Chapter 208: Halloween Eve

Halloween is almost here.

Murphy's sad realization is that his goal of living a healthy life hasn't been achieved… Now he not only has to conduct research himself, but also lead his students in research, feeling even busier than before.

But the harvest is there as well.

Two days ago, the Magic Research Institute reported that after hundreds of model iteration optimizations, they have found a super‑strong core antenna model expected to reach about 90% of the theoretical limit.

After matching it with the shaft model, the institute designed a wand.

Seeing the blueprint that the researchers nicknamed "Supreme Wand," Murphy was a bit stunned.

This thing looks somewhat familiar.

At first glance, it appears to be a sixteen‑inch wooden stick, but unlike an ordinary stick, it resembles bamboo with seven joints from end to end, and in the cross‑section, each joint actually contains a massive concentration of core coils.

Ah, this…

Isn't this the old wand?!

Murphy has seen Dumbledore's wand; it can't be said to be exactly identical to the one in the picture, but it is indeed very similar.

So the optimal structure I spent so much effort calculating already exists in reality?

Considering the wand's biological characteristics, and that the old wand has been passed down through generations, if wizards' subjective will deem it the strongest wand, then under the influence of the Magic Net's seeking power, the old wand might self‑optimize, and after countless generations of owners' continual refinement, it is quite possible that it eventually approaches the theoretically optimal structure.

Isn't this the magical version of an evolutionary algorithm?

Indeed, compared with science, magic is far more convenient; its subjective agency is simply too strong.

With the wand design in hand, the next step is how to control the core's growth by fusing Magic Potion so that it takes the shape shown in the blueprint.

The core in the blueprint is actually a phased‑array antenna tree; when Magic Power flows through different branches, it generates different harmonics, thereby providing gain for signals of various frequencies and directions.

The antenna tree in the blueprint is extremely complex; in an ideal state it could have tens of thousands of branches, and even when simplified, at least sixty‑plus major branches must be controlled, each thickest at only about 10 microns.

How to finely control the core's growth, Murphy currently has little clue, and can only start with the shape of the core's space.

He plans to carve the core space into the shape of an antenna tree.

If you can't control the contents, start by controlling the container.

But creating a 10‑micron‑scale fine structure inside a single piece of wood is impossible with ordinary methods.

Murphy decides to use the Enlarge Spell together with laser engraving.

To achieve the best engraving result, he uses snake‑patterned wood with extremely high cell density as the wand material.

After processing the wood to form the wand shaft, he first cuts off the base and tip, enlarges the shaft tenfold with the Enlarge Spell, then from either end drills with high‑energy laser to carve out a tree‑shaped core space.

For the coil structures in the joints, he uses gamma rays for internal carving.

Once the core space is completed, he lifts the Enlarge Spell to restore original size, installs the tip, injects fusion reagent in a cleanroom, finally inserts the core, attaches the base, and waits for the core to grow along the tree‑shaped space under the stimulus of fused Magic Potion.

Yet even with this method, the overall processing precision is only 10 microns, allowing only the main thirty‑plus branches to be carved to spec; the smaller, higher‑precision branches simply cannot be made.

The joint coil structures also fail to meet design requirements, with both the number of coils and turns reduced by more than half.

But this is already the limit of current carving technology.

Murphy really wants to know how the performance of this wand compares to that of the old wand.

…

On the last weekend of October, the core finished growing.

The snake‑patterned wood wand is finally completed.

It is sixteen inches long, entirely dark‑red, covered in snake pattern, heavy in the hand, feeling less like a wooden stick and more like a metal weapon.

Murphy added a bird‑snake feather to the wand—he didn't use his own hair because he can't yet confirm whether his own body parts used as core would be affected by cellular aging, so to reduce variables he first tests with a bird‑snake feather known to be suitable as a core.

He tried it himself first; indeed it was much stronger than the wand he previously made, but perhaps due to compatibility, it still fell short of satisfying him.

So after testing the wand's Magic Attribute, Murphy handed it to the theoretically most compatible Tom.

Actually Harry could use it, but the first Quidditch match is about to start; Harry's recent training load is huge, leaving no time for group activities.

"This wand is too new; based on some of my conjectures, a new wand and its owner need a period of adjustment. Try it more these few days, and once you're familiar with it, we'll compare it with your original wand."

Tom hesitated for a moment.

He recently just uncovered a clue about Tom Li De Er.

Not long ago, Draco told him that Tom Li De Er was a student at Hogwarts fifty years ago; his special contribution award to the school was related to preventing a malignant case, and after Tom's extensive investigation, he found that a Muggle‑born student—Tao Jin Niang·Wolun—died in that case.

He is currently probing who Tao Jin Niang·Wolun really was, spending long hours in the Library each day, and originally didn't want to take on this testing task.

But nevertheless this snake‑patterned wood wand is too beautiful.

After learning he is a snake‑enthusiast, Tom developed a great fondness for snakes, and this snake‑patterned wood wand is practically tailor‑made for him.

He took the wand from Murphy's hand, and the moment he grasped it, he felt a surging power fill his whole body, as if he could accomplish anything with this wand.

Powerful, undeniably powerful!

He truly can't bear to give up the opportunity to use this wand.

"Alright, Professor, I will make good use of it."

…

Halloween Eve.

The grand restaurant is hung everywhere with pumpkin lanterns, countless bats flutter about, and four dining tables are laden with food.

Harry and Ron sit at the Ravenclaw table, tasting pumpkin pie together with Hermione.

"Where's Tom?" Harry asked, feeling that lately, aside from Ron, he hasn't seen several teammates for a while.

"He just suddenly ran out," Qiu Zhang said from a spot not far from them, puzzled, "I just mentioned the crying Tao Jin Niang to Hermione, and he seemed very interested. He asked where Tao Jin Niang was and left."

"Tao Jin Niang? That female ghost?" Ron, who had also heard of this specter from the older ones, asked, "What is he going to do looking for a ghost?"

"Could it be related to our topic?" Harry asked.

"No, I've been with Tom a lot lately; he's been researching Legilimency, and hasn't delved much into ghost‑related studies…" Hermione said.

The few were a bit puzzled, but Tom is a Slytherin, inherently a bit mysterious, so it's not surprising if he hides some secrets from them.

……

Murphy sat at the teacher's seat, slowly and methodically dealing with the stewed potatoes in front of him, feeling a bit without appetite.

Although he had been time‑traveling for so many years and had long gotten used to British food, eating this every day made him honestly a bit fed up.

If I had known earlier, what experiment should I have the students do? Growing vegetables would have been enough!

Even if they let me grow a few big cabbages, that's still better than potatoes every day.

He simply set down his knife and fork and glanced at the students below.

The Iron Triangle is all here.

Hermione, having been sorted into Ravenclaw, doesn't have to worry about the two clumsy fools dragging down the house points, so she doesn't receive daily admonitions, and therefore her relationship with Harry and Ron is still pretty good and she isn't disliked.

And she thrives in Ravenclaw, even befriending Qiu Zhang, so the situation from the original where Ron's "no friends" remark would have driven her to the bathroom to cry never occurs.

That might make the three's friendship less ironclad than in the original, but it doesn't matter; the Iron Triangle is just a plot device, and Harry is the protagonist of Dumbledore's play, yet his connection to the script isn't that strong.

Speaking of which, what about Tom?

He was about to use the Soul Seed to observe Tom's movements when, suddenly, Quirrell rushed in.

"Giant monster! A giant monster is in the underground classroom!"

(End of chapter)