Chapter 167: Druid and Arcanist
Chapter 167: Druid and Arcanist
The next morning, Liam had just finished washing up and stepped out when he saw Hermione, with dark circles under her eyes, yawning as she emerged from her room. Noticing Liam looking at her, Hermione turned her head sheepishly and said, "I found out we’re going to Mahogany Town yesterday, so I spent the whole night researching everything related to the place. I didn’t realize there was so much information about Mahogany Town, and I ended up staying up really late."
"I have to admit, I don’t understand you. This is supposed to be a relaxing vacation, yet you end up exhausting yourself like this", Liam said, unable to comprehend Hermione’s Scholar mindset.
"Mahogany Town is a very important place. Many significant events in South American magic have occurred there. For instance, the perpetual illusion above the Crocodile Pyramid, and the site where the Brazilian Ministry of Magic was founded in the 18th century. In short, this town encapsulates a significant portion of South America’s modern History of Magic. Traveling to such an important place without proper preparation would be a waste of a great opportunity to learn."
"So that’s why you’ve turned into a panda?" Liam teased, drawing a circle under his own eyes.
Hermione clearly knew what a panda was, especially since a panda named Mingming had been moved to the London Zoo the autumn of her first year. She had even visited the London Zoo to see the panda during the Christmas break. So when Liam gestured, Hermione immediately understood he was referring to her dark circles.
"Do my dark circles really show that much?" Hermione asked, a bit anxious. Even though she usually didn’t care much about her appearance, she still wanted to look presentable during group activities. This sensitivity had only increased since she entered puberty.
"Pretty obvious, yeah", Liam said, noticing Hermione’s expression fall. "But I have a way to fix it right now."
With that, Liam drew his wand, pointed it at Hermione’s face, and cast, "Nature's Soothing." As the spell took effect, a pure wave of Natural Power slowly infused Hermione’s body. She felt as if she had just woken up from a refreshing sleep in the embrace of nature, her fatigue and eye strain completely gone.
After the magic ended, Hermione took out her small mirror and saw that her dark circles and bloodshot eyes had disappeared. She looked at Liam in surprise, wanting to say something.
"Stop right there. I won’t teach you that spell. I know you want to use it for all-night study sessions in the future. But even magic can only provide temporary relief and can’t replace proper rest. Besides, you definitely won’t be able to learn it."
"Alright, I did want to learn it. But why do you think I can’t?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Simple. How’s your progress with the Meditation Technique I taught you last Saturday?"
"Besides sleeping better after meditating, it hasn’t been much use", Hermione replied.
"That’s exactly why I say you can’t learn it. The spell I just cast requires the use of Natural Power. The Meditation Technique I taught you is the first step in harnessing Natural Power. Since you’ve been practicing for so long and still can’t connect with nature, it means you lack the talent for it. In the world of magic, many things depend on innate talent. Hard work alone won’t do the trick", Liam shrugged.
"Too bad", Hermione said, looking a bit disheartened. But she quickly perked up. "But you did teach me those runes, and I’ve even started modifying spells."
After speaking, Hermione took out her wand and cast a spell: "Lumos." A white light appeared at the tip of her wand, gradually turning red. She then said a bit sheepishly, "Right now, I can only change it to red, and it consumes more than three times the magic compared to the original."
"Wow? You've learned much faster than I expected, actually being able to modify spells on your own already." Liam said, somewhat surprised. After discussing the formation of a study group with Hermione, Liam had taught her the basics of runes and a natural meditation technique.
At the time, Liam had two reasons for sharing his knowledge. First, he wanted to improve Hermione's skills, as enhancing a friend's abilities indirectly strengthened his own. Second, Liam had too many paths of power to pursue, and he couldn't possibly master all of them. He had no time for innovation, as learning and fully understanding the inherited knowledge already occupied most of his time. In this situation, he had always planned to entrust some of his knowledge to reliable people to see if they could develop something new.
After their last discussion, Liam confirmed that Hermione, with whom he had a good relationship and shared common ideals, was trustworthy. So, he gave her part of the natural lineage and some knowledge about runes from the Nordic wizard tradition. He hadn't expected her to make such a breakthrough in rune research so quickly.
It seemed that Hermione wasn't particularly interested in natural power, but she showed a natural talent for runes, which were purely intellectual. This indicated that she was more of a born arcanist than a druid.
"Right now, I can only modify some minor spells, but even then, they aren't as good as the original. I don't see the point of these changes", Hermione took this opportunity to voice the confusion that had been bothering her for a while.
"How can this be pointless? In fact, it's one of the foundations of the power of pureblood families. While all the general spells available on the market have been refined over generations, the trade-off for their versatility is that they are often difficult for wizards to use effectively. A powerful wizard will invariably modify these common spells to create ones that suit them better. For example, almost everyone knows the Fire Charm, but Dumbledore could use his own modified version of it to defeat dangerous dark wizards in battle."
"Oh, I see. Thank you! Now I have a vague idea of the path I want to take in the future", Hermione said, her face lighting up with a smile, looking much more relaxed.
Seeing Hermione's smile, perhaps because they had known each other for so long, Liam suddenly found her messy brown hair, never-trimmed thick eyebrows, and even her buckteeth and the small face that had just started to mature during her teenage years, somewhat endearing.
Damn, Liam suddenly felt a chill down his spine. Could this be because he had been single for too long? Surely not.
Thinking this, Liam immediately reminded himself: The girl in front of you is just a child, and the relationship between you and her is purely platonic. Teaching her so much knowledge is just a way to help a like-minded companion, yes, that's it.
With this thought, Liam's mind calmed down. However, Hermione, of course, had no idea what was going through Liam's mind. She lifted her arm to check her watch and said in surprise, "Oh no, it's almost half past seven. We need to hurry to the Great Hall for dinner. We're going to Mahogany Town today, after all."
With that, Liam was pulled along by Hermione to go eat.
(End of Chapter)
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