Chapter 16
NO·2 Banshee Wail Resonance Cavity
A fine layer of moss had grown on Talia’s fair arm, emanating a faint herbal fragrance and the presence of magical energy.
"This is organ mutation? Your Contamination Value has exceeded 60%!"
Talia’s face turned slightly pale, but she still forced a smile and said:
"No, it’s just parasitic mutation spores..." She forcibly pulled her arm back and covered the moss again with her gray robe. "The Contamination Value of Symbiotic Mutation Studies is very low, but there are always some unfortunate occurrences. Almost every apprentice studying Mutation has some parasites. It’s nothing to worry about."
Lucy opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say.
Offering comfort felt hollow, and as a fellow apprentice, there was very little she could actually do especially since she herself was still struggling to stay afloat.
The mood at the dining table grew noticeably heavier afterward. Talia looked preoccupied, clearly the moss wasn’t as trivial as she claimed.
They exchanged a few more casual remarks. After finishing dinner, the two went their separate ways.
Unlike during the protection period, now that they had joined the laboratory, their days were almost entirely consumed by their work. Only at night did they have time for meditation and experimentation, with their schedules stretched to the limit.
As a result, apprentices rarely left their rooms except during mealtimes.
...
Designation: NO·2
Scientific Name: Banshee Wail Resonance Cavity
Dissection Time: Wizard Calendar, Year 3040, May 14th, 20:12
Organ Source: Banshee corpse remains from Morgue No. 66 (thoracic and abdominal cavities missing)
Morphological Description: Semi-transparent spiral tubular organ, surface covered in wave-like folds resembling sound waves...
Next to the hand-drawn banshee illustration in The Witch's Anatomical Notes, Lucy wrote the heading for her second anatomical experiment on a blank piece of parchment.
She deftly took a scalpel from the tool case.
But the moment the blade touched the translucent outer wall of the throat canal—
The world before her eyes twisted. The dissection table and the lab walls began to fade, replaced by an endless abyss.
Terrifying ghostly green hands reached up from the ground, grabbing her smooth, fair ankles, tearing holes in her gray stockings. Wailing echoed throughout the entire dormitory.
Had this occurred three days ago, it would surely have scared Miss Lucy out of her wits. But unfortunately, the current Lucy showed no trace of fear.
"The Ring of Resistance didn’t detect any magical energy levels. As expected, another hallucination brought on by the Contamination Value."
Even before unlocking the iron gate, Lucy had already cast a layer of “Basic Ring of Resistance,” a Tier-0 Witchcraft spell. Although its defensive power was extremely limited, it served well enough as an early warning.
Those eerie ghostly hands appeared terrifying and even induced a momentary sense of falling, but nothing else happened there wasn’t even a trace of magical energy fluctuations to trigger the defensive spell.
The only explanation was that all of it was a hallucination.
And sure enough—
A few minutes later—
The image in her vision twitched like a stuck frame, and then the abyssal scene in the distance began to shatter. The walls and shelves of the dormitory laboratory gradually reappeared.
Next, the falling sensation and the ghost hands on the floor also vanished into thin air.
Until even the piercing wails dissolved into nothingness, everything returned to normal.
Lucy shrugged indifferently. This was way more immersive than 3D movies from her previous life.
She picked up her still-wet quill pen and continued writing in The Witch's Anatomical Notes.
Designation: NO·2
Bizarre Reaction: Ghost hands emerging from the ground and the illusion of an abyss, immersive sense of falling, a woman’s dying screams no detectable magical energy levels.
She looked down at the new finger-sized holes in her stockings. Perhaps it wasn’t entirely harmless after all at the very least, her stockings were ruined.
Without a shred of hesitation, Lucy pressed forward. The scalpel’s sharp blade sliced open the specimen’s translucent throat canal, revealing a magical vein diagram even more complex than that of the Cradle of Enchanted Human Offspring.
