Chapter 29 – Witch Sight

“They’re doing extra practice on their own!” Iris immediately felt a jolt of urgency. “No way! If even the sorceresses are practicing outside of class, how can we just stand around doing nothing!”

They couldn’t choose their own talent, but they could choose to work hard!

Witches were already less gifted than sorceresses — how could they afford to be less diligent too?

The two of them exchanged a glance and, in tacit agreement, returned to their seats to bury themselves in practice with the resonance paper.

Of course, they didn’t forget to first take a couple bites of Breadfruit to tide themselves over and speed up their mana recovery a little.

As class time drew nearer, the young witches trickled back into the classroom one after another.

Then, after a brief moment of shock, they joined the ranks of those practicing, carrying with them a deep sense of guilt.

With one minute left before class, Lady Amisha arrived.

The moment she stepped through the door, she was startled.

Had she been late?! Could the two o’clock afternoon bell have already rung without her hearing it?

It would be the biggest blunder of her entire teaching career. She was just about to pull out her pocket watch to check when she heard the two chimes of the bell ring out.

Confirmed — she wasn’t late. She was as punctual as ever.

But what was going on with the students?

In all her centuries of life, this was the first time she had ever seen students — every last one of them — sitting in their seats and studying voluntarily before class had even begun.

Whether they were students from the Wilds, from beyond the Wilds, or even from beyond Valen — from another world entirely.

Was this cohort of young witches really this disciplined and studious?

Amisha’s gaze upon the young witches grew even more tender.

She didn’t even interrupt their practice right away. Instead, she strolled among them to inspect how they were progressing.

What she saw delighted her even more.

The young witches hadn’t limited themselves to saturating the resonance paper with a single uniform shade of green. They had begun attempting different depths of green, trying to produce each shade evenly.

The three young sorceresses had even started attempting different depths of yellow.

Most remarkable of all was Mo Lan, who could already saturate the resonance paper with different depths of red, yellow, and green at will — and could even arrange them into patterns.

Amisha could tell at a glance that they weren’t just playing around. They were practicing with purpose, training for more precise saturation, and their methods were effective.

She waited until all the young witches had finished their current round of practice before clapping her hands with a look of satisfaction.

“You are the hardest-working, most dedicated cohort I have ever taught! Truly! I’m so proud of you!”

The emotional validation was cranked all the way up!

Every young witch sat up straighter, chins held high, brimming with a sense of accomplishment!

After the praise, it was time to get back on track. “Next, we’ll be using magic power to saturate the eyeball and activate Witch Sight.

“First, I’ll give everyone some time to practice green-level Magic Infusion on the resonance paper one more time to refamiliarize yourselves.

“Any saturation within the green range can activate Witch Sight, but the deeper the shade, the longer a single saturation will last.

“However, the deeper the shade, the greater the strain on the eyeball.

“I recommend that everyone start with a lighter shade of green. Once you’ve adapted, you can gradually increase the intensity — it’ll be more comfortable for your eyes that way.

“Sorceresses have much greater physical adaptability than witches. Mo Lan, Vasida, Sylph — the three of you can start with a medium green.

“Once you feel ready, come find me to attempt your first Magic Infusion of the eyeball and activate your Witch Sight!”

Originally, a single morning class period would have been just enough time for each young witch to master one shade of green Magic Infusion.

In previous years, whichever shade they managed to learn was the one they used for their first activation of Witch Sight.

Even if the shade was sometimes too intense and caused eye discomfort, as long as the saturation was within the green range, there was no danger.

There was only this one group lesson on Magic Infusion. Everything after that was left for the young witches to adjust and adapt to on their own. It was also an initial exercise in their capacity for self-directed learning.

Many young witches typically had to endure some discomfort when first using Magic Infusion to activate Witch Sight.

But this cohort — every single one of them had mastered at least two different shades of green saturation.

With options available, Amisha was naturally happy to let them have an easier time of it.

The young witches didn’t know any of this. They each chose the lightest shade of green they had mastered and began practicing on their resonance paper.

Mo Lan was already confident with every level of Magic Infusion, but she still practiced one more round of medium-green saturation before getting up and heading to the lectern to find Lady Amisha.

“Ready?” Amisha asked.

“Yes!” Mo Lan nodded with certainty.

“Then let’s begin!” Amisha said. “Follow my instructions. First, close your eyes and place your finger on your eyelid.

“One hand on one eye is fine — yes! Just like that!

“Now let your mana flow out slowly, covering the eyelid. Just like saturating the resonance paper — fully saturate the eyelid and the eyeball.”

Mo Lan followed each step, deliberately slowing her pace.

With the experience she’d gained practicing on the resonance paper, she smoothly covered her right eyelid with a thin layer of mana without any trouble.

Amisha had been watching the state of the mana covering her eye the entire time. The moment it was fully covered, she said, “That’s enough! Stop the mana output and open your eye to take a look!”

Mo Lan lowered her finger and opened her eyes.

The first thing she saw was Lady Amisha.

Between her left eye and her right eye, Amisha looked no different.

As if sensing her confusion, Amisha explained, “Witch Sight cannot detect owned energy that exceeds one’s own level. Unowned energy in the natural world is a different matter — it’s not subject to that limitation. Turn around and look at the other young witches.”

Mo Lan turned to look.

The young witches were watching her curiously too.

In the vision of her right eye, many luminous halos had appeared. She guessed they must be traces of Magic Power.

And though she could see these halos clearly, they didn’t obstruct her line of sight at all. It was as if her right eye had split into two layers — one for the energy halos and one for normal vision — and the two didn’t interfere with each other.

Each young witch had energy halos of different hues around her.

Take Alba, for instance — she was surrounded by one large white halo, interspersed with smaller halos of blue, red, orange, gold, cyan, purple, green, and various other colors.

The other young witches were similar, each with one or two dominant-colored large halos mixed with smaller halos of other colors, creating a dazzling, multicolored display.

The overall size of the halo clusters didn’t vary much — roughly twenty centimeters in diameter by her estimate — though their brightness differed.

Only Vasida and Sylph were different. The halos around them were so vast they nearly engulfed their entire upper bodies.

By her estimate, the diameter had to be at least one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty centimeters!

And unlike the others’ clusters of one large halo among many small ones, theirs were single masses of colorful light that seemed to contain every color yet belonged to none — a prismatic, indescribable glow.

Their brightness, too, outshone the young witches’.

Vasida’s in particular was almost solid.

Mo Lan then looked down to examine the halo around herself.