Chapter 27: Elegant!

The next morning, as promised, arrived.

Although she no longer had to attend school during this period, Witch Miss still kept a healthy, good, late‑sleep early‑rise schedule that could cause sudden death.

She opened her eyes and looked at the time on the bedside table clock.

Morning, 5:57.

Hmm… getting up now isn't that late.

In three minutes the daily routine will refresh, another diligent, hard‑working day begins.

She massaged her slightly swollen head and thought that perhaps a nap today would ease her discomfort.

When she fell asleep last night, she kept feeling an unclear rustling by her ears, occasional sounds like pages turning or the crinkling of a plastic bag.

She reluctantly rose from the bed, propping herself up in the blurry light filtering through the curtains, and Witch Miss surveyed her bedroom.

The bookshelf meant for storing 'recently browsed books' had been completely looted by some unknown thief;

One leg of her desk was broken, leaving it in an unstable triangular shape, toppled over onto the floor;

Scattered, torn pages littered the floor,

and… once again a carpet stained with ink.

"…"

Am I… still not fully awake?

Is the way I woke up today… somehow off?

She took a deep breath, and Witch Miss mustered all her breath to shout,

"Xiaohei!!!!!!"

"Where are you?? Get out of there!!!"

Hearing Witch Miss's shout, the cat poked a little head out from the pile of books.

╰(*°▽°*)╯

Hey!

Witch Miss is up.

Wow, such spirit early in the morning, no trace of last night's disappointment—indeed the gift it gave works well!

Seeing this lively demeanor, she thought that last night's withdrawal had already been cast aside.

As she thought that, the cat gave Witch Miss a wink (＾＿－),

"Meow~"

"You're still meowing! You're still meowing!!"

"You seem still quite proud!!!"

Seeing the cat's unabashed demeanor, Witch Miss's hair bristled in fury; she ripped off the blanket, flipped off the bed, and prepared to give a good beating to the mysterious 'Cat Virtue' representative of Building No. 3.

But as the blanket was lifted, a bang sounded, and Witch Miss blinked in bewilderment.

She seemed to have heard something fall from the bed?

Looking toward the source, Witch Miss found a bundle of paper‑folded flowers on the floor near the bed?

She quickly crouched down, leaned over, and confirmed her earlier guess.

It was a bunch of roses entirely made from folded paper.

Large petals were interspersed with occasional Magic Text, giving the off‑white bouquet a distinct beauty.

After cradling the bouquet on her lap and adjusting it, Witch Miss noticed a line of crooked ink on the newspaper wrapping the flowers.

It was an ancient Magic Text.

This script contains only sixteen basic runes, which combine in various ways to convey different meanings and to construct Magic Circles for casting spells.

The runes written on the bouquet formed two words:

Spirit, infusion.

According to archaeological standards, refined, it should read—'Cheer up.'

The room contained only herself and the cat.

So this is a flower the cat gave her, hoping she would cheer up?

Even though the material came from tearing her own books?

Witch Miss crouched on the floor, her expression complex as she looked at the undeniably exquisite paper flower.

Although the surprise included a full dose of fright, unexpectedly she felt no anger toward the cat at all.

Did it spend the whole night just to make this for itself?

There were plenty of things that could have been gifts; why insist on making a bouquet instead?

Thinking of the cat's innocence and cuteness, Witch Miss couldn't help but smile.

Sure enough, it's the cat?

Witch Miss imagined a kitten frolicking among flowers swayed by the wind.

o(*￣︶￣*)o

It really is cute.

But, a gift…

It feels different from the 'gifts' received from Grandpa Lin.

Every year during the New Year, Grandpa Lin gives Witch Miss some strange items.

Protective talismans from temple prayers, academic‑success lucky bags, pink ribbons, dried magical critters said to bring good luck…

Hmm…

In some sense, a flower made from torn books seems even stranger than Grandpa Lin's gifts.

But why am I feeling so happy?

Obviously, I should now pick up the slippers and teach Cat why the flower is so red.

While Witch Miss was confused, Cat felt proud of its own mechanism.

Look!

Cat's scheming, a great victory.

It made Witch Miss like it so much she stared blankly.

Combining with Witch Miss's habit of always gazing at the beautiful, cute, and sparkling things in the cabinet when she was young, Cat felt she would surely not dislike the flower.

