Chapter 98

"Due to the destruction of ancient magical runes at the dawn of modern magic, observable magical phenomena have grown increasingly rare. For a long time, the magical community relied on studying various phenomena caused by young wizards’ magical outbursts—or worse, stumbling blindly in search of direction. But these methods were far too inefficient!" Dumbledore continued calmly.

"I’ve always believed that breakthroughs in magical research require a more efficient way to observe magic. Yet after all these years of searching, I’ve made little progress in this area..." Professor Dumbledore lowered his eyes, sounding regretful.

Allen was startled by Dumbledore’s words, but showed no sign on his face—he possessed a highly efficient method of observing magic, yet dared not reveal it, for doing so would likely cost him his freedom and turn him into a true "tool," something Allen could not accept.

"But your arrival has brought me new hope!" Professor Dumbledore said softly.

Allen snapped his head up, meeting Dumbledore’s gaze—and found the professor’s blue eyes studying him intently...

"Professor, what do you mean?" Allen said, uneasy.

"You should now understand the purchasing power of ten thousand Galleons. Have you ever wondered why the Ministry and Hogwarts have granted you so many privileges?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

Allen opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Dumbledore didn’t seem to expect an answer; he continued on his own: "Because your talent is itself a measurable magical phenomenon—and to some extent, even stable. Your gift is destined to greatly advance Transfiguration. When we lack a more efficient way to observe magic, observing you becomes an excellent alternative..."

Allen’s heart trembled—the information in those words was overwhelming...

At that moment, Professor Dumbledore slowly bent down, bringing his gaze level with Allen’s, and spoke gently: "What surprises me most is your willingness to engage in magical research. Look at your eyes—they’re beautiful, just like Fawkes. Are you currently in the phase of summarizing patterns and applying them to your talent?"

Allen didn’t know how many times he’d been stunned today—he’d just been wondering why Dumbledore had circled so long around science and conversation, only to find this waiting for him...

He’d always assumed that after signing the research agreement, he was left to fend for himself—that Professor McGonagall’s observations of his talent were merely routine sampling. He never imagined that someone in Hogwarts’ upper echelons had been quietly watching him...

So Dumbledore knew everything about his research into his own talent!

He stared into Dumbledore’s blue eyes and saw his own reflection in the pupils—making him feel utterly exposed.

Professor Dumbledore keenly sensed Allen’s tension.

"Ah! Don’t be nervous!" Dumbledore straightened up with a light laugh. "I’m interested in your talent—not your privacy. I won’t pry."

Allen immediately exhaled in relief.

"The sole purpose of calling you here today, and speaking with you at such length, is to help you recognize your own potential and value."

"You nearly fell under Voldemort’s influence this year, veering toward Dark Magic. Fortunately, you broke free on your own. So I felt it necessary to make you understand your worth. I know far more about Dark Magic than you do—and I can tell you with certainty: Dark Magic pales beside your talent!" Professor Dumbledore spoke with solemn gravity.

Only now did Allen understand Dumbledore’s true intent.

"But you needn’t feel undue pressure. Your most important task right now is to receive your wizarding education at Hogwarts."

"Magical research isn’t urgent—but you’ve already submitted a satisfactory report." Professor Dumbledore lifted the parchment in his hand, smiling happily.

Mentioning this topic eased Allen’s mind considerably.

"Still, if you’re interested in magical research, I won’t stop you. But I must warn you: magical research is extremely dangerous."

"This is one major reason modern magical research progresses so slowly. Testing new effects of spells always carries unknown risks—many wizards have been injured or even killed in magical experiments, which deters countless others. You should be grateful you chose to improve the Lumos spell—a harmless charm."

Allen dismissed this with indifference—his "magical research" method differed from ordinary wizards’. Still, he’d better remain cautious when testing spells in the future...

Allen then requested to learn Memory Magic from Dumbledore, but the professor refused—he believed Allen was too young, his foundations too weak, and Memory Magic too dangerous. He would only consider teaching it once Allen reached fifth year.

As for borrowing the Pensieve, Allen didn’t dare mention it at all—Dumbledore had seemed too frightening today, and Allen had no way to explain how he knew the Pensieve’s function...

The conversation ended here. Allen felt he had gained much.

Yet as he stepped out of the Headmaster’s office, he suddenly realized he’d forgotten to discuss experimental materials with Professor Dumbledore. But then he thought—term was ending anyway; he could bring it up next year.

Hogwarts Hospital Wing.

