Chapter 107 – Bringing Hoes to Class

Chapter 107 – Bringing Hoes to Class

“You’re envious of me? I’m the one who’s envious of you!”

Vasida said, “Mine is the only Manifested Gift where infusing Mana does absolutely nothing. There’s no way to actively develop it at all—the only option is to keep eating and eating and eating!

“And I feel like my appetite is getting bigger and bigger.

“Before, eating one tree’s worth of Breadfruit would keep me from getting hungry for three days. Now I need two trees’ worth.

“Other than recovering Mana a bit faster, being a bit stronger, and having better stamina, there don’t seem to be any other effects!”

Unlike Mo Lan’s Book of Cards, which could use Mana to create so many wondrous Cards.

And unlike Sylph’s Box of Ten Thousand Seeds, which when infused with enough Mana could produce mutant plant seeds like the Screaming Wind Chime Flower, and even allowed her to communicate freely with the mutant plants she cultivated.

“But you never have to worry about not having enough Mana!” Sylph said.

Ever since she had discovered that infusing enough Mana into the Box of Ten Thousand Seeds would produce mutant plant seeds, her Mana had never recovered to full.

Condensing seeds required Mana. Cultivating mutant plants required Mana.

She had practically become a second Lilith.

“Aren’t you trying to breed seeds now? When that works out, you could sell seeds like Moira does and earn some single-use Mana to ease the shortage,” Vasida suggested.

Sylph’s face immediately fell. “Don’t even bring it up! I don’t think it’s going to work!”

Even Mo Lan couldn’t help but ask, “What happened?”

“The seeds condensed from my Mana are like they’ve been poisoned by me—they can only be nurtured with my Mana.

“Remember the first Screaming Wind Chime Flower? Last month it reached its seeding period, so I divided the pots and had Bi’er help me plant them. And guess what happened?”

Sylph grew upset just talking about it. “After a whole month, not a single one sprouted! I waited and waited, and yesterday I finally couldn’t take it anymore and dug them up to check—every single seed buried in the soil had died!”

“What?” Mo Lan and Vasida were full of disbelief. “There are actually plants that a Sprite can’t grow?”

“Bi’er was practically drowning in guilt,” Sylph said. “But I know she followed the exact same method we used to cultivate the Screaming Wind Chime Flower to care for those seeds—she didn’t do anything wrong. When I first planted Little Bell, it wasn’t this delicate at all. I just casually watered it a bit and it sprouted before long. It grew really well after that too, and once I started occasionally feeding it some Mana, it grew even better! Its blooming period was much longer than ordinary Wind Chime Flowers.”

Vasida and Mo Lan, who had absolutely no understanding of mutant plants, couldn’t offer any good advice either.

Ordinary Wind Chime Flower seeds could be buried in the soil and left completely unattended, and they would still grow strong and bloom beautifully.

But these Screaming Wind Chime Flowers—even Bi’er had killed them.

And she was a Sprite, the most skilled plant cultivator there was!

“Sigh! I have no idea where the problem lies. I need to stop by the greenhouse later to comfort Bi’er, so I won’t be heading back with you two,” Sylph said, then bid them farewell.

Vasida watched her walk toward the greenhouse alone, then turned to Mo Lan. “Sylph’s run into problems again, and I have absolutely no idea how to research the Devouring Stomach. Out of the three of us, you’re definitely the best and fastest at developing your Manifested Gift!”

Mo Lan didn’t play modest this time.

In terms of being easy to understand and easy to research, her Book of Cards was indeed far better than Vasida’s Devouring Stomach or Sylph’s Box of Ten Thousand Seeds.

It was a good thing she had created the {Book of Cards} Card—an auxiliary card for making other Cards—right from the start. Otherwise, whenever card creation failed, she would have been left clueless, guessing blindly, searching for answers through endless trial and error.

Her research into her Manifested Gift had already put her a step ahead of the other young Sorceresses, to the point where she could begin developing Sorceress Magic based on her understanding of her own Talent.

It was just that she hadn’t found the time yet to look into the matter of Sorceress Magic.

*

From that day onward, whenever they had time and opportunity, the young witches would hold their large hoes and Attune with them.

At first, they would simply take out the large hoes to Attune whenever they had free time back at the Dormitory.

By Tuesday’s planting magic class, the young witches discovered that the large hoes’ stubborn tempers had actually been smoothed out a little—at least during the second half of class, nobody nearly got their heads taken off by their own hoe.

Lady Amisha even came down from her broomstick, spread out a picnic blanket on the field ridge, set up a small tea table, and enjoyed afternoon tea.

Unfortunately, not getting hit on the head didn’t mean the hoes were properly digging the ground.

All the way through the end of class on Wednesday, the ground beneath their feet was full of craters—not craters from digging, but craters from being slammed by hoe heads and hoe handles.

And there were trampled hedgehog weeds everywhere, wilted before they could even be sprayed with herbicide potion.

There wasn’t the slightest sign of any land having been cleared.

“It’s been three days and we haven’t even tamed a large hoe, and there’s still a big watering can left to Attune! Are we going to end up as the young witches with no farmland?!” Iris said, her face full of worry.

“Tonight when I get back, I’m going to give the large hoe a bath! Then I’m hugging it while I sleep! Attuning while I sleep—I refuse to believe it won’t work. Tomorrow, I’m taking it down for sure!” Vasida declared with absolute conviction.

Iris’s eyes lit up. “Great idea! I’m hugging mine while I sleep tonight too!”

“During morning classes tomorrow, can we Attune while listening to the lecture? Would the Headmistress mind?” Sylph was also struck by inspiration.

“Whether she minds or not, let’s just do it first!” Cheryl said. “I’ve asked every single second-year upperclassman—every one of them has their own plot in the farming area! We absolutely cannot show up next Monday with not a single plot of land cleared!”

The other young witches nodded emphatically. “She’s right! We’re the class with the best exam scores across all years and the most Magic Gold Coin rewards—we can’t have the upperclassmen saying we’re all theory and no practice! We have to clear this land, and we have to clear a lot of it! Even more than the upperclassmen!”

Mo Lan looked at the young witches with approval.

Look at them—how impressive!

She hadn’t even thought of Attuning while sleeping or Attuning while attending class!

What a brilliant idea!

That night when she got into bed, she used the Cleaning spell on the large hoe, then closed her eyes to rest while maintaining a steady output of Mana to Attune with it.

The next morning, she checked and—it actually worked!

The large hoe’s Attunement had deepened even further, and the energy traces on it were more pronounced.

During the morning 《History of Witches》 class, Amisha stared in astonishment at the young witches, each one cradling a large hoe in their arms as they sat in their seats, Halos of magical power glowing on their hands as they appeared to be Attuning.

“???” Amisha reminded them, “Class is in session!”

“Headmistress, don’t worry—our Attuning technique is already very refined. It won’t affect our learning at all!” Cheryl said.

The young witches all clutched their hoes and refused to let go, expressing their determination.