Chapter 320 : Curse of Decay
Chapter 320: Curse of Decay
「Knock knock knock—」
Early in the morning, just as Janna-Roland was still meditating, the soft tapping sound outside the window instantly woke her up.
「So it’s a messenger from Sophina.」
Seeing the jade-white toad outside the window holding a letter in its mouth, Janna quickly put on her slippers and walked over to the windowsill,
then opened the window.
「Thank you.」
「Ribbit—」
After receiving the envelope, the jade-white toad, having completed its task, let out a croak, then kicked off with both legs and leapt into the void, disappearing from sight.
「Sending me a letter at this time—hopefully it's something good.」
Opening the envelope somewhat nervously, Janna couldn’t help but sigh after reading the letter’s contents.
「As expected, it’s not good news.」
The content of the letter was simple: it notified Janna that due to some urgent reason, the 【Witch Faction】 Dream Conference had been postponed indefinitely.
As a result, Janna's initiation ceremony had also been delayed indefinitely. However, there was at least one piece of good news.
To compensate Janna, the 【Witch Faction】 planned to send her a handwritten notebook containing knowledge on 【Beginner Alchemy】,
so that she could begin studying 【Alchemy】 in advance.
However, the delivery time was not specified in the letter. After storing the envelope in the Thorn Bracelet, Janna stopped thinking about it and returned to bed to continue her deep meditation.
Janna had returned from the Misty Forest to White Coral quite late yesterday. On her way back, she even made a special trip to the magic tower to report to Anthony-Blackcrow about the danger she had sensed in the Misty Forest.
By the time she returned to her dormitory, it was already the middle of the night. And now, having been disturbed by Sophina's messenger, her meditation time had been cut short.
Currently, Janna's top priority was to break through the limitations of her mental strength and witch rank.
Thus, she ultimately chose to skip the morning’s 《Ancient Magic History》 class and sat back down on her bed to continue her deep meditation.
These days, besides attending classes and completing the daily quests assigned by the system, Janna had been focusing entirely on deep meditation and preparing the ritual materials required for advancing to a Third-Tier Witch Apprentice, which involved the transformation of elemental life.
At the same time, a strange incident occurred in the Misty Forest—hundreds of trees at the edge of the magic tower barrier had withered and died overnight.
The cause of the withering wasn’t a natural disaster, but rather a deliberate curse—a disgusting curse known as the "Decaying Aphids."
When it first occurred, most witch apprentices didn’t pay much attention.
After all, a curse that only withers trees but doesn’t endanger human life had little impact on ordinary witch apprentices.
However, the official witches from each academy reacted with unusual seriousness upon receiving the news.
Not only did they use thunderous methods to destroy the "Decaying Aphids," but they also strengthened the surveillance around the edge of the magic tower barrier to prevent a similar situation from happening again—
And upon learning of this, Janna’s mood also turned unusually heavy.
First, the trees contaminated by the "Decaying Aphids" were all located at the edge of the magic tower barrier. Second, based on the information,
the number of contaminated trees was around five to six hundred—matching closely with the number of trees Janna had previously healed.
All these signs pointed to one fact: the culprit was clearly targeting Janna’s 【Growth Law Fragment】. And they were acting in a high-profile manner, almost as if to deliberately warn Janna—
「Huu—」Janna exhaled deeply and, looking at the dim surroundings, used 【Hand of the Witch】 to turn on the light in the Closed Cultivation Chamber.
Now that Janna had officially entered the breakthrough phase, to avoid inevitable issues like “mana leakage” during the process, she had rented a Closed Cultivation Chamber on the ninth floor of the magic tower—one that was rich in mana and not exactly cheap—for training during this period.
「By my will, I command you—summon, Flame Guard.」
「By my will, I command you—summon, Lightning Accumulation Cloud.」
With a flash of two contract lights—one red and one blue—the Flame Guard and Lightning Accumulation Cloud, now clearly stronger than before, appeared before Janna.
「Take it and eat. Don’t waste it.」
With a gentle toss, Janna threw two premium elemental essences in front of the Flame Guard and Lightning Accumulation Cloud.
Seeing this, the two elemental creatures, who had long been unable to wait, immediately swallowed the essences in one gulp and skillfully floated to the two corners of the Closed Cultivation Chamber to begin digesting the energy inside the essences.
「Truly two gold-swallowing beasts.」
Looking at the Flame Guard and Lightning Accumulation Cloud curled up in the corners, Janna sighed long, though she was also becoming increasingly numb to it.
With Celestial Sparrow, Hundred-Eyed Mirror Demon, and Thorn Flower Fairy having evolved one after another, Janna’s focus shifted more and more toward Flame Guard and Lightning Accumulation Cloud.
Her method of nurturing them involved purchasing discounted premium elemental essences from Jarvis-Roland’s Water Marsh Auction House,
then feeding them to Flame Guard and Lightning Accumulation Cloud.
The immense cost of this had made Janna shift from initial heartache over her wallet to gradually becoming indifferent.
After all, she had come to realize that to go far on the path of a summoning-type apprentice, one must learn to disregard money.
These few elemental essences were just appetizers compared to the resources needed in the future—not even worth mentioning.
So, rather than always fretting about money, it was better to adjust her mindset early and invest her energy into finding more ways to make money, quickly increasing her assets.「Once I advance to a full witch, the road of being an opera performer will pretty much come to an end—after all, no matter how lucrative opera may be, it certainly can’t compare to being an alchemist in the 【Witch Faction】———」
Of course, the ones truly earning big in the 【Witch Faction】 were top-tier alchemists like 【Lily-of-the-Valley Witch】 Koukie-Wolf, who had their own patents in alchemy. Ordinary alchemists might not even earn as much as a top-tier opera performer.
Currently, Janna’s main sources of income, besides her monthly fixed salary and year-end bonus, came from various endorsements.
If she were willing to increase the number of weekly performances, her income would only grow further—
「Ding一」
Just as Janna was slightly spacing out while watching her two Contracted Creatures, the familiar system task notification rang in her ear again.
【Today’s Quest: Read ten or more books;
Quest Reward: 100 Talent XP, 500 Skill XP, one random reward.】
「Another reading quest, huh.」
Looking at the 【Mental Strength】 stat showing “29.9” on her character panel, Janna couldn’t help but smile faintly.
「Hope today’s random reward will be Mental Strength—」