A Web Of Magic - Volume 1 Chapter 48 Trial

Magnus was in the Room of Requirement hunched over a fuming cauldron. The cauldron was placed at the center of a chalk circle inscribed with a pentagram. He added ingredients methodically while occasionally waving his wand and softly chanting in Ancient Greek. He added the last ingredient, Centaur hair, and stirred the cauldron seven times clockwise followed by seven times anticlockwise. When the concoction turned milky white from ash grey, he took out a pre-prepared silver chain and dipped one end of it into the cauldron as he chanted once more. Slowing the milky white color of the concoction drained towards the center where the chain was immersed. When all the color was drained, Magnus pulled out the chain from the now colorless concoction.

[Impact Points+40]

At the end of the silver chain was now a milky white crystal in the shape of an 8-sided dice. The corner of Magnus’s lips raised as he was filled with excitement. ‘Now I’ll be able to use the higher-level spells in Divination.’ He used a whole 200 points to comprehend the process of creation of the crystal. No longer does he need to use the silver coin to divine simple answers nor the dowsing rod for finding directions. This focus crystal will be able to do all of those and more. It can even help him detect poison, danger and malice. He quickly packed up and went to find Fred and George to test out some of the new spells with the help of their rigged candies.

A few days later, Magnus was back in the room of the Grey Lady. He stood in front of the wall on far side of the room from the entrance. The Grey Lady stood beside him with a smile on her face. The two of them had been interacting more often this year and the Grey Lady had taken to giving him the occasional riddles to solve. Apparently, it’s a tradition in Ravenclaw that was discontinued a few decades ago but was now reinstated. The only person who gets to decide that is the Grey Lady, not even the Head of the House has that authority. Why she discontinued, she wouldn’t tell.

“It’s alright if you can’t solve it Magnus. We all have our limits. The last five people before you couldn’t do it. Unlike the week-long test I’ve been giving you, this month-long test is hard. It’s just a shame that once you fail, you’ll lose your chance forever” the Grey Lady went on giving her speech.

Magnus just rolled his eyes. From their interactions he came to understand the personality of the Grey Lady. While she’s polite and enthusiastic when discussing knowledge, she also has a mean and prideful streak. If you thought the girls of Slytherin were haughty, she’s on a whole another level. He shifted his attention to the problem at hand. They started easy with only some first-year topics. Then they moved onto the second-year and now finally third-year level. It’s not just direct questions though, they are interwoven into puzzles and riddles which only increased the difficulty. Nevertheless, he is now Lv3 on most of his schools of magic, almost reaching Lv4, so it wasn’t impossible.

He quickly used his [Comprehend mode] to understand the problem and solve it swiftly in order to shut up the Grey Lady. And shut up he did when he solved the problem in the next few minutes. It only took 20 points to complete which were quickly regained once he completed the task.

“What? How? Hmm, I admit you are correct. Your intelligence is highly disproportionate to your age and size Magnus,” the Grey Lady admitted.

‘Is that supposed to be a compliment?’ Magnus rolled his eyes once again.

“And as agreed, you shall get your reward. Go touch the wall over there,” the Grey Lady directed. Magnus followed her instruction and touched the portion of the wall that was glowing slightly. As soon as he did, knowledge flowed into his mind. He wasn’t overwhelmed though as he was used to this whenever he leveled-up. Completing the puzzles gave him small rewards like this one. The initial rewards were just things he already knew. But now, it was different. He even used the [Comprehend Mode] to digest the knowledge quickly. After using 50 points, he was able to understand it all. He quickly looked over his interface to look at the changes.

[Magnus Webb

Title: Seer Descendant

Traits: Beast Blood (Magic), Blood Curse (inactive), Beast Blood (Deformation)

Body: 3

Mind: 16

Magic: 23

Impact Points: 1258

School: Divination Lv3 (60%), Healing Lv3 (60%), Charms Lv3 (80%), Transfiguration Lv3 (80%), DADA Lv3 (30%), Potions Lv3 (90%), Herbology Lv3 (80%), Astronomy Lv3 (30%), Magical Theory Lv3 (80%), Mind Arts Lv2 (60%), Care of Magical Creatures Lv2(10%), Runes Lv1(90%), Arithmancy Lv1(90%)

Skills: Wand Magic Lv3 (80%), Wandless Magic Lv3 (60%)]

There was a new school, Arithmancy. Runes too almost reached the requirement for Lv2. The rest of the increments were due to his own work during this year. ‘Not bad, but the Mind stat isn’t increasing no matter how much I read,’ Magnus lamented.

“You’ve proved yourself capable Magnus. Now if you’d like, there’s one final test. Pass this and you’ll get a chance that no one before you got despite passing the test. Fail, and you’ll lose the chance of learning some of Ravenclaw’s secrets that have never seen the light before. What is your choice?” asked the Grey Lady solemnly.

‘A chance at knowing Ravenclaw’s secrets? What’s there to think?’ Magnus decided. This is what he liked about being in Ravenclaw. It was full of secrets waiting to be uncovered and had a sense of mystery and wonder that a magic school is supposed to have. He didn’t know if the other houses too had something like this, but he’s yet to hear of any. But knowing the amount of interest his own housemates showed beyond the school curriculum, he doubted anyone even explored this much, barring the twins of course. But if they found any secrets of Gryffindor, they are yet to tell him. ‘Why don’t I just ask the Grey Lady directly, she must know something.’

“I accept of course. But Ms. Grey Lady, I also have a question. Do the other houses too have something like this? The chance at gaining the knowledge of their founder?” he asked out of curiosity.

“Why yes of course. All of the founders left an inheritance of sorts in their respective houses, though the way of gaining it differs from house to house. When you pass the trials set by the founder, you’ll gain the corresponding inheritance as a way of encouragement and direction to the student. It’s not too much. Just some part of the knowledge the founders possessed. The full extent of their knowledge would prove too much for a student. For Ravenclaw, the trials are based on knowledge and wit. I don’t know what it is for the other houses, but it should be something related to their house’s characteristics,” the Grey Lady explained.

“Does that mean the students now can still get these inheritances?” Magnus asked. ‘If so, I can tell Fred and George about the Gryffindor inheritance,’ he thought. But the Grey Lady quickly burst his bubble.

“That isn’t possible anymore. The Founders left only a one-time inheritance. Hufflepuff’s was taken centuries ago. Slytherin’s was only for his descendants. There had been a few of those and the last one was half a century ago. The chances of anything remaining are slim. Gryffindor’s was taken by your current headmaster over a century ago. The only inheritance left is Ravenclaw’s. While there were students before you who gained some of the knowledge, no one is yet to gain the full extent of it,” the Grey Lady clarified.

” Now, you have till the eve of Halloween to complete this test. Let me see if you have what it takes. Don’t disappoint me now.”