Only a few weeks left until the third year. I have to pick up the pace and go with the ritual, while I am still not covered up with work. Moreover, Hermione with her family left for France, so there is literally no danger in doing the whole ritual at their home, without worrying about anything
*3 weeks later*
Lightning was striking outside the window and I was happy as hell, because soon Grangers return, and I wanted to be done with a ritual before their coming.
And don't ask me how my week was. It was tiring as heck. I had to pour my magical power every second into the amulet I made out of salt. I mean I shrank ritual from month to 2 weeks, so now I needed to input the insane amount of magic and that takes a toll on my mental capacity.
Plus, because technically leaf needs to collect magic 24/7 while I can do it this only for 16-18 hours (due to sleep), I need to maximize my output. So, most of the time I am in a half-conscious state. Thanks to enchantment and my control over magic, I either don't output more than I consume from atmosphere or output is too small to notice, thus "Trace" wasn't triggered so far.
'Yay!'
In any case, after 2 weeks of doing that I raised magic channeling by more than 7 levels. I didn't need to save/load either, so I was super close to leveling up. Then I made a potion and surprisingly got a level up in alchemy.
What comes after that is just waiting, grinding and chanting the spell at specific periods.
But today I can finally charge the potion and become the Animagus.
'Hopefully…'
I return to my last auto-save before the lightning storm to find a suitable location for transformation. I exited the house and checked the sky. Storm clouds were quite wide. If I exit the premises of the city, I shall still be under it. I found an empty abandoned building far enough from the muggle's eyes.
I climbed to the roof and started waiting.
*Sometime later*
Lightning was flashing above me and thunder was deafening my hearing.
'That should be enough.'
I saved just in case.
〖Save ⟳〗
I will delete it if I will be successful.
Anyway, I drank the potion and for some time nothing happened. However, soon I started feeling uncomfortable as if something from inside of me was trying to corrode my body.
That's when I started hearing notifications.
[Animagus ritual finished.]
[Magic reacts with enchantments. The signature was recognized by the magic source.]
[Magic source starts the process. The system connects to the magic source. Logging has been activated. The output being generated…]
[Form is being identified.]
[Personality recognition in the process to form the animal.]
[Attributes are being filtered. Secondary unimportant attributes are being suppressed by upper-level personality attributes. Behavioral pillars suppress other attributes, thus are being recognized. Affecting magic source.]
[Laziness recognized. Currently suppressed due to survival instincts.]
[Bravery recognized. Currently suppressed by the void of tangible fears.]
[Loquacity recognized. Currently suppressed by immense instinctual distrust.]
[Loneliness recognized. Mostly suppressed.]
[Instinctual aloofness and aversion have been recognized. Supported by one of the upper-level attributes, pride. Currently suppressed by humility]
[Humility recognized. Used to suppress other attributes.]
[Behavioral pillars have been recognized. All of them are currently used to suppress other higher and lower attributes. The form cannot be properly formed.]
'Wow!'
Then I started filling an insane amount of pain, or better to be said. I was feeling all the negative things that ever happened to me at the same time. I was mentally overwhelmed by the outpour of memories and emotions.
[Magic source activates its authority and forces itself into the subconscious. Recognition is in the process…]
Somewhere along those lines, I fainted. However, the process was still ongoing and apparently after I lost consciousness process went even faster.
[Subconscious will found. Recognition is in the process.]
[Survival will have been identified. Recognition is in the process.]
[Wish to be autonomous is recognized as the main survival will. The absence of any responsibility is recognized as subconscious will.]
[Forming an animal. Shaping will. Representation is freedom.]
[Eagle is being confirmed as a form.]
[Magic source goes through the final stages of confirmation.]
[Soul is affecting the form. Basilisk's imprint tries to force a change.]
[Death gaze is being forced. Failure. Eagle's eye structure is unsuited.]
[Poison fangs are being forced. Failure. Eagle has no teeth. Can't be applied to beak or claws either due to unsuited structure.]
[Basilisk's imprint has no authority, can't be further forced. Starts to dissipate.]
[Dissipation starts to affect the owner's soul.]
[System intervenes to prevent damage to the soul.]
[System activates the authority. Enforcing the mutation.]
[Not enough energy. Draining the owner of energy and life.]
[Soul's authority interferes.]
[Owner's approval is impossible due to the unconscious state. Overriding soul authority. Proceeding with the mutation.]
[Death gaze and poison fangs attributes are being deconstructed and recombined. The essence is being drained and recollected. A new attribute is being constructed.]
[Constructing…]
[All available energy and life resources are expended. Proceeding with the extraction of experience.]
[Level is being held by soul authority, but experience required for its use is being expended.]
[System creates experience debt. Proceeds with construction…]
[Debt increases.]
[New attribute acquires both elements. Death and Poison cannot be mixed. Further deconstruction required.]
[Death deconstructed to darkness. Poison deconstructed to water. Darkness and water cannot be mixed. Further deconstruction required.]
[Darkness deconstructed to Yin elementary element. Water is deconstructed to Yin elementary element. Combination.]
[Due to lack of energy and different sources, the mix is insufficiently clean. Yin darkness has been diluted. Shadow essence created.]
[Shadow essence is very close resembles elementary element. Attribute created from it is basic and has no specification.]
[Shadow form is being forced. Success. Eagle's body is too fragile to hold attribute, therefore reconstruction is required.]
[Reconstructing.]
[Debt increased.]
