Chapter 117 – Another One Gone Mad

Mo Lan was already casting the Lush Flourishing spell on the wheat seedlings in her field, while the other little witches had only just managed to stably cast the Fertile Soil spell and were beginning to fertilize their own farmland.

Vasida and Sylph were a bit faster—they had nearly finished fertilizing their fields and had just collected wheat seeds from Lady Amisha.

Mo Lan finished one round of the Lush Flourishing spell and took a stroll through the wheat field.

Although the seedlings had already grown to knee height, they had all been accelerated using the beginner Growth Acceleration spell and had actually only been planted a few days ago.

The entire wheat field was still very new—no weeds, no pests, and the soil had just been fertilized.

All that remained was to wait for the seedlings to grow slowly. At this point, the beginner Growth Acceleration spell wasn’t doing much anymore.

To rapidly accelerate an ordinary plant from seed to maturity, one needed at least the intermediate level.

Mo Lan suddenly found herself with nothing to do and wanted to ask Lady Amisha about learning to grow the next type of plant. Her farmland still had plenty of space where nothing had been planted yet!

“The next plant? There are so many in the textbook—just pick one you like and follow the instructions in the book! Everything’s explained quite clearly. Go get seeds from the Seed Warehouse,” Amisha said without even turning her head.

These words instantly reminded her of when the Culinary Magic course had ended, and Iris had asked how to learn to cook more complex dishes—Lady Amisha had said the same thing: learn from the recipe books.

“Headmistress! The planting magic course isn’t going to end just because we’ve learned to grow wheat with magic, is it?” Mo Lan asked, half in disbelief and half in confusion.

“Of course it is! It’s a planting ‘magic’ course, not a planting course! The textbook explains everything clearly—just follow the book and learn. The Headmistress can’t follow you around forever. Books are your eternal teachers. Why else do you think we place so much importance on theory and reading classes?”

Amisha said this as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Mo Lan: “…”

Now she understood why Senior Lilith had said their remaining courses would be finished very quickly.

She hadn’t even finished her second week of planting magic class, and the Headmistress was already telling her to learn how to grow other vegetables from books. The course content really was nothing more than learning to use planting magic to grow wheat.

Even though the other little witches were progressing much more slowly than her, and even though her wheat hadn’t fully matured yet, this course wouldn’t last much longer before it ended.

But she couldn’t say Lady Amisha was wrong, either.

When first learning magic, ignorance bred fearlessness—recklessly attempting many things carried a certain danger, and concepts were difficult to grasp, which was why public classes existed to provide instruction.

When the textbooks were written in sufficient detail and with scientific rigor, once you’d learned the basic methods, you really could self-study the rest.

If you ran into problems, the worst that could happen was growing something poorly. A bit of research and you’d figure it out.

Mo Lan had no choice but to go to the Seed Warehouse, collect some vegetable and fruit seeds, and come back to try planting them.

She chose plants that existed on Earth—ones she knew how to eat, which also made them easier to grow.

This time, she selected about a dozen seeds of each variety, planning to do trial plantings in both her farmland and the dormitory courtyard.

Growing food to eat was secondary; the main goal was practicing the three spells: Fertile Soil, Growth Acceleration, and Lush Flourishing.

The Ingredient Collection Station was still open to her, so as long as she practiced her planting magic well, she was confident she could grow another crop before the end of first year to have food for second year.

At the same time, she didn’t forget to periodically cast the Lush Flourishing spell and Growth Acceleration spell on the wheat seedlings.

During this period, she also weeded and dealt with pests once.

By the third week after planting, the wheat had entered its maturation phase.

The wheat ears, enhanced by the Lush Flourishing spell, were large and plump.

Mo Lan took out her Witch Farming Tool Card and produced, all in one go, a sickle, a threshing brush, a winnowing fan, a stone mortar, a millstone… and various other tools for harvesting, threshing, hulling, and grinding flour. During this entire time, she had never forgotten to Attune these farming tools.

“Wait—all of these? Moira, you Attuned every single one?” Vasida asked in astonishment.

“Mm-hm! They’ve each still got their own temperament, but they’re usable now,” Mo Lan said.

“How did you manage that?” Even Sylph couldn’t help asking. “Even if these tools are easier to handle than the big hoe, Attuning them still takes quite a bit of time, doesn’t it? It hasn’t even been that long! And they’re already usable?”

“I just did a bit of Attuning whenever I got back to the dormitory—while reading, while sleeping, I’d Attune them on the side!” Mo Lan said. “Wasn’t it the same when I was Attuning the big hoe before? I don’t even Attune during theory classes in the morning!”

The little witches: “…”

They had only hugged their hoes to sleep because they had no choice—they needed that plot of farmland to grow future food supplies!

Now that they had their farmland, who would still sleep hugging farming tools?!

“You’ve been sleeping surrounded by farming tools every night?” Vasida looked at her as if she were looking at a lunatic.

“Not exactly. I just put the tools next to my bed, then rest my hand on them and Attune while I sleep. As long as there’s skin contact, it works,” Mo Lan explained with perfect seriousness.

“That’s Moira for you!” Sylph exclaimed in admiration.

She might have appeared to be the most eager about planting, but in reality, her drive to act paled in comparison to Mo Lan’s.

After her admiration came inspiration: “I need to Attune all these tools I’ll need later to a usable level before my wheat matures too!”

“What, you’re going to sleep hugging farming tools too?”

Vasida thought to herself: “It’s over. Another one’s gone mad.”

“Moira just said you don’t have to hug them—you just need your hand touching them!” Sylph said.

“We haven’t been trying hard enough!” The little witches all steeled their resolve. Attuning farming tools had to be added to the agenda.

Vasida: “…”

It was over. Mo Lan had driven another group of little witches mad.

Sylph noticed Vasida’s indescribable expression and asked her, “What, you’re not going to Attune yours?”

“Of course I am!” Vasida said without a moment’s hesitation.

She could use her Devouring Stomach to store Breadfruit and eat that—as long as the Breadfruit Grove still existed, she’d never have to worry about going hungry. But after graduation there would be no more Breadfruit. She had no money either, so she could only grow her own food.

She didn’t just need to learn every type of planting magic—she needed to master them to the highest degree. Being able to rapidly accelerate food growth to fill her stomach was what mattered most.

She had taken plenty of wheat seeds and planted every bit of her farmland, all because she wanted to push her Growth Acceleration spell to the utmost limit.

With so many little witches gone mad already, one more wouldn’t make a difference.

Mo Lan nodded with satisfaction. Everyone was as hardworking as ever!

“Let’s finish learning planting magic quickly so we can start cultivating broomstick grass sooner. Senior Lilith said that if we finish all our courses before the new school year starts, we’ll get a holiday! A holiday with no homework!”

The little witches, who had spent over half a year studying magic and doing workbooks even on weekends, had their eyes light up in an instant!

A holiday with no homework! They could hardly wait!

“Enough talk—I’m going to go check on my wheat field!”