Seeing the changes on the system panel, Ciel's face showed a hint of joy.
Professor Flitwick asked with a smile, "Successful?"
He took a deep breath and nodded, his eyes full of gratitude. Without Professor Flitwick's guidance, he might have been stuck on this line of thinking for much longer.
Professor Flitwick smiled slightly, looking at him with satisfaction and appreciation. This was truly creating a new spell from runic principles, not like some young wizards' so-called "new spells" that were just childish tricks.
Professor Flitwick had taught Charms for so many years. The number of young wizards he'd seen with such talent could be counted on one hand. He was getting a bit envious now. How come such a clever young wizard was in Hufflepuff? Why hadn't the Sorting Hat placed him in Ravenclaw?
After a moment, Professor Flitwick waved his hand and said, "Alright. You'll need some time to refine your new spell. You can leave this class early. For the remaining Charms classes this school year, with your mastery, you don't need to attend anymore. For the final exam, you already have full marks."
Hearing Professor Flitwick's words, the remaining young wizards were truly envious – another course exemption, not even needing to take the exam. This was too enviable. But thinking of the skill he had demonstrated to earn such treatment, no one felt jealous. Abnormal, truly abnormal!
This news was quite pleasant for him too. It meant he had more time at his disposal. Then he bowed to Professor Flitwick before leaving the classroom. His eyes showed anticipation; he couldn't wait to test his newly created spell's effects.
But he wouldn't use it in class just to show off. After all, no matter how strong magic was, once people knew its effects and were prepared, its usefulness would be greatly reduced. If Voldemort had known in advance that Lily could use love magic so powerful it could reflect the Killing Curse, everything might have been rewritten.
He didn't want to become a cautionary tale. Therefore, he chose to return to Sprout Island to test his new spell in this place that belonged only to him.
Having abandoned the wandless casting characteristic, he now needed his wand. As his wand tip moved lightly, magic flowed out. A stone in front of him that would take two people to embrace suddenly became lighter, then was directly lifted into the air by an invisible force.
Seeing this, his eyes flashed slightly. With a stone of this weight and his magical strength, using Levicorpus to lift it would have been quite difficult before. And the Levitation Charm couldn't achieve this effect at all.
But now, the new spell born from combining two spells could not only do what each couldn't do individually, but he found it quite effortless. Even as he moved his wand, the boulder followed his wand tip, swaying back and forth in the air as if controlled by an invisible hand.
When he suddenly swung his wand downward, the stone whistled toward the sea below at a much greater speed than before. Splash! Huge waves sprayed up.
He looked even more satisfied. Though it no longer had wandless casting, it still retained incantationless casting, still quite concealed and convenient. And the effect perfectly met his expectations. It could control enemies with size, weight, or magic resistance far exceeding wizards, and even cause considerable damage.
That was just incantationless casting. If he spoke the incantation, the power could increase further. As for the incantation, that wasn't hard to solve; just "encapsulate" the runic nodes. This would replace the high-threshold process of constructing runic nodes with speaking an incantation.
The five magical nodes he chose, when "encapsulated" as an incantation, became "Levinape!"
Seeing the new spell's name was still blank on the system panel, he pondered briefly. Thinking of how the stone seemed controlled by an invisible hand, a name surfaced in his mind. "This new spell, let's call it 'Mage Hand'!"
[Mage Hand (Platinum Level)]
With his decision, the system panel immediately displayed the new spell. He nodded satisfactorily and used Mage Hand several more times. Everything he could see, as long as the weight and size weren't too extreme, could be easily lifted and thrown at will by Mage Hand. This feeling was indeed quite wonderful.
After a while, he stopped using Mage Hand. Now, regarding Quirrell's imminent return, he felt much more confident. Even if Quirrell was likely transformed into a Quintaped using Mage Hand, he could at least control him for two to three seconds.
That time was enough for him to complete Ancient Weather Magic construction. And once he completed Ancient Weather Magic, even against Quintaped Quirrell, he had a chance to fight back, or at least delay until Dumbledore arrived. At Hogwarts, as long as he didn't court death, Quirrell could hardly pose a fatal threat to him.
At this point, he exhaled softly and finally had leisure to think about something else, the temple on Drear Island. Quintapeds were born from it, and it could even transmit incredible ancient Dark Arts through the variant humanoid bioluminescent mushrooms he had cultivated. What exactly was its origin?
But he was certain that in all the Quintaped literature he had read, nothing mentioned temples. Even the most outstanding magizoologists probably didn't know that a strange temple had quietly appeared on Drear Island; this was the real cause of Quintaped appearances!
His eyes showed contemplation as he narrowed them. "If I can't find it in texts and documents, the most feasible method is to ask creatures that might be connected to the temple."
His gaze fell on the sea trench near Sprout Island. The North Sea Kraken was there now, serving as Sprout Island's security. Its age was ancient enough, and it operated in North Sea waters. If any being knew information about that temple, it was most likely the North Sea Kraken.
