Following Charles’s low growl inside his mind, the Infinite Deduction System he had named Deep Blue responded in its cold, mechanical voice.
“Please specify the direction of deduction.”
Charles answered decisively inside his mind.
“Lethality.”
“Deduce Lumos in a direction that makes it more lethal!”
Instantly, Deep Blue responded.
“Consuming 1,000 Deduction Points. Beginning the initial deduction of Lumos.”
The next moment, Charles felt slightly dizzy.
The Lumos Charm he had only just learned immediately began undergoing deduction within the system at a speed that was impossible to comprehend.
Every second of deduction was equivalent to years of uninterrupted practice and thought for an ordinary person.
After only a few seconds, Charles felt as though he had cast Lumos hundreds of thousands, even millions, of times.
The incantation and wand movements required to cast Lumos had practically become part of his instincts.
He could even confidently claim that when it came to Lumos, there was no one whose wand movements could be more precise than his!
But if the system’s ability were limited to this, it wouldn’t be called the Infinite Deduction System.
After refining Lumos until it had become almost instinctive, the system immediately began conducting further deductions on the spell.
A massive amount of new knowledge began flooding into Charles’s mind.
One new direction after another for the spell was being tested and deduced within the system.
Lumos could only produce a gentle light, illuminating a small area.
So how could Lumos be developed in a more lethal direction?
Naturally, increasing the intensity of the light was one possible route.
After a short while, Deep Blue gave its answer.
“Initial deduction of Lumos complete.”
“Lumos has been deduced into a more lethal spell—Flash Charm.”
“The Flash Charm releases an intense burst of white light from the tip of the wand. Living creatures that witness the flash will temporarily lose their vision. Even after their blindness ends, they will suffer from prolonged afterimages, dizziness, and other effects.”
As Deep Blue’s notification sounded, the Flash Charm derived from Lumos also became instinctive to Charles, as though he had already cast it countless times.
Charles slightly furrowed his brows.
Compared to Lumos, the Flash Charm was indeed more destructive.
But its lethality was still far too weak.
It could merely block an enemy’s vision, functioning much like a flashbang, but it couldn’t directly inflict serious damage.
As a supporting spell, it was quite useful.
But as far as lethality went…
Forget it.
However, this was precisely where Deep Blue’s strength lay.
It could almost endlessly deduce a single piece of knowledge.
Charles still had more than nine thousand Deduction Points remaining, so he could completely afford another round of deduction.
“Deep Blue, continue the deduction.”
“Keep increasing its lethality!”
This time, Deep Blue’s notification sounded again.
“Consuming 5,000 Deduction Points. Beginning the second deduction based on the Flash Charm.”
The appearance of the Flash Charm proved that increasing the intensity of Lumos’s light was indeed a viable direction.
However, powerful light spread across a large area could only damage the eyes.
And once the enemy closed their eyes or put on sunglasses, even that small amount of damage would become insignificant.
Then…
Could the intense light be concentrated?
If the light were focused into a single beam, concentrating its energy onto one point, its destructive power should increase dramatically.
Following this direction, Deep Blue continued its deduction.
More and more knowledge began flooding into Charles’s mind.
It was as if, in some parallel universe, Charles had spent decades experimenting with the Flash Charm, twenty-four hours a day without interruption, dedicating himself entirely to making its light and energy increasingly concentrated.
While Charles kept his eyes tightly shut and absorbed this knowledge, Dark, who was waiting to witness the so-called effects of Charles’s ascension, was becoming increasingly anxious and impatient.
“You little brat!”
“Are you trying to stall for time?”
“Are you waiting for the Muggle police to come rescue you?”
“Or perhaps the Aurors from our magical world?”
“I’m warning you!”
“If you dare play tricks on me, if you dare deceive me about the Ascension Potion, I guarantee I’ll let you experience the Cruciatus Curse properly.”
“I have a hundred methods even more terrifying than the Cruciatus Curse to deal with you.”
“Do you understand?!”
At that very moment, Charles suddenly opened his eyes.
Deep Blue’s notification echoed inside his mind.
“Second deduction of Lumos complete.”
“Based on the Flash Charm, Lumos has been further deduced into the Laser Charm.”
“The Laser Charm imitates the principles of lasers in the Muggle world, constraining and concentrating the intense light produced by the Flash Charm while keeping its frequency consistent, thereby reducing the dissipation of light energy.”
“A concentrated laser can cause the temperature of a specific area to rise dramatically within a short period of time.”
“With continuous heating, it can even reach temperatures sufficient to melt or cut through steel.”
“Three subsequent deductions require 10,000 Deduction Points.”
“Current Deduction Points: 4,396.”
“Please obtain more Deduction Points.”
Upon hearing this notification, a glimmer appeared in Charles’s eyes.
