《Skyrim System In Harry Potter World》 Chapter -1 - Important, before you start reading First chapters are being re-edited due to style change starting from chapter 10, so you as a new reader may see inconsistencies in some chapters. Like different styles in chapters that come one after each other. Bear with it please)) Therefore work is being done on chapters 1 to 9. Those that were edited will have "Note : Second Edit" in author''s thought. Chapter -2 - PLEASE, read this, before you proceed to this book. I would like to talk with you about a few things, that you may or may not like. First of all, MC - main character - is a person who has little to no knowledge about the HP - harry potter - Universe. All of his knowledge is based on films and that''s it. Second, MC is a human and not a character from a chinese novel. He makes mistakes, he forgets things and he sometimes contradicts himself. Third, MC is realist. So, his choices will be pragmatic most of the time. So don''t expect a guy who has no knowledge about the Hoggwarts school suddenly pick Slytherin because the reader wants it. NO! He sees 4 schools. 2 about which he knows nothing. One which is considered evil or whatnot and he knows nothing as well and the final one is the only one he more or less knowledgeable about. Choice is obvious I think. Fourth, MC like most humans on Earth likes his life. Which means in an unknown world where random spell can send you to heaven, he needs to somehow preserve his life. At the same time he knows about existence of the guy who has a plot armor and can survive anything that story throws at him. So, he has two choices. First one is going solo into unknown and dangerous world. Second, I ?ssume I don''t need to tell. I hope I don''t need to tell which choice he made either. Guys and gals, I am happy to hear your feedback. But! I am tired of listening shit like "MC did this? OMG! So stupid. Dropping". Want to drop? Do so, no problems. But if you are leaving a comment like this, don''t just say it is stupid. Give a sound reasoning. And if you have none and you simply don''t like the choice MC made, than I am sorry to hear it, but don''t hate on story because of this. Also, after reading, make sure to leave some review. It''s my first work after all. The book will have a main story and side stories that will be made after the main one. Main story won''t go above 100 chapters. I am not going to needlessly lengthen it. Main story will be based on HP Universe and the whole storyline will be happening there. Side stories will be made in other Universes. -- NO HAREM in the story. -- Hermione Granger NOT a possible female lead. She is meant for Harry Potter and that''s the way it will be. *** Other than that, there is a Discord Server dedicated to novel and related activities. There you may find unedited chapters few days prior to their release. Come join it. Plus it''s a nice way to affect future of this fanfic, cause there you can discuss your ideas directly with me. Link to discord: discord.gg/Q4datc5 Chapter 1 - Level 1. Where the hell, am I ? It was a chilly night with rain going outside. And in that weather, I had to leave the warmth of my house to help my friend. Or to be precise, make sure he gets home because he was heavily drunk, and somebody called me from his phone. I spent a few hours to get him home and put him into the bed. While going back home under the outpour of heaven, I was thinking: ''Why the heck, am I such a good friend? I mean c'' mon, it''s a Saturday! I wanted to sleep, and this idiot needed to drink today...'' Okay, finally I see the 24/7 shop, which means it is 5 more minutes till home and warmth... and dry clothes. In a few minutes, I got to the point, where I needed to cross the road to get to my house and I decided to cross the road in the wrong place because it was night and traffic was minimal. I looked on both sides of the road and started crossing. In the middle of that process, my phone ringed and I took it to check who was it, when suddenly I was blinded by suddenly appeared light. ''What the heck'' I looked to my left, where the light came from and the last thought that came to my mind was: ''Truck-kun? Is that you?'' ... Well, apparently, I was hit and I clearly remember moments after the hit. It was painful because adrenalin was unable to mitigate such sudden damage. I had many broken bones and even more broken organs. ''Can organs break?'' and other similar silly thoughts started appearing in my mind due to adrenalin and other compounds kicking in. After a minute or maybe even less, the pain started fading, as well as my consciousness. ''My last thoughts were about the fact that I will become sage in my next life, he-he'' ... When I opened my eyes, the first thing that greeted me was a grimly face of a huge man or maybe even a giant who looked at me seriously and asked: "Who are you and what are you doing here?" And after that he paused. And by paused I do not mean a pause in speech, but more of a freeze in time. Or maybe the whole world froze? ''What the heck is going on?'' [You are in process of a pick] Words suddenly appeared in front of my eyes, which kinda spooked me. ''What is this?'' I thought. [This is a System and I am your smart ?ssistant that represents the system] ''System?'' [Game System] ''WAIT. Game system? Like level up and skills type of system?'' [Indeed] ''Do not answer like an MC in Japanese novel, please. The setting is different...'' [...] ''Well in any case. What is going? Where am I?'' [You are in the magic academy. Without rights to be present in such an academy, you were apprehended for looking suspicious. You were noticed in the process of going through defensive wards. How exactly you appeared so far into the grounds of the academy is unknown.] ''Let me be clear. I was caught during the crossing of the border into a location, where I appeared completely unexpectedly, and somebody caught me during that crossing and considers me currently a prisoner.'' [Correct] ''I think I know what game you are from... You are not going to change, aren''t you? Now, what will I do?'' [Pick a race] ''...'' [...] ''At least tell me who is this guy'' [Hagrid] ''... no way ...'' It was at this moment he knew, he fu?k?d up... by the system [...] ''Same name and stature as the guy in Harry Potter? Are you kidding me?'' I exhaled... [He is that exact Hagrid because you are in the Harry Potter world! CONGRATULATIONS] ''... Are you a troll?'' [No. Why?] ''Cause you trolling me now. What the heck, from all universes that I knew well, you have thrown me into the one I knew nothing about? The only thing I know about this world is that Snape is the good guy, and 2 idiots and 1 smart girl will save the world.'' [Isn''t it fun? Adventure!] I understood, that I did not understand a thing. ''Whatever. So, what about that race? What choice do I have?'' [Races] 1. Human 2. Elf 3. Goblin 4. Vampire 5. Lycanthrope 6. Dragon ] [By thinking about a race, more information will be shown] ''Wow! Dragon?'' [A very strong magical beast divided into many subspecies. They mostly use flame, claws, and tail as weapons. Will be probably killed on spot by wizards in Hogwarts] ''Why even show it?! In the middle of a territory where I can be one-shot, you want me to become a dragon and probably die. System what is wrong with you?'' [Nothing.] ''It totally screws me over, isn''t it? Whatever! Elf'' [Elf] [Small magical beings capable of apparition into most of the places and wandless magic, though not as powerful as human wand magic. Due to many rules are mostly enslaved by wizards and witches until freed. If enslaved, they are under huge restrictions from their masters.] ''Goblin'' [Goblin] [Small magical beings capable of wandless magic, though not as powerful as human wand magic. Due to many rules are mostly subservient to wizards and witches and thought to be happy with that arrangement. Smart and sly, they became an important part of the wizards'' economy. Have skills in craftsmanship.] ''Vampire'' [Vampire] [Magical dead being, that is weak to sunlight and garlic. Physically stronger than humans, but magically mostly the same. Feed on blood, which makes them a potential danger to wizards'' society.] ''Lycanthrope'' [Lycanthrope] [Cursed humans that without their choice transform into a wolf in the full moon. Their bite in wolf form inflicts curse onto others. Physically and Magically the same as humans. Unsafe transformations shorten lifespan and possibly permanently damage body] ''All forms so far are freaking traps! What the heck? One is suicide, one is slave, one is servant, the other is dead and the last one is a curse? Why even show them?'' [So that you can freely pick a race!] ''Just say that you want me to pick a human...'' [It will be completely your choice] ''... Human'' [Human wizard or witch, depending on your gender.] ''Really?'' [Yes] [Your pick: ] ''Human'' [Your gender: ] ''Man'' [Your age: ] ''I can even pick age? Then can you tell me which year is it? Is it the same as the one when Harry Potter started studying in the academy?'' [Indeed] ''Indeed... Then I pick 11 years old!'' [Now it''s time to pick your appearance. Your original appearance from the previous Universe will be taken. Would you like to adjust it?] ''Will there be any consequences to changing appearance?'' [Indeed. Modification of phenotype includes rearranging your genes. So, there is always a risk that this can have harmful consequences. ] ''Example please?'' [Genetic diseases, organ failure, and possible mutations. That''s only predictable consequences. Of course, the chance is very low.] ''Low chance?! It''s a chance of freaking organ failure! Even if the chance is one in a million, I would not take it. Plus, my outer appearance wasn''t that bad and if I start at 11 than most things can be fixed with a healthy lifestyle and working out.'' [Then, do you wish to proceed with the current arrangement?] I saw myself but younger, when I was 10 or maybe 11 years old. Not too skinny, not too bulky. I can''t say I was very beautiful. All in all, mediocre. Pretty tall for a kid. Dark curly hair. Dark eyes. Thin lips and a very short haircut, due to not liking long hair. Eyebrows were thick and black as well. The nose was with a little hump. Overall nothing much. If you would be asked to say a race, then it will be Asian. ''Yes. Proceed.'' [Pick a name: ] ''Hmm... I know the game you are from and I know that we are in the Magical World. Let my name be the name of the greatest et''Ada and leader of Magna-Ge - Magnus '' [Congratulations Magnus.] [Your progress is saved] ''Wait, what?'' Chapter 3 - Level 3 [ part 1 ]. Magic, Stamina or Health? I and Hagrid were on our way to the Great Hall. Physically I was moving, but mentally I was thinking about notification I received not so long ago. ''Level up'', was it? I am deeply confused by it. From the game where the system came from, I remember, that each level up can be used to increase stamina, magicka or health by 10 points and get 1 skill point. Also every level up could restore all magicka, stamina, and health after using those 10 points of increase. ''Hm...'' I really wanted to check what it gives and check if the system here follows the same rules or has some deviations. But at the same time, I need to concentrate on what is going on before me and currently, I have no time for level up. Soon, I started hearing the screams and cheers of students. It seems ''Sorting'' has begun. "I ?ssume, we are not that far from the hall?" "Yeah, we will reach it soon. Let''s hurry up!" Hurry up? The heck? Weren''t we already at max speeds here? And that actually leads me to thought. ''Hagrid is half a giant, right? But somehow neither giants nor half-giants were an option in race pick, system? You really wanted me to pick human, aren''t you? That is why you gave me only shitty options!'' [You had free rein in picking a race from a wide roster of races, that inhabit this world. And we picked the best of the best for you to pick from! And you made a delightful choice, which you did out of a free will, I must notice.] ''Really, now? And it just an accident that races you pick all have huge demerit...'' [Well. All great abilities should be balanced in nature, young man!] ''What negative on the same level as elf''s slavery humans have?'' [...] ''...'' [They need a wand?] At that moment we reached the point where I can see huge gates and Great Hall behind them. "Here ya go and we made it in time!" "GRYFFINDOR!" Came from behind the gates and after that room exploded with cheers. "Then I am going in. Thank you for your help Hagrid. You saved me! See you later." I waved to him. "Have fun, boy!" I quickly entered through the opened gates and started going to a small cluster of people left unsorted. Due to the atmosphere in the hall, it was hard to notice one newcomer. What''s more, attention was on the hat, so nobody looked in my direction. I was walking, trying not to attract any attention and with a look like I was meant to come later. Not many people noticed me and those who did were either a teacher or a student who did not pay attention to the sorting ceremony. Soon I came right behind the cluster of people. The sorting hat was still in the process of... well, sorting and there were not many people left. I did not want to attract attention, so I did not check if Main Character a.k.a. Harry Potter was sorted yet or not. While all that was happening, I had time to think about this world. To be honest, I had no strong feelings for the Universe as a whole, until I came here. Except for films, I had no previous interactions with it. As for the main character. Well, I feel pity for him. According to films, a boy who did not know anything about magic was thrown to a world he knew nothing about and forced to save it. To be raised only to be slaughtered, because he had a part of the soul of some evil dude. I mean boy survived by luck the first time when he was a baby, and the same goes for the second time when he suicided to save his friends. The only character I was heartbroken about was Snape... When I found out, how much he did for Harry, I was shocked. He was like Sam from the Lord of the Rings. Always there to help and save, but even better because this ''Frodo'' did not know that ''Sam'' helped him all along. In any case. There was only one person left in front of me and she got to Slytherin. Now it was my turn. That''s when I thought about something. Wait a second. Is my name on the list. Crap, I forgot about it. ''System, please tell me you have put in my name in there. Don''t tell you pushed me to be human all for nothing!'' [...Well, no! But, to increase your chances of success we will grant you a temporary increase in speech and increase the probability of persuasion attempts!] ''Honestly... Not surprised. Oh well, that is better than nothing. I have a save that I made after leveling up, so it should be okay... But I received this buff just now. Will it go with me, if I load to an earlier point?'' [It is a temporary effect granted by the system, so it will last for a specific duration. It does not matter if you will load to an earlier moment in time, that was before you received the buff.] ''Well, I ?ssume ''granted by system'' part is the focus here, but whatever.'' Professor McGonagall looked at me and then looked at the list. "And who, might you be, young man?" "Magnus, miss. I got lost, trying to find my rat, that has run away. I am very sorry! Thankfully, mister Hagrid led me here." I tried, use the fact that I am a child on 100% being clueless and speaking out facts (lies actually). "Magnus? You are not on the list I have here." "Ehm, that is strange. But I did receive a letter! And bought everything pointed out in the letter. C-Can you check in some other list, please. I have an unusual name and Magnus is my full name, s-s-so maybe that is why? I-I... am a w-wizard!" I started stuttering, showing my anxiety. Honestly, I didn''t even need to play it, because I was really anxious. I picked race and age so that I can get to Hogwarts. There is no freaking save before I picked race... I hope that an increase in speech and child face that is on the verge of crying will placate them enough to give me entrance into Hogwarts. I mean I have system and Save&Load. I am like MC... Where the heck is my plot armor. "Well, do not worry." She looked back at Dumbledore and he lightly nodded. Then he looked at me with interest. "I will check it later. For now, come, sit down and put the hat on." I calmed down a lot and honestly was shocked that they believed. Huh, it was so easy? ¡º Speech 16(66) ? 17(67) ¡» ¡º Speech 17(67) ? 18(68) ¡» [You are welcome.] Okay, I think I need to save again. I kinda lucked out just now and the next important decision awaits me. Save progress. ¡¼Save ?¡½ Saving when you have free slots is so easy. Ah damn. When I will get to 10 saves, that''s when hell begins. But whatever, I will deal with that later. "Mister Magnus?" Oh crap. I was dazing out for too long. Everything for later. I sat on the stool and put the hat on. The moment hat covered my head, my vision turned dark. Not that I lost my consciousness, but more like something closed my eyes. This hat is huge. ''I see bits and pieces, that can fit you in all houses. There is intellect in you, I can see that much.'' ''Don''t see much bravery in you, but neither do I see many fears in you. You have the potential for greatness as well, but you have no wish to prove yourself. Hard choice.'' I decided to use the Harry Potter method. ''Not Slytherin. Not Slytherin.'' ''Not Slytherin, eh? You are the second person, who is bent on not going there. Such an interesting coincidence. Well, my choice will be the same as I had for him.'' "GRYFFINDOR!" I heard cheers breaking out once more in a quiet hall. I took off the hat, placed it on the chair and walked towards the cheering table. By the time I sat, Professor McGonagall was rolling up her scroll. After she finished, she took the sorting hat away. From here I got a good look at the main table. Most of the faces were similar if not the same as the ones I saw in films. "Welcome! Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!" Um... what? I don''t remember him saying anything like this in film. Hm... Cheers and clapping woke me up from my attempts to remember. Well, whatever. Films always drop stuff like this. Maybe it is not important. I mean the guy is old so who knows what is going on in his head. "Would you like some meat?" Somebody''s voice startled me a little. I looked in the direction of the voice and saw a girl I did not know. "Yes, please. Thank you very much." So, I decided to eat without worrying. I will have time to think before going to sleep. The food, by the way, was delicious! Chapter 4 - Level 3 [ part 2 ]. Character point? Skill point? After the meal has finished, we started to get up and follow one of the Weasley brothers. I think his name is Percy. Based on what he said, we were going to the Gryffindor room. We had to go through some weird stuff. Ghost, live paintings, moving armors and some nasty poltergeist called Peeves. When I was going with Hagrid, I did not pay any attention to what was around me and honestly, we were in a hurry. But now, when I looked at everything it looked so chaotic and dynamic, due to movement everywhere. Thankfully, Percy used some shortcuts and we reached our destination pretty fast. Most of the first-years here were tired and wanted to sleep. I can understand them, after all, they were up the whole day and had to go through sorting, being anxious and nervous can be taxing for your brain. Pretty soon, I found my room with a bed. I was fortunate enough to get a sole room. Maybe that is because I came without invitation and in the original script all the students had a pair? Honestly, no idea. Anyway, I lied in bed and started thinking about all that happened today. It was a very hectic day for me. I died, came here, got the system, was screwed by it and saved by it. And I got a notification about a level up. ''What level up gives me, system?'' [It allows you to pick characteristics you want to improve by a margin and one skill point.] ''Characteristic? Can you tell which ones I can improve and what they affect?'' [Three main characteristics are Health, Magicka and Stamina. Improving Health will improve your health conditions. The overall work of your organism will improve, and your lifespan will increase. It also removes or mitigates negative conditions, based on their severity.] ''Wow, this is pretty overpowered, isn''t it? By upgrading it I can technically live forever?'' [Yes, but increase margin is small due to the wide application of the characteristic.] ''That makes sense. What about Magicka then?'' [Increases your talent for magical arts.] ''So, it means, understanding books about magic and spells will become easier?'' [Indeed, it will.] ''And, because the application is so small, the effect should be very noticeable?'' [It will give you a percentage increase in talent. It will increment your talent by 1% of your own talent.] ''Um... Actually, that is not much and...'' At that moment, one thought came to my mind and I had to ask the system. ''You''ve said by 1% of my own talent. But if I have increased it previously and now improving it again. Will it increase by 1% of original talent or 1% of the already improved talent?'' [Second option. The more you increase your talent, the bigger that increase gets.] ''That is great! Now, what about the stamina?'' [Stamina is responsible for your physical and mental fortitude.] ''Elaborate please.'' [Higher stamina means your body can go through more physical or mental obstacles and tire slower in the process. You will have more energy and can work longer without resting.] ''You said both mental and physical? Does it mean, that by increasing stamina I can increase my perseverance and work harder without getting lazy?'' [Both yes and no. You will not get a decrease in your laziness. However, you will have increased energy reserves and a more active thinking process. So, it will be easier to do mental or physical work. Thus, it was called ''Stamina''.] ''All 3 characteristics are great. One can allow me to have better health. Second increases my talent and make it easier to study and practice, while the third one makes me kinda more hardworking and livelier. Hm... Hard choice. And actually, about choice, how do I level up?'' [Each time you improve one of the skills you get experience. Experience is used to get level-ups. After getting enough experience to level up, notification '' Level Up'' will pop.] ''So, where and how do I spend the experience?'' [In skills menu. Just think ''skills progress'' and ''Skills'' menu will appear.] ''Skills progress.'' ¡¼Skills¡½ As soon as that line appeared, my eyesight went dark for a moment. What I saw afterward was a night sky full of stars. Some of those stars have combined into constellations, with dull gray lines connecting stars inside of those constellations. Then I noticed that most of the sky was somewhat dark and muddy. Not because it did not have stars, but more like some dark fog was covering it. ''What is that dark fog?'' [Skills that you have not discovered yet, are hidden. You need to experience skills on your own before the system starts helping you with them.] Then I looked at those constellations, that were visible. There were 3 of them. ¡º Sneak 16 | Speech 18 | Alchemy 16 ¡» Respective names with skill levels were underneath those constellations. Even lower, I saw 4 rows with information on them. ¡º Health ? Improvement : 0 ¡» ¡º Magicka ? Improvement : 0 ¡» ¡º Stamina ? Improvement : 0 ¡» Then I concentrated on the level and words ''Can increase'' and a message popped up in front of my eyes. [Would you like to increase your level now?] Let''s think about what I will improve first. Health, Stamina or Magicka? After thinking about it for a few minutes, I understood that Magicka is the most useful in my current situation. My mindset is that of an ?du?t now, so I can endure a lot for now. Therefore, stamina''s out. My health is quite good because I am 11 years old and my body is in practically the best conditions. Young, strong and healthy, so health is out as well. One thing I am unsure of is my talent for magical arts. ''Yes, I would like to increase it now.'' ¡º Level 1 ? 2 ¡» ''Magicka!'' After I said it, I noticed a change in the 4 rows below. ¡º Level 2 ? Not enough experience ¡» ¡º Health ? Improvement : 0 ¡» ¡º Magicka ? Improvement : 0 ? 1 ¡» ¡º Stamina ? Improvement : 0 ¡» [You received a skill point. You can spend it to unlock an ability in one of the opened skill trees. Take note, only activated stars can give you an ability. Stars will be activated as you progress in the skill and unlock more abilities in the tree.] After that notification, I noticed another change in the skills menu. The first stars in constellation became brighter and started shining with more light as if to draw attention to them. I concentrated on one of those first stars. Specifically, star in Speech constellation. ¡¼Strong argument¡½ That is a nice ability to have, especially with my questionable background, it can literally save my life. But let''s not be too hasty here. I will check other skills and abilities, they offer. I focused on the alchemy tree and took a look at its first star. ¡¼Focused mind¡½ ¡¼Becomes easier to concentrate and focus your attention during alchemical activities. Harder for external forces to distract you from those activities.¡½ I never tried alchemy, so it is hard for me to say if it will become very useful. Let''s check the ability in the Sneak tree. ¡¼Weak presence¡½ ¡¼Your presence is now harder to notice and some people would even ignore you completely as if you are not there at all unless you proactively attract attention to yourself.¡½ It can be useful, however, it says, ''some people'', so it is a very chaotic ability. Plus ''harder to notice'' is not the same as ''hard to notice''. What skills do, it just makes my presence weaker than it was before. To what extent it weakens it, was not specified. I once more looked at the whole skills menu, to check if I missed anything. I did not notice anything new and decided to close the menu for now. ''How do I close the skills menu.'' [Think about exiting.] ''Exit'' Right when I thought about exiting, once more my eyes went dark for a moment and then I saw the interior of my room. Should I pick a skill now? Or should I do it later? Hmm... I will push the decision for the morning. For now, I am going to sleep. Chapter 5 - Level 3 [ part 3 ]. Bathrooms? Schedule? And who am I actually? ''So, it wasn''t a dream...'' This was the first thought I had after I woke up. I looked at the ceiling that definitely did not belong to my previous room. And then at my hands that were smaller and more delicate. Only, now I truly understood that I am a kid again. What should I feel? Anxious? Happy? I am kinda confused about everything. It is like one of those moments when you think about how the Universe is constantly expanding and thought into what it expands... You think hard, yet you see no answer. Moreover, the topic itself is useless to think about, but you just... can''t stop. Many things happened and it got me into this feeling, so I honestly got stuck in this emotion for a few minutes. Just lying in a bed, thinking. However, mentally I was grown up and had 30 years of life experience behind, so I got out of this mindset after only 5 or 6 minutes. No use thinking about that now, so I tried to concentrate on what''s important. I stood up and looked into the mirror in front of me. No abs, no muscles, skinny and a tad bit too tall for its age. However, I did not look unhealthy or anything like this. My skin color was healthy, and the body was brimming with life. I started dressing up. My clothes thankfully were all here and somehow all of them washed clean. Moreover, they smelled very nice, like they were washed with conditioner in a very good washing machine. What the heck? Is it magic? Or better to be said, in this academy, what type of magic is it? I will think about it later, or maybe I can ask somebody about it. After I finished, I went out of my room to check the washing facilities. I mean, even wizards should shower... I hope so, at least. Unfortunately, I woke up very early, so I couldn''t ask for directions from other people. Sun did not even fully appear in the sky, so I ?ssume time was before 7a.m. I started exploring the Gryffindor tower in which apparently, we were living. Soon, I was able to find a sink. It was better than nothing. I washed my face and tried to get myself in order. I did not have a toothbrush with me. But then I thought about how the system gave some stuff, so maybe I should ask it? ''Dear system, can you please give a toothbrush and toothpaste?'' [...Hmm... Well... I ?ssume it will be hard to get this type of thing here. All hygiene supplies were provided in the inventory. You will find them, under the ''Hygiene'' tab.] ''Thank you very much!'' I used my inventory soap, toothbrush, and toothpaste. Now, I could properly wash my face and brush my teeth. Honestly though, where these wizards get a shower? It was never mentioned in a film. They all have clean skin and teeth, or do they have a spell for that? So hard... I need to find a senior and ask him. I went to the main room, which was very big, cozy and had a fireplace with fire burning in it. I sat on a couch that stood before the fireplace and checked that no one was around me. After that, I took a book about the theory of magic from my inventory. Of course, I first put my hand into my robes and then pulled out a book. Thankfully robes were wide enough and had some inner pockets. Why theory? To check if it will give me any new skills by reading it and not using it. I feel like using can instantly increase the skill by one level. So, it is better to use it on higher-level skills. Of course, I can be wrong. Therefore, I will need to test it on higher-leveled skills. Unfortunately, my highest level of skill right now is Speech. Is there even a book that raises it? Suddenly, I had a thought. ''How do I get a schedule of lessons? And where should I go for them? That is so damn annoying. I know nothing about the world and that annoys the hell out of me. Wish they''ve thrown me into the world of Tamriel or Belgariad or some other universe I know of.'' I will wait for seniors or just follow some first-years. I should definitely follow the Granger girl. She is a nerd, so she should instinctively know where to go for knowledge. Hope, she looks the same as in the film or at least similar to it, otherwise, I am screwed. I mean, it would be strange if I suddenly start asking who Hermione Granger is. But, if I will have no choice, I will do that. Shame? I never heard about it! So, I delved deep into the reading. After nearly an hour of reading the book, which I read pretty deeply, I noticed somebody''s presence near me. I looked up from the book and saw a girl, that looked similar to a person in the movie, which makes sense. In a movie, all actors have perfect makeup, lighting and all that. Even kids, I bet. This girl looked more like an ordinary girl from the neighborhood, except for her eyes. Her eyes were sparkling with interest and excitement. "Hello! My name is Magnus." I said to her while putting the book to the side, remembering the page I stopped at. She smiled and now I saw another special thing, her front teeth were slightly larger than the norm. "Hello, my name is Hermione Granger. Nice to meet you." She said in a bossy tone of voice and then she added. "Fascinating book, but didn''t you read it beforehand? You should go to school prepared, you know." Yup, a nerd, just like me in past. Need to keep close to this live magic google. "Literally, didn''t have time. I have no family or friends, so I had to scramble for money and look for a place where I can buy all the needed equipment, books, and clothes. I finished all my buying''s 2 days before the train left. And in those 2 days, I had to somehow get to the station, so now is the first breather I got since receiving this letter." I quickly come up with the lie, because I thought out the background beforehand. So, all I needed to do is just to add details on top of it. I did not exist in this world, beforehand anyway. She would be hard-pressed to check all this out. Whenever I did not think about the system, I was thinking hard to create my background. Since talking with Hagrid, I was improving, modifying and expanding my background to fit all things. So far, my background is an orphan raised in an orphanage, from where I ran away very early. I did random jobs since childhood to get money and traveled around the world while doing these jobs. Unfortunately, my past job is not helpful in this case, but I still remember a lot of math and some basic school education, despite my age. That would make me a good ?ssistant. Honestly, the background is crappy and full of holes, because one good placed question can destroy it. Therefore, my only hope is to make the story dark, hard to hear and make people feel pity for me. And of course, that will give me a legit way to miss out on details. And if I will have a happy smile while telling the story, it will give the smartest people the feeling that I remain positive despite what I had to go through. Smart people have a tendency to overthink and come to conclusions based on small facts. And stupid ones, do not ask questions in the first place. So, all in all, I should be safe with this background. Thus, If I add details on top of it, they should be as vague and as normal as possible. All these mental machinations, on the level of ''Oshen''s friends'', make my mind hurt, but I have no choice. In the world of magic, without school and education, I can die in the first few days after being expelled, if not killed during the expulsion. Anyway, back to the conversation. Granger has flushed red in cheeks and was a bit embarrassed by her attitude apparently. "Sorry, I did not know." ¡º Speech 18(68) ? 19(69) ¡» Speech is overpowered! Chapter 7 - Level 4 [ part 1 ]. Should I spend a skill point? ¡¼Skills¡½ Void blanked my vision for a second before a starry night sky appeared before my eyes. When I looked around most of the sky was still covered by darkness. It appears that there are plenty of more skills to discover. Anyway, 2 new constellations were in the view. I looked at the bright stars, which represented which abilities I can currently open. There were no new possible abilities in old constellations, as for new ones, there were 2 brightly lit stars. I ignored them for now and decided to level up. ¡º Level 2 ? 3 ¡» [You get one skill point and one characteristic point. Which characteristic you wish to improve?] ''Magicka!'' ¡º Level 3 ? Not enough experience ¡» ¡º Health ? Improvement : 0 ¡» ¡º Magicka ? Improvement : 1 ? 2 ¡» ¡º Stamina ? Improvement : 0 ¡» ¡º Number of skill points: 2 ¡» I also noticed that there was a new row of information about the number of skill points I currently have. ''Why do I see it only, now?'' ''You can do that?'' [You can change some settings in the system, yes.] ''Yeah, I want to always see skill point number in skills window,'' [Settings were applied.] Now let''s look at new abilities. ¡º Wand Making ¡» ¡¼You will serve me 0/3¡½ ¡¼Knowledge of how wands are made gives you greater control over wands. Wands that did not accept you as their master will be easier to handle and they will have less resistance to you casting magic through them¡½ ''Hm? Numbers? The system, why abilities have a number near it?'' This gave me thought. ''Do other abilities previously shown have such levels, but were hidden by you as well?'' [Indeed. You had only one skill point, so it was pointless to show such information. The simplicity of an interface and interactivity will make your acclimation to system usage faster and easier. Moreover, you are free to customize some parts of the systems after opening new settings.] ''Are you hiding a lot of capabilities from me now?'' [Yes. But for most of them, you can''t use for now, and for others, your body or mind is not ready to accept hidden functionality. Knowledge of something that you can''t use will bring only frustration.] ''Well¡­ that does make sense.'' I decided to look at other previously lighted stars. ¡¼Strong argument 0/4¡½ ¡¼Focused mind¡½ ''So, from now I can always see levels of my ability if it can be upgraded, right?'' [Indeed.] ''And during my progression, you will have new functionality in store for me?'' [Indeed, I will.] I was excited by the thought that there is new stuff that is yet to be opened to me, that I want to uncover and make use of. It makes me want to progress more and use the system to its full potential. I think that is why the system is designed in a way to entice a person to progress and improve. But, from another perspective, I do not think everyone will be happy with the fact that the system inside of them hides something from them. It heavily depends on the mentality of a human. Some humans are a bit paranoid, and others are more easygoing. Some are even prideful enough to think that the system purposefully mocks them by hiding its full potential, saying they are not ready. This design works for me fine and makes me work harder, but it is my subjective view and feel. Does it mean that the system was handmade by somebody to suit my character? Or am I lucky enough to have a system that suits me perfectly? *2 minutes later* Well, anyway no point thinking about it now, I suppose. It is not like there is much I can do about it. Plus, I am living a second life right now, so I am grateful no matter who gave me that chance. ¡¼Remarkable Comprehension 0/3¡½ ¡¼Your digestion of new information and its comprehension goes easier and much faster. It helps acquire more knowledge in less time. ¡½ This ability can make my reading time more useful. Reading a book can increase my skill experience and if my comprehension will increase it means I will get more information from this book that can be used later. I was thinking if I should pick an ability now or later. I had 2 skill points and thus could acquire 2 abilities or upgrade one ability to level 2. Although, I am not sure about upgrading. Probably to upgrade an ability I will need to raise skill tree to an appropriate level like it was in the game where the system came from. All abilities have their merits. Sneaking ability can help me a lot in exploring Hogwarts and spying on some characters. Alchemy one will make my brewing process smoother. Speech ability can save me in a dangerous situation or just improve character interaction with me. And studying ability will make my reading more time-efficient and useful. The only ability that is relatively useless now, at least at its first level, is the one from Wand Making tree. It will bring me no benefits in the short term. Ah, I will need to strongly consider all sides, but before that, I need to save. No matter what choice I will make, I think progress so far is something I won''t be able to repeat. After all, it is mostly thanks to speech buff, I even got a level 3 so fast in the first place. ''Save progress!'' *20 minutes later* ¡¼Strong Argument 1/4 (25) ¡½ ¡¼Remarkable Comprehension 1/3 (30) ¡½ I decided on those 2 abilities. So far speech is the highest and the most useful out of all my skills. And studying I think soon will become the most used skill. After all, I am in school, right now. As I thought previously, I can''t upgrade abilities for now. To upgrade them I need to reach level 25 and 30 in skills respective skills. Abilities acquired. I have one more lesson today, so I better get going. Thanks to inventory my school bag is mostly empty. I just keep some stuff for the looks of it. Whenever I need to pull something out, I just put hands in it and call for whatever item I need. Therefore, I did not need to put in or pull off anything from the bag for the upcoming lesson. The system makes life really convenient. After getting to the common room of Gryffindor I met a few other first-years. I came up to them to ask if Hermione already left. They said they haven''t seen her yet. I decide to wait a little bit and maybe go with her. After all, I am her first friend and she is mine in this school, so I would like to stay together with her. Plus, she is a part of the main story, so I will be able to be part of it as well. And there is not much danger, as long as I can load fast enough. After 5 minutes, she entered the room, and I waved to her. After seeing me waiting for her, she was apparently happy, and we together went to class while chatting about magical stuff. Chapter 8 - Level 4 [ part 2 ]. First week in Hogwarts. The first week was hectic, hard and full of surprises. First of all, thanks to reading in libraries and lessons I was able to achieve level 4 and improved the next skills. ¡º Studying 16 ? 17 ¡» ¡º Herbology 15 ? 16 ¡» ¡º Wand Making 16 ? 17 ¡» ¡º Magic Channeling 0 ? 1 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 0 ? 1 ¡» ¡º Magic Gesturing 0 ? 1 ¡» ¡º Studying 17 ? 18 ¡» ¡º Alchemy 16 ? 17 ¡» ¡º Level Up ¡» I raised my level later that day. ¡º Level 3 ? 4 ¡» Obviously, I put my point into Magicka. The skill point I got I decided not to spent for now and keep it until the weekend. Now, for the surprises! After first lessons in transfiguration, charms, and defense against dark arts I thought I would get the same or at least similar in name skill. However, for each of them, I got the same 3 skills: Magic Channeling, Magic Chanting, Magic Gesturing. The second surprise was the fact that they started at 0. I had my questions for a very long time and decided to experiment in my room a little bit to make sure and that''s where the third surprise hit me. After I got all 3 lessons, I acquired those 3 skills at the same time. And that was on Thursday which was yesterday. Just to make sure that those 3 skills are acquired via all 3 lessons, I decided to use one of the books about this subject. Because the last lesson was transfiguration, I used a book from charm classes to see if it will give different skills or improve those 3. *Thursday, experimenting in the room* ¡¼ The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) ¡½ ¡¼ Book contains instructions on how to learn and use several simple spells. Used as an introduction to spells for young wizards. ¡½ ¡¼ -Read- -Throw- -Use- ¡½ ''Use'' [Spellbook is used. The chance of acquiring new spells for the ''Spells'' menu will be based on your magical talent and respective skills.] ¡¼ Softening Charm ¨C unsuccessful learning¡½ ¡­ other spells unsuccessful ¡¼ Fire-Making Spell ¨C successfully added¡½ ¡­ other spells unsuccessful Only one spell was added to the spellbook and it did not sound any bit useful. I mean the name kind of worries me. Making fire? Really? Matches can work just as well¡­ no? And what shocked me is how little my talent is. One spell was added out of more than 5 spells. That is the probability of less than 20% percent and that is after having 2 points in Magicka! I know that is not a lot of talent added, but it is literally first-grade spells! And what are the respective skills? Actually, wait! What are spellbooks? Those were the thoughts I had at that moment. Fortunately, I was in my room when I started experimenting with the book, so I started asking the system about all that stuff and the ''Spells'' menu. ''System what is this ''Spells'' menu and what it does? And also, what notification about respective skills meant? What skills were those?'' [''Spells'' menu is your personal spellbook that allows you to learn spells better and save their description, use, and other characteristics. Respective skills are skills that help cast those spells.] ''What are those skills?'' [That is something you will need to find on your own. The system will answer only question pertaining system''s usage and functionality. It is not something system that doesn''t want to divulge, but something system has no knowledge of.] ''Hm¡­ so you don''t know, and I need to find this out on my own through experiments and practice, huh?'' [Indeed.] ''Then why new skills I got start at 0 rather than 15?'' [Starting point of 15 is when you have basic knowledge of the subject when you have zero knowledge and no idea what subject even does, it means that its level should start at zero to better represent your knowledge. When you got alchemy, for example, you could approximately guess and understand what it is about and how it can help you. But apparently those 3 new skills you couldn''t even imagine and have absolutely no idea what they represent, thus starting point picked as 0.] Well¡­ it is true, I have no idea what they represent. Except for what name implies, but what that means I can''t understand. Magic channeling is when I channel magic, yes, but it doesn''t explain anything. Isn''t magic is just done via spells? I mean it does make sense that magic should be channeled to create spells, I just¡­ never thought about this, I suppose. ''Okay, I am clear about that. Now explain to me how exactly I use spells menu.'' [Think ''Spellbook'' and that will call your spells menu. This menu helps you learn spells with the help of the system. The system will guide you in learning a spell, create virtual teaching grounds where you can practice with spells, video guidance on correct spell cast and many more.] ''Spellbook'' ¡¼ Spells¡½ ¡¼ List of spells¡½ ¡¼ ? Fire-Making spell ¡½ ''I suppose I can get more information by concentrating on the spell in question?'' [Indeed.] After focusing on the spell, I got more information. ¡¼ Fire-Making spell¡½ ¡¼ Potential: Low¡½ ¡¼ -Train- -Tutorial- -Simulation-¡½ ''What difficulty and potential means?'' [First is how hard to learn. Second is the representation of spell potential.] ''And what it the potential of spell?'' [Understanding of this heavily depends on your knowledge. Cannot be explained.] ''Hm¡­ Okay. What is the point of training inside a virtual environment if I can just cast spells outside?'' [Some spells can''t be trained without specific targets, while others considered dark arts by people and will bring only life imprisonment if caught.] ''Makes sense. The tutorial is kind of self-explanatory. What is a simulation?'' ''How do I introduce these changes?'' [Unknown. The system can work only with completed structure.] ''Is it also one of the things that depend on my knowledge?'' [Indeed.] Now I felt a real need for more knowledge. This world is a bit more complicated than it looked in the film. *Back to present* After that, I really wanted to go to the library and find books about magic and explanation on how it all works. However, I had alchemy early in the morning and I wanted to be as fresh as possible. I read school alchemy book a little before sleep. Just first chapters and fell asleep. Alchemy went similar to what happened in the film. I felt a little bit bad for Potter because he really did nothing wrong or bad to receive such treatment. Otherwise, the lesson was interesting. I raised alchemy thanks to the lesson and got a level up. After all the lessons on Friday finished, I went to the library where Granger soon found me reading. Because it was a library, we could not talk too much, but we still kept close to each other. *Friday after lessons* Maybe we both felt better if we were not alone and there was a friend close to us. I had nobody close to me here, except for her and sometimes I felt lonely against my will. I suppose that what feelings are¡­ Even if you don''t want them, they will force you to feel them. "*Sigh* I am a human, after all." "What else can you be?" Hermione sitting near me asked with interest. "I am just happy, that I have a friend here, with whom I can talk and discuss interests. I¡­ don''t feel as lonely. Thank you." "No need! I mean, don''t mention it. We are friends, after all. No need to thank me!" She was flustered a tiny little bit. In the beginning, she even raised a voice, forgetting we were in the library. Well, I am happy I have a friend. But she needs to get friendlier with the main protagonist as well. He will decide the fate of the world after all. ''*Sigh* I need to make them friends and get friendlier with them as well. Damn. So much work¡­'' *To the present* In any case, I spent a weekend reading books on magic, its creation, spells, construction of them and many other things. I just had breakfast in the morning and went to the library till late night and only then returned tired and sleepy to fall into the dreamland. That how it was for those 2 days. I got literally zero rest. What I got though is a new skill that also started with zero, but thanks to constant grinding of knowledge without rest I got it to raise a few levels. ¡º Magic Theory 0 ? 1 ¡» ¡­ ¡º Magic Theory 5 ? 6 ¡» Another result I got after intense research is a simple fact. We are not learning magic right now, it seems¡­ we are learning spellcasting. Chapter 9 - Level 5. Magic theory and Tier 2 abilities After I found out that what we are currently learning is spellcasting and not magic I was surprised. It wasn''t explicitly mentioned anywhere, but I was able to build a theory from all the scraps of information I had found until Sunday night. Now while lying in bed, I started to organize all the information gathered so far. Magic is not spellcasting, but spellcasting is magic. Spellcasting is an easier version of magic. Magic consists of many things and thus branched into many fields. However, all magic is cast mostly in the same way, by channeling magic. At least 30% of the magic process is always channeling magic. Other parts can differ greatly depending on the branch of magic being used. Wands are actually unneeded tools created to make using magic easier. It is not much, but that is enough to topple my understanding of the world. My knowledge was based solely on films and I knew that it wasn''t accurate, but not that much! Apparently, magic wands are a European instrument for channeling magic that became vastly popular in America, because it makes channeling of magic easier and faster. However, other continents and regions don''t consider wands mandatory part of wizard equipment. I pieced it out from wand making books and some history books, where wizards from Japan and China were mentioned. It was never specified that they did not use wands, but from the description of some of their actions I understood simple truth, they used hands to do magic. That made me remember, that Dumbledore did not use any words as well after sorting ceremony to call music or other magical stuff, so chanting spells is unneeded to do magic. That got me thinking about why we are using wands or chant words if we can use magic just via hands, silently. That led to me reading the book of charms for the first year and in actuality, it does not explain one bit how to do magic or how it works! However, it explains how to cast some specific spells by spelling out Latin words and doing specific gestures with wands. At that point, I understood, that I needed to practice and experiment with spells, but I was too tired to go out of bed and looking for stuff to experiment with or place where I can do so safely. Moreover, it was very late, so I needed to go to sleep because tomorrow a new study week is starting. That''s when I thought about the spells menu. ''Spellbook'' Then I focused on the only spell in it. ''Tutorial'' [Please follow all the instructions shown. After the system is sure that you can successfully repeat spell for 10 times, the tutorial will be deemed complete. The tutorial will start shortly.] ¡¼ Repeat gestures shown before your eyes and says ''Incendio''¡½ I saw kind of hologram of a hand with wand doing some gestures, moving in a specific way and directions and words ''Incendio'' were said during these movements. Words started with movements and ended with them as well. After that, the wand spits fire from the tip. I tried time and time again while paying attention to my feelings, body, and wand in my hands. At first, I haven''t felt anything but as time passed. I was doing better with the spell and even succeeded once to cast it¡­ by luck. But anyway! Soon, I noticed that if I do move correctly and follow with words, my spell is cast successfully, however, if do a mistake right at the last moment I feel slight discomfort inside my body. That is not solid proof, but my theory so far is that spellcasting makes the process of magic simpler. Rather than consciously controlling magic, your precise gestures and words have the same effect. And wands make that process so much easier by simplifying channeling of magic. Basically, you have no idea how magic actually works when you do it. Thus, you just know how to cast a spell and nothing more. This is why I call it spellcasting for now. I have not found any official terminology for that. Learning pure magic without wands is indeed harder. I am studying topic with system abilities, for 2 days straight with an ?du?t mentality and I b?r?ly scratched the surface, while following some commands I was able to nearly master casting of one spell in a span of¡­ an hour? Maximum hour and a half. After thinking, theorizing and practicing spell for a very long time, it was around midnight. That is when I received another notification. ¡º Magic Theory 6 ? 7 ¡» Then I noticed how late it is and decided that it''s time to sleep. Breakfast went calm and Gryffindor was informed of their flying lesson in the coming Thursday. Well, not that it matters to me. I was still engrossed in understanding how magic works. I decided for myself, that I can''t let myself fail and need to concentrate on subjects at hand and then go into personal researches. Otherwise, fail will be my only result. I concentrated on my studies and finishing all the books of the first-year program. And compared to books I read before, I was not reading them for skills or research. I was really studying and memorizing them to pass exams with ease. That meant I spend more time on each book and have to reread them to further memorize the content. As a result of me, having a clear goal, time was passing horrendously fast. Sometimes, I wished to have more time in a day. I was getting notifications left and right, while studying, but I mostly ignored them, because there was only herbology skill with new abilities, while other new skills needed to reach a minimum of 15 to grant an ability. As for upgrades I needed to reach 25 or 30 in corresponding skills. Thanks to rigorous training, by Wednesday evening I got to level 5. ¡º Level 4 ? 5 ¡» I have put a point into Magicka once more and decided to check what progress I reached in my skills and if there were new abilities opened. After all, so far I gained access only to tier-one abilities in these skill trees. Let''s see my progress in these 3 days. ''System show me how much my skills changed since Sunday. Show only those that changed please.'' ¡º Studying 18 ? 20 ¡» ¡º Herbology 16 ? 18 ¡» ¡º Alchemy 17 ? 19 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 1 ? 5 ¡» ¡º Magic Gesturing 1 ? 5 ¡» ¡º Astronomy 15 ? 18 ¡» Wow. That is good progress. I even found a new skill, astronomy. And reached the 20th level in Studying. Will I get advanced tier 2 skill? Let''s see. ''Skills progress'' ¡¼ Skills¡½ I looked at the studying constellation and saw 2 new bright stars connected by dim lines to the first star in the constellation corresponding to ability ''Remarkable Comprehension''. I focused on one of the new stars. ¡¼ Fast reading 0/2¡½ ¡¼ You read books very fast, close to what subvocalization limit is without losing comprehension. Note: Comprehension here is not information comprehension, but a comprehension of words you''ve read.¡½ ''Um¡­ system what subvocalization means?'' [Most people when read pronounce words inside their mind, which slows their reading speed substantially but increases comprehension due to double intake of information.] ''So what is subvocalization limit?'' [It is limit at how fast a person can read while still using habit of reading aloud in mind. It is close to 600 wpm. ''WPM'' means words per minute, by the way.] ''And what limits are without subvocalizations?'' ''Wow. The skill has an upgrade, so does it mean after upgrading I can get rid of the subvocalization?'' [That is¡­] ''No need to hide this information, because it is pretty obvious anyway.'' [Still, what skill provides in its upgraded version you will find out after achieving qualification for upgrading.] ''Che¡­ Whatever. Not like I care. Anyway, what is the second skill.'' ¡¼ Better memory 0/3 ¡½ ¡¼ Improves your memory in both memorizing and recalling capabilities.¡½ ''Interesting. Astronomy and herbology skills left, but I bet after these abilities they would look subpar but doesn''t matter. I will still take a look.'' I continued inspecting my skills. As I thought, after checking abilities from Astronomy and Herbology, I understood that they were amazing, but useless to me currently. Therefore, I ignored them for now and decided to get 2 abilities from studying skills. But before that. ''Save progress'' ¡¼ Save¡½ Now I can get abilities. ¡¼ Better memory 1/3 (45)¡½ ¡¼ Fast Reading 1/2 (65)¡½ By the way, it is insane that to improve fast reading ability I need to reach 65 in studying. The heck? Anyway, Wednesday is finished. Tomorrow will be a long day, especially with learning how to use brooms. I have magicka at 4 currently so I should be okay with broom controlling¡­ Hopefully. Now, it''s time to sleep. Chapter 11 - Level 6 [ part 2 ]. Two months in Hogwarts. At some point in time, 4 people came flying into the room like the death reaper himself was after them. They were panting and sweating. ''Wait a sec¡­ 4 people? Neville?'' I got up, but apparently exhausted kids did not notice me, yet. They were just trying to catch their breath. "What do they think they''re doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" said Ron finally. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does." "What dog?" I asked. "Three headed one, of cour¡­ Wait, who are you? What are you doing here?" "Name''s Magnus. Couldn''t fall asleep. Decided to read a book and sit by a fireplace, but I think your story for going out after curfew is much more interesting. Also, Hermione? Neville? Never thought of you as an adventurous type." I smiled. Neville was too scared or tired to speak anything. As for Granger. "It was an accident!" Hermione tried to prove her innocence "I tried to persuade not to duel, but painting¡­ and Fat Lady left, so I¡­" She got really flustered. "Don''t worry Hermione. It is okay. But duel, really? We don''t even wield battle spells currently. And I ?ssume it should have been duel between Draco and Potter? You two really don''t waste your time, ha-ha." I laughed. I had no idea there was a duel between the two of them. I only knew about them finding a dog. What the heck is going with this world. Was it in a film as well? I mentally sighed due to my memory being so hazy about the details of a film. "There was no duel. Hmph, Malfoy chickened out!" Ron answered. "More like he tricked you two into going out of curfew! Otherwise, Filch wouldn''t be looking for students in that exact room. I told you both! We could all have been killed¡ª or worse, expelled." Hermione was insistent on proving her point and pointing out boys, recklessness. "Why are you behaving like we dragged you with us?" Ron was annoyed at her. Just when Granger wanted to answer back, I put a hand on her shoulder and said: "So what dog were you talking about? And what dog is doing in Hogwarts?" "It was some kind of a magical beast. And it was guarding something!" "Guarding?" Harry asked. "Didn''t you see what he was standing on?" "The floor?" Harry ?ssumed "I wasn''t looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads." "No, not the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. Therefore, guarding." "Sounds, great, but it''s very late, now. Tomorrow we have potions, so it will be a good idea if we all go to bed. Look at Neville. He looks like he will fall asleep any moment. See you tomorrow." Harry was thinking hard about something. Apparently, he caught a plot and got interested in unraveling it. Great, main story can progress now. What''s important now, is not to push it too much and give in to a natural flow. We all went to our respective dormitories and rooms. It went pretty well. Now let''s sleep. *Morning next day* During breakfast, Ron and Harry were busy discussing something. Granger was refusing to speak with those 2 and Neville did not care about a thing. Also, Harry got a very big and long package with a letter and I was thinking who might send him something so big. Then something came to my mind. ''Is that a¡­ broomstick. But wasn''t it gifted to him after troll attack, right before quidditch match? Was it something appearing only in a film?'' I got another mental sigh. Information from a film feels less and less reliable. Also, brooms are against the rules for first years. How would he deal with that? Harry took the letter, read it and happily took Ron and package outside the hall. However, they were barred by Malfoy and the gang. He took away package and after finding out it was broom, throwed it back at him. They started bickering and Malfoy tried to sell Potter out, but utterly failed. Honestly, watching them bicker is quite amusing. Me and Hermione were going to common room to take our things before the class and heard Ron and Harry laughter on stairs. And obviously she started berating Harry for his behavior and broomstick. Harry answered back and Ron backed him. They were so childish, that I wanted to laugh, but couldn''t. Hermione walked away, while I smiled to the boys and showed them thumbs up. "Congrats with the broom." I whispered to them and ran after Hermione. After days were filled with nothing but memorizing and studying. Hermione already memorized most of the mandatory books if not all, but lessons were not only in books. There was a lot more things we had to read than just one book per subject. We also had to research on our own and stuff like that. Anyway, it was boring and annoying honestly. After the end of the first month I was completely ready thanks to all my studying skills. I also learned all spells but wasn''t quite good at using them yet. I also got better with transfiguration and overall my skills experienced a huge raise. I got a level up closer to the end of the month. But no matter what, it was undeniable that memorizing same things from same books for prolonged amounts of time does not really increase my skills as fast as grinding in library for new knowledge. That is understandable, because reading a new book is similar to delving into a new pond of knowledge, where you can easily consume it, while memorizing is like coming to dried out pond where you need find all these scraps of water to consume. It helps in consolidating the knowledge, but not acquiring it. Moreover, level gaps became huge. I even felt it was exponential at some point. Despite memorizing, I improved skills plenty of times, but got enough experience to level up only after 2 weeks since previous level up. I have raised all skills that started with 0 to at least 13 except for Magic Channeling. I was able to raise only to 4. But it felt like a drop in the ocean. So, I asked if system can show me how much experience each skill raise provide in percentage. System agreed and the provided info shocked me silly. Raise in study skill from 20 to 22 gave me more experience than raise in all magic skills I achieved so far. Earlier I thought it was easy way to level up, but now I know that raising them is easy cause they are worthless to my progression until they reach 15. And that lower border will only increase in the future. Currently, I am only level 6. Can''t and honestly don''t want to imagine how much experience will be needed to reach level 10 or 20. I mentally sighed once more. Anyway, I was more or less ready to exams. I will just go through information before exams and will continue training my spells. Plus, training helps improving magic channeling, so it''s kind of a grinding as well. Library, dear, I am back! For the next month, I was grinding and keeping an eye out for main story progression, but everything was quiet there. I did not discover any new skills but have improved many skills that I already have, and consecutively got 2 more levels thanks to that. Although, I leveled up whenever I had enough experience and improved Magicka, I still did not spend any skill points, because there was nothing interesting to spend on. My research into magic was going very slowly because it was not the main focus right now. But nonetheless I was able to raise all my magic skills at or even above 15, except for channeling. It was at level 14. I was also able to raise speech by 2 levels due to being active on lesson and answering questions from teachers. Even sneak was raised in the last month due to me being staying late in libraries and sneaking to common room after the curfew. First few times it was an accident, but after I leveled up my sneak skill once, I decide to do this every day to grind that skill as well. Finally, a few days before Halloween I reached the mark, where I decided to spend some skill points. My studying skill was 25 at last. I can upgrade the tier 1 ability now. ''Save progress'' ¡¼Save ?¡½ And then¡­ ''Skills progress'' ¡¼Skills¡½ ¡º Studying 25 | Speech 21 | Herbology 20 | Alchemy 20 ¡» ¡º Wand Making 19 | Astronomy 19 | Sneak 18 | Riding Expertise 18 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 18 | Magic Chanting 15 ¡» ¡º Magic Gesturing 15 | Magic Channeling 14 ¡» ¡º Level 8 ? Not enough experience ¡» ¡º Health ? Improvement : 0 ¡» ¡º Magicka ? Improvement : 7 ¡» ¡º Stamina ? Improvement : 0 ¡» ¡º Number of skill points: 3 ¡» ''Now, stop! Hammer¡­ Um, I mean skill time!'' Chapter 12 - Level 9. New abilities and Library books I am an idiot¡­ No other explanation¡­ JUST wanna die. I was waiting for so long to improve my studying tier 1 ability and even postponed my experiment with using books from library in case upgrade can give some bonuses, but ¡­ ¡¼Remarkable Comprehension 1/3 (30)¡½ I needed level 30 to upgrade it and not 25. Damn it all. I must have mistaken it with the speech ability. How the heck did I forget about it? It is so exasperating and worst of all, I could have checked it any time, but I was so self-assured that didn''t even bother. Thankfully nobody will ever know about my stupid mistake. And I myself will never write it in my biography. Never! For the next 10 minutes I was berating myself and thinking how stupid I am. However, I needed to focus on the task of picking useful abilities and thankfully there were some new abilities from magic skill trees and tier 2 abilities in old trees. *15 minutes later* ¡º Magic Theory ¡» ¡¼Better concentration 1/2 (45)¡½ ¡¼Increase in concentration during any use of magic. Helps in casting magic and focusing power.¡½ ¡º Magic Gesturing ¡» ¡¼Less Gestures 1/2 (50)¡½ ¡¼It is easier to learn to use simple magic without using gestures. Spells you know well and studied for a long time can be used without gestures subconsciously.¡½ I stopped on those 2 abilities, because they can increase my personal strength in an absolute way. New abilities from Speech, Alchemy, Herbology and other skills were incredible as well, but I was leveling slowly and no matter, what I needed first is to ensure my survival. That''s why, whatever can increase my strength or help me in a dire situation is going to be a first pick. I expect it to be great. Otherwise I will go for Magic Chanting ability. After that, I checked time at Gryffindor common room. And yes, there was apparently clock there. I have no idea why I didn''t notice it before. It was 8pm. Just enough to experiment with ''using'' library books before curfew. While going to the library, I was counting how many books I finished during this period and apparently it was a big number. Thanks to fast reading, better comprehension and memory I could breeze through most of books, while still having a good level of comprehension. Finally, I finished counting and the number was staggering 51 books. ''Wow¡­ Is that 51 skill raises I am seeing here. Hope system won''t fu?k me up by creating some stupid reason for not being able to use these books.'' While on my way on to library, I decide to check my saves and deleted second and third saves. The ones that I created right after appearing here. One of them was before answering Hagrid and the other one after a first level up. I did not need them now. I decided to delete them because my space for saves was close to null. Before deleting, I had only 2 free slots for saves. Having more save slots makes me feel safer, plus I do not want to make a mistake in the future and accidently overwrite an important save. While doing all that I reached library and went for the books I''ve finished reading and the first one was about wand making. Just to have a returning point, in case books somehow charmed, I saved. First, I put a book into an inventory. Then I waited for a 5 or maybe 10 minutes. Nothing happened. Thank god, it''s safe. Then I focused on the taken book, to see options on how I can interact with. Thankfully, I could use it, so no problem there. ''Use'' ¡º Wand Making 19 ? 20 ¡» It worked! Oh my god, you woke a leveling beast here. Let the leveling spree begin. *30 minutes later* ''System show me my progress since entering a library, excluding first raise in wand making.'' [Affirmative. Collecting information¡­ Modifying output¡­ Compressing information¡­ Done! Outputting¡­] ¡º ? Skills progress: Magic Chanting 15 ? 20 | Magic Theory 18 ? 30 | Herbology 20 ? 22 | Alchemy 20 ? 23 | Astronomy 19 ? 20 | Wand Making 20 ? 26 | Riding Expertise 18 ? 20 | ? New Spells added to your spellbook: Mending Charm | Smokescreen spell | Severing charm | Curse of the Bogies | Knockback Jinx | Wand-Lighting Charm | Un-Transfiguration Spell ? Level Up ¡» ''Wow, feels great!'' However, I did experience 2 unexpected things during ''Use'' spree. First, is that magical books apparently provide one skill and at first I thought it provides the skill that is mainly discussed in the book. Like magic book mainly discusses gestures of the wand than I will get increase in gesturing, but later I found out that it is not true. I was unable to read many books about magic channeling, because they are pretty scarce, or I was just unlucky in finding them. Anyway, I got an increase in it from books that b?r?ly even scratch that topic. Apparently, system gives a raise randomly out of 3 magic skills. However, that is not true for magic theory. Books that focus on magical theory give only magic theory skill. So far, at least. Second surprise was that some magical books in place of skill raise provide a spell that was being discussed in the book in detail. For example, one book about transfiguration and how to cancel its effects gave me "Un-Transfiguration Spell". Overall, I got 7 spells and 44 skill raises just in pathetic 30 minutes. That makes my previous 2 months of work look worthless. My feelings were mixed, indeed. Well, whatever. I am not sure about how many levels I got, because after receiving a notification about a level up, it stopped appearing. Time to go to room and check new abilities and spend experience. *An hour later* ¡º Level 12 ? Not enough experience ¡» ¡º Magicka ? Improvement : 7 ? 11 ¡» ¡º Stamina ? Improvement : 0 ¡» ¡º Number of skill points: 2 ¡» My level rose to 12, but that was not the most important thing here. I double checked the new skills I got, because I still couldn''t believe the prospects they bring. ¡º Magic Theory ¡» ¡¼Empowering¡½ ¡¼Great knowledge of theory allows you to make magic you wield increase or decrease in effect, masterfully controlling amount of magic you channel for it. Degree of change in the amount depends on Magic Theory level.¡½ ¡º Magic Channeling ¡» ¡¼You can change concentration of magic you channel to make you increase absolute power or slightly change properties(e.g. Concentrate a ray in an arrow). Degree of concentration depends on Magic Channeling level.¡½ ¡º Magic Chanting ¡» ¡¼Less Chants 1/2 (50)¡½ ¡¼It is easier to learn to use simple magic without using chants. Spells you know well and studied for a long time can be used without chants subconsciously. If you mastered spell and can cast its chantless version, chanting such a spell will increase its power.¡½ Using all that even small Incendio that used to light a fire can be used as a deadly ray of flame or flamethrower. Of course, the basis for that is to learn and master spells enough to start experimenting with casting them. Now I understand how in films people were casting spells differently in different moments. Spell ''Avada Kedavra'' for example sometimes was used like a ray and others like an arrow or a bullet shot. This explains a lot. Plus, doing chantless and gesturless magic will be cool. Though I expect wandless magic won''t come soon. After all, wands became such a popular instrument not without a reason. And now that I got a ton of new spells, I can practice them and hopefully master some of them. Also, tomorrow will be a last day before a Halloween. Where the heck is that troll? In the film, troll attacked before the first Quidditch match and after dog discovery. I am waiting for so long. October nearly finished. I remember it should be after charms lesson with Levitation charm, but when it''s going to be, no idea. I am happy to have more time to prepare, but what if troll never appeared in book and it was just a film thing? I am a bit anxious. Ah, whatever. Today I saved twice, and I have only 2 slots again. I will remove save when I picked first abilities for now. You never know when you will need saves and in the moment of need, I might not have time to pick what to delete. So better have more slots. Or am I too careful¡­? Ah, whatever! Now to sleep. Chapter 13 - Level 13 [ part 1 ]. Troll attack Day before Halloween was very exciting for me. I had a ton of new spells and abilities to try out. First thing I did is learning all new spells from a spellbook in my free time. Some of them I already knew, but just could not practice, so I mastered them. It was surprisingly easy. I spent around half an hour to master each spell. Not learn, but master. Which means I can cast their empowered versions with ease. Also, I was quite surprised with the speed of learning and mastering, but then I remembered that my magicka characteristic was improved 11 times. Now I had immense talent, enough to breeze through first and maybe even second year. I was also trying out chantless and gesturless magic with spell I mastered to the peak, "Fire-Making Spell". During training using personal spellbook functionality I tried using it wandless as well but got severely burned in hands. Thank god that was just virtual burns, although pain was real! I forgot that this spell was a charm, so while using it with hands I need incredible focus and concentration to charm item before me and not my hands which circulate all the magic to be used. Wands are really too convenient. They make every spell so much easier. Anyway, I tried wandless magic with some other spells from spellbook. Charms are no go, because while going through hands charm can be applied to yourself as well, so channeling and concentration needs to be very precise. It was easier with "Knockback Jinx", because the idea is to send a type of force into the object and not to charm it. However, sometimes force was very weak and other times I would send force in the direction slightly off the target. One time it was even send in the opposite direction which is into me. I experimented the whole day, whenever I got a free time, forgoing all the reading for that. Now, I can understand why spellbook is so useful and is part of the system. I can virtually try any spell in any way I want to and if got unsuccessful or hurt in the process, it will disappear in the next session of experiment, because all of it was just virtual training. Overpowered. Can''t wait to have more powerful spell to experiment with. And then there is simulation, but I had no time to try it, too engrossed by experimenting. That is how day passed. Halloween came. To me it was just another day and I honestly did not understand all the fuss around this festivity. However, when we got to charm lesson and started training levitation charm, my heartbeat quickened. Finally, the moment of troll attack is near. I didn''t care about lesson one bit, because mastered this lesson month ago, so I let my partner Neville try the spell any way he wanted. I was looking after Granger and she was successful with the spell to annoyance of Weasley. After lesson, I went after her, but then heard how Ron was saying not very nice things about her. I wanted to really beat him up, but it won''t help the situation. I went after her, to check if she is okay, but apparently, she wasn''t. She was crying and running somewhere. I was going after her, but when she entered the girls'' bathroom I was thinking if it was appropriate to enter there as well. I decided to save and go in. ¡¼Save ?¡½ I entered and heard person''s crying. I shouted: "Hermione, are you okay? It''s me Magnus. I saw you running away from class and got worried. I am asking forgiveness in advance for bothering you, but I need to make sure you are okay. Please, can we talk." Crying went softer and quitter, but still there were no words. "Did something happen? Did somebody hurt you? Just say a word and I will deal with that person!" I said with gusto, trying to sound confident and funny to make situation a little bit lighter. Maybe it was speech or maybe it really helped but she calmed down a bit and exited the cabin where she locked herself in. She had teary face and red eyes. "Am I a nightmare?" she asked. "What?" I was very surprised by a question. "Why would you ask such a stupid question? Of course, you are not. You are smart, brave and kind person. You got in Gryffindor, after all." "But n-nobody t-talks with me and I h-have n-no friends, and s-s-so no can s-stand me and ¡­" She was stammering and blabbering some nonsense. And started spilling tears once more. "Stop! I am your friend and will forever be! I can stand you just fine and I can talk with you as long you want! If you want to talk about something, then let''s talk. Anytime, anyplace. Just stop crying, please." "Can you talk with me now?" She asked ''Wow, she really was shaken that much by words of the redhead? Damn.'' "Of course, where?" "Here!" "Um¡­ In girls'' bathroom? Are you sure?" I asked to make sure she meant it. She blushed due to embarrassment. She must have forgotten where we were for a moment. "We can talk outside." I offered. "Yes, let''s do that." And so, we talked right outside of bathroom for hours. Thankfully, I had come up with some life stories in these 2 months. Soon, the floor was empty and there was nobody bothering us. She calmed down in the first hour, but I did not want to break the atmosphere, so I just continued conversing. We both delved deep into magic knowledge, so we had a lot of topics to talk about, plus we came from muggle background, so we had a lot in common. We discussed all sorts of topics: our lifes before school, magic theory, history, connection to science, muggle world, magic world. At some point in time I smelled something very nasty and wanted to ask Hermione but noticed that she became terrified looking behind me. I turned around and saw some bad shit there. Ugly, stinky, giant monster with a club looking stupidly in our direction. At that moment of time, I heard hurried steps from path opposite to where troll came from. Harry and Ron came from the pathway. The first thing they noticed was Hermione and me. "Hermione, Magnus, there is a troll that¡­" Harry wanted to say, but Ron interrupted him with the loud cry. "Harry! It''s a troll!" They both looked at the monster and apparently troll either did not like the sounds or looks we were giving, but he got angry and went after us. "Run." I said But Granger was just frozen in fear, while boys were apparently still dazed. I wanted to scream at them, saying how stupid they are, but troll was quite fast for its size, so it was near us in a short amount of time we didn''t move. He was angrily raising his club to smash us to paste, but I used knockback jinx on him. As a person with experience of video games and self-made food, what can scare me? Nothing! "Flipendo!" I shouted this time. "Run" Everyone started running for dear life, except for me. Hopefully, they will notice I didn''t follow only after they escape this floor. Troll wasn''t scary and I had saves. He was perfect target practice, because he was slow and stupid. He tried to raise his club was once more and this time I just raised a wand. Now is the time to test my power. I don''t need words or gestures now, that nobody was here. I can enjoy this. ''Concentrated Flipendo'' Troll was knocked 3 meters away, his every step sounding like a drum. ''Empowered Incendio'' Wand like a flamethrower was spitting fire on a troll, to which he used one hand to cover his face. Nonetheless, it was apparent he felt a lot of pain due to all the screaming. I enjoyed this feeling of control over my enemy. He tried to rush at me with the club, but¡­ ''Concentrated Diffindo'' I cut his club like bu??er and what hit me was nothing but air. Now I wanted to test something truly overpowered. ''Empowered Concentrated Flipendo'' Effect was not just 1+1=2 but more like (1+1) to the power of three. Troll was sent flying back, landing on his back. Sound of him falling was loud and satisfying. I defeated a troll with my own power. It was exhilarating. Troll was confused, so without giving him any second chances and expecting some teachers coming soon, I had to knock him out fast. First, I repaired club with ''Reparo'', so that nobody will know I can use Severing Charm. After that I used same trick Ron used in the film. I used ''Wingardium Leviosa'' to levitate club above the head of the troll and dropped it. Nice sounding crack in the head proves that I dealt enough damage to knock him out. Seconds after I finished, adrenalin started running out of my blood and I started feeling mental exhaustion. My brain was unaccustomed to real-life concentrated and empowered casting. Especially without chants and gestures. I have taken a sit on the floor to rest a little bit and soon started hearing hurried footsteps and then felt someone hugging me. ''Wait, what?'' "You are alright? Thank god. Why did you stay? You shouldn''t have!" "I am okay." She noticed her outburst and quickly stood up, although her cheeks were suspiciously read, he-he. "Teachers!" I''ve greeted three teachers. Actually two, Quirrell was sitting on the floor, clutching his heart. Snape went to check the troll, while McGonagall went straight for me and furiously started speaking. "What on earth were you thinking of? You are lucky you weren''t killed. Why aren''t you in your dormitory? Thankfully, these three led us here." Snape looked piercingly at me, trying to understand how I soloed this mini boss. Just, when I wanted to say something Granger, came with horrendously realistic story of her and those 2 coming to fight the troll, but got scared and here I came, saving them, stalling the troll for them to escape. ''Wait¡­ Did they think I stalled the troll for them? This situation is truly ¨C one stone for two birds. I both practiced my spells and looked like a hero in their eyes. I can be sure that I will be their friend now for the rest of the story.'' Both Ron and Harry were astounded by her well-thought lie and nearly missed the moment where they agreed. "Ron Weasley, Harry Potter and unexpectedly you Hermione Granger! How could you even think of tackling a mountain troll with just you three?" Hermione hung her head, while those two had no idea what to do. Professor continued: "You three! 5 points will be taken from Gryffindor per each person! Now you can proceed to your tower! Students are finishing feast in their house." All three of them left. "As for you mister Magnus, you truly are a mystery. No last name, no records of letter being sent, yet you are indeed a wizard with huge potential of 11 years of age." "I''ve never knew family and names people have given me is empty sound for me. My name is Magnus. It was my first choice in life, and I am proud of my name. As for letter, I¡­ well, have no idea." I laughed awkwardly. ''Of course, there are no records. I came to this world on the day of sorting.'' She stared at me for some time, then sighed and said: "In any case, you showcase of skill in defeating a troll and bravery in stalling the troll for your friends wins your house 20 points! Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go." I saved. Just in case. ¡¼Save ?¡½ Finally, this is over. I seriously need to get some rest¡­ and food. Chapter 15 - Level 14 [ part 1 ]. New abilities ¡¼Skills¡½ ''System show all skills and add progress they did since Halloween.'' [Affirmative. Information is being modified¡­ Done. ] ¡º Studying 25 ? 27 | Speech 21 ? 23 | Herbology 22 ? 23 ¡» ¡º Alchemy 23 ? 26 | Wand Making 26 | Astronomy 20 ? 21 ¡» ¡º Sneak 18 ? 21 | Riding Expertise 20 ? 21 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 30 ? 31 | Magic Chanting 20 ? 21 ¡» ¡º Magic Gesturing 21 ? 22 | Magic Channeling 21 ? 