Chapter 24: The Little Rich Girl Just Can’t Understand a Broke Witch

Compared with the magical creatures in the Second Tier zone—who can only use the lowest-level spells, and in fact don’t even qualify in the witch’s spellcasting hierarchy—the monsters in the Third Tier zone were vastly more dangerous.

—Their magic could break through Jiang Cha and He Qin’s defenses.

That fact alone demanded extreme caution from them.

“What do we do?”

He Qin looked back at the endless swarm of Tier‑2 bats pressing close behind them, and ahead at all kinds of Tier‑3 creatures, fixed on them from within the runed cages. She felt conflicted for a moment.

“Lina could just rush in and kill one outright, right?”

Even Jiang Cha’s lightning bolts couldn’t pierce that little dragon girl’s defenses. She didn’t believe these Tier‑3 monsters could pose a serious threat to golden‑haired Lina.

“No, Jiang Cha-chan. Although Vladimir‑mentor didn’t say it outright, our performance in class affects our credits.”

“Ah… that’s true. That’s troublesome.”

After all, they were students. As students, it was natural there would be some evaluation mechanism. If they didn’t participate in a crucial “class assignment,” they wouldn’t get a high grade.

Seeing Lina with an expression like “I’ll leave it all to you”, Jiang Cha rubbed her temples—she had a headache thinking about it.

She forced herself to think a strategy.

“How about we cause another big explosion?”

“Absolutely not!”

Lina jumped, grinding her teeth as she glared at Jiang Cha. She had no desire to repeat the life‑or‑death dash—this was truly that, because the magic vortices from Tier‑3 beasts were on an entirely different level than the Tier‑2 ones.

“Jiang Cha-chan… these magical creatures were bought using school funds…”

“Huh? And what does that have to do with us?”

“If we kill too many without permission and without mortal danger, we have to pay for them.”

Jiang Cha: “….”

“Fine, fine… I’ll think, I’ll think. Lina, don’t stare at me like that. This time I definitely won’t let you risk your life.”

After a brief discussion, the three girls settled on their plan of action.

Among them, He Qin had the highest defense thanks to her Guardian puppet; Lina was the strongest attacker; and Jiang Cha?

Previously, she was actually the one holding the team back—but in this class exercise, she was gradually becoming both the brain and the free agent of the team.

She would do everything—but whether offensive or defensive, she would not bear the greatest burden. That made her the ideal all‑rounder.

She had comprehensive thinking, a full complement of spells, and massive magical reserves. She was perfect for a versatile role.

So…

“Operation, begin.”

The girl standing on the shoulder of the Guardian puppet gently gave the order.

Lina immediately began gathering magical power, and He Qin calmly began issuing instructions.

[Spell Amplification] [Magic Shield] [Mana Transmission]

In rapid succession, Jiang Cha released three spells—each cast at peak potency, each timed to the millisecond.

• Spell Amplification was placed on Lina, boosting her offensive capability so she could focus on number of fireballs rather than sheer power.

• Magic Shield was applied to the Assault puppet, reducing the damage it would take when charging in.

• Mana Transmission was targeted at the Guardian, fortifying the grand magic shield protecting them.

He Qin walked lightly, her speed moderate but just enough to cover Lina’s extreme forward-and-back range. As she moved, the entire front gradually advanced deeper toward the Third Tier zone.

Lina’s goal wasn’t to raid and reduce enemy numbers. Hundreds upon hundreds of fireballs floated around her. Under Jiang Cha’s coordination, they precisely scattered to various directions, intercepting spells in midair and triggering explosions.

This was to reduce the load on the Guardian’s circuit, preventing the grand magical shield from being fractured by sustained attacks.

Meanwhile, Lina herself, under the shield Jiang Cha drew up for her, pummeled wave after wave of monsters that lunged close—punches and kicks sending them flying.

This was a high-pressure mode even for them: defending themselves and a hundred‑square-meter territory under siege by thousands of Tier‑3 beasts.

The former was like a “bullet-hell” shooter—so long as you can “graze” (just barely avoid), the barrage isn’t deadly. The latter was like “tower defense,” needing to absorb sustained frontal assaults from thousands of enemies.

“Standby complete. Guardian form transformation—activate Fortress Mode!”

Ten seconds later, He Qin opened her eyes and gave the order.

At her command, Jiang Cha’s silver-white humanoid puppet split along the shoulders. Its internal mechanical structure shifted and reformed, unfolding into two large square plates. Inscribed metallic runes on them lay flat on the ground.

As magical energy filled the rune-plates, the runes shifted from pale azure to deep blue.

With the plate deployment, the Guardian’s shield also thickened and expanded—growing more than twice its original area before stabilizing.

Previously, when Tier‑3 creatures’ spells struck the shield, visible distortions were seen—the kind you see when a shield’s defense is insufficient. Now, even a hundred consecutive wind-blade strikes against the same spot produced no ripple.