Harry had woken, but his face was pale, weakly propped against the pillow.

Hermione was preparing fruit for Harry—but this time, she didn’t use a knife to peel an apple; she chose to peel an orange.

Ron was gesticulating wildly, recounting something to Harry—likely yesterday’s adventure...

But Harry’s gaze passed over Ron, fixed on the doorway. Ron noticed Harry’s distraction, turned—and saw Allen leaning against the doorframe, smiling brightly.

Ron burst into laughter and rushed over, hugging Allen and punching his shoulder hard. "Allen, you’re incredible!"

Allen said softly: "Everyone is incredible."

Hermione ignored Allen’s arrival entirely, continuing to peel her orange with focused care.

Harry struggled to sit up straight. Allen hurried forward to stop him: "You need rest—you lost too much blood!"

"Thank you..." Harry whispered weakly, but Allen cut him off.

"We’re friends. That’s never changed, is it?" Allen smiled.

Then, under Hermione’s furious glare, he snatched the freshly peeled orange from her hand and popped it into his mouth.

The atmosphere in the hospital wing grew cheerful again.

Ron began gesticulating wildly once more—and accidentally knocked over a cup. Hermione rolled her eyes, waved her wand, and cast a Repairing Charm.

Allen watched the scene with a smile, his eyes shimmering with strange light...

No one knew that deep within his pupils, reflected the image of Hermione’s wand—upon which a shimmering screen flowed with strange script...

Allen suddenly recalled that day when he’d spoken with Voldemort about grand strategy—Voldemort had spoken Chinese. It troubled him.

Then he remembered: in his past life, he’d seen an image of Voldemort—depicted holding chopsticks, plucking food from a hot pot, looking delighted... (Comments section: please upload the image, big shot!)

Thinking of this, Allen felt somewhat at ease.

If he loved hot pot so much, knowing a little Chinese wasn’t surprising. Allen thought irresponsibly to himself.

(Volume One Ends)

Summary of Volume One Conclusion

Summary of Volume One Conclusion

Unconsciously, it’s been 47 days since I published this book, and it’s now reached nearly 220,000 words—yet the first part’s plot has only just finished. I originally estimated the first part would be around 100,000 words. I have no idea how I ended up writing so much; clearly, my control over long-form novels is still lacking.

My favorite author is Aquatic Squid. Every time he finishes a volume, he writes a summary. As a fan, I naturally want to learn from him.

I’ve read every single comment from my readers, and I sincerely thank everyone who pointed out the book’s flaws. I’ve summarized your feedback as follows:

Carefully craft the setting,

Write characters with your feet.

Plot keeps veering off course,

Updates are too slow.

Below, I’ll share my thoughts on each of these points.

One: Character development issues.

The most frequently criticized issue in this book is that the protagonist is portrayed as childish. I recently reread the early chapters and confirmed it’s true. I’ve summarized the reasons:

1. Neglect of character development early on.

This mainly stems from my inexperience—I had no awareness of character crafting at all. Early on, I focused entirely on making the story entertaining, resulting in wildly inconsistent character behavior.

2. Flawed methods of character creation.

Before starting this book, I read many web novel guides. One statement stood out to me:

"The best way to develop a character is to make him make decisions!"

Making decisions does reveal personality well. I once confidently thought: I’m a mature adult with life experience—I’ll make decisions for the protagonist, and the resulting character won’t be childish.

But reality proved me wrong.

First, I couldn’t make decisions for the protagonist with a neutral mindset.

This is like playing a game: your in-game actions differ entirely from your real-life behavior, yet you’re still the one making those choices. Writing is the same.

Take the flying lesson scene: the protagonist flies his broom to ram Goyle. In real life, I’d stay out of it. But in my beloved magical world, I found I couldn’t make that choice—I wanted to be Rexue .

Second, plot design influences the protagonist’s decisions;

Again, take the flying lesson: to introduce the wand-talent transformation, the protagonist grows wings. Once wings appear, they must be used—just like in a movie, if a gun appears on screen, it must be fired within thirty minutes.

It’s illogical for the protagonist to fly up randomly. So something must force him to fly—only then can an accident occur, compelling him to use his wings.

Thus, earlier chapters were all building toward forcing him to fly. But due to my limited skill, the scene still felt immature and failed to fully engage readers emotionally.

This is an area I must improve.

3. Poor plot design undermines character credibility.

This brings us to the most criticized plotline: Quirrell. Though I wrote it earnestly, it was a disaster for protagonist development.

