Witch Tea Party

Breakfast was the same old trio: bread, milk, and eggs. There was nothing else to eat, so after finishing quickly, Isaac took the thousand Gold Coins his older brother had given him and headed back to Lake Town instead of studying magic.

His magic research could wait. Now that he had money, he would take care of his advancement ritual first.

Every time a Legendary Wizard completed an advancement ritual, their mana entered an active period. Only after that period ended could they perform another ritual.

In theory, then, a Legendary Wizard faced no bottlenecks as long as they had enough resources!

The only things holding a Legendary Wizard back were the mana active period and the resources needed for advancement.

And the active period could be shortened through magical research, experiments, and combat.

Advancing through a special ritual could grant unusual effects, or even a new innate spell, but such rituals were rare. He had already looked for one, and there were none for sale in town. Finding one would come down to luck.

Standard advancement rituals generally fell into three categories: elemental, astral, and mystic.

Different rituals enhanced different spells. A fire-element advancement ritual, for example, drew on the power of a Fire Elemental Lord from the Elemental Plane. After advancing, a wizard's fire spells would receive a slight boost.

A single boost might not seem like much, but a Formal Wizard could undergo three advancement rituals. Choose the same category every time, and the total bonus was substantial.

Of the three categories, elemental rituals favored offense, since most Elemental Spells were attacks. Astral rituals were more versatile, increasing basic attributes such as maximum mana, mana recovery speed, and mental strength. Those two were straightforward enough.

Mystic rituals were harder to pin down. "Other" might have been a better name for the category, given its wide range of enhancements. Prophecy and Spells were its most common branches, so they had all been grouped under mystic.

Notably, although the three categories leaned in different directions, they worked much the same way: a ritual borrowed power from a higher-order being to elevate a wizard's very nature and complete their advancement.

Compared with the demon god ritual Isaac had just completed, the greatest difference was safety!

Every advancement ritual in these three categories contacted a lawful good being. They granted power according to the ritual's terms and never took more than required, unlike insatiable demon gods.

Of course, there was a trade-off. They never took more, but they never gave more either. They would not even leave you a chance to steal any.

Fortunately, Isaac had no plans along those lines. There were plenty of evil Outer Gods out there; he did not need to bother these beings.

Isaac had long since decided which ritual to use. On reaching town, he went straight to a shop that sold magical knowledge. Eight hundred Gold Coins and a signed confidentiality agreement later, he had the knowledge and required materials for the Witch Tea Party advancement ritual.

He did not head back yet. He kept shopping.

As one of the few rituals with both astral and mystic attributes, Witch Tea Party had a low success rate—just ten percent. He needed more supplies. The ritual was relatively safe, but he would feel better pushing its success rate to two hundred percent.

After returning from Lake Town, Isaac let Smith know and went back down to the basement. There, he set about preparing the Witch Tea Party advancement ritual.

As a ritual for a minor advancement, Witch Tea Party did not call for hard-to-find materials. Everything was available in Lake Town.

A black tea set aged for a hundred years, fifty milliliters of Witch saliva, one kilogram of refined black tea, 190 pieces of clothing worn close to the skin by Witches, and a bottle of magic ink.

The materials were odd, but not by the standards of magical rituals. The 190 pieces of intimate clothing were Isaac's own addition; the original ritual required only one.

It was lucky that Lake Town's magical materials shop was an old, reputable business. Otherwise, getting hold of so many pieces of clothing worn by Witches on short notice would have been difficult...

The shopping had been embarrassing, but everything had gone smoothly. He had gathered all the materials, and the setup posed no real challenge. With a two-hundred-percent success rate, it would be over in no time, right?

Two hours later, Isaac finished setting up the ritual. Normally, one hour would have sufficed, but the cost was too high to risk rushing. The knowledge and basic materials had cost eight hundred Gold Coins, and the Witches' clothing had cost over two hundred more. Over a thousand Gold Coins in all!

He had sunk everything he owned into it. He could not afford to be careless!

