In Char's hands, the thick letter from Tonks depicted a scene like hell on earth. In the accompanying magical photograph, a dark and dilapidated house in Knockturn Alley was splattered with blood. The strange thing was that there were no large pieces of a corpse, only small, torn fragments of meat scattered around the room. The scene was extremely rough, with signs of a struggle throughout the house. It seemed as if an impatient beast had killed its victim here—a dark wizard who was said to be old and dying—and then had finished its meal.
Char suppressed the chill in his heart and finished reading the report. It presented the Aurors' judgment: this must have been where the monster made its first kill. Judging from the traces at the scene, it had taken a lot of effort just to subdue this dying dark wizard. In the next few reports, the blood splattering became less and less, and there were almost no signs of a struggle. The monster's targets began to change from old dark wizards to younger, stronger ones. The last time it was caught committing a crime, inside the house, the victim was placed on a table with a tablecloth underneath. There were even knives and forks placed on the side, as if for a grand banquet. If the Aurors had not arrived, the poor victim would have been eaten clean, without even a piece of flesh left. But even so, in a very short time, only half of his meat remained.
The photos of the scene, combined with the "animated picture" effect unique to the magical world, made the horrific scene even clearer, as if it were right in front of him. Char's expression was extremely serious. The last victim, an elite Auror, had been quickly subdued and half of his flesh eaten. Every elite Auror had gone through countless hunts for dark wizards before being recognized; they all possessed powers far beyond those of ordinary wizards. Most dark wizards would flee when they saw an elite Auror. But even such a powerful wizard had ended up in such a tragic way. No wonder things had escalated.
The Ministry of Magic was keeping the news secret, afraid of causing a strong panic among the people. However, judging by the situation, this news would not be kept secret for long. But compared to this, Char was more concerned about what had caused this massacre. It wasn't until a report at the end of the letter that he saw some traces extracted from the scene. Among them, there was a strange red hair that he was very familiar with.
At this moment, his expression became grave. "A Quintaped," he whispered. "It's impossible that they ran away from Drya Island. Although the Quintapeds have a certain degree of intelligence, they are not this cunning. The report clearly explains the Aurors' work process; this monster even uses magic to conceal its eating habits. Then there is only one possibility—" He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "Quirrell, whether willingly or forced, was subjected to the dark magic of Transfiguration by Voldemort using the blood of the Quintaped he obtained from the island. He's been turned into a Quintaped!"
Thinking of the weirdness and horror of the creatures he had seen on Drya Island, and then thinking that Quirrell would soon return to Hogwarts in this form to continue his mad chase for the Philosopher's Stone, Char felt a chill in his heart. But there was nothing he could do about it. Elite Aurors could be killed instantly. Could he still go to Knockturn Alley to follow the traces? He shook his head. Although not holding out much hope, he still hoped the Ministry of Magic could do a little more. The Aurors could create some trouble for Quirrell, at least consume a lot of his energy, and make him less unscrupulous at Hogwarts. And Dumbledore… if he still insisted on playing his savior game in this situation, he had to do something to restrict Quirrell.
A moment later, Char put away the letter from Tonks and replied with a letter of his own. "I've seen this kind of red hair in a book in the library. This is the hair of a Quintaped, but a simple Quintaped certainly can't do this. It must be related to the black magic of Transfiguration." What he could do was give Tonks some clues. As for the rest, he couldn't worry about it anymore.
After taking a deep breath, his thoughts were pulled away from the horrifying letter. All negative emotions were blocked by his Occlumency, and the only thing left in his mind was calm, rational thought. "After harvesting the Piranha Algae, my strength has indeed improved significantly. But Quirrell was transformed by dark magic and turned into a Quintaped. His strength is definitely far beyond that of the original story at the same time, and the level of danger is simply incomparable. My improvement in magic power is far from enough. To nip this in the bud, I must take advantage of the fact that he is still being pursued by the Ministry of Magic and cannot return to Hogwarts for the time being, so I can continue to improve my strength. Fortunately, several more plants are about to mature. Harvesting these rewards once more, especially the new batch of goldfish spider plants, will be enough to transform my strength once again. Besides that, it would be best to find a way to restrain the Quintaped."
He recalled the research books he had read, wanting to see if there was any mention of a method to specifically restrain the creature. After all, some magical creatures, although powerful, had rather strange weaknesses. Like a basilisk, which could kill with its glare, had a huge body, and was extremely poisonous, but was afraid of roosters. Maybe the Quintaped had a similar weakness? But after recalling all the classics he had read, the answer disappointed him. For the study of the basilisk, there were records left by Salazar Slytherin and Herpo the Foul. But most of the research on the Quintaped was just speculation or false rumors. Very few people had first-hand information, let alone discovered its weaknesses. Maybe many authors of the classic books didn't know as much about Quintapeds as he did.
This made him frown slightly. But after a moment, he suddenly remembered something. In the small greenhouse, there was a plant that had special rewards. Perhaps he could learn more secrets about the Quintaped from there. Maybe he could find its weakness. His gaze immediately turned to a special plant in the corner. That plant was a new variant of the glowing mushroom that had been induced by the Quintaped's blood last time. Its surface was covered with strange red fuzz, a bit chilling to look at. Its mature rewards were a Silver-level understanding of curses and an Iron-level understanding of Quintaped Transfiguration. Char had not originally been very interested in weird things like Quintaped Transfiguration, but now he had changed his mind. This kind of transformation definitely contained a lot of secrets about the creature. Maybe he could find a way to restrain it.
