Chapter 314 – Confusion Spell

Chapter 314 – Confusion Spell

“The confusion spell, right? I’ll learn it as soon as I get back!” Vasida said. “I just hope what likes me is some kind of plant creature—no need to eat, so it won’t go hungry!”

Iris was also somewhat tempted, though her desires were different. She wanted to raise a familiar that loved meat just as much as she did, so she could share the delicacies she cooked with it!

But she wasn’t sure if she could learn it. “Moira, can someone with low Mind magic aptitude still learn the confusion spell?”

“Yes! The learning threshold isn’t high, but advancing it to higher levels does require sufficient talent,” Mo Lan said.

Cheryl and Alba, who were equally interested in magical familiars, silently made note of this spell as well, planning to copy a spellbook on the confusion spell when they returned to the Academy Castle.

Most witches lived and traveled alone. A familiar that suited one’s heart was a crucial element in a witch’s happiness.

Moreover, familiars had growth potential. They could share a mental connection with their witch and fight alongside her—in many cases, they were even more important than a romantic partner.

Of course, there were also plenty of witches who developed their familiars into romantic partners. After all, Familiar Summoning magic could target all living creatures besides witches themselves.

Though the majority of witches had magical plants or magical beasts as familiars, and in Valen, there was no such thing as plants or beasts transforming into human form.

Their growth and evolution were in terms of abilities, not physical appearance.

The main reason some witches formed magical familiar contracts with humanoid beings was simply that humanoid beings happened to match the witch’s aesthetic preferences, so…

Vasida’s father had once been her mother’s contracted summoned creature.

However, that had been through the Death Servant contract of Necromancy, which differed somewhat from Summoning magic contracts.

The Death Servant contract could only be formed with undead creatures.

Its nature was quite similar to a familiar’s—both were completely incapable of betraying their master.

It was even more domineering in some ways, and the contracted being couldn’t grow alongside the witch. However, the witch could cultivate undead creatures using necromantic or other forms of magic.

“There’s a mountain tiger up ahead. Do we fight it?” Sylph suddenly asked.

“Fight!” Vasida said. “I didn’t eat enough this morning. Let me handle it—we’ll kill it and toss it to the Devouring Stomach!”

Hearing this, the group flew toward the mountain tiger.

But the mountain tiger neither attacked nor fled. Instead, it flew toward Mo Lan and let out a soft, gentle cry.

“Wait! My familiar is here!” Mo Lan immediately stopped Vasida, who was ready to kill the tiger, and landed in front of the mountain tiger.

Even if it was a mountain tiger without spiritual intelligence and low growth potential, Mo Lan didn’t mind! She wasn’t purely a Summoning Witch—she didn’t need a familiar to charge into battle for her.

A big, fluffy tiger was perfectly fine!

The mountain tiger nuzzled her shoulder. Mo Lan was just reaching out to pet it when the tiger walked away without hesitation.

It seemed to have only come over to say hello.

“Hey! Wait!” Remembering that the mountain tiger couldn’t understand her, she hurriedly used Heart Speech. “Wait!”

This time the mountain tiger stopped and looked back at her in confusion.

“Would you be willing to form a magical familiar contract with me? I’ll take you away from these mountains, give you delicious food and drink, and make you stronger and stronger,” Mo Lan asked.

The mountain tiger replied: “Hungry… find meat… goodbye…”

The response transmitted through Heart Speech was even less coherent than a century-old tree’s—only slightly better than an ordinary plant.

Its spiritual nature was insufficient, its intelligence far too low. There was hardly any useful information to be gleaned from communicating with it.

Normally, when encountering wild beasts like this, she would use the Origin-Tracing Spell directly to gather information.

Seeing that she had stopped talking, the mountain tiger continued on its way. To it, today it had simply encountered a two-legged creature in the forest that seemed extraordinarily friendly. It would rather go hungry than eat her or her companions.

It had nuzzled her to show friendliness, and now it needed to continue searching for food to fill its belly.

To the tiger, this two-legged creature was no different from its favorite tree for scratching itches.

It simply felt a strong fondness, nothing more.

Given enough time apart, it would probably forget all about her.

“Are we still fighting it?” Vasida asked.

“No, let it go,” Mo Lan said. “Although it can barely communicate, it’s been affected by my confusion spell and feels goodwill toward us.”

“Alright!” Vasida could bring herself to kill beasts that fled from her or attacked her, but killing one that had come over to show friendliness and then eating it as food felt somehow wrong.

“Looks like the confusion spell can’t be used while hunting!” Vasida said. “Otherwise, you’d end up befriending all the wild beasts, and then what would you hunt?”

“Actually, I think this spell would be really effective for avoiding fights against opponents you can’t overpower!” Sylph, on the other hand, found herself quite interested in this magic.

She didn’t have much need for hunting. While she did eat meat, she preferred vegetables most of the time. She ate more plant-based foods than anything, influenced by her Elf father, and her favorite thing to eat was fruit.

Because of this, she hadn’t studied Culinary magic nearly as deeply as Mo Lan and Vasida.

If she could befriend all the animals in her surroundings, she wouldn’t have to worry about wild beasts trampling and destroying the plants she grew!

“Exactly!” Mo Lan said. “The effect of this spell depends on the caster’s confusion spell level versus the target’s strength, intelligence, and psychic power. It can even be useful in the outer region.”

Sometimes, when facing a magical beast too powerful to defeat in combat, using the confusion spell for a psychic subjugation might yield surprising results.

The group set off again. After flying for a while, they encountered another large wild beast, and Sylph asked Vasida if she wanted to fight this one.

“Of course!” Vasida said. “But Moira! Hurry up and cancel the confusion spell!”

She didn’t want to charge in only for the beast to go nuzzle up to Mo Lan again.

If it could actually be taken as a familiar, that would be one thing. But the key issue was that these creatures’ intelligence was too low to even comprehend signing a contract, making it nearly impossible for them to become familiars.

Mo Lan: “…”

It seemed her familiar would have to wait until next year, when she could search in the outer region.

This time, Vasida fought to her heart’s content, replenishing the Devouring Stomach with some food energy.

The palm-sized Devouring Stomach swallowed several deer that were taller than any of them. Vasida used all of her butchering magic to cut the venison into pieces and stuff them into the Devouring Stomach.

Sylph watched with sympathy. “You really have it rough! I have plenty of food at my place—this trip, I’ll definitely feed you until you’re full!”

“Really? Feed me until I’m full? My appetite has gotten even bigger, you know!” Vasida said.

“Don’t worry! Absolutely no problem!” Sylph said confidently.

Even Mo Lan grew curious.

Just how much food had Sylph stockpiled? She dared to claim she could feed Vasida to satisfaction?

Even if Mo Lan brought out all the provisions stored in her own basement, it might not be enough to truly fill Vasida up.

If not for the Devouring Stomach’s improved hunger resistance, which now allowed it to control itself and not inversely devour Vasida’s mana and impair her mobility, Vasida might not have been able to endure this long at all.