Chapter 417: Technological Development

"I just thought that for that yellow form, we can use a wide-range attack spell to restrict him, preferably Fiendfyre," Pansy naturally picked up the conversation. "And for the gray heavy armor form, we just need to further amplify his weaknesses and slow him down."

"We haven't learned a slowing spell in the general sense, are you planning to invent a new spell?" Lu Na asked.

"Hmm, I was wondering if a Petrification Spell would work, or a tap dance..."

Harry listened to their discussion and felt slightly inspired. Just as he was about to join in, Luo En pulled his sleeve.

"Let's go, mate," he said.

Harry shrugged. He decided to prioritize Luo En's emotions.

"In just one holiday, such earth-shaking changes have happened outside. Is my Saber a bit outdated?" Luo En said with some disappointment. "After all, I can't change forms. If I really face OOO, I have no idea what to do."

"Just like what was said just now, we can ask a wizard to assist from the side," Harry shrugged. "I will..."

Luo En's eyes flashed, and he immediately asked excitedly: "Then who do you think we can ask?"

Harry originally wanted to say that he would study spells carefully and try to become the best assistant. However, from Luo En's strange tone, Harry immediately heard his little agenda.

"I will go ask Hermione," Harry nodded solemnly. "After all, for her now, she does need an admission ticket to keep up with this constantly changing new era."

"Must it be her? I mean..." Luo En was still pretending to be coy.

"If she doesn't agree, I'll go find Neville, it's that simple." Harry thought he had completely grasped Luo En's psychology. Sure enough, after the answer of Neville appeared, Luo En's emotions stabilized immediately, but his eyes began to wander again.

"Then let's do that, I'll leave it to you," he kicked his other heel with one foot. "I also think Hermione might not agree, Neville is quite reliable—of course, I say this because, you always have to regain your transformation ability, anyway you have Zhang Qiu's assistance, right, Ha."

"Relax, Hermione might not necessarily disagree," Harry put his arm around Luo En's shoulder. "Let's go ask together, how about that?"

Luo En seemed to want to break free, but didn't use real force. In short, he seemed to be dragged toward the library by Harry, but with Luo En's physique, it was obviously unreasonable that he couldn't break free from Harry's hand.

"Two gentlemen, what's the matter?" Hermione greeted them with a smile after seeing them, but didn't stop her pen.

"I was thinking, we discussed it today," Luo En stammered. "I think I need an assistant."

"To be precise, we discovered during sparring that if there is a wizard's help, the Knight can perform better and it is easier to deal with some specific enemies," Harry explained in detail. "I was thinking, can we ask you to participate?"

"You might as well speak more clearly," Hermione smiled and put down her quill. "You want me to fight with Luo En, right, as a wizard—because Mr. Potter himself also wants to become a Masked Rider."

"Pretty much what it means," Luo En nodded readily.

"Then, do you think this is asking me for help as a friend, or is it more like hiring a consultant, oh no, I have to participate in your battle, so you want me to be a mercenary?" Hermione smiled quite brightly. Harry felt she might be in a good mood; she even started joking.

"No, no, this is a win-win cooperation," Harry gestured. "We need a helper who is good at spells, and you are quite willing to understand the Knight system, right? This will definitely help your project, and the Knight system will also be a very important subject in the future. You can even use it as a research direction for the Doctor."

"Sounds good, but I refuse," Hermione's smile suddenly disappeared completely. "I have no interest in getting involved for the time being."

"Ah?" Harry stared in surprise. "Didn't we just talk about it well?"

"That's just what you thought," Hermione first snorted coldly, then her expression turned into a wry smile. "I am really busy this year, so if you say it's just helping as a friend, fighting and reciting a few spells, I wouldn't be completely free, but if you want to take this seriously—then I really don't have that much energy."

"Alright, I knew it," Luo En sighed, and then stood up.

Seeing Hermione pick up the quill again, Harry also stood up, put one hand on Luo En's shoulder, and the two walked straight out.

"She doesn't take me seriously at all, and I even suspect whether she hates me," Luo En said in distress. "Clearly, as you said, this is a win-win."

"No, she isn't completely wrong either. Hermione is busy enough this year, and we just added a thing for her—after all, our relationship isn't that good."

"What do you mean it isn't that good?" Luo En asked urgently. "Isn't it—oh, alright, anyway, it's just ordinary friends."

