Hogwarts Card System Chapter 154

Chapter 155: I Choose You, Ansu!

Hagrid opened the door, and outside stood Ted.

“Oh, Ted, hello! You came alone?”

“Yes, I have something to do in the Forbidden Forest.”

Upon hearing this, Hagrid’s face showed a pained expression—as the Keeper of Keys and Grounds, he shouldn’t let him enter the Forbidden Forest, but as a friend, he couldn’t refuse to help. Most importantly, Ted was capable of protecting himself in the Forbidden Forest, so he had no reason to dissuade him. And he couldn’t dissuade him anyway!

“Alright, alright, I knew it. What is it this time?”

Ted had been quite active in the Forbidden Forest in the latter half of last year, gaining a lot of experience. This significantly reduced Hagrid’s workload.

In fact, Hagrid had also felt a bit overwhelmed these past two years.

Over a decade ago, being the Forbidden Forest keeper was an easy job. He could slack off every day, hunt when he felt like it, and earn a salary.

But these past few years, it had become increasingly difficult.

Firstly, more and more magical creatures from other worlds were appearing in the Forbidden Forest.

The Forbidden Forest was vast, encompassing the north and east of Hogwarts, extending all the way to the mountains a hundred miles to the east and the great canyon to the south.

Due to the abundant magic, there were already many magical creatures.

As a result, many magical creatures from other worlds also flocked here because of the abundant magic.

This disrupted the original ecology and territorial boundaries, leading to frequent appearances of magical animals that wouldn’t normally be seen in the border areas.

Hagrid had to shoo them away to prevent them from disturbing the students at school.

And those magical creatures from other worlds were even more troublesome; they suddenly appeared in this world, fearful and irritable, and usually couldn’t be dealt with without resorting to force.

And more trouble was yet to come!

With the diversification of various magical creatures in the Forbidden Forest, some dark wizards and merchants operating in the gray areas set their sights on this place.

In the past two years, more than ten people had been caught, and Hagrid had encountered over twenty groups!

Not to mention those who were incompetent, careless, or unlucky enough to remain in the Forbidden Forest forever.

Although Dumbledore had repeatedly reinforced the magical alarms and defenses, these people didn’t come through Hogwarts.

Hagrid would discover traces of poachers in the Forbidden Forest almost every month. Sometimes he would encounter them and have a big fight, other times he wouldn’t find them. In short, he was very tired.

Last year, Ted dealt with many magical creatures that crossed the boundary in the outer reaches of the Forbidden Forest, helping Hagrid solve many problems.

Hagrid poured Ted tea while saying, “That Ice Shield Badge you gave me last time was incredibly useful. A few days ago, a group of poachers was active in the Forbidden Forest, and thanks to your badge, I wasn’t ambushed by them!”

“Oh, by the way!” He stood up and picked up the bearskin coat hanging on the wall. “This coat is absolutely fantastic! It’s very beautiful, I love it!”

Hagrid in the bearskin coat looked just like a giant black bear!

…

Rubbing Fang’s head, Ted bid farewell to Hagrid and walked into the Forbidden Forest with Ansu.

He needed to choose a suitable place, where, on one hand, the magic needed to be abundant for drawing magic circles and performing the ritual, and on the other hand, it had to be quiet, so as not to attract any strange magical creatures to watch.

After walking into the Forbidden Forest for over an hour, Ted finally found a suitable location in a cave on a small hill.

The magic here was abundant, and it was quiet.

Precisely because the conditions here were excellent, it was already occupied. By a Red Cap.

Judging by its dark red, almost black cap, this creature had lived for some years, killing many prey, its cap stained crimson.

But facing Ted, it didn’t even put up a fight.

With Puck’s enhancement, Ted directly gave the Red Cap a mental spike.

The Red Cap felt a red-hot bamboo skewer pierce its brain. With a scream of agony, it fainted.

Ted finished it off with an Ice Arrow. It even dropped a card.

[Fae Spirituality (White)], this was a material card. Ted had gotten two of these before.

“Hey! Such good fortune!” Ted picked up the card, a wide smile spreading across his face.

Three card phantoms appeared in Ted’s hand, all white-bordered [Fae Spirituality (White)].

“Consume 100 experience points to fuse cards,” Ted thought to himself.

As the experience points were consumed, the three white cards vanished, replaced by a green-bordered card, [Fae Spirituality (Green)].

Cards could be fused and upgraded, but Ted had never used this feature before.

Mainly because he didn’t have many cards, and it also consumed experience points, so he hadn’t even tried.

Ted’s path was clearly defined: everything revolved around magic!

Whether it was cards, experience points, or knowledge from other worlds.

