Chapter 9: Final Preparations
Time passed quickly, as if in the blink of an eye. July slipped away, August passed, and the calendar flipped to September 1st.
Ezio was still in a hotel room, having changed his location periodically. During this time, he had encountered no unexpected incidents, and his study of magic had progressed very smoothly.
However, higher-level spells were much more difficult to learn than lower-level ones. The difficulty was mainly concentrated in the parts of the curriculum that were not described in detail in the textbooks and could only be learned through the guidance of a professor.
Take the Summoning Charm from the fourth-year curriculum, for example. Making an object fly toward you was not hard to grasp, but making an object fly to you with precision added a significant challenge.
As the distance increased, the difficulty of summoning the object grew exponentially, not to mention the series of advanced 'summoning' type spells that expanded upon the core charm.
The fact that wizards could 'conjure' food from thin air didn't rely on Transfiguration, but on advanced summoning spells upgraded and expanded from the basic Summoning Charm.
This involved precise targeting of the spell, and the records of it in 'The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5' were frustratingly vague. It was impossible to learn it just by reading the book. One either had to slowly practice and grasp it through intuition, or listen to a teacher and practice under their guidance.
The limit of self-studying spells was probably the fourth-year level. Spells beyond that required the guidance of a school professor; fumbling forward on one's own was no small challenge.
During this period, Ezio also tried to self-study Potions. Compared to Charms, Potions would have been easily mastered even by a Muggle if not for the prerequisite of "requiring magical energy."
At least before reaching advanced Potions, there was nothing in the subject that could be called difficult. As long as your hand was steady, you followed the standard procedures, concentrated without distraction, and didn't play around with improvisations like 'I fink dis shud be done dis way,' the brewing process would go smoothly.
But when Potions reached an advanced level, the brewing required more active participation from the wizard. During the process, the wizard needed to use their wand to stir and merge their magical energy with the potion.
This stage tested the wizard's control over their magic, and ultimately, their talent. Some fools would never get the hang of it in their entire lives, while others would understand it instantly. In the end, it was a subject where talent determined one's upper limit.
Through his study of magic, Ezio came to a profound realization of how important magical talent was to a wizard's future achievements. Without the corresponding talent, one could put in a hundred times the effort and still not reach the level others achieved casually.
This was especially true for Transfiguration. Compared to Charms and Potions, this subject was highly abstract from the very beginning.
Ezio, who had managed to brute-force his way through all the pre-fourth-year Charms, hit a wall with Transfiguration. Even though he dedicated a full four hours a day to studying it, after so many days of effort, he had only managed to master introductory-level transfiguration: changing an inanimate object into another inanimate object.
"Even Peter Pettigrew could learn to turn into a rat in his fifth year. Don't tell me I'm worse than him?"
Unable to figure it out, Ezio felt a bit dejected. His passion for Transfiguration was no less than his passion for Charms. If he could master Transfiguration, he would be the equivalent of Jackie Chan in a furniture store; anything at hand could become a deadly weapon.
He could even develop one or more sets of techniques that would terrify his assassin predecessors, achieving truly invisible killing.
However, his greatest inspiration came not from the textbooks, but from the few magic books he had bought from Borgin and Burkes. Borgin, insisting that the books were rare copies from private wizarding family collections, had demanded a high price: five books, for an average of eighty Galleons each. A black-hearted shopkeeper, indeed.
Aside from some knowledge of the Dark Arts, the greatest gain Ezio got from these books was learning about some techniques that had been abandoned by the modern wizarding world but were extremely useful to him.
—Spell Materialization.
This was a technique originally used to solidify curses, turning a conceptual curse into a physical medium of transmission.
Ancient wizards also used it for temporary enchantments on weapons or other equipment, which was the earliest prototype of magical items.
In the early days, wizards often carried a defensive weapon, such as a wizard's sword, in addition to their wand. The magical spells of that era were not yet perfected, and many commonly used combat spells of today had not been developed. This method of materializing magic and curses was an excellent supplement.
For modern wizards with their comprehensive arsenal of spells, this magical technique was completely obsolete. But for Ezio, an assassin by trade, it was incredibly interesting.
If he could solidify spells into throwing knives, then with his hand speed, he could unleash two waves of a "knife rain" in a single second—that is, sixteen throwing knives. He could hit with perfect accuracy within a thirty-meter range, which was equivalent to casting sixteen spells a second.
Furthermore, the flight speed of the physical knives was much faster than a spell shot directly from a wand!
The spells shot from a wizard's wand seemed fast, but to Ezio, who could dodge a crossbow bolt at ten meters with a tilt of his head, the flight speed of a spell was like an old lady running a hundred-meter dash; he was half-afraid it would die midway. Not to mention that when those wizards raised their hands, Ezio could tell where they were aiming just by looking at their movements.
With many questions about magic in his heart, Ezio began to pack his bags, ready to depart. But before truly heading to Hogwarts, Ezio habitually did a final inventory. He treated this period of study as a long-term mission, and since it was a mission, there was no room for complacency.
The reason Ezio didn't call his golden finger a "System" was simple. This thing had no shop, no lottery, and no beginner's gift pack. It currently offered only three functions: a map, a training space with its own independent flow of time, and a mission-issuing system that triggered when certain conditions were met.
The rudimentary panel couldn't even be called a panel. His body was not digitalized; it only recorded mission data and rewards.
★ Missions Completed: 9149
★★ Missions Completed: 455
★★★ Missions Completed: 1
Total Time Spent in Training Space: 43,566 hours
Remaining Available Time: 5,763 hours
Cumulative Kills: 1,001,135
Milestones Completed: 10/10
Unlocked Perks:
Leap of Faith (Milestone: 'First High Fall!')
'As long as a soft buffer exists below the jump point, you are immune to fall damage.'
Eagle Vision (Milestone: 'Partner, I'm here!')
'Share vision with your contracted eagle, mark enemies, or gain the sharp eyesight of a falcon.'
Brush with Death (Milestone: 'The End of Death is Rebirth.')
'When you dodge an attack at the perfect moment, your perception will be enhanced for a short time.'
Phantom Stealth (Milestone: 'Ambush!')
'After entering a stealth posture, you will blend in with the surrounding environment.'
Silent Assassination (Milestone: 'The Assassin Was Here.')
'You have learned the ultimate assassination technique, ensuring your target makes no sound.'
Assassin's Intuition (Milestone: 'What? An Ambush?!')
'You can easily detect any target that shows hostility or wariness toward you.'
Weapon Master (Milestone: 'I Can Slaughter You With Anything!')
'You can wield any weapon with greater power than others.'
Brutal Grip (Milestone: 'Human Flail!')
'You can wield two-handed weapons with a single hand.'
Berserker's Spirit (Milestone: 'Come and Die, Scum!')
'When engaged in frontal combat with enemies, you will receive an all-around enhancement to strength, agility, and intuition.'
Ares' War Cry (Milestone: 'Who is the God of War!!!')
'Let out a roar with god-like might, causing enemies to fall into fear. For the next thirty seconds, you are immune to death.'