Waking up to the sound of harsh winds hitting the cliffside and the roar of the huge waves hitting the cliff as if trying to destroy it made Lux happy.
Despite the danger of such weather, he always felt free whenever it appeared.
The freeness of the wind, the endless ocean that threatened to engulf everything brought him a peace that the sun and calm weather couldn’t offer him.
Staying safe in his cave despite his love for the weather, not stupid enough to go and risk death no matter how much he loved it, he noticed that the day would once again be clouded in darkness.
The lighting ward he had prepared the previous day still hadn’t stored enough energy to activate and the clouds in the sky didn’t allow the ward to speed up the absorption process.
Looking around and knowing he wouldn’t be able to use the light from the surroundings to read any books, he turned towards his Runic Lexicon.
After all, he could neither read nor leave the cave for the day so he had to find something to occupy himself with and what better than improving his own skills?
[Mastery]
Charms
– Legilimency: 0/2’581’364
– Levitation Charm: 21/6912
– Occlumency: 1044/2’786’312
Divination
– Catoptromancy: 100/1’958’748
Language
– English: 1968/1’151’523
Potion
– Draught of Premonition: 0/995’156
– Elixir of Bad Fortune: 0/500’000
– Phial of Insanity: 0/43’645
– Philter of Silence: 0/48’920
– Potion of Ecstasy: 0/81’456
– Potion of Idle Minds: 0/94’159
– Potion of the Sun: 0/223’121
– StagHart’s High blood potion: 0/997’701
– Vial of Steelskin: 0/22’186
Runes
– Futhorc: 3576/982’459
Wards
– Lighting Wards: 23/7198
With six categories recorded in his lexicon, he ignored the potion, language, and one of the three charms.
After all, for the first he had no access to the basic introduction and a cauldron stopping him from actually practicing, for the second he didn’t have enough light to read anything while for the latter, he had no idea on how to actually cast levitation magic.
After all, the equalizing function of the Runic Lexicon only helped him better master his current understanding and didn’t give out free knowledge.
Looking at the remaining categories, his attention went to the two mind magics and divination.
For the first, he would have to read a bit more to help him avoid as many detours as possible. New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
As such he decided that he would try divination for the day.
After all, he had asked for a mirror from the villagers almost a year before and he still hadn’t used it.
Despite this, he knew not how to actually do catoptromancy.
Yet, his previous experience with it told him that the most important thing was to keep calm, keep an open mind and stare in the mirror.
Whether it would work, he had no idea.
All he knew however was that it was how it had happened when he first made a divination of the orphanage matron coming to bring them some food in their shared room.
Nothing exaggerated but it had shown him the uses of such a skill.
Lugging the mirror to the bedroom, he placed it against the wall as he lit up one of the few candles and placed it right next to the mirror, the rest of the room deep in darkness as he closed the door.
Blocking the little bit of light coming from the cave’s exterior.
He sat in front of the mirror as he stared and waited for something to happen.
Time slowly passed and despite the mirror’s reflection not changing, only showing him sitting down in front of it, he didn’t lose patience.
Soon enough, even time started to lose its meaning as he couldn’t tell how long he had been staring at the mirror, his only time measurement, the candle, having long become melted candle wax.
Not changing his expression, he continued staring, his grumbling stomach unable to attract his attention, being used to feeling hungry.
As the minutes ticked by, a slow change appeared in the mirror.
Yet, no expression could be seen on the young boy’s face as if in a trance.
The only thing one could notice was his pupils slightly dilated in shock as the mirror’s reflection continuously rippled until a new scene appeared in the mirror.
A different scene.
He himself stood at the edge of the cave, during a large storm, a bit like the one that was currently happening outside of the cave.
An owl, brown with some black dots.
It blinked as it looked at the food in the cave, taking some of the little amount of meat he had, before flying off into the heart of the storm, leaving behind only a single envelope which despite having gone through the storm was surprisingly dry.
