novelraw Chapter 26
Chapter 26
Chapter 26: Becoming a Formal Witch
Since moving into the new home, Lina felt that her standard of living had risen to a whole new level.
She could take hot baths every day, had the adorable Annie to chat with, and at night the soft cashmere quilt was far warmer than the straw in the stable.
The only slight regret was that neither Lina nor Annie was very good at cooking, so they still had to rely on nearby restaurants for meals.
During the week of waiting for identity registration, Lina did not remain idle.
She set up a ‘Witch Exam Tutoring Class’. At first, only Sibyl, Annie, the three apprentices she had met at the market, and a few of Sibyl’s followers signed up. But as they spread the word, more and more witch apprentices learned about Lina’s tutoring classes and rushed to enroll.
The girls who attended were all very satisfied with the course content. Later on, even two or three formal witches came to listen and stated that they had also benefited greatly.
Since there were simply too many students, Lina directly rented the town’s theater at the price of one gold dragon per hour and gave public lectures there.
In less than seven days, she had already gathered more than thirty apprentice witches under her wing. Although each person’s tuition fee had been reduced to four gold dragons, it was still a considerable income for Lina.
At least until she found a stable job, she no longer had to worry about her daily expenses.
Additionally, through teaching these classes, Lina got to know quite a few new companions.
For example, some of Sibyl’s former followers—after setting aside their prejudices, Lina realized they were actually quite good girls at heart.
Especially a young girl named ‘Shirley’, who had now become one of Lina’s ‘star pupils’.
On the morning of the seventh day, Lina was still earnestly teaching on the theater stage.
“Trap magic—you have all studied it in your textbooks. Today, I will take you to analyze its essence.”
Lina’s voice, amplified by the magical loudspeaker on stage, clearly reached every corner of the audience seats. The witch apprentices below sat upright; some even held notebooks, listening while taking notes.
“All magic can be divided into four major categories based on how it is used: Source Magic, Circuit Magic, Ritual Magic, and Divinity Magic.”
“Source Magic refers to the magic skills we have mastered, such as Fireball, lightning strikes, wind blades, and so on. We can use them by mobilizing our own mana or the mana in the environment. Of course, this type of magic was once also called ‘Rune Magic’, but with the emergence of magic tools and non-attribute magic, this term now usually only appears in academic papers, specifically referring to spell magic of the nine major attributes.’”
“Generally speaking, the learning process of Source Magic is quite tedious. It requires memorizing and understanding the relevant spell structures and then deriving casting methods from them, but overall the difficulty is not high.”
“Ritual Magic requires the caster to use their spiritual intuition to communicate with the soul and consciousness, thereby achieving magic that the physical body cannot accomplish.”
“Ritual Magic demands extremely high soul strength from the user and also requires advanced mathematical proficiency to dynamically plan precise mana flow pathways. At your current stage, you won’t come into contact with it yet, so we’ll skip it for now.”
“Then what about Divinity Magic, Teacher Lina?” an apprentice witch suddenly raised her hand and asked, “It sounds really powerful!”
“Divinity Magic, huh? When you become an S-rank Great Witch, you can come up here and explain it to everyone!”
A burst of laughter erupted from the girls below. Lina cleared her throat and continued:
“As for Circuit Magic, you will usually first encounter it in the book ‘Principles of Magical Machinery’. That’s right—the one with the highest failure rate every year, ‘Introductory Magic Tools’.”
Quite a few students in the audience shuddered involuntarily upon hearing the name of that course, as certain painful memories surfaced in their minds.
“What magic, what geometry, what equations, what geometry, what equations, what geometry, what equations, what geometry, what equations...”
Just who on earth invented this stuff?!
Who else could it have been?
Of course, it was invented by the Star Witch, Lavinia, who possessed both wisdom and beauty.
However, the popularization of magitech knowledge had indeed greatly propelled the development of the magitech revolution.
The era when witches and wizards were all combatants had already passed. Nowadays, nearly half of them chose to become magitech engineers after obtaining formal certification. As a result, Circuit Magic had already become a compulsory course in magic academies.
