Chapter 96: Chapter 96

[Effect 3: Speed or Defense—Choose between Agility +2 or Defense +200.]

[Note: Changing the material does not affect the garment’s effects, except for waterproofing, insulation, and heat dissipation properties, which are preserved.]

After reading the equipment info, Mu Ying retracted her earlier doubts. The garment’s appearance was its true highlight—being able to change at will, it truly lived up to its name.

However, as a blue-quality clothing item, its defense bonus wasn’t particularly impressive—in fact, it was rather mediocre, about the same as the green-quality chainmail at Paul’s Armor Shop. Plus, you could only choose either the agility or defense bonus, not both at the same time.

Still, Copper Coin 559 was right: this garment suited her, or rather, it suited any spellcaster in her territory, especially female ones.

Wearing heavy armor would hinder spellcasting.

Mages could only wear cloth armor, while druids were a bit better off—they could wear cloth, leather, or any non-metal light armor.

Unfortunately, the higher-quality gear at Paul’s Armor Shop was all metal, since metal armor naturally offered higher defense and was more likely to be of high quality than leather or cloth.

The Thousand-Faced Garment’s defense was only average for blue gear, but Mu Ying didn’t have any better options. As for bringing in higher-level shops, that was just a bluff to pressure Copper Coin 559.

After all, these shops not only required a certain population in the territory, but also demanded a certain overall strength and purchasing power from the residents.

At this stage, apart from forum posts, there was no communication between territories. Everyone was cautiously exploring their surroundings, and migration was rare. It was hard to significantly increase the population—unless she found another race like the Myconids. The overall strength and purchasing power of her residents lagged far behind.

After weighing the pros and cons, Mu Ying decided to make the trade. She could use the Thousand-Faced Garment for now, and when she got better equipment in the future, she could wear both at once. The garment’s ability to change appearance meant it could adapt to any occasion and wouldn’t interfere with the comfort of wearing other gear.

“Come again soon!”

Having just closed a big deal, Copper Coin 559 beamed, his face full of wrinkles—clearly, he’d profited handsomely.

Mu Ying didn’t mind. She took her new Thousand-Faced Garment and the sample copy of “A Lady’s Wardrobe” back to her treehouse.

Seeing the familiar copper coin logo in the corner of the sample, she realized that this so-called “gift” from Copper Coin 559 was actually another product of the Copper Coin Trading Company—probably always meant to be a bonus with the garment.

Sure enough, “A Lady’s Wardrobe” was more of a catalog for the Copper Coin Clothing Store, filled with pictures of various outfits and information on where to buy them at the company’s stores on different planets or planes, along with prices and other details.

Still, Mu Ying learned a lot of place names from it. The Doomsday Game must originate from a vast and prosperous world—otherwise, how could a single trading company have shops on so many planets and planes?

The sample catalog included all kinds of outfits: casual wear, battle gear, formal dresses. By matching the Thousand-Faced Garment to the pictures, she could transform it into any of those styles—from clothes to shoes and hats, achieving the ultimate in versatility.

As a normal young woman, Mu Ying liked pretty clothes too, though she’d never wear anything too elaborate or flashy as everyday wear—she preferred to admire those in private and valued practicality more in public.

In the end, she combined patterns and decorations from the catalog with the style of her witch academy uniform, recording one set of casual wear and one set of battle gear into the Thousand-Faced Garment.

The casual outfit included a long dress with black and dark green floral trim, an outer robe, tights, and ankle boots.

The battle outfit consisted of dark green and black-trimmed pants and top, plus tall boots.

Both outfits had belts with three clasps for hanging her Witch’s Book, a small storage pouch, and a seedling basket.

Standing before the mirror, Mu Ying finally felt like her life was becoming less makeshift and more refined.

The little figurine, Shi Yin, glanced at Mu Ying, then at itself, and quietly crawled under the bed. A moment later, it emerged blushing—its shirt now dark green, its pants black.

Mu Ying noticed its little maneuver and couldn’t help but smile."

"Waking up in the tower of the Witch’s Magic School, Mu Ying stepped out onto the balcony, letting the morning breeze brush against her face and breathing in the fresh scent of dew. It all felt like a lifetime ago.

During her time away, she’d been too worried about safety to attempt any trials, so she’d accumulated seven hours’ worth of trial time. According to the time in the Emerald World, that would be enough for her to stay here until the end of the first week of the Month of Fire.

