Chapter 311 – Open-Air Barbecue

Chapter 311 – Open-Air Barbecue

Vasida, who had been waiting near the first designated drop point, watched six Red-Eyed Birds plummet from the sky, her eyes going wide: “Moira was right — there really is no one better suited to play bait than her.”

The rest of them were genuinely just acting as bait. Mo Lan was playing bait while simultaneously slaughtering.

The moment Mo Lan made her first kills, she accelerated onward. When she reached the vicinity of the second drop point, she struck again — another six Red-Eyed Birds fell to the ground.

The large flock of sixty-six Red-Eyed Birds in total — Mo Lan led them on a sweeping loop through the air and shot down every last one.

The final six were dispatched before she even reached the last drop point. She landed to collect the Red-Eyed Bird carcasses herself, and only then went to regroup with her companions.

After a short wait, the other young witches arrived.

“Moira! Your Metal Arrow spell is nearly as precise as Elven magic arrows — you can actually hit six targets at once! We were just picking up Red-Eyed Bird carcasses, and we could barely keep up with you.” Sylph said the moment she saw her.

“It’s not that impressive!” Mo Lan said modestly.

Having absorbed the experiential memories of so many sharpshooters and shooting champions from Earth, it was only natural that her magical precision was high.

“Did you get all the Red-Eyed Bird wings back?” That was what Mo Lan cared about most.

“I’ve got forty-eight wings on my end,” Vasida said.

“We have thirty-six,” Sylph and Alba said.

Iris and Cheryl: “Same for us — thirty-six. We ran into a wolf pack, so we tossed the bodies out to lure the wolves away, cut off the wings, and left.”

“Nicely done! Next, let’s go collect some Ink-Leaf Tree sap! With this many wings, we’ll need a lot of sap to process them all!”

Mo Lan led them to the far end of the Ink-Leaf Tree forest, away from the Red-Eyed Bird colony’s nesting area.

“Be careful — don’t let the remaining Red-Eyed Birds in the forest spot us. The ones left in the flock are mostly old, weak, sick, or young, so they don’t pose much of a threat. But if we wipe them all out in one go, there won’t be any Red-Eyed Birds to hunt here ever again.”

Wings this delicious — how could she settle for eating them only once! Once the new generation of Red-Eyed Birds matured next year, she would definitely come back to harvest another batch and bring them to the outer region to enjoy.

Mo Lan deliberately cast a Silencing spell to block out any noise from their area. The group carefully scored the bark and began collecting tree sap.

“This sap doesn’t look edible at all. Are we really using it to marinate Red-Eyed Bird wings?” Sylph said, eyeing the brownish-black sap.

“Of course we are!” Mo Lan said. “I’ve tried it before — this sap tastes terrible when you use it to marinate other meats. Bitter and awful, like some kind of dark cuisine. But when combined with Red-Eyed Bird wings, it produces a wonderful transformation. You’ll see soon enough!”

They returned to the waterfall at Wild Boar Valley, to the Cotton Grass Lawn that Mo Lan had specially cultivated.

Iris and Cheryl started a bonfire, while Mo Lan worked with Sylph and Vasida to shape a massive wooden basin using the Wood-Shaping Spell, preparing to marinate the Red-Eyed Bird wings.

As for Alba, she was on ambiance duty, perching tiny Light spell orbs on the tips of the grass blades.

“I have to say, once you dot all those rice-grain-sized colored lights on the grass tips, it actually looks quite lovely when there are enough of them.”

Mo Lan praised.

Her Light spell was actually at a slightly higher magical level than Alba’s, yet she had never thought to use it this way.

Normal people developed their Light spell toward greater brightness, wider illumination range, and longer duration — making their light orbs bigger and bigger. Nobody developed them smaller, purely for decoration.

“Right? I do this all the time at home, except I put the little light orbs on the ceiling, arranged to look like stars,” Alba said. “Unfortunately, orbs like these can’t last very long. Once the magical power infused in them is depleted, they just dissipate.”

“You could take some gemstones or crystals back with you and make them into something like magical light strips. That way they’d last much longer,” Mo Lan said.

Magical lamps like those didn’t require particularly high-quality gemstones or crystals — ordinary ones would do just fine.

“That’s actually a great idea!” Alba said. “Though I’m planning to go mining in the underground river myself later. I’d probably have to go through your basement to get there, though.”

“Any of you can come by whenever you like. The magic circles at my dwelling are already open to all of you. If you don’t see me around, just head down to the basement on your own,” Mo Lan said.

When she had told them about this hidden route, she had never intended to keep the entrance to herself.

The so-called dwelling was just a rite of passage required in third year. Once completed, you lived there for your fourth year, studied magic in peace for a while, and that was enough.

On this point, the others didn’t bother being polite with her either.

Ordinary ore was one thing, but they also wanted to find some magical minerals to craft into magical items and arm themselves in preparation for next year.

“Moira! Is this enough?” Vasida had packed the large basin for marinating the Red-Eyed Bird wings absolutely full.

“That’s plenty — can’t add any more, or the basin will crack,” Mo Lan said hastily. “The rest, let’s divide among ourselves. Everyone freeze your share and store it to take back!”

“Store them? I could eat all of these in one sitting!” Vasida said.

“Listen to me — eat your fill today, but save the rest for later. Whenever you get a craving, just take out one wing and roast it to satisfy the urge. Who knows when we’ll find this many Red-Eyed Birds again,” Mo Lan said. “Once you’ve tasted them, you’ll know my arrangement is absolutely right. My biggest regret last time was eating both wings of a pair all at once, without saving a single bite for later.”

Since Mo Lan had put it that way, Vasida and the others naturally followed her advice.

By now, their curiosity about the taste of Ink-Leaf Tree sap-marinated Red-Eyed Bird wings had reached a fever pitch.

Just how delicious did something have to be for Mo Lan — who had mastered the cuisines of Earth — to be reluctant to eat too much at once!

Six young witches formed a circle, squatting around the massive wooden basin, staring eagerly at the wings inside.

Vasida: “Are they done marinating yet?”

Mo Lan: “Not yet.”

Sylph: “How much longer!”

Iris: “It should be ready once they start turning brownish-black.”

Alba: “*slurp* — Why am I already drooling before we’ve even started roasting?”

“*Slurp* —” Cheryl: “I’ll go add more firewood.”

…

When the wings finally turned brownish-black and Mo Lan announced they could start roasting, the girls whipped out the grilling racks they had prepared long ago, waved their Wands, and unleashed their Culinary Magic all at once.

Within a few breaths, the basin was empty and the area around the bonfire was packed with grilling racks.

They migrated from surrounding the wooden basin to surrounding the bonfire.

The moment heat was applied, the aroma wafted out. For a while, they were too busy swallowing saliva to even speak.

And once the wings were truly done and they started eating, there was nothing to be heard except “delicious” — not a single other sound.

It was a truly silent open-air barbecue.

Only when they were well and truly stuffed did Iris finally sigh: “What a shame the senior students already left!”