Resources

By the time she reached a level where she could start cultivating the witch-body technique, she also needed a lot of resources to even start; the first stage was reliant on getting a vat filled with essence blood of a powerful or several powerful beasts and refining it through an array that would make it compatible with her body and recognize the modifications as natural parts of her body that would need recovering should they be damaged.

So not only the blood but the array flags, as well as a fitting location, would be necessary. But before worrying about that she had to get a beast-core from a beast with omnivore habits and the eyes of an elven descendant with an eye-bloodline as well as the eyes of a vampire descendant with an eye-bloodline preferably equally powerful. she would then also need the means of refining those eyes into each other to make a balanced eye-bloodline she could transplant into her own; this, of course, would require the blood of the respective owners of the eyes as well. Hopefully, she would be able to avoid using a soul-eye bloodline, as she wouldn't be able to even transplant that... yet.

the preparations for stage one specifically that she had done on her brain only really lacked one resource; a yin-yang balanced beast core she could refine into holding her qi; that would be placed in her brain. The reason a beast core is necessary is that she cannot use something like a vampire core even if it was balanced; because a vampire core is designed to stay in the abdomen, so it wouldn't matter if it became a little bigger or smaller while cultivating. However, that obviously wouldn't work if the core was placed in the brain, possibly leading to instant death the moment she would cultivate.

Beast cores are stored in the beast's brain and therefore wouldn't by nature fluctuate in size no matter how strong it became from cultivation. she would also need to get rid of one of her eyes to both transplant the eye bloodline and get the refined beast core into its spot in the brain.

the advantage of having the beast core in the brain is obvious to the user and inconspicuous to onlookers; she would be able to inspect her body better than an x-ray would with the help of the core; she would also be able to still use her powers for a while despite being decapitated possibly allowing her to reattach her head assuming her ability to heal/recover was sufficient. She would also have two sources of qi in her body, allowing for endurance and adaptability.

But all of these required resources she didn't currently have.

She also required an assistant to help do the surgical procedures without fault.

Thinking about it; she was no longer a demon king, all her resources were not "hers" anymore; probably seized by some other demon king. She also had a way smaller lifespan as a human; something she would need to remedy by the time she turned 25 or it would be too late. as a 20-year-old; that left a scarce 5 years to maximize the effect of lifespan extension. She would have to act fast and decisively if she wanted the perfect conditions for herself.

But which resources fall from the heavens unto you?

Fortune's mistress goes by the name Misfortune and though she isn't faithful; they are often seen together.

Whether you meet fortune or misfortune depends on your strength, wits, and courage. She had already died before because the resources she held were too valuable, dying for resources was not on the agenda anymore.

While thinking about this she had been pondering her path ahead from thereon, but for any semblance of a plan to get resources to form, she needed information regarding her surroundings, so the plan, for now, was to gather information while progressing however she could with the sin of sloth as well as with the 50 changes body cultivation. However, there were a few things she could do in the meantime. She could get the assistant required to perform actions she wouldn't be capable of during cultivation of the witch body, this assistant needed to be skilled with nimble hands, preferably have a little experience with the human body, have an information network ideally, had to be someone that wouldn't be missed when they disappear, and ideally have a tough mindset.

Having thought about this she began looking for a black market or underworld where she would be able to find an assassins guild since the profession usually required similar abilities. She decided to start in a warring town because rations and soldiers usually created black markets for selling loot from killings or extra food outside the rations, otherwise going around looking for something trying to hide would be a pain in the ass.

Since she had a plan already, being the diligent sloth she was; she decided to start the day after tomorrow.

***

"...but, the war has been going on for 7 years already, what are they even fighting for? Those bigwigs say it would greatly benefit our people to conquer even a bit of that coastal stretch, but we've yet to see any real progress in the war for over 2 years, at this point the loss is already bigger than any gain I could imagine..."

There were three soldiers discussing the war the country had been waging against a coastal nation, they were sitting in an inn with a few beers and seemed rather content, from what our dark figure could gather, they were soldiers of the local dukedom, every noble family had to gather a set amount of soldiers for their country but would, of course, leave some in the dukedom to keep order and control the populace.

These three had several friends sent to the front it seemed, and not having heard anything from them for at least 3 years already assumed them to be dead.

"what can I get you?" a voice cut loudly into her concentration as she shifted her sight onto the waitress standing at her table, deciding to order some meat soup with bread;

"...what meat do you serve here?" "lamb and deer meat, as well as beef, which do you want?"

"Then ill have some lamb soup with bread and water." "Certainly..." the waitress seemed to get stunned for a moment before walking off and doing her job.

The lamb soup wasn't anything special but rather one of the cheaper offers they had when it came to dishes with meat in it, and although it was bland Vesta wouldn't care that much as long as it was filling. While thinking about the soldiers' conversation and listening, she realized the waitress probably saw her eyes, when you live as long as she had and seen the things she had seen, there would usually develop a certain bearing to all her actions, usually feeling like a strung bow pulled tautly, or an unsheathed sword pointed at whomever they looked at. At least that's what it would look like to mortals; having the sharp mind of a being thousands of years old looking straight at you could and usually would paralyze mortals. Though she could suppress this, it required effort which was spent on thinking at the point she looked into her eyes, which coupled with Vesta's honed reflexes was reduced to just a slight stun rather than completely paralyzing her on the spot.

But it was a mistake nonetheless, She still wasn't quite used to acting like a mortal at all times, and she would hopefully not have to do so for long. Small mistakes like these were usually the downfall of most experts trying to hide in plain sight; 2-3 witness accounts were enough to start an investigation already. She had gained the information she wanted though, but to get to the frontline she would have to cross half the country and pass 2 noble families' territories on the way there as well as a small mountain pass known for bandits.

The country was known as Ashein and was a small country without access to the coast; usually, it would gain its revenue from farmers, miners, merchants, and warfare.

Ashein bordered on three countries, one in the north, one in the east, and one in the south, Ashein was at war with the one in the south, a coastal nation by the name Cruoburg.

To the west of Ashein was a territory unclaimed by men, there hadn't been a proper explanation as to why, but most people assumed it was a mix of reasons including unhabitability and dangerous beasts, and natural dangers like earthquakes and sandstorms.

According to her past life's memories, there was a landmass similar in the description that covered the eastern part of the border in the mainland of the mortal realm, though she couldn't be sure about it, there were also quite a few differences in description aswell, the mainland information from her previous life documented that area being the result of a fight between two creatures of immense might, though it seemed improbable to her. This was because the scale of the continent and the damage represented would require someone to be at the cusp of godhood just to do it on purpose, for this to be the result of a fight was just too unbelievable, the information was very old though, and the area had been investigated several times without conclusive evidence.

***

She chose to sleep in the inn for the night and look for a merchants caravan or the like to travel with when she had the chance. While being led into the inn she was shown the basic facilities which included a bath, a kitchen for use by the guests, and toilets; all public. Few rooms would offer such facilities since it was usually way too expensive to rent such a room for a night. The actual inn rooms usually contained just a crude bed, along with a table, a chair, and a mirror. Vesta was led by the proprietress into the building until they stood before a door with the number 17 carved into it. While handing Vesta the keychain for the room she shot a perplexed glance at vesta's robes before introducing the room concisely and leaving Vesta to her own devices.