Chapter 88 – Household Magic

Chapter 88 – Household Magic

Back at the dormitory, before she even stepped through the door, Mo Lan spotted the basket sitting outside.

Inside were breadfruits that had rotted until they were completely dried out, without even a trace of odor remaining.

And her wand, which she’d stuck in among them.

Mo Lan hurriedly pulled the wand out, wiped the dust off with her sleeve, and held it under her nose for a sniff.

“Good, good! It doesn’t stink!”

The breadfruits had rotted into black dried husks, all their moisture evaporated. The basket that had once been heavy now felt light as a feather.

She tossed the breadfruits into the yard as fertilizer.

It wasn’t until she opened the dormitory door that she realized she’d celebrated too soon.

A moldy smell permeated the dormitory, wafting from the storage room.

Mo Lan’s heart sank as she opened the storage room door.

Probably because the storage room received far less sunlight and warmth than the outside of the dormitory, the moisture in the breadfruits hadn’t fully evaporated yet. The stench filled the entire storage room—it was absolutely unbearable.

She slammed the door shut with a bang.

She threw open every door and window in the dormitory, went out to the yard and dug a hole, covered her mouth and nose with a towel, and only then did she confront the chaos of the storage room once more.

Fighting back her disgust, she removed all the rotten fruits bit by bit and buried them in the pit she’d dug in the yard.

Then she gave the entire place—inside and out—a thorough cleaning before she was finally satisfied.

When it was all done, she collapsed into a chair. “I was so foolish, truly. What good are the Light spell and the Spring Water spell? Neither of them is as useful as the Household Magic Cleaning spell! I should have learned the Cleaning spell first!”

Unfortunately, classes started again tomorrow, so she needed to prepare next week’s fruit cakes and juice first.

By the time she’d picked more breadfruits, washed them, pressed them into juice, and made them into cakes, it was already approaching evening.

Eating Breadfruit Cake and leafing through the Grimoire, everything was finally back on track.

Today, she was especially interested in Household Magic.

The book 《Household Magic: Cleaning, Tidying, and Repair》 was one she probably couldn’t finish even if she read until midnight.

The Flame spell, on the other hand—Mo Lan had already read 《Fire, Light, and Water》 and 《The Art of Flame》, so she could attempt it directly.

The casting method was very similar to the Spring Water spell and the Light spell.

With her memories of Earth, she had a thorough understanding of fire as well.

Holding her wand, thinking of fire, channeling her mana—a small flame appeared at the tip of her wand in an instant.

It was about the same size as a match flame, but somewhat more stable.

Extinguish, ignite, extinguish, ignite—casting with focused concentration, she made virtually no mistakes.

Just like that, she’d learned the Flame spell. The entire process took less than three minutes.

Sure enough, as long as you knew the method and had a clear casting command, learning a spell wasn’t difficult for a Sorceress with no Talent restrictions. The hard part was raising the spell’s level.

In that regard, even Sorceresses had no great advantage—it still came down to practice.

With this, Mo Lan had learned all three spells from the book 《fire, Light, and Water》.

She settled in comfortably and began reading 《Household Magic: Cleaning, Tidying, and Repair》.

“Household Magic encompasses the Cleaning spell, the Tidying spell, and the Repair spell.

They can be considered individual spells, or they can be grouped together under the collective name: Household Magic.

However, for beginners, learning them one at a time is easier…”

After the foreword, the first section covered the Cleaning spell.

Mo Lan managed to finish this section just before bedtime.

How to put it? This spell was a bit special—it had two casting methods.

The first method: using mana or magical power to command tools to clean.

This casting method required some advance preparation: Attuning cleaning tools.

Once attuned, you would use mana to command them to clean and sweep.

The process was similar to Culinary Magic, though unlike Culinary Magic—where every dish required a complex cooking procedure—it was much simpler.

This casting method was suited for cleaning and sweeping large spaces.

Additionally, witches without strong water magic Talent could only use this casting method for the Cleaning spell.

If you had a fixed location—like a witch’s home—once the cleaning tools became familiar with the workspace and grew “acquainted” with you as their owner, you wouldn’t even need complex commands to set them in motion. They’d automatically clean the house on their own.

The more attuned cleaning tools were used, the more responsive and handy they became, and the less mana they required.

Mo Lan called it “raising a team of tool-nannies through Magic Infusion.” The more you attuned them, the more the tool-nannies gradually took on the shape of their owner, and the less wages (mana) they demanded.

The second method: converting mana or magical power into water elemental force to clean directly.

This casting method required at least Intermediate-level water magic Talent to master.

Moreover, it was only suitable for cleaning small areas or small objects.

For example, cleaning dust off your body or clothes, washing dirty dishes, or removing a small stain.

The idea of waving a wand and sweeping an entire room clean of dust in an instant simply didn’t exist.

This casting method consumed several times more mana than tool-based cleaning.

It also required a completely focused casting state.

And most importantly, you needed to know what the target looked like when it was clean before you could use mana to clean it directly.

In other words, if something was already dirty when you first saw it, or if you hadn’t noticed what it looked like when it was clean, you couldn’t use this casting method to clean it.

However, if you carried attuned tool-nannies with you, you could still direct the tools to do the cleaning.

When she’d invited the young witches over for hotpot before, the method Senior Lilith used to wash the dishes was this very type of Cleaning spell.

According to the book, if Lilith had only seen the dirty dishes and hadn’t noticed what they looked like when clean, she wouldn’t have been able to use the spell either.

Mo Lan closed the book. “The second casting method seems better suited for cleaning yourself, while the first is better for cleaning the environment!”

As for the fixed tools required by the first method—that was no problem for her whatsoever.

One “Cleaning Tool Card” would take care of everything.

Never mind anything else—first, she’d make herself a deluxe version!

Brooms, mops, rags, buckets… several sets of each.

She’d guarantee that once they all sprang into action, an entire small building could be cleaned in a matter of minutes.

The production cost was about the same as the Portable Utensil Card—20 Mana each.

At a five-times markup, the card would be priced at 100 Mana.

Considering that the other young witches currently had very limited magical power, Mo Lan also designed a basic version of the Cleaning Tool Card that cost only 2 Mana to produce and would sell for 10 Mana, as well as a flagship version that cost 10 Mana to produce and would sell for 50 Mana.

The different cards varied in the number of cleaning tools they contained.

With these cards, young witches could carry cleaning tools with them wherever they went.

These cards would certainly have no trouble selling. After all, the first casting method of the Cleaning spell could be learned by any young witch with no Talent restriction, so there would definitely be far more witches learning it.