When Lin Da first arrived in White Dove City, he often spent time at the library and had a general understanding of witches. The contracts from the game, when applied to reality, became 'A young girl with a strong, specific wish, seduced by the whispers of the Demon King, signs a soul-binding contract'.
In other words, witches are minions of the Demon King, cursed beings.
Wherever they went, cities were destroyed, and corpses littered the streets.
Witches at the end of their lives would even transform into 'Fallen Beasts', causing disasters of unprecedented horror.
For Lin Da, who was at Level 0, purifying such monsters was truly no easy task.
"What skill did you get?" Kafni asked with trepidation, seeing the look on his face.
Lin Da reported honestly.
"What, Witch Purification? What's the use of that? It's not even as good as the most common Legendary skills like Mana Blessing."
Kafni was stupefied. She had spent all her Divine Contribution Points and only drew such a lousy skill.
She heard from her seniors that some heroes were so lucky they could instantly obtain 'Tenfold Attack', 'Mana Consumption Halved', or other heaven-defying Legendary skills.
How could it be that her own hero was so unlucky...
Kafni fell into pessimism once again regarding how to save the Mystic Continent.
"Actually, this skill isn't that bad."
After contemplating for a while, Lin Da opened the steaming plate of pork chop rice and said, "Maybe we can use this skill to try and turn the witches."
"Turn them?" Kafni listlessly prodded her eel rice, feeling as though the luxurious taste in her mouth was like chewing wax.
"Right," Lin Da said. "Think about it, witches serve as the Demon King's servants because they are coerced, right? Unlike those who voluntarily swear allegiance and are brainwashed from birth in the Demon Lord's Army, witches submit to the Demon King out of compulsion. So it is certain that they are not as loyal to the Demon King as the magical creatures are."
"That's true," Kafni agreed with a nod.
Lin Da snapped his fingers, "This is where the Legendary skill, Witch Purification comes into play. If we could forcibly break the contract between the witches and the Demon King, wouldn't that be the same as saving their lives? By then, they would naturally have no reason to serve the Demon King anymore. Maybe they would even join the hero's camp as a result."
"Eh, that does make sense." Kafni's eyes lit up, and she stopped eating. "With this give and take, even if the Demon King breaks the seal and awakens, he'll be a weakling! In that case, we should not delay and go look for witches to purify right away!"
Luckily, she had a trace of Divine Power within her. She could sense witches, who had the Demon Lord's Power within them, from a certain distance, effectively a human radar.
She would be in charge of searching, and Lin Da in charge of purification. After accumulating ten cartloads of witches, they could go directly to challenge the Demon King!
Kafni, fantasizing about the glorious future, couldn't help but laugh heartily as she placed her hands on her hips.
Lin Da, however, sat steadily on the sofa without moving. He glanced at the enthusiastic Kafni and said,
"What are you thinking? Witches are wanted by the empire, hiding who knows where. How could we just find them? And even if we did, it's not certain they would trust me to open up and let me purify them."
The prerequisite for Witch Purification was a high level of trust, followed by physical contact. The higher the trust level, and the deeper the contact, the more thorough the purification.
But these days, merely touching a girl's hand could get you sued by the Law Enforcement Bureau, let alone touching a witch—surely the risk must be even greater?
Witches, able to hear the Demon King's whispers and be enchanted by them, are often psychologically unstable. It would be a light outcome if they sued you at the Law Enforcement Bureau, but one could fear for their very life.
Before raising his level, Lin Da definitely did not want to meet the witches of this world.
After hearing all of that, Kafni's enthusiasm deflated: "After all this, isn't it just a useless skill?"
"There will always be a way. If all else fails, we could just subdue them, tie them up, and purify them."
Lin Da shrugged his shoulders.
He bowed his head to enjoy his pork chop rice, while concurrently opening the Skill Tree page on his personal panel.
At the moment, this Skill Tree had three main branches: the Recovery Series, the Poison Technique Series, and the dark, somewhat blurry Witch Series.
The effects of the Witch Series Skills were still unknown, but the Poison Technique Series Skills were known for their high sustained damage.
The first level of the Poison Technique Series Skill Tree already attained the Purple Rare quality, and further up there was a string of orange, red, and several golden Legendary Skills.
In contrast to the common profession of a Healer, whose Skill Tree's first-level skills are all of ordinary white quality.
The Level 20 Ultimate Skill "Healing Rain" was barely a Purple Rare Level skill.
Although Lin Da had started over from Level 0, by the time he returned to Level 15, his combat power would flip over a dozen times.
"After getting the team withdrawal certificate, I should go out and farm some Slimes. My level is too low now, and I don't have a single Skill Point," Lin Da thought to himself.
Earning Skills required Skill Points, and at the moment, at Level 0, he had zero Skill Points.
The only Active Skill he possessed was the attack-less "Witch Purification," which relied on his initial high strength attribute of 15 for hand-to-hand combat.
Swallowing the last bite of his pork chop rice, Lin Da said contentedly, "Dinner's finished, time to start cleaning the house."
He grabbed Kafni, who was trying to go to sleep, with a warm smile on his face.
By the time he finished his chores, it was already late at night.
The house, once covered with dust, looked brand new.
When it was time to rest, since the rental house had only one bedroom and one bed, Lin Da and Kafni had an argument about who should sleep on the bed.
"Damn Hero, you're such a damned nuisance, sooner or later, one day, I will... sooner or later..."
Kafni, with several bumps on her head, curled up on the sofa in pain, her body draped in a blanket, tears of frustration leaking from her eyes.
Lin Da's fists were too big, too hard, and it only took a couple of hits to leave her critically injured.
Humbled and humiliated, Kafni had no choice but to reluctantly give up the bed.
In the bedroom.
Lin Da lay with the back of his head resting on his arm, staring blankly at the ceiling above, feeling a bit unreal.
He had actually fulfilled his wish to 'sleep on the bed in the rental house' once. Back when he lived there, as the only male in the team, he was naturally relegated to the sofa.
At that time, he often wondered how comfortable it must be to lie in the bed in the bedroom.
Now that this unfinished dream was realized, it wasn't as exciting as he initially thought.
Indeed, time and circumstances greatly affect a person's mindset. After his sister disappeared, Lin Da's personal desires became quite faint, apart from his research on the World Tree, he had little interest in anything else.
He remembered Lin Xi liked to sleep in the innermost spot. He involuntarily moved closer to that side, sniffing as if he could catch a trace of his sister's scent.
In the darkness, Lin Da fumbled and pulled out a pocket watch, opened it, and the white jade-like dial emitted a faint glow, illuminating the combined photo of the two inside the case.
How could Lin Xi have disappeared inside the World Tree, and who had secretly placed her pocket watch on his desk? This was something Lin Da often thought about when he couldn't sleep at night, but even after three years, he had no clue.