Chapter 139: Mental Power Enhancement
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 139: Mental Power Enhancement
After a short break, I stepped back onto the field to squeeze in a few more rounds of spell combat practice. The more one's abilities are restricted, the more it tests their adaptability and control in the heat of battle.
Despite what I’d said earlier—about this simulated spell style not being my thing—I still had to practice. However, this kind of last-minute cramming was mostly just for peace of mind; the actual results were negligible.
Teacher Li would occasionally wander over to lecture me. She knew that as the class monitor, I’d be the one representing us on the battlefield during the upcoming confrontation matches.
It wasn't until the end of class that I finally allowed myself to relax. My physical exertion today was far beyond the norm. I really needed to start paying attention to my frail constitution. Even for a witch who focused on spellcasting, having a weak body was a glaring Achilles' heel.
But now wasn't the time to worry about everything at once. The best choice was to focus on the tasks at hand. For instance, using that Mental Power Potion. I imagined it would provide a significant boost to my reserves. Once my mental power increased, I’d be much more composed when casting spells.
First, though, I had to reclaim my spirit cat. The poor thing was still being smothered by those girls. I couldn't just cut off the spell and make the cat vanish; it might scare them, and it would be rude.
After a fair bit of coaxing, I finally managed to get it back.
As I prepared to leave, my roommate, Hong Chenyi, naturally tagged along. Her excuse was perfectly reasonable: we lived in the same dorm, after all.
However, I wasn't heading back to the villa. I was going to the meditation room. It was best to use a Mental Power Potion in conjunction with meditation, making the meditation room the ideal choice.
And so, Hong Chenyi ended up following me there.
Of course, her main reason for coming along was to hitch a ride on my flying broom. In her words, she "just really wanted to fly!" Apparently, she had already joined a club to test for her flight license but hadn't found the time to practice yet. She wanted to get a feel for it in advance.
"Ugh... here again... that useless money-sink..."
Upon arriving at the meditation room, Hong Chenyi let out a heavy sigh. She still hadn't successfully mastered meditation. In fact, most of the freshmen were in the same boat.
Success in meditation varied from person to person, but according to the teachers' years of experience, most students managed to achieve it within their first month of enrollment. There was no immediate rush.
Everyone in our dorm had visited the meditation room to try it out. Aside from the loaded Hong Chenyi, Guan Qiuling rarely came, and Dongli Yiren was usually too strapped for cash. Yu Yuetian had claimed the meditation room didn't do much for her and preferred the comfort of the dorm. As an ascetic, she would likely master meditation soon enough on her own.
"Alright, I'm going in. If you get bored, you can head back first," I said, opening the door to my private room and glancing back at Hong Chenyi.
"No way! You brought me here, so you're responsible for taking me back. Don't be so heartless! I'll just hang out inside. Xiao Han, just call me when you're done. Don't worry about disturbing me!"
"Fine. If you've got money to burn, go ahead." I shrugged. I had nothing to say to someone so wealthy; perhaps she really was just leaving her meditation progress to fate.
Once inside, I bolted the door. I sat in the center of the room and lit some incense. I’d bought it here at the meditation room; it wasn't expensive, but the quality didn't seem as good as the stuff Senior Sister Gongxi Huanxin sold.
Then again, going out of my way to buy from Gongxi Huanxin was its own kind of trouble. That senior sister's talent was truly a handful to deal with.
As the smoke drifted through the air, accompanied by the light fragrance, I pulled out the Mental Power Potion Teacher Ji Niang had given me.
I wondered what kind of surprise it had in store for me.
Currently, my mental power—measured by the threads of the Witch Meditation Method—stood at three threads. This meant my mental power was roughly three times what it had been at the start. This was likely a "newbie bonus" for first-time practitioners of the meditation method, as the initial growth had been rapid. Now, however, I felt I had hit a plateau. If I just followed the standard routine, it would take a long time to see any significant results.
I downed the potion. An unfamiliar, sweet fruity taste swirled in my mouth, immediately followed by the sharp, characteristic bitterness of medicine hitting my taste buds.
The sensation faded slowly until the after-effects kicked in. That was when I realized I had drunk a potion, not fruit juice!
The kick hit me like a freight train—a pungent scent, reminiscent of sweaty feet, shot straight to my crown. It then transformed into a sweet rain falling inside my mind. But it wasn't like normal rain; it was as if "feet" were falling. Every drop felt like a bare, jade-like foot stepping into water, sending ripples across the surface that conjured up images from my memory.
There were painful memories, happy ones, and even things I had long forgotten...
In that moment, I felt like a silhouette standing in the rain, walking through the corridors of my own mind. The reflections in the puddles on the ground were my memories, and the falling rain shattered them into pieces.
