Chapter 51 – The Witch’s Stick

But how had she managed to create the Status Cards?

She understood the methods for distinguishing between races, the weight of Magic Power, and the classification of magic.

But she only knew the magic classification system—she didn’t know the names of every spell! Magic levels were calculated based on the maximum proportion of Magic Power one could channel when casting.

Yet without knowing the names of the spells, how could magic levels be displayed? By all logic, the Status Cards still had gaps in their knowledge base, so they shouldn’t have been possible to create.

And yet she had created them.

If Mo Lan didn’t know with absolute certainty that whatever functions she inscribed would be faithfully reproduced without compromise, she would have suspected this batch of Status Cards was defective.

The Status Cards did indeed have the ability to display magic and its corresponding levels, and she truly didn’t know the names of every spell.

So where exactly was the discrepancy? How had she managed to make them?

Mo Lan began methodically unraveling the mystery.

Beyond the knowledge she personally possessed, her own abilities could also serve as raw material for card creation—such as magic, such as her Talent.

Since it wasn’t something she knew intellectually, then it had to be something she possessed innately.

She hadn’t formally studied any magic yet. The Golden Pen Technique and the Grimoire were both Sorceress Magic—she only had usage rights, not true ownership of those abilities.

Viewed this way, the answer became obvious. It was because of her Manifested Gift—the Book of Cards.

That’s right. The Book of Cards had the ability to read her thoughts and create cards accordingly.

Could it be that the Status Cards derived the corresponding spell names by reading the user’s thoughts?

Many spells had different names, so the name in the user’s mind was indeed more fitting.

Mo Lan tried thinking: “Change Golden Pen Technique to Contract Technique!”

The next moment, the “Golden Pen Technique” on the Status Card actually changed to “Contract Technique”!

It really did change according to the user’s thoughts and perception!

She changed the name back, but her heart refused to settle.

She was a card creator, yet only now did she fully understand the Status Card she had made.

The pride she’d felt from her consecutive successful card creations vanished without a trace.

“I cannot create something whose principles I don’t understand and whose abilities I don’t possess.”

Mo Lan hammered this phrase into her mind, then closed the Book of Cards.

What she lacked was never inspiration for card creation—it was the knowledge and magical ability to support it.

She couldn’t allow herself to become so immersed in the success of card-making that she forgot the most fundamental things.

Mo Lan used the Grimoire spell to summon her own Grimoire.

Guessing that tomorrow’s class would cover wand crafting, she flipped to the book titled “Wands and Wands” and began reading with a calm mind.

“‘Wands and Wands’ was originally titled ‘The Witch’s Stick,’ written by a witch who wished to remain anonymous. It is an informational history book with a low reading difficulty, suitable for young witches who lack knowledge about wands…”

“The Witch’s Stick?” Mo Lan read the first paragraph of the foreword, feeling somewhat baffled, though it also piqued her curiosity.

She read through most of it in one sitting.

The book said that long ago, witches did not understand their own abilities.

They believed that their special powers were connected to the phenomena that erupted during their first awakening.

Those who erupted in flames upon awakening were Red Witches.

Those who produced flowing water were Blue Witches.

Those around whom plants grew rapidly were Green Witches.

And so on—there were also Cyan Witches, Purple Witches, Orange Witches, White Witches, Black Witches, and others.

Newly awakened witches could not freely control their abilities. They frequently displayed abnormalities in inappropriate situations.

In that era when angels and demons divided the human territories of the Continent of Valen between them, only the priests and knights of the Angel Church, and the priests and warriors of the Demon Church, possessed magical abilities within human kingdoms.

Any non-clergy who displayed special abilities would be deemed heretics and subjected to trial.

Witches who could not control their powers were regular visitors to the burning stake.

Countless witches were accidentally exposed and executed.

There was a witch named Thelma who, when being burned at the stake, erupted with magical force and burned to death the priests and villagers who had condemned her.

To escape the temple’s pursuit, she fled into a remote, primeval forest.

The forest teemed with snakes, insects, rats, and ants, which Thelma beat back with a wooden stick.

One day, she suddenly discovered that the wild, untamable flame ability within her body became gentle and controllable when she held the stick—though its destructive power was diminished.

Moreover, only that particular stick, the one she had used for a very long time, produced this effect.

She could even use the stick to conjure small flames for starting fires, and when she was thirsty, she could use it to produce clean water.

It seemed that while holding the stick, she possessed not only the power of flame, but also abilities related to water, plants, wind, and more.

That stick was the world’s first wand.

Later, she encountered a reclusive Green Witch in the forest and shared her discovery.

The Green Witch fashioned a stick of her own in imitation, carrying it with her every day. Eventually, her stick developed the same abilities as Thelma’s.

The news gradually spread among witches everywhere. Witches began nurturing their own “sticks,” using them to master their abilities.

It was also at this time that witches came to understand that the phenomena during their first awakening only represented their strongest ability—not the entirety of their powers.

From then on, the witches’ chances of survival increased dramatically.

Later, witches discovered “Magic Infusion.”

A witch who had once been a temple kitchen apprentice combined Magic Infusion with the priests’ scepters and gave “the witch’s stick” a new name—”Wand.”

From that point on, “the witch’s stick” came to be known as the “Wand.”

Through continuous experimentation, witches mastered faster methods of creating wands.

The method was to select a fresh branch or stick that caught one’s eye and felt right, then suffuse it with magic. It would then become a witch’s casting companion—a Wand.

When Mo Lan read this far, she knew that the fresh branches Lady Amisha had asked them to prepare were certainly meant for making wands!

After the first wands appeared, witches never stopped researching them.

Once humanity discovered that those who worshipped angels gaining divine arts and those who made deals with demons gaining power were merely a deception—that humans inherently possessed the ability to master extraordinary powers through study—a new kind of caster emerged among humanity: those who placed their faith in knowledge. They called themselves mages.

Mages believed that as long as they acquired the relevant knowledge, they could master the corresponding abilities.

Some witches, thinking themselves kindred spirits with mages, approached them—only to invite new danger.

The witches’ extraordinary magical abilities and their special method of casting without relying on knowledge were exposed.

From being regulars on the temple’s burning stakes, witches became the prey of mages.

Many a mage tower’s dungeon held captive witches, subjected to all manner of inhumane experiments—all to extract the secret of the witches’ Talent.