The new line of text slid across the System pane, and Theodore couldn't stop the flash of delight in his eyes.
Since his last round of Talent Fusion, he'd picked up quite a few fresh talents.
Most of them, frankly, didn't change much. Nice to have, but not game-changers. Talents like Where Dragons Dwell, Spirit Wakes, though—talents that let him draw in more spiritual qi—those were what he'd been starving for.
His spiritual qi reserves were pathetic. He'd been running on "barely enough" for weeks.
One cast of Call Soul, Summon Spirit was enough to leave him shaky and light-headed—and now he'd gone and added Three Heads and Eight Arms, a bona fide divine power, to the mix.
If he didn't find a way to stockpile more qi, he'd probably be sucked dry before he even managed to fully manifest it.
He'd already been planning to toss Dining on Wind & Drinking Dew, Earth-Spirit Core, and the other qi-gathering talents into the Talent Fusion furnace, and hopefully come out the other side with something on the level of Adamantine Body, Unclouded Mind—but for spiritual power.
A permanent fix. A one-and-done solution.
Since Where Dragons Dwell, Spirit Wakes explicitly stacked with Dining on Wind & Drinking Dew, it was another perfect fusion component.
All he needed now was Sun & Moon's Essence. Once he had that in hand, he could finally attempt the big merge.
Just thinking about it put him in an excellent mood.
The merfolk chieftain saw the smile on Theodore's face and let out a tiny, shaky breath of relief.
So this little wizard could be reasoned with.
Their tribulation might actually be coming to an end.
The price in treasure was painful, yes—but if it meant surviving this and getting Theodore to stop tearing the Black Lake apart, it was a bargain.
As for why the mer-chief was being this abjectly humble…
It wasn't as though he wanted to grovel.
The problem was that an eleven-year-old wizard had just turned the entire Black Lake upside-down. Forget Dumbledore—even the Big Four in their youth would probably have been hung up by their ankles and beaten if they tried to match this.
This boy was a monster. Offend him now, and in a few years he might come back and drain the Black Lake dry on a whim.
At the moment, Theodore turned to the merfolk leader and asked,
"That Giant Squid just now—what's its story?"
"There's something that strong living in the Black Lake, and no one mentioned it. How much do you actually know about it?"
The chief answered at once.
"I do not know it well," he said, "but according to our clan's records, when Hogwarts was first founded, the merfolk were also invited here by the Big Four."
"At that time, witch-hunts were rampant. The oceans were no longer safe. We merfolk were hunted as monsters. The Big Four's invitation was a rare chance at survival."
"At first, the Giant Squid was not in the Black Lake. But around the time the Four vanished, one after another… it appeared. No one knows exactly when it arrived."
He added quickly,
"This is not impossible. The Black Lake is connected to the sea—very deep, very old water. It may have come in from the depths."
"Since I became chieftain, it has always been peaceful. It never seeks us out. It eats only small fish and shrimp. We do not disturb it, and it does not disturb us."
"Sometimes, yes, it is more active—ah, usually when new students arrive at the castle."
"But this time, term has been underway for weeks, and it suddenly went mad on such a scale… that, we have never seen."
"Perhaps it is simply too old."
Theodore raised an eyebrow.
The Big Four disappeared. And at that same time, the Giant Squid appeared in the Black Lake.
That was starting to look less and less like coincidence.
Could it really be Godric Gryffindor's Animagus?
If so, why in Merlin's name had he taken on that form and hidden himself here?
Even Peter Pettigrew had only hidden for eleven years. Gryffindor might have been hiding for a thousand. That level of self-burial made Wormtail look positively restrained.
What could drive one of the Four Founders to choose something like this?
More and more questions welled up in Theodore's mind.
Was this what Peeves had meant when he spoke of the terrors tied to ancient magic?
He let the thought turn once, twice, then asked another question almost idly,
"By the way—why didn't your people flee into the deep sea?"
"However bad the witch-hunts got, they weren't going all the way into the abyss to chase you, were they?"
The mer-chief fell silent. A very old fear flickered in those wide, silvered eyes.
"We dare not dive into the deep sea," he said at last.
"Our oldest ancestors warned us: certain horrors in the abyss are beyond imagining."
"In truth, through the years, some of our folk grew tired of the Black Lake. To us, it is not so spacious. The food is not as rich as in the open ocean."
"They defied the warnings, and went down into the deep. At first, all was well. We still heard their songs, still received news."
"But not one of them lasted more than three years. After that… nothing."
"Some of their friends followed the traces they left and went in search of them. They, too, vanished. Only a handful returned alive—and all of them came back mad."
"They died soon after."
"After enough such cases, we no longer dared approach the deep sea. Here, at least, we can endure."
Theodore nodded.
He had no idea what lurked in the abyssal depths. The original Harry Potter canon never so much as hinted at it.
But clearly, this world contained secrets no one had dug up yet.
The water here was, in more ways than one, very, very deep.
"Honoured little wizard," the mer-chief said then, a touch of nervous respect in his voice, "may I ask… may I go now?"
Theodore glanced at the pouch of pearls and agates the chief had offered him and sighed.
"I'd always heard merfolk tears could harden into pearls and other jewels," he said. "I thought you lot were living the high life."
"Now that I've heard your side of it, you sound downright miserable."
He tossed the pouch back.
"You were the ones hit by my stray blows. How shameless would I have to be to still take your wealth on top of that?"
"Keep your gems. And…"
He looked at the lake water around them, where quite a few fish had been frightened to death by the earlier chaos. After a moment's thought, he took out a single top-grade Flying Tiger Pill and held it out to the mer-chief.
The chieftain's eyes showed confusion—then, all at once, a primal hunger surged up from his core.
The little round pill in front of him radiated power. It tugged at him, whispered to him.
If he swallowed it, he could gain benefits beyond anything he'd ever dared imagine.
Theodore spoke quietly.
"An elixir I refined myself," he said. "A small apology and compensation. And a token of my hope that, from today on, we can be friends."
The mer-chief's heart lurched.
This wizard named Theodore wasn't just monstrously strong—he'd also carved his own path in potion-making?
His future achievements were impossible to measure. Surpassing the Big Four might not even be out of the question.
The chief accepted the Flying Tiger Pill as though it were spun glass.
"Theodore," he said solemnly, "for our Black Lake merfolk, it is an honour to be your friends."
"If you are willing, you will always be welcome among us."
Just then, the System pane flickered again in front of Theodore's eyes.
[The Lord of the Dragon Palace praises the elixir you refined and is all the more eager to befriend you. He invites you to visit the Dragon Palace at a later date.]
[Your relationship has risen to Close Friend.]
[You obtain a talent reward—Waters at Heart's Command! Control of flowing water becomes instinct. Ordinary water-element spells will answer your hand.]
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