Those rune-plates greatly improved the Guardian’s mana efficiency, and also functioned as a Spell Amplification effect. The shield’s strength grew more than threefold.

“Cha‑bao, how’s your mana? Do you want me to switch in?”

The magical shield works by using mana to nullify enemy magic—basically a “mana‑drain shield.”

This Guardian’s shield, once Lina retreated from the front, had to absorb hundreds of spells every moment. The mana consumption was massive.

“No worries. Their spells are much weaker than yours, Lina.”

The girl shook her head and continued, “The Guardian’s mana efficiency is high. Holding out for an hour or two is no problem.”

A magical shield is fundamentally a mana-expenditure shield. The exact mana cost to nullify one unit of attack depends on four factors: the caster’s mana strength, the enemy spell’s power, the complexity of the shield’s spell model, and any amplification traits.

Add to that the Guardian’s internal mana stores and He Qin’s support—the conservative estimate was one to two hours of sustainment.

Six hours was the extreme upper bound according to the girls’ calculation.

“Now to consider… hey, He Qin, are we technically in ‘danger’ right now?”

“……”

Miss Yamato-Nadeshiko (He Qin) had already guessed what the “bad woman” Jiang Cha was up to. But she couldn’t refuse.

Unlike Tier‑1 or Tier‑2 creatures (whose body parts are worthless to witches), many parts of Tier‑3 beasts were highly useful as materials.

In the puppet business, even though He Qin’s style was more metallic sci-fi, she still couldn’t avoid using biological components.

And puppets are consumables. Just looking at the serial numbers of her three puppets—though all upgraded variations—they were still consumables.

Developing a side profession is extremely money-consuming.

Lina, the little rich girl, didn’t care about money at all. She didn’t even understand why He Qin was silent. But she understood one thing: “Oh! Cha- bao, you want to do something big? I support it, I support it! Tell me! What’s the plan!?”

That kind of exciting idea fully stirred her mischief-loving heart. Flames across the little dragon-girl’s body brightened with excitement.

“Heh~”

The girl smiled faintly and nodded, confirming that yes, she did have that plan.

To be honest, she disliked meaningless time-wasting. Before this, she had even wanted to finish early and return to the dorm to study.

But…

She was the poorest of the three, okay!?

He Qin had savings from two years of part-time work, and if low on funds she could make and sell puppets.

Lina was a princess of the dragon line, never lacking money—she had assets in two resource worlds even at a young age.

And her?

She had nothing! She had to rely on He Qin to feed her! Her pockets were truly spotless!

In the future, there would be the endless material costs for learning the four major ancillary professions, plus large tuition payments next school year…

Cha- bao was really poor.

So upon seeing that many Tier‑3 creatures had mutation levels under sixty percent, and their magical-material body parts were still intact and usable, she got an idea.

Eslon Magic Academy had generous budgets; they looked down on the lowest-tier materials—any resource planet could mass-produce them. But they were still materials.

Materials are worthless—unless you turn them into magic items (then they gain value)!

Plus, she could practice using them. Two gains at once!

The key: it was free loot with zero cost!

So…

The Assault puppet, under shield protection, slew creatures at speed. Lina’s little fireballs struck with precision. Jiang Cha waved her hand and lightning bolts rained down, hitting monster brains directly—high-voltage currents induced immediate brain death. He Qin summoned a dozen ordinary puppets to help harvest materials.

Three fearless little witches began their massacre.

There were more efficient killing methods, but to preserve material integrity, they used controlled, low-power techniques.

If they went too fast, the watching mentors might intervene, or the material harvest rate couldn’t keep up, causing them to exit the “danger” status.

Keeping this pace was just right.

They slaughtered and lured enemies simultaneously. Their high-efficiency massacre lasted over an hour before they finally stopped.

“Phew~ That felt good, that felt good!”

The golden-haired loli breathed out. Her gray magic robe was nearly stained with blood.

Witches are a warlike race by nature. Especially battle witches—their blood surges for killing. Young witches with large mana pools find it even harder to restrain that impulse. The academy’s dense combat class scheduling also had an element of letting them vent.

So long as they didn’t go too far, the mentors would turn a blind eye to their massacre.

Jiang Cha and He Qin were far cleaner—they didn’t engage in hand-to-hand monster brawling.

But even these two impoverished witches didn’t look calm.

“How many did we get?”

“6,725 first-tier materials. Worth about 400 Witch Gold.”

He Qin did quick math and let a satisfied smile play on her lips.

“Yay!!”

Jiang Cha hugged her, cheering in delight.

Lina turned back, looking at the two embracing girls. Tilting her head, that small but blood-stained face showed confusion.

‘Do people really get happy from killing monsters?’

“Eh!! I want a hug too!!”

No matter. Getting cuddles from beautiful girls was the most important thing!