Chapter 4
The small room of only ten square meters in front of him was where Aisen lived. Near the bed was an old desk with four corners each lit by a candle, making the lighting in the entire room quite acceptable.
Although the room appeared somewhat rundown, its cleanliness and comfort exceeded Aisen's expectations. Judging from the state of the Leaky Cauldron's main hall downstairs, these wizards seemed more or less a bit sloppy, but he hadn't expected the upstairs guest rooms to be quite nice.
After placing all his belongings on the desk, Aisen once again took his wand in hand. In an instant, the character panel in front of him reappeared with the previous change.
[Discovered extraordinary trait—Fine-grade Casting Trait]
Consume one portion of Miracle Trait to replicate it?
Looking at the pop-up window before him, Aisen took a deep breath and mentally clicked on the "Yes" button.
Afterward, Aisen felt no unusual movement from the wand in his hand, but the pop-up window had already vanished. A slight change then occurred on the character panel.
Character: Aisen Turner
Talent: Mana (Activated)
Mana Value: 10 (Increases by 10 points daily)
Extraordinary Traits: Fine-grade Casting Trait ×1 (Unfused)
(Note: After fusing this trait, compatibility will increase by 20%)
Miracle Traits: none (Automatically gain 1 portion per year)
The changes to the character panel surprised Aisen. Clearly, one portion of the Miracle Trait had been used to replicate the wand's casting trait. The replicated casting trait had become an extraordinary trait—and it was still unfused.
As for the compatibility increase, Aisen guessed it referred to the bond between the wand and the wizard. The higher the compatibility, the better the wand could bring out the wizard's strength.
Regarding Aisen's own wand, from the earlier feeling of it being like an extension of his arm, the compatibility seemed quite high. This meant that the wand Ollivander had recommended was indeed very suitable for him.
However, the note said that after fusing the trait, compatibility would increase by 20%, which left Aisen a bit puzzled. Could it be that after fusing the casting trait, his compatibility with the wand would improve even further?
Of course, no matter what, an increase in compatibility was a good thing. It meant that Aisen's spell incantations would go more smoothly, and the power of the magic he released would be stronger.
But what exactly did "fusion" mean?
Then, Aisen focused his mind on the unfused casting trait on the character panel. Immediately, a new pop-up panel appeared before his eyes.
At the top was a line of text: "Please select the body part for fusing the casting trait."
Below were several option buttons: Arm, Finger, Leg, Toe. Each button also displayed a percentage. The Finger option showed 95%, followed by Arm at 70%, then Toe at 80%, and Leg at 60%.
'What did this mean?' Staring at the scene before him, Aisen fell into thought with his brow raised.
After a while, a thoughtful expression appeared on his face. Could it be that fusing the casting trait didn't improve his compatibility with the wand, but instead granted the fused body part the ability to cast spells directly without a wand? And the compatibility increase was just an additional effect from the system?
The moment this thought occurred to him, Aisen suddenly became excited. That's right—in the Wizarding world, wizards were far too dependent on their wands. As long as they were hit by a single Disarming Charm, a wizard was basically helpless.
Even experts like Dumbledore and Voldemort were the same in some scenarios.
Although they could both cast spells silently and wandlessly, if one had a wand and the other didn't, the one with the wand would inevitably win. This showed just how important wands were to wizards in this world.
If the system was truly as Aisen imagined, then the wand would no longer be his limitation.
Calming his racing mind, Aisen focused his mind on the Finger option and selected fusion. Clearly, the percentages on these body parts represented the degree of compatibility with the casting trait.
After making his choice, Aisen felt a tingling sensation surge through his ten fingers, lasting a full two minutes before it completely dissipated.
At that moment, Aisen had a feeling that his ten fingers had actually acquired the properties of a wand and could fully replace its function. Looking at the Extraordinary Traits section on the character panel, it had indeed changed:
[Extraordinary Trait: Fine-grade Casting Trait (Compatibility 115%) (Fused)]
'So, what does "Fine-grade" mean?' After thinking for a while, Aisen still had no clue.
However, with this trait, Aisen could now perform wandless casting for any magic in the future. Of course, for someone like Aisen who preferred to develop without getting into a spotlight, he would treat this as a trump card and continue using his wand for disguise in everyday situations.
For now, Aisen still couldn't sense the difference between casting with a wand and casting directly with his fingers. His current Mana was only 10 points, and he didn't know any spells yet. So, his next goal was to self-study some spells—at the very least, to make himself more like a proper wizard.
Otherwise, wandering around the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley in the future would inevitably expose him.
In addition, Aisen had one more thing to consider: What exactly did these 10 points of mana meant? For new young wizards just starting school, like Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, how much magic power did they have? This continuous comparison between mana and magic also gave Aisen a headache.
Speaking of which, Aisen wanted to complain— in the original books, a wizard's magic power was a very vague concept with no specific strength levels. It was only established that after a little wizard's magic awakened, it would grow with age and continue until adulthood.
But unexpectedly, the system had directly quantified the magic power on Aisen. And although he was already an adult, his magic power had only just been activated by the System, so his magic power should be inferior to that of the young wizards.
As for how to compare magic power strength, Aisen currently had no good method. However, from the original books, whether one could cast a certain spell seemed to be a somewhat unreliable standard.
For example, the shield Charm, a protective spell. Although Harry Potter learned and cast it in his fourth year, that was mostly because he was the protagonist. In reality, this spell had a certain difficulty— the Weasley twins had mentioned that even some adult wizard employees at the Ministry of Magic might not be able to cast it successfully.
Take Gilderoy Lockhart: although he was a fraud and a phony, he had at least graduated from Ravenclaw. Yet he couldn't cast the shield Charm.
Therefore, Aisen could use this to infer what level his own magic power was at.
The current time was July 1990, and this year's new students would soon be enrolling. But Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley—the "Golden Trio"—would have to wait another year before enrolling.
In other words, Aisen had more than a year to study before the main plot officially began.
Logically speaking, Aisen had already missed the chance to enroll, so the best choice would be to stay far away from the vortex that was Hogwarts and develop quietly.
That's right—once involved, Aisen's personal safety would be threatened by Voldemort. Even his followers, the Death Eaters, would be troublesome.
However, even so, many books required for Hogwarts courses couldn't be obtained at Flourish and Blotts. For example, advanced magic like the Undetectable Extension Charm and Apparition, which Aisen very much wanted to learn, seemed only available at Hogwarts.
Moreover, the library at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was extremely attractive to Aisen. Therefore, for him, the best choice was to apply to become a professor at Hogwarts while Voldemort was still not resurrected, and take the opportunity to learn as much as possible.
If he could withdraw after Voldemort's resurrection, he would lead a quiet life far away. If he couldn't leave, he would use the next few years to become as strong as possible—strong enough not to fear Voldemort. Clearly, with the system, Aisen should be able to achieve that.
However, to apply for a professor position at Hogwarts, his current level was of course not good enough. So, he planned to spend the year before Harry Potter and the others enrolled fully dedicated to studying.
Aisen was confident that after a year, his level would improve significantly. At the very least, he shouldn't be worse than Lockhart. If even a fraud like Lockhart could become a professor, then he himself should have no problem.
He just needed to carefully consider which professor position to apply for when the time came.