Rock arrived once again at the Room of Requirement, but this time, instead of repeating his old request, he paused and shifted his thoughts.
"I need a place that's absolutely safe…"
He walked past the blank wall three times. The door formed and swung open—revealing not the familiar spacious spell-training room, but a dusty, cobweb-filled chamber.
"Fresh and clean."
With a wave of his wand, the dust and cobwebs vanished.
He stepped inside. Behind him, the stone wall slid shut, sealing the chamber completely.
A hidden room within the Room of Requirement—definitely secure enough for what he needed.
Rock pulled out the candy tin. With a crisp click, the Philosopher's Stone leapt into his palm.
"Last time."
He stared at the stone as an excited tremor ran through him.
A deep hum rose within his consciousness—not a sound, but something vibrating through his soul. The Codex of All Engravings awakened.
[Contacting "High-Order Construct"...]
[Engraving Initiated]
Suddenly the world around him was drenched in red light. The bronze glow of the Codex flared in response, the two colors intertwining.
As Rock raised a hand, the bronze light surged.
"…Am I supposed to guide this?"
The instinctive thought surfaced as he faced the red radiance.
So this red light—this was the Philosopher's Stone's law structure?
He reached out. Countless filaments—normally invisible—extended from him and latched onto the red glow.
Law structure…
These red strands were the Stone's structure on the level of laws.
The instant he realized this, an overwhelming force yanked at his soul.
Then—
Where is this?
He spun around, heart tensed. His wand, usually always there when he reached for it, was missing.
"Transmutation is not a simple substitution of elements," a voice behind him said. "It is the rewriting of the fundamental definition of matter."
Rock turned sharply.
An elderly man with white beard and hair stood behind him, clear-eyed and serene—a translucent projection.
"Nicholas Flamel…"
No—not quite. He wasn't speaking to Rock. His gaze was just slightly off.
This wasn't a person.
It was a record.
An imprint left inside the Stone itself.
"Many chase its ability to turn lead into gold, or its promise of immortality… but those are merely the results—not the process."
[You listen to Nicholas Flamel's explanations. Alchemy Chapter Affinity increasing.]
[You have gained +30 Basic Material Recognition.]
[You have gained +30 Basic Material Recognition.]
[You have gained +100 Transfiguration Experience.]
[You have gained +200 Transfiguration Experience.]
[Alchemy Chapter Affinity +5000.]
[Material Processing +500, Temperature Control +500, Magical Infusion +600.]
A pure, metallic ringing—like gold striking stone—echoed not in his ears but deep in his soul, snapping him out of the trance.
Flamel's projection lifted a hand and drew a symbol:
The Ouroboros.
"Remember this. This is the core of alchemy. You cannot create from nothing. Everything must be broken down, purified, and recombined."
As his voice faded, the phantom shrank, condensing into a deep red stone—the Philosopher's Stone.
Its law structure expanded outward, wrapping around Rock.
Bronze light erupted from him, clinging to the structure—copying it line by line.
"So this is engraving…"
The Codex wasn't consuming the Stone.
It was replicating it perfectly, like a flawless sketch capturing every detail.
Time stretched.
Threads peeled off from the Stone's structure and returned to Rock's consciousness, weaving themselves into the Codex.
Blank pages knit together into a complete, solidified chapter.
Then—silence.
Rock blinked.
He was back in the hidden chamber. Everything was the same—yet it felt subtly different.
[Law-Grade Structure: "Nicholas Flamel's Proof of Eternity" has been fully recorded.]
[Alchemy Chapter — Activated]
Rock raised his wand. The threads he sensed earlier lifted the Philosopher's Stone gently into the air.
"So that's how it works…"
"A shame. If I had a base potion infused with life-rich magic, I could use this to brew an entire batch."
He rubbed the bridge of his nose, disappointed.
Flamel's creation of the Philosopher's Stone had been a miracle—so miraculous that even Flamel himself couldn't recreate it.
Rock had copied the structure perfectly, but who knew how long it would take before he could forge one of his own?
"The Book of Abraham…"
He recalled Flamel's explanation.
Flamel had started with that ancient manuscript, spent twenty-one years deciphering it, and four more years of nonstop experiments before the Stone emerged in 1382—through a series of accidents that shouldn't have worked, but somehow did.
As if destiny itself had decided Flamel would be the one to create it.
Rock turned the Stone in his hand.
Right now, he perceived it as perfect only because he had engraved its entire structure.
Without that engraving? He wouldn't have been able to understand even a fraction of it.
Carefully, he returned the Stone to the candy tin and slipped it into his backpack.
Then he left the Room of Requirement and headed back toward Ravenclaw Tower.
As he walked, his fingers brushed against the castle walls, sensing the tiny, delicate threads he could now perceive everywhere.
When he reached the base of the tower, a realization struck him.
"…So that's what the Mirror of Erised was showing me."