Chapter 21: Lina: Cha-bao, I Hate You Aaaaaaah!

The practical combat class was even more dangerous than Jiang Cha had imagined.

As soon as they entered the forest, her innate magic started wildly alarming. Her brain raced—out of the thirty-four dormant thought circuits, fifteen were forcibly awakened to collect and process the magical energy information in the air.

“Lina, due west direction, number: one hundred.”

“Oh! Cha-bao, you’re awesome!”

Hearing the instruction, the golden-haired loli was a little stunned; the tone of voice didn’t sound like Jiang Cha at all.

But when she turned to look at the girl’s cold and indifferent face, her crimson eyes flickering with faint blue light, she immediately adjusted her state, reinforcing her spellcasting, casting multiple spells simultaneously. Dozens of massive fireballs appeared floating around her.

Following the location Jiang Cha marked with magic power, she launched them!

Each fireball had the power of a rocket launcher; dozens of them unleashed were equivalent to a full salvo from a rocket launcher vehicle.

Under Lina’s precise control, over a hundred first-level magical creatures of various kinds—each seemingly infected by something as black smoke oozed from them—were all killed by them.

“Easy~ easy~”

The golden-haired loli turned around and made a “yeah” gesture casually, but Jiang Cha’s expression remained tense.

“Heqin, defend, magic shield.”

The girl’s command was methodical, and the moment Heqin received the order, she summoned three huge magical puppets from the void.

“Guardian 032, shield up.”

At her command, the fattest puppet—covered in silver-white sci-fi style armor, looking like a massive mechanical fortress—flickered and instantly generated a huge magical shield, protecting the ground beneath the girls.

The goal of this combat class wasn’t simply to kill ten second-level creatures and one third-level creature!

The dangerous environment in the forest was their greatest threat!

Instructor Vladimir designed this task only to prevent them from passively avoiding fights!

The moment the magic shield appeared, expressionless Jiang Cha instantly mobilized a huge amount of magic power, awakening all thirty-four thought circuits and temporarily creating fifty more.

Spell models were rapidly and precisely constructed under her super-calculating power, thousands of lightning bolts hovered outside the magic shield, orderly and accurately killing the threats nearby.

“Lina, handle threats following the marks.”

“Understood!”

Lina didn’t have Jiang Cha’s insane calculation ability, but with her innate magic—chain fireball spell—she could easily control a hundred fireballs simultaneously to finish off enemies precisely.

“Boom boom boom boom!!”

Amid the explosions’ roar, the three of them barely suppressed the surrounding magical creatures; the lurking threats gradually withdrew to find other prey, and Jiang Cha exited full power mode.

Rubbing her suddenly overloaded and throbbing temples, Jiang Cha complained irritably, “I didn’t know the creatures in this forest were this enthusiastic.”

“Ah~ it’s okay, it’s okay~ before, it was just me and Qinbao together, and we got through safely too~”

The golden-haired loli smiled cheerfully and waved to comfort her.

But she wasn’t wrong—just those two could’ve handled the situation easily.

Lina, with her dragon traits, had such high defense that she wasn’t afraid of these low-level creatures at all, and Heqin could control more than three magical puppets at once.

After all, since this was the academy, the instructors had to consider the abilities of the “weaker students.”

And their dormitory was the absolute elite group in the class; in a class averaging 15,000 magic power, each had at least 20,000 magic power.

Handling class assignments was more than enough for them—other groups couldn’t clear threats around them immediately upon entering like they could.

“So? What’s with these magical creatures? I’ve never heard of this kind.”

The girl shook her head, no longer dwelling on it, just looking curiously at the strangely shaped corpses.

The creatures killed by He Qin’s puppets and Jiang Cha’s lightning bolts were mostly intact, unlike those on Lina’s side that were blasted directly into ashes with a single fireball.

Some of the species the girl had seen in books, like the wolf-shaped creature, but in the books those creatures didn’t have black smoke and didn’t have eight legs.

Their entire bodies were covered with festering pus wounds, just looking at them made one lose their sanity.

“Cha-bao, you don’t know about Witch’s Disease?”

“What?”

“Qinbao, you explain~ It’s so troublesome~”

Lina patted He Qin beside her.

“Normal creatures have limited tolerance to magic power.”