And Witch Miss also has the hobby of reading.

Look at how he directly combined flower and book into a perfect product—while appreciating the flower, you can also read!

The steps to read the book aren't hard; just need to inject wind-attribute magic.

The meticulous Witch Miss must have already discovered the secret hidden in this bouquet, right!

Hmph!

Every page is what he carefully selected—for example, the stability of the basic Magic Circle, the incantation of Fireball technique, and so on—all content related to the knowledge she has now mastered!

(>^ω^<）

Look, she's still staring intently at that bouquet.

Sigh~~

It's not that bad~ the cat would feel embarrassed.

Not wasted on him—the method took nearly a whole night to work out!

As for Cat, while halfway through preparing to fold the paper, they suddenly realized they'd forgotten how to fold this flower, so they began using magic to debug, trying multithreaded trial-and-error routes, and finally managed to test it before dawn, exhausting Cat, who then fell asleep right in the material pile.

(๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

Indeed, things made after an all-nighter always give a sense of fulfillment and show significant effects!

Hmph.

Proud jpg.

Thinking so, Cat proudly raised its tail, trotted over to Witch Miss's side, rubbed against her leg, climbed up, and rubbed her face.

Tieba bro, you never let me down!

nobodyknow comfort women better than me!

Look, Witch Miss is now holding me—this seems unrelated to autism.

Just as Cat was wildly proud, Witch Miss pressed her face against Cat's cheek,

"Cat~ Thank you."

"Meow~"

No need to thank.

Who made me your old father?

"Mom likes you the most."

(づ￣3￣）づ╭～

Saying that, Witch Miss gave Cat another kiss.

With the previous experience, Witch Miss didn't put precious books in her bedroom again, so seeing this mess all over the floor, she wasn't as heartbroken.

As for the table, it's been used for many years—it's time to replace it.

If she got angry now, how could she face Cat's sincerity.

The room can be renovated, books can be sold again, but the heartfelt gift from her own eldest son is irreplaceable!

Thinking so, Witch Miss smothered the little cat with kisses, finally wildly rubbing its little nose.

Cat can logically understand that touching the nose tip means friendliness and communication, but since it's not a real cat, having its nose touched doesn't know what response to give.

He could only refer to other people's kittens, made a few gurgling sounds, and gave Witch Miss a perfunctory response.

……

Finally, the 6:10 a. m. wake-up alarm moved Witch Miss off Cat's body.

Today is still a day spent striving to test Pikachu and fix bugs, after all, only with Pikachu can his level increase be formally put on the agenda.

I hope that by this summer vacation, his level can reach Liu Ge.

Using my own LV1 initial value as a doubling reference, wait until.

Besides Cat researching Pikachu's plasticity limits and various bugs that can be fixed, Witch Miss is diligently training her newly acquired skill.

"Mountain Marsh Qilin Trace" leaves an ice lotus and shifts backward; within the area where the ice lotus appears, magic damage persists.

The duration of the ice lotus is determined by the magic power infused at release.

She had never heard of such a magic that also includes a displacement skill.

While looking at the detailed skill analysis given in the skill, Witch Miss also studied the magic text content contained in this magic.

"It actually includes spatial-attribute movement... I see, this backward displacement concept is like a low-tier version of teleport..."

Studying the magic core and practicing magic, the progress is still going smoothly.

With far more than the previous pitiful 10 MP, the feel of practicing magic smoothly made Witch Miss even somewhat exhilarated during training.

Thinking of her past, even with all her might she could only release a weakened version of sprouting and small fireball.

Even a zero-rank magic, having her cast it is very taxing.

Back then, how could she dare to think she'd now dare to research this great magic rated at least comparable to LV7!

In her view, the Mountain Marsh Qilin Trace magic, after being improved by Cat, is a high-level magic with reduced MP consumption.

Just like the control group for Lightning Strike.

Indeed...... Cat is amazing.

I...... also need to work hard.

Although I still can't surpass Cat, at least I should become someone worthy of his mother!

Thinking so, Witch Miss once again, with draining her MP as the bottom line, threw herself into magic practice.

Because Witch Miss's MP recovery is still rather touching, after two hours of training, she nibbled on magic potions while slumped in a chair, enjoying the rest of an empty mind.

