Chapter 268 – Evening Dismissal

Chapter 268 – Evening Dismissal

The sky gradually darkened, making the young witches’ movements through the mountain forests increasingly difficult.

As seven o’clock approached, Vasida, who had circled the entire base of the mountain, finally found a small pool of water. She was the third to complete the task and left the Inner Region.

“Oh my god! I’m finally out!” Vasida felt the day had been impossibly long. “I was starting to think there was no water source at the base of that mountain at all! The luck spell didn’t help one bit either!”

Mo Lan had seen everything clearly and shook her head. “The sun-facing side of that mountain is entirely covered in giant ant nests. Giant ants dislike water. The fact that you managed to find a small pool at the base of that mountain at all was already quite lucky.”

“Giant ants dislike water?” Vasida was shocked. “How did you know that?”

“From the Mo-Pic edition of Mo-Pic edition of Mo-Pic edition of Mo-Pic edition of Mo-Pic edition of Mo-Pic edition of 《The Valen Complete Bestiary》 on the sixth floor of the library. Though the beast section of that book references 《The Beast Compendium》, so 《The Beast Compendium》 should have it too,” Mo Lan said.

Otherwise, Lady Amisha wouldn’t have listed the mountain forest where the giant ants lived as one of the wilderness survival class trial locations.

Twenty-seven young witches, and near the forest each one entered, there was a species of pack-dwelling beast capable of causing the young witches considerable trouble.

But only Vasida had charged straight into the beast swarm.

She had been relying on her ability to take hits, but hadn’t expected the giant ants to also be venomous.

Vasida flipped open 《The Beast Compendium》. “It really is in here!”

Right there, on the page after the section explaining that giant ants had poor eyesight, relied mostly on scent to perceive their surroundings, and that mixing mud with giant ant blood and flesh could confuse their senses.

At the time, once she’d found a way to escape the giant ant swarm, she’d gone straight to figuring out which earth-element magic would be best for plastering mud onto herself, and hadn’t read any further.

She hadn’t expected to miss such crucial information.

“If I’d just read one more page, I wouldn’t have been stuck until now!” Vasida lamented, wringing her hands.

“Having gone through this ordeal is a good thing!” Mo Lan said. “At least from now on, you won’t just charge headlong into enemy territory relying on your physical prowess and recovery ability, right? And your motivation to study magic has gotten stronger too.”

From what she’d observed on the surveillance screens all afternoon, Vasida’s combat ability was indeed the strongest among the young witches aside from herself.

She could fight wild beasts in close combat without using magic.

If she hadn’t ventured deep into the giant ant swarm and been paralyzed by venom, she wouldn’t have had such a rough time.

For her, the only real difficulties had been the venom and finding a water source.

Vasida felt a pang of guilt and nodded emphatically. “Reading books and learning magic really is useful!”

Mo Lan’s effortlessly smooth completion of the trial was impressive precisely because she had read so many books and learned so many spells.

“You must be starving! Have some food!” Mo Lan had already prepared a huge spread for her.

“This whole table is for me?” Vasida asked in disbelief, her eyes nearly misting over.

“Aside from what’s been set aside for the other witches’ dinner, everything else is right here,” Mo Lan said. “Though this probably still won’t be enough to fill you up completely. You can go pick some breadfruit from Breadfruit Grove later!”

Breadfruit Grove was right nearby, so it was very convenient.

It was because she’d watched Vasida’s harrowing escape from the giant ant swarm today—so grueling and undignified—and how she’d been searching for water the whole time, catching prey but never getting a chance to eat, that Mo Lan had prepared this separate table of food for her.

Otherwise, knowing Vasida’s personality, she wouldn’t dare eat her fill until all the other young witches had eaten first.

“Moira~” Vasida gave Mo Lan a big hug, then sat down at the small table without a moment’s hesitation and began devouring the food.

Sylph, who had already eaten her fill, was half-propped up on the grass rubbing her stomach. She advised Vasida, “Eat slowly! You have to savor each bite to really appreciate the flavors!”

She regretted eating too fast and stuffing herself. Her tongue was still craving more, but her stomach couldn’t take another bite.

And this was even after using the Dietary Fortification Card to speed up her digestion.

“Mm!” Vasida nodded absently, her mouth never stopping, though she did slow her pace. Her eyes drifted toward the surveillance screens. “I wonder who’ll come out next!”

“There’s only half an hour until class ends,” Mo Lan said. “Wild beasts appear more frequently at night. Most of them haven’t fused the Vampire dark vision ability, so their visibility is actually hindered at night. Some are maintaining Light spells while still being clumsy with their casting. I’m afraid it’s going to be tough for them.”

She’d been watching all afternoon and had a very clear understanding of how each young witch was doing.

“Wait! Look! It looks like Cheryl found a water source!” Sylph exclaimed.

On one small projection screen, Cheryl was sprinting through the forest with an illumination orb, a swarm of glowing green eyes in pursuit behind her—impossible to tell what they were.

As she ran, her Light spell expired. In the gap before she could recast it, she missed her footing and fell off a cliff.

She happened to fall right into a river.

She’d found water, but the river wasn’t very deep. Despite the fall from that height and the water absorbing some of her momentum, she still hit the riverbed.

She couldn’t swim either, and her specialty was fire-element magic—not a single fire spell could protect against that kind of impact.

She was rescued with severe injuries, her entire body encased in a Magic Waterbed.

Mo Lan had studied the Magic Waterbed before. This full-body wrapping treatment method had the highest healing efficiency.

Which showed just how badly Cheryl was hurt.

Under the Magic Waterbed’s treatment, ten minutes passed before she regained consciousness. The first thing she did upon waking was ask Lady Amisha:

“I found a water source! Does this count as passing, or not?”

“I regret to inform you that it does not count as passing,” Cheryl’s Guardian Headmistress said. “By the time you made contact with the water source, you were no longer able to collect water. Next time, you’ll be teleported directly to where you fell. Only when you walk to the riverbank will you be considered to have completed this lesson’s task.”

Clearly, there was no way Cheryl could safely descend the cliff and reach the riverbank today.

Cheryl hadn’t even fully recovered when class time ended.

A teleportation portal appeared before every young witch still in the Inner Region.

Lady Amisha’s voice rang in their ears, instructing them to teleport out immediately.

“Today’s lesson task was completed only by Moira, Sylph, and Vasida. The other young witches will continue this lesson’s task next week. Moira, Sylph, and Vasida may advance to new terrain for study,” said the purple-robed Amisha.

“What?” The young witches didn’t want to fall behind like this. “Headmistress, can we catch up during our free time this week?”

Amisha looked slightly surprised. “The areas explored during class tasks won’t be recorded on your Academy maps, meaning they won’t be of much help for your exploration of the Inner Region. Even so, you still want to use your free time to complete the class task?”

“Of course!” the young witches said in unison.