Hogwarts Card System Chapter 043

At this moment, three monsters were destroying things along the corridor in the basement.

They knocked over armor, smashed statues, and tore up oil paintings. Even the torches and braziers on the walls were hit with a club.

The people in the portraits screamed and ran, and several ladies and madams, not caring about too much, lifted their skirts and ran wildly, even exposing their underpants.

Speaking of which, the portraits in the magical world are so detailed, and they even have layers? They even painted this! So realistic!

Ansu quietly landed on a high-up relief where the firelight was invisible, and Ted was observing these monsters through its eyes.

These three monsters were all different.

The first one looked like a modified troll, standing three and a half meters tall, a size larger than a regular troll. Its front was light yellow, and its back was dark blue to black, covered in many warty protrusions, like crocodile skin, but with larger bumps, making it look rough and thick-skinned.

This guy’s head was only the size of a normal person’s, even a little thinner than its thick neck, causing its head, neck, and shoulders to form a triangle.

This made it look very resilient! But it also made it appear very clumsy, as its head’s range of motion was restricted, very inflexible, only able to turn about 60° left and right, with a limited field of view!

It held a giant club and smashed it everywhere. A full suit of armor by the wall was sent flying over three meters with one swing, completely dented. It even stepped on it!

This thing’s combat power must be equivalent to several adult wizards, but its intelligence, judging by its behavior, was still very low.

Ted used an appraisal spell through Ansu, and the results were:

Modified Troll

Level: Level 6 Troll / Level 2 Modified Magical Creature

Attributes:

Strength 17

Constitution 14

Agility 4

Intelligence 3

Perception 4

Spirit 4

Charm 3

Luck ??

Talent: [Troll Blood (Green)]

Skills: Super Strength lv 2, Magic Resistance lv 2, Rapid Healing lv 2, Roar lv 2.

…

Evaluation: A modified troll infused with the blood of an otherworldly troll, its combat power has doubled.

Total level 8, which is the combat level of a regular Auror. Most adult wizards can only run; they can’t fight it.

Of course, Intelligence 3 is a hard limitation. It’s not much stronger than a smarter wild beast!

If there was only one such monster, Ted wouldn’t be worried at all. After all, the upper limit of strength depends on intelligence; no matter how strong, if intelligence is low, it’s still useless.

Ansu tucked its long snout under its wing: Oh my god! What smells so bad?

Ted quickly cut off his olfactory connection with Ansu. In those few seconds, he felt a wave of nausea and almost dry-heaved.

Hermione saw Ted clutching his chest and asked with concern, “Ted, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, really, not going to die~”

He didn’t know if trolls naturally smelled this bad, or if Professor Quirrell’s modifications made it even worse, but in any case, this stench was practically an area-of-effect attack.

Oh, right, there were two other monsters.

The second monster looked like some kind of insect, a combination of a spider and a praying mantis?

It had the hindquarters and eight legs of a spider, but the forequarters, long neck, triangular head, and two large blades of a mantis.

With its neck raised, it was 1.7 meters tall and about 2.5 meters long. Its color was strange, a mix of yellow, green, and gray, like camouflage.

In the wild, it would probably be hard to spot, but in the castle, it was still quite conspicuous.

Spider-Mantis Bug

Level: Level 4 Giant Insect / Level 1 Modified Magical Creature

Attributes:

Strength 9

Constitution 8

Agility 7

Intelligence 3

Perception 5

Spirit 4

Charm 4

Luck ??

Talent: [Camouflage (Green)]

Skills: Blade Slash lv 2, Climbing lv 2, Compound Eyes lv 2.

…

Evaluation: Two insects crudely spliced and enlarged under the influence of magic. It’s a success if it’s even alive.

This monster was much weaker. At level 5, its combat power was equivalent to a regular wizard who had just graduated.

Of course, that’s just on paper. Many wizards, after seven years of schooling, haven’t experienced much combat, and if they panic, they can’t cast many spells.

Although it produced Dumbledore and Voldemort, Hogwarts is also known as the “Great Britain Intermediate College of Magic” after all~

With Defense Against the Dark Arts being what it is, it’s normal for graduates to have lackluster combat power.

But this half-spider, half-mantis was different. Just looking at its shape and compound eyes, you could tell it was a cold, ruthless hunting machine.

It wouldn’t show mercy or fear, making its actual combat power much stronger.

The last one was much smaller, a four-legged beast.

It looked like a canid, like a dog or a wolf, eighty centimeters tall and one and a half meters long.

But its front legs were long and its hind legs short, making it walk like a gorilla, propping itself up with its arms, and it also had some tiger stripes.

