Chapter 198 – Introduction to All-Element Magic

Chapter 198 – Introduction to All-Element Magic

Two days of the first week had already passed. Tomorrow would be Wednesday, but the updated classes had started from Monday. There was a note beneath the schedule indicating that next week would follow the same timetable.

Monday: Valen Common Language in the morning, Magic class in the afternoon.

Tuesday: Wilds Survival class in the morning, Magic class in the afternoon.

Wednesday: Basic Mathematics in the morning, Magic class in the afternoon.

Thursday: Alchemy Theory (odd weeks) / Imperial Language (even weeks) in the morning, Magic class in the afternoon.

Friday: Angelic, Demonic, and Draconic (odd weeks) / Elvish, Orcish, and Dwarvish (even weeks) in the morning, Magic Q&A class in the afternoon.

The elective courses were all concentrated on Thursday and Friday. Not only were they split between odd and even weeks, but Friday morning even had three language courses sharing a single large class period.

Fortunately, the electives had only been compressed in duration without any time conflicts. Mo Lan could take every single elective without any issues whatsoever.

Tomorrow was Wednesday — according to the schedule, it was time for math class!

Mo Lan felt a surge of anticipation.

She had personally written the textbook for this course, so there was no need to preview it in advance. Instead, she chose to pull out the textbook for the All-Element Magic introductory course — 《The Apprentice Witch’s Practical Spellbook》.

This book selected one representative spell from each main branch of every magic school, excluding the Special school.

The magic school system had already been covered in the first-year Fundamentals of Magic Theory class.

Witch Magic schools were divided into ten schools: Elemental, Healing, Blessing, Curse, Divination, Summoning, Spatial, Psychic, Necromancy, and Special.

Magics that couldn’t be classified under the first nine schools — such as Magic Infusion, Sorceress Magic, and tool-attuning magics like Culinary Magic, Sewing Magic, and planting magic — all fell under the Special school.

The Elemental school had the largest scope, containing ten main branches: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Ice, Light, and Dark.

Under the Metal branch, there was also the Alchemy Magic sub-branch.

The Wood and Earth branches shared a common sub-branch — the Plant branch, which itself contained a potion-brewing magic sub-branch.

Schools, main branches, and sub-branches existed in a hierarchical containment relationship.

But when it came to talent, the relationship was reversed.

High talent in a sub-branch guaranteed high talent in its parent main branch, but high talent in a main branch did not necessarily mean high talent in its sub-branches.

For example, high talent in potion-brewing magic meant wood-element magic talent was definitely strong, but the reverse wasn’t necessarily true.

Witches possessed talent in All-Element Magic — at minimum, entry-level — and this “all-element” referred to the main branches and sub-branches of every school.

However, 《The Apprentice Witch’s Practical Spellbook》 did not include sub-branch magics like Alchemy Magic or potion-brewing magic, as those had their own dedicated courses.

But main branch magics like Metal, Wood, Water, and so on were all included.

One representative spell per branch, eighteen spells in total.

They were: Sharpening for Metal, Vine Conjuring for Wood, Water Mirror for Water, Cremation for Fire, Earth Gathering for Earth, Wind Walk for Wind, Electric Net for Lightning, Flash Freeze for Ice, Radiance for Light, Darkness for Dark, Healing for the Healing school, Fortune for Blessing, Misfortune for Curse, Pathfinding for Divination, Messenger for Summoning, Shrinking for Spatial, Mind Reading for Psychic, and Soul Recall for Necromancy.

So many spells — Mo Lan’s eyes were dazzled. Every single one looked incredible.

But after she finished reading the brief introductions for all eighteen spells in the first chapter, the sense of wonder remained, yet: “How come there still aren’t many powerful attack spells?”

Only Sharpening and Electric Net could deal any real damage.

One could make metal weapons sharper while adding a touch of magical damage.

The other could spread a small electrified net with a paralyzing effect.

Neither had much range or dealt much damage. The rest were even less impressive.

Vine Conjuring had a bit of a binding effect, but not much.

Water Mirror dealt zero damage — though it did let you conjure a mirror anytime, anywhere, to check your appearance.

Cremation did have some damage potential — it could burn a corpse without leaving a trace — but the flame was tiny and burned incredibly slowly. In combat, before it could even spread, the enemy would snuff it out with a single slap.

Earth Gathering… Earth Gathering could collect and compact a clump of soil, turning loose dirt into a solid lump.

Wind Walk increased movement speed.

Flash Freeze couldn’t freeze anyone to death either — it could only create a bit of ice.

Radiance and Darkness could, at best, interfere with someone’s line of sight.

Healing could stop bleeding and close wounds, though if the wound was too large, it might not even be able to heal it fully.

“I’ve seen these spells in the Mo-Pic books too! Their effects weren’t this bad, were they? I’m not sure — let me read on…”

After reading a few more chapters, she finally identified the issue.

Everything taught in this book was strictly entry-level magic.

All the spell effects described were entry-level effects, which was why they seemed so lackluster.

At higher levels, things would be very different.

The spells chosen for this book were ones that, even at the entry and low levels, were relatively practical and couldn’t be substituted by spells from other schools.

The purpose was simply to give young witches an initial understanding and familiarity with each school’s magic, while ensuring that what they learned would actually be useful and not go to waste.

Understanding this, Mo Lan now saw why there weren’t many strong attack spells.

Many schools had powerful attack magic. Regardless of which school a witch specialized in, she could find corresponding combat options. But not every school’s magic could sharpen weapons, use water as a mirror, cremate without a trace, or compact soil into bricks.

For young witches who lacked the talent to advance these spells to Advanced level or above, these spells would still be useful after learning them, without hindering their future pursuit of combat strength through their specialized schools.

For young witches who did have talent in these areas, continuing to level these spells higher after learning them would yield considerable rewards.

Once Mo Lan understood this, her enthusiasm for the book surged again.

A spell that wouldn’t go to waste after learning it was a good spell!

Come to think of it, she had seen all these spells in the Mo-Pic edition of 《The Witch’s Complete Magic Compendium》.

That book contained not only spell introductions and casting commands, but also Mo-Pics of Lady Traci demonstrating each spell.

Mo Lan had watched them all and memorized them — she simply hadn’t tried casting any.

《The Witch’s Complete Magic Compendium》 was a set of books designed to teach witches how to quickly cast spells. It didn’t go into much detail about the spells themselves or how to further study and upgrade them.

It lacked some of the more detailed and in-depth content, focusing more heavily on the act of casting itself.

By comparison, 《The Apprentice Witch’s Practical Spellbook》 was more foundational.

In theory, though, 《The Witch’s Complete Magic Compendium》 was sufficient to learn the corresponding spells, since the book was, after all, Lady Traci’s comprehensive summary of all free Witch Magic.

“Why not… give it a try?” Mo Lan drew her Wand.