But now it was different; he needed this card.

Originally, two [Fae Spirituality (White)] would have been enough, but a higher-grade one was even better.

Ted pulled out various materials from his pocket: silver powder, several potions and herbs, magical ink, body parts of dark magical creatures, obsidian, and so on…

Ten minutes later, a magic ritual circle two meters in diameter appeared.

“Are you ready?” Ted asked.

Ansu lightly landed in the center of the magic circle: “Come on, quack quack~”

Ted extended his wand: “Magic Awakening!”

The magic within Ted’s body began to surge out wildly, flowing along the circuit of the magic circle made primarily of silver powder and other magical materials.

The entire cave began to emit a blue light.

And as the vortex caused by Ted’s magic operating within the magic circle, the ambient magic in the Forbidden Forest also began to gather here.

Ted let out a sigh of relief, wiping his somewhat damp forehead.

With various enhancements, Ted’s magic was already at Lv 8, which was a Headmaster-level magical proficiency.

But even so, Ted felt empty inside and a little unsteady.

The true source of magic for this ritual was the magic in the environment, or even the ley lines.

If it weren’t in the Forbidden Forest, it would be really hard to find such a place outside.

Ted sensed the total amount of magic gathering, paying attention to the capacity of the materials in the magic circle.

He opened his hand, and three card phantoms appeared in it.

[Fae Spirituality (Green)], this represented the spirituality of fae creatures.

Although the card’s quality level wasn’t high, that was because of the small quantity. In terms of essence alone, this thing was very high-end.

If he could take down Peeves, he would definitely get a purple-quality Fae Spirituality!

At this moment, Peeves, who was causing trouble in the castle, suddenly felt a chill on the back of his head. Startled, he quickly drilled through the wall and vanished.

[Magic Vision Nictitating Membrane (Blue)], this was a card dropped by the troll. It allowed one to see the color of magic. It was a very functional card. Ted thought it would be good to add this ability to Ansu, and there would be no possibility of rejection or conflicting attributes.

Finally, there was [Stone of Darkness (Red)], a gem representing immense dark power.

He also had a material card, [Sanctity (Blue)], but he estimated it wouldn’t be very compatible, so he decided against it.

At this moment, the leaves of trees within several hundred meters uncontrollably swayed towards the cave, and even magical animals a kilometer away looked around in panic.

However, this phenomenon only lasted for about ten seconds. After Ted felt that the magic circle had reached its limit, he cut off the subsequent ritual.

At this point, the blue light in the center of the magic circle had become too bright to look at directly, and it gradually dimmed after about ten seconds.

Ansu spread her wings within the magic circle, and magical patterns flickered on each feather.

Seeing Ansu return to her original appearance, Ted asked, “Ansu, are you alright?”

“Comfortable, quack quack~ I want to do it again, quack quack~”

If we do it again, I’ll go bankrupt!

Ansu leveled up! Dark Raven~

…

In the library, Ted meticulously consulted various materials. Several stacks of books on emotional magic, such as the Cheering Charm, were piled up.

The Cheering Charm was taught by Professor Flitwick in Charms class yesterday.

This spell was quite challenging, mainly due to the difficulty in control.

Using this spell wasn’t difficult; several talented students successfully cast it in class.

The problem was the intensity!

Harry used a Cheering Charm on Ron, and Ron laughed hysterically, tears and snot streaming down his face, almost passing out.

Neville’s jaw was dislocated by a Cheering Charm from Jerry.

By the end of class, all the students except Ted had strange smiles on their faces, startling the incoming students. They looked utterly peculiar!

This wasn’t originally a very important spell, but Ted found it to have significant research value.

Because it involved emotions, which was the domain of psionics.

Based on his knowledge of brain science and psychology from the Muggle world, Ted deeply analyzed and researched this spell to develop psychic abilities.

From an internal medicine perspective, various endocrine products, such as dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, etc., control people’s emotions by acting on the nervous system.

From a brain science perspective, scientists divide the brain into three layers: the underlying reptilian brain responsible for instinct, the middle mammalian brain responsible for emotions, and the outer neocortex (roughly the prefrontal lobe) responsible for logic and rationality.

From a psychological perspective, this corresponds to the triple consciousness model: unconscious, subconscious, and conscious…

Some people are highly emotional, possibly because their middle brain is too strong and the outer layer cannot control it, or because the subconscious interferes excessively with behavior…

Ted’s psychic energy surged in his mind, and a new psychic ability was emerging: Emotion Provocation.

Using psychic energy to interfere with the target’s middle brain and subconscious, provoking the birth and disappearance of various emotions…


Thanks to reader “tail number 6444” for the 100 points reward~

(End of Chapter)