Chapter 237: The Construction Guy
Enjoying French cuisine in one of Beauxbatons' side halls, Leonardo took the opportunity to review the loan details.
[Loan: Advanced Earth Elemental Inscription]
[Repayment Deadline: 30 days]
[Loan Content: Grants the Advanced Earth Spellbound Rune. Increases the host's affinity for the Earth element. Increases the speed of learning Earth magic. Increases the power of Earth magic by 50%.]
[Loan Task: Improve the Fountain of Beauty at Beauxbatons]
He reached out to the system through his thoughts.
"Is there a specific standard for what counts as an improvement?"
[There is none. The design is entirely at the host's discretion. The system will assess whether the improvement meets the loan requirements upon completion.]
That response did not fill Leonardo with confidence.
So the system was going to play the client. The worst kind of client, too — the kind that doesn't give you any clear requirements upfront. Hand over the proposal, get told it's not satisfactory, start over from scratch, and eventually discover the first draft was the best one all along.
Earth Elemental Inscription, earth element — between this and everything else, he was starting to feel less like a wizard and more like a civil engineer.
There was also the time constraint. The repayment deadline was thirty days, but he would only be at Beauxbatons for a fortnight. Half the window, gone immediately.
Still, having both the Advanced Water and Advanced Earth Elemental Inscriptions active at once meant heightened affinity with two of the four base elements. His Alchemy would be considerably smoother for it.
He could also write to Nicolas directly and ask about the fountain's core principles, which would save a great deal of time. Add SS+ Alchemy aptitude on top of that, and it was workable.
One last question for the system:
"We've been at this for years now. You're not going to be deliberately awkward about approving the 'engineering proposal,' are you?"
[Hehe ( ͡°з ͡°)]
"..."
[This system exists to help the host acquire knowledge. Please do not worry about the system acting in bad faith (๑•́ ω •̀๑)]
Leonardo thought that it had better not, and submitted the loan application.
[Ding! Loan application approved!]
[Evaluation: You've improved the Fountain of Beauty. Lots of girls are going to thank you for this~]
Another one of those oddly flippant system remarks. The corner of Leonardo's mouth twitched.
It did remind him, though, of the requests several female classmates had pressed on him before he left Hogwarts. All of them had asked him to bring back some of the fountain water, their stated reasons varying widely, while their actual intentions were entirely transparent.
He thought it made sense to use the improvement project as an opportunity to develop some beauty and skincare-oriented potions and alchemical products on the side.
He had promised several people he would bring back fountain water. Since he was going to be working with the fountain anyway, once he had a proper grasp of its principles and construction, he might as well reproduce one back at Hogwarts.
After the meal, Madame Maxime informed them that for the duration of their fortnight's stay, Leonardo and Reiman were welcome to sit in on Beauxbatons' regular classes.
Leonardo was genuinely pleased by that. He had been curious about the teaching standards at other magical schools.
Though it immediately raised a question. Beauxbatons introduced Alchemy earlier than Hogwarts — third years could already take the subject here. He would probably need to speak to Madame Maxime about sitting in on the more advanced year groups rather than the introductory ones.
Alchemy was, unsurprisingly, the Beauxbatons course he was most interested in of all.
Most of the students who had qualified for the tournament were fifth or sixth years at the youngest, as a rule. Leonardo was in his second year. He was, by any reasonable measure, an anomaly.
He also still needed to raise the matter of improving the fountain with Madame Maxime — her permission as Headmistress was essential before he could touch anything. He might as well bring both things up at once.