Miss Witch, even if we're poor, we can't sell ourselves!

Meanwhile, on the other side...

After working hard, Miya carefully wrapped the star-spotted glow mushroom and stuffed it into the inner compartment of her backpack, but didn't rush to stand up.

She crouched under the giant fern, letting the large fern leaves conceal her figure. After confirming that there were no signs of life within a 30-meter radius, she slowly poked half her head out.

The air in the jungle was damp and stuffy, and the mossy ground felt soft and spongy underfoot, like stepping on a water-soaked sponge.

She took a few steps forward, walked around an ancient tree whose trunk was covered with glowing vines, glanced at a small clearing near the tree roots, and then stopped.

In the center of the open space grew a plant she recognized, about twenty centimeters tall, with a slender stem and three small flowers at the top. The petals were silver-blue with a faint glow around the edge, shimmering gently in the beams of light that leaked through the gaps in the canopy.

The leaves are opposite, and each leaf has three parallel silver veins that extend from the petiole to the leaf tip.

I drew this on page 37 of "Don't Sleep at Night's Herbal Notes".

Silver-veined Trifolium repens.

The market price is about one thousand Loren.

The petals can be used in medicine to temporarily enhance the sensitivity of magical perception; the crushed leaves can be applied externally to stop bleeding; and the dried and powdered rhizomes are one of the auxiliary ingredients for making high-level recovery potions.

However, a note was written in red pen at the bottom of the page.

[The flower petals taste extremely bitter and should not be taken orally directly. Do not attempt to do so.]

Miya squatted down and stared at the three small silver-blue flowers for a long time.

The warning from Bie Chenye lingered in her mind, but curiosity, like a cat's claw, kept her itching.

The notes say it tastes extremely bitter, but just how bitter is it?

If Teacher Bie Chenye can taste it, why can't she?

Anyway, it's just a little bitterness, it won't make her bleed. She's even chewed raw golden tear mushrooms in the back mountain, and even though they were so sour that her whole face scrunched up like a bun, she didn't spit them out. What can a little bitterness do to her?

She took out a small knife from her fanny pack and carefully cut off a small petal, about half the size of her little fingernail.

She wrapped the remaining two half-finished flowers in a wet tissue and put them in her backpack, then examined the petal in her palm.

The silver-blue petals shimmered with a subtle pearlescent sheen in the sunlight. They had almost no scent, only a faint grassy aroma.

Miya took a deep breath, put the petal in her mouth, and chewed it twice.

[Vital Energy +3]

[Poison Resistance +7]

Then the little witch's world collapsed.

The taste was like someone had concentrated a whole case of milk that had expired ten years ago into a single pill, coated the pill with a layer of Coptis chinensis powder, and then exploded it on her tongue.

"vomit--"

Miya braced herself on her knees, bent over, her face contorted in a grimace, tears welling in her eyes and streaming down her cheeks.

She gagged several times, almost vomiting all the food she ate that morning on this open ground.

She quickly pulled out a water bottle from her bag and gulped down several mouthfuls. Water dripped down her chin onto the collar of her windbreaker, but she didn't bother to wipe it off; she just wanted to get rid of the lingering bitter taste in her mouth as quickly as possible.

Mi Ye was unaware of this, but thanks to the online discussions, quite a few people were now viewing her perspective.

【Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha】

[The maid's emoji has been captured]

Did anyone hear that "vomit" she just made? It was so cute! No, I'm not a pervert, but she really did vomit so cutely.

Is this what students who apply for flesh magic are like? Testing themselves first, huh?

I declare this little witch my pick for today!

Of course, Miya couldn't see the comments.

She straightened up, wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand, looked down at the small fragment of a flower petal remaining in her hand, her eyes filled with awe and regret.

She carefully wrapped the petal fragments in a wet tissue and put them away. Despite the hardship, these things were valuable and couldn't be wasted.

Then she patted her cheeks, took a deep breath, and forced herself to snap out of the lingering bitterness in her mouth.

Just then, a crisp sound came from about fifty meters ahead, like the sound of a magic missile hitting a tree and exploding.

Are people fighting?

Miya crouched down, retracted her tentacles into her sleeve, and, using the bushes and ferns as cover, slowly moved toward the source of the sound.

Her size was indeed an advantage in this exam. She was less than 1.5 meters tall, and when she squatted down, she was not even half the height of the giant fern next to her. As long as she didn't step on the dry branches and make a sound, she was almost impossible to spot when moving in this densely vegetated jungle.

The stealth skills she had honed in the back mountains of Biechenye came in handy here. Every step she took landed on the thickest part of the moss, and she slowed her breathing to the rhythm of the wind blowing through the leaves.

She moved behind a dead tree that had been struck by lightning, peeking half her head out from the side of the trunk.

There was a small clearing ahead that had been blown open.

Several pieces of moss on the ground were torn off by the magical impact, revealing the dark brown soil underneath.

