Early the next morning, Linus woke up to a line of large text floating before his eyes: [Beginner Gift Pack delivered.
Please claim.]
Clicking on it, he saw a glowing golden bottle icon with a line of small print beside it: [Talent Enhancement Potion: Upgrades any single subject’s talent to Gold.]
*White, Blue, Purple, Gold, Red?* Linus shook his head.
It wasn’t time to use it yet.
Linus put the gift pack aside for the moment and set out to familiarize himself with Hogwarts’ legendary one hundred and forty-two staircases—each with its own peculiar temper.
Staircases that suddenly vanished halfway through were the design he found most inexplicable.
Several times, he nearly stepped into thin air and tumbled down, saved only by an older student grabbing his collar or a nearby professor using a Levitation Charm.
Finding an empty classroom, Linus began practicing the Wand-Lighting Charm.
He had considered practicing the Levitation Charm instead, but he worried that if he managed to pin himself under a heavy desk right at the start of term, he would forfeit all dating prospects for the next seven years.
“Lumos,” Linus whispered.
The tip of his wand showed no reaction.
“Lumos!” Linus shouted.
Still, the wand refused to respond.
“Lumos…” Linus practically begged his wand, but nothing changed.
The numbers on his status panel remained completely static, not budging an inch.
Linus didn’t lose heart.
*That’s just how a White talent is,* he told himself silently.
*Just wait until I level it up.*
With no classes that morning, Linus spent three hours and sixteen hundred attempts constantly tweaking his wand movements and vocal stress.
Finally, he successfully cast the spell.
A bright, steady light flared at the tip of his wand.
The panel refreshed at last: [Charms (White) Lv0: 1/10] [Total Mana Lv1: 9/10]
*Clap, clap, clap.*
Slow applause came from outside the classroom as Professor Quirrell walked in.
“I-impressive determination…
B-but, young wizard, why not ask an older student to t-teach you this spell?”
“I figured the earliest wizards didn’t have anyone to ask, or even wands to use,” Linus replied.
“How did they master spells back then?”
Quirrell smiled mildly.
“My child…
you have remarkable perseverance, but they…
had remarkable talent.”
Linus pondered this for a moment, then took his leave of Quirrell.
Inside Hogwarts, Linus wasn’t overly terrified of Voldemort lurking on the back of Quirrell’s head.
As long as he didn’t show suspicious interest in the turban wrapped around Quirrell’s skull, Voldemort wouldn’t risk getting caught by Albus Dumbledore just to mess with an ordinary first-year student.
He wasn’t the Philosopher’s Stone, a unicorn, or the famous Savior, after all.
Besides, hadn’t the Weasley twins pelleted the back of Quirrell’s head with snowballs and walked away completely unscathed?
Moving to another empty classroom, Linus drained the rest of his magic power through relentless grinding, bringing his panel up to: [Charms (White) Lv1: 0/100] [Total Mana Lv1: 0/10]
*This won’t work,* Linus thought, lying flat on the floor with his magic completely depleted, staring blankly at the ceiling.
*It takes half a day to fully recharge my magic.
At this rate, with White talent, it’ll take five whole days just to reach Charms Level 2.
The max level looks like Level 9, and the EXP required multiplies by ten for every level.
Even if I do nothing but grind this my entire life, I’ll run out of lifespan.*
*The only silver lining is that this level seems to be universal.
As long as I grind it up to a certain level, any other spell I learn will instantly manifest with that level’s power.*
Hermione rushed in from the hallway and asked, “Why didn’t you go to the Great Hall for lunch?”
“Ah, is it lunchtime already?” Linus looked up, dazed.
“Lunchtime is already over!” Hermione said angrily, walking over to him.
“It’s fine, I’m not—” Before Linus could finish, Hermione shoved a hamburger into his hand.
“If you don’t go eat on time by yourself next time, I won’t bring you anything!”
“W-why did you bring me food?” Linus asked, looking at Hermione with curiosity.
