Chapter 74 – Borrowing a Water Tower

The first-year little witches lived in dormitories numbered 61 through 88.

Mo Lan stopped in front of Dormitory 61 and called out at the top of her lungs: “Iris! Iris! Are you in?”

“Coming!” The dormitory door opened, and out came Iris wearing an apron and holding a blood-stained kitchen knife.

“Iris! Can I borrow the water tower in your backyard to practice the Spring Water spell?” Mo Lan asked.

“Huh?” Iris was a bit confused. “Sure, that’s fine, but do you need a water tower to practice the Spring Water spell?”

“The spring water created by the spell is real water. If you don’t collect it, it flows everywhere, and it’s wasted too. My water tower is already full, so I came to find you!”

As Mo Lan spoke, she saw Alba come out of the neighboring dormitory and called over to her as well: “Alba, can I borrow your yard’s water tower later to practice the Spring Water spell?”

“There’s a deal this good?” Alba was even carrying a bucket in her hand!

The water in her tower was already nearly empty.

Cheryl, from the yard next to Alba’s, heard the commotion and came out too: “Do you need mine?”

“Yes, yes! Save all your water towers for me!” Mo Lan said.

Last night, she had channeled all the newly deposited mana from card sales into the Book of Cards, leaving her own mana untouched.

Right now she still had a full 972 mana.

All so she could get in more magic practice today.

Starting with the water tower in Iris’s yard, she cast spell after spell, constantly sensing the state of her mana output and the volume of spring water produced, steadily improving her proficiency with the Spring Water spell.

《Babbling Brook》 was right — repetitive spellcasting practice really did work.

After filling twenty-five water towers, Mo Lan could clearly feel that her spellcasting had become noticeably more stable.

Sometimes even a momentary lapse in concentration wouldn’t immediately cause the spell to fail.

Moreover, the maximum amount of mana she could mobilize and fully channel into a single cast of the Spring Water spell had grown slightly — from roughly 2 mana to nearly 2.5 mana.

After practicing for so long and filling so many water towers, she had only consumed a little over sixty mana.

She still had plenty of mana left. Unfortunately, there were no more water towers for her to practice with.

Practicing in her dormitory risked flooding it. Practicing in the Breadfruit Grove risked drowning the breadfruit trees. Everywhere else either had plants or was a pathway.

The Planting District did have irrigation ditches and small streams, but it was too far away.

When in doubt, ask the Headmistress.

“Headmistress! Headmistress! Where’s the nearest place suitable for practicing the Spring Water spell?”

“The well!”

“Oh right! The well! Thank you, Headmistress!”

Mo Lan ran over to the well.

She bumped into a second-year upperclassman who lived in the dormitory by the well, tending vegetables in her yard. Mo Lan greeted her: “Renée! Good morning!”

“Oh, it’s Moira!” Renée casually plucked a large tomato, wiped it on her sleeve, and handed it over. “Try it! I grew it myself!”

“Thanks, Renée!” Mo Lan took the tomato and bit into it with a big chomp. “Sho good~”

“Hahaha! Learn planting magic well, and growing vegetables is super easy!” Renée didn’t miss the chance to promote her favorite type of magic.

She was a Green Witch through and through, having committed to this path since her first year.

“Are you here to draw water? How come you didn’t bring a bucket?”

“No! I’m here to practice the Spring Water spell. I don’t want water flowing everywhere, but I also don’t want to go too far, so this is the perfect spot,” Mo Lan said.

“You’ve already learned the Spring Water spell? As expected of a Sorceress!” Renée praised her with a beaming smile, then said with a straight face: “The well really is an ideal place to practice the Spring Water spell. Moira, do you know why the water in this well never runs out?”

“Isn’t it because of underground water?” Mo Lan said.

“Of course not.” Renée shook her head. “It’s because all the little witches practice the Spring Water spell by the well!”

“So that’s how it is!” Mo Lan had an epiphany.

The completely-making-things-up Renée stared at her in surprise: “Moira, you actually believed that?”

“???” Mo Lan looked at Renée in disbelief. “You tricked me?”

“I was just teasing you! The Spring Water spell is a daily life spell — just practice it in your everyday routine. Whenever you need water, cast one. Nobody actually sits down and practices the Spring Water spell all seriously like that,” Renée said.

Mo Lan, who had very seriously come here specifically to practice the Spring Water spell: “…”

So this is the kind of person you are, Renée!

Still, her upperclassman’s words did give her a useful reminder.

The Spring Water spell could also be practiced in daily life.

Of course, the dedicated training by the well couldn’t be neglected either.

Practice by the well for spellcasting proficiency and maximizing mana output ratios. Practice in daily life for fine-tuning the Spring Water spell’s precision.

Right now the Spring Water spell was the only magic she knew, so naturally all her mana should go toward practicing it!

So what if it was just a daily life spell? Only by experiencing the learning process of a spell herself — understanding the effects at different proficiency levels — could she create magic learning Cards with proficiency progress bars!

Seeing that she remained determined to keep practicing the Spring Water spell, Renée left her to it.

Mo Lan kept practicing until her mana was down to half before she finally stopped.

By then it was already past noon. She ate some breadfruit and started reading.

Alternating between magic practice and studying — the perfect combination!

Since she had been thinking about practicing the Spring Water spell in daily life, she decided to finish reading 《Babbling Brook》 first.

The later sections of the book covered various transformed forms of the Spring Water spell, which required more delicate manipulation to achieve.

For example, how to create just the right amount of spring water to fill a small container, or how to condense a water sphere that wouldn’t immediately dissipate.

If she mastered this, she could simply place a cup on her desk in the classroom and conjure some spring water directly into it whenever she was thirsty.

With good enough control, not a single drop would spill.

After learning to condense water spheres of various sizes, she wouldn’t even need a cup — she could just sip from a little water orb directly.

However, to achieve the kind of effortless transformations described in the book, one would need to train the Spring Water spell to at least the Advanced level.

At the absolute pinnacle of mastery, the Spring Water spell could even transform water into rain or mist.

But such rain and mist wouldn’t carry the various special effects that true rain and mist magic possessed.

After all, the Spring Water spell’s rain was essentially just a change in water form — it was still spring water, and wouldn’t carry poison or anything else.

So it truly was just a daily life spell, unsuitable for combat.

Even for creating large volumes of spring water to blast at enemies, there were more suitable spells for that purpose.

This was because the Spring Water spell’s defining characteristic was water creation — the water it produced existed permanently.

Other water magic, by contrast, mostly created mimetic water which was just energy given shape by a spellform, with the emphasis on the various special properties these different waters carried.

Once the energy maintaining the spellform was removed the spellform would collapse and only a small amount of residual moisture would remain at the scene.

Spells that created permanent matter were always much more energy expensive.

Only then did she realize that what Renée meant by “practice in daily life” was probably quite different from what she had in mind.

For Renée, practicing in daily life probably just meant filling up the water tower now and then.

For Mo Lan, that was far from enough.