Grey and white.
That was all Eric could see now.
It was as though the entire world had suddenly been covered by a black and white filter, becoming eerie and monotonous.
Diagon Alley, which had been bathed in brilliant sunshine only moments ago, now looked like a scene from some ancient monochrome film.
The entire street had been reduced to simple shapes and outlines.
Grey-white bricks.
A grey-white Flourish and Blotts.
Grey-white…
Everything was painted in the same unchanging shades.
There was no doubt that Eric had triggered this ability unintentionally.
And at the moment, he found it difficult to describe exactly what he was feeling.
It was as though he had suddenly been thrown into a furnace.
From head to toe, there wasn’t a single patch of skin that didn’t feel as though it were burning.
Every pore in his body seemed to have opened at once, and Eric could distinctly feel some kind of energy constantly pouring out of him.
He had maintained this state for less than a few seconds when an aching soreness began to spread through his eyes.
Eric had originally intended to take his time and test just how long he could maintain it, but as the seconds passed, the discomfort in his eyes didn’t lessen.
Instead, it rapidly grew worse.
Apparently, this state couldn’t be sustained for long.
Eric glanced around and discovered that no one nearby seemed to have noticed anything unusual.
More precisely, none of them had noticed anything unusual about him.
Time had neither stopped nor slowed because of the appearance of the Mental Field.
Everything continued moving normally.
The Monster Books flying wildly around in front of Eric were still frantically attacking anything within reach.
If they hadn’t seen him subdue one of their kind already, they probably would have swarmed him by now.
Mercer, the owner of Flourish and Blotts, was still wailing over his losses.
Tom and the nearby witches and wizards were still staring at Eric in shock, and Tom hadn’t given up on shouting for him to retreat back into the crowd.
Apart from everything having turned black, white, and grey, nothing about the scene had changed.
“Interesting.
All I did was think that I wanted to know more about this book…” Eric chuckled softly.
And then this happened.
He lowered his gaze towards the white light that had appeared beside his feet.
From the outside, it looked like a condensed sphere of light.
It had no physical substance and was only about the size of a fist, yet it was remarkably difficult to ignore.
After all, in this monotonous colourless world, the glowing sphere stood out far too clearly.
Eric was certain that before everything in his vision had turned grey-white, this light hadn’t existed.
And ever since appearing, it had remained motionless beside his feet.
“System, how am I supposed to use the Mental Field?” Rather than investigating the sphere immediately, Eric decided to ask first.
The System didn’t answer as quickly as he had expected.
Eric waited silently for three or four seconds.
Still nothing.
Just as he was about to give up on getting an answer, the System finally spoke.
━━━━━ SYSTEM ━━━━━ [Mental Field] An ability attainable by witches and wizards possessing powerful Mental Power.
By concentrating one’s Mental Power and projecting it outward through visualization, a sufficiently powerful wizard may influence surrounding objects or perceive hidden information even without using a spell.
The Mental Field may also assist in spellcasting.
Whether used with Transfiguration or mind-affecting spells, its enhancement can significantly increase their effectiveness.
━━━━ Note: 📜 The Mental Field cannot defend against the Unforgivable Curses.
The Mental Field is merely one manifestation of powerful Mental Power.
📜 The Mental Field was independently activated by the host and is unrelated to the System’s quest framework.
📜 The host may explore the Mental Field’s specific functions independently.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ “So even you weren’t prepared for this, System.” Eric smiled.
The System gave no response.
Apparently, he had somehow broken through one of the System’s limitations entirely by accident.
That was what had caused the Mental Field to awaken.
According to whatever original progression the System had intended, the Mental Field might have been meant as a future quest reward, or perhaps an ability that would only be unlocked once Eric fulfilled some particular condition.
Instead, Eric had obtained it directly.
Judging by how the System normally behaved, if the Mental Field had been something it deliberately granted him, it would probably have explained the relevant information immediately.
A wizard’s Mental Power was different from other forms of strength.
It was one of the most direct manifestations of the wizard’s own innate capabilities.
And the fact that Eric had been able to break through the System’s restriction and activate the Mental Field on his own was only possible because he now possessed exceptionally powerful Mental Power.
That alone had already given him plenty of information to work with.
A sharp gleam appeared in Eric’s eyes, as though he wanted to see through everything within his field of vision.
His attention returned to the sphere of white light beside his feet.
Everything else seemed to disappear from his awareness as he focused entirely upon his target.
The changing environment around him and the shouts of the crowd were consciously pushed aside.
During the short time Eric had remained motionless, the other Monster Books had already noticed the wizard who had intruded into their midst.
Several that had finished savaging their own kind abandoned their previous opponents and began flying towards him instead.
Sunlight reflected from their razor-sharp teeth, making them gleam even more ominously.
None of it shook Eric’s concentration.
That sphere appeared because of the Mental Field.
If that’s the case, I should naturally be able to control it with my Mental Power…
[Ding!] A faint chime sounded inside Eric’s mind.
The next instant, Eric clearly sensed the white sphere shift.
Now!
His gaze snapped away from it and locked onto the Monster Book he had already subdued.
A white blur flashed.
The light Eric had just moved shot upwards from beside his feet at tremendous speed, stretching into a thin, dazzling line before plunging directly into the Monster Book.
It moved so quickly that Eric couldn’t follow it with his eyes.
The moment the white light entered the book, information surfaced naturally within his mind.
━━━━ 🔮 INFO 🔮 ━━━━ [The Monster Book of Monsters] A very long time ago, a great wizard attempted to combine a Transfiguration spell, a vengeful spirit, and a blank notebook.
His intention was to automatically record the spirit’s memories within the notebook… Ultimately, the wizard failed.
Yet he remained worthy of being called great, because people later discovered that he had succeeded in recording his own consciousness inside the notebook.
Those who came after him managed to reproduce part of the process using the Prior-Use Spell and eventually created a specialised spell for manufacturing this entirely new kind of magical object.
The resulting books possess a degree of animal instinct, but pose no mortal danger to their users.
This volume features renowned magical-creature expert Edwin Lima as its chief content editor.
It once received the Romanian Ministry of Magic’s Best Book of the Year Award and has sold successfully in more than twenty countries.
An indispensable companion whether at home or abroad.
━━━━ Note: 📜 No magical creatures were harmed during the production of this book.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Eric smiled.
Animal instincts, is it?
Good.
I’d have been disappointed if you didn’t have any.