The Witch's Anatomical Notes

Chapter 72

Tri-Tower Tournament

At the break of dawn, the black-haired girl on the single bed let out a soft hum and slowly sat up.

As the sheet slid down, it revealed large swathes of fair skin.

With the sheet slipping further, exposing her snow-white skin, she leaned lazily against the headboard, gazing gently at the silver-haired girl sitting at the desk.

"If we don't get up now, we'll miss the assembly time." Lucy said earnestly.

"Got it!" Olivia's voice was soft and tender, exceedingly charming.

"You’re so adorable when you're with me," Lucy chuckled, then continued, "If only you were this gentle with the other team members."

Over the past three days of training, the coordination within the Mead Squad had grown from clumsy to proficient, and the members had gradually become familiar with one another — except for a certain princess.

Only when alone with her did this princess ever show a smile, which caused some dissatisfaction among the other team members.

Olivia snorted coldly through her perky nose.

"I’ll never learn your skill at flirting everywhere."

Lucy was momentarily choked.

Thinking of those kisses from Talia, she immediately dared not reply.

Olivia, like a victorious lioness, proudly strode into the washroom, and soon the sound of running water echoed.

Once the two of them were ready.

A knock resounded through the room.

Opening the door, Lucy was met by five figures in blue. Talia smiled with eyes curved like crescents, "Reporting, Captain, the entire Mead Squad is assembled!"

...

Tower of the Four Sages plaza

This was Lucy’s first time seeing so many people at the tower.

At a glance, hundreds of blue-robed figures stood densely packed.

Because of the lineup for the Tri-Tower Tournament, participants from all three sides had taken off their wizard robes, which were normally divided by rank, and instead wore outfits in three distinct colors.

The Tower of the Four Sages drew the color blue.

According to the tournament’s rules — held once every three years, with each person allowed to participate only once — along with the tower’s mortality rate.

Lucy quickly did some mental calculations: over eighty in the current class, more than sixty in the previous one, and over fifty in the one before that.

By this estimate, the total number of apprentices in the Tower of the Four Sages had reached two hundred, nearly equivalent to the size of a new class of apprentices.

Once all participating apprentices had assembled, a terrifying surge of magical energy suddenly swept across the sky, causing everyone present to instinctively look up.

Two figures appeared, floating in mid-air.

The white-haired old man on the left with a cold expression was naturally Wizard Fernando.

Floating beside him was a thin woman in a green robe. Although this was Lucy’s first time seeing her, it wasn’t difficult to guess that she was one of the tower’s four official wizards, the master of the Green Vine Garden — Madam Vine.

Before the Tri-Tower Tournament began, this mid-level wizard of the Symbiotic Mutation School had returned.

The appearance of two official wizards plunged the gathered apprentices into silence.

Even though they had already restrained their magical fluctuations, the fear stemming from the disparity in life hierarchy and the psychological pressure still made everyone’s hearts race and their bodies shiver.

No one had expected the tower to dispatch two official wizards for this Tri-Tower confrontation.

"Everyone is here." Madam Vine’s grinding voice swept across the plaza. "No unnecessary words, depart for Godfall Gorge."

At the same time, a massive shadow enveloped everyone in the plaza.

A giant dolphin-shaped balloon, over a hundred meters long, slowly rose from behind the towering buildings.

This was one of the most common long-range transport tools on the wizard continent, one of many creations of the Alchemical School — an airship.

Although it appeared to be nothing more than a giant hot-air balloon, it was not lifted by hydrogen sacs, but by a complex set of alchemical magical patterns.

When the airship landed in the central plaza of the Tower of the Four Sages, all the apprentices seeing it for the first time were astonished by its intricate structure.

Only Olivia noticed Lucy deep in thought beside her.

"Worried about the tournament?" she asked.

Lucy shook her head.

"I just didn’t expect the venue to be Godfall Gorge."

The great Pale Scalpel had begun his journey precisely at Godfall Gorge.

"You know?"

Olivia exclaimed in surprise. She had never seen this place on any map, clearly it did not belong to the Principality of Kolo.

"Godfall Gorge is located on the border of the Kingdom of Cordova. A battle between a Star Ring Wizard and a true god once took place there. In the end, both were forever laid to rest in the gorge that was formed by their fight."

After listening to Lucy's words, all six members of the Mead Squad wore solemn expressions.

The burial ground of a Star Ring Wizard and a true god — the thought alone was chilling.

With the remains of a divine corpse and surging magical energy nourishing the land, who knew what terrifying creatures might have been born there.

Lucy said, "It's our turn to board."

Once the plaza had been completely cleared of people, the airship let out a faint humming sound.

It slowly lifted off the ground, and after surpassing the highest spire of the tower, the blue magical patterns on its body lit up. The airship shifted from climbing to flying forward.

As more magical patterns illuminated, the airship’s speed continued to increase until it became a massive blue afterimage, completely blending into the sky.

...

Two days later

When the snow-capped mountains appeared beneath the airship, a massive gorge, like a great cliff, unfolded before everyone’s eyes.

If not for the clear weather allowing those on the deck to see the rocky walls at the end of their sight, it would have been hard to imagine that this was actually a "gorge" and not a steep basin.

Rumble—

The hundred-meter-long airship slowly descended at the entrance of the gorge. As everyone disembarked, they saw that the teams from Eternal Silence Blackthorn and the Witch’s Cottage had been waiting for some time.

Judging by numbers, both the red-robed Witch’s Cottage and the green-robed Eternal Silence Blackthorn had more members than the Tower of the Four Sages.

Especially Eternal Silence Blackthorn, whose numbers had reached nearly five hundred.

This left Lucy quite puzzled.

Given their training methods, Eternal Silence Blackthorn’s mortality rate should clearly be far higher than that of the Tower of the Four Sages.

The always steady Hain spoke up to explain, "Because Eternal Silence Blackthorn recruits more than three thousand apprentices every year..."

"So many!" the squad members exclaimed in astonishment.

The Tower of the Four Sages only accepted about two hundred apprentices each year.

Hain nodded. "You don’t actually think that the Tower of the Four Sages, despite having the largest territory, happens to have exactly two hundred wizard-talented individuals every year, do you?"

In reality, the tower eliminated ninety percent of low-potential candidates during recruitment, retaining only the two hundred with higher talent.

But Eternal Silence Blackthorn and the Witch’s Cottage did not bother with such stringent standards. As long as someone tested positive for wizard aptitude, regardless of potential, they were admitted.

They then employed a high-pressure elimination system to select the strong.

This resulted in many people with only the faintest talent, some incapable of even meditating, joining the towers with dreams of wizardry, only to soon perish from excessive Contamination Value.

Compared to them, the fifty percent mortality rate during the Tower of the Four Sages’ protection period was practically a "greenhouse."