Free Web NovelChapter 49: Chapter 47: Mo Ning’s 1st Witchcraft Paper
5:15 AM.
Deep within the Black Tower.
Inside an Observation Room.
A floating orb of light emitted a cold, faint glow, causing the surrounding stone walls to flicker between light and shadow.
Mo Ning’s first Witchcraft research paper had found its way into the hands of the sharp-eared female apprentice, Nasha.
The submission process was simple—place the paper in a secure locker, and the academy’s Witch Spirit would retrieve it remotely.
According to the academy’s rules, the final results of any research project applied for by a Wizard or Apprentice had to be presented in the form of a "paper."
The academy also explicitly required that papers be submitted on a physical medium—paper—and not as video recordings, to facilitate subsequent numbering, filing, and sealing.
As someone held in high regard by the Rose Council, all of Mo Ning’s project proposals and papers were sent directly to the Witchcraft Laboratory of the Second Level Wizard, Yi Lin.
And Nasha had been tasked by her mentor with "pre-screening" Mo Ning’s submissions.
The female apprentice flipped to the first page and muttered, "This kid is pretty fast."
In her opinion, to not only complete an improvement on even the lowest-grade Sub-zero Level Witchcraft but also finish the paper in just a few days... this speed wasn’t just "pretty fast," it was "unreasonably fast."
Over the past few days, Mo Ning’s diligence and his "miserliness" with every second had left a small impact on the sharp-eared female apprentice.
A subtle feeling of ’not wanting to be outdone by a newcomer’ drove Nasha to make a change.
She had originally set aside four hours for sleep each day, plus one hour for leisure and entertainment.
She believed this routine ensured a better state for studying and research.
Now, she had "slashed" an hour from her sleep time and cut her entertainment time by half an hour.
And she had moved her wake-up time from six o’clock to five.
That was why Nasha was seeing Mo Ning’s paper so early.
The sharp-eared female apprentice habitually propped her long, slender legs up on a low table, revealing a section of her calves, smooth as jade.
She quickly flipped through the neatly bound paper, the pages rustling softly between her fingers.
’When reviewing a paper, it’s best to first look at the overall structure and skim the title of each subsection, rather than burying your head in it and reading from the start.’
This was what her mentor, Yi Lin, had taught her.
Her mentor also said that a high-quality, outstanding paper would always have an exceptionally clear structure.
And behind that clear structure was a rigorously logical thought process and a perspective that surpassed the conventional standard.
At first, Nasha hadn’t really understood. She was young then and only knew how to chew through it word by word, sentence by sentence, only to be left completely confused.
Later, as her Divination Ability progressed by leaps and bounds, and after she had seen more project proposals and papers, she gradually began to understand.
Sometimes she didn’t even need to look closely at each subtitle; she could get an accurate assessment just by flipping through it quickly, relying on her intuition.
It was just as her mentor, Yi Lin, had also said: "You don’t need to look closely to tell the difference between a good paper and a bad one. They just give off a different feeling."
The female apprentice understood this deeply.
A good paper was like a fluid piece of music; the rhythm of the turning pages, the transition between Chapters, the progression of the arguments—it all felt comfortable.
A bad one was like walking over a pile of jagged rocks, every step jarring.
Soon, Nasha had flipped through the entire paper. She smacked her red lips. "This kid really is something else."
Her intuition told her this was, without a doubt, a high-quality, outstanding paper.
For a newcomer who had just entered the academy to produce a first paper of this caliber—it truly made her feel inadequate by comparison.
The female apprentice remembered that it had taken her several years of studying under her mentor after her promotion to Second Level Apprentice to reach Mo Ning’s current level.
Nasha couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh. "This is what you call talent!"
She had seen too many diligent apprentices who spent day after day holed up in the library, filling stack after stack of notebooks, only to produce papers that were still mediocre.
Mo Ning’s performance could only be explained by talent.
「Half an hour later.」
The sharp-eared female apprentice had read to the eleventh page of the paper, barely past the halfway point.
She suddenly stopped.
This wasn’t because the paper’s quality failed to meet her expectations and she couldn’t be bothered to continue.
Quite the opposite.
The quality was even better than she had anticipated.
The deductive process was progressive, with each step landing perfectly on a logical node. In particular, two sections of Divination deduction struck her as brilliant, even giving her a small spark of inspiration.
But that wasn’t what made Nasha stop.
It was a thought that had suddenly occurred to her:
’The paper is so outstanding, but what about the actual effect of this kid’s improvements to Flash?’
No matter how beautiful a theory was, on paper, it was still just a theory.
What she wanted to know was—what would the improved Trick look like in reality?
The sharp-eared female apprentice flipped directly to the last page, her gaze falling upon the meticulously drawn Witchcraft Model diagram.
