New Witches, New Abilities (Part I)
New Witches, New Abilities (Part I)
"What happened?" He poured himself a cup of warm water and said, "Where is Nightingale?"
"She went to meet our sisters."
"I see," said Roland, about to drink, but suddenly he felt something was wrong. "Wait a minute, what sisters?"
"The sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association. They are coming to Border Town." Wendy replied.
"Weren't they going to look for the Holy Mountain?" He stood up abruptly, "How many of them are coming? And what about that witch who wanted to hurt Nightingale... I remember she was called Cara 'The Snake Witch'. Is she also coming?"
"No, Your Highness... They failed to find the Holy Mountain. In the Barbarian Region, they were attacked by terrible monsters, and only seven of them survived." Wendy reported Leaf's words and bowed to apologize. "You were taking a nap at that time. Please forgive me for taking the liberty and deciding that Nightingale and Lightning should go to greet them."
"That's all right." Roland waved his hand to signal that it did not matter. "You know I won't blame you for such a thing. What are their abilities?"
"I don't know yet, but Leaf told me that they are non-combat witches. Maybe..." Wendy hesitated and said, "They're not very useful for you."
"Non-combat witches?" Roland was immediately full of expectations. Due to the restraint of the God's Stone of Retaliation and the short range of magic power, the fighting abilities of witches were actually limited. So productivity should be their strongest ability. If there was a witch who specialized in shaping objects, then he could make more sophisticated parts of machines, thus leading the town into the era of massive mechanical production. If there was a witch who was able to generate electricity, the evenings in Border Town would be as bright as daytime. Then he would become the king, marry with a witch, and attain the peak of his career. He would lead people to realize the modernization of agriculture, industry, national defense, science, and technology. How exciting that was!
"Your Highness, if you don't need them..." Wendy whispered, as Roland's long silence made her feel nervous.
"No, of course not," Roland came back from his thoughts, and said, "All witches are welcome in Border Town."
At sunset, Nightingale returned to the castle with the sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association. And then they enjoyed a sumptuous feast prepared by Roland in the hall.
Though obviously hungry, they were acting very reserved, since it was their first time dining in such a grand environment. Most of them had never met a lord before, let alone the lord here was a prince.
Fortunately, besides Roland, there were also two local witches, Anna and Nana, who were demonstrating how to act properly. Lightning, the lively girl, also helped to break the ice. In the end, they were finally able to relax a little, and the conversation started to flow at dinner.
Chewing a piece of toast, Roland observed the witches with interest. They were all beautiful girls with different styles, which was a gift of the magic power. Even if they were unable to contribute to the development of technology and science in the future, their beauty would be a never-fading scenery.
Since Karl had not finished the construction of the houses for them yet, they had to live temporarily in the castle. There were four unoccupied rooms on the second floor, so Roland arranged for two of them to share a room. After all, the large beds, which were originally prepared for the visiting nobility, were wide enough for them.
After dinner, Roland finally asked the long awaited question—what were their abilities.
With the company of Nightingale, the witches walked into Roland's office one by one. Roland asked and recorded their abilities, and also tested the effect of their abilities by using the God's Stone of Retaliation, which was just like a modern interview. When the interview with the last witch was finally completed, he took a deep breath and stretched out. He was afraid that Nightingale would secretly stay in the office, otherwise, he would have liked to hum the song "Super-Star".
These witches could not shape objects or generate electricity, so they could not help speed up his plan of modernization. However, they still gave him lots of pleasant surprises.
The first and most important witch was Leaf.
From the parchments of records on the desk, Roland picked up hers.
Before adulthood, Leaf's ability was limited to speeding up the growth of plants and fruits. After she came into adult life, her ability had greatly improved, and she also attained a derivative skill: She could manipulate the plants.
Her main ability could be used to improve the yield of the fruits and seeds and enhance herbal effects. Her derivative skill enabled her to change the shapes and traits of the plants. According to her description, if she poured her magic power into the plants, she could make green leaves grow on the withered branch, manipulate the weeds to bind up the enemy, and also integrate herself into a tree.
The larger the plant was, the more magic power she consumed. So she would prefer to use weeds in combat, as they came into effect more quickly and cost less magic power.
Her magic power was released through touching the objects, and it was able to be transmitted through materials (for example, the earth), with the range of about five meters.
There was no doubt that the witch with green long hair would be a good helper at developing agriculture, and her importance was self-evident. To realize industrialization, a large population was required, which depended on an adequate supply of food. The food should be either produced in his domain or imported from other countries. If they did not invent an effective way to cultivate crops, then most of their labor would be tied to the land. As for the latter option, it was difficult to import food due to the poor condition of transportation in this era.
But now that he discovered a Druid, he had the hope to support a large industrial population with the labor of only a few farmers, and therefore, accelerate the industrialization in his domain.
With this in mind, he decided to make Leaf practice more on improving the quality of wheat and barley seeds. If their yield was enhanced, then it would be a great help to increase the upper limit of the population in his domain. In addition, he heard that there were some unique crops in Fjords, much likely to be potato and corn, according to Lightning's description. If that was true, then introducing these crops should be placed at the top of the agenda. After all, wheat and barley were not high-yield crops.
Roland wrote down a practice plan for Leaf, put her record aside, and drew the second parchment from the desk.
The second witch who came to answer his questions was called Scroll. She was the oldest one among the seven witches, nearly 40 years old.
This was a really rare age for a witch. The older they were, the more difficult it was to resist the bite of magic power. But hearing her description of her ability, Roland could understand why she had been able to reach the age.
Her ability was having an extraordinary memory. After she entered adulthood and her ability became stable, she could remember almost anything she saw. At the same time, she developed an interesting derivative skill: She was able to materialize any book she had read for a short period. Roland named this skill as "Book of Illusion".
Since she used her main ability almost all the time, she could easily go through the Days of Awakening. And that was also why she became so knowledgeable, even though she came from a poor family. The ability greatly strengthened her learning, especially the reading of books which required a good memory. To use her derivative skill, most of her magic power would be consumed, and when the remaining magic power ran out, the Book of Illusion would disappear, usually in half a quarter to two hours.
Obviously, Scroll was a natural teacher. If in the future he wanted to make education universal, she would be a teacher who could teach any subjects. As for now, Roland thought, she did not need any special practice. So he would teach her some primary knowledge of mathematics and physics when he had spare time. When the time came, she would make a great contribution to the field of education.