Chapter 12
The Witch's Anatomical Notes
[Na: Lucy Felicia]
[Rank: Apprentice Trainee (ntal Strength: 7.1)]
[ditation thod: Bramble Loop ditation I]
[Witchcraft: Basic Magical Trick (Tier-0), Basic Ring of Resistance (Tier-0)]
[Skills: None]
[Equipnt: None]
[Contamination Value: 53%]
[Academic Points: 7]
Lucy tried to further deduce the ditation thod, but the system prompted that the next stage of the ditation thod was required.
"Looks like I'll have to dissect more specins!" Lucy muttered to herself, faintly looking forward to what kind of corpse might be delivered to Corpse Room No. 66 tomorrow.
However, the Contamination Value was a major problem.
Judging by today’s number of dissections, relying on daily ditation alone would not be enough to offset the generated Contamination Value.
She had to find a way to acquire a few bottles of magic potion.
When she glanced up at the flip hourglass clock on the wall, she realized it was already three in the morning, well past her usual ditation ti.
She hurriedly closed her notebook, but the blank, yellowed parchnt cover of the notebook made Lucy pause for a mont.
After so thought, she picked up the still slightly wet quill beside the notebook again and raised her hand to write eight strange square characters on the cover of the notebook.
"The Witch's Anatomical Notes"
Once the ink had fully dried, Lucy was satisfied and placed the "Notes" on the innermost part of the bookshelf, preparing to go to her bedroom for ditation.
Only then did she notice that at so point, quite a bit of blood from organ specins had gotten on her body.
Fortunately, although the Tower was extrely dangerous, the living conditions for them, the apprentice trainees, were not too bad. Each person had a small suite that included a bedroom, laboratory, and living room, and even had a private washroom.
The washroom provided hot water twenty-four hours a day.
Piece by piece, she took off her gray robe, white underdress, and long stockings.
Wearing only her close-fitting undergarnts, Lucy ran barefoot into the washroom, her fair and slightly flushed feet making soft sounds against the floor.
As the hot water stread over her body, an involuntary sigh of comfort escaped her throat.
Over ten minutes later.
Unable to wait for her hair to fully dry, Lucy was already sitting on her bed, entering a ditative state.
...
Because of last night’s dissection, when Lucy finished her usual seven-hour ditation, it was already midday the next day.
After hastily dealing with the bland, tasteless dieval European al in the apprentice dining hall, Lucy hurried off to the West Tower.
She set down her portable Black Book and "The Witch's Anatomical Notes," and impatiently pulled open the iron shutter connecting to the pipeline from Corpse Room No. 66.
Unfortunately, the space behind the shutter was completely empty, leaving the eagerly awaiting Lucy sowhat disappointed.
If the other apprentices in the West Tower knew that Lucy would feel down because there were no corpses to examine, one could only imagine how many jaws would drop in astonishnt.
The environnt of the corpse room was complex and too full of unstable factors to be suitable for ditation.
But Lucy still had things to do.
She opened "The Witch's Anatomical Notes" and began to trace the pathways of the magical veins in her ntal Strength world, following the texture diagrams of the "Cradle of Enchanted Human Offspring."
This was not a leisurely or carefree process, but it was an essential step in forming witchcraft.
By four in the afternoon, after countless failed attempts, Lucy noticed that no new corpses had been delivered through the pipeline.
After thinking it over, she decided not to continue waiting. She packed up her belongings and headed towards the library.
Work in the corpse room was organized in seven-day cycles. As long as she processed all the corpses before the final day’s tally, no one would hold her accountable for not attending during the first six days.
The library Lucy headed to was located on the tenth floor of the main tower, part of the core area of the Tower of the Four Sages, and contained a vast collection of wizard notes and books from various schools of thought.
Unfortunately, the books were not free. Borrowing any of them required paynt in magic stones.
Lucy ascended the spiral staircase all the way up, eventually stopping in front of a massive double door.
On the door, in universal wizard script, were the words "Library."
Pushing the door open, she entered. Behind the counter where iron crows perched sat a voluptuous, bespectacled blonde woman Lilith, the library’s administrator.
At that mont, the black-robed library administrator was sitting upright behind the counter, deeply engrossed in a book on witchcraft.
It was rumored that Lilith was a disciple of Tower Master Derrick and a powerful senior apprentice witch. However, no one dared cause trouble in the library, and no one had ever seen Lilith take action.
Apart from this administrator of unknown strength and the iron crows on the counter, terrifying tentacles hung from the magical energy chandeliers on the ceiling.
At the tip of each tentacle grew a human eye these were the magical pets of Tower Master Derrick, constantly monitoring every move of those who entered the library.
Should anyone attempt to damage or conceal a book, these eye-tipped tentacles would imdiately string the offender up onto the chandeliers.
The bones hanging from the light fixtures were proof enough of the fate that awaited those who dared challenge the rules.
Lucy gave Lilith and the iron crows a wizard’s salute, then walked around the counter toward the bookshelves. Overhead, the tentacles from the magical energy chandeliers swayed their slender bodies as she moved, as if sothing on Lucy was drawing their attention.
Though this was not Lucy’s first ti in the library, the constant rustling sound still made one’s skin crawl, sending shivers down her spine.
The library was structured as a single, one-way corridor, with bookshelves packed densely on both sides.
Books near the entrance were mostly Level-0, and the further one ventured, the higher the level of the books.
If an apprentice trainee with ntal Strength below 10 were to read books containing high-level knowledge, the resulting "knowledge tax" alone would cause their Contamination Value to skyrocket.
Thus, Lucy stopped in front of the first row of bookshelves.
Her gaze swept over the labels on the side of the shelf.
Anatomical Notes, Basic Illustrated Guide to Enchanted Beasts, Introduction to ntal Studies...
Finally, she found her target on the shelf labeled Potioneering.
"Basic Apprentice-Level Anti-Contamination Potion"
She pulled this potioneering parchnt book from the shelf. The book felt particularly hefty due to the thick parchnt pages, though it was actually only a little over thirty pages.
Lucy flipped through it roughly. Most of it was an illustrated catalog of potion ingredients. The text was in the most common universal wizard script, and the potion-making process did not appear overly complicated.
However, potioneering was universally acknowledged as one of the most difficult academic disciplines to both begin and master. Even the four official wizards of the Tower of the Four Sages had only scratched the surface of this field.
As a result, books on potioneering were quite rare in the library.
This book, "Apprentice-Level Anti-Contamination Potion Studies," recorded potions specifically designed for apprentice trainees and junior apprentices to resist contamination.
...
Lucy carried "Apprentice-Level Anti-Contamination Potion Studies" back to the counter.
"I would like to borrow this book."
The first iron crow on the counter twisted its neck to glance at the potion book in Lucy’s hand, letting out a clicking sound of gears grinding.
"Ka... one magic stone, three days... ka..."
Reluctantly, Lucy took out a third of her total assets and handed it over.
The iron crow opened its beak, and a writhing cluster of tendrils erged from within, wrapping around the thumb-sized magic stone in her hand and pulling it inside.
That damp, soft sensation sent a chill through Lucy’s heart.
What exactly was inside these chanical constructs, which appeared identical to ordinary animals?
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