Chapter 746 – Recovering Witch’s Essence

"I feel like I'm being displayed over here..." Moon Aiko complained, but she quickly realised her current escort was not the smartest of the bunch.

She just waited for that Evil Deer to come back since this situation was hopeless.

She kind of felt like a small animal being eyed by too many Beasts!

'I wonder if I should work on something while over here...' Moon Aiko pondered, but then she figured it out.

"Shouldn't you give me those poisonous things?" Moon Aiko asked the Holy Deer.

"Ah, yes. This way please." The Holy Deer seemed like he remembered something and guided the Fox towards a warehouse.

It was quite the unassuming warehouse, but once Moon Aiko approached it, Witch Aiko almost popped out immediately.

That was because the warehouse exuded so much poisonous Qi that it even startled her!

That's right! This place didn't just have poisonous Herbs, but also Qi!

'I wonder how that would taste...' Previously Witch Aiko consumed the Herbs Qi while asleep, so the taste was not as vivid as right now.

'I just hope they taste good.' Witch Aiko nodded her head weakly. She didn't want to experience that 'Vitality' Pill again!

Witch Aiko waited in front of the large doors made out of some kind of rock.

The Holy Deer simply pushed that rock aside, but Witch Aiko knew it was not that simple since the Holy Deer was using multiple elements on it.

"You can do whatever you want inside, as long as you can help our Ancestor." The Holy Deer moved and waited outside. Even he was not powerful enough to stay inside for prolonged time.

Witch Aiko marvelled at the simple scent that came out from within. She felt quite happy going inside, but-

'Well, I can actually escape, so it's not like they would be able to do anything to me.' Witch Aiko was greedy for this poison, since it allowed her to stay here without the need to expend her Witch's Essence.

Well at this point it should be considered Poison Essence, since the poison was doing all the heavy lifting.

Witch Aiko walked inside and looked around. There were mountains of poisonous flowers, but she could also see normal Herbs!

'Did they dump everything that was poisoned in here...?' Witch Aiko's lips twitched. She was quite greedy and since they allowed her to take this whole thing.

*licking lips*

Witch Aiko gently and sensually licked her lips. She would first take the non-poisonous Herbs and remove the poisonous Qi from them, allowing her to use them as she would normally do. Everything would then be stored in her tails since she couldn't feel anyone watching her.

And since she also asked her system and it said the same thing, it could be said that she could do anything and everything in here!

'Maybe I should test some toys...' Witch Aiko narrowed her eyes. This excessive poison made her quite horny.

'Nononono, Moon Aiko will scold me for slacking off.' Witch Aiko dreaded more homeworks! The last homework she got was to test all the Witch Abilities and come up with a comprehensive list of things she could do with it!

'Just that alone will take me years...' Witch Aiko sniffled. She was not as efficient as Moon Aiko, so she would just have to work harder than before...!

First, she moved all around this place to get a feel on how many Herbs this place stored.

While at first it seemed like this place was small, it was actually quite huge, making Witch Aiko gulp nervously.

She also noticed that there were many types of poisons in this place, but if there were over 10,000 of them... well, it was debatable, but possible?

There were too many Herbs and she wouldn't be able to consume all of them, so the best she could do is take Herbs that kept their efficacy even when surrounded by poisonous Qi.

There were many precious Herbs, so Witch Aiko started with the most expensive and versatile Herbs and worked her way down the list.

Witch Aiko found many miraculous Herbs that couldn't be used due to the presence of the poisonous Qi as it could affect the final product, but she thought differently.

A well applied poison might be better than the best medicine there is. The most important part was to stimulate the body and encourage it to try and fight against its illness, only that way it can grow stronger every time.

Of course Witch Aiko didn't have any basis, other than seeing others regenerate their wounds quicker if they are often injured.

However, this couldn't be used all the time. Natural healing is directly tied to Vitality. If someone has weak Vitality, then they would die trying to heal their wounds, making this whole strategy pointless.

Witch Aiko nodded her head seriously as she picked up the first Herb.

First she inhaled the poison, but the system didn't say anything. It just recovered a bit of Witch's Essence.

She used her technique for cracking Beast Cores and extracting their energies on this Herb.

Sure, she should probably train on things first, but she was more skilled with a direct approach than something like that.

And she was right, at first the poison was resistant, but Witch Aiko kept 'chewing' it slowly and over time, until the Herbs' natural 'immune' system kicked in and devoured the rest of the poison.

At that point Witch Aiko noticed that the Herb seemed slightly different, slightly more powerful...

'I wonder if it could be because of the residual poison, but... This is a Fire-based Herb, so it could be just because of that.' Witch Aiko slowly nodded her head, but she didn't hurry to test this theory.