Two little witches stood on the open ground, one on the left and one on the right, about ten meters apart.

The girl on the left has a dark green ponytail, her school uniform sleeves rolled up to her elbows, and a light blue magic missile hovering in her right palm, spinning with a buzzing sound.

The one on the right has short hair with a few strands of purple dyed at the ends. He has another missile already in his left hand, while his right hand is guarding his body. His posture is quite standard.

Neither of them used any high-level magic.

Miya understood after watching for a while. Although the candidates of Moon Forest had learned various magic theories in the written test, most of them had only been exposed to the most basic magic missiles in high school.

Although the magical fluctuations of the two little witches in front of me were not weak, their attack methods were extremely simple: they would continuously condense magical missiles, throw them out, condense them again, and throw them out again.

Occasionally, a shot would miss, hitting the tree trunk and exploding into a cloud of pale blue light, making that familiar sound.

Miya watched for a while and found it uninteresting.

She didn't want to hit anyone, and she especially didn't want to be hit. Please, it really hurts!

The two little witches in front of her were fighting fiercely, and she just wanted to go around them and continue looking for herbs.

There should have been a few other dark mosses growing next to that clump of silver-veined clover, but she was too busy vomiting to look for them.

She turned around, preparing to retreat from behind the dead tree.

He took a step back with his left foot, breaking a dead branch buried under the moss.

Click.

Oh no, we're doomed.

The sound of missiles firing at each other on the open ground suddenly stopped.

Miya froze on the spot, her left foot still in a backward position, thinking, "No way!" Then, two magic missiles simultaneously slammed into the withered tree where she was hiding from both sides.

The first one hit the side of the tree trunk, exploding into a shower of blue light fragments, and the dead tree shook violently.

The second one grazed the other side of the tree trunk and hit the ground next to Miya's right shoulder, splashing dirt and debris all over her face.

Miya was pushed back two steps by the impact, and her right shoulder was grazed by the edge of a missile. The fabric of her windbreaker was slightly hot, but that was all.

She glanced down at her right shoulder.

There was no blood, no wounds, and not even a broken fiber in the fabric.

As the missile grazed past, she felt a warm pressure, like being lightly poked with a finger, and then it was gone.

She looked at the sun and moon again in contemplation, and her life force dropped from 2070 to 2065, a decrease of 5 points.

Bie Chenye once said that an ordinary witch student's magic attack would at most destroy about a hundred points of life force, but that was the most extreme case.

If the scratch only costs five points, it means that even if she stands here and is hit by these two little witches in turn, it would take hundreds of hits to knock her out of the exam.

The two little witches obviously didn't know this number.

When they saw a person suddenly emerge from behind the dead tree, their instinctive reaction was to focus fire.

Anyway, the exam rules are all about fighting without rules, and the number of kills determines the ranking. If two people are fighting and suddenly find a third party hiding and watching, then of course they should take out the third party first before continuing the fight.

The girl with the dark green ponytail had already condensed a new magic missile, raised her right hand, aimed at the direction where Miya was hiding, and shouted.

"Come out quickly!"

The short-haired woman moved even faster; she had already circled around to the left side of the dead tree, holding two missiles in her hand, blocking Mi Ye's retreat.

The two people, one on each side, sandwiched Miya in the middle.

Miya raised her hands from behind the withered tree, palms facing outwards, in a gesture of surrender, with an awkward smile on her face as she tried to ease the tension.

"Um, I was just passing by. You guys keep fighting, I'll leave right away, really."

The dark green ponytail didn't stop just because Miya was cute.

The magic missile flew out of his hand, drew an arc in the air, and smashed straight into Miya's chest.

Miya took a small step back, and the shards of light from the exploding missile scattered on the front of her jacket, leaving a small, scorching mark.

She glanced down, then looked up, her expression shifting from embarrassment to a subtle sense of helplessness.

The woman with the dark green ponytail was stunned.

She looked down at her hands, then at the slightly charred zipper on Mi Ye's jacket.

She aimed her missile precisely, hitting right in the chest. The opponent didn't even activate her shield, taking the full damage of the magic missile head-on, and then stood there motionless, without even a change in expression.

"What are you doing—"

Before the girl with the dark green ponytail could finish speaking, the short-haired little witch had already made her move.

She fired two missiles from her side and rear, one hitting her back and the other hitting her leg.

Miya was pushed forward by the one on her back, but the one on her leg was similar to the one on her right shoulder, like being poked in the thigh with a finger, and then it was over.

Miya turned around and sighed, pinching the cuff of her right sleeve with her left hand and pulling up the sleeve of her windbreaker.

"You're really interfering with my herb gathering."

Two dark red tentacles slid out from the cuffs, unfurling their dark red petals in the humid air.

The dark green ponytail instinctively took a step back, but her retreat was far slower than the tentacles.

The first tentacle shot out from the front, drew an arc in mid-air, went around her raised right hand from above, and slapped her on the back of the neck.

