Practical Lesson

The cram school's schedule consisted of one to two hours of A2 exam-question drills in the morning, followed by an hour of spell identification and practical application, then an hour of case studies and reviews on defeating the strong while weak.

Ever since tensions among the great powers had eased, the International Witch Champions Invitational had been held every year. Of the ten category champions and the overall champion each year, three or four were witches who had yet to reach the level of Archwitch. Defeating the strong while weak could be called a tradition—or a reserved event.

After watching several cases Cheng Yu had specifically introduced, Jiang Han gained a great deal. Though she could not identify many of the spells, she could still appreciate the precise, intricate casting sequences, as well as how witches at a disadvantage in magical power dealt with Archwitches who possessed several times more spells than they did.

"Slurp." She took a sip of the jelly tea Cheng Yu had brought. Its sweet citrus flavor invigorated her at once.

Watching tactical reviews was quite enjoyable.

She sat in her chair, eating and drinking, while pure 3D images appeared over the tabletop. Cheng Yu would freeze every point worth noting and explain it—though during the first viewing, she had barely paused it, merely letting Jiang Han watch a spellcasting duel between witches.

Cheng Yu let out a faint, meaningful laugh. She seemed fond of smiling with her left canine exposed, making her look somewhat fierce.

"We'll be doing some practical work this afternoon. We'll take on one or two commissions and gather some potion ingredients you'll need. We'll select another outstanding student from the cram school to handle the commissions with you. I'll watch from the side and ensure your safety. After all, this is a brutal era, but also an era brimming with opportunity."

Brutality and opportunity appearing together meant danger in the wilderness... Jiang Han obediently nodded and accepted the arrangement.

She had some experience when it came to being a good student.

"Let's move ahead to the practical combat portion." Cheng Yu controlled a pen again, writing something on paper. "Witches fight monsters in folded spaces, beasts on Earth, and sometimes intelligent lifeforms from other dimensions—though most witches can only see their specimens in museums. Still, yes, there are intelligent beings in other dimensions and on alien worlds."

Having listed three kinds in one breath, she showed that fierce smile again. "Finally, the most dangerous and deadliest opponents every witch may encounter: other witches."

Jiang Han was not surprised. For a country that had just experienced a world war and several local wars, its understanding of the lethality of witches was exceptionally deep. Over the past few days, she had skimmed through history books and found detailed accounts of the war that had begun in 1936.

In '36, the country had been caught off guard and struck first.

In '37, it had been driven all the way to the capital.

In '38, it began to recover. The description most fitting for the social reality at the time was: Four Hundred Million Witches' War of National Defense.

After that, the story was largely rewritten. No country in the world could withstand four hundred million witches—not even in their dreams. Furthermore, a vast number of witch eggs had accumulated among the populace. Once training policies and witch citizenship expansion policies were opened up, after the war in '44, the country's witch population recovered at an astonishing rate. It was even able to send massive reinforcements to the European battlefield, thereby acquiring abundant European resources, materials, technology, and spell records.

Incidentally, the European theater of the Second World Witch War had lasted from '37 to '49. Because witch units possessed extraordinary mobility, main forces were almost impossible to wipe out completely; witch cities, meanwhile, were genuine meat grinders.

Barriers.

Magic arrays.

Mage towers.

Otherworldly spaces.

Folded spaces.

They had almost instantly turned modern warfare back into ancient warfare. In a siege, the attacking side needed at least ten times the number of defenders within the city, or it was simply courting death.

And that was only for ordinary major cities. Capturing a nation's capital was practically impossible. In history, there had been only one case of a world power having its capital invaded after witches became openly available. And that case had occurred only during the Second World War. That world power was called France...

One could imagine that France's future witches would bear this humiliation and joke for at least three eras. After all, it was a historic moment. Even if people were furious about what ** had done, they would still laugh rather wickedly in front of the French.

"After looking into it, I found several second- and third-level spells suited to you. They're all things the school won't teach." Just as Jiang Han inwardly sighed, A Gaul is still a Gaul, Cheng Yu, seated beside her, spoke.

She was sitting very close, and a rich fragrance clung to her. It was not pungent, but it was intense.

Jiang Han collected herself and leaned over to look at the sheet in Cheng Yu's hand.

"Second level: Flash Dust, Dimensional Leap."

"Third level: Dispel Magic, Fear Spell."

Jiang Han silently memorized the names of those spells. She had thought Cheng Yu would give her some high-damage spells, considering the other woman had always acted as though she wanted nothing more than to charge onto a battlefield and fight to her heart's content. Yet of these four spells, Flash Dust inflicted blindness and targeted invisible creatures. It was exceptionally useful—she had read about it in a book five days ago, but unfortunately had not had its potion formula. It was also considered a relatively rare second-level spell.

For an Archwitch-level caster, Dimensional Leap was a useful mode of movement. For non-Archwitch casters, it was a cheap dimensional gate that could break free from restraining spell effects. It could counter many fourth-level spells despite being only second level, and it was fast as well. One could hardly ask for more.

The combination of the two third-level spells was also rare and important.

Fear Spell, in gaming terms, weakened the enemy's magic resistance. It was the opening move witches used to unleash astonishing burst damage. Its potion formula was extremely rare, and its many modified applications were used across all industries—one variant was called Weaken Physical Resilience. It was... a rather pleasurable variant spell, capable of making witches enjoy the bliss of flying through the sky. It was also one of the few spells whose variant had spread even more widely than the original.

Dispel Magic, whether in the Dungeons & Dragons campaigns of her previous life, Pathfinder campaigns, or the current Witch World, was unquestionably the most important third-level spell. Nearly every witch could recite its formula from memory, though gathering all the materials was difficult, and the conditions for drinking the potion were troublesome: it had to be consumed in a hot spring during a rainstorm.

This spell could target almost every kind of spell. It could counter spells, dispel spells, and suppress spell effects. A skilled witch could even use it to dispel a fifth-level evocation spell, even though this was merely a third-level spell! Witches who defeated the strong while weak would often spend years studying it and developing all sorts of variants—incidentally, there was also a variant called Dispel Physical Resilience, and its effects were equally pleasurable.

"All four of these are in the cram school's database... Normally, there'd be a fee, but for you." Cheng Yu teasingly pinched Jiang Han's cheek. "Free."

With that, she took out a stack of materials and placed it on the table.

Looking young really made it easy for people to pinch her. Jiang Han flipped through the manuscript. The first page was the rare second-level spell, Flash Dust.

"The goal of this practical lesson is to help you master these spells and memorize their formulas. We'll set off shortly."