The roar of a cataclysmic explosion heralded the end of the match, which had been locked in a stalemate for a full thirty minutes.

And...

No one survived.

“Holy crap, Cha Bao! If you were gonna make a move, you could’ve at least given me a heads-up! Do you know how close I was to having a heart attack just now!? What kind of ridiculous thought process do you have in Full Power Mode!?”

Drenched from head to toe, the blond-haired little girl was the first to start complaining as she came out of the Revival Room.

“I couldn’t help it. Mentor Carol is too strong. No matter how I ran the numbers, the best outcome was a draw... You should’ve known what would happen if I gave you a hint ahead of time, right?”

The girl picked up a towel and leisurely dried the water from her hair as she explained in a soft voice.

Against Carol, an ace Witch with an extraordinary amount of combat experience, Jiang Cha could only fool her and get the best result by fooling her own teammates too.

Any unusual behavior would put Carol on guard, so Jiang Cha had no choice but to blow up her own teammates along with her. “Besides, even if I’d hinted at it, I’d only have made He Qin dodge the explosion and defend with all her strength... She’s the only one who could’ve survived that blast.”

“That’s brutal!”

Lina knew that was how it had to be, but she still couldn’t swallow her frustration!

And after something like this happened in their very first team match... The blond-haired girl glanced at He Qin with concern, only to find her looking perfectly calm, as if nothing had happened.

She only gave them a gentle, helpless reminder.

“...Try not to use this kind of strategy next time.”

“I’ll do my best~”

The girl nodded with a grin.

If she had enough leeway in Full Power Mode to choose a better method, of course she’d do her best to get the optimal result. But if she couldn’t...

Guess what would happen~?

As for how the explosion happened?

It was one of Cha Bao’s old tricks. The four Witches had burned through nearly fifty thousand units of magic power in the arena, creating a magic vortex that was even greater than the one she’d caused in the forest.

Having Lina focus on her breathing and draw in magic beforehand made the explosion even more powerful.

The protective runes around the arena were nearly blown apart too—the explosion’s power had far exceeded the limits of their abilities.

If you had to compare it to something, it was about as powerful as a level-six, pure attack spell cast at its limit: [Liszt’s Red Dragon’s Breath].

It was a famous ancient spell. It wasn’t rare, but it was very useful—and expensive.

The last time this spell made headlines, it actually had something to do with them. More specifically, it had to do with one of Lina’s many older sisters.

At the Witch Cup, she’d waited for the right moment, then blasted all four opponents to death with a single cast.

“What the ****! These little brats nowadays hit way too hard!”

Carol hadn’t been killed by the explosion, but she’d lost the ability to move. That was as good as being dead in a match, and without any teammates, she was considered out. That was why the match had been ruled a draw.

Casey poured a bottle of Revival Potion over Carol’s charred, shriveled “corpse.” The ace Grand Witch returned to normal right before their eyes, then launched into a string of curses.

Senior Casey couldn’t help wondering if she’d wasted that precious fifth-tier potion. Honestly, if Mentor Carol were mute, she’d be the most popular instructor in all of Aisilen Academy. No contest.

“Hey! Casey, why did you just stab me last time!?”

The blue-haired Witch beside them couldn’t take it anymore. She marched over and called Casey out.

“You know how it is, Rin. Coming back to life costs a lot less than using a Revival Potion.”

Casey shrugged, without a trace of remorse.

“You little—! Get over here! I’ll lose if I don’t beat you to death today!”

“But you can’t beat me, can you?”

“Drop dead, you wooden-headed Witch!”

The blue-haired Witch, Rin, punched Casey hard, then turned and left. Carol could only sigh as she watched.

But what could she do? She’d been trying to get those two together for ages. Carol had even picked them as teammates herself before. Four years had passed, and nothing had happened. It wasn’t like they weren’t interested in each other, but one was a tsundere and the other was as dense as a brick, so...

All she could do was let the two of them take their time.

‘Since when did I start playing matchmaker?’

Carol scratched her head, then turned her attention to business. “Casey, what do you think of those three kids?”

“Even going three against four, they wouldn’t be under much pressure. And their one weak spot would be easy to shore up. These new kids are getting stronger and stronger. It’s putting me under a lot of pressure.”

“How would you shore it up?”

Carol pressed on.

“Just let her develop on her own. Lina told me she learns fast, and she’s planning to study every secondary profession and every spellcasting system. If she gets the training...”

Casey couldn’t even imagine how they’d fight against a team with such a well-rounded, incredibly rational tactician, a genius Puppet Mage with her own system, and the Noyce Red Dragon Witch.

They’d be practically unbeatable!

The only downside was that it’d take a long time for her to grow. There was no way they could get her there in a year.

After all, all five secondary professions and all six spellcasting systems were bottomless pits that devoured time and money. It’d be good to learn even half of them during seven years at the academy.

But even a half-finished version would be useful.

“I checked her file. I don’t know where the principal found a naturally awakened Witch like her, but she only officially started training and studying this Wednesday.”

Carol added.

“What the hell kind of monster is this!?”

