Chapter 121 – Food Cards

Lady Amisha left too quickly, so the young witches could only consult their textbooks to figure out the precautions for Attuning Broomstick Grass on their own.

The book said the longer the Attuning process, the better, so the young witches Attuned the Broomstick Grass seedlings several times over.

It wasn’t until the greenhouse grew dark and they could see through the glass ceiling overhead that night had fallen that the young witches finally got up to leave.

Passing by the Ingredient Collection Station, the young witches picked up the vegetable baskets they had left by the entrance when they came at noon, then went inside to select ingredients for tonight’s dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch.

Mo Lan carried her basket but didn’t head to the sugar and honey shelves as she usually did. Instead, she went to the meat and eggs section and picked up half a Tata Chicken, several Dodo Bird eggs, then grabbed a small bag of rice from the grains shelf, a striped eggplant from the vegetable section, followed by red chili peppers, garlic, green peppers, ginger, scallions, and other seasonings. Finally, she selected an assortment of small mushrooms.

Vasida was planning to make mushroom soup for dinner tonight and was also here picking out mushrooms. When she saw Mo Lan come over, she glanced into her basket.

“Huh? Today isn’t Friday, is it? How come you’re actually picking up real ingredients? You’re going to cook, aren’t you?”

Aside from weekends, it was rare to see Mo Lan collecting proper ingredients. Every other time she came by, she only grabbed sugar and honey to make Breadfruit Cake and breadfruit juice.

Today was an exception.

Mo Lan nodded. “I’m planning to make chicken stewed with mushrooms and spicy chicken for dinner, steamed Dodo Bird egg custard for tomorrow’s breakfast, and braised eggplant in sauce for lunch…”

“You’ve come to your senses? You’re going to start eating three proper meals a day?” Vasida asked in surprise.

“I finished proofreading the workbook, so I have more free time now. I figure while the Ingredient Collection Station is still offering unlimited ingredients, I should start practicing Culinary Magic too,” Mo Lan said. “If I don’t practice now, there will be a lot more restrictions starting in second year.”

Aside from ingredients like meat and eggs, anything that could be grown would have to be cultivated by the students themselves.

The cost of making a single dish would be much higher then.

Although her Culinary Magic was still only at the Apprentice level, and cooking with Magic was sometimes even slower than doing it by hand—

Once she leveled up enough, it would truly save her a great deal of time while also improving her quality of life.

“You should have done this ages ago!” Vasida said. “But what’s spicy chicken? What’s Dodo Bird egg custard? And what’s braised eggplant in sauce?”

She knew about Tata Chicken stewed with mushrooms. She had seen that recipe in *The Culinary Atlas of the Continent of Valen* as well.

“Spicy chicken is chicken pieces stir-fried with red chili peppers. Dodo Bird egg custard is eggs cracked open, mixed with water, and steamed, then topped with chopped scallions, sesame oil, and soy sauce. As for braised eggplant in sauce—well, it’s eggplant cooked with soybean paste and light soy sauce!” Mo Lan gave a brief explanation.

“Soybean paste? Light soy sauce? Soy sauce?” Sylph, who had just walked over, looked confused. “They sound like seasonings? I’ve never seen them at the Ingredient Collection Station. What do they look like?”

“They’re all seasonings from Earth. The Ingredient Collection Station doesn’t carry them,” Mo Lan said.

“You made them yourself?” Vasida asked. “I haven’t seen you picking up ingredients for that!”

“Because… I made them all with the Book of Cards.” Mo Lan summoned the Book of Cards and pulled out a large handful of Cards from inside.

“{food card — Dark Soy Sauce}, {food card — Light Soy Sauce}, {food card — Soybean Paste}, {food card — Sesame Oil}, {food card — Spicy Red Oil Hot Pot Base}…”

Vasida’s and Sylph’s eyes locked onto those last few hot pot base Cards and couldn’t look away. “Wait! Hot pot base Cards?”

“Use the Card to obtain one portion of spicy red oil hot pot base…” Vasida read the Card’s effect aloud.

“Moira! Is it the same kind of spicy red oil hot pot you made before?” Sylph’s mouth was already watering involuntarily.

“Yes,” Mo Lan said.

Before enrolling, she had planned to learn Culinary Magic first, then make soy sauce herself so she could prepare steamed Dodo Bird egg custard to eat.

Later, the Book of Cards made that possible for her. As long as she knew how to make something and fed one batch of raw materials to the Book of Cards, she could use Mana to create the corresponding Card.

Each Card cost less than 1 Mana to produce.

She could store at least several hundred Mana every day, and seasonings like soy sauce and sesame oil were tedious to make by hand. Using Cards was far more convenient than making them herself.

And they had the authentic taste of Earth’s time-honored brands, no less.

In fact, she could make Cards not just for seasonings—any finished dish she knew how to cook could also be turned into a Card.

However, the production cost was higher: starting at 1 Mana and capping at 4 Mana. The more complex the finished dish, the higher the cost.

Moreover, Food Cards made with ingredients unique to Valen that didn’t exist on Earth—like Dodo Bird egg custard—required her to have personally cooked the dish at least once before she could create the Card.

All told, it consumed more Mana than cooking with Culinary Magic directly. For finished dishes she already knew how to make, it was still better to use Culinary Magic.

So for now, she had only made Cards for seasonings that had complicated production processes.

Besides, the Headmistress wouldn’t allow her to sell finished Food Cards to the other young witches—but seasonings were fine.

She had only made these Cards recently because she was planning to cook regularly and practice her Culinary Magic.

“Say no more, Moira—give me one hot pot base Card. No! Ten!” Vasida declared grandly without even asking the price.

Sylph, whose Mana budget was much tighter, still asked first: “How much for a spicy red oil hot pot base Card?”

“Two Mana each!” Mo Lan stuck to her usual rule of selling at five times the production cost. For items that cost less than 1 Mana to make, she increased the portion size to bring the base cost up to 1 Mana. “Just boil it in water and you can dip meat and vegetables in it.”

Sylph calculated how much Mana she had left today. She needed to keep half in reserve to maintain her natural Mana recovery rate for tomorrow, which still left her with 6 Mana to spare. “I’ll take three!”

“Done!” Mo Lan made the Cards for them with a beaming smile and completed the contract transactions.

The energy stored in the Book of Cards’ Purple Gemstone grew a little more.

Now that they had hot pot base Cards, the ingredients in their baskets no longer seemed quite right.

“Hold on! Let me go grab different ingredients!” Vasida said.

Sylph did the same, heading back to the Ingredient Collection Station.

Watching how excited they were, Mo Lan guiltily touched her nose.

She had actually made these Cards two days ago, but between the planting magic class wrapping up and the Broomgrass Cultivation course, it wasn’t until soy sauce came up in conversation just now that she remembered to tell Vasida and Sylph about them.

“How come Vasida and Sylph went back in?” Iris and Alba had finished selecting their ingredients and were coming out when they ran into the two rushing back inside. They asked curiously.

Mo Lan’s card-selling spirit awakened once again. Here was a cooking expert—a heavy user of seasonings!

“Want a hot pot base Card? I’ve also got soy sauce Cards, soybean paste Cards…”

Oh right—Iris liked cooking meat dishes. Mo Lan quickly added a few more to her pitch: “How about a braising spice packet Card? Or a cooking wine Card?”

“What are any of those?” Iris and Alba were completely bewildered.