*We only just met yesterday, as far as you know,* he thought.
Hermione glared at him sharply.
“Aren’t we already good friends?”
Linus scratched his head and smiled without saying anything.
A sudden line of system notifications popped up in front of his eyes, giving him a startle.
[Novice Quest: Defeat Albus Dumbledore in a head-on duel.] [Reward: Charms Talent upgraded from White -> Gold.]
*Skipping Blue and Purple straight to Gold?
But what kind of trash quest is this?
Is this even humanly possible?
And why trigger right now with zero warning?* Linus had a sinking feeling that this system might be insane, and his future days were not going to be easy.
“What isn’t humanly possible?” Hermione asked in confusion.
“Nothing.
Come on, Transfiguration is about to start.
Professor McGonagall looks very strict—we shouldn’t get on her bad side on our first day.” Linus hopped off the desk, grabbed Hermione’s hand, and bolted out the door.
They arrived at the Transfiguration classroom early.
Ignoring the cat sitting on the teacher’s desk, Linus pulled out his textbook and began reviewing the material five minutes ahead of class.
His time was precious, after all.
“Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts,” Professor McGonagall warned sternly in her opening remarks.
“Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back.”
After demonstrating by turning her desk into a pig—successfully capturing the entire class’s attention—Professor McGonagall began her first Transfiguration lecture.
Linus scribbled so many notes in his book that they threatened to outweigh the original text.
“Heh,” he chuckled softly as he wrote.
“What is it?” Hermione asked, looking up from her own frantic note-taking.
“I just remembered a funny concept: translating English into English,” Linus said, pointing at his notes.
“Isn’t that basically what we’re doing right now?”
Hermione tilted her head at him.
“How is that funny?”
Realizing the joke was a bit too niche to explain, Linus patted her head and smiled.
“You’re what’s funny right now.”
Hermione slapped his hand away, puffing out her cheeks and glaring at him.
“I believe that in my class, mischievous behavior is forbidden—and perhaps flirting should be as well,” Professor McGonagall said, stepping up to Linus’s desk and gazing coolly down at the two of them.
Hermione and Linus immediately sat up straight and went back to taking notes.
Toward the end of class, Professor McGonagall gave everyone a match and instructed them to try turning it into a needle.
Sure enough, Hermione was the only one in the whole class whose match showed any change.
Professor McGonagall held up the shiny silver needle to display to the class and awarded Gryffindor five points.
As for Linus, could anyone really expect a White talent to work miracles?
After class ended, the students filed out of the classroom.
As Linus lagged behind at the end, Professor McGonagall called him back.
“Mr.
Sunwood, you ought to pay closer attention in my class.”
Linus gave a nonchalant smile.
“Professor, I think I’ve been working quite hard.”
Professor McGonagall knitted her brows.
“Mr.
Sunwood, I have a piece of advice for you,” Professor McGonagall said, handing him the gleaming needle.
“The path up the mountain is long and arduous.
Two people who set off together may still drift apart, even if they were the best of friends once upon a time.”
Linus instantly caught her metaphor.
He took the silver needle calmly and smiled.
“First of all, I don’t think Hermione is the kind of person you’re imagining.”
He placed the needle back on the desk and chanted in his mind: *Talent Enhancement Potion, time to shine!
Transfiguration, I choose you!*
As a wave of warmth surged from his brain down to his heart, Linus gained a completely new understanding of Professor McGonagall’s lecture.
The raw, crammed notes flowed backward through his memory, returning to him as crystal-clear perception and precise comprehension.
With a jab and a swirl of his wand, he enunciated clearly, “Reparo!”
In an instant, the silver needle on the desk shifted back into an ordinary match.
“And second, neither am I,” Linus added.
He gave Professor McGonagall a quick bow and walked out of the classroom.
He left behind a stunned Professor McGonagall, who stared blankly at the match on the desk.
*As expected, grinding loses to paying, and paying loses to cheat engine,* Linus mused with a sigh and a shake of his head on his way to the library.