abnabooks Chapter 177, Section 176: Ian's Debt, Morgan's Secret
Chapter 177, Section 176: Ian's Debt, Morgan's Secret
Chapter 177, Section 176: Ian's Debt, Morgan's Secret
The sky seemed to be tightly shrouded by thick, leaden clouds, and the air was filled with a damp, chilling atmosphere, as if even breathing could feel the cold seeping into one's very bones. Occasionally, a gust of wind would blow by, but instead of bringing any freshness, it would only exacerbate the gloomy feeling of the surrounding environment.
The wind whipped up fallen leaves and dust, sending them swirling and dancing helplessly in the air before finally settling heavily back down—this was the ancient castle belonging to the witch Morgan. In the distance, thunder rumbled faintly, like the low growl of a colossal beast from the depths of the sky, as if it were a prisoner of time, shrouded in a somber and oppressive gloom.
The ancient dragon lay prostrate on the ground, as majestic and imposing as a undulating mountain range. It had been dozing, but upon sensing the return of the castle's master, it immediately snapped awake.
"Oh! Morgan, you're finally back! This is the thirty-four minutes and forty-two seconds I've missed you!" it said in a human voice, its tone and expression full of flattery.
Ian found it hard to believe he could see a submissive look on the face of a dragon. He realized that this ancient dragon had likely been "tortured" by Morgan more than once.
Ok.
Perhaps the word "training" would be more appropriate.
They've all started sticking their tongues out.
"Good evening, Deathwing." Ian greeted the ancient dragon, as he had a friendly pact with the dragon's spirit.
of course.
This was not enough to make the ancient dragon treat Ian the same way it treated Morgan.
"I'm not called Deathwing, I have my own name," the ancient dragon retorted, retracting the tongue that had just been extended at Morgan.
The atmosphere of differential treatment was obvious.
"Oh? What's your name?"
Ian didn't seem to care, and continued to speak with a smile. He didn't have Morgan's ability to deal with others, so it was already a stroke of good fortune for him that this ancient dragon didn't breathe fire at him.
"I forgot."
The ancient dragon's answer was quite straightforward.
It also seemed somewhat indifferent. Its head was lowered, its eyes half-closed, and it exhaled wisps of smoke that blended into the surrounding mist, making it appear both majestic and languid.
"Then I'll still call you Deathwing, that name is much cooler." Ian patted the dragon's toes; he still had to stand on tiptoe to do that.
The ancient dragon still tried to resist.
Morgan, however, did not indulge it at all.
"You accept the name I've given you; you're living in a world of blessings you don't even know it." Morgan merely glanced at the ancient dragon, and the colossal creature, as majestic as a mountain range, immediately trembled in fear.
"Alright, from today onwards I'll be called Deathwing." It showed its cowardly nature, it's really hard to imagine how an ancient dragon could have such a moment of fear.
"This is a gift for you."
Ian pulled out a bunch of stone statues as big as Hagrid, and a huge chessboard, which he had made from the broken chess pieces he had collected in the room before his battle with Tom.
You could call it recycling and reuse. Ian had been trying to increase the favor of the ancient dragons, and he had already prepared this gift last semester.
"What are these things?" The ancient dragon stretched out its claws, and even the stone chess piece the size of Hagrid still looked tiny in its claws, which were larger than a wooden house.
"It's a stone statue version of Wizard's Chess, with an automatic repair function, and I've also incorporated my groundbreaking invention into it, which has the ability to play chess against you autonomously."
"You can complete a game of Wizard Chess without needing an opponent. Currently, it only includes the 1.0 version of Machine Soul, but I think that should be enough to give you a worthy opponent."
Ian didn't know if the dragon would fall in love with the wizard's sport; he just wanted to use the dragon, who was bored and had nothing better to do, to allow his Machine Soul 1.0 to complete iterations and upgrades.
The little wizard also wanted to use this invention in other places.
"Fun toys."
The ancient dragon must have been really bored for too long, because it immediately became interested in Ian's gift. Without even asking about the rules, it went up and slashed at the pieces with its claw.
"Click~"
The chess pieces were shattered and scattered all over the ground.
However, they soon began to repair themselves automatically.
"That's not how you play Wizard's Chess..." Ian wanted to explain the rules of the game to the Ancient Dragon, but to his surprise, the Ancient Dragon shook its head and gave him an unexpected answer.
