Chapter 128 – Better Off Than Some, Worse Off Than Others

Mo Lan’s Book of Cards had gorged itself on mana until it was stuffed to bursting, while her Bloodthirst Needle didn’t even have that last morsel of rations left. It would simply have to wait until tomorrow.

At least her Bloodthirst Needle couldn’t talk, otherwise…

The mental image was too beautiful—Lilith couldn’t bear to imagine it.

Gourmet food had been her downfall!

No! It wasn’t gourmet food that had been her downfall—it was Moira!

Lilith huffily ate two more skewers of mala tang, and after finishing them her anger subsided a little, though her belly was nearly at its limit.

She had no choice but to stop.

Vasida, who had been patiently and leisurely eating the whole time, looked at the little witches who had all stopped and asked, “None of you are eating anymore? There’s still quite a lot left!”

“I can’t eat another bite. If I do, I’ll throw up!” Sylph waved her hand. She was holding a cup of milk tea but could only manage tiny sips at a time.

At this moment, she was regretting not having started with the milk tea—it was her favorite thing of the entire evening.

She had converted all of today’s surplus mana into milk tea packet cards.

Seeing that the other little witches truly weren’t eating anymore, Vasida let herself loose completely: “Leave it all to me!”

She swept from table to table, plate to plate, determined not to let a single piece of meat or vegetable go to waste.

The little witches, stuffed full yet still craving more: “(﹃)”

At this moment, their envy of Vasida reached its absolute peak.

What a supremely blessed constitution for savoring food!

But when she picked up a large ladle and plunged it into the spicy red-oil hotpot, the little witches’ envy turned to horror.

Mo Lan hurriedly called out to her: “Hey! Wait! That’s the hotpot broth base! It’s way too spicy, and the oil is too heavy—you can’t drink that!”

But Vasida was completely unfazed. She slapped her hand against her belly, and a flesh-colored pouch appeared in her grasp:

“I’m not drinking it—it is! It’s still soup, after all! A bit spicy, a bit oily—no big deal. This thing can even digest rocks. The only downside is that eating stuff like that makes it get hungry faster. But this is way better than rocks!”

“R-rocks?” Mo Lan was so startled that her contract-writing speed actually slowed down.

“Yep! A few days ago, I went to the bread forest to pick Breadfruit to feed it, and I accidentally dropped a twig in along with the fruit. Nothing bad happened, so then I thought—if it can eat twigs, can it eat leaves? If it can eat leaves, can it eat weeds? I’ve even fed it dirt from the ground, and rocks too.

“Without exception, it could eat and digest everything. It even gave a real sense of fullness, but the hunger came back much faster than with proper food.” Vasida said, “This hotpot broth might be strong-flavored, but it still counts as proper food, right? Feeding it to the Devouring Stomach isn’t wasteful.”

Lilith: “…”

She summoned her Bloodthirst Needle and muttered to it in a low voice:

“Oh, Bloodthirst Needle, just look at the kind of miserable life the Devouring Stomach leads.

“All I’m guilty of is not having enough mana to feed you properly. Vasida is over there feeding her Devouring Stomach rocks and dirt!

“We’re better off than some, worse off than others—really, we should count our blessings!”

Bloodthirst Needle: (;￢＿￢)

Behind Lilith, Sylph—the closest one to her—thought: “???”

She thought of her own Box of Ten Thousand Seeds… and felt an inexplicable twinge of guilt.

Mo Lan had to hand it to Vasida. With the Devouring Stomach, she’d probably never have to worry about where to throw her garbage again.

But… did she still remember that the Devouring Stomach came out of her own belly, and that it was connected to her actual stomach?

If the Devouring Stomach ate dirt and rocks, how was that any different from eating them herself?

Mo Lan didn’t understand… but she expressed her respect, and her curiosity was even piqued: “Vasida, have you ever tried feeding the Devouring Stomach a Magic Gold Coin?”

“Of course not!” Just thinking about it made Vasida’s heart ache!

“I’ve been studying so hard for so long, and I’ve only saved up three Magic Gold Coins! What if nothing happened at all? No, no—there are plenty of other things I can feed it. No need to waste gold coins on it!”

“What about cards? Try feeding it a card? My treat!” Mo Lan produced a 1-mana {Food Card – Instant Noodle Seasoning Packet}.

She was genuinely curious about the Devouring Stomach’s energy conversion properties.

Vasida had never fed it a card before either, but this card was cheap!

She didn’t need Mo Lan’s sponsorship—she took out an identical card of her own and fed it to the Devouring Stomach.

“How is it?” Mo Lan asked curiously.

“Even better than food! The sense of fullness is stronger, and it even restores my mana! One card restored…” Vasida checked her Person Card. “About a quarter of a mana?”

Mo Lan did a quick mental calculation—wasn’t that exactly how much mana she’d spent to make the card?

However, the matter of card production costs was not something to broadcast widely—that was a good way to get beaten to death.

She asked, “So does that mean the richer in energy and the higher quality the item, the better the effect when you eat it?”

“Probably!” Vasida had made a new discovery and was even more delighted, pouring hotpot broth into the Devouring Stomach like her life depended on it.

In short, the delicious stuff she ate herself, and the not-so-delicious stuff went to the Devouring Stomach—absolutely nothing would be wasted!

Even the pile of wilted vegetable scraps trimmed off in the corner, and the bones left over from the braised meat, were all fed to the Devouring Stomach.

By the time she finished her sweep, the only things remaining at the entire banquet were the utensils and cookware the little witches had pulled from their own Portable Utensil Cards and Mobile Kitchen Cards, along with the tables they’d carried out from the Ingredient Collection Station and the Culinary Magic Classroom.

One Cleaning Spell later, and everything was tidied up.

Bellies full, pockets stuffed with cards, the satisfied little witches departed. The grassy area outside the Ingredient Collection Station fell quiet, and only the trampled-flat wild grass hinted that a crowd had been there moments ago—not a single scrap of anything was left behind.

Back in her dormitory, Mo Lan tallied up the evening’s haul.

She had sold over fourteen hundred cards tonight. On average, each little witch had bought more than ten cards, netting her over 2,200 mana in total.

The cost of all the cards she’d used for the banquet? A mere sixty mana.

A thirty-plus-fold return!

The little witches may not have been as wealthy as the headmistresses, but their pursuit of fine food was every bit as fervent!

Once they used up the cards they’d bought tonight, they would surely come back for more.

This was a sustainable business!

Mo Lan could already see her fabulously wealthy future on the horizon!

Meanwhile, across the road in Room 59, a certain red-haired upperclassman was silently juicing Breadfruit.

In order to digest faster and free up a little room, she had walked all the way back tonight clutching her broomstick.

It wasn’t that she was punishing her own stomach—it was that recovering even a bit more mana before midnight meant recovering a bit more mana tomorrow.

When you’re living on a tight budget, you have to think these things through.

“I swear! I am never buying Moira’s cards again!”

…

“Mm… once my mana is fully restored and there’s some to spare, maybe I can buy just a few.”

…

“Impulse spending and spending beyond your means are absolutely not allowed!”

…