Chapter 204 – Sharpening Spell

The young witches had just begun to grasp the effects of the Sharpening spell when they heard Lady Amisha say:

“Come on, pick a weapon you like and give the Sharpening spell a try! Or if you’d rather follow the Culinary Witches’ example and use your own kitchen knives, that works too. The knives in your kitchen tool cards are quite good quality.”

Just as the young witches were itching to try, Mo Lan suddenly asked, “Headmistress, do the Culinary Witches cook with the same knives they use to kill people?”

The young witches’ hands, reaching for their kitchen tool cards, froze mid-motion.

Right — were the killing knives and the cooking knives the same ones?

“Um… I think most of them do, yes.

Before kitchen tool cards existed, it wasn’t easy for a witch to carry cooking equipment around. Everyone aimed for efficiency, and unlike kitchen tool cards, they wouldn’t bother separating knives by purpose.

Slaughtering, chopping vegetables, self-defense, killing enemies — one knife served all purposes.”

That was exactly how Amisha had done it back when she was young and hadn’t yet built up her fortune, and other witches had done the same.

Even the application of the Sharpening spell to kitchen tools was discovered by numerous self-made witches who had limited resources.

Seeing how concerned the young witches were about this issue, she more or less understood why:

“This is perfectly normal — there’s always the Cleaning spell!”

Mo Lan smiled and nodded, then went to look at the weapons.

The young witches who lacked talent in water magic and couldn’t cast the Cleaning spell using converted water elemental force did the same as her.

The young witches who could cast the Cleaning spell using converted water elemental force, however, confidently pulled out their kitchen tool cards.

“When you use kitchen tools, the enhancement effects of the Sharpening spell and the Attuning effects of Culinary Magic can combine much more effectively. It’s far more time-efficient and rewarding than separately Attuning dedicated weapons and enhancing them with the Sharpening spell to practice throwing knife techniques.

Kitchen knife throwing is different from cooking — once you leave the kitchen environment, the foundation of Magic Infusion still allows kitchen knives to harm people!

However, after poisoning your kitchen knives, make sure to clean them thoroughly before cooking with them again. It’s best to use the Cleaning spell cast with converted water elemental force. If you can’t do that, use other methods to wash them several times over to ensure all the poison is removed.”

Amisha said.

She actually preferred recommending that they practice the Sharpening spell with kitchen tools.

The young witches hadn’t learned close combat yet, so their mastery of these weapons was far inferior to their mastery of kitchen tools.

Hearing this, even the young witches who couldn’t use the water elemental force Cleaning spell chose to pick knives from their kitchen tool cards.

Kitchen knives felt a bit unsettling, but butcher knives — those were still more or less acceptable.

If you thought about it, slaughtering livestock and slaying enemies weren’t all that different.

As for the poison, just wash it a few extra times. This method was the most practical and economical compared to the alternatives.

Meanwhile, Mo Lan was still examining the weapons. After looking them over, she committed them all to memory.

Just as Amisha thought she was about to pick one, she saw Mo Lan pull a butcher knife from her Mobile Kitchen Tool Card.

Then she turned to the young witches: “I’ve memorized the designs of these weapons. After class, I’ll be listing a batch of weapon cards for sale. If anyone needs them in the future, you can buy card weapons for self-defense.”

Vasida looked at the butcher knife in her hand: “So you’re going to…”

“Practice with the butcher knife first! Think of it as sharpening the blade,” Mo Lan said.

It was still a bit unsettling, sure, but compared to the time and effort saved, that discomfort was nothing.

After all, Attuning a weapon from scratch to a level where it could be used as a flying knife was very difficult.

But the Attuning of her kitchen tools already had a solid foundation by now.

The Mobile Kitchen Tool Card contained plenty of usable blades beyond just kitchen knives.

And the cleansing power of the Cleaning spell cast with converted water elemental force was absolutely reliable.

The young witches: “…”

As if they’d ever buy those! Not a chance!

Once everyone had their metal blades ready, Lady Amisha let them loose to practice.

She didn’t explain a single thing about the casting techniques for the Sharpening spell.

Completely gone was her earlier appearance of earnest instruction.

The young witches: “That’s it? No casting tips or anything?”

“It’s just an ordinary spell, not all that different from the ones you’ve learned before. The methods are the same methods. If you’re unsure about anything, look it up in the textbook yourselves!

From now on, you need to learn to solve problems in your magical studies on your own, and train your ability to self-study Magic from books!” Amisha said.

The young witches: “Fine.”

Even those who had previewed the material felt they needed another look before they’d feel confident. They opened their Grimoires on the spot and flipped to the chapter on the Sharpening spell.

Among the crowd of young witches poring over their books, Mo Lan stood out conspicuously — she’d cast a Sharpening spell on her butcher knife without hesitation, then charged at a Training Dummy with it.

The young witches thought to themselves: “Oh, it’s Mo Lan. Completely normal.”

With one stab, the Training Dummy, which appeared to be wrapped in a layer of iron plating, was actually pierced half an inch deep.

Switch knives, again!

After cycling through every single knife in her Mobile Kitchen Tool Card, the Sharpening spell on the very first butcher knife still hadn’t worn off.

Mo Lan stepped back several paces and controlled a portion of the knives, launching them simultaneously at the Training Dummy.

She’d seen the flying knife technique in the Mo-Pic book as well.

This was another spell that had evolved from Magic Infusion. The principle was that through prolonged Magic Infusion, a witch could control small objects and make them levitate and move.

Culinary Magic also utilized this principle.

Through the extensive Attuning that came with learning Culinary Magic, Mo Lan had long since developed the ability to control these kitchen knives in the air.

It was clearly less fluid than wielding them by hand, but that was something she could practice.

Moreover, she distinctly felt that controlling kitchen knives for attacks consumed less energy than controlling them for cooking.

Under the same conditions, she could control a greater number of knives for attacking.

Controlling multiple knives for ranged attacks was truly viable!

The knives enhanced with the Sharpening spell also dealt an additional measure of metal elemental damage compared to ordinary knives, so their offensive power was quite respectable.

Just as the Headmistress had said, using the Sharpening spell on kitchen tools that had already been Attuned yielded even greater benefits!

The Sharpening spell — originally meant to augment weapons and serve as a last-resort defensive measure — when combined with the Magic Infusion flying knife technique, became a group attack spell.

The only drawback was that these knives were still kitchen tools at heart. They needed frequent washing after being poisoned, and their designs weren’t as suited for combat as actual weapons.

For the other young witches, this minor shortcoming was hardly worth mentioning. But for Mo Lan, she understood that the quality of the blades determined the lethality of the flying knife technique.

Kitchen knife throwing was still more time-efficient and rewarding, but in terms of raw lethality, it could only rely on the Sharpening spell, and that still required long-term accumulation — it couldn’t match magical flying knives.

“Once I’ve learned Alchemy Magic and forged a set of magical flying knives, I’ll switch blades!” Mo Lan thought.

That would further enhance the lethality of her flying knife technique.

Between Attuned kitchen tools and ordinary weapons, she’d certainly choose the Attuned kitchen tools. But between Attuned kitchen tools and magical weapons, she’d choose the magical weapons.

For now, she’d practice with kitchen tools. Think of it as sharpening the blade.