Casey’s eyes widened. She couldn’t make sense of it at all, but Carol only curled her lips into a smile and asked, “And which of the nine Grand Sages isn’t a monster?”

“...”

Well, that was true.

Witches were a race that played with cheat codes. If ordinary Witches went online (in the genetic pool) to find cheats, and Grand Witches used development tools to write their own, then Sages wrote programs to hack the system. Grand Sages, meanwhile, were basically digital lifeforms in the networked world. They simply didn’t have to play by the rules.

“So, Mentor, you have high hopes for Jiang Cha?”

“Vladimir personally told me to keep an eye on her. Why shouldn’t I have high hopes for her? And if you go by the timeline, I was the first to spot her potential.”

“All right, got it. I’ll make sure she gets plenty of resources.”

Casey wasn’t just an ordinary fifth-year student. The sixth- and seventh-years were rarely at the academy, and the instructor in charge didn’t interfere with its internal affairs, only providing training guidance. That left Casey in charge of the Battle Club.

She was effectively the club’s third-in-command. Her official title was club manager—in other words, head of operations.

With the club president and vice president, a seventh-year and a sixth-year, both away from the academy most of the time, of course she held all the power.

Deciding where to direct the club’s resources was just a matter of saying the word.

“A weak spell library? Heh.”

Thinking of how quickly the girl had learned in her class, Carol couldn’t help giving a quiet chuckle.

It didn’t matter if He Qin didn’t join. As long as she could get Lina and Jiang Cha to compete in the Witch Cup, that’d be enough. And those two...

She was confident she could tempt them.

He Qin was a Puppet Mage, with a master-level instructor to guide her, so there wasn’t much Carol could do if their fields didn’t match. But Lina was drooling over her spell library, and Jiang Cha was a poor Witch. Now, how hard could it be to handle those two~?

“Whoa, Mentor, that’s one creepy smile you’ve got there. Just so we’re clear, I only like first-year girls. I’m not into older women.”

“Get lost! If you lose again this year, I’ll beat your ass black and blue.”

“You got it~”

Casey promptly got the hell out of there.

Right then, she happened to cross paths with the girls as they came out of the Revival Room.

“Senior Casey, what are you... Is this some new hobby?”

Watching Casey roll along the floor, Lina scratched her blonde head, looking confused.

“Oh, you wouldn’t understand. I’m exercising.”

Casey tried to bluff her way out of it, but the three sharp little girls clearly weren’t buying it. Luckily, Carol came out to save her after the binding spell she’d placed on Casey wore off. Otherwise, Casey’s seniority would’ve hit rock bottom. “What are you waiting for? Get over here and keep fighting!”

“Got it~! Qin Bao, do you still want to play? If you don’t feel like fighting, you can just watch.”

Lina agreed readily enough, but to her, her friend mattered more.

She could push He Qin a little, but she couldn’t keep going against her wishes. Especially since He Qin had gone quiet a while ago, and Lina was starting to worry.

“Huh? I’m fine, it’s just...”

“Just what?”

Jiang Cha tilted her head.

“Does the Battle Club reimburse us for damaged puppets?”

He Qin summoned a pile of damaged parts, all blasted to pieces and covered in scorch marks. She looked so heartbroken she was about to cry!

That explosion had destroyed all ten of her puppets.

Never mind the time and effort she’d put into them. They were all gradually upgraded models, and she’d have had to replace them sooner or later.

But who was going to pay for the materials!?

That was another big reason she didn’t like fighting: it was expensive.

As for Witches with secondary professions who also fought, no matter which profession they had, every last one of them used a pay-to-win style.

Consumables like potions, alchemy tools, and enchanted scrolls went without saying. Even puppets, which looked reusable, needed repairs—and they were especially easy to break.

“Um... Senior Casey, what do you think...?”

Lina turned to look at Casey, who’d nearly run off.

“We’ll reimburse you. We’ll cover all of it, okay? But He Qin, you have to join the Battle Club. I can’t reimburse the material costs for someone in the Puppet Club, right?”

“Phew~ Then, thank you, Senior.”

Witches knew how to compromise.

Compared to joining a club she didn’t like, getting the cost of her materials reimbursed mattered more to He Qin.

“I’ll leave you out of this for now, Lina. You know better than I do how to train in your family’s techniques. But you still need to keep working on controlling your emotions, got it? You can’t rely on someone else to direct you for the rest of your life.”

Back on the arena, Carol showed what it meant to be an instructor, giving each of them advice in turn.

“I know~!”

Lina stuck out her tongue and got away with it by acting cute.

“As for you, He Qin...”

Carol thought for a moment, then continued. “I won’t interfere with your career plans. But if you want to improve further in battle, I suggest taking some mechanical courses. They’ll be a big help on your path.”

“I understand. Thank you, Mentor.”

He Qin took the advice seriously, and she’d already been thinking about taking up a secondary profession in mechanics.

“And as for you, Jiang Cha...”

Carol patted her forehead, looking troubled. “There are too many things to work on. I don’t even know where to start.”