Several hourglasses later—
(Magical Vein Diagram)
Core Magical Vein: A voiceprint chain-structured magical vein ran through the throat canal wall. Pressing it emitted a sharp, piercing whistle.
Application Directions:
1. Can be modeled for control-type witchcraft.
2. Can be modeled for sound amplification witchcraft.
When Lucy placed the final period at the bottom right of the last letter, the blue characters appeared as expected.
[NO·2 Banshee Wail Resonance Cavity]
[Assessment: A routine dissection experiment]
[Academic Points Earned: 7]
...
[Name: Lucy Felicia]
[Rank: Apprentice (Mental Strength: 7.2)]
[Meditation Method: Bramble Loop Meditation I]
[Witchcraft: Basic Magical Trick (Tier-0), Basic Ring of Resistance (Tier-0)]
[Skills: Apprentice-Level Anti-Contamination Potion (Uninitiated)]
[Equipment: None]
[Contamination Value: 55% → 53%]
[Academic Points: 14]
After a night of meditation, Lucy's Contamination Value had returned to a relatively safe level.
As usual, she washed up, put on her hood, and prepared to head to the morgue.
But the moment she opened the door, she saw a figure squatting in the corner of the wall. Instinctively, she constructed the spell model for “Basic Ring of Resistance,” her right hand hidden under the gray robe gripping a dagger.
"Miss Lucy!"
Lucy paused slightly, recognizing the person’s face.
"Nure? What are you doing squatting here?"
The chubby figure stood up with some effort. He looked tired but had an excited expression.
"I was waiting here for Miss Lucy, but I didn’t want to disturb your rest, so..."
Nure chuckled sheepishly, looking every bit the bootlicker.
Lucy was puzzled.
There had only been a few brief exchanges between them. Why had this fat guy come to her?
"Ahem... It’s like this. I came to say goodbye to Miss Lucy. I’m preparing for a trip to the Black Mountain Principality."
"Black Mountain Principality?"
Lucy wasn't well-versed in the geography of the wizarding world. She had only read a few brief lines and seen a crude hand-drawn map in the Black Book.
The Tower of the Four Sages was located in a place called the "Principality of Kolo," situated in the southwest region of the wizarding continent and bordered by four other countries one of which was the Black Mountain Principality, mentioned by Nure.
Curious, Lucy asked, "What are you going there for?"
"That day, what Miss Lucy said really enlightened me. After returning to the dorm, I started probing the servants about the Tower of the Four Sages' current needs."
Nure continued, "It cost me quite a few gold coins, but I managed to find several useful pieces of information. One of them is that the Mechanical Laboratory’s demand for alchemical components has suddenly skyrocketed."
Although the Tower of the Four Sages had its own mechanical laboratory, it could only handle basic components. Most precision parts still needed to be produced by the alchemical laboratory.
And the nearest alchemical laboratory to the Tower of the Four Sages was located in the Black Mountain Principality.
"Besides, the Black Mountain Principality has an abundance of rich rare metal mines. This time, I’ve organized a caravan of twenty wagons and hired ten official knights for protection along the way. Just one round trip will earn us a fortune..."
As Nure spoke about business, his face lit up with excitement completely different from his usual downcast demeanor.
But Lucy's mind wasn’t on Nure.
From what he said, she gleaned two things.
First, the increased workload at the Mechanical Laboratory might indicate that something was about to happen.
Second, mechanical studies seemed heavily dependent on alchemy as a prerequisite discipline.
Lucy asked, "Where did your startup capital come from?"
Wizard factions didn’t accept gold coins.
As a fellow apprentice, Nure might have had a few more magic stones than she did, but definitely not enough to fund such a journey.
Nure gave a mysterious smile. "I really didn’t have that many magic stones, but my plan got the support of Senior Librarian Lilith. She sponsored me with 5,000 magic stones as startup capital. However, I’ll need to repay 6,000 low-grade magic stones after I return."