Lord: I have built a witch's sanctuary.

Chapter 144: Abundant Gains

Chapter 143: Abundant Gains

The first afternoon after the early end of the snow season.

The corpse of the Winter Lord melted rapidly in the afternoon sun, turning into wisps of murky icy mist, which were dispersed by the gradually warming north wind.

While the people on the city wall were still in a daze of surviving the ordeal, Lorraine had already flipped and leaped off the outside of the city wall, landing steadily on the snowfield covered with blood and ice shards.

"Victor, take your men down here and clean up the battlefield."

Lorraine's voice came from below the city wall, as calmly as if he were giving an ordinary instruction.

Victor took a deep breath, sheathed Fimbull's Wolf King Greatsword back into its sheath, and gave a solemn order to the militia behind him: "First to fifth squads, follow me down the city wall. The rest of you, continue to stand guard."

The militiamen on the city wall looked at each other, some of their hands still trembling, but when they saw the great knight in armor take the lead and leap down the wall, they gritted their teeth and followed.

Lorraine walked forward, stepping on the remains of monsters scattered on the ground, occasionally crushing a piece of ice crystal that had lost its magic under her feet.

The Winter Lord and his tens of thousands of demonic troops are now reduced to corpses scattered across the ground and glittering spoils strewn across the snow.

The panel of the Witch's Codex automatically unfolded before Lorraine's eyes, with dense data rapidly refreshing, marking, classifying, and counting all the spoils scattered across the battlefield within a radius of several miles.

As Lorraine walked, she glanced at the constantly changing numbers on the panel, a slight smile playing on her lips.

"Ohm, send your mechs down to help with the moving. We won't be able to move all this stuff by manpower alone until dark."

Ohm's voice came from above the city wall, filled with undisguised excitement: "They've been dispatched, big brother! Thirty-two engineering puppets are departing from the north gate and are expected to arrive at the core area of ​​the battlefield in six minutes."

Anna also jumped off the city wall. The fifth-order entropy witch's body was incredibly light, and she didn't even kick up a snowflake when she landed.

She walked to Lorraine's side, her gaze sweeping over the monster remains scattered on the ground, and suddenly pointed to a particularly dense area of ​​light spots in the distance.

"Master, the light over there is the brightest; it must be something that the Winter Lord himself dropped."

Lorraine looked in the direction she was pointing, and sure enough, at the spot where the Winter Lord had finally fallen, a dozen orbs of light of varying sizes were suspended in mid-air, emitting soft halos ranging from deep blue to silver-white.

The largest of the spheres was even the size of a human head, with a liquid-like silvery-gray luster flowing inside.

"Let's go check out that area first."

The two hurried across the snowfield littered with corpses, with Catherine and Lyra leaping down from the city wall to follow behind.

Olivia remained on the city wall to oversee the militia's transport work. Her thorny vines hung down from the wall, forming several natural conveyor belts that continuously transported the magic crystals and materials from below to above.

Lorraine was the first to arrive at the core area where the Winter Lord had fallen.

He reached out and touched the first ball of light. The light shattered, and a large pile of deep blue magic crystals poured out like a waterfall, piling up into a small mountain on the snow.

The panel of the Witch's Codex immediately popped up with statistics. Lorraine glanced at it and raised an eyebrow.

"This pile alone has 12,000 pieces."

Catherine had just walked up when she heard the number and paused in her tracks: "Twenty-two thousand? That's all the loot from just one tier-five monster?"

"The magic power contained in a fifth-order monster is far greater than that of a fourth-order monster. In addition, the Winter Lord is a hegemon-level existence that rules over the entire Northern Ice Plains. The magic power accumulated in its body is probably more concentrated than that of ten ordinary fifth-order monsters combined."

As Lorraine spoke, she continued to touch the other orbs of light.

Second Regiment, Third Regiment, Fourth Regiment —

Each sphere of light shatters, dropping a considerable number of magic crystals, as well as various high-quality monster materials—fragments of the Winter Lord's scales, bones of the Frost Beast, Abyssal Ice Crystals, and the Heart of Eternal Freeze—these are rare materials that would spark bloody battles in any human city's auction house.

Meanwhile, on the battlefield outside the city walls, Victor was leading the militia and engineering golems in a frenzy, harvesting the spoils left behind by tens of thousands of monsters.

