Chapter 261 – Numbnettle Poison

The key question was—wasn’t this supposed to be a wilderness survival class?

What were the Guardian Headmistresses doing here?

The young witches were thoroughly confused.

What was even stranger was that Lady Amisha produced a card, then materialized a camcorder from it, placing it beside herself with the lens pointed at the air.

Only then did she continue:

“Next, your respective Guardian Headmistresses will open portal gates for you.

Your task for this lesson is to find water sources and food in mountainous forest terrain.

The water source must be at least the size of a small pond.

The food must be enough for at least two meals.

Once you’ve completed the task, you may end the lesson.

If you fail to complete the task, after twelve hours, your Guardian Headmistress will retrieve you.

Your performance during the task, along with my commentary, will be recorded and made into instructional videos. You’ll each get a copy to take back for post-lesson review.

Personal private activities will not be observed, so you can rest assured.

The areas you traverse during the lesson won’t be displayed on the map, so there’s no need to check it.

If you encounter danger, there’s no penalty for requesting your Guardian Headmistress’s rescue, but injuries will delay your lesson progress, so try not to let yourselves get too seriously hurt.

Understood?”

Seeing the portal gates opened by the Guardian Headmistresses beside them, and the surveillance light-screens projected into the air by each Guardian Headmistress, the young witches were stunned.

The surveillance screens were divided into many small sections, and every young witch could find herself on one of them.

Now they understood how the Guardian Headmistresses were able to monitor them at a moment’s notice.

And the camcorder that had been pointed at empty air before was now perfectly aimed at the light-screens.

This was how wilderness survival class was taught?

“Of course this isn’t how wilderness survival class used to be taught,” Amisha said.

Iris clapped a hand over her mouth—she’d accidentally said her inner thoughts out loud!

“You’ve all lucked into good timing. Back when there were no Camcorder Cards, wilderness survival class ran for two consecutive days—one day out in the field, and one day reviewing in the classroom. It certainly wasn’t as intuitive as watching a recorded video,” Amisha said with a smile.

The young witches: “…”

Comparing it that way, it didn’t really seem much better.

How the review was done wasn’t important. What mattered was that the very first lesson was sending them into the forest on their own, and they’d be stuck there for ten hours!

When they’d been eager to try before, they’d been imagining Lady Amisha leading them, learning step by step.

Not being tossed into the woods right from the start!

And why were there twenty-seven small projection screens and twenty-seven portal gates instead of one large projection screen and one portal gate? Just thinking about it made the answer obvious—they were going to be separated too!

The young witches were filled with immense regret.

Regret for not having read 《A Guide to Surviving Common Wilderness Terrain》 ahead of time, regret for not having learned more combat-capable magic earlier, regret for not having eaten more at breakfast this morning.

“Go on in once you’re ready!” Lady Amisha urged mercilessly.

The young witches wailed: “We’re not ready yet!”

“If you’re not ready, you can prepare just as well after you go in.”

Amisha nodded to the Guardian Headmistresses, and the next second, the young witches were “escorted” through the portal gates in all manner of poses.

Mo Lan clutched her backside and scrambled up from the ground. “How rude! I didn’t even say I wasn’t ready—why did you kick me!”

No. 69 Amisha: “⊙０⊙”

“My reflexes were too fast, I couldn’t help it. If you want to blame someone, blame No. 103!”

Mo Lan: “…”

She was about to protest when she suddenly felt a numbness in her knees. She looked down: “!!!”

Her pant legs were covered in marble-sized green spiny balls.

The spiny balls at her knees had been crushed flat.

The spines themselves weren’t really a problem—even with the balls crushed, these tiny spines couldn’t cause her any real harm. They’d barely pierced her skin before her rapid healing had already closed the wounds.

The real problem was that the spiny balls had burst, and their contents had leaked out.

These spiny balls were the unripe seeds of numbnettle grass.

Information about numbnettle grass surged through her mind: “Numbnettle grass, a low-level magical plant. The juice of its seeds contains a paralytic toxin.

The toxin in unripe numbnettle seeds is relatively mild, and will dissipate naturally over time. It can be used to make pain-relief potions. The toxin in ripe numbnettle seeds is much stronger and can be used to make sleeping potions.

Around numbnettle grass, refreshmint often grows nearby. Its leaves resemble tassels, and the juice from its stems promotes blood circulation and dispels stagnation, capable of neutralizing numbnettle poison…”

Mo Lan hurriedly searched the area around her and, sure enough, found refreshmint growing among the clusters of numbnettle grass.

There was only one plant, but it was enough!

Mo Lan snapped the refreshmint stem, removed the tassel-like leaves, and used a Levitation Spell to pluck off all the numbnettle seeds clinging to her body, tossing them far away.

Then she cast a Cleaning Spell on her pants, her clothes, and the freshly picked refreshmint stem.

Clutching the refreshmint stem, she struggled to shuffle a few steps to the side.

Only after she’d moved away from the cluster of numbnettle grass did she finally let herself collapse to the ground.

In just that short time, her knees had gone so numb she could barely use them.

She quickly pulled out the stone mortar from her Witch Crucible Set Card, cast a Cleaning Spell on both the mortar and the remaining refreshmint stem, then cut the stem into pieces and ground them into a paste in the mortar.

Finally, she rolled up her pant legs, scooped up a glob of the herbal paste, and carefully rubbed it onto her knees. After several applications, feeling finally returned to her knees.

The first thing Mo Lan did after regaining her mobility was to cast three spells on herself in rapid succession.

First layer: Bark Skin. Second layer: Stone Skin. Third layer: Gold Armor.

Bark Skin and Stone Skin coated all the skin across her entire body with a layer of wood elemental force and earth elemental force respectively.

One gave her defense like tree bark, the other like a stone shell.

Gold Armor wrapped metallic elemental force around her like plate armor, protecting her chest, back, wrists, arms, thighs, shins, knees, and other vital areas.

These three were the only sustained defensive spells in the Elemental Magic category.

With her abundant mana, Mo Lan lavishly stacked all three at once.

Now she could charge through any numbnettle thicket without worry. Only toxins inhaled through her nose and mouth could affect her.

Wand in hand, triple-layered in defense, Mo Lan finally felt some sense of security in this unfamiliar forest.

As she observed her surroundings, she cursed her Headmistress:

“Headmistress! I suspect you did this on purpose! Sending me in so suddenly was bad enough, but you had to kick me too! Kicking me was bad enough, but you opened the portal right next to a numbnettle patch!”

If not for the Headmistress, she definitely would have cast her protective spells first before entering. There was absolutely no way she would have gotten hit the moment she arrived.

If she hadn’t read so many books and known the antidote for numbnettle poison, she’d be calling for the Headmistress’s rescue right about now!