Changeable Flesh Puppet?
Lucien quickly scanned through the loan information.
~~✨~~
Loan: Changeable Flesh Puppet (Weekly Loan)
Repayment Period: 7 Days
Loan Content: Changeable Flesh Puppet — can transform into any non-magical creature. It is a conscious living being, capable of adjusting the strength of its own consciousness, and only requires regular nutritional supplements to survive.
Loan Task: Defeat a Troll directly.
~~✨~~
Transform into a creature?
It possesses consciousness—and can even adjust the strength of that consciousness?
It could be used to practice Transfiguration—transforming living things into non-living forms, and living things into other living forms.
That was Lucien's first thought about the Changable Flesh Puppet.
When Transfiguration involves changing a living being, the wizard must suppress the creature's original consciousness.
Plants have almost no consciousness, animals possess a more active one, humans have stronger awareness, and wizards—who can use magic to resist—are the most difficult of all.
Hmm, if it's purely for practice, the Changable Flesh Puppet's description seems more than sufficient.
It only needed regular nutritional supplements to survive and could transform into any non-magical creature—very practical.
He had already repaid the loan for the Chimera Handbook and had completely mastered the section on transforming non-living objects into living ones.
With the assistance of the Chimera Handbook, which contained detailed information on numerous creatures, and through joint practice with the Changable Flesh Puppet,
He estimated he could quickly master the process of transforming living things into non-living ones—and living beings into other living beings.
After that, he could move on to attempting Animagus transformation.
As for this loan task… to directly defeat a Troll?
The timing of the loan's activation coincided perfectly with Quirrell's announcement about the Troll.
Too much of a coincidence.
Still, defeating a Troll wouldn't be difficult.
And the reward was excellent—it would also save him the time of searching for different creatures to practice Transfiguration on.
Lucien communicated with the system and withdrew the Changeable Flesh Puppet loan.
Ding—Loan application successful. The item has been issued to the system space and can be accessed at any time.
Evaluation: This is a very serious puppet. Don't get the wrong idea (・ε・｀)
PS: For the host's healthy development, certain transformations of the Changeable Flesh Puppet have been restricted and will be unlocked upon reaching the age of 18.
Seeing the system's note, Lucien's expression darkened.
What the heck? He hadn't even thought of that—this system was way too "advanced."
"Quiet!"
Dumbledore amplified his voice with his wand, the booming sound echoing throughout the Great Hall.
"Prefects, immediately escort the students of each House back to their dormitories!"
With the greatest wizard of the century taking command, the students' panic quickly subsided. The Prefects began organizing their Houses, leading everyone out in an orderly manner.
The first-year students from all four Houses were the first to be evacuated.
Lucien deliberately slipped in beside the group, leaving the Great Hall with them.
As they passed through a dimly lit corridor,
Lucien stepped fully into the shadows, flicked his wand inside his sleeve, and cast a Disillusionment Charm silently over himself.
Then, without hesitation, he turned down a side passage.
Little Troll, where are you?
For this loan, you'll have to suffer a little first.
Lucien's movement was so quick and natural that, coupled with the chaos caused by the Troll's appearance, the young wizards around him didn't even notice his disappearance. They simply assumed he had fallen behind the group.
However, someone was paying attention to him.
"Ron, Lucien's gone."
Harry nudged Ron, whispering urgently.
"Gone? Are you sure?"
Ron quickly scanned the Ravenclaw group—since Ravenclaw had the fewest students, it didn't take him long to check. Lucien really wasn't there!
"Where did he go? There's a Troll loose in the castle right now!"
"We have to find him!"
Harry and Ron immediately reached an unspoken agreement—they couldn't let their friend and teacher get hurt by the Troll.
The two began to lag behind the group, looking for a chance to slip away unnoticed.
But before they could take more than a few steps, an urgent voice called out to them,
"You're going the wrong way, not that direction!"
Harry and Ron flinched instinctively, turning to see a bushy-haired girl.
"Hermione? What are you doing here?"
"Oh, never mind that—Lucien disappeared down the last side corridor. Follow me!"
Under Hermione's lead, the three young students darted through the corridors.
A few seconds later, another small wizard arrived, still with mushroom slices stuck in his hair.
"Heh, Lucien, planning to break school rules, are you? Looks like I won't have to wait until tomorrow—I can get you expelled from Hogwarts tonight."
Malfoy wiped his greasy hair, shaking the cream soup and mushroom bits off his hand as he muttered resentfully.
When he noticed Lucien had disappeared, he'd followed as if under a spell.
But after thinking it over, Malfoy decided this might be the perfect chance to catch him doing something wrong—saving himself the trouble of dueling Lucien altogether.
No sooner had Malfoy left than another shadowy figure slipped after him…
...
Lucien moved quietly through the castle.
Hmm, if I head toward the girls' bathroom, I should find it.
But if there's any change and I don't encounter the Troll today, I can go to the Forbidden Forest—
Suddenly, a foul stench hit his nose.
The stench was like a mix of filthy socks and an unclean public restroom.
Ugh—
Lucien nearly gagged, but quickly cast a filtering charm to block the odor.
Phew. That smell… it had to be the Troll.
It couldn't be far now.
"Little loan, where are you? I'm coming."
...
A minute or two later, three young wizards came running, panting heavily.
"Ugh!"
They gagged in unison.
"It—it's a Troll. It's nearby, be careful!"
Hermione immediately recognized the scent from her books—it was exactly as described.
It was truly nauseating.
"Let's go, quickly!"
Harry covered his nose and urged Ron and Hermione to keep searching.
After turning several corners, the three arrived at a long corridor.
A deep grumbling sound came from the other end.
Their breathing caught as they spotted the hulking figure ahead.
The creature stood nearly twelve feet tall, its skin a dull, granite gray. Its legs were thick and short, its feet broad and rough. Compared to its massive body, its head looked absurdly small.
The stench it exuded seeped through the gaps in their fingers and filled their noses, making them dizzy with nausea.
In its hand, the monster dragged a thick wooden club.
"Troll!"
And in contrast to the creature's enormous size, a much smaller figure stood closer to this end of the corridor.
"Lucien!"
Harry and the others immediately recognized the young man.
The sheer terror of the Troll made all three of them tremble uncontrollably, frozen in place and unable to step forward.
Thump!
Someone took half a step forward first.
It was Ron.
He drew his wand—he couldn't just stand by and watch his friend get hurt.
As Ron moved, Harry and Hermione weren't far behind, both pulling out their wands and rushing toward Lucien.
True Gryffindors never lacked courage!
"W-we should run!"
Hearing this, Lucien turned his head and saw Ron, who was trembling with fear even as he ran toward him.
Though his words were timid, Ron still held his wand tightly, pointing it at the slowly advancing Troll.
Out of the corner of his eye, Lucien caught sight of Harry and Hermione behind him—and… two somewhat familiar figures sneaking one after another behind a stone pillar.
Heh, quite the crowd tonight.
There were indeed a lot of people.
Lucien reached out and placed a steadying hand on Ron's trembling shoulder, his voice calm and reassuring.
"It's alright. I'll just give you a preview lesson for the future."
He raised his other hand, the sleeve sliding down to reveal his silver-black wand.
"The topic is...
How Wizards fight."
__________
11 Advance Chaps- P@treon/DarkDevil1