Chapter 24: Origin

Allen Finis, having figured everything out, felt strangely dispirited; though he now understood the mechanism behind magic in this world, it offered him little practical help right now.

It’s like every middle school student knows how to build a nuclear bomb—but if you actually tried, you’d be completely lost.

Learning magic is the same: knowing the mechanism only helps you cast spells more efficiently, perhaps speeding up your learning—but these advantages are limited, and you’re still far behind those gifted wizards.

Thinking of this, Allen felt a wave of discouragement; all that effort for so little return left him deeply frustrated.

Wait—I still have the characters in my notebook!

But they seem useless too!

Though Allen couldn’t understand these characters, he knew with his toes that these key-value pairs must be subjective interpretations of his intent when casting spells.

For example, when Allen cast Lumos, the mental image of the spell’s effect would convert into key-value pairs:

Light sphere size: 1 inch;

Light sphere color: white;

Light sphere position: tip of the wand;

Then these data are sent out, and the World Will instantly manifests the magical effect—if the data is flawed, the spell fails, or worse, causes a magical accident.

If it’s just this, why should I bother with these incomprehensible characters in my notebook? Why not just read the spellbooks? Every incantation is clearly explained there, and teachers instruct us—why waste so much effort studying something whose answer I already know? Allen groaned in frustration.

He idly flipped through the notebook, feeling deeply dejected, as if he’d rejoiced over nothing.

Suddenly his gaze sharpened—he noticed the key-value pairs in the notebook weren’t all filled; some were empty!

Could there be unused keys?

Allen felt a surge of renewed energy, but quickly grimaced: he’d have to translate every single character to verify whether his theory was right.

At that moment, an anomaly erupted!

The characters on the notebook became unstable, then spontaneously ignited!

Allen frantically slammed the notebook against the wall to smother the flames, but the fire only grew—he had no choice but to toss it into the sink and turn on the tap, yet the fire wasn’t ordinary—it refused to be extinguished by water, and Allen could only watch as his notebook dissolved into black ash beneath the stream.

“Could these characters have magical properties? Ordinary parchment can’t contain them, hence the spontaneous combustion?” Allen mused, rubbing his chin—his intuition told him this explanation was correct.

I’ll need to experiment more—this direction still has real potential. Allen resolved inwardly.

Then, suddenly, Allen realized a critical problem:

Today’s eye appeared randomly—what if next time it appears, it vanishes while I’m asleep tonight?

Allen rushed out of the bathroom and checked the tower clock—already nearly midnight.

I must hurry—if I don’t, I won’t sleep tonight, and this talent transformation won’t happen again.

Right now, the priority is gathering more information about this eye—figuring out whose eye it truly is. Allen thought rapidly, and at this moment, he felt his body was no longer so painful.

The first people who came to Allen’s mind were Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore.

He sprinted toward McGonagall’s office, forgetting his current appearance—and drew gasps from many young witches and wizards.

But he didn’t care—he nearly burst into McGonagall’s office.

McGonagall frowned at Allen’s disheveled state: “Mr. Finis, did you get into a fight and come here to complain?”

Only then did Allen realize his robe was splattered with blood, his body covered in dust, his face pale—he looked exactly like someone who’d just lost a brawl.

He quickly explained: “Nothing—I just fell!”

McGonagall stared at him skeptically: “Mr. Finis, Hogwarts forbids bullying. You can tell me the truth.”

“Really, it was just me falling!” Allen insisted.

Though still unconvinced, McGonagall waved her wand and cast a cleaning charm to wipe the dirt and blood from his robe and face, sparing him further embarrassment.

At that moment, Allen’s eyes widened in shock—he saw a glowing screen appear over McGonagall’s wand, and flowing characters on it.

This eye could see the information emitted when others cast spells!

That’s too powerful—there are many ancient pure-blood wizarding families with spells never taught outside their bloodlines; if I simply memorize their incantations and wand movements, then deduce their subjective intent from the screen’s data and the spell’s effect, I could uncover their forbidden secrets.

Allen immediately pictured himself politely “exchanging” magic with wizards from every family—just one full casting before him, and he’d instantly learn it with a single glance.

This ability makes anyone who casts a spell “pregnant” with knowledge for me!

Allen grinned foolishly—McGonagall promptly snapped him back to reality with a sharp tap.

“What were you daydreaming about? What’s this about today?” McGonagall asked coldly.

Allen snapped awake—he couldn’t tell her he saw spell data; he’d be seized by magical authorities for study, and might never return to school.

I need a good excuse—fast. Allen’s mind raced.

“It’s like this—I feel today’s eye from the wand’s talent transformation is strange; I think it’s the eye of a magical creature, so...” His sentence was cut off instantly by McGonagall.

She lifted his chin with her fingers, studying his eyes closely, then said after a long pause: “It really does look like it.”

Allen quickly added: “You said in class that we can’t transform into magical objects or creatures—that’s why I came to you.”

McGonagall released him. “You pay attention in class, but you misunderstood: ordinary objects or animals cannot be transformed into magical ones—but wizards themselves are magical creatures. Theoretically, they can be transformed into magical beings—though this is purely theoretical!” McGonagall added.

Allen froze, unsure how to respond.

“Don’t be alarmed—cases like this are extremely rare in the wizarding world. Your situation is highly unusual and valuable for study—but unfortunately, we can’t take a sample of the eye—we never harm our students.” McGonagall explained.

“Then what animal do you think it resembles?” Allen finally dared to ask.

McGonagall paused, studying his eyes, then said:

“Lei Niao.”