“Be more careful next time.”

When the girls came rushing out of the Third Tier Zone again, Mentor Vladimir happened to pass by and gave them a quiet reminder.

“Got it~ We’ll definitely be careful next time!”

Lina said with a grin.

The other two lowered their heads and played dead, then hurried away, dragging the little Blondie with them.

They weren’t the first to finish the mission. It had taken them an hour just to farm gold in the Third Tier Zone, and with only three people in their group, they weren’t the strongest team either.

Aislen Witch Academy had plenty of genius students. Even Lina and He Qin would find it hard to pull too far ahead in such a short time, let alone Jiang Cha, a newbie who’d been enrolled for less than three days.

“This is your share, Jiang Cha-chan, and this one’s Lina-chan’s.”

Back in the dorm, before dinner, He Qin divided the sorted materials into three portions and handed them out.

“It’s a shame we can’t do this again next time.”

The girl sounded a little disappointed.

Witch Gold had considerable purchasing power. If she didn’t buy magic materials and spent it only on living expenses, a little over a hundred Witch Gold would last her more than a year.

Put another way, that showed just how expensive tuition at Aisilen Academy was.

A full three thousand Witch Gold a year.

“Don’t be too disappointed. There are other ways to make money.”

He Qin smiled and comforted her.

Lina, meanwhile, took big bites out of an apple, looking confused. “So that’s what you were doing this for? It’s only a hundred and something...”

“I can make a thousand Witch Gold on a single job. How about coming with me next time, Cha Bao? A secondary profession’s a bottomless pit in the early stages. Combat Witches make money much faster.”

Even first-year students could find a team as long as they were strong enough. And Lina was already a famous little one in the Battle Club.

The upperclassmen were happy to give newcomers a leg up, too.

A thousand Witch Gold was a generous reward, but Jiang Cha still shook her head helplessly. “I don’t have gear as good as yours. I’d just hold you back if I went, wouldn’t I?”

Magic gear could greatly increase someone’s combat power. Lina had a complete set of high-grade gear worth over a million Witch Gold. It was custom-made by a master to suit her fighting style, which drove the price up several times over.

The flaming greatsword staff she’d seen before was only one piece of it.

With that set boosting her, the little Blondie could fight at full power and still match upperclassmen in their fourth or fifth year.

The rich little girl simply didn’t use it most of the time. Otherwise, she could wipe out the entire Third Tier Zone by herself.

“Want to borrow one of my sets? The rental fee’s a hundred Witch Gold.”

“No thanks~”

Witches were like that. They kept accounts straight even with close friends they’d known for hundreds of years, let alone people they’d only just met. At most, they’d offer a friends-and-family discount.

To be fair, Lina’s price was more than generous. After subtracting the cost of other supplies, the girl could probably net five hundred Witch Gold from one outing. But she didn’t want to owe anyone that favor, whether it was Lina or the upperclassmen who’d taken them along.

Besides, she knew what her goal was at this stage.

Studying was more important. With enough knowledge, Witch Gold was just something she could earn back by casually making a few magic items.

—Just like the master who’d custom-made Lina’s gear. One set could earn them over a million.

“Ehh—! Then don’t forget to come battle with me tomorrow!”

“Got it~”

Jiang Cha waved and headed for her room without looking back.

.....

The knowledge required for the various secondary professions wasn’t easy to learn. Even the basic material was highly contaminating, and even Jiang Cha couldn’t learn it quickly.

By her calculations, she’d need about three more days to finish the copy of Basic Alchemy she had on hand. She’d only made it a third of the way through.

And that didn’t include the time she’d need to spend practicing afterward.

Getting all kinds of resources was a bottomless pit, too.

So joining a club was a must. They offered a free monthly allowance, discounts on materials, and a complete sales channel. It could save her a lot of time.

He Qin was in the Golem Club, and she’d explained all these basics to the girl.

“My brain’s close to its next evolution, too. Maybe... I should stay up a little tonight?”

The girl muttered unconsciously as she read.

Once the thought had come to her, she couldn’t shake it.

She also wanted to try a new way of using her innate magic.

A faint blue light appeared around her. The [Information Gathering: Full Power] she’d used before was more combat-oriented. It let her focus on the fight without missing a single detail around her, while the full boost to her processing power also let her cast spells more precisely to support her teammates...

What she wanted to use now was another approach, one focused on acquiring knowledge.

She didn’t know if it would work.

“In theory, it’s no different from [Information Gathering: Full Power]. It just focuses on something else... It should be fine, right?”

Both involved actively supplying mana to her innate magic to maximize the efficiency of its spell model, much like casting at the limit. Come to think of it, permanently fixed spells could also be strengthened by actively supplying them with mana.

Full Power Mode was geared toward combat. Now the girl wanted to shift her focus to studying. At its core, it was simply a matter of choosing what to prioritize.

And then...

“Hey—Cha Bao! Did you forget we have somewhere to go today!?”

‘Lina?’

Her foggy brain reflexively formed a question at the sound of knocking. After a moment, she cut off the mana supply, and her thoughts gradually cleared.

