Evan weaved through the sea of books with his wand aloft, bypassing the general section and heading straight for the Restricted Section.
"Advanced Transfiguration Guide..." "Ancient Runes..." "Soul Siphoning—A Glimpse Into Your Mind"...
His eyes skimmed over rows of bookshelves, laden with tantalizingly advanced forbidden texts, including ones on soul siphoning and mental barriers that Evan had long coveted.
Given the chance, Evan would gladly spend weeks here with a stack of study cards, boosting his prowess...
But he resisted the allure, mindful of his lack of academic points and his purpose tonight.
Following the signs in the Restricted Section, Evan quickly located shelf seven, row twelve, but nothing seemed amiss. Scores of magical tomes lined the shelves, leaving no space untouched.
Searching for a hidden mechanism and finding none, Evan accidentally knocked a tome on dark arts to the floor.
The book flapped open as if alive, its pages flipping rapidly until a billowing black mist emerged, within which a man's head appeared to scream silently, mouth agape.
Evan felt a pressure in his ears and a dizziness in his head, as though the silent scream reverberated through him.
The mist thickened, and the head seemed about to burst from the pages...
Snap!
Evan slammed the book shut, flattening the black apparition between its leaves. The fog dissipated as the book closed.
"A book, and you thought you could upend the world?" Evan rubbed his ears and muttered resentfully.
After a moment, he dared to pick it up again. The cover of "Secrets of Advanced Dark Magic" felt unsettlingly skin-like, different from the other tomes.
Could it be... human skin?
The thought sent a shiver down Evan's spine, the pained expression of the man's head making it seem all too possible.
The system's reward notification remained unchanged, confirming this book was unrelated to his task. Evan begrudgingly slid "Secrets of Advanced Dark Magic" back into place and resumed his search, only to realize something had changed.
One... two... three... four... five... six?
Each shelf in the Restricted Section was identical, categorized into six rows of seven. But Evan noticed that shelf twelve had one less row than it should.
It was odd, the shelf looked orderly despite missing a section, as if space itself had been twisted.
"Someone cast a Confundus Charm here and hid one of the rows."
Evan squinted, realizing his previous inspections had been thwarted by the charm, which had just been broken by the silent scream.
Identifying the anomaly didn't solve the problem. Evan's limited knowledge of spells included none that could reveal hidden objects.
He racked his brain, recalling a spell Snape had used in the original story.
"Aparecium!" Evan pressed his wand to the shelf and whispered the revealing spell.
The shelf trembled slightly, then a crack formed down the middle of row twelve, widening to reveal a hidden compartment.
The concealed row of books looked no different from the rest, each filled with thick volumes. Evan's hand brushed across them until the system chimed in.
[Ding, reward dispensed.]
Evan's lips twitched as he silently ranted,
This is how the reward is given? Had it not been for his luck and wit, who knows how long it would have taken?
This blasted system is so inconsiderate!
He envied the attentive systems of others, feeling a pang of sorrow. As a host, his life was full of trials...
Despite his thoughts, Evan excitedly pulled the book from the shelf. Its cover was slightly coarse, emblazoned with the words "The Origin of Bloodlines." The pages were tinged with age, indicating its antiquity.
Evan realized this was yet another tome not mentioned in the original series. Considering it was a system reward, he eagerly began to read.
After a few pages, Evan was disappointed to find "The Origin of Bloodlines" wasn't filled with powerful spells as he hoped, but more of a history book, chronicling pre-Wizarding War events.
Wizards of that era didn't dominate the magical world or enslave powerful magical beings like house-elves as they did now.
On the contrary, compared to naturally powerful magical creatures, human wizards were pitifully weak, their only advantage being their numbers in the magical realm.
But humans are inherently tenacious.
Some wizards dedicated themselves to magic, creating powerful spells to enhance their abilities, while others sought shortcuts... such as seizing the powers of magical creatures.
A few wizards succeeded, gaining tremendous power that could be passed down through generations, despite the gradual dilution of bloodline magic over time. This discovery drove many wizards to madness!
However, the risks of bloodline fusion were immense. Apart from a handful of successful cases, most wizards died tragically during experiments. Some lucky survivors became monstrous creatures, cursed for generations, like werewolves and vampires.
Some wizards even bred powerful magical creatures to better suit themselves for bloodline fusion experiments, enhancing their own powers.
This led Evan to think of the basilisk slumbering in the Chamber of Secrets and the Acromantula in the Forbidden Forest...
The most desperate wizards sought to establish intimate relations with more visually acceptable magical creatures, hoping their progeny would inherit their partner's bloodline...
Tips:
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