Chapter 23 – Restoring Magic Power

Seeing Mo Lan forcing herself to eat despite the sourness, Sylph’s face showed her sympathy.

“Lilith, is accelerating magic power recovery really that difficult? Is there no other way besides Breadfruit? I’ve heard that human mages can recover their magical power through meditation…”

Lilith shook her head. “Whether witch or Sorceress, our power originates from our bloodline.

Not only can we not meditate to enhance our power like human mages, we can’t recover through meditation either.

Our power only grows naturally as we mature and continuously use it, and it can only recover naturally with the passage of time and the body’s own adjustment.

If you want to speed up the process, you can only rely on external aids.

Potions, magical items, and similar things can all do the trick.

But that’s for magical power.

Mana is on a much higher level—low-grade potions and magical items can’t even match our natural recovery rate!

Even for Sorceresses like us who haven’t fully matured yet, at minimum you’d need an Advanced recovery potion for it to have any effect.

As for me, my research focus isn’t on potions at the moment, so I can’t brew Advanced recovery potions yet.

And I’ve traded with upperclassmen for Advanced potions before—they’re not even as effective as Breadfruit!

Don’t let how awful Breadfruit tastes fool you. Its effect on accelerating energy recovery is excellent. Other young witches just nibble a couple of bites each day and it’s enough to keep their magical power fully replenished.”

“Looks like there’s no getting around eating this Breadfruit.” Mo Lan took this lesson to heart—from now on, she would use her magic power with far greater caution.

She felt that mana was rather like blood—you couldn’t just drain the bottle dry whenever you pleased.

“That’s how things stand for now, but perhaps a turning point will come in the future.” Lilith looked toward Vasida, the meaning in her eyes unmistakable.

Given her Manifested Gift, Vasida’s Sorceress Magic was the most likely to have the ability to accelerate mana recovery.

Vasida immediately felt the weight on her shoulders grow considerably heavier.

Since Mo Lan was in no real danger, Lilith and the others didn’t linger.

After they left, Mo Lan steeled herself and gnawed through the rest of the Breadfruit.

Her mana hadn’t recovered by much, but she was stuffed to the point of bursting.

Too full to sleep, and not daring to summon the Book of Cards to read, she decided she might as well go pull weeds in the yard to help with digestion.

The sky outside had already gone dark, but fortunately, between the streetlamps and the light spilling from the Dormitory, she could still make out the yard well enough.

After puttering around in the yard for over an hour, once Mo Lan felt her stomach wasn’t quite so bloated, she immediately grabbed another Breadfruit to eat.

Eat, then work. Work, then eat. She kept at it until the wee hours of the morning, and only after clearing all the weeds from the front yard did she finally climb into bed.

After just a few hours of sleep, the six o’clock morning bell rang, and she was up again.

Breakfast was more Breadfruit.

No matter how many times she’d eaten it, picking one up still felt like marching onto a battlefield.

Mo Lan ate with clenched teeth. “This Breadfruit—is it really completely impossible to cook? Maybe… I should try?”

No sooner said than done!

She refused to believe that Earth’s millennia of culinary culture couldn’t handle a single Breadfruit!

Mo Lan searched through the planetary memories of Earth for methods of reducing sourness in highly acidic fruits, looking for reference.

“The most common way to eat sour and astringent fruits is to preserve them in sugar to make candied fruit, using sweetness to neutralize the sourness.

But making candied fruit requires simmering, and Lilith said that Breadfruit explodes when heated.

The question is what kind of explosion—if it blows apart too thoroughly, then candied fruit won’t work, but making it into a fruit paste like sour jujube cake wouldn’t be bad either.

If that doesn’t work, I could also pickle them like plums—with salt, sugar, or chili peppers, or marinate them in soy sauce. That doesn’t require heat.

And if all else fails, I could coat the Breadfruit’s surface in sugar syrup, like making candied hawthorn on a stick…”

All hail the greatness of Chinese cuisine—Mo Lan was suddenly bursting with inspiration.

However, she hadn’t brought back many seasonings the day before yesterday. She only had a little sugar and salt, not nearly enough, and she was down to just three or four Breadfruits.

So she stopped worrying about the weeds in the backyard and headed straight out with her basket.

“Moira, are you feeling better today?” Vasida was tidying up the backyard and called out when she saw her come outside.

“Much better!” Mo Lan said.

Vasida noticed the basket she was carrying. “Going to collect ingredients?”

“Yep!” Mo Lan said.

“Wait, I’ll come with you!”

Vasida’s yard was nearly finished anyway, and she still hadn’t been to the Ingredient Collection Station.

She’d learned two dishes from Mo Lan the day before yesterday but hadn’t had a chance to practice on her own yet.

As they passed by the fields, Mo Lan peered inside and spotted a familiar figure. “Isn’t that Sylph?”

Vasida stood on her tiptoes for a look. “I think so! What’s she doing in there?”

“She’s probably chatting with Bi’er!” Mo Lan said.

“That Green Leaf Sprite who especially loves hearing stories?” Vasida had heard about it from the other young witches.

“Mm-hm.” Mo Lan said. “Sylph is different from the other young witches. She probably genuinely likes the Sprites themselves, so she doesn’t care as much about forming a contract…”

“So you’re all the same—you just want a free gardener!”

Bi’er appeared out of nowhere, giving Vasida quite a fright.

“First time meeting! Hello, young witch. Welcome to the Planting District. I’m Bi’er, the Intern Management Sprite of Field Number Eight!”

“Hello? I’m Vasida.” Once Vasida recovered from her surprise, she studied the little Sprite with curiosity—the one rumored to be so different from the rest.

Bi’er gave Vasida a few raspberries wrapped in leaves as well, then returned to Sylph’s side.

From across the field, Sylph waved at them.

Mo Lan and Vasida didn’t want to disturb Sylph and Bi’er any further, so they continued on toward the Ingredient Collection Station.

“Does Bi’er actually want to form a contract with a witch or not? Is she really just tricking everyone for the sake of hearing stories?”

Vasida was quite puzzled. “If that’s all it is, then fine. But if not—a witch’s contract is already generous enough toward Sprites. Is there really any need to be so cautious?

A witch’s contract is plenty fair to Sprites. They would absolutely be treated well.”

“Maybe she wants to find a witch who isn’t motivated by the contract—someone who genuinely likes her and is willing to tell her stories,” Mo Lan said.

Beyond that, she couldn’t think of any other reason either.

“Someone not motivated by the contract?” Vasida shook her head. “Outside the Academy, maybe. Inside the Academy… that’s a tall order!”

After all, everyone was struggling just to eat a decent meal right now. Who would be willing to run around and work hard for a Sprite who was destined to be only a passing presence in their life, when they could barely feed themselves?

Vasida’s thoughts were much the same as Mo Lan’s. Sprites were certainly skilled at tending plants, but for witches, that wasn’t an irreplaceable ability. Beyond that, they didn’t have much else to offer.

Once exposed, they couldn’t even protect themselves—otherwise, their entire race wouldn’t have sought the protection of witches in the first place.

A creature like that simply didn’t have the kind of value that would make a witch go all out to obtain one.