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"Now that's more like it." Morgan finally nodded in satisfaction. The temperature in the air returned to normal, and Ian's pounding heart finally began to relax a little.
"I want snacks too," The ancient Dragon, still fiddling with the chess pieces, suddenly piped up hungrily when it saw Ian bring out the treats.
"I really miss those house-elves who used to cook for me… they were amazing. If it weren't for me, the four Headmasters wouldn't have hired so many house-elves in the first place." The dragon's nostalgic words spilled out, and perhaps in that moment, the long-standing mystery of why Hogwarts had so many house-elves finally had its answer.
"A whole cow probably wouldn't even fill the gap between your teeth," Ian muttered, suddenly feeling sorry for the house elves of old. He couldn't imagine the scale of work required to feed such a beast.
"Stingy! If one cow isn't enough, just bring a thousand!" The ancient dragon grumbled when his wish was denied.
"Good thing you're dead. Bone dragons don't need to eat," Ian replied, a little shaken. He was honestly relieved, there was no way he could afford to feed a living ancient Dragon. It would be like earning 500 Dollars a month, then being gifted a Bugatti Veyron, utterly unaffordable to maintain.
While Ian was still chatting with the dragon,
"Don't think a few cheap offerings will get you out of my test." Having eaten a few sweets, Morgan suddenly turned on Ian without warning.
"Let me see whether, during your few months in the human world, you've been slacking off on your magic studies." Morgan gave Ian a scrutinizing look, examining him from head to toe.
"Of course not," Ian puffed out his chest confidently.
"Not only have I kept up with alchemy and potion-making, but when it comes to magic, my innovations and research make me feel like I've got the makings of a Magic Emperor."
He didn't hesitate to brag.
"Oh?" Morgan raised an eyebrow, her gaze landing on her confident apprentice with a flicker of surprise. "Then go ahead and show me, what kind of research has inflated you to this degree?"
She spoke with a teasing tone, and Ian instantly pulled out his wand. He truly felt proud of some of his magical breakthroughs.
"I've been researching the diffusion of magical power, essentially, how to make area-of-effect casting more efficient. That is, how to transform spells that are usually single-target into large-scale spells through certain techniques." Ian gave his wand a slight flick, and without even chanting, a chilling green light burst forth from its tip.
It was the first charm Morgan had ever taught Ian. Like a darting beam of energy, the green light twisted through the air like a slithering serpent, moving from one point to another under Morgan's watchful gaze.
One... two... over twenty,
Each time the green ray struck a surface, it would bounce and leap again, flying toward a new target. One after another, it left spiderweb-like scorch marks on more than twenty stone pillars.
"Tsk tsk!"
The ancient Dragon let out a gasp of admiration.
"That's it?" Witch Morgan, however, only curled her lip in mild disdain.
Clearly, she wasn't impressed by Ian's Avada Lightning Chain. But Ian kept smiling, because, of course, his research didn't stop there.
The essence of magical diffusion was altering how magic behaves.
The principle behind Ian's Avada Lightning Chain was to overlay multiple magical imprints during the casting process. Even with his level of control over magical power, he could only stack a bit more than twenty layers at most.
And no matter how much he tried to improve that control, progress would still be slow, one step at a time.
That, obviously, didn't align with Ian's understanding or philosophy of learning magic.
So,
He'd decided it was a dead-end path, too inefficient and not worth the effort. Instead, he began exploring other directions for achieving magical diffusion.
And,
He'd made progress.
"What I just showed was my initial approach. Right now, I've reached a moment of enlightenment, 'one spark and suddenly the heavens open wide.'" Ian gave a short reply, then flicked his wand again.
And suddenly,
The green light still refracting through the air began to change in nature. Without warning, it exploded, transforming into flowing torrents of green energy.
It burst out from beneath Ian's feet, like a plague of locusts sweeping through the land, it quickly engulfed the entire ground. Countless tendrils of green energy rippled across the surface, surging and roiling, as if ready to erupt and seek out targets to strike at any moment.
"Hmm?" A flicker of genuine surprise crossed Morgan's eyes. Seeing the ground transformed into a glowing green "pond," she immediately took to the air.
A little hastily.
"Holy, what the hell are you doing?!"
Even the bulky ancient Dragon wasn't far behind Morgan in reaction speed. It displayed an agility completely at odds with its massive size. Once airborne, it hovered in the sky with clear suspicion and alarm written across its face.
"Even Slytherin would call you the real Slytherin!" The dragon's magic resistance was indeed extremely high, but even so, the "green lake" on the ground left it visibly stunned.
This was still the Avada Kedavra Curse… But this was like pulling one thread and sweeping away an entire nest in a single cast.
"This is my latest achievement. By sacrificing spell strength, I've turned a single-target charm into a true area-of-effect spell." Ian began boasting, not without pride.
And to be fair, he did have something to brag about. Because, this technique wasn't limited to just the Avada Kedavra Curse.
In fact, all single-target curses of the Avada Kedavra class, whether it was Cruciatus, Imperius, or others, could be modified with magical diffusion techniques to become wide-area magic.
Take the Avada Kedavra Curse as an example:
After converting it into an AoE spell, it uses the entire ground as a conduit. A circular "domain of death" spreads outward from the caster's position.
Those surging green lights?
Each beam carries an instant death effect. Even though the lethality is somewhat diluted, for most beings without strong souls, it's still absolutely fatal.
"Not bad. Very interesting. This has already gone beyond the original scope of the Avada Kedavra Curse." Hovering midair, Morgan's eyes gleamed with appreciation. For once, she offered Ian high praise, because she could clearly see his own mark embedded in this new magic.
"Yes, exactly! That's why I gave it a new name too." Ian raised his wand, and countless green energy waves erupted from the ground, spiraling around him.
"Should I cooperate and ask what this new spell is called?" Morgan chuckled playfully, seeing right through Ian's little performance.
"It's called... Avada Plague." Ian responded at once, using Sonorus to proudly declare the name.
However, what Morgan said next hit him like a slap across the face, completely deflating his moment of triumph.
"I've seen this spell before, an even more advanced version of it." She poured cold water on Ian's excitement. His grin froze awkwardly, and just as he was about to complain about being born in the wrong era,
Morgan added something that completely shook him to his core.
"It was in some ancient ruins. Same green light. Same logic. Even more refined in execution. I wouldn't forget, it was called 'Fel Explosion', a forbidden spell."
"Medivh, the Supreme Sorcerer, was the one who left it behind. I was killed by that very spell." The shocking revelation was delivered with casual teasing as if it were no big deal.
Ian's pupils contracted ever so slightly.
His expression,
Began to shift toward genuine fear.
(End of Chapter)