So he found the North Sea Kraken. When it heard him ask about the temple, it was confused. "A temple? On that island? Oh no, I've never been up there. I don't know about such things."
But after a moment, the North Sea Kraken said uncertainly: "However, when I was very young, yes, though the Olympian era had ended, some legends hadn't completely faded. My grandfather told my father a secret, which my father told me as a legend. He said the end of the Olympian era came with a great disaster. The disaster was so great that even the Titan giants called gods felt despair. They broke into arguments and fights; some Titans wanted to save themselves from this disaster. But some Titans thought the disaster was irreversible, and what they should do was find every way to survive. Even if they might completely fade in endless slumber, there was still a glimmer of hope, better than trying to stop a chariot with bare hands. These two factions argued endlessly and finally went separate ways. The last Titans thus disappeared into history with no more records."
Hearing the North Sea Kraken's story, he thought of the paintings he had seen from the troll priest Cyrus. The disaster that ended the Olympian era – was it the World Tree's collapse? Some Titans wanted to save them from this disaster. Could it be that the Fire God created that alchemical seed to replace the World Tree?
He also remembered his discovery in the Ministry's secret vault: Demeter's Chalice and World Tree roots appeared together, with the World Tree root section wrapped around Demeter's Chalice. Could this have been Harvest Goddess Demeter's attempt?
But now, the alchemical seed had been lost in the Forbidden Forest troll settlement for years. Demeter's Chalice and World Tree roots were nearly obliterated in the Ministry vault's darkness. Clearly, whether Fire God or Harvest Goddess, their attempts had failed.
What about those "gods" who chose to escape? Compared to Fire God, Harvest Goddess and others who exhausted everything trying to turn the tide, they should have conserved more power. Might some still be barely surviving?
If so... his gaze narrowed slightly. Maybe the temple on Drear Island really was connected to such beings. That cold voice saying stealing temple power was blasphemy might actually be true.
Earlier, using Demeter's Chalice's power, he had stolen considerable power from the temple. If there truly were so-called "gods" within, having power stolen would be mortal enmity for beings barely surviving. In other words, he might inexplicably have gained a mythical-level enemy?
His heart jumped slightly, but he soon calmed down. In the original story, Drear Island never caused any disturbance. Even over ten years after Harry defeated Voldemort, when Harry's children went to school, nothing was heard about Drear Island.
This proved that following the original trajectory, even if there were "gods" on Drear Island, they were probably too weak to cause any waves. That made sense. If they truly retained divine power, wouldn't breaking through the Ministry's blockade of Drear Island be easy? Why be helpless against him until now?
After he stole this power, maybe they were even closer to extinction. Thinking this, he even felt a bit regretful. "Maybe I should steal more of his power before he disappears completely. Gods inevitably die; some deaths are heavier than Mount Tai, others lighter than a feather. If he could leave some ashes for me to grow plants and develop Herbology, I'd call it... 'Though dead, still glorious!'"
But after a moment, he suppressed this restless thought. How to deal with possible "gods" in Drear Island's temple was still distant from him. Now before him was another more important matter.
Exhaling softly, his gaze fell on a hillside on Sprout Island, the migrated trolls' residence. Sunlight dappled here, the hillside covered in orange-red. It was vast patches of mature Goldfish Vine.
Under the increasingly large troll population, Goldfish Vine's maturation speed and yield had surged dramatically compared to before. Now, a newly planted batch of Goldfish Vine had matured. Countless orbs of light, like an ocean, appeared before his eyes.
His gaze fell on the system panel.
[Magical Perception Enhancement (Gold, approaching platinum)]
Magical Perception Enhancement flickered with golden lustre, with some platinum gleaming within. Magical perception had bottlenecked him for far too long. But today might be the time to break through this barrier.
The next moment, he didn't hesitate and slowly walked toward the hillside. Then he extended one hand. As if summoned, light orbs near him surged toward him.
Then, in his vision, countless orbs gathered into a landslide tsunami-like scene, completely submerging him. Unprecedentedly dense system notifications cascaded like a waterfall:
[You have cultivated Goldfish Vine to maturity.]
[You obtained reward — Magical Perception Enhancement (Iron Level)]
Individual Iron level reward orbs, at the threshold of advancing to Platinum level plus his own talent limitations, had their effect reduced to barely perceptible. But now with thousands of Iron Level Reward orbs gathered together, they erupted with energy capable of shaking all barriers.
On his system panel, the Magical Perception Enhancement ability text showed platinum colour spreading at visible speed. Every minute, every second, the microscopic magical world drew closer to him. Magic flowed continuously through his bloodstream. Deafening roars echoed in his ears.
He watched platinum colour fill the last gaps, clenching his fists tightly. Toward the barrier that had long imprisoned his magic, he let out a low roar: "Break!"
The next moment, on the hillside, the last few Goldfish Vines turned orange-red. The last few reward orbs merged in. The last gap on the system panel was finally completely filled with platinum colour.
[Magical Perception Enhancement (Platinum Level)] — Advanced!
The barrier that had long confined him shattered with a resounding crack!