[Location]: Yggdrasil Academy · Golden Bough Apartments · Room 302 (Second Floor Bedroom)
Hathaway pushed open the door to the second floor, backhanding it shut to lock out the "Old Money" Necrotic Hall downstairs.
Her bedroom, though lacking the vampire-castle gloom and luxury of the ground floor, was spacious enough. It featured a four-poster bed with drapes, an en-suite bathroom, and a massive floor-to-ceiling window. Outside lay the dreamlike, tower-filled skyline of the White City, with countless floating islands casting giant shadows under the midday sun.
"Phew..."
Hathaway threw herself heavily onto the bed, which was as soft as a cloud.
"I survived."
Although the process was thrilling (nearly had her internal organs vibrated to mush), and the methods were despicable (referring to the chili powder), the result was good. Enrolled successfully. Housing acquired. And she had reached a shaky truce with a mortal enemy who probably wanted her dead.
"Next is..."
Hathaway sat up abruptly as her stomach let out a roar akin to a dragon's.
Grrr—!
"An army marches on its stomach."
She opened her magi-tech terminal, ready to check the location of the nearest cafeteria, and casually glanced at her financial status.
[Account Balance: 30,245 Gold Solars]
Seeing this precise number, Hathaway nodded with satisfaction.
As a former Game Designer, her sensitivity to data instantly generated a revenue and expenditure spreadsheet in her mind:
- Income A: 30,000 Solars (The "Angel Round" startup capital from Mom Margaret).
- Income B: 250 Solars (The pathetic remnant balance on the original Hathaway's nearly maxed-out card).
- Expenditure: -5 Solars.
"5 Solars. Now that is unbeatable value."
Hathaway couldn't help but give a mental thumbs-up to the White City's public transport system.
To implement her "Low-Profile Enrollment" strategy, she deliberately didn't call for the family carriage today. Instead, she took the White City's Public Transit—[Route 66 · Aerial Dragon-Bus].
This wasn't the crowded metal tin cans of Earth. It was an exquisite Triangular-Sail Skiff accommodating about twenty people, pulled by a Medium-sized Wind Dragon. Despite its massive size, the flight was smoother than a military Griffon; you couldn't feel a single bump.
Inside the cabin, there were no plastic seats, only velvet booths with individual tea tables. The walls were decorated with mahogany bookshelves and oil portraits of the Grand Witches of past generations.
Sitting there, it felt like Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers" should be playing in the background.
Furthermore, at every stop, alchemy robotic arms would automatically refill the unlimited supply of beverages—Sour Plum Soup, Sugarcane Juice, and the Witches' favorite Iced Lemon Tea. While not expensive vintages, they were clean and abundant. You could just fill up your thermos and drink the whole way.
"This is a highly developed magical civilization."
Hathaway lamented with a mix of awe and satisfaction. For just 5 Solars, you could have a True Dragon as your chauffeur and enjoy service comparable to a private club. This wasn't just transport; this was the flex of the White City as the "Capital of the Inner Sea of Stars."
Holding a massive sum of thirty thousand, Hathaway felt her backbone stiffen.
In Witch society, this money was enough for her to live like an empress for a semester. She heard the "Ash-Rock Dragon Steak" in the cafeteria was only 25 Solars a serving, and it was made from the tenderest juvenile dragons.
"Decided. Going to the cafeteria to smash some dragon meat and replenish the calories burned from throwing lime powder."
Just as Hathaway was about to get up, the terminal on her wrist vibrated violently.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Three crimson urgent notifications popped up like blood splatter, dominating the entire retinal projection.
[Academic Affairs Warning: Dear Transfer Student Hathaway]
1. [Target Assessment: A1 · International Universal Witch Qualification]
- Nature: Mandatory Adult Obligation / Basic Survival Guarantee Certification.
- Status: Not Held (High Risk).
- Description: The A1 Certification is the cornerstone of Witch society. Passing this exam deems one "possessing independent civil capacity" and grants a monthly 200 Solar government welfare allowance.
- Ultimatum: Given that you are 18 years old and have not passed this certification, according to the Witch Code: Compulsory Education Act, you must pass the assessment on the Unified Exam Day 30 days from now. Failure will trigger Mandatory Expulsion and revocation of Witch citizenship.
2. [Credit Exchange Protocol (Gambler's Clause)]
- Current Credits: -24 (Due to transfer status).
- Option A: Score 50 on A1 (Pass). Gain formal student status, but must complete all assignments from the first half of the semester within one month.
