Chapter 61 – Upgrading Magic

Chapter 61 – Upgrading Magic

“《The Continent of Valen》! You mean that Continent of Valen that fills up several entire bookshelves?”

“It’s fine, the Headmistress only assigned Volume Seven!”

“You’re so naive! Volume Seven showed up in today’s homework — can Volumes Eight and Nine be far behind?”

“Don’t tell me that from now on, every Fundamentals of Magic Theory class, if we can’t answer the Headmistress’s questions, we’ll be punished with reading assignments and essays!”

“If it were only Fundamentals of Magic Theory, that would be manageable. What’s terrifying is if every theory class ends up like this!”

“What do we do? Theory classes are even more stressful than practical classes now!”

“Who was it that said before class that theory lessons would be just like studying the 《Young Witch’s Primer》?”

……

The young witches exchanged helpless glances.

Mo Lan jotted down the assignment requirements, packed up her things, and seeing the young witches stricken with theory-class phobia, kindly tried to encourage them:

“Think of it from another angle — we search for gaps in our knowledge on our own first, and then the Headmistress helps us identify what we missed. It’s really beneficial for mastering theory material! And it’s much more interesting than just reading a theory textbook!”

“……”

The young witches found themselves unable to argue with that.

“I’m going to the reading room to copy 《The Continent of Valen》. Are you coming?” Mo Lan asked.

“Yes!”

Breaking down over homework was one thing, but the homework still had to be done! On the way to school that morning, every young witch had infused some blank parchment.

Even if they weren’t copying Volume Seven of Continent of Valen for the assignment, they still needed to copy 《The Birth of an Exquisite Cover》 to make a satisfactory Grimoire as soon as possible.

In the First-Year Reading Room, while the other young witches queued up to copy Volume Seven of Continent of Valen, Mo Lan sat in the reading area, studying.

She had no choice. The night she had remade her Grimoire, she had already filled it with the maximum number of blank pages that an Apprentice-level Grimoire could hold.

Of those, ninety-one pages had already been used, leaving only nine blank ones.

Her Grimoire had reached the capacity limit of the Apprentice level.

Although there was still room to copy Volume Seven of Continent of Valen, there was no guarantee the Headmistress wouldn’t recommend more reference books for essays later, and her remaining nine blank pages wouldn’t be nearly enough.

She had to upgrade her Grimoire magic.

Lady Amisha had said that the method for upgrading the Grimoire could be found in 《Lifelong Learning Companion — The Grimoire》.

That was exactly what Mo Lan was researching now.

With a clear objective, she skipped past the application guides for the Grimoire and quickly found the upgrade method.

To upgrade the Grimoire magic from Apprentice to Beginner level, she only needed to sign one more contract.

However, the Beginner-level Grimoire contract also required at least Beginner-level Golden Pen Technique to write.

So she needed to upgrade her Golden Pen Technique to Beginner level first.

Perhaps the contract written with the Golden Pen Technique was itself part of upgrading the Grimoire. This book contained contract templates for the Grimoire at every level of Golden Pen Technique.

Everything else was the same as the previous Apprentice-level contract, except the costs were all doubled.

Each one required a payment of 10 Mana in permanent magical power, totaling 20 Mana combined.

Twenty Mana didn’t sound like much, but Mo Lan was only 10 Mana away from reaching Advanced Sorceress.

Yet she couldn’t afford not to do it. If she wanted to copy all of the Academy’s collection, this was Mana she would have to spend sooner or later.

Mo Lan gritted her teeth, wrote out a contract, pricked her finger, and signed it.

Her Golden Pen Technique upgraded to Beginner level, and the pen became slightly more refined.

Then she used the Beginner-level Golden Pen Technique to write another contract. After signing it, her Grimoire immediately upgraded to Beginner level, and its page capacity jumped from 100 to 1,000.

Mo Lan loaded in the parchment she had infused over the past two days, along with the parchment she had infused that morning, trimmed and added as well. She copied every remaining book on the elective reading list, including the complete set of 《The Continent of Valen》.

That occupied less than half of the Beginner-level Grimoire’s capacity, and she even had several dozens of blank sheets she could use before she had to prepare more.

Of course, the reading room contained far more than just the few hundred books on the reading list.

But those were undoubtedly the most important ones.

Despite now containing several hundred books, the Grimoire looked no different from the outside.

Mo Lan glanced at her Status Card and sighed. Her total Mana had dropped to just 970.

During the Talent assessment, she had been only 2 Mana short of Advanced Sorceress. A little over a week later, she was now 30 Mana short.

Her magical power had actually grown somewhat over these past days, yet she was further from Advanced Sorceress than ever.

Looking at it from another angle, she alone — just one Sorceress — had already contributed 30 Mana in permanent magical power to two senior Sorceresses!

To copy all of the Academy’s books, both her Grimoire and Golden Pen Technique would need to be upgraded to at least Advanced level, requiring another 70 Mana in permanent magical power.

“Sorceress Magic really is profitable!” Mo Lan thought.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have her own Sorceress Magic yet.

The young witches had witnessed Mo Lan’s feat. With only forty or fifty Mana each on average, they felt the cost even more keenly. “So expensive!”

No wonder Lady Amisha had told them not to be greedy!

Sorceress Magic was wonderful, but with their meager magical power, they couldn’t afford the cost.

Still, having less magical power meant finding ways to work with less.

Iris said, “I’m going to read more books. Every extra book I finish before graduation is one less I’ll need to copy, saving space in my Grimoire!”

This time, without Mo Lan having to lead the way, the young witches spontaneously wanted to read more.

On the way down the hill, several more young witches were walking with their Grimoires held open before them.

Their Grimoires weren’t as large as Mo Lan’s though, making them somewhat difficult to read while walking.

And they hadn’t yet mastered Mo Lan’s skill of reading and navigating at the same time.

But they paired up, supporting each other — one reading aloud from the Grimoire while the other led the way — achieving the goal of reading while walking.

When upper-year witches flew overhead on their way from class, the young witches didn’t spare them a single glance.

“Lilith, I think what you said this morning was too modest. They’re not just working hard — they’re going all out!”

A second-year young witch exclaimed in amazement.

“……” Lilith was no less astonished than they were. “This morning, Moira was the only one reading on the road!”

In the span of a single morning, the first-year young witches had evolved yet again.

Every single one of them was now reading while walking.

“Come on, let’s go! Hurry back — after lunch we’re studying the new wands! We can’t let the first-years show us up!” Quilin said.

Across the sky, streaks of broomstick silhouettes flashed past.

With afternoon classes not starting until four o’clock, the first-year young witches still had time to rest and eat lunch after walking back from the Castle to the Dormitory.

Mo Lan, however, had no plans to cook. After filling her stomach with some Breadfruit Cake, she went straight back to reading.

Her Grimoire now contained copies of several hundred books, yet she had only finished reading one — Wands, Wands — cover to cover. That was far too few.

Books copied into the Grimoire only served as a reference library. Only what she read and committed to memory truly became her own.