Chapter 280 – Grass Growing on Her Head

“Let me handle this mountain tiger!” Vasida pulled out her Butchering Tool Card.

“Then I’ll handle this giant deer!” Sylph said.

“Don’t! This little bit of game — I can process it all very quickly. You two should hurry up and do your math homework! By the time we get back, it’ll probably be Monday night.”

Mo Lan shoved their math workbooks back into their hands. “You can do it!”

Vasida and Sylph: Failed to escape homework, o(╥﹏╥)o!

Mo Lan wasn’t just showing off either — her butchering magic had progressed considerably, and she could already manipulate several butchering tools simultaneously.

She could even spare a bit of mental energy to read while the butchering tools were processing the game.

After dinner, Vasida and Sylph continued working on their homework while Mo Lan set up her crucible, took out crystal vials, and began extracting heather flower essence.

To avoid stinking out Vasida and Sylph while they were doing homework, Mo Lan deliberately chose a downwind position for the extraction.

The fresh heather flowers became shriveled and dry after being processed with potion-brewing magic, their scent fading to nearly nothing.

All the essence had been concentrated into the crystal vials.

She filled three large round-bellied crystal vials — a very satisfying sight. The only thing that required courage was uncorking the wooden stoppers.

Because the heather flowers’ stench hadn’t disappeared — it had merely transferred from the blossoms into the heather essence liquid inside the crystal vials.

Mo Lan’s curiosity got the better of her, and she leaned in for a sniff. The smell, concentrated dozens of times over, shot straight to the crown of her skull, scaring her into pressing the stopper in even tighter.

After putting away her potion-brewing tools, Mo Lan returned to sit by the campfire. Sensing eyes on her, she looked up and was met with two miserable faces.

“???” Mo Lan recoiled. “What happened to you two?”

Their hair was a disheveled mess, their eyes glazed over yet brimming with resentment — like two little cabbages that had just been battered by a gale and then hit by frost, utterly indignant.

“Author of Mo Lan’s 《Basic Mathematics 2》!” Sylph said plaintively.

Vasida added, “Author of Mo Lan’s 《Basic Mathematics 2 Companion Workbook》!”

“Sorceress Moira!” ×2

“Devil Moira!” ×2

Mo Lan herself: “…”

Had homework driven them insane?

Mo Lan snatched the workbooks from their hands and flipped to the sections they’d just completed. It really did look like they’d been struggling terribly. Her conscience finally got the better of her.

“How about I walk you through the problems?”

Vasida and Sylph nodded frantically. “Hurry, hurry, hurry! I don’t understand this one!”

“This one either!”

“I understand this one, but I can’t get the answer!”

…

“Don’t rush, don’t rush — one at a time!”

…

Vasida and Sylph had struggled for hours with agonizingly slow progress on their workbook assignments, but after Mo Lan spent just one hour explaining, they finished everything.

The efficiency was astonishing.

“Ahh! Finally done!” The moment Vasida finished the last problem, she immediately shrank the workbook down and buried it in the deepest recesses of her satchel!

It had truly reached the level where merely seeing it caused psychic damage.

“No wonder storybooks always say goblin merchants are the hardest to deal with and human merchants are second. Goblins and humans have both studied mathematics more than any other race,” Sylph said.

“Once our batch of young witches heads out into the Wilds, those rankings are going to change,” Vasida said. “I’d wager no race’s mathematics is as difficult as Earth’s.”

“If word gets out someday that witches are hard to deal with, I’ll be very happy,” Mo Lan said.

“That’s true — being hard to deal with is better than getting swindled!” Sylph understood the benefits of mathematics, but that didn’t stop her from getting headaches over it.

“Alright! You two get some sleep! We still need to find our senior tomorrow!” Mo Lan ushered Vasida and Sylph into the tent, then sat down at the tent entrance herself.

“Wow! This tent is so comfortable!” Vasida said. “I feel like I’m lying on a cloud!”

“So soft and fluffy — what kind of blanket is this?” Sylph poked her head out from under the covers.

“A down comforter. Made with goose down,” Mo Lan said.

Vasida and Sylph opened the Card Shop and started searching.

“Young witches prohibited from purchasing!”

“Young witches prohibited from purchasing!”

…

An endless string of purchase prohibitions left them thoroughly vexed, but that didn’t stop them from adding cards to their shopping carts to buy after graduation.

Cards they couldn’t buy now felt even more luxurious when mooched off Mo Lan!

Vasida and Sylph quickly fell asleep.

Tonight wasn’t as quiet as the previous night on the Greengrass Plains.

On the night of thunder, beasts lay low.

Now in the mountain forest, even though Mo Lan had cleared the fierce beasts from the mountainside that evening, wild animals still probed around the campsite at night.

She turned none of them away — every one was converted into meat reserves.

After the night passed, Mo Lan’s group of three took out the shrunken, frozen game stored in their satchels and stacked it all together, forming a small mountain.

Breakfast was taken care of.

After filling their stomachs, they flew off toward the rising sun.

“One mountain!”

“Two mountains!”

“Three mountains! Wow! What a huge lake!”

Counting the peaks as they went, just after flying past the third mountain, they spotted a large lake. Vasida noticed their target in the middle of the lake.

“I see it! There’s a little earthen house in the middle of the lake!”

“Why does it look almost the same as the houses in our Dormitory?” Sylph said, puzzled.

“Almost the same? It’s practically identical!” Mo Lan could see it perfectly clearly. “This senior must have built her dwelling to look just like the Dormitory.”

“What a great spot! Water on all sides — clear out the fierce beasts on the island, and you wouldn’t have to worry about safety at all!” Vasida exclaimed.

Mo Lan nodded emphatically.

This was far better than even Wild Boar Valley!

“Too bad a senior already lives here.”

Sylph was brimming with envy. “A place like this is perfect for a witch with demanding cultivation requirements! You wouldn’t even need to set up a single defensive magic circle, and you’d never have to worry about plants being destroyed by wild beasts!”

The Academy required them to build their dwellings in the Inner Region at least ten kilometers apart from each other.

A good location could generally only support one dwelling.

“With this many magical plants on the island, could it be Senior Lilith?” Vasida asked.

“Senior Lilith’s dwelling was destroyed by wild beasts before, so it’s unlikely to be in such a safe location. It’s most probably Senior Renée,” Mo Lan said.

The only fourth-year witch majoring in plants and potion-brewing magic was Senior Renée, who used to live by the well.

“But Senior Renée doesn’t have a hobby of growing grass on her head!” Vasida said, confused.

“I figured it out! It’s referring to her hair color!” Sylph said. “Senior Renée’s hair is tender green, just like newly sprouted grass. Trees describe things in such odd ways sometimes! There was even a tree that said my hair looked like old leaves that had been through dozens of springs and autumns!”

“There’s smoke coming from the chimney… She’s home!” Mo Lan said. “Let’s go! Land and take a look!”