As Lux’s eyes focused on the opened mail, just as his reflection was about to turn the letter around, showing the contents, the mirror’s surface once again waved, the scenes disappearing as his own reflection once again appeared on the mirror.
[Catoptromancy +21 exp.]
Sitting on the ground, blinking as he thought back to the events he had seen happen in the mirror, his attention broke.
His previous grumbling stomach seemed to shout at him as he stood up, his legs wobbly under the previous experience.
His energy, which he had thought to be relatively abundant, was dangerously close to emptiness as he knew that even if he tried to infuse the engraving pen with magic, he would be unable to, lacking even the minimum amount of energy required.
Walking out of the bedroom, to his supplies, he ate some quick and dry food, filling his complaining stomach as he remembered the vision he had just seen through the mirror.
‘Will an owl really enter the cave with a letter for me?’ He wondered as he looked at the dark clouds and the unending crash of the waves against the cliffside.
He had no idea how an owl could make its way through all this wind and rain just to bring him a letter.
Still preparing some food for the owl according to what it ate in the mirror, he simply waited, enjoying the storm, his energy slowly coming back to him after what happened to be his biggest feat of the supernatural since he began training.
Waiting, wondering if his vision would occur or if he only created mental images to reassure himself that magic existed, a black dot appeared in the distance.
Focusing his eyes on the change at the horizon, he noticed the dot growing bigger and bigger while heading straight for him.
With his heart’s rate increasing, holding his breath without even noticing, his eyes discerned the flapping wings of a bird braving a storm and heading straight for him.
With the same color as the one in the mirror, his attention shifted straight to its leg where a letter was attached, ready to be delivered.
Waiting for a moment, the young boy could almost see the relief of arriving on the feathered face of the owl as it saw him, his mail’s target.
Entering in the cave at full speed, the wind not allowing him a slow and steady descent, it went straight past Lux’s body and finally landed on the makeshift bed in the main cave, the one he had used for a few years already which was decisively less comfortable than the new one he had gotten behind the wards.
“Eum, do you want something to eat?” He asked nervously, as for the first time, he encountered someone or something that was related to magic.
It wasn’t a relic of the past like the cave but a living and breathing being that had most likely seen more of the supernatural than he did despite being an owl.
Looking at the plate of dried bacon, the owl tilted its head before seemingly nodding in a humanlike manner and diving straight into the plate of food offered. You are reading on novelping.com, the official source.
At the same time, it stretched out its leg, allowing Lux to take the attached letter.
Gently detaching it to not hurt the small owl that took its job of delivering mail to its extremes, he finally saw the white letter.
Just as in the mirror, the mail was completely dry despite having been in a storm and a red wax seal symbol with four animals, a badger, an eagle, a lion and a serpent kept the letter sealed.
Breaking the seal with a small nearby knife, he pulled out the letter inside.
“Hum, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?” He muttered under his breath as the only one who could hear him was the small owl who despite everything was way too engrossed in his meal to care about his words.
~Dear Mr Arden,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment required for the school term.
The term begins on September first.
Considering your lack of magical upbringing, a professor will come and introduce you to the magical world and accompany you to buy your magical supplies three days later at 9am.
Thank you.~
Reading and rereading the letter, his eyebrows shot upwards.
‘It seems that I am not alone in this world that can do magic and I will finally be able to see exactly what Hogwarts is.’ He thought, the corner of his mouth raising, a glimmer of interest filling his eyes.
Taking the second page of the letter, he looked through the materials he would need to buy.
– Three sets of plain work robes (black)
– One plain pointed had (black)
– One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide)
– One winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings)
– The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)
– A History of Magic
– Magical Theory
– A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration
– One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi
– Magical Drafts and Potions
– Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
– The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection
– A wand
– A cauldron (Pewter, standard size 2)
– 1 set of crystal phials
– 1 telescope
– 1 set of brass scales
– 1 pet if I want one
After reviewing the list and getting rid of all the unnecessary information, he was left with a list of items to buy.
Amongst them, the eight books he had to buy were, in his eyes, the most important along with a wand.