It wasn't until a sudden shiver ran through me that I snapped out of it. That state just now... something was very wrong!
Whatever, let's just meditate. It was probably just a normal side effect of the potion. It was a high-grade item meant to boost mental power; it wasn't like it was going to hurt me.
I closed my eyes and began to meditate. The potion's influence couldn't be suppressed immediately, even through meditation. Fragments of past memories continued to surface involuntarily within my meditation space. It seemed this potion enhanced mental power through some unknown mechanism, with the side effect of dredging up these memories.
It made sense. It was a potion, after all; it had to work through some specific pathway to increase mental power rather than just making it appear out of thin air.
I continued to meditate, squeezing every bit of value out of the potion while condensing the mental power threads of the Witch Meditation Method.
Condensed mental power threads were far more useful than raw, unrefined mental power, especially when I used them to modify my spellbook. The difference was like comparing a heap of loose sand to a professional tool; there was no contest.
Time ticked by. By the time the potion's effects had completely worn off, my mental power had reached five threads. If I pushed a little harder, a sixth wouldn't be far off. I wasn't in a hurry, though. With my mental power growing this quickly, it was better to take some time to adapt.
I checked my phone. It was getting late. After paying the overtime fee, I prepared to leave. I figured I should check on Hong Chenyi to see if she was still around.
Yang Yuehan:I'm done.
It took a while before she replied.
Hong Chenyi:Huh? What? Xiao Han, you're still in the meditation room?
Hong Chenyi:Seriously, do you live there now?
Hong Chenyi:I couldn't last more than an hour.
Yang Yuehan:?
Hong Chenyi:So, uh, I went back first. That...
Hong Chenyi:I forgot to tell you. I just didn't want to disturb you!
Yang Yuehan:Fine. Saves me the trouble of giving you a ride.
Yang Yuehan:You have no idea how hard it is to fly with you squirming around back there.
I didn't reply after that, though my phone continued to vibrate with her messages—likely her protesting that she wasn't "hard to carry."
That girl got more excited than I did whenever we took to the skies. She was the most restless passenger I’d ever had on my broom. I almost wanted to curse her to never get her flight license, just to save everyone else the trouble.
With Hong Chenyi gone, I suddenly found myself with nothing to do.
However...
Back at the villa, Hong Chenyi was clutching her head in frustration.
It wasn't that she didn't want to keep Xiao Han company; it was just that the meditation room was too expensive. Dozens of credits an hour, and even more if you added the cost of incense. She was currently cut off from her family—her calls wouldn't go through, and she had had a massive falling out with them before coming to the Witch Academy.
They really had stopped sending her money!
She had thought her parents would keep spoiling her, but now she feared they had already given up on her and started "raising a new account" (having another child).
Wasn't this all her dad's fault? If he hadn't turned her into such a simp for that woman, would she have ever come to the Witch Academy?
Now she had to worry about money. Should she go look for the senior sisters?
She wondered if that one street had been unsealed yet. If it was open, she wouldn't mind returning to her "old trade." But now that classes had started, she’d have to show some restraint.
No time like the present. She picked up her phone. She had a massive list of friends, with an entire category dedicated solely to "Senior Sisters."
The first one she contacted was, naturally, the senior sister who had brought her here in the first place.
* * *
After finishing my meditation, I felt mentally exhausted. Meditation was no substitute for sleep; it didn't leave you feeling refreshed and energized.
Right now, all I wanted was to go back and get a good night's sleep so I could tackle tomorrow with full strength.
Teacher Ji Niang was right. If I couldn't break through my cognitive limitations at this stage, no matter how much I modified spells like the Fireball Spell, I was just putting a fancy new coat on an old trick.
Breaking through mental boundaries wasn't easy, and trying to force wild, unconstrained ideas could even be dangerous.
But that was fine. I had a whole new field to explore now: summoning spells!
I wondered what the Spirit Cat Summoning Spell would look like after a bit of modification. Since it was a summoning spell and not an evocation spell, a mistake wouldn't necessarily result in a massive explosion.
But if I wasn't careful, would I summon something... weird?
Like a Lovecraftian tentacle cat crawling in the shadows?
Or a scantily clad, sexy cat-girl?
Wait... a cat-girl?
My thoughts were drifting into strange territory. Then again, cats and cat-girls were two entirely different species, right? Was that something a simple modification could even achieve?
It wasn't impossible. Anything is possible until you try it! After all, petting a cat and petting a cat-girl were two very different experiences.
Ahem... let's stick to practical matters. This was a high-consumption spell; I couldn't just use it for weird stuff. I needed to focus on its combat potential or other utilities. That was the most important factor for the confrontation matches.
Otherwise, what was I going to do? Summon a spirit cat in the middle of a match and hope my opponent was such a cat-lover they’d surrender?
That didn't seem very reliable.