- Option B: Score 120 on A1 (Distinction). Exemption from all Level 100 Basic Compulsory Courses this semester (e.g., Brief History of Spells, Basic Common Tongue), receiving full credits instantly.
3. [Exam Prep Material Pack]
- Attachment: A1_Question_Bank_2003_Real_Test.pdf (Total 120,000 pages)
Hathaway looked at the familiar "A1" on the screen. Her calm expression gradually solidified, and then—
Her vision went dark.
"A1...?" Hathaway rubbed her forehead, feeling the original Hathaway's memories attacking her brain. "A1 Certification... isn't this basically the Witch equivalent of a GED?"
In Witch society, the value of the A1 Exam was roughly equivalent to an Earthly "Primary School Diploma" plus a "Welfare Eligibility Card."
Its existence had only two purposes:
First, to prove you aren't an idiot and can cast spells independently without blowing yourself up.
Second, to give you money, ensuring you won't starve to death even if you don't want to work.
"But..."
Hathaway walked tremblingly to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked outside.
In the Witch World, appearances were deceiving. Once an adult (18), a Witch's time froze physically. A monster hundreds of years old might still look like a youthful girl.
But height and developmental stages couldn't lie.
Hathaway watched helplessly as several tiny tots, clearly still in their growth phase and shorter than their broomsticks, performed skilled supersonic maneuvers on the latest Nimbus brooms in the air.
They looked 10 or 12 years old at most, baby fat still clinging to their cheeks.
This was Yggdrasil Academy. The highest institution of Witch Civilization. Seeing a 10-year-old here meant only one thing—
While others were playing with mud, she had already cleared all basic education and charged into this ivory tower as an "Absolute Genius."
As for the A1 Certificate that was causing Hathaway such a headache?
To these kids, that was probably scrap paper they used to level table legs when they were 8 years old.
"..."
Hathaway looked down at her fully developed, curvaceous 18-year-old body.
Only the Original!
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That top-tier slacker who was good for nothing except being rich, pretty, and hot, had dragged this "Literacy Exam" out until her 18-year-old physical freeze period without taking it!
"Which means..."
Hathaway clutched her chest, feeling suffocated: "Those tweens changing teeth outside are already licensed elites. And I, a physiologically mature 18-year-old adult, am legally an illiterate giant baby without even a 'Literacy Proof'?"
This immense sense of inversion and shame made Hathaway want to crawl into a hole.
"And to avoid expulsion, I have to spend a month desperately studying for a... welfare test that is as simple as 'breathing' to them?"
But immediately, the will to survive took over.
"Calm down... Hathaway, calm down." She took a deep breath, trying to comfort herself with Earth logic: "Since it's a 'Primary School Diploma,' since it's a welfare test for 10-year-olds, how hard can the questions be?"
"Even if I'm an Earthling without magic common sense, with my logical thinking skills, doing some 5th-Grade Arithmetic shouldn't be a problem, right?"
Fueled by the sheer denial of "I won't believe I'm screwed until the Game Over screen appears," Hathaway tremblingly opened the [A1 Prep Material Pack].
"Let's see what Witch primary schoolers are learning..."
She confidently (not really) turned to the first page of last year's real test paper.
[Question 1 (Divination & Mana Calculus · Value: 10 Points)]
"Regarding the Level 3 Divination Spell [All-Seeing Eye]:
When observing a target in a 'High-Interference Environment' (e.g., The Abyss Layer 6), the mana consumption increases non-linearly with the duration of the spell.
Please establish a differential equation to compare the 'Minimum Mana Maintenance Threshold' against the 'Information Fidelity Coefficient'.
Calculate the exact Marginal Utility Decay Point where the mana cost exceeds the value of the information received (assume Observer Stability is constant at 8.5)."
Clatter.
The magi-tech terminal in Hathaway's hand dropped onto the blanket.
Her vision went dark again.
"This is... A1?!"
"This is for 10-year-olds?!"
Hathaway clutched her hair.
"Calculus? Differential Equations? To cast a Level 3 spell?! I thought magic was about chanting 'Fireball' and throwing stuff! Why do I need to calculate Marginal Utility Decay?!"
Unwilling to give up, she picked up the terminal, her hand shaking like a chihuahua on caffeine, and swiped to the next question.
[Question 2 (Linguistics & Spatial Geometry · Value: 5 Points)]
"Please translate the following incantation using Ancient Witch Tongue (Third Dynasty Variant) and point out which three grammatical traps would lead to what degree of Non-Euclidean Spatial Collapse."
