Chapter 468: Cannon and Return

「Good stuff? What do you mean? 」

he said.

Rod took out a small comb made of moonglow silver stone and transparent rubber from his spell pouch and handed it to her.

「This is a magic item imbued with a 【Calm】 spell, combined with the properties of moonglow silver stone. 」

「Used over a long period, it can enhance the caster's concentration. 」

「Although it does require a very long period. 」

The witch cat's face lit up with pleasant surprise, and the anger on her face vanished in an instant.

Smiling sweetly, she combed her fur with it as she walked toward the cave behind:

「Not long after my lord Rod left, Mimi heard that Shi Ying Town was being threatened by two dragons. I was anxious, but my rank isn't high, so I'm afraid I can't be of much help. 」

「Speaking of which, you've taken a Spirit Seed — what rank are you now? 」

「Mid sixth rank. 」 The cat looked a little embarrassed.

Last time he saw her at the early stage, and several months had passed since then. Even with the Spirit Seed, that was admittedly a bit slow.

But there was nothing for it.

Cat-sylphs had the heaven-defying skill 【Materialization】, so neither their spiritual aptitude nor their magical aptitude was anything special.

Rod did want to feed her another one.

But the yield of 【Daphne's Spirit Seeds】 had dropped sharply.

The last few in stock had all been used on the land naga Evelyn and her two daughters.

No matter — there would be more eventually.

When the time came, he could feed her then.

The witch cat caught Rod's brooding gaze and thought he looked down on her.

She couldn't help but let her voice drop, timid and pitiful.

「I know my aptitude isn't good, so I figured I could only use the method cat-sylphs are best at to make something for you. 」

As she spoke.

Cat and master entered a cave interior that looked like a Resident Evil secret research lab.

After advancing some fifty meters and rounding a bend.

They saw a cylindrical cannon of plain, archaic appearance.

Wheels for a carriage, a heavy charcoal-black metal barrel, cold and cruel, the cannon body fully two meters long, the muzzle roughly thirty centimeters in diameter.

At a single glance, one could feel the tremendous power of the thing.

However.

It was too plain — no trace of magic on it.

Used against dragons, it would probably fall short.

Rod had seen the siege cannon collected by Shi Ying Town's old gentleman Humbert, its surface covered in magical runes, far more imposing.

Although that thing was a century-old cannon cast off as obsolete, currently the mages of Shi Ying Town were rushing to repair it.

「A magic cannon? 」

「No, this is a Grudge Cannon. 」

「Never heard of it. 」

「Unlike ordinary magic cannons, this Grudge Cannon doesn't need ordinary cannonballs like iron balls or explosives — what it needs is heads. 」

「? 」

Compared to Rod's utterly blank look, the witch cat was a little excited.

She waved both hands: 「This is the ultimate dragon-slaying weapon I created with the help of the labyrinth consciousness 'Dragon God' and a group of cat-sylphs! The head of any humanoid creature can serve as loaded ammunition, and the greater the resentment the head's owner felt before death, the greater the power of the shot — theoretically, there's no upper limit! 」

No upper limit?

That genuinely startled Rod.

But thinking it over carefully, he calmed down.

Such ridiculously overpowered things with no upper limit, when it came to achieving high values, were always a bit more troublesome than ordinary things.

A head brimming with deep resentment — that was extremely hard to come by.

Rod couldn't help but sigh that cat-sylphs really did differ from most humanoids in their worldview.

After all, they preferred twisted, mutable, and sturdy flesh.

Even though Rod possessed off-the-charts beauty among humanoids.

Even the witch cat, who was his enslaved subject, considered her own master's looks quite feeble.

Rod smoothed her fur and patted the cat's head.

He also took out the translucent crystal stone Pudding had given him and said, exasperated:

「Pudding said you knew I was coming and specially made this thing. What is that cat brain of yours thinking? Aren't we just a simple master-and-servant relationship? 」

「It's not for use on the two of us! 」

The witch cat's cheeks flushed red, and she leapt up to snatch the crystal stone into her hands.

「My lord Rod's physique is powerful and his vital essence is abundant — without some measure taken, he'd probably get a girl pregnant very easily. This is specially for you to use! 」

Speaking of which.

Setting aside succubi, who couldn't get pregnant.

The other girls were all races capable of biological pregnancy. Under Rod's massive irrigation over the past half year or so, especially the tree-spirit Vivian, no matter how low the fertility rate, she should have been hit by now.

But not a single one of them had shown any such reaction.

Rod suspected 【Second Heart】 was behind it. Succubi had no males, so this skill probably belonged to him alone among men.

And succubi themselves do not reproduce through sexual intercourse to bear life.

Perhaps that is also why he cannot get a girl pregnant?

"Uh, actually I don't really need it. Your master here likes going bare — the experience is better, and there's this feeling of letting everything out with abandon."

"No, no! You absolutely must use it! The situation on the continent is unstable right now. Bearing a child drains a huge amount of spiritual energy — ten months pregnant, nearly a whole year of reduced combat ability, that would be terrible. If nothing else works, try it with that succubus, just to test the effect."

"Mm, alright then, no harm in keeping it on hand."

The witch-cat saw Rod take the contraceptive crystal stone, secretly clenched her fist and cheered inside.

What she didn't tell Pudding was that there were also magic circuits she had laid out on it, used to record frequency, motion, and shape.

No choice.

Her master's thing down there was a bit scary, and her little cat-fairy body probably couldn't handle it, so she could only make a two-thirds scaled-down replica as a magical tool.

Just thinking about it made her cheeks flush a little.

Ever since that night when she secretly watched him and that succubus doing it, her heart had been all in a mess.

On Witch Peak, cold and lonely, she had secretly made quite a few things to relieve her loneliness on the sly, but none of them were satisfying.

Now that her master was coming again, this was the perfect chance — record everything properly and create a version of master that belonged to her alone!

The cutting from the emerald tree was in very good condition.

Therefore, after Kali coordinated with a few simple spell rituals, it successfully took root within an hour, and reached the point where it could trigger 【Spatial Tree Form】.

Holding hands, Rod brought all the girls back at once to Windwall Forest, far on the western frontier of Etheron.

He startled the 【Guardian Fairy】 Tammy on the emerald tree in the forest half to death.

The little fellow thought enemies had come to attack.

Crying loudly, she grabbed a little dead twig from the ground, flew up, and tried to poke out Rod's eyeballs — quite vicious.

When she looked closely and realized it was Rod, she immediately went pale and hurriedly begged for punishment and the like.

Rod of course wouldn't fuss over such a small matter. He gave her a local little tomato he'd brought back from Deepwater City, and sent her off.

"Welcome, Rod."

The tree spirit Vivian happened to be here too, watering the emerald tree.

Her big eyes flashing with Bai Guang saw him, yet showed not the slightest expression, and slowly drifted over to hug him.

She even stood on tiptoe to kiss — couldn't reach — so she could only stare blankly at Rod's lips, asking for a kiss.

Although Kali, Lily, and Thirteen were all watching.

Rod didn't mind.

He was always open and aboveboard about this sort of thing — mwah — and gave Vivian a big kiss.

(End of chapter)