Lily scowled at that. She really did have a hard time for the first two weeks.
She could say it was hellish. She was a princess and manual labor is foreign to her. Running like that while maintaining a barrier was too much for her body.
For days, her muscles hurt for being strained and overused. Her body had a hard time getting used to the overwhelming amount of mana she produced.
She even had difficulty controlling her anger which added to the pressure she received from her Spartan-like instructors.
It came to the point that she almost had enough. That whole thing was unbearable. She had begged Heather not to undergo training anymore.
But Sorrel managed to convince her and reminded her of her goals, thus she didn't quit.
"Time for your test. Let us see how well you can cast the spells." Zeke said which made Lily break away from her thoughts.
"What? Now?" she groaned while getting up. "Can I just take the test tomorrow?"
Zeke just rolled his eyes at her and hit the ground with his staff. A pentagram formed then five imps appeared out of thin air. They were of varied shapes, colors and sizes.
"These are those creatures that had been nuisances in your daily training. Make use of them to practice some of the basic spells that you have already learned." Zeke said while making way for the girl.
Lily glared at the imps which made faces at her. It was as if they were challenging her to a fight. The girl could feel the wave of annoyance slowly creeping her being.
She was especially pissed with the biggest one, a purple imp with huge bat-like wings and long pointed ears. That one had been constantly knocking her off course.
Cracking her knuckles, Lily gave a wicked grin. "It is payback time..."
Lily took a deep breath to calm down before she set to work. Snapping her fingers, she made all five imps levitate.
Though they have wings, the imps were not in charge of their flight, Lily had them hovering a few feet above the ground as she intended them to be.
The first spell that she had to practice was shape shifting. Normally, she had trouble making things change shape but this time she was able to make the imps transform into several figures.
The first one became a mouse with an unusual color of blue. Another one was turned into a green ferret.
The other one was changed into a pink monkey. The fourth one was morphed into an orange donkey.
When Lily reached the last one, she momentarily snapped. The cheeky imp had taunted her again by making ridiculous faces.
The purplish one was transformed into a pig, but the problem was Lily failed to change it completely. Instead of having a pig's ears, the ears remained long and pointed.
"I messed up again!" she muttered as the purple pig squealed as if it was mocking her. It did not seem to mind that its appearance had been distorted.
Zeke took note of the girl's work. "well done with shape changing. Four out of five is not that bad. But I see that we need to work on the colors next."
Lily groaned at that.
A smile formed on Zeke's face. It seemed as though Lily had mellowed down for a bit.
Usually she would get angry for failing at her spell casting. Her burst of anger would in turn make the target of her spell explode. But this time she was considerably calm and had done her task well.
"You seemed a bit bothered." Zeke remarked.
Lily hesitated but finally revealed. "I have been thinking of my potion making class. I need to find several ingredients."
"In that case, you can just go and buy them in Hemlock."
"But Madam Caraway insisted that I have to find fresh ingredients from the forest."
"Well, then you have to start searching. The moon will wax just a week from now. You will need to find the ingredients. Not to mention you will have to find materials for your broom." The wizard said.
The girl groaned as she remembered her other assigned task.
"I just hope I can gather the ingredients for the potion and find the materials for my broomstick in time." She mused.
Usually witches are given broomsticks as gifts by their mentors. However, Lily had a hard time getting along with the broomsticks that Heather and Sorrel had lent.
For the past four weeks, Lily had been learning how to fly properly. But despite her efforts the besoms would always refuse to follow her command and throw her off.
There were rare cases in which she had succeeded in holding on to the besom. However, in those cases, the broomsticks had been broken due to Lily's mana pressure.
As always, Lily began her journey with a borrowed besom from Sorrel. But after crash landing for the umpteenth time, the girl was forced to walk through the Forest again.
"Why do I always have to do this tedious task?" she grumbled as she trudged on the rocky terrain towards the Forest.
Though, apprehensive about meeting more evil creatures, Lily had gain confidence that she could drive them away with her spells and potions.
Luckily, she had not encountered anymore bizarre creatures when she entered the forest. Her hunt for the materials began after she reached the inner parts of the herb woods.
The Forest of Silence had been abundant with materials for all sorts of crafts and magic.
In just a matter of an hour Lily was able to gather a four-foot length of oak for the handle and thin long strands of Willow for binding the broom.
"What am I going to use, birch, thyme, mugwort or myrrh? Other witches use birch but I want something more unique." Lily muttered as she looked for the perfect bristles for her besom.
Lily stopped short when a certain sound echoed through the woods. Not again!" she exclaimed while thinking about the Sightless Lady who assaulted her before.
"I am a witch! I shouldn't be afraid of monsters." She recited to herself like a mantra.