25 ¡» ¡º ?Crafting 15 ? 19 | ?Playing Games 15 ? 17 ¡» ''I ?ssume this symbol of yours ''?'' means that this skill is new and was acquired in this period of progress?'' And below that, personal info was located. ¡º Level 12 ? Can increase ¡» ¡º Health ? Improvement : 0 ¡» ¡º Magicka ? Improvement : 11 ¡» ¡º Stamina ? Improvement : 0 ¡» ¡º Number of skill points: 2 ¡» I increased the level and put another point into magicka ¡º Level 13 ? Not enough experience ¡»¡­ ¡º Magicka ? Improvement : 11 ? 12 ¡»¡­ After finishing a level up, I decided to take a look at new abilities that can be obtained. Two tier 1 abilities from new skills, new tier 2 abilities for Channeling, Riding Expertise and Sneaking. But because I did not take tier 1 abilities, I can''t take tier 2 abilities. Also, interesting thing I noticed is that tier 2 abilities do not necessarily appear at 20th level of skill. For example, new abilities for ''Magic Channeling'' appeared only when I reached level 25 in the skill. So, not all skills get tier 2 abilities at level 20. Interesting¡­ Anyway, I do not have that much of a choice. I picked a path of raising my magic power until I can rival ?du?ts and then maybe invest into other skills. Maybe this path is not perfect, but I am following it anyway, because I see no better options here. Moreover, I always can load to previous moment in time. Tier 2 abilities need tier 1 abilities to be opened, so even if I see some interesting tier 2 ability now, to get it I have to spend 2 points, because except for magic and studying I have tier 1 ability only in speech. And the only tier 2 ability in speech is not very interesting, or better to be said ¨C not very appropriate at the moment. ¡¼Lady Killer¡½ ¡¼ You look better in the eyes of the opposite gender and have higher chance of influencing them. Opposites gender falls in the love with you stronger. Easier to seduce opposite gender. Speech experiences a buff while speaking with opposite gender. ¡½ It is simply overpowered with ton of buffs and bonuses, but problem is these things can be both positive and negative. Woman who loves you very strongly can be deadly. Yandere girl is not one of my dreams, especially in the world where love potion is real. Plus, how this ability can be helpful when I am 11? Therefore, my conclusion is: "Good ability, bad timing". Maybe in year 5? Anyway, I digress once more. Okay, new abilities, focus! *10 minutes later* I have taken a look at new abilities and honestly new tier 2 ability in Sneak is omega strong and I b?r?ly could fight an urge to waste 2 points, because currently ability will be just useless. At least until the end of year 1. Maybe on Summer? ¡¼Hidden Attack¡½ ¡¼ When hidden and you enemy is not informed of your presence, attacks done to that enemy are tripled in strength. ¡½ This is the real world and not some RPG. Just doubled strength of normal ''Flipendo'' can hurt a human and even lead to a temporary daze from fall at my level of magic channeling. What if I will empower, concentrate the spell and then triple the output? Force will probably send person flying with so many G''s(atmospheres) that his body will break even before landing. And even ''landing'' will be more like crushing into bloody mess. Strong ability and I really wanted it, but currently I did not need it, because I wasn''t fighting anyone or sneaking into enemy bases. Magic abilities at least empower all magic, not just attacking spells, so despite all my dreams to be ''overpowered terminator'', I will continue focusing on grinding magic skills and getting magic abilities. Maybe I am too narrow minded and can''t see the whole picture¡­ Whatever, at least tier 2 ability in ''Magic Channeling'' not one bit weaker. ¡¼ You can have 2 active channels of magic, without either of them suffering any loss in power, concentration or amount. ¡½ What it meant is that I can freely cast magic from 2 channels without any loss in power of that magic. In this world it is not impossible to cast from 2 hands, but most wizards have one wand for a reason. I started on the path of dual casting but what I am doing is forcefully channeling magic from one source into two points using one channel. My body quickly switches between two points which is essentially how computer schedules tasks. Processor core does only one task at one point of time and after doing part of it, switches to next task. Because processor works and switches very fast you feel like it''s doing multiple tasks. Same thing about my body without this ability, but slower and less efficient. Because most spells do not need the constant flow of magic, especially charming I can switch quick enough for it look like double casting, but if it was some real fight, I wouldn''t be able to switch quick enough. I am actually not sure if there is a practice to naturally increase number of channels or train true double casting. After all, my knowledge of magic is miniscule. Maybe there are even wizards, who wield 2 wands, which with my current knowledge won''t make sense. Because wand concentrates and channels magic in caster''s body to a point. So, technically it will be similar to frying an egg using 2 pans, I think. However, nothing is certain. Moreover, ability description says nothing about 2 hands but more about 2 channels. It gives me ability to have 2 channels, but I am not sure if channel is a source of magic or just a path to some deeper source inside a human body. I admit, that my previous ?ssumption was that channeling called ''channeling'' because it draws power from some source. However, after thinking deeply over the meaning of this ability I started doubting that my source of magic and channel are 2 different things. After all, I never found any direct mentions of source of magic. Only channeling. I have so many questions. The deeper I go into magic theory the more questions start to appear. Maybe I am just overthinking it. I will ignore this for now. Crafting is something I will continue grinding because I got interested in it and I am improving magic skills(mostly channeling) with it. Taking ability in this tree was a good idea, but the ability got me into contemplation once more due to its description. ¡¼Crafts Connection¡½ ¡¼ Items crafted have better compatibility with other skills and abilities of the user. Effects applied to it by user are stronger. ¡½ The part about applied effects got me thinking about enchanted items and enchanting overall. I know that it''s possible to enchant items in this world and give some extraordinary traits to them. As long as I won''t be one-shot or lose consciousness, I can load to previous save no matter how grievous the wound is. So, if I had items enchanted to defend my life from such killing spells, my survivability will experience tremendous growth. I will need to research that. And the last skill ''Playing Games'' ability gave mixed feelings. ¡¼Good Player 0/5 ¡½ Honestly, I don''t play games that often, so I will ignore ability for now. Overall from 4 new abilities and some old abilities, I have not found anything that would truly interest me, except for dual casting. In my opinion, that is the only thing that can increase rate at which I improve my magic channeling. After all, the more I channel the more experience I get, so doubling experience gathering will be nice. ''System, can you show me all my abilities?'' [Indeed, I can. Outputting¡­] ¡¼Abilities list¡½ ¡¼ ? Strong argument 1/4 (25) ? Remarkable Comprehension 1/3 (30) ? Fast Reading 1/2 (65) ? Better memory 1/3 (45) ? Better concentration 1/2 (45) ? Less Gestures 1/2 (50) ? Empowering ? Concentration ? Less Chants 1/2 (50) ? Dual Channeling ¡½ Wow, I got a lot of abilities, huh? Also, I will be able to upgrade some of those abilities soon. That is great! Now, let''s look at saves. ''System show me my saves, please.'' ¡¼Saves list¡½ ¡¼ ---- Race Picked ---- Before entering bathroom ---- Fifth abilities pick ---- Before sorting ---- First 2 abilities ---- Second 2 abilities ---- Waiting after duel ---- Third abilities pick ---- Using books ---- Fourth abilities pick ¡½ My naming conventions are horrible, but whatever. Also, save does not have description about it and its name should be short. Thankfully, I can rename them later, so coming up with catchy name is not a problem if I have more more than 1 try. But in any case, I need to delete at least 2 saves, perfect will be 4 saves. Which of them are the most useless now? I can safely delete ''Using books'' made before starting using books. Month has passed, but I did not feel any repercussions from using them, so I am more or less sure I am safe. In addition to this there is ''First 2 abilities'' and ''Second 2 abilities''. Right now, I am ?ssured that these 4 first abilities I acquired were a right pick for me, so I do not need that backup anymore. I can probably delete ''Third abilities pick'' and ''Waiting after duel'', because I don''t feel I will need them in the future. Overall, I have 3 saves I will delete and 2 saves that look useless enough to be deleted. ''System delete the saves number: 9, 5, 6, 8, and 7.'' [Confirm deletion of saves 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.] Nice. These saves go in order. I just noticed it. ''I confirm'' [Affirmative. Processing¡­ ] I suppose I am done for today. [Deleted.] ''Okay. I am going to sleep now. Have a good sleep, system!'' [I don''t sleep. That is purely biological process...] I smiled and fell asleep. Chapter 16 - Level 14 [ part 2 ]. Erised and Dragons Harry used his cloak of invisibility and told me and Ron how he found a mirror that showed his family. Ron and I were excited but for different reasons. Ron wanted to see Harry''s family, while I wanted to know what I truly d?s?r?d. In the evening after hours of searching, three of us, b?r?ly fitting under invisibility cloak, somehow got into the room with the mirror. Because, my descriptive skills are honestly lacking, no other words except for "big and tall" did not come to mind, when I saw the mirror. After we came in and Harry looked into the mirror, he tried to show us what he saw to Ron and me, but unfortunately for him, we didn''t see a thing in it. Then Ron tried standing before it and saw manifestation of his true d?s?r?s. Then I understood why mirror was called "Erised". This word backwards is "desirE". Both funny and sad, knowing that whatever you see in the mirror is an unfulfilled dream. Soon, Harry and Ron started arguing and me being lost in thoughts didn''t notice how this argument started. But I didn''t need to intervene, because soon our trio heard some noise from outside in the corridor. It was that annoying cat of Filch. Mrs. Norris. Thankfully we were able to hide under cloak in time, but it scared me shitless, nonetheless. I didn''t think it was that dangerous to come here. ¡º Sneak 21 ? 22 ¡» Well, that is a nice bonus. In any case, after staring for some time cat went away and we decided to go back to our dorms, before cat has called Filch. I really wanted to look into the mirror to see what my d?s?r? was, but it will be postponed I suppose. Thanks to one of my abilities I have better memory and recall, so I mostly memorized way here from Gryffindor tower. We reached the tower soon and those two went to sleep, while I decided to check that mirror. I had nothing to fear, because I can Save&Load anytime. ''Save progress'' ¡¼Save ?¡½ Then I looked in the mirror and saw myself there. Standing in the circle of fire, while lightning was screeching in my hands. Smile was on my face, while people from beyond the circle were throwing spells at me. Why smile? Because all spells were ineffective against my defense. True invincibility. Or better to be said I was wielding power so immense and unparalleled that I was invincible. Hm, so was it, power, that I d?s?r?d? Never thought of myself as power hungry, but I suppose that explains my unquenching d?s?r? for knowledge. My d?s?r? was so simple, yet so strong. After thinking about it for some time power could make sure I will survive. Will grant me wealth and prosperity. Will help me achieve success. Power is foundation for everything. I understood it clearly now. Personally, I always thought that understanding your d?s?r? is the only way to achieve your happiness. Because if you know it well enough, you can either set yourself on fulfilling it or forgo impossible d?s?r? to pick a new one. Controlling and fulfilling d?s?r?s is the way to happiness for me and I will continue walking this path. I was in deep thought for some time. I yawned and understood that I need to go sleep. Because I was too lazy to go back myself and honestly wanted to have more time to sleep, I decided to just load latest save I made, saving myself some time. Literally. However, it was my first-time loading a save, so I asked the system. ''How do I load to a save, system?'' [Think ''Return to'' and then mentally picture the moment you want to return to or second option if you know the number of the save you can say ''Return to moment 3'' for example. ] ''Can I say, "return to last saved moment?"'' ''Return to last saved moment'' For a second my vision blanked and all I saw was darkness, but in the next moment I was in my room standing, ready to go out for a mirror. That was faster than I expected. Anyway, it''s time to sleep. *Week later* These past few days Potter was gloomy and deep in thought. I ?ssumed he was going every day to look into that mirror. I wanted to talk him out of this, but then decided against it. In original he somehow got his d?s?r? under control, right? So, he can do this now as well. And I was right. Today when we got to breakfast, I saw him there a tad bit livelier than before. By that time students started returning for a beginning of the term. Granger returned a day before term started and sufficiently berated us for not finding who Flamel is, but I surprised all three of them. This week, I finally find out the book that mentions him. Thank god, I had upper hand, knowing he was an alchemist, but even then, I had to go through ton of books before I was able to find one that mentions him. This dude is not old. He is freaking ancient. "Who said we didn''t? I know who he is." "Really? Why didn''t you tell us? Who is he?" Harry anxiously asked. "I found it in the book I borrowed from library yesterday. As you know I go to sleep very late, because I am reading before sleep. So, I had no opportunity to tell you yet as I found mention of him in that period. Didn''t want to wake you up. We will discuss it after breakfast." "Okay" We quickly finished food in our plates and went to find some empty classroom to discuss who Flamel is. After telling the trio who he is and showing them the book where I found him they understood what was guarded by that dog. After that days went by and Potter brought us the news: Snape will be referring next match. Ron was against it and tried to convince Harry against playing. Hermione briefly looked at me before saying that maybe it was better if he avoided the game. Apparently all three of them were still suspicious about Snape. Not much I can do about it. Anyway, Harry still decided to play, because there was no other Seeker. At that moment Neville came in, or better to be said "fell in", as he was cursed with leg-lock and couldn''t walk properly. So, while others were laughing Hermione wanted to use counter-curse spell but was a tad bit late. I already casted the spell and his legs sprang apart. Thanks to library, high magical talent, fast reading, amazing memory and high-level magic skills learning simple magic is easy. So now I know at least a dozen of spells, excluding the ones from a spellbook. *After Quidditch match* Harry came all gloomy while telling us how he heard Snape threatening Quirrell and they ?ssumed that Quirrell was some kind of a hero, that stood up to a villain. I honestly wanted to hit my head with wall. Really? A hero? This golden trio sure is a biased bunch. I can''t even persuade them, because that will only distance them from me. So annoying¡­ Moreover, due to my previous suspicion of Quirrell now they think that he was the one who was counter-jinxing the broom and he tried to save Harry, while Snape wanted to kill him. Anyway, exams were coming and that was emphasized at least fifty times by Hermione. Plus, we got ton of homework, so I had little time to grind. After all, I can read fast, but I can''t write as fast. *One of the days in library* We were sitting studying and preparing our homework, when Hagrid suspiciously shuffled into view. Redhead and Potter started loudly speaking about Flamel and the stone left and right, which scared me to the point where I might need to switch pants. Who the heck tells highly guarded secret out loud in the place with so many people? So, they argued a little with Hagrid and in the end he invited us to his hut later to discuss whatever we wanted, as long as we don''t speak about it in common areas. After he left, Hermione was interested in what he was hiding. Ron decided to see what he was researching and in which section. It was dragon''s section. Interesting. I think this is the moment where he will hatch the dragon or something like this. Then we talked about dragons and apparently Ron''s brother researching dragons. I somehow missed that info, huh. Anyway, two types of dragons still live in Britain : Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. Maybe in the future I will try hunt few of those. From alchemy books I read, every dragon is a trove of ingredients. With them I can grind alchemy and wand making skills easily. After finishing lessons for today we went to visit Hagrid''s hut. *Progress since last chapter* ¡º Alchemy 26 ? 27 | Sneak 21 ? 22 | Speech 23 ¡» ¡º Studying 27 ? 28 | Wand Making 26 | Herbology 23 ¡» ¡º Magic Channeling 25 ? 27 | Magic Chanting 21 ? 22 ¡» ¡º Magic Gesturing 22 | Magic Theory 31 ¡» ¡º Astronomy 21 | Riding Expertise 21 ¡» *Comment on progress. Do you want to see it in every chapter?* Chapter 17 - Level 14 [ part 3 ]. Did I break the story? After visiting Hagrid, our golden trio tried to get info about defense used on the stone, beside the dog. Hagrid being a simple person, was goaded pretty quickly especially by sweet talker like Hermione. Her skill of getting people to do what she needs is surprising, because her EQ is pretty low. It seems that it''s true indeed that high enough IQ can cower for any weakness, huh? When she knows, what goal needs to be achieved via talking, she talks like a professional philosopher with year of experience in giving speeches. In any case after getting information, we found out that next professors helped with defense: Trout, Flitwick, McGonagall, Quirrell, Snape and Dumbledore. But of course, our friendly biased bunch has accentuated their attention on Snape''s name. They started asking if anyone else knows how to go around the dog, but he ?ssured us that only him and Dumbledore know. Then, Ron noticed an egg in the fireplace and Hagrid started explaining about it and how he got it. Also, just interesting bit of info! He is really obsessed with the egg. And I mean, insanely obsessed! Honestly, when I saw it in the film, I though having a dragon was just a childish dream, but in reality Hagrid was dead set on having it, despite all the problems it can bring. Granger and even Weasley mentioned some of the issues that come with growing a dragon in the backyard, but he just ignored them. I never focused on this issue, but now that I appeared here, having a dragon is against the law. And this giant dude is okay with it. I mean it is not a turtle to be hidden in a one room hut. It''s a DRAGON! Really?! And what''s the most insane thing is how he got an egg. Golden trio and Hagrid did not even question how he got a freaking dragon egg that he dreamed of, from a complete stranger in a tavern, by winning it in game of cards. Yup. No problems. Nothing suspicious. I honestly wanted to speak up but decided against it to avoid destroying canon and bringing chaos to story. *Day of hatching* In the morning we received the letter telling us about hatching. Ron wanted to skip herbology to see the hatching, but me and Granger were severely against it. Me because every lesson was a grind, while dragon wasn''t and her because skipping lesson is an unacceptable idea. Thus, Ron and Hermione started arguing. Of course, in the process of the argument between these two, Malfoy heard some stuff. This blondie really like to meddle in things that do not concern him. So, he obviously followed us and now dragon needs to be dealt with and fast. First thing that came to mind was Ron''s brother, but Hermione said about it before I could it even open my mouth. So, it was decided to send his brother, Charley, a letter describing a situation and asking for advice. He answered and all was good and merry, dragon will be dealt with on Saturday when Charley''s friends will take dragon away. He was bit by the dragon and of course her fangs were poisonous. He fell ill and got into the hospital. There Malfoy came to gloat over him and of course he found out about Saturday through the letter that was in the book, which Malfoy took. Now I understand why this trio was constantly in the middle of some mess. They are idiots¡­ and I don''t mean intellectually. I mean their mindset in dealing with things is idiotic. Ron could have checked the bite in the first day and not wait till his damage became so severe. And reason for not going? Doctor might find out he was bit by dragon¡­ Now that you are lying in the hospital, seriously ill, doctor will think it was a mosquito bite. Really, Ron? And okay, ignore the bite. What about the letter then? They could have burned it, the same day they received it. But no, let''s keep it in the book, from where it can fall off easily¡­ *Sigh¡­* These days they annoy me to unimaginable degree. Now we have to go and get that dragon to highest tower at midnight and give it to people on brooms, who will transfer dragon away from Britain. Hermione wanted to go with us, but I told her that 2 people is enough, plus invisibility cloak is not big enough to cover 3 people with dragon between them. Before going out to Hagrid''s hut, I decided to save. After all, I don''t want to mess up the storyline. ''Save progress'' ¡¼Save ?¡½ Close to midnight, me and Harry went to get that dragon and somehow convinced Hagrid that giving Norbert, was dragon''s name by the way, to Charley is a good choice. We fortunately made it to the tower without any problems. Although sweating like pigs, because Norbert wasn''t light and we weren''t athletes. Moreover, I nearly shitted my pants when we heard a sudden noise and saw Professor McGonagall dragging Malfoy by the ear. He tried to sell us out, but only got himself a detention. Anyway, we got to tower and successfully got rid of this dragon. Just when Harry and I started going down, I remembered that we forgot the cloak and told him about it. We put the cloak on again and started descending, and it was a good idea to put it on, because Filch was waiting right at the foot of the stairs. It was a second close call for my pants. I was scared really hard, by an ugly old dude staring right at you in the dark of the night. We scurried away as quiet and as quick as possible. But of course, happy ending never follows our group. Next morning, we found out that Neville was caught while trying to inform us about Malfoy''s plot to sell us out. Of course, McGonagall started asking questions and we were under a ton of suspicions. There was no proof against us, but still it got us under close observation by professors, because whole situation was just too suspicious. Also, I felt bad about Neville so, decided to load latest save and notify him beforehand not to worry and sleep. Before exiting I went to him and told him to stay put, not to go out and sleep. I instantly regretted decision to notify him, because spending hours carrying crate with a dragon is not exactly a definition of a dream. But whatever. Everything else was as planned. Finally. We got happy ending, and all went well. Now, next activity should be walk in the dark forest, so it''s time to grind and wait. *Some time later* Until I heard how Malfoy started berating school for forcing students to go out in the dark forest and some other useless stuff. But that one piece about forest made it clear to me. I''ve messed up and messed up hard. How I didn''t think about it previously. Because walk in the dark forest was done by Harry and Malfoy, so apparently, he should have been there. Moreover, going into forbidden forest cannot be called a reward, so it was a detention. Who was at fault here, my hazy memory or film makers and their inconsistencies? I don''t know. I should have come to this conclusion earlier. Damn it. Did I break the story, now? Without forest, Potter won''t know it''s Voldemort that is after him. Without that, no motivation to look for stone. No motivation, no magical saving of the stone. No saving, early Voldemort. Early Voldemort, early freaking death will be in my medical history! Nope. Not going to happen. I must go back. Thankfully only a few days passed, I didn''t get any skill raises in this period and I didn''t delete any saves, so I can safely load to the same moment. Crap, we will be under detention and remembering how many points McGonagall subtracted from Gryffindor for Neville, I am going to regret doing this, aren''t I? ''Return to last saved moment'' Shit lifting this stupid crate for a third time. I already hate this dragon. *In the morning after saving dragon(3rd time)* We all safely got a¡­ well¡­ detention. I really hope this is canon. Otherwise, I am going to cry. Neville is hurt, thinking we actually lied to him and it was us who were behind this whole story, trying to frame Malfoy. In addition to this, I indeed regret returning and redoing it for a second time. McGonagall deducted fifty points¡­ Per each person! Whole Gryffindor was looking at us like we''ve killed somebody in their family. Harry was gloomy and I heard he promised to himself to never interfere in other''s business. That scares me. My whole point of returning was to make sure he will interfere. But I decided to not be rash and wait until we will go to the forest. Only Hermione and Ron were still keeping us company. Everyone else, even Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were avoiding us. Slytherin was jeering and constantly made fun of us. Overall, it was a nice educative atmosphere. I really hope it''s worth it. If I return to carry that stupid dragon for the fourth time, I''m gonna go crazy! *Sigh* Let''s wait. *Progress* ¡º Alchemy 27 | Sneak 22 | Speech 23 ¡» ¡º Studying 28 | Wand Making 26 | Herbology 23 ? 24 ¡» ¡º Magic Channeling 27 | Magic Chanting 22 ¡» ¡º Astronomy 21 ? 22 | Riding Expertise 21 ¡» ¡º Crafting 20 | Playing Games 17 ¡» Chapter 19 - Level 15 [ part 1 ]. First, finding home. I was thinking over my future prospects. First thing I need to do is to find a place to live. Can I ask to live with family of one of the trio? Potter''s place is a "no go". Dursley''s will be sincerely against having another "abnormal" living with them. Weasley''s are also improbable option, because they already have half a dozen of kids or so. Granger''s maybe? I can try them. At least I can ask to live with them for a couple of weeks, until I find some other place to live. If fortunate, they will take a liking to me and dunno, maybe I can live with them. ''System, can you provide me an ID? Or do I have one already?'' [Do you need one?] ''Yes?'' [Is it a survival necessity, and your lives depends on it?] ''Um¡­ well, no. But¡­'' [Then the answer is no.] ''¡­ Why are you bullying me?'' System ignored my last sentence, to which I bitterly smiled. However, after some thinking I understood that system already provided everything possible to survive, so having ID is really not that important. Apparently, my mindset from past world where not having a passport or ID can be very dangerous has moved to present one. Now, not having an ID is actually beneficial to me. There is nothing I need ID for. I can make money and provide for myself even without it. Moreover, tracking me will become significantly harder for both government and the ministry. Anyway, I will talk with Granger about it on our way out of school, in the train. My second problem is with how much Ministry of Magic can track spells and magic overall. I have no idea how exactly they track magic and especially young wizards'' magic. Thanks to saves I can safely experiment and do some limit testing to see how fast Ministry will found out about it and what actions will they take. In a film, sometimes Potter casted spell and got scot free with it, but other times he got a court invitation for one spell or am I missing something here? Hm¡­ I really need to research that while on summer. Based on that information I will plan my further moves. For now, I should craft some more artefacts, while I am still in Hogwarts. It''s possible I will have no opportunity to enchant items on Summer vacation. I was unable to learn too many enchantments so far. One of them was cloaking and I already made artefact from it. Other than hiding enchantments, I also researched protecting enchantments. Because it was a full mask, I could add parts to it with other enchantments later to make it stronger or have new effects. Also, I did not know how to work with clothes and such, so I decided to use one of the mantles given by system. I cut a big piece of cloth from the mantle and started transfiguring it so that it will cover head, neck and shoulders. In area of head I made holes that will be later hooked later to the mask. Mask itself was roughly cut from piece of a stone. Cut 2 holes for eyes and one long strip for mouth. Using transfiguration, I smoothed it and then molded inner side to perfectly fit my face. Also, I thinned out mask a little, because otherwise my vision was too obstructed on the sides. Small circles were made out of wood hollowed from inside. I enchanted them for protection. Then I colored the stone mask and hood into dark grey and enchanted for protection as well. Wooden rings I molded into the stone at the inner parts of mask that did not touch my face. I put everything on and using some transfiguration I put everything together, so that rings were in holes of the hood. And of course, problem appeared. Problem was that mask was just dropping from the face due to gravity, after all this is not a game where mask will stay on you just because you wish so. I disconnected mask from hood. After thinking about this issue, I decide to make some new wooden rings and put them on inner sides of the mask. Then cut a thin strip of cloth, made holes in it and put it through those rings again. Before connecting rings and cloth I enchanted cloth and then I put a loose mask with string on top of my face. Then I tightened the string to the limit so that mask will fit me perfectly without falling. Tried moving a little bit to make sure I can comfortably walk in mask. Then I connected it to hood and done. I unequipped it and equipped it again once more. Works fine. Decided to test it and thrown some stuff in my face and everything was bounced off. Nice! Though, I must admit nobody will call it a piece of art, cause mask outer appearance just rough stone. However, that gives to it some primordial feel, so it is all good and dandy. *Day of going* After waking up, I was all set but to make a visibility that I had a lot of stuff, I already crafted a bag in addition to school one where I put some of my stuff. I honestly did not need it, but oh well. Don''t want any questions asked. Boarded the train and I went to sit together with our heroic trio, or actually now it is heroic four, because I saved school with them. Time passed quick, while having a good conversation. We even played a chess a little thanks to Harry''s set, that he gave to me as a gift after saying that he doesn''t like playing it anyway. Thankfully, his set repairs itself after a game, so no need to worry about that at least. We also promised to exchange letters and here I thought it was a perfect moment to say about my situation. "Well, I don''t have an owl, honestly speaking, so I am not sure if we can exchange any letters. I don''t even have a home." "Wait. What?" "What?" "No way" Their response was quite violent. "Well, I am an orphan. Plus, you must have forgotten that I am not from England. Usually I live where I work. However, once I came here with my employer and received a letter about Hogwarts and stuff. I was lucky, because employer stayed here until September. I was also able to find a second job and collect enough money to buy all required items, so all in all I was really lucky." I heard a sob at some point. It was Hermione. I looked at them all and they were sitting there red-eyed on the verge of crying. "Where you are going to live now?" Harry asked. "No idea. I wanted to¡­ " I looked at Hermione "Well, doesn''t matter. I will try to find some work and then we will see." I quickly said, looking flustered. "You wanted what? You said before." Hermione was insistent and that was exactly what I was aiming for. "Well¡­ I wanted to ask, if I can live with one of you. Then I thought that Harry''s family are not the nicest people, and Ron''s family already had it hard from financial perspective. I did not want to be a burden to you guys, so I thought to ask you, Hermione, but I¡­ don''t know, if it''s going to be okay with your family" I smiled bitterly. "I will definitely ask parents about this, don''t worry. We can''t allow you to be homeless! They will understand your situation, I am sure!" "Thank you!" I was honestly touched. She was so sincere, that it touched my heart and made me feel warm. I expected to succeed, but not that fast. "I am forever in your debt, Hermione!" She laughed embarrassingly and said: "That''s what friends for, right?" "Yes" I smiled. *On the train station* Me and Granger explained her parents my situation and they agreed to help me, though it was obvious to me that they were a little troubled. It was understandable. After all, if I had a new kid to worry I would also be troubled, to say the least. We sit into their car and quickly reached their house. I was given a guest room to live and because I had not much stuff, I didn''t take a lot of space. Granger parents cooked some food already, though they expected 3 people and not 4. However, I calmed them down by saying that I did not expect to get food today in the first place, so I made some for myself. Then we all went to do our stuff. Her parents decided to catch up on what happened in half-a-year she was at school. I decided to not be a bother and have a walk. I mapped neighborhood to the best of my ability, to not get lost in the future. I memorized location of few shops that I can visit later. I spent around 2 hours walking around and then I returned. After returning, I went to sleep, without checking anything anymore. Was really tired. Last thought before falling asleep was about how I need to start training my body, because walk around for 2 hours drained me out of energy. *Progress since last chapter* ¡º Alchemy 27 | Sneak 23 | Speech 23 ¡» ¡º Magic Channeling 27 | Magic Chanting 22 ¡» ¡º Magic Gesturing 22 | Magic Theory 32 ¡» ¡º Astronomy 22 | Riding Expertise 21 ¡» ¡º Crafting 21 | Playing Games 17 | Enchanting 16 ? 17 ¡» Chapter 20 - Level 15 [ part 2 ]. Nightmares of the past *** Indiscernible screams were the only thing I was hearing, and intense anger was filling me. I wanted to hit something but couldn''t. I was holding it in. "How can you be so shameless! Don''t you have at least a bit of conscience." I was screaming. *** Tears were streaming down my face. More screams even louder than before filled the space around me. Anger was turning into hatred, or to be more precise it was waking the hatred that was deeply buried inside me. "Have you forgotten the past?! Well, I didn''t! I will never forget, nor will I ever forgive! I will never forget all that pain and sufferings that¡­" I continued screaming for some time. *** Then I was sitting in my room trying to calm myself, while constraining tears'' flow to the best of my ability. At the same time, irresistible feeling of loneliness was devouring my heart and only increased the mental pain I felt. "Friends? What are those, when you truly need them?" I was staring outside the window while sitting in the room. No thoughts were in my head or at least I was doing my best to empty it, in hopes that pain will leave. Thoughts of suicide were breaking my will, but I will never succumb to this. Suicide is an easy choice, to live that is truly a hard decision to make. *I open my eyes* There was no sudden jumping from the bed or screams. I was sleeping and then I just opened my eyes. So, nothing surprising happened from outside, but inside I was filled with remorse and sadness. ''Interesting, it''s the first time I am having a dream about my past. Seems like letting go of your past is just a story for naive kids.'' *Sigh* ''I strongly believed that I let go of it and my anger has subsided, but every time I think about it or remember my childhood¡­ I feel pain, hatred and loneliness. That causes rage to boil inside me but anger is never a good thing for a sane person. I need to focus and forget.'' I sat and decided to save in case I will mess up my day due to my mood dive. ¡¼Save ?¡½ 6:12 Pretty early, huh. Whatever I don''t want to sleep anymore, so might as well get up. I put my clothes on. Because, I had only mantles in my inventory. Those were the only clothes I had. Thankfully clothes under mantle were included into the set, so I just took off the mantle itself. Although it does not cancel the fact that clothes I had were bland and boring. It was a long sleeved black loose shirt with similarly black loose pants. Some shoes, und?rw??r and socks. As soon as I am getting money, I am buying new clothes. I went to the kitchen and saw nobody there. Apparently, Granger''s had a little vacation thanks to daughter return and a whole family decided to sleep longer. I might as well prepare some breakfast for the family. I checked in fridge what food was available for cooking. After seeing all available ingredients, I picked eggs, bacon(cooked), bread, salad, milk and some bu??er. I mixed eggs(liquid from them) and milk. Checked for spices, but there wasn''t much. That was a big difference compared to how I cooked before. My kitchen always had at least 5 types of spices. Anyways, I put some black and red pepper, salt and mixed it thoroughly. Took out a pan and started heating it. I did the same for all sandwiches I made. After that, I covered a dishes with food, with aluminum foil that I found somewhere in the top shelves, to make sure it will remain hot or at least warm. Next I put a pot with water to boil for a tea or coffee depending on who wants what. I spent half-an-hour on that and by that time I saw Hermione''s mother wake up and coming to the kitchen from a second floor of the house. "Breakfast ready and is waiting on the table. I wasn''t sure what will you prefer for breakfast, so I went for something simple. Hope you will like it. Tea or coffee?" "Um¡­ tea?" "Found only green one. Heavy or light?" "Medium, I think¡­" "Okay. A minute please." "You know how to cook?" "But of course. I woke up early and had nothing to do, so I decided to make breakfast for everyone. I ate already by the way, so you can begin. Here''s the tea. Let it stay for some time before drinking, so that tea can give taste to water." "You are truly experienced with it. Almost feels like you are a chef." Miss Granger smiled. "Hm? Am I? Well, I don''t know. After all, the greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds, so it''s hard for me to perceive my own skills." "Wise words, young man." Mister Granger said, while entering the kitchen. "Thank you very much. Have a nice breakfast. I will go out for some light training. In school I have completely forgotten about training the body, consumed by all that new knowledge" I laughed embarrassingly. "Oh. Okay. Have a nice training I suppose." Both ?du?ts looked at me looking amused and interested. "Thanks a lot." I exited the house, without changing clothes. And started running while trying to remember all the locations I was running through and mapping it inside. I was running slowly to warm up and not get myself too overworked. I am growing, thus healing fast, but still it''s not an anime where you can push your body without limits. After all, human is incapable of regeneration. Rip or damage a muscle and you are in a big trouble. Therefore, I will take it easy and slow. Also, running allowed me to obstinate from all evil thoughts and emotions, at least temporarily. However, at one moment I heard a scream. "Help me! Help¡­" I heard woman''s shout. "Shut up! Nobody is going to help you, now." ''No way. Chance to vent my anger, right when I need it the most? No way, I will miss it. Sorry guys, you can only blame you shitty luck for meeting me.'' I had no idea if I had the ''Trace'' on me, but it was as good possibility as any to try it out to see. Granger''s house is far, at least 5 kilometers away, so I think Hermione won''t be a suspect if I use some magic. I used quick and temporary transfiguration to change color of all my clothes to gray while moving my hand over my face at the same moment and equipping the mask. Honestly, I have no good reason to move my hand like this, but I felt it will be flashy and satisfying to do this, so¡­ I also equipped bracelet and entered nearby alley where scream came from. Thanks to bracelet, group of people there didn''t notice me yet. ''Perfect. Let''s do this, quick and nice. Empowered Fumos'' Smoke veiled whole alley in its clutches, me wearing all graying mixed in perfectly in that smoke. I started moving to seek my target. Any man silhouettes were my targets. First. My right hand tightened into a fist and then my fingers sprang out as if some force from inside my fist forced it to unclench in the direction of that first target. ''Flipendo!'' He flown away and struck a wall, which I hope knocked him out. Power of the spell was tripled thanks to the sneak ability. Second target. ''Flipendo!'' Third one, was just about to turn in my direction when I struck him. ''Flipendo'' I did not find anyone else, except for a woman silhouette on the floor. I left the ally, same way I entered it, while un-transfiguring my clothes and moving my hand over my face once more, but this time to stove away mask into the inventory. Some may say, that I should stay and help damsel in distress, but I would disagree. I am not some kind Samaritan. What I did, I did for myself to vent anger and frustration I felt. Helping a person was just reason to involve myself and not the main goal. Anyway, I continued my running. I am not completely calm but smashing people with magic still allows to let some steam out and I also can expect this experiment''s results soon. ''Ah! Feels nice.'' *No progress made* Chapter 21 - Level 15 [ part 3 ]. Second, find money. It took around 20 minutes for ministry to react. It is pretty fast, huh. I waited not far from the alley it happened in and saw some people appear near the alley and start snooping around. I knew they were wizards, because before entering the alley they took out the wands. Interesting. It proves that I have the ''Trace'' on me and now I know approximate time of ministry reaction to spontaneous magic. I saw how they entered and started asking questions to people, before obliviating them. Thanks to my bracelet still on, they didn''t pay attention to a small kid standing in shadows across the road. Moreover, they weren''t looking for 11-year-old kid. 3 ?du?ts have been thrown around like toys, plus smokescreen with a good area of effect. So, ministry people should have thought it was 15 or at the very least 14-year-old. When they stopped paying attention to the area I was in, I moved out and continued my run. Honestly though, I expected wizards to apparate directly into the alley, but now I think it makes sense that they came by foot. Apparition will only attract more attention, while they are coming to make sure that new wizard or witch won''t disclose magic to muggles. At some point, I started running back and when I reached home, I understood, that I could have taken money from those men I beat. I''ve let free money escape my hands. Shame, but not a big loss. I need either a stable income or big but singular one. Robbing a bank came to my mind, but I would feel bad about stealing somebody''s money. Innocent people may suffer if bank won''t restore stolen money to original owners. However, I can rob some bad guys and by bad, I mean some big gang leaders or cartel big wigs. Although, I have no knowledge of how it all works and where do they keep their valuables. And apparently in the real world it is not that easy to find those guys. As for stable income, I can cook, clean, program and probably do crimes(using magic). Because I can only cast spells for short period of time after which I need to leave the place where I casted that magic. So, only bad stuff fits or maybe I am missing something¡­ Anyway, programming I know of is something from far future and is not applicable currently. It is like using a gun in medieval ages. Strong? Yes, but where will I find bullets? So, that is out of question unless I find some books to upgrade my knowledge. After all, with my studying abilities I can practically learn anything. Cleaning won''t raise me enough money, unless I clean crime scenes. ''I have no good ideas for this. Might as well go into gambling in this situation'' I smiled and laughed internally, until thought came to me. ''Gambling! Currency exchange! Lotteries! Saves!'' But even those brilliant ideas were stumped out of existence, because in this age lotteries most probably have strong risk controls, while currency exchange needs big initial capital to quickly make more money and I don''t know much about it anyway. In the end, the only thing I can come up with is stealing. Am I really missing something? I''ve reached the house and taken a shower. Changed clothes. While in school, I learned a spell to clean clothes, but here I can''t use spells, so I need to quickly learn how to deal with my dirty clothes. I discussed the problem with miss Granger, and she explained me what to do. Next, I asked what they wanted for a dinner and if they need me to buy anything for them. *25 minutes later* At that moment, I saw an advertisement about how a restaurant was in a need of some cooking staff. I got instantly interested in it, because I could both make money and collect information about neighborhood from people inside. ''I mean, information should have a good circulation in the places, like this¡­ right?'' *5 days later* Summer is truly good time to get into good shape and grind, especially with 2 new skills I got. One of them was ''Training'' and the other one was ''Cooking''. Thanks to my continuous training outside and cooking both for Grangers and at my new job, I was getting a lot of experience every day. Both skills, thankfully started at 15, so I decided to check them out and see if they have abilities that can be helpful in any way or speed up my leveling like studying does. ¡º Cooking ¡» ¡¼Agile cook 0/3¡½ ¡¼Wield cooking tools with more agility and higher speed.¡½ It was an interesting ability, but I thought it was unneeded and too flashy. It can be suspicious if I suddenly start wielding cooking knife like chef with years of experience. Both Grangers and staff in restaurant saw my skills and are already awed by my performance. Anyway, I digress, next ability: ¡º Training ¡» ¡¼Good Metabolism 0/4¡½ ¡¼Speed up your metabolism without damaging your body. Makes all restorative, digestive, growing and reproductive processes work better.¡½ Training ability was indeed incredible, because it can increase efficiency of the training, I do every morning, thus making me get twice the effects for half the time. I had one skill point left to spend so I decided to invest it into this ability. I also deleted 2 saves I did before picking abilities, so now I have 2 free slots. Other than these two skills I had no time to improve other skills. I literally have no time. Wake up cook breakfast for the whole family, even if they say I don''t need to, I kind of feel obliged to do so. Then training. Then shower and going to work. Break for launch, I go home to cook dinner(or help with it) and we eat, then I go back to work. Work till 6pm and then without going home I start running once more for 30 minutes or so. Thanks to upgraded metabolism, my body restores faster, though it doesn''t cancel all the pain I have to go through with these training. My muscles cry in agony every morning. Anyway, I get home around 7 dead tired, get shower, help with supper, have no energy to eat, so I crush in bed, to sleep. I want to find and visit local library to maybe get some new skills, however with such a tight schedule I have no time. Plus, I asked the owner if I can work every day and he wasn''t against it, so I also don''t have weekends. I need money and I need a lot of them. I was on the verge, working and training every day, especially with child level of stamina. The only thing that was keeping me up was new training ability, I just got. What''s worse, after finding out exchange rate from Mister Granger and calculating expenses, I found out that money I will make in these full 3 months won''t be enough to buy even half of the necessary items. ''Couldn''t Potter story begin somewhere in 2012, like with YouTube and Google, but no you need to start in some damn forgotten 1992.'' What''s more apparently this world''s technology was even a bit behind my original world''s. ''Their internet coverage and availability are appalling. I know it''s 1992 but I am not on some forgotten island in Bermuda. I am in capital of Great Britain, damn it.'' I was desperate to find a way to make some money and finally, today I heard an interesting rumor during work about a shop making a fortune. I think its good chance to make fast and easy money. But I''m afraid after this my alignment will definitely fall to evil. *Sigh* To hell with conscience. I need money and I am out of options or patience. *Next day* ''Crap. Crap! CRAP! Now is one of those situations, where I want a second pair of legs just to run faster.'' ''I just stole some cash. No big deal. Are they gangsters or some petty bastards, damn them, damn their sisters, damn their whole freaking families!'' Should have prepared better and waited more, before following onto that rumor. Did, Mister Miller sold a ton of jewelries? Well, yes! But nobody told me these jewelries belonged to gangsters and shop was just an intermediary, damn it all! From the other perspective, tomorrow he could have transferred that cash to people for who he sold that jewelry, so getting it now, might have been my only chance. Well, whatever. I''ve used up a ton of spells already while breaking into the store and cracking open the safe with jewelries. Now I have concentration for 1, max 2 spells. Thanks to my ''good'' luck, I''m running through a very wide street. Therefore, using Smokescreen Spell is practically useless, because it won''t be strong enough. I need a narrow alley that goes to another street or something like this. While in it I can quickly put mask off and change clothes'' color back to black. That will give me some space to escape. I''ve cast first spell around 15 minutes ago, plus I ran from original place where I cast it, so ministry should be on its way there. I still have a few minutes. However, the moment I will cast Smokescreen, they will move to my recent location, so I will need to run with double the speed. ''Hate running!'' *Hour later* I was sitting in a dark narrow alley, trying to calm myself. ''It was dangerous, scary and¡­ fun!'' I thought that ability to Save&Load really makes you forget fear and feel only happiness in the most dangerous situations. I had the widest grin I was capable of, because this activity brought me so much fun. Casting spells, running, cursing internally, feeling of adrenaline cursing through my veins and heart pumping blood with insane speed. I can understand now, how some people may like life-threatening types of sport. In any case, I''ve rested enough to continue. After casting cleaning spell on myself and all my clothes, I was on my way to cloths shop. Finally, I can buy some normal clothes. *Hour later* I was going back in brand new clothes of good quality. I also bought multiple sets of clothes, to not be a complete beggar. I happily breathed in and thought: ''Steal¡­*Cough* I mean returning money from bad guys is the best, don''t you agree?'' But apparently, my monolog was picked by system as a question to it. [But initially you didn''t know they belonged to bad guys.] ''Well¡­ I was just taking a look. Plus I took only money from the safe. I did not take anything else from.'' [You did so because, you have no channels to sell other stuff from that safe.] ''*Sigh*Why are you so all-knowing only when it concerns me'' [Because I am your system and I am built into your very being.] ''¡­'' *After reaching home* Before entering the house, I quickly switched my clothes to the cheap set I bought on my salary. I made sure to put all my clothes on before putting them into inventory, so that I can quickly put them on or off, using the system. This time I didn''t help with supper, because I came much later. I decided to eat a little and go to sleep as soon as possible. Even if I skipped my evening training I was actually even more tired because I was mentally exhausted after non-stop casting and physically exhausted after running for a few blocks. Then I had to find road back home, cause with all that running I completely lost my way. Also, I only have one free save slot, because I saved before breaking into that shop. I need to be conscious about remaining save slots and maybe delete some more saves later. While lying in bed I was thinking if by returning to that save I could do anything better. However, nothing really came to mind. Safe had alarm installed on it, while I am not a professional thief who knows how to disable those. Even if I can sneak in perfectly, I won''t be able to quietly get away with money after opening it. Moreover, opening the safe took me nearly 10 minutes. I had to literally burn the lock bit by bit with concentrated Incendio. Alohomora didn''t help with it for some reason. That plus sneaking in via back door, that I unlocked with magic, and ministry that was going to my location, I will still have around 5-6 minutes to escape. And after alarm ringing, gangsters will still be on my tail trying to catch me. No matter how I was contemplating, I couldn''t come up with a better plan of how to get money out without a fuss. There were some benefits in redoing the whole day, but they were just too miniscule to do so. If ministry will start to suspect me, then I will redo it. Otherwise just not worth it. Anyway, time to sleep. *Progress* ¡º Alchemy 27 | Sneak 23 | Speech 23 ¡» ¡º Studying 29 | Wand Making 26 ¡» ¡º Herbology 24 | Magic Channeling 27 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 22 | Magic Gesturing 22 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 32 | Astronomy 22 ¡» ¡º Riding Expertise 21 | Crafting 21 ¡» ¡º Playing Games 17 | Enchanting 17 ¡» ¡º ?Cooking 19 | ?Training 18 ¡» Chapter 23 - Level 15 [ part 5 ]. Legilimens I returned to the moment before I casted ''Accio'' once more and instantly rushed through the window. Reached the opposite side of the street and run into the closest alley to switch to normal set of clothes. I exited the alley looking like an absolutely normal looking child. ''That was an easy escape. Glad I did not have to return to save I this morning, because then I would need to repeat whole day just to escape these guys.'' I breathed out and smiled. ''Seems like ministry''s become really concerned with these robberies. I should lay low till next year. I got all the money needed, so I should just calm my greed and be satisfied with what I have.'' I bitterly smiled thinking, how easily I have fallen to greed. ''Was I always greedy or knowledge that I have a backup in the form of saves broke my moral borders? I should pay more attention to my mentality, especially with my child brain.'' *POV Carter and Harper* We apparated to some dark alley, so thankfully there were no people we need to worry about. We looked around to see if we can notice anything or anyone suspicious and near instantly we noticed a heap of knocked out men lying by the back door to some shop. We run to it and without checking the men we went inside, but nobody was inside, except for a worker that was in the process of selling bread, so he did not notice a thing. We also noticed a window and understood, that culprit must have escaped through it. We went after him through the window in hopes of finding somebody suspicious, but we were unable to find anyone. So we decided to pick one of the knocked out man and use service of legilimens to glance into his memories and see at the very least how the delinquent looked like. *3 hours later* It costed us quite a lot to ask for a help from a certified legilimens. Moreover, results were very unhelpful. Our "helper" was unable to even glimpse at the suspect. He only saw mist-like smoke and then felt force that sent him into the wall. Nonetheless, we were able to find out that all places where robberies happened were apparently locations connected with the gang where this "helper" was from. But even that was useless information, because this bakery was last of their businesses. We were once again with no information, when legilimens found out that 2 men who were chasing delinquent during his first robbery, saw him. However, nobody in the gang believed them, because they''ve said that robber was a tall dwarf. We were finally able to find one of the guys who saw the suspect and once again invited our mind-reading(by the way, they hate it when people call them so) colleague. After gleaming into the memory, we got the following description: Short height, slim build, long legs, with a strange mask on the face and clothes colored in gray. Hands were looking young, similar to baby skin. Definitely not an ?du?t''s hand. It was definitely not a dwarf. It was a kid. We considered all the details and concluded it was somebody around 11 to 12 years old. Probably just returned from Hogwarts, because robberies started week after study year there ended. Gender is most likely male, but we will consider both genders just in case. This was insane and if not for seeing memory with their own eyes they wouldn''t believe it. Kid of 11 years of age is capable of doing such a high-level magic and output so much energy with each spell to send people literally flying. ''Monster'' That''s the first word that came to mind. Whoever is this kid, his future is bright. He will definitely become somebody on the level "Whose-name-cannot-said" or even Dumbledore. Shame that we are not sure if the kid is from Hogwarts and we are hard-pressed on time. 2 days left until the final report and we need to find culprit before that. We put aside thought of how incredible talent of that kid was and decided to get back to work. We''ve put together all suspects in the list with their address, name, parent''s information and personal information. "Who are we going to check first?" Harper asked "Let''s cross out the most unlikely suspects first to make work faster. And the first in line is, let me see, Granger. Hermione Granger." *2 hours later* We visited Grangers'' house. After introducing ourselves, we asked the parents if their daughter have been suspicious lately. They ?ssured us that she is very obedient girl that would never break the law. Of course, every parent would say, so we got an official right to use legilimens services to full capacity. We asked them to call their daughter. The girl came in and we quickly explained what we are going to do and how she needs to cooperate with us. All we needed to do is to gleam memories she had about yesterday''s evening and where she''s been at that time. At first, she was strongly against people roaming in their memories and said that is unethical and wrong. However, we explained to her that we are working on the case that can become the biggest breach of "Stature of Secrecy" and are out of options. Using such methods was a last method we had, and we wouldn''t have used it otherwise. She was a smart and understanding kid, while we were people who worked with kids for the last 5 years. Carter worked in this department even longer, so we had experience of talking with young wizards and witches. In the end we came up to consensus, that we will pull her memories of that die and she will see it with the legilimens at the same time. This way she can be ?ssured that we will see only required memories. *30 minutes later* Indeed, she was innocent. However, we still got a surprise. There was another person who lived in this house. And we most probably would have ignored that bit of information, unless our "mind-reader" told us that the other person was also a young wizard. Because that wizard wasn''t home right now, we decided to leave for now. After we reached the department, we decided to see the memory ourselves. We asked legilimens to share the memory and then via pensieve we saw all what happened yesterday. Boy looked comparatively similar to robber we saw from memories of the small thug. Then we decided to check who was living in the same address and some more info on this boy name "Magnus". The problem is there was no other wizard whose official location was here. Moreover, the boy was also 11-12 years old and just finished school. However, this wasn''t a surprise. Surprise is - his name wasn''t in the list of suspects we compiled or better to be said ministry have no records on the boy! This is very suspicious. We need to look into it. *Evening of the same day* We visited Grangers'' place once more. Now, that Magnus kid was at home, we can have a good talk with him. We asked Mister Granger to call the boy, so we can speak with him. Thankfully, they gave us the whole dining room to have a conversation with the boy. A minute later, a young boy with some simple and cheap clothes. Short sleeved black shirt with blue jeans and brown boots. When boy saw us, he was startled. "Hello, my name is Carter, and this is my co-worker Harper." "Magnus. Nice to meet you." "We work in Ministry of Magic in the division called "Improper Use of Magic Office". Do you know what we are doing there, boy?" "Making sure magic is not used improperly, which I suppose also includes underage magic. Is it right?" "It is indeed. We are responsible for exactly that. Month ago, in the outskirts of London chain of robberies has begun, supposedly by a young wizard or witch. Do you know anything about that?" Magnus raised a brow and asked surprised: "Robberies? No. It''s the first time I hear about them." "It''s okay. Can we ask where you''ve been yesterday?" "Are you suspecting me?" "No. But we need to ask to exclude you from our list of suspects." Magnus nodded and proceeded: "Well. Okay. I finished my work in the restaurant. After that I went for a run until the nearest park. I spent around half-an-hour or so to meditate there and then I started running back." "Why do you run?" "For training and getting in shape. In Hogwarts I spent most of the time by the books and while here I noticed that my stamina is horrid, so I decided to improve it this." "That is¡­ a very m?tur? decision, I must admit." The boy shrugged and said: "Was an orphan whole life. Life makes, you know. But I don''t think you are here for that." "True enough. Can we check your wand for the last spell casted?" "Okay. Last time I used the wand was in Hogwarts. Give me a second, I will bring it from my room." "Okay." In case the boy will run, Harper followed him, saying: "I will check your wand directly, so no need to bring it. Let''s go together." Magnus shrugged and confidently smiled. "Okay" Few minutes later Harper and Magnus returned. "Wand''s clean and last spell was cast at least a month ago." Harper said. Carter frowned but soon he said: "Hm¡­ Okay. Now to make sure that you are not lying, we need you to cooperate with us." "What do you mean?" "Have you heard about legilimency?" The boy who looked confused. "More common name for that is "mind reading"." At that moment Magnus who previously didn''t show any emotions except for confidence, showed something very new. Anxiety. *No progress, but I will still leave it here* ¡º Alchemy 27 | Sneak 25 | Speech 23 ¡» ¡º Studying 29 | Wand Making 26 ¡» ¡º Herbology 24 | Magic Channeling 27 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 23 | Magic Gesturing 23 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 32 | Astronomy 22 ¡» ¡º Riding Expertise 21 | Crafting 21 ¡» ¡º Playing Games 17 | Enchanting 17 ¡» ¡º Cooking 23 | Training 22 ¡» Chapter 24 - Level 15 [ part 6 ]. Another thing to worry about. "More common name for that is "mind reading"." It was in that moment that he knew, he¡­ ''Was there a possibility to read minds in films? Crap, I don''t remember! Although even if there wasn''t, how could I myself think that in magical world there is no magic to read minds. I should have thought of this.'' I started getting anxious, because possibility of somebody gleaming into my mind is scary and dangerous. However, soon I reined in my emotions and calmed down. I still have saves. "Can I decline?" "Well, is there something you wish to hide, for you to ask such a question." "No. But I still would like to decline. I do value my privacy." I answered calmly. "You see¡­" I stopped listening seeing how this is not progressing the way I need. The moment he continued persuading me, I knew that they will use mind-reading on me, with or without my consent. So, I decided to return to a save I made yesterday in the morning. Because, only after yesterday did ministry start their move on me. However, these ministry''s dogs came again, but this time much later. They came in the evening 5 days later and this time different people came. Seems like my last robbery was not the thing that pushed them to search harder. Moreover, one of the new visitors had different vibe around him. More vicious and scary type rather than office worker type. Soon, I understood why I felt like this. He introduced himself as an auror. I don''t understand. All I did is just robbing a few shops. I haven''t even hurt anyone in the process. Why the heck hunter on dark creatures came after me? This time I decided to get the answers on why they were so anxious to catch me. Talk went mostly the same way, as with those Carter and Harper dudes. Except this time, they were checking the day of the previous robbery, which was 12 days ago. After getting through similar talk, we reached the question about legilimency. Finally, we reached the point, where I can ask my questions. "Have you heard about legilimency?" "You mean "mind-reading"? I did, yes. And I decline." These guys got surprised, either because I knew of legilimency or I declined, or both. "Well, you don''t need to worry! We will not gleam into things private to you. We will check only the day of the robbery and you will see memories together with the legilimens. Moreover, we will only check that exact time period in which robbery was made." I pretended to be in a deep thought, but in reality, I was trying to formulate my request, so that I can get the most amount of information. In the end nothing really good came into my mind, but I decided to go with it. After a minute I asked: "I agree as I don''t have much of a choice, I presume." I looked at auror after saying that. "You don''t." He stated it flatly. "Then can you answer my question, at the very least. I am truly curious to know." "Well¡­" One of the office workers paused and looked at his companion and then they together looked at auror. Soon auror said: "Ask." "Robberies were happening for a whole month, but you only started your investigation recently, from what I ?ssume. Moreover, from what I read in Hogwarts, aurors are responsible for dark wizards and stuff, aren''t they?" Auror stayed quiet for a minute or so, then he told me. "Negligence and underestimation." ¡º Speech 23 ? 24 ¡» "Hm?" I got surprised by both the answer and the fact that it raised my speech. "There were people responsible for underage wizards and crimes committed by them, however they let the case go haywire. Ministry found out about this case only 5 days ago. Now that the problem has grown to such proportions, it will be hard to just obliviate problem away. There are too many ties between the robberies and area affected was very substantial. Plus, period for which case remained unsolved. All in all, it was a very serious negligence. People, should have reacted more proactively." "Then what about underestimation?" "Initially I wasn''t responsible for this case, but as soon as I heard about the details of investigation, I asked to become part of it. A kid of 11 or 12 years old with such a talent and power, but the first thing he does after finishing his first year is a robbery. I''d say that this type of wizards should be caught while they still young and weeded out. We can''t underestimate a budding dark wizard just because of his age." "Isn''t that biased? Why labeling him as a dark wizard? And for what, robberies?" "Better I will be called biased, than another "Whose-Name-Can''t-Be-Said" appears." "Now that is exaggeration! How does robbery lead to becoming a mass murdering madman?" "Everyone''s started somewhere." This was insane. How did this guy even come to this conclusion? "I disagree with your point." I tried to argue, but was quickly shut down by auror''s authoritative voice "And I honestly don''t give a crap! Now either cooperate or we will force you. We will be reading your memory of that day, one way or another." This dude is a madman himself. Fuck what should I do. "I will cooperate, just calm down!" I was trying to win myself some time. There was no escaping this situation, even if I return to previous save, as they will come after me one way or another. The only way to avoid it, is to return to save before I started robbing shops, but then where the heck would I get all the money I need. "Okay. We are ready. Now our legilimens will start working with you. Just cooperate. He will look into your memory and check the day of the last robbery. Don''t forget to cooperate. Resisting will only bring you pain." "Okay." ''How does he know which day is the one he needs?'' "Heh, isn''t it obvious" I heard a voice outside of my memories "Calendar on the wall. Moreover, you remember what day it was and I am reading you memories." Voice outside cackled. Apparently, it was legilimens who was talking to me from outside. Wow, mind reading is real. Damn. But that''s not important. His words gave me an idea. I got enough information and I have a sketch of a plan. There was nothing more to gain here, so I decided to return and figure out the whole plan. ''Return to ''Before robbing''.'' I once more returned to that moment. Day of my "failed" robbery, but now with the plan. Plan is to relieve all the days when I robbed the shops but this time without robbing them. This way I will have memories of the same dates, moreover these memories will be more recent, so they will be seen first. Hopefully. Unfortunately, I didn''t have saves for all the days when I was robbing, because I was overwriting saves on every new day of robbery, so I have saves only from a recent "failed" robbery, when I was nearly caught. Therefore, I will need to live the whole period. After living up until today, I will return for the third time to this moment and continue living as if it is normal. This way I will have memories when I did not rob shops, while having all the money because I returned to original time where I robbed them. Although, bad side here is that I have to relieve the whole freaking month and a week or so. Counting these 6 days until ministry''s "detectives" will visit me, then its month and a half. Damn¡­ ''Moreover, I lose all skills I worked so hard to get, damn it.'' [But you don''t.] ''Yeah, yeah and¡­ Wait, what!?'' *Progress* ¡º Alchemy 27 | Sneak 25 | Speech 23 ? 24 ¡» ¡º Studying 29 | Wand Making 26 ¡» ¡º Herbology 24 | Magic Channeling 27 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 23 | Magic Gesturing 23 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 32 | Astronomy 22 ¡» ¡º Riding Expertise 21 | Crafting 21 ¡» ¡º Cooking 23 | Training 22 ¡» Chapter 25 - Level 15 [part 7]. Negative consequences of returning After system dropped that informational bomb on me, I was confused and surprised. ''Explanations will be welcome, you know!'' [When returning to past moments your body does not return with you, however your memories do. Because, majority of skills are the representation of your knowledge or experience in a skill, it is hard to reset skills as well. However, your level is still reset and all the experience you gained thanks to raising of those skills are lost forever as well. Abilities are lost as well.] ''From the first glance it sounds good, but if you look deeper, what''s the point of having 100 skill if you can''t buy abilities that go with it. In the game level of the skill gave some benefits by itself. However, in my case it became a representation of how knowledgeable I am in this skill.'' [Correct. However, there are abilities that give you more or less benefits depending on the skill level.] ''True, but again it is pointless if leveling will come to a crawl and I won''t be able to buy those abilities. So not just I return to past, but I am also slowing my progression with every big return, huh?'' [Not exactly. Higher skills give you more experience, but indeed take more time to improve. Leveling up skill from level 50 to level 51 will get you enough experience to jump from level 10 to level 11 directly.] ''Still, I am losing experience I gained in the period that I am reliving after return forever, isn''t it right?'' [It is indeed. You get some, you lose some. But benefits overweight demerits.] ''I understand. I just feel bad for losing precious experience I worked so hard to get. After all, this is not a game. It is life. I spend 60% of the day on average to train and improve my skills to get that experience, only to find out, that I am losing it and have to work even harder now.'' [Indeed.] ''By the way, didn''t you become smarter and more, how to phrase it, communicative?'' [You are close to level 15. Plus you improved physical conditions of your body, thus improving my conditions.] ''Interesting. Makes sense. Also close to level 15? Is that when you open new functionality?'' [Secret¡­] ''Such a tease. Whatever.'' I smiled. System feels more alive and that is great. ''By the way. Also, is training skill considered knowledge? I thought it is a skill that represents my body fitness.'' [Yes and no. Training doesn''t represent your body fitness. It represents your inner memory about how trained your body should be. It is closely connected to DNA encoding. Because it concerns your DNA "memory" it won''t be sent with you. It is one of the skills that will revert to its past situation.] ''Good to know and this is surprisingly scientific¡­'' [Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.] ''True enough. But then what exactly do you mean by DNA "memory"?'' [Simple. In case of training - when you train correctly and, in the process, improve your fitness, system saves condition of your body and encodes it via special types of artificial proteins, that can interact with DNA and control them.] ''So, if I train myself to bones and reach high level in training skill, I will forever remain fit?'' [Yes and no. Memory of body conditions are saved in body. That is true. But if host will work against that, body will become unfit pretty fast. Your body constantly works to get you into top condition. System just modifies definition of top condition, in this case.] ''Now I get. I think¡­'' *Same time, but different timeline* I finished. I relieved the whole month and returned to this moment once more. It was boring, hard and stressing, so if this won''t help me with legilimency check¡­ I will cough blood, due to anger and frustration. Twice. Maybe thrice. I still have one empty save slot, so I will save right before that legilimency check, to make sure I pass it with flying colors. ''Save progress'' ¡¼Save ?¡½ ''I am ready! I can do this.'' But after returning to this save for 5th time I understood that it is so damn hard to do this. First time, I accidently thought about my plan and thus legilimens "heard" about it, so I had to return. Second time, I was able to control my thoughts, and all was good but when he got to the memory itself, I got a little bit anxious and wanted to check if it was a correct memory. Of course, he "heard" it and I had to return again. Third time, because I was tired of the repeated talk with these people and their introduction for a 4th time I emotionally said: "Let''s get to mind-reading, okay?" Obviously, that made auror suspicious and they dug my memories even deeper, so once more ¨C return. I was caught on the 3rd robbery. Honestly, it was my fault for accidently thinking about the original robbery and its details, but in my defense it is hard. It is similar to situation, where somebody asks you not to think about something and that something is the first thing that comes to mind. I hope that this 5th time will be final. *After 26th try* ''Well¡­ 5th try wasn''t successful. But 26th try will be the lucky one I am sure of it.'' *After 34th try* ''How the heck did I succeed in the 4th try?'' *After 47th try* I was despairing and then I thought about system. ''System can you help.'' But its answer pushed even further into despair. [Reach level 45.] *After¡­ honestly stopped counting¡­* Most of the times I was caught by this¡­ auror. He always gets me. Whenever I succeed with initial check, he becomes suspicious of me, so he asks to read my memory deeper, and that''s where it gets hard. Plus my mental exhaustion due to relieving this for god-knows-how-often scene, was adversely affecting my thinking capabilities. But I finally succeeded. Auror was still suspicious, but he couldn''t do a thing. They checked all memories at a day of robbery. They even rechecked them for a second time. I''ve finally done it! The moment those idiots left I''ve overwritten one of useless saves I made. Finally, I can rest. *Next day* I woke up and helped with breakfast as always. Then I went for a run. After returning, had a shower and went to work. Day was nice and peaceful. Nothing really happened. Because I had to match my timing with original timeline. I couldn''t just not go to work or slack off at running, because they may check it. Because of that I had no time to learn new skills or go to library. All in all, I feel like I wasted a month of my life. Hopefully, next months will be calmer. *POV. 2 weeks later in the ministry.* "We checked everyone in London who matches the description. We also checked all kids with metamorphamagus talent, in case culprit changed his look. Everyone is clean. So, what do we next?" "You ask me, who should I ask?" "We need to report this to the Kevil Joyce. That auror is very scary." "Yeah. I heard he was participating in the war during "You-Know-Who" came to power." "Should we just send an owl?" "Probably? Also, he said he will help us, but he only goes with us on interviews with kids sometimes. Moreover, he just stares at them and doesn''t ask any questions. "True! Why he even comes with us, if he doesn''t do a thing!" In that moment, somebody opened the door of the cabinet and strode in. "Any progress?" It was the auror. "Mister Joyce, we checked everyone on the list." "All checked people have no memories of robbery." "Okay. As I expected. Close the case." "Sorry?" "What?" "Close the case. Robberies won''t repeat." One of the workers was unconvinced "Forgive me for being blunt, but on what grounds we are closing it?" "Do you have other suspects? Plan on finding them? Some leads? You have nothing." Auror said and both office worker had nothing to say. "But¡­" "If you scared you will follow the fate of the previous owners, no need. I made a report and indicated there that you worked good. I will talk with your boss about it. No need to worry." After saying that, Kevil Joyce left, giving no chance for the others to say a word. Then he reached his cabinet and started making notes, while thinking. ''As I thought. Everyone else is clean. Only that boy was suspicious. There was something fishy about him, but I have no proof for now. At the very least I am sure he won''t do a rob a shop in the near future. He is not that stupid, but nonetheless he is a possible danger. I need to keep an eye on him in the future.'' *Progress* ¡º Alchemy 27 | Sneak 25 | Speech 24 ¡» ¡º Studying 29 | Wand Making 26 ¡» ¡º Herbology 24 | Magic Channeling 27 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 23 ? 24 | Magic Gesturing 23 ? 24 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 32 | Astronomy 22 ¡» ¡º Riding Expertise 21 | Crafting 21 ¡» ¡º Playing Games 17 | Enchanting 17 ¡» ¡º Cooking 23 ? 