At Hogwarts, and even within the upper echelons of the British wizarding world, there were rumors that Alaric was as accomplished in magic as Dumbledore.
However, for most people, this was just a rumor.
They believed that Alaric's talent surely exceeded Dumbledore's, and they also believed that he could indeed compete with Dumbledore in certain aspects, at least not falling too far behind.
But if they were to truly compare Alaric and Dumbledore, they would still feel that Dumbledore must surpass Alaric.
However, what happened today made them doubt such judgments and made everyone reassess Alaric's true strength.
On this morning, when students from Beauxbatons were queuing to put their names into the Goblet of Fire, two boys challenged Alaric, and immediately faced consequences.
These two boys, clearly over the age of seventeen, repeatedly attempted to cross Dumbledore's age line but were only ejected each time.
This in itself wasn't surprising, as there were many methods to achieve this, such as using potions like Aging Potions or Age-Reducing Potions, all of which could achieve similar effects in front of the age line—cheaters would be punished without hesitation by the age restriction.
However, the problem lay in the fact that there were no traces of spells or potions on these two boys.
Undoubtedly, the issue was with the age line itself.
This was somewhat baffling.
It was well known that most wizards had a close connection to the magic they performed.
After casting a spell, no matter how powerful the wizard's magical abilities were or how long the spell lasted, if the wizard died, the spell's effect would disappear with them, unless special measures were taken.
In relation to this connection, it was almost impossible to internally modify magic cast by others—of course, overriding its effects with stronger magic or using counter-curses to nullify them was another matter.
However, when Dumbledore hurriedly came to inspect, he discovered that his age line had been modified at some point.
Now, it not only ejected those who hadn't reached the age or were cheating but also prevented specific individuals from entering the line.
Needless to say, the one who secretly modified the age line was Alaric.
But what surprised Dumbledore the most was that this modification wasn't a violent breach but an internal alteration through a loophole, appearing as if the caster of the spell had made the modification themselves.
Such methods, Dumbledore had never seen in his lifetime.
Back in the day, he battled Grindelwald and later fought against Voldemort.
The prowess of these opponents lay not only in their powerful magic but also in their mastery of dark arts, and their confrontations were all about magical duels and countering each other's spells.
Facing an opponent's curse, their response was always to counter it with another spell or find a way to evade it.
Never had anyone thought about internally altering the opponent's magic to achieve their desired effect.
This was exactly the method of a hacker.
It was no wonder, after all, there were few wizards like Alaric who were proficient both in magic and in computers.
In his previous life, Alaric, who had studied computer science, had originally planned to dominate the internet industry through his foresight.
Who would have expected him to arrive in the world of Harry Potter?
Therefore, deeply influenced by the thinking of programmers, after studying magic, his greatest emphasis was on Ancient Runes—just like how programmers value instruction sets and programming languages.
He stubbornly believed, what magic power? What magical potions? What spells were all just appearances; true magic lay in Ancient Runes, involving fundamental rules.
Of course, unlike programming languages, magic was still quite subjective in many ways, but even magic had its own set of logical rules.
Most wizards only understood the superficial aspects of these rules, but Alaric insisted on understanding the reasons behind them.
Such research enabled him to modify spells cast by others.
Such skills were of course useless in combat, because who had time to slowly modify an enemy's spells in such lightning-fast situations?
But outside of battle, this skill was very useful.
Just like now, all the professors at Hogwarts, including Dumbledore himself, couldn't revert this magic back to its original state. Attempting to forcibly modify it would only cause the entire magic to fail.
In the end, under the expectant gazes of Madam Maxime, the students from Beauxbatons, and the other professors, he could only shake his head helplessly.
"Alaric's alterations are indeed exquisite," he shook his head helplessly, "I think I understand how he did it, but even I can't allow those two to enter the line."
"How can this be?" Madam Maxime couldn't believe it, "You're Dumbledore! I know Alaric is a very powerful wizard, but he couldn't possibly be this powerful, could he?"
"No, you're mistaken," Dumbledore looked at her seriously, explaining, "You underestimate his genius; even I can only surpass him in experience. But in terms of Ancient Runes and the study of spells themselves, he has far surpassed me."
"Then what do we do?" Madam Maxime was at a loss, "Does that mean Maxwell and Stein can't approach the Goblet of Fire?"
"That's not the case, after all, this age line is my spell. As long as I cancel it and draw a new line, they can enter."
"That's a relief," Madam Maxime sighed with relief, concerned only about whether her students could put their names into the Goblet of Fire.
But the other professors cared about more than just that.
"The key point is here," Professor Flitwick said loudly.
"After his modification, this magic still remains under Dumbledore's control. This means he merely modified it, not destroyed and rebuilt it."
He looked excitedly at Alaric, "Young man, you've created a great technique!"
"I think if this spreads, the goblins at Gringotts will be uneasy," chuckled Professor Carrow, "All security enchantments and secrecy spells are futile against such techniques."
"That won't happen," Alaric shook his head, "At least, very few people can learn this technique."
"I can attest to that," Professor Bathilda Bagshot, who taught Ancient Runes, said.
"Today, there are fewer young students willing to study Ancient Runes, and their proficiency is far inferior to before.
But evidently, to achieve Alaric's level, one must have considerable mastery of Ancient Runes. Even I may not be able to reach his level in this regard."
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