The Queen of Scrolls never admits defeat

“Look, she’s casting a spell!” Lilith exclaimed.

Several witches looked over curiously, only to see Greta lying face down on the ground with her buttocks sticking up, her hands pressed tightly to the earth:

"Great earth elementalist! Grant me power to soften this land... Loosening Soil!"

"???" Vasita asked, somewhat puzzled, "Does a mage need incantations to cast spells?"

She also planned to disguise herself as an earth mage, and had studied some earth magic beforehand, intending to create a disguise effect.

But she didn't see any incantation being recited!
"Some mages, lacking sufficient elemental affinity, cannot smoothly utilize spell structures infused with spiritual power to manipulate elemental forces. Therefore, they will appropriately use incantations to increase their attraction to elemental forces."

Sometimes, when the target's elemental energy is insufficient, mages will choose to use spells to assist in increasing the success rate of casting.

Moran said, "Although this place is close to the Black Forest, it is not lacking in earth elemental power. It should be that her earth elemental affinity is average."

Greta's magical enlightenment came entirely from a magic notebook she found in the sewers that was from who-knows-how-many years ago; she never had her elemental affinity formally tested.

It's fortunate that it's a magic notebook from many years ago. Back then, mages believed more in balanced development. The meditation diagrams recorded in it are the Sky Meditation Method, which is now commonplace in the Magic Empire. Moreover, there are only the first thirty meditation diagrams. The apprentice-level spells recorded are one of each of the five basic elemental systems.

In addition to the soil-loosening technique currently in use, there are also water-gathering techniques, fire-ignition techniques, gold needle techniques, and straw rope techniques.

She constructed the spell structures for these apprentice-level spells quite quickly, but casting them was not easy; she had to chant incantations to assist her each time.

Judging from her learning of these five apprentice-level spells, she seems to be someone with good initial mental strength but average elemental affinity, making her more suited to specializing in mental magic.

It should be noted that since she succeeded in meditation, she has been almost constantly on the run, with little time for cultivation. However, she can now mobilize nearly 40 manas of mental energy.

This was even after she had spent her mental energy constructing five apprentice-level spells.

Her initial mental strength should be above fifty, which is already considered genius among humans. If she lives long enough and has enough resources, reaching the peak level is no problem. With some scarce resources, she might even reach the super peak level.

Unfortunately, mental magic is a rare form of magic, and all magical knowledge is held by the Magic Empire. The kingdoms and duchies below it do not possess it, and the only way to find an opportunity to learn it is to go to the Empire.

In Moran's view, Greta's initial spiritual power would make her easy to recruit by the Grand Duke once she entered the Duchy of Lance, and he recommended that she go to the Magic Empire to study.

However, Moran is not worried about losing talent.

All recruitment and training are conditional. The conditions for obtaining truly scarce magical resources are much more stringent than those of the Dawn Academy. The Dawn Academy only requires the expenditure of magical energy, which is much better than working for others for free after graduation.

Greta chanted the incantation several times before earth elemental power slowly gathered and converged in her hands.

The soil beneath her feet began to visibly soften.

But this only affected an area about the size of a washbasin, less than the amount of soil turned over by a large hoe.

Greta used the scout stick she had brought from the Black Forest to dig out all the soft soil.

Then continue casting the spell and continue digging.

Later, finding the sticks too inefficient, they switched to using their hands to scoop out the dirt. They were already in a sorry state, but now they looked even worse.

"Why is she digging in the dirt?" Sylph asked. "She'll ruin her hands digging like that."

“It shouldn’t be that bad; she’s made the soil very soft with magic,” Vasita said.

Moran and Lilith couldn't figure out her purpose either, so they used mind-reading to try and understand.

Greta: "Dig deeper and bigger, make sure it's big enough for me to hide in!"

"???" Lilith was confused: "She's trying to dig a hole and hide in it? What's she going to do here? Isn't she going to do the quest?"

"They probably want to hide first, save up some gem coins, exchange them for a few cards to have on their side, and then set off!" Moran said. "After all, this is the Verdant Plains in the wilderness!"

Although it's already in the northern part of the Cuixi Plain no-man's-land, there are still quite a few flying magical beasts in the no-man's-land!
If Greta were to venture further away from the Black Forest, to a place with fertile land, abundant water and grass, and unaffected by the power of death, the chances of encountering a magical beast would be much greater.

Given her current skill level, where even a beginner-level spell requires her to chant such a long incantation, a low-level magical beast could probably kill her.

Moran had originally intended to clear some of the dangers ahead for her, but now she was more interested in seeing how far she could go with her lucky intuition and the cards she had acquired.

Greta dug for a whole day before she finally dug a hole that was barely big enough for her to fit in.

Then they collected a lot of dry grass, wove it into grass ropes using grass rope magic, and hand-woven the grass ropes into a grass net. They inserted wooden sticks into it for support, and then fixed some dry grass on it to disguise it as a clump of dry grass.

Finally, with the withered grass on her head, she jumped into the hole.

A thicket of withered grass, larger than the entrance to the cave, covered the entrance, while she herself squatted inside.

The hole was very small, just big enough for her to stay in this position. If she stood up, she could push the opening open to reveal her upper body.

“Just thinking about it makes me realize how frustrating it is,” Vasida said.

These conditions are a hundred times more basic than when she built her own home.

“I thought Ais was tough enough to choose such a place to live, but I didn’t expect there to be someone even tougher than her,” Sylph said.

"How long does she plan to stay here? This hole is so shallow, it's barely enough to cover her figure. Is it really safe?"

Lilith felt that all her hard work all day, digging a hole to hide in, was so shallow that a dodo bird could sit on her head, was completely wasted.

Moran, however, was quite confident: "I don't know if it was her lucky intuition that helped her, or if she was really smart, but she chose to dig a hole in this barren area where the Emerald Creek Plain meets the Black Forest, and she stopped digging after only digging one that could hide her."

There's nothing in this area, and monsters that come looking for food won't come here. In fact, they'll instinctively stay away from you because of the deathly power from the Black Forest.

She hid herself under the grass again. Although the hole was shallow, the flying monsters in the distant sky could not see her with the naked eye, and her scent could not travel that far.

In a sense, it's actually quite safe. (End of Chapter)