“Well, no need to worry—we won’t be covering magitech circuit magic today,” Lina’s voice reassured the few girls who were “so frightened their legs trembled as if they might bolt at any moment.” “We’ll be talking about trap magic, because trap magic is actually a special type of circuit magic.”
“Or rather, trap magic is actually the predecessor of circuit magic. The essence of these spells lies in simulating the human body’s mana circuits to achieve automatic spell activation.”
“Teacher, I have a question!” A gray-haired girl with thin-framed glasses and a scholarly air, seated in the front row, raised her hand.
This was none other than Lina’s ‘star pupil’, Shirley.
“Go ahead,” Lina nodded to her.
“Teacher, the trap magic we learned from textbooks usually requires a trigger source. These triggers can be mana storage crystals or magic imprint papers infused with mana... Are these structures equivalent to the ‘magic source’ in magitech devices that supply mana?”
“Yes, your understanding is correct,” Lina nodded. “Magitech devices can store mana in a ‘magic source’ through alchemical furnaces or by drawing power from the earth’s ley lines, and then channel that mana into circuits to perform magic.”
“Then... Teacher Lina, based on this conclusion, if we can find a source that provides a stable supply of mana, wouldn’t we be able to simplify the trigger design of trap magic?”
“Absolutely correct!” Lina nodded at Shirley with great satisfaction.
She had heard from Sibyl that although this girl’s mana level was average, her theoretical exam results at the magic academy were outstanding.
She had scored full marks in all courses related to magitech theory and had even won an excellence award in the beginner division of the Koberen Magitech Design Competition.
While exceptional magical ability was certainly important, intellect was the true treasure Lina valued most.
Suddenly, a knock sounded from outside the theater.
Just as Lina thought it was a late student and was about to check the attendance list, a witch wearing a Wizards’ Association badge walked into the theater.
“Apologies for the interruption, Slack—Teacher Lina,” she took out a small confirmation letter from her storage ring and handed it to Lina. “Your official registration has been completed. Congratulations—from now on, you are officially a member of the formal witches!”
“Ohhh!”
The students below immediately burst into cheers, and thunderous applause filled the hall.
Lina’s face flushed slightly as she put away the letter, her heart brimming with joy. She cleared her throat: “Alright, alright, let’s continue the lesson! Next, I’ll teach you how to simplify the construction of trap magic!”
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After class, Lina brought her top disciple Annie to the entrance of the Wizards’ Association.
The moment she stepped inside, Lina immediately felt waves of curious gazes landing on her.
“Hey, look—that’s the new witch who got exceptionally promoted before!”
“Wow, I didn’t notice before, she’s actually pretty cute~”
“Skipping two ranks in a row... so enviable!”
“What’s there to envy? She defeated two cultists in a secret realm and even incapacitated one with A-rank wizard-level strength! If you ask me, D-rank is clearly too low for her...”
“Oh right! I heard she started a small lecture class in town—quite a lot of apprentice witches signed up...”
"Hey, my daughter went—she said it’s even better than the academy teachers!"
Hearing the discussions around her, Lina couldn’t help but straighten her back, lift her chin, and curl her lips into a W-shape.
Praise me more! Isn’t this lady super amazing!
However, she failed to notice the steps ahead.
“Ow!”
Just as Lina was about to make intimate contact with the ground, a gentle force lifted her up.
Embarrassed, Lina raised her head and met a pair of cool, pale gray eyes.
“Uh... hahaha, Lady Witch of the Moon...” Lina wished she could dig a hole and crawl into it on the spot—why did she have to make such a huge fool of herself right in front of her disciple?
“Good morning, Li... hmm, you should have a witch title now, correct, miss?” Fennis’s flawless and delicate face still showed no expression at all. After helping Lina up, she greeted her calmly.
“Uh, well... um... that name is a bit...” Lina stammered, unable to bring herself to say those four words no matter what.
“Big Sister Lina is called the Slacker Witch! Lady Witch of the Moon!” Annie excitedly answered first.