Otaku Witch

"Huh? Is this teacher seriously ill or something?"

Dorothy looked at the suddenly cautious and even somewhat respectful Spider Teacher in front of her, puzzled about what was going on in her mind.

"So, did I pass the exam?"

she pressed.

"You passed, and with a perfect score, but are you really not some undercover agent sent by the school to monitor the departments?"

Noelle Rose was still uneasy as she dryly confirmed.

Such incidents had occurred more than once in the past: the School Committee and the student council always had some little geniuses come up with bizarre plans to stir up trouble. Even the Academy Head, when in the mood, would conduct incognito inspections, wandering around the academy pretending to be a student and attending classes. These kinds of things were truly frightening.

If this problematic student really was an undercover envoy from above, then her previously biased attitude might lead to a salary deduction again, and the research funds for the next few months might also be cut, making her understandably nervous.

Dorothy: "..."

If you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to fear. Teacher, what have you done? Why are you so afraid of being investigated?

"I really am not."

she patiently explained.

"But this is unscientific, let me check your data, name, Dorothy, age, 16...."

Noelle Rose pulled out the enrollee list previously given to her by the school, located the data of the problematic student in front of her, but the more she read, the more she doubted the authenticity of the document.

You're telling me this knowledge reserve belongs to a 16-year-old, impossible, absolutely impossible....n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Normally, to have such a level of knowledge, even a genius with a photographic memory would need over 30 years of study.

"But that's the magic of it, isn't it? Teacher, for us witches, anything is possible. Besides, this exam was quite basic, I thought it would be harder. It was just broad in the subjects covered, but luckily I read quite a variety of books normally, and know a little about each of the Nine Major Factions,"

Dorothy said directly, looking at the flabbergasted expression on Spider Teacher's face.

"Magic? Oh, do you have a talent for accelerated learning?"

Once reminded, Noelle Rose finally came to her senses and asked in astonishment.

If you ask what kind of talent is most precious to a Research Witch, they all give the same answer: a talent that accelerates learning or enhances intelligence.

After all, most Research Witches are scholars on the Path of Omniscience, and for scholars, how to master more knowledge faster and better is their eternal pursuit.

Unfortunately, these types of talents are extremely rare, almost as rare as the recognized rare Space-Time Talent, and mostly high-level, typically starting at SR level with a huge difficulty in evolving. Without some luck, they are hardly attainable.

Therefore, if a witch is fortunate enough to possess such talent, she is almost the darling of the Path of Omniscience, born with a 'cheat' that vastly accelerates her progress, making her progress much faster than her peers, even multiple times faster isn't impossible.

My gosh, did I really just stumble upon a treasure?

For a moment, Spider Witch felt an overwhelming sense of happiness, as if a mountain of gold had fallen from the sky and hit her.

Normally, such genius witches are usually scooped up by the bigwigs of the Path of Omniscience before they even enroll, eagerly taken under their wings as disciples, leaving very few slip through the net.

And even if there were truly wild talent geniuses, they generally sign up for popular majors like the Divination Department, Alchemy Department, or Potion Department, because these majors have strong faculty and a conducive learning environment which better supports their growth.

And what is my specialty again? Automated Mechanical Civil Engineering; although those in the know understand this is a high-difficulty composite major, at the end of the day, it's still essentially about teaching how to construct and cover buildings, leading to work on construction sites after graduation, belonging to the plain labor class, which sounds somewhat unimpressive when mentioned.

Regarding the popularity of her specialty, there was no way it could compete with those hot majors that allowed graduates to enter high-end laboratories directly, earn high salaries, hold high social status, and be surrounded by various elites with ample learning opportunities.

For years she hadn't managed to attract any students, and besides setting difficult exams, part of the reason was truly the lack of good candidates. Those who applied to her were the leftovers rejected by other majors, the dregs and oddballs. Why would the true favored daughters of fortune bother to learn to sweep the ash?

Well, it probably also resembled her lifelong unsuccessful attempts at marriage. Those interested in her didn't catch her fancy, and those she was interested in didn't care for her. Tough luck.

But now it seemed that fate still adored her, after all. She had given up, resigning herself to live as a lazy fish, yet suddenly a huge treasure had delivered itself right to her door.

Is this a turn of fate?

Noelle Rose thought with a hint of surprise.

Dorothy simply nodded her head, affirming Spider Teacher's guess. She chose not to explain further, as they were still not very familiar with each other and the details of one's Talent were a witch's personal secret, not revealed until a certain level of relationship was established.

She indeed possessed the ability to speed up her learning, but it wasn't an innate Talent; it was a specialty she evolved herself.

[Multitasking (ssr): You naturally have the ability to multitask. With training, this talent has been enhanced. Now, you can handle multiple different tasks simultaneously.]

What this Talent did was akin to upgrading Dorothy's thought process from a single thread to multi-threading. Nowadays, she could multitask, dividing her time into three segments, simultaneously undertaking three different tasks.

If combined with Transformation System Spells, she could morph into an incarnation with three heads and six arms, holding three books in six hands, and learning three different subjects at the same time.

This wasn't just about improved learning efficiency. This Talent was also a formidable combat talent since others could only cast one Spell at a time, but she could cast three simultaneously.

Moreover, three wasn't even the limit. Recently, as her Magic Power had increased, Dorothy felt that her fourth stream of thought was about to solidify, which would further accelerate her learning efficiency.

Undoubtedly, this was an outrageously powerful ability. Typically, evolving such an ability without spending tens of thousands of Mana would be unthinkable.

However, the cost of evolving a talent specialty was always related to one's innate talent direction. The more gifted a witch was in a realm, the less Magic Power she had to spend on evolving the associated specialty, and the discounts were steeper.

Dorothy was probably a two-soul entity due to being a transmigrator, which inexplicably helped her evolve this Talent. All in all, the spending only amounted to slightly more than 1000 Mana.

Yeah, rounding up, that's basically freeloading.

This Talent also gave her an extraordinary advantage in fine control of Magic Power, and she had successfully freeloaded her way into gaining the Control of Magical Power (ssr) specialty.

Basically, it was a buy-one-get-one-free deal, truly an incredible bargain.

However, thinking about it, Dorothy looked at the seemingly unreliable Spider Teacher before her, starting to worry if she could withstand her exploitation.

And Noelle Rose, the target of this heaven-sent treasure, was still unaware of what awaited her in the future; she merely happily placed her hand on the shoulder of this troublesome student.

"Dorothy, you've been accepted. Rest assured, I, Noelle Rose, swear on my honor as a master of both Puppetry and Architecture, that I will nurture you into a valuable talent for the Witch World,"

"Mmm-hmm, okay, I'll be in your care from now on, teacher."

Dorothy was also very happy; she felt like she had stumbled upon a treasure.

My goodness, looks really could be deceiving. The Witch Academy truly had hidden dragons and crouching tigers. She never expected to encounter a double master in just any department. This was splendid; it seemed she wouldn't need to consider switching teachers anytime soon.

Rest easy, Noelle Rose. I intend to extract all your knowledge at quadruple speed.

Thus, for a while, the relationship between mentor and disciple was warm and affectionate.

Only the forgotten Audrey stood awkwardly, looking at this close mentor-disciple duo, feeling utterly out of place.

Wuwuwu, aunty, the superfluous one was me.

...Little Fox continues to shut down in solace...