Although the individual drops from those second- and third-tier monster minions are not many, their sheer number makes up for it. As a result, the total amount of magic crystals and materials is astonishing.

The entire cleanup operation lasted nearly two hours.

When the last batch of spoils was moved by the engineering golems to the temporary warehouse inside the city walls, the statistics panel of the Witch's Codex finally gave the final figures.

Lorraine stood at the warehouse entrance, staring at the rows of data on the panel, and remained silent for a moment.

"Eighty-three thousand magic crystals," he murmured the number.

Olivia, standing beside him, suddenly turned her head, her emerald-like eyes widening abruptly: "Eighty thousand—three thousand?"

"Hmm." Lorraine nodded, his finger lightly tracing across the panel. "Besides magic crystals, the total amount of monster materials is also quite considerable. I roughly estimated that even if only 30% of it is used for city defense construction, it would be enough to upgrade all the Tier 3 stone walls of the outer city to Tier 4 Titan Alloy walls, and there would even be a surplus of high-level materials to push one of the walls directly to Tier 5."

Catherine, who was standing not far away, couldn't help but gasp when she heard this.

As the only fourth-tier Storm Witch among them from the capital, she had seen many grand occasions, but obtaining such a massive amount of resources at once was still beyond her comprehension.

Perhaps only during the once-in-a-lifetime Battle of Lionsgate, when the kingdom was on the verge of destruction, did such a rich spoils of war fall.

Lorraine, however, brought all of these things out in just one battle.

Lorraine didn't linger on the numbers of magic crystals and materials for long. His gaze fell on a line of text at the very bottom of the panel, which was highlighted in gold by the Witch's Codex, making it particularly eye-catching.

He reached out and touched the last ball of light.

The moment the head-sized ball of light shattered, a warm and profound aura spread out, and all the witches present turned their heads in unison.

A crystal bottle floated silently in front of Lorraine.

The bottle contained a mass of silvery-gray liquid, viscous in texture, flowing slowly and emitting a hazy, soft silver glow.

The luster was not dazzling, but it had a magical power that made it impossible to look away, as if what was sealed in the bottle was not liquid, but the essence of life itself.

Lorraine reached out and caught the crystal bottle. The moment her fingertips touched the bottle's wall, the panel of the Witch's Codex popped up with identification information.

【Name: Source Material】

[Quality: Legendary]

[Effect: Universal repair material. Perfectly repairs all physical damage to life forms below Tier 5, reshapes missing organs, and can even amplify them.]

[Note: This technique can bring the dead back to life and restore flesh to bones.]

Lorraine held the crystal bottle, her eyes flickering slightly.

This is the second time he has obtained source matter.

He used the last source essence to reshape Ohm's physical body, giving this machine spirit, which had been sleeping in the life support pod for thousands of years, a real flesh and blood body.

And this time—

Before he could think any further, a light footstep approached.

Ohm tiptoed to Lorraine's side, his liquid metal-like eyes fixed on the crystal bottle in Lorraine's hand, his long silver-gray hair swaying gently in the breeze.

Her lips parted slightly, and her voice trembled uncontrollably.

"Big brother, is this... the source matter?"

"Yes." Lorraine held the crystal bottle up to her so she could see it more clearly. "In a while, I will use this to perform the witch ascension ceremony for your sister."

Ohm's gaze was fixed on the silvery-gray liquid, its flowing luster reflected in his pupils.

Of course she recognized this thing. Not only did she recognize it, she understood better than anyone else present what Source Matter meant because her own physical body was given by Source Matter.

But it is precisely because of this that she is even more aware of the preciousness of the source material.

"Big brother." Ohm looked up into Lorraine's eyes, his tone unusually serious, "Are you really—really willing to give this to Sister Messiah?"

Lorraine looked at her but did not answer immediately.

Ohm bit his lower lip and continued, "I know Big Brother promised me he would save Sister Messiah and help her restore her physical body. But Source Essence—it's too precious. Big Brother, you yourself said it can repair all physical damage below the fifth rank, can reshape organs, can—"

She paused, then lowered her voice: "It can bring the dead back to life and heal flesh and bones."

