The quiet was a blessing.
Ivan silently thanked Madam Pince; the no-talking rule existed for good reason.
A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration was not especially advanced, but it was thick.
An hour passed and he had only reached a little past the first third.
He kept going.
Another hour and a half later the last page turned.
When he finally closed the book his head felt heavy and dull.
Old magical texts loved obscure, half-mystical phrasing that seemed designed to make the subject sound more profound than it needed to be.
Someone raised on clear modern writing found the style exhausting.
“Maybe that’s just how wizards think,” Ivan muttered.
The vague, almost philosophical approach might be the real talent of magical minds.
He certainly did not share it.
[Ding.
After a period of careful reading, you find A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration dull and difficult to understand.
Transfiguration Charm proficiency has increased slightly.
Note: Reading progress of A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration: 27%] The notification surprised him.
Class textbooks had never triggered anything similar.
The difference, he realized, was finishing the book.
He had never completed one before.
He still rolled his eyes at the system’s game-log tone.
The material had been dense in places, but “dull and difficult to understand” felt like an exaggeration.
Twenty-seven percent progress made sense, though.
Finishing a book was not the same as mastering every concept inside it.
If it were, every student would score perfect marks.
“Time to see what the Top Student card is actually worth.” He spent the hundred points.
[Remaining time: 00:59:59] Something seemed to detonate behind his eyes.
Everything he had learned recently—class notes, the book he had just finished—surged upward, sorted itself, and locked into place.
Thoughts sharpened.
It felt exactly like swapping a battered old computer for a brand-new machine.
A minute later he opened his eyes and ran a hand over the closed cover.
The content of the book was already clear in his mind without reopening it.
Phrases that had felt deliberately obscure now fitted neatly into context.
As a foundational Hogwarts text it had clearly been revised many times into something concise—at least for a wizard’s mind.
He flipped the pages again, this time only checking the sections he had previously skipped.
Chapter two, page seven.
Chapter thirteen.
Twenty minutes later the entire book was finished.
[Ding.
After a period of careful reading, you find A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration clear, straightforward, and offering no real challenge.
Transfiguration Charm proficiency has increased significantly.
Reading progress of A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration: 100% Reading reward: Academic Points ×5] [Transfiguration has reached Level 1.
Current proficiency (12/200).
Reward: Academic Points ×5] Two notifications arrived the moment he set the book down.
The level-up produced no golden light, no sudden rush of power.
He simply understood the principles well enough that turning a match into a needle was no longer a struggle.
Even the unreliable wand only weakened the result slightly; it no longer blocked him.
Exactly as he had suspected earlier: proficiency did not raise his ability.
It merely displayed the ability he already possessed.
Roughly thirty-seven minutes remained on the card.
Ivan wasted none of them.
He strode to the nearest shelf, pulled down the closest thick volume—Detailed Principles of Basic Charms—and opened it at once.
The book was denser than expected: analysis of common spells and theories about the structure of magic itself.
On any normal day the pure theory would have bored him.
Under the card’s effect he found it absorbing.
System notifications flickered at the edge of awareness and were ignored.
He sank into the material completely.
Halfway through the book his expression changed.
The sharp clarity vanished as if a sheet of white fog had dropped across his mind.
Thoughts that had been flowing freely were cut off mid-stream.
The sensation was exactly like being startled while relieving himself and forced to stop.
Did I suddenly get stupid?
He stood frozen, staring at the open pages, struggling to adjust to the sudden drop in mental speed.
Only after several long seconds did he realize the remaining time on the card had already expired while he was reading.
He tried to continue anyway.
The second half of the book now felt twice as dense, the reading speed several times slower.
After tasting the boosted state, the normal pace was almost unbearable.
A few pages later he closed the volume with a sigh.
One hour under the Top Student card had shown him exactly how powerful the exchange was.
It was not a simple speed multiplier.
Understanding, reasoning, the entire cognitive process improved at once.
An average student could temporarily perform at the level of a genuine prodigy.
Nothing was too complex; the only requirement was to keep learning.