She retracted the chains of light and continued forward.
One after another, the exam prompts appeared.
Use restoration magic to repair a damaged medical record cabinet and find experimental records from burned archives.
Use concealment magic to avoid the patrolling faceless doctors.
Use fire butterflies to lure away the ghostly figures hiding in the nurse's station.
Use a summoned spirit crow to fly into the ventilation ducts and check for ambushes in the operating room.
Use black mist bindings to suppress rampaging patients, and then use healing spells to cleanse them of their sources of pollution.
Cen Yao's magic was not particularly powerful, but she was becoming increasingly proficient in its use.
She bypassed any dangers she could, swiftly dealt with targets she had to resolve, and never skipped setting up an escape route in advance.
As the orb watched, the entire system went quiet.
It finally understood why Cen Yao was learning so quickly.
It was not because she was fearless.
On the contrary, it was because she was too afraid.
Thus, she was more cautious than anyone, more willing to break down every minor spell into ten different uses.
Fire butterflies were not just for illumination; they could also lead the way, lure enemies, and test air currents.
The Cleaning Spell did not just clean bloodstains; it could also determine whether pollution had adhered to a surface.
A restoration spell did not just fix things; it could also reconstruct damaged clues.
A summoning array was not just for summoning; it could also serve as a retreat path.
Ordinary magic that seemed unremarkable to others had all become tools for survival in Cen Yao's hands.
When the final door of the abandoned hospital opened, the System's prompt chimed.
[Comprehensive Scenario Exam completed.]
[Remaining Specialized Exams: Potions, Alchemy.]
[Randomly generating questions...]
Cen Yao had barely breathed a sigh of relief before her surroundings warped once more.
This time, she appeared in an abandoned medicinal plant cultivation area beneath the hospital.
Overhead was a shattered glass greenhouse. Black vines hung from the cracks in the walls, and the ground was covered in decaying soil and stark white bones.
In the distance, several rows of rusted cultivation racks were filled with numbered jars containing various organs preserved beyond recognition.
System text materialized:
[Please gather materials and brew an Elementary Anti-Pollution Potion within thirty minutes.]
Cen Yao's gaze instantly turned serious after reading the list of materials.
Moon-dew grass, ash-crystal powder, decay-bone flower, silver-thread fungus, and clear-heart vine sap.
She had to find all of them herself.
And judging by the environment, gathering materials would definitely not be as simple as grocery shopping.
Cen Yao sent out her spirit crow to scout and conjured several more fire butterflies to fly off in different directions.
Soon, the spirit crow let out a caw.
Cen Yao ran in the direction of its signal. Just as she parted a patch of black vines, the ground suddenly split open, and a hand pieced together from white bones lunged to grab her ankle.
Her reaction was lightning-fast. She pressed her shield down, and the skeletal hand shattered into several pieces upon hitting the barrier.
Cen Yao raised her hand and cast a Flame Spell, completely burning away the skeletal vines hidden in the soil.
Beneath the ashes, she found the first decay-bone flower.
Over the next twenty minutes, Cen Yao avoided toxic mists, burned away ghostly vines, repaired damaged incubators, summoned the spirit crow to retrieve the silver-thread fungus hidden high up, and used the Cleaning Spell to clear the layer of pollution from the ash-crystal powder.
The final ingredient, the moon-dew grass, grew inside the eye socket of a corpse hanging upside down.
The corpse suddenly opened its eyes, baring a mouthful of sharp fangs at her.
Reflexively, Cen Yao unleashed a blade of light.
The corpse turned to ash, and the moon-dew grass fell into her palm.
She looked down at the herb, then at the ash on the ground.
“Sorry, I'm in a hurry.”
Once all the ingredients were gathered, Cen Yao immediately set up her cauldron.
Keeping the flame's temperature at its most stable, she first added the ash-crystal powder to neutralize the pot. Then, she crushed the decay-bone flower and added three drops of clear-heart vine sap. The silver-thread fungus went in next, and the moon-dew grass had to be dropped in the exact instant the liquid turned blue.
The liquid bubbled, its color shifting from a muddy blackish-green to deep blue, before gradually revealing a layer of pale silver under the catalyst of her incantation.
The last wisp of black mist dispersed from the mouth of the cauldron.
A pale blue anti-pollution potion was complete.
The System's prompt immediately popped up:
[Specialized Potion Exam passed.]
