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“Mana… There is always a shortage of mana for witches. Without enough mana, witches can’t advance nor use large spells that may potentially save their lives,” Helia answered.

Without enough mana, witches would be forced to burn their life force, which everyone wouldn’t want to do unless it was absolutely necessary.

However, Vaan shook his head.

“Mana is important, but it’s not the most important to the witches in Redpine City,” Vaan calmly stated.

“Most of them do not leave the city to hunt for resource in the wild, so the dangerous situations they encounter outside does not exist for them. They wouldn’t need to fight for their lives in the city. If we are looking at potions that increase mana capacity or mana recovery, there would only be a portion of outgoing witches that actually need it. Mana itself isn’t as important to city witches.”

“After all, this world doesn’t lack mana. As long as this world is still connected to Gehenna, mana will continue to pour into this world ceaselessly,” Vaan stated.

“Right…” Helia completely agreed with Vaan. She had only looked at the problem and not the source._.

“Mana is important, but what witches truly care about is their advancement rate. With enough mana, talented witches can grow at a much quicker rate…”

“However, innate talent alone can only carry a witch so far. It can help them reach the finish line first. Still, there’s no point if they can’t cross it,” Helia mentioned as she thought about the large population of witches stuck at Peak-stage True Witch and the fewer that stagnated at Peak-stage Senior Witch like herself.

“In other words, the most important aspect to a witch is the ability to make the breakthrough to the next rank.”

“Witches stumped by their bottlenecks are more likely to throw everything they have for a chance to advance… However, I don’t believe a potion that could make witches achieve breakthroughs exists,” Helia mentioned with furrowed brows before she suddenly thought of something. “No, wait. Although a potion that could make a direct breakthrough doesn’t exist, there are quite a few potions that can increase the chance of success.”

“Bingo,” Vaan nodded before he said, “Which brings us back to the main question – What is the most important aspect to a witch when it comes to making the breakthrough?”

“Willpower is the answer,” Astoria suddenly broke her silence with a confident answer.

“Willpower?” Helia furrowed her brows with deep thoughts as she wondered, “Am I stuck at Peak-stage Senior Witch because I lack willpower?”

“But how is that possible for me?” Helia rejected the possibility.

“I’ve lived for more than three hundred years. I’ve also fought in the desperate Holy War and survived like everyone else that did. How can I possibly be lacking willpower?”

“I don’t want to discredit your contribution, Lord Helia. However, having all those experiences doesn’t necessarily guarantee your willpower is on the same level as mine and other High Witches,” Headmaster Astoria broke the news to her.

They weren’t on the same level.

“Being in desperate situations isn’t enough. For instance, a person who burns their life force to escape a desperate situation will have a weaker mind than someone who could get out of the very same situation without relying on burning their life force. If you want to increase your willpower quickly, you have to face hopeless situations head-on and not give into despair. You have to use every fiber of your being to overcome them without relying on easy solutions.”

“Even when it seems like you can’t go on, you have to convince yourself to keep going. Overcoming your limits is the quickest way to increase your willpower,” Astoria added.

If she had to be honest, Aura Users most likely have more willpower than witches of the same rank.

“We might have diverged from the main topic, but Headmaster Astoria is right. Willpower is the most important aspect when it comes to advancing the rank,” Vaan calmly stated.

“Thus, I will introduce two new potion recipes; one that temporarily increases mental strength and the other boosts mental energy.”

Considering his Specialized Magic is powered by mental energy, having more of these types of potions on the market was beneficial to him.

“And these two potions will increase the chance of a successful breakthrough for witches? Won’t taking both of them at once basically guarantee success then?” Helia guessed.

However, Astoria replied to her before Vaan could, “Unlikely. There shouldn’t be any guaranteed success. After all, willpower isn’t easy to measure.”

“For some witches, the little push might just be what they need to form their new magic circle. For others, they might need an even bigger push to succeed.”

“Thus, unless the potion rank is high enough, I doubt a potion that can guarantee breakthroughs will exist,” Astoria concluded before glancing at Vaan. “Isn’t that right, Teacher Raphna?”

“Exactly,” Vaan confirmed with a nod.

Creating a new magic circle around the heart was like adding a new rubber band to a watermelon filled with stretched rubber bands. The watermelon would explode if it could not withstand the burden of the new rubber band.

At the same time, there’s an opposing force that repels the addition of the magic circle like two magnets that do not attract. A lot of willpower was required to bring the two together.

However, that is also where the greatest danger in witch cultivation lies.

If the witch’s willpower fell short after bringing the magic circles so close to each other, the repelling force would become so great that it would collapse all the existing magic circles upon release.

Nevertheless, after asking for a pen and paper, Vaan quickly wrote down the two recipes and concoction instructions before handing them back to Helia.

“Tenacious Soul Potion…and Furious Soul Potion?” Helia read the names before saying, “Judging by these ingredients and instructions, they will likely turn out to be Rank 2 or even Rank 3 potions. A normal Potioneering Master won’t be able to make this…”

“More importantly, some of these ingredients are Gehenna plants that are hard to get,” Helia added with knitted brows.

“Is it?” Vaan smiled unconcernedly and said, “As a recalled, there were quite a few buried under the Red Goblin Mountains.”

“Fortunately, I’ve also collected a few before the collapse.”