Chapter 28 – Practice Between Classes

Mo Lan listened to the chorus of gasps behind her and felt, inexplicably, that she was no longer alone.

For the three of them, the energy consumed by Magic Suffusion was practically nothing.

Even Mo Lan, whose mana hadn’t fully recovered, didn’t need to eat any Breadfruit right now — it didn’t affect her practice at all.

The three of them were also the first to consistently turn the resonance paper a uniform dark green.

The bell tower chimed twelve times. By the time class ended, the other young witches had also managed to competently apply the magic infusion technique.

Though the resonance paper in front of each young witch varied in shade — some darker, some lighter — they were all indeed a uniform green.

Lady Amisha dismissed the class with satisfaction, but didn’t forget to remind them before leaving:

“The first time you activate Witch Sight, it must be done under the supervision of an adult witch. During the lunch break, do not try it on your own. If something goes wrong, at best your eyesight will deteriorate — at worst, you’ll go blind!”

After confirming that every young witch had heard her, she left without worry, with no intention of supervising them whatsoever.

The moment Lady Amisha was gone, quite a few young witches stood up from their seats.

“I’m so stuffed I could burst! I need to go walk around and digest a bit! Otherwise there’s no way I’m eating any breadfruit this afternoon!”

“Me too!”

“I want to visit the washroom.”

“I’ll come along!”

…

Before long, the classroom was more than half empty.

Not a single young witch had let curiosity get the better of her and recklessly attempted to use the technique on her own eyes.

Mo Lan wasn’t surprised by this.

She had long noticed that the young witches here were far more mature than children of the same age back on Earth in her previous life.

She went to the washroom with Vasida and Sylph as well.

Then they returned to the classroom for lunch.

Vasida and Sylph ate breadfruit cakes, while Mo Lan continued gnawing on raw breadfruit.

After filling their stomachs, Vasida and Sylph both wanted to go explore the Castle.

But Mo Lan shook her head. “You two go ahead. I want to keep practicing Magic Suffusion.”

“Haven’t we already passed?” Vasida asked, puzzled.

“But the green comes in different shades. We’ve only mastered one level of magic infusion. I think more practice should help improve our control over mana,” Mo Lan said.

“There’s no rush though, is there? Once we start learning magic and use mana more, our control will naturally improve, won’t it?”

Sylph didn’t quite understand either.

They had already been sitting in the classroom staring at resonance paper for two hours. She’d much rather go get some fresh air in the castle gardens.

“More practice is always beneficial,” Mo Lan said. “You two go! But could I borrow your resonance paper?”

That way she wouldn’t have to wait through the thirty-second recovery interval.

“Go ahead!” Seeing her so determined, Vasida and Sylph didn’t press the matter.

Once the two of them left, Mo Lan was truly the only one remaining in the classroom.

Mo Lan continued experimenting with Magic Suffusion.

At first, she tried turning the resonance paper various uniform shades of green, from light to dark.

Then she increased the difficulty, producing uniform shades of yellow and red.

Finally, she even controlled her magic power output to make the resonance paper display different patches and even patterns of red, yellow, and green according to her will. When her own resonance paper was in its recovery period, she moved to Vasida’s and Sylph’s seats to practice.

Rotating between the three sheets of resonance paper greatly improved her efficiency.

Through round after round of practice, she came to understand her own mana better.

How much mana, at what output speed, would produce what effect on the resonance paper — she now had a clear sense of it all.

Mo Lan knew that the color changes on the resonance paper were specific to Magic infusion.

Practicing stable outputs to make the paper turn red, yellow, or other colors wouldn’t directly help much with future spellcasting, which would have entirely different magic power output requirements.

However, this kind of training helped her better control her own power, become practiced at the calm and focused state required for casting, and freely rein in her wandering thoughts.

Even though she hadn’t yet seen her first card, there was no doubt that the slot in the center of her Book of Cards was an absolute mana devourer.

Thinking back, the reason her mana had drained away like a burst dam that day wasn’t only because it was her first time channeling magic and her emotional fluctuations were too great, leaving her with no awareness of control.

It was also because the card slot’s pull on mana was simply too strong. Half of it was her own failure to realize she needed to control it, and the other half was purely the card slot draining her dry.

Mo Lan absolutely did not want to experience fainting like that again.

After thinking it over, the only solution was to practice her mana control more.

Vasida and Sylph returned after a stroll around the Castle.

A quick glance at the resonance paper in front of Mo Lan revealed a riot of red, yellow, and green.

They were full of questions — how had her practice gotten worse the longer she worked at it?

But Mo Lan put down her hands with a satisfied expression. “You’re back? How was it?”

“Most places aren’t open to us yet. Even the library is the same — only some empty classrooms are accessible right now, so there wasn’t much to see. We walked around the Castle’s little garden and came back. It’s quite pretty there,” Sylph said. “But Moira, how come your practice seems to have gotten…”

“Look! Doesn’t this look like a painting? A hillside blooming with poppies and wild chrysanthemums?” Mo Lan said proudly, showing it off like a treasure. “There are too few colors, and I can’t blend them yet, so you have to look carefully to make it out.”

Only then did Vasida and Sylph look more closely.

“It really does look a bit like poppies and wild chrysanthemums!”

“The different shades of green actually do give it a grassy feel.”

Though somewhat rough, it was clearly not a random mess of colors — there was deliberate arrangement.

“Moira! You made the resonance paper look like this on purpose?” Vasida asked in astonishment.

“Mhm!” Mo Lan said. “Not bad, right? Unfortunately, this is about the limit of what you can do with resonance paper.”

Sylph nodded. “We were only gone a little over an hour, and you can already paint pictures on resonance paper with mana. That’s incredible!”

“Compared to this, our practice was way too basic!” Vasida said.

“There’s still some time before class starts — you can practice more!” Mo Lan said. “It’s really useful!”

“Right!” Vasida and Sylph couldn’t sit still any longer and began practicing too.

Mo Lan didn’t rest either. She took a few bites of Breadfruit, then continued saturating the resonance paper at varying intensities to reinforce her feel for it.

Before long, Iris and Alba returned to the classroom, chatting and laughing.

Mid-conversation, they suddenly noticed Mo Lan and her two companions sitting neatly in their seats, heads down, silently practicing Magic Infusion!

They hadn’t made a sound, which was why the two girls only noticed them now.

Iris asked Alba uncertainly, “Class hasn’t started yet, has it?”

She even glanced up at the lectern, half-expecting to see Lady Amisha standing there.

Alba shook her head. “I didn’t hear the two o’clock bell. And Lady Amisha isn’t here.”