[Specialized Alchemy Exam beginning.]
[Please craft a disposable amulet within twenty minutes.]
The environment changed once more.
This time, it was an operating room on the verge of collapse.
On the operating table lay silver plates, black iron powder, astral sand, and a small, damaged crystal core.
Blood seeped continuously from the surrounding walls. Hanging upside down from the ceiling were rows of eyeless patients whose mouths were stitched shut with needle and thread, yet they still let out muffled wailing.
The wailing interfered with mental focus, the blood would corrode magic patterns, and debris fell from the ceiling at regular intervals.
Cen Yao first used a small flame to dry the workstation, then used the Cleaning Spell to clear away the bloodstains, before casting a Calming Curse on herself to block out the wailing.
As debris crashed down, she did not look up, simply letting her shield automatically expand to protect her.
She secured the silver plates, laid a base of astral sand, and used the black iron powder to trace the patterns.
A thin silver light lit up at the tip of her wand. Cen Yao held her breath, carving the core magic runes of the amulet stroke by stroke.
Just as she was carving the final three strokes, one of the eyeless patients on the ceiling suddenly snapped its stitches and fell straight toward her.
Cen Yao did not even bat an eye.
A black mist binding sprang up from the ground, tying the creature securely in midair.
“Quiet.”
The magic runes continued to flow from her hand.
“I have a bad temper when I'm rushing to finish my homework.”
With the final stroke complete, she embedded the crystal core into the center.
The amulet suddenly flared with a ring of silver light, forming a translucent, small protective barrier that repelled all the bloodstains and falling debris around the workstation.
The System's prompt chimed:
[Specialized Alchemy Exam passed.]
[Elementary Witch Comprehensive Exam completed.]
[Evaluating exam results...]
Cen Yao stood in place, her fingers still trembling.
She was so nervous she did not even dare to breathe too heavily.
A few seconds later, golden text materialized in the air.
【Exam passed.】
【Evaluation: Excellent.】
【Congratulations to the Host for officially obtaining the qualification of an Elementary Witch.】
Cen Yao looked at the words and suddenly smiled.
It was not the smile of someone imagining themselves slaughtering everyone, nor was it the smile of someone who had merely survived by luck.
But it was a smile of final confirmation that her three months of hard work had not been in vain.
She had truly learned it.
Even if it was just the elementary level, and even if she was still a million miles away from becoming the greatest witch in the universe.
But she was no longer that ordinary person who could only sit in front of a screen and tremble.
The orb flew in front of her, its voice uncharacteristically gentle.
“Host, the novice learning period has ended. Preparing to return to reality.”
Cen Yao looked down at the witch's robe she was wearing, then tightened her grip on her wand.
“Sys.”
“Hmm?”
“Am I really amazing now?”
The orb thought about it seriously. “A little bit. But not by much.”
Cen Yao: “...”
This system really knew how to ruin the mood.
The white light flared once more.
The abandoned hospital, the magic arrays, the potion station, and the alchemy table in front of Cen Yao all faded away.
In the next second, she was back in her own room.
The curtains were tightly drawn, and her notebook on dungeons, which she had been writing in before entering the space, still lay open on her desk.
In reality, only a month had passed.
Cen Yao had just steadied herself and had not even had time to take off her hood when the phone on her desk suddenly vibrated violently.
The screen lit up automatically.
The blood-red interface of the Horror Game filled the entire screen.
【Player selection complete.】
【Player Name: Cen Yao.】
【Age: 18.】
【Identity confirmed.】
【Preparing to enter the novice dungeon.】
Cen Yao's pupils contracted sharply.
In the next second, cold, blood-red text continued to emerge.
【Drawing Talent...】
【Loading dungeon...】
【Countdown: 10.】
【9.】
【8.】
Cen Yao's heart sank.
It was here.
She thought she would be so terrified that her legs would turn to jelly, just like a year ago.
But at this moment, she merely tightened her grip on the black wand in her hand.
The purple hood cast a shadow over the upper half of her face, and the light in the room shattered into tiny, sparkling points on the stardust patterns of her robe.
The countdown ticked down to the final second.
【1.】
【Welcome, Player Cen Yao, to the Horror Game.】
Before the white light burst forth, Cen Yao spoke softly:
“Fine then.”
“Dungeon, here I come.”
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