The Witch in the Sleeping Forest -4-

The caresses that seemed like they would last forever finally came to an end after a few hours.

"Hmm, it's about time to get to work, so let's wrap up the praising here."

"Uuu…"

"Eee…"

Dena and Kangjang wore deeply disappointed expressions, their voices dripping with regret. I wanted to shower them with more praise and savor that soft texture a bit longer, but it was time for the real work.

-Slap!!

"Au!?♥"

"Uwe!?♥"

To soothe their disappointment, I smacked their plump, springy asses—perfectly taut and jiggly. Then I gripped them hard.

The moment my hands sank into their flesh, the soft, elastic meat enveloped my fingers like it was devouring them, delivering an exquisite blend of supreme tenderness and firmness. The skin felt like brushing against fine silk fabric. Sure, to a living human, their undead asses might feel cold, but as a fellow chilly undead, they felt perfectly cozy to me. The curves under my fingertips were flawless—worthy of being called perfection. Hell, these asses had to be one of humanity's greatest inventions.

-Pop.

Regretfully, I pulled my hands away after a few seconds. Then I headed over to the corpse of the ogre-tier magic-eye beast I'd slain.

"Hmm…"

I rummaged through my mind, focusing on the spot where I'd seen it use that ignition magic eye (working title).

The reason was simple: I planned to implant that ignition magic eye (working title) directly into my own body.

Flamma's powers are great and all, but the range is shorter than I'd like.

The distance over which I could generate fire wasn't as far as I'd hoped. But pairing it with the ignition magic eye would solve that range issue entirely. Magic eyes treated everything in line of sight as their effective range, after all.

Plus, I've got spells for long-range vision, penetration, and clairvoyance.

With the ignition magic eye, I'd wield it even better than the beast had.

But damn, there are way too many eyes, and they all look the damn same.

The problem was, there were so many eyes that I couldn't tell which one was the ignition magic eye (working title).

"Eh, I'll figure it out by trial and error."

-Pluck.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

With that thought, I yanked out my right eye. It popped free from its socket as easily as detaching an arm from a figurine. And yet, my vision didn't suffer at all. Because—

-Whoosh!

A blue-glowing ghostfire in the empty socket served as my true core of sight. For an undead like me, eyeballs were just accessories anyway.

Now that I'd removed one, though, I needed somewhere to stash it…

"Uuu…"

"Eee…"

I considered tossing it into my inventory for fun, but I felt two pairs of eyes watching me intently.

"Hm?"

Kangjang and Dena were staring fixedly at the right eyeball I'd pulled from my socket, unable to look away.

-Swoosh.

-Slither.

-Swoosh.

-Slither.

They were so focused that when I wiggled the eye in my hand, their gazes followed it perfectly.

On the surface, they seem a bit innocent, but the hunger in their expressions was that of women eyeing a beautiful gem they desperately wanted.

"Want it?"

"Au!!"

"Uwe!!"

The words had barely left my mouth before both nodded vigorously, like they'd been waiting for it.

-Sparkle, sparkle.

Their eyes—usually dull and gem-like from being undead—sparkled with life for the first time in ages.

"But I've only got the one right now…"

-Goooooo!!!!

Before I could finish, an ominous aura surged between Kangjang and Dena.

-Goooooo!!

Dark blue, chilling killing intent exploded from them like a blast, clashing in the middle.

-Grrr.

One aura took the form of a massive giant behind Kangjang, embodying endless gluttony.

-Krr.

Behind Dena, a heat-wreathed dragon-shaped aura materialized.

The two forms glared at each other—a perfect dragon-tiger standoff.

If a normal human had been here, the sheer pressure from their auras might've crushed their body to pulp.

-Grind!!!

Their powers manifested physically, shaking the entire castle.

"Au aa uuua…"

"Uwe… uuue… euu..!!"

-Crackle!! Zzzap!!

In the powder-keg atmosphere, the two locked eyes and began their "conversation." It was a wager: they'd duel full-force, and the winner would claim my eyeball.

"Uuu…"

-Slam!

"Uwe…"

-Shing.

Both wrapped their fists and greatsword in battle ki infused with their full killing intent, ready to go all out. This was even more serious than when they'd faced the ogre-tier magic-eye beast. To them, that thing hadn't even been worth treating as a real opponent.

But Kangjang and Dena were equals—same level, both high-grade undead. So they'd both give it everything in this duel.

No, wait—it's just my damn eyeball. Over something that trivial…?

"Stop!!"

"Uuu?"

"Eee?"

Through our mental link, they tilted their heads at me: 'Why, Master?'

"If you two go at it seriously, you'll wreck the castle." It was already hanging by a thread from the earlier battle. We still had plenty of looting to do here—no way I was letting that happen.

So—

-Pluck!!

I pulled out my other eye too. It made no difference having them or not, and seeing how badly my beauties wanted them, I decided to gift one to each.

But just handing them over feels lame…

-Hummm!!

A glow emanated from my eyeballs, reshaping them. Corpse Reforging could craft not just weapons but accessories and gear too—anything from games turned real, as long as it fit the material. I forged my two eyeballs into rings.

-Crunch.

They vanished from my palms, replaced by cold silver bands embedded with eerie, killing-intent-wreathed blue gems.

"Here, take 'em. Gifts for you."

"Uuu~♥"

"Uwe~♥"

-Squeeze.

They clutched the eyeball-rings like treasures, beaming with happy smiles.

Seeing them both so thrilled puts me in a good mood too.

Anyway, now it was really time to work.

"Let's see… this one?"

-Pluck.

I extracted one of the magic-eye beast's magic eyes. Given the beast's massive size, the eyeball was huge—too big even for my Grave King-evolved socket, which transcended normal human proportions.

But size wasn't an issue.

-Crunch.

With a single click from the skill, the massive eye resized perfectly for my socket.

-Pluck.

I slotted in the resized magic eye. Instantly, I knew its power.

Charm magic eye, huh?

If the target's mental strength or resistance was low, it enchanted them to fall madly in love with the user, turning them into a total slave.

Totally useless.

-Pluck.

Not a power worth keeping, especially since I already had similar spells. Low-tier mental magic like Charm or Mind Control were common spells anyone could learn.

-Slide.

I stored the useless-but-not-trash eye in my Corpse Repository.

-Crunch.

Next eye in.

"Stop magic eye this time?"

It froze targets solid, like mannequins—zero movement.

Still useless.

Its superior version, Time Stop, was a common spell in Aurore Fantasia for any mage with enough levels. We also had Paralyze, and magic classes had tons of shared spells—past a certain level, you could do damn near anything. Common spells just lacked the power and grade ceilings of specialized builds, so pros rarely bothered.

But swapping eyes one by one like this is gonna take forever.

As an undead with near-endless lifespan, time wasn't a huge issue—but work still needed to be efficient.

I scoured my mind for a solution, and one spell popped up. I'd learned ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tons ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the game, but stuck to favorites, so I'd half-forgotten it. The Transcendent system had granted me the knowledge alongside my powers, but it wasn't top priority, so digging it up took a sec.

The spell? One that read the memories of the dead from corpses.

"Memento Mori."

-Hummm!!!

Black mist poured from the dead magic-eye beast, absorbing into me. Time seemed to halt as its lifetime of memories flooded my mind.

Ah, there's the ignition magic eye—right there. But…

I instantly pinpointed it. But more captivating was one memory fragment.

It showed the magic-eye beast—called the Magic-Eye Collector—being captured by someone and dragged into this underground witch's tomb.