Unfortunately for the colony of Acromantulas—monsters that usually leave even seasoned wizards trembling with fear—they had encountered little Goku today. In the face of absolute strength, numerical superiority becomes utterly meaningless.
In terms of raw physical constitution, the giant spiders were leagues behind Goku; their venom and webs struck nothing but the boy's afterimages, leaving them snapping at thin air.
In less than an hour, the dense swarm of Acromantulas lay scattered across the forest floor. This was accomplished without Goku even resorting to techniques like the Kamehameha or the Dodon Ray.
Mindful of Hagrid's plea, Goku had held back his lethal power during the struggle; every single one of the giant spiders remained alive, though thoroughly incapacitated.
"That was a great workout! I'll come back to play with you guys tomorrow night," Goku chirped, clapping the dust off his hands before continuing his trek into the deeper reaches of the Forbidden Forest.
After Goku's silhouette had vanished into the shadows, an Acromantula significantly larger than an adult elephant crawled tremulously out of a hidden, massive hollow tree.
"Is that creature even human? Even those wizards couldn't possibly possess such terrifying power." This was none other than Aragog, the patriarch of the colony and the most powerful of his kind.
However, he hadn't harbored even the slightest intention of sticking his head out to defend his children. He knew with chilling certainty that if he dared to show his face, he would be the next one pinned to the dirt.
...
At ten o'clock that evening, Goku reappeared in front of Hagrid's hut, signaling the end of the day's combat training. Dumbledore, who had been waiting patiently, inquired about the encounters in the forest. Afterward, he sighed with a touch of regret.
"The magical creatures in the Forbidden Forest can hardly force you to exert your full strength. You'll have to make do with this training for now. After some time, I shall send you to the Hebrides. A large colony of powerful Hebridean Black dragons lives there; they should provide a far better challenge for your combat refinement."
"I think it's pretty good here," Goku replied, unbothered. Throughout his previous travels, he had rarely encountered opponents significantly stronger than the Acromantulas anyway.
Since leaving Fortuneteller Baba's to begin his solo journey, he had only met three true masters: Chin Taiken, Sky Dragon, and Shura.
Most of his other combatants were merely mountain tigers, lions, or dinosaurs—creatures whose strength didn't even measure up to a giant spider's. Being able to fight so many Acromantulas daily was actually very helpful for his growth.
"Goku, could you teach Hagrid how to use ki?" Dumbledore beckoned Hagrid over. Goku nodded and began to relay the instructions Grandpa Roshi had once given him on how to condense the ki within one's body.
During that year of training under Master Roshi, the old man hadn't taught them many specific techniques at first. Instead, during their academic lessons, he had provided detailed guidance on the condensation and utility of internal ki.
Without that knowledge, neither Goku nor Krillin would have achieved such an immense jump in power within a single year through physical labor alone. Only by understanding how to synchronize internal ki with physical movement can one truly exert strength and speed that transcend human limits.
It was this foundational knowledge that allowed Goku to release a Kamehameha that rivaled Master Roshi's own, rather than the weak imitation he had performed earlier that could, at most, flip a car.
"Ki is a power that everyone has inside their body. It's not just people; everything in the world contains ki," Goku explained, sitting cross-legged on the ground. He repeated Grandpa Roshi's words almost verbatim. "The stronger your body is, the easier it is to sense the existence of ki. After that, you have to learn to control it. Only by controlling ki can you use it to reinforce your body for fighting..."
Goku slowly brought his palms together, guiding the energy within him to converge between his hands. After a moment, a faint, glowing sphere of ki flickered into existence in his palms.
"See? This is ki!"
"So that's ki!" Hagrid leaned in, his head nearly as large as Goku's entire torso. He stared at the small orb of light with wide-eyed curiosity. Dumbledore also leaned down, equally fascinated by this power that rivaled the forces of his own world.
"It is indeed different from magic power," Dumbledore mused inwardly as he carefully sensed the orb. Previously, when Goku used the Kamehameha, the ki fluctuations were far too violent and explosive to analyze in detail. Now that Goku was manifesting it in a gentle, controlled manner, Dumbledore made several new discoveries.
A wizard's magic power is primarily hereditary, stemming from the bloodline—a product of the union between the physical lineage and the wizard's spirit. Ki, however, felt as though it were composed of three distinct parts.
The first part came from the body, but unlike the magical bloodline of a wizard, this was pure physical vitality—more accurately, the essence of life itself. The second part came from the spirit; mental focus and meditation were used to fuse one's willpower into that life force.
The third part, however, was drawn from the surrounding nature of the external world—something a wizard's magic power lacked entirely. A wizard's magic resides strictly within the self, with no external energy participating in its raw form.
Because ki was a synthesis of these three forces, it was significantly more powerful than magic power (a two-force synthesis) in terms of raw destructive output per volume. A wizard's pure magic power output isn't inherently destructive; it requires a spell to shape it and give it function.
Ki was the opposite—even in its rawest form, its release was devastating. When compressed and detonated, its power became truly frightening.
In Dumbledore's estimation, Goku's Dodon Ray and Kamehameha didn't actually involve complex magical theory; they were simply the result of extreme condensation and explosive release of ki.
This was why ki could easily substitute for magic power to cast spells, but using magic power to replicate the Kamehameha was impractical. Even if a wizard succeeded, the power would be vastly diminished.
This realization meant Dumbledore could abandon his earlier "shortcut" of trying to teach wizards Goku's moves using magic power alone. To truly master the Turtle School style, one had to push the body to its limit to generate genuine ki.
Furthermore, once a person possessed ki, even if they weren't particularly talented at traditional magic, they could achieve wandless casting just like Goku.
"Keep it up, Hagrid. The future peace of the wizarding world might just rest on your shoulders!" Dumbledore thought to himself as he watched the half-giant struggle to follow Goku's lead.
After half an hour of instruction and many demonstrations from Goku, Hagrid still hadn't learned to control his ki. However, it wasn't a total lack of progress; he could finally begin to feel the faint stirrings of energy within him.
Controlling it would take time and practice, but Hagrid's simple, focused mind gave him a distinct advantage over more complicated wizards.
As a reward, before Dumbledore escorted Goku back to the dorms, Hagrid served up more rock cakes and some homemade roasted sausages.
Although the rock cakes remained hard enough to chip a tooth and half the sausages were burnt to a crisp, Goku wasn't a picky eater. He happily devoured everything to replenish the energy he had spent in the Forbidden Forest.
Thus, the routine was set: extreme physical training in the early morning, charms in the late morning, magical theory in the afternoon, and combat in the Forbidden Forest at night.
This schedule continued until Saturday—the day Goku was officially scheduled to begin his tenure as Hogwarts' Guest Professor of Ki Magic.
***
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