His eyes scanned the system panel, his gaze landing on an ability he had long ignored: [Enhanced Deduction Ability of the Levitation Spell]. A spark of inspiration, sharp and brilliant, ignited in Char's mind. What was the best control spell he had at his disposal right now? It had to be Levicorpus, the Inverted Bell Curse.
The spell was a product of Snape's own genius, a testament to his skill during his student days. Its most remarkable feature was its ability to be cast without a wand or incantation—an exceptionally rare and powerful property. But if one were to speak of its shortcomings, there were certainly some. For example, because it was designed for fast, non-verbal casting, its control was not particularly strong. It worked very well against human enemies, hanging them helplessly in the air, but for non-human targets, the effect was greatly reduced. Especially for targets with strong magic resistance or a large size, the spell was almost useless. This was why Char had never used it, whether on Drya Island or in his battle against the troll priest in the Forbidden Forest.
Now, as he prepared to deal with Quirrell's inevitable return, his gaze fell back to the spell. Other control spells might not be more effective, but their release speed was definitely not as fast as Levicorpus. In the short term, it was irreplaceable. As for its shortcomings… it wasn't as if Char hadn't had an idea about this before. Back when his own magic power was far from enough to even lift the weight of an adult, he had experimented with using the Levitation Charm first to reduce an enemy's weight, then using the Inverted Bell Curse to hang them higher. He could even connect it with a Golden Bell Drop to make the enemy fall from a great height. After this set of spells, a normal wizard would at least suffer a severe concussion, if not fall to their death. The problem was that this sequence required casting three spells in a row, which was far too troublesome in a real fight.
But what if he could condense all three into a single, seamless spell? That… that would be more than just an improvement. It would be an entirely new, more powerful control spell, one that would perfectly compensate for the original's weaknesses. The idea had been good at the time, but unfortunately, the conditions had not been met. His magical foundation had been too weak. It was almost impossible to create this spell by himself.
But now, things were different. Whether it was his study of Transfiguration or Runes, all of it had brought him closer to the true secrets of magic. In addition, with the platinum-level Levitation Charm deduction ability, a spell that was previously impossible to complete now seemed within reach. Thinking of this, his eyes flickered, his resolve hardening to complete this vision.
But he didn't start immediately. Instead, he took out the Half-Blood Prince's textbook first. When facing an unfamiliar topic, if you blindly do it yourself, no matter how talented you are, you will probably take a lot of detours. But if you carry out the work based on the existing achievements of your predecessors, that undoubtedly saves a lot of energy, and the probability of achieving new results increases significantly. Snape had recorded the entire process of his creation of Levicorpus in the textbook. Thoroughly understanding it would be of great benefit to Char.
He opened the textbook again, rereading the whole process. Compared to the confused look on his face when he had first opened it, at this time, he could increasingly appreciate the ingenious ideas Snape had left behind. He had even reached the Platinum level with Levicorpus. Even though his magical perception was limited and his attainments were stuck at their current progress, as he reread the textbook, the luster on the system panel became more and more profound. Obviously, this meant that his foundation was growing.
Until, in a flow state, he had watched the process over and over again, and a look of amazement appeared on his face. "Snape was indeed a genius back then. Before, I couldn't understand how he created a spell that could be cast without a wand or incantation. Now that I've come into contact with runes, I can finally understand his thinking."
His eyes sparkled. Runes could construct endless magic nodes. A single magic rune could use countless internal nodes to construct countless different configurations. The combination of thirty-three magic runes and their different configurations was said to contain the secrets of the entire world. Legend had it that wizards who were proficient in runes could easily create new spells. For them, it was just a matter of finding the right combination. When Snape created Levicorpus, of course, he did not have such profound attainment in runes. So, he took a shortcut. He first used runic principles to deconstruct the Levitation Charm. The spell and casting gesture were reversed into a runic magic structure. By constructing this configuration, one could achieve the same effect as the charm.
This was just the beginning. The magic rune structure of the Levitation Charm included a total of twenty-three magic nodes. In order to achieve the effect of casting spells without a wand or incantation, Snape had made drastic cuts and reconstructions to this configuration. It was cut from twenty-three to thirteen, and then to seven. To the end, he had even utilized the strange resonance effect between certain nodes, a phenomenon where, in special cases, a handful of nodes could mimic the power of a much larger configuration. Using this principle, he had made his final, audacious simplification, condensing the entire structure down to just three core magic nodes that could produce an effect similar to the Levitation Charm. This was the underlying concept of Levicorpus. And then, by encapsulating the spells and gestures, a new, clever control spell was born.
The previous Char could not appreciate the ingenuity and delicate beauty of this process. Now, he could understand it. He finally understood why Snape had left such proud praise after this creative process. It seemed to be a very big deal for him as well. "It is indeed very difficult to find those three special resonant magic nodes. It takes both profound magical attainments and a bit of luck to find this special combination among the vast number of possibilities."
However, after understanding Snape's process, Char heaved a sigh of relief. This meant that Snape had already done the most difficult foundational work. These three special magic nodes were the core of the development of this series of spells. If Snape hadn't left this in the textbook, for Char to make changes to the spell, he didn't know how long that would have taken. The difficulty would also have skyrocketed. But now, he could just make some modifications based on this foundation.
He also began to try to supplement these three special magic nodes with great interest. It was perhaps a little more obscure and difficult than he had imagined. But in this process, he actually felt somewhat at ease, as if there was a strange intuition guiding him. This made it easier for him to find new nodes that could be combined with these three to achieve the effect he wanted. He raised an eyebrow, his eyes falling on the system panel. It was discovered that the words [Enhanced Deduction Ability of the Levitation Spell] were flashing brightly. Only then did he react. It turned out that the enhanced deductive ability was reflected in this aspect.
Then, he put aside the distracting thoughts in his mind and entered the flow state again. With the help of his enhanced deductive ability, he continued to try to create derivatives of the Levitation Charm and Levicorpus that met his own needs. And in this process, on the system panel, the Platinum-level Levitation Charm and Levicorpus, the luster emitted by their words, was becoming more and more condensed. After two spells, the handwriting began to blur without anyone noticing. There was actually a tendency to slowly blend and generate new handwriting.
Every minute, every second, this trend progressed bit by bit. In the blink of an eye, two days passed.