There were 2 more Fire-based Herbs before she could move onto other elements.

The other two Fire-based Herbs were strengthened in similar fashion, but the next Water-based Herb was weakened greatly by the residual poison.

That could only mean one thing. The Fire-based Herb burned small amounts of poison to strengthen itself, while the Water-based Herb tried to take it into the water itself, altering its properties.

Witch Aiko would test that theory with the other elements, but she might be forced to use slightly different techniques depending on what kind of element she was up against.

Fire-Based: Devoured, strengthenedWater-based: Absorbed, weakenedEarth-based: No effectMetal-based: No effect, easy to remove most poisonsWood-based: Assimilated, pretty much unusable if not extracted properly

Witch Aiko made these simple points in her memo to keep this in mind. There were also other elements, but most of them were either under the Wood-based or Water-based effects, so Witch Aiko would just carefully extract the poisons completely and not risk anything.

Could there be some kind of obscure Herb that would be able to consume large quantities of poison and strengthen itself? It's possible...

However, that would take so much time that it was simply not worth it.

[Primordial Intoxicating Sacred Lotus Physique (2->3% Completion)]

'As I thought.' Witch Aiko licked her lips again. Her physique was improving slowly, but she should have enough materials to completely awaken it.

Now would that be a good thing? She didn't know, but she would definitely try everything she can to achieve something safe for everyone~!

Witch Aiko kept extracting the poison from Herbs and then throwing those Herbs into her Tails.

There were even some Pills lying around, but since they were not in any containers, she was reluctant to eat them.

What if they tasted bad or were contaminated? What if their properties changed? Witch Aiko wouldn't risk those kinds of things.

She kept them on hand and would show them to Mei carefully, so that they could evaluate if it's worth it to save them.

'I wonder how this even happened...' Witch Aiko didn't believe they were nice enough to give her these priceless Herbs. Something must've happened to cause these Herbs to be contaminated and something even more severe had to happen to keep them in this state and not try to 'cure' them.

Witch Aiko slowly nodded her head. That was the only thing she could come up with.

But now, it was time for the feast!

..................

"Ugh, I feel sick." Witch Aiko consumed so many poisons that she felt sick, but the final result spoke for itself.

[Primordial Intoxicating Sacred Lotus Physique (2->74% Completion)][Intoxicating Toxin: 1] -> [Intoxicating Toxin's Affection: 19][Witch's Essence: 100+%][Captivating Witch of Illusive Dreams (Peak: 1->11%)+[Dew Origin]]

It was incredible how much this accomplished for her. Sure, the Bloodline part was a bummer that it didn't improve as much as her physique.

But she also got 'affection' in her Elemental Affinity, meaning she would heal any kind of damage inflicted by the poison- Well, it was not much, but it was good enough to keep a poison around her to constantly heal her-!

That's right! She has her passive healing back and it's more natural, so the system can't bitch about it~!

"Hehehehe~" Witch Aiko giggled, but then she almost barfed up the food inside her stomach.

"Ugh..." Witch Aiko thought she should purchase some Abilities, but thinking about how Moon Aiko would get angry, she decided against it for the time being.

The most important part right now was to take as many precious things while leaving the rest here.

Sure the Holy Deer might notice only the most precious Herbs missing, but Witch Aiko could just say that those rewarded her the most poison, so she ate them.

The Holy Deer were very 'anti-poison' so they probably had limited knowledge about this. And while it was partially true, they could always ask the Nightmare Owls... if... if they were on good terms, which they weren't...

Witch Aiko happily collected the priceless Herbs inside her tails and walked out.

"Finished?"

And as expected. The Evil Deer was waiting for her.

"Yeah, it was tasty~" Witch Aiko swayed her sensual body happily. She would eat more if she could, but she just might puke her guts out if she continued.

However, she still stored a lot of Herbs afflicted by the poisonous Qi, so she would be able to restore her energy if needed!

"You didn't eat those Herbs, right...?" The Evil Deer asked carefully.

"..." Witch Aiko stared at him blankly.

The Evil Deer facepalmed. "No, it's fine." He sighed. "It's my fault for picking that idiot to guide you around..." He seemed quite depressed.

"What was supposed to happen?" Witch Aiko was curious why he was reacting like that.

"You were supposed to just meditate inside and slowly recover your energy, but..." The Evil Deer measured her up and down and as expected, she was filled to the brim with energy!

"It was tasty." Witch Aiko smiled as she played innocent.

"Ugh..." The Evil Deer groaned.

"It's fine~" Witch Aiko giggled. "Also, I'm ready, so we can visit him whenever."

"Oh?" The Evil Deer didn't expect that, but he definitely liked this boldness!