Chapter 115 – Magic Upgrade

“Yes! But it might come out misshapen, or have a bad texture, or taste terrible. It could only be called a failed loaf of bread—just like what you just made!”

Amisha said, pointing at the rather wilted weed.

Mo Lan: “…”

What she had just produced was a textbook example of failed magic.

“Creating magic is easy. Creating magic with practical use is hard. But having the spirit of research and creation is commendable. Every successful loaf of bread only got its mold after predecessors baked it first and then summarized the recipe.” Amisha looked at her as she spoke.

Surely there were no more questions?

But Mo Lan lowered her head in thought for a moment, then asked again, “Headmistress, if spells with a single function have more pronounced effects, then does that mean our spellcasting instructions should also be as singular and focused as possible?

For example, with the Fertile Soil spell, if I imagine a piece of fertile land with thriving crops as my casting instruction—even though the thriving crops are meant to emphasize the fertility of the soil—wouldn’t it still be less effective than directly imagining an incredibly fertile patch of soil?”

“Exactly!” Amisha said affirmatively. “The more precise your instructions, the less mana is wasted during casting.

However, imagination has its limits. Most of the time, instructions can’t be perfectly precise.

That’s why you need repeated practice, to build harmony between yourself and your mana. Once your mana becomes familiar with your instructions, even if the instructions aren’t entirely clear, it will know what kind of effect you want.

The level of a spell is essentially the degree of harmony between your mana and your instructions. The clearer the instructions, the faster the mana harmonizes, and the faster your spell level rises.”

“Thank you, Headmistress. I understand now!”

Mo Lan finally understood why, despite practicing the Spring Water spell, Light spell, and Flame spell for so long, they had made some progress but remained at the Apprentice level.

Her memory was too vivid. She had been using images directly from her memories, with only slight modifications, as her casting instructions.

Her instruction for the Spring Water spell was the basin of water she had originally used as reference. Her instruction for the Light spell was the magical lamp she had referenced. Her instruction for the Flame spell was a cluster of fire on the stove.

Without realizing it, she had been adding excessive detail to the scenes.

Including the Fertile Soil spell she had learned today—her imagined instruction also included lush crops growing on the land.

In reality, the instruction for the Spring Water spell could simply be a mass of—or even a single drop of—pure, impurity-free water. What the water flow looked like, whether it was contained in a basin or a bucket—none of that mattered.

The instruction for the Light spell could simply be a mass of illuminating light. Illumination was the key point; nothing else mattered and could all be omitted.

The instruction for the Flame spell just needed to be a cluster of flame. Combustion was its most essential characteristic.

And the Fertile Soil spell only needed the command “become fertile.”

The images and instructions in her mind had been too detailed, cluttered with too many unnecessary elements. That was why, even though she practiced these spells every day and her Talent was perfectly fine, her progress had been slow, unable to break through the Apprentice level for the longest time.

Mo Lan raised her wand and stripped away everything unimportant, retaining only what was most essential. The Spring Water spell became nothing but pure water. The Light spell became nothing but illuminating light. The Flame spell became nothing but burning fire. The Fertile Soil spell became nothing but fertile earth.

The images in her mind were simpler now, and when she cast the spells again, she found everything was completely different.

A jet of spring water as thick as a thigh. A fireball the size of a fist. A globe of light with a much wider range of illumination.

And finally, a Fertile Soil spell with both greater range and better effect.

Amisha had just taken out a picnic blanket and nearly got it soaked. “Beginner level?”

“The Fertile Soil spell isn’t there yet,” Mo Lan said.

The Spring Water spell, Light spell, and Flame spell had all reached Beginner level.

It seemed her practice had long been sufficient to advance to Beginner—it was just that her instructions had contained too much useless information, causing mana to be wasted, which was why she had been stuck there with painfully slow progress.

After adjusting her instructions, even the newly learned Fertile Soil spell started with a maximum mana output of one percent of her total mana capacity. And when the maximum mana output during casting exceeded two percent of total mana capacity, that was Beginner level.

In other words, she had cleared half the Apprentice stage in one go.

Far better than the initial 0.1 percent she had started with.

Mo Lan finally felt a little like she was actually a Sorceress with exceptional magical talent.

From the other young witches’ perspective, they had been burying themselves in studying the casting instructions for the Fertile Soil spell, and Mo Lan had just been chatting with Lady Amisha—then suddenly, three of her spells upgraded to Beginner level all at once, and her Fertile Soil spell could already enrich a full square meter of soil in a single cast.

Meanwhile, those among them who had managed to cast successfully could only affect a palm-sized patch of soil at a time. Their instructions clearly still had problems.

The young witches couldn’t sit still any longer and crowded over again.

Vasida was the first to ask: “Headmistress! What casting secret did you teach Moira? How did she improve so fast all of a sudden?”

Lady Amisha looked toward Mo Lan. “Why don’t you explain it to them!”

Mo Lan, of course, spared no effort in sharing every insight she had.

The young witches: “That’s it?”

Mo Lan nodded. “Whatever you do, don’t render irrelevant details too clearly. Casting instructions should be precise first, then clear! Any irrelevant information can be left out entirely.”

“Our problem isn’t that our casting instructions are too clear! Our problem is that they’re not clear enough!” Vasida complained. “Who on earth would cast the Spring Water spell and imagine the basin holding the water in perfect detail?!”

It had taken her ages just to clearly visualize the characteristics and appearance of the spring water itself in her mind!

They were all struggling because the images and instructions in their heads were too vague, racking their brains trying to add more detail—and here Mo Lan’s problem was that her instructions were excessively clear.

Mo Lan touched her nose. “It’s probably because my memory is just too good.”

The young witches: “…”

“Forget it! Let’s just go back and practice on our own!” Vasida had come with high hopes and left with great disappointment.

And here she had thought there was some secret technique for rapid magical improvement!

Turns out, the brains of one witch and another just weren’t quite the same! Mo Lan’s approach—they simply couldn’t replicate it.

The young witches dispersed one by one. Mo Lan: “(︶`)”

She seemed to have accidentally humble-bragged just now.

How sinful of her!

She didn’t stay to experiment with other spells either, and hurried back to her own plot of farmland to practice the Fertile Soil spell and enrich the soil.

Just like the teaching method in Culinary Magic class, Planting Magic class also taught each young witch individually according to her own progress.

Complete one step, and you could move on to the next.

Mo Lan was the first to finish enriching all the soil in her entire plot of farmland.

In her spare time, she even went and enriched the soil in the yard of her dormitory.

By the time she had finished enriching everything, her Fertile Soil spell had upgraded to Beginner level.

Not only had the area of land affected by each cast grown larger, but the efficiency of enrichment had also improved. Moreover, when casting, even if her mind wandered slightly on occasion, the casting state would no longer be immediately disrupted.

This rate of improvement was simply incomparable to when she had been learning the Spring Water spell and the others before.