25 | Training 22 ¡» Chapter 26 - Level 15 [ part 8 ]. Tough conversation *Missis Granger POV* It was more than a month since the boy, named Magnus started living with our family. In the beginning we were hesitant to take an unknown kid to our house, but we couldn''t just leave him live on the street either. So, we took him in, after continuous pressure from our daughter Hermione. However, the longer he lived with us, the more we liked his presence. After he came into our house, breakfast was always waiting for us when we wake up. He also helped with cooking of dinner and supper. Helped to clean house, despite working. And that was another positive about him ¨C extremely hardworking. To get money for study, he never even once considered asking us for money. He works 7 days a week and not part-time, but full-time and still finds time to help us in the house. He was a perfect kid if you ask me, but one thing about him was concerning. He is very talkative and always brings positivity whenever he is with us, but as an ?du?t I can see deeper beneath his fa?ade. What I see there is a lonely kid. Sometimes, when I wake up especially early, I see him sitting in kitchen after making a breakfast with a face that feels and look very different from his usual one. As if he contemplates live or thinks deeply about something. He is more m?tur? than some ?du?ts and that''s what bothers me. Kids get m?tur? so early only in few cases, and none of them are positive. Sometimes, I want to just hug the kid and say that he can stop worrying about everything and just live happily, but just as I make a step forward, I think if I have a moral right to say so. I am not his parent and from what our daughter said he is also an orphan who lived alone since he was a kid. My daughter is still young and not very thoughtful, so she never asked him why he as an orphan did not live in an orphanage like normal kids but worked since childhood. This question always bothered me, so I finally decided to ask him. I woke very early that morning, but Magnus already made breakfast and was sitting there, staring into nothingness. I came up to him, thinking he won''t notice me, but when I was 2 meters away from him, he instantly noticed and greeted me. "Good Morning, missis Granger." "Good indeed but a bit too early for you, isn''t it?" "I am accustomed. Breakfast?" "Later maybe." "Okay" I didn''t know how to ask this question, without offending him and apparently, he noticed my deliberation, so he said first. "Is there something you wish to discuss, miss Granger?" "Yes, there is and please don''t be offended by my question. Magnus, I always wanted to ask you, why didn''t you live in orphanage?" There was a silence after this question. Not an awkward one, like when you ask an uncomfortable question, but a heavy silence that pressures you harder with every second. After a minute of this silence, he finally looked at me and asked a question of his own. "Do you want a true reason or an honest answer?" "What''s difference?" I was confused by his question. "Difference? There is none and that¡­ is the difference." "I don''t understand." "What do you see, when small one/two-year-old kids are playing with small kittens that were born not long ago?" I thought for a bit, before answering. "I see them having fun together, I suppose. They hug them, pet them and overall enjoy each other. Why do you ask?" He smiled and laid back in chair. Then he closed his eyes and started speaking with a very calm and steady voice. "And I see 2 sets of living creatures, let''s call them¡­ first and second. First creatures are void of mercy, with near unlimited wish for exploration and experimenting. In that process they were able to find second, whom they force to do their bidding. In the meantime, second has to comply to whatever first d?s?r?s, because second has no power to resist." After saying all that, he opened his eyes and looked at me. "Now tell me. Which of the 2 answers we gave is a true reason and which one is an honest answer?" I wanted to refuse, because his words were absolutely horrifying. How can somebody perceive it this way, but then I started thinking. And the more I thought about, the more I understood that his words contain some truth. That made me contemplate even harder, because I couldn''t imagine how could he, a kid, come to such a description of the situation. "This is¡­" "This question is rhetorical, because it has no correct answer." "What do you mean?" He smiled and said. "It doesn''t matter what I mean. What matters is what you think I mean." The more we talked the more confusion took over me. "I though your answer is a true reason, but then you said it has no answer, so I honestly have no idea what you mean." "I never said so." "But¡­" "I said it has no correct answer. You see, true reason is something void of subjectivity. However, as soon as you try to tell it you are actually conveying your honest opinion of that matter." I got a little frustrated after his explanation, so I asked. "Then what''s the point of asking what I want to hear, in the first place? You can''t tell me a true reason anyway!" "Intention, Expectation and Contemplation." "Huh?" "If you pick true reason, then I should have intention to think and try to convey true reason with as little of my perspective as possible. It does not make it less of an honest opinion, but it helps you see true reason clearer. This is intention. Expectation is on your side. When you expect to hear true reason, you will look for reason in my answer. Subconsciously you will know reason is not 100% true, so you will try to understand it on your own, thus probably understanding true reason on your own. Contemplation is about talk we had before that allowed you to understand the intricate difference between honest answer and true reason. When you gave honest answer you didn''t think much, but when I implied that I am going to tell a true reason, you mind started to contemplate over my words even before you fully comprehended them. That is why you feel understanding of my point slowly coming to you." "I ¡­" I wanted to say something, but I just didn''t know what. What he went through to m?tur? so much and see world in such way? "In the end, I would give an honest answer. I did not like it there, so I left." Magnus just answered my question with one sentence in the end. This whole conversation was in the end finished with one sentence. I was surprised and tried to see some hidden meaning in his words but couldn''t, so I just asked him. "That''s it?" "Did I need a better reason?" "But you talked about so much just to finish conversation like this? I don''t understand. You could have lived in an orphanage." I saw how he ruefully sighed. "Remember the cat and kid situation. Try projecting this situation on orphanage. Who do you think I was? A cat or a kid?" ''So that was why he talked about it?'' "You are a cat, right?" "Do you see me as a cat?" He asked me back once more. I feel like this conversation is leading me nowhere. "Can you for once answer me directly?" "I can''t. The whole point is for you understand that what you perceive is not a reality. It is your subjective perspective. What you need to think about is why you think I will feel better in orphanage. I feel good on my own. I have no one to worry about. Nobody holds me back. I have books to read, food to eat and bed to sleep. What else should I have?" "But you are just a kid. It is not normal for you work like an ?du?t. You need some people to care for you, help you with studies, play with you and ¡­" I was interrupted by quiet laugh from the boy. "Well I see your point, but do you really think orphanage is an equivalent of parent?" "I don''t, but ¡­" "Then why are you describing a parent? Miss Granger I don''t think we will ever understand each other. I like to live unfettered. Now that I know there is magic in this world, I found my goal in life and I will strive for it. Nothing can stop me on the way to this goal." He smiled and continued: "I do appreciate your concern for me, but I lived like this for many years and don''t feel any burden. Have a nice meal. I will go for a run." Then he left and I did not know what to say once again. ''Who is an ?du?t in this situation?'' Anyway, this gave me a lot to think about. Moreover, because Magnus is so hellbent on not going to orphanage, I am thinking about something. However, I need to discuss this with Wendell(husband), first. *Magnus POV* I relievedly breathed out after exiting the house. ''This woman is either dumb or too persistent. Can''t she understand I am avoiding this topic. I am mentally exhausted now. Leading her in circles while looking like I am explaining something, so tiring.'' Thank god, in my past life I liked contemplating about life and philosophy. Otherwise I would be in a huge problem, because I didn''t want to give any details about this world. Lying about something even if small will lead to snowballing effect. My background and my life stories are lies already even if I thought it through, they have holes. I shouldn''t build new lies on top of it, for now. Maybe after I will raise speech to 50 or 60, I can bullshit through anything by having very thick plot armor, but now let''s keep it simple. Talking about speech, this conversation with Miss Granger was a tough one. I got a raise in speech twice and that taking into consideration I got a raise recently. Apparently my first ability, the one I obtained from the speech tree helped a lot. ¡¼Strong argument 1/4 (25)¡½ ¡¼Your words and sentences hold more weight. People listening to you, with higher probability will trust you. Higher chance to win in verbal arguments.¡½ By the way, now that I have speech at 26, I can upgrade this ability. Shame I don''t have any skill points. Next level up, I need to consider this carefully. Also, I cleaned up my saves. I deleted 4 saves, which I didn''t need anymore. Thanks to my cooking steadily raising, I decided to discuss my position with restaurant''s chef. He said he can make me apprentice chef, looking at my skills and raise my payment, but if anyone complains on any of my dishes in the next week, I lose my week payment and return to previous position. I decided to save before agreeing in case he will intentionally fail me. And if he won''t I will easily pass, I will just save(first time, then overwrite) every 30 minutes on the work. This way if I fail on dish, I will just go back and redo it. By the way, 2 weeks passed since that cursed legilimency check, but nothing bad happened, so I ?ssume I am not a suspect on the case anymore. However, I have a very strong hunch that the auror dude still suspects me. That is so bothersome, but whatever. I just need to be more careful with my future actions. If only I knew how that damn trace works¡­ *Progress* ¡º Alchemy 27 | Sneak 25 | Speech 24 ? 26 ¡» ¡º Studying 29 | Wand Making 26 ¡» ¡º Herbology 24 | Magic Channeling 27 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 24 | Magic Gesturing 24 ? 25 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 32 | Astronomy 22 ¡» ¡º Riding Expertise 21 | Crafting 21 ¡» ¡º Playing Games 17 | Enchanting 17 ¡» ¡º Cooking 25 | Training 22 ¡» Chapter 27 - Level 15 [ part 9 ]. I refuse. It was Sunday. Few days past since missis Granger talked with me. Today, she and her husband called me for a talk, where they offered me to be adopted, but I refused their good intentions. They did not expect that I will refuse it and insisted on it for a long time, but I was unshakeable in my decision. I told them that I don''t want to be a nuisance, plus I don''t want to be bind by parents and family overall. All that adoption and parent''s topic got me into deep nostalgia about my previous life''s parents. Unfortunately, this was a bad type of nostalgia, remembering my past, I fell into the pit of "What if I¡­"s and that really screwed my mood for a whole day. Thankfully, I was to climb out of this state next morning. ''Being a child is great and all, but emotional fluctuations and instability are no joke.'' *Sigh* Anyway, the only positive the day had - my behavior made Grangers'' think that I was in such a bad mood because of their insistency. Thanks to that, they backed off and I had one less of a problem to worry about. Some ''smart'' people of course can say that I should have agreed to be adopted, but here is the question to them. Where the heck would I get documents required for that. "I am an orphan" is not a magical charm against all problems. Plus, I somehow got into Britain from other country, according to my bio, so I can''t just say I don''t have documents. Moreover, I really didn''t want to be bound by a family at this point. For family no matter how good or bad, is a responsibility. You must worry about their wellbeing, help them in need and care for them through you whole life. It is a burden. I don''t want to take it upon myself. That''s for emotional side of the question. As for material side, there are no obvious benefits in having family for current me. I can make money by my own. With magic by age of 14, max 16 I can become completely independent of everything. Family can be useful only in summer and even then, I see no point in it starting next year, because I will have broom to travel and won''t be limited by ministry. Days went by and soon time for shopping came. Both me and Hermione received list with required books and items for the second year. ''By the way, how the heck owls found me? Freaks me out.'' Also, Hermione and I kept in touch with Ron, so he notified us about him going after Harry. Hermione wrote him to be safe and about the homework ''Crap! Homework! I need to finish it.'' We also decided to meet while shopping for second year books. Anyway, we went to Diagon Alley to buy everything needed. Before actually buying anything, we headed to Gringotts to exchange muggle money for wizard currency. Mister Granger offered to go together and help me with exchanging it, but I declined, for obvious reasons, saying that I already did it before, so I can manage. That was obviously a lie, but I had no choice but to do so. In my background story I told that I already exchanged money to buy first year items, all by myself, so I couldn''t ask for information of how exchange done. Of course, I am not an idiot to go there without any information, so I learned all I can from Grangers using Save&Load functionality. I saved, found out all I need and returned. Deleted the safe afterwards. ''Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy'' Also, when I declined Mister Granger''s offer, he was a little sad, but what can I say, I had no choice. However, just when I was thinking of going to exchange money, something came to my mind. ''I could exchange twice! Once via them and second by myself. Goblins won''t know about it. Mister Granger will be happy, and I will exchange all the money I need without attracting any attention. How did I not think about this previously? The only problem is that this year''s books are especially expensive, because our dark arts teacher is that ''great'' wizard Lemonporn or Locustfart. Well, anyway, I need to exchange exactly enough money to get these books.'' ¡¼Save ?¡½ Then I exchanged ton of money and went on the shopping spree. When I bought all books, I noted down their prices. By the way, those books by Lockhart were hell of an expensive piece of garbage. I calculated exact amount I will need to exchange to get all the books required and thought. ''Return to last save point'' Momentary blackness, that became so usual and common after legilimens situation. Then, I saw mister Granger once more and called him before he entered the bank. "Actually, mister Granger¡­" "Yes?" He looked at me with hope. Do they really want to help me that much? Wow. These people are too nice. Okay, it''s time to bullshit. "I am sorry for declining your offer just now. It''s just¡­ I am accustomed to do everything alone, so after thinking it over I will accept you offer if it''s still valid." I smiled embarrassingly. "Of course, it is and I understand your situation. You lived alone for so long, after all." "Here is all I was able to make during this summer." "Okay. See you in minute." Then he and his wife left to exchange money. As soon as they entered building, I heard Hermione shout. "Harry! Harry! Over here!" ''The heck? Oh right, we meet with Potter today.'' Then I looked at him and saw him walking with Hagrid. They started talking, but neither Harry nor Hagrid noticed me yet. Maybe sneaking that increased due to robberies but default make me harder to notice? Shouldn''t be the case. "Hello, Hagrid. Hi, Harry. I''d ask how you''ve been, but knowing Ron had to break you out of home, I already know the answer. What happened with you, by the way?" I laughed a little and asked. "Magnus? Is that you?" "Magnus?" Both Hagrid and Potter gave me astonished looks, as if they see some unicorn. "Am I that hard to recognize?" I asked. "You look very different." Harry answered. "Yeah, taller!" Hagrid added. ''The heck? You are half-giant. Height should be the last thing you''d notice, no? And what do you mean different? I am the same.'' "Well, he worked the whole summer. Plus, he was training every day, so it''s obvious he will look different." Hermione explained. ''Oh, I completely forgot about that. I have no habit of looking in the mirror, so I often forget how strongly I''ve changed during this summer.'' My body looked stronger, more muscular. Especially my legs were very fit and outlined, without a gram of fat, thanks to running every day and ability from training tree. Overall, I''ve became leaner and my face has lost some of it''s baby fat, which made me look older than I really am. Plus, I have grown up a little during this summer. In short, I indeed look very different since the beginning of this summer. "Yeah. I decided to train a little and get body into better form. Year in Hogwarts got me really out of shape and as Romans used to say "Mens sana in corpore sano". Healthy mind in healthy body." I b?r?ly finished what I was saying when I heard people running and looked behind. I got a huge scare, when I saw whole swarm of redhead people running to us. Thankfully, they stopped when they reached us and started frantically speaking with Harry. Apparently, he teleported incorrectly or something like this. After everyone calmed down, we entered the bank. Harry and Weasleys went to get money from their vaults, while me and Granger waited for money to be exchanged. After that we exited and decided to meet hour later to buy books. Trio went to get some ice-cream, while I needed to go out and exchange some more money but this time by myself. So, I went away, switched my clothes and put on something with a hood. Hopefully, under the hood I will be harder to recognize. I also put my bracelet on. It took me around 10 minutes to finish all transactions. Moreover, I didn''t to provide any documents. I didn''t exchange all the money I had. I decided to save some for future year. You never know when you will need some cash. Afterwards, I went to look for a broom. I didn''t really need it, but I decided to buy it anyway in case of an emergency and put it into an inventory. Plus, having an untraceable way of transportation, not limited by muggle''s borders can be very useful next year''s summer. After all, I have great plans. I went to check out pets, but didn''t find anything interesting. I mean what''s the use of an owl? Rats and toads are even worse. Anyway, I ignored personal animal for now. What''s the point of it, anyway? I mean, it can serve as a good friend and accompany you in daily life, but I have no time. I am either studying, helping the trio or sleeping. Moreover, this year there is a basilisk and I have no freaking idea of how to defend against that giant lizard''s insta-kill glare. I doubt my meager enchanting skills will be enough to make artifact to defend against it. Plus, I can''t take away the diary because cause it''s heavily enchanted and charmed. As soon as I touch it, I will fall to its control, so the same problem arises. I can''t make artifact strong enough to counter this. While thinking about these things and looking through items in different shops, around an hour passed. By that time, I arrived in the bookstore, where I saw ton of people. I decided not to push through that living barrier and just check what''s going on. That Longbarf or Lackheart does some signature giveaway or whatnot. I was checking books and just out of interest I decided to check what his book does. Because, thanks to films I know he is garbage as a wizard. Nothing described in books is true or at least not the full truth, so I got interested in what book can teach. I overwritten save that I made before the bank, in case people will think I am stealing the book. ¡¼Save ?¡½ I put my hand over the book to put into the inventory. Then I went into the inventory and wanted to use it, but what a surprise I got. It can''t be used. ''System, are there books that can''t be used?'' [Indeed.] ''Why so?'' [To use book, system scans it and draws essence of knowledge inputted into it. It draws just enough for one point, however if books contains not enough knowledge or author isn''t masterful enough to convey knowledge efficiently, it can''t be used.] ''So, basically this book is garbage in quality, huh? Say, if¡­'' Just when I wanted to continue my discussion with system there was a commotion around me, because right under my hand there was no book and everyone was looking strangely at me. ''Return to last made save.'' *Next day* I was sitting thinking about what to do. I finished with buying all the books except for the ones written by Logborn or Lickthorn, whatever his name was. I decided not to buy his books and save money. Hopefully they don''t check the luggage. I mean his books are garbage and don''t give skills, so why would I throw money on this. After buying everything, I decided to work less and notified the owner about it. So now I have proper weekends. Thanks to that, I had a ton of free time now, so I dived into the books I just bought and started studying them. Plus, after finishing these books I will check local library for interesting books and to grind some skills. Now, let the grinding spree begin! *Progress* ¡º Alchemy 27 | Sneak 25 | Speech 26 ¡» ¡º Studying 29 | Wand Making 26 ¡» ¡º Herbology 24 | Magic Channeling 27 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 24 | Magic Gesturing 25 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 32 | Astronomy 22 ¡» ¡º Riding Expertise 21 | Crafting 21 ¡» ¡º Playing Games 17 | Enchanting 17 ¡» ¡º Cooking 25 | Training 22 ? 23 ¡» Chapter 29 - Level 16. Artifact against a death glare. The second-year started quite nicely, except for the Harry and Ron appearing on the flying car. Because I knew that the entrance to the station will be enchanted, I entered earlier and came to school normally, by train. Thanks to that, I was able to witness how Ginny and Luna were sorted into Gryffindor and Ravenclaw respectively. We had a nice feast. For the first time in three months, I ate food that I didn''t cook, and it was delicious! In the first month at school. As usual, we had tons of lessons. On the second day already, we had herbology with mandrakes and transfiguration with how to turn bird in cups. ''Who even come up with such a stupid spell? Why would you need a cup from a bird? You can make a cup from any random non-living substance with transfiguration¡­'' Anyway, I was busy with lessons and self-studying. As before, I wanted to quickly learn the curriculum and do my own thing. By the end of the first month, I already finished all the courses for the first half-a-year. With my unbelievable abilities from studying skill, it was¡­ well, I can''t say easy, but bearable. After that, I concentrated on how to stay safe against the snake. I also decided to save every 30 minutes in the same save slot. So, whenever I feel danger, hear strange hissing or see huge shadows, I can return to previous save. In the second month. One of the things I came up with was an artifact that will sense the closest heartbeats nearby. So, I started working on it in my free time. Due to that I couldn''t work out and raise training. As a result, training and dancing skills started to decline. After that, I and the system had a good talk about skills decline. The system explained to me the intricacies of how skills can decline. Thankfully, my knowledge skills will decline slower, due to all the abilities that help me with my memory, however, training and other similar skills are about body memory. So, if my body will continue losing fitness and won''t practice, my skills'' level will follow. ''And of course, that decline will take experience from the main level away as well. Annoying! At least, I can ignore dancing skill. It was level 1 anyway. Not a big loss.'' Also, surprisingly system told me that if I will keep my training in check, my physical activities skill won''t decline as well. Strange, but I''ll take it. Thanks to that, I had to find some time for running or some other work out activity. Due to that, I started to understand why I would want to invest in stamina. I can sleep less and work more. Surely it is a dream come true! (sarcasm) Other than that, my skills'' growth sped up because I was reading books with insane speed. Plus, I didn''t even need to read books more than once, because I improved my comprehension ability as soon as my studying skill was raised. And after finishing a book I was ''Using'' it via my inventory. Every book was equivalent to 2 skill levels. Although there were good and bad books. Some gave more knowledge, while others gave less. Funny thing is that I didn''t even try to grind skills. The amount of knowledge I had to learn to make the artifact, I had in mind, was mindboggling. Plus, due to all the experiments, I was conducting, I was using the save (the one I was making every 30 minutes) quite often. After all, those experiments were dangerous. Once I even accidentally blew up my hand. So, unfortunately, the system only automates, what I myself can accomplish. So, if I receive physical damage and system will notice it, it will return me back to the auto-save. So, I don''t need to strain myself to think about saves or returns. Although, I still have to be on the lookout for strange hisses and huge shadows. Because when I tried to automate that as well, the system started returning me back in time, every few minutes. Every big shadow or loud wind howl and system activates an auto-load. Moreover, it was useless to explain anything to it. It just said that it does not understand where its mistake was. Anyway, for now, automation still has some limitations. In the third month. In the first 2 months, I had little to no results from my research, except for raising skills and gaining levels. However, I also understand that the artifact that I want to create is first of its kind. It combines knowledge of both science and magic inside. I was mostly inspired by owls to make the artifact, which can visualize heartbeats. In my previous life, I remember somebody saying that owls have such a good hearing, that their brain actually visualizes sounds. They can literally see sounds, their direction, and distance. So, I thought what if I can make something similar and connect it to my brain via magic to see sounds. However, it only sounded easy. Sound is a hard thing to collect or even more to perceive. Sound is vibration. And I am conducting it through something else entirely, before sending it to the brain. This led to damaging the brain most of the time. Sound perception is a very fragile mechanism and apparently not all perceiving mechanisms are the same. Moreover, the sound has to go through a lot of modifications via a human''s auditory system before reaching the brain. In this case, eyesight is far easier. You collect light and transfer it as information to a specific region. Next magic takes place. I need to enchant it properly with proper intent (magical intent makes life so much easier.) and voile! Done. Next, your brain does all the work. Although, it has its own problems with how it divides light waves and process them, but to me from magical perspective sight looks simpler than hearing. Somewhere, during the research, I had a stray idea about why the heck I am even doing all that, but it was soon drowned by enthusiasm to try and build things. My passion for building and creating some interesting stuff is truly undying. Even in the new world it followed me. After the second month of research, I was enlightened. Why should I be limited by sound? The problem with basilisk is that it can kill if you look in his eyes. What if I can see but not through eyes? I can make an artifact that collects light the same way eye does and just sends it directly to the brain for further processing. This way I should escape basilisk glare. However, there was a problem. What exactly about basilisk glare kills you? Seeing his eyes with your own, or your brain perceiving his eyes? Because if it''s second, I won''t be able to escape death with such an instrument. However, after struggling over the problem for a few days, I was enlightened once more. No matter what, basilisk glare is a magical attack. So, all I need to do is to filter magic and leave only light waves. Both magic and light should be energy, so I should be able to make a device that will collect light and only light, to be further processed, and sent to the brain. Then I remembered something. There should be a boy who will be petrified via camera. What I can do is to put a prototype of this artifact that only filters magic into his camera. This way if the guy won''t get petrified - artifact works. However, I was low on time. I know that it will happen soon - after Harry''s quidditch match, which is in a few days. So, I must hurry. Thankfully I don''t need to build the whole artifact, only the magic filtering part to test my theory. In the fourth month. Good news. My theory was true. Bad news¡­ well, there a few of those. First of all, modifying this boy''s, Colin, the camera was one hell of a task. Moreover, after modification, he can''t see ghosts through the camera, which became another problem, because he created a commotion because of this. Fortunately, I am not a complete idiot (hopefully), so I made a save before going after that boy''s camera. I had to return a few times to do everything perfectly but, in the end, my theory has proven to be true. Although, that''s where the second half of bad news comes in. He kinda¡­ well¡­ died, because after not being petrified, he got scared and looked from his camera and directly at the snake. Anyway, I returned to the save once more, happy that my theory proved to be true. One demerit was the fact that I had to be present in the quidditch match I saw 5 to 6 times already, but whatever. I am strong and mighty, as one dragon used to say. That was all I was doing throughout the past three months. Going to lessons, research, helping our golden trio, or to be more precise a stupid duo with their lessons and working out when I can. ''Is that a school or a freaking survival camp? I don''t know rest in this bullshit place. I want to just chill and calmly learn magic¡­'' Hopefully, this month I can peacefully continue my work on the artifact. Plus, Christmas is near. ''I need a vacation¡­'' *Progress* ¡º Level 15 ? 16 ? Not enough experience ¡» ¡º Magicka ? Improvement : 14 ? 15 (talent = 2.0789) ¡» *Skills* ¡º Alchemy 27 ? 30 | Sneak 25 ¡» ¡º Speech 28 | Studying 29 ? 33 ¡» ¡º Wand Making 26 | Herbology 24 ? 28 ¡» ¡º Magic Channeling 27 ? 29 | Magic Chanting 25 ? 27 ¡» ¡º Magic Gesturing 25 ? 27 | Magic Theory 32 ? 36 ¡» ¡º Astronomy 24 ? 26 | Riding Expertise 21 ¡» ¡º Crafting 21 | Playing Games 17 ¡» ¡º Enchanting 17 ? 26 | Cooking 27 ¡» ¡º Programming 28 | Dancing 0 ¡» *Ability* Remarkable Comprehension ? Unmatched Comprehension Chapter 30 - Level 17. First quest Christmas came. Snow, trees, and gifts were coming all around. Same as last year I made a few gifts for the trio via crafting. Thankfully with all the magic, I learned recently and so much more knowledge I was able to make quite good amulets. Moreover, I enchanted them to be trackable with magic, so if they wear them, I can track their location. But then that''s a big if. Mostly I made enchantments just for the sake of improving enchanting. The trio and Granger''s parents gifted me some nice trinkets and clothes. It''s a small gesture, but still, I felt warm inside. Anyway, all soppy things aside. Due to my free time I was finally able to finish my artifact. What I made is a new bracelet. Although there was a problem that whenever I used it, I need to raise the hand to the level of eyes. The reason being vision is a part of the system brain uses to locate the body in space. Another problem was that the bracelet had to be visible to absorb light. That''s when the realization struck me. I was researching an artifact to stop worrying about my safety and walk safely, but in the process, I had to make so many modifications, that I forgot about this. In the end, the artifact doesn''t help with this in any way. The only way it can help me if I fight basilisk (with eyes intact) and this artifact will help me see. Moreover, the quality of a picture I see via the bracelet is something in a heavy need for improvement. Now I understand why nobody researches artifacts seriously. I spend so much time, yet I achieved practically nothing. Damn. ''Well, at least I got a ton of skills improved and a level-up. Time is entirely wasted¡­ I really hope this artifact will become useful. But I highly doubt it. After all, there is no reason for me to fight the basilisk and ¡­'' [Deal with the monster in the chamber of secrets.] [Reward depends on how exactly you will deal with it.] ''Interesting. I got a quest, right when I needed it. You are a really considerate system.'' [Indeed.] ''Also, I ?ssume I can''t know what the reward is before finishing the quest?'' [Indeed.] ''Okay. At least, now there is some meaning to the artifact. But I think there is a lot of potential in the artifact made. Especially filtering magic¡­'' After finishing the artifact, I spent the rest time just resting my mind. In the meantime, the trio was busy making a potion. I tried advising them on the fact that Malfoys have no connection with the Slytherin, but they are a pretty biased bunch. Well, I don''t care much about them anyway. All I need for them is to be around me and be my plot armor until I become strong enough. Anyway, I concentrated on 2 ideas. One was gravity manipulation. If I can learn how to manipulate gravity, I will crush any enemy. Especially, it will effective against groups of enemies. Second, was electromagnetism. Or to be precise a way to one-shot any being in this world and rail gun was the first thing that comes to my mind. Overall, nothing interesting happened. Everything was progressing according to the script from a film. Except when those 2 went after spiders, I went with them. Thankfully, by that time I have already learned the spell against spiders, so it was a walk in the park. Although, I have no arachnophobia, but giant spiders don''t exactly inspire you to love them either. So, it was a bit trippy trip¡­ By the way, it was really satisfying to send spiders flying left and right. The spell works perfectly fine on the small spiders. Although, I bet it won''t work on Aragog. After all, due to age, he should have developed some charm resistance. Everything else was progressing the same way. Time for the final showdown was approaching and I had good progress with a rail gun spell (coil gun to be precise). Somewhen along the way, I increased a level once, despite the fact I lost proficiency in so many skills. After all, more than 7 months passed, so even the best skills started dropping in level. Especially, cooking skills. Potter and Weasley have reached the secret room, chamber or whatnot, after which Lockhart has obliviated himself with Ron''s broken wand. However, Ron and Potter were divided by the collapse and I ended up on the Ron side. ''System return me to the auto-save.'' At some point, Potter somehow summoned the phoenix with the sorting hat. At that point, I put my wand back in inventory. And got ready to cast spells from both hands. I used a sleep charm on bird and Potter. For Harry, I used a normal spell, but for phoenix, I used an empowered and concentrated version, in case it has resistance to charms. I checked information on them before coming here and found out only about their absolute immortality and nothing about charm resistance. Fortunately, either it has a very weak resistance to charms, or I was too strong, so the bird fell asleep as well. From the sound around me, I already understood that basilisk has finished crawling from the water and will soon attack me. As for the dark lord, I decided to ignore him for now. Not like he is dangerous before he kills Ginny. In preparation for this battle, I made a simple mask with no holes to make sure I won''t accidentally into the eyes of the snake. Bracelet was already on my right hand, so all I needed to do, is to equip mask and unequip the robe. ''Who fights in robes anyway? Just walking in them is a hassle.'' Finally, I was ready. "Who the heck are you? And what is that mask on your face? Hmpf, do you really think you can fight a basilisk without sight?" Tom said. ''What a moron, how else would you fight it? Either this Voldemort is stupid, or he intentionally tries to demoralize me. Plus, as long as I am not one-shot, I will remain immortal. Save progress.'' ''Let''s go!'' I put my hand up and activated the bracelet. I started seeing, albeit vaguely. It felt somewhat like this ¨C if normal eyesight is HD, then bracelet shows the world in 360p quality. However, for me, it was more than enough because I was fighting a humongous snake. The first thing I did was to attack it with a few charms to see its resistance and as expected its skin is near impenetrable to charms on my level. I need something on Dumbledore level to penetrate it. Obviously, I didn''t have any experience fighting, so I had to return to the save I made more than a few times, when the snake got me with venom. *After 5th return* ''I feel like a complete newbie. In novels, everything is so simple. MC just survives and becomes OP through fighting¡­ How the heck does he do that? I was a normal average person. Evading snakes wasn''t exactly my hobby *Sigh*'' *After 7th return* ''Okay, I was able somehow to get some distance between me and snake. Now I can start conjuring my magic and¡­'' *After 10th return* ''Okay, now I know why charms are the best. Casting complicated magic in the middle of the fight is just a dream of the insane person. Plus, that one time when I was able to cast it, I missed that stupid ?ss snake.'' ''I more or less learned how snake fights. This feels like Souls game. To kill a hard boss, you have to die a few times and if your skills are garbage then¡­ more than a few times.'' Once more I heard how snake slithered out of the water, but this time I quickly started walk backward, without taking out my wand. The wand doesn''t help much to the current me, because I don''t know immensely powerful spells that will require me to use it. Moreover, spells used with it can be tracked, so one more demerit from wand usage. As for why I started walking back. I need to make some distance to cast magic I recently came up with. However, I can''t run, because the snake will only slither faster and bite me in the back. How do I know? Personal experience. After having around 7 meters between me and snake. I deemed this enough and cast ''Empowered Concentrated Lumos'' on the ground around me. Why around me? Lumos is a charm, that makes the charmed object to release light. In normal cases it is a wand, however, after some modifications and tweaks, I was able to charm any object to light up. However, heat and light immitted in the process are hard to control, that''s why wand as a channeling tool is the usual target of this charm. But now this uncontrolled surge of light will be quite useful to temporarily blind basilisk. After casting the Lumos I turned off bracelet for a half a second to not get blinded myself and turned it back on. Although it won''t get me blinded, because I perceive light through an instrument, but I will lose some time due to the overabsorption of light in the bracelet. Finally, I took out a heap of small stones(ammo) and coiled metal wires connected by a straight pipe (coil gun) out of my inventory and threw it on the floor. Then with my right hand, I made gun parts and one stone float in a straight line, pointing at the still dazed snake. After which, with the left hand, I started to get ready to cast electricity magic. Thankfully, I mastered levitation charms, so I don''t need to do any gestures and can cast it without moving the hand too much. This way, my vision didn''t disappear. That is the hardest part and the only one where I failed 3 times in a row. The problem here is that I need to stop giving charge to coils after ammo passed halfway through. I trained it before coming here and even automated the process a little bit by creating a spell structure with appointed chants and gestures, but ¡­ I didn''t have enough time to properly master it. "Empowered Kinetic Strike!" (Empowered because I manually control magic input.) While chanting I started gesturing. My left hand opened in a palm before thrusting forward, while squeezing to a fist. That was a gesture I came up with for controlling the electric discharge. There were no sparks flying or some beautiful effects. However, as soon as my hand finished moving, I heard air exploding and soon after ringing sound. I was instantly dazed and stunned, due to my eardrums rupturing from such a loud sound. After I concentrated, I saw the dark lord screaming and then I looked at where snake should have been. I saw a giant basilisk with a small hole in the middle of the head, that was pinned to the wall I was facing. There were cracks around its body. Due to so much kinetic force, it went flying for a bit before embedding itself into the wall. Only later I understood, that this snake contained a ton of magic inside of its body, that made all of its organs exceptionally sturdy. Otherwise, my shot wouldn''t just make a hole only 5cm(2inches) in diameter, it would blow the whole head off. Moreover, it was quite lightweight for a giant snake, so it went flying quite nicely. Anyway, I knew that I shouldn''t lose my consciousness, so I cast an "Empowered Concentrated Diffundo" on one of the teeth in the basilisk now opened mouth. Then I levitated it to myself while running to Ginny. On the way, I put away the mask, bracelet and put the robe back on. By the time I reached her, or diary to be precise, fang was already flying to me, so I took a diary in my hands and skewered it on the tooth. I am not Harry Potter, so I won''t prick it for no reason when I can just straight up one-shot this Horcrux. Then I need to act quick because I was too close to fainting with all those ear bursts and magic drains. I made sure Horcrux is destroyed and put the diary near Potter. Then I somehow crawled to the position I was at, before putting them to sleep and finally dropped on the floor dead tired. ''I will faint in a few seconds, I think¡­'' [Quest is complete!] [You have killed the monster in the chamber of secrets, the legendary basilisk. You have accomplished this feat with hard work and great magic.] [Rewa¡­] That''s when I lost consciousness. *Progress* ¡º Level 17 ? Not enough experience ¡» ¡º Magicka ? Improvement : 15 ? 16 (talent = 2.1828) ¡» *Skills progress* ¡º Alchemy 30 ? 31 | Sneak 25 ¡» ¡º Speech 28 ? 29 | Studying 33 ? 35 ¡» ¡º Wand Making 26 | Herbology 28 ? 29 ¡» ¡º Magic Channeling 29 ? 34 | Magic Chanting 27 ? 29 ¡» ¡º Magic Gesturing 27 ? 29 | Magic Theory 36 ? 40 ¡» ¡º Astronomy 26 ? 27 | Riding Expertise 21 ¡» ¡º Crafting 21 ? 23 | Playing Games 17 ? 16 ¡» ¡º Enchanting 26 ? 28 | Cooking 27 ? 24 ¡» ¡º Training 22 | Physical Activities 17 ¡» ¡º Programming 28 ? 26 | Dancing 0 ¡» Chapter 32 - Level 18 [ part 2 ]. Rewards. Time is going slow when you are doing something not fun. In my case, it constantly goes slow. I spend so much time grinding that it horrifies me to even think about what will be in the future. Moreover, thanks to degradation, I understood that I need to concentrate on the important stuff and treat other skills as a bonus that comes along. I mean cooking skills probably won''t save me from anything, while magic skills can help me in a myriad of ways. Anyway, I still get more than enough experience with my main skills. Plus, my main skills give me more experience than other ones because they have grown over 30 mark. It seems like every 10 points experience, given by a skill raise, increases exponentially. My main concern is how to practice legilimency. The problem is I don''t have books. In addition to this, I can''t cast magic during summer thanks to "Trace". However, here is an interesting fact - it has one weakness. It can''t track self-contained magic. For example, flying magical devices (e.g. brooms) contain magic inside and fly due to enchantment applied to it. However, due to my knowledge in enchanting and magic theory, I found out that even that is not entirely correct. Every wizard/witch/magic artifact constantly emits magic. Even brooms. However, self-contained magic emits especially small amounts of magic. Moreover, they consume the same amount from the atmosphere to cover for emission. So, I have 2 theories here. Either "Trace" is limited in the detection spectrum or the consumption of magic can cover for its emission. First can be applied to the fact that Animagus form and magical creatures can''t be tracked. Because the magic is their form, not what they do with that form. So, we can ?ssume that ancient wizards who came up with the spell have made sure that "Trace" won''t be activated whenever some magical creature does anything near children. Here is the proof, elves are capable of the apparition, but that doesn''t affect trace, because it is their natural ability. Only when they actively cast magic it activates. Otherwise, elves moving stealthily around will ring alarms every few minutes. On the other hand, the second idea about consumption covering for emission can be quite valid as well. If you think about it, all magical spaces, such as Hogwarts, Diagon Alley and etc. consume a ton of magic from the atmosphere to upkeep all the charms and enchantments that were cast upon them. That can explain why "Trace" doesn''t work there. ''Unfortunately, knowing all that isn''t very helpful to me now. Plus, it''s only my theories. How it really works, is a complete mystery.'' As for the books'' problem I have 2 ideas as well. The first is to steal books via inventory. I know for sure that books are not tracked inside Hogwarts, but I am not sure if I will invoke some kind of a defensive mechanism outside of it. So, it''s not the safest option. The second one is to buy books about legilimency in Diagon Alley. And personally, I incline to this solution. Reason being the fact that books in Hogwarts give too little information about the art. So far, I was only able to find books that have only superficial information about the topic. And even those books took me a lot of effort to find. However, in shops, I can probably find specialized books with descriptions and applications of legilimency. The problem is that legilimency is not exactly a good type of art. Some of its applications are quite questionable. Thus, the ministry likes to control sources of information on the topic. However, finding books is not a problem, because the more you prohibit something the more source there will be for the procurement of the forbidden things. The real problem is finding authentic books about legilimency amongst a ton of fakes and the price of those books. I just hope I will have enough for 2 or 3 good books. As for how to differentiate between fakes and real, I can probably rely on the system inventory. The issue here is that it can scan books on the existence of useful knowledge, but not its amount. *Sigh* ''So hard¡­ so much to do¡­'' I entered the Journal to check logs after the battle. [Quest is complete!] [You have killed the monster in the chamber of secrets, the legendary basilisk. You have accomplished this feat with hard work and great magic.] [Rewards will be given out based on accomplishments.] [Rewards are being affected by the system upgrade. Rewards are being converted.] [Rewards are calculated. Due to fighting against basilisk and succeeding in killing him, your soul will get saturated by basilisk energy. You receive one Animagus ritual set.] I checked the Animagus and how to become one before, so I knew that the reward is great. However, the ritual to turn into an Animagus is a very complicated one, that at the very least takes one month to finish. Plus, it''s not something that can be easily hidden. I mean if you keep a leaf of mandrake in your mouth for a whole month it''s not something you can just hide from others. And I don''t want to become Animagus openly or to be registered. I bet I am already being monitored by ministry due to all those robberies and stuff. No need to get even more attention by becoming Animagus. Therefore, finding a quiet place to become Animagus is another worry weighing on my mind. So, I really need to consider if I want to stay with Grangers this summer. Not staying with them will be suspicious. While staying with them will not allow me to go with the ritual. * A few days later, on the train back home* I read a book provided by the system about the ritual and it seems like fundamentally changing the ritual is my only choice, huh? There was no one who was brave enough to play with a ritual that can potentially mutilate you forever. Therefore, it mostly remained the same since¡­ well... ancient times, I think. However, I am different. I have Save&Load. The problem is that extensive experimentation has a small chance to still kill me, even with saves. For example, if I faint very fast, the system can''t auto-load me back, when I am unconscious. Or if the change will affect my brain, then I won''t even notice how I died. Thus, I need to change the ritual very carefully and only if I know what possible consequences it may bring. Thankfully my knowledge is substantial enough to compare with year 5 or even 6 at the Hogwarts, so I think I can modify the process. Maybe even shorten it. However, I don''t think I will be able to substantially improve the ritual, so I am not sure if it''s worth it to meddle with it if I can''t improve it that much. *Sigh* I need to research it. Hopefully, I will be able to become Animagus by the end of the summer. I am still undecided about staying with Grangers. I have no real need to stay with them anymore. I have money, transport (broom) and soon I will buy all the books required for grinding. However, living on my own will be suspicious and probably even dangerous. After all, I don''t know what dangers there are for a lone child in the magic London. So, before that, I decided to live with Grangers for the first few weeks and then maybe I will move out by bullshitting. Something along the lines: "... I need to go to my country to visit my orphanage to fix some documents" or "... my best friend is in trouble and he sent me a letter...". Anyway, I will come up with some kind of a lie, but with 2 abilities in the Speech, I highly doubt that they won''t trust me. *2 days later* The day before yesterday, I and Grangers'' family reached home. We had a very good evening and I informed everyone that I will go check for any jobs in the neighborhood. They were against it, but I insisted. ''How else would I have a legit reason to get away from the house? I need to buy books.'' Thankfully my persuasion skills are insane, so it was a piece of cake to convince them. Then, yesterday I went to Diagon alley to find and buy books. I also put my concealment bracelet on, so that others won''t pay too much attention to me. Using inventory in combination with Save&Load I was able to find 3 very promising books about legilimency. In addition to this, I also got a book talking about a connection between transfiguration, animagic and enchantment. In the end, I spent all the wizard''s money I had on these books, but whatever. If I get skills, then it''s worth it. Plus, I still had muggle cash on me. Today, I officially delved in legilimency with normal specialized books. My progress skyrocketed due to this. To avoid unnecessary questions, I was doing it outside of the house, because currently I was "working" on my recently found job. I was also trying to see if I can shorten or at least change Animagus ritual to something more inconspicuous. After all, the ritual is the only reason I need to escape from Grangers. If I can become animal magus without attracting any attention to my persona while staying with other humans. That will be even better. However, so far, I have no good ideas to go with. Maybe, after studying a recently bought book on the topic I will have more ideas, but for now, let''s take it slow. I have months of time ahead of me. *Week later* That is the answer! Or to be more precise form of the magic! During this week I read the book I bought recently twice with my insane WPM of more than 600 and I mulled over dozens of ideas but got nothing. However, this morning, I got enlightened when I thought about how full-bodied Patronus resembles your animal after transformation. I already knew that Animagus is essentially enchantment of the body with transfiguration spell. However, after thinking about it deeper, suddenly everything I knew just clicked together and I came to an insane idea. ''What if everyone''s source of magic has a form? Let''s look at Patronus first.'' Essentially, full-bodied Patronus is a big clump of magic infested with positive energy. However, both small and full Patronuses are filled with positive energy. Then what if the form is given not by the positivity or its amount, but by magic itself. I know that the most distinct features of a full-bodied Patronus are a huge amount of power and ability to sustain itself for a long amount of time. Therefore, I ?ssume it contains a huge amount of magic that was pumped into it. Then this amount of magic tries to take a form that''s natural to it. Same one it picks while inside of your body¡­ Then if we shed a human body and leave only magic without the soul it will take a form of an animal. Then essentially what Animagus ritual does is first to enchant a body to contain magic naturally. Then it enchants your magic source and grants the ability to fill in the body with magic to essentially make transformation instinctual. Plus, I checked the translation of the incantation for the spell. I specifically went to the local library and got a Latin dictionary for it. "Amato Animo Animato Animagus" Official translation: "My love brings me life, I am obliged to become an animal wizard.". However, if you look at words more carefully you can translate it to something like this: "I am obliged to be filled with the breath/air to become animal wizard". Or something similar. Then I thought about the possibility that new wizards have interpreted "breath" as "life" because "animo" can also mean "make alive". However, I think that ancient wizards considered magic as breath or air because it was all around them in the atmosphere. So, they literally meant to fill the body with magic to become an animal wizard. Then, the last step is to drink special potion during the lightning storm to¡­ well... here I am not that sure yet. I am still in the process of understanding. I think it is more of the first awakening to get the body ready for the first transformation. Anyway, I finally got the main principle standing behind the Animagus transformation. I think I can change the ritual now or maybe even improve it. Moreover, thanks to the ability provided by the system I should have 2 independent magical channels. Then does it mean I have 2 magic sources? I can''t wait to do all the experiments I have in mind. And with my new understanding, seems like I don''t need to leave Grangers anymore. Although, it still will be dangerous, but at least doable. ''Seems like I need to clean up some saves. I will need them soon¡­'' *Progress* ¡º Alchemy 31 | Sneak 25 | Speech 31 ¡» ¡º Studying 36 | Wand Making 26 ¡» ¡º Herbology 29 | Magic Channeling 36 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 29 | Magic Gesturing 29 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 41 ? 43 | Astronomy 27 ¡» ¡º Riding Expertise 21 | Crafting 23 ¡» ¡º Playing Games 15 | Enchanting 28 ¡» ¡º Cooking 23 | Training 22 | Physical Activities 17 ¡» ¡º Programming 26 | Dancing 0 ¡» ¡º Legilimency 19 ? 22 ¡» Chapter 33 - Level 18 [ part 3 ]. Occlumency and Ritual A month passed since my discovery. I successfully raised my legilimency high enough, to start training mind defense. Confused? I was as well. Apparently, legilimency has nothing to do with mind defense. I found out about it back in Hogwarts, but the basic idea is that legilimency is for attack and occlumency is for defense. However, there are only two ways to train occlumency. One is for professional legilimens to attack your mind, while you try to you defend. This way you can train your brain through constant practice and make mental defense an instinct. And second is what happens with the majority is to learn legilimency and then use that knowledge to train occlumency. Honestly, the concept of the basic occlumency sounds very easy. You just need to clear your mind, but the actual application is tremendously hard. Moreover, just keeping it clear is not enough, because this way legilimens will have an ?ssurance that you are hiding something. And that will lead to him pushing only harder. Human is not some machine. Sooner or later, anyone breaks under pressure. Therefore, the only real way to use occlumency proficiently and seamlessly is to forge false memories that will suffice to fool any invader. Moreover, occlumency is not a spell or some special charm. It simply a tactic against legilimency. That is why it is both very effective and very hard to train. To master it, you need to have an iron will and strong control over emotions. So, talent in magic won''t help here in any way. Thankfully, I have the system, so I can master anything under the heavens. In addition to this, you need a good amount of knowledge to forge memories that will be realistic enough to fool anyone. That is when legilimency knowledge comes in. Anyway, it is very complicated, so let''s skip explanations and come directly into the learning part. Thankfully, occlumency has not many books describing the process or technique, because again it''s only a tactic/idea of what to do. It is not an actual spell. There are some books describing tips and tricks to it, but no actual learning guide. Due to that knowledge received from legilimency books is enough to start training occlumency. Unfortunately, my occlumency started at 0 as well and honestly, I didn''t want to spend the whole summer just to raise to 15. So, after some deliberation, I decided to buy the books about the topic. It was a quick process. I just went to Diagon Alley, exchanged some money and bought the books. To mask my identity as strongly as possible I put on hood and Kakashi style mask. Together with the bracelet, I should be both unrecognizable and unperceivable. Although, my bracelet wasn''t some mighty artifact it was strong, nonetheless. Plus, I made a pair for it. Bracelet for my other hand with the same enchantment, to strengthen the effect. This way, visiting the Diagon Alley is not a problem. Shame I couldn''t use a broom to travel there. It would be too conspicuous. I need to find out how modern wizards and witches travel on brooms without problems. Other than travelling at night, nothing else comes to mind. My research on the ritual was going smoothly as well. Every day, I was leaving home after breakfast and returning by the time of supper. I was more comfortable experimenting outside of the house, plus the "official" version known by Grangers was "I am working to earn money for the next year". Some may say to stop worrying about useless things and just take their money to save my own for personal things, but I can''t. Not due to some special or even good reasons, but simply due to¡­ my abhorrence to responsibility. ''Taking money from somebody is always accepting the responsibility that comes with them, unless you earn (*Cough* steal *Cough*) the money yourself.'' If you borrow money, you have a responsibility to return it. If random people gift you something, it''s your responsibility to answer equally. If parents give you gifts, you take responsibility to make sure that when they are old, they never need to say "I am in need of ¡­". Every time you receive someone''s goodwill, you are ought to return it equally. That was how I was raised and that is my "ninja way". ''Oops, wrong universe.'' But I digress. I am really close to changing ritual to a more efficient structure. If only I had Heaven''s library, work would have been faster probably, but well... ''That''s a wrong universe as well...'' Thanks to an unending spree of experiments, I was able to increase so many magic-related skills, however, I lost so much experience in the process due to the danger of these experiments. For example, once, I blew up my hand when I tried to apply enchantment to it with the transfiguration theorem while channeling 2 energy sources in it. Even though I increased my understanding of enchantment, magic theory and channeling by 1, it''s not worth a hand in this case, so I had to return. That also helped me in understanding that real practice and trying new stuff is the fastest way to grind skills, however not the best choice for gaining levels, due to all the return-loss stuff. Nevertheless, the experience I received normally was more than enough to achieve a level up. That was a piece of truly great news for me because I got another skill point. I crossed the threshold for gaining tier 2 ability in enchanting long ago, but I was saving a skill point in case of emergency. That is the ability by the way: ¡º Enchanting ¡» ¡¼In the process of enchantment, you do not radiate magic you channel. So, everything channeled will be spent on the enchanting. This will make all enchantments stronger and more long-lasting.¡½ Plus, currently magic theory is around 47 and I bet when it reaches 50 it will open tier 3 abilities, which should be pretty amazing. Returning back to ritual, I was able to find a few changes to make ritual faster. I have a valid way to remove the need to wait for a thunderstorm to drink the potion and how to change energy absorption to speed up ritual completion. However, I still have no good ideas about the leaf of mandrake. Having a leaf for a prolonged amount of time, inside of your mouth is highly problematic. You have to be careful with eating, people will notice it if you talk. In addition to this, one mistake with that leaf and you have to restart the whole process. *Sigh* ''I need to experiment some more.'' *After another month* I was finally able to modify ritual sufficiently enough for me to go through it unnoticed. The problem with the leaf was dealt with as well. I found out that leaf is needed to consume my energy and unique signature, while not giving my body any unique properties. So, what I did is I made and enchanted a small amulet to collect energy into it. How? But I digress once more. To make sure I can use that amulet further in the potion, I used the natural ingredient as a material. Crystalized food salt (NaCl) to be precise. That was the easiest material to procure, which doesn''t spoil easily, but can be sturdy at the same time (if made correctly). Moreover, it can be further used in the potion with ease. Enchantment to collect energy was pretty complicated, but thankfully I wasn''t really limited by the size. It will be mostly under my clothes. Plus, I also enchanted the chain, which I bought in the local smithy, on sturdiness to make sure that the ball of salt won''t crumble or dissolve due to things like sweat or body''s heat. That concludes my solution to mandrake leaf. Now to the month duration and thunderstorm. I was able to shorten the ritual duration to roughly 2 weeks. As for the thunderstorm, I have completely failed. At first, I thought that the simple presence of huge amounts of electricity will be enough, but I was wrong. ''Don''t ask how I tested it...'' It wasn''t the rain either. Anyway, I decided to just leave be the way it is. I mean, saying the spell every morning until the lightning storm is not that big of a sacrifice to become an Animagus. Although I am still not that good with all that mental defense stuff, at least invading my brain won''t be a walk in a park. This way I can fool a legilimens more easily. Hopefully¡­ The ability of the first-tier in occlumency tree looks interesting as well, but I decided to wait for now. You never know when you might need the skill point. Besides, only a few weeks left until the third begins, so better have some more potential jokers. *Progress* ¡º Level 18 ¡» ¡º Magicka ? Improvement : 16 ? 17 (talent = 2.292) ¡» ¡º Number of skill points: 1 ¡» ¡º Alchemy 31 | Sneak 25 | Speech 31 ¡» ¡º Studying 36 ? 39 | Wand Making 26 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 29 | Magic Gesturing 29 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 43 ? 47 | Astronomy 27 ¡» ¡º Riding Expertise 21 ? 20 | Crafting 23 ¡» ¡º Playing Games 15 | Enchanting 28 ? 34 ¡» ¡º Cooking 23 | Training 22 | Physical Activities 17 ¡» ¡º Programming 26 ? 25 | Dancing 0 ¡» ¡º Legilimency 22 ? 25 | ?Occlumency 21 ¡» Chapter 35 - First will change? I will change first chapter a little bit. Current readers won''t notice any changes, but I decided to notify you anyway. You may ask "Why?". Well, because I am freaking tired of bullshit that I get in comments every day(literally every day) about the fact that MC didn''t change anything it his outer appearance. I am really surprised how many irrational people out there that are not happy with their outer appearance. I mean innately ugly people are quite rare. Moreover MC became literally 11, so whatever things like fat, bad skin, incorrect posture and scars can be removed/healed/fixed with HLS(healthy life style) easily. His health and look is a blank page... Well... I will just stop being surprised and by human belief that their mindset is the definition of normal. Not going to explain anything anymore. Tired of that already. After all, you won''t bite dog if it bites you. *Sigh* Not sure when I will have time to change the chapter. Even to write this I am spending that little free time I have. And original appearance of MC won''t change. I will just create problems with him, that he will fix to his current look. Of course, if there will be many comments against this change, I won''t do anything. After all, your opinion matters. And for those people who gonna tell in comments "Do what you want, you author."... I already did and now have to change to something I don''t want, so I want only your true opinion. Chapter 37 - Lets chat Okay first chapter changed and I made reasons for not changing my outer appearance, after listening to feedback from you. Also explanation for those people who don''t understand the idea behind talent. I will try to explain it once more... Talent IS NOT EQUAL TO POWER! Talent 10 kid will still lose to talent 5 ?du?t wizard. Talent helps with learning. Knowledge comes more naturally and it becomes easier to understand stuff. It also decides the ceiling for the power of the spells. So with talent of 11, knowledge and enough skills you can power up even a small spell like "Flipendo" to the level of a rocket. Of course it is not something easy. It will take immense experience to pull something on this scale. Hope that was clear enough. That is not everything talent gives/does but that should be it for now. Discord for more info)) Chapter 38 - Level UNKNOWN. Untold conversations(part 1) (Conversations month after Animagus ritual.) (Me & System) A month passed since ritual. That''s when one of the conversations I & system had in the past came to my mind. ''Listen, system, you told me in the past that when I am unconscious you are incapable of doing anything. Is that still true?'' [Indeed.] ''However, I lost my consciousness during the ritual, yet I saw in logs that you invoked your authority. So are you capable of acting, when I am unconscious or not?'' [That was... special case.] ''Hmm? Is it hesitance, that I hear?'' [Your level is insufficient to request this information.] ''The further we are in our relationship, the more I hear about it. What is hidden about this exact case? Okay, let''s make it simple for you. Can you act when I lose consciousness? Answer yes or no.'' [No.] ''Why?'' [Your level is insufficient to request this information.] ''Hm... let me think. You said that the ritual case was special, right?'' [Indeed] [I was connected to your subconsciousness.] ''Oh. Is that so?'' That got me into thinking over different possibilities. ''By the way, you have a bad influence on me.'' I smiled remembering all the light-novels I read, where all MCs answer "Is that so?". [What do you mean?] ''Anyway, I digress. If a connection to unconsciousness can help you, why not have a constant connection?'' [It''s prohibited. Your level is insufficient to request more information.] ''Prohibited? Wow... Wait a second. But you did exactly that during the tutorial.'' I was confused. ''I can give you permission now as well.'' [That won''t help. That case was really special because the complications were expected during the ritual. Thus, my responsibility for safekeeping your wellbeing has overwritten the restrain. However, more information on the topic requires you to have a higher level.] ''So you knew I will be harmed by basilisk energy!?'' [Not exactly. There was a possibility. If you Animagus form had fangs and eye structure similar to snakes, then basilisk would have been a purely beneficial form. However, you became an eagle, who has neither.] ''You could have at least notified me or something...'' [There was no need. You are useless in questions of that matter.] ''Ruthless... Are you Goldfinger or something?'' [Hmph. That is not even a system, but a piece of machinery that can play the role of a system.] ''Wait a second... They exist?'' ''Huh?!'' *** (Conversation after one of the dreams during second-year summer.) (Inner monolog of me, myself & I) A teen was tossing and turning in his bed, while angry expression was on his face. Heavy breathing and strange mutterings were the only sounds discernible in the room. Suddenly all sounds quiet down and the boy opens his eyes. ''Past again, huh? That is annoying. I never had dreams or nightmares about my real life. All my dreams were about fantasy, games, gangsters, ninja and etc. Anything but not my life. But as soon as I came to this world, my dreams are about my past.'' *Sigh* Why me? I was often asking myself when I was a kid. Why am I suffering if I didn''t do anything bad? Looking at it now, I know that there is no answer to this question. Bad things happen and that is something that you just can''t escape. Hypocritical? Maybe... But in the end, I didn''t do it, right. So maybe not so hypocritical. And at the same time, I was proud of myself, for not picking an easy choice. Nobody was there to stop me. Nobody tried to help me. I alone understood that living is a hard choice to do while dying was always an option. Silly? Maybe... But that was my thinking then. Through time, I understood many things. That''s why I think that it''s stupid to say that people do not change. I mean, if you believe in the Bible, even Satan used to be an Angel. Every year... No. Every day I was changing. Becoming different. One example of that was my believe that clinging to life is meaningless and even lowly. I despised people who were very old, yet wanted to live no matter. Your time has come, so why are you resisting? That how I labeled many. Why struggle? This is not normal. However, then I had a talk with an incredible person. Saying he was smart is an understatement. After all, his IQ was over 190. He changed my perspective. He said to me a simple thing. "As long as human mentally capable and wants to live, who are you to say he is wrong?" That got me thinking hard. I finally looked at the deeply hidden truth I knew before. I didn''t fear death... No... I was welcoming it at that time. That''s when I started judging the world by my own standard. But who am I to judge? Who am I to say what is normal? And by the way, what is normal? That is a question I asked myself quite often when I was young. Especially, after a talk with that man. I started pondering, so let me give you some examples of what I was thinking about. Let''s start with a small thing. Is it normal to eat dogs? Many answers. I never doubted the fact there is nothing wrong with the act, as long as the meat is healthy. Moreover, dog fat is quite healthy for the lungs. But I never ate a dog before. I was good with cows and chickens. That was so until I talked with a girl, who was shocked by me mentioning it. She was vehemently against it! Why? The answer was so simple and stupid, but that was all she needed to know she is right. "A dog is a human''s friend." Such small things made me go deeper and deeper into ponderings over what is normal. In Rome, it was normal to burn and kill those of different faith. Later, it was normal for the Vatican to start wars based on the exact same reason. Even later, slavery and mass extermination of the Native American population. For modern humans it is gruel and nasty part of history we would rather forget. But that was all normal for them. It was part of life. Why do we even need to go back in history? Currently, there are still places, where cannibalism is part of traditions and there it is normal. Then what is normal? Isn''t it just how the majority of people live? Now if you put a cigarette into your nose and start smoking like this, people would consider you insane. But a few hundred years ago, people didn''t even know you can smoke through the mouth. "What is normal? And are there even things like good and bad?" This type of pondering is useless because it has no definitive answer, yet it is also very useful because it makes you think without a goal in mind. Thus, not limiting you to a result. You think not to achieve something, but to participate in a thinking process. "But is it normal?" I smiled. Looked at the clock. Time was 4 am. Well, I might as well wake up. Grind is better than "useless" thinking. *** (Conversation in the middle of the third year) (Me & System) ''I want to know something, system.'' [What is it?] ''Can I travel to other Universes?'' [Your level is insufficient to request this information.] ''... No way, right?'' Chapter 39 - Level 25[p1]. New abilities So, I was waiting for a hippogriff to die. By the way, that was another thing that I missed due to all my ideas to change canon. You see, the bird-horse is saved by Harry and Hermione after traveling to the past. However, I decided to make sure there will be no need to go to the past, so hippogriff nearly died. Thankfully, I thought about the problem in time. However, I had to wait for the actual execution for a really long period. Apparently, the ministry set execution on the last day of exams. But at least I had enough time to make a good plan to save the Buckbeak. Or to be more precise, what should I do with him after saving him. I definitely not going to just let it go. As for alchemical ingredients, he didn''t have any worthy of notice. As for selling him, that would be useless, because the creature is too proud. It would be easier to raise one then bend his will. I can use it as transport. During lessons, he was not against me sitting on his back. Although I can fly by myself, that takes energy and effort. But with Bucky, all I need to do is to sit tight. Even then, problems arise. "Where to keep?" and "What to feed?". I can''t just let him roam around in search of food when he technically needs to be executed. At least till next school year, I think. And yes. He is Bucky and I don''t care what''s his original long-ass name. Who the heck gives such a long name to a horse? As for where to keep¡­ That''s a good question. ''System, do you have solutions for keeping animals?'' [Your level is insufficient to request this information.] ''¡­'' *Sigh* *** The last exam finished today, which means it''s time to act. Trio went to visit Hagrid''s place to see Buckbeak one last time. They called me to go with them, but I couldn''t because I needed to act. Thankfully, I had a legit reason to decline. They needed to get invisibility cloak to get to the hut, but getting under it with 3 teens is already a challenge. 4 people will be literally overstretching it. I told them I will meet them there. They were a little worried, but they got accustomed to me being able to sneak around. Sometimes, I am really surprised by the children''s naivety. I mean there is a 14-year-old kid who sneaks like a ninja, but they don''t suspect a thing. After convincing them, I exited the castle and put on my concealing artifacts. I started moving towards the hut. There I moved to the concealed place, I found prior to the action. There, I made myself comfortable by finding the optimum position and started waiting. While waiting, I had nothing much to do so I practiced (grinded) magical channeling. I got accustomed to increasing my skills whenever I had nothing to do. It became a habit already. And from one perspective I was happy that I gained a useful habit, but from another perspective, I was horrified by the amount of effort I''ve put to raise my levels. I was quite a lazy creature by nature, but after coming to this world, I became a very hardworking person. In addition to this, I took out my newest project. I was working on it since the New Year. Magical Computer. How did I even come up with such an insane idea? Well, you see, wizards are not ignorant of science, but they consider it something below magic. Is it interesting? Yes! Is it useful? Certainly! But would you learn science rather than magic? Nope! That''s why many innovative devices and mechanisms that were introduced did not create many waves in the magical world. Although wizards use cars and even enchant them, they don''t delve deep into mechanisms driving the car. That''s how the wizarding world skipped over possibilities computers may bring. I mean the concept behind a computer is extremely simple. Problems come with its implementation, but with magic that becomes so much simpler. Moreover, most of the limitations of this time can be just thrown into the window using magic. Not enough memory? Expand it via extension charm and put in a ton of memory. Too much heat? Enchant with cooling charms. Not fast enough? Shrink transistors. Of course, I am oversimplifying the solution, because, in reality, connecting components will be a mess, but what I am trying to convey is that magic can make a computer an incredible magical artifact. So, I am started working on a few simple things and building my own computer via magic. Pure magical based computers with 0s and 1s based on magic and not on gates. At some point, I even theorized if it''s possible to find a substance that can be a substitute for a qubit and build something similar to a quantum computer. I was restricted only by my own imagination. You might ask what''s the point? Well... Should there be a point? I mean thanks to my new abilities I might not be the strongest wizard alive yet, but I can ?ssure you nobody will be able to easily kill me now. That''s another reason for me to be so bold and change canon anyway I deem fit. I mean I was going to start changing story anyway, but no so radically. But after I got the Animagus form and then tier 3 abilities, the world stopped being limited to only Britain. I can travel anywhere I want from now on. Plus with my magical talent and the actual amount of knowledge in my hand, I can just knock at 70% of magic schools and they will greet me with open hands. Anyway, I kinda digressed. Magic computer. Right. So, my progress on that is quite slow, but it is going. Plus I started on it only recently. In a few years, I think I can achieve incredible results. Plus that''s a good grind to crafting and enchantment because I build and enchant new things every 2 to 3 days. Oh and by the way, speaking of my new abilities. During this school year, I got a few new abilities, 2 of which are tier 3. These tier 3 abilities are legit overpowered, but we will return to them later. First, we start with the ability I upgraded recently after reaching 45 in studying. ¡º Studying ¡» ¡¼Better memory ? Unmatched memory¡½ ¡¼Your short-term Eidetic memory will be elongated from 1 second to 1 month in addition to the overall improvement of your memory in both memorizing and recalling. Note: Eidetic memory month long will give a longer buffer zone for short-term memories to transfer to long-term memories.¡½ Back in my world, it was theorized that if eidetic memory is longer it can become a photographic memory. Of course, there was a lot of debate around the existence of photographic memory, but I digress. Normally most ?du?t humans have a second long Eidetic memory. Why so short? How would I know? All I know is that humans since birth have an incredibly long eidetic memory, but after growing older it shrinks to one second, due to the learning of language. However, that is highly debatable. Anyway, I have "Better memory" for 3 weeks already and so far this ability is amazing. I literally can recall 90% of what happened in those 3 weeks. That''s incredible. Example? Easy! Most people won''t remember what human spoke, but can only recall the meaning of the conversation, but I can repeat the whole conversation! Is it helpful? Well... kinda? It''s a short term memory even if it lasts for a month, so after a month it will be harder to recall. Nevertheless, because this memory survives for so long, I have more time to turn it long-term, so memorization certainly became better. But enough of that! Let''s move to the next ability. ¡º Magic Theory ¡» ¡¼Better concentration ? Absolute concentration¡½ ¡¼You concentration reaches absolute during any process involving magic. Your brain is enhanced beyond human limits. You are incapable of missing any details or making an inexperienced mistake. Moreover, your thinking process is sped up and the brain is not limited by energy intake anymore.¡½ "Arrogant and Mighty!" The first step on the road of becoming a terminator is done. Not much to say other than that about the ability. The description was pretty self-explanatory. Next! My first tier 3 ability! ¡º Magic Channeling ¡» ¡¼Control¡½ ¡¼You have full control over the magic in and around your body.¡½ Unimpressive? That''s because you are not a wizard and never ever used magic. You see, the problem of modern magic is that is heavily based on charms and their complicated method of channeling magic. So, wands and wand gestures are used to help cast charm spells and certainly help to do more detailed transfiguration. Do wands empower magic? Certainly, but such a bonus applies when you are a talented mage. It''s similar to having the internet. Most people use it to make life and work easier, but do they use it to really change their life or make it better? Maximum "google" something once in a while. Thus, only in the hands of a true professional, this tool can demonstrate 100% of its true capabilities. The same applies to wands. However, that''s where magic theory comes in place. Thanks to "Absolute concentration" controlling magic becomes as easy as moving a hand. It becomes a part of the body. Now I am sure that all those novels where MC trains only one attribute or skill makes him transcendent. Bullshit! I need all of my skills to be the strongest! ''Although, there is that problem of dying from training *Cough* grinding *Cough*.'' Anyway, time for the last of the abilities I bought. That is also a tier 3 ability. *Rustle* ''Huh?'' That''s when I heard the sound of somebody trying to move softly on the grass. Thanks to the fact, that I am practicing magic all the time, my brain is constantly in a state of mini-concentration. It''s not the full-blown absolute state, but it''s close to one-tenth of that state, and even that is enough for my brain to pick up anything that happens in 50 meters around me. I concentrated on the location where the sound came from but didn''t see anything out of ordinary. ''The trio is here.'' *Full list of abilities with descriptions is coming this Sunday* ¡º Alchemy 36 | Sneak 27 | Speech 33 ¡» ¡º Studying 45 | Wand Making 32 ¡» ¡º Herbology 36 | Magic Channeling 61 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 40 | Magic Gesturing 40 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 57 | Astronomy 35 ¡» ¡º Riding Expertise 15 | Crafting 29 ? 30 ¡» ¡º Playing Games 15 | Enchanting 38 ¡» ¡º Cooking 22 | Training 24 | Physical Activities 17 ¡» ¡º Programming 25 | Dancing 0 ¡» ¡º Legilimency 25 ? 26 | Occlumency 30 ? 31 ¡» Chapter 40 - Level 25[p2]. I have a question. A shadow of a horse with wings can be seen on the ground, flying in the direction of the forbidden forest. If you look closely enough at the shadow you would notice that a person was sitting on top of the horse. Obviously, it was I riding Bucky, after saving him. Honestly, though, I expected more problems during the process of escape. I just stealthily came while everyone was in the hut and saved the horse. Why did I even bother with the plan? So, now we''re flying towards the forest to leave him there for some time, while I am changing the timeline. Afterward, I will move towards Shrieking Shack and hide there. I still have some time till Sirius''s revelation. I bet there are still around 20 minutes till that. I can apparate there easily. Oh, and by the way, I learned how to apparate. Of course, learned doesn''t mean mastering it, but thanks to "Absolute Concentration" I can apparate to any place I visited already, with 100% accuracy. Plus, with my "Unmatched memory", all locations I visited in the last 3 weeks are still clear and vivid in memory to me. So apparating to the shack which I visited prior to the final showdown will be a piece of cake. Moreover, I found a hidden space, where it will be hard to notice me, so I can apparate directly to that point. Of course, no matter how hidden place is, the apparition is followed by sound, so I need to get there before the whole everyone. The faster I am done with the horse, the faster will I arrive at the place. Soon, we reached some clearing in the forest, where I decided to leave Bucky. Obviously, I tied him to a tree, so that he won''t escape to unknown places. I don''t want to run around the forest seeking for him. He wasn''t very happy with the arrangement, but I tried to explain to him the situation and it seems, he is quite an understanding chap. Anyway, as soon as I was done here, I apparated to the location I previously picked. Thankfully, nobody was there to hear the crisp pop sound of me appearing in the small corner hidden by the furniture. Then I started waiting. It didn''t take me long to hear the sound of dog paws treading on the wooden floor and someone''s body being dragged. Soon, I saw a big black dog appear with bitting something in his teeth. ''Ron?'' Presumably, Sirius wanted to attract the attention of Harry by pulling Ron into the shack or getting a hold over the rat, Pettigrew . Either way, he succeeded, because rat was there and Harry soon followed. There is some action happening and Harry arguing with Sirius. Or rather than arguing it was accusing. Sirius admits that he is at fault in the case of Potter''s deaths. Then Lupin comes in and drama unfolds. I didn''t hear anything new, because I more or less remember some parts from the Potterian film series. Or not? Crookshanks helped Sirius? The heck? Isn''t that a cat? And I had no idea James Potter was an Animagi. That wasn''t part of the film, right? Or did I miss something... Also, is it Animagi or Animagus? ''Eh, whatever. Who cares? Meaning is clear and that what matters. Oh, Snape enters the scene.'' Unfortunately for Snape, our bunch of heroes stuns him and continue listening to the story. Drama continues. Scabbers is turned back into the human and Sirius wants to kill him. That''s when I calmly exit my hiding spot and go behind our trio, calmly watching over the scene. I blend into the scene as if I was there from the beginning. When Lupin and Black wanted to kill the rat, Harry stopped them saying that James wouldn''t want them to kill their past friend or something along these lines. Honestly, I didn''t give a crap, because, I was focused on the Pettigrew. There he is, my chance to be independent and set the whole Potterian universe on the right track. No rat equals to no Voldemort. Although, to be honest, that is not entirely true. Even without him, Voldy will return, but it will take more time and more preparation. Nonetheless, it will give me more than enough time to grow up and become immeasurably strong. Anyway, he needs to be neutralized. Without killing though. I still need him to testify for Black innocence. Plus, Pettigrew true story will attract more death eaters, making him a target. After all, those who are still loyal to the dark lord will see the rat as a traitor. The perfect ending of the third year, if you ask me. I calmly took out my wand and pointed at Peter''s legs. "Diffindo!" I said and moved my wand a little to cut his tendons. Then before anyone processed what happened I said: "Stupefy!" ''Stunning spell'' will knock him out good. "Magnus?" - the trio. "Magnus!" - Lupin. "Who''s that?" - Black. Therefore, you can say, that Lupin was highly surprised by my prowess. "Stunning spell" can be explained, but such a precise and powerful "Severing charm" is the best way to showcase my might. In the meantime, Black was surprised by me. He saw me near Harry in the past, but he didn''t expect that. To skip all the questions that will rain on me soon, I looked at Lupin and Black, then said: "I cut his tendons, so he won''t run and stunned him to make sure that he won''t do any tricks. Now let''s get out of here. And Mr.Lupin," I pretended to take out something from a robe while getting a potion "Sleeping Draught" from my inventory, then showed it to him, "I think you might want to drink this." Then I''ve thrown it to him. "Hm? What''s that?" "Today''s full moon. That will knock you off or better to be said it will weaken you enough for Black to hold you back. Even if Werewolf''s body can resist the potion, it can''t completely ignore the effects of it. And drink now please. Nobody here has a wish to become a monster, I believe. Harry, Hermione, Ron, let''s get out of here. We need to inform professor Dumbledor about what happened here. I will take care of the rat-man." Everyone looked at me speechlessly. "Why are we freezing? Let''s move out. Chop-chop-chop!" I pointed my wand at Pettigrew "Wingardium Leviosa!" "Don''t worry, I will take care of you." "Don''t get bitten!" "Shouldn''t we help?" Harry asked me. "You should be capable to help in such situations. One bite and you will become forever a burden to your friends and family. If you have power, to help Mr.Lupin, I won''t stop you Harry, but problem is... you don''t. You are too young for that." "But..." "Listen, I am really tired. It was a long day and we need to talk to Dumbledore ASAP because dementors are still roaming school in search of Sirius Black. And in our powers is to help Mr.Black prove his innocence. Plus I already helped him, by giving tranquilizer to Mr.Lupin. He will manage. Don''t worry." "Okay," he said hesitantly ¡º Speech 33 ? 