Chapter 36: The Witch's Book

Chapter 36: The Witch's Book

It turned out that not only witches could share their magic, but other sorceresses could as well.

However, ordinary witches lacked a manifested talent, making the chances of developing unique magic much lower.

Moran silently noted down these book titles.

The library was not yet open to them, yet she had already memorized several books recommended by the Dean.

After the contract for the Apprentice-level Witch Book was successfully signed, many little witches attempted to apply what they had learned. Just like using the Golden Pen technique, they tried to cast spells through thought, saying "Witch's Book" in their minds.

However, only a phantom image of a book appeared before them.

It was not the Witch's Book they had imagined.

"Dean, what is happening?" Vasida raised her hand to ask.

"What the Witch's Book magic creates can only be considered an energy circuit, a functional core, or a soul framework. It still requires a medium to become a true Witch's Book," Amisha explained.

"What is the medium?" one little witch asked impatiently.

"A blank book, of course!" As Amisha spoke, the remaining miscellaneous items by the podium scattered like falling flowers toward the little witches, covering the tables and the floor.

A moment later, the bell rang.

"This afternoon, we will start with papermaking to learn how to make a book. You will need these materials then. Don't worry, it's just to understand the process so you aren't left helpless if you run out of paper; I don't expect you to do everything by hand in the future. Alright, class dismissed!"

Amisha left immediately after speaking, leaving behind the little witches buried under a mountain of materials.

Moran looked at the animal skins, tree bark, and hay on the table, the wooden boards and studs on the floor, and the various tools.

Her heart, which had been racing with anxiety, finally sank.

After a moment, she even felt a sense of relief.

At least they didn't actually have to manufacture a whole book from scratch, right?

Moran began to organize the materials honestly.

They were all ordinary materials; Moran didn't see any traces of energy on them.

Relying on her planetary memories from Blue Star, she could roughly categorize them.

The little witches, who had originally intended to relax, saw Moran's movements and began to follow suit.

Although they didn't understand why she was arranging them that way, they felt that following Moran's lead would surely be correct.

To keep up with Moran's pace, they didn't even find the time to ask her why she was organizing them like that.

Consequently, when Moran finished organizing the materials and turned around, she saw the items stacked in a way that looked like a "copy-paste" job. She smiled in surprise and explained

"I reckon these should be for papermaking, these are for binding books, these are tools, and as for these, I don't know their use."

"Ah! So that's how it is!" Es realized, turning to Alba beside her. "I knew Moran must have had a reason for arranging them like that!"

Cheryl poked her head out curiously from the back seat. "Moran, I saw how briskly you were picking through the materials. Do you know how to make paper?"

"No, no!" Moran shook her head. "I just know some related knowledge, but I've never tried it myself."

When the afternoon class began, the little witches attempted papermaking and bookbinding under Dean Amisha's guidance. When they actually used the materials, they discovered that Moran's judgments were basically all correct.

Seeing how proficient Moran's papermaking movements were—completely unlike their own clumsy fumbling—they realized Moran had been being modest earlier.

It was truly a perfect misunderstanding.

Moran's knowledge of papermaking and bookbinding came entirely from the planetary memories gifted by Blue Star.

Previously, when she was cooking, she either made dishes she already knew how to make or very simple ones, so she hadn't felt it deeply.

It was only during this attempt at papermaking and bookbinding that she realized the planetary memory of Blue Star was not just a slideshow-like database that could be accessed at any time.

While making paper, she could even hear the inner thoughts of many papermakers.

She knew exactly which steps required caution.

While it wasn't quite the same as actually learning it, it was equivalent to having countless master craftsmen teaching her in real-time.

Only then did Moran realize that what she had inherited was not just the memories themselves, but the even more precious experience contained within those memories.

Learning papermaking and bookbinding was intended to handle situations where a Witch's Book was damaged and no blank paper or books were available for purchase.

Therefore, Amisha taught the two most basic papermaking methods that were easiest to source materials for.

One was straw papermaking, which was basically the same as the ancient papyrus-making method on Blue Star.

The other was parchment, for which Blue Star also had similar methods.

The other little witches only had the Dean to explain things to them; most of the time, the Dean would only offer a reminder after they had made a mistake.

But Moran, possessing a wealth of experience from Blue Star's papermakers, naturally avoided all sorts of problems.

In the eyes of the other little witches, it was as if she had known how to do it all along.

Invisibly, her image grew a bit more impressive.

After learning straw and parchment papermaking, the next step was learning to bind the paper and make book covers.

This was simpler than papermaking. Binding involved sewing with thread; the threads could be cloth strips, straw ropes, or vines, and they only taught the method for twisting straw rope.

Book covers were even simpler: two pieces of tree bark, two stone slabs, or a single piece of animal skin would suffice.

The materials were kept as simple as possible.

For the parts of the process that required long periods of processing or waiting, Lady Amisha used magic to save them the trouble.

Just as she had said, she truly only wanted all the little witches to understand the basic methods of papermaking and bookbinding, not to turn them into masters of the craft.

Before class ended, every little witch had produced a crude book.

Although it was just a cover with three to five pages of inner paper, it possessed everything a book should have.

"Alright! That's all for today. These books still need a certain amount of processing before they can be used. Whatever you do, do not place them into the phantom image of the Witch's Book prematurely, or they will be damaged."

After Lady Amisha left the classroom, all the little witches breathed a sigh of relief.

The afternoon class was truly exhausting!

Even Moran felt a bit tired. She picked up her waterskin, took a sip of water, sat in her seat for a while longer, rubbed her wrists, and then headed down the mountain with Vasida and the others.

With honey bread juice to drink, she no longer had to rely on breadfruit to stay full.

Upon reaching the foot of the mountain, the three of them went to the ingredient collection point together to pick up some food.

Sylph went to the fields to talk to Biel, while Moran and Vasida carried the ingredients back to the dormitory together.

Having not had a proper meal in a few days, she treated herself well for dinner. Of course, she didn't eat too much, leaving some room to drink a large pot of honey breadfruit juice.

When she noticed that after several sips of the juice, her energy aura had not become any brighter, she knew that the magic she had previously overconsumed had been fully restored.

Now that her state was recovered, then... could she take a look at the Book of Cards?