[Question 3 (Practical Application · Value: 10 Points)]
"Assume you are thrown into an 'Anti-Magic Field' with only a toothpick and a bar of soap. Please design an alchemy plan to kill an adult Hellhound (Fire Immunity) within one minute."
Hathaway threw the terminal across the room.
"It's over."
She collapsed on the bed, eyes lifeless, as if her soul had left her body. "This isn't something self-study can solve... the logic in these questions is high-dimensional..."
This wasn't 5th-grade arithmetic. This was blending Quantum Physics, High-Dimensional Geometry, Macroeconomics, and Wilderness Survival together, and then asking you to write a thesis in an alien language!
As a senior Game Designer in her past life, Hathaway knew the importance of "Numerical Balance." If a starter village quest was impossibly hard, either the dev was crazy, or she hadn't found the correct "Walkthrough."
Her hand trembling, she grabbed the terminal. Her fingers hovered over the keys, about to type 'Otherworld Transmigrators', but she violently hit the brakes.
Digital footprints. A pureblood Ludwig would never search for that.
But an arrogant pureblood absolutely would look up statistics to mock the lower species.
She deleted the text and typed a perfectly safe, condescending query: [A1 Exam, Transmuted Witches, Failure Rate].
The moment the search results popped up, Hathaway felt her heart skip a beat. It was a highlighted post from the Witch World's largest anonymous forum—"Cauldron Hub":
[Rant] Day 300 of converting to a Witch, still gazing at the stars from the Abyss of A1
OP: Location: White City. I was originally an Elven Priestess from the Emerald Dream with two thousand years of natural casting experience. After converting to a Witch, I thought A1 would be a breeze.
Result: I've been repeating for 9 months, still dying on the modeling questions for 'Mana Fluid Dynamics.'
Reference Data: According to the 2003 Annual Statistics of the Journal of Witch Sociology, for Otherworld species (Elves, Succubi, Dragons, etc.) converting to Witches, the average time to pass A1 Certification is 11.4 months. Among them, individuals from non-magical lower civilizations have an average time of 3.5 years, with a pass rate of only 12%.
The replies below were a sea of wailing:
Reply 1 (Succubus Sis): Don't mention it. I'm in my third year and I already want to go back to Hell to sell seduction potions. Witch brain structures are fundamentally different from ours. They are 'Biological Supercomputers'; we are 'Abacuses'."
Reply 2 (Former Dragon): Even getting the 'Eidetic Memory' racial trait after converting is useless! A1 tests Logical Reconstruction! Logic! The kind where you smash a ten-thousand-page book and reassemble it into a spell model! Anyone who comes here has to kneel!"
"..."
Hathaway's gaze was pinned dead on that "Former Dragon" reply.
"Eidetic Memory... is a racial trait? And... it's useless even if you have it?"
A chill crawled up her spine. As a designer, she understood this too well. This meant "Memory" was just the entrance ticket to this dungeon, not the cheat code to clear it.
"I don't believe it."
Hathaway gritted her teeth. Still clinging to the last shred of denial, she grabbed the [A1 Prep Material Pack]. "Verify. Must verify. What if I'm special? What if Earthling logic can create a miracle?"
With trembling fingers, she opened Chapter 1, "Fundamentals of Mana Fluid Dynamics."
Her gaze swept across the page.
Buzz.
A strange, cool sensation came from the depths of her brain. No resistance, no pain of memorization. The dense text, complex formulas, and obscure definitions were instantly burned into her cerebral cortex like a data stream.
She closed her eyes. The content of that page floated in her mind as clearly as a photograph.
[Passive Skill Confirmed: Witch-Level Memory (Eidetic Memory) · Functioning Normally]
Hathaway opened her eyes.
No ecstasy. Only a bone-chilling cold.
"It's true..." She muttered, her face pale. "This body comes with a built-in 4K Scanner. I literally have the .jpg files of these pages in my brain. But I don't have the software to read them. Then, next is the moment to witness the execution."
She pulled up the real test question that had made her black out earlier:
...[All-Seeing Eye]... Minimum Mana Maintenance Threshold... Information Fidelity Coefficient...
Hathaway's brain rapidly mobilized the knowledge she just "scanned."
Standard Model of [All-Seeing Eye]? In the brain. Clearly visible.
Mana Calculus Formula Table? In the brain. Every symbol was sharp.
Interference Parameters of the Abyss? Also in the brain.
