Chapter 341 – The Earth Source Stone

In the Headmistress’s Lounge beneath the Academy castle.

The Guardian Headmistresses of the fifth-year young witches were gathered around a surveillance light screen, engaged in heated discussion.

“We can’t let her keep digging! At this rate, she’s going to reach the demiplane’s Earth Source Stone sooner or later!”

“Exactly! If the Earth Source Stone gets taken, the Academy’s land yield will drop drastically!”

“The Academy’s Earth Source Stone gave birth to an Earth Source Fish — it can carry the stone and swim through the underground, can’t it? She won’t necessarily find it!”

“The Earth Source Fish belongs to Lady Carmela. After she went to the Well of the Sky, the Earth Source Fish fell into slumber. And the direction Moira is digging… is heading straight toward it!”

“But the Academy established the rules from the very beginning — during the survival trial, anything a young witch obtains, as long as she can hold onto it in the end, she’s free to take it with her. Wouldn’t stopping her now be a violation of the rules?”

“When those rules were made, nobody imagined a young witch would actually go charging straight for the Earth Source Stone! And relying on nothing but a Fortune-Telling Spell, no less!”

“Does she even know what the Earth Source Stone represents? If she does, that’s one thing, but if she doesn’t…”

…

The Guardian Headmistresses failed to reach a conclusion and had no choice but to summon the original body.

“She probably does know. But rather than letting her waste a huge amount of time only to be forced to give up in the end, it’s better to give her a heads-up now.”

After Amisha finished speaking, she opened a teleportation gate and stepped through.

Mo Lan, busy digging away, saw the figure that suddenly appeared before her and nearly sent a {Super Magic Card} flying at it.

Only after seeing who it was did she recall the card. “Oh, it’s the Headmistress! What brings you here all of a sudden? Is it about those physics and chemistry books I submitted to the Witch Council a while back? Have the results come in?”

“Your books — the Council is still assessing their exact value, but they’ll definitely be accepted into the library. The reward will have to wait until the valuation is complete, though.

That’s not why I’m here today… Hey! Stop digging!”

Amisha had been mid-sentence when she saw Mo Lan cast yet another Rock-Crushing Spell, and hurriedly stopped her.

Mo Lan waved it off. “It’s fine, please continue. I’ll keep digging while I listen — it doesn’t interfere at all. I’ve been digging so much lately that I can crush rocks and practice Metal Shaping spell at the same time now. Hehe, I got my hands on some Spatial Magic gem fragments. All I need is Peak level Metal Shaping spell to fuse them into a whole piece.”

Amisha grabbed her hand in exasperation. “That’s exactly why I’m here. Stop digging — the thing down below already has an owner. Even if you dig all the way there, you won’t be able to take it!”

“It has an owner?” Mo Lan froze. “What is it?”

“An Earth Source Stone where a guardian slumbers,” Amisha said. “Still want to dig?”

Mo Lan shook her head vigorously. “No more digging! Absolutely not!”

So after all that effort, this was what the “great fortune” was pointing to!

The Fortune-Telling Spell had played her!

An Earth Source Stone with a slumbering guardian — it would indeed be very easy to obtain, and it was an incredible treasure. If she got her hands on it, combined with the Spatial Magic gem, her Book of Cards might actually be able to create planting-type spatial cards.

It truly deserved the rating of “great fortune” — even “supreme fortune” wouldn’t be an overstatement.

If this were an ownerless demiplane, she would absolutely take the entire Earth Source Stone without hesitation.

But the Earth Source Stone beneath the Witch Academy — she didn’t even need to think to know it was absolutely vital for maintaining the health and prosperity of the Academy’s demiplane lands.

What would it mean if she took it?

A treasure she couldn’t take, one that would cost her enormous time and effort to reach — how was that “great fortune”? That practically counted as “minor misfortune.”

“Thank you for coming to warn me!” Mo Lan expressed her gratitude at once.

If the Headmistress hadn’t warned her, by the time she actually dug all the way down there only to discover she couldn’t take it — having wasted all that time — that would have been a real loss. As things stood, she could only look on the bright side and think of it as Rock-Crushing Spell practice.

At least she had dug up quite a few Intermediate magic ores, nearly completing her collection of all the various Intermediate magic ore materials needed for card-making.

“The fact that you could detect the Earth Source Stone’s location and dig this far — that’s a testament to your abilities. Here, take this as a reward for giving up the Earth Source Stone.”

Amisha tossed her a thumb-sized small bottle.

Mo Lan didn’t even have time to refuse before Lady Amisha teleported away.

Once she got a clear look at what was inside the little bottle in her hand, she immediately gripped it tightly.

Refuse? Absolutely impossible!

This was Earth Source Essence!

An Earth Source Stone that had given birth to an Earth Source Fish, absorbing and releasing earth source energy for over a hundred years, could produce just a single drop of Earth Source Essence.

While not as precious as the Earth Source Stone itself, its effects were quite similar.

The difference was that an Earth Source Stone could sustain an entire demiplane’s worth of land in endless vitality, with plants flourishing in perpetual growth.

Earth Source Essence, on the other hand, could only nourish a small patch of land, temporarily granting it the ability to nurture plants — a purely consumable resource.

With enough Earth Source Essence, one could achieve effects similar to an Earth Source Stone.

This little bottle contained roughly one-hundredth of a drop — about enough to fully revitalize a patch of land the size of the courtyard behind the Academy Dormitory.

But Mo Lan had the Book of Cards. Small quantities and time-limited effects were, for her, simply a matter of making a new card.

She had misjudged the Fortune-Telling Spell — its prediction had been perfectly accurate.

Digging in this direction truly was great fortune.

The “great fortune” had been referring to this bit of Earth Source Essence all along!

When she now cast the Fortune-Telling Spell toward the direction that had previously shown “great fortune,” sure enough, the result was perfectly ordinary.

Not wanting to risk any complications from delay, Mo Lan fed the Earth Source Essence along with its little bottle directly to the Book of Cards as card-making material.

Then she began designing all sorts of planting-type spatial cards.

With Earth Source Essence as the life source for the soil, spatial power as the vessel to contain the land, natural light created using optical knowledge from her past life on Earth, and a simulated air environment based on her analysis of Valen’s atmospheric composition —

Aside from plants like the Breadfruit tree that required some special Power of Laws to grow, most ordinary plants and the majority of magical plants should be able to thrive, right?

Mo Lan designed a {Spatial Farmland Card} for growing ordinary crops, based on the largest Spatial Card she could currently create.

A space roughly twenty-five square meters in area and three meters tall.

The design was indeed a success, but the estimated Mana consumption reached hundreds of thousands of Mana.

Moreover, Mana had to be replenished at regular intervals for the card to remain functional.

For such a tiny spatial card that only grew ordinary crops, with such an exorbitant production cost — she’d be better off just making ingredient-type food cards directly!

And a {Spatial Herb Garden Card} for growing magical plants? That was even more out of the question. Magical plants required far more land energy, meaning even more Earth Source Essence for card-making, driving the cost even higher.

Looking at it this way, it was technically a success — but not economical in the slightest.

From a cost perspective, it was a thoroughly failed card.

Even Mo Lan herself couldn’t bear to squander card-making energy so extravagantly.