It's not like I was afraid of them. But they had all these cool titles and nicknames, especially Grindelwald, that I felt a bit short. I mean, Lord Voldemort was nice, but it was a bit of a thinker. It had a nice tone to it, but it was no Doombringer. You know what I mean? It feels like watching a black guy in a porno (this part of memory is something that I got from the soul that was in harry potter, I swear on Dolos!)
It hit my darklord ego. Maybe the first step of my plan should be to design a good title?
I thanked Tom and Madam Alcott. She offered us to stay for the night on the house and I accepted without blinking an eye. We needed a place to stay and I had no money.
Me and Michael went upstairs and I asked him to not bother me for the night.
Michael asked me with a shaky tone when we went into the room: "How did you know about this place Tom? Have you been here?"
- Of course not. It's like a vision. I gained some information about magic in my sleep.
Even if he was the only friend I had, I had to protect him from the truth too. It would be disastrous if anyone found out about anything I knew. So onto Occlumency practices. I continued:
- Trust me and don't worry. We have a lot of things to do for tomorrow. For now, there are some things I need to practice. Just rest and have something to eat for tonight.
Then I sat on the floor in lotus position and started with practicing Meditation and Occlumency for the night. The practices I knew had both upsides and downsides. Upside was that I didn't need to sleep when I went into deep meditation, but the downside was that I wouldn't be aware if anyone attacked me before I willed myself to wake up. So I couldn't practice all night because I knew the matron of the orphanage would interrupt me and it would lead to bad results. But here, I felt safe.
My memories helped a lot during the practices. It was just regaining some old powers.
Meditation [Level 5/50] ->[Level 7/50]
Occlumency [6/25] -> [Level 9/25]
The morning came early. I woke up at 5 a.m. Took a shower. Washed and dried my clothes. Practiced some utility magic, specially the ones helping me to make potions.
Wandless Magic [Level 4/200] ->[Level 5/200]
I woke Michael by slashing cold water on his face and ignored his controlled shouts. I asked him to take a shower too, so at 6:30 we were ready to go.
When we were leaving, Madam Alcott say us leaving and with a genuine worry in her eyes said:
- Are you leaving boys? Don't you want to stay for the breakfast?
With the smell of bacon in the air, Michael wouldn't say no, but I pulled on his clothes and said:
- Thank you Madam Alcott for your hospitality. But unfortunately we don't have any money and don't want to be a burden. We'll surely visit you back when we have time.
Her eyes said that she wanted to help, but recent time has showed her not to care too much. She struggled with herself and said in a low tone: "Be careful. Don't run into any store. Don't go anywhere near the end of Diagon Alley."
I smiled back: "Thank you so much."
Then I dragged Michael with me who only had bread and moldy cheese for breakfast and opened the door to the back yard of the Leaky Cauldron. With a flick of my finger, the passage opened and a magical world opened its door to us.
Well, most shops were closed. But we didn't need them. I let go of Michael and he started to walk with the same pace as me.
- Michael, you studied at school a lot. You read about wars right?
He was 15 and he had a lot of history lessons.
- Yeah, a bit. Why are you asking?
- So what is the most profitable business in war time?
- In muggle world? It was ... is, weapons.
I continued with a grin that I tried to hide: "Last night, in my dream, an angel appeared, her head was covered in light and her smile was divine. She had two sets of white wing and a golden robe. Then she took out a RPG and shot at me. Before she pulled the trigger she said "Sell weapons". And I woke up after that. Now I gained the knowledge to make magical weapons."
Michael looked at me with widened eyes and said: "Are you Serious?"
"One way to find out." And I pointed at the goblin bank. Gringotts Wizarding Bank. The white building with the ominous engraving at the entrance. "Let's find ourselves an sponsor!"
To be honest, I first thought of house reclamation ritual to get monetary and political power from my ancestry, but there were some problems with that. First of all, the house of Slytherin was too high profile for the current chaotic time and my miniscule powers. Second problem was that I didn't know if it could bear any results, and it was very, I mean VERY, expensive. The reason I was doubtful of my ancestry was because I lost my ParselMouth powers, and regained them using the system trait feature. Who knew what changed in the family tree and I couldn't afford to risk it.
It was 6:50 and we were in front of Gringotts. The doors were closed but the guards were stationed outside. I didn't say anything and waited. Michael said in a hush tone: "They are still closed Tom, maybe we can come back later? These creatures are looking at me creepily and their teeth are sharp like sharks."
- Don't worry, but we need to wait. Sponsorship meetings happen for only 5 minutes after opening the bank. There are hardly any wizards that know that fact. Only genius ones that created something and are from poor backgrounds. There are a lot of protocols to go through. This part is one of them. So stay quiet.
Minutes passed quickly and the doors opened. I walked in and went straight to the sponsor manager. It was the only chair that had a goblin sitting there, in five minutes he would leave.
- Good morning sir.
I smiled politely and nodded to show respect. Michael worriedly copied me.
- What is it that you want? I don't have much time.
- I have a proposal for three recipes of combat potions. These potions are of my own creation and are not patented. I want to show you the potential of these potions if you give me time. creation time is about 10 minutes for an adept potion master and the materials cost around 10 Sickles. The profit margin is about at least 80%. In your hands it could go up to 150-200%. I only want 49% of the equity of business and I'll give you the patent rights after the contract. You can deal with it as you want and I'll train the first 10 potion masters you hire. I don't have the money to bring you any samples. But if you give me 5 minutes, and the materials, I'll give you the first sample.