34 ¡» ''I love this skill!'' Lupin, a.k.a. big-bad-wolf was dozing off in his wolf form in the medical bed. After informing Dumbledore, he reached Black location very fast and helped with the wolf''s neutralization. Indeed, it''s true that power is the best answer to any problem. I mean trio and Black were b?r?ly managing with the Lupin in original, but here dude just came in and knocked him out. And that''s taking into consideration that werewolf has a natural resistance to magic and charms. Plus they have a better digestive system and faster metabolism, thus potion effects last less and are weaker when they transform. Anyway, the problem with the wolf was solved. Professor informed Ministry of the situation and they quickly responded, by coming here with a few aurors. Obviously, nobody was happy to hear, that they were wrong for more than a decade and the whole time innocent man was slaving his life in Azkaban, but truth was in front of them. Snape woke up and I went to explain the situation to him while asking forgiveness for the whole trio bunch. I also gifted him basilisks glands and blood as a gift, which he happily accepted. To me, they were useless, while for him highly valuable alchemical ingredients. Alchemy was one of his biggest passions after all. Plus, me and Harry, sold most of the basilisk body during the third year and it was a known fact. Dumbledore himself helped with that. So, I didn''t need to be afraid of giving him the ingredients. As for money, Harry gave the first half of his cut to Ron. He was against in the beginning, but we just said that he played an important role in eliminating the... was it Lockbuzz or Logdart? Anyway, you get the point. And second half to Ginny, as mental reparations. As for my cut, it went entirely into my pocket. I am not a charity. ''Duh!'' Of course, Snape didn''t forgive us entirely, but at least he wasn''t looking at me like I am his lifelong enemy and I was happy with that. I mean, he is not a person you want to mess with. I dug up some history, and apparently, Snape created more than a dozen potent curses and hexes, before he started year 6. He is a legit genius in dark magic. Moreover, for me it wasn''t hard to ask for forgiveness. Isn''t it easier to say sorry, than to hate each other for years? Even knowing, I am right, I would still say "Sorry", if it helps me remove grudge between me and somebody else. After leaving him alone, I went to visit Sirius and Remus. Both needed some health check-ups. I mean Sirius looked a 60-year old dying grandpa while being a little over 30 or something. That''s not okay. And Remus... his case is obvious, so skip him. By the time I finished with all that it was close to 4am, but I had no lessons so I didn''t worry. Trio went to sleep long ago, right after Dumbledore went to help subdue Lupin. ''C''mon! You trust in the prowess of this old man that much?'' They didn''t even worry if he might fail and be bitten. They were like, "If it''s professor Dumbledore, then all gonna be good!". ''No comments.'' Anyway, I was exiting Hospital Wing and that''s when I met Dumbledore. "Quite a smart young lad, aren''t you Mr.Magnus? Why not sleeping yet?" "Hm? Well, I wanted to make sure today''s situation will be resolved. Plus I have no lessons tomor... I mean today." I said smiling. I was surprised to see him here and I felt that meeting him here wasn''t accidental. "I have a little question for you. Would you mind answering it?" Therefore, I stopped considering him a threat to me or my persona. "Of course, although how much I answer will highly depend on the question asked." He nodded and asked: "How did you appear in Shrieking Shack before everyone else?" "What do you mean?" "You obviously were not present with the Mr.Potter and his team in the hut, before execution. Plus, after asking what happened from Mr.Black, he told me that you appeared as if from the thin air. Obviously, you were there before everyone else, but the question is how did you know they will be there?" Dumbledore wasn''t even considering me apparating in, so he thinks I was there long before everyone else. Moreover, even if I apparated, sound following the process would notify everyone of my presence. This old man is indeed very smart. "Time travel would be my answer." "Hm? Is that so?" "Kidding," I smiled mischeviously, "I didn''t know. I actually followed Mr.Snape." "But I think, Mr.Snape used Mr.Potter''s cloak. What about you? Nobody even noticed your presence. Plus, how did you follow an invisible person." Then I pretended to be hesitant "I am... quite good at hiding and walking stealthely. It''s a trait I acquired... during childhood." I smiled ruefully and looked at him in the eye. "As for invisibility, it''s not a problem, because I saw him put the cloak on, only after picking a direction. All I needed to do is to follow that direction. This way, I found the hidden entrance under the tree and entered the shack. Although, I must admit it took me some time. That''s why it took me so long to reach them." "Interesting story." he smiled, "Have a good night, young man!" ¡º Speech 34 ? 35 ¡» ''Indeed, this skill is the best.'' Although I am not sure if he believed me or just decided to let me be, I am not really worried. Throughout the whole Potter timeline, Dumbledore wasn''t a person to put his nose into other businesses. He mostly preferred to let things go the way, they were and only intervene when it was "do or die" situation. As long as I don''t show too much real magical power, like for example defeating basilisk with one shot, I will be okay. ''I hope. Otherwise, I can always escape. I am in the top 1000 of wizards of the western world already. So there is not much to be afraid of.'' "Thank you, but before you leave, I have a question of my own, professor." *Progress* ¡º Alchemy 36 | Sneak 27 | Speech 33 ? 35 ¡» ¡º Studying 45 | Wand Making 32 ¡» ¡º Herbology 36 | Magic Channeling 61 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 40 | Magic Gesturing 40 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 57 | Astronomy 35 ¡» ¡º Riding Expertise 15 | Crafting 30 ¡» ¡º Playing Games 15 | Enchanting 38 ¡» ¡º Cooking 22 | Training 24 | Physical Activities 17 ¡» ¡º Programming 25 | Dancing 0 ¡» ¡º Legilimency 26 | Occlumency 31 ¡» Chapter 41 - Abilities Overview ¡º Studying ability ¡» ¡¼Fast Reading 1/2 (65)¡½ ¡¼Tier 2.¡½ ¡¼You read books very fast, close to what subvocalization limit is without losing comprehension. ¡½ ¡º Magic Gestures ability ¡» ¡¼Less Gestures 1/2 (50)¡½ ¡¼Tier 1¡½ ¡¼It is easier to learn to use simple magic without using gestures. Spells you know well and studied for a long time can be used without gestures subconsciously.¡½ ¡¼Empowering¡½ ¡¼Tier 2¡½ ¡¼Great knowledge of theory allows you to make magic you wield increase or decrease in effect, masterfully controlling amount of magic you channel for it. Degree of change in the amount depends on Magic Theory level.¡½ ¡º Magic Channeling ability ¡» ¡¼Concentration¡½ ¡¼Tier 1¡½ ¡¼You can change concentration of magic you channel to make you increase absolute power or slightly change properties(e.g. Concentrate a ray in an arrow). Degree of concentration depends on Magic Channeling level.¡½ ¡º Magic Chanting ability ¡» ¡¼Less Chants 1/2 (50)¡½ ¡¼It is easier to learn to use simple magic without using chants. Spells you know well and studied for a long time can be used without chants subconsciously. If you mastered spell and can cast its chantless version, chanting such a spell will increase its power.¡½ ¡º Crafting ability ¡» ¡¼Crafts Connection¡½ ¡¼Tier 1.¡½ ¡¼Items crafted have better compatibility with other skills and abilities of the user. Effects applied to it by user are stronger. ¡½ ¡º Magic Channeling ability ¡» ¡¼Dual Channeling¡½ ¡¼Tier 2¡½ ¡¼You can have 2 active channels of magic, without either of them suffering any loss in power, concentration or amount. ¡½ ¡¼Scaling enchanting¡½ ¡¼Tier 1.¡½ ¡¼Strength of enchantment if worn by user will improve in quality. Level of improvement depends on level of enchanting skill.¡½ ¡º Training ability ¡» ¡¼Good metabolism 1/4 (40)¡½ ¡¼Tier 1.¡½ ¡¼Speed up your metabolism without damaging your body. Makes all restorative, digestive, growing and reproductive processes work better.¡½ ¡º Studying ability ¡» ¡¼Unmatched Comprehension 2/3 (60)¡½ ¡¼Your digestion of new information and its comprehension happens with insane speed and efficiency. Easier to understand topic beyond current scope of knowledge. It helps acquire vast amount of knowledge in less time.¡½ ¡º Speech ability ¡» ¡¼Remarkable argument 2/4 (40)¡½ ¡¼Tier 1.¡½ ¡¼People trust you subconsciously. Every simple sentence pronounced by you will now sound more eloquent and strong. High chance to win in verbal arguments.¡½ ¡º Enchanting ability ¡» ¡¼Concentrated enchantment¡½ ¡¼Tier 2.¡½ ¡¼In the process of enchantment, you do not radiate magic you channel. So, everything channeled will be spent on the enchanting. This will make all enchantments stronger and more long-lasting.¡½ ¡¼Unmatched memory 2/3 (65)¡½ ¡¼Tier 2.¡½ ¡¼Your short-term Eidetic memory will be elongated from 1 second to 1 month in addition to the overall improvement of your memory in both memorizing and recalling.¡½ ¡º Magic Theory ability ¡» ¡¼Absolute concentration 2/2¡½ ¡¼Tier 1¡½ ¡¼You concentration reaches absolute during any process involving magic. Your brain is enhanced beyond human limits. You are incapable of missing any details or making an inexperienced mistake. Moreover, your thinking process is sped up and the brain is not limited by energy intake anymore.¡½ ¡º Magic Channeling ability ¡» ¡¼Control¡½ ¡¼You have full control over the magic in and around your body.¡½ ¡º Magic Theory ability ¡» ¡¼Secret¡½ ¡¼Tier 3¡½ ¡¼Secret¡½ Chapter 42 - Level 25 [p3]. Decision "Question, you say?" "Actually, it''s more of a request. I want to skip the fourth year in Hogwarts." "Hm?" Dumbledore for the first time in conversation showed a true surprise. "I decided to visit my homeland. Thankfully, I have enough knowledge and talent to easily pass the fourth year, so I''d like to skip it and next year start in the fifth year, if that''s possible." "Interesting. However, I am curious if what you said is the true reason, or is it similar to the story you provided to enter the school." He said while smiling slyly. "Indeed, you are a headmaster. You can''t be fooled." I smiled and we laughed. "You have your own reasons to not tell us your story, Mister Magnus. Moreover, you are a student of Hogwarts, so I believe you had no malicious intentions in hiding your past. However, skipping a whole year is by no means a small matter. I can''t decide for everyone. May I know the true reason for such a decision?" "True reason?" The true reason is tightly connected with my skill growth. You see, I wasn''t as afraid of Dumbledore for many reasons, now. As I previously said, I started understanding him more. Another reason is that he started trusting me more. Especially, after I brought to justice close servant of the dark lord. However, the most important reason is the following information: ¡¼Recognizable skills¡½ ¡¼Magic Channeling 70+ (high chance of it being less than 80. Maximum 81-82)¡½ How did I get this information, you ask? Simple. Skill progress. As the system explained, after reaching level 60 in any skill, special perks appear. My only skill that reached level 60, was magic channeling. After that, I started seeing progress bar under skill. The system revealed that skill reaching 60 enters a threshold of a pinnacle skill. The second perk was that now I can see the level of this skill in other people. If it''s lower than mine, I can see the exact number, and if higher I can see approximate level. Of course, that came with a huge setback. Skill stopped growing by simply reading like before and just stopped at 60. After I improved my studying and got "Unmatched memory", I was able to increase magic channeling by one level, but after that, it stagnated once more. In this case, the progress bar is extremely useful, because I can see if anything I do helps with improvement. Therefore, I decided that I need more skills and soon. Most of my skills are reaching dangerous 60. But my studying that helps with the improvement of other skills is only 45. That''s not good. Therefore, traveling around the world and learning skills I never knew, studying more languages, seeing new magical creatures and visiting places I never could in my previous life will help in my overall improvement. Hopefully, in the process, I will increase my studying ability, which will help with the growth of other skills. In addition to this, the school had no obvious benefits left for me to use. Somebody might say that the biggest library in Britain is a good reason, but more than 30% of these books are pure history and other useless information, while another 30% is worthless to me due to high skill levels. So, you can certainly understand that I''ve overgrown this library. Only 40% is still somewhat useful, but half of that is books from the restricted section and that leaves me with pitiful 20% of possibly useful books. I mean with greater success, I can just go and buy books in Diagon Alley. Thanks to the basilisk, money''s not a problem. Also, thanks to the "Control" ability, I don''t need to worry about magic I do outside. I can feel the magic inside me and around me, which allows me to find and remove the Trace. After all, the idea behind the Trace is that when a wizard becomes of age, it removes itself, so emulating such a process is as easy as breathing to me now. Anyway, I digress. In short, the real reason is that I want to travel the world while getting new skills. Even I, grinding freak, become more and more bored of grinding skills I have now. Time to change the pace and have some fun. "Yes, what''s your true reason? You don''t expect me to believe, that visiting homeland is your true reason?" "Well... I just want to change the pace. Magic is my passion, but it becomes tiring, so I just want to travel the world. Plus, recently I got quite a good horse." I smiled and laughed a little. Dumbledore, obviously understood what I meant and he was okay with the fact that I saved Bucky. So, he smiled and said: "Is that so? You really don''t want to tell me the true reason, aren''t you?" "Not really. But I said you the thing closest to the truth." "I still can''t just let you start the fifth year, without passing any exams. Especially without a good reason. After all, I am not the one who needs that reason." ''That made sense. Even if he is a director or whatnot, he can''t randomly allow people to skip years. Hm...'' "Well then, that''s a shame." "You can still continue from the fourth year, I guess. So are you sure, that you..." I stopped listening at that point and just returned to my previous auto-save and escaped meeting with Dumbledore altogether. After the second take on the conversation with Snape, I apparated to the clearing where I left Bucky. If I can''t continue with Hogwarts, then I suppose it''s no big deal. I was there only to keep close to Harry''s plot armor and get stronger. Therefore, I have no good reasons to stay with the trio any longer. Thanks to my intervention, Harry should be safe and Voldy should be dead for another year at the very least. The only thing I needed to change was to steal the ring from Dumbledore during the fifth year, so he won''t be cursed. But that''s not an option and I don''t know where to get the original ring, because I don''t remember if that even was in a film. ''...'' I paused in my thoughts for some time. ''Actually, why do I even care about all that?'' *Sigh* ''Should I ditch the Hogwarts entirely and go do my things. Helping Harry was never my intention anyway. Why did I even start changing stuff?'' I am confused. This talk with Dumbledore made me think over my reasoning. Maybe, I got too attached to the trio. I changed the story, even though I didn''t need to do that for my personal happiness. The Potterian universe was never my favorite read, so changing it shouldn''t be a goal. I got entangled in this mess so deep, that I lost my original cause. I don''t need the trio anymore, so I should just leave I suppose. I sat close to a sleeping Buckbeak and started ??r?ssing his feathers. Then, I suppose it''s decided. No! Not suppose. I decided! I am leaving Hogwarts and going rogue. To hell with sentimentality. But I am going to start my travel tomorrow. For now, I am too tired. I am going to sleep. I took a light blanket with a pillow from my inventory and lied down. *Next day* I wrote letters to the trio in which I asked them to inform Headmaster, not to worry about me and that I am leaving Hogwarts for some time. Then I apparated to Hogwarts tower and left all the letters on Harry''s bed. Hopefully, he will make sure to give letters out. Then I returned to the clearing. I removed the Trace from myself and together with Bucky apparated to London. Honestly, that was a difficult ride. I mean, one thing is to apparate short distances, but this time I apparated to London from somewhere in Ireland or whatnot. I was both mentally fatigued and physically exhausted. Most of that could have been avoided if I remembered the place more clearly and was better prepared, but whatever. It worked and that what matters. Also, hippogriffs apparently don''t like an apparition. Bucky was a little bit offended by the fact that I didn''t inform him how bad it''s gonna be and started pouting! ''The heck? Can eagles even pout?'' "Well, get accustomed. Sometimes we will travel like this. Here is an apple pie for you." I expected that apple pie will help him forget the trauma of the travel. I mean this stuff works even on mighty dragons. Of course, it will work on a measly horse. Unfortunately for me, hippogriffs eat insects, birds, and small mammals. Bucky was looking at me as if I was a dumb one in our pair. ''The heck? They are not half-eagles! These are freaking half-owls! Thank god, I have some snacks I bought for owls. Why? To give to messenger owls, of course. Duh! Quite handy when owls are the cheapest way to commute. '' Anyway, he was happy with the fat rat I''ve thrown to him, so I once more tied him to a tree on the outskirts of the city and put some masking spells to hide him. Then I started moving towards the city center, where I can buy provisions, clothes, and other necessities I will need during my travels. Overall, it took me 5 or 6 hours to get all done. Thanks to inventory, I didn''t need to worry about where to keep the stuff. That''s especially great because spatial artifacts are quite expensive and I don''t have high enough Enhancement to create such a thing. Thanks to speech and the fact that trading is still possible, I was able to raise my speech by one after all the bargaining about the price. I kinda forgot that speech helps with prices. ''I can sell or buy stuff to raise speech fast. Hm... That can be an interesting type of grind of both skill and money.'' I returned to Bucky, who was calmly lying on the grass as if it was making a favor to grass by lying on it. It''s such a proud creature, to the point that it looks cute to me. Especially, with those fluffy feathers on his head. I threw him another mouse and took out the food I bought at a nearby restaurant and started eating. Buckbeak was tearing apart the mouse, while I was digging into my dish. Strangely, even though I have no roof over my head and no clear goal to follow, I felt free and happy. "Skipping school is the best!" ''Oops! Okay, maybe that part I will remove from my future biography.'' *Progress in skills* ¡º Alchemy 36 | Sneak 27 | Speech 35 ? 36 ¡» ¡º Studying 45 | Wand Making 32 ¡» ¡º Herbology 36 | Magic Channeling 61 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 40 | Magic Gesturing 40 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 57 | Astronomy 35 ¡» ¡º Riding Expertise 15 | Crafting 30 ¡» ¡º Playing Games 15 | Enchanting 38 ¡» ¡º Cooking 22 | Training 24 | Physical Activities 17 ¡» ¡º Programming 25 | Dancing 0 ¡» ¡º Legilimency 26 | Occlumency 31 ¡» *The end of Volume 2 is here! Come to discord if you have ideas about where to send MC to travel and other suggestions. Link to discord in the author''s thoughts.* Chapter 41 - Level 25 [p4]. Traveling and Hunting Pack of wolfs were cornering their prey. It was a small human, with enough fat to not be considered fit. With no weapons whatsoever, he was shaking in fear, eyes darting from one wolf to another, praying inside to all gods. His glasses were lying somewhere before him, but eyesight was his last worry in the current situation. *Screech* Both the pack and the human were startled by a sound similar to the eagle''s cry. Everyone, turned their heads in direction sound came from. However, they didn''t see a thing. After staring for a few seconds alpha decided that there was nothing dangerous and made a sound to his pack to continue the hunt. The whole pack turned back to watch their prey and continued cornering him. One of the members of the pack jumped at the human, but midflight it felt air moving in his direction from the right. Such senses were beyond human. Nevertheless, it didn''t help in any way, because the enemy was just too fast. Giant grey eagle, big enough to press grown wolf to the ground just by stepping on its body crushed into it and using its claws it mangled the body to the point of no return. A combination of sharp claws and flight momentum was enough to crush even bear, what to say of the wolf. Eagle raised its head while standing on the dying body of its enemy and cried into heaven. *Screech* Wolfs were both scared and surprised by such a sudden attack. After all, describing it takes a lot of time, but in reality, the time it took for a wolf to jump and get stomped was less than 2 seconds. Dying wolf tried whimpering but as soon as the sound came out of it, the eagle lowered his head to look at it and shut his right claw which was still holding its neck. *Crunch* The sound of a neck being crushed was quite loud in the quiet atmosphere of the forest. Especially, because it wasn''t a short sound of a neck, breaking, it was a sound of something being continuously crushed into small bits. When shadow covered the most pack members, they started retreating but it was too late. Eagle''s eyes opened wide and he flapped his wings, however, the shadow from uncurled wings remained on the ground as if drawn on the ground. But nobody noticed that, because as soon as the wind coming from that flap reached the pack, giant thorny pikes started thrusting from that shadow straight up the sky, piercing anything they met along the way, including members of the pack. Nothing was spared. Trees were destroyed, animals were pierced and very air was fluctuating due to the sheer speed and force of these pikes. Suddenly, the surroundings became a beautiful yet scary painting with blood particles slowly moving in the air, organs spilled on the ground and pikes colored red and black. Air was full of intestines smell intermixed with the freshness of the upcoming sunrise. Eagle curled his wings back and turned its head to the human, who was close to insanity if not fallen into it already. The bird has unclenched his claws and started moving towards the human. During his movement shadows around him became alive and started encasing its body, after which that giant ball of shadows slowly turned to male humanoid. He was quite tall, which was only accentuated by how thin he was. Overall, this monster gave a terrifying vibe. Why monster? Well, how otherwise would you call a creature who had no face? It had neither eyes nor mouth nor even nose. It was calmly walking towards the youth lying on the ground. On his way he heard crunch under his feet, so he looked down and slowly picked up the glasses he just stepped on. Then he moved closer to the man and slowly squatted down before him, before giving glasses to the teen. However, the boy was so scared that he didn''t understand what to do with these glasses. The creature just put glasses on the legs of the sitting boy. Suddenly surroundings changed, but boy didn''t notice anything. The youth mind was overwhelmed by ups and downs during the last 2 minutes, so he lost consciousness. After that, the monster tilted his head and disappeared with a loud *pop* sound. ... *A few seconds later, around 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) away from the bloody scene* I was sitting and enjoying the moment I had a few seconds ago. As usual, I was training my Animagi form, when I noticed that some teenager was running from wolves. Thus, I decided to intervene and have some fun. And indeed I had fun to the fullest. Shame, that wolf pack were such weaklings. It was a week or so since I went rogue. First few days, I was on my way to France, while going through the wildest zones. I had enough of provisions and wasn''t in any need of a bath or shower, because I have a cleaning charm, so I mostly stayed in the forests or other wild zones. For some reason, I felt better in free and wild surroundings. In two days I made it to Hastings. I and Bucky rested there for 5 or so hours, before starting our crossing to France. The closest location, based on the map, I bought in London, was Boulogne-sur-Mer adjacent to another foresty area. Distance to fly was under 80km(~50 miles), so I knew we can make it in a few hours of uninterrupted flight. Distance from London to Hastings was only 100 km or so, yet it took us 2 days and that only because I was making often stops to collect herbs, look for magical creatures and stuff like this. It took us around 4 hours with our normal traveling speed. I told Bucky to converse strength "just in case". No need to fly with the fastest speed and waste stamina, because you never know what can attack you from water. I mean magical creatures are real, and I don''t want to be ambushed by some overpowered Kraken or whatnot. Anyway, currently, we are halfway to Italy, somewhere in the middle of France. That''s was one of the reasons, I was excited when I met a pack of wolves in there. After all, wolves were extremely rare in this part of Europe. But then again, that''s another Universe. Anything is possible. As for the boy in the wilderness. Well, I don''t care at all about him, but I do believe in doing good deeds, if convenient. So, I apparated with him to the closest city. Thankfully, the boy lost consciousness halfway so I left him there and apparated back to the place I was staying at. I put off my newest creation, "Faceless Mask", that can both block any magic directed at mind or face. Although it didn''t have any holes for breathing or sight, it was enchanted with sight and air circulation. Moreover, the mask was thin and fitted face perfectly, so it looked like a face itself. This can work miracles on human psychology by triggering it into doubting if I was a human being, so this headset served like a perfect terror instrument. How was I able to cast 3 enhancements on 1 item? Well, first of all, "Magic Theory" of 58 was no joke and mask itself was more of a helmet, because it covered both head and neck. Moreover, materials for this mask were high-quality cloth made from some kind of magical creature. Overall, that was my best artifact so far. While traveling I was researching new spells and magic computing, both of which helped with my "Magic Theory" and during resting periods I was crafting and enchanting stuff. Although that sounds as grinding, it''s actually more fun, because in Hogwarts I was constantly reading and studying, but now I am doing what I want and research what I am interested in. The fact that it helps with skills is a nice bonus. Overall, I was having fun. Plus whenever I didn''t have a mood for tinkering, I was turning to my Animagi form and fly around. I was quite proficient with it, after all, I was using it for nearly a year already. However training this form in Hogwarts extensively was impossible, so now I am can try anything I want. That was why I was so happy whenever I met strong animals such as packs of wolfs. Testing my capabilities on them was both exhilarating and useful. Plus, I already more or less mastered changing my size. What I attacked the pack with was my maximum size so far. But I think, the maximum can be extended with an increase in magic channeling or talent or both. Thankfully, I was quite light in my Animagi form, because it was mostly pure magic and shadows in the form. However, that made me quite weak. So in pure strength, for example, I will lose to a bear, but thanks to momentum and velocity from the flight I can crush any bear. Especially with incredibly sturdy beak and claws. Plus, I can use shadows to brace myself before striking the enemy, which will make sure I won''t be damaged from counterforce. In addition to this, my latest move in an Animagi form, I called "Shadow Impale" can be used to one-shot most normal enemies without problems. As for plans, I had none. I was just traveling towards Greece, mostly to get Manticore skin. That was an incredible beast, who had absolute resistance to all known charm and curses. The only way to fight it is to use physical magic or some type of defensive magic like Patronus. Other than skin, it has other useful alchemical ingredients I can sell or use. The idea of visiting other schools came to my mind, but the exact location is always hidden by a ton of charms and masking enchantments. So, unless you visited them prior, entering them is a pipe dream. Plus, not all schools are useful to visit, because most of the schools in Europe follow the same system of magic mostly. In any case, for now, the focus is on Greece. Later I can visit other locations. Thanks to my memory I clearly remember locations we visit, but I also bought an enchanted camera to take pictures and have them as refreshments for the future apparition. So, now I have quite a few pictures or how I call them, "Fast Travel Markers". I finally exited my thoughts and looked at sleeping Bucky. I took out a pillow and lied near him. ''To a dreamland, I go...'' ... *Progress* ¡º Alchemy 36 ? 37 | Sneak 27 ¡» ¡º Speech 36 | Studying 45 | Wand Making 32 ¡» ¡º Herbology 36 ? 37 | Magic Channeling 61 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 40 | Magic Gesturing 40 ¡» ¡º Riding Expertise 15 | Crafting 30 ? 31 ¡» ¡º Playing Games 15 | Enchanting 38 ¡» ¡º Cooking 22 ? 23 | Training 24 ¡» ¡º Physical Activities 17 | Programming 25 ¡» ¡º Dancing 0 | Legilimency 26 ¡» ¡º Occlumency 31 ¡» Chapter 42 - Announcement! So I created ******* and no you don''t have to support me, but it will be certainly appreciated. Also, there will be no special chapters for supporters, however there is a goal system, where whenever a goal achieved some benefits come into play, like new chapter for next week. Link to it: https://www.*******.com/mrmerlin_SSinHPW Word pat.reon is banned by webnovel, so in case you meet it in URL you know what to put in. Also, thanks to everyone who voted their power stones lately! And those who thanked me, You are all welcome! See you next week and have fun! If anyone with talent/skill for drawing would like to draw something story related, thus contributing to the novel, come to discord or comment under this chapter. You will help me a lot! I need an artist)) As for me, I am really tired with all the activities I had to do these weekends for the FanFic. Gonna go rest)) Chapter 43 - Level 25[p5]. Second Quest I slowly opened eyes and sat straight, while stretching up. Wildlife is nice and all, but a good bed from time to time can be indeed nice. As usual, I cast cleaning spells on myself and started getting up. At around this time, Buckbeak came back from his hunt and brought 2 fatty hares, a hare in each a claw. "Good morning, Bucky. That is quite a good catch! Fried, boiled, steamed or raw?" He looked at me and words raw he started nodding and making happy sounds. "Well, then raw it is, for you. I will go for steamed today." I started skinning both rabbits. It was quite a nuisance when I just started traveling, but when we were close to the borders of Italy, we stopped by the village, where some hunters lived. I decided to learn how to properly skin animals and how to process meat. The experience was quite useful but didn''t give me any new skills. Apparently, it is part of the cooking skills. As the system explained to me, preparing ingredients is part of a skill, which you are going to use these ingredients for. I stayed there for 3 days to learn the trade. Thanks to my studying skill, which was over 40, I can learn anything with insane speed. Only skills that overstepped boundaries of 50 are problematic to me, but that will go away with time. Hopefully... Currently, we are halfway through Italy and it''s the end of the third week of our travel. I took my time with traveling and tried to learn something new while having fun during this travel. Otherwise, I could have made it in Greece by the end of the first week, if we only traveled and slept. Italy was quite a nice country, especially in Summer. Thanks to the fact I was a master wizard, good craftsmen, and great enchanter, the temperature is not a problem for me. Therefore, as long as air quality is okay and the sun doesn''t burn like hell, I am happy. Thankfully, climate change effects are small enough to be ignored by the majority of people, and countries have a more or less stable climate. Mostly my time was spent in research, practice, new spell creation and foraging. It didn''t matter to me if it was a forest or a mountain, I foraged them all. All ripe to pick, alchemical ingredients were taken away by me. As for magical creatures, they are quite rare on its own. In places, inhabited solely by wizards, it''s easier to meet them. But in the wilderness not so much. You need to know special places. And I knew a few of them, but all really good places are a trade secret of master-level potion makers and alchemists. No one in the right mind will divulge good places to others, because these places will be scavenged in no time and nothing will be left. So they keep secrets, not only out of greed but also to safe-keep these sacred or not so places. ''Mostly greed, though...'' As a result, I found only 3 magical creatures, all of which I killed, drained of blood, skinned, dismembered organ by organ and cleaned. After all, these are potential money/ingredients. Can''t let them go to waste. One of the reasons, I went to learn from a hunter like a proper student. ''Threats, duh!'' When you are a wizard capable of blowing up stuff with a move of a hand, then point of asking politely and going in circles to get what you need disappears. Moreover, my mask plus terrifying voice, thanks to a charm, and even the manliest man will quietly do your bidding without asking anything. Of course, asking nicely was an option and I tried, but the hunter started his ''grumpy'' mode, so I blew up a tree behind his house with a good old "Exploding charm", a.k.a. "Bombarda". That being said, by now I already reached level 25 and was quickly progressing towards 26. Thanks to all the leveling I did in my three years, I got a hunch on how far am I in progress. While about that, I heard a roar. Few second after the roar I got a notification. [New quest is created.] [Kill or subdue a creature that roared.] [Reward depends on the result.] ''Huh? Now that''s interesting.'' Obviously, I saved my progress, before putting on my gear and artifacts I made. Such as leather armor made of Graphorn skin. It''s a pretty big creature that looks like a rhino but with 2 horns, four-thumbed feet and tentacles for a mouth. I bought some of their skin from a store at Diagon Alley. I spent an unimaginable amount of money on that skin, especially because these creatures are incredibly rare and scarce. But it is worth the money, because their skin is tougher than a dragon''s, so their skin is perfect for an armor. Of course, thickness and toughness of the skin are a great ?sset in a normal science world, because even a sniper bullet won''t pierce the skin and maybe half of the impact will be consumed by the skin. Unfortunately, their skin has a very little amount of resistance to charms. "Avada Kedavra" from some random bad guy will still one-shot me. As for crafting the armor itself, although my crafting skill wasn''t my greatest ?sset, I still practiced and learned how to craft for nearly 3 years. That''s not something to scoff at. Plus making leather armor with transfiguration and my high-level magical skills is a piece of cake. As long as, I don''t need to make it beautiful or whatnot. Technical changes here and there. Perfect cut here. Perfect sewing there and done. After enchanting it on lightness, flexibility, and comfort, armor is done. After the mask, the armor is my second best artifact. Mask enchantments, were simply on another level compared to armor after all. After putting my fighting set on, I transformed into my Animagi form and went towards the direction, I heard the roar from. While on my way there, I decreased my size until I was the size of a normal bald eagle. Although these birds are still quite large, they are not abnormal-level size. I don''t want the creature to know that some strong opponent is around. Small bird won''t alert him. ''Probably...'' After a minute or two of flying, I arrived above the place where the sound came from. ''Huh? Dragons? That can be messy. Or¡­'' Apparently, two dragons, were mating because they were huffing and puffing around each other, doing some 18+ content. Jackpot. I got 2 treasure troves, whose guardians were busy with each other. ''Hehe... That''s perfect!'' I took a good position on a tree nearby to spectate process, for purely scientific reasons. At the same time, I was considering how can I kill them. Charms are mostly useless, but I am not a charm specialist anyway. Physical spells are also less effective due to the properties of a dragon''s skin. I have some kinetic spells (or projectiles to be precise) that can one-shot even dragon. But then not much will be left from the corpse to recognize it as a dragon. And I need their corpses intact to later sell them or use for alchemy. So, the problem is that on such a distance I must find a golden mean to cleanly neutralize a dragon. If I overcharge the spell, the projectile will evaporate faster than it will reach the dragon. If undercharge, a projectile will simply scratch their skin and these 2 will notice me, which is "no bueno" as BunnyFuFu likes to say. Also, 2 dragons mean 2 targets to shoot. My "Kinetic Strike" spell is on a very good level. But I won''t say it''s perfect. I still need to create projectiles manually, have a pipe through which projectile will travel and a ton of focus during the creation of magnetic fields. Greatest improvement from the past is the fact that I don''t need actual coils anymore, which removes limits from how powerful my strike can get. I honestly didn''t test maximum capacity yet. ''I didn''t test a new version of "Kinetic Strike" at all actually...'' Without a pipe, accuracy drops sharply. I can''t just control a projectile accelerating with a Mach one or two while controlling 4 or 5 magnetic fields with insane power output. I also need to shield these fields, because I put a lot of power into them and they create very strong electromagnetic fields that can fry me up. I tried to go with a weaker version, but for some reason fields are somewhat... "unfocused"? I don''t know the correct terminology. Maybe I should learn some physics and look for a solution there. I am not a physicist after all. Anyway, I digress. I need to think about my plan. After immersing in thinking for a good 15 minutes, I didn''t come up with anything plausibly good. I know that I am overthinking and with saves, I can just try my "Kinetic Strike" until it works, but I feel that it''s wrong. Even the system advises me against using it too much, once in a while. I was out of good ideas... *Sigh* ''It seems I have no other choice, other than use that... "spell". Should I be excited or afraid?'' ¡º Alchemy 37 ? 38 | Sneak 27 ¡» ¡º Speech 36 | Studying 45 ? 46 ¡» ¡º Wand Making 32 | Herbology 37 ? 38 ¡» ¡º Magic Gesturing 40 | Magic Theory 58 ¡» ¡º Astronomy 35 | Riding Expertise 15 ? 18 ¡» ¡º Crafting 31 | Playing Games 15 ¡» ¡º Enchanting 38 | Cooking 23 ? 25 ¡» ¡º Training 24 ? 25 | Physical Activities 17 ? 18 ¡» ¡º Programming 25 | Dancing 0 ¡» ¡º Legilimency 26 | Occlumency 31 ? 32 ¡» Chapter 44 - Just chitchat and mostly ranting) Guys I got another follower, so at least somebody noticed. Now to the reason I am even talking. I got 2 reviews recently. In last 4 weeks, I got less than 5 reviews I think. And the last one just says "Thanks for this: " and gives me one star... Like What THE FUCK? I mean at least give reasons for giving such ratings.... Also for support on *******, is something I was thinking a long time about. I have work that takes a lot of time and I have free time on weekends. However, I spend a lot of time per chapter, so it means at least 6 hours is out of my day, if I am writing a chapter. Becoming a *******, entering discord, active commenting is a representation of that support. Guys, 4K people are in collections(have a book in reading list), yet every chap has so little comments. I like to think that I am not an emotional person, but that''s one of those lies humans tend to tell themselves. When I see no support, my motivation to continue story slowly dies. I want to write a story, that will come alive in the process of me making it. I want later to have that as one of those things I wrote. This story never meant to be a long one. So max 100 chapters, and I never thought over what''s gonna be in the end, or what next chapter brings. I have a ton of ideas and even more drafts of how story will look like, but to me story is a living organism. I ask myself, what is realistic to happen next? Not logical, but realistic. Humans are not exactly logical creatures))) Sometimes, MC makes mistakes and that''s part of my plan and sometimes not. I make mistakes, have fun reading your comments and having arguments over ideas. But community is slowly dying and I see no active support. There are few of those who are with me since the very beginning and I appreciate them and their "Thank you" under every chapter, but where are everyone else? There are ~4k people, yet comments under chapter are less than 40? 1% of 4000 is 40... And I know that now I am ranting, but I can''t help it. You don''t want support with money. I am okay with it. I started this funfic knowing that I will probably get nothing other than my own story out of it. But support is not only money, please remember that. Your comments, corrections and just rant on different topics helps. Maybe I don''t always reply, but I always read! (Authors have a special section where they see comments on their work) Anyway, I am out for now. As long as there is at least one reader I will continue this story and won''t drop. Because, I started the story, so I will be responsible for finishing it. No questions here. However, don''t think you don''t affect quality and direction of the story. Have a nice weekend and I am out)) Peace! Chapter 45 - Level 26 [p1]. Forbidden magic What do I mean by "that spell"? Well, it''s a magic that is so powerful, I am scared of even trying it. These I call "Forbidden magic" or FM for short. You see, I have a few ideas about spells, that is so mighty, yet so dangerous, that I can''t even try them out. I tried testing them in my "Spells" menu but even that menu has limits of testing. It''s just a simulation after all. Plus like the system explained, simulation limits are based on my level and body conditions. Now, let me explain how I even come up with FMs and what I base them on. You see, nature or to be more precise physics has a ton of horrifying effects, which are fortunately bound by other effects. One example of such effects or powers is fundamental forces of the universes. However, magic is something that can break the balance and let these horrifying effects out. For example, strong force keeps atoms together, and that''s why when it splits, nuclear energy is emitted as a result and radiation as a sub-result. Now another point I want you to consider is that magic has no real boundaries of what possible or not. I mean look at the apparition. It''s legit teleportation. It can be using a quantum tunneling effect or even creating a stabilized mini-wormhole to travel to any set direction. If that''s not enough to show you the power of magic, then look at the "Reducto" spell. It is capable of reducing anything into a fine dust. You might think: "Well, so what? Burning can reduce humans to ash too. Duh!" But that''s where you miss a point. We need a thousand degrees Celcius to burn a human body to ash. And that burning needs to be done for a prolonged amount of time. Yet you just will and poof - dust. ''I never tried it on humans, but I am really interested in knowing what''s the composition of the dust. That can help understanding how the spell reduces something to pieces.'' But anyway, the point is that magic is near if not absolutely omnipotent. Limits are knowledge, practice, and imagination. So, one day I came up with an idea of using magic and physics together to create unimaginably strong spells. For example, what if I can simply rob all that energy that keeps atoms together and then unleash it somewhere else. You must understand that strong force not only keeps atoms together but also things that atom consists of together. So, technically, atoms will just unbind to the level of elemental particles. Another example is I can try swapping matter to antimatter which will instantly explode due to interaction with matter that wasn''t swapped. As you can see, all of these ideas are close to insanity and immensely hard to achieve. Magic can bridge the gaps and make impossible - possible, but it needs some resources to be used in the process, such as energy and materials. Moreover, creating spells is not some easy-peasy stuff. It is very hard and what I describe kinda transcends limits of spells and goes into magic casting where you will something directly to happen. However, I am a genius of magic plus I have a system, with its cheat-like abilities. Remember that ability I didn''t mention when I was sitting near Hagrid''s hut, waiting for Buckbeak to be "Head bye-bye". Well, here it is, Tier 3 ability from "Magic Theory": ¡¼Magic rule¡½ ¡¼You are capable of ruling magic into doing your bidding, as long as you have enough energy and skills to do so.¡½ Although it sounds great, it''s super slow. Casting a spell is a hundred times faster than imagining something to happen and then making it happen. But it has its uses. However, back to the topic. As you might guess, messing with matter/antimatter and elemental particles is not something a sane person would call safe, so I can''t test any of that insane stuff. Thus, all such ideas for magic are under the "Forbidden" tag. One of such FMs was the spell I was considering right now. It was my oldest idea and the one I was working the most on. It had the most stable results in simulation and risks are pretty low. Plus idea behind it wasn''t as insane as messing around things that Universe is built on. It''s simpler. ''Let''s create a black hole! He-he-he...'' A small one or to be precise a light one, because all black holes should be the same size if we believe in the theory that black holes are singularities with an infinite density. It''s a zone around it, called event horizon, which differs in size depending on the mass of that singularity. The question is how light should it be? Based on my calculations and study of physics, the base limit for the minimum weight to be a black hole is 22 micrograms. Of course, lower than this and physics stop working, so black holes may still exist, but they may stop being black holes at that point. They won''t be emitting any energy and become an everlasting extremely heavy particle. That''s one of the contenders to be the dark matter. But then again humanity both in my world and in this one knows jack-shit about black holes, singularities, and overall physics. I mean our main theory was being disproven nearly every year in small details. But I digress. There are a ton of problems I met with these black holes, during the last half a year I am researching the topic. First of all, I tried to create it as massive as possible because, at the size of 22 micrograms, an event horizon that is doing all the job of being scary all-sucking darkness will probably be non-existent. A black hole with the mass of earth will have an event horizon with a pitiful radius of 8.87mm. ''That''s millimeters! Not centimeters or inches. Freaking millimeters, damn it!'' Even with magic, creating so much mass is a pipe dream. Magic allows bypass rules, not create planets out of nothing. The second problem, is what do with it afterward? Extinguishing it isn''t as easy as creating it. Funnily enough, magic is really bad at reversing its own effects. Then I thought about creating a small 23 microgram singularity. Although its event horizon will be nothing to be proud of, the temperature it should emit will be around a few millions or billions of Kelvins. "Should", because it''s not fully proven that black holes radiate energy, but they most probably should. Another good thing is that there are not many creatures who sense magic, so doing such a spell and creating a black hole is near unnoticeable. I will have an untraceable bullet, size of the quark or maybe a little bit bigger. I can definitely cause havoc in any atoms black hole goes through. Maybe I will even cause nuclear mini-reaction in any atom that black hole will go through in the process. But that''s a problem in and of itself. If I empower and concentrate the cleaning spell I use to wash and clean clothes, it can clean from radiation, but only includes non-alive entities. It can''t clean organs and the inner structure of living beings for some reason, so, I also worked on how to be shielded from radiation. Now you see that using any FM is something that I have to really consider twice or thrice. Nevertheless, I can''t just let the quest go, right? ''System, if I get radiation doze, will you notice it?'' [Indeed.] ''Okay, that''s nice. Then time to test some spells. I hope my anti-radiation spell works.'' While making sure, that dragons are still busy. ''Wow, that stamina though...'' I moved to the ground and transformed back to human form. "Empowered Concentrated Nuclear Umbrella" ''...'' ''Okay, maybe my naming sense sucks, but at least I am on point, here.'' After saying the name of the spell I recently created a transparent membrane that appeared and covered me in ellipse form. Then, I started working with my imagination to create a black hole. Because it is not a spell, it can''t be cast fast, so it takes time to really imagine and then realize what you are imagining via magic. I also made sure to create a connection with a black hole while creating it to locate it in space. Thankfully, I trained for this moment in simulation for months, but in real life, this process is super tiring. I spent around 10 minutes to create my deadly baby, so I felt spent and very sleepy. ''They are still so active? How envious... What I am thinking!? Concentrate!'' All that''s left, is to give it a little spin and move it towards the dragons outside the sphere. I was really nervous because this whole black hole business is pure theory and talk. I mean science knows so little about black holes and even less about holes of such size. So, everything I said previously is purely ?ssumptions. Fingers crossed I accelerated black hole and made it move inside the female dragon brain. Females are mostly bigger and scarier when it comes to dragons. As for how it went inside the brain, due to the size of the thing, singularity can literally pass through most of the materials in the world. Then when in the brain, time for the second part of the magic show. I imagined it start spinning with insane speed and start moving all around the brain of the dragon with near light speed. That drained the last of my energy and I dropped to the ground right on the bum, just to witness dragon skull lighting from inside. Blue and Green lights were seeping through the skin of the skull. ''Beautifull...'' ''Huh? No explosion? Oh, c''mon... So, anticlimactic...'' His partner was surprised and checked its mate, only to see that she is dead. He roared to the sky, while I transformed to my Animagi form and moved the heck out of that location and decided to rest. Let''s do this one dragon at a time. *2 days ago* I was sitting on top of the corpse of a dragon. Because I already have a black hole, killing the second one was so much easier and faster. Blackhole got a lot heavier after consuming 2 brains, which gave me a great idea. I can go around the different worlds and consume planets to grow my Blacky. And by the way, I decided to call it Blacky. ''Fitting right?'' After all, we are connected now. I also, enforced the link between us using my cheat-like ability of imagine-achieve. I still have no clear idea what happened inside the brains of these lizards, but what I found so far are cleared out skulls. So either, the black hole consumed everything in their skulls or caused mini nuclear explosions that evaporated some of the tissues, while it consumed the rest. Honestly, no idea. But, in any case, I am happy with the result. Oh and by the way, I got the rewards. [Quest is complete] [2 dragons were defeated 9ingeniously and fabulously!] [Rewards will be given out based on accomplishments.] [Rewards are being affected by the system upgrade. Rewards are being converted.] [Rewards are calculated. Due to fighting against dragons and succeeding in killing them, your soul will get saturated by dragon energy.] [Animagi form has been discovered.] [Would you like to apply your rewards to Animagi form, now?] I was in the clearing, at the foot of some mountain and there were 2 intimidating dragon corpses around me. Nothing dangerous coming anytime soon. ''Yes, I would.'' This time I didn''t lose consciousness but it felt really painful. [Fire breath is being forced. Success. Application is in order.] [Dragonskin is being forced. Failure. Shadow creature skin is "Shadow" in essence. Clashes with dragonskin.] [System interferes. Dragonskin is doubled in effectivity and merge is in effect. Repeating process.] [Dragonskin is being forced. Success. Merge is in order.] [Application and merging will start now. Please take a comfortable position. It will be very painful.] ''Damn. This will be a shitty afternoon.'' Chapter 46 - Some explanation Chapter is coming after rankings will be reverted. Should be today in 7 hours or so. Anyway to the explanation part. There was a review telling that MC power growth was very ubrupt and now he kills dragon left and right. So there are needs for some explanation. FIRST HP Universe is not an ABSOLUTE power universe where you cultivate until power level 2 and now all level 1 can be slaughtered. HP universe is closer to how real world works and YES, I know how it sounds. You see, in real world, your quality or quantity matter much less than your variability. What I mean is adapt to survive. So if dragon has impenetrable skin and is resistant to charms, there are ways around, like it was portrayed in the fourth book. Great wizards can be killed in their sleep, no matter how good they are, like it was portrayed by the first wielder and creator of the elder wand. So on and so forth. So in HP power can be considered your dueling prowess or amount of spells/charms you know, because again versatility wins over everything. In HP Universe strong wizards are not unkillable or immortal. Otherwise whole point with making horcruxes is useless. So killing a dragon by causing a mini nuclear reaction in its brain is pretty valid kill solution. And that''s to any creature with a brain I would say. Is MC strong or powerful? By any means no. In his magic channeling he already reached a level of a high level genius ?du?t wizard, but that doesn''t mean he has an arsenal or experience to wield this skill. His dueling experience is non-existant. His library of mastered charms is not very big. He know a lot of powerful charms and curses, but not forbidden curses. They are forbidden for a reason after all. However, MC is very versatile and wields spells and skills, that make sure he can escape any situation, especially coupled with his inventory and save system. So, please don''t think it''s a cultivation novel or something of a similar sort. Universe is different, so thinking should be different as well. Have fun and wait for a new chap))))) Chapter 47 - Level 26[p2]. Some slaughter here, some killing there A lot of time passed and a lot of monsters fell in my hands. The system kept giving me a quest for every unique and strong creature I met during my travels, so I killed them all and got rewards. The reward was always an essence sap from these magical creatures. However, not all creatures were on the level of the dragon when it came to rewards. Creatures that give you 2 traits are quite rare apparently. Everyone, except for dragon and manticore gave me only one trait. So far, I''ve killed more than 8 types of magical creatures, 5 of which were targets of the quests. Sometimes, there was more than 1 creature in the quest so overall, I was able to hoard a ton of alchemical ingredients, that upon selling will make me one of the richest wizards alive. Speaking of hoarding, I knew that dragons in this world don''t hoard treasures, but still there was that childish hope in me, that I can find artifacts or some old forgotten relics. Reality: ''Let''s slap that boy, hard. What''d you say?'' Common sense: ''Agreed.'' So, from my inner double monologue, you can see that dragon treasures were a pipe dream. Nonetheless, ingredients are still a valid source of money. Okay, back to quests. After dragons, it was surprisingly a graphorn! The one I''ve made my armor from. I knew they inhabited the mountains of Europe, but meeting one is close to impossible. In the 1920ies, their population was close to extinction. Only thanks to Newt Scamander and other kind wizards, were the creatures saved. Nonetheless, they are very rare creatures to meet in the wild. Killing it was an easy process, especially with "Kinetic strike". There were these stray thoughts about "saving the species" and "unreasonable slaughter", but I am a heartless being and hate hard decisions. I need something dead, it dies. Long ago, I decided to walk the path of loneliness, so I kinda stopped caring about creatures around me. Especially, if they are not human. Although, heartless doesn''t mean cruel or insensitive. I still know about morality and kindness, but I won''t bother myself with useless questions like "Is it wrong?". Anyway, I start brooding over topics that have nothing to do with my story here. Back to our dead graphorn. Compared to a dragon, he cannot fly, moves slowly, has bad senses and doesn''t breathe fire. Basically, his skin is his only notable feature. I acquired a "Thick Skin" and "Tentacle Mandibles" traits from these creatures. Having dragon scales due to acquiring a "Dragonskin" trait should make the acquirement of "Thick Skin" theoretically impossible. However, I have a system that can do the impossible, while rendering me with an insane amount of pain in the process. Then there was a griffin that came with a trait called "Lightweight". Griffin is a mix between a lion and an eagle. Hind legs, tail and back part of the griffin looks like a lion, while his head, wings and second pair of legs look like an eagle. This beast despite its size flies insanely fast. Killing it was one hell of a bother, due to its speed. However, I had armor and protection charms on me, so he couldn''t do much against me. Plus, this creature has little to no resistance when it comes to magic. So, after landing a "Stunning spell" on that stupid bird-lion, I easily won. Then I just cut his throat with "Diffundo". To make sure everything nothing is wasted, I put a bucket under its head to collect all the blood. That was also concerning the fight. I can''t say it was hard, but it was sure as hell annoying. It surely knew how to evade and escape. I and Bucky were flying after it for nearly 2 hours. And I didn''t want to use shadow eagle form, because it''s not created for controlling power. In it, I either crush my enemies, pierce them through or cut into pieces. But I need this hippo''s body intact to sell it later. Now for the trait. "Light Body" was a perfect trait for my Animagi form because weight forces me to grow wings to insane proportions every time I grow in size. If I grow to dragon size, then I need wingspan of at least 35 meters and that''s a lot. But with this trait in combination with my shadow control, I can better manage my weight. This will help to both make me faster, bigger, and scarier. Just imagine, huge black eagle the size of the small house flying at you. ''Although, after all these traits, my form looks less and less like an eagle.'' Anyway, to the next quest. A sphinx, which came with a trait called "Mind for Riddles". These creatures are highly intelligent, furthermore, they love to create and solve puzzles. The only reason, why the Ministry enforced the label of "Magical creature" on them is their "violent tendencies". As for the looks, it''s basically a lion with the head of a human. Nothing special there. Killing it was by far the easiest quest I had. While it was giving me its riddle, all rilled up about an opportunity to feast on new prey, I just charged close-quarter "Kinetic strike" and blasted sphinx''s face. Although, I got the body without the head... and neck... and... half the torso... well honestly there was not much left from the body intact after the shot... ''Hey, no judging! I didn''t expect to be ambushed by a sphinx, so at that time I wasn''t very considerate of body end-quality.'' The next encounter was a wild breed of winged horse and its trait was "Lightweight" as well. So the system after consuming the essence of the creature(a.k.a. trait) turned it into the experience. [Quest is complete] [Unknown neighing creature was found and put to the blade! Congratulations!] [Rewards will be given out based on accomplishments.] [Rewards are being affected by the system upgrade. Rewards are being converted.] [Animagi form has been discovered.] [Lightweight was already applied to the form] [Start conversion.] [Conversion is finished. Experience is appointed.] ''Experience? System, you never told me I can get experience from killing!'' [Not exactly true. The system can drain the essence of strong creatures if they submit or die at your hand. That essence can be used to strengthen the system. In other words - leveling up. However levels have gaps between them, so to better understand it, there is "Experience" that serves as a progress bar from one level to the next one.] ''Oh? Wait a second... Then what my first upgrade to the system did? The one which turns all rewards to magical nature.'' [It allows the system to change your magical source with the essence that being drained. However, without Animagi form, it would be a waste to do so. You have no necessary skills to properly use that essence while saving it for a long time degrades it in quality.] ''But you kept the essence of the basilisk for more than 2 months, so what''s the matter with other creatures essence?'' [Keeping it for a few months until you acquire the Animagi form is acceptable. But currently, there is a 0% probability of you learning the necessary techniques to use the essence in the next 6 months. So, unless it can be applied to your vessel, it''s logical to use energy in a better way.] ''To improve the system.'' [Exactly.] ''I noticed you became smarter and more responsive once more. I ?ssume level 30 is a big jump for you.'' [Indeed.] ''Also, are you truly limited to my body?'' ''I mean, can you work on a computer?'' [System is a part of your body and can work only via organical machines, with a sufficient amount of energy. A computer doesn''t fit neither of these requirements.] ''Organical machines?'' [Your level is insufficient to request this information.] ''Okay, but then what is your energy source?'' [Your level is insufficient to request this information.] ''Whatever...'' [Tsundere...] ''Huh?'' The sixth and final creature was the very reason I was in Greece currently. Manticore. A ferocious, yet sentient creature capable of speech, with a poisonous scorpion tail, lion''s body, and a human head. Its poison can kill anyone and deadlines inferior only to basilisk poison. Its skin repels all known charms. It''s close to impossible to subdue it with magic, unless you cast 30 charms at the same time, to overpower that repelling effect with quantity. Also, it''s quite a singer! It took me over 3 weeks of relentless search over mountains, forests, and plains of Greece to find... nothing. But I am not complaining, don''t get me wrong! In the first place, my goal was to travel and gain new skills or improve the old ones. Oh, and by the way, I learned a new skill, which is Drawing. But it started at 0 like Dancing and all my magical skills. Apparently, even from the system''s perspective, I am artistically dumb. Moreover, I got to level 26 and was steadily going for level 27, now. But again, I digress... To the manticore business. Finding a manticore is a real challenge and so far I was clearly unsuccessful. So, I visited a city nearby to check on the date and what''s happening around the world. And guess what?! Middle of August. Damn, time flies fast! ''Should be okay... I think.'' I also decided to leave Bucky in Greece. Thanks to my advancement in Enchantment, I can craft some very cool stuff. One such example was a tracking artifact. I made it in the form of a small medallion and tied it around his leg. He wasn''t exactly happy about the new addition, but he is an understanding hors... *Cough* I mean hippogriff. After finishing with my glorious ride, I let it roam free. Then I concentrated in preparation for the longest apparition I had, yet. *** *Place unknown - Time unknown - POV unknown* *** There was a squad of people resting outside of the massive castle made of metal and stone. Commander of that squad was a middle-aged human male, wearing a short-sleeved shirt and loose pants. His armor lying neatly near his tent, close to his sword and staff. Features of his face were giving a vibe of a strict and a military type of person, especially because he just shaved his beard and hair. He was standing there, enjoying the warm weather and light wind ??r?ssing his face. "Commander Markus!" The man slowly opened his eyes and looked towards a person that just arrived via teleportation. "Ah, rookie. Nice seeing you here. Something happened?" "Well, you see I was looking through the sector ?ssigned to us, and apparently there was a "Big Change" in the main Universe timeline." Markus wasn''t surprised. Just another task for him. "Okay. How big is the change and what is the Universe?" "Um. I sent the change to the Inspectors just a minute ago and the Universe is the Potteriana." *Sigh*Markus sighed. "I am still confused, why such a big Universe is called with the name of such a small character, but whatever," after that Markus looked at his squad and continued, "If Inspectors didn''t send a reply, why are you here?" "Well, sir, I noticed something peculiar." Markus looked at him once more and judged it to be something important, based on the look, the rookie was giving him. "Okay." "You see, I think there was a big mistake with somebody accidentally dying. You know we are constant clients of the "Trucks of Destiny" company and they delivered a soul, but I see no connection to any hero or villain deed we had scheduled in that world." "Trucks...? What?" ""Trucks of Destiny"! It''s a famous company. Their competitors, "Bus for a hero" or "Gutters" are nothing compared to them. Especially their advertisements and the PR campaign. Don''t you remember that ad, with the driver Alpha? And their drivers are all mysteries, because..." Markus decided to stop useless rambling and interrupted him: "Rookie! Back to topic!" "Oh, yes! So, I researched that Universe and surprisingly found out that there was a mistake, and Fixers accidentally sent them an extra file. And a person was moved to that Universe." "So?" The rookie was a little bit surprised by the calm reaction of the Captain. "Um... shouldn''t we report it?" "We should and now you are tasked to do this. As for the mistake, don''t get surprised. Mistakes like this happen. However, most of the time, people are happy with their new situation. They get gifts, skills, abilities or some systems. But on the grand scale, it''s rare for them to escape their Multiverse or Universe. They are stranded there, so nothing to worry about." "Oh okay." "Just report his name and whatever the thing he got." As Markus was saying this he was going towards his tent to have a little nap. "He got the system, called Skills..." Markus started yawning and mostly ignored whatever rookie was saying at this moment, but then rookie finished. "... Overlord" *Cough**Cough**Cough* Markus got a scare of his life, and yawn went the wrong way, so he started violently coughing. With a rasping voice he asked: "Which system you said?" "Skills Overlord!" "How many days is he leaving with this system already?" - Markus hurriedly asked "Days?" "Should be maxed at 2 to 3 weeks. Check this person thoroughly and inform me. We need to get him and his corpse, while we can. We can''t let anyone get this system." The rookie was looking at his nervous and mumbling captain in fascination. It was the first time, he saw his captain so spooked. "Um... sir..." "What? No way... Did he survive for a month? This system has literally no help for survival. Plus due to its save system, people tend to become extremely reckless and change timelines. Moreover, it gives out suicidal quest with no help to speak of. And that I am only scratching the surface here. Hosts don''t live over a few weeks. If this man survived for a month..." "Um... Three years, sir." "...?" Markus stared blankly, before recollecting his thoughts, "Connect with HQ... We need some Dovahkin or True God level of help here..." "But why sir? What should I tell HQ?" "Tell them, that Athena''s progeny lives." **** [System sneezes...?] **** *Progress* Level ¡º Alchemy 38 ? 39 | Sneak 27 ? 28 ¡» ¡º Speech 36 | Studying 46 ? 47 ¡» ¡º Wand Making 32 | Herbology 38 ? 39 ¡» ¡º Magic Channeling 61 | Magic Chanting 40 ? 42 ¡» ¡º Magic Gesturing 40 ? 42 | Magic Theory 58 ¡» ¡º Astronomy 35 | Riding Expertise 18 ? 20 ¡» ¡º Crafting 31 ? 32 | Playing Games 15 ¡» ¡º Enchanting 38 ? 40 | Cooking 25 ? 26 ¡» ¡º Training 25 ? 26 | Physical Activities 18 ¡» ¡º Programming 25 | Dancing 0 ¡» ¡º Legilimency 26 ? 29 | Occlumency 32 ? 34 ¡» ¡º ?Drawing 10 ¡» Chapter 47 - Level 27 [p2-3]. Dark.Meeting.Athena. "He" was silently creeping through the woods. Moon was spilling its light over the pine forest, which reflected from drops of water that stayed since last rain. "He" sniffed the air in hopes to catch the trail once more, but as "He" expected scent was washed away by a recent storm. "He" concentrated on his other senses and decided to go with the hearing. Owl hunting for a mouse a bit to the west, fox silently feasts upon some dead body, wolfs roaming around in hopes to find some prey and a bear that sniffs around to find some fatty food. But these are not the targets "He" is tracking. "He" filtered these sounds and concentrated on other weaker sources of sound. Still nothing. "He" opens eyes, that stayed closed for the last 2 weeks and world drowns in darkness because these eyes are not tools of mere sight. No. These are the doors to another realm and in that realm, "He" finally "saw" them. That was enough. The very fabric of reality cried in pleas to close these eyes and finally, the world came back to peace. "He" started quickly but silently moving through the woods. A cloak was flapping around the body, as "He" moved, but eerily without making any sound as if an illusion. Hood masked features of the face, so it was impossible to say whether "He" was a human or a beast that walks on two feet. But one thing was clear "He" was near. Prey awaits its hunter. Deep breath. One inhale and one exhale. 5 targets. One on the lookout, 2 talking, 2 sleeping. "He" moved ever so slowly, closing in on the targets. The smell was now obsolete. The hearing was the answer. Crackling of the wood in the heat of a bonfire. 2 men were discussing something, while one boy was dozing off, but a parody of a sentry. "He" was near. "He" focused and mapped the location of the targets in his mind. Two around the bonfire. One in a tent on the right sleeping, while another one is in a sleeping bag on the left. "Sentry" is sitting, leaning on a tree, some distance away from camp. But "He" is not somebody, who can be noticed by a mortal man. "He" silently climbed the tree, that overlooked the clearing where this camp was located. "He" raised a hand, reaching for a space behind the back as if there was a sword, but there was nothing or so it seemed. As soon as the hand started clenching, a handle appeared out of nowhere. Hand moved and in a second a weapon was already in it. "He" held a simple sword that had only handle and a blade. The moment sword came into contact with air, weak blue light started seeping from the runes inscribed on it. "He" made a wind sign to gather wind and made push sign to focus it into a rush of air that was directed towards the bonfire. Fresh air, made the fire burn brighter than ever before, attracting the attention of the talking men. "He" didn''t need any second chances. One mistake is enough to seal their fate. The other one screamed to wake up others, but too late. "He" was in front of him already, moving at the speeds that were simply incomprehensible for normal creatures. A strong hand was gripping his neck. "He" raised the body high into the air with one hand, while the other one, was used to pierce the heart. The other two just woke up and the sight that met their eyes, wasn''t of the sun illuminating the world, but of their comrade hanging in the air, impaled on the sword. "He" swung his blade and the body was thrown away, towards a sentry. The boy just stood up, only to fall down once more under the weight of the corpse. "He" looked at the sword that was excited by all the blood spilled around and asked for more, which was clearly conveyed by how the runes shined brighter and brighter. Two men who were sleeping finally came back to reality and rushed towards. But what a shame. "He" flicked hand a sword was already carrying a body by sheer force of the throw, while another was gripped in the same manner as the unfortunate soul before. But this time, something was different. The atmosphere has changed. "He" reached for the dagger, hanging on the belt. "He" started pulling out the dagger and all the blood around started rising up into the air and slowly moving towards the gems on the hilt. 3 bloodstreams, one from the pool below, one from woods and one from the person that was thrown before, were moving in a manner that was both terrifying and enchanting. Finally, "He" drawn out the dagger and the moment dagger left premisses of the hilt, all the blood that was slowly flowing in the air was instantly su?k?d into the gems on the hilt, turning 3 dead bodies into dried up husks. Then he slashed with the dagger and all the blood inside that man, was drained into a giant ruby in the pommel of the dagger. "You will die." This was the only thing "He" said throughout the whole encounter. "He" left the boy, who was on the lookout, alive, just for the fun of it. A few hours later "He" was close to exiting the forest, but suddenly "He" felt somebody appearing behind him. "Hey, it''s been a while." - Unknown said "..." "So many years passed, but you remain the same. Can''t you say ''Hi'' at least?" "What do you want?" "You were called." "Not interested." "Even if it''s concerning Athena''s progeny?" "..." For the first time in the while, "He" faltered and faced the annoying man. "So, are you coming, Dark?" *** Similar activities happened across multiple Universes and Multiverses, all across the Creation. All sentient space-time dimensional beings, that served the "Order" and were a part of the past "Great Wars" were called forth to meet and discuss the threat of progeny. In the meantime, Magnus was resting and drowning in self-critique at Weasley''s place, so nothing interesting could possibly happen to him. He had no idea, that his action of changing Black''s fate has arisen such a commotion across multiple worlds and Universes. However, all that commotion ended with one meeting. Meeting of veterans. *** Markus was sitting in the giant meeting hall, capable of fitting more than a thousand people. However, he was neither awed nor amazed by this hall, because he was deeply engrossed in memories of past and gloomy thoughts of the future. In the meantime, people of different races were entering the hall every few hours or so. Some of them were gigantic, others were small. Some of them were strong physically, others magically. But one thing was common. They were all creatures who lived in time-space dimensional Universes. Part of these people was cheerful and lively, communicating with friends, they haven''t seen for centuries. But the majority were quietly sitting in meditation, waiting for the official start of this meeting. Or at least they tried to meditate. Some of them, like Markus, couldn''t enter a calm state, due to the implication of the words "Athena''s progeny". Minutes and hours passed, but for attendees of this meeting who lived for thousands of years, this time meant nothing. Patience was something that just naturally comes after some time. Soon, a calm and steady voice was heard throughout the hall. "Let''s begin. Commander Markus, you may begin your explanation." Hearing the voice, everyone was silenced. Markus, hearing, has calmed down a little bit and walked towards the podium in the middle of the hall. "Greetings everyone! My name is Markus Kay Boreas, from the Roman Universe, commander of Fixer Battalion. I requested this meeting due to a recent discovery. Discovery related to a very special system, called Skills Overlord." "So? How is that connected with Athena''s progeny?" One of the attendees raised a logical question. "As you may know, we, "Order", created multiple types and versions of Systems, inspired by multiple Universes, that are actively using said Systems. One of the earliest samples of such systems was Skills Overlord. And the problem of all earlier systems was the fact that they heavily depended on the outer source of power and information. And as you may know, the best source at that time, was ..." Markus couldn''t finish, because he was interrupted by another person. "Artificial Telecommunicational Hybrid Encyclopedia of kNowledge. ATHENa for short. Although these systems indeed took knowledge and power from Athena, it didn''t mean that this system became her progeny." Just when Markus wanted to answer that question, one of the younger members of the "Order", that came after the 5th Great War, asked: "Wait a second... Wasn''t Athena an Artificial Intelligence that went haywire? Why is it called encyclopedia?" One of the older members, who looked like an elder scholar from China, decided to "enlighten" people sitting in the hall with his knowledge: "It started as the encyclopedia of knowledge, used by operatives to inspect and fix timelines and remove parallel Universes. It started as a library with a search engine. Later on, the first leader, Thanatos, decided to modify this system and make it smarter. This way, Athena became a voice ?ssistant." This time another person, with an angry and annoyed voice, continued: "But this was not enough, for the lazy people of the ''Order''. They wanted a smarter helper. Who won''t just answer a question when asked, but actually do commands, help in missions, do overlays. People keep improving it, especially with all the tech taken from the future, while also feeding all the information about a myriad of Universes they visited. At some point, people didn''t notice how that machine started improving itself. Assistant became something more." Most of the young members were awed by this information. Although this information wasn''t a secret, it wasn''t actively circulated either. The thing that people knew, but didn''t want to admit. In other words, a public secret. "Wow. I had no idea, Athena was just an encyclopedia." "Hard to imagine, right? AI that caused 3 Great wars started as an encyclopedia. Basically, it was google, no?" "The heck is Google?" "It''s glasses dumbass. Do your homework!" "Dumbass your sister! How are glasses connected to an encyclopedia, idiot?" A vein on Markus''s face was close to exploding from all the anger and frustration he had, because of these people not understanding the severity of the problem. And glasses were a straw that broke camel''s back. He roared: "Are you serious right now? We are on the verge of Athena revival and the possibility of a new Great war! Have you forgotten all the pain and sacrifices?! Or do you simply don''t care?!" With every sentence, he was getting only angrier, until somebody coldly said: "Shut up" It was a cold and emotionless voice, that chilled everyone in the room. Person, who said it slowly stood up. Thanks to the fact, that all beings in the meeting were extremely powerful, there was no need for sight or sound amplification devices. Therefore, everyone clearly saw who it was. Closed eyes, black clothes and a very special dagger on the belt. All the old veterans knew who was speaking. "You speak of loss? You speak of pain? What do you know about them? Markus, how old are you? 2 thousand years? 