Now, there is only about a week left until the school test.

After being inspired by the 'Advanced Element Theory', Witch Miss also... actually didn't stay up all night; she just came up with this plan on the spot while taking her medicine.

To avoid the embarrassment of being jack-of-all-trades but master of none, Witch Miss divided the skills she currently mastered into several tiers.

Currently, the first tier includes the newly acquired ice-attribute skill 'Mountain Marsh Qilin Trace', the water-attribute skill 'Water Everchanging Form', the lightning-attribute skill 'Azure Thunder', and the fire-attribute skill 'Pop-pop Bomb'.

The fire-attribute skill did not choose her long-practiced 'Fireball', mainly because Pop-pop Bomb is a trap-like skill.

The advantage of trap-type skills is that, to avoid the test dummy's charge speed being too fast, she wouldn't have time to release two skills and thus couldn't achieve a knock-back effect.

Compared to foam, Water Everchanging Form is superior in that its MP consumption is very low; precisely, after the initial magic circle forms, it consumes no MP at all!

She feels that what she needs in battle is not a large-scale freeze control and freeze damage on the dummy.

Perhaps just controlling the dummy's legs used for movement, or important joints, to buy her more time to maneuver, would be enough.

After battling the huge beast that Cat morphed into, its body huge and covered head to toe in armor like blazing red steel flames, she understood.

As a mage, her output has limits.

The Dao rises one foot, the demon rises ten feet; as she evolves, the monsters she challenges also evolve.

Rather than pursuing those showy, MP-consuming so-called high-damage skills, why can't she rely on her unique high mobility to engage in hit-and-run?

As long as she accumulates over time, even HP-1 can deal tons of damage!

Anyway, Witch Miss herself can't imagine when she'll be able to unleash a skill comparable to yesterday's lightning strike.

She can't even imagine how she could instantly kill that beast whose mere step shatters the earth and draws out magma.

Although, she also can't imagine how the butler grandfather manages to restore the dilapidated courtyard they build each night to its original state by morning, miraculously.

All we can say is that she's still too naive, knowing nothing of the true power of this world.

Even the butler and Cat can't compare, orz, let alone talk about the stars and seas.

Witch Miss, who is used to scribbling and drawing while thinking, took advantage of her magic training rest time to draw her grand ideals on a blank sheet.

Regarding an excellent mage, strolling leisurely in the training ground, releasing skills with ease, tugging at the dummies, and completely draining their HP bars.

Plain, without waves, and without any suspense or stimulation.

Elegant!

(≧∇≦)ﾉ！

￥￥￥￥￥￥

Days spent at home not going to school always pass in a flash.

Immersed in enjoying the 'holiday', Witch Miss looked at the calendar where the dates marked with little stars were near at hand, and inevitably sighed a little depressively.

Before lying down after getting into bed, Witch Miss emphasized to Cat, who was sitting upright in the chair,

"Cat! Tonight, don't! Don't! Don't do anything.

"Understand?"

"Don't do anything except sleep, breathe, and turn over!"

"I need to rest properly!"

"Tomorrow is the important test!"

"..."

Cat: ┓(´∀`)┏

Alright.

I originally wanted to make some cheering items for you.

Some people just don't understand Cat's thoughtfulness.

Moreover, dear Witch Miss, could it be that you mean Cat often disturbs your sleep?

Saying that, the little kitten wouldn't be happy to hear it.

I haven't even disliked you yet!

While muttering in his heart, the fur on his outside also babbled, smacking his lips.

Witch Miss, seeing all this, quickly added,

"Cat, no need to be dissatisfied!"

"..."

Okay okay okay, no dissatisfaction!

Turning his body away, presenting his butt to Witch Miss's Cat, his heart gradually became unsettled.

What's going on today? He keeps feeling that Witch Miss is getting better and better at reading cat techniques.

An ominous premonition spread in Cat's heart, even making him shiver.

No no.

Can't wait.

As long as Pikachu doesn't encounter bugs in his battle against Witch Miss, he will go check the map in advance to pick a suitable habitat for the Pikachus.

He's about to start developing!

Otherwise, a single cricket witch would be able to lord over Cat's head.

This family status won't be preserved!

Feeling that its actions are being completely guessed, the Cat silently plotted a sneaking-out plan in its heart just before sleep.