Millennium Witch

Book 3: Chapter 266: Harvesting the Crop

After finishing her first five-day expedition into the Snowfields, Yvette uploaded the section of map she’d drawn into her Soulbrain as a backup, then returned to Icehammer City.Greeted enthusiastically by Sara, she headed back to her private hot spring courtyard deep within Snowmist Lodge, and on the way didn’t forget to probe one particular room in the very back with her spiritual sense.

But she didn’t catch any sign of Shuanghua, which left her a little disappointed.

She’d wanted to ask what, exactly, this girl had been doing since their last meeting to fulfill that “spreading the Goddess’s glory” mission she’d spoken of.

Afterward, she fully relaxed in the hot springs for a while. When night fell, Yvette changed into a comfortable cotton bathrobe and returned to the warm inner room. She lazily stretched out in the middle of the chamber, where a thick plush carpet had been spread, and let her consciousness sink into that mental domain that belonged to her alone—a spiritual realm built on a foundation of faith-element.

At the moment, her spiritual domain was still a pure white emptiness, with almost no decoration—a vast and featureless void.

The presence representing Lightning Apostle Ezra took the form here of a sigil of lightning, constantly arcing with blue-white electricity, standing out sharply. Around that main sigil floated several dozen brighter golden lights, scattered like stars—these were the holy sigils and basic-function statues already placed in various locations.

Finer still were the dust-like golden motes that required focused spiritual power to perceive. Each speck represented the soul of a believer currently praying devoutly to the Silver Witch.

Now that she was becoming more and more adept at using faith magic, Yvette could clearly see the advantages of this magic system.

The main advantages were still the same old three.

First, creating Apostles to become elite troops under her command. Nothing more to say there.

Second, turning believers or holy objects into her “eyes,” letting her spy on other places a hundred and eight thousand miles away—basically a divine surveillance network.

Third, using believers or holy objects as mediums for spellcasting, ignoring distance to rain firepower down on any target she didn’t like.

Even just these were already extremely useful to her. Used properly, whether for exploration and discovery or for crossing swords with Saint Realm or even divine-realm powerhouses, she wouldn’t need to personally show up. It was convenient—and safe.

Of course, the core limitation was that all of it required a constant expenditure of faith-element.

If she took the shell of faith-element she’d invested into Ezra Yarrow as a standard unit, then Yvette currently possessed about fifteen units of faith-element in total, most of it taken from the Omniscient Sect.

It was a very small number. Whether she used it for remote surveillance, delivering power, or creating Apostles, it would be easy to burn through it all.

Precisely because of that, Yvette was going to be extremely cautious in the short term when it came to screening candidates for Apostles.

If she ended up with a fellow “energy-saver” like herself who became an Apostle but didn’t bother to create value for her—wouldn’t that be a waste?

Soon, after she focused her thoughts, she could see Ezra’s current location from an omniscient vantage point.

It was a temple built primarily from white stone—simple yet solemn in design. A huge holy sigil of the Silver Witch’s profile was carved into the lintel over the doors. As expected, this was the Grand Temple of the Silver Witch Church in Adelock, established under Ezra and Leilani’s leadership.

The temple stood in the middle district, rather than in the central Gem District like the churches of the Sunflame Sect or the Cloudpeak Sect. Looking more closely, she noticed that just across the street from it lay the most important place in the City of Adventurers—the Adventurers’ Guild plaza.

So that was the real reason for choosing this location.

It was already evening, but the Grand Temple of the Silver Witch Church was clearly running quite well. It was still brightly lit, with adventurers, travelers, and merchants of all sorts coming and going at the entrance.

Beneath the massive bronze statue of the Silver Witch at the back of the hall, Ezra was presiding over a simple blessing ritual for several newly joined believers.

Unlike his younger sister Ena, who wore a small priest’s robe beside him, Ezra had simply put on the Skywolf Armor that covered even his face. The crystalline eyes on the wolf-head helm glowed with a dim blue light, making him look ridiculously cool. Many of the adventurers who’d come for blessings stood a little ways off, staring straight at him, their eyes full of undisguised envy and hunger for that divine armor.

At first, Yvette had thought the kid was just showing off. After all, the Skywolf Armor only looked like metal. In reality, it used organic material tech inherited from Lin-trans creatures—it was essentially a half-cybernetic exoskeleton, fully capable of softening and being stored away into his belt.

But later she realized that regardless of whether he was showing off, Ezra in full Skywolf Armor had become a walking display rack for miracles, which did a lot to spread the faith in the Silver Witch.

After all, where else in the world besides the God of Serendipity could an adventurer hope to get their hands on such an absurdly cool and powerful set of super armor?

Not even the ruins of the Ultra-ancient Civilization could cough up something this flashy!

Even so, she firmly believed the kid was absolutely showing off. And she was definitely not judging him by comparing him to herself!

At last, after carefully taking stock of Adelock’s development, Yvette carried out her first harvest of faith power.

By her own standards of measurement, Adelock had been running since August and was now into October. The accumulated yield amounted to a little over one unit—enough to raise Yvette’s faith-element reserves from fifteen to sixteen units—just enough to create another Lightning Apostle.

It didn’t sound like much—less than what she could grab in a single raid on a cult stronghold. But in reality, once the other side became wary, the returns from clearing cult bases dropped off sharply.

Whether it was experience or something else, the evil god, the All-seeing Eye, had gotten smarter. The moment Ezra appeared, it would immediately descend by Divine Descent. Instead of attacking, though, it would directly reclaim the Benediction-energy from its followers’ bodies, leaving Yvette with no spoils at all even after wiping them out.

After a few rounds of this, Yvette realized that if she wanted a steady stream of faith-element, she’d have to rely honestly on believer output.

However!

Looking on the bright side, Adelock alone had managed to generate a full unit of faith-element in just a little over two months—and there were plenty of similar cities throughout the Free Alliance.

If she could seize ground in the ongoing struggle against the Sun God and the Lord of Sky and Air, it didn’t seem impossible to be pulling in a few dozen units a month someday. Wouldn’t that be the equivalent of dozens of Apostle slots?

Then she could reinvest that faith-element into those Apostles, have them work hard down in the Southern Alliance, compete with the Death God and the Sea God, unify the entire southern part of the continent…

And then begin pushing into the territory of the three major True Gods’ churches in the north.

Maybe someday in the future, the Silver Witch Church really would spread across the entire Eastern Continent.

And every Apostle, every holy sigil, every relic, and every believer would all become extensions of her mind. Round it up, and wouldn’t that mean the whole Eastern Continent would basically become a part of her?

Okay, the long-term vision was beautiful, but reality was harsh. Leaving the gods’ resistance aside, she only had sixteen units of faith-element right now. There was still a lot of work to be done.Volume 3,