "Rune Siphon Effect," a high-density Mana Core would naturally draw in the surrounding magical elements. That was indeed the case. Her cultivation efficiency rose significantly, and she could gain 2.5 Mana Points each year. At that rate, she would gain another 250 Mana Points in just a century—by then, perhaps she would be qualified to contend with that serpent king.

Yes, just a century.

Aside from her breakthrough in Mana Points, during her spare-time adjustments over the past twenty years, Ivette also finalized the three magical formulas of Frost Bullet, Flame Dance, and Wind Walk.

The mana cost of Frost Bullet had been reduced to the terrifying number of "1." It truly achieved one bullet per point of mana, and she had also adjusted its method of attack. When necessary, it could create multiple virtual firing points, unleashing Frost Bullets like a Gatling gun and creating a storm of frost.

Flame Dance not only had smoother control and lower mana consumption, but could also designate its firing location. Through Shared Rune Array technology, each additional pillar of fire only required ten more Mana Points. She could release up to four fire pillars at once, forming a fifty-Mana-Point Full Firepower Mode.

As for Wind Walk, it had been renamed Wind Control. It consumed eight mana per second and could create powerful gusts. Whether accelerating herself, briefly levitating, or blowing enemies away, it was immensely versatile.

Unfortunately, Ivette had not mastered more advanced theoretical knowledge, nor did she have sophisticated equipment to assist her.

Otherwise, she might have been able to create magic better suited for flight, directly bypass the serpent king's threat, and escape with ease.

Over the next hundred-odd years, aside from an offensive spell called Wrath of Thunder, Ivette made no further attempts to design new magical formulas.

After all, instant-cast magic required two things: proficient memorization and an enormous amount of practice.

And with her current memory, adding Wrath of Thunder, which contained five hundred runes, was already her limit. If she forced herself to memorize a fifth or sixth spell, it would be far too easy to confuse them with one another and even mess up spells she had already memorized.

Thus, every day, she repeated the same tasks: meditating, practicing magic, visiting the Water Platform to relax and take in the scenery, watching Mutated Creatures fight, and spying on the serpent king. Her life was calm and regular, and she had nearly lost her sense of time passing.

Only during the coldest days of each winter would she suddenly realize with a jolt that another year had slipped by without her noticing, so quickly that she could barely form any memory of it.

By then, her Mana Points had approached four hundred.

That morning, squatting by the entrance to the facility and watching another year's snow drift down, she thought that perhaps she could finally try testing the power of that giant lake serpent.

Through her long observations, Ivette had come to understand the One-Eyed Serpent King quite well. She discovered that the creature had no day-night habits at all. It seemed not to need sleep and could emerge from the water at any time.

So she acted decisively, walking straight to the edge of the Water Platform and tossing several Magic Light Vine tendrils into the water to see if she could lure it out.

The baiting took a long time, but Ivette did not lose heart, because she knew the giant snake had to be down there. Otherwise, the other Mutated Creatures would not have stayed so far away.

It was not until dusk neared that a huge pale serpent eye, pupil-less and nightmare-like, suddenly surfaced beneath the water. Though only the tip of the iceberg was visible, it was enough to make one tremble.

"Roar—"

There was no waiting for an opportunity, no hesitation. In an instant, the giant snake burst from the water, sending sprays dozens of meters high into the air!

Ivette had been prepared. With a pull from Wind Control, she dragged herself dozens of meters behind the platform, dodging the attack as she looked ahead.

On the dusky lake, the giant snake, with more than ten meters of its body above the water, looked down at her like a god gazing upon an ant.

Then, the snake's snout split open from the middle of its lower jaw to both sides, revealing a crimson snake tongue. But on closer inspection, it was not a tongue at all, but more than a dozen slimy tentacles entwined together.

Once they separated, they shot toward where Ivette stood like lightning, seemingly intending to wrap up the small, delectable prey before it and stuff her directly into its mouth.

Ivette's nerves tightened. She used Wind Control again to pull herself farther back. This was her first battle against the ruler of the lake, and with a touch of deep-water phobia and megalophobia, she did not dare relax in the slightest. After dodging the tentacles, she immediately used her half-control, half-damage spell.

Frost Bullet, but in Gatling Mode!

Blue projectiles poured forth from multiple angles. In mere seconds, four or fifty shots blasted out, freezing the snake's head and tentacles into an ice sculpture. Losing its balance, the serpent's head crashed heavily onto the platform, making the entire structure tremble.

Then, as she watched the giant snake struggle, Ivette did not choose Flame Dance, lest it help the creature break free faster. Instead, she used another spell—the only new achievement she had made in the rune field over the past century: Wrath of Thunder!

This spell followed an entirely different line of thought from her previous work. It no longer pursued the ultimate mana-efficiency ratio, instead raising single-target damage as high as possible at all costs. At least within the limit of five hundred runes, this was the highest damage she could achieve—and it also came with the greatest mana cost.

A full 240 Mana Points!

One cast, and more than half her mana bar was gone!

As the formula activated, a rune circle over ten meters in diameter appeared in the sky. A thick, dazzling bolt of lightning descended from it and struck the still-struggling frozen snake head, making its body go rigid and convulse. Even after the shell of ice shattered, it remained in a paralyzed state, trembling nonstop.

Ivette held her breath, her heart pounding. She had fewer than one hundred Mana Points left and could not possibly cast Wrath of Thunder a second time. So she summoned the rune circle representing Flame Dance beside her, preparing to release a pillar of fire.

But...

Before she could attack further, the giant snake had already stopped moving. It no longer convulsed. Its enormous head simply hung stiffly against the platform's metal grating, its eye and tongue-tentacles turning black as an unpleasant burnt stench filled the air.

Was it... dead?

Ivette was uncertain, but her movements did not stop. She immediately used Flame Dance to sweep the half of the snake's body stuck against the platform with fire, scorching every inch of its skin as thoroughly as she could.

Only after the half of the giant snake collapsed on the platform had been completely burned to a crisp, with no breath of life remaining, and she had thrown it into the bottom of the lake with Wind Control, could she finally confirm that this thing probably, perhaps really was dead.