Release that Witch

The next day afternoon, Roland received Sharon’s ability report.

”That’s fast.” He raised his eyebrows as Wendy handed him the test sheets. ”Has she accepted that she’s now a witch?”

”Yes, and in a calmer way than we’d expected.” Wendy laughed as she recounted the meeting from the previous night. ”I’ve to say, her parents have brought up a fine child.”

”Hmm...” Roland was rather impressed himself. In this era, someone who could make such far-sighted considerations would already be considered a pioneer. Perhaps, this was how history had always been driven. As a belief was passed down the generations, more and more people were imbued with the same aspiration, and when the numbers reached a certain level, the world would undergo an extraordinary change.

As they say, a little spark can kindle a great fire.

Perhaps, Mankind had reached civilization by taking small steps like this.

He examined the details of the test, particularly the evaluation of magic power. As a witch who was awakened at the young age of 15, Sharon’s magic cyclone ability was of an above-average standard. It was even noted in the report that this was comparable to adult witches in Taquila. Evidently, Phyllis was present during the test - among the witches in Neverwinter City, she was often the one who was most receptive to the arrival of new witches.

Sharon’s ability was to generate electric currents. However, Wendy’s write-up on this section was rather vague, perhaps because the study of electricity was one of the more difficult topics within elementary physics.

When she increased the intensity of her electric currents, the consumption of magic power would rapidly increase, but her electric currents would become strong enough to break wooden planks and melt iron. At a weaker intensity, she would need to touch the object to produce an effect, such as lighting a light bulb, albeit she was prone to burning the filament.

As Sharon had only recently awakened, her control of magic power was very unstable. Wendy’s conclusion was that she was most suited to be a combat witch, while also having potential to assist in production.

Roland had no plans to do a retest. After all, he had no tools to measure electrical voltage and current, and therefore would not be able to obtain exact values.

Furthermore, Sharon would have to expend a lot of magic power to release high-voltage electric current. Her ability to maintain the transmission of electricity was obviously not as good as Mystery Moon’s Dawn I, let alone an electromagnetic gun.

But most importantly, all effects that were produced by magic power, whether it be Anna’s blackfire or Sharon’s electric current, did not necessarily comply with the related theories. Only when the abilities were transformed for a second time into other effects would they correspond with the knowledge he had.

In sum, it was already clear that Sharon’s ability had a lot of potential. Roland was certainly eager to know what kind of progress could be made when the essence of electric current was fully understood, as well as to see how much Sharon’s magic power would improve by as she grew older. But for now, it was best to follow Wendy’s recommendation to allow Sharon to practice on her own and focus on her studies, in which she had some catching up to do.

Roland thought about her strong sense of justice, and suddenly had an idea to admit her into the judiciary one day.

”An electricity-generating young lady patrolling the streets and arresting criminals... this seems to be exceptionally familiar.”

Without revealing his thoughts aloud, he nodded at Wendy and said, ”We’ll do as you’ve recommended, many thanks.”

”My honor, Your Majesty,” Wendy bowed.

...

When Roland returned to his office after dinner, he discovered that Lily and Mystery Moon had joined Nightingale in the room. The trio were gathered around the desk and seemed to be in an argument.

”Take a look at this.” Nightingale gestured towards Roland. ”My goodness, they look so real!”

”What is it?” Roland walked up to the desk curiously, and only then noticed the two pots of bird beak mushrooms placed on the table.

”Eh... what’s with these mushrooms?” One pot of mushrooms seemed rather shrivelled like kitchen stock, while the other was much fresher and juicier. He pinched a mushroom stalk from the latter, causing its sap to gush out immediately. ”This is quite fresh. Were these recently picked by Lightning?”

Nightingale and Mystery Moon turned to look at Lily in unison.

Lily shrugged her shoulders. ”I used my magic power to create them.”

”Oh... magic power?” Roland casually replied before he startled violently. ”Wait... what? You used magic power to create them?”

”Your Highness, her cohering ability has changed somewhat,” Nightingale explained. ”If, let’s say, it was only a purple worm after the first evolution, it has now added patterns on its back. Her magic power capacity has also increased.” After a brief pause, she continued, ”In other words, Lily’s ability has evolved a second time.”

”But still, they’re worms!” Mystery Moon chimed in. Of course, this provoked a look of disgust from Lily.

”Is this so?” Roland joyfully picked up another mushroom and examined it carefully. He quickly understood how she had created them. ”You’re now able to make a magical swarm of worms turn into a particular form that you want?”

”Yes. But they must at least be visible through a microscope, and a suitable target must be found, before the next step of assimilation can be transacted.” Lily nodded. Although she acted very calm, the glimmer in her eyes gave away her inner delight. ”Because the worms produced by bird beak mushrooms are relatively easier to observe, I chose them for this experiment.”

She was most likely referring to fungal spore, which was also the building block of fungi. Roland started to feel excited. Perhaps, to Lily, organisms which were invisible to the naked eye, such as microscopic bugs, could now be controlled.

”Excellent!” He reached out his hand and caressed her forehead.

Unexpectedly, Lily did not move away or roll her eyes at him. Instead, she lowered her head and accepted his compliments.

”How is that any good.” Mystery Moon grumbled. ”Your Highness, my bedroom is no longer inhabitable! There are bird beak mushrooms everywhere, even on my bed, which now resembles the Misty Forest after a rain!”

Lily’s cheeks suddenly reddened. She glanced at Mystery Moon and said, ”I... I don’t know why it would be like this either... At first, the worms couldn’t turn into bird beak mushrooms at all, and I even thought that there was a problem with the parent I was using. After I changed the parent, I didn’t imagine that the whole house would grow full of mushrooms.”

When Roland understood the whole story, he could not help but laugh aloud. From the little knowledge of biology he remembered, unlike a seed which could grow into a large tree, a single mushroom spore could not grow into a mushroom, no matter how much assimilation was done. Only after the parent mushroom was changed, two spores might combine and grow into mushrooms. The reason why they grew everywhere was likely to be because the parent was discarded within the room, where it drifted around and assimilated bacteria into bird beak mushroom spores.

”We shall have a mushroom feast for lunch tomorrow.” He announced gleefully.

Indubitably, after Lily’s second transformation, her ability was no longer limited to sterilization and disinfection. Any observable thing could be wholly transformed for next to no cost, and could be multiplied and expanded like a regular microbe, so as to form a complete ’microscopic’ army of its own. Whether it be food production or war preparation, she would be able to play a great role from now onwards.