Its lower body was grayish, transitioning to golden yellow on its upper body, and it had a short, pointed horn on its head.

It’s worth noting that it had a large mouth with steel teeth that glinted coldly. If it bit you, even iron armor would be chewed into a sieve.

Unnamed Horned Beast

Level: Level 3 Magically Bred Magical Creature

Attributes:

Strength 6

Constitution 6

Agility 6

Intelligence 3

Perception 5

Spirit 4

Charm 4

Luck ??

Talent: None.

Skills: Claw Attack lv 2, Pounce lv 2, Bite lv 2.

…

Evaluation: The creator’s intentions are completely unclear. They tried to create a new magical creature using some means, but it seems to be of no value.

This monster’s combat power was much weaker, and it had no special abilities.

Even the appraisal spell didn’t give it a name, or rather, this thing had no original form, unlike the previous two which were modified from existing creatures.

This thing was created out of nothing, similar to a Basilisk?

But because its creator didn’t name it, it could only be called the Unnamed Horned Beast.

In fact, there are many similar situations. In the magical world, many magical creatures are the experimental products of wizards.

However, most species cannot survive the test of time and die out after a few generations or even just one generation.

For example, the Blast-Ended Skrewts that Hagrid later hybridized and created, if they had no value and couldn’t reproduce on their own in the wild, they would quickly become extinct.

Ted decided to call this monster: Quirrell’s Horned Beast!

Because there was no doubt it was related to Professor Quirrell!

…

“How is it? Did you see anything?” Harry impatiently asked.

Ted extended his hand, “Hold my hand, and I’ll show you what I saw.”

His friends looked bewildered: You’re secretly practicing magic we don’t know about again?

Five hands were stacked on Ted’s hand. Ted used his psychic ability to transmit the images he saw through Ansu’s eyes to them.

This was a new ability Ted had recently developed through Ansu.

The connection between a familiar and a wizard is much deeper than many people imagine.

Wizards can even cast spells through their familiars.

For example, Dumbledore could do many things through Fawkes the phoenix.

Ted also found that his connection with Ansu was gradually deepening, and he could understand her meaning without speaking.

And during one meditation, he even established a connection with Ansu, able to hear what she heard and see what she saw.

The ability to share internal images with his friends was developed from this.

Now they needed to hold hands, but in the future, a mere glance might be enough to transmit information.

It was a little bit like Legilimency!

The three monsters appeared in the eyes of his friends.

“Gulp~” Jerry swallowed.

“Looks a bit dangerous?” Ron also grimaced. When he saw the spider-mantis bug’s legs, his own legs went soft.

Neville was even more so: “Should we just go back?”

Looking at that club that was not much shorter than himself, he worried he might never get to hear his grandmother scold him again!

Harry disagreed, “We have to try! We’re not going to fight them head-on, but we have to delay them, buy the professors some time!”

Hermione calmly asked, “With what? Incendio? Diffindo? Our spells probably don’t have that kind of power.”

This was good news; at least they weren’t getting carried away and having the illusion that they could fight back and win.

This age group was exactly the “bear cub” age group: punching through steel plates in a rage, sliding into a tiger to disembowel it, swiftly dodging bullets, killing bears while playing dead—how hard could it be?

Ted was very relieved to see everyone so calm.

Everyone looked at Ted; he was undoubtedly the strongest in terms of combat power.

They had seen Ted practicing, severing the head of a training dummy with a single Diffindo, then repairing it with a Reparo spell, only to sever it again. He was practically a tormentor!

If Ted said there was no chance, they would definitely turn back.

Ted thought for a moment: “How about this… I remember there’s a secret passage nearby? Even if we can’t defeat them, running away shouldn’t be a problem.”

The Weasley twins spent all their time looking for magical puzzles and the like, finding many secret passages and mechanisms.

There happened to be one in the nearby basement. If they couldn’t win, they could hide there, and the monsters would be completely helpless.

Ted had analyzed the situation before deciding to take a risk.

Among the three monsters, the Quirrell’s Horned Beast actually had little combat power, a bit stronger than a wolf, but not by much.

A normal fifth-year wizard, as long as they weren’t nervous, could easily deal with it.

The spider-mantis bug was much more dangerous, mainly because it was agile and very lethal.

But since it had no magical abilities, it would be no problem if they knew many spells.

The most troublesome was the modified troll!

Its sheer size alone was enough to give anyone trouble.

And its naturally magic-resistant skin meant that ordinary spells would hardly be effective. It was like a rampaging magical armored vehicle.

And Ted and his friends were holding handguns, making it difficult to cope.

The only fortunate thing was its extremely low intelligence. And it had no natural magical abilities, not counting its body odor…