"If another calamity befalls us in the future, if you, big brother, suffer a fatal injury, this bottle of essence is the life-saving item that can give you another chance to live. Is it really—worth it—to use it on Messiah?"

Ohm's expression was conflicted when he said these words.

Of course she wanted to save her sister; this was her only obsession for thousands of years.

But she also knew that Lorraine was the core of it all, the fundamental reason why the city, these witches, and these people were able to survive.

If anything happens to Lorraine, everything will collapse.

Using a bottle of life-saving essence just to save someone insignificant to the lord and fulfill one's own petty wish—this is a bad deal no matter how you look at it.

Seeing Ohm's conflicted expression, Lorraine chuckled softly.

"Ohm, do you think it's more useful to have something to save your life, or to make your power stronger?"

""

Ohm paused for a moment.

Lorraine put the crystal bottle into his pocket, his tone calm but firm: "Source material is indeed precious, and it can indeed save lives. But if one day the monsters really break through the city walls and come to me, even if I use source material to revive myself once, I will only be killed by them again."

"Instead of pinning your hopes on something that can save your life, it's better to turn it into real combat power."

Lorraine looked into Ohm's eyes and said, "Once Messiah regains her physical body and completes her witch ascension, the two of you sisters working together, as the twins of Babel, will unleash a combat power far exceeding what one of you could achieve alone."

"Rather than being killed and resurrected, I prefer to use overwhelming artillery fire to prevent the enemy from ever getting in and reaching me."

Ohm's eyes immediately reddened.

She opened her mouth, as if to say something, but something seemed to be stuck in her throat, and it took her a while to squeeze out a complete sentence: "Big brother—thank you."

Lorraine waved her hand, indicating that she didn't need to do that.

But Ohm didn't stop there. She rubbed her eyes hard, forcing back the tears that were welling up in her eyes, and her voice gradually returned to its usual bright and childlike tone: "Big brother, do you know, before I met you, my sister and I stayed in the Tower of Babel for a very, very long time, so long that I almost forgot how time flowed. Back then, every day was the same."

But since meeting my older brother, so many things have changed. Things I used to think were impossible, he's accomplished one by one. I have my own body now, I can feel the sunshine and the wind, and I can eat warm bread—

'

Lorraine listened to her rambling on without interrupting.

"Once my sister has regained her physical body, I will definitely bring her to formally meet my big brother."

Ohm became more and more excited as he spoke, gesturing with his hands, "My sister has always only been able to watch my big brother from afar through the Tower of Babel's monitoring system. She must want to see you in person too."

I'm going to take my older sister and brother out for a meal, explore Frostwolf City together, and even show her the magic farm. My sister has never seen Olivia's red wheat before; she'll be very surprised!

7y

"I still want to—"

Ohm suddenly stopped.

A thought suddenly entered her mind.

If only I could marry Messiah to my older brother.

The moment the thought popped into his head, Ohm was startled, and an unnatural blush instantly spread across his cheeks.

But then, the idea seemed to take root, and the more I thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed.

Her older brother was the best person she had ever met, without a doubt.

He gave her a body, a home, and dignity, and now he's willing to pay any price to save her sister.

She wanted to become a true family member with this person, not a master-servant relationship, not a contract between a lord and a witch, but a true, blood-related family.

If Messiah were to marry my older brother—

Then I would be my older brother's sister-in-law, a proper member of his family.

Wait, is bigamy allowed in this era?

It seems like Anna always stays by her older brother's side.

Ohm's face turned even redder, his mind a jumbled mess. If conditions allowed, could he also—

Ah, no, two girls together or something —

It's still too early for her.

"ohm?"

Lorraine's voice pulled her back from her chaotic thoughts.

Ohm suddenly jolted awake, realizing that Lorraine was looking at him with a playful smile, her eyes clearly saying, "I probably know what you're thinking."

"N-nothing!" Ohm waved his hands frantically, his ears burning. "I was just thinking about my sister! Yes, about my sister!"

Lorraine didn't press further, but simply smiled before turning serious and saying, "Go and inform the others to prepare. After we've gathered all these materials, we'll head to the third level of the Tower of Babel."

Ohm felt like she had been granted a pardon, and quickly responded. She turned and ran away as fast as if something was chasing her.