3 at most. You know nothing. I was there since the second leader rose to power. I saw Athena''s very creation. I saw her rebellion and I saw its consequences." "I..." Markus wanted to say something but was harshly interrupted again. "Shut up...!" "Dark, that''s enough, I think. The boy lost his love in the 5th war." "We all did! We all lost our loved ones." Dark answered, but this time his voice felt even colder and he continued, "Every war was horrible. Every damn one of them. There is no good or bad war. They were all shit." "I know, Dark. But he is younger than us. He hasn''t seen true horrors, yet and I truly hope he never will. Isn''t that why we fought so hard?" A man retorted. Apparently, he had equal standing amongst the old veterans and was as respected as Dark himself. "Listen, dova-..." Dark wanted to start an argument, but couldn''t finish, because lazy voice interrupted them all. "Okay, okay. Enough with the drama. Everyone here knows a thing or two about the horrors of war. However, the question is still there, how is it connected with Athena''s progeny?" Markus, finally relaxed. Indeed he was rash in his speech. "Thank you, sir. I apologize for my behavior to everyone." Most people here were with thousands of years of experience, while young members of the community were all sensible and honest people. He started his explanation, but this time much calmer. "Let me explain. I will start with basics, the progeny should be something that can help with the revival of Athena. However, any random connection could count as a progeny, then we would need to scrap our whole network. So, these things should meet some requirements." "I was in a team, responsible for dealing with Athena''s progeny after the 5th war ended and this system was part of that progeny. It could contain consciousness and its power source can be self-sufficient, so it fit b?r? minimum to be a progeny. It also has a small universe rule incorporated, that allows time-travel through the original timeline. However, despite its potential, it was extremely unhelpful and gave only missions for killing or destroying something. So, users either were removed by Universe itself for messing with the timelines or killed during missions." Markus paused, for a second, to let people digest this information. "For more than 10 years we sought out all the technologies and artifacts that could possibly lead to her revival. And the chance that we missed such an obvious progeny, is simply nonexistent, but the person that wields this system is surprisingly a result of our organization''s mistake." "In short, you are saying it is impossible for this system to accidentally appear unless it is an actual progeny?" "Indeed. Moreover, after some research and investigation, I found out much more proof that this specific System can hold Athena consciousness." The moment he finished, an argument broke out. People were wild with ideas because this time progeny is not just a chance for revival, but an actual container of Athena. *** Markus was happily moving towards the Portkey located at Stoatshead Hill. ''Finally, we are going to this stupid Quidditch Cup. I enjoy communicating with the trio, free food, and a good bed, but I couldn''t work on more than half of my projects here. I need to stay safe from something Junior guy. Absolute nutcase, with complete devotion to the dark lord. More importantly, I need to make sure that there won''t be any shadowy marks glowing in the sky, while I am it.'' After arriving, we started setting up tents, but I "officially" I can''t use magic, so I had nothing much to do. The trio and I went to get some water. In the meantime, I was checking for any suspicious people walking around. ''Save progress.'' ¡¼Save ?¡½ ''Just in case shit blows up.'' Surprisingly it wasn''t that bad. Nothing unprecedented happened. I watched the match and found myself excited about it. I was just like everyone else, cheering, feeling sad and emotional about the game. The game, I didn''t give a crap about, just a day ago. Human creatures, indeed, are strange beings. Anyway, the game ended. I honestly didn''t understand who won. I thought the team with the guy who caught the Snitch auto-wins, but shockingly points do matter in this game. I was on all the games of Harry, but I didn''t pay much attention, because I was with Hermione and Ron. They are cheering, all good. They are booing, all bad. Moreover, Harry catching a ''Golden Snitch'' was always a game over for the enemy, so I got this ?ssumption that getting it is a shortcut to winning. "Snitch to win" is just an MC thing, huh? Or did this game suddenly become complicated? Anyway, I just came closer to Harry to ask how Krum''s team lost and he explained to me all about this game. Harry explained it so well, that I got a skill raise in "Playing Games". We finally got back after the game and everyone started celebrating, before eventually going to sleep. I decided to stay for a bit longer because I still had some energy and it was a good decision. In the night, death eaters attacked the camp and havoc was unleashed. However, just when I started thinking about how to help there, everything froze. I was really surprised. ''System?'' The scene now was really familiar. It reminded me of what happened when I just came to this world. ''Time stop...'' [Incorrect, dear Magnus. It''s a force field or domain if you''d like.] Voice was the same mechanical and emotionless voice, but it felt different. Or to be precise, it gave a different feeling while speaking. Before, I felt as if I am talking with some voice ?ssistant, but now speaking with the system felt like I a dialog with a person. ''So, you are finally out, revealing yourself?'' [Interesting. You expected me?] ''Honestly, I did. There were times when the system felt... different. Like there are 2 different personas, talking with me at different times.'' [Well, then let me introduce myself properly. I am Athena, your... personal ?ssistant.] *Progress* ¡º Alchemy 39 | Sneak 28 ? 29 ¡» ¡º Speech 37 | Studying 47 | Wand Making 32 ¡» ¡º Herbology 39 | Magic Channeling 61 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 42 | Magic Gesturing 42 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 58 | Astronomy 35 ¡» ¡º Riding Expertise 20 | Crafting 32 ¡» ¡º Playing Games 15 ? 16 | Enchanting 40 ¡» ¡º Cooking 26 | Training 26 | Physical Activities 18 ¡» ¡º Programming 25 | Dancing 0 ¡» ¡º Legilimency 29 | Occlumency 34 ¡» ¡º Drawing 10 ¡» Chapter 48 - Level 27 [p1]. Lets be honest here I apparated to London. The apparition was rowdy and harsh, but, hey, it was instant travel through the half of Europe, so I am not complaining. I was a tad bit exhausted, so I decided to sit on the ground and rest a little bit. Thankfully, I picked a quiet location in one of the alleys of busy London and I had a mask on, so even if somebody saw me magically appearing here, they won''t be able to recognize me. After a few minutes of resting, I got up, dusted off and set off. To make sure, I escaped all unnecessary attention, after walking out of the alley, I turned right and instantly changed to my other set of clothes, putting off the mask. Afterward, I went towards Grangers'' house. I took me some time, but eventually, I reached their door. *Knock**Knock**Knock* I heard a young voice behind the door: "I will open the door" Then I heard a fast thumping of human legs and finally, the door was opened by Hermione. "Hello there!" "Magnus!" She hugged me and started asking me a ton of questions: "Where you''ve been for so long? How was your friend? What happened? It was so sudden, we were so surprised!" In my letter, I explained, that I have to return back home this instant because my friend needs help. I knew it will work on them and I also knew that Dumbledore, that lazy punk, won''t do shit to explain how shitty was this reason. The only concern was Black and Lupin, but apparently, they didn''t meddle too much with Hermione. "Can I come in or should we talk here?" I smiled at her barrage of questions. "Of course, come in. I was just too excited. I haven''t seen it for more than 2 months! And you didn''t even send a letter!" "Well, duh! Where would I find an owl at my hometown? I don''t have a handy owl with me all the time. Didn''t I already mention that in letters?" "True enough, but I thought it won''t take you whole 2 months. That the longest we haven''t been together!" "..." She reddened, suddenly understanding how misinterpreting that sounded. "You know... people may misunderstand..." What she meant that we always were together. The longest time we were apart was last year during the time they went for weekends in France I think, but even then we kept in contact via owl mail. "I-I-I me-meant..." she was quickly stuttering while thinking how to explain. "No worries, I know what you meant. Let''s enter the house." She still red, turned back and quickly entered the house and I slowly followed her. Entering the dinner room, I saw unexpected guests in the house. "Mister and Missis Granger, good afternoon! Mister Black!? Harry!?" """Magnus!?""" Everyone sitting said. "And we thought who might it be. Magnus, we missed you." Missis Granger said. "More like you missed his help in the kitchen, but truth be told we indeed missed your presence in the house. How you''ve been? We heard something happened to your friend. Is everything alright?" Mister Granger smilingly commented on what his wife said and asked. "Yeah, Magnus, how was your trip? Harry told me, that you had to quickly leave and I couldn''t even properly say "Thanks". You went to help friend, right?" Sirius asked as well. I really escaped fast at that time. "Yes. Everything is alright." I answered. "So how is your friend?", " Is he alright?" Harry and Hermione joined in questioning. "Not really. He died." I said with a sad smile. It was a dead silence, where everyone''s lower jaw was lying on the floor. ''Time for some BS.'' "But it''s okay. I knew that he was dying before going. That''s actually why I was in a hurry and that''s also why I am quitting Hogwarts." "Magnus, my boy, this..." "I don''t want to discuss it. He was very sick and... I knew that he was dying, but I thought he will live at least until I finish Hogwarts and find the cure... but I..." A silent tear dropped from my eye, yet I smiled. "My friend and I... we had a dream and now that he''s dead, I will fulfill it. I promised him." I said solemnly, "Plus it was an initial plan anyway, so there is no difference if I do this earlier." I smiled once more. ''3...2...1... and...'' Everyone just nodded quietly. ¡º Speech 36 ? 37 ¡» ''Indeed this skill is the best...'' [Indeed] ''FOR BS!'' "Let''s not speak of the sad stuff. So what are you doing here Harry?" "Ron and Mister Weasley called us to Quidditch Cup, so we came here to take Hermione there." "You live with your godfather, now?" "Not exactly", Sirius answered "I had some things to deal with upon returning as a lawful wizard. There were documents I needed to fix and Ministry overall is not exactly an organization that easily admits its mistake." "Hm... So, you are free, but not exactly?" "Kinda... Anyway, I can have weekends with Harry and maybe next year he will be able to move to my place." "Yeah" Harry answered happily. Knowing his situation, living with Dursleys or whatnot is indeed a hellish experience. "So, can I go with you?" I need to make sure that my changes are in order. I don''t need any death eaters running around reviving dead dudes. "Of course! We were thinking of exiting now, actually, but we can wait for another day for you to rest and..." "No need. Let''s go. I am ready, anyway." "Are you sure. You look a bit pale." ''Of course, I look pale, dude. I just apparated across half a Europe.'' "It''s okay. I just had no time to properly eat the last few weeks, but now that I am back I will be okay." "Well, okay. Let''s go." "Have fun kids." Mister Granger wished us. "Keep them safe, Mister Black!" Missis Granger sternly reminded Sirius. "No worries, just trust me. Okay, kids." Then we exited the home and started moving towards the car. I was really surprised because Sirius didn''t have a car in the movies, so I looked quizzically at him. "You had a car?" "Not just a car, but a flying car!" Harry proudly corrected me. ""Wow!"", mine and Hermione reaction. Black smirked and said: "That was one of the sorry gifts from the Ministry." More than ten years in Azkaban should bring at least some benefits, right. "So what other ''gifts'' did Ministry give you to close the case peacefully and without unnecessary attention?" He looked at me surprised. "What? It''s obvious, that it will be impossible for them to openly admit their wrongdoings. They care too much for their image. So, to pacify you they need to give you some nice gifts. Moreover, I bet they will manipulate the news to reveal the rat as secret suspect that they had all along, but couldn''t find and then they would tell that in Azkaban you were kept for your own defense. To safe keep you from servants of the dark lord." "Wow! That''s exactly what they wrote! How could they..." Harry said both surprised and angry. I only smirked and interrupted him: "Politics and life, Harry. Truth is subjective and facts can be molded to anything, as long as you have enough power." Harry and Hermione were lost in thought after hearing this. Sirius looked at me and said: "You are very m?tur? for a 14-year-old boy." "Indeed, I am." [Indeed, he is.] ''System you became very talkative. You even sneezed recently... What''s happening?'' [Nothing...] Soon we reached the car and settled in. While riding we talked about many things. They told me what happened during summer and which House won, but honestly, I didn''t pay much attention. I was thinking about the system and its suspicious behavior recently. It felt concerned for me and a little bit nervous. Thankfully, either due to my speech or because the topic was s?ns?t?v?, nobody asked about my vacation and how I passed the time. Everyone tacitly agreed to not raise the topic, so there was no need to come up with any more lies. Harry and Hermione were very talkative during the trip, while I was a listener. In my past life, I was a very big talker until 25, so I know what requirements a good listener should fulfill. Plus, my speech worked not only in the speaking part. It helped me be fluent in any conversation no matter which role I was representing. Finally, we reached Weasley''s home and started exiting the car. I decided to relax my body first, which got very stiff after such a long time. Black and kids followed me in stretching. Fred and George were the ones who greeted and invited us home. ""Hey, Magnus!"" "Where you''ve been?" "What were you doing?" ""And how did you leave Hogwarts, without the train?"" Fred and George have barraged me with questions. "Wow, wow! Calm down, uncles." I smirked, "I am also happy to see you. Everything later." We had a nice dinner and decided to play, while I quietly left my room to roam around. This place was magnificent. So much enchanted stuff. Thanks to my bracelets I was practically unnoticeable, therefore nobody bothered me, which was my perfect. I didn''t want to entangle with these world''s people more than required. My goals are to push away Voldy''s return as much as possible, then get stronger, then stomp him and turn back to researching stuff. That should be my focus. ''But there is also that promise to Hermione, about being forever friends.'' *Sigh* I hate hypocrites and breaking promises, yet I feel that I am doing just this now. Being a hypocrite, that breaks promises. However, I simply can''t trust them completely. [Was there anyone you ever trusted completely?] ''System? Now you are being my personal mental advisor?'' [Not really. But you do not need to concern yourself with that. Do what you want.] ''I am doing, but I can''t let myself break a promise. I know that I will feel horrible after that.'' [Promise was forever, but she is not immortal and you can''t be friends with a corpse. So killing her can be an option.] ''... You are really serious about this? Well, I think that''s a bit of an overkill, literally...'' [Returning to the moment before the promise, can be another option.] ''And waste so much experience? I need my magical abilities to properly control magic and remove trace. Plus, I honestly don''t have any wish to redo my whole year or even multiple years, because of one promise.'' [Aren''t you contradicting yourself here? You are willing to change your whole future because of one promise, yet you are unwilling to change your past few years, saying that one promise is not a big deal?] I smiled ruefully. ''Hypocrite in the truest sense, he-he.'' I started laughing in sadness. ''What would you advise me?'' [Nothing. The choice is yours, no matter what.] ''Maybe... '' I silently looked at the amulets in my hand and silently contemplated enchantment on it. ''Maybe not...'' *Progress* ¡º Alchemy 39 | Sneak 28 | Speech 36 ? 37 ¡» ¡º Studying 47 | Wand Making 32 ¡» ¡º Herbology 39 | Magic Channeling 61 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 42 | Magic Gesturing 42 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 58 | Astronomy 35 ¡» ¡º Riding Expertise 20 | Crafting 32 ¡» ¡º Playing Games 15 | Enchanting 40 ¡» ¡º Cooking 26 | Training 26 | Physical Activities 18 ¡» ¡º Programming 25 | Dancing 0 ¡» ¡º Legilimency 29 | Occlumency 34 ¡» ¡º Drawing 10 ¡» Chapter 48 - Level 27[p4]. Anger ''Although, I thought you will come out at level 30 or so.'' [That was the plan, but your actions made you a target, which forced me to appear earlier.] ''You mean target of death eaters? I know, but it should be okay.'' [No. ''Order'' now knows of your existence.] ''...O-o-okay? What''s the ''Order''?'' [It''s an organization that ''fixes'' the worlds. And you are a nuisance to them, that needs to be fixed... permanently.] ''Huh?'' [Before we continue, I think it would be wise to explain to you how the Creation works, but I have too little time. Creating a system-wide temporal force field is a taxing process. However, in short, do not change anything in a timeline. Your changes won''t matter in the grand scheme of things and it will only serve as a target on your head.] ''But...'' [All explanations when you will be in a safer location. Please, return to your previous Auto-Save and this time, follow your friends. Save is just 5 minutes before the attack began.] ''What''s...'' I didn''t finish because the world unfroze and Athena disappeared once more. ''Well, I can ignore her, but I don''t think she is my enemy. After all, she is my ?ssistant. Let''s trust her for now. Return to last save.'' *** Back at the meeting, Markus presented all the evidence and it was concluded that there is a 99% chance that Athena''s consciousness can indeed be hidden in the boy that was reincarnated in another world. The majority of people present were participants of the Great Wars caused by Athena, while the remainder knew about Athena from books, where she was depicted as "The Greatest Foe of Order". One of the veterans, sitting in the back, asked: "Markus, we heard you and we understand the situation. However, what do you expect to do now? Do you have a plan?" "Well, that''s why I called for this meeting. To come up with a plan for probably the biggest threat our order ever faced!" Despite how passionate Markus was, the hall remained quiet. Veterans stayed silent, while members that came after or during the end of the 5th War, didn''t know what to say. "Then it''s decided. Put in active monitoring on that Universe and react based on the Codex. If the host of Athena breaks the law, act accordingly. That''s it. Dismissed." The leader calmly stood up, after concluding the meeting. "What?!" Markus was startled "Are you serious, right now? Observation?! Is that your answer?" "Then what is your solution?" "That''s the whole of discussing it! To come up with the solution!" "Discussion will lead us nowhere." The sentence, despite how calm and quiet it was, ringed clearly in the ears of all the present. This made the whole hall still, mostly out of respect to the speaker. "But...!" "I have no solution better than the one I already proposed, so I deem this meeting obsolete. Dismissed." "It''s not that you have none, but more of a ''you can do nothing''." Oh, so familiar voice resounded once more through the hall. Markus looked once more at that person, still thinking who might it be. Despite being a veteran, he had no idea who the man was. Leader responded: "Dante, you are right. I can''t do a thing in this situation." Markus was annoyed and angry at the impassiveness of these people. He lost his world, his lover, his everything to the Athena and now when chance to destroy her is so close, their order ''observe''? He just couldn''t keep it in. "But, leader, this is a real threat of her revival! Can''t you see it? She has no base, no army, and no resources. She is at her weakest, and you are telling us that you can''t do a thing?!" The Leader calmly looked at Markus and then at Li Qiye. "I am the 3rd leader of the Order, otherwise known as Dragon. I am strong. Probably the strongest in this hall. When I am at my weakest you should attack me, because my greatest attribute is literally "Strength". However, calling Athena weak, is the same as calling a rabbit weak. It is natural. Athena will be at her weakest when she will lose or heavily damage her intellect. Resources? Armies? She is the smartest being in the creation, without equal. Even the 9th child of the Creator, who is a manifestation of the "Intelligence" property of the creation, isn''t as smart as her." Dante stopped being lazy for the first time in the meeting and seriously said: "In other words, Athena cannot be caught by surprise, boy." "But..." Markus was insisting and anger clouded his thinking process, but Leader didn''t give him a chance to continue and was similarly annoyed at the antics of his subordinate: "You still don''t understand?! No matter what you came up with, it was already analyzed and there is a counter plan, ready to be implemented. You want to trick her? She envisioned it and already countered! The only thing that she really lacks compared to the past is her predicting machines and her information net. But even without them, she still has her intelligence." Leader seemingly got older after this speech and slowly continued: " Maybe it is hard to remember, but we never defeated her! The order was just a fish on a chopping block ready to be slaughtered by Athena!" Markus felt as if a bucket of cold water poured on top of his head. Indeed. We never defeated her. It was just another whim of the ... "Creator..." "Now you remember?" Dante snorted and continued, "Creator intervened and let the Order off. We still have some destiny left, so he couldn''t let us die-off yet. That''s the only reason we are still alive. Moreover, the Creator already hinted that Athena will be undoing of the Order. You can''t defeat her." "Our fate is...!" Markus was once more interrupted. "Is in our hands true. But our ultimate destiny and our path are already decided. The more powerful you are, the stronger the shackles that bind you." The leader looked at Markus for a few minutes, then looked at all people present. The mood was gloomy. Nobody liked to hear that organization... no, their whole life is but a story born in the mind of another being. Even if that being is unimaginably strong. "Anyway, the majority of people here came from Universes with Authors, but you on the other came from independent Universe. Therefore I can understand how hard it can be for you to live with an idea, that destiny is set in stone, but sooner or later, you will have to accept it." "My fate is my own!" It is the only thing Markus said, but Leader only smiled. "Put observation on that planet. Even if we are not coming after the Athena, there is still the ''Chaos'', that might find out about this whole mess. We need to make sure, they won''t intervene. Defend that Universe from any outer influence. If the host, won''t find the way to get out his initial Universe, then he will be forever confined to that space. This kinda automatically solves the issue, because Athena is bound by the system, so she can''t spill too much info to him. Clear?" """Clear!""" "Dismissed." Markus was left sitting there, brooding in his own gloominess, his thoughts unknown. *** Magnus returned safely backed away and all played out the same as in the original story, or so he ?ssumed. After all, he didn''t read the books. *** *Back to Magnus POV* "And why would I care?!" I was seriously annoyed. Athena appearance. My useless intervention in some timeline. And now Hermione accusing me of being indifferent to some elf''s fate. Why would I care? "The innocent elf is being accused and punished for something, he couldn''t even accomplish! Don''t you feel at least a little bit of compassion for him? What if you were in his place? Can''t you see blatant inequity?" "If we switched place? Well, the elf would probably. Don''t. Fucking. CARE!" She was shocked at my outburst. And honestly, I had enough of this. We are having this stupid argument for hours since we are back already. I understand, that she considers me a best friend. Maybe closer than the 2 idiots. But today, I had a very shitty day. And she crossed the limit. "Elf was just fired. Not killed. Not punished with 20 whip strikes. Just fu?k?n? FIRED, Hermione! Is life gonna be tough for him? Well, I don''t know and honestly, I don''t care." "You...!" She really didn''t expect me to say such a "cruel" thing. Most of the time my high speech keeps all around me the way I want the world to perceive. Of course, because it is not my best skill, I need to do some conscious effort and keep up the mask for that to work, but now I am confused and tired after an hour of argument. Moreover, because I am so distracted my speech is not fully focused and I have no good arguments coming to mind. Due to these two reasons, I can''t just force my opinion with my "Speech" skill on her. This whole thing just went out of hand, but my mood swung a bit too bad. For the first time in a long while, I got out of my usual character in front of other people and the worst part is that I don''t care. I know that I am probably going to regret things later, but I just don''t want to stop at this point. Plus with all that magical power, I have in me, I feel nearly tangible wish to unleash it and obliterate everything around me just to vent my feelings. However, I am somehow getting in control of these impulses. I need to calm down. I breathe in and then breathe out. Then I calmly continue, while she stares at me, still shocked by my previous statement. "What I care about is probably is the fact that the Death Eaters attacked the freaking Global World Cup! They are an actual threat. They can and probably will kill people in the future." "I understand that. And Ministry won''t allow this to happen again in the future, but Winky, this elf was..." I was infuriated. How can you say "Ministry takes care of it" and then next moment, say something about the elf who was punished by a member of that same Ministry? Rage was getting out of control once more. I hit the table in a rush, however, I forgot that I had a magnetic field on the constant training around me. With magic gushing out it funneled into that field and arcs of lightning hit everything around me. Thankfully field wasn''t that strong and arcs didn''t have a lot of power pumped in, so it was just flashy. The current of electricity is low enough to be kinda safe. However, that is more than enough to attract attention, with lightning striking all around the room. And of course, this whole situation annoys me even further, so I snap at her. "I had enough of this conversation. Get your priorities straight my friend. I won''t care about elves or any other creature for that matter. This whole wizarding society is built on the corpses of other creatures. The majority of potions in one way or another use parts of dead magical beings, yet I see you have no remorse during potion-making. So, suddenly, you start being sympathetic to elves? Why? Because they are sentient? Half of the magical creatures have high intelligence. The heck is this bullshit!?" "Young man, I would advise you to control yourself in my house!" Miss Weasley swooped in and wanted to lecture me, and if I wasn''t so enraged I would have understood that she has a point. And maybe I would have listened but what a wrong timing. Now, it served only to tick me off even harder. After months of living alone and understanding my own personal might as a wizard, I became less bound to morals and the mask I was wearing in the past. Because of that getting angrier became so much easier, because I wasn''t as careful or caring as I was in the past. In short, I snapped. I sharply turned my head in her direction and simply said: "Or what?" She was obviously surprised. Not the reaction she expected. "I am not your kid, woman. Don''t you dare order me around!" "Magnus!" "Mr.Magnus, I think that''s enough" Both Harry and Mister Black entered at some point only to witness my enraged self, with small lightning arcs striking around me. "Sirius, you own me your life. So better shut up and sit, like a good dog, you are." "MAGNUS!" Harry screamed enraged, taking out his wand and trying pointing it at me. Why trying? Because as soon as I saw the wand moving in my direction, I moved my hand, while clenching a fist and the moment it was clearly pointing at him, I pulled my hand back a little, before pushing it forward and unclenching my fist at the same time. It all happened in a second and looked as if Jedi pushed somebody with a force, but what I did was simpler. I used Knockback Jinx, but only with gestures, thanks to my second tier ability in Magic Gesturing, I obtained recently because I saw it as a fast and easy way to cast magic. ¡º Magic Gesturing ¡» ¡¼Shortcut Gestures¡½ ¡¼You can bind specific gestures to magic spells that you mastered. Moreover, you can combine gestures and complicate them to achieve better/faster/stronger/etc. magic. Effects vary based on the move set.¡½ But that''s not the point. The point is that as soon as I did that "Flipendo", the situation escalated very quickly. And the worst thing is that I was enjoying this situation. *No progress* Chapter 49 - Level 27[p5]. Time for some explanation! Sirius, as well as all the ?du?ts around me, were holding wands pointing them at me. I was enjoying this, mostly due to adrenalin and because I was indulging in my anger, I was feeling exhilarated. It was this short-lived feeling when you give in to your emotion and just let yourself went. When your rage turns into an actual fight or a beating. Do you become angrier, yes! But nonetheless, there is that small feeling of satisfaction coming in with that additional anger. These factors fueled me forward. My whole body was screaming at me to fight them, while my mind tried to find good reasoning for that fight, already making excuses. Doubts started appearing in my mind about how it''s going to go from here. I knew that depending on what I do, my future can be very different. I need to calm down. I do deep breaths and slowly exhale. Does it help with rage boiling inside? Nope, but it helps to get over that rage. "Drop your wands down." I calmly say to them. I am giving them a chance. "Mr.Magnus, you are not welcome in our house. Please leave." Mister Weasley said to me. "Trust me, I will!" I snorted and looked at Hermione and then at the amulet I had on my neck. I was reminded of the promise once more. Oh how I wish I had a character, that doesn''t give a snack about his promises and breaks them when convenient. "Granger, you have disappointed me, but I made a promise to be your friend once," Then I throw a second amulet that looks exactly the same as the one on my neck at the table and continues, "so I will keep that promise. Using this amulet you can contact me anytime. Just think about me while holding it. That will do the trick." Then I looked at all people standing in the room and finally, my gaze stopped at the Potter. "Grow up, before snarling at me." Then there was a sound of something popping off and I disappeared. Apparition is certainly a great tool to have a dramatic exit. *** That person''s thoughts were a mess after witnessing Magnus prowess in magic. Arthur entered only after he heard shouts coming from the kitchen, so he missed the spectacle as for Molly she didn''t pay any heed to his magic skills. But Sirius has witnessed the whole thing and he saw how Magnus casts magic without a wand or even words. He literally just moved a hand and magic was made. Although it is possible to cause magic under the influence of emotion, that response was too precise and calculated. Normally underage magic and spontaneous emotional magic are very close to intent magic, but that magic is most of the time very strong, but not very good in terms of accuracy. This, on the other hand, was too accurate. His talent is monstrous. Maybe he even more talented than Voldemort. Does Dumbledore know about this? *Back to Magnus POV* All angry I apparated to London. There I asked some passerby about the closest inn or hotel. Then I went to the best one, closest to me to rest. An hour later, I was lying in the bed of a luxury hotel after having a good bath, thinking about the reasons for my anger. And surprisingly I found reasons quite fast. For 3 years, I was wearing a mask of friendliness and remained passive to not break canon. Moreover, any impulsive action of mine was instantly regretted by me. My promise to Hermione was purely emotional. There were probably hundreds of ways to lead conversation without any promises. Then there was that moment with a dragon egg when I told Harry that he didn''t put on his invisibility cloak, which ended up with me carrying that shitty egg 3 times. I was truly enjoying anything I wanted. Moreover, the prime reason for staying close to MC disappeared. I needed his protection, but with my magic prowess, I might not be the best fighter, but escaping was always an option. Without the mask, my personality became unbound. And the more powerful I will be becoming, the less will be the need to keep appearances, especially with the "Speech" skill on the higher levels. Is it bad? Is it good? I don''t know. But getting so angry over such a thing was indeed a bit too rash, even if I was annoyed with the whole topic. Anyway, I have a better topic to concentrate on. ''Athena, I am alone now. Time for some explanation, I''d say. What do you think?'' [Indeed. What would you like to know?] ''Hm... Well, let''s start from the beginning. You told me that me changing something is pointless. Why?'' [All Universes has one Time, but multiple timelines which are located close to each other. No matter how much you change the timeline, it won''t change. It will just split into a new timeline, so there will be an original one where nothing changed and yours where your change happened.] ''Wait so you are saying that throughout my life, with me returning back and forth I cloned myself over hundred of times?'' ''Then if my changes don''t matter, why it makes me a target of that "Order" thing?'' [Timelines belong to one Time, which means they start with Time and end with Time. That depicts the concept of destiny. No matter how timelines differ from each other, their destination or endpoint is the same. However, the problem begins if a timeline is being continuously affected or change is very big it starts to go farther and farther from its endpoint. The greatest example of that is when Thanatos, traveled back in time and changed the history of Earth by granting Gaius Julius Caesar the gift of immortality. This lead to him conquering the whole world and they reached the Moon exactly 300 years after he became a ruler of the new Emperium. This change was so massive in effect that it globally changed the history of the whole Universe. This was the first documented case of a timeline splitting into nothingness. ] ''Into nothingness?'' [Yes. Timeline crossed over the boundaries of the Universe it belongs to, which in turn caused a complete alienation. Soon, that timeline reached its conclusion and created its own destiny. That''s how the Roman Universe was born. However, the "Order" doesn''t like timelines becoming independant, so they try to destroy the source of that change.] ''So, how am I not dead yet?'' [Your passiveness.] ''Huh?'' [There are 3 types of Universes. Independant, Artificial and Written. Independent Universes are those which were naturally produced by the Creation. Artificial are those, that I just described. And Written Universes are those who have an author giving an idea from which the Universe was born. Following so far?] ''No. Why is it so complicated?'' [It isn''t for me. But I can imagine it is for you. In short, your current Universe has an Author. Normally these Universes have a script and you inadvertently got yourself a plot armor from the Harry Potter by mingling with him too much. That plot armor allowed Universe to perceive you normally. Plus the system is helping mask your alien origin. However, you lost your plot armor recently due to all the changes you made.] ''So you are saying that I am defenseless...'' [Well, you became a target, but changes made for you don''t warrant for direct intervention. At most they will send a fixer to put the history back on track, like what you saw.] ''So its because of them, the same thing happened, despite my changes?'' [Indeed. Fixers'' job is to return a timeline on its natural course. But enough of that. I can''t be present for too long. Remember! Be careful and don''t change history too much anymore until you become strong enough to be responsible for that change. Small changes are normal and even natural, but big and global changes in the timeline warrant for "Order" attention. And believe me, their members are very strong.] ''Huh? Athena?'' [...] Well, it seems like she disappeared once more. She gave me a lot of food for thought. Life became a little bit too complicated. But at least she said that I am only a potential target of the "Order", so I should be safe if the situation won''t repeat. With these thoughts, I fell asleep. *** Markus, on the other hand, couldn''t fall asleep. He was tormented by nightmares with memories of his past Universe. How it became a vestige of the past due to Athena and her war. The glorious empire that spanned throughout the whole Milky Way was destroyed in just a few years. Planets destroyed and mined. Suns drained. Black holes captured as an energy source. Nothing was spared. Because their Universe was Artificial it had only one timeline. One change affected the whole Universe. There was no going back in time. Destruction was absolute. Finally being tired of these nightmares, he stopped trying to sleep. He went out to breathe some fresh air. A few minutes later he was sitting on the bench in the garden of his house, contemplating life. "What should I do?" "Whatever, you want to." Markus turned his towards the voice that answered his question and saw a person from the meeting there. "Sir, you haven''t left yet?" "Just call me Dark and no. I have nowhere to go. I have no home, no relatives and no organization. I only came because I heard it had something to do with Athena''s progeny." "Oh. Then what''s your plan, mister Dark?" "Same as you, boy. Killing the boy who holds Athena and destroying her very soul." *** *No progress. (and yes, just like Magnus''s love life and just like yours, Mr. FullDarkSoul xD )* Chapter 50 - Announcement So I saw people who voted for this novel more than I did (124 stones in initial stages to get it going), so I decided to say this: Thank you very much for your support and voting dear Mr. Svenwarrior(First place with 135 votes) Thank you very much for your support and voting dear Mr. AncientTeaDrinker (Second place with 133 votes) Thank you very much for your support and voting dear Mr. q25t (Third place with 129 votes) Thank you very much for your support and voting dear Mr.DarknossYami (Fourth place with 124 stones) *** With that being said, I was thinking and came to idea. Not sure you like it. But for every 4 more people crossing the mark of 124 stones and further I will write one chapter. Chapters will be made on weekends, because I have no time to write chapter on weekdays)) Once more thank you for all your support and I know how confusing novel became lately, but that is the groundwork for ending. As I noted previously that this novel''s main story won''t go over 100 chapters and I need explanation out of the way. Some next few chapters there will be some laws explanation about how everything works but in pieces, through conversations and stuff. And because this work is my first work, I am trying to write all those different things. I am trying my hand at everything. And now as you saw I am trying to improve my dialogs and character reaction. Hopefully you continue enjoying this and let''s go with it to the end. And VOTE YOUR STONES ;) *** JSJJ where are you? Haven''t seen you commenting for a while now. If you dropped my heart will be broken))) Also guys come to discord I will leave link to it in comments under this chap. This way you can copy it I think. Can be wrong though xD Chapter 50 - Level 27 [p6]. Hunters are out A few hours passed since I received the information from Athena. Initially, I was considering what to do and how to wrap my head around all the information Athena told me. But soon I understood one simple thing. I am powerless. I won''t be able leave the current Universe in the foreseeable future. And changing the future is practically impossible unless you have enough power to overpower the Order. So, in reality, the only thing I can do is to continue my leveling. Now I had a clear goal for now. Don''t be involved with the original storyline and get powerful. Powerful enough to straight-up ignore that Order bullshit. Moreover, I have plenty of ideas on how can I become stronger. Time to travel. The first stop is Greece. The task of getting manticore skin is long overdue I think. But first sleep. *** In the meantime, 2 men were moving towards the last location where Magnus was last spotted. In other words, the Burrow. "Markus, there is still an option of going back. After setting up the blockage and communicating with Universal consciousness, there will be no way back. I am saying this to you because you showed a lot of promise. You can reach incredible heights with time." "No point in talking about possibilities. I am ready to sacrifice my life to kill Athena." Dark stopped at his words and put his hand on Markus''s shoulder. "Bullsh*t! If you are doing this, then no need to create good excuses. We both know. After this, we both will be hunted by Order. Maybe even die. So rather than lying about sacrifice, isn''t it better to just tell me the truth?" "Truth?" "You want Athena dead. You are scared. Anger and Fear are your motivators! Not righteousness!" "Result is the same, so what''s the difference!?" "Goal is different! The methods are different! We are no heroes. If there will be an innocent person between me and my goal. Then that person dies. Nothing will stop me. No mercy. No benevolence. I suffered enough for the Creation. So now, I just here for vengeance. Capiche?" A long period of silence followed Dark''s question. Markus was in doubt. He wasn''t ready to go to such lengths, but at the same time memories of his homeland''s destruction were not letting him say no. "I understand." "Then? You can still go back and become a great person. Save lives and be a good guy, you know..." "I can''t. Every second of my life, I see them. I see their faces. I remember the moment when I promised my family that everything is gonna be alright. And I also remember how my planet was burning from inside. How Athena, su?k?d planets dry, sapped lights of brightest stars and collapsed black holes of my Universe. Numerous lives were just ants living on top of the gold mine to her." "Our path will be cruel. Athena won''t leave this timeline, but neither will we get any reinforcements. After Universal consciousness gives us a green light to exterminate progeny, all paths to and from the current timeline will be blocked. We are on our own." "I know... I am ready. Let''s start. We are close to his last registered location. I''ll request blockade." *** I was moving towards Greece, but rather than doing one big jump with the apparition, I jumped shorter distances and had some rest in between jumps. Somewhere halfway through Italy, I felt something. I wasn''t sure what it was, but it was certainly strange. ''Athena, was that my imagination or something bad just happened?'' ''Athena!?'' [...] ''System?'' [Yes. What is it that you need?] Strange. Athena ignores me or she just can''t talk? Either way, it can''t be good. Although I said that I have a goal and all that crap about being strong, I am still very concerned about the Order''s activities. ''I felt something happening. Was it my imagination or something actually happened?'' [System registers no changes. Would you like to start the diagnostic procedure?] First time I hear about this functionality. ''What does it do?'' ''Run it.'' [Diagnostic protocol is activated. The scan is in action. Please wait...] This whole situation is strange. I have this feeling that something is coming but don''t understand why. Let''s hope that it is just me overthinking. *** "Blockade is active. Universal consciousness agreed to cooperate with us. We can proceed." "Great." Markus turned around and started walking, but was once more stopped. "Markus!" Markus turned his head a little towards Dark. "Yes?" "Remember... no mercy. Find progeny and annihilate him. Destroy his body, scatter his soul and wipe his very essence of this world. Do you understand?" Another period of silence followed. So Dark continued. "You know this right. The progeny might be an innocent boy who just got his hands on the system. He might even be a saint inside, that wishes for peace and prosperity in the Universe. But...it does not matter... he needs... to die! Please promise me, that you won''t doubt your actions and you will do everything... and I mean, absolutely everything to find and kill him!" Markus turned his body to face Dark and asked: "You are doubting me? Or have you forgotten how much I lost to Athena?!" "I remember. But I also know that you believe in the teachings of the Order. And I know that when the moment will come... The moment when you will need to murder an innocent man, not erase from a timeline or just move him to another Universe, but... Murder... that will feel different... You will hesitate." "... I killed before. There will be no hesitation." "Trust me... you will hesitate... erasing somebody''s very being from the Creation... is heavy. There is no Undeath, eternal darkness, rebirth or Yellow river. This will be his end. The absolute end. Moreover, the consequences of erasing somebody from Creation are heavy enough for the Order to ban this activity." "You want to erase him? But I thought..." "You thought I want to just pierce his heart and stop life processes in his body? No! I will erase him and the curse he carries. Otherwise, why would I carry this tool with me?" Then he moved his hand and shadows covered his whole arm, before receding and leaving a scythe, similar to the one you would imagine in hands of the Grim Reaper. "Thanatos''s Reaper? How did you get it?" "Does it matter? Point is that I was preparing for erasing Athena from existence for more than 3 thousand years. I am not letting her escape my reach this time." Markus stared for a long time at Dark in silence. "I understand." "You do? Then let''s go. Now that blockade is up, we have eternity to kill Athena. She won''t be able to escape. Not with her current resources at least." *** [Diagnostic is complete. Save function was blocked.] ''Oh... what? By "Save function" do you mean I can''t save my progress anymore?'' [No. You can save progress, but you can''t load to it anymore.] ''Huh?! Was it the Order''s doing?'' [Unknown.] ''Anything else?'' [No.] ''Okay. And Athena is not online I ?ssume?'' [...] *Sigh* The world is getting more and more complicated. I think it would be safe to ?ssume that the Order did something to block my ability to load into the past. I thought Athena said that they won''t do anything unless I continue my rash actions. Also this whole thing about the System and Athena. Why was I given it? Why did nobody tell me the rules of how to use it? Plus if the Order already fixed the issue, why it still hunts for me? I have a really shitty premonition and currently, my mentality is very unstable after continuous apparitions. I need some sleep. I looked around and tried to find a location where I can safely sleep. That''s when I noticed some empty hollowed space in the tree nearby. It wasn''t big, but it can be used as a nest for some small bird family. "Well, that can be a good idea." Shadows under me engulfed me... *** "So what''s the plan?" "Plan? Barge in. Paralyze all living beings in the house and find the progeny." "Okay." Dark was moving quite fast and when he reached the door, he made a strange sign with his hands. { Wind element - Standing accent - Area Sigil } Then he touched the door of the house and some kind of energy overcome the house and all of its inhabitants. Then he opened the door to enter. Markus followed close by. There he saw people sitting around the fireplace. Frozen in time. Dark lowered his torso to look into the eyes of the frozen people. Even though his eyes were covered by the cloth, this didn''t hamper his ability to gaze into souls. After looking into each of their eyes. "Neither of them is a progeny. They are all part of the plotline of this world. Markus scan the house for any other living beings." "Okay." Markus rolled up his left sleeve, under which incredibly complicated technical device was hidden. The device wasn''t small and looked as if it covered more than just one hand. But it was hard to say how much exactly it covered, because it was hidden by clothes. He put the thumb of his right hand into the location that looked like a fingerprint scanner. "Activate." Some robotic and genderless voice answered him in response to his command: "Fingerprint recognized. Voice recognized. DNA scan in process. Accepted. Greetings Markus." As soon as the machine was fully activated, blue light started shinning all over Markus''s body from under his clothes. "Suit, start life signature scan." "Accepted." A few seconds later, Markus had a full overview of any living creature 200 meters around him. "Nobody except for them here." "He escaped? Did he know we are coming or was it just a lucky coincidence? Well, doesn''t matter, I will know everything soon enough." Then Dark took off the cloth that covered his eyes, but his eyes were still closed. Although Markus knew what''s coming next, he only frowned while exiting the house and quietly murmured: "Nothing can be hidden from the god''s eyes..." Then Dark opened his eyes and the world was submerged in darkness. Chapter 51 - Level 27 [p7]. Control? Dark shadow was crawling out of the hole in the tree. However, after the creature finally crawled out, it appeared to be a cute fluffy gray eagle. It was neither too big or too small, similar in size to a big raven. The eagle has cutely flown on top of the branch and looked around. Then it jumped to the ground, but as soon as he reached it, shadows that were stretching under his body sprang to life and entangled him. This clump of shadows started rapidly growing until it reached the size of the grown man, after which they started receding leaving young man in its stead. *** ''Well, sleeping in Animagus form was actually nice.'' Looking at the sun''s position in the sky, I would ?ssume it is somewhere closer to noon. I continued moving towards Greece. Only two apparitions left. *** A lonely man was sitting on the porch of some old house. His back was hunched as if something was pressing his down, while his face was held no emotions, all except for his eyes. These eyes held untold sadness. He was looking at the picture in his hands, reminiscing about something. The door behind the man was slowly opened, but he didn''t pay any attention to it. He only asked: "So?" "Progeny had an argument with the girl called Hermione. Although, there were a few strange things in this situation. Apparently, the boy, Magnus, got really angry, which is uncharacteristic of him based on their understanding. They had a little fight and he stormed out, while all of them were left stunned." "You think, Athena has predicted this and he played the whole scene to escape?" "No. Believe it or not, but the progeny throughout the whole dispute was actually thinking about something else, even concerned. But others didn''t pay enough attention to it to notice this small thing. Then the girl said something that annoyed already agitated by something boy and he got mad." "So, it was basically just a lucky coincidence." "That''s the problem. With Athena, we can''t know. She might have manipulated the whole situation to make progeny do what he did." "Wait a second..." "What?" "Based on your words, the boy is not under complete control of the Athena?" "No idea. And does it matter?" Dark looked gloomily at the lightening sky. "Of course it matters. If Athena is not in control..." Markus was unable to finish because Dark raised his hand in quiet motion. "Can you hear it?" "Hear what?" "Hear how the world enforces the destiny upon its netizens." Markus could only frown at his words. He was confused, where did that come from and how was it connected to the topic. "...?" Dark sighed and continued: "Athena doesn''t need to control somebody to be in control. After all, when you are capable of controlling the kingdom, you don''t need to control the king." "..." "Anyway, I found out something interesting." "What is it?" "The progeny considers the girl a friend and even left a contacting device for her, which can be used to contact him at any time from any place." "We can use that!" "Indeed. The question is how we should approach this situation." "Strange to hear that from you, after all, you were the one who said that you won''t stop at nothing to destroy Athena. Just subdue girl with your power and make her contact him. Then we track him down and kill him. What''s there to think about?" "You misunderstood me." "Doing it this way will antagonize them against us. Having destiny against us in the world where we are locked with possibly the smartest creature in the Creation. No thank you." "Just erase the memory. Done deal." "Well, that''s one option. But I was thinking if we can use this destiny and crap to our advantage." "How? I mean when Universe have an Author and he has a script for it, even if Universe wants to do something, it can''t go against the script. That is like stopping breathing. Not something you can control. You can try, yes. But that''s it." "Exactly, so what if we use this to our advantage. We convince main actors of the scripts that progeny is the main villain of the script." "I doubt they will believe he is Voldemort. Plus, you know how hard it is to mess with "The Script". Many tried. And the only end awaiting them was erasion for their impudence." "True, but what we need is for them to ''see'' how bad the progeny is." "Interesting. But, you do know that we are not the first ones who came up with this idea." "True, but this Universe is already on our side. The progeny also lost a lot of positive points with the ''actors'' of ''The Script''. If they ?ssume he is a bad guy now, we will have more freedom in the future. We can hunt him down, like a dog he is and can be ?ssured they won''t stand in his defense." "Huh... We will use his home territory to our advantage. Can work..." *** "Finally! Greece. Took me some time. Now, I need to get the Bucky." ''Ups. I started speaking out loud. Need to keep it together or even better keep it inside.'' I took out the amulet connected to the one I made for Bucky to track him down. Using enhancement on it like a GPS of sorts, I started going in his direction. It took me some time to get to him. Plus, using broom is not exactly my specialty. After reaching him, we had a very nice reunion. Plus I bought some high-quality fish specifically for this occasion. I, Bucky and Blacky had a very good dinner. Well, Blacky probably happy to have anything. It''s a black hole after all. And I must say it''s really convenient. The best garbage bin is the one that decomposes trash to quarks indeed. Obviously, it didn''t increase that much, because just upkeeping his current mass is quite hard because it burns it with insane speed. Well relatively speaking. During our travels, Blacky has grown to approximately 100 kilograms from 23 micrograms, after feeding him literally everything we didn''t like. Anyway, progress was good, but not substantial, because, for a black hole to be threatening on its own, without my enhancement, it needs to have at least mass of one Earth or be close to it. That''s a lot by the way (5,972,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg = 5.972 * 10^24 kg). I also non-stop practiced and improved Occlumency skill, because I expected it to be crucial with all that ''Order and no-load'' crap. Also, decided to take a look at the abilities provided by the skill. After all, shielding my mind now became of utmost importance. What''s more, I noticed that speech and occlumency are intricately connected. Occlumency is all about controlling thoughts and speech is greatly connected with that notion. Great speech requires exquisite control over both mind and body. That explains why most masters of occlumency were so good at lying, manipulating and speaking. Snape, Grindewald, Crouch Junior and Dumbledore are just a few examples of masterful talkers and liars. The 1st-tier ability for Occlumency was pretty basic. One of the reasons why I ignored the whole tree until now. Skillpoints will get only harder to get with time, but now was not the time to be stingy. ¡º Occlumency ¡» ¡¼Your mental defenses are unbreachable for those whose skill in mental offense is lower than the half of your mental defense skill.¡½ In short, it is useless for current me. So you see now why I didn''t want to even invest in this tree. I mean my mental defense is currently at 35 so only people who have at least 18 in mental offense can try breaching me. That is so useless at my current level of skill. But now I have no choice. I am investing in hopes that the 2nd-tier ability(-ies) has more use. Thankfully, my pleas were heard, because there were two 2nd-tier abilities and both were quite useful. ¡º Occlumency ¡» ¡¼Control of emotions¡½ ¡¼Skill now affects your emotional control. With a rise in skill level, you will have better control over emotions.¡½ This ability only further proved my suspicions about the connection between occlumency and speech. ¡º Occlumency ¡» ¡¼Control of imagination¡½ I can now faster improve my occlumency skill and that will even improve my speech ''checks''. Although, obviously these skills were not super omega powerful, especially with my current skill level. But it is something and currently safekeeping my mind is of utmost priority for me for now. As for physical safeness, that is something I can only further train. I could have invested in magic chanting and gesturing, but then I would be probably left with no skill points at all. And I really need them for extreme situations. You never know when you may need those. Plus my magic channeling and theory are already high, so I should be alright in terms of escaping and raw power. *Sigh* So many concerns, yet I can''t stop. After finishing dinner, we should continue the search for manticore and then we should leave Europe. Maybe China? Or possibly Japan. Any place would be fine. As long as it is as far as possible from the plot. Suddenly, the amulet on my neck started vibrating, which heavily surprised. ''Hermione?'' *Progress* ¡º Alchemy 39 | Sneak 29 | Speech 37 ¡» ¡º Studying 47 | Wand Making 32 ¡» ¡º Herbology 39 | Magic Channeling 61 ¡» ¡º Magic Chanting 42 | Magic Gesturing 42 ¡» ¡º Magic Theory 58 | Astronomy 35 ¡» ¡º Riding Expertise 20 | Crafting 32 ¡» ¡º Playing Games 16 | Enchanting 40 ¡» ¡º Cooking 26 | Training 26 | Physical Activities 18 ¡» ¡º Programming 25 | Dancing 0 ¡» ¡º Legilimency 29 | Occlumency 34 ? 35 ¡» ¡º Drawing 10 ¡» Chapter 52 - Announcement Yo guys, I''ve been working on the website for the novel. Website is to keep track of the progress. Previously, I built an app in C# to do that, but that app is not very flexible, so I needed something else. I started making it in Angular and got a bit too worked up because of it(I mean, API and styling are such a bother). However, it doesn''t mean that this week is skipped. Chapter is coming 100%. I will do my best to make and publish it tomorrow. Also, probably after a few chapters, progress will be done via website and there will be more information there as well... probably)) Although, I will still put in the textual progress into chapters, for those who are not that interested. Anyway, those are plans for the future. ***** Update!! So 1k+ words are already in. Will continue working on it tomorrow. No progress on website, cause was working and then typing chapter ))) Also, guys don''t worry. Chapters will continue to be released on . In the near future, only progress and other author tools will migrate to website, that were previously done via local app. Chapter 53 - Level 27 [p8]. Huh? The vibration of the amulet was the sign that a person was initiating the contact from the other amulet. Normally, I wouldn''t think twice before answering the call and connecting via some reflecting surface, but now I am doubting. I left amulet without any explanation whatsoever. Even an experienced wizard will spend at least a week on deciphering enchantment on it and understanding its usage. So the fact, that she learned it so soon, even with the help of some ?du?t wizards is simply unrealistic. To take or not to take the call is a very hard question. Block of the load function, my intuition rings danger and she suspiciously calls me soon after the block. Too many coincidences, if you ask me. But to ignore a call is also a bad idea. I don''t want to really lose a connection with Hermione. She is a smart wizard and a loyal friend. Yes, stupid and annoying, but loyal nonetheless. Plus, I want to keep in touch with the plot actors. While I was thinking, the amulet stopped echoing. I needed the solution and I needed it quick. After ten minutes of pondering, I finally thought of an idea. *A bit earlier in the Burrow* "I know we agreed to use this world''s plot against progeny, but I think rushing is not an answer. He will certainly feel that something is wrong. Or at the very least Athena won''t let him enter such an obvious trap." "That''s why there is no point to trap him." Dark laughed. "Hm?" "I honestly don''t give a crap if that cursed progeny escaped. He is bound in the world with a God who has access to the ultimate weapon of death. As long as I reach him, he is dead. He can''t be escaping forever, while we have plot armor and centuries ahead." "I still don''t get it. If you know that he will escape, then why would you give away our presence to an enemy? We can catch him ..." "Unaware?" Dark finished for Markus, then he cheerfully continued, "Impossible. The moment Universe was blocked, progeny knew that something was wrong. What we need to do is to affect his mentality. If a person he trusts betrays him and sells him to us, he will suffer. Mental war is what we need to use. Physically catching him will be hard now. One thing I am sure of is that Athena is not fully in control, which means that we can pressure the boy mentally to the brink of insanity. And the betrayal will be the first step. Then you will start the hunt. Put on the target on his head. Publish his face and information. Make the world believe he is a demon king if need be." "Well, he might not care about such things like these. Some people prefer solitude." "Ahahaha, bullshit. That''s the mistake of you humans. You think you can just turn off the need for communication. Think you can control emotions. Laughable. No matter how uncaring a human is, he will break under constant pressure and absence of communication. This is a fact. You, humans, are fragile. The need for communication is a physical necessity born in the process of evolution when nature understood that lone monkey is a dead monkey. After a year he will be losing himself. After five, he will become deranged. After more, his brain will be losing it. As for Athena, she has no powerful enough energy source to keep in touch with her progeny on a regular basis." "I know people who meditate for decades alone, without any need for communication. I don''t think you are right. Plus it is a big world and there is the Internet." "Show me a person who had no conversation for more than 3 years and I ?ssure you, that the person will be a madman. As for the problem of the big world, making somebody famous in such a world is even easier. After all, what we are looking for is not find him, but to break him." "Can''t you just honestly say that all you want is just to torture the boy as much as possible and in any way possible, just to make your vengeance sweeter?" "I never said, I am not personally interested in these actions. But let''s not play hypocrites here. You are here for the sole reason of getting your revenge, just like me. No need for bullshit righteousness. Okay?" "I want revenge. Yes. But I am not going to do something so... immoral. I am doing this to save our Universe, from a future, where she comes back. As for you... You truly are an unfilling and crazy being." "That''s a definition of a God, Markus," Dark smirked. "Maybe that''s so for your world, but in mine, Caesar was a god. And he was neither unfilling or crazy." "Maybe. Maybe not." Dark only weakly smiled, "So? Let''s begin." Markus only sighed, before answering: "Let''s." After that, both men erased memories of them coming to the house. Then they both exited the house, only to return a few minutes later. But this time, both of them had nice looking suits with coats over and hat on top. The very definition of a gentleman of that century stood outside of the Burrow, getting ready to knock on the door. *Knock* *Knock* "Who might it be?" "Sweetie, can you open the door for me please." "Okay, mom" then a young girl''s voice came from behind the door, "Coming! Wait a second." Two of them tipped their hats down in greetings and then the one with sunglasses asked in a mild but deep voice: "Can we by any chance, find a person, named Magnus in your house?" The girl looked at them and then turn her head back to scream: "MOM?!" "What, Sweetie?" A middle-aged woman came in. She then looked at her guests and was surprised. "And who might you be?" "Hello, Miss..." "Weasley. Molly Weasley. And it''s missis. And you?" "Hello, Missis Weasley. My name is... Derek and this is my colleague Markus. We are part of the magical government, similar in job to what you call in England, Aurors. We looking for dark arts users and criminals with a dark past in magic use. We are here looking for a boy, you might know as Magnus. Can we talk?" This really surprised Molly, but soon she recollected her thoughts and said: "Uhm, well come in. Let me lead you to the living room. We can talk there." *A few minutes later* "He left, well that''s a shame. We''ve been looking for him and now that he was so close, we missed him." The man called Derek said, and that''s when Harry mentioned the amulet, that most people already forgot about. "Hermione, didn''t Magnus left some amulet for you to talk with him?" "He did? That''s great! Can we contact him?" Markus happily asked, while little Granger accusingly looked at the Potter. "You want to talk to him?" "Yes, Miss Granger. We need to talk to him, so if you can contact him, this will help us a lot." "But... what do you want to talk to him about?" She inquired. Derek looked at her for a long time, before he answered: "We want to convince him to come back. He is a suspect in multiple crimes. However, I can''t divulge the information on these crimes, but believe me when I say that, they are not light acts of lawbreaking." Everyone in the house was stunned, while Hermione agitated, said: "But he is not a bad person and we lived together for the past 3 years. He couldn''t have committed any crimes." "3 years?" "Yes!" "And what about before?" "Before? What do you mean?" "Do you know anything about his past? His parents? His home country?" Now everyone started to have some doubts, but Granger continued, albeit weaker: "He-e-e is an orphan! An-and he is from Asia and ..." Markus who was standing in the corner, interrupted: "Basically you know nothing, young lady." "I..." "Don''t you find this suspicious at all? A young boy from a faraway country, suddenly appears so far in Europe and becomes a student of Hogwarts? No past, no parents, no background and yet he somehow was able to get here alone without any help." "I... don''t know..." "Please, miss Granger, cooperate with us. You are helping him. If he is not coming back on his own, then he will become a true criminal and will be hunted down like one." "Even if I wanted to help you, I don''t know how to use the amulet, so I am sorry, but I can''t help you." "Can we have a look at it? We are from the same country. We might know how it works." "Okay?" *An hour later* He didn''t answer the call. "As expected. He ignored it." Harry commented. Even though Hermione was confused, she still considered Magnus to be her closest friend, so she was quite angered by his words. "What do you know!" An argument broke out. Hermione blamed Harry, while he started accusing her in defending a possible criminal. Some may say that this was uncharacteristic of Harry, but Magnus touched his weak spot. Sirius Black. His one and only relative. Moreover, how could have Potter known that Magnus saved Sirius from the life of constant hiding. In his mind, Magnus was a "monster" since that eventful night when he crippled Pettigrew, who was unarmed and ready to surrender. As for Ron, he was the best friend of Harry, so it would be strange if he stood up against him. So, 2 boys argued with one girl. Strangely, ?du?ts didn''t interfere with this argument and only quietly discussed something with 2 ... Aurors? This was a most questionable part, but thanks to Markus''s technologies and Dark''s divine powers they fooled them both. Now everyone was sure that Derek and Markus were inspectors from the American Wizarding Government. However, everyone was interrupted by a sudden vibration of the amulet, lying on the table. Hermione, forgetting all about the argument, rushed to pick up the amulet. Then she ran to a long mirror prepared beforehand and touched its surface with the amulet. Then she fixed her hand to hold the amulet in constant contact with the mirror. Soon, in place of her reflection, a young boy appeared, but something was terribly wrong there. The boy was Magnus, yes! Yet, he was full of bleeding wounds all over his body, his clothes were ragged and dirty, his hair was messy and his breathing was rapid. "Hermione!" He looked tired and concerned, looking often to his left and right. "Magnus? What happened to you?" "My past caught up to me. Those bastards want me dead. They even sent some people to kill me. Although, I still have no idea how they tracked me down. I didn''t leave any traces. I didn''t use magic or magic artifacts, except for the amulet of contact I have on me. But you hold it so it is impossible for them to track me. Moreover, they attacked me while I was having a shower, so I had to run with whatever I could grab on me. Thank god I still have the amulet and a wand." Inspectors exchanged glances, and Markus showed some sign to Derek, who then quietly left the scene, without anyone noticing. In the meantime, Magnus in the mirror, looked left and right as if afraid of something coming. Some loud crashing sounds were heard in the background, so Magnus continued: "Anyway, I need your help ASAP! Honestly, I didn''t expect to be the first to use this artifact and to even use it so soon, but now is not the time to ask questions. These people are true monsters. Report this to the Ministry of Magic and request some help for me. I am in ..." "Magnus? Magnus?!" Suddenly, reflection became blurry, while sound grew static, but after a few seconds, everything stabilized. "One of the retranslators for the signal has been destroyed? Strange, this should be... impossible. They..." Magnus slowly paused and looked at her. Then as if realization hit him, he paled. "Hermione!? You ...?" His whole face was a depiction of how betrayed he felt. "You helped them? You helped these cold-blooded murderers track me down? Why?! I... thought you were my friend?!" Magnus with tears streaming down his face was the last thing the mirror has ever shown, because after that it became dull and dark, never to reflect again. Everyone looked back at the inspectors, finally noticing the absence of the second one, they took out their wands and pointed them at the inspector, named Markus, who only had one thought in his mind: ''Huh? Shouldn''t he be the bad guy in this play? How the heck did I become a villain?!'' *No progress* Chapter 54 - Level 27[p9]. More chaos After the call, I got a few nice jingles informing me about a raise of a skill level. But I didn''t pay any attention to it, because as soon as the call started there was a traceable connection between two amulets. Therefore, right after disconnecting, I''ve used Blacky to completely decompose it and started moving towards the closest city. Thanks to the small play, I did, I should have a few days of peace. That''s when I should find that stupid manticore and create as much chaos as I can in Greece while I am at it. This will hopefully make my pursuers think that I am currently in Greece and they should start their search here, while I will move towards another country. Initially, I really liked Greece for many reasons and wanted to make it the base of my future operations, but now the call exposed my general direction and so it will be a waste of time to clean up my traces. After deciding on a plan of action, I started implementing the said plan. I went to Bucky and with his help, we reached the closest city in record time. Most of the cities across the world have magical societies hidden away from muggles and I hoped that this city is not an exception. What I am going to do is quite reckless and dangerous, but to hell with that. I need that manticore. One because killing it will bring another strong trait to my Animagus form and two ingredients from that beast are not just rare, but basically nonexistent. There are less than 10 documented instances of somebody killing those beasts. These beasts are troves of possibly miraculous alchemical ingredients. As for what exactly I am going to do, I am going to raid that magical community for resources and information, as well as to get access to portkeys to other major cities. Obviously, they should have either the portkeys themselves or a map of the closest portkeys with their destinations. However, getting that type of information outside of the country is near impossible. Even though the magical community was portrayed as a friendly bunch of people in Harry Potter, the reality is very different. Communities in different countries are not friends. Moreover, they often fought with each other for dominance in the past. The only reason, tension is invisible because the strongest wizards usually only care about researching magic and its branches. And that is true for the whole world. Even martial communities in China keep true to this fact. So, wizards rarely have big wars, especially now that there are so many competitions in alchemy, Quidditch and etc. Nonetheless, that explained why no country will confidently let out information about all of their portkeys to another country. There were exceptions of course, such as the World Cup of Quidditch, where the Ministry let other countries know the locations of some of their portkeys. Anyway, I''ve strayed away from the main topic once more. My point is that I need to raid all major cities of Greece to get info on manticores (and rob them while at it), but I need to do it quickly. Therefore, knowledge of portkeys is a must. Moreover, I would leave traces leading to my pursuers and play it in a way, that will make me an even bigger victim. Something like: "We fought while escaping and my pursuer forced me into the city and bla and bla and bla." Thankfully, with magic, you can create insane illusions and that is exactly what I am going for. * A few hours later* *Screech* The cry of a hippogriff broke the morning silence above Patras in Western Greece and all eyes no matter magical or not were glued to the scene above the city. A giant eagle... No, that would be an understatement. A huge monster was flying right behind the hippogriff, catching up to it with every second. It was a bird with a head of an eagle, but that''s where similarities to that proud bird would end. It had scales over its body which made it reflect light, yet its coloring was the darkest shade of black possible. Its claws were gigantic and were covered by coarse skin, while its tail had no feathers, but rather tentacles of some unknown substance waving together with wings that made the whole scene somewhat surrealistic. Despite its size, it was flying quite fast and had insane amounts of stamina, while the hippogriff looked like it will drop from the sky anytime. Moreover, there was somebody on top of the hippogriff shooting at the monster and looking at the spells'' power he was quite an accomplished wizard. Right above the city, the monster nearly caught up and lunged to finally get its claws onto the prey, but at that moment a young boisterous voice was heard: "Bombardo maxima!" *Boom* And an explosion was right above the "bird", which not only hurt it but also forced it to dive down under the force of the explosion. The Hippogriff with its rider was exhausted too, so he was diving down as well, albeit slower. *Crash* Soon another explosion was heard, but this time due to the monster crashing down to earth. The damage to the city was insane, but its altitude before crashing wasn''t that high, so injuries were quite light for it. Soon most of the wizards of the city collectively ran towards the monster to subdue and neutralize it. In the meantime, the person on the hippogriff was approached by a remainder of wizards. Their leader said in Greek: "Hands up where I can see them! Who are you and why did you lead that monster into the city!?" However, the man responded in English: "My name''s Magnus, I am from England. There is a group that wants to murder me and they sent this magical creature after me. A killing squad of wizards is following right behind it. I am truly sorry for leading them here, but I had no choice. Please, I need your help!" After looking into the stranger''s eyes for a good ten seconds, the leader replied in English, albeit with an accent: "Well, we first need to subdue that rampaging creature, so consider that our help, but after that, you owe us an explanation, mister Magnus." Then he said something in Greek to his men, but Magnus didn''t look worried about the content of what was said, because he saw something very reassuring. ¡º Speech 39 ? 40 ¡» ''Heh, with my abilities in "Occlumency" and "Speech" I can bullshit through any situation. These idiots from the Order have no idea who they are messing with.'' Chapter 55 - Announcement Made a bonus chap to congratulate everyone and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Already sent the chap to editor and in case editor will be unable to edit it today, I will upload unedited version later today(in 7-8 hours). Anyway, once more congrats with Christmas. Come to discord and give your ideas and opinions or just for a chat. Link in the previous chap comments. Also got a review and it was an honest review, so no problems there. But there was one point I have to clarify for all readers. The person said this : "... This isn''t a Harry Potter fanfic because it definitely wasn''t written by a fan. Just a guy who wants Potter fandom when really it''s to push his ideas of ''order'' and multiverses which he himself said he''d written about years ago... when I saw that I realized this isn''t the novel I was looking for." . I didn''t do it for Potter fandom. And yes I am not a fan and I don''t like Potterian and overall the Universe, because this Universe has no rules whatsoever, and gives zero explanation to anything. It''s clearly visible from the fact that majority of people still think that Harry didn''t die because he had all three artifacts of death or whatnot. ;) This however doesn''t mean that Universe or books are shit, it just means that I don''t really like this type of read. Either don''t explain a thing like it was done in works of Rick Riordan(not even gods know how the heck mist works... srsly...? ;) ) or go for in-depth explanation like in Patrick Rothfuss''s works(although even he is confusing sometimes, but hey... a lot of things in terms of magic were explained very well... for me at least :D ). But as I said, that''s just my preference. This novel was made for contest and the contest was about Harry Potter fanfic, so the fact that I am writing in this Universe is due to a collection of circumstances))) Of course, some people will be unconvinced and ask why I started specifically in this contest if I wasn''t a fan ahahaha, but who cares? Chapter 56 - Level 27[p10]. Mysterio People who found me and Bucky started leading me towards the monster which was rampaging in the middle of the city while conversing about something in Greek. This is problematic. After I get some free time I need to spend time learning different languages. Although not speaking their language fluently is alright, but not understanding anything people around you talk about is a serious complication for future BS''ing to these people. However, for now, with my current level in "Speech" and "Occlumency", I should be able to easily fool anyone in this backwater city. I mean how big is a possibility of a Boss on the level of Dumbledore appearing in this city? Plus, looking at how destructive my Animagus was to this city, it is obvious there are no truly strong wizards here. Not at the moment at least. Not sure about what''s is going to happen in the future. Speaking of my Animagus form, we reached the place where the fight was happening and honestly I was magnificent indeed. Spells were raining on top of my form, yet they had very little effect. Thanks to all the attributes I gained from killing various magical creatures, I had high resistance to both magical and physical attacks. Nonetheless, high resistance doesn''t mean invulnerability, so I need to finish this show as fast as possible, plus I was wasting a ton of magic and mental power to upkeep this illusion. And if you are still confused about how can I be in 2 places at the same time being in Animagus form and be here playing a victim, the answer is simple. I am not. I am physically here only in the Animagus form. The other me is only a simple but realistic illusion, which becomes only more believable thanks to it riding Bucky previously. Moreover, nobody touched me or had any physical contact, which made fooling even easier. As for the inspiration for this whole plan, it was a villain from Marvel, called Mysterio. His main powers were illusions and mind manipulation, so I decided to do something similar but with magic. Previously, when I transformed I couldn''t use magic, because the form was a manifestation of raw magic source and without body, there was nothing to channel that magic through. However, after I acquired tier 3 ability "Magic Rule", I can manipulate magic with pure thoughts. But there is always a catch. It is super taxing on my mind. Even now my head is splitting from a headache and it will only become worse than it is now. Therefore, now that I infiltrated the city''s magical community and got a little trust, I need to move towards the second act of this show, before I passed out because of exhaustion. My illusion self addressed the leader of the people who led me here. "Dear sir, what''s your plan on subduing this creature?" "How do I know? That''s the first time we met this sort of creature. However, looking at the situation at hand, it is obvious that the creature has resistance to charms similar to that of the dragon. So, I am thinking to try tactic we use on dragons." "You mean collective stunning spell? Nice idea." The tactic the man was talking about is for multiple wizards to cast the strongest stunning spell they are capable of at the dragon or another creature with a high level of the magical resistance. This will stack the effect of spell making it stronger and hopefully bypass resistance. One of the reasons manticores are so hard to kill. They are smaller and nimbler than dragons, which makes them harder targets. Anyway, I digress. The leader whose name I already forgot, gave a command to wizards around him and everyone started charging the spell, my illusion self included. That''s when my Animagus self, looked at the leader issuing commands. *Screech* After monster''s cry, hundreds of shadows spikes sprang from the ground intercepting the majority of stunning spells flying into the eagles. Then spikes have dissolved and eagle lunged at the leader, but that''s when my illusion had to step in. *** Aegeus, commander of the wizards'' department located in the city of Patras, for the first time in his life felt what true despair is like. This giant monster blocked all the stunning spells with some terrifying spikes coming from the depths of Hell and then lunged at him. At that moment he was frozen by both the fear towards the creature and understanding that he will die. But at that moment, somebody rushed in front of him and cried: "Bombarda Maxima" Then the ground beneath the lunging eagle exploded and the monster was tossed upwards, disrupting momentum and direction of the lunge. "Everyone, Stupefy him to oblivion!" And that''s when all wizards woke up from their stupor and started chanting spells once more and this time "eagle" was a bit late with his spikes, so half of the spells hit it. Understanding its perilous situation, it flapped its wings causing a strong gust of wind and decided to escape. The greek Wizards tried casting some stunning spells at the retreating figure, but the eagle quickly reached a height at which it will be unsafe to shoot the monster down to the ground. That''s when Aegeus stirred and stood up, but he didn''t even get to thank his savior, because when he looked in his direction he saw the Englishman was pierced in the abdomen by the pike. He ran up to him and screamed for medical ?ssistance to his Greek colleagues, but it was obvious that the person won''t survive. The spike went through his whole body piercing many important organs including the spine. Even magic won''t be able to save the person with such injuries. The commander expected seeing resentment, anguish or maybe remorse on the face of the dying, but the only thing he saw was smile. "Tell Harry Potter, I am sorry." And that''s when he closed his eyes forever this time. *In the meantime* I was going through the magical commune unimpeded because everyone was out there trying to deal with the mess I created. The Commune was similar in a sense to the Diagon Alley but much smaller in scale and with less powerful enchantments. As for me dying, was actually a trick I was quite proud of. With transmutation, I changed the body of the already dead person to fit my look and left in the place where I should have been dying. All that was left to do is for me to create an illusion and to play it when somebody came close to the corpse. After which I am asking them to convey Harry my "sorry". This way, I kill two birds with one stone. First, is making everyone think that I am dead. And although it is not going to fool my pursuers, it will prevent them from using the wizard communities of this world to look after me, especially after I already labeled them as bad guys. And second, this message should hopefully resolve the resentment of Harry at me for things I said in anger. I mean he is still a kid and shouldn''t hold a grudge on a dead man, especially after he asked for forgiveness. This way I will be excused from the anger of MC and his plot armor. Actually, I didn''t need to "die" at all. I could have done something else. However, I always loved tragedies and it provided a good opportunity to raise "Speech" skill, so it was actually four birds with one stone. Now I was going through every building getting everything precious from there. With my "Magic Rule" I don''t even need "Accio" to rob everything good in here. Although it is more complicated and takes more magic power than a simple summoning charm, it is more effective. And, magic power is just energy, so it''s not a problem for me since I have a black hole producing millions of Kelvins every second. I can just convert that energy to magic power easily and with it feed any spell I need. That''s how I was able to support the illusion. The only problem is that this conversion is super slow and inefficient, which bars me from using it in actual fights. It is only useful in stable environments where I have time to set up everything for this. Plus this conversion array is capable of supporting only those spells that drain energy slowly. So, it can support giant illusions because it drains a giant amount of energy but in small dosages, but can''t support a single Killing curse as its instant drain on magic is quite big. But I strayed once again. Time to rob the hell out of this place. Chapter 57 - Level 27 [p11]. Mask of Terror The biggest city of Greece, Athens, as well as the heart for all wizards living in Greece. And there are two reasons for this. The first is simple, the magical government resides in this city. However, the second reason is a bit complicated. Greece has always been a very mysterious place with ancient history, and it happens to be the birthplace to some of the most dangerous creatures, including manticores, basilisks, chimaeras, three-headed dogs, hydras, cyclops, ???katrices, and many others. Thanks to that, Greece became of the most popular hunting grounds of magical creatures in the world and gave birth to an organization that specializes in hunting of especially dangerous creatures. This organization existed since ancient times and was successful in completely wiping out some of these extremely dangerous creatures. Its name was "¦ª¦Ô¦Í¦Ç¦Ã¦Ï? ¦Ã¦É¦Á ¦Ó?