Hogwarts… Late at night…
"One book… iron shovel… iron pickaxe… iron axe… iron sword…"
After fiddling at the crafting table all morning, Professor Kasenhis finally managed to create the beginner spellbook from the New Arcana mod.
"Holy moly, this thing looks even more high-end than the Arcane Manual!"
He marveled at the floating spellbook hovering beside him — purple leather cover, gold trim, just oozing "I'm cool and you know it" vibes.
With a wave of his hand, the book flew into his grasp. Upon opening it, he found five basic spell runes inside. Three of them were spellcasting delivery methods — Projectile, Self, and Touch — while the other two were spell effects — Damage and Break.
For example, the Projectile rune allowed the spell to shoot forward from the caster. Combine that with the Damage rune, and you've got the most basic attack spell.
The damage was enough to take out about a quarter of a person's health bar. So, theoretically, a healthy adult could take four hits before taking a meeting with Death himself.
As for its performance in real-world combat… Kasenhis thought back to all the Hogwarts professors and their magic — at least in this world, the "damage spell" was just that: it harmed the target's life force, but didn't mess with their body or mind.
If he had to compare it to something from this world's spellbook…
The Avada Kedavra curse — that was really the only fitting comparison. Though the intensity wasn't on the same level, the underlying logic of both spells was eerily similar.
Of course, instead of casting it as a projectile, you could also go with Touch. Combine Touch with Damage, and that was essentially giving your enemy four good slaps before sending them off to hang out with the Grim Reaper.
As for the other spell effect rune — Break — that one was pretty straightforward. It broke objects. It had no real effect on living beings or physical bodies, at least not according to Kasenhis' experiments. It seemed strictly limited to inanimate matter.
And Break could really only be paired with Projectile. After all, if you used Touch with Break… well, Kasenhis could already do that by himself.
Need we be reminded of that time he first met Harry and whacked down the wall to Diagon Alley with a few good knocks?
In short, this spellbook had incredible potential and expressive power. More importantly, it was far more fun, easier to research, and way safer than anything from the Thaumcraft.
The only issue? The spellbook came with too few runes — just five.
And of those five, only four were practically usable. Self as a delivery method? Completely useless for now.
In theory, the Self rune would probably be for buffs — self-enhancing magic — but again, there weren't any buff-type runes available yet.
Still, there was a way to unlock more runes. The spellbook had documentation on that too.
The first method? A copying table.
But Kasenhis figured the research table would be more efficient. The copying table wasn't exactly a walk in the park either — it required a material called Supreme Wood, and that stuff wasn't going to be easy to come by.
Moreover, it required a special kind of parchment. This parchment wasn't the same as ordinary parchment — according to the spellbook, it had to be made by combining magical fibers with regular parchment to create a type that could actually store magic.
Whether this special parchment was essential to rune research or not, Kasenhis hadn't figured out yet, but what he did know was: school wasn't even out yet and he already had two new tasks on his plate.
First, he needed to find Supreme Wood.
Second, he had to hunt down the raw material needed to make magical fibers — Mana Bloom.
Kasenhis leaned back in his chair with a sigh. He thought back to the time during winter break when he and Lupin went wandering all over the world in search of magic crystals. Right now, he was way more powerful than he was back then.
Yet, right now, he felt like a headless chicken. But back then, he had clear direction and purpose...
A little lightbulb suddenly lit up over Kasenhis' head.
Who had given him that direction back then?
If she could point him somewhere back then, surely she could still do the same now… right? She should be able to!
Excited, Kasenhis practically leapt from his office chair and headed straight for Professor Trelawney's tower.
Soon after, he spotted two floating labels in the corridor: [Human] [Magic]
The two entries hovered silently in the air. Kasenhis sighed — there was only one student at Hogwarts capable of sneaking around under an invisibility cloak: Harry Potter.
Some senior students could manage Disillusionment Charms, sure, but their skill levels were clearly lacking. At best, their illusions were optical — if you looked carefully enough, you could still see outlines and shadows.
Kasenhis reached out instinctively from above, intending to snatch away Harry's invisibility cloak — but the sensation under his hand was… odd.
It was fuzzy, like hair — not the slippery fabric feel of an invisibility cloak.
And the height was off. Harry was still just a little bean sprout of a kid. But what Kasenhis was touching right now… felt like it was perched on top of someone.
In that instant, Kasenhis realized that this so-called "Harry"… might actually be riding piggyback on Ron.
The next second, he felt a hand brush his aside. And only then did the true identity of this nighttime stealth-walker come into view…
"…It's been how long already? How are you still not gone?" Kasenhis squinted, eyes half-lidded in exasperation as he looked at the man casually brushing back his hair — Gellert Grindelwald.
"Heh~ Hogwarts doesn't belong to you, does it?" Grindelwald replied with a snarky smile. Check latest chapters at 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹✶𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲✶𝗻𝗲𝘁
"That's right! BUT I am a professor here. That gives me every right to throw out a dark wizard. Especially when that dark wizard isn't rotting in Nurmengard where he belongs, but instead lounging around under his nemesis's nose… What is it, Dumbledore found you a new prison, or did he hand over the Defense Against the Dark Arts job to you on the side?" Kasenhis deadpanned.
"Oh, so now you recognize me?"
"Went back and flipped through a few pages of early-century history books. But you still haven't answered my question, Mr. Grindelwald."
"…Technically speaking, Albus isn't really my mortal enemy. We just… have different ideologies. Besides, he hasn't exactly hauled me back to Nurmengard yet, has he? Doesn't that say enough?" Grindelwald replied with poise, hands clasped behind his back and chin tilted slightly upward.
"…Right. I had another question."
"Your guess is correct — he did, in fact, give me the position of the next Defense Against the Dark Arts professor," Grindelwald said without even listening to the question.
Kasenhis's mouth twitched.
"The Daily Prophet wasn't wrong — That old bastard really has lost it, this is a school full of children for fuck's sake!" Kasen abruptly changed direction and strode toward the headmaster's office.
"You're just taking it at face value? So easily, Professor Kasenhis?" Grindelwald called after him.
"Oh, I believe it completely. That brain of Dumbledore's! What in the world is he thinking?!"
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