He looked at me with disbelieving eyes for a moment. I could see as he steeled himself and tried to gain the upper hand again.
- So what if you can't deliver the product after the 5 minutes and the materials you are going to use?
I smiled and said: "I'll join a sacrificial ritual willingly, we can draw a contract for that right now, but if that's the terms, I'll need at least two sets of materials and 12 minutes."
His eyes bulged with my boldness. People who would enter sacrificial rituals willingly were rare commodity. The willing part made the ritual a pure one. With many benefits that came with it. I would say that in my previous life, the price of that went around 10,000 galleons or so for muggles and a whopping 1million galleons for a magical person if there were any.
He drew a contract in a heart beat and gave me to sign. 3 sets of materials, 12 minutes. I signed after reading it through and making sure it was ironclad. I didn't want him to interrupt my potion making to get my body. He then gave me an empty sheet to write down the materials. I gave them the materials for the first potion. The easiest one.
I called it [The Hunger of Hadar](Yes, from D&D, I love the name and the spell, I just wanted to use it somewhere). It was a potion that if you threw the bottle on the ground it would create a 20-foot-radius sphere of blackness and bitter cold that blinds the enemies and inflicts damage to them from the sheer cold. Because it's a unique potion and I created it, there was no counter spell for it for my time.
One might ask when I had time to dabble into this cooking magic, well, to I should say that if you want to become a master of rituals, becoming a potion master is just a small step of the way. I wasn't a genius in potion making. But I knew my way around cauldrons. I played around a bit in potion making and created some recipes that I never shared with anyone.
We were led into a room, which had a lever at a side, and when the goblin pulled it. The whole room moved like an elevator. But it was way smoother than what I expected after the initial shock.
He didn't talk to us the whole time, but were murmuring numbers under his breath and glancing at me time to time. He had predator eyes. Probably counting how much he could make if he made use of my body.
Finally the room-elevator stopped and we were in front of a relatively dark corridor. It reminded me of Hogwarts. The goblin walked in front of us and after 2 minutes or so we reached a door that had a label on it that read "Potion room #4" in Gobbledegook - goblin language.
I walked in the room after the goblin and saw a fully equipped potion lab. I looked at Michael and pointed at a seat on the side:
- Sit here and wait.
He obediently did so.
After a minute the materials came and I didn't waste a moment and started my work. I've been practicing in my mind that whole morning and on the way there.
Based on my first magical contract at the counter, he or the bank couldn't try to learn the recipe from my potion. I was a bit rusty so it took me 7 minutes to make my first batch. I designed these potions to be easily made for war time.
- It's done.
I said as I showed him the sludge like liquid that I poured in the magical bottle to keep it inside.
- You can test it right now at a test room.
- This way.
We went after him to a test room for potions. I felt the added wards in the room. The air felt heavy in this room. It was a simple empty rectangular room and as I walked in, I just threw the potion bottle at other end.
The black clouds rose and covered 6m diameter (20ft.) circle and a chilling cold covered the room the same time.
I explained: "6m diameter. -20°C (-4°F) temperature inside. Lasts at least one minute. Probably not dispellable." I waited for the information to sink in for the goblin and added, "I can tweak the potion if you want something specific 3 times."
To conclude my pitch I said: "I also have 2 other potions, the "Bloodmoon Essence", which grants temporary magical power in return of the life force. And the "Phantom Fume" which uses a person to key into it, then when boiled it turns into a poisonous fume for people who are having thoughts of killing or attacking the keyed person. Deadly but usable stuff."
I badly needed the money to back myself for my own businesses. I had to lose some to win some. I had many enchanting designs and alchemical models that I could sell. I needed a steady income initiate them. So selling at a lower price here would still be a win for me.
Even though I didn't show, but I was really nervous. I worst case scenario I would rob some muggles but that would be much more difficult.
I looked at the goblin to see his reaction. The goblin wondered what he should do a bit, calculating the income and the potential of potions made his toothy grin grow bigger and bigger. He looked at me with interested eyes and said:
- My name is Brodguss, young wizard. Let's draw a contract.
And that's how you sell weapons during a war.
************************************
Name: Tom Riddle
Titles: The Phoenix Lord (+10 Vit per 10 levels)
Race: Human
Level: 4(75%)
HP: 280/280
MP: 390/390
STR: 15
VIT: 28
DEX: 15
INT: 39
WIS: 28
AP:15
Money: 0 G 0 S 0 K / 0$
Perks: Master of Magick[Lvl2], Inner Control[Lvl1], Dark Master, Genius / PP: 0 (+4 INT and +WIS per 5 lvls, +1 INT per level)
Traits:, Touched by death, MetaMorph, ParselMouth, Arsonist(NEW!!) / TP: 0]
Skills:
Wandless Magic [Level 5/200]
Meditation [Level 7/50]
Mind Arts [Level 12/100]
(Occlumency [9/25] |Legilimency [3/25] | Mind design [0/25] | ??? [0/25])
Healing arts: [Level 1/80]
Potion making: [Level 1/80]