This was the improved model for Flash.
Nasha’s gaze lingered on the diagram for a long time.
To learn knowledge, one must pay a price. This was a broad consensus reached by Wizards over millions of years.
Normally, even for an improved Sub-zero Level Trick, an Apprentice who wanted to learn it would have to pay a certain fee.
The fee wasn’t high, generally just two to three Black Tower Points—it was only a Trick, after all.
This fee was split between the academy and the inventor. The academy, as the administrator, took a forty-percent cut, with the remaining sixty percent going to the inventor.
However, pre-screeners had a small perk—they could obtain this knowledge for free.
Nasha pulled out a blank sheet of scale pattern paper and began to read the model, scribbling and drawing on the paper as she did.
This was both note-taking and deconstructive learning.
Another ten minutes passed.
Nasha set down her Ink Tube Pen and said softly, "So that’s how it is. It’s actually quite interesting."
For a Third Level Apprentice, even an improved Sub-zero Level Trick was, in the end, still just a Trick. She figured it out easily.
The female apprentice made a decisive choice—to test it out.
Nasha closed her eyes and began to construct the Witchcraft Model in her Spiritual World through Meditation.
The Spirit Ring is the foundation for casting Witchcraft.
The Witchcraft Model is also an indispensable component.
Using the Spirit Ring as a bridge and Spiritual Power as an energy source, one channels Magic Power into the Witchcraft Model, causing the three to achieve Magic Resonance, which finally activates the Witchcraft.
The above describes the most standard casting process.
Before long, Nasha successfully constructed the improved model for Flash.
It was a temporary model, not a permanent one, so it didn’t take much time to create.
The biggest difference between the two was that a temporary model had not been solidified with Spiritual Power. The impact from casting the Witchcraft would be enough to make it disintegrate instantly.
But it was more than enough to test the effect.
She just wanted to know if the improvement was actually useful; there was no need to waste Spiritual Power solidifying it.
"Ka-li!"
The sharp-eared female apprentice gave a soft cry, her delicate white finger quickly tapping the air in front of her.
The next moment, a faint light emerged, coalescing in the air to form an exceptionally clear mirror surface.
This mirror surface looked very strange. Through it, another Observation Room could be seen, with hundreds of light orbs also floating in its sky.
But strangely, the sharp-eared female apprentice herself was absent from the reflection.
This was the Level Zero Witchcraft—Mirror Technique.
It was derived from the Ancient Wizards’ Magic Tricks—a hodgepodge of a Witchcraft that could do a little bit of everything, but nothing well.
After the dawn of the Era of Divination, Wizards used Secret Divination and Divination to break it down into more than a dozen different forms of Witchcraft.
Compared to the "old version," the "new versions" had drastically improved effects, and their Spiritual Power and Magic Power consumption were significantly lower.
Nasha glanced at the mirror.
A bizarre scene appeared.
Another "Nasha"—with an identical face and identical sharp ears—instantly emerged from the mirror’s surface.
This "Nasha" nodded at the sharp-eared female apprentice, as if to say, ’I’m ready.’
The real Nasha, however, still had her right index finger extended and had not nodded at all.
The figure in the mirror seemed to possess an independent consciousness, as if it were a living person.
This scene would be enough to shock any layperson.
Those who didn’t understand Witchcraft might assume it was some kind of evil power, scream and back away, or think a ghost was hidden in the mirror.
This was just one of the basic properties of the Mirror Technique—it didn’t create a reflection, but rather "you from another perspective."
Nasha waited no longer and decisively activated the model in her Spiritual World.
She withdrew her focus, concentrating it on the temporary model she had just constructed in her Spiritual World.
Because it was a Sub-zero Level Trick, it didn’t require the aid of a Witchcraft spell.
With a mere thought, she injected a sliver of Spiritual Power into the dormant model.
An instant later, an exceptionally blinding point of light erupted from the tip of the sharp-eared female apprentice’s finger.
She herself closed her eyes to avoid being harmed by the intense light.
"Ahhh~"
The "Nasha" in the mirror let out a cry of alarm, her tone tinged with a hint of pain.
Nasha herself, however, was completely unharmed.
This was the ingenious use of the Mirror Technique.
It could be used to conduct Witchcraft experiments, allowing one to "personally" experience Witchcraft in a different way.
The damage, however, was borne by the "self" in the mirror, leaving the real person completely unscathed.
It could also be used for observation. For example, one could hide the mirror in a certain location, and the figure within it could observe a target for an extended period.
This Witchcraft, created by Ancient Wizards, had been taken to new heights by the Wizards of the new era.
Soon, the intense light from the Sub-zero Level Trick, Flash, dissipated.
The sharp-eared female apprentice and the other "Nasha" exchanged a look, and a surprised expression immediately appeared on her pretty face.
