She put the question of improving her drinking capacity aside, and excitement stirred in Jiang Han again.
3,200 yuan in commission, plus a weekly salary of 950 yuan, plus the possibility of plenty of tips—this was the most money Jiang Han had ever earned in her life. All thanks to acting cute and adorable! Enough to buy a discounted rare spellbook!
Though she'd have to wait until Saturday, five days from now, to get the money.
But the Witch House points had been credited immediately, bringing her total to 415. She could exchange them for some good things at the Witch House now.
Jiang Han immediately asked the manager for the Witch House exchange catalog. It was a book with a petite witch on the cover, wearing an enormous pointed hat and a dark-red witch's robe over a pure-white bodysuit. The petite witch had an incredibly imposing gaze; even a photograph of her inspired awe in other witches.
"Lilith, the founding witch of the Witch House, and one of the Great Witches. She's placed in the Top 20 at the Masters' Tournament year after year." Seeing Jiang Han's interest, Qin Shunying explained.
Although it was already a little past five-thirty, technically not yet the end of her shift, Qin Shunying doted on Jiang Han enough to tolerate her slacking off at work.
Top 20? The Witch House was that powerful? Jiang Han was startled.
The Witches' Hall of Fame was called the Top. The Top 20 referred to the twenty Hall of Fame witches whose titles began with "Great."
There was something terrifying about the Witches' Hall of Fame: ten of the Top 20 were ordinary witches with magic power of only 2,000 to 6,000. They'd been inducted because of their actions and contributions. The remaining ten spots went to the most formidable and powerful witches in the world—and only those ten ordinary witches had guaranteed places every year.
First: Yang, the first known witch in the world. Her recorded magic power was 270.
Third: Shang, the witch who compiled the world's first illustrated guide to identifying potion ingredients. Her recorded magic power was 620.
Because these witches were in the Hall of Fame, any witch who made the list purely through combat prowess was terrifying. Jiang Han had never expected the Witch House's big boss to be on the list. That was incredible.
Jiang Han opened the exchange catalog and flipped to the last page. As expected, she found the legendary spell section. The list contained only one legendary spell, the most widely known of them all—a testament to the power of the Great Witches.
[Greater Time Stop—Research Manual and Legendary Potion Recipe (Lilith's Version) Exchange Cost: 514,500 Points]
The price was unquestionably absurd. Beside the listing was a note left by Lilith.
The Great Witch's handwriting was elegant, but her words were domineering: "We toy with time, shatter fate, and mock death as proof."
A witch who possessed such a legendary spell had undoubtedly touched the true River of Time.
If they could get her to come over, the problem facing Du Ningzhuang's research institute would probably be solved in an instant... Jiang Han suddenly had this impractical thought, then sighed and flipped back through the catalog.
Best not to dwell on impractical ideas.
Was a legendary spell worth 500,000 points? Definitely. This was the first legendary spell Jiang Han had seen that she might actually be able to obtain.
But at the Witch House's weekly wage for an ordinary barmaid, she'd need 10,000 weeks, or 2,500 months, or 208.3 years to save up 500,000 points.
Even with a promotion and extra monthly income, ten years might be a more realistic estimate.
Then she'd have to spend perhaps another ten years studying the legendary spell.
Then another ten years gathering the potion ingredients.
And finally, she'd have to pray that the ritual conditions for drinking the potion weren't too difficult...
Stop thinking about it! Stop... Ninth-level magic was far more attainable than legendary magic. Jiang Han shook her head vigorously. Ninth-level spells started at an average of 50,000 points. If she kept being as popular with rich customers as she had today, she estimated she could afford one in two or three years.
And high-level eighth-, seventh-, and sixth-level spells were relatively "cheap"—the kind of goals she could genuinely work toward over six or seven months.
But Jiang Han couldn't use them yet. Even reading third-level spells was a struggle for her.
For example, the basic explanation of the model design for Dispel Magic went like this:
"Justice reversed as the first node; the Moon placed upright over Justice, together with the rising-tide second node; the new moon facing away as the third node; the half-moon hook method as the model's foundational point of the four occult elements."
It was like someone with no background trying to read about finance.
You could recognize the words the terms were made of, but you had no idea what they meant.
For instance, what were the four occult elements?
Fire, wind, water, and earth.
Fire usually referred to candles.
Wind usually represented short swords or sharp objects.
Water referred to essential oils or liquids in goblets.
And earth often meant salt imbued with spiritual properties.
Then there were the four witch elements... time, space, fate, and symbols.
In short, it was abstract as hell! So damn abstract!
Mages, witches, sorcerers, and masters of the occult all had an inexplicable love for the number four. Almost every spell contained a dozen or twenty descriptions of the "four elements." Even worse, some of those descriptions contradicted one another, while others just seemed completely unreliable.
There were even more abstract symbols. For example, witches liked to use "cats" to encrypt their spell research.
A Black Cat might represent the "sun" to one witch (who knew how that made sense?).
To another witch, it might represent the "moon" (honestly, that one was a little more plausible).
...Anyway, studying spells made Jiang Han feel like crying. She wanted to destroy this damn world.
Speaking of destroying the world, maybe Miss Du Ningzhuang's plan to blow up the River of Time would be a good opportunity... Jiang Han's lips pursed.
With 415 points, she already had enough for the level of knowledge she currently possessed. The only thing holding her back was that she didn't know what she ought to improve first.
...Exchange them for another spell? But she hadn't fully mastered the four spells she already had.
...Exchange them for a magic item? The magic items in there weren't useful for someone with magic power on the level of an Archwitch... For example, what use would a wand that triggered one Fireball Spell be to a witch who could practically throw third-level fireballs without limit?
...Exchange them for ingredients. That made sense...
Once she'd settled on a goal, she flipped to the ingredients section. The first entries were "mithril" and "adamantine," which she'd mentioned before. Setting aside the complicated changes minerals went through and the different properties of minerals derived from the same type, their prices meant she could only afford a tiny piece of either.
While she was agonizing over what to choose, the manager, Qin Shunying, offered a suggestion:
"Why not exchange for ingredients you can use right away? The Witch House's warehouse is incredibly well stocked. Thanks to Lilith, we have access to a vast pocket dimension and three other worlds, where we've found things that don't exist on Earth... Some even have to be planted on Mars by Lilith."
Jiang Han's attention was caught. She blinked, tilted her head, and looked at Qin Shunying.
Then she beamed.
"Okay."
Then she noticed the odd look on Qin Shunying's face. Hesitating, she gave a soft "Mm" and lowered her head to browse the catalog.
After looking through it, she calculated her points and came to the best conclusion:
"I want to exchange for the potion ingredients for the spell 'Fear Magic.'"
Fear Magic weakened magic resistance. It was an essential spell for witches who wanted to deal massive damage with a direct hit.
Level: 3.
Ingredients: 200 milliliters of distilled water, 100 milliliters of pure malt liquor, 100 milliliters of rum, 10 milliliters of Blue-Blood Henna solution, 15 grams of Dragon-Tongue Lavender powder, 10 grams of sliced Salt-Flower Root, 5 grams of pure silver, and 6 grams of Snow-Sprout Dragon Blood Gem.
As for the conditions for taking it...
Jiang Han checked the conditions she'd written in her notes, and her expression froze.
In her elegant handwriting, she'd written:
"The ritual for the 'Fear Magic' potion is [Run for 30 minutes, then do 50 squats in a row before taking it]."
Isn't that going to kill this shut-in?
Before you continue