Vera stared at the severed arm of the training dummy, the images she had seen when her Magic Circuit awakened resurfacing in her mind.
Lightly tracing the golden patterns on her wand, she murmured thoughtfully, "If the Magic Circuit is an ability I already possessed, then how am I supposed to learn true Ancient Magic?"
The crystal near her heart trembled faintly, as if responding to her question.
Vera closed her eyes and tried to sink her consciousness into the core of the Magic Circuit.
In an instant, the golden lines inside her body lit up, guiding her awareness back into that void-like space from before—
But unlike the last time she had come here, it now resembled a star-filled expanse, countless points of light forming a vast and intricate array of floating runes suspended in the darkness.
Most of the runes, however, were dim and lifeless. Only a small handful glimmered with varying degrees of light.
Vera swept her gaze across them, and one particularly bright rune immediately caught her attention. She instinctively reached out, and the moment her fingers touched it, a flood of information poured into her mind:
[Ancient Magic: Multi-Casting (Beginner)]
[Effect 1: Consume 5 mana points to stack multiple effects into a single spell. Current stack limit: 2 layers.]
[Additional effects will unlock as your Magic Circuit rank increases.]
Vera's breathing hitched slightly.
This Multi-Casting effect…
It was practically like a skill enhancement from a game.
She immediately withdrew from the mental space and raised her wand toward another training dummy.
"Diffindo!"
This time, she deliberately guided her magic along a specific pathway. At the instant the spell was released, the crystal near her heart suddenly turned burning hot, and she clearly sensed the rune for Multi-Casting flare to life in her consciousness.
As the spell left her lips, two nearly overlapping pink beams burst from the tip of her wand in a fan-shaped arc toward the dummy. The first severed its neck. The second sliced straight through its waist.
The dummy's three pieces hit the ground almost simultaneously, and its upper half even exploded outright, scattering splinters everywhere.
Vera instinctively threw up an arm to shield herself, but several fragments still scratched her cheek.
Warm liquid ran down the line of her jaw, yet a faint golden glow instantly bloomed at the wound, and it healed in the blink of an eye.
Her chest rose and fell sharply. That single strike had consumed 6 mana points in total—1 for the base spell, plus 5 for Multi-Casting.
But the effect was undeniably astonishing.
Used in actual combat, it would be almost impossible to defend against.
Her mana reserve had dropped to 4 points, which meant she no longer had enough to try Multi-Casting again.
Vera took a deep breath and gradually calmed her pounding heart.
She rolled her wheelchair closer to the dummy she had completely destroyed, running her fingertips over the jagged breakpoints and feeling the lingering magical fluctuations.
This was the power of Ancient Magic.
Her lips curved upward in satisfaction.
Then she pressed one of the hidden runes on her wheelchair, a mark designed specifically to summon Kreacher—one of the applications of house-elf magic.
As long as she wasn't somewhere like Hogwarts, where special magical wards blocked such things, Kreacher would be able to sense it and arrive immediately.
"Miss!"
Kreacher appeared in the doorway almost at once, his tennis-ball eyes widening in alarm.
"There's blood on your face! Are you hurt?"
"It's nothing. It's already healed."
Vera pulled out a handkerchief and casually wiped away the remaining blood. There was no trace of injury left on her skin.
Only then did Kreacher relax. Still, he cast a suspicious look around the wrecked room, his gaze lingering on the shattered dummy.
"Did Miss do this…? Kreacher felt a very powerful magical aura."
Vera did not respond to that comment. She only said softly, "Can you help me clean this up?"
"Of course!"
The house-elf sprang into action at once. With a casual flick of his hand, the broken dummy parts and scattered splinters flew back together and restored themselves.
Vera watched in silence from behind him, studying the magical traces that flowed from Kreacher's fingertips—magic that was different from a wizard's, yet in some ways strangely similar.
House-elf magic was entirely different from wizard magic.
Its power flowed in a more primal, more direct way. It needed no wand, not even an incantation. A single thought was enough to accomplish complex magic.
Vera watched those paths of magical flow thoughtfully.
Perhaps…
House-elf magic was actually closer to Ancient Magic?
The only problem was that her own mana was currently exhausted, so she had no way to test the idea.
Vera quietly filed the thought away in her mind. Once everything had been tidied up, she silently turned her wheelchair and left the training room.
Kreacher followed right behind her, stealing worried glances now and then at her somewhat pale face.
"Miss needs rest," the house-elf said stubbornly. "Kreacher has prepared hot milk and blueberry muffins… and today's potion."
Vera's expression stiffened for a moment, but in the end she did not refuse. She let Kreacher push her back to the bedroom.
Outside the window, the sky had already darkened. The last light of sunset filtered through the gap in the heavy curtains, casting a golden streak across the floor.
The moment Nox saw her return, it jumped down from the bookshelf and lightly landed in her lap.
"Miss is far too tired today," Kreacher muttered as he set the hot milk and muffins on the bedside table. Then he took a small crystal bottle from his pocket, filled with emerald-green potion. "This is today's potion. The apothecary only just delivered it."
Vera accepted the bottle, her fingertips brushing over the cool glass surface.
With the help of her Magic Circuit, she could clearly see the faint magical currents flowing inside the potion, as well as the interaction paths of its ingredients.
"Thank you, Kreacher."
She set the bottle aside, her voice gentle but leaving no room for argument.
"I'd like to rest for a while before drinking it. Go on and take care of your other tasks."
Once the house-elf left with drooping ears, Vera lifted the potion bottle up before her eyes and studied the magical flow within the green liquid.
Those tiny magical trajectories could not escape her sight—there were herbal extracts meant to repair muscle damage, along with several ingredients she could not yet identify.
To be honest, this sort of healing potion had a little effect, but mostly it served as a placebo.
After all, with her current constitution, she couldn't take something as strong as that previous potion every single day.
Vera placed the potion bottle back on the bedside table, wheeled herself to the desk, and took out a sheet of parchment and a quill.
An ordinary apothecary would have a hard time healing her injuries.
But Hogwarts had people of real ability there.
She could not place all her hope solely on the suddenly awakened Ancient Magic.
The quill moved gently across the parchment, the ink glimmering faintly in the candlelight.
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
I am writing this letter with sincere intentions. As a future Hogwarts first-year, I hope to communicate with you in advance regarding my physical condition. Due to an accident, I currently require a wheelchair for mobility…
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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