"I know what Wizard's Chess is. Slytherins love playing Wizard's Chess. I'm just reminiscing about my past!" The ancient dragon blinked, looking slightly melancholy.
"However, doing the same thing now feels a little off." Its voice was full of melancholy, as if it were sighing at the ruthlessness of time.
Memories are always irreplaceable.
The young wizard gave a summary, and the ancient dragon immediately nodded seriously.
"That's right, that's exactly it."
It also wanted to express its feelings.
Morgan raised an eyebrow.
"I think you just need to be taught a lesson."
She raised a finger.
No light appeared, but the next moment the ancient dragon was as if it had been slapped in the face. Not only was it knocked to the ground, but half of its head swelled up rapidly.
"Oh...that feels right now."
The earth shook and mountains trembled.
The ancient dragon, which had flipped over and fallen to the ground, had all four of its legs twitching in mid-air.
But it seemed to have found its lost memories.
"..."
Ian witnessed this scene and was deeply shocked. He opened his mouth for a long time, not knowing how to judge it. He could only say that one should not judge a book by its cover, but also that one should not judge a dragon by its appearance.
What a majestic and awe-inspiring ancient dragon!
How can someone have such a unique hobby?
"Would you like to try it too?" Morgan suddenly turned and looked at Ian with a smile. In that instant, Ian felt the air in the garden outside the castle seemed to grow even colder.
"Of course not!"
The little wizard used his own head as a rattle.
The witch's smile remained unchanged.
"What about my gift?"
She was always so direct, with a smile that hid a knife, concealing murderous intent... Ian was somewhat horrified to find that, for some reason, he also felt a sense of "finally getting along well" in his heart.
"It's here!"
He didn't dare to think about it too much.
He immediately pulled out the gift he had prepared for Morgan. It was a huge pile of all kinds of desserts and snacks, as well as all sorts of the most popular entertainment books in the world at that time.
"That's more like it."
Morgan finally nodded in satisfaction. The temperature in the air returned to normal, and the little wizard, whose heart had been fluctuating, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"I actually want some food too." The ancient dragon was still fiddling with the chess pieces with its claws when it saw Ian take out some snacks, and it suddenly spoke up, looking very greedy.
"I really miss those house-elves who prepared food for me back then. They were really good cooks. If it weren't for me, the four principals wouldn't have hired so many house-elves."
Words filled with memories poured from the mouth of the ancient dragon, and perhaps the mystery of why Hogwarts has so many elves was finally solved at this moment.
"Even if I gave you a whole cow, it would probably only be enough to fill your teeth." Ian felt a little sorry for the former house-elves, not knowing how enormous the task of preparing food for ancient dragons was.
"You stingy fellow! One cow isn't enough? You can find a thousand cows!" The ancient dragon muttered a complaint about Ian when its wish went unfulfilled.
"It's a good thing you're dead; bone dragons don't need to eat." Ian was still somewhat shaken upon hearing this, secretly relieved that he didn't have enough Galleons to feed a living ancient dragon. It was like earning a monthly salary of five thousand; even if someone gave you a Bugatti Veyron as a gift, you still couldn't afford to maintain that kind of car.
While the little wizard was still communicating with the dragon.
"Don't think that a little bit of profit will let you escape my scrutiny." After eating something, Morgan suddenly launched an attack on Ian without warning.
"Let me see if you've neglected your studies in magic during your months on Earth." Morgan scrutinized the young wizard from head to toe with a discerning eye.
"Of course not."
Ian straightened his chest.
"Not only have I not neglected my studies in alchemy and potion making, but in the realm of magic, my innovations and research make me feel quite like a magic emperor."
He didn't hesitate to start bragging.
"Oh?"
Morgan raised an eyebrow, looking at the confident apprentice before him with a slightly surprised gaze. "Then show me what kind of research has made you so arrogant."
Not a single mistake, not a single poem, not a single post, not a single piece of content, not a single look!
She finished speaking in a slightly teasing tone, and the little wizard immediately took out his wand. He did feel quite proud of his magical research.
"I've been researching the diffusion of magical power, that is, how to achieve more efficient group casting, and how to use this technique to turn some spells that should only work on a single target into area-of-effect spells." Ian lightly flicked his wand, and without chanting a spell, a chilling green light burst forth from his wand.
