Cohen saw Dumbledore mutter a few words before leaving.
He didn't try to take the Philosopher's Stone from Cohen's hand—perhaps to avoid getting Cohen's blood on him, or perhaps because the stone was almost completely shrunk to the size of a fingernail and beyond saving.
In any case, the stone belonged to Cohen; whoever wanted it could try to retrieve it from Cohen's liquid, cursed blood.
Cohen retreated back into his body, a strange sensation enveloping his soul from all sides.
The Philosopher's Stone had indeed melted into Cohen's body, and the thick, almost tangible magic was coursing through his body, frantically surging into his soul upon discovering it.
Warm and comfortable, the magical embrace made Cohen's soul feel like it had returned to the womb—as if it had entered a warm, breathable liquid, then naturally curled up into a ball.
Cohen saw the scene from his previous dream again: a smooth, round bottle, surrounded by shrieking ghosts. Here, Cohen devoured everything he could see. The bottle shattered, and many tall humans cried out in alarm, while others tried to flee.
But it was no use. Cohen killed all the humans in the dream—because he could only smell the sweet scent of their souls. He
did the same with most of the animals, but he selectively let two slip by in the dream. They felt familiar to him—a familiar leniency.
As he devoured more and more souls, Cohen's vision in the dream became clearer. He stopped just as he was about to extract the last soul.
It was Herbert.
Cohen in the dream spared him, as if he still retained some memories of a past life.
The dream ended there.
The dream was exceptionally vivid; Cohen even saw another source of his bloodline, a long, crawling black shadow on the ground—Cohen guessed it was a snake.
A basilisk? Or a horned water snake?
But Cohen didn't see horns on the shadowy figure's head, nor did he realize he could kill anyone by glaring—if that were the case, almost everyone in the school would be dead.
Are there Parseltongues among the researchers in this lab?
Cohen remembered that the only Parseltongues left were Voldemort and Harry Potter; the Gaunt family should be extinct.
But that wasn't the point. The point was whether Cohen himself could inherit something from snakes, like Parseltongue.
Cohen planned to find a snake to see if he could talk to it—he had never tried before.
[Ding! Tom Riddle has been prevented from obtaining the Philosopher's Stone. The Good Deeds Quest (1/7) is complete. Good Deeds +1000. Reward: "Death Tracker's Cloak" available for collection.]
The system's reward notification arrived belatedly after Cohen returned to his body.
The "Death Tracker's Cloak" and "Frostmourne" were placed in his system inventory after being collected.
They had descriptions in a very D&D-esque style, almost making Cohen think this system was Edward's creation—though that wasn't impossible, but Edward probably didn't have that many good things to reward Cohen with.
[Death Tracker's Cloak]
[Description: Turn hills and valleys into gateways to that endless scream]
[Passive - Shadow Itself: When you devour a creature's soul, you and your items gain invisibility for 20 minutes]
There's no restriction on what kind of creature's soul it requires…
meaning Cohen just needs to prepare a bunch of small creatures, and when he needs invisibility, he can just swallow one to trigger this effect.
Is this really a reward from the good side?
Cohen felt this reward was tempting him to commit a massacre…
The other reward item was a weapon—
[Frostmourne]
[Description: A cold wind blows, it awaits its release]
[Passive - Heart of Ice: Any damage dealt with it will form frost at the target location (spells, tricks, physical attacks)]
It actually looked quite good, with a long, silver-white handle that shone with a metallic sheen, ten centimeters longer than Cohen's height, and a light blue, prismatic ice crystal at the top, radiating a slight chill.
The good news was, it could also be used as a wand. Cohen tried it out, and it felt no different from his own wand.
Bad news, it's too heavy. Cohen won't be able to wield it easily for at least a few more years—and many spells require wielding a wand.
So, Cohen immediately relegated it to the sidelines—perhaps he could use it to hit someone with something later, it even has a freezing effect.
Deemed a cute toy.
Maybe he could hug it to cool off in the summer.
After checking the system's reward, Cohen began to examine the changes in himself. He had just "swallowed" a magic stone, surely there must have been some changes…
[Soul Integrity: 30%]
? ?
? ?
? ?
Cohen remembered that his soul integrity was already at 27.2% before the operation. The magic stone shouldn't have only repaired this much, right?
Cohen couldn't even feel the magic power left after the magic stone melted; it should have been completely absorbed.
Could the magic stone's main function not be this?
Cohen, refusing to believe it, left his body again—and immediately after leaving, Cohen sensed something different.
His soul became…more material.
Or rather, Cohen could make his soul material—and since his soul was very much like a Dementor—it led Cohen to discover that he seemed to have actually
become a Dementor.
A purebred one.
Cohen tried it out, and after actively materializing his soul, he could touch objects in the real world, and he also possessed many of the characteristics of a Dementor—the area around him would get cold—the water in the vase froze when Cohen's soul approached.
[Ding! Special ability unlocked: Undead (10/10)]
[Note: Your soul has successfully acquired almost all of the Dementor's abilities, becoming a non-being. You are no longer a Mudblood.]
Maxed out, really maxed out.
Cohen apologized to the Philosopher's Stone; he had indeed spoken too loudly.
As expected of a top-tier creation of ancient alchemy, it reached the limit of this level right from the start.
The ability to materialize the soul into a Dementor at will was already heaven-defying.
Although Cohen himself could also become a Dementor, his body couldn't suddenly become ethereal and pass through walls like his soul.
Soul integrity can develop and accumulate slowly; the mechanics are what Cohen craves most.
Tonight is destined to be a night of unbearable joy.
But development must continue—while Voldemort can't kill Cohen, Cohen can't kill Voldemort either.
With all plans complete, Cohen intends to abandon the scheme of feigning death to avoid final exams—the time span is too long, and Cohen doesn't want Edward and Rose to be too sad.
Scaring Dumbledore is one thing, but scaring his foster parents as well is a bit too naive.
However, things always go wrong when plans are going smoothly, and Cohen once again modified his plans due to unforeseen circumstances.
The next day, Edward and Rose rushed to the school, and beside Cohen's corpse, they had a one-sided argument with Dumbledore.
What caused Cohen to suddenly postpone his resurrection was a few words Dumbledore said afterward.
Dumbledore mentioned a plan to save Cohen to Edward and Ros
e, and a person who could help—
Nicolas Flamel.
Cohen no longer needs to devise a reason for his resurrection.
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(End of this chapter)