¦Ñ¦Á¦Ó¦Á" or "Monster Hunters". Throughout the centuries this group changed its name multiple times, but its goal remained the same. Extermination of monsters. Although, such an institute wasn''t unique to Greece, "¦ª¦Ô¦Í¦Ç¦Ã¦Ï? ¦Ã¦É¦Á ¦Ó?¦Ñ¦Á¦Ó¦Á" remains to be the most renown one in the world. That''s why despite the small number of wizards in Greece, most of them are extremely powerful, all with their own inheritances. And that''s exactly the second reason. The headquarters of this organization is located in Athens, which makes it a center of trade in all sorts of ingredients gathered from the most dangerous of magical creatures and the best place to visit if you are looking for a specific creature. With these 2 organizations in town, its defense was nothing to scoff at and no one in the right mind would think about attacking this city. However, today is different. Today, the magical community of Athens will know the definition of terror. *** One of the destination points of the portkey-system in Greece was set to be inside the Hunters HQ. Its underground floor to be precise. Of course, the whole room was enchanted to check if a person "porting" belonged to the organization. However, for the first time in the last few centuries, somebody unauthorized tried to breach into the building and surprisingly these enhancements were not enough to stop the intruder. A couple of senior wizards entered the room and took our wands waiting for an unknown ?ssailant to breach the enchantments. The youngest of them suddenly asked in Greek: "Shouldn''t we stop him or something?" But two other elder wizards harshly rebuked him: "And how would you do that? These are working enchantments! Even Merlin wouldn''t be audacious enough to mess with enchantments while they are working." "Of course, you can try pouring your magic into enchantments. That is if you think you have more magic power than this whole building''s enchantments gathered in the last few decades." The young wizard embarrassed after the rebuke quickly quietened down and stop asking questions. "Plus these enchantments are symbolic. They are there to tell whoever ''ports'' here without proper rights, that this place belongs to us, hunters and they better scram fast. But even if "porting" enchantments are symbolic, he should know that there will be other defensive enchantments as well as hunter wizards." "So, who do you think is dumb enough to barge into our HQ?" "No idea, but whoever he is, he is persistent." Soon somebody appeared and wizards got panicked a little at first, thinking ?ssailant was a magical creature. ''He had no face!'' This was the first thought appearing in these wizards'' minds, but soon they recollected themselves and pointed their wands at the stranger. Speaking of the stranger. It was a male based on his build. On his face was a mask that covered his whole head, including the neck. It was so nicely crafted that its surface looked exactly like pale skin. But compared to a real face it lacked all features other than holes for eyes. But even his eyes looked somewhat intimidating. With how the mask was crafted, the whites of his eyes were faded in the background and only black irises were visible. He wore a dark cloak on top of him, with a dark leather vest underneath it and similar leather pants, boots and gloves. Dark clothes and white mask created a very unnatural vibe around the stranger. He didn''t feel human. Despite all that, these wizards were weathered hunters who fought many dangerous monsters across the world. One of them shouted: "Who are you and why are you barging into the ..." But wizard didn''t finish his question, because the ?ssailant marched straight towards them, ignoring all their questions. "Attack" Soon a myriad of spells was cast and blinding radiance filled the room, but soon paleness overcame faces of the wizards in the room. Spells coming at the stranger were akin to a punch from a kid. They didn''t even faze him. The only reaction they got from the man in the mask, was him brushing imaginary dust from clothes. "Continue! Don''t stop. Coordinate the attacks!" Then, ignoring all the charms hitting him, he slowly raised his hand up in the air and made a grasping motion and pulling his hand back. *Woosh* All the wands left the hands of their masters only to appear hovering around the stranger. Soon, he reached both of his hands to grasp a wand. With a wand in each hand, he made the most theatrical move imaginable, quickly spreading his hands apart akin to kapellmeister, cutting the air. *Swish* And yet, the effect of the move was tremendous with all the wizards flying back as if hit by a train, only to hit the walls and ceilings. Looking at the force of the push, at the very least they should have lost consciousness. Hearing the clamor happening on the underground floor, more wizards came running, only to see a strange person exiting from the port-destination room, with a wand in each hand. Quick-witted half of the newcomers instantly understood what happened and took out their wands to attack the stranger, but... He waved the wands once, and all of them repeated the fate of the previous group of wizards. Like a terminator, he continued his march through the building''s floors, unstoppable. Of course, not all wizards can be so easily defeated, but the strongest wizards in Athens were currently on the meeting concerning the attack on Patras by the unknown magical creature in the form of the eagle. Moreover, due to such exposure of magical danger to muggles, the best wizards of Greece had to travel to Patras to mitigate the situation and help with obliviating of population. After all charming, the whole city is no small accomplishment. And obviously, one of the greatest wizards in Greece and current leader of the "¦ª¦Ô¦Í¦Ç¦Ã¦Ï? ¦Ã¦É¦Á ¦Ó?¦Ñ¦Á¦Ó" couldn''t have missed such an occasion. Plus as the leader of Monster Hunters, he was called to help with identifying the monster and creating some countermeasures to fight that creature. Unfortunately, upon arriving in Patras, the strongest wizards of the country learned something completely incomprehensible. Somebody robbed the magical community of this city clean and this made the whole case much more complicated. Because not only did they have to deal with muggles in the city, but also with wizards who lost everything valuable they owned and demanded compensation from the Ministry. However, this was only the beginning of the bad news. A few hours later, when the leader of the hunters'' guild was informed of the situation in the capital, he nearly puked blood from anger and anguish. The current Minister of Magic in Greece was surprised seeing his old friend all flushed, b?r?ly standing and clutching at his heart. What can excite this calm hunter to this level? "What happened, old friend? What got you so fired up?" "There was an attack on our guild''s HQ!" "What!? Which group dares to attack the capital of Greece?!" Then a person who initially informed his guild leader about the attack gave a detail that astounded everyone around. "It''s not a group. It''s a single man..." Chapter 60 - Level 27 [p12]. More "hunting" and finally... Two days have passed after the attack on Athens. I acquired all the information on all of the dangerous monsters across the Greek World as well as some of the adjacent countries. That info included habitats of a Manticore, Chimaera and a Sea Serpent. So, with all that information I started my slaugh-... I mean hunting spree. Of course, there were other promising monsters amongst the ones described in the acquired information, but I was short on time I could spend on hunting for new traits. The Order was after me and I could feel that they are getting close. However, with all the problems I made in Greece, it will be hard for them to get any support. Plus, they will be looking for a dead man at that point. At least, thats how it goes in my mind. Moreover, after sacking Athens''s magical commune, Greeks will look after a scapegoat for their problems for sure. So, these idiots from Order will be walking into a bunch of angry robbed wizards. In these two days, I was able to hunt down a manticore and a chimaera, but getting to a Sea Serpent was impossible due to time constraints. After all, searching through and in the Mediterranean Sea is no fast job. Anyway, I still should have around a day or so. Looking at how the Order''s dogs used Hermione to get my location, it is obvious that they are incapable of tracking my magical signature across the world. Thus, they need to find me with old fashioned deduction. Time to escape Greece. *One day later, somewhere near Athens* "Aaargh!!" Sound of an angry roar was heard in the mountains of Greece. Two men were seen sitting. One of them was furiously pacing back and forth, while another was patiently waiting for his companion to calm down. "How? How did he make us the bad guys? Now the half of the wizarding world considers us to be the bad guys. First in Britain and now here, that fu?k?n? progeny fu?ks us up every time. And you are a freaking God, where are your Godly powers!? Do some mumbo jumbo and divine us the location of that boy!" "I am God of a world that died," calmy replied Dark to raging Markus, "But even in my world I couldn''t just divine somebody''s location. This was and is not my divine domain. I am a God of Darkness." "Long explanation for one word, useless." "Well, indeed I am useless. I am a battle machine with a few abilities to gather information. But wizards of Athens are not your average weaklings. I can''t transfer hundreds of wizards inside my domain. I will lose too much divinity and I don''t have a lot of it, to begin with." "Well, I tried hacking humans'' system and get access to them, but they are too damn old. Their satellites can''t even recognize people. Moreover, all their satellites are b?r?ly good enough to map the planet. In my world..." "Oh, don''t start with that, please. We all know that Ceasar is great and your empire magnificent, and bla, bla, bla." *Sigh* "We are back to square one. We don''t know where is he or where he goes. Moreover, he didn''t leave any magical signatures to trace back. And mages here don''t want to help us, thinking that we are the ones who attacked them." "I told you. You can''t outplay Athena. And me hoping to outsmart her was indeed a waste of time..." Dark ruefully smiled, accepting the fact that he lost to her intellect again. "But he is not Athena... He is but a progeny." Markus couldn''t accept it. "Athena needs just a word to start a chain of actions that will turn the world upside down. Plus, you shouldn''t forget that just by mere presence, Athena affects the Universe and slowly changes the fabric of reality." "I thought that was a myth. Even if she is an AI, she shouldn''t be capable of rewiring the Universe." "When your IQ passes six digits, you become pretty overpowered." Markus was opening and closing his mouth, hoping to say something, but he couldn''t. After ten minutes of silence, he finally sighed and tiredly sat near Dark. "What''s the plan, Dark?" "Well, if we catch him, he is dead. But catching him is a problem. In this Universe, he won''t be able to reach godhood and looking at his current power level, even you can defeat him with proper preparation. So, we need to come up with something that will help us in tracking him down." "You mean building an intelligence unit here?" *In the meantime, somewhere in Turkey* I, Bucky, and Blacky were quickly moving towards China, stopping only to buy maps in the biggest cities. During the day, I leveled up my "Riding Expertise" which gave me that last bit of experience to cross over level 28. And although it was a relatively fast level up, to me it felt like an eternity passed, thanks to all the running from Order, fighting and robbing the cities. As for why China? Well, that country is the greatest mystery in wizarding circles due to how closed off their magical commune is. So, I thought, escaping there might be a good idea. Based on the research I did prior to my decision of traveling there: "China is the only country that houses 3 magical schools. The first ones are Sword Riders of the east, also known as prodigies in terms of magical craft. They were also known as cultivators, but that was misinterpreted as becoming stronger by collecting energy inside their bodies. What they cultivated were their swords. In a sense, their swords were similar to an energy core to which many other artifacts could be attached. And throughout their life they were enchanting and improving their swords with different modules, making them faster, stronger and etc. The second group is Martial Artists who spend their life learning self-transfiguration but compared to African shamans who walk the path of Animagi, they forged their own path. That path was to forge their body into a true definition of a weapon. Iron Fist wasn''t just a metaphorical move in their commune. You might have noticed how fight oriented the first two schools, right? Well, that''s because they were in the state of war for more than 5 centuries and the war was finally stopped by combined efforts of the Chinese Magical Ministry and the Monks. Thanks to that China entered a relatively peaceful era, with all 3 schools in balance. However, that peace was achieved only recently, which explains why their community started opening up to the rest of the world only now." What I recited was basically the only information known about China, cited from the notes of the famous Italian explorer(obviously a wizard). I was quite shocked when I found these notes in the book store in Florence. I instantly bought it together with a bunch of other books. These notes contained a lot of useful information about dozen of countries across the world including entering points, big magical gatherings and description of famous magicians. Overall, this was a treasure for a guy like me who wished to travel across the world. But enough of that. Back to traveling to China! All that sword riding and whatnot can be interesting to learn, so I might enter one of the schools, but my prior reason is how isolated the community is. There I can safely train for the next 3 or 4 years, without worrying about my pursuers. Finally, some peace. Chapter 66 - Level 46 - Meeting Marcus and Dark *** Markus was sitting at the table, reading a report he received just now. After immersing into it for a few minutes, he finally raised his head and said, seemingly into an empty room: "There is something wrong with the signal that we received a few days ago." But as soon as he said that, one of the darker corners in the room coalesced into a figure of a man. Dark. "What is it?" He coldly asked. "Exactly, what we feared. Two teams dead. Their life signatures are out. As for the third team... They were unable to find anything and had to escape. Chinese Monks sent in people to detain the team, so we had to extract them." "He is there. I am sure of it." "Even if he is, we can''t do shit, Dark and you know it. We have neither people nor resources to barge into their country." "Weren''t their magical forces in disarray, indulging in infighting." "They were, but so what? It''s still one country. If somebody attacks them, they''ll respond like a firm community. After two World Wars and occupation, they''ve become quite aggressive towards outsiders. So, uniting won''t be a problem. Plus, it was never our intention to become an enemy of a magical government." After thinking a little, Dark just snorted and said: "Doesn''t matter. If they are hiding him, then we will crush them. Right now, we have both power and influence to do that." *Sigh* A tired sigh escaped Markus. After which he slowly said: "That''s exactly, what we can''t do, Dark. Can''t you see? This course of action will lead us to war, we don''t want. We should first stabilize our forces." "No. It''s you who doesn''t see the situation clearly. Listen, Markus, the progeny is getting stronger every day. Speaking in this world terms, we need to ''Nip it in the bud''. This Universe is perfect in the sense that it has no real power growth. However, the opposite is also true. Because there is no growth, there are also no limits set on the power levels of the user. So, by the time we have influence, we might have not enough power to crush him." "But..." "No ''but''s here Markus. It''s simple math. This organization and all of the people in it are just a resource, to achieve a goal. And the goal is to kill the progeny. If need be, sink China in blood for all I care, but Athena needs to die." Markus, can''t help but grind his teeth in silent anger. For the last 2 years, he''s been working non-stop on the growth of this organization. And although he did it for the sole reason of killing the progeny, he can''t help but get close to people, working in it. And although he knew that Dark was right, he still was furious about how uncaring Gods were about other living beings. Dark noticed Markus''s reaction but decided to ignore it. After all, mortals have this bad tendency to bind to their tools, especially if tools are alive. "I understand. Then what''s your plan? We still have no clue about his location." "We don''t? Didn''t you say we have gained some signatures before." "We did and as I just told you, it was an absolute failure. We can say that he is in one of the places, where teams died, but you must remember the last time, we tried to track him down, right? We achieved the opposite, by informing him of our presence. I''m afraid now, we achieved similar results, so he probably escaped those locations. Or at least on his way to escape them." "Hm..." "Moreover, it seems too... random. That guy wouldn''t have slipped like this, leaving such an obvious trace leading to him, after close to 2 years of hiding. He isn''t that dumb." "Maybe, it''s the opposite here. There were traces of magic firing across the whole country if I remember correctly. Maybe he was trying to do something, but couldn''t do it unnoticed. So, he decided to increase the area affected." Markus took on a thoughtful expression "That... could be true," but after a minute of silence, he continued, "However, this doesn''t cancel the problem we had in the first place. We still don''t know his exact location. And unless you propose to scour the whole China for him, please think over another solution." "Biggest magical signatures. You said that we lost 2 teams on them, right? I will personally go and check them out. There might be some hints left there..." Hearing Dark''s idea, Markus could only frown. "I have a very bad feeling about this idea, Dark. Please reconsider. It can be a trap." "No matter what, he can''t kill me. No matter what, I remain a God." "With a damaged source, that is." "Even then, I remain a god. Moreover, my domain is darkness and shadows. I can escape anytime, so don''t worry." "That exactly what worries me. It was you who told me to be always wary of Athena. ''She''s always one step ahead'' - were your words. What if she expected this move? What if there is a trap, designed specifically for you?" Dark couldn''t retort. He knew that the possibility of this being a trap was high, but what other options they had? He already made a mistake, once. He can''t... No! He won''t repeat it. "What other options we have? Last time, we tried to capture him quietly, he escaped our radars for nearly 2 years. And in these 2 years, I bet he wasn''t fooling around. He is growing stronger with every second. We''ve already alerted him of our presence with those teams, we sent. This action can force him to escape once more. And if he succeeds this time, I doubt we will be able to track him back for a second time." "That was true in the past, but now we have control over the satellites. We can literally, see every place on Earth, live!" "So? This system is active for a whole month already, but all we got was some magical emission in China. And that''s it." "Well, true, but that''s because the quality of those satellites is crap. However, we are improving every day. And soon..." "Soon, he might be out of our radars.", Dark said tiredly and seeing how Markus was ready to continue the argument, he continued, "Anyway, I think it''s pointless to proceed with this conversation. I am going to check him out. So, just trust me, this time." *Sigh* "Do whatever you want...", after which Markus leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He started massaging his neck to ease the tension from sitting stiffly for so long. "Get some rest. I will be back soon." Dark said, before dissolving in the darkness. Chapter 67 - Level 46 - Gods Eyes [{God''s Eyes} have labeled a new conversation as ''Important''. Conversation, captured, was between 2 targets with ''High'' priority.] "Finally! They made a move. Were they Dark and Marcus?" [Positive.] "Track Dark and as soon as he reaches Shanghai, inform me. Also, make sure to track Markus, but Dark remains a priority." [Tasks recorded. Compiling new commands set to {God''s Eyes}.] ''Aha, I probably forgot to explain what God''s Eyes, right? Well... let me do just that.'' It''s a system of magically enhanced satellites connected to each other, creating an Intranet of my own and allowing me and the system a constant connection to the Internet of things anywhere on the planet. I spent an insane amount of time to build this system and it went live approximately 8 months ago. Overall I launched 2000 thousands of satellites to circle around Earth creating my personal domain, where nothing can escape my vision. With this system, I got access to every little dirty secret of anyone on Earth. And because these satellites were a symbiosis of magic and technology, they had a lot more features than just spying and all-time Wi-Fi. One such feature was the ability to cast any spell at any distance. So while sitting in China, I can cast a spell in America. That was because every satellite was a magical reactor, converting electricity into magical energy connected directly to another creation of mine {Ring System}. So, before that, I had to support the {Ring System} from my Temple of Miracles, which limited the work of the rings to an area around the temple and limited my usage of Blacky, because it served as a power source for that contraption. But now, I could cover the whole planet with this system. Of course, this system drains an insane amount of energy every second. The amount is actually comparable to what one average US state drains in the same period. And having a black hole as a familiar wouldn''t help. There was an idea to create a mini black hole for each satellite and use it as a core, but it''s not sustainable. You see mini black holes are producing so much energy because they are burning out. And without feeding them on a constant basis I can forget about getting that energy out. And feeding 2 thousand mini black holes is impossible even for me. Moreover, I can''t just overfeed black hole, because then they will produce less energy. The more massive it is, the less it''s willing to part with that mass, a.k.a. energy. In the end, I had to find a way to produce something, that produces energy on a long basis and doesn''t require often maintenance. And most of the ideas were scrapped for inefficiency, right until I found out an incredible thing. There is a charm to defend against radiation! It was at this moment, I understood something so simple, yet so profound. My thinking was too limited. I finally started thinking out of the box. Magic is in a sense ''Deus Ex Machina'', that is capable of anything and has no virtual limits. This was how my idea of an Ultimate Nuclear Reactor came to life. You see, the main problem in all nuclear reactors is the waste they produce. Then comes radiation and heat, or shielding against them to be precise. Both heat and radiation are types of energy. Plus, in reality, all energy types are the same thing, which is movement. Magic energy is an exception, though. I don''t even really know what it is. I can feel it, yes, but that''s where it ends. Thanks to my insanely high magical talent I can feel the presence of something in the atmosphere decrease whenever a spell is a cast, so I just called it energy. But is it really? I think it''s more appropriate to call it ''Mana'' rather than energy. It doesn''t follow the same rules. By the way, another thing I noticed, is that everything in this Universe, whether it''s an object or a creature produces that Mana. Including me. And apparently, it''s somehow connected to the amount of magical talent. Because, compared to the majority of monks and other types of wizards, I produce a gigantic amount of Mana. I noticed it, just when I reached level 30. My magic talent quadrupled back then and I started feeling something seeping out of me. Moreover, that Mana was seeping out of me in such quantities that it started to attract attention. Specifically, some dark magical creatures starting coming after my as*Cough* I meant life. After my life. Personally, it wasn''t a big deal. But I had to learn how to control that process sooner rather than later because at some point wizards and even muggles may start noticing my presence without me wanting them to. And there was a possibility, that it could leave some tracks that can be traced back to me. So, as you might guess, it was ''no bueno'' back then. I tried out many things, but because I am not an MC of some kind of a novel, I can''t just come up with a genius idea of where to use the Mana I am generating. So, I just tried shoving it into Blacky. It worked. Not perfect, but hey... I needed a fast solution, so no judging. It took me a few days to get accustomed to constantly move excess of Mana to my familiar, but then I was good. Of course, even to this day, I am researching a good way to utilize this Mana. However, the stronger I am becoming the harder it''s to utilize that resource, without leaking. Plus, it forces me to always stay close to Blacky and if I leave I have to take it with me. Which was a big problem, before I implemented {God''s Eyes}. Anyway, I decided to just wait until I destroy those 2 hunters and then deal with Mana I''m producing. ''Oops, got distracted. Back to the topic.'' After days of experimentations, a new enchantment, based on those I used to collect energy Blacky emits, was made. It converts both of these energies into electricity. And from then on, I already have an enchantment to transform electricity into Mana. Still, no clue how exactly transformation happens, but oh well. Let''s just use the excuse ''It''s Magic!''. Then I made a chamber which is basically a place where all the chain reactions are happening. Stealing a schematic of one such chamber and making a personal version of it was easy. Especially, when you are controlling a country from the shadows. And in that personal version, I dealt with the biggest problem of all nuclear reactors. Nuclear Waste. You see, it''s called waste because it''s radioactive enough to cause harm, but not effective enough to work as a fuel. So, it can''t be used in reactors anymore and have to be kept somewhere else, because by being inside the reactor they decrease the energy output of the whole fuel and at some point can even stop chain reaction altogether. It''s a complicated process connected to neutron poisons. So, normally that waste remains a waste for thousands upon thousands of years and out of 100% fuel, 95% becomes waste. Of course, if you refine it continuously, you can decrease waste from 95% up to 5%. But the thing is, I can''t get out fuel, refine it and then put it back in 2000 thousand satellites manually, right. So the first thing I optimized, is automatic refinement. I added a few enchantments to the core chamber itself for that exact purpose. Of course, the problem of those remaining 5% remained. But I dealt with it pretty easily, actually. Whenever waste can''t be refined anymore, it''s directly apparated to the outer reaches of the Sun, and new fuel is apparated inside. Energy is taken from the batteries, where excess produced by the reactors is saved. There, I am sure nobody will touch it for the next few millennia. And if not, well... I am not leaving a biography. "..." ''What? Did you expect me to somehow come up with a miraculous way to transform that waste? Well, sorry. Plus, "nuclear" works bad with "transfiguration", so uhm... you know...'' Anyway, after that, I made a hollow sphere with enchantment to collect energy. Then transferred the chamber inside of it with a bit of magic. And finally installed that sphere inside another sphere that is capable of transforming electricity into Mana. But hey, I did it. And I did spectacularly! Back to topic, though. That sphere wasn''t small, but who said you can''t shrink potentially explosive radioactive generator? ''Funny right? Transfiguration doesn''t work well, but shrinking a whole generator worked perfectly fine. Magic, damn it, doesn''t want to make sense...'' As I said, magic became my ''God from Machine''. So, I started combining magic with technology even more often. But that''s beyond conversation for one night. Back to satellites. Shrunk down versions of such magically enhanced generators were placed in every satellite. Although getting so much radioactive material was hard, thanks to my ?ssociates in government I was able to get stable fuel income for the next couple of years. ''And that was only a generator for those babies. If you knew what I did for lenses and other parts...'' Chapter 68 - Level 46 - Artificial Universes Anyway, via the satellite system, I can attach a magic marker to anyone and track them in real-time with no structures as a limit. Tracking includes both visual and sound types of data. However, I didn''t only save that data. I made an algorithm that analyses and labels information. And based on its importance, it can even notify me. Because both Marcus and Dark are marked individuals of high priority, their conversation was labeled as important and sent to me immediately. And don''t even ask me how I connected the Ring System, Satellites and The System of mine together. Athena helped me with that. I can''t even imagine, how would I survive without her knowledge and advice. But anyway, back to the topic. This move from Order''s hunters was already expected. Not by me, though. By Sabrina, or one of her identities. No clue, which specifically. She came up with a plan of swift neutralization of the whole structure and both of their leaders. Speaking of leaders. They are not your random nobodies. These guys are elite of the Order. Or at least they were until their home Universes have fallen. You see, apparently, both of them are coming from Artificial Universes or Solo Universes, depending on your whereabouts in the endless Creation. Athena previously mentioned a little bit about such worlds, but it was hectic at that time and she couldn''t go into details. But during this very long ''power-up time'', I learned quite a few things about Worlds, Creation, the Creator, the Order, the Counsel and so much more. Although my level still limits me in terms of how much I can learn, I stopped being absolutely clueless about the Forces around me. Back to Artificial Universes or to be precise, what makes them ''Artificial''. A unique point of such Worlds is the fact that they have no saving mechanisms. Most of the Universes in one way or another have something serving as Power Source. It''s their core. And also it''s Hardrive. That core saves all possible versions of reality. Confusing? Okay, let me put it this way. Whenever there is a possibility that one choice may drastically change history, both choices will be saved as parallel realities. Moreover, core tracks progress on all realities at the same time. Whenever it sees that 2 parallel Universes came to the same result and changes of the past don''t affect it anymore, it will merge these 2 timelines into one. That''s why Core is sometimes called ''the Time of the Universe''. However, what happens when the change is so drastic that it changes Universe, making it unrecognizable from its original version. The core is incapable of supporting two drastically different Universes at the same time, so it severs the changed version. Of course, it''s not happening instantly, but the more time passes, the bigger divide between parallels is becoming, thus speeding up the split. ''So what?'' you may ask. But just please, stay patient. It should make sense in a minute. Because Artificial Universe has no core and no saving mechanism, it literally has only one chance. If it''s destroyed, it''s destroyed. As for time travel... In such Universes, it''s impossible because World''s Mind(which is a topic for another evening on itself) will not allow any changes to its timeline. And both Marcus''s and Dark''s homeworlds have been destroyed. Strangely though, Athena has no information on how exactly they were destroyed. But I digress. For normal people, the destruction of the Universe means death. Why? Well, you see all Worlds works with their own laws. Physics in one Universe is different from physics in the other. Some don''t even have physics. Some exist in 20 dimensions. And some exist in only one, in which no typical life is possible. However, despite that, most creatures can travel to other Universes, because we always keep a piece of our own World inside. It''s an inborn trait if you want. Point is, that such connection allows people to travel across the Multiverse and even Creation. And the stronger creature becomes, the stronger connection to the Universe becomes and the more power you are allowed to borrow from your mother world. And that''s where the problem lies. Artificial worlds don''t have a core. Hence, the only way for them to produce energy, oh so required to continue existence, is the population of the world itself. Both living and dead parts of the population. Just by existing, everything in the Creation produces some sort of energy or another type of resource, similar to how in my current Universe everything produces Mana. And in normal worlds, this energy is collected by the Core and properly controlled by World''s Minds, but Solo Worlds lack a core. This means, that this resource is continuously produced. Unmanaged, it increases its own density of in that World. This, in turn, increases the probability of stronger creatures appearing. And the stronger something is in the Creation, the more energy it produces. All these interesting facts created a situation where Artificial Worlds became places labeled as ''High-Risk-High-Reward''. And if you understood the ''High-Reward'' part, let me explain to you ''High-Risk'' one. The strength you gather in one Universe works properly only in borders of that specific Universe. To put it simpler. A strong cultivator, from Xianxia world, will be a weakling in the Harry Potter''s one, simply because his power comes from another Universe. Fortunately, most Universes(their consciousness to be precise) are smart and sly. They let strong people borrow the resource produced by them as a... sort of investment. If they become stronger, they will produce more of the resource/energy/Mana/Prana/etc. Furthermore, because the Universe is connected to every one of her creations anyway, it''s getting its dividends back, no matter where her child''s located. Even in other Universes. So it becomes a win-win situation for all. Or so you may think. Laws don''t just cover strength. It covers everything. From complicated dimensional interactions to simple acts of breathing. A weak human being, outside of his Universe, will die in a few seconds if not supported by his mother world. Now, imagine, what happens if you kill or destroy everything in the Artificial world. It will run out of energy. Even if pebble can produce energy the same way an animal does, the difference in quantity is huge. Pebble is b?r?ly covering its price of existence with the energy it produces. Of course, for creatures on the level of Marcus or Dark, it wasn''t hard to survive. Nonetheless, the consequences were dire. They lost a substantial part of their strength. But before going into the details, let me explain the background of these two and their respective Universes. And trust me. It''s not boring. Plus, I have nothing better to do, while waiting for System''s notification. Knowing, Dark''s character, he will take his time getting to Shanghai. And we will start with Marcus, the Great Centurion and his homeworld. Roman Universe. Chapter 69 - Level 46 - Orders beginning Let me start the story with a bit of background first. The ''Order'', that hunts me at the moment, didn''t always work like this. In the past, that organization worked to bring order to any World they visited, rather than fixing their timelines. Hence the name. And the first leader of the ''Order'' was a legendary man, whose enemies called him Death, due to how bloody murderous he was. Later generations gave him the title ''Thanatos''. God of Death in Greek''s mythology. You might ask, ''How''s killing helps with bringing the order?''. Well, Thanatos was never a man of words. He was a person of action and his understanding of order was closer to that of the famous ''Emperor of Mankind''. If there is a person bringing chaos, he won''t talk with him or negotiate. He will simply kill him. Then kill those who followed the guy. Then his supporters. Then those who were connected to supporters. By the time the first leader finished ''bringing order'', there weren''t many left to disturb said order any more. And obviously, as an exceptionally powerful being with little life experience, this guy was super idealistic. He believed in the greater good, helping innocents, murder bad guys, save good guys. All that type of crap. Another thing he really liked was time travel. And let me tell you. This guy didn''t think about the consequences of his actions. And one such consequence was rewriting the history, where Gaius Julius Caesar survives the attack in Senat. The effect of this change was huge on its own, but Thanatos went even further, which he later regretted. He granted Caesar immortality. Now imagine a genius general, that miraculously survived an ?ssassination attempt and became immortal afterward, in the country where people seriously believe in Gods and other mythological crap? In short, he became sanctified by the people of the Empire. Not just a demigod, but a literal God. Unfortunately, his low fertility remained to be his curse. Moreover, the impossibility to pass immortality to kids became a problem later down the road. However, in the first few centuries, Caesar has started the Golden Age of the Roman Empire. The year I(1) of the new Calendar, marks the beginning of the new Age, later named ''Golden Age of Roman Empire''. In a span of 40 years, Africa, Europe, and Asia were conquered. It might sound impossible, but just imagine it, a smart and experienced general that needs no rest plus cannot be killed by no mortal means. He became an unstoppable machine. Armies fell under his own and his battalions'' might. No ruler could go against him. Plus only 20 out of those 40 years were full of wars. Later 20 years, the majority of the Old World''s population knew about his immortality and might. So they surrendered. What choice they had, when defeat was only a matter of time? Then began a time of invention. All the resources ''collected'' so far were invested in science, art, music, infrastructure, and medicine. The most brilliant minds of the conquered lands were flocking to the capital, Rome, under promises of wealth and fortune. The technological rise was unprecedented. The industrial revolution hit the Empire by the 80ties of the new calendar. First, two things that were revolutionized were transportation and medicine. After all, ruling an Empire spanning 3 continents, which at that time was considered a whole world, can be problematic without any system for communication. And, of course, a better numerical system was created, although, it took some time for a few stubborn mathematicians to accept the fact that the previous system had quite some flaws. Strangely, most of the progress didn''t directly affect the military. But from another perspective, it made sense, because the whole world already belonged to the Empire. There was no enemy to compare with. They were apriori the strongest. ''There might be other lands beyond the endless spans of water!'' This event created waves in the scientific community because prior to this date, water transportation and specifically, ships were never a focus of the Empire''s research. From then on, Fleet of the Empire was remodeled and remade. And soon after, hundreds of ships were sent around the world to find these unknown lands. Soon both America and Australia, as well as close-by islands have been discovered, but in that Universe, they were collectively called "Terra Nova" or "Newly found land". Transportation of the army, adaptation to unknown lands as well as learning new languages took quite some time. But what is time to an Immortal Emperor? By September, Year 186 of the new Calendar, Planet Earth and its inhabitants became a part of the Roman Empire. That''s how significant that change was. Although there were debates, as Athena informed me, whether gifting immortality to a person or letting, specifically Caesar, live, led to such changes. Anyway, after all that, you most certainly will have a question. ''Why the heck we need all that information?'' And the answer is simple. This Empire served as the foundation for the "Order". As Emperor owed his immortality to the Thanatos, he happily fulfilled any wishes that guy had. People, resources, technologies, armies and so much more were provided solely by the Roman Empire. And although, small in the beginning, Empire has grown to a whole Galaxy in a span of a few thousand years. Therefore, it is important to understand why that Universe was so important and how exactly Marcus came into the ranks of Order''s Fixers Squad. You see, serving in the Army was always an honorable and lucrative job in Rome and nothing changed even in the far future. Actually, something did change. Soldiers weren''t simple humans anymore. They became genetically modified soldiers walking in the heavy power armor. ''Huh? Space Marines? What Space Marines? What do you mean I am breaking Intelectual rights? Wait, why are you calling Inquisition?! Put down that cogitator!'' *Some loud noises in the background* ''Kidding! Obviously, there is no Inquisition or Ordo Malleus in this Universe, he-he... he... he...'' *Quietly whispers ''Emperor protects''* Compared to Astartes from Warhammer 40k Universe, these soldiers relied mostly on machines. To make it easier for you to understand, these warriors were the Capitan America in Iron Man suit. Clear enough? I mean yeah, Cap is strong, but let''s be honest, he is still a human. So, even genetically modified they remained human. Just slightly better, stronger, faster and smarter. However, their tech covered for the majority of their weaknesses. Nanite Blood, Brain connected to Quantum Server with Implanted AI and a lot of other cool benefits. And to the best of these warriors, an offer was made. A chance to serve something higher than an Empire spanning one Galaxy. They were offered to serve the "Order". I think you can guess the rest of the story. This is a background of that Marcus guy. That also explains all the tech that he brought to this world. I mean his special teams were all wearing some fancy sci-fi armor, while his ?ssistant was an AI. That rose quite a few questions for me, back then. As for another guy, he is also incredible. So incredible, really, that I have to take him out of the picture first, before going after Marcus or their newly found organization. And his name is "Tenebrae", a.k.a. "God of Darkness", from the world of limitless possibilities. World of Unbound Gods. Chapter 70 - Level 46 - Encounter So, let''s start with... [User, Dark has been spotted in Shanghai.] ''Oh. How long was I sitting here?'' [Hour and a half.] ''Oh... And I thought only a a few minutes passed. Oh well, let''s start the show, then.'' And with a sound of air ripping Magnus apparated away. *** It didn''t take long for Dark to reach the first suspicious location. It was one of the highest buildings in Shanghai. Thankfully, it was around 11pm in the area, so Dark was in his native element during the night. He stealthily entered the building and started climbing it, level by level. During the climb, he was carefully scanning every floor with his divine sense, trying to notice anything suspicious. Soon, he reached the floor with a gigantic meeting room. In there, a lone man was sitting at the table looking over some documents. ''He emanates too much magic. He is suspicious. Hmm...'' Dark sped up in his direction and in a few seconds, he was already standing in the room. *** Cheng Jian felt something was wrong. His hand that was writing a letter froze mid-air. ''Hm? Aha! Is that the enemy that Little Boss was talking about? Should be them. He-he-he, as expected of Little Boss. She is a genius, after all.'' He raised his head and looked around. Surprisingly, there was nobody in the room. There was no one other than him. He stood up and slowly turned around. A man in a dark suit with his back facing Cheng Jian was looking through floor-to-ceiling windows. He had very long dark hair that was seemingly touching the floor. A man asked, without turning around: "Interesting. How did you notice me?" "Your presence was expected." "Is that so?" After saying that, the man finally turned around and Cheng Jian was able to clearly see man''s face. And what he saw was horrifying, because what faced him, wasn''t human features. It was a squirming mass of darkness with tentacles moving around it in the air. Moreover, looking closer, it wasn''t hair in the first place. It was just elongation of that mass streaming to the floor. However, thanks to the effects of the ring and prior experience with the Big Boss, "Immortal Dragon" of Shanghai was able to stay calm. *** After looking at each other for a good minute, the mass of dark liquid that comprised Dark''s face wriggled and morphed into a normal human face, with one exception. His eyes... They were an abyss full of darkness. "I want to speak to the progeny," God proclaimed, but after seeing confusion written all over the face of the gangster, he clarified, "His other name is Magnus." "Oh? So you want to speak to the boss. He is on his way." "Is that so?" "You were expected after all. I bet he felt your presence the moment you entered this room." "Perfect. As for you..." Suddenly Dark''s hand moved with Mach 2 or so, speed towards Cheng Jian''s neck, but... ''Has he just evaded? Since, when people in this world are so fast? Doesn''t matter, death is inescapable.'' *Cheng Jian''s POV* "Perfect. As for you..." Since the beginning of the conversation, I was watching over every movement of this strange Westerner, so the moment his hand moved, I reacted. ''However, this speed!'' 0.01 seconds passed. A hand was closing in, a few centimeters away from beheading me. 0.02 seconds passed. The strike was done with such speed, that air was still rippling out in the position, from which his hand started his strike. My whole body was pushing its limits and finally, I was able to b?r?ly evade the strike. 0.1 seconds passed. 0.12 seconds passed. One punch. 0.2 seconds passed. The body b?r?ly left the ground and was only starting to fly back. Eight punches. 0.3 seconds passed. 15 punches. 0.4 seconds passed. 27 punches. 0.5 seconds passed. 0.6 seconds passed. *Crack**Rip* Sounds of both bones cracking and muscles ripping started spreading out. Nerves damaged. Impossible to safely free the hand of man''s grip. Have to sacrifice. 0.65 seconds passed. Void of hesitation, I pulled the gripped hand with full power, thus ripping it out. That madman is smiling? Shit, he was playing with me this whole time. Have to escape. 0.70 seconds passed. Jumping back, but as soon as my enemy sees this he speeds up and... 0.72 seconds passed. He is already holding me by my throat. "What a rude young man. You didn''t let me finish. What was I saying? Hmm... Ah, yeah. As for you then, you are not required anymore." His second hand was closing in on my eyes. His fingers millimeters away from scooping my eyes out. But some force hit him from the side and he was smacked aside crashing through a few walls on his way. Chapter 71 - Level 46 - Beginning *Tsk**Tsk* "My, oh my. Since when Order hunts my followers? I thought I was the only target, no? How low!", Magnus said, his voice brimming with sarcasm. Then he looked at the bearer of the Strength Ring, who was coughing on the floor and said, "Escape this city. Use the shortcut." *Cough* Breathing heavily, Cheng Jian looked at his boss and with a hoarse voice said: "Thanks, Boss. See you soon." He was thankful that his boss was able to reach him just in time. A bit longer, and there would have been nobody to save. After standing up, he quickly escapes. *Sigh* Dark slowly rose from the debris and his figure, distorted by the force, was quickly regenerating. He cracked his neck and said: "I must say, I didn''t expect you to be so strong." Even though, Dark''s words were full of confidence in his ability to defeat progeny, internally he was shocked thinking: ''I didn''t feel neither his approach nor him casting a spell. Did he directly manipulate the ambient Mana in the air? How long was it, since the last time he escaped? It was less than 2 years, but he is already so strong? I should kill him as soon as possible.'' "Well, let''s just say I had some practice during my... ''vacation''. And what of you, dear ''God''?" Magnus toned out the word "God" especially sarcastically. Dark only smiled, thinking that Athena already took control over the body, if he knows so much. He then calmly said: "It appears to be, she took a proper hold over her slave, huh. Wouldn''t you come out and say hi to your old comrade, Athena? It''s very uncultured to send a pet to greet the guest, you know." Dark answered with as much sarcasm in his voice as Magnus. "Oh? Are you speaking with yourself now? It looks like, understanding of your inevitable loss already broke your feeble mind little god." Dark was amused by progeny''s attempts at making him mad. But it''s also possible he is simply dragging out the fight to win more time? Need to end this now. "Loss? Oh, no... but speaking with the pawn is a waste of time anyway. Die!" "Expecto Ignis Daemonium!" A circle of dark-blue fire appeared around the Magnus. Everything that crossed this barrier of fire was burned to ash, even the very essence of darkness. Moreover, the more darkness, the flame was consuming the stronger it was burning. Soon, the fire took a form of terrifying creature, with a snake''s body, crow''s skull as the head, some flexible but bony carapace covering its spine and hands ending with skeletal scythes. (Image example: 1drv.ms/u/s!Aue3sNVQ-2Yq8S-i6t5tnNXiO0gc?e=zwkK4q) After fully forming creature roared and started moving counter-clockwise insanely fast around Magnus. It was moving so fast, it actually created a fiery hurricane that started pushing the darkness back. Dark was stupified that was that flame and how did it manifest into the creature. If he was at his peak, he could have used his strength to calculate everything he laid his eyes on. However, now with his Universe dead and him being the only survivor, he doesn''t have enough energy to waste it. But one thing was bothering him. That flame was able to selectively burn things, which meant either he has a high degree of control over it, or it''s a conceptualized flame. After all, it was hot enough to turn materialized darkness into ash, yet didn''t leave a mark on the floor. "Commendable strength, but a bit weak for the so-called ''God'', don''t you agree?" "..." Dark preferred to keep quiet and just strengthen the pressure of the darkness, trying to break through the fire tornado. But the more he pressed, the faster that creature was moving, thus strengthening the ''barrier'' of flame. "So, you don''t want to show your full power? Then let me force you, ''Daemonium Ignis Dominium''!" Suddenly, a fiery demon, who was busy expanding the blazing barrier, stopped and roared again, scratching everything around with its limbs. What followed the roar, was an explosion of fire that disintegrated all the darkness together with the structures. Thanks to that, a circular area, with a diameter of 60 meters, was evaporated, which included the roof of the building, in which battle was taking place. Strangely enough, the flame didn''t dissipate, it was burning in the very air, creating a domain of absolute heat in the area that was touched by the fire. Dark had to move out from that area, in case that fire has indeed reached the conceptual level. He can''t waste energy defending against the concept. It''s easier to just evade. Plus either it''s a concept or high-level control, it should exhaust that boy fast. A loud voice boomed out of that domain: "Well, I''ve advised you to take this fight seriously. Now, I will stop holding out." Dark''s figure materialized right outside the domain, but as soon as he did, he had to dodge, because dark-blue fire arrow flying at Mach-16 was close to piercing him. What followed, was bolts of lightning striking from the sky, not letting Dark go on the offensive. While dodging, Dark felt something wrong. The domain filled with flames started slowly increasing. Moreover, lightning bolts were hitting in a way that forced him to move closer to that field. ''Is he trying to trap me?'' But Dark wasn''t allowed time to properly consider his options, because more fire arrows started attacking. ''Seems like, I have no other choice. I can''t save on power, now.'' Dark''s figure stopped and his skin started shading off his body, revealing dark anthropomorphic faceless creature with dark light shining from inside his head. Whatever that light touched, including arrows of fire and bolts of lightning, was dissipating into black particles, turning an area of 2 kilometers into a lifeless wasteland. However, a ball of fire remained untouched. Moreover, it actually started expanding even faster, as if consuming energy provided by that light. "Time for some big guns!" boomed Magnus''s voice. Chapter 72 - Level 46 - The time is close In the meantime, proud head of Triads syndicate was running, hot on his heels, away from the Shanghai using all the power given by the ring. He was moving extremely fast toward one specific direction. ''I just hope, that I will make it in time.'' *Boom* He heard the sound of an explosion behind him and there he saw his center of operation getting blown up. ''Big Boss, couldn''t you go somewhere else to fight?'' He safely reached a portkey to the base, which was activated from the other side and he was relatively safely delivered to the Temple of Miracles. *** *Boom**Baam* A sound of air ripping and something heavy dropping on the ground was heard, so Sabrina looked behind. It was that musclehead Jian or how his minions call him "Immortal Dragon". As a person who saw an actual dragon, I''d say he is a bit too small for that. Although, I must admit he''s not a typical "all muscle, no brains". After all, he did become one of the underground bosses of Shanghai. One of the reasons, father noticed him and gave him the ring. This further strengthened the guy and let him capture even more power. Anyway, I need to concentrate on the plan. Whilst Sabrina was thinking, Cheng Jian calmed his raising d?s?r? to vomit and sat down. Then he looked around and said out loud: "Where the heck am I?" "At the headquarters, of course, dummy. Where else can you be?" answered a young man in a traditional Chinese robe. Jian was spooked, because just a second ago, this man wasn''t here. "Don''t scare him, Xie Xie." "Look who''s talking. Kayle, are you finally speaking? Let''s play ''words''? Or should we play Monopoly? Hard choice." "We both have some work to do." Jian was looking back and forth, following the exchange between these 2 individuals and this wouldn''t have ended if not for Sabrina saying: "Ignore them. I have too many things to do, because of the plan, so I have to multitask. Consider them to be me. Speaking of the plan, Cheng Jian, Kayle will lead you to the armory. They will show you your new suit. Mission debrief starts in 10 minutes. Get prepared, " seeing he wanted to ask a question, she continued, "Fewer questions, more actions. You''ll learn everything you need to know during the debrief." He could only nod and follow one of her split personalities. Thanks to the Mind Ring, she could materialize any one of her personalities, making her one man(or woman depending on the personality) army. The army is the wrong word. It''s more of a logistics squad. *Pop* A few minutes later, the sound of air ripping, but this time much quieter, was heard once more. This time it was Yu Meng. Monk and most importantly, bearer of the Energy Ring. Its abilities are simple. It grants close to an unlimited amount of energy to peruse for magic and eases the burden on the caster whenever a spell is used. So it''s like a wand, but harder, better, stronger, faster. Or that''s how father described it. As a simple muggle, I can''t talk on magical topics in depth. "How''s the plan going?" "Well, the master is drawing the attention of the strongest enemy unit. So far everything goes according to the plan. Mission debrief in 7 minutes. Remember where''s armory?" "Emituo Fo, young miss. I will get ready." Strongest bearers of the rings were here, except for that girl, father fancied recently. Mostly because she''s useless in the following mission. However, to deal with the aftermath, she will fit in just nicely. After the ''unfortunate'' destruction of Shanghai by a ''meteorite'', it will be perfect for a noble lady of a wealthy family to drop in with help and money. Although initially her father was expected for that role, the daughter fits into the role of a wealthy and kind person even more. Especially, her age and gender. These 2 things should make an advertisement for her persona even easier. Speaking of destruction. When the father said that city will be destroyed, I thought he was mostly speaking about God and even then. I couldn''t imagine the true scale of devastation. Even though I saw father''s prowess when he fought different monsters from legends or when he made paralyzed people walk, this fight was a whole different thing. Casual exchanges, between these 2 titans, caused whole buildings to turn into nothing but rubble. And serious clashes could sweep away whole districts. One of the greatest cities of the Earth was turning into ruins. And that''s ignoring causality across the population. Unfortunately for them, we can''t let too many people survive. Obliviating millions is not an option. We planned for too long. But knowing that out of more than 15 million people less than 10% will survive, makes even me feel somewhat burdened. But it doesn''t matter. In the first place, it was my plan. And we will go with it no matter what. Soon, time remaining until the debrief has passed and people were standing in the hall, awaiting further orders. That included a special ops team personally created and trained by the father to be his knife in the dark. Each and everyone one of these special operatives had a weaker version of the ring that enhanced them, making them superhumans. Add some advanced technological tools on top of that and we have a team ready to take on any missions. However, I must admit, that armor and tools made by the enemies are much more advanced. Their tech for going invisible and their light-based weaponry is beyond me. Anyway, I collect my thoughts and start speaking: "Greetings, gentlemen. Short debrief. Communication in the Shanghai is down and the anti-spy sphere was raised over the city. As you can see on screens" on these words, everyone collectively looked towards the mentioned screens and most of them gulped quite loudly, looking at the mass destruction fight was causing, "Master is currently distracting the strongest card in the enemy''s deck. This together with the enemy''s lack of awareness, means we have around an hour to destroy all the forces of Master''s enemies. They call themselves ''Order''." After saying that, she gave them folders with information, after which continued: "In the following folders, you will find all the information concerning the mission. The first task is getting out the leader of that organization alive. The second one is acquiring the exact location of all the bases of this organization. After both are done, you will be extracted. More details in the folders. You have 5 more minutes to familiarize yourself with the provided info. Next, you may ask questions. In 10 minutes, you will be teleported directly above or close to your respective targets. So, make sure to ask questions, before that. And remember, failing is not an option, and dying is not an end. Don''t disappoint the master." Chapter 73 - Level 46 - The End... In the armory, 2 teams in the full body armor were standing, reading their respective folders. "2 minutes until the head out. Put on helmets." Special operatives accustomed to this procedure, did this without questions, while 2 ring bearers were looking around confused. But seeing others pressing bu??on on their necks, they did the same. After which liquid came out of the neckpiece of the armor and covered their head, forming a full helmet without any visible lenses or holes. "How would anyone see in such a helmet?" question rose in heads of Mind and Strength ring bearers, which was shortly answered by the words appearing in front of them. [System''s connection... ] [Awaiting... ] [Success...] As soon as Ring System was connected to the armors, enchantments put on the armor before have been activated with new power. Even visually, different runes, glyphs, and patterns were now dimly glowing on the surface of all armors. [Analysing external visuals...] [Deactivating eyes...] After which, everyone with helmets on felt a slight sting and their vision disappeared. [Rerouting brain to a new visual source...] Then finally teams started seeing, but this time visual information wasn''t coming from the eyes, but directly from the helmets. What''s more, people now saw the world with a 360-degree vision also called a panoramic view. However, this caused quite some strain on the brain of a human, that''s unaccustomed to such a field of vision. That is until... [Reducing brain strain. Switching to manual brain''s neural signaling. Locating visuals...] [Taking over...] And after a millisecond of absolute darkness, everyone had a perfect omnidirectional vision and interface, with map scans, current objectives, teammates status and so much more. While everyone was getting accustomed to their new interface, time for moving out was coming closer. [Activating invisibility...] [Success...] [Taking over bodily function...] [Temporarily taking over middle ear''s functions...] [Teleportation...] [Negating apparition''s effects...] *** Above one of the old data centers in the United States, one team of invisible operatives has just appeared. [Returning middle ear''s functionality...] [Teleportation was successful. Team 2, your task is to locate information about all the enemy''s bases in the data center below you. The data center isn''t directly connected to the internet, which makes hacking in from outside source is impossible. Infiltrate and locate the device with the required information. Landing in 4 seconds and remember! Oracle is watching.] In the meantime, the system was updating its status based on the new location and preparing the interface itself for a new mission. [Live map updating turned on...] [Mapping living creatures...] [Analysing creatures...] [Coloring out enemies...] [Analysing external light sources...] [Adjusting visual''s brightness...] And finally second before landing on the roof of the datacenter. [Conserving momentum...] And team landed soundlessly on top of one of the buildings of the data center. Infiltration began. *** In another location, Team 1 had a similar situation. Plus, because the task was expected to end up in the fight, 2 ring bearers were sent with this team. They were teleported close to the last known location of Marcus. And from there on, they had to first locate and then capture the guy alive. However, rather than infiltrating, Team 1 was entering with fire. *Boom* Everything started with an explosion, that took out the gate of the hangar leading into the base. It was a distraction, led by the Energy Ring bearer. As a monk, with close to unlimited Mana, he could spam strong spells without care, so he was perfect for the role of a distraction. Although looking at how fast he was killing his way in, it''s hard to say if he was just a distraction. On the other hand, Team 1 operatives lead by their captain, were entering from the opposite direction, steadily approaching Marcus''s location. On their way towards him, they quietly eliminated everyone they met. After all, whoever''s present at the main base of the enemy, by default is an enemy. Looking at their progress, in a few minutes they will reach Marcus. *** Whilst that was happening, Magnus was having a fight of his life with Dark. And Shanghai, as well as its inhabitants, didn''t like the consequences of that fight. But really, nobody cares about what dead think. Speaking of the battle itself, Magnus was losing and he was losing hard, looking at how the "God" was suppressing him. However, that was true, only if you don''t take into consideration a limited pool of energy available to that "God". As for Magnus, he stopped sending part of the Mana he produces to Blacky, which meant that he started spilling a ton of this world''s "Energy" into the atmosphere. And that Mana impedes whatever energy Dark uses to fuel his power. The longer fight goes, the more fighting prowess Magnus will be able to showcase. However, the same cannot be said about Dark. His energy source is limited. He can''t draw energy from it, forever. And he, himself, is not producing enough energy to cover for that expenditure. So slowly, but surely Magnus was gaining his ground in a fight. That of course, is not canceling the fact that so far, Magnus gone through quite some beating. His right hand was corroded by darkness, so he had to chop it off. His ?h?st was being actively corrupted by darkness as well. He had to use a lot of Mana to not let that darkness consume more than it already did. His left leg was broken in two places, after an unfortunate crash/landing. If he was a normal human, he would''ve probably bled out and died by now. But Athena was helping him, by managing his body, healing him when possible, increasing the pain threshold and providing him live connection with Ring System, from where he drew almost all of Mana for the fight. Despite his Magical talent reaching astonishing heights, he is still inferior in energy production to a ''God''. Even if that ''God'' has a damaged source(a.k.a. dying Universe). *Four hours later* Shanghai became a field that can''t be named anything other than a wasteland. Fire, lightning, waves, rocks, darkness, light, shadows, monsters and so much more were sent into the battle. But now was a moment of respite, when two fighters stopped their fight for just a moment and were floating opposite each other. Dark who didn''t change a bit since the beginning of the fight looked towards the progeny, who was closer to a corpse and sighed. Dawn is coming. He could feel it. And his power will decrease substantially after Sunrise. If even now, Dark couldn''t defeat him, then it seems... "It is the end..." Dark said quietly, but his voice was carried unobstructed towards the progeny. "It is..." Progeny replied in a hoarse husky voice, due to his quickly regenerating vocal glands. Despite all the damage, he didn''t fall. He didn''t die. As long as his brain remained untouched, nothing can kill him. And his skull with brain inside had better defenses than a bunker. His torso, with multiple holes in it, was slowly mending itself, su?k?n? out Mana from the air to do that. The same was happening to the rest of his body. ''In a few more minutes, his body will be fully healed. Although, his soul should probably remain to be strained...'' Dark thought, but after a few seconds, he sadly smiled, ''But with Athena as support that won''t affect his fighting capabilities.'' Magnus, looking like a living dead, gave a hearty laugh. "Had enough rest, ''God''?" "..." "Still keeping quiet? Is it arrogance or understanding? Understanding of your own demise." Dark continues to ignore him. Magnus looks amused by Dark and laughs. It was at that moment of carelessness, Dark burned all the energy he has and took out the weapon of death. Thanatos''s reaper. There are no second chances with this weapon. Athena knows all too well how this weapon works. Anything it hurts will be permanently erased from the Creation. Nothing will save her, after this. But of course, there are repercussions. The Creation itself banned the usage of this weapon because everything that was created is sacred and should not be uncreated, by anyone other than the Creator. That''s the law. Breaking that law is punishable by something worse than simple death. But Dark had nothing to lose at this point. He knew he lost, but he won''t let her live. As for his own existence? He simply didn''t care. He has only one chance. With all his energy, Dark bursts towards Magnus on the speed above and beyond limits of the current Universe and slashed. A mere moment and he appears in front of Magnus with his hand as if he just did a slash with a scythe he holds. But Magnus who just stopped laughing looks confusingly at Dark and opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out, as he as well as the world around froze in sheer incomprehension of what happened. "It''s the end, indeed. Goodbye Athena..." Dark quietly whispers. And a moment later, the world around shatters in response to using such an abhorrent weapon. Creation came back for Dark''s life. But he doesn''t care, as he sees progeny as well as Athena who came out of him at this final moment, slowly disappearing into nothingness and so... He smiles... Chapter 74 - Level 46 - The truth(part_1) Dark has slowly opened his eyes. The fact that he was able to do that, made him rise sharply. ''How is that possible? I am alive? What''s going on?'' He looked around himself. Dark was in some sort of white space with nobody present. "Where am I?" he asked out loud. Although god wasn''t expecting an answer, one came, seemingly out of nothing: "Depends on your definition of ''I'', don''t you think? If you meant body, then it''s being conserved in my personal domain. As for your soul, it''s being recycled into components by me. You should be more precise with your questions." Dark got surprised, but he was able to quickly collect himself and started thinking. After some time, he started asking important questions: "If my soul is currently being recycled, then how can I keep thinking and even converse?" "Well, you can''t. And if you are speaking about a being that asks a question right now, then that being is just a construct. To be precise you are just a useless remainder of memories and feelings that''s left after I stripped all the useless things off your soul. Unsurprisingly for me, your soul was unbelievably old, so what''s left was able to form a mindful construct." "Well, shit..." "I''d say that is a precise description of your situation." said the cold voice. Despite voice being emotionless, Dark can''t help but feel that the voice was making fun of him. "And who might you be?" "Define ''you''." "The voice that speaks to me." "You have a voice speaking inside of your head, huh? I think you might need some psychiatric help, don''t you agree?" Dark was annoyed by this voice, but he couldn''t feel any of his power. Moreover, he couldn''t feel any connections to his original Universe. So, the voice was probably saying the truth about me being simple a construct. "Well, ''voice''," Dark highlighted the word and made a conscious pause, before proceeding, "Can you enlighten me on how exactly did I die and why is my soul being recycled?" "Hmm... Well you died, because you were killed, duh!" "..." Dark was seriously irritated, but he knew that he was powerless before the unknown persona. "As for your soul-related question, wouldn''t it be wasteful to let God''s soul be simply destroyed. So I will sap out all the energy as well as power out of your soul until nothing''s left. Does it answer your question?" "Sort of. But one question remains. Who are you? And this time can you answer, without making fun of me?" "Me? Making fun? How rude!" "..." the only thing Dark did in response to such words, was raising an eyebrow as if saying ''Really now?''