"Deduction Start." Hathaway took a deep breath and tried to combine these ingredients. "Let 'X' be the Mana Output, let 'Y' be the Vision Clarity..."
She tried to build the model in her head.
Clunk.
The gears of her thinking jammed instantly.
In this moment, she finally understood the despair of that "Former Dragon" netizen. The knowledge points in her head were isolated.
She knew exactly what the "Abyssal Interference Constant" was (it was 8.5).
She knew the definition of "Information Fidelity" by heart.
But when the question asked her to construct a "Differential Equation" to find the dynamic equilibrium point between them... her mind went blank.
She could recite the definition of every single brick, but she had absolutely no idea how to build the cathedral. It was like asking someone who had only memorized the dictionary to immediately write a Nobel Prize-level novel.
Or more accurately—
It was like forcibly plugging a hard drive full of hundreds of terabytes of data into an abacus.
"GPU not supported... CPU computing power insufficient..."
Hathaway collapsed on the bed, eyes lifeless, completely despairing.
"This isn't a memory issue. This is an Operating System issue."
The Witch A1 Exam didn't test knowledge reserves at all; it tested "Witch-Style Thinking Logic." That was the multi-threaded, high-dimensional logic processing capability carved into their genes through thousands of years of evolution and education.
And Hathaway, although possessing Witch hardware (body and memory), her Soul Kernel was still that of an Earthling accustomed to linear thinking.
"Even that dragon took three years... Why do I, an incompletely evolved 'Primitive,' think I can pass in 30 days?"
Checkmate.
This was an absolute checkmate.
Unless...
Unless someone could help her "Reinstall the System."
Unless there was a "Top-Tier Admin" well-versed in this logic who was willing to dismantle her thinking hand-in-hand, violently breaking down the Earthling's linear logic and reassembling it into the Witch's mesh logic.
Hathaway's gaze involuntarily passed through the floor, looking towards the ground floor.
Beneath that thick carpet, in that dark Gothic hall, lived the Perfect Candidate.
Victoria Wellington.
Although Hathaway didn't know her specific ranking in the school. But through the duel just now, Hathaway saw two things clearly:
First, she is a Wellington. A top-tier noble family from Holheim, with unfathomable family learning.
Second, her foundations are extremely solid.
Recalling the duel, Victoria didn't even draw her staff. Just a casual glance allowed her to pinpoint the "loose structure" and "low frequency" in Hathaway's spell model.
This meant that the A1 knowledge points, which were like hieroglyphics to Hathaway, might just be 1+1=2 common sense in Victoria's eyes.
"..."
Hathaway gritted her teeth, her expression becoming colorful. "My life-saving straw... is actually her?"
This was difficult.
Extremely difficult.
Ludwig and Wellington were mortal enemies. Worse... just an hour ago, Hathaway had "cheaped" this young lady with a packet of extra spicy chili powder.
The current Victoria probably wanted to turn Hathaway into a specimen and hang her on the wall.
Grrr—!
The hunger in her stomach spiked again, as if urging her to make a decision quickly.
Hathaway jumped off the bed, grabbed the black trench coat prepared for "low profile (not really)," and dug out the Void Dragon Leather Boots from the shoe rack to put on.
"Whatever! Eat first!"
A determined fighting spirit named "Shamelessness for the sake of Passing" ignited in her eyes.
"So what if we're mortal enemies? So what if I used chili powder? As long as my skin is thick enough, as long as the benefits (or sweet talk) I offer are enough... Even if I have to be her exclusive maid for a month, I will 'borrow' that tsundere princess's brain!"
She pushed open the door and rushed down the stairs with high morale. Passing the first-floor hall, she made a "Just you wait" gesture at Victoria's closed door.
"Going to the cafeteria to refuel! Once I'm full, I'm initiating 'Roommate Conquest' mode!"
Hathaway rushed out of the apartment, bathed in the midday sun, sprinting towards the Cafeteria No. 1.
Objective: Ash-Rock Dragon Steak.
Strategic Objective: Conquer Victoria, the "Humanoid Question Bank," and make her carry me!
This tragedy titled "Transmigrator vs. Otherworld Exam-Oriented Education" officially entered the "Humble Learning" arc.
Design Note: To a Witch, "General Education" involves fluid dynamics and non-Euclidean geometry. I designed this magic system specifically to break the "Isekai Protagonist" mold. Hathaway thought she was smurfing in a novice village. Turns out, the elementary students here are playing Elden Ring while she's still trying to figure out Pong.