Chapter 318 – Vasida’s Dwelling

Chapter 318 – Vasida’s Dwelling

With this reading list, from now until the Peak level, the witches would know which books to choose for improving themselves.

But: “Headmistress, how come I don’t have a recommended reading list?”

Mo Lan asked the empty air.

“Every book you can get your hands on is your reading list. For you, order and selection don’t matter—you have the talent to learn everything anyway, and you’ll learn it quickly.”

The voice of No. 69 Amisha the Lady came through.

Mo Lan: “…”

There was really no need to evaluate her so highly.

She just had a slightly better memory than Sylph and Vasida.

But Sylph and Vasida at least had a reading list with importance rankings—she had nothing at all.

“But I don’t necessarily need all of them!” Mo Lan said.

“No, you do need them all. Your Manifested Gift has an omniscient tendency—the more knowledge and abilities you master, the more powerful it becomes.”

Mo Lan: “…”

She found herself unable to argue back. The Headmistress was actually right!

It had to be said, she really did understand the young witches’ situations quite well.

Mo Lan had originally planned to transcribe all the books in the Academy Library into her own Grimoire.

It was just that during the previous school year, she had rushed to finish reading all the Mo-Pic books, and there were still quite a few books in the Third-Year Reading Room she hadn’t gotten to yet.

So she had no plans to go to the library and transcribe more books for the time being.

Everyone discussed the reading list for a while, then went to sleep.

The next morning, they set off for Vasida’s dwelling.

“I live by the river.” Vasida took out a map and showed them the location of her dwelling. “And this spot is close to the Hedge Wall of the outer region. It’ll be very convenient for my fifth-year trial in the outer region—after attending the enrollment ceremony, I can hurry back and rest at home for a bit, get my luggage sorted, and then head out.”

The more Mo Lan listened, the more familiar it sounded. She leaned over for a look—wasn’t this the little hillside by the river she had discovered before?

Well, of course. Apart from Senior Renée’s island in the lake, the three most suitable habitable locations in this mountain forest were her Wild Boar Valley, Sylph’s old oak tree, and right here.

But hearing what Vasida said next, Mo Lan paused, unable to help reminding her: “Haven’t you wondered why all the senior witches followed us in this direction toward the outer region?”

She couldn’t say it directly—she could only drop hints.

“Isn’t it because the rules say it’s this direction, and the hidden route is faster?” Vasida had always assumed so.

“Do you really think the seniors would give up traveling through the mountain forests they’re more familiar with—where they could even stop by their dwellings along the way—just for that hidden route?” Mo Lan said.

“Don’t tell me the Headmistress dug another pit for us!” Alba thought of something. “Could it be that all the seniors’ dwellings are gone? So it doesn’t matter which direction they take anymore? Their dwellings were reset?”

The other young witches all looked toward Mo Lan.

Mo Lan nodded. She hadn’t been the one to tell them—Alba had guessed it on her own.

“The Headmistress forbids actively telling other young witches about this—unless they ask on their own.”

“That was close! We almost got tricked again!” The young witches shuddered at the thought.

This time, it was already dark by the time they flew to Vasida’s dwelling.

From a distance, they could already see the stone walls encircling the edge of the forest. Mo Lan said to Vasida, “When I first saw this place, I thought it was especially suited for building walls.”

Vasida nodded. “I just wanted to grow more things.”

Inside the walls, every inch was planted with mutant crops. There weren’t many varieties—all ones Sylph had developed, the highest-yielding kinds.

“Is that your dwelling?” Sylph spotted traces of wooden doors and windows on several raised mounds of earth beside the Highland Corn field.

That was the highest point of the hillside, and the only spot not planted with giant mutant crops—just a grassy area, covered in carefully trimmed cushion grass.

“That’s right!” Having seen Mo Lan’s and Sylph’s dwellings already, Vasida felt a little self-conscious. She led everyone down to land outside her dwelling.

Her front door was circular, like a barrel lid, and the windows were semicircular—one on the left and one on the right—like two smiling eyes.

Everything was made of wood, though she had painted colorful flower and plant patterns on them.

On close inspection, the painting technique was clearly amateurish, but viewed as a whole, it had a certain innocent, whimsical charm.

Once inside, the floor was laid with wooden planks. The walls were packed earth, but finely smoothed and tamped down, with no sharp edges—everything curved in gentle arcs.

The interior had just three rooms: the living room upon entering, the kitchen and dining area to the left, and the bedroom to the right.

Animal hide rugs could be seen everywhere throughout the house, and the walls were decorated with hanging bone ornaments.

Each room also had some green plants as accents.

It was a dwelling small in space but very warm in atmosphere.

“This is all there is,” Vasida said sheepishly.

She had actually also divided the farmland outside into sections with wooden fences, and laid gravel paths between the fields—but those weren’t worth mentioning.

It didn’t have the luxury and refinement of Mo Lan’s dwelling, nor the natural novelty of Sylph’s.

The inspiration had come from when she’d dug burrows with Mo Lan and Sylph back in Greengrass Plains. That experience had sparked the idea to build a home like this. It had taken a great deal of effort and was already the limit of what she could accomplish—she herself was quite satisfied with it.

Even so, she still wanted to be a good host to her friends:

“I have lots of animal hide blankets—enough to cover the floor two or three layers thick. Tonight I’ll move the living room furniture aside, lay down the hides for sleeping, and I’ve prepared a temporary constant-temperature magic circle, so it won’t be cold.

Tonight we can go catch fish in the river to eat.

There are tons of fish in the river. Sometimes I put the Devouring Stomach in the river to drink water, and occasionally it even swallows a little fish!

If the weather’s nice tomorrow, we can go up on the roof to watch the sunrise…”

Mo Lan casually used the Weather-Reading Spell to predict tomorrow’s weather. “Tomorrow’s weather is quite nice—clear skies. Watching the sunrise definitely won’t be a problem. But… you put the Devouring Stomach in the river to drink water?”

“Mm-hm! Water gives some sense of fullness too—better than eating dirt, and the intake speed is faster!” Vasida said.

Mo Lan: “…”

That sounded rather heartbreaking.

“Let me cook tonight—I’ll make sour cabbage fish for you all to try!” Mo Lan said. “I haven’t had fish in a long time either.”

She had lived by the waterfall for so long and had never even thought to catch fish to eat.

“Really? Then I’ll go catch the fish!” Vasida said happily.

She expertly rode her broom down to the base of the cliff, hovering above the water’s surface, and used the Water Prison Spell to catch fish—snagging one with every cast.

Several large fish were quickly tossed up onto the bank.

Mo Lan brought out the biggest pot she had and cooked them all.

She inevitably had to use one ingredient card in the process.

As long as she wasn’t selling them to the young witches and creating dependency that would affect their Magic studies, the Headmistress wouldn’t interfere with her using one to cook for herself occasionally.

They ate fish, drank soup, and filled their bellies, then everyone lay back casually, gazing up at the starry sky overhead.

The view from the rooftop of Vasida’s dwelling was spectacular—it felt as though the sky itself had drawn much closer.