[Shadow creature is created.]
[Shadow creature is being confirmed as a form.]
[Magic source goes through the final stages of confirmation.]
[Ritual is successful.]
[Not enough energy to commence transformation.]
[System activates the authority and requests the reward for unique animal creation.]
[Reward is granted.]
[System transforms the reward into experience and energy to refill the drained resources of the owner.]
[Owner's resources were restocked and restored. Debt nullified. The remainder was used to increase magical talent.]
[Initial talent of 1 was increased by 45%.]
[Recalculating talent.]
[System revokes the authority.]
[Transformation commences.]
*Next day*
I awoke and the first thing I looked at was my hands, but the thing is I didn't have those. I had wings. They were neither black nor white, but a strange mix of those colors. The first thing that came to my mind upon seeing that color was the shadow.
It was hard to describe their color really and that wasn't the thing that stole my attention. They were big. And I am not saying as if bird level big. Much bigger. I can't exactly say how big my wingspan was. However, I am sure it was definitely more than 3 meters (~11 feet).
With difficulty, I focused on feeling my body and …
'Where is my body?'
I had no body. At least I didn't feel a thing. I didn't feel my legs, wings or torso. It was so strange, yet normal at the same time.
I was confused and couldn't make sense of anything. I had wings on left and right, but I couldn't feel them and for some reason, I was better with every second I was awake. That's when I suddenly understood everything about myself.
It wasn't like an epiphany. It was more of an instinct. It felt similar to writing or typing. Even after not doing it for a lot of time, as soon as you start you will understand what to do. You don't remember how to write a letter, but your hand does.
Hard to wrap your head around, right? Same here. I decided to ignore it for now and try to move.
It was very awkward at first. I mean I needed some time to get accustomed to how my body moved. It took me around 10 minutes to move normally. And yeah, I was a bird. Bird! BIRD!
'I can fly! It might be childish, but I still feel it's cool.'
However, I must admit, I hoped to become some kind of cool magical creature, like dragon or manticore, but so far, the only unusual thing about me is size and color. Do I have any magical powers?
'Oh, logs! Right, I should check them. There might be something interesting after I fainted.'
I opened the 'Journal' in hopes to find some more information. But the more I read, the more shocked I was.
"Wait a second… WHAT THE HECK?"
'Basilisk energy was my reward! Why the heck it nearly killed me? System!?'
[Basilisk energy was indeed part of the reward, however, quests and rewards were not created for your level or age. First of all, finding a basilisk is not an easy mission, without mentioning killing it. Therefore, rewards were oriented on either higher leveled or older users of the systems.]
'But didn't you know that basilisk was in the chambers?'
[Indeed. Moreover, the quest's mission and rewards do not depend on the system. The system only has the authority to request quests based on the situation and give out rewards provided to it after the successful end of the quest.]
'Oh? Really? But I knew about the basilisk. Shouldn't you know it because I know it as well?'
[I share only knowledge pertaining to the skills.]
'But how do you know which knowledge or memory is about the skill?'
[I filter them.]
'But by filtering you will know about them!'
[System is an artificial construct, that is capable of controlling its own memory. I do not save memory that does not concern my functionality. That is… prohibited]
'By who?'
[…]
It seems like I touched level-restricted information once more. I decided to skip it over and move to my next question.
'I didn't know about it. Then who gives out the quests and rewards?'
[…]
'Oh c'mon, I am too low-level to know that as well?'
[Indeed.]
*Sigh*
Understanding that there is no point in continuing asking, I continued reading the 'Journal'. There were even more shocking things.
'Attributes? Elementary elements? …'
Like this, I continued to discuss with the system the different new things that surfaced during this ritual. We talked like this for hours until I more or less found out everything.
Well, relatively everything. For some information, I needed a higher level. But in any case, I was quite happy with surviving at the very least.
For the first time, I felt like the Main Character in Chinese novels. I tried to acquire a skill/potion/manual that I didn't really need and nearly died for nothing, but by some miracle, I survived. Moreover, I even got stronger.
I mean I got a cool way of traveling, a permanent increase in talent and possibly very powerful form to transform into. If that is not becoming stronger then I don't know what is.
'Maybe those novels are not that unrealistic, huh?'
All the free time left until the school I spent training in my Animagus, grinding or chilling with the trio. Interestingly, Animagus wasn't a skill, but the system said unintentionally implied that there will be some type of upgrade system for it. That information warms my heart of grinder.
Plus during that time, thanks to new third-year school books I raised my level to 19.
The third year is coming.
*progress*
『 Level 19 』
『 Magicka ➣ Improvement : 17 ➔ 18 (talent = 3.4895 ) 』
『 Number of skill points: 2 』
--
『 Alchemy 31 ➔ 32 | Sneak 25 』
『 Speech 31 | Studying 39 ➔ 40 』
『 Wand Making 26 | Herbology 29 ➔ 31 』
『 Magic Channeling 41 ➔ 48 | Magic Chanting 29 ➔ 30 』
『 Magic Gesturing 29 ➔ 30 | Magic Theory 47 』
『 Astronomy 27 ➔ 29 | Riding Expertise 20 』
『 Crafting 23 | Playing Games 15 』
『 Enchanting 34 | Cooking 23 ➔ 24 』
『 Training 22 ➔ 23 | Physical Activities 17 』
『 Programming 25 | Dancing 0 』
『 Legilimency 25 | Occlumency 21 ➔ 22 』