Originally, Quirrell had minimal plot role in my outline.

⑴ Teach the protagonist Ancient Runes.

The protagonist uses these runes to decode the Cleaning Charm.

The knife that kills Quirrell is handed to the protagonist by Quirrell himself.

⑵ The three Halloween incidents.

These were designed to force the protagonist to take a side, giving him stronger motivation than the trio when retrieving the Stone.

⑶ The protagonist’s verbal sparring with Quirrell.

This was meant to expand the world, deliver satisfaction, make Voldemort admire the protagonist, and set up the protagonist’s eventual counter-killing of Quirrell. Though some readers found it awkward, I enjoyed writing it.

At first glance, this plotline seemed fine—but I ignored one crucial point: reader perception.

First, due to my writing skill, I could only produce a cartoonish villain. Had I crafted a sophisticated antagonist, readers might have accepted it.

But Quirrell was clearly a villain—and yet the protagonist kept approaching him. To make the protagonist’s actions seem logical, I had him imagine many things. But readers knew the plot—they couldn’t empathize with the protagonist. Each time he speculated, readers thought him foolish. This plotline was catastrophic for character development.

But even though Quirrell’s villainous nature was so obvious, the protagonist kept approaching him anyway; to make the protagonist’s actions toward Quirrell seem more logical, I had him imagine all sorts of things—but since readers already knew the plot, they couldn’t empathize with the protagonist’s delusions, making this section feel forced; each time the protagonist conjured up these thoughts, readers saw him as foolish, so this plot design was disastrous for the protagonist’s characterization.

I’ve been reflecting on these issues, and I’ll pay attention to them in future chapters. Has the protagonist’s behavior become less childish lately? Hopefully... (facepalming)

I’ve been continuously reflecting on these issues and will pay attention to them in new chapters—has the protagonist’s behavior in recent chapters become less childish? Hopefully... (facepalming)!

I thank readers for your passionate feedback—I guarantee the protagonist’s direction will no longer veer off course. He will now have three clear paths:

1. Analyzing hidden parameters of spells, expanding their effects.

My inspiration comes from game skill upgrades—each level grants new abilities. Reasonably upgrading canonical spells is interesting. I’m most satisfied with my Locking Charm design. Readers are welcome to suggest spell upgrade effects—each spell can be upgraded multiple times!

This idea came from skill upgrades in games, where each level-up grants additional abilities; reasonably upgrading the original spells was quite interesting, and I’m most satisfied with my design for the Locking Spell. Readers are welcome to suggest their own upgraded spell effects—each spell can be upgraded multiple times!

2. The protagonist's mastery of his own talent.

Readers generally responded well to this part, but I feel that random transformations shouldn’t be done just for the sake of transformation or cheap humor—they must be organically tied to the plot to be meaningful. Every transformation I’m detailing now serves to advance the plot (except the snake’s nose; that part was planned early on, and I truly don’t know how to integrate the snake’s nose into it).

Actually, I have quite a few good transformation ideas in mind right now—writing them out would definitely surprise you—but what’s troubling me is how to weave them smoothly into the plot.

3. Magical Script Programming: Development of Transformation Spells.

The second point above is about the protagonist enhancing his own body, but fighting every battle himself is too undignified, so this direction involves DIYing all sorts of interesting subordinates.

3. Regarding updates.

I dare not make any guarantees on this—4,000 words a day is already quite stressful for me, but lately I’ve felt my typing speed improving, so I’m maintaining a cautiously optimistic attitude toward updates.

Looking back at these 220,000 words, I feel I’ve succeeded, because originally I thought I’d never make it past 100,000 words and would abandon the novel. Writing this much already feels like a success to me (and I must comfort myself this way).

The book’s performance hasn’t been good, mainly due to my own faults—there were too many discouraging elements early on. But my mindset remains positive; so far, the positive feedback I’ve received outweighs the negative, so I’ll keep working hard to finish this book.

After all, my work experience has taught me that the greatest rewards come only from fully completing a project.

And I want to keep writing—this kind of experience is extremely important to me.

Additionally, in the first part of this novel, I followed the plot exactly without major changes, because as a first-time writer, I feared losing control of the story and chose the most conservative approach. But in the second part, I’ll make more attempts.

After all, I hope I can grow infinitely.

Finally, thank you again to all readers who stuck with this far despite the many early discouraging elements! Please keep pointing out my problems—I’m actually very easygoing in real life!