"Maybe not even friends, just ordinary classmates," Harry shrugged. He knew he had compromised too much with Tang Tang Nade, to the point that he sometimes felt he owed Hermione.

"Yeah, she doesn't owe us anything," Luo En walked toward the dormitory with a sad face.

Luo En didn't mention Neville, but Harry thought of him quickly. However, thinking back to his promise to Neville to find an opportunity to help him explore the secrets left by Dumbledore in the Department of Mysteries, and this promise had not been fulfilled to this day, he couldn't help but feel guilty and didn't dare to speak to Neville.

When they walked to the door of the dormitory, Harry thought of another excuse that was still passable.

"I want to say, why don't I assist you first," he said. "If I can regain my transformation ability—I feel two Knights are stronger than a Knight plus a wizard, and we still have Zhang Qiu."

"Zhang Qiu hasn't come to school yet either. This period is really difficult..." Luo En sighed. "For you and for me."

However, now he was afraid of OOO before even fighting, and didn't practice swordsmanship, just complaining here, Luo En's own problems were also very big. Harry thought so, but didn't say it, just sighed in agreement.

Originally, he still hoped to hear some good news later when he went to Snape, but Snape just discussed the Queen with Mia repeatedly. They were speculating whether the Queen's blood had special properties, which was of no help to the dilemma Harry was facing.

When he returned to the dormitory again, Luo En's bed curtains were tightly closed. Harry didn't disturb him, but gently opened his box. The second set of belts and empty bottles that Zhang Qiu helped him ask for were lying quietly on the dress.

Harry stared at them for a while, but in the end, didn't reach out to take them. He pulled over a robe to cover these things, and then lay down on his bed.

Early the next morning, Harry suddenly said while eating breakfast: "I want to go find Hermione again."

Luo En's originally listless eyes brightened slightly, then quickly dimmed again. He said in an indifferent tone: "Go ahead."

After breakfast, Harry left Luo En and walked toward the library alone. His worry in his heart was even greater: if Hermione could no longer attract Luo En's attention, then what was he depressed about?

However, when he walked into the library, these worries were quickly replaced by greater horror—he found Alan Harris sitting beside Hermione, and the two were talking very intimately.

He walked toward his usual seat calmly, pretending not to have discovered their tryst. Then, while opening a book and pretending to read, he added a eavesdropping spell.

"... So you haven't realized this point all along, have you?" He could vaguely hear Hermione's voice.

"Yes, but I can't understand why he can exert elements not contained in the full bottles."

"Perhaps this is the beauty of combination and matching. Of course, this can be studied slowly later. The urgent matter now is that you want to defeat Cui Ge."

"Can you help me?"

"I probably can't go to the scene, but I can provide you with some ideas. For example, your previous choice of Orca to counter his Heat Metal was completely correct, but you might not have fully exerted the power of the electric eel. You know, metal is conductive."

"But what if he changes to Luna Metal? Luna seems to have turned metal into soft rubber."

"Luna represents mysterious power. It shouldn't change the conductivity of metal. Magic won't change physical properties that wizards don't understand. So when countering Luna Metal, you can focus more on leg techniques, first use the octopus to entangle, and then find an opportunity to shock him."

"Then Cyclone..."

"Cyclone and Metal shouldn't be together. Even if he forces it, both strength and agility will be greatly reduced. You can easily win by changing to Rhinoceroses."

"But I have indeed never fought against any form with Cyclone, and now it's just speculation."

"I have even less. I'm just reasoning from the manual. I think you can actually spar with him again. You both need to use more flexible fighting ideas to make up for the lack of basic attributes. Sparring is good for both of you."

Hearing Alan say goodbye politely and leave, Harry realized belatedly that the relationship between the two was far from as intimate as he had thought. Hermione was just doing the consultant work of providing suggestions as always.

He didn't mind Hermione helping outsiders. What really made Harry care was the manual she mentioned. That manual seemed to contain a lot of information about Double, which only had one possibility: the person who gave Cui Ge the belt compiled this manual and gave it to Alan.

In other words, Alan and Cui Ge were behind the same person. After excluding the possibility of the Magical Congress contacting Cui Ge, the truth was that Alan was instructed by Tang Tang Nade. And his task might be... to target Luo En's mentality and completely lock him out of the world of the strong.

I'm afraid he is not far from success, Harry sighed again. ===== CHAPTER 418 =====