"Haa..."

After a deep breath, Isaac's excitement settled completely. He took off his Wizard Hat, held it against his chest, and lowered his head to chant. Faint waves of Magic Power spread at a peculiar frequency.

The Magic Power swept over the Magic Array, and wisps of white mist drifted out of it.

Then it swept over the pile of Witches' intimate clothing, and an enormous volume of white mist burst forth!

In an instant, it engulfed the entire basement!

"Young man... you've been rather... rude."

At the sultry voice coming from the mist, Isaac slowly opened his eyes and put his Wizard Hat back on. The corner of his mouth lifted. No mistaking it—he had succeeded!

That voice sounded like it belonged to someone generously endowed!

Granted, what she had said differed a little from the ritual's description, but that probably was not a problem?

With a trace of doubt still in his mind, Isaac straightened his Wizard Robe and strode confidently into the thick white mist.

Following the direction of that alluring voice, Isaac walked calmly through the mist. Before long, the whiteness cleared, and he found himself on a grassy lawn.

A large white parasol stood a short distance ahead. Beneath it were a pure white table and two pure white chairs. The teapot and cups from the ritual sat on the table, filled with steaming black tea.

On the other side of the table sat a Witch in a purple robe. A wide-brimmed witch's hat hid her face, leaving only her pale chin visible...

At least, that was how it was supposed to look. But...

"Gasp!"

Isaac sucked in a sharp breath at the shadowy figures of Witches nearby!

Why were there so many?

There had to be at least a hundred!

"Well... it seems... you don't know what you've done either." The only Witch seated at the table watched Isaac's dumbfounded expression and sighed. She spoke in a slow, halting cadence.

"Ahem. Sorry... I thought it would improve the success rate." Isaac's mouth twitched as he looked at the hundred-plus Witches. He had not expected using his Golden Finger to turn out like this...

All he could do was bow in apology. After all, the ritual's instructions had said that more than one Witch could be summoned to the Witch Tea Party.

Of course, apologizing was one thing. Given the choice again, he would still use his Golden Finger!

After all...

He was broke.

"To come up with... a method like this... you must be... a genius. Come." The Witch gently waved a slender hand, beckoning Isaac forward.

Isaac hung his Wizard Hat on the back of the chair again and slowly sat down. He eyed the hundred-plus Witches behind the "senior" Witch with trepidation. He was not about to become the first Formal Wizard to die during a First Tier advancement ritual, was he?

"Don't... worry. Though you are a Legendary... Wizard, you are still... our junior. They're only... a little displeased. You'll have some... bad luck for two days, nothing more. You won't be hurt. Just... be careful."

The "senior" Witch saw Isaac's concern and reassured him in her unhurried way.

In truth, Isaac had brought this on himself. Normally, no matter how displeased the Witches were with a wizard performing the ritual, once they reached this stage, all they could do was grant a Blessing. Anything else was out of the question, especially a curse.

But Isaac's... underhanded method had drawn in more than a hundred Witches at once!

The Blessing was limited by the ritual. They could not give any more than the fixed amount, so the other Witches' power was left unused. Each had very little to spare, but together, it added up.

That was how the two-day curse of bad luck had come about.

Isaac's mouth twitched. He did not understand the ritual deeply enough to work everything out as quickly as the Witch across from him had, but he could tell that this curse probably had a lot to do with his little stunt...

"Thank you for your generosity, seniors..." Isaac apologized again.

He could not help it. These were powerful figures he could not afford to offend.

The "senior" Witch dipped her pale chin in acknowledgment. Raising her jade-like hand, she elegantly poured Isaac a cup of black tea and placed it before him.

"Please... drink."

"Thank you, senior." Isaac accepted the cup with both hands, took a deep breath, and drained the black tea in one gulp!

The moment he drank it, mysterious Magic Power began to coil around him. The Witch across from him smiled faintly, then dissolved into white mist along with the hundred-plus Witches behind her, all wearing mischievous smiles.