But this glowing mushroom variant was clearly still some time away from maturity. It might not be possible to harvest it before Quirrell returned. What's more, from harvesting the rewards, to obtaining the transformation technique, to finding out the possible weaknesses, it also took time to research. By this calculation, it would be very difficult to catch up. As for harvesting early without waiting for it to mature, then he could only obtain the Bronze-level curse knowledge and not the transformation reward. This made him frown.
At this moment, perhaps sensing him approaching, the red hairs on the fluorescent mushroom mutant began to wave, as if longing for blood. This variant's bloodthirstiness was much stronger than that of the Blood Jade, likely greatly affected by the Quintaped's blood. And this reminded him of something. "The last time I watered the Blood Jade and this mutant, I had not yet experienced the sublimation of my legendary life. The estimate of their maturity time was based on that. But now, after one sublimation, my legendary life has undergone a qualitative change. If I water it with my blood now, will it have a different effect?"
Thinking of this, he immediately cut his palm, squeezing out a puff of blood mist. The vitality that was much richer than before was contained within it. At this time, the red hairs on the fluorescent mushroom mutant suddenly began to wave wildly, as if something was driving them crazy. The red fur waved wildly in the blood mist, absorbing his blood, which was of a unique quality in the current magical world. After the blood was absorbed, on this variant, a vaguely visible human face emerged from the red fur. There were meaningless, excited shouts coming from it. Seeing this, an instinctive disgust arose in his eyes. Anything related to the Quintaped, even plants grown with its blood, exuded something eerie.
Fortunately, there were more guardian trees that were close to maturity in the small greenhouse, their divine magic emanating outwards. This strange mutant, no matter how evil it was, was still only a Silver-level plant. It was impossible for it to break through the suppression of the guardian tree. After recovering from the strange changes, he saw the bonus light ball above it expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye. Although the rate slowed down afterward, compared to when he had used his blood before, the expansion speed was still nearly 30% faster. Seeing this, his eyes lit up with joy. In this way, the time for the mutant glow mushroom to mature should be not far away. Before Quirrell returned, perhaps he could find some way to restrain it from the Quintaped's transformation technique. Although he had no intention of getting involved, making preparations early and avoiding accidents had always been his style.
But after he had sublimated, the system had prompted him that he had obtained the sublimation characteristic of the Unburnt One. It hadn't said that it had the property of accelerating plant growth. Why did it work so well on this variant? After thinking for a moment, the answer came to him. "The rapid expansion of the bonus light sphere is likely directly related to the human face growing on the mutant. Growing a human face is probably the threshold for it to mature. Originally, it seemed that it was still some distance away from crossing this threshold. But after I poured my current blood into it, I almost took the leap. On the contrary, after crossing the threshold, although the growth rate is still accelerated, the effect is far less significant. Could it be that because my legendary life has been sublimated once, my life level has been elevated? Does this also mean that my blood carries some kind of power that can help these bloodthirsty plants overcome the bottleneck of their growth stage and undergo transformation?"
His heart moved slightly. To verify this was quite simple. His eyes fell on a piece of land next to him. What was planted on it was the third group of Blood Jadeite, the group that had used the blood of a fire dragon, an Acromantula, and the Kraken to induce metamorphosis. At that time, he had seen the color of platinum on it, proving that after adding the blood of three magical creatures for induction, the level of this set of blood emeralds had directly upgraded from Silver to Platinum. It could be called a leap forward. But such a strong transformation had also brought a problem. Until now, the reward light ball above it was still flickering. Obviously, the transformation was quite difficult.
An idea came to him. Could his current blood help the transformation of this group of Blood Jades? He decided to give it a try. Anyway, now, the blood of the fire dragon and the Kraken were available to him at any time. As for the Acromantula, his strength had increased much faster than expected. This 5X-level magical beast was not a problem for him. At most, he would have to go to the Forbidden Forest to draw blood, which was a little troublesome. Since the raw materials were not non-renewable, giving it a try, even if he failed, he wouldn't lose anything. And if it succeeded, he would gain a lot.
He didn't hesitate. He cut his palm again, squeezing out a puff of blood mist, causing it to cover the third set of Blood Jade. The blood jade, still undergoing metamorphosis, was not so sensitive to the blood mist. But when the first drop of his sublimated blood was absorbed by it, the reward light ball above it began to brighten immediately. The reward information, originally very vague and far from being clearly displayed, began to stabilize rapidly. The transformation process, which had previously taken an unknown amount of time, now seemed to have been fast-forwarded.
When the entire blood mist was completely absorbed by the third group of Blood Jade, in front of Char, a deep blue light, like the color of the ocean, appeared on this set of plants. When gazing at it, it was like gazing at the ocean itself. Lines of information also refreshed on his system panel.
[You have used Fire Dragon Blood, Acromantula Blood, and North Sea Giant Kraken Blood to induce the Blood Jade.]
[Blood Jade Transformation complete.]
[Cultivate this blood jadeite to maturity and you will receive rewards:]
[Limb Regeneration (Platinum Level)]
[Ink Escape (Gold Level)]
[Whirlpool (Silver Level)]
…