Chapter 272 – Exploring the Inner Region Together

All the way until the next day on the road to Magic Q&A class, Mo Lan was still nursing a headache over yesterday’s scouting results.

When Vasida and Sylph curiously asked about her exploration, she felt like she’d found an outlet to vent:

“Do you know what I found? The part of the Inner Region near the core area doesn’t even have a single forest!”

“What?”

Seeing the shocked expressions on Vasida and Sylph’s faces, Mo Lan felt considerably better and continued:

“Yesterday I circled the entire Hedge Wall. I saw stone forests, grasslands, swamps, and deserts—but no mountain forests. The forests are all much farther out. You’d have to cross through all those areas to find them, and there might be flying magical beasts attacking along the way, so you can’t just ride a broomstick carelessly…”

“If even you find it tricky, it’ll be even harder for us. It seems like exploring the Inner Region really isn’t something that can be done overnight!” Sylph grew somewhat worried as well.

“The weekend is almost here. How about we try crossing through this area together and find a safe flight route?”

Vasida proposed, “If one person is alone in the air and runs into an emergency, it’s hard to deal with. But with the three of us, it’s a completely different story.”

“That sounds totally doable!” Sylph said.

Mo Lan was tempted. With Vasida and Sylph by her side, she’d dare to take on a giant eagle even while riding a broomstick.

The firepower of one wand versus three wands was a completely different matter.

“Then how about coming to my place after class so we can plan it out together?”

The three young witches hit it off immediately.

During Magic Q&A class, after Mo Lan finished asking the questions she’d been saving up, she started studying the route problem ahead of time.

Once Vasida and Sylph finished asking their questions, the three of them headed to Mo Lan’s dormitory together.

Mo Lan brought out her Academy map to show them:

“This area is Lone Peak Forest—jagged rocks everywhere, obstructed lines of sight, and giant eagles lurking in the depths.

This area is Greengrass Plains. Although the visibility is wide open and there are plenty of herbivorous beasts, making it easy to solve supply problems, the temperature here is much lower than other places, and there are snow-capped mountains deep inside.

This area is Green Marsh. The flying beast situation is unknown, but just at the edges, I already spotted quite a few poisonous plants and venomous creatures. The ground conditions are the most complicated.

This area is Yellow Sands—sandstorms and fierce winds everywhere, very few plants or beasts. Supplies are a major problem.

None of them are easy to get through.

However, where the regions border each other, the terrain and climate transitions are quite abrupt, beast populations are lower, and it’s relatively safer.

So I suggest we take a route along one of these border zones.”

“Let’s go through the middle of Lone Peak Forest and Greengrass Plains! That area has the most abundant supplies.” Sylph was considering the problem of Vasida needing to eat heavily after exhausting too much energy.

After all, from Mo Lan’s description, these areas were all vast, and there was no telling how long it would take to cross them.

“That’s what I was thinking too,” Mo Lan said. “The path there is the easiest to travel. The biggest problem is really just staying warm, but we’ve all learned the constant-temperature magic circle. If we set one up when resting, we’ll be nice and warm. It’s just a shame we don’t have magical fabric that can hold a constant-temperature magic circle inscribed on it—otherwise we wouldn’t have to worry about the cold even while traveling.”

“That’s easy! I recently cultivated a new type of fire-thorn bush. Its leaves have excellent insulating properties. I’ll go pick some, and we can just stick a few inside our clothes,” Sylph said.

“That’s wonderful! I had no idea such a great thing existed!” With that, Mo Lan’s last lingering concern vanished completely.

“Is there anything I can do?” Vasida raised her hand to ask.

Why did she feel like she was dragging the team down? Not only did her companions have to worry about her supply needs, but she couldn’t find any way to help.

“You? Just head over to Breadfruit Grove later and pick plenty of Breadfruit. Fill up that Devouring Stomach of yours. When the time comes, you’ll be our team’s shield—responsible for tanking damage. You can’t do that on an empty stomach!” Mo Lan said.

Vasida nodded emphatically. “Don’t worry. As long as my belly isn’t empty, I won’t go down!” Then, remembering what had happened during their wilderness survival class, she added, “Except for poisoning!”

That made Mo Lan and Sylph burst out laughing. “Don’t worry! With us around, we won’t let you get poisoned!”

“So when do we leave?” Vasida could barely contain her excitement.

Sylph looked at Mo Lan, a hint of eagerness in her eyes as well.

Mo Lan ventured tentatively, “Now?”

“Great! Then I’ll go to the greenhouse to pick fire-thorn leaves!” Sylph said.

“I’ll go to Breadfruit Grove to eat Breadfruit!” Vasida said.

Mo Lan said, “Then let’s meet up at the Hedge Wall near Breadfruit Grove!”

The three immediately split up to get ready.

Mo Lan grabbed a three-tailed chicken from the icebox, then went to the farmland to pick some mushrooms, and headed to Breadfruit Grove to gather a pile of Breadfruit.

She floated everything over to the grass outside the Hedge Wall.

She not only made braised chicken with mushrooms and cooked rice, but also prepared a good number of Breadfruit Cakes.

“Smells amazing!” Sylph and Vasida arrived following the aroma.

“This is lunch. We need to eat our fill before we can start our adventure! As for these…” Mo Lan divided the Breadfruit Cakes into three portions. “These are our emergency rations. If we can’t find game right away but urgently need to replenish energy, these will come in handy. One portion per person—if one person loses theirs, the others still have backup.”

Vasida instinctively asked, “What if we lose all of them?”

“Even if we lose all of them, we still have our cards!” Mo Lan said. “Besides, as long as I’m here, I will absolutely never let you go hungry!”

Vasida’s eyes sparkled as she stared at her: …!

No one had ever said anything like that to her before!

Her sense of security was through the roof!

Sylph also brought out three small cloth pouches. “These are filled with fire-thorn leaves. Normally, you stick one on your chest, one on your back, and one on the sole of each foot—that’s basically enough to keep your whole body warm. Each leaf stays effective for twenty-four hours.”

Mo Lan took one and examined it. “How beautiful!”

The thin, scarlet-red leaves radiated warmth even through the cloth pouch.

Warm to the touch, continuously generating heat for a full twenty-four hours without the slightest decline—these were far superior to any hand warmer.

Vasida gleefully used a shrinking spell on the Breadfruit Cake bundles and fire-thorn leaf pouches, preparing to put them in her satchel, but Mo Lan stopped her:

“I know an expansion spell. Give me all your bags—I’ll temporarily enlarge the interior space. That way, you can even fit your broomsticks inside.

But my expansion spell isn’t a high level yet. Expanding a space big enough for a broomstick can only be maintained for three hours at most. Once the time is up, I’ll need to recast it.”

“Three hours is already amazing!” Sylph said. “I was just worrying about how to carry the broomstick!”

“Exactly! With your mana, Moira, recasting it every three hours shouldn’t be any pressure at all!” Vasida said.

Mo Lan nodded. “The expansion spell does consume quite a lot of mana, but for me, maintaining the expanded space in all three of our bags is no problem at all!”