Chapter 17: The Master of Stirring Trouble

The purchase of textbooks went quite smoothly. It didn't take long before Dorothy, feeling satisfied, cradled her spellbooks and headed to the front desk to swipe her card and pay.

Beside her, Alice hung her head in dejection with a dark expression, while the blue-haired young lady, Isabella, was, on the contrary, full of smug triumph.

During the book-buying process just now, Isabella, as a top student, had completely crushed the academic underachiever Alice with her professional opinions. The little blonde witch was currently suffering a total mental collapse, unable to recover.

After paying, the group left the bookstore directly. Upon stepping outside, Dorothy looked back at the shop's sign, feeling a bit of regret that she hadn't seen the owner—the retired Sage—this time.

However, it wasn't a big deal. It was just the same level of disappointment one might feel when traveling and missing a local landmark due to bad weather. Dorothy quickly shook off the mood, preparing to complete the final part of this shopping trip.

Spellcasting materials.

Mages always need to consume some spiritual materials when casting spells. This is why most mages are either rich or noble, and why the poor are not fit to be spellcasters. After all, every spell cast requires the consumption of spiritual materials, and these materials have never been cheap. This isn't spellcasting; it's clearly burning money.

Take, for example, the famous Gem-type magic; the spellcasting materials are various high-purity gems. The higher the purity of the gem, the stronger the magic's power. Therefore, the money a Gem-type mage burns through in a single battle is simply an astronomical figure. If one's family fortune isn't deep enough, learning Gem magic is just squandering wealth. Perhaps the young lady would soon be busy worrying about household finances.

Of course, the necessity of spellcasting materials is only for ordinary mages of other races. Their mana is too scarce and not pure enough in quality. To better unleash the power of magic, they must supplement their own mana deficiency by consuming spiritual materials.

But for witches, the high-quality mana flowing within their bodies is a universal power. Whether or not they have spellcasting materials does not affect a witch's ability to cast spells. Even so, spiritual materials can still effectively reduce the mana consumption during a witch's spellcasting process, and the properties of some precious materials can significantly enhance the power of corresponding spells.

Therefore, if conditions permit, buying more high-spirituality spellcasting materials is a "pay-to-win" path for witches to become stronger. Paying to win really can make you stronger.

However, for Dorothy, who was single-mindedly focused on saving money to buy a house, "paying to win" was impossible. Free mana shouldn't be wasted; it's not like it's a non-renewable resource. It refills quickly after being used up, right?

Only those Armed Witches on the battlefield, who must be ready to fight at any time, would use various methods to save mana, fearing they wouldn't have enough for the next battle. But Dorothy wasn't on the battlefield; she would rather spend a bit more mana than waste spiritual materials.

However, this didn't mean Dorothy was clueless about spellcasting materials. On the contrary, she could be considered an expert in this regard. After all, just because she couldn't bear to use them in reality didn't mean she couldn't in the Mana Web. In the Mana Web space, spellcasting materials were just a pile of data, basically dirt cheap. Therefore, she had always been extravagant when casting spells online.

It could be said that in reality, she was timid and broke, but on the internet, she struck hard and spent money like water—a model of a high-quality "homebody" witch.

"Sister Dorothy, I also have some research on spellcasting materials. I'll help you choose later. I guarantee I'll pick the best materials with the most spirituality for you."

Isabella confidently recommended herself.

"Mm-hmm, then I'll trouble you, little Bella. Sister doesn't know much about these things. You know so much; if only Alice were as studious as you."

Dorothy nodded in agreement with a naive look, giving the blue-haired young lady plenty of face.

Then, she glanced slightly at her own sister beside her, whose face was already so dark it was practically emitting murderous intent, and the corner of her mouth curled into a delighted arc.

Hehe... If she remembered correctly, the material market for the witch specialty store was usually on the top floor, and right next to it was the arena. To get to the material market, one would have to pass by the arena first.

It was a very classic design, just like how there's always a convenience store at the school gate. In the arena, there were large numbers of witches or combative members of other races dueling every day. In battle, to reduce consumption, spellcasting materials were also necessary. Thus, the demand for materials was established.

Sure enough, after the group took the mana elevator (mana ladder?) to the top floor of the mall, the first thing that came into view was the massive arena that occupied the vast majority of the floor's area, with numerous material shops set up around it.

It was clear that a Space Extension Barrier had been set up in the arena. Just standing outside and looking in, the dense crowd of shrunken spectators looked like residents of a Lilliputian kingdom. It was quite difficult to see the battle in the center of the arena without using spells to enhance one's vision. Fortunately, there was a huge screen above the arena playing the duel in real-time.

And from the waves of cheers from the spectators in the arena, one could tell how popular dueling was in this world.

There was no helping it; this was, after all, the Witch World, a war-like race where everyone valued martial arts and the folk customs were fierce.

The status of the arena in this world was like the gym... emmmm, no, it was like the movie theater in Dorothy's previous life; they were opened everywhere.

The classic dating routine for witch couples seemed to be having a meal and then watching a few duel matches. If they were in the mood, the two would even go down and have a go themselves. And if they got passionate enough, they might spend a wonderful night together.

Besides that, various duel competitions were frequently held in the Witch World, such as the Academy Cup, the Sage Cup, the World Cup, and so on. Every such large-scale competition was very hot and popular, even giving rise to professional Dueling Witches, whose positioning was somewhat similar to the celebrities of Dorothy's previous life.

In short, in this world, dueling was a competitive sport that everyone loved.

No matter the reason, one could have a duel. If in a good mood, go have a duel to celebrate; if in a bad mood, go have a duel to vent; if there was a grudge, go have a duel to resolve the dispute; if you wanted to make friends... well, if there was a dispute that couldn't be resolved by a duel, then just have another one.

Although saying it like this was a bit exaggerated, the reality was just like that. As long as it wasn't a life-or-death grudge, it could basically be resolved through a duel. And even if it was a life-or-death grudge, wasn't there still the Life-and-Death Duel?

And now that they were already at the arena, then...

"Isabella, it's time for a fight to the death. I've tolerated you for a long time."

Alice, who had been accumulating anger the whole way, finally couldn't hold it back the moment she saw the arena. She pulled a pair of white gloves out of her pocket on the spot and threw them at Isabella.

And the blue-haired young lady naturally wasn't one to back down.

"Fight then, who's afraid of who? You guys go help me book a room."

She ordered the two follower witches behind her.

Dorothy: "........"

The corner of the "scum" witch's mouth, hidden under her scarf, couldn't help but curl up.

Yay, they're fighting. Time to eat melon and watch the show. ===== CHAPTER 18 =====