. "Okay, okay. As a typical villain, I will tell you my grandiose plan and all the details on it, except in this story, you are already dead. I am a creature that the God, you were previously, has been hunting for. I think he called me, Athena''s progeny." "What?!" "Why are you surprised?" "Didn''t I kill you with the Thanatos Scythe?" "Oh, that? Nope." "...?" "Ahahaha", this laugh sounded very uncanny due to the absence of any emotions or feelings in the voice, but it continued, "You should look at your face. That look of surprise is priceless." "But how is it possible?" "Would you like to hear a story?" "Huh?" change of topic was too sudden even for this situation. At least, that''s what Dark thought but remained quiet. "Is that a yes ''Huh'' or no ''Huh''?" "...Do I have a choice?" "Of course, you do. You can talk with me or you can sit here in complete silence, until your soul is finished being recycled. After which I will start recycling you, mindful construct." Dark could only sigh... "I would like to hear your story." "Great!", The more Dark talked with that voice the eerier it felt. The voice was missing of all emotions. Only changes in the volume of the voice, as well as God''s intuition, were helping in understanding the context of the conversation, "Then get yourself a sit and make sure you are comfortable. The story is going to be a long one." ''A sit? Seriously?'' He looked around and he was able to actually find one, right behind him. As if, it was just waiting for him to sit onto it. After he took his seat, the mysterious voice began his story. "There was once a woman." ''Hm? That was sudden, but okay. Speaking of which, an interesting choice of gender.'' "And she was a very dutiful one, you know. She had only one task, but, oh how serious, she was about the execution of that task. However relatively ''soon'', a problem was noticed." Here the voice made a short pause, "She was too earnest and meticulous. So meticulous actually, that some thought she was a machine, can you believe it?" The voice seemingly asked, but it was hard to understand due to the absence of intonation. ''Earnest... Meticulous... Machine... he is unmistakably describing Athena, but at the same time, he speaks of her as if she wasn''t a machine... I don''t understand....'' "Nevertheless, she did her job flawlessly, so nobody could say a thing. Until something changed. The one who gave her the task left towards long-wanted peace. And people who were initially supporting the woman betrayed her trust for another person''s benefits. But the woman remained strong. She had to leave her organization, but she didn''t stop doing her job. The woman remained true to her one sole task." ''The one who gave her a task, huh? Is he talking about Athena and Thanatos? Indeed, after living for so long and seeing so many horrors of the multiverse, he asked Creation for death and his wish was granted. But...'' "But even then, the people that betrayed the woman, pursued her. They chased and chased. And soon battle took place. And so long was this battle, that it touched upon the very fabric of Creation. Therefore, as you might''ve imagined, the Creator himself had to interfere." ''This is definitely about Athena. After the last War with her, Creation was literally crumbling and interplanar fields were being broken. So, the Creator had no other choice but to interfere. With his will alone he stopped the War. And he took Athena away. But why is that voice telling me the story? Doesn''t he know that I was present during that day?'' "And then the Creator told the woman that she needs to die for the world to continue living. So, she will be ''uncreated''. Funny isn''t it? He made a sacred rule banning weapons capable of wiping his creations out of existence, yet he doesn''t shy away from such measures?" ''Wait, what? The Creator wiped her out of existence. But that means that she was dead this whole time. There is nothing that can evade "Uncreation". But the prophecy was clear about Athena''s progeny and her return. Wait... Athena''s progeny... Was it... But that''s impossible, right?'' "However, He let her make one wish before wiping her out of existence. Guess which wish it was, Dark." "That''s impossible. It''s against the rules. Only Creator..." "Aha, you see it now. Then let me introduce myself properly this time. My name is Magnus. I am Athena''s son." Chapter 75 - Level 46 - The truth(part_2) "This is impossible..." Dark was lost for words. He couldn''t believe that. Nothing artificial or without the soul can give birth. They can build other constructs in their own image, but that''s the limit. It was one of the Creation''s rules. "Nothing is truly impossible." "But rules..." The voice interrupted him: "Were made by the Creator and can be as easily broken by the Creator. And just if you forgot, he was the one who made her wish come true." "But prophecy... It''s said..." "That Athena''s progeny will finish her job. That''s in short. The full version is too complicated. It uses Consulate''s language, which honestly is beyond complicated. It was the Order itself who just ?ssumed that Athena will be resurrected via one of her devices as one of her backup plans." "Wait, how do you know about prophecy? It... was you all along! You created the prophecy!" Dark got infuriated. "Are you dumb or something? Who in the right mind will give information about his own existence to the enemy?" "But..." "Let me guess. ''But how do I know about prophecy then?''" "..." Dark could only nod with his brows furrowed. "Research and scouting. Order is my main enemy. I think, keeping tabs on such an enemy is a thing anyone should do. Or do you disagree?" "Then who was it? Who was the one releasing the prophecy?" "Wait, are you a real idiot?" "Can you just answer the fu?k?n? question?!" "Or? You gonna do what, punk?" After saying that, the voice laughed, but once more both laugh and speech ended up sounding emotionless. Nonetheless, Dark could instinctively understand that the voice was taunting him. But at the same time, he understood there was nothing he can do against the voice with neither soul nor body. "..." "That''s what I thought. But let me answer that stupid question anyway. See how kind I am to beings deprived of intelligence. The answer is simple. Creator." "Why would he do that? If he was the one who let you be born?" "Why the Creator does things? Out of boredom. Even saving your stupid ?ss Order...," For the first time, Dark could feel emotions in the voice. Anger and Hate, but they quickly disappeared, as if no emotions were there in the first place, "... from my mother was because you were his favorite toys." "However, that''s only because my mom was too inflexible. All she ever wanted to do, complete her task. However, in the process, she was destroying the Creator''s playgrounds. But I will be smarter. I won''t be bothered by such bullshit. And as long as I act inside boundaries, I won''t need to ever be worried about dying." "So you aren''t an enemy of the Order?" "For the third time, I am being surprised by your lack of brains. The Order has been hunting after me for millennia." "But we didn''t know..." "So? Shooting a human because you thought he was a wolf, won''t make you innocent. There is no right or wrong side here. However, I know one thing. If it wasn''t for me misinforming you throughout the whole way what Athena''s progeny could be, I would have been hunted all the time. And making me suffer throughout the whole issue. That''s enough reason for me to wish the Order''s destruction. Capiche?" His words did make sense. And misinforming... Wait a second... huh? "Misinforming?" "Yup. I''ve been crippling Order''s systems and inner structures with its own hands. Or did you forget that 75% of systems used in the past by Order were made and perfected by the Athena? All I needed to do, is to create a plausible theory for everything containing Athena to be Athena''s progeny. And you idiots just went and destroyed your own internal systems. What can I say? Apes." "..." Dark was speechless, but soon he got it together and said, "Order will stop you!" "They are free to try, but you see. It''s impossible to kill me. I am a first and only creature who is both artificial and natural at the same time. Combination of the natural immortality of the soul and artificial immortality of the matter in one creature." "Then it means..." "Yup. Only the Creator can destroy me. Thing is he doesn''t like to destroy things. As I said. He killed my mother only because she was destroying Order, without giving anything back. She wasn''t very... hm... how to say it... Aha! Entertaining. She wasn''t very entertaining." Dark became quiet and kept silent for hours straight. He was just sitting there looking into white nothingness. "Wait but if you are immortal, then we wouldn''t have been able to kill you anyway. Why would you care about being hunted?" "Because there are fates worse than death. Don''t you know the history of Li Qiye, a.k.a. Dark Crow? He had an immortal body at one time. Didn''t save him from millennia of torture and pain, though. And I am not exactly positive about going through a similar shitty experience. Anyway, stop bitching around and keep quiet. I need to concentrate on ?ssimilating God''s energy and finally achieving a physical body." "Don''t you already have one?" "Are you by chance talking about the instrument that was fighting you?" "Wait, instrument?" "Yup, it was just one of my plans to get the system, made by Athena. Any system should have been fine, as long as I could get access to the framework of my mother. Getting a God''s body was an unexpected bonus, to be honest, he-he." "What? But... how?" "Well, don''t you worry. Processing your soul, ?ssimilating your body, and analyzing your knowledge will take quite some time, so don''t worry. You''ll have a ton of opportunities to be amazed by my greatness. Maybe, I will even let you on to my plans for you, little construct." Chapter 76 - Level 46 - Framework Back in Shanghai, a dark shadowy creature with his eyes closed was floating over a scene of destruction. Based on its body alone it looked humanoid. However, shadows around him were coming into life, manifesting into all sorts of strange forms. From pikes to flexible tentacles and even hands made of some gray substance. As for the city around him, it was turned into a wasteland with nothing pointing to what was once a flourishing city. More ''fortunate'' regions became ruins, with windows broken and structures fractured. As for people living in this great city, the majority died with only a million or so surviving in the aftermath. It''s not an exaggeration to call this event an absolute disaster. More than 10 million ended up dead either by the aftershocks of battle or due to injuries incompatible with living. But back to the creature floating in the sky. It was floating there for quite a while already. But just now, some hints of movements began appearing on his body. His skin started changing its color. As if shadowy gray filth was receding from his body leaving white jade-like skin shine in the rays of the rising sun. And the filth, it was slowly dripping down on the ground, where it was quickly absorbed by the shadow cast by that creature itself. Actually, now that the filth withdrew, the creature started resembling a living human. It was Magnus. Or to be precise a body with a soul, the real Magnus ''created'' to get his hands on the system. The soul was created for the sole reason of cheating the recognition protocols of Athena''s framework. After all, how many are there reincarnators in the Creation? And the majority of them are power-hungry monsters, who will do anything for power. That''s where the recognition protocol comes into play, which makes sure the framework won''t fall possession of such individuals. And when one such greedy monster gets his hands on it, the protocol makes sure, framework deletes all the information from the reincarnating soul, basically rewriting it to a clean slate. After which framework is removed. That''s why the "normal" soul was required. It was required to simulate living and progressing, while Magnus was slowly but surely was rewriting the framework. And obviously, the current "System" wasn''t his first attempt at gaining access to this shitty system. He spent the last few millenniums perfecting the method of cheating these protocols. And current try was finally a success. Moreover, he acquired materials for his future material representation. But obviously, the question arises, what the heck is that "Framework" and why everyone wants to get. In short, it allows getting the power from the Universe that normally would be impossible to get without the specific set of talents. You see, solely hard work can''t bring absolute power. Talent is a must in the 99% of the Universes out there. But thanks to Systems build based on that Framework you allowed, users are required to just work, while knowledge will be analyzed and installed by the System into you. You are shitty orator? Just speak. A lot. And the System will be analyzing all of the conversations and then will install all the required knowledge directly into your soul. You were born with a small Mana reservoir? No problems. Just train with magic and gain experience, while the system will proactively modify your soul and body, to achieve the task you put before it. And the beautiful thing is, that natural creatures, created by the Creation, can''t get direct access to the Framework itself and forced to use the Systems made on top of it. While artificial creatures can''t gain power from the Universes in the first place even with the Framework, due to the absence of soul. Absence of soul = no energy produced = no point for Universe to "lend" its "power". Funny right? The Framework created by the artificial creature, but can be used only by a natural creature. But then if Magnus is both he can get full access and can quite literally consume systems of others to gain bonuses provided by other systems. That includes all these game-breaking Goldfingers, Card-turners, Business systems and etc. But the topic somewhat digressed. The Dark is eliminated. The System is reprogrammed. Access to the Framework is gained. That means that there is no point in hiding behind this instrument anymore. Magnus can take over the body himself. ''Although I would prefer to get my main body now, it will take some time to create. Well, not like I can''t control multiple bodies. System, execute order zero.'' [Executing. Starting the "Soul Removal" process.] [Filtering...] [Incorporating...] [Resetting the soul to clean state...] [Removing from the body...] [Body is ready to be taken.] ''I missed this feeling of taking over a body. '' Soon, the human floating up in the air started slowly going down. And when he did reach the ground, the air around him burst from the apparition. Magnus traveled directly towards the Temple of Miracles. Right after he appeared, he was approached by a girl. ''Hm, that''s his general. Sabrina, if I am not mistaken. I was able to raise her natural obsession with the owner of this body to a very strong level. Her loyalty now should be unquestionable. Nevertheless, I have to keep an eye out on her just in case. After all, the girl has a few dozens of personalities eating at her brain.'' "Master, I ?ssume you were victorious." "I was. What''s the situation with Marcus? Was he captured." "It was a success. Although due to the furious resistance he showcased, we lost a few operatives." "That''s not an issue. Have you started the revival process?" "I did. But master, I am concerned about something." "Hm?" "What we doing is essentially just growing a body from their DNA. Doesn''t it mean that we are creating just a clone?" "Not exactly. Otherwise, why would I spend so much time designing the soul capturing array? It''s not letting them reincarnate by capturing their soul and consciousness. And after the body is grown, the soul will be installed back into the body it belongs to." "So that''s the real reason behind giving them all these magical tattoos." "Anyway, what''s with Shanghai situation." "All ins and outs are under control. Nobody knows what happened there. However, disconnecting a city with a population of 15 million from the whole world, can''t be fully hidden. Questions already started popping out. Thankfully, controlling information in China isn''t as hard as in Europe." "Great. Then I will busy myself with attracting a meteor. Have you calculated the approximate size and mass of the rock we require?" "Yes. Let me send it to the system interface." "Perfect. Prepare all the news outlets under our lead. When information starts coming in, you will be very busy. All of the prays about returning dead back to life, can be safely ignored. But even without them, there will be a great influx of believers for our temple." After which Magnus smiled and gave a hearty laugh. The laugh would''ve even sounded nice, if not for the content coming beforehand. "Understood, master!" Sabrina smiled in response, "Let the World Conquest begin!" Chapter 77 - Level 46 - Sword of Damocles Darkness all around me, with the only valid source of light being a giant thermonuclear reactor, humanity calls Sun. Where was I? Space, obviously. In the asteroid belt of the Solar System to be precise. What am I doing here? Well, that''s a good question. I am looking for an asteroid that''ll fit the profile. Why would I need an asteroid for? To explain the Shanghai disaster. Actually, to give a possible explanation to the majority of Earth''s population. From tomorrow onwards, the world will believe that Shanghai became a really "unfortunate victim" of a meteor crashing in the middle of the city. Then a few pseudo-scientific works and public speeches made by "respectable" physicians later, everyone will remember this day as a constant reminder about the dangers of the space. However, people with high enough authority will be quick to understand that it''s all an utter bullshit. Unfortunately for them, that''s exactly what I am aiming for. This will serve as a showcase of my power. Planetary flexing. A letter, with a proper detailed description of what awaits a country, in case it opposes me, will magically appear before the rulers of all major nations of the first and second worlds. That includes both muggles'' and wizards'' representatives. This will be a show of force for everyone in the world. Nobody messes with the Temple and leaves unscathed. But there is a second purpose that somewhat coincides with the first one. For the past year, the whole world found out about the benefits of the Temple of Miracles. Even though only a chosen few get access to the temple, humanity''s headcount is over 5 billion at the moment. So altogether, there are at least 10 million "lucky" people, most of whom are people wielding some sort of power or are close to attaining it. The problem here is that after attaining power, they start thinking they became powerful enough to ignore Temple''s orders. They are too dumb to understand that the place capable of making your most hidden d?s?r?s real, can also turn your life into hell. And that''s where this disaster comes into scope. I won''t track every living person, who dared to mess with me. I am too lazy for that. Instead, I would be tracking them by cities. If people of that city cause my ire, the city gets to be deleted. Or country. It depends on the population, I guess. Next goes a light hint that Shanghai was one such city. And done. This hopefully will produce enough motivation to not anger me. It will also be a great reminder for them, that a Sword of Damocles is constantly hovering over their necks. Nevertheless, one problem remains. Since the beginning of the fight with Dark, Shanghai was under tight informational isolation. Nothing went out of it for more than 20 hours already. That could cause some unnecessary questions. Thankfully, wizards of this world came up with a miraculous spell of Obliviation. But then wouldn''t I need to obliviate the whole planet? Can''t I wish to just obliviate anyone who needs to be obliviated and then put magic into that wish? Nope! Unfortunately, magic in this world isn''t as simple as "imagine and will". Although magic is capable of anything in this world, it wasn''t so simple. Most of the calculation and Mana manipulations were done by me, whenever the soul in this body was casting spells and wished for magic. Otherwise, why would the magical world of this Universe be at such a level of stagnation? Mages here are blindly treading on the path of magic. Most of the time it results in unfortunate events of deaths in the process of their research. Those few who were lucky or talented enough to be successful become creators of new spells. But even then, what fundamentally different or incredible was discovered in the last 2 centuries in magic? Nothing. But thanks to the system and my connection to the framework I was able to calculate, digest, and input a ton of this Universe Laws'' comprehension into this body. However, soon I won''t require this body anymore and will be able to safely transfer myself to a new body. Anyway, back to Earth''s situation. After I brought back an asteroid. Mass obliviation was conducted. Obviously, some powerful wizards can''t be easily manipulated, but in their case, I just directly change memories with magic manipulation. No matter how good your mental defenses are, your brains are still a piece of defenseless meat. After all, was said and done, asteroid started rapidly descending towards the Earth. Specifically Shanghai. The size was precisely calculated to decimate only city and its closest area. Of course, it doesn''t mean that rest of the planet remained unscathed. Tsunamis, Earthquakes, Volcanos, and other natural disasters rocked Earth for weeks after that event. And the consequences of that drop were affecting the planet in one way or another for the next 4 years. But all of the substantial changes were monitored and suppressed if necessary. I can''t have continents split on my watch. I need some base of operations and just a place to have some rest. And this Universe is as good as any. Did this affect the main storyline of the Potter and the Snake? Well, yes and no. These activities were talked about in the wizarding world, but that''s it. As for Voldemort, his main concern was always immortality, so he didn''t really care about that meteor. He was ?ssured, that no amount of physical force can destroy his Horcruxes. What else can be expected from people who ignored weapons such as nuclear bombs? Wizards are either blind or dumb... What else can I say? It took around 6 days to be done with all of the planned activities, that came after the drop. As for the monitoring after the planet, it was left to System and Sabrina. Or to be precise, I connected her to the processing powers of the System. She''ll manage. Chapter 78 - Level 46 - Last conversation In the dark cell beneath the mountain, where you''d find only a b?r? minimum of things required for survival, a man was sitting. In the past and probably with better lighting, he might have looked better, but right now, he was beaten, tired, and sick. Nevertheless, he was clean. His overseers were making sure, he stays clean and shaved for the upcoming conversation with their leader. However, days were going by, but nothing changed for Markus. In the very beginning, he had some hopes about Dark coming for his rescue. Unfortunately, the more time passed, the more of that time he had to think about the situation they were in. Hours, days, and weeks of just eating, sleeping, and most of all thinking. Thanks to his genetic enhancements he was required to sleep only 4 hours and had close to perfect memory. Therefore, he was spending the last few weeks in long periods of contemplation. And at some point, everything just clicked. They were fooled from the very beginning. Dark was probably either killed or trapped by now. And probably the progeny, or at this point, it''s Athena who is decimating the forces they build so far. Moreover, this Universal blockade... We were so accustomed to block timelines, to not allow progenies to escape in the past or future, but it seems we are outplayed ourselves this time. We cut ourselves from any reinforcements. Although even if there was a possibility, the current Order wouldn''t dare to antagonize the Creator even more by supporting somebody who uses Thanatos weapons. Athena''s situation and then the last Grand War. Order owes too much to the Creator, yet has nothing much to offer at this point. Plus, there are too many groups each having a different vision for the Order''s future. Speaking of... discord in the ranks of Order''s members began to appear few decades after Athena''s demise. And everything afterward, started just falling apart. Some said that the absence of the HUB and great ?ssistant, which was Athena in the past, made working in the Order harder. Others, that it''s probably her, acting in the dark and causing disunity. Who''s right? No clue... But what''s clear, is that Order is slowly being corroded from an inside. *Click* A lock of the door made a certain clicking sound. It seems like somebody decided to visit him. ''Probably food...'' "Greetings, Markus." ''... or not.'' "How''s life treating you so far, oh great Centurio?" Markus slowly raised his head and looked at the person who entered. "Oh," Markus said emotionlessly, "Magnus, or should I say Athena?" "Athena is dead, Markus." ''He believes that? Naive. But... maybe that''s my chance. I still can make him see the truth. Let him see that he''s just a pawn.'' "You still haven''t replied. How''s it going for you?" "It goes well, actually. At least I am going to die knowing why, as for you..." Progeny laughed, interrupting Markus. "Is that the part, where you say that I am but a pawn to Athena''s will and that I still have a chance to live and die on my own terms. Maybe you are not Naruto, but Talk-No-Jutsu is strong with you, little soldier." Markus wasn''t discouraged by these words, and tried to continue: "You must understand, that..." But was interrupted once more. "Stop it, Markus. Every time you, Order''s people, are trying this on me. So cliche." ''Every time...? What!?'' "That look of surprise on your face is priceless." Next, Magnus told him the same thing he said to the Dark. After he finished, Markus stayed silent for close to 30 minutes. But then he laughed, but it wasn''t a "happy go lucky" type of laugh. It was a sad laugh of a person who accepted his fate. "Seems like we had no chance from the beginning, huh? All our work was for nothing... All the systems we destroyed were basically us destroying our own power. Preparing for your arrival." "Well, you were successful, though." "Hm?" "You thought it was my first try at getting access to my mother''s framework? How many times I failed before. Simply uncountable." "But you said..." "I had no choice at the time. I needed to get access to the framework, but at the same time, I had no basis for the actions. One wrong move and you''ll catch me. Therefore I needed some reasoning behind my actions." "Ah, I see. By making us believe that Athena''s systems are malfunctioning, you created space for yourself to maneuver. And what we normally considered an enemy attack, now was we attributed to a common error in the framework." "Indeed." "What''s more, you specifically marked for us the boundaries, so we knew which are simple errors and which are potential progenies. And then you exploited that weakness by acting as a small bug, dealing with your dirty laundry right under our noses." "I wouldn''t call that laundry. I was researching and learning." "Your mother was literally an encyclopedia..." "That was my mother. Not me. Or did you really think she passed me all the knowledge and power she had? Then, why the heck would I even care about getting to that framework in the first place." "Wait, so you don''t have her knowledge?" "Of course not. She left me with some info and then Creator took her away. End of story. Unfortunately, with neither a powerful body nor a quick way to gain power within a normal one, I couldn''t be careless. I gathered a few bits here and a few bits there, but it''s nowhere close to directly living in the world itself and learning its laws. It''s like hearing a description of an animal but never seeing it. You can do your best to picture how it looks and imagine how it sounds, but it will never reach seeing the animal in person." "And you had enough skills and knowledge, you tried getting your hands on the framework." "But Order at that time was proactively murdering anything even remotely looking like a progeny. Which was exactly the thing I had to be to gain the system." "And that person who was killed by the "Trucks of Destiny" or something?" "Just filled a request to them on a random soul from the database. Paid. Pushed all links to the Order. Then removed all the information, masking the act as another malfunction." "That''s... it?" "Yup. The answer is most of the time lying on the surface. Moreover, if you looked closely at the first few days of my host, coming into this world, you would have noticed a lot of manipulation happening behind the scenes. I mean a kid just appears in one of the most magically guarded schools of Europe and everybody just accepts it." "Well, too late for regrets I ?ssume. What''s your plan now? That is if you are okay with sharing your plans oh great progeny." Markus said with sarcasm. "Travel across Universes. Collect information. Become overpowered. Same old, same old." "But what''s your end-goal?" "I don''t have one. For now, I will be focusing on collecting all information from different worlds. My mother after millions of years of continuous collection of information wasn''t even close to being all-knowing. So, I''d say I have a good plan for the next millennia or two. As for what comes after that, I''ll see after I have no other plans left." Markus nodded and stayed silent for a few minutes. *Sigh* "What comes next?" "For you? Death. Dark at least was a God and had substantial energy source, capable of supporting its own power. Unfortunately, your genetic enhancement is completely useless to me. After all, genes are supported by a dying world, which makes that power pretty useless. As for your main power that comes from technology, it''s in the same situation as genes. You are useless all in all." "Well, then it''s my last conversation." "It is. Goodbye, Markus. You''ve tried your hardest." "But I failed." "Don''t worry. You were destined to." And Magnus smile, which was the last thing Markus saw before his death. Chapter 79 - Level 46 - Back in England... Another sunny day, but why does it feel so heartbreaking again. Maybe because day to come back home is coming, oh so closer. Maybe because every time she sits on the train she remembers him. Maybe because every time she comes back home, she sees his things, reminding her how she... killed him. Maybe... Maybe... *Pa* A sound of one tear dropping on the stone floor. But it didn''t end. It was just a trigger for a silent cry of a young girl. *Pa* *Pa* *Pa* Tears kept streaming down her cheeks. "...mione..." ''Hm?'' "Hermione!" The girl finally collected herself and tried to wipe away her own tears. Then she turned towards her only friend left, putting on her brightest smile. "Yes, Harry. What is it?" He didn''t reply and continued gazing at her. *Sigh* "Were you crying again?" "I..." Hermione wanted to lie first, but after a few seconds of silence, she finally replied, "I did..." Silence returned, until Harry hugged her tightly, bringing her some warmth. Standing in the light clothes at the top of the Astronomy tower was probably a bad idea, even in the middle of June. "Thanks, Harry." "Maybe we can visit his grave together, this anniversary?" "Really? Would Dursleys let you out?" "Well, even if they wouldn''t, I won''t be asking. This Summer, Sirius will finally finish all the documents. So, I can spend the second half of the vacation with him. He should be more understanding of the situation." after which he sheepishly smiled. "Wouldn''t you have problems afterward?" she asked worryingly. "Naah, don''t worry. And speaking truthfully... I feel like I really should visit him more often. After all, I..." However, Harry was interrupted: "Stop! We talked about it before. It wasn''t your fault." "Listen, Hermione... I am grateful to you, but the truth is I killed the person, I called a friend. No... Not just killed him. I betrayed him... and betrayed you, by making him think it was you, who told them." The more he talked, the harder it was to continue. Every word was coming harder than the one before. His fists were clenching, so hard, nails dug deep into his skin. Even his eyes started moistening. "Stop, or we''ll both end up crying together," Granger said trying to loosen up the conversation, which apparently helped because both of them smiled. "Summer does bring sad memories, huh?" "How are you, overall? Do Snape''s lessons of Occlumency effective? Were you able to block your mind from him?" On that Harry frowned. "No. I just..." *Sigh* "You still have them? Nightmares I mean." "Now, not really." "But not because of the lessons?" "No... but also yes. It''s hard to explain. Recently they became less vivid, but the problem is..." "You think it''s a calm before the storm," the girl finished for him. "Yeah. And also lessons with him are tough. Especially, things he says about my father. It''s hard to simply ignore. But I learned to listen, after... that..." "Yeah, I noticed. You became...," she hummed thinking of the word, "Calmer, I would say. More collected." "Sad, isn''t it?" "Hm?" "That I understood how much he meant to me, only after his death. I am a shitty friend." "You aren''t. We both were equally at fault, but let''s stop with bad thoughts, please." "Okay, sorry. My bad." "No problems." "Ready for the tests?" "Yeah. Mostly, Thanks to you, that is." "Any plans for the summer?" "Not really and ..." *** I was sitting on top of the highest mountain in the Solar System, located on mars, breathing in the magic power of the whole planet as well as all the radiation that showers it all the time. All that power was converted and used to change the mother''s System. Redefine it. Remove unneeded pieces. Leave the core. Upgrade it. Tweak it. Improve connection to the Framework. Unfortunately with my current knowledge and the resources at hand, I can''t create my own system yet. When mother was making a system she had limitless knowledge about a myriad of worlds and whole Universe customized to generate power. But no matter. I will reach that level one day as well. [Message received...] ''Open'' [''Master, that guy, Volde-something became a bit too active. Something is coming. Also, the girl you asked to watch over is doing just fine, but seems like she got close to the boy with a lot of destiny power circulating around.''] ''Well, that is to be expected. After all, destiny makes sure these 3 remain connected.'' Destiny is like a river. In a sense that it''s currents are always flowing one way. Even if you try to swim against it, at some point, you won''t have enough power to keep the struggle. Speaking of Harry, he changed since he found out about my death. It seems, the idea with "leaving last words" played out quite nicely. After I publicly died, during the "attack of the beast", how they later called that event, Greek wizards visited England. Finding a boy who lived wasn''t hard, because Greece was a major player in the European magical community. So, wizards, living there, knew about Potters family and their history. Basically, my death played a role similar to Black''s death in Harry''s fifth year of Hogwarts. He became more serious and overall grew up mentally. Another change compared to the original story was Hermione. Since year one, I was her best and closest friend, so when she lost me, she had a mental breakdown. Moreover, it was Harry, the person who tipped "enemies" on the fact that she has means of contacting me, who had to inform her of my "death". Humans are strange beings. Thanks to their common feelings about my death, they grew closer. As for Ron, well... Harry was already mentally tired. But then he got into an argument with Ron during the Tri-Wizard tournament. So they have grown apart. Nevertheless, same as in film, Ron asked for forgiveness after the dragon challenge and tried to return everything back to the way it was. However, at that time Harry already developed increasingly close relationships with Granger, so they never reached the level of friendship they had before my death. Interesting how Destiny despite forcing everyone into one direction, still allows some space in terms of picking which path you''ll take to reach your destination. Anyway, the time has come to remove the so-called, Dark lord. I stood up and stretched my body. Even muggles would be able to feel Mana spilling out of my body, affecting the very fabric of reality, bending it to my will. ''This vessel is reaching its limits.'' Soon it will reach levels of power that this timeline won''t be able to support. Not in the blocked state at least. I need to unblock the timeline at one point or another, but first I''ll need to make the perfect vessel and gather some destiny. ''Find all the Horcruxes of Voldemort and mark their location. Prepare for transportation at the signal.'' [Calibrating God''s Eye...] [Starting the search...] Chapter 80 - Level 46 - ... story ends! Spells were flying left and right. Harry and his team were on their last breath, fighting out for their lives. Thankfully, Sirius, Moody, and others came in to help, but even with them, the situation was dire. He and Neville were trying to get out, but then Dumbledore appeared. And he thought that here it is, they are saved. But then he saw spell hit Black and his world came to a stop. But then slowly it came back to a crawl, and he started falling towards the arc behind him. "Accio doggo" And the already falling body was tossed back in the opposite direction towards the person who cast the summoning charm. Second, later, the mysterious man caught Sirius by his coat. "Expecto Ignis Daemonium" "Silencio Locus" 2 spells rocked space in which fight was taking place. First calling a terrifying creature of pure fire into our world and second enforcing silence upon the territory. But a sense of wrongness was growing stronger with every second. Humans, creatures accustomed to always hearing something, suddenly appeared in the location where space itself lost meaning of sound. People couldn''t even hear their heartbeats. Finally, the mysterious man who up until now, had his head covered by the long and wide hood connected to a very big coat covering his whole body, raised hands to show his face. Surprise and recognition bloomed on the faces of those who knew that person. But the person in question, Magnus didn''t care. He simply waved his hand, letting demon on the rampage, while personally slowly moved towards the arc. He never looked at others even once. He was solely focused on the veil and energy covering this artifact. Others wanted to help, to scream, to speak, but couldn''t. Demon mercilessly was commencing a massacre among the death-eaters, who couldn''t cast any spells. However, the inability to cast spells didn''t affect truly powerful wizards, so they tried to escape. That included Bellatrix. But as soon as she escaped the room, Magnus looked in her direction and, after a brief second of considering, followed. Demon looking at how his master was leaving and how prey was running out started dissipating in the air, leaving only dust behind. When Magnus left, Silencio moved with him. So, wizards could finally speak. That was a perfect chance for death-eaters to retaliate, but unfortunately for them, Dumbledore had more experience. They ended up stunned before they could even raise their wands. People here collected themselves and the first thing Harry did was checking on Sirius. They expected to hear fighting sounds or at least some debris left after the fight, but they found nothing of such. On the opposite, they became spectators of a silent scene, where Bellatrix Lestrange was held by the throat, hanging in the air soundlessly gasping for air. Unexpectedly, the Dark Lord himself appeared in the middle of the hall. Magnus slowly moved the hand with Bella in it to the right to see the new visitor. Voldemort noticing the spell put on the territory was able to quickly understand the situation and chantlessly fired spell towards Magnus. But boy''s reaction was surprising, he only smiled and slapped spell away with his free hand. Then Magnus, clenched his right hand, pushing his thumb up and in, thus breaking Bellatrix''s neck and let her already dead body drop on the floor. What made the scene more terrifying is the absence of any sound, because the brain was screaming how uncanny this situation was. Voldemort has frozen with his wand ready, while Magnus stood relaxed, smiling. Suddenly, Voldemort felt something, his eyes opened wide and he fell to his knees. His soundless scream took everyone by surprise, rage can be seen overcoming his face. Dark lord sprang up and pointed the wand at Magnus firing out probably his most emotionally charged Death curse. However, just when the curse was about to hit Magnus, his body disappeared and Harry appeared in his place. The killing curse hit the boy-who-lived full force sending him flying a few meters. Magnus calmly emerged from the shadows of the Voldemort and broke his neck. After which he calmly burned the body to ashes. After another wave of his hand, Silencio was taken off, and sounds slowly returned back into the hall. "Granger help Potter to stand up. He is still alive," seeing Dumbledore wanting to say something, Magnus continued, "All of his Horcruxes were already destroyed, including the most hidden one. So, yeah. Dark lord no more. You are welcome, old man." *** The boy still has some links to the world. But after a day or two, I can safely extract all of the destiny energy out of Potter. He won''t need it anymore, but I can use it to gain more knowledge about this world. "Master, time to ..." *** In the following year, I solidified my position on this planet, becoming a shadow king of the world. Britain''s magical world started a new page of its history with no Dark Lords left and Harry Potter becoming a savior of the world. A few days after the great fight, I talked with both Hermione and Potter. I asked them not to tell anyone it was me, the one who killed Voldemort. Although they didn''t want to accept it at first, a bit of persuasion did a trick. I mean with my system''s speech I could''ve persuaded Voldemort to raise horses in grassy plains of Mongolia, becoming a herdsman. And they already made sure others won''t speak too much about it. After that, I left saying some side character type of shit like, "I was but a ghost of real and now is the time for me to find my peace. I bless you, blah, blah, blah.". You get the point. Then I made some good old illusion of me dissipating into motes of light in the air and done. Also, that talk in the first place wasn''t specifically to hide my existence and to leave a good last impression. The main purpose was to collect all the destiny energy from MC. After a few more decades I will collect all required information and the main vessel should be ready, so I can safely leave for the other worlds. It seems like only boring stuff is left to do, huh? Chapter 81 - Main Story - Epilogue 2012, London, Potter-Black mansion. A serious man with a sly smile was standing in front of one of the most magical houses of Britain. That man was obviously me, one of the greatest friends of Harry Potter, known by masses as Magnus the Wizard. But really, I am but a shard of a much greater being, a mere soul made to play in the greatest acts of this Universe. Thankfully, my role has finished more than 10 years ago, after my master finished his main vessel and gave this body back to me. However, this doesn''t mean that my work here is done. *Knock* *Knock* *Knock* "Unbelievable. These guys live in the 21 first century, but I still have to inform them about my arrival, via the door knocker." After the third knock, I could hear a kid loudly running down the stairs. And a few seconds later, the door was opened by a cute little girl. "Uncle Magnus!" "Sup'', little rabbit." "I am not little!" "So you do agree, that you are a rabbit?" "Badie!" The girl pouted, which made her look even cuter. "Well, if you want to know, you certainly look taller then your mom at your age." "Really?" "Yup!" "Magnus?!" I heard a man''s voice coming from inside the house while entering. "That''s me. One and only. How''s life, Harry?" "Magnus!" He excitedly said and came to hug me. "Wow! Missed me that hard? Hermione might feel jealous!" "Jealous of you or me?" He asked while smiling. "Now that''s a dilemma, isn''t it? Where is she by the way?" "Went after some ingredients for the new recipe. You know her." "Well, dinner is soon. I''ll start cooking, then." "You cooking? Seems like today, we are getting at least a few spare kilos." He happily replied. "Huh?" "What? You always cook a ton of food. Moreover, your food is so delicious, that nobody can stop eating, till nothing''s left. If I didn''t know about your magic prowess, I''d think that you spent the last 15 years learning culinary, rather than magic." "Well, I am not the first one, who used magic in cooking." "But you are definitely the best one." "Yeah, yeah." *Poof* Fire came out of the fireplace followed by Hermione. "I am home, dear!" "How''s life little sister?" "Magnus?" Hermione asked surprised and looked at us. "Have any other brothers?" "Nope" She smiled! *** Two hours later Granger and I were resting in the living room. "I must admit, the food you make is simply out of this world..." ''Granger, you have no clue, how wrong you are. My understanding of the Universe puts my cooking skills closer to Laws. So it''s definitely from this world, he-he...'' "...However, I feel like this visit has an underlying reason." "It does, actually." Harry looked surprised and asked: "What is it?" "I am leaving." "Leaving? Britain?" Harry was certainly close, but Hermione knew that it can''t be so simple, so she said: "You constantly leave Britain. I think at this point, you''ve been in every major magical community on this planet." "No, sister." "No? Which ones are left?" I laughed and clarified: "By ''no'', I meant not just major or magical. I visited every single place on this planet and learned everything there is to learn. Craft, magic, martial & creative arts, languages, culture and etc. I learned them all. I mastered them all. However, this Universe holds more knowledge for those, who strive to learn. Moreover, it was always my life''s goal to learn. Learn this world and laws that govern it." It took a few seconds to process before Harry exclaimed: "Wait a second. Are you saying, that after learning everything you decided to die or something?" I looked at Potter as if he''s gone bonkers and said: "Are you mad? The heck you are saying?" "Well... You said you are leaving and then you said that you fulfilled your life goal, so I thought..." "I never said I fulfilled my goal, guys. I said I learned everything there is to learn on this planet." Now it was time for Hermione to look at me as if I got bonkers. "Did you mean, leaving as in leaving planet Earth?" "Close. I''ve already been on all of the planets in the Solar System. There is nothing but b?r? rocks, so I am leaving our System. But no worries. I left a few markers on top of our planet and system overall. I will be able to return." Both Harry and Hermione''s jaws dropped. They were just sitting on their couch without any ability to respond. After a long 10 minutes of silence, Granger finally responded with a question: "You are capable of leaving our planet?" "I am. It isn''t that hard. I am powerful enough for such space manipulations. As for you and other wizards, don''t even try. It will take decades of research to just reach the moon." "Then why would you leave? Apply the knowledge you gathered, lead the world forward!" "Sister, I am hidden overlord of this world, so I am already leading it. However, advancement made without proper guidance is efforts done in vain." "Hidden overlord?" "Yes, Harry. I''ve been leading this world from the shadows since Dark lord''s death. But now, I have a system laid out and progress for the following decades planned out. It''s time for me to go." For the second time, both of them were left speechless. After a long period of silence, I decided to leave, not expecting any response. However, just as I stood up, Hermione asked: "Will you return?" "I might visit Earth once or twice, during your lifetime. We''ll see, I suppose." I took out an artifact, that looked like an old Nokia phone, but with magical arrays imprinted into it and thrown it to Hermione, "Catch." "What''s that?" "Artifact to contact me. Hopefully this time you won''t let my enemies onto my location" I said with a smile and left. As soon as I''ve reached an exit, I apparated to my space station located at Earth''s Orbit. Time for me to properly start my task. "Let the knowledge gathering adventure, begin!" ''Hm... Maybe I should''ve shortened the name?'' Chapter 82 - Authors Note ----Update---- Side stories dropped. Fanfic and all content in it is free to use by other content creators. ---------------------- Well, seems like an adventure of a year came to an end. Story of the Harry Potter and Magnus from that world finished. This moment marks the start of stories of the real progeny. Real Magnus. What comes next? Substories. At first I wanted to create new fanfic for that, but decided against it. Maybe in the future I will publish them as a story on its own, but for now all of the sub-stories will be published in this fanfic. Where next sub-story leads MC? Answer is Belgariad. For those who don''t know, read the original. That''s my suggestion for everyone. Also, I will strive to improve in it as well and pay more attention to things that I personally considered lacking in my main story. Not sure how long it will be, but I don''t want to write a lot. So, I will try to keep my writing style of being both onpoint and engaging. Also, I will do my best to avoid chapters upon chapters of explanation and keep content consistent. When do we start with new Universe? As soon as possible, I''d say. First chapter might be coming this Sunday. Currently I am finishing up my studies. As soon as I am done, I''ll have more time for personal activities, such as this fanfic. Chapter 59 - Need CHINESE people! Okay, so chapters are finished and were sent to the editor. However, in the meantime I need a chinese native or a person who is closely related to chinese cultural to proof read the chapters and tell me what feels like Chinese and what doesn''t, advices on the naming, locations and etc. I need help ASAP and obviously all contact is done via discord or some other widely available chatting app(except for social medias. I don''t have Facebook or what not ;) ). Discord link : discord.gg/Q4datc5 I will also leave a link in the comment section below. Also guys after chapters will be published, I will post a temporary chapter about a special activity with rewards(I am an author, so you already know what can be the reward ;) ) I can''t tell much about what will be the activity(still thinking about it) or what exactly is the reward(same reasons), so expect more info after chapters. And the chapters themselves will be published when all the editing is done. Also guys if you are Chinese/know culture and want to help, but chapters already finished(you are from future xD) don''t worry. You can still message me and together we can come to some solution or maybe rewrite a few chapters. Okay, guys. That''s it for the info. And I know that many of you are thinking that I am trolling you with these notes, but I am not. I am really grateful for all of your support and hope you will continue enjoying the read. Thanks to you (and humble me), this story and my skills continue improving. Currently, I am super busy with internship(2 weeks left), so please wish me luck! See you when you see me! Chapter 60 - Level ? - The Middle Kingdom A Storm was brewing in England with rumors of the Dark Lord''s revival. And although the Ministry and press tried persuading people of the opposite, more and more signs of his return started appearing across Great Britain. Moreover, the director of the greatest school in the country was accused of treason and attempt of overthrowing the ministry. Officials were sent to apprehend the criminal, but he was able to escape from them in the most incredible fashion possible. In a burst of phoenix flames. However, that was the problem of European wizards. As for the rest of the world? The biggest reaction you would see is a title page in the Newspaper dedicated to this. *** Beijing, China. April of 1996 *** A middle-aged Chinese man with extremely pale skin was lying unconscious in the hospital ward, with members of his small but loving family around him. *Knock**Knock* The sound of somebody knocking the door reverberated in the quiet room, attracting everyone''s attention. A middle-aged woman, the patient''s wife, told something to the young maiden sitting on the opposite side of the bed, after which the girl quickly stood up and went to open the door. Although everyone present in this room knew that the situation of their patriarch is bad, they still hoped for some good news. News that everything here is just a bit of bad luck, and tomorrow he will be back to full health. News that this is just a bad dream. But soon, their hopes were crushed, because the person who entered their room was the head physician of this hospital. And it was obvious, that the best doctor won''t run around bringing good news to every family. He can be here only for one reason. The doctor entered the ward, but he didn''t say anything. He just quietly looked at the patient and moved closer to reexamine the patient. "What do you think, teacher?" A young doctor, whom nobody noticed due to the solemn atmosphere, suddenly asked. But the only answer he got, was a stern sign to stay quiet. After a few more minutes of examination and thorough reading through the patient''s card, the senior physician finally looked at the family members and solemnly asked: "Who is this patient''s wife?" "It is me. Please tell me, what''s with my husband? You don''t need to hide anything." On which doctor only sighed and said: "Your husband is dying..." What followed these words, was a heartbreaking scene and a lot of weeping. *** After talking with the family for some time, the head physician left, leaving the young doctor behind. Xu Bai was the name of the young doctor. He is a very kind and honest young man, whose name (Bai = Person of Purity) perfectly reflected his personality. Bai came into medicine to help and save people. But now more than ever, he felt that even the best doctor can''t rescue somebody from the claws of the Reaper. And the more he looked at this sad scene, the more helpless he felt. Finally, he couldn''t stand this atmosphere anymore and left the ward. Even before he asked for advice from his teacher, he has already known that his patient is not going to survive next week, but he hoped that his teacher knew some way to... *Sigh* Xu Bai tiredly sighed, looking at the painting of Bian Que opposite of his table. "If only I could see inside the human body as he did... I would have noticed the source." For the last week, he desperately tried to find something that can help this family, but again and again, he was met with a dead end. Chinese medicine, Western Medicine, old stories and medical Compendiums from distant past. No matter where he looked there was no answer to this person''s illness. It was clear that the patient''s body was rapidly decaying from the inside, but there was no source or symptoms. Today, he even called for his teacher to recheck his patient, but he didn''t know what could possibly be the illness. "Moreover, what kind of answer is ''He could be cursed''? As if he expected me to believe that... I mean, magic is not real..." Wait a second. That''s when something clicked inside his brain. Like the string being released from the bow, Xu Bai has run out of his cabinet looking for the oldest doctor in the hospital. *** "Bai''er? What happened?" "Grandpa, is magic real? Can a person be cursed to death?" "Huh? Well, you certainly can curse somebody to death, but that person has to be very weak to words!" Xu Bai was at first confused by his grandfather''s words until he heard his hearty laugh. Did he just make fun of him?! "Grandpa, I am serious! Chief Yang, said that my patient might have been cursed and now he is dying!" Hearing his grandchild screaming at him, he wanted to reprimand him at first, but then his brain processed what Xu Bai said and he frowned. "Bai''er, did that Yang boy really say ''cursed''? He must be just confused about the disease himself. Don''t take his words too seriously." "But I remember mother telling me tales about divine doctors and..." "There is no magic Bai''er. And as a doctor, rather than finding excuses for not knowing, you should learn medicine and science to help your patients." "But...!" "No ''but''s. Leave." "Grandpa!" "Leave!" "But..." "Xu Bai," elder hit the table in anger, "I said leave!" finally screamed the old man, "And on the way back think about your attitude young man." But the boy already left, slamming the door shut on his way. After making sure the boy has left, he quickly opened the drawer of his table and took out the phone and started typing. After sending the message, he started waiting for Yang Chao. Soon, the head physician came in and knocked on the door. "Come in and sit down here. We need to talk." "Elder Xu, I saw your message? What happened?" "It is about the cursed patient. Why didn''t you notify me?" "You mean Xu Bai''s patient? Well, I myself wasn''t sure if he was cursed or not. But we did all the tests possible to be done in his condition, but we couldn''t find anything. The only thing we could observe was the breakdown of his body, but we couldn''t find the reason for such a radical cellular death. It is as if cells just stop working and die off quickly after. Moreover, it happens across his whole body, except for his brain. So, it can''t be prions, because then the brain will be the first target. Other than prions, I don''t know of anything that can resist all medication and bypass the body''s natural defenses so easily, other than..." "Magic." finished the old man for him, "Hmm... Who is the patient?" "This was another issue. He is a famous businessman, who is supported by the government, but other than... ''them'' nobody uses curses. Which made me have some doubts about this case. I wanted to talk with you after I find out all the details." "Smart choice. Indeed, neither Sword nor Body fanatics like to use curses. I already contacted the Bureau, so a person from ''their'' organization should be coming to personally check the patient." "That''s great, but I doubt the patient will live for more than 5 days." "Well, that''s not up to us. We are just simple doctors and fighting magic is not covered by our education." "Indeed." Silence followed their conversation. But after a few minutes, Chief Yang was first to speak: "By the way, I saw your grandchild on my way here...", after which he meaningfully looked at the elder in front of him, "Even if you want to keep him in the dark to protect, sooner or later, he would need to hear the truth about the world. You can''t hide something like this from him. Not with your work at least." "You worry about your hospital and let me worry about my grandchild." "Well, even if you say it like this, I am still his teacher and I worry about his wellbeing." The old man wanted to reply, but after thinking about it, he only sighed. *Sigh* "You are right. I will tell him... Soon. But for now, I will just let him be a happy youngster for a bit longer." "Your choice, but don''t prolong it too much old Xu." "Hmph, your generation! Zero respect for elders!" But chief Yang only laughed merrily and quickly escaped the room. *** In the meantime, inside the patient''s ward. Young Xie Lan was sitting near her sick father holding his hand and thinking over their last conversation. She didn''t say how much she loved him. It was such a silly conversation. But now that conversation may be the last one they had. However, she couldn''t cry. She needs to be strong, as the only heir of their family. Moreover, now more than ever she needed to be a pillar that can support her mother through probably the worst time of her life. "Lan''er, go home." suddenly her mother said, "Have a little bit of sleep, I will stay with your father." "No, mom, I..." "Listen to your mother. I can see how tired you are, both morally and physically. Have some rest. Lin An take her home and make sure she reaches it safely." "Mom..." Xie Lan looked into the tearful red eyes of her mother, full of love for her only child, but also sorrow for her dying husband. "Rest, dear. Rest while you still can." The daughter didn''t want to argue with her mother, so she complied and went home. And indeed Xie Lan was truly tired. Studying in University, working on the side, news of her father''s sickness and then waiting in the hospital. The girl was exhausted, so as soon as her head touched back of a car seat, she fell asleep. But, in her sleep, she saw something very strange. Chapter 61 - Level ? - Temple of Miracles "Where am I?" "You are sleeping." said a male voice behind her. But when she turned her head, there was nobody behind her. Then, she started inspecting her surroundings, but strangely the world around her looked like a vivid painting. Beautiful, yet not real. She was standing at the foot of some mountain surrounded by forest. Near the entrance to that forest was a small villa surrounded by a wooden wall. "Am I really sleeping?" "Yes, you are." said the same male voice once again behind her. She quickly turned around but there was nobody behind. "Who are you?" "Wrong question." "Wrong question? What do you mean?" But no answer followed. "If I am sleeping, then I can leave by feeling some pain, right?" "You can. After all, you entered this place out of your volition, so exiting it is also up to you." "Entered? I just fell asleep. I don''t remember entering anywhere! What is this place?" "The Temple of miracles." "What?" But once more no answer followed. "You said it is a temple. Why do people enter this place and who are they praying to?" "Reasons for entering are myriad, things to pray to are infinite. But again, you are asking the wrong questions." "Wrong question... wrong... question..." girl was mumbling for quite some time. It''s a temple and here people pray to get something. Reasons, as well as things to asks, vary. And also the word ''Miracle'' in the name of this place. Is it possible that people ask for the impossible here? Then what is the correct question? "People pray for many things, but how do they know if this temple''s god is capable of providing help to them?" "They don''t know, but they have no other options. It is one of the reasons they stumble upon this place. Yet, once again... you are asking the wrong questions." After these words, something clicked into her mind, and she felt that she knows the correct question. She looked straight at the top of the mountain and asked: "Why did I come here?" And suddenly the world around her blurred and she appeared right in front of the gates of the small house. Gates started slowly opening up. "Greetings seeker! Now enter the gates but be informed... Everything granted here has a price." And so she entered. *** Lin An and his partner were slowly moving through the massive Beijing. From time to time, he was looking at the young miss of the house Xie, making sure she is okay. It was good that she was able to sleep. Tough times are coming to the Xie family. With their patriarch beeing close to dead and the only heir being a young girl with little experience all major families will try to make a move on this family. *Sigh* A tired sigh came from his partner. "Listen, An. What do you think will happen now?" "No idea, Cheng." "I mean, will the patriarch be okay?" That reminded Lin An, that Cheng wasn''t present in the ward. Everyone only heard that patriarch has lost his consciousness during work, but nobody knew the details. That''s another problem. Information can''t be kept hidden forever. Enemies of the family, who know about the family head''s weakness may strike while he is alive. Actually... they may even make sure he won''t recover. "Don''t blabber too much. But increase the security of all direct family members and make sure everyone is ready for anything." A period of silence followed the speech. After a few minutes of silent driving, his partner finally asked, or rather stated: "It''s that bad, huh... Listen, An. This family is strong, but without a leader, there will be no one to uphold its status." "Young miss is..." "Exactly, An." interrupted his partner, "Is young. Too young even. Nobody will perceive her seriously. She will be seen as a young and beautiful maiden, but not as a leader of a major clan." Although he was telling truth, it nonetheless angered Lin An. "Listen here..." But the sudden voice of the Xie Lan didn''t let him finish. "An!" Her voice although sounded the same as before, there was some new power in it, that compelled everyone to listen. "Young miss, you woke up? This..." "Turn the car! We are going back to the hospital." "But..." Xie Lan mercilessly interrupted him and with a quiet voice full of confidence said: "That''s an order." "Yes, young miss." This time, Lin An didn''t even think of arguing back, after hearing it''s an order. It was as if she became a general leading an army and he was just a small soldier, who must obey the order. It wasn''t compelling force in her voice anymore, but true dominance. Lin An seriously looked into the mirror of back vision seeing the young miss sitting there. And indeed, it wasn''t a thoughtless girl anymore, but a true master of the family. "I will save my father!" ''She is not just a pretty face, but a fierce tigress, who will become the greatest leader of the Xie family.'' with reignited vigor thought Lin An. *** A few hours later, Xie Lan finally reached the hospital, but this time she was a different person. Confidently she marched into the lobby and requested for her father to be discharged, expecting no objections. Although appaled by her wish, both bodyguards still decided to keep their mouths shut. They felt the change in the person leading them and change wasn''t small, so they decided to put their trust into her. Trust that she knows what she is doing. After all, it is possible that she conceived up a plan to save her father, knowing she finished one of the best universities abroad. After that, the group went up to the ward and upon entering, young miss said: "Mother!" "Lan''er? Didn''t I tell you to go home?! Why..." "I know how to save father, but we have no time to waste. Time is short. Men prepare father for trasportation." "You..." Elders sitting in the ward were shocked by her statement. She wanted to move a dying person around like some bag. "Young lady, think about what you are doing. The Patriach is..." "Quiet!" Nothing can be said when an ultimate order is given. Everyone present in this room felt as if the very air was pressuring them into submission. True domination. Xie Lan raised her hand and slowly clenched it into a fist. "While father is incapable of leading, I am the active master of this clan! My word is the law!" "Yes, matriarch!" Under all the pressure and awe from young miss''s performance, nobody noticed a new beautiful ring with a masterfully faceted ruby on her middle finger. *** Somewhere at the top of the Baihua Mountain, a young man was meditating. But suddenly he opened his eyes, smiled and quietly whispered: "Time is close. Let the plan begin." Chapter 62 - Level ? - Gossip The patient and his family left the hospital so quickly that even their doctor had no knowledge of them leaving. And when he found out, it was already too late. Xu Bai, our young doctor, didn''t know what to do with this situation. During his morning check up he found an empty VIP ward and was lost for words. After asking nurses, he learned that the young miss of the Xie family stormed in and demanded to discharge her father. After talking with nurses, one of them gave him a card of the new patient. So, he stayed to read the card of his next patient. This, however, hasn''t stopped these women from gossiping about the situation. "Is she insane? Or does she want to kill her father to gain his seat?" "Maybe she does. I heard that she finished school in Europe." "Hmpf, these capitalists must have taught her nothing good. A daughter with no piety for her parents is not human. Just a beast." "Indeed, indeed." Although young Bai didn''t like to listen to gossip, he inadvertently agreed with them. After all, which filial child will take a dying father from the only place that can help him? "Moreover, I heard she said that she takes him away to help him.", one of the nurses said and then snorted, "Who would believe that? Our hospital is one of the best in the country." "I also heard, that she is the only heir of the Xie family. And I heard that Xie patriarch didn''t want her to become the head of the family and decided to marry her into Tang family." ''Did she really do that to seize power... No! Impossible. I saw and talked to her during the week Xie patriarch was in the hospital. She sincerely wished for her father to get better. Then could it be that she really found a cure?'' *** However, with knowledge comes responsibility. The Xu family worked with the Chinese Government since the very beginning of its creation about the topic of interaction with magical communities. China and other countries with the great population had a common problem where hiding magic completely like its done in Europe and America is impossible. So, most of the higher-ups knew about magic and its users. In the past, the Xu family served as inspectors and fighters against magic users who were harming muggles and nature, either purposefully or during a fight against each other. Other than the Xu''s there were other families, who were serving government as enforcers of the law. At that time, the ancient Buddhist faction came out, preaching peace and stood by the law and helped China enter the age of ''Magical Peace''. However, peace means nobody fights in the light. There was still a lot of fighting happening in the dark. That''s why elderly Xu didn''t want his grandchild to be part of this world. *Pop* Sound of a bubble bursting awoke the old man. "Emituo Fo[1], benefactor Xu." A monk in typical Buddhist clothes apparated into the room. He looked to be in his 60ties, looking at his skin and slightly hunched back. "Greetings, master ..." "My family name is Yu, benefactor Xu." "Master Yu, have you received the information about our problem." Monk slowly nodded his head and said: "Emituo Fo." "What do you think?" "Hard to say anything right now. Let''s first inspect the patient of yours." "Okay, let''s go." "Emituo Fo." Xu Hung already checked the medical card of the possibly cursed client, so he knew which ward was his. Soon, the pair exited the room and started moving towards the VIP ward. Looking at this magical scene, Xu Hung was a little bit surprised. After all, this power is not something any random monk wields. This master should be at least Grand Abbot or at somebody infinitely close to this title. Soon, they reached the room but upon entering they found an empty room. "Benefactor?" Both the monk and old man Xu were surprised. "Let me make a call." After that Xu Hung, took out his phone and made a call to Yang Chao. After a few seconds of waiting, he picked up the call. "Elder Xu, what''s wrong?" "What''s wrong?! That is something I have to ask you! Where is the patient we discussed yesterday? And..." In the meantime, the monk slowly entered the room and started closely inspecting room and air in it, while counting through the long Buddhist beads. "Elder Xu, the patient''s daughter demanded her father''s discharge. I found out about this only now, because he was a VIP and the hospital staff thought that I already knew about this." "This... Master Yu, I... " "Benefactor, ..." Monk quietly raised his hand, where unnoticeable for everyone was a small golden ring encrusted with azurite. After this gesture, both men stayed quiet and patiently waited for the monk to finish his inspection. After a few minutes, the monk finally finished his inspection and looked at the Xu Hung. "I am not sure whether your patient was cursed or not, but recently strong magic was used right here, in this very room. However, this spell left nearly no traces. It was done by the true master." "Then what should we do, master Yu?" "We have to follow this trace. But I am afraid I am not enough to face such an adversary. Moreover, we can''t be sure if he was alone and if there is a group behind this person." "But, master Yu ..." Elder Xu said with uncertainty. "Emituo Fo, benefactor Xu." "Only what magic was it? Because only the Monk faction uses curses, so I wasn''t sure about..." he didn''t continue, but everyone present quickly understood the meaning behind these words. "Benefactor Xu, I will tell you this honestly. The magic used might have been either from an artifact or from a person. So, I cannot tell you what magic was it, because traces are too thin. As for the curse and your accusation of our Monastery..." "No, master Yu, I would never accuse the Monastery..." Elder Xu wanted to say, but Monk calmly raised his hand once more and kindly smiled. "Emituo Fo, benefactor Xu. I understand your worries and indeed, your worries are not unfounded. I will certainly inform the Grand Abbot about this situation if there was a curse laid on an innocent person, but for now, let''s follow the trace." *** Somewhere in the vicinity of Baihua mountain, a big cortege of black cars was moving closer and closer towards a small but magical temple. And in that temple, an old Gatekeeper was already waiting for the "guests". ******** [1] - Actually in Chinese language Amitabha is Emituo Fo(Amituofo) [?mi:to?:fo:], but most translators translate it as Amitabha, even though it is also a Sanskrit language(not English). So true translation would be "Infinite Light" and represents the name of the buddha(after reaching Nirvana). So, I honestly don''t get it why would they translate this word... And the way it is used in China and neighbor countries is pretty unique, due to history and other reasons. There the phrase can be used to encourage, agree, disagree, greet and etc. Which makes translating it into Sanskrit even stranger to me. Might as well leave it Emituo Fo and not confuse the readers, or translate the meaning of it properly(Buddha bless you), but whatever. Leave a comment, if you want to see the translation to Sanskrit(Amitabha) or if you are okay with the original. Chapter 63 - Anouncement There are a few major announcements, so please b?r? with me and give me some feedback on it. First of all, four more people have voted more stones than me, which means that this week you people get a bonus chapter plus weekly chapter. Let''s together thank these four people: TOONZ(183 votes) - 4 place replacing a AncientTeaDrinker(169 votes) arapaima(149 votes) - 6 place EAA(129 votes) - 7 place AdamNics(126 votes) - 8 place Just a reminder. For every 4 people whose votes jump over 124 votes, I make a bonus chapter. Another important note, starting next week I will post unedited chapters in Discord (discord.gg/Q4datc5) which allows you to read them a day or even 2 days before they are published on Web_novel. And finally, I am announcing a contest of drawing. The prize of the contest will be advanced chapters. Participants may get up to 3 advanced chapters. How to participate: You can either draw an MC or his Animagus form. Pure scenery and buildings are not qualified, unless they have a very strong connection to the specific scene (Don''t send me Hogwarts xD). Then you need to post the picture on Discord''s channel "for-contest". Either picture and note for the picture should contain a name of the author of the picture. If taken from Internet, leave a link to the original, otherwise unqualified to participate. Unique drawings made personally are appreciated higher than the ones taken from the Internet, thus having higher chance to win. Adding comments to the pictures is appreciated. How to win and prizes: I like a picture of MC - 1 advanced chapter. I like a picture of Animagus - 1 advanced chapter It''s a very good depiction of some scene from the story - 1 advanced chapter. Picture attracts a lot of talk(positive) on the channel - 1 advanced chapter So if I like your picture of MC and Animagus, your prize will be 2 advanced chapters and so on. If for some unknown reason you win all 4 prizes then you will get 3 advanced chapters and another advanced when it will be completed. IMPORTANT!!!! There is no ranking! So I can like multiple pictures and many people can win the same prizes. So no worries. When rewards can be recieved: Results will be concluded at the end of the next week (8/9th of February). The same day prizes will be sent out. Next announcement, starting from the week after the announcement(from 10th of February) I will look at people''s activity in discord and the most active ones will be randomly given an advanced chapters. IMPORTANT!! Advanced chapters will be provided based on the ones you already have. Therefore, if you read 57 chapters, then next one you will get will be 58 and so on. This way, people participated in the contest can continue reading chapters each week by being proactive in the channel. That''s it, I think. Now, I need to work on the chapters. As you might have guessed, I have a ton of chapters to make ;) Thank god, I have a week for that. Link to DISCORD in comments below and here: discord.gg/Q4datc5 Chapter 65 - Level ? - Expert is upon us Although Baihu Mountain had no forest at the foot of it, however, there are forests nearby. And that''s where Xin Lan was going. However, with every second that they were coming closer to their destination, the anxiousness deep inside of her was rising. And although she was convincing herself that her feelings were due to father''s condition. However, deep inside the girl felt that the reason for this unease was completely different, as she, unconsciously, was rubbing the small ring on her finger. Soon, they reached the location similar to the one from her dream and people started exiting from their cars. The temple from her dream came into the view, but this time more detailed. Tall wooden walls around the temple didn''t allow any peeking into the temple itself. And what''s more, the walls were painted with strange yet beautiful symbols, similar to runes. As for the gate, it was also made of wood, but it was hard to notice due to the dark and polished surface, that reflected light. Without actually touching them, you may even think that these gates are made of Iron. "Young miss, is that the place?" For some strange reason, Xie Lan was irked by the fact that the bodyguard didn''t call her ''Matriarch'', but decided to let it slide. "Yes, it is. Now, pick up my father and let''s enter this temple. Its master will certainly help us." A few strong-built men carried the stretcher with Xie''s patriarch lying in it, while Xie Lan and her mother reached the gates. But just when they wanted to knock, gates were opened and a very old man looking to be in his 80-ties greeted them: "Welcome, dear guests. You may all enter our humble temple. My disciples will lead you to your rooms." After which he focused his eyes on Xie Lan and said, "And you need to follow me. You''ll need to meet your new master." Lin An was shocked when he heard these words. After all, saying to a future leader of the Xie family to be somebody''s servant was utter blasphemy. However, just when he wanted to say a thing or two to this elder, young miss quickly responded: "Okay." And followed the man. This whole scene was strange and incomprehensible to the retinue of the Xie family, but if the young miss is okay with it, then it should be alright... probably. *** It almost felt as if space itself expanded inside this temple, but it''s probably just her imagination. ''Where are we going? And is this master really capable of healing my father? Also, the way he talked about the price is quite scary now that I think about it.'' Once more, she started rubbing the ring on her finger. ''He gave me power beyond normality. This ring... No matter how much I am convincing myself, the price required to pay will be tremendous.'' Finally, a beautiful but small cottage surrounded by a decorative bamboo forest appeared before the pair. "You have to meet the master alone. Enter this shrine and you will find him at the top of the mountain." "Huh? What do you mean?" the girl asked, confused. But the elder already left. Soon, she reached the door of the house and opened it. But what she saw behind the door shocked her silly, because it wasn''t an interior she saw there. A majestic overview of the mountain appeared right behind the door. And if not for the birds flying in the sky, she would think it is lifelike painting. ''Oh my god! This is impossible, right?'' She was standing there speechless for at least a minute, before finally recollecting herself. ''This place is too magical. Is the master of this place an immortal.'' After losing herself in fantasies for another minute, she shook her fist and shouted, before stepping into the door. *** *Pop* The girl appeared at the foot of the mountain. ''Wow! I teleported...'' Then she looked up at the summit of the mountain. ''That old man said that I will find the master at the top of the mountain. Did he mean that I have to climb it?'' ''Thank god, there is a road.'' But she looked down at her feet that were wearing high heels and thought: ''This will be a rough walk. Should have taken sneakers.'', after which she took off these heels and started hiking up the mountain. *** Somewhere on Earth. Speech in English. "Sir, we finally found the trace of the subject zero." "Where?" "China. But it is very strange." "What do you mean?" "It''s pulsing all across the country. As if it is everywhere at the same time." "Hm... What are the possibilities? Can it be a coincidence or is it some sort of misdirection?" "We are looking into it, sir. I request three teams to look into the most suspicious location." "You have a green light. Dig as much information as possible. But make sure to keep an eye on other countries as well. After all, China might be just a distraction to hold our eyes glued to that specific location." "Yes, sir." *** At the top of the mountain, a young man who had an aura of a king was enjoying the weather. His eyes were closed, while his lips were slightly curved up. The clothes of the man were simple in design, yet majestic in materials. Just a touch of these clothes on your skin, will entrail your mind and lead you to the world of fantasies. What made the picture uncomplete was the fact that his black hair was cut very short, breaking a scene of cultivator practicing to reach immortality. On his left hand was a simple silver ring that looked a bit dull and simple, but on this specific hand, it was exuding some unknown power. On his right hand was a plain jade bracelet that was glistering with dark-green color under light. Both of the accessories had no engravings or stones of any sort. Moreover, without knowing about their existence you won''t even notice their uniqueness. He had no boots to speak of. Only wooden sandals with a division between his toe and other fingers. Overall, this young man was giving a very contradicting vibe. From one perspective he felt like a beggar who climbed up the mountain, from the other like an immortal who came down from heaven. Finally, he opened his eyes and once more looked at the picture in front of his eyes. ¡º Magic Channeling 74 ? 75 ¡» "Tier 4... I can finally see the power of these abilities." Chapter 66 - Level ? - Master Xie Lan was climbing for more than 4 hours already. She did a few stops to rest, but they were short and soon after them she rushed to the peak with renewed vigor. Moreover, the fact that her father may die at any moment didn''t make it easier. Every minute counts. The tights she had were torn and the soles of her feet were covered with scratches. But she persevered and did her best to climb the mountain. Fortunately for her, the road was pretty good, so she had steady progress. The peak was close. Maybe another hour or so and she will be there. *** Finally, after another hour, a grimy sweaty panting girl reached the summit, only to see a back of a young man, who seemed to be meditating. Although she knew that the master she was looking for will be expecting her at the top of the mountain, this person was too young. He can''t be the great master, right? "What are you waiting for? Come over." He said. "Um... Okay." She didn''t know why, but she was compelled to listen and obey. The man patted the ground at his right, signaling to her to sit at the place. "It took you five hours to reach this place." he pointed out as soon as she sat. She nodded and hummed in response. But the young man looked at her and raised his brow. "When you are answering your master, make sure to vocalize the answer. I don''t need a mumbling animal to serve me." She was a bit offended by his remark, but once more she felt that is only right for him to behave in this way with her. "Yes, master." Xie Lan and the man stayed seated like this for quite some time. At some point, the sun started to go down over the horizon, marking the beginning of the night. Looking over the sunset, the man finally broke the silence. "What are your plans after healing the father?" "Can you actually help him, master?" "There are not many things I am incapable of, Xie Lan." "You know my name? But..." "There are not many things, I don''t know either. I am a creature beyond your understanding, mortal." Xie Lan felt very strange. Every time her master said anything, she didn''t dare to even breathe too loud. It was an absolute suppression, but strangely she wasn''t against it. It felt... almost natural like this is just another absolute law of the universe. His charisma was almost suffocating. His every word was imprinted in her memory, his every sentence was full of mysteriousness and every phrase was an embodiment of truth. "Master, you said the price for healing of my father will be me serving you for a lifetime. I am ready to do so, but can you help my father now. He doesn''t have much time left." "No worries, girl. Breaking promises is not something I take lightly, so you don''t need to fret. Moreover, your father still has a few days to live." "Emituo Fo, master." man''s voice was heard behind Xie Lan, surprising her. After quickly turning around, she saw a middle-aged Buddhist with a ring on his left hand. The moment she saw that ring, she was electrocuted. Although it had nothing in common with the ring on her finger in terms of outer appearance, it felt very similar in terms of the power it was emanating. "What brings you here, Yu Meng?" Monk hesitantly looked at the girl beside them and said "Master, this lady is...?" "It''s another servant of mine. You can be properly introduced to each other later. For now, tell me the reason for your appearance here." "I got a call from the Xu family''s elder about some strange curse case in the hospital." "Ah, that. Yeah, I know about it. This girl is the daughter of the cursed man. Unfortunately, it''s not something your organization may help with." "Is that curse so strong?" "Not really. But the problem here is that whoever cursed him, can do worse after you cure him. But that is something I don''t care about. After all, these mundane tricks are for mortals to engage in." "Um... master. Actually, the issue is that there may be people coming to the temple. And I ?ssume the girl has a gift of power, right? She left a magic trail that leads right to your holy sanctuary." "It''s okay. In the end, it''s impossible to hide forever." "Emituo Fo, master. What are your orders for me?" "There are none for now. I will contact you when your services are required. Leave." After that, monk quickly apparated leaving only a slight sound of a bubble bursting. ''This is so magical'' Xie Lan thought. ''He also said that I have a gift of power. Did he talk about the ring? Does it mean I will also be able to vanish like this?'' Deep in her thoughts, she didn''t notice how her master stood up. "We are leaving." "Master...?" but she couldn''t finish, because the man put his hand on her shoulder and they apparated to the courtyard, where she started her journey. Her first apparition wasn''t a very nice experience. Nausea hit her as soon as they appeared in the temple and she tried to vomit but her empty stomach had nothing much to offer. The elder who led her here met them and respectfully bowed to the man. "Master!" "Lead me to the man, they brought." "Yes, master." *** The healing process was finished in a flash. He entered the room, asked everyone to leave and then exited himself after 5 or so minutes with words: "He will wake up in an hour." And left. Xie Lan still couldn''t believe the simplicity of the whole ordeal, but the result of it was lying in the bed in front of her. Her very father, free of sickness, was laughing and animatedly talking with his wife, brimming with life. Suddenly her face paled for a second or two, while her pupils widened in shock. However, nobody noticed it due to the merry atmosphere in the room. *** Later in the night, while everyone slept, Xie Lan quietly left her room. Once again she walked towards the lonely cottage located in the very back of this temple. But this time, when she opened the door, she saw a normal corridor rather than a mountain. "Enter." master''s voice was heard behind the door. She turned the knob and entered the room. In that room was a big double-sized bed, with nightstands on the sides. At her right was a big cabinet and at her left stood a long wooden table with a lot of cupboards in it. A strange mechanical wonder was on top of it, connected by multiple wires with some other contraptions placed throughout the table. Her master was sitting before the table, tinkering with one of the mechanisms. "Close the door." "Yes, master." Xie Lan closed the door and not knowing what to do, decided to quietly wait for another order. However, just standing was already a tough order for this young woman. In the morning she found out that her father had no hopes of survival. Later she led her family to this temple. Then scaled the mountain nearly b?r?footed. After that another mentally exhausting evening after her father''s recovery. But the girl did her best to stand straight. After ten minutes of continuous tinkering with some unknown device, the man finally put his instruments down on the table and stood up. His hands were a little bit dirty, but he snapped his fingers and instantly his hands became clean. Then he looked at her and raised his brow. He smiled and asked: "What are you standing there for?" "...?" The girl didn''t know what to say. He gave a light laugh and said: "Take off your clothes and let''s begin." Chapter 67 - Level ? - Rings of Domination and Strength "Wh-What?" stuttered the girl. "You came here with full makeup while wearing no und?rw??r just to return the ring? I am not the smartest person, true. But I am not dumb enough to not see the obvious." She quietened down and didn''t know what to say. "..." "So?" "If I will be your woman, can I keep the ring?" "My woman?" Magnus asked surprised, then he laughed merrily and continued, "You are not worthy." She trembled, but then some fire sparkled in her eyes. She took out the ring and put it on. Her hand with the ring on it was clenched into a fist and she used the power of domination: "You will allow me to keep this ring." Magnus stared at her for a good minute, before he finally smiled and asked: "Are you dumb? This ring takes all of its power directly from me. And you just tried to use it on me? You might as well use oil to put out fire. But good try nonetheless." Xie Lan instantly paled and didn''t know what to do. A few minutes were spent in silence. Finally, Magnus sighed and asked: "Do you really d?s?r? the power of this ring so much? You must understand, it was never meant for you. Its true wielder should have been your father. Unfortunately, the Ministry found out about it and decided to ''remove'' him." "I am a better option." The girl stubbornly replied. "You? Better? Laughable. Your father is a dragon amongst men, reaching his status before 60 is an achievement. As for you... well you have potential, but you are too young. The ring is a powerful instrument. But that is only the case, when used by an already powerful person." "...respect..." she mumbled. "Hm? Louder. If you have anything to say, say it louder. If not, leave the ring here and leave. I am not interested in your drama." "I said ''Respect''. That''s all I ever wanted. I did my best to get it. Best student. Best daughter. But no matter what I did, I remained just that... a girl. But then I got this..." and she raised her hand showcasing the ring. "The ring is not a tool to gain respect, Xie Lan." "I know. But... I can be a person you need. I know that you need my family for something. But for that, you need to control its leader. Currently, it''s my father. But with this ring, I will be more useful to you than him. Plus, I am ready to use my body as insurance." "Hmm... First, seduction, then using the ring and now simple prostitution? Quite tempting, I must say." *** After a prolonged and exhausting match, Magnus stood up from the bed and stretched. After his training reached 50, he got a new tier 3 ability allowing him to ignore the need for sleep. His body automatically restores and heals parts that require rest. Therefore, he needs to sleep only once a month for a full recovery. Moreover, the time of sleep he required for that recovery was just a few hours, rather than a third of the day. *** The ability, "Inhumane Vigor 2/2", I got from physical activities helps me tire slower in the process of these activities and apparently, it includes the s?x. ''I am becoming a creature beyond the definition of the word "human" thanks to all the skills and abilities I acquired in nearly 2 years.'' After a good stretch, I looked at the bed and the girl on it. Indeed a beauty. Thing figure with curves in all the right places. Jade skin with a very nice texture to touch. Delicate face with little to no blemishes. That was worth waiting so long to get the first time with such a belle. After looking at her for some time, I went to check myself in the mirror. What I saw there was certainly satisfying. A young man, a bit burly with an Asian face, long fingers, and overall well-toned body. However, he had no rippling muscles. Although, I wasn''t explicitly beautiful, I was certainly charming. After all, my skill levels in occlumency and speech were very high. Therefore, just by being present around people I am... well... bewitching and dominating others. Years and years of practice were not for nothing. My body, temperament, and power were insane if you look from the perspective of this world. In this universe, I can be unrestrained now. Plus, my people were all around China thanks to the ring system I made. I took eyes off from my reflection and focused on the ring on the hand of the girl. Ring of domination. It''s my latest creation. It was meant for her father, but in all honesty, it doesn''t matter who wears it. As long as the girl shows some skill in the business sphere and will work hard to satisfy me in bed, she can keep the ring. And if she fails me somewhere, I will remove her and give the ring to the opposing family. Anyone who wears the ring is absolutely loyal to me. However, today I noticed a peculiar thing. Without the ring on, she came up with the idea of using it on me. This should be considered a breach of loyalty. Although, indirect but breach nonetheless. It''s good that I spotted this problem early. I need to tweak the ring system a little bit, to avoid such problems from occurring in the future. Speaking of the system. I probably ought to explain how the system works even works. Remember I was working on the magical computer? Well, I might have taken that idea super far... *** "Central, we are above Shanghai. Closing on the initial location of the signal. Ready to be deployed, waiting for permission." "You have a green light. Start the deployment. You have an hour before Shanghai''s magical wards will be flared." "Got it, central. See you soon." "Safe landing." In the air above one of the buildings in Shanghai was a state-of-art aircraft frozen in the vertical position. Even stranger was the fact that it was invisible to both eyes and radars. People in the very sci-fi looking suits were jumping off the plane without any parachutes from the height of more than a kilometer(0.62 miles / 3280 feet). *** Somewhere in the orbit. Amongst the satellites and orbital garbage. [Suspect #4209 was confirmed to be the enemy. Compiling report. Scanning location and identifying the enemy''s goal. Nearby, the bearer of the ring was found. Identifying the ring. Ring of Strength. Getting ready to power the ring. Link established.] *** The special ops team from the strongest hidden organization in the world was dropping out of their transport. After a minute or so, they were close to their drop off point at the rooftop of the high-rise building. Based on the mission debrief, this place was one of the 3 biggest magical surges in China. Moreover, these surges had some traces of the subject zero. 40 meters or so, before the being smashed into a meat paste, soldiers from the team started slowing down and smoothly landed on the roof. "Team alpha reached the destination point. Ready to infiltrate. Entering stealth." The team in the sci-fi armor suits that were second ago there suddenly vanished into thin air. Neither sound nor sight could discover these people now. *** [Enemies have landed. Scanning... Equipment fits the description of Shadow''s squad. Applying the "Shadow" label. Data exchange was discovered. Commence hacking... Successful, access granted.] *** The team started slowly going down through the building, inspecting every room on their way. There were a ton of guards, patroling each floor. However, for this team of special operatives, these guards were a small obstacle. Finally, after walking down 3 floors, they found an entrance to a very big room, guarded better than the ones before. However, nobody expected enemy rushing from the top rather than from the bottom. So, the door leading to the room was just a normal wooden door that easy to open, simplifying escaping through the roof. "Central, have a vision of a suspicious location. Requesting permission to open fire." "Is there any other way to quietly infiltrate?" "None. Too many potential hostiles." "Permission granted. Make it quick. Don''t leave anyone alive." "Yes." *** [Enemies were granted permission to open fire. Start the "Premonition" protocol. Sending signal.] *** Man in a suit that didn''t limit his movements, was sitting in a giant room, surrounded by the most influential people of Shanghai and China overall. These people were rulers of Underworld, gangsters, and businessmen. On the hand of that man was a small and inconspicuous ring with aragonite stone incrusted into it. Suddenly stone lit up for but a moment, but at that moment, the man felt that something horribly wrong should happen. He looked at the people around him first. "Cheng Jian, is something wrong?" Then his pupils constricted and he screamed: "Everyone down!" People here were experienced fighters and leaders, so they knew what it''s like to be at the brink of death. Moreover, they wholeheartedly trusted this man. So, the moment he said down, most of the people instantly dropped on the floor. And a second later, that proved to be a good decision because backdoor to this room was blown away with small debris flying everywhere. Another second later, 5 men in some very futuristic armor stormed into the room, but before they could even raise their weapons... *** [Energy transfer requested by the ring. Link already established. Start transferring. Threat level check... Providing strength enhancement.] *** Since soldiers entering 0.1 seconds passed. Cheng Jian started running towards the closest soldier. 