After a morning of classes—

“Mu Ying, do you have any plans for this afternoon?”

Lilian asked as usual. The three of them had each found their own paths by now, and rarely stuck together all the time like they did when they first started school.

“I’m going to the library to borrow the Encyclopedia of Everyday Magic that our senior recommended,” Mu Ying said, shrinking the Book of Witches and hanging it at her waist. “The holiday starts this weekend, so I need to go home and fix up my house. There are some spells that will be really useful. Otherwise, if I wait until graduation, the place might collapse.”

“Ugh, every time I hear about your house I get so jealous. I wonder if my grandmother will do what Senior Margarita said and just kick me out this time,” Lilian said with a sigh.

Windsor patted Lilian on the head and comforted her, “If you really do get kicked out, you can come stay at my place! Before I left for school, my mom was talking about going to the human world for a while, so she probably won’t be back by the time the holiday starts.”

“Well, you might as well both come to my place. It’s a bit shabby, but no one will boss us around. I’m actually planning to use this break to leave the Witch’s Forest for a bit. My house is on the edge of the forest, and beyond that is the human woods. My mother once told me there’s a human village nearby called Redberry Village.”

The more Mu Ying thought about it, the more she liked the idea. Windsor and Lilian each had their own strengths—if they helped, the repairs and cleaning would go much faster, and it would be safer to travel together.

Of course, there was another reason. She felt the history lessons about humans were far too superficial. Witches might have magic to protect themselves, but with just that little bit of knowledge, they’d be at a disadvantage in the human world.

They were her classmates, after all. It would be better to explore the human world together before their coming-of-age ceremonies, rather than being thrown into it alone afterward.

On Saturday morning, Mu Ying was packing up things to take home when Lilian landed on her balcony.

“Waaah, Mu Ying, I really did get kicked out. It’s so unfair!” Lilian wailed, squeezing out a few tears as she threw herself onto Mu Ying.

“Well, perfect timing! You can join my little homecoming group,” Mu Ying said, genuinely sympathetic, though she couldn’t help but find the Red Witch family’s tradition of melodrama a bit amusing. To keep herself from laughing, she quickly changed the subject. “Now we just need to see what’s up with Windsor.”

At Mu Ying’s invitation, Windsor and Lilian had both gone home the night before to check in with their families and see how they felt about the trip, planning to return to school and meet up with her afterward.

“Look, here she comes,” Lilian said gloomily, pointing out the window at a small black dot approaching in the sky.

Windsor landed, carrying a large bundle. “Mu Ying, my mom heard I was going to your place and sent you a gift.”

“Your mom is so nice! I’ve decided that someday, I want my daughter to experience the love of a Red Witch mom!” Lilian cheered up at the thought.

“…”

Mu Ying shot Lilian a look that said “I don’t even know what to say,” then took the package from Windsor.

Inside was a beautiful set of porcelain—both tea and dinnerware, enough for seven people. It couldn’t have been more timely; Mu Ying’s house was so bare, she only had a single cup for drinking water.

“Windsor, this is perfect! Please thank your mom for me. Ever since my mother passed, I’ve been living alone, so I only have single servings of everything. I was actually planning to borrow some dishes from the common room just to get by!” Mu Ying said gratefully.

Her homecoming party had grown from just herself to seven people. The holiday was turning into a group trip for the students of the magic school.

Lilian and Windsor were just curious. Even Windsor’s gentle mother had suggested she start living independently and set up her own place. Neither of them felt ready for that yet, nor had they saved up enough money, so they figured they might as well check out Mu Ying’s house first.

The older girls, meanwhile, wanted to prepare for their coming-of-age trials.

Their adulthood ceremonies were coming up, after which they’d have to venture beyond the forest on their own.

But until now, none of them had ever left the forest. Their only knowledge of the human world came from books, which left them both curious and nervous.

Mu Ying hadn’t expected to end up inviting both her seniors and classmates to her home.

Now she didn’t have to worry about not having finished learning all the everyday magic spells—her seniors had plenty of experience setting up homes and were experts at it. Her little wooden house was sure to get a complete makeover.

This time, Mu Ying was leading the way. She’d used a copying spell to make a map from the library in advance and planned out the route home.

But the maps weren’t very detailed, so she could only figure out the general direction. The exact location would have to be found on the spot.