At the same time, an uncontrollable killing intent began surging within his heart.
The destructive power of the Laser Charm was vastly greater than that of the Flash Charm.
It was already a purely offensive spell.
As for the power of lasers, Charles had heard in his previous life that lasers could be used to cut and process steel.
There was also the famous laser corridor scene from Resident Evil in movies, where razor-sharp lasers could effortlessly slice human bodies apart.
If he released the Laser Charm at Dark while the old wizard was caught off guard, perhaps he could kill this dark wizard on the spot!
Charles tightened his grip around his wand and spoke to Dark.
“I had no intention of stalling.”
“The feeling of ascension was simply too strange, so I needed some time to adjust.”
“Weren’t you the one who wanted to see what changes would occur when someone who had undergone ascension cast a spell?”
“Then watch carefully.”
Charles raised his wand.
The killing intent within his heart surged.
The Laser Charm, which had practically become instinctive to him, was about to be unleashed.
But in an instant, Charles noticed that Dark was also gripping his wand tightly.
This old wizard really was insane.
But he was certainly not so foolish as to let his guard down around Charles.
Charles’s thoughts raced.
The wand movement he had originally prepared for the Laser Charm suddenly changed.
A burst of intense light erupted from Charles’s wand, illuminating the area in front of him and turning the underground chamber completely white.
At the exact moment Charles cast the spell, an invisible barrier had already appeared in front of Dark.
It was the Protego Charm, capable of blocking the vast majority of spells!
Seeing this, Charles felt a wave of relief.
Cold sweat almost soaked through his back.
Fortunately, he had reacted quickly and hadn’t actually used the lethal Laser Charm against Dark.
Otherwise, Protego would have blocked it.
And at that point, Charles’s fate would have been difficult to predict.
At the same time, Dark, who had been caught in the Flash Charm, laughed maniacally from behind the protection of Protego.
“Lumos actually has this kind of effect in the hands of a little brat who has never even learned a single spell before?!”
“Ascension!”
“The Ascension Potion must have worked!”
“Hahahaha!”
“It worked!”
“After improving the Ascension Potion so many times, I’m finally going to succeed!”
Charles looked at Dark, who was crying tears of excitement, his eyes shining with fanaticism.
His gaze flickered slightly.
If he wanted to kill Dark, the destructive power of the Laser Charm still wasn’t enough.
He needed to continue deducing Lumos.
Once.
Twice.
Even three or four more times.
Eventually, its power would reach a level that even Dark’s Protego could no longer withstand!
But to do that, he would need a huge number of Deduction Points.
At present, the item that had provided him with the most Deduction Points in the shortest amount of time was the Ascension Potion that Dark had concocted.
Therefore, after thinking for a moment, Charles spoke to Dark, who was still immersed in his joy.
“You’re wrong.”
“You’ve taken the wrong path.”
“If you continue down this road, you’ll never create a true Ascension Potion!”
As soon as these words were spoken, Dark’s manic laughter abruptly stopped.
He opened his bloodshot eyes.
The cold and crazed expression on his face was completely undisguised.
A flash of green light appeared at the tip of his wand, accompanied by overwhelming killing intent as it pointed directly at Charles.
“You’re teaching me how to make the Ascension Potion?”
“Do you know how much effort I’ve put into improving the Ascension Potion?”
“Do you know how many experiments I’ve conducted?”
“And you dare tell me that I’ve taken the wrong path?”
“How dare you!”
A terrifying sense of impending death spread through Charles’s heart.
Charles gritted his teeth and shouted.
“Improve it?”
“Why do you need to improve it?”
Dark froze for a moment.
“Because everyone who drank the Ascension Potion died.”
“So I needed to improve the Ascension Potion and make its effects gentler…”
Before he could finish, Charles spoke in a low voice.
“Do you really think everyone is qualified to undergo ascension?”
“After drinking the Ascension Potion and dying, why must it be the potion’s fault?”
“Why can’t it be the dead person’s fault?”
“It proves that they simply weren’t qualified to ascend!”
“You weren’t wrong.”
“The Ascension Potion wasn’t wrong.”
“The world itself was wrong!”
“Think about it.”
“How was your first version of the potion created?”
“Mad inspiration.”
“A genius idea.”
“It was as though some ancient beings were whispering into your ear, sending the inspiration for this potion directly into your mind.”
“Why don’t you trust their revelation?”
“Why are you trying to weaken the potion’s effects?”
“Can ascension really be achieved peacefully?”
“You’ve been too conservative, Dark.”
“You need to be more aggressive.”
“More extreme!”
“Max it out!”
“Max out the potion’s effects!”
“Push the magical power of the Ascension Potion to its absolute limit!”
“Only then can you achieve the most glorious ascension!”
(End of Chapter)