What did he just say?
Too much force?
If his reason hadn’t still been intact, Tom genuinely feared he might have suffered a complete mental breakdown on the spot.
A slender frame.
A youthful face.
Eric stood there looking no different from any ordinary young wizard who hadn’t even started Hogwarts yet.
And in fact, that was exactly what he was.
Tom knew Eric’s circumstances better than anyone present.
Only half a day earlier, Eric had needed Tom’s guidance just to enter Diagon Alley.
Eric didn’t even have a wand of his own.
He didn’t know a single spell.
All he possessed was his own innate magical talent.
Nothing more than his own magic.
And yet, looking at the Monster Books scattered across the ground, trembling in fear, and then at Eric standing calmly among them as though nothing had happened, Tom and the surrounding witches and wizards were too stunned to speak.
The scene had been utter chaos only moments ago.
Then, in an instant, everything had ended like this.
Not one person had imagined that the problem would ultimately be resolved in such a manner.
Neither the employees of Flourish and Blotts nor the adult witches and wizards passing by had been able to do anything about the rampaging Monster Books.
Yet a child who had appeared out of nowhere had simply released his magic, and every last Monster Book had fallen silent.
There were also several experienced witches and wizards among the crowd.
Once they realised what had actually happened, a trace of fear involuntarily entered their gazes as they looked at Eric.
The most shocking thing wasn’t even the destructive force of Eric’s magical outburst.
It was the fact that he could control his own magic so freely.
Most young witches and wizards before Hogwarts age, especially those raised in Muggle families, were completely incapable of consciously controlling their magic.
Before receiving formal training, a child’s use of magic was usually passive.
Their magic only leaked out under particular circumstances.
Indeed, such incidents were often one of the ways people determined whether a child was truly magical rather than a Squib.
Harry Potter, for example, had shown signs of his magical talent before entering Hogwarts, including his ability to speak to snakes through Parseltongue.
That was one of the most direct manifestations of innate magical ability.
But such accidental magic was extremely difficult to control.
Children were emotionally unstable, and for witches and wizards, emotion happened to be an important part of magic.
That combination made accidents all too easy.
If every young witch and wizard were simply allowed to roam freely without restraint, the wizarding world would inevitably run the risk of exposure.
That was something the Ministry of Magic absolutely did not want.
It was also one of the reasons witches and wizards needed to attend magical schools in the first place.
But looking at the calm expression on Eric’s face now, there wasn’t the slightest hint that his magic had been released involuntarily.
Nor did he look panicked.
He had known exactly what he was doing.
And that was precisely what made it so frightening.
“Merlin…” “Unbelievable…” “Who is that boy?!
Who is he?
Does anyone know him?” “…Reparo!” Eric’s magical outburst had plunged Diagon Alley into a brief silence, but the area quickly became noisy again.
More and more people began gathering after hearing the explosive crash.
Shouts of astonishment mingled with the incantations of witches and wizards who had recovered quickly enough to start repairing the damage Eric had caused, making it difficult to hear what anyone across the street was saying.
Without exception, however, every pair of eyes was fixed on Eric.
Shock.
Awe.
Curiosity…
All manner of gazes moved over him.
For the moment, though, no one dared approach.
The mild-looking boy remained standing quietly outside Flourish and Blotts.
Eric, meanwhile, completely ignored the attention surrounding him.
He was busy receiving his System reward.
[Ding!
Quest complete.] [Congratulations, host.
Please claim your quest reward, select any spell and raise its Spell Proficiency to Intermediate.] A virtual panel immediately appeared in Eric’s vision.
Displayed across it was an extraordinarily detailed list of spells.
Each spell appeared as its own icon, accompanied by a short description.
With a thought from Eric, the list began scrolling rapidly according to his will.
The Disarming Charm.
The Knockback Jinx.
The Mending Charm…
One strange and varied spell after another passed before his eyes.
Hm?
Eric’s gaze suddenly sharpened.
Among the spell icons, he noticed an unusual one.
Its image showed a twisted flash of green light.
Merely looking at it seemed enough to evoke an unmistakably sinister feeling.
[Avada Kedavra, The Killing Curse.
One of the Unforgivable Curses.
Any living creature struck by it will die.
There is no counter-curse.] The corner of Eric’s mouth lifted.
He genuinely hadn’t expected the System’s reward selection to include the Unforgivable Curses.
In a certain sense, Avada Kedavra could indeed be called one of the most powerful spells in existence.
Perhaps sensing Eric’s attention, the System spoke again.
[Reminder: This reward increases only the host’s Spell Proficiency with the selected spell.
It does not directly increase the spell’s power.] [The actual effect of any spell remains dependent upon the host’s own Magical Power and condition at the time of casting.] Eric understood the System’s implication perfectly well.
With such an enormous selection of spells before him, he could choose anything he wanted.
Even something like an Unforgivable Curse, which was currently prohibited by the Ministry of Magic, was available.
But the System offered no guarantees regarding what happened after he cast it.
In other words, this reward came with no after-sales service.
The System provided the reward.
What Eric chose to do with it was entirely his own affair, and the System took no responsibility whatsoever for the consequences.
If Eric casually started throwing Killing Curses around and got himself sent to Azkaban, that would be the result of his own stupidity and have nothing to do with the System.
“Heh.
You’re worrying too much, System.” Before the System had even finished its reminder, Eric’s gaze had already moved away from Avada Kedavra after lingering on it for only a moment.
He had never intended to choose an Unforgivable Curse in the first place.
Eric had no particular moral aversion to using the Unforgivable Curses.
The timing simply wasn’t right.
As far as he was concerned, spells were tools.
Whether they were evil depended on the person using them, not on the spells themselves.
The Unforgivable Curses were undeniably powerful, but that only mattered if Eric could use them without bringing an enormous amount of trouble down on himself afterward.
He hadn’t forgotten that Dumbledore was still at Hogwarts.
Eric wasn’t arrogant enough to believe that two magical outbursts which had shocked everyone around him somehow made him invincible.
He certainly wasn’t foolish enough to start openly using Unforgivable Curses right beneath the nose of one of the most powerful wizards alive.
In fact, Eric had already decided which reward he wanted the moment he received the quest.
“System, I’ll choose my reward, the Patronus Charm.” [Confirmed!
Quest Reward, Patronus Charm.] [The host’s Spell Proficiency with the Patronus Charm has been increased to Intermediate.] CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Hidden_Quill Thank you so much for reading!