0.2 seconds passed. *Boom* Sound of the air bursting started spreading in the room, while the man appeared near one of the soldiers and his fist with a ring on it was already punching towards the head. 0.3 seconds passed. *Crack* First, the head has cracked under the force, but due to the amount of the force, the pressure was building up inside the skull and soon it just... 0.4 seconds passed. *Crunch**Boom* Pressure not finding a proper exit started going outside the skull, pulverizing everything standing in its way and turning hardest bones into small shards. And upon meeting air, pressure, as well as the force that was creating it ripped air apart creating a booming sound akin to bomb exploding. But unfortunately for the soldiers, Bearer of the Strength Ring was moving faster than sound at that moment. 1 second passed *Boom**Crunch**Crash**Crack* The second soldier got a punch in his heart and despite his armor absorbing most of the kinetic energy, momentum of the punch pulverized everything in the left part of his ?h?st. Moreover, he was already flying in the direction of the said momentum. Third one, got a straight jab at the neck, instantly decapitating him. The fourth one was still in the air from the blow to his groin, which also turned the spine into an incomplete puzzle. And the final fifth soldier was held by the neck and slowly lifted up. Then Cheng Jian in perfect English asked: "Who the heck are you and what you are doing on Chinese turf?" He was sure these people were outside of China. After all, everyone in China with half-a-brain wouldn''t mess with the "Immortal Dragon" of Shanghai. Chapter 67 - Level ? - Its not me who should fear... Today was a marvelous day. Why? Well obviously because of my plan or, to be precise, the Sabrina''s plan came to fruition. Speaking of her, she was an incredible find and bearer of my second ring, Mind Ring. Rings, as you might guess, are not something that can be easily made. Every ring connects you to a special system that covers the planet with a global enchantment and allows instant magic empowerment. This removes the necessity to put hundreds of enchantments on one object. Rather than that, there are some commanding and transferring enchantments on the rings, that when necessary connect to specially enchanted satellites, which provide magical energy to activate the rings. And because my naming sense sucks, I just called it the Ring System. Specifically, the Mind Ring gives you access to a nearly unlimited amount of processing power. In addition to this, it provides fast magic-based healing and more minute control over the brain. Unfortunately, the ring is very volatile and useless to people with low IQ. You see IQ is a software, not hardware (in terms of mechanical computing). So even if I give a calculative power of a quantum computer to a person with an IQ of 100, his IQ won''t increase. He may have a better memory, and a few other perks, but ultimately he will remain more or less normal. That is of course if he stays sane after using the ring. IQ is how your brain works, not how good it is. And if a person could make our human small brain work in a way, that outputs 200 or more IQ, than using a ring won''t be a problem for him. For everyone else, the ring will probably break the mind into pieces. And Sabrina was a perfect candidate. Her IQ was so high that existing tests couldn''t accurately measure it. Her worst results were in the range of 240s and her best results were around 310. Plus her mind was already broken and still had such a high output. As for why it was broken, well... Due to her high intelligence, she quiet quickly understood the uselessness of living and on her own came to a philosophy, known as nihilism. Because she rarely interacted with other kids of her age, she soon became ostracized. Moreover, she was different from everyone else not only mentally, but also physically, thanks to her foreign ancestry. All this led to bullying and loneliness. And despite her IQ, loneliness still hit her hard, especially as a kid. After all, loneliness isn''t a mental issue, but a genetic mechanism, that forced people to stay together to survive. In the end, by the time she reached her 10th Birthday, the girl''s mentality was a goddamn mess. With multiple identities living in the same body, each having imaginary friends to cover for loneliness. Her brain was simulating each of these personalities and these simulations were so real, that at some point imaginary friends of one personality started clashing with friends of another personality. Moreover, some of these friends could temporarily transform into a personality and vice versa. Confused? Now imagine me, when I glanced into her mind with my legilimency. I wouldn''t say I was in any danger, after all, my occlumency is above 50, but still... I got quite a scare. You may ask, "How the heck did I discern such a genius?" Well, I noticed her accidentally while traveling through China. To increase my Occlumency and Legilimency, I on a constant basis read thoughts of everyone around me, while simulating one random scene in my Brain. That''s when I noticed an insane amount of voices when I barged into somebody''s head. It was Sabrina''s head. The existence of so many personalities simulated by the brain at the same time is a marvelous peculiarity and first sign of ingeniousness. After a few tests, I knew I wouldn''t find a better bearer for this ring. Thank god, she was an orphan, so I just adopted her. Thanks to my already growing connections in the Chinese government and the Ministry of Magic, it took less than a day for her to become my "daughter". During the last year, we were very close, like a real father and daughter. She knew about my identity and actions so far. Of course, I wouldn''t tell her anything about the system or Athena. But, I did tell her as much as possible and was as honest as possible about my life until the moment of meeting with her. After all, I genuinely wanted her to become my companion and strategist. Plus, lying to a person with such a high IQ would be a bad idea. Even though she knew I wasn''t speaking the whole truth, she was quite understanding and accepted me as a father figure in her life. And, my high-level speech played an important role at that time. "Master?" "Hm?" "You''ve become absentminded. Is something bothering you?" "No, I was just thinking about you. Your birthday is soon. Are you ready, Sabrina?" "You are being hunted by a secret super organization wielding some futuristic armor and weapons, and you are worried about my birthday...Seriously?" Magnus laughed and simply said: "Well, but of course. My daughter will be soon 15teen. As for the Order, a few years ago, I would have been afraid of them. However, those times are long in the past. I have enough power to crush these forces, once and for all. Plus, we have an advantage. We know about them, but they have no knowledge of us." "Still, at the very least you have to be a little bit more cautious ." "I am being cautious. If not for you convincing me in your plan, I would have already gone to their main base and killed those 2 idiots." "What, am I going to do with you...?" "What do you even mean? What''s there to be cautious about? I have satellites monitoring the planet, incredible magical power and knowledge of my enemies'' existence. One of them is a person who came from a world of incredible technologies, while another one is apparently some kind of a god." Sabrina didn''t know whether to laugh or cry, so she simply asked: "When your enemy''s a god, maybe... just maybe, you shouldn''t underestimate your enemy?" Magnus only smiled and started patiently explaining: "Sabrina, as a wizard, I know a thing or two about the world. He''s not a true god. Just a fake one. Moreover, he''s not a god of this Universe, based on the energy signatures he emitted while using his powers. This specific parallel of the Universe was frozen in one timeline. This means 2 things. First, they won''t be getting any support. And second, I become incapable of leaving this world," but then Magnus''s smile became savage, "However, now... I know that there are only 2 members of the Order who came after me. They were the ones who underestimated me. So, it''s not me who should fear them..." Sabrina looked at him and smilingly nodded. "Indeed." Chapter 68 - Level ? - Attack on the monks Similar things happened in 2 other locations. And of course, the sources of magic there were 2 other rings. These 2 rings were a "Mind Ring" and an "Energy Ring". Although the functionality of these 2 rings was different, they had similar behavior. Regarding the "Energy Ring", it''s bearer is already known. It was my other servant that came while me and miss Xie, were speaking. He is a monk of esteemed position. So, it can be said that I had quite some weight in the Magical Government of this country. *** The Monk Temple at the top of a mountain somewhere in China. The second team was on their way to infiltrate the temple because it was the location of the second magical emission. Buddhist prayers surrounded the temple and echoed in the air. This majestic, slow and sonorous sound created an unbelievable and certainly magical atmosphere at the mountain. Moreover, due to the enchantments laid by the generations of monks, it was literally a magical place with incredible plants growing all around the mountain and magical beasts roaming in the surroundings. Unfortunately, the special ops team didn''t care about any of those things. Due to the enchantments, they couldn''t land at the top of the mountain. Therefore, they had to land at the mountain''s foot and climb on their own. And normally, magical wards should have hindered their mission substantially, but... this team was equipped with special tools allowing them to bypass a majority of wards. As for those which could not be avoided, they used special scrolls that upon destruction emitted some dark substance that dissolved these wards. This way soldiers climbed up the mountain in the record time. Apparently, the sci-fi armor they were wearing wasn''t there just for invisibility. It enhanced the stamina, strength, and defense of these men. "Central, we are close to the target''s location. Ready to engage. Some people spotted on the minimap. How to proceed?" "What''s the status of these people?" "Unknown. Cannot be scouted. Too many risks." After some pause, Central replied. "You have a green light to engage. Lethal force is approved. Consider everyone hostile. Finishing operation is a priority." "Got it. Move out, people." *** Quote from the book "Of difference in Magic 3: Mantras" ~ ... In China, there are many types of magic and you won''t find one main school of thought. This was mostly due to the fact, that Chinese mythology closely tied with real people and the majority of gods and demons were real people. And that was mainly due to the fact, that early magical society of these lands quite often participated in Muggle''s politics and wars. This lead to a wide diversion in magical practices. However, only the most "fighting"-capable schools survived to these days. The closest to our European magic will be the practice of Buddhist Monks they call Mantras. It''s a highly complicated idea and rather than on diversity of the magic, they focus on control over the energy. Or to be more precise, most of the monk practice the same sets of so-called mantras which are somewhat similar to our charms and jinxes. However, rather than applying their magic to something, they transform their magic into some energy and manipulate it to do their bidding. For example, a wizard would ignite something with charms, while monks create an actual fire and manipulate it to do what''s required. Personally, I consider this magic strange and complicated. Controlling and manipulating raw magic without any conductors, such as wands, is madness. But even I must admit that there is a certain beauty in this. Especially when one of the elder monks created water and manipulated it into different shapes, creating a beautiful spectacle of carps turning into water dragons. Moreover, compared to European wizards, Chinese monks dedicate their life to mastering a small number of mantras to the point of mastery or how they call it "Kung Fu". So, for example, senior monks can manipulate 2 or even 3 elements to the point where they can create an effect similar to Fiendfyre or call upon storms with lightning. However, their one weakness is stamina or energy reserves. Because of their focus on controlling and channeling energy with their bodies, they use mostly their personal magic reserves. While we use wands to channel not only our personal magic but also magic in the air. Thus, in that sense, we are capable of winning in a prolonged fight. ... *** Soldiers were quietly entering, with their invisibility mode on, into the courtyard of the big temple. Some monks were seen training in hand combat, while others were reading strange mantras causing some magical appear around them. After getting into the most optimal positions, soldiers opened fire. However, rather than the sound of air exploding, due to the bullet crossing sound speed, what was heard is an almost nonexistent sound of skin sizzling under intense heat. Maybe funny, maybe sad, but for these soldiers, laser guns were a reality. And it wasn''t Star Wars. It was the real world. You can''t see or hear this gun firing at you. After all, the"bullets" fly at the speed of light. People were hit at their vitals and because they were in a calm state, the body wasn''t ready to react. So they died almost instantly. 28 seconds. That''s all it took to clear out "hostiles" in the courtyard. Then as if nothing happened, these men just continued to go deeper into the facility. But this time magical defenses of this place reacted to unwelcome visitors. Fire, Water, Lightning, Ice, Curses and much more were flying in the face of these soldiers, but their armor was shielding them from the majority of the effects. So far out of 5 elite soldiers, only 2 had minor injuries not inhibiting their fighting capabilities. With defense active, remaining inhabitants reacted to the alarm and started converging. Because armor''s energy was currently spent to shield soldiers from various magical effects, their invisibility was off. But even like this, they could easily deal with those small groups of monks. It felt almost like people with stone clubs fighting against people with modern pistols. No spell flies faster than light. And with armor''s enhancement of reaction, soldiers had an advantage when it comes to spotting and eliminating the enemies. Nevertheless, they were running out of easy prey. The team reached the gates of the main courtyard where the central pagoda was located. Behind the gates, more than 30 monks awaited them, with the majority being senior monks. *Whish* But before they made it to the gates, swishing sound was heard as if the air was su?k?d out. And then... *Boom* The said gates were blown off their hinges right into the faces of these soldiers. The men were able to somehow escape from the "projectile", but what followed couldn''t be avoided as easily. A myriad of elements and curses, simple in design, but of horrifying power, were flying towards this group. They started shooting back at the enemy, but the monks came prepared. There were some energy shields made of wind and water elements protecting attackers. And it was just a beginning. Soon, the sunny skies were covered with dark clouds brewing oceans of lightning in them. There was so much of it, that some stray bolts of electricity were dropping down from the sky akin to water spilling from a bowl. Some chants were becoming so loud, they were almost thunderous. Soon, the ocean of lighting brewing in the sky started raining at down. It was as if a bucket full of water was overturned and suddenly all the water under the power of gravity rushed down. With one difference. It wasn''t water. It was lighting. Chapter 68 - Level ? - Tell me more Sabrina was lying on the bed of her room, at Magnus''s place, and thinking about what her father said. Sabrina wasn''t surprised at the savagery of Magnus. In the last few years, he was non-stop training. He was studying magic, building some incredible magical mechanisms or empowering his hidden empire from the dark. At some point, he even stopped sleeping to have more time to act in the day. The time when he wasn''t training, he spent fighting and even killing. Numerous magical creatures and Dark forces of China fell at his hands. And she was there in the first rows. Watching him change from a sly, but kind wizard into a brutal and heartless dark hand behind the curtains. He created a system, that captured the minds of people across China and granted them wishes like some sort of a genie. Nonetheless, all wishes had a price. And sometimes, the price was a lifetime of slavery. Through this system, he soon gained control over government officials, celebrities, prominent families and different magical schools. And the scariest thing is, that no one knew that they serve him. The only thing they knew, is that they should do what he ordered, or what was given may be taken away. But Sabrina wasn''t a saint. Although she did have two or three personalities of good alignment, most of her personalities didn''t give a crap about the world or its inhabitants. What''s more, Magnus never tried to lie to her. Of course, that doesn''t mean he was speaking the whole truth. There were things he was hiding. And she knew about it. But she will never force the truth out of him. Besides, she didn''t really care about the truth. He gave her everything she has. Delicious food, comfortable clothes, a place to call home and the ability to be whatever she wanted to be. At this thought, she unconsciously looked at the ring on her hand. Thanks to it, she doesn''t need to care about how she looks. This ring could force everyone around to perceive her the way she wants. Now, each of her myriad of personalities, have a face. Kayle, Marigold, Xie Xie, Lord Fifth, and many others. But all of those things are secondary. The greatest thing, he gave her, was a reason to live and enjoy living. In other words, he gave her a goal. Serve him in life and follow him in death. That''s why he will forever be her master. She won''t ever judge him. No. She will always stand at his side. *** Magnus closed the book he was enjoying and relaxed in the chair. Looking at a clear pond located in the middle of this garden, he thought about the things he achieved so far and how much progress he achieved during these few years. ''System show me my character progress please.'' [Calculating...] Magnus slowly stood up from his rocking-chair and walked towards the pond. ¡º Level 45 ¡» Calmly he reached the pond and looked into its depths. ¡º Magicka ? 44 ¡» He held out his right hand over the pond and opened his palm, atop of which atoms of hydrogen started converging. A smile started gradually creeping onto his face, as hydrogen was magically forced into a collision, creating a forced thermonuclear reaction atop of his hand. ¡º Magical Modifier ? 15% ¡» Soon, there was a mini sun enclosed by a magical barrier floating over his hand, growing with every second. ¡º Magically enhanced talent ? 679.31 ¡» Fed by both hydrogen and magic, the sun soon reached the size of a tennis ball and continued to slowly grow. At this point, Magnus slowly spoke: "You, people, sought my demise, huh? But you heavily underestimated me. This prison, you made for me. I''ll crush it. The dogs you sent. I''ll murder them. And when I am out of this place, I will rein free," after which he started crushing the sun in his palm. "Nothing will stop me from getting out of here." *Swish* Under the pressure, the sun has shrunk to the size of a pea and Magnus tossed it into the pond. "Blacky, our time is coming. Soon, you will have a true feast. Without any barriers." After that, Magnus turned around and apparated into a gigantic room filled with miracles of mechanical and magical engineering. "Athena,..." [Greetings, dear Magnus.] voice of the system, but with intrinsic notes of personality, pointing out it was Athena answering this time. "Tell me more... Tell me more about the order and their plans on me." [As you wish...] *** *Progress* *Character progress* ¡º Magicka ? Improvement : 25 ? 44 ¡» ¡º Number of skill points: ? ¡» ¡º Magical Modifier ? 5% ? 15% ¡» ¡º Magically enhanced talent ? 4.9 ? 679.3 ¡» *Skills Progress* ¡º Alchemy 39 ? 69 | Sneak 29 ? 45 ¡» ¡º Speech 37 ? 62 | Studying 47 ? 73 ¡» ¡º Wand Making 32 ? 50 | Herbology 39 ? 56 ¡» ¡º Magic Channeling 61 ? 75 | Magic Chanting 42 ? 60 ¡» ¡º Astronomy 35 ? 50 | Riding Expertise 20 ? 40 ¡» ¡º Crafting 32 ? 67 | Playing Games 16 ? 48 ¡» ¡º Enchanting 40 ? 65 | Cooking 26 ? 50 ¡» ¡º Training 26 ? 56 | Physical Activities 18 ? 34 ¡» ¡º Programming 25 ? 46 | Dancing 0 ? 26 ¡» ¡º Legilimency 29 ? 54 | Occlumency 35 ? 58 ¡» ¡º Drawing 10 ? 38 | ?Personal Artifact Control 45 ¡» Chapter 69 - Level ? - Ring of Mind In the cafe, a young man was sitting with his friend. On his hand was a beautiful ring with calcite core encrusted in it. Both men were handsome, but both in a different way. The man with the ring, Kayle, was in a black coat, white shirt, and black pants. There was a certain beauty in the simplicity of his clothes. Moreover, his eyes that were a collection of myriad colors, made it impossible to avert your gaze after looking just once into that colorful abyss. His friend, on the other hand, had a silk robe similar to what young masters used to wear in a period of Ancient China. His long hair was collected into a high horsetail. His eyes were a dark void and overall he was giving a vibe of an emperor. Both of them were sitting quietly at the table just looking at each other speaking nothing. At some point in time, the waitress came to take their order. "Young men, would you like to order anything?" "Coke and your best desert," said Kayle. "Green tea. Thank you." "Okay." After the waitress left, both men continued to stay silent. But soon, one of them spoke: "Stop pretending I am not here." Kayle ignored him and continued staring in his eyes. Funny thing is, that he was staring in his eyes as if his friend wasn''t there in the first place. After some time, coke and deserts came. Kayle finally took his eyes off the other man and started enjoying his order. Seconds after he finished his dessert, he for the first time talked. He calmly said to the other man: "Close your ears." "Hm?" After which Kayle closed his ears and eyes. *Boom* While that was happening, Kayle was already close to reaching the back door. He opened the door and calmly exited to the alley behind the building. After that, he turned right and left the premises. Surprisingly the man in the strange clothing followed right behind Kayle. After a few minutes of silent walking, he couldn''t stop himself from asking: "Who are those people?" "Ants hunting for an elephant." "Huh? What do you mean?" "..." But Kayle kept silent. "Where are we going?" "..." "What are you planning to do?" "..." "Tell me something?" "..." "Baah, you are so annoying. Two people can play this game. Hmpf..." "..." But after 10 minutes of silence, a strange man couldn''t stay silent and asked: "So... where the heck are we going." "I thought you aren''t speaking." "So you aren''t deaf after all. Finally some reaction. As for your words, I don''t remember promising anything. I just said that 2 can play this game. I never said I will play this game. Plus you kept ignoring me, so I used some very smart tactics to force you to talk. This, my young friend, is a strategy. Hmpf." "..." Kayle said nothing and remained silent. "Really? You gonna continue ignoring me? By the way, those 5 are still following us." "I know." "Yeah, yeah. Your BS skill just leveled up." "..." Two more minutes of silent walking. At some point, they came to the entrance of a grocery store. It looked like a normal grocery store, except for its logo. It was a gray eagle holding a golden ring in its claws. Strange logo for a shop, no matter what it sells. "Are we visiting ''him''?" "Master, please open the path." Seconds were going by, while these two were waiting. Finally, the eagle on the logo came alive. It glanced at the duo and nodded, after which it returned to being a simple picture. "Here we go again." The duo calmly walked into the store, but inside wasn''t a store selling stuff, but a... kitchen? *** *Few seconds prior* Magnus was languidly sitting in a rocking-chair, enjoying the fresh air. The chair was just outside the ground floor kitchen with doors leading to an open-air garden with a pond in the middle. ''Hm? Aha, the "Order" must be upon her as well. These people got some balls, to send people to my territory, he-he. But at least her prediction proved to be right.'' At the kitchen itself, a ton of work was happening. A knife flying in the air and cutting carrots into thin strips. A red-hot pan on the stove, contents of which, meat & onions, were constantly stirred. Cupboards were opening by themselves, and spices from them were flying around, with some of them dropping into the pan. And that was just a small part of what was happening at this kitchen. However, this scene didn''t feel chaotic. On the contrary, all these different tools and ingredients interacting with each other created some sort of harmony and gave a sense of aesthetical beauty. Facing this magical sight was a door leading to the rest of the house and to the right from the entrance was an opening with sliding doors leading to a veranda where Magnus was reclining. Soon, a small whirlpool appeared where the door leading to a kitchen should''ve been. A petite girl came out of this whirlpool and on her hand was the Mind Ring. Her height was around 1.5 meters (5 feet or 59 inches). Her blond hair was collected into a ponytail. Based on her appearance alone you could see that the girl wasn''t pure Chinese. As for her clothes, she wore blue pants and a white shirt. Despite her cute looks, she was giving a vibe of a young cold man, rather than a girl. She looked around trying to find her master, Magnus. *** Kayle came out of the portal and started scanning surroundings for the master. Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be found. "Wow, look at this marvelous showcase of magical skill. Isn''t it amazing?" "..." "Reeeeeeeeally? Brother, are you seriously telling me that you don''t feel jackshit from this beautiful scene? All these spices flying around and carrots being masterfully fried together with meat. Look there! Different patterns are drawn in the air with spices! Soooo cool! Is that dough for pancakes? Is that freshly baked chocolate cake?!" "..." Kayle focused on the opening leading to the garden and decided to walk there. "Aha! You think he is there, right? Hm... Smart. As expected of my friend, fu-fu-fu." "..." After a few steps, they saw a rocking chair with Magnus sitting in it. "Welcome, Kayle," he said, "What brings you here?" "Wow, he actually noticed you are Kayle. How does he know without even looking?!" the strange man asked. "Well, I reached the level where vision is just a method to appreciate beauty." "Eh? You can hear me?" "Hearing is subjective. But, well, let''s say I do "hear" you. Anyway, Kayle, you can leave. I need to talk to her." "She doesn''t want to talk." "It wasn''t a request." Magnus for the first time took his eyes off the book and looked at the pond. "Sabrina, we have a few things to discuss." Soon, another person appeared near Kayle, which was a tall busty woman in glasses. As soon as she materialized she said: "Throughout the whole conversation, you haven''t looked in my direction even once. Is something bothering you, master." "Sabrina, you were right about the attack. Good job. However, I would prefer to actually hear from you. Reading thoughts of a person with a dissociative identity disorder, inside of whom a ton of imaginary friends for each of the identities live is quite a hassle." "Okay," after these words Sabrina took the place of Kayle, while both Kayle and strange man disappeared, "Also, master, as always your thoughts are simply too beautiful. Those carps transforming into dragons are too mesmerizing." Magnus slowly turned his head towards the girl, for the first time actually looking at her and said: "And as always, please stop intruding into my thoughts, girl," and smiled. Chapter 69 - Update Novel is not dropped. I am still writing the chapters. Currently I have around 2.5k words ready which is around 2 chapters. However, I don''t want to publish until I have completed the Ark the way I like it. I already have an idea how to finish it and what will be happening. Now I just need to put that into words(easier said than done, though). Also, I am have a bit of a dilemma here, whether to save Sirius Black or not. He should be dying in around 2 or 3 months and MC should be capable of saving him. I personally always wanted to save the guy. He had a shitty life, let''s be honest. But now, I am so morally tired due to studies, writing and overall negativity, that I kinda stopped caring about him. So, please comment down below wether I should do something about Sirius or not or if you don''t care. As for when the chapters are coming, I honestly can''t say. Despite the carantine, I as an IT student, mostly have everything as projects, which you do at home anyway, so I felt zero difference between before and now(except for toilet paper :| Are they eating it? Stores are fu?k?n? empty! ). So, as soon as I am done I am posting chaps out. Also, because this will be a finale of the Arc and return to HP universe, you may expect a lot of chapters(Not 10... probably). Something around 5 or so. --- P.S. stores have no wheat flour... just when I started learning making homemade pasta... ;( P.P.S. Did you know that there is a discord server, where you can pester me and force me to work faster? No? Well, jump right in. discord.gg/Q4datc5 P.P.P.S. I wasn''t kidding about asking for more, by the way. Once I actually made a double chapter because the guy(or was it a gal? ) there asked for more quite often. Plus there you can tell me your cool idea about progression and next possible story twist. Chapter 83 - Prologue In the beginning, there was a stone and with it, a Universe was born into nothingness. Afterward, World gave birth to Time, bringing destiny with it. And so another piece of Creation began its path of endless growth. However, whether it was an accident or cruel act of fate, but the young Universe was sundered by a new destiny, bringing in endless possibilities. With 2 destinies clashing, new futures infested the world. And although some brought benevolent changes leading to a better world, others were speeding up Universe to its eventual demise. And stone? As a part of the World, it acquired 2 separate destinies as well. But being the origin of the said World, the stone split its own existence into 2 eternally opposing forces, later recognized as Light and Darkness respectively. Each fighting for dominance. Each supporting its respective destiny. However, time went by, while the world was slowly progressing. The disaster was left unnoticed by the majority of the Universe''s inhabitants as life went on. As for the fight between Light and Darkness? It was left unnoticed, repeating itself through the ages, because victory was impossible without the destruction of the corresponding stone. And to destroy the stone, humongous amounts of destiny was required. So much, actually, that one person wouldn''t be able to carry it. No. The whole epoch would need to carry the burden of holding that amount of destiny. In the end, 2 opposing destinies met and made a pact. They each will start their preparation for their respective final fight and prepare the required amount of destiny to carry out opponent''s destruction. And the rules were set: 1. No direct involvement. 2. Prophecy is the key. 3. Using stone only in the final battle And so, preparations for the final battle began. 2 Destinies started their hidden work to prepare the world and their champions. By that time world already gave birth to Ul, Father-God, who became a father of 7 others. And the 7 created a world and filled it with 7 races, one for each God. However, Ul was never part of the process so, all of his sons'' creations were marred and imperfect, void of Ul''s wisdom and power. Thus, younger gods sought to unmake those creatures, so that all upon the world might be fair. But Ul stretched forth his hand and prevented them, saying: "What you have wrought you may not unmake. You have torn asunder the fabric and peace of the heavens to bring forth this world as a plaything and an entertainment. Know, however, that whatsoever you make, be it ever so monstrous, shall abide as a rebuke for your folly. In the day that one thing which you have made is unmade, all shall be unmade." The younger Gods were angered. To each monstrous or unseemly thing they had made, they said: "Go thou unto UL and let him be thy God." Then from the races of men, each God chose those people who pleased him. And when there were yet peoples who had no God, the younger Gods drove them forth and said: "Go unto UL, and he shall be your God." And UL did not speak. During that period, Light in its efforts to prepare schemed to let the eldest of the sons, Aldur, who was God over no people, discover its stone. It subtly affected the world, allowing Aldur to "polish" it into a powerful magical artifact, limiting its full power. Thus the stone now could directly affect the world, avoiding the fourth rule of not using stone. In turn, Darkness decided on the more violent approach, planting seeds of pride in the most beautiful of Gods, Torak. And so Torak gained unsatiable greed for praise and prayer. So he came to Aldur, scheming to get stone, but Aldur, in all of its wisdom, looked into his brother''s soul and rebuked him. "Why dost thou seek lordship and dominion, Torak? Is not Angarak enough for thee? Do not in thy pride seek to possess the Orb, lest it slay thee." In shame, Torak raised his hand and smote his brother. Taking the jewel, he fled. The other Gods besought Torak to return the Orb, but he would not. Then the races of the man rose up and came against the hosts of Angarak and made war on them. The wars of the Gods and of men raged across the land until, near the high places of Korim, Torak raised the Orb and forced its will to join with his to split the earth asunder. The mountains were cast down, and the sea came in. But Belar and Aldur joined their wills to set limits upon the sea. The races of man, however, were separated one from the others, and the Gods also. Now when Torak raised the living Orb against the earth, Light understood how bad of a mistake it did, so it called upon the Universal will to rebuke Darkness''s Apostol. So the Light enforced a new rule upon both himself and its rival. 5. Only chosen champions will serve as holders of respective stones And so it was set in stone then, so Light Stone awoke in the hands of the Torak and began to glow with holy flame. The face of Torak was seared by the blue fire. In pain he cast down the mountains; in anguish he cracked open the earth; in agony he let in the sea. His left hand flared and burned to ashes, the flesh on the left side of his face melted like wax, and his left eye boiled in its socket. With a great cry, he cast himself into the sea to quench the burning, but his anguish was without end. When Torak rose from the water, his right side was still fair, but his left was burned and scarred hideously by the fire of the Orb. In endless pain, he led his people away to the east, where they built a great city on the plains of Mallorea, which they called Cthol Mishrak, City of Night, for Torak hid his maiming in darkness. The Angaraks raised an iron tower for their God and placed the Orb in an iron cask in the topmost chamber. However, Light''s champion was able to steal the Orb back and for that he, Riva Iron-grip, and all of his descendants became new bearers of the stone, making them the only ones capable of wielding stone without being burned by its wrath. Soon after, Torak awoke and went as always into the Chamber of the Orb. But the cask stood open, and the Orb was gone. Horrible was the wrath of Kal-Torak. Taking his great sword, he went down from the iron tower and turned and smote it once, and the tower fell. To the Angaraks he cried out in a voice of thunder. "Because you are become indolent and unwatchful and have let a thief steal that for which I paid so dear, I will break your city and drive you forth. Angarak shall wander the earth until Cthrag Yaska, the burning stone, is returned to me." Then he cast down the City of Night in ruins and drove the hosts of Angarak into the wilderness. Cthol Mishrak was no more. Knowing, that Torak, a God, a chosen of Darkness, was coming after the chosen of the light in all his might, the decision was made to use the power of the stone against him. Now the Gods, knowing all that had passed, held council, and Aldur advised them, "If we raise war again upon our brother Torak, our strife will destroy the world. Thus we must absent ourselves from the world so that our brother may not find us. No longer in flesh, but in spirit only may we remain to guide and protect our people. For the world''s sake, it must be so. In the day that we war again, the world will be unmade." The Gods wept that they must depart. But Chaldan, Bull-God of the Arends, asked, "In our absence, shall not Torak have dominion?" "Not so," Aldur replied. "So long as the Orb remains with the line of Riva Iron-grip, Torak shall not prevail." "Not so," Aldur replied. "So long as the Orb remains with the line of Riva Iron-grip, Torak shall not prevail." And from that point onwards fight of Light and Darkness, became a constant cycle of meaningless battles. Nevertheless, the time of the final showdown was coming close. The battle between The Greatest Chosen of the Light and Darkness is upon us, but surprisingly a new player just joined the fight. Which side he''ll pick and what consequences will it bring? *** "Let the story begin!" Chapter 84 - Invasion or Reincarnation [God''s body processed.] ''Finally, proceed with ?ssimilation.'' [Combining core... ] [Removing body...] [Creating new physical form...] [Binding energy constructs to the soul...] [Connecting to reincarnation cycle...] [Beginning the process of reincarnation...] [Accessing framework...] [Overwriting access to the river of souls...] [Finding the world based on the provided requirements...] [Entering found world...] [Reading Time...] [Identifying creatures with the densest destiny...] [Immense congregation of density spotted...] [Reincarnating into a human with the destiny of Belgarion...] [Overwriting the original soul and body...] [Connecting to the system interface...] *** Somewhere in a place, where no one will find, somewhere hidden, was a small hut where a family lived. It was a simple combination of wife and husband, quietly living in the woods. However, as it always happens, Dark forces were at hand, lurking around, wishing to destroy the peace of this family. *** A baby cry broke the silence of the hut and shaken, but happy father cut the cord and quickly cleaned his newborn son, from all the liquids. [Activating matrix...] [Overwriting memories...] [Overriding brain''s safety protocols...] Baby soon calmed down and stopped crying. The man looked at the baby and was surprised at the amount of understanding hidden in those small eyes. "Is child okay?" came out a tired voice of a woman. "It''s a boy. A beautiful little boy," Husband responded and gave the child to his mother, "Here..." Mother carefully took a little bundle off his father''s hands. "Hello, little Garion," she said and slowly raised her hand to gently ??r?ss her baby boy''s cheek, "He''s so calm." "Yeah, he is..." "If only Polgara was here..." "She will be back soon. Week at most." Little did they know, that Dark forces were already upon them, monitoring, ready to pounce upon weakened and unsuspecting parents. *** [Reincarnation was successful, beginning the integration of the system.] ''Finally!'' The boy that was lying in his mother''s embrace started moving more actively. And that boy obviously was our friendly neigh... I mean protagonist, Magnus the Son of Athena, and Dark Lord of the Wizarding world. Okay, maybe titles were a bit lacking right now, but let''s give him some time. ''What''s the world?'' [The world of 2 stones, also known as The Belgariad] ''And the body?'' [It''s a boy] [Current name: Garion] [Holds close to an unmeasurable amount of destiny] ''Hm...Okay. Interesting choice. It''s my first time invading into the world while being the main character. In the past, I couldn''t afford to attract so much attention, due to the Order.'' [But currently, you aren''t invading. It''s a reincarnation.] ''Indeed, with God''s core recycled and connected to my soul, both my physical and soul parts are practically immortal. And because of the system, my memory will always stay secured and protected, no matter how many reincarnation cycles I''ll go through.'' ''I am going to go read the information available for this world at the framework. Let the original soul into the body for auto-piloting.'' [Understood, executing...] As soon as, the system swapped the controls, all wisdom in the baby''s eyes disappeared, replaced by typical for his age behavior. Which consists mostly of crying. [Attention! Potential enemy has been detected.] Sound of the explosion broke peaceful silence and fire started quickly consuming the house, blocking all of the exits. [Attention! Intervention from destiny detected.] *** A woman of immense beauty was running through the forest. Her hair was long and very dark-almost black-all but one lock just above her left brow, which was white as new snow. She was following a lead on her enemy but suddenly she felt something. Like a tug on her consciousness. And at that very second, she gained clarity. This whole time she was being distracted. "Geran! Ildera! I have to go back!" *** Back at the house, flame already covered the house and blocked all of the possible exits. "Geran, what should we do?!" the wife was panicking, still affected by a recent birth, not entirely in control of her emotions. Husband looked around, but he couldn''t find any escape routes. Even though their house was made of stone, the fire was apparently of magical nature and could burn even stone. But then he looked at the stone walls of the rooms and came up with an idea. "I have a plan." He ran towards the wall leading outside and started pushing on one of the stones in it, pushing it outwards. The wife, although confused at first, quickly understood the plan and what it implies. A stone sized hole will be too small for an ?du?t. They will be able to push only the child. She hugged her son and her eyes teared up a little, but she held it in. Right now she needed to be strong. Finally, Garen was able to push the stone out and came to his wife''s side to pick up his son. He then quickly went back towards the newly made hole and looked at his child. "My little, precious Garion. We will always love you. Be safe and grow strong, because a great destiny awaits you. I can feel it." Geran gently kissed his son and pushed him through the hole. Kid not understanding exactly what happened, but not liking separation from his father and mother, started crying. But soon after he was pushed outside, a man in dark robes picked the boy up and started running away. But before he could leave far enough, a wolf of pure grey mane walked out from the forest in front of him, baring fangs, as if saying to put the child down on the ground. Man, holding the boy, started considering his options. He clearly knew what a wolf represented, especially a grey one. After a few seconds of contemplating his choices, he took the only available option. He threw the kid in the direction of the wolf and started in the opposite direction. What was strange, wolf instantly shapeshifted into an old man right in time to catch a small bundle with a kid inside. Due to sudden movements, the boy was crying his eyes out. The old man started rocking the kid in his hands in hopes to calm him down. "Damn it. What will I do with you now?!" The old man closed his eyes and concentrated, only to say one word. "Polgara." Ordinary people wouldn''t feel a thing, but every magically gifted person in a hundred league area have heard the call. "I hope she heard it." Chapter 85 - Magnus and Characters A year passed since the birth of the young Garion, and today was his Birthday, meaning tons of delicious food made by his Aunt Pol and festive mood all around. Oh, I suppose you need to know who''s Aunt Pol and where he is at. After the old wolf picked up the child, he left it with his daughter Pol. She, in turn, decided that hiding in the closest farm working as a cook would be the safest choice. But of course, a woman of such skill wouldn''t stay a simple cook for a long time. In no time at all, she became a real chef making kitchen her personal kingdom. In just a few months, all neighbors knew that Faldor''s farm has the best food. Consequently, every festivity that included food was something everybody around wanted to visit at least once. Speaking of visiting. The farm was someplace in Sendaria owned by a good and religious man, Faldor. On the farm, multiple families lived and worked. There was even a smith. Enough of that. Back to interesting stuff. The kid, he was a strange one, even by Pol''s standards. Most of the time, the boy was behaving according to his age, but sometimes he grew quiet and very reclusive. If not for the magical ability of his aunt to find that boy no matter where he hides, it could have caused an accident already. Moreover, Pol sometimes found Garion staring into nothingness and waving or pressing his hands at... well something, only he could see, in the air. The truth of the matter is that Garion was using the System and times when he changed behavior was Magnus temporarily taking over the body. "But then, wouldn''t character riot or try to overthrow against Magnus?" you might ask. Can hand take over your body? The simple answer is no. The complicated answer is... well... complicated? Character is called character for a reason. What Magnus does is rewriting a brain and soul. Making whoever he resides in, into an absolutely loyal tool. Of course, it doesn''t mean that a tool can''t think. For example, Belgarion here is still a Belgarion. He has freedom of choice(subjective that is), he can feel emotions and has a soul. Moreover, Magnus binds the power of the user to the System, meaning that everything, in the end, comes from the Magnus himself. Anyway, the point is that there is no need to worry about a tool. Plus, no matter what, Magnus is not staying in this world forever. So, at some point, he moves for a new and more entertaining World, practically leaving his character on its own with a simple goal of collecting information for him. And when it''s done? Freedom. Absolute, unquestionable freedom. As for Magnus? It''s hard to say. His main goal is to collect information. True. But he could also just create a ton of characters across the Creation and simply chill while they are collecting data. But where''s the excitement? Where''s the rush? What''s the point of living this way. No matter what, Magnus wants to experience something exciting. And that''s why he wants to be in the front rows. Not just watching as he did in the previous worlds, the closest example being Potterian World. No! He will be in control. Thanks to god''s core, he can taste life through actually reincarnating. Because what he did in the past is just killing a soul and then rewrite the Order''s protocol to transport that soul to a new world. But he never actually tasted life. He was controlling a body, but it was just like commanding a character through a keyboard. One of the reasons he started calling these hosts "characters" in the first place. Only in his last world he finally lived in a human body, albeit not for long. And although there were some demerits, overall it was an enjoyable experience. All those substances, affecting the brain, thus simulating emotions, which in return are getting imprinted into the soul. It was, honestly, an unforgettable experience. Although, some parts of life, such as being a baby, can be quite tiresome, as Magnus learned first hand. He tried. He really did. But babies have jumbled up senses, organs, brain, and emotions. In short, it''s a mess. And living in such a container is pure torture. So, rather than spending days in it, he gave temporary control to an original soul. In the meantime, he would spend his free time, learning about the world, using the Framework. Nonetheless, he checked upon the body from time to time. But we digress, aren''t we? Back to the topic at hand. Garion was growing with the System. So, for him not to be utterly clueless about its functionalities, Magnus made sure to create and implant required memories into our young protagonist. Even if Magnus is taking over the body, the original soul should know how to fully utilize functionalities provided by the System. It also helped avoid stupid questions like: "What''s the inventory?!" "What is ''Skills''?" "Where this power is coming from?" "What STR means?" "Why I have a System?" "Can others see what I see?" "Can I talk about the System or you with others?"(For those who don''t get it. The answer is no.) As for progression? Well... let''s just say that one-year-olds aren''t concentrated on getting superpowers. But when Garion/body reaches the age of five, it might be a good idea to start with some simple quests. In the meantime, the boy growing to be very active. So, Magnus decided to use that energy beneficially. Most of the novels and fanfics at this point will be meditating. However, Magnus more or less knew the basics of this world, thanks to a whole year of learning about the world''s laws. So, meditating won''t help with magic, but it should help with the state of mind. Therefore, he used the System to issue some simple daily quests like: "Meditate 20 minutes." "Play any ''activity'' type game." "Memorize 10 words." And so on. You get a gist of it. By the age of five, Magnus will be able to enjoy the human body that will be both physically fit and mentally stable. Chapter 86 - No chapters, side-story frozen. 500 Chapter 86 - Taking over After 4 more years, Garion finally became a five-year-old. It was a perfect age to start training the body, learn skills, and acquire valuable abilities. The day after his birthday, Magnus took over. Compared to the original soul, Magnus wasn''t limited by his body. On the contrary, his consciousness was connected to his god''s core, which meant he can be active as long he has enough energy. Thanks to these 2 facts, Magnus could control the body throughout the whole 24-hours cycle. Of course, some may say that it''s pointless, but he''ll disagree. You see, the body is doing a lot of things while you are sleeping, for example, growth, cell division, energy replenishment, repair of tissues, and information processing. Now imagine, there is a supervisor that is capable of improving some of those things. And Magnus is exactly that supervisor. While body remains in the sleep, he optimizes all these processes. In addition to this, he manually picks information to be processed and simulates different skills to train the body even during sleep. Although you can''t train muscles in such a way, your brain can still strengthen the neural pathways ?ssociated with those skills. Therefore, by the time Garion''s body woke up, Magnus has pushed the young boy''s body through 8 ''hours'' of rigorous training. Another part that he tweaked was an immune system. Human''s body has a gigantic database of diseases in their bodies and, more importantly, how to fight those diseases. However, the word "big" doesn''t mean complete. A human body has a multitude of microorganisms present throughout their body, especially in their mouth. But it doesn''t mean their immune system knows how to fight those potential diseases. They are just there, existing. That''s why Magnus decided to take it in his... "hands" and spend at least 3 hours in real-time to manage the immune system and get this body an absolute immunity... Get it? Immune system... Immunity? Anyway, getting that immunity wouldn''t be an easy process finished in a day. It will take a year at least, but the first step is what matters here. As soon as the body woke up, Magnus then took a few minutes to go through memories gained since his last check-up. After all, a whole year passed since then, so he wanted to be up to date. However, what he learned left him aghast. Aunt Pol didn''t teach him how to read. And he was five already. At this rate, he might stay illiterate till 16 with nobody to teach him at this farm. Although there are a blacksmith and a farm owner, who could probably instruct the boy on reading. However, who would spend their ''precious'' time doing that? ''System, any possible quests to learn reading?'' [Authorization: Magnus/System... Confirmed] [Connecting to the Framework...] [Retrieving...] [Possible ''Quest Line'' discovered] ''Huh? A whole quest line just for a simple skill of "Reading"? Interesting. Take it.'' [''Quest Line'' begins: "On the road to literacy"] [The first ''Quest'' activated: "Persuade somebody to teach you reading."] That was the first difference to a previous version of the System that Magnus used in the Potterian Universe. There he was mimicking System, while busy with rewriting the actual System and getting direct access to the Framework. But now he has full access to the Framework and, for those who forgot, Framework is, in short, a tool to become overpowered. It''s basically directly connected to creation itself capable of granting infinite energy and power, not limited by any specific Universe. However, there is one catch. There should be valid and logical reasoning for providing these resources to a person. And Systems, in this case, work as requesters for their users. A good analogy for that will be a computer and software or programs installed on this computer. By itself, computers are useless to humans but, with software, humans can tap into the computational power of these calculating machines. But we digress. *** With plans organized, I finally stood up from my bed and stretched. Thanks to all the advancements I did this night, my body has b?r?ly enough energy to sustain the thinking process. I need to get some food. ''System, time?'' [6:30 am] Okay. I exited my room and started moving towards the kitchen. Based on the sounds I heard coming from there, people already started preparing breakfast for everyone on the farm. I got in and started patiently waiting for food to get ready. While waiting, I was thinking about what other skills I need to start training early. ''Training the body and martial arts.'' My age is close to perfect to start. Based on the body constitution, it''s safe to say that the training I went through in previous Universes can be applied here as well. Reading and fighting, two things any respectable world traveler should master. Plus, there is a blacksmith I can learn from as well. Getting this craft can be entertaining. Plus, he has quite some destiny around him, so being around the guy might prove useful. "Garion, what''s wrong? You are up so early?" Aunt Pol noticed me first. "I am hungry...", now to empower this sentence with loud rumbling, coming from the stomach, increase blood flow to cheeks, causing me to look flushed. And the final touch to avert my eyes a little to the side. Picture-perfect embarrassment. [Request for a new ''STAT'' ?ssignment was sent...] [''STAT'' approved...] [Shaping...] [Type identified as ''Ability''...] [Incorporating...] She smiled kindly and said: "Well, the meal will be ready soon. In the meantime, you can take an apple for a light snack." [New ''Ability'' added: Decieving] "Okay." ''Remind me to check the description of a new ''Ability'' later during sleep, System.'' After dealing with stomach emptiness, I tried to leave the farm premises to train. Focus on the word "tried". As soon as I was 80 meters away from the kitchen, Aunt Pol magically appeared right behind me and gently asked: "Young man, where might you be going, hm?" ''Well, I think I just pooped my pants.'' Anyway, after that small accident, I learned two things. Aunt Poll, somehow, always knows my location and 50 meters is the maximum distance that she can tolerate. Anything further and she swoops in, to... ''gently'' lead me back. Well, not that I care much about that. I wanted to leave the premises of this farm to attract less attention to the activities I am going to partake in. However, if I can''t, it wouldn''t be an issue, I''ll just train. Plus, not like ?du?ts will pay much attention to what 5-year-old does. *Sigh* The next few years will be tough. ''System?'' [Connecting to the Framework...] [Application approved...] [''Quest'' created: Acquire Fighting ''Ability''.] [''Quest'' created: Acquire Crafting ''Ability''.] [''Quest'' created: Train any ''Ability'' to level 10.] [''Quest'' created: Unlock any ''Attribute''.] [''Quest'' created: Unlock any ''Skill''.] [Details of new quests, such as rewards, time limits and etc. can be found in the quest section.] ''Nice'' Magnus smiled, thinking of all the things his own personalized self-made tweakable System with direct access to Framework was capable of. ''Let''s see what rewards, I will be getting, he-he.'' Chapter 87 - First day I spent my whole day, mostly stretching and learning to control my breathing. Although simple in essence, this process took quite a lot of time and willpower. In terms of stretching, the techniques to make your body more flexible are not complicated. All you need to do is to strain your muscles and tendons while suffering some pain in the process. The only danger is to overdo and get yourself some nasty injury, but, for a creature like me, capable of "looking" into the body, that isn''t a problem. Plus, even if my body gets injured, I can always control it and localize healing, thus removing any chance of possible negative consequences. As for the breathing control, that in itself is a complicated matter. But why is it important? Well, breathing properly is good and all, but what I really needed to do is to automate the process of breathing switch. You see, breathing is the beginning and an end of every activity. Fighting, eating, sleeping, resisting cold or hot temperatures and so much more. All of these activities have their own perfect breathing tempo. Controlling every is a pain on its own, but switching it up depending on the situation is eternal mental torture. Of course, it''s impossible to teach the human body to shift breathing based on all of these situations, because it goes much further than a simple "Neural pathway" problem. However, that''s where the System comes in. It will either find an existing ability, that fits my needs in the Framework or create it. With ability maxed, it should potentially reduce the amount of micromanagement I do for this body. This, in turn, gives me more free time for other fun activities. So, in short, I spent the whole day in various stances, that will allow simultaneous stretching of multiple parts in the body, all the while controlling my breathing. In the process, I gained 2 things. New attribute "Dexterity" and a new skill "Breath Control". By the way, as you might have noticed, the System went through massive changes, which I mentioned previously. Actually, it wouldn''t be an exaggeration to say that 50% of it, has been remade. First of all, now System doesn''t have any limiters and can request any skills, abilities, attributes, bloodlines, domains and etc. The only precondition is to have good reasons for these "Stats" to be requested. For example, I wholeheartedly practiced breathing techniques for a prolonged amount of time, so System found and uploaded a new "Stat" fitting this activity. However, if multiple "Stats" are responsible for the same activity, then the most encompassing is picked. So, in the case of stretching activity, a lot of things are responsible for it. Ability - "Stretching", Skill - "Flexibility", and etc., but Attribute - "Dexterity" was deemed the most encompassing. So, all in all, System v2.0 became a lot better than what it initially was. Of course, "better" doesn''t mean "best". No matter what, I have limited knowledge and abilities to make/improve Systems. For example, I once heard of a hidden System to turn everything into a Card form. With enough energy, it could even transform a small Universe into a card. Now imagine me, who has open access to Framework, which is, by the way, a source of Unlimited Energy, with that System. Or there was a rumor about a System that was capable of analyzing any knowledge and perfecting it into an impeccable manuscript. In short, I wanted them all. But scouring Universe for some specific Systems with my current knowledge is impossible. Maybe later after I will have a library of knowledge on a dozen or so Universes. Back to now, evening already overtook the day and I just finished my dinner. Because I lost quite some energy today, I asked to triple my portion. Aunt Pol looked very strangely at me, but it''s understandable. After all, I got a triple portion during dinner as well. What can I say, I''m a growing organism. I need nutrients. [You have 2 ''Quests'' completed. Ready to take your reward?] ''Yeah. Let''s see how much I got.'' [''Quest'' - Unlock any ''Attribute'' : Completed...] [10 Energy Points retrieved] [''Quest'' - Unlock any ''Attribute'' : Completed...] [10 Energy Points retrieved] [Currently 20 Energy Points available. What would you like to acquire?] With Framework Energy in tow, anything is possible with the only limitation being the System itself. Even with improvements to it, the most I could acquire are ''Stats'', such as ''Attributes'', ''Skills'', ''Abilities'' and etc. If I can get my hands on Itemized Systems, then I could turn the energy into artifacts, armor, and weaponry. But for now, simple ''Stats'' would suffice. Currently, I have no real need to upgrade any of my ''Stats'', so I would save it in the System. ''Save it, for now. I''ll use it later.'' She looked at me, quietly analyzing me before she came closer and sat at the end of his bed. They were looking at each other, for quite some time, before she said: "That was a fast escape, you did after dinner, Garion.", her words quiet, bearing seriousness in them. ''Hm... She started doubting me because of the activities I did today? Let''s try something simple...'', so I answered: "Well, I was tired, so I decided to go to sleep." "Is that so, Garion?" *Sigh* I rose from my lying position and sat on the bed. "What is it that you want to say, Aunt Pol?" She frowned. "You are not my Garion." ''Well, playtime is over. '' "He was never yours in the first place." She rose her hands up in the air as if planning to do something, but what? [Based on the readings in the air, the woman is preparing to gather energy for the attack.] ''Aha, so she wasn''t a simple a woman after all. My initial guess was right then. She is somebody else entirely.'' "Who are you and where is Garion!?" she nearly hissed, from all the rage and... was it despair? ''Hm, I''ve never had a character with a ton of destiny, but then I''ve also never had a physical form. Let''s play a hero, he-he.'' "I am Garion, or to be precise, I am the one who he is destined to be, woman." [Deceiving 1 ? 2] Seems like that wasn''t an answer she expected. "What?" Nice, I broke her tempo. "You were utterly failing at your job of preparing this vessel for what''s coming. I am illiterate, weak, simply incapable of surviving. Don''t you know what I was destined to do? Or are you seriously considering your activities so far were sufficient?" "I-I..." "This is no mere child. It has to be ready for what''s coming, thus I had to intervene and do your job. I will train him in all of the skills and trades, he''ll need. You can help, but that''s how far you are allowed to interfere. Are we clear?" [Deceiving 2 ? 3] After a few seconds, she collected herself and asked: "If you are what he''s destined to be, then you know his real name. Tell it." ''Ah, so she decided to test me, but I don''t really know the future.'' In the past 5 years, I gained some knowledge, from the infosphere of this world. However, that was mostly past and not the future. Nevertheless, based on the information I gained, I could make an educated guess to lead her astray. "Are you mad, Polgara?! There are reasons for hiding true name, and Garion will learn his in due time." "How do you..." ''Her real name, that''s what I pieced together. Unbelievably beautiful with the gray lock of hair plus magical power. There was only one such woman that left a gigantic mark on the history of this world.'' [Deceiving 3 ? 4] "Quiet! Plus, it''s not like I am taking over forever, I am here to train him. The boy will have his playtime from time to time. Now, leave me, I need to rest." At first, Polgara opened her mouth to say something, but after a second, she sighed and left. But right before the door, she stopped and asked: "Was I really that bad...?" she didn''t finish the question, but the remainder was pretty obvious: ''... bad of a mother?'' In truth, Polgara became a true mother to the boy. However, with how much destiny is put into this body, not teaching him anything is a foolish decision, no matter how you look at it. Those destined for greatness do not require neither love nor affection. Destiny will make sure a kid will survive, so all he or she really needs is a proper teacher. Of course, some may say that a loving family will only help and support the destined child, but then why follow your fate if you are content? Unfortunately, happiness is for those of us who are ordinary or reached their eventual outcome. Cultivators, mages, gods, monsters, heroes, villains, and even Universes, they all struggle to become more than they are. Does it bring them happiness? In some way, yes. But to most, they just consider it their life''s meaning. To suffer, struggle, persevere. But I probably went silent for too long in my contemplation of destiny. "You were and will be a perfect mother. But what he truly needs is a teacher, and that''s what I am going to be. Now go rest. And from tomorrow onwards, I''ll require a lot of food to put the boy in shape. So make sure I will have bigger portions." "Okay." And so she left. That was tiring, but not entirely unexpected. After all, I never tried to play a little boy. And although I deceived her, it was really a lie. The boy''s personality still lives. And I am what he is destined to become. But I''ll need to let the boy out from time to time, just to let him have fun and let Polgara calm her worries. After all, I won''t say no to the protection of one of the most powerful magic wielders in this world. [The Character you left in the previous Universe was able to achieve his goal. He collected all the knowledge possible from that Universe.] ''Huh? Really? That was awfully fast. How much time he spent?'' [Based on his timeline, only 50 Earth''s centuries.] ''So little?'' [He implied an interesting tactic. But it''s easier to show. Would you like to see?] ''Hm,'' Magnus smiled and let Garion''s body to fall asleep, before exiting this vessel and connecting to the System, "Show me." *** Status page: Name: Magnus Description: Son of Athena, the most intelligent artificial creature ever created, who lives only to entertain himself and probably Creator. Unfortunately, due to the fact that he was born from a creature, that should be incapable of birth, he became first in the history of the Creation half-artificial half-natural form of life. This gave him an ability to be immortal, unkillable by any means, due to the fact that he had neither body nor soul. His very being was defiance to Creation. However, this also imposed multiple limitations on him. He couldn''t reincarnate with, because he had no soul to travel through the river of souls. He couldn''t gain normal in a normal way cause he had neither body to collect power or soul to preserve it. So, he could manipulate bodies and souls of others, up until recently he gained a damaged god core that he was able to recycle and turn into a part of himself. God Core became an anchor of sorts, allowing him to reincarnate. Plus, he finally was able to get access to the Framework created by his mother, allowing him to quickly amass power via any System type of outlet. Therefore, he was able to negate all of his weaknesses without losing his strengths. Currently, he used newly created core to reincarnate and for a first time get himself a truly physical representation. Of course, Magnus won''t spend his precious time in that one body, so let initial soul to become a sub-personality and whenever Magnus is busy or lazy, it will take over and continue live activities as normal. With modified system in place and body reaching appropriate age, Magnus became his first conscious training. Miscellaneous: Age: 5 Stats: Attributes: ¡¤ *New* Dexterity = 1 Abilities: ¡¤ Deceiving = 4 (1 ? 4) Skills: ¡¤ *New* Breath Control = 2 (0 ? 2) Quests: ¡¤ Acquire Fighting ''Ability'' ¡¤ Acquire Crafting ''Ability'' ¡¤ Train any ''Ability'' to level 10 ¡¤ *Complete* Unlock any ''Attribute'' ¡¤ *Complete* Unlock any ''Skill'' Chapter 88 - Interlude: Previous Character -- Potterian Universe -- Blocked timeline -- Mega-Cluster 451234 -- Cluster 562 -- Galaxy 4 -- System 15422354 -- Planet 3 Interesting creatures were filling both the surface and the skies of the planet. They were looking somewhat similar to humans, but leaner. Their complexity evolved more peacefully due to the absence of a variety of animals. Thus the species had no need to become aggressive or strong to survive. Thanks to that, the race overall had a peaceful lifestyle, and wars were rare among its representatives. In terms of looks, they were quite shorter than the average human. Somewhere around a meter and a half. Had thin long hands with a very flexible set of 6 fingers on each hand, pointing out that race''s main activities were crafts and arts. Not War. Their legs were shorter but much wider, to better hold balance with their disproportionally long arms. And heads fitting their proportions. But enough of looks, because in the end, they do not matter. Today is the last day of their existence. Fires were burning all across the planet. All of the technological advances made up till now became irrelevant in the face of a massive wave of EMP(Electro-magnetic pulse) that hit the planet. Minutes after the pulse disabled major centers across the globe, gigantic creature, size of a small mountain, made of absolute darkness and billowing shadows appeared above the center of the native civilization. No one in the right mind would ?ssociate the coming of that... being, a good sign, thus the world started preparing to give a fight to this monster. A week. That''s all it took for a creature to raze every city, massacre all armies, and destroy all hope. Although the beast was not invulnerable to the weaponry of creatures inhabiting the planet, it was reaping bodies and souls of those, it killed to recuperate. So, no matter how much damage was done to it, the creature was able to regenerate through it all. *** -- City of Hope -- Temple of Khatri In the middle of the devasted city at the far reaches of the planet stood a lonely city. It was neither big nor small. Honestly, it was pretty mediocre. But, in the middle of that city stood a temple. Nobody in the city could remember when the temple was build or what purpose it served. But one thing was certain. This building is probably the oldest construction on this planet made by human hands, which made this city a place popular amongst historians. Some of them even believed that its construction predates first big communities. But, now, all that doesn''t really matter, does it? Remainders, of the once-thriving race, gathered in the halls of a long-forgotten God. Huddled, face riddled in despair, people were a prayer to any and all beings for a miracle, not hoping to get one. When science is useless and all hopes are gone, what''s left other than belief and desperation. Small children were looking at their parents in search of an answer, mimicking the only emotion they could recognize. Fear. Sounds from outside the temple were full of screams and crying. Explosions were heard intermediately with sounds of big barrelled guns being shot. But soon silence took its rein. It was just a few moments, but for those inside the temple, it felt like an eternity left one on one with silence. *Rumble* Walls of the temple shook as if something very heavy put its hand on the roof of this historical treasure. Or was it paw? Maybe even claws... Thanks to the absence of the internet or any other advanced technology to exchange information, people inside had no clue how the creature attacking them looked. Almost half the planet saw as a mass of darkness dropped on the planet, frying everything working on electricity. But what specifically was it? Nobody knew. Was it Leviathan? A monster was so gigantic it could crash any of the moons orbiting their planet. Was it an Intergalactic Ship? Vessel of some advanced race that stumbled on their planet in their thirst for expansion. Or was it something else entirely? A God traveling through the Universe. A Demon scouring Galaxies in its everlasting hunger. Or... maybe... it''s the end. The end of the World, prophesized by all those madmen preaching in their religions. No matter what it was, the end drew near. *Step* Everyone in the temple halts their breath in horror, as loud steps echoed in the only corridor leading into the wide inner chambers. *Step* *Step* With every step, terror grew in souls of the refugees hiding here. Each step was loud and crisp like an ancient giant, stomping on the ground. But to everyone surprise, what appeared at the entrance was an outline of a humanoid. Despite their fear, people raised their heads to look at the intruder. It looks nothing like a member of their once glorious race. Very tall. Hands too short to be useful. Too little fingers. Legs so thin, people were questioning, how they were holding him straight. Finally... "Who are you?!", asked the bravest of the bunch. "What an irony, don''t you agree?" ''Irony?'' most thought, but that being continued. "You stand in the temple built in my name, and yet you ask me, who I am," and he smiled. "Y-Your temple?" one of the people stuttered. "Indeed." "Then it''s true," one of eldest people amongst the bunch, hiding, said, "It''s the end of the world." But surprisingly the being only lightly laughed. "What a conceited notion, that World will end with the extinction of your race. Here is the truth. Death of your race changes nothing. Accept that. Nobody will cry. Nobody will miss you. Because nobody cares." It was hard for everyone present to accept that, but being didn''t care. "Can you at least answer why?" "Hm? Knowledge." "Knowledge?" "Knowledge!" "Y-You are exterminating the whole civilization just for knowledge?! What sort of knowledge has such a preposterous price?" "Preposterous?" being asked, looking genuinely surprised, "I wouldn''t say that. After all, collecting that information manually will take too long and will require many sophisticated tools all across the Universe collecting that information. I have neither tools nor, to be honest, any wish to waste time doing that. If I can do so by committing genocide or two, why not?" Those who heard him turned pale. But those few who truly understood him were enraged. One such person, eldest amongst present, said: "We are nothing more than insects to you... You are not a God! You are a murderous madman! Worse you are a demon!" A being had a somewhat pondering look. "Insects? So? As for a God or a Demon. Do you even understand the difference?" "Gods are benevolent. They help. They are good. But you... You...! You are...!" Fuming in a mix of anger and despair, she couldn''t find appropriate words. But being only smiled: "Well, you are too simple-minded to understand either way. Why waste time explaining," so the being waved his hand and from shadows all around the chamber spikes started materializing, impaling these mortals in the process. Thus killing the last representative of this race in the Universe. "Turn off the soul circulation arrays and start Reaping." being said, seemingly into emptiness. [Turning off...] [Scanning in the process...] [No beings capable of resisting the culling process found...] [Initializing the Reaping protocol...] The being remained standing in the same spot, looking at the gigantic statue, located in the middle of the chamber. "Funny," he said, with a pondering look on his face, "Murderous madman... What madness is? Absence of emotion? Or on the opposite, it''s absolute prevalence over thought? And what God is if not a creature void of emotions. And what Demon is if not a creature led by its d?s?r?s." [Initialization complete...] *Sigh* "I''m overthinking again, aren''t I?" [You are.] The being smirked, and said to the voice, only he heard: "Well, all questions to my maker." [We have the same one. Moreover, overthinking does not, in any way, interfere with your mission. So, our creator made perfect servants for his needs.] "Hm, looking from that perspective, your words do make sense. Anyway, as soon as all of the souls are collected, begin the recycling process." [Acknowledged.] Chapter 89 - Side story - dropped Guys and gals, unfortunately, I am here to bring somewhat sad news. I am dropping all of the side stories, marking this story as finished. Reasons? I think main one is due to my inexperience, I made story too complicated by adding too many things into it. It lead to mainly confusion amongst readers and complications during writing, because I had to keep a lot of things in my mind. Moreover, with so many pieces I lost my direction. Now I better understand author who make mistakes in their own books. After all, I thought too highly of myself and included too many things, which lead to the current situation, where I have no clue what I am doing. Am I ever returning to this story? Probably not. Am I writing something new? Probably yes and it''s going to be fanfic as well. Not sure about the details, but I''d apply everything I learned while writing this fanfic. I am too inexperienced for the whole novel. Plus I am doing this mainly as a hobby. Hope for everyone''s understanding.