Heqin, who seemed used to these strange creatures, softly explained to the girl amidst the charred flesh and blood: “Especially top-tier supernatural races like witches, every movement they make emits magical energy information.”

“This information doesn’t affect witches at all, but a gifted witch like Jiang Cha-chan can even read the contents of this magical energy information in battle to gain an advantage.”

“So they can’t tolerate it and… mutate?”

The girl glanced again at the mutated wolf with eight legs, feeling a little complicated.

“Yes. The magical energy information emitted by witches is so active it can linger for hundreds of years in high magic environments. Normal magical creatures lack the resistance witches have and don’t have enough magic power to protect their souls, so they get brainwashed by the information… I heard there’s a rare magic developed from magical energy information theory—an eighth-level spell that can cause all magical creatures on a planet to mutate and go insane.”

“When the soul mutates, the body naturally undergoes changes. Magical creatures are beings combining soul and body; essentially, they aren’t different from us.”

“Phew… I see, thanks.”

Jiang Cha felt no particular regret, just a little shaken by the knowledge.

So witches in a low magic world are like walking ancient gods?

Just a thought could drive ordinary creatures insane…

“Jiang Cha-chan… are you okay? It’s fine if you want to quit for now.”

He Qin was a bit worried; such facts were not easy to accept.

Especially with the corpses in front of them—the deaths looked really miserable.

This seemed to be Jiang Cha’s first time killing.

Since Jiang Cha joined midway and hadn’t passed the adaptation course, no one would blame her if she chose to quit.

“I’m fine, okay?”

But Jiang Cha blinked and smiled, comforting her back, “I’m not that fragile~ Let’s talk about what to do next? Handling the second-level creatures is easy, the third-level ones will be in the mid-layer of the forest, right?”

These magical creatures were caught for their training, so it wasn’t necessary to pity them too much.

Witches weren’t a kind species; the worlds they destroyed were countless, and to survive in witch society, the girl would have to accept this sooner or later.

“Lina… forget it, Heqin, can you protect yourself? The creatures over there can threaten us.”

This forest looked like a forest but was actually a place where the academy kept creatures enclosed. To prevent predation and accidents, the instructors divided creatures of each level into enclosures.

So to kill a third-level magical creature for the class, they had to go deeper into the forest, either by ambush or frontal assault, killing one while surrounded by many third-level creatures.

“How about practicing cooperation in the second-level zone first?”

Heqin tentatively suggested.

“I might as well just rush in alone…”

Lina pouted. With her dragon traits fully active, even third-level creatures weren’t much threat, so killing one strongly was feasible.

“After all, Cha-bao is on a combat class for the first time; it’s safer, right? And she’s not in good condition today.”

Seeing Heqin seemed about to object, Lina added this sentence.

This golden-haired loli might seem reckless but always accurately grasped limits. Her casual remark shut down Heqin’s objections.

“That’s true…”

“Third-level only, no need to be so cautious.”

Jiang Cha refused.

“Let’s clear a spot in the second-level zone first. I’ll rest a bit and fully recover.”

A tired witch is prone to mistakes. Third-level magical creatures are several tiers above first-level in both strength and intelligence; they can even coordinate simple tactics. If they got stuck in a tough fight, facing creatures so hateful toward witches, it could be dangerous.

Even a witch without magic power left was just a fragile chunk of flesh—their seemingly strong melee ability was still basically supported by magic.

And since it was the first combat class, she didn’t want to risk it; even a one-in-a-million chance was unacceptable. So she proposed the safest plan.

“If you can’t hold on, say it immediately, okay?”

He Qin scolded Lina with a glare, seeming to complain about the pressure Lina was putting on Jiang Cha right before battle, but Jiang Cha couldn’t help but laugh.

“Well then, Lina, can you go ahead and clear the way for us?”

The girl put a finger to her pink lips and winked, suddenly acting cute.

But her smile was wickedly mischievous.

“Eh—! Can’t you let Qinbao’s puppets go!?”

“Magical puppets breaking cost money to repair, so you just go. I’ll give you firepower support!”

“Cha-bao, I—! Hate—! You—!”

“Aaaaaaah!”

Lina, pushed—or rather, shot—into the air by a floating magic spell the girl released at some unknown time, scrambled to cast a magic shield on herself and, before landing, turned back to give Jiang Cha the middle finger.

That roar was truly heartbreaking to hear and tear-inducing (lol).