The moment the tentacle touched her skin, her body convulsed violently, her legs buckled and she knelt on the ground. The magic missile in her hand vanished instantly, and even her eyes glazed over for a moment.

That's right, her magic was drained by the tentacle's whip.

Seeing that things were not going well, the short-haired little witch turned around to run, but Miya's second tentacle had already circled around from the left and wrapped around her ankle from below the moment she turned around, gently pulling her down onto the mossy ground.

Then the tentacle loosened its grip on her ankle, flipped her over, and gently patted her back. The same whip, the same instant, and her mana was gone.

The short-haired little witch lay on the moss, trying to get up by supporting herself with her arms, but her body, drained of magic, was like a puppet with broken strings. She couldn't even kneel steadily and could only lie half-lying on the damp moss, her face flushed and panting heavily.

The woman with the dark green ponytail was in even worse shape. She was kneeling on the ground, her hands supporting her knees, her fingers trembling. Her ponytail slipped from her shoulders and hung down to the ground. She looked like she had just run 800 meters and then been forced to do 50 push-ups.

She looked up at Mi Ye, her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but no sound came out.

Miya stood between the two people, her two tentacles hanging at her sides, the dark red petals at their ends slightly closed.

She looked down at the two little witches and scratched her cheek.

According to the rules, she should now escort them out of the exam one by one.

Add two kills and your ranking jumps several places – it's simple, direct, and legal.

But as she stared at the trembling hands of the girl with the dark green ponytail, and the short-haired little witch panting on the moss, her tentacles rising and falling again.

...I really can't bring myself to do it.

Fighting monsters is one thing, but actually killing people? Who could do that? Even in a virtual world, she couldn't overcome it all at once.

She crouched down, her gaze sweeping back and forth between the two little witches several times, as if weighing something.

If we just let them go, they'll definitely start fighting again once their magic is restored, and it might even attract more people.

Two candidates with no blue buffs were lying on the open ground, and any passerby could easily get a double kill.

She didn't want to kill him if she didn't let him go.

Miya was silent for a few seconds, then stood up and clapped her hands together.

"Okay, let's do it this way."

Under her mental control, the tentacles began to move again. Two tentacles stretched out softly, wrapping around the waists of the two little witches and lifting them off the ground.

The dark green ponytail cried out instantly, and the short-haired little witch also began to struggle, but the two blue-haired examinees had no strength to resist and could only be carried by tentacles to the edge of the open space like two bags of potatoes.

At the edge of the open space stands a particularly thick ancient tree with a natural hole at the base of its trunk. The opening is about half a person's height, but the space inside is quite large.

In the isekai novels that Miya read when she was a child, the main characters often took shelter from the rain and spent the night in tree hollows like these.

She gently placed the two little witches at the entrance of the tree hole, and used her tentacles to clear away the dead leaves and moss inside, making a relatively dry space.

Then she put the dark green ponytail in first, and then stuffed the short-haired little witch in as well. The two of them sat side by side in the tree hole, leaning against the tree wall, their expressions somewhere between fear and bewilderment.

Miya squatted at the entrance of the tree hole and used vines to tie the wrists and ankles of the two people separately, controlling the force to a level that would prevent them from breaking free but would not cause them pain.

She tugged on the knot to make sure it was secure, then stood up, patted the dirt off her hands, took out two leaves of hemostatic grass that she had picked in the back mountain of Biechenye from her bag, thought for a moment and put one back, tore the remaining leaf in half and placed them on the knees of the two people respectively.

"Chew this up and apply it to the wound; the area grazed by the missile will heal faster."

The girl with the dark green ponytail looked down at the half-eaten hemostatic herb leaf on her knee, remained silent for a while, then looked up at Mi Ye, her lips moved, and she squeezed out a sentence.

"Aren't you going to eliminate us?"

"Come again later."

Mi Ye gave a perfunctory reply, then zipped up her windbreaker and turned to walk deeper into the jungle.

She didn't turn around, but her tentacles waved behind her, and the dark red petals swayed gently in the air, as if warning the two people in the tree hole not to try to break free, or as if saying goodbye to them.

[Does the maid take such good care of people at the bar?]

Oh no, I pushed her! I really pushed her! She's so cute!

[They clearly can't bring themselves to do it, but they insist on putting on a cold and ruthless facade.]

I saw that the little witch blush when she was tied up.

I saw it too!

The comments were still scrolling, but Mi Ye had already walked away.

She walked around the ancient tree and continued deeper into the jungle, her right hand unconsciously touching the side pocket of her backpack.

Inside lay three star-spotted fluorescent mushrooms and two half-silver-veined trifoliate flowers, plus a few pieces of dark moss that I had casually picked from near the dead tree earlier. This trip's harvest was more than enough.

As for the two little witches tied up in the tree hole, she planned to come back and check on them when the exam was almost over.

If they haven't been discovered by then, she'll steel herself and let her tentacles do their thing.