"I Became a Witch, but Now Everyone's in Love with Me!"

Chapter 45: Chabao’s Magic Development Plan
 
Don’t open with a shield. First, hide a cluster of space points to set off the arcane trap. Then wave your staff and cast the mid-tier environmental spell [Fallen Quagmire], layering on effects like slow, curse, and disruption.

With one hand, she chained a sky full of lightning arrows together to reshape the power of thunder. In the same moment she turned, a spell model flashed into being within her eyes—and her mental interference struck first.
As she chanted, an Undead Knight rose from the swamp, bone claws emerging. When her right foot hit the ground, a barrage of crisscrossing spikes surged into the air.
Finally, one last blast of Shaping Energy Fusion swept the scattered mana together for a crushing blow aimed straight at Lina.

This was Jiang Cha’s current combat strategy.
The whole sequence took under three seconds. What most people had to calculate carefully, she performed instinctively—effortlessly, even casually.
“Chabao, can you even cast spells with your butt?!”

Lina, weighed down by debuffs—slowness, casting lag, weakened magic, and mana lock—fluttered up and down with her dragon wings. She shredded lightning with a claw, stomped ground spikes to bits, and charged forward with a flaming sword, closing in on the girl who was already turning to flee.
She didn’t expect [Hurricane] to activate from Jiang Cha’s shapely rear like a magic fart, sending her flying backward. Right into the Olympiad trap Jiang Cha had planted earlier. Her mental state collapsed on the spot.
“Spell models can be cast anywhere, can’t they?”

Jiang Cha, fully focused, didn’t even hear Lina’s complaints—her hands didn’t stop moving.
She raised her standard-issue staff and fired a thick beam of arcane energy at the golden-haired loli caught in arcane chains.
But that wasn’t enough.

This little dragon girl had skin like armor. A single arcane blast wouldn’t cut it.
So…
[Enhanced Casting] + [Explosive Fireball] + [Water Cannon] + [Sword of Heavenly Punishment] + [Elemental Burst].

An overload combo, straight from the book of evaporate-and-obliterate.
When Lina tumbled out of the explosion, her face was scorched black and her dragon scales were cracked and singed.
“Dirty. Just so dirty.”
Revived and sulking, Lina muttered curses as she looked at Jiang Cha, who seemed untouched apart from some mana drain.

“How the hell do you turn a solid artillery tactic into such a filthy playstyle? You’re the first turret witch I’ve seen who doesn’t even use a shield, Chabao!”
“Ahahaha~”
Jiang Cha scratched her head with an awkward grin. “If I use a shield, my casting rotation slows by 0.3 seconds. That gives you breathing room.”

Even though she had dominated Lina this round, the truth was, if Lina had just 0.1 more seconds to react, Jiang Cha would’ve been toast.
There was no helping it. Lina simply had more battle experience, and her traits and magical strength outclassed Jiang Cha in most areas.
“Jiang Cha-chan is already better than me,” He Qin said gently, handing them both drinks with a smile.

“Puppet Masters are weak early game, that’s all.”
“No way,” Jiang Cha muttered. “Running a secondary specialization is just burning money…”
The golden-haired girl chimed in with a dramatic sigh, eyes drifting toward Carol. “Unless someone reimburses you.”

“Don’t look at me,” Carol snapped. “Do you know how much club funding you three gremlins have already eaten through? We’re not as loaded as ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) the other clubs.”
The dark-skinned bombshell waved her hands quickly, as if swatting away debt collectors.
“Besides, you all have your own teachers. If you want resources, go ask them.”

It was true—the Battle Club was broke. But its instructors were anything but. These veteran witches had made fortunes fighting in other worlds and stockpiled enough magical gear to fill vaults.
If Jiang Cha and the others didn’t already have masters, Carol and the others would’ve gladly invested in them.
Especially since all three showed sage-level potential. The returns would be absurd. A guaranteed win.

But they did have masters.
And poaching disciples? That was basically asking for a duel to the death.
Carol wasn’t afraid of a fight—but why start one without a good reason?

“Don’t worry, Qinbao,” Lina said, quickly shifting gears. “Once you master puppetry and can summon tens of thousands of puppets with a flick, you’ll be totally OP.”
She clapped He Qin on the shoulder with a cheerful grin. If the conversation dragged on, Carol might start swinging—and she’d just been thoroughly humiliated by Jiang Cha. No need to make it a two-for-one.
“Puppet Master is a late-bloomer class… but why don’t you use magic tools, Jiang Cha?”

Kathy asked the question with genuine curiosity.
Jiang Cha pulled a cat-face. “Because I’m broke. And cheap props wouldn’t even scratch Lina. Might as well not bother.”
“Sister Kathy, please don’t give her ideas! She’s already hard enough to deal with! And now you want to give her props too?!”

Lina’s little fangs bared in protest.
She’d fought pay-to-win builds before—and honestly, Jiang Cha’s dirty tactics were just as bad. Maybe worse.
Most secondary witches were mediocre in combat. Especially under the Big Witch system, that was just the norm. But if Jiang Cha ever added magic gear into her loadout…

“Then train harder,” Kathy said, ruffling Lina’s hair with a grin.
“You’ll never beat a balanced opponent if you’re too specialized. That’s your real problem.”
“Balanced? You call Chabao balanced? She’s a freakin’ hexagon chart pervert!”

“Lina, do you want another round?”
“Bring it on! I’m not afraid of your nasty tricks!”
…

Twenty rounds later, the score was twelve to eight.
Lina scraped by with a narrow win.
Her innate talent was already amazing, and her dragon scales gave her top-tier resistance to both magic and melee. If she ever broke through Jiang Cha’s barriers and got in close, the match flipped instantly.

This score was exactly what you’d expect from a Charge Witch vs. Turret Witch matchup.
“Magical strength… ugh, never mind. I’ll work on my thought circuit instead.”
Witches didn’t practice soul-splitting or induced schizophrenia like other magic races. Their casting system was more delicate.

They divided the brain into sectors and etched magical runes within those spaces—constructing artificial thought circuits.
The upside: it kept the soul intact.
The downside: it was slow.

In some high-mana cultivation realms, soul-cutting cultivators could spawn tens of thousands of fragments with the right technique. For witches? A single thinking circuit could take half a year to fully construct.
But for a spellcaster, thinking circuits were critical. Each one was a leap in power.
With equal knowledge and mana, a witch with two circuits would always outclass one with only one.

This was the first magic Jiang Cha planned to develop on her own:
Wisdom Magic: Overlapping Thought.