Chapter 197 – Schedule Update

The young witches quickly cleaned their clothes, mounted their broomsticks, and flew toward the Academy Castle.

The first-year witches had just left the Castle and were walking down the mountain path. Just as they were lamenting that even after traveling this route several times it still didn’t feel any easier, a group of upperclassmen came whooshing through the sky above them.

“It’s Senior Moira and the others!”

“They’ve already learned the Art of Flight so quickly!”

The young witches craned their necks, watching the upperclassmen fly to the very top of the Academy Castle before forming a line and flying back down toward the base of the mountain, their eyes brimming with envy.

The scenery from the Jade Terrace atop the Castle was truly one of a kind—the entire Academy Castle, the core zone, and even the inner perimeter were all visible in a single panoramic view.

But no matter how beautiful the scenery, it couldn’t compare to the beauty of the envious gazes from the underclassmen who were still getting around on foot.

As they passed over the younger students’ heads again, they slowed their pace and descended a bit, taking the time to check in on their juniors’ studies.

“Have you adjusted to Academy life yet?”

“Yes! Totally! Picking Breadfruit, collecting ingredients—no problems at all!”

“How are classes? The coursework shouldn’t be too demanding, right?”

“It’s fine, really easy! We just mastered Magic Infusion and are about to start making our Grimoires.”

“That’s wonderful! Once your Grimoires are done, you can start transcribing books. And once the books are transcribed and your Wands are made, you can officially start taking classes… and then…”

“Then what?”

“Then you’ll get to experience the true charm of knowledge and Magic. If you have any questions, feel free to come find us. We still have a lot more free time than the upper-year students who’ve started exploring areas beyond the core zone.”

“Okay!”

“Well, we’ll be off then!”

“Goodbye, seniors!”

Mo Lan and the others looked perfectly nonchalant on the surface, but inside they were absolutely thrilled. Each of them struck their most dashing pose atop their broomsticks as they flew down the mountain.

When they landed outside their Dormitory doors, they all rubbed their cheeks in unison without any prior agreement.

In their eagerness to look cool, they’d been flying too fast just now, and at quite a high altitude too—the wind had blown their faces completely stiff.

They’d barely managed to hold it together and not give themselves away in front of the underclassmen.

“From now on, I can’t fly too fast at high altitudes! And I need to get a witch flight suit sorted out as soon as possible!” Mo Lan thought to herself.

Having eaten an extremely sour water orb mixed with Breadfruit pulp during the afternoon class, she wasn’t particularly hungry at the moment.

After going inside and placing her broomstick on the broom rack by the door, she sat down at her desk and opened 《Practical Witch Apparel Design》.

She wanted to look at the design diagrams for the other components of the witch flight suit.

Compared to the Advanced Alchemy Magic she couldn’t master anytime soon, the flight suit would be much easier to achieve.

Mo Lan opened the book full of hope, and by the time she finished reading, that hope was gone.

The suit had many components. Besides the supportive, cushioned shorts, there were also sweat-wicking gloves, a wind- and rain-proof hat, a rain-repelling and lightning-resistant robe and skirt-trousers, footed tights with built-in support, a back-supporting vest, and a heat-retaining belt… every single piece had properties beneficial for flight.

But the materials required for each piece were far from simple.

Besides crocodile-bull back leather, the suit also called for glacial fish skin, storm bird feathers, thunderbird brow crystals, hydrophobic silkworm thread, and orange jade.

Mo Lan had only ever seen these in books. They all came from either magical beasts or were associated minerals found alongside magic ore deposits—every single one classified as a magical material.

Mo Lan had just visited the Underground warehouse beneath the Academy today, and they had none of these. Whether the West Tower’s low-grade magical materials warehouse had any, she wasn’t sure, but even if it did, they couldn’t be used for making clothes.

That warehouse was exclusively for Alchemy study. She had collected materials from there before when making a new cover for her Grimoire.

But she had only taken some attractive ordinary gemstones and leather—not a single magical material.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to; it was that even if she had, any book cover made from them couldn’t be used for the Grimoire.

The Academy provided low-grade magical materials for lower-year students studying Alchemy Magic, and low-grade magical plants for those studying potion-brewing magic.

But the magical items and potions produced from these materials all belonged to the Academy.

Potions and the like were consumables—if you could use them yourself, you went ahead and used them, and only turned in what you couldn’t use.

But magical items, once crafted, belonged to the Academy. Some you could borrow temporarily, while others had to be handed over to the Academy immediately after completion.

And even with temporary usage rights, you couldn’t bring them to the trials when advancing to fifth year, nor could you take them when graduating.

Only items crafted from magical materials that the young witches personally gathered from the Academy’s outer zones were considered fully their own “property.”

As for the materials needed for the witch flight suit, Mo Lan didn’t even need to think about it—given how the Academy operated, there was no way they would freely provide such things and diminish the students’ motivation to collect materials during future trials.

They only provided that tiny bit of crocodile-bull back leather, so everything else was out of the question.

She asked Headmistress No. 69, and sure enough, that was exactly the case.

Given all this, she might as well focus on learning Alchemy Magic properly.

Although Alchemy Magic wasn’t easy to learn, any successful alchemical modifications to a broomstick would at least be entirely hers—something she could take with her when she left the Academy.

With that thought, Mo Lan lost interest in continuing with this book.

Sewing Magic and Culinary Magic were both the same way—if you wanted the results to have special effects, you had to rely on special materials. The Magic itself had few limitations.

Even Apprentice-level Sewing Magic could use Advanced magical materials to produce clothing that retained the materials’ magical properties.

In other words, the skill level in these two types of Magic could be improved simply by practicing with ordinary materials, so naturally the Academy wouldn’t provide magical materials for the young witches to practice with.

And yet this particular book was filled with practically functional garments—functions that all depended on magical materials to achieve.

Rather than reading a book she couldn’t put into practice right now, she’d be better off reading this year’s required reading list.

As she flipped through the pages, Mo Lan habitually glanced at the alarm clock on her desk and paused mid-flip.

It was five past eight—the schedule should have updated by now, right?

The flight course had originally been scheduled for a full week, but they’d finished in just two days. She wondered how the upcoming classes would be arranged.

She closed her Grimoire directly, then flipped back to the beginning. The very first book transcribed inside was the 《Newcomer’s Guide》.

The second-year class schedule inside had indeed been updated.

At first glance, it looked the same as last year—one class in the morning and one in the afternoon.

But looking at the specific class times, the duration was nearly one and a half times what it had been last year.

In first year, it had been two major class blocks—morning from ten to twelve, afternoon from four to six—with each block lasting only two hours, divided into two sub-sessions.

Now it was two major class blocks—morning from nine to twelve, afternoon from two to five—with each block lasting three hours, divided into three sub-sessions.

Each hour still included about fifteen minutes of break time between sessions, just like before, so strictly speaking, it was two and a half hours of actual class time.

The time that used to be spent walking up and down the mountain had now been largely converted into class time.