Chapter 118 – The Herb Garden

Mo Lan harvested the wheat, threshed it, and ground it into flour, completing all the learning objectives for this planting magic lesson.

By that point, the other young witches’ wheat had only grown to shin height.

By the time Mo Lan had diligently tended her farmland and backyard vegetable plot and trained all three branches of magic to the Intermediate level, the young witches had finally completed their wheat harvest, having experienced the full process of growing wheat with magic.

“The introductory planting magic course ends here. Tomorrow afternoon, gather at Greenhouse No. 1 in the Herb Garden for Broomgrass Cultivation class! The course schedule will be updated tonight. Greenhouse No. 1 is currently in its autumn cycle, so the temperature is a bit low—remember to bring an extra outer robe when you come.”

Amisha reminded them before dismissing class.

More than half of the first academic year had already passed, and the young witches were finally about to begin the long-awaited Broomgrass Cultivation course.

Once the broomgrass was properly cultivated, making brooms and starting flight lessons wouldn’t be far behind.

Flying! Even Mo Lan couldn’t help feeling a flutter of anticipation.

How could a witch’s broom be so magical?

She had already finished proofreading her workbooks a few days ago and had started reading 《Levitation Spell—Your Invisible Hands》, beginning her study of the Levitation Spell.

The Levitation Spell could lift tremendously heavy objects—as long as you could pay the mana cost, its power could be virtually limitless.

But it absolutely could not directly levitate any creature with a soul. Not a rabbit, not a fly—including the witch herself. For the witch herself it was even more strict, you could not indirectly levitate yourself either.

Yet a broom grown from seed could carry a witch aloft.

The next day, at noon before the Broomgrass Cultivation class, the young witches were too restless to nap. They set off in groups toward the Herb Garden, thin jackets in hand.

Sylph frequently visited Greenhouse No. 23 to research and cultivate the magical plant seeds she had condensed from the Box of Ten Thousand Seeds using mana, so she knew the Herb Garden better than any of the other young witches and led the way.

Upon entering the Herb Garden, the young witches were immediately disappointed: “This is it?”

The Herb Garden they had imagined would be filled with all manner of wondrous magical plants.

The actual Herb Garden was a gravel path flanked by neatly arranged circular glass houses. Forget magical plants—there wasn’t even a blade of grass to be seen.

The glass of the houses appeared extremely transparent, yet they could only make out vague hints of green inside, unable to discern what was actually within.

Each glass house had a sign hanging on its door.

“Greenhouse No. 1, Greenhouse No. 2… So these are the greenhouses?” Mo Lan couldn’t help asking Sylph. “They don’t look much bigger than our dormitory rooms. They’re way too small—how much could you possibly grow in there?”

“Don’t be hasty! You’ll understand once we go inside.” Sylph said as she walked toward Greenhouse No. 1. “I heard from Bi’er that Greenhouse No. 1 is the biggest one…”

She pulled open the door.

Mo Lan and Vasida, following close behind, saw what lay beyond the doorway: “!!!”

All they could see was a tree trunk—but that trunk was thick enough that two people linking arms couldn’t encircle it. There was absolutely no way it could have grown inside such a small glass house.

A gust of cold wind blew out from the greenhouse, and Sylph, Mo Lan, and Vasida all shivered in unison.

The temperature inside was much lower than outside.

They hurriedly pulled on the jackets they’d brought, not forgetting to turn back and warn the young witches behind them.

Only after everyone had their jackets on did they step into Greenhouse No. 1.

It was as if they had passed through a portal and arrived in a primeval jungle. Towering trees soared overhead, the ground was carpeted with thick layers of decaying leaves, flowers, grasses, and magical plants whose names they couldn’t begin to guess.

“I told you—the Academy’s Herb Garden couldn’t possibly be that simple!” Vasida said.

Sylph’s eyes were also wide with wonder. Her Greenhouse No. 23 looked barren compared to this. “I feel like I’m back in the Starlight Forest! Except compared to a real forest, there are far fewer snakes, insects, and critters—it’s much quieter…”

As she spoke, she noticed someone was missing from beside her. Glancing back, she saw a purple-haired head at the greenhouse entrance. “Moira, what are you doing?”

Mo Lan didn’t even turn around. “Studying the door and glass walls of this greenhouse! There seem to be magical runes on them.”

Her eyes, after such prolonged exposure to Magic Infusion, had already developed the ability of Witch Sight.

She noticed that both the greenhouse door and glass walls bore a kind of pattern. At first glance they looked like decorative designs, but upon closer inspection, she could see traces of energy—like some kind of energy-gathering runes.

They were very likely the reason the greenhouse contained its own self-sustaining space within.

Heaven knew how long she had coveted spatial items, let alone a greenhouse this enormous! She wanted nothing more than to pry these runes off and feed them to the Book of Cards to see if, after consuming them, it could produce a true spatial card.

“Where? Where?” Vasida heard this and crowded over as well.

Sylph had never noticed these before either. “Is it this pattern here?”

…

Black-robed Amisha arrived at the Herb Garden on her broom, landing at the entrance to Greenhouse No. 1. She leaned her broom against the wall and pulled open the door.

Several yelps of “Ow!” came from inside as a heap of young witches tumbled out.

Amisha looked at the pile of young witches tangled together on the ground. “What are you all doing?”

Had the young witches come up with some new game recently?

Mo Lan was pinned at the very bottom and couldn’t get up right away, but that didn’t stop her from asking Amisha. “Headmistress, are the runes on this door spatial runes of some kind? Is the interior space so large because of these runes?”

“Oh, so that’s what you were looking at!” Amisha’s expression cleared with understanding. “There are runes related to space, yes, but these runes aren’t only about space—there are many magical arrays as well!”

From the look on Mo Lan’s face, Amisha knew exactly what she was thinking. “Want to learn?”

Mo Lan nodded emphatically.

“Then work hard at Alchemy from now on! In the Academy library’s Alchemy section, there’s a book called 《Guide to Spatial Greenhouse Construction》. Once you reach your fourth year, you can start by copying it down.

However, if you actually want to learn to build one of these, you’ll need at least Beyond Peak level Alchemy Magic, along with mastery of magical runes and magical arrays.

You’ll also need to gather materials imbued with spatial power. Oh, that’s right—you’re a Sorceress, and your aptitude for Spatial Magic is quite good too. You could study some Spatial Magic on your own and produce enough spatially-imbued materials yourself. After that, you should be able to build one.” Amisha explained.

“Beyond Peak level?” Mo Lan knew this wasn’t something she could learn anytime soon.

Of everything she was currently studying, only the Grimoire and the Wand were even tangentially related to Alchemy. She hadn’t even begun a systematic introduction to it, let alone reached Beyond Peak level.

Though the young Sorceresses felt the gap was still enormous, at least there was hope. As long as they wanted to learn, they would master it someday.

The other young witches, upon hearing “Beyond Peak,” knew this was something they probably could never learn.

Among them, a few did have decent aptitude for Alchemy, but not a single young witch’s talent for Alchemy Magic exceeded the Peak level.

Their talent ceiling was right there.