Chapter 111 – Teaching Field No. 1

Chapter 111 – Teaching Field No. 1

On Friday afternoon, the little witches brought their dormitory spray bottles to the farmland.

“Headmistress, I’m fine!”

“Me too!”

“No problems here!”

…

After a quick word with the Headmistress, who had come along to teach the Magic Q&A class, they scattered on their own to weed and till the soil.

The big watering can had too large an appetite—they couldn’t keep it fed. But no matter, they still had their little spray bottles.

It was slower, sure, but it didn’t cost any mana!

When they got tired of spraying herbicide potion, they’d put the big hoe to work tilling the soil.

When the big hoe went on strike, they’d switch back to spraying herbicide potion.

As for the big-bellied watering can? Until they finished Attuning away its enormous appetite, the little witches didn’t dare use it.

Although the big hoe always needed rest breaks, when it was working, its efficiency was truly impressive. By the time class ended, Mo Lan was the first to finish tilling her field, with the ridges along the edges neatly built up as well.

It came out to roughly two mu in total.

A neat square—she probably couldn’t plant the whole thing by herself, so it was definitely more than enough.

“Headmistress, is this acceptable?” Mo Lan went to find Lady Amisha to come take a look.

“That’ll do! Go to the tool shed and get a blank wooden sign,” Amisha said.

Mo Lan did as she was told, fetching a wooden sign and bringing it to Lady Amisha.

Amisha swept her hand across the sign and handed it back to her. “There you go. Plant it in your field—that plot is yours until you reach fourth year.”

Mo Lan took the sign and glanced at it: “North District Teaching Field No. 1 — Mo Lan.”

No wonder all the other farmlands had numbers while this one patch was unusually large and only called “Teaching Field”—it was because it hadn’t been cultivated yet.

Now it had a number.

Mo Lan planted the sign at the edge of her farmland.

Once the Headmistress taught them planting magic, she could start sowing her field.

The other little witches had been a step behind her from the very start of tilling, and since they were using the small spray bottles for the herbicide potion, they were even slower. They came back on Saturday and worked most of the day before finally getting their farmlands in order.

Saturday morning, Lilith watched Mo Lan tilling the ground in the dormitory courtyard and was absolutely stunned. “Didn’t you all have planting magic class this week? You still have time on the weekend to till the dormitory yard? You’re already done with the farmland?”

“All done!” Mo Lan said. “That big hoe and watering can are really high-maintenance! I was the fastest and it still took me several days—I only finished yesterday afternoon when class ended. The other little witches went back this morning to keep working, so they should be done by this afternoon.”

“Wait, there’s no Talent difference in Attuning hoes and watering cans, so how are you all so fast? And how are you so much faster than the others?” Lilith asked, perplexed.

Their second-year class was planning to go to the farming district tomorrow to practice broomstick flying!

Well, now she’d better hurry there today, or they might only arrive in time to see the juniors’ freshly tilled fields.

Mo Lan explained how they’d Attuned the hoes and how they’d sprayed the herbicide potion.

Lilith: “…”

Had the juniors gone mad, or had the world gone mad? They’d even thought of hugging the hoe while sleeping and carrying it to class?

That was one thing, but: “You have all that herbicide potion—you could splash it around freely and still not run out. Did you really have to spray it by hand? With all that bristle grass, do you know how hard it is to spray?!”

Now it was Mo Lan’s turn to be surprised. “All that herbicide potion was for us to use? There’s no problem wasting it like that?”

“The other fields are all managed by Sprites—they don’t need herbicide at all. That potion was prepared by the Headmistress specifically for us! Otherwise, given how the hoe and watering can behave, how could we possibly get the farmland ready in one week?” Lilith said. They hadn’t wanted to waste it either back then, but what choice did they have?

The watering can wasted a bit more, sure, but its sprinkler head was big and its efficiency was high!

Back in the day, on their last day, they’d all brought Breadfruit to wrestle with the watering can.

These juniors really never did anything the normal way!

“Ugh! Never mind, I need to go find the other witches right away.” Lilith felt that if she didn’t go spread the word soon, the second-years’ Sunday broomstick activity would be stillborn.

Practicing broomstick flying was secondary—watching the juniors’ spectacle was the main event!

“Oh right, can I get one of those Witch Farming Tool Cards of yours? How much mana?”

A customer! Mo Lan immediately broke into her business smile.

One look and Lilith knew this wasn’t going to be good.

Sure enough, she heard Mo Lan say: “Same as the Cleaning Tool Card! Deluxe edition: 100 Mana, single-use. Flagship edition: 50 Mana, single-use. Basic edition: 10 Mana, single-use. No bargaining!”

Even her escape route was cut off.

Lilith gritted her teeth. “Fine, give me a deluxe edition!”

What needed buying still needed buying.

After the purchase, even one more glance at a certain goblin Sorceress was painful, so she went straight to find the other second-year witches.

The broomstick flying practice had to be moved to this morning! Otherwise it would be too late!

Another mana payment received. Combined with her previous earnings and the half year of daily charging from her own mana, the energy stored in the Book of Cards had now surpassed one hundred thousand.

Mo Lan was overjoyed.

She could now make either a single infinitely reusable 10-Mana Energy Storage Card, or ten single-use 1,000-Mana Blank Energy Storage Cards.

But Mo Lan still leaned toward storing more energy in the Book of Cards first, so that when the time came, she could craft a reusable Energy Storage Card with an even higher capacity.

In theory, having enough single-use Energy Storage Cards was roughly equivalent to owning one infinitely reusable card.

Essentially, the crafting cost for an infinitely reusable Energy Storage Card was 5,000 times that of making a single-use card with the same capacity.

The gap seemed enormous, but every time you made a single-use Energy Storage Card, there was energy loss! And it was always a 100% loss rate.

Whereas once an infinitely reusable Energy Storage Card was crafted, storing and withdrawing mana from it would incur no energy loss whatsoever.

It was almost like extending your own mana bar.

Given the long lifespan of a Sorceress, the infinitely reusable Energy Storage Card was the better deal in the long run.

Ideally, she’d craft a high-capacity permanent Energy Storage Card before graduation.

Sorceresses didn’t fear one-on-one fights—what they feared was running out of mana during organized sieges.

After tilling all the ground in the dormitory yard and spraying on a bottle of herbicide potion she’d brought back from the farmland tool shed, Mo Lan went back to proofreading her workbooks.

The fourth and fifth-year upperclassmen might not have theory classes anymore, but they were still waiting for the workbooks to help them self-study the theory texts!

When she woke up Sunday morning and looked outside, every last weed in the courtyard was dead.

Back when she’d first moved in, Mo Lan had pulled the weeds in the yard before, but it wasn’t long before they grew right back.

After that, she’d been too lazy to pull them again. Only the path she walked regularly was clear of grass.

This herbicide potion really was effective! One spray and everything was dead—so much more convenient!

By the time Monday’s planting magic class arrived, every first-year witch had cultivated her own plot in the northern district of the farmland.