This was the first spell Morgan had taught Ian; it was like a leaping ray, meandering through the air like a serpent under Morgan's gaze.
One, two... more than twenty.
After hitting one spot, the green light would immediately bounce and leap towards another target, leaving spiderweb-like marks on more than twenty stone pillars.
"Tsk tsk!"
The ancient dragon exclaimed in amazement.
"this one?"
But the witch Morgan just pursed her lips.
She was clearly dissatisfied with Ian's Avada Kedavra. However, the young wizard's smile remained, for his research certainly couldn't stop there.
The so-called magical diffusion.
Its essence is to change the way magic works.
The principle behind Ian's Avada Kedavra is to add multiple marks during the casting of magic. Even with Ian's control over magic, he can only add more than twenty marks at most.
No matter how hard you try to improve your control, you have to take it one step at a time to make any progress—this is clearly not in line with a young wizard's understanding and common perception of magic learning.
Therefore.
He felt this was a thankless and arduous path, so he changed his approach of stacking multiple marks and explored other possibilities for the spread of magic in a different direction.
In this regard.
He has already achieved results.
"What I'm showing you now is just my initial thought process. Right now, I'm in a state of sudden enlightenment, where I feel the vastness of the world." Ian replied, then lightly flicked his wand again.
And so.
All I saw was...
The green light that was still refracting in the air seemed to have undergone some kind of change, and without warning, it burst open and became a torrent of green light.
It bloomed at Ian's feet.
Like locusts swarming across the land, they quickly covered the entire surface, with countless green energies surging on the ground, as if they could erupt at any moment to find their target.
"Um?"
A flicker of astonishment crossed Morgan's eyes. Seeing the ground transformed into a lush green "pond," she immediately took to the air.
It seemed a bit rushed.
"Holy crap! What are you doing?!"
The massive ancient dragon wasn't much slower than Morgan; it displayed a reaction speed that didn't quite match its size, and even after soaring into the sky, it still seemed somewhat bewildered.
"Even Slytherins would call you the real Slytherin!" Its magic resistance was indeed very high, but the "green lake" on the ground still shocked it.
This is still a killing curse... but it's the kind that can kill an entire nest with a single strike.
"This is my latest achievement. At the cost of sacrificing strength, I've truly transformed a single-target spell into a multi-target spell," Ian boasted with no small amount of pride.
He may indeed have something to boast about.
after all.
This technique can be used for more than just killing curses.
Instead, all single-target spells like the Killing Curse can be transformed into area-of-effect spells using the concept of magical diffusion. Similar techniques also apply to spells like the Cruciatus Curse and the Imperius Curse.
Take the Killing Curse as an example.
Once the Killing Curse is transformed into an area-of-effect spell, it will use the entire ground as its bearing area, forming a "death zone" in a large circular area centered on the caster.
Those surging green lights.
All of these powers carry an instant-death effect. Although this instant-death effect is weakened, it is still deadly to most beings with low soul strength.
"Not bad, very interesting. This has deviated somewhat from the original scope of the Killing Curse."
Morgan, suspended in mid-air, had a glint in her eyes and finally gave a very high evaluation, as she could see traces of a novice wizard in this magic.
"Yes, that's right, so I gave it a new name." Ian raised his wand, and countless green energies surged from the ground and surrounded him.
"Should I play along and ask what your magic is called?" Morgan asked cheerfully, as if he had already seen through Ian's little scheme.
"It's called the Avada Plague."
Ian immediately gave his answer in a loud voice.
however.
Morgan's next words, however, made him, who was in high spirits, feel inexplicably frustrated.
"I've seen this magic before, a better version."
Morgan first poured cold water on Ian's enthusiasm, and just as the little wizard's smile froze and he was about to complain about being born at the wrong time, she said something the little wizard never expected.
"It was in an ancient site, the same green, the same logic, but a more refined form of expression. I certainly won't forget it; it was the magic known as the Fel Energy Burst."
"Mediterranean, the work of the Sorcerer Supreme, I died at the hands of this magic." The shocking news was slowly recounted by Morgan in a relaxed and teasing tone.
The little wizard's pupils contracted slightly a few times.
His expression.
They started to panic.
[P.S.: Went to the family reunion dinner]
(End of this chapter)