Her body clock gave the time with perfect accuracy.

9:22 a.m.

‘Holy crap!!!’

Now fully awake, the girl suddenly felt as if her head were splitting apart. All thirty-four innate thought circuits and fifty-four temporary thought circuits were overloaded to the point of nearly crashing. Her mental power was almost completely spent, with only a tiny bit left. Even her mana was nearly gone: of more than sixty thousand units, only a few thousand remained.

‘What the hell was that!?’

Even her control over her body had weakened due to the intense contamination. If her brain hadn’t completed its eighth evolution without her noticing, even thinking would have become difficult, and she might’ve passed out on the spot.

“Cha Bao?”

Lina’s voice grew anxious.

She was sure Jiang Cha hadn’t left the dorm early, and a Witch’s alertness meant she couldn’t have slept so deeply she failed to hear the knocking...

“Cha Bao, are you okay in there!?”

Lina quickly brought up her communicator. “Requesting emergency unlocking access.”

“Access approved. Please notify an Academy Mentor in an emergency.”

A mechanical female voice sounded. The magic-powered mainframe connected to the Academy’s Great Library had approved Lina’s request, which only strengthened her suspicions.

Only a handful of Mentors in charge of rescue and discipline at the Academy had emergency unlocking access. For anyone else, an application would only be approved if the room’s owner was incapacitated.

“Something really did happen!? Qin Bao, Qin Bao~ Come over here~!”

Lina grinned and hurriedly called He Qin over to see what was going on.

If there’d been any real danger to her life, the mainframe would’ve sounded the alarm already. Since it hadn’t...

“Morning...”

He Qin had clearly stayed up late too. She looked half-asleep, and hadn’t even tied up her trademark buns yet. Well, it was Friday night, after all. Staying up all night reading was perfectly normal.

“Jiang Cha-chan, did you read for too long and enter a contamination state, leaving you unable to move?”

He Qin, her hair down, narrowed her eyes, looking a little reluctant.

A contamination state was usually something only research fanatics or Little Witches entered.

Put simply, it happened when someone took in too much knowledge at once and their brain automatically shut down to stop the contamination. Some upperclassmen with nothing but naughty thoughts in their heads often used this state to cop a feel from their juniors. Of course, the juniors were willing participants too—the reason had been explained before.

“Hehehe, I wonder what Cha Bao did last night to enter a contamination state with her mentalism stat? We have to take a picture and save it as blackmail. Next time she blows me up, I’ll post it on the Magic Net.”

“Lina-chan, you really are...”

He Qin didn’t want to get involved in the feud between the two of them. She yawned, and when Lina started to open the door, she turned to leave. “Don’t make too much of a fuss. Estelle-chan should still be asleep at this hour. Remember to come down for breakfast later... Wait, you said she was asleep, and she really is?”

Before she could finish, she spotted a little White-Hair lying peacefully asleep on the living-room sofa, wearing bear pajamas. He Qin sighed, picked up the little one—about the same age and size as Lina, but the complete opposite in personality—and carried her back to her room.

Meanwhile, Lina pushed the door open with a mischievous grin and saw Jiang Cha staring right at her with a pair of crimson eyes.

Lina nearly jumped out of her skin.

“C-Cha Bao? Um... Qin Mom said we should go downstairs for breakfast!”

Witches had excellent hearing. If Jiang Cha had been awake just now, she would’ve heard every word Lina said. After all, even with a floor between them, He Qin had heard Lina trying to shift the blame loud and clear.

“Don’t call me Mom!”

“...I’m going to rest a bit. You guys go ahead and eat.”

Jiang Cha had only just barely recovered from the contamination state that had put her in danger. Seeing Lina’s flustered expression, she could more or less guess what had happened even without hearing their earlier conversation. But she didn’t have the energy to mess around, and spoke with a blank expression.

“Then I’ll get going! Cha Bao, remember you have to go to the Battle Club later. Mentor Carol hates being stood up.”

“Got it...”

For now, she might as well call the dangerous state that had trapped her [Focus Mode].

The risk of this state was simply too high.

It was a state where she felt no fatigue or danger and could even bypass her brain’s self-protection mechanisms, focusing solely on learning. Its learning efficiency was genuinely incredible: in one night, the girl had finished all the knowledge on low-tier alchemy. But this mode could also cause brain death if she let her guard down, so it still needed work.

And she already had some ideas.

Cutting off the mana supply on a timer, setting a study pace in advance, and lowering the magic output.

Any one of those three methods could prevent the kind of risk she’d faced today. It should be easy enough to control.

After all, strictly speaking, [Focus Mode] was just a variation she’d developed from her innate magic, [Information Gathering].

“I’ll use all three safeguards. I still need to leave some mana and mental capacity for daytime.”

“Next, I’ll study potion-making. I want mental potions...”

The girl, suffering from a splitting headache after exhausting her mental power, lowered her tear-filled eyes and pouted. She lay pitifully across the desk, muttering under her breath.