A moment later, all the mist dispersed. Isaac stood motionless before the Magic Array, his eyes closed.

After a while, he slowly opened his eyes. Feeling that his Magic Power had increased by a third, he smiled. When he saw that none of the Witch saliva laid out for the ritual was missing, his smile widened into a grin!

Before buying the ritual, he had looked into Witch Tea Party. He knew the Witch saliva was needed only for the Magic Power it contained; he did not actually have to drink it.

But when he had picked up the teacup in that illusory scene, he had been unable to keep the thought from crossing his mind...

After all, stories of that sort existed both in his previous world and in this one.

Only when he saw that the Witch saliva was untouched could he fully relax.

The ritual had been a resounding success. As a dual-attribute astral and mystic ritual, Witch Tea Party had given him excellent bonuses: a small additional increase to his Magic Power and mental strength, and a slight increase to his mystic attribute.

It did little for his combat strength, but he had achieved everything he had set out to do.

And that increase to his mystic attribute was nothing to scoff at. Slight though it was, for Isaac it meant breaking past zero!

Now that he had a mystic attribute, he could eventually perform more advanced modifications to his body. For example...

A Magic Eye!

A Legendary Wizard was different from a Truth Wizard, who advanced through steady meditation and the study of truth.

At its core, the path of a Legendary Wizard was evolution!

Evolution from an ordinary human into a magical life-form!

Thus, during the Formal Wizard stage, a Legendary Wizard's main task was to accumulate Magic Power and the corresponding attributes. Demon god Trade Rituals and collecting Legends were side tasks. Completing them perfectly would be best, but doing them casually was fine too, as long as they did not hinder advancement.

The stage that truly determined a wizard's fate and potential was the Grand Wizard stage, above Formal Wizard!

Grand Wizards far surpassed Formal Wizards in both Magic Power and knowledge, allowing them to begin modifying their bodies with magic.

Such modification was not simply a matter of transplanting a magical creature's limb. It meant fixing magical power into the body until it became part of oneself, achieving self-transcendence.

Of all forms of magical modification, those of the Mystic Side were the hardest and held the greatest potential!

So having a mystic attribute mattered quite a bit.

Even if it did not help him right now...

After taking his time to feel out his newfound power, Isaac stretched and left the basement. He had the cook prepare him something to eat, then fell into a deep sleep.

Sleep first. Tomorrow, he would get back to studying witchcraft!

He could hardly wait to see the witchcraft manuscript and Magic Book his older brother and sister had sent...

The next day, Isaac sat at his desk in the laboratory and rubbed his hands together.

It was time—

To open the gifts!

Isaac started with his older sister's Magic Book—Arcane Energy Overview - Volume 1.

Hmm... no great surprise. It was much as he had expected.

His older sister was an Arcane Master through and through, and a talented one. Though only in her thirties, she was already a Grand Wizard. Word was that she had begun researching higher arcana. If she succeeded, she would advance to High Wizard, a rank known as a Demigod!

So her gift was the least surprising. She was bound to give him what he lacked.

Previously, his family had kept Isaac from immersing himself in arcana, despite the keen interest he had shown. His health had been poor, and he lacked the talent to become an Arcane Master.

He was already frail. Straining his mind constantly would only have made things worse.

Now that he had become a wizard, though, there was no reason to hold him back.

Like his mystic attribute, Arcane Energy Overview - Volume 1 would not bring him any obvious improvement right now. But it would give him a firm foundation, letting him go farther and advance more steadily in the future!

Setting the Magic Book aside, Isaac looked at the witchcraft manuscript from his older brother. He rubbed his hands together excitedly and breathed into them. This was the one worth looking forward to!

His older brother Caesar was a knightly brute, not a noble spellcaster. The witchcraft manuscript he had sent was most likely a spoil of war, which meant there was no telling what it might contain!

Isaac slowly turned to the manuscript's first page. His eyes nearly popped out of his head!

Written across the page was—God Research Handbook - Anatomy!