Chapter 152 – Drawing Cards, Drawing Cards

Chapter 152 – Drawing Cards, Drawing Cards

Every time they tapped to draw a card, the young witches felt the same anxious anticipation as waiting for exam results.

When the cards in the pool appeared and flipped over one by one, revealing their faces, it was just like seeing their grades—some met with joy, others with sorrow.

If it was a fragment card, wails of despair erupted. A loss.

If it was a complete card, a spark of delight.

And if it was a finished food card they’d never seen before, it was like scoring above 95 and earning a Magic Gold Coin reward.

When they drew poorly, they’d resolve to stop—but the moment they saw someone else pull a good card, that resolve crumbled instantly.

Luck was such an ethereal thing. What if the very next draw was the one?

And once they did pull a good card, they couldn’t bear to stop at all.

Today’s magical power would regenerate by tomorrow, so they had even less reason to hold back.

One card after another.

Before long, the ten card storage slots in their card albums couldn’t hold all the cards they’d drawn.

The young witches did have decent self-control, though. After spending half their magical power, they stopped, planning to continue tomorrow once it recovered.

Sylph still needed to Attune Broomstick Grass tonight, and she also had to check on her mutant magical plants in the greenhouse. She’d kept the most Mana in reserve, but had still done a hundred draws. The pockets of her robe were stuffed full of cards.

Vasida drew the most. Even after the other young witches had stopped, she kept going.

The others found it thrilling just watching her draw.

When a good card appeared, they couldn’t help cheering for her. When a fragment card showed up, they couldn’t help sighing.

The classroom was buzzing with excitement.

In the end, the cards she’d drawn filled to overflowing the small bag she’d sewn herself in Sewing Magic class, modeled after Mo Lan’s satchel.

She also became the first young witch to spend permanent Mana to purchase additional card storage slots.

Mo Lan had crafted a {Magic Light Screen Master Card} for herself, used to control the light screens of all Card Magic contract holders, and had also made herself a {Magic Light Screen Card} identical to the ones in the Card Magic system.

But while the other young witches were having the time of their lives drawing cards, she hadn’t drawn a single one. She was studying her Book of Cards.

Just these twenty-six young witches, in this short span of time, had caused the Mana stored in Mo Lan’s Book of Cards’ Purple Gemstone to skyrocket by 2,200 Mana.

Furthermore, her permanent Mana had increased by 82 Mana points, bringing her total Mana to 1,980!

That was equivalent to twenty or thirty days’ worth of natural Mana growth.

This was exactly what Lady Carmela had described—the shortcut for Sorceresses to rapidly grow their Mana!

This growth model, mediated through contracts, carried absolutely no risk.

The moment a contract was established, the traded goods exchanged ownership. Violating the contract would only punish the violator—the contracted goods would never be returned.

Mo Lan’s Card Magic contract template, drawing on the experience of her predecessors, included two clauses: “The contract holder must not reveal the relationship between this magic and the Sorceress to anyone outside of witches, and must not deliberately take any action harmful to her interests.”

If any contract holder violated these two provisions in the future, they would lose the right to use Card Magic. All their cards would become unusable, and every card in their possession would immediately self-destruct.

However, the permanent Mana and one-time Mana they had previously traded away would not be returned.

In effect, once a contract was signed, the Mana given up could never be reclaimed.

From Mo Lan’s perspective, the ownership of that Mana had transferred to her, and no one could ever take it back.

This was no different from naturally grown Mana.

She didn’t even feel any discomfort from absorbing so much Mana at once. Without the slightest sensation, her Mana had simply grown more vast.

Indeed, Sorceress Magic truly was the best method for Sorceresses to rapidly increase their Mana.

And her Card Magic was even better! Card sales had surged dramatically.

Many young witches might have drawn cards valued at 1 Mana or higher.

But in reality, the production cost of those cards was only one-fifth of their value.

In other words, whether they drew fragment cards, cards worth 1 Mana, or cards worth 2 Mana, Mo Lan was profiting.

Those outcomes combined accounted for 97% probability.

Only when a young witch drew from the remaining 3% would she take a loss.

And in truth, the current card pool didn’t contain anything particularly remarkable.

There were Energy Storage Cards in the mix, but only the {Blank Energy Storage Card – 1 Mana} and {Blank Energy Storage Card – 100 Mana} varieties.

High-value cards would never appear in consecutive draws.

Only in this beta-test card pool would she include the {Blank Energy Storage Card – 100 Mana} as a showpiece.

Once she’d developed enough cards, she would implement tiered card pools.

Permanent Mana would buy access to premium pools, and only premium pools could yield the most expensive cards.

The contract holder who drew a good card might strike it rich, but Mo Lan would never, ever lose money.

Just like how lottery winners might get rich overnight, but lottery sellers got rich every single day.

What she needed to do next was develop more different kinds of cards and expand the card pool.

Earth’s planetary memories could be put to good use here, but to create truly high-value cards, she still needed to study Magic diligently and raise the Book of Cards’ card-crafting ceiling.

The stronger she became, the more precious the cards she could create.

Developing step by step like this, she shouldn’t have to worry about running out of Mana.

The young witches didn’t leave the Castle and head down the mountain until they’d burned through most of their magical power.

Before heading down, Mo Lan hung back a step. She ran to the warehouse, the library, the reading room—all the places young witches frequented—and posted an enormous promotional poster at each entrance.

She wouldn’t be able to attend the fifth-year seniors’ graduation ceremony, so she could only use this method to let them learn about her Sorceress Magic and cards before they left the Academy.

The library, which housed all of the witch clan’s free inheritance books, was absolutely a must-visit for every young witch before graduation.

The eye-catching poster right at the entrance would certainly draw the seniors’ attention.

Mo Lan had even taken care to note on the poster the functions of various tool cards—the {Mobile Kitchen Card}, {Portable Utensil Card}, {Cleaning Tool Card}, {Witch Farming Tool Card}—as well as the {Energy Storage Card}.

These were absolutely essential cards for every soon-to-graduate young witch starting from scratch with no fixed home.

To buy cards, they first had to purchase the Card Magic itself. No need to worry about the seniors not being tempted.

With the specially designed Card Magic opening animation and magic light screen, the cards were perfectly disguised as ordinary magic.

Unless someone was a contract holder, it would be very difficult for anyone to connect it with Sorceresses. At most, they’d assume the witch clan had discovered some new type of magic inheritance from another world.

And contract holders who knew the truth would keep silent, bound by their contracts.

Her Card Magic now had the foundation for promotion within the witch clan.

In the future, after she graduated, when these witches used Card Magic and its reputation spread, her own use of cards wouldn’t attract too much attention. On the contrary, it would make it easier for her to stay hidden until she’d grown strong enough.