Crossing the Starry Sky Bridge, Chen Yu once again arrived at the orphanage in The Magical World of Hogwarts.
His character's body was still in the same reading posture as when he logged out, with his index finger pointing at the words in the book.
It was as if time had been frozen.
To test whether The Magical World of Hogwarts was in a paused state after he left, Chen Yu deliberately threw the textbook in his hand towards the ceiling and, as it began to fall, mentally commanded to exit.
He waited on the Starry Sky Bridge for five minutes, then re-entered The Magical World of Hogwarts, only to find that the textbook was still falling, precisely at the same position as when he had left it.
This indicated that once he left The Magical World of Hogwarts, this world, even if not completely frozen, was in a state where time flowed extremely slowly.
Conversely, once he entered the game, the flow of time in the real world would slow down.
The time ratio was approximately 1:24.
For every 24 hours he spent in the game world, only 1 hour passed in reality.
In other words, when he left The Magical World of Hogwarts, the game world's time was almost at a standstill; it only resumed its original time flow when he re-entered the game world.
However, when he put on the helmet and his consciousness left the real world, the real world's time flow was not nearly at a standstill, but rather flowing slowly.
Chen Yu suspected that the Starry Sky Bridge beneath his feet was the reason for the different time flow rates.
The Starry Sky Bridge was like a nail, fixed on the long rivers of time and space on both sides, adjusting the time flow rates of the two worlds.
As for how it managed this, Chen Yu's current knowledge was insufficient to explain its principle.
After the test, Chen Yu breathed a sigh of relief.
From after dinner in the real world until 8 AM the next morning, he would have about ten hours of undisturbed time, which translated to more than ten days in The Magical World of Hogwarts.
Ten days should be enough for him to learn a few basic spells from "Standard Book of spells, Grade 1."
"Wait, I still have a side quest reward to claim."
Side Quest: First wand of a Lifetime
Quest Content: Obtain your own wand
Reward: Random Item Card + 1
As the system reward was issued, a hard card, slightly larger than a playing card, appeared in Chen Yu's hand.
The back of the card depicted a treasure, while the front was covered with a silver-gray coating.
This reminded Chen Yu of the scratch-off coating on lottery tickets.
Does the player want to use the Random Item Card?
"Yes."
The moment Chen Yu selected "Yes," the coating on the card immediately faded and vanished.
Chen Yu clearly saw the pattern on the item card.
It was a neatly cut octagonal stone, with a coiled green snake, its tongue flicking, drawn in the stone's indentation.
Congratulations, Player, you have obtained the magical item: Serpent Spell.
Item Name: Serpent Spell
Description: The Serpent Spell is a magical item from "Jackie Chan Adventures," one of the Twelve Talismans extracted from Shendu. It grants the wielder invisibility, which also works on objects and can affect many people, giving the wielder the ability to become invisible.
"The Serpent Spell from 'Jackie Chan Adventures'? It grants the wielder invisibility? This is a truly good item!"
Chen Yu remembered that Harry Potter, the protagonist, was able to wander around at night without being discovered by the professors precisely because he possessed an invisibility cloak.
With the Serpent Spell, he could also wander at night like the protagonist without being discovered by the professors.
The Disillusionment Charm also had the effect of making one invisible, and one method of creating an invisibility cloak was to cast a Disillusionment Charm on a regular travel cloak.
Chen Yu had originally planned to go to the Library at Hogwarts to find the Disillusionment Charm and learn it.
However, the Disillusionment Charm was an advanced spell, and learning it was not easy.
Among the vast Hogwarts, not many Wizards had learned and could use the Disillusionment Charm.
Now with the Serpent Spell, the priority of the Disillusionment Charm could be lowered.
Chen Yu held the Serpent Spell in his hand, playing with it.
The Serpent Spell felt like a regular octagonal stone, with a green snake, its tongue flicking, drawn in the indentation on its front.
Chen Yu held the Serpent Spell in his hand and imagined himself becoming invisible.
Indeed, his body became transparent.
When he imagined himself breaking the invisibility, the invisibility was lifted.
"Oh, cool!"
Chen Yu put the Serpent Spell into the backpack provided by the system; he didn't want to misplace such a useful item.
Next, Chen Yu found the wooden box containing his wand from his suitcase, took out the wand, and held it in his hand.
The wand in his hand could be described as a work of art.
The wand was made of purple bamboo as its shaft, with an overall purplish-black color. The front end appeared incredibly smooth, while the back end of the shaft was carved with a reclining fox in relief. Its nine tails wrapped around the back end of the shaft, preventing it from slipping when held.
Chen Yu held the wand in his hand and tried the Avada Kedavra spell provided by the system.
It consumed five points of magic, and the green light emitted was like a quick squirt from a water gun, flashing by in an instant.
Only a rice-grain-sized pit appeared on the brick wall.
Was there damage?
Yes, but not much.
It felt less damaging than a bullet from a Muggle firearm.
Player used Avada Kedavra, skill proficiency + 1
Current Avada Kedavra skill proficiency 1%
"The damage isn't high; it's probably due to insufficient magic input and low spell level."
Chen Yu opened his panel and looked at the gray energy bar behind Avada Kedavra LV1.
A tiny bit of yellow bar had appeared in the energy bar.
"Using it once grants one point of proficiency. Could it be that when the yellow bar is full, the skill can be upgraded?"
Chen Yu tried using 1 point of magic to cast the Killing Curse, but only saw a faint green light on the wand.
Investing 2 points of magic, the displayed green light became slightly brighter.
Investing 3 points of magic, the green light brightened again, but still couldn't cast the Killing Curse.
Only by investing 4 points of magic could the Killing Curse be cast, and the system prompted "proficiency + 1."
After a few simple experiments, his current magic pool only had 6 points.
This meant that to grind the proficiency of the Killing Curse, he could only practice a maximum of 5 times consecutively.
Even if he didn't need to have murderous intent towards the target when casting the Killing Curse, only needing to consume magic, consuming too much magic still made him feel dizzy and lightheaded.
Magic in the Harry Potter world is rooted in the Wizard's bloodline. Releasing magic consumes not only magic but also the Wizard's willpower, or what is called mental power.
The essence of magic is to transform the magic within the body through incantations, spirit, and emotions, thereby producing various magical effects.
The consumption of magic would reflect on the Wizard's mental state.
When magic reached 0, the Wizard's mental power would also be exhausted, at which point the Wizard would fall into a state of splitting headache and extreme discomfort.
In severe cases, it could even damage the brain, turning one into an idiot.
And the method to restore magic was very simple: sleep was the best way to restore magic.
He put important items into his backpack and less important items back into his suitcase.
Player is detected to be preparing to enter sleep mode.
Does the player choose to enter sleep mode?
In sleep mode, the player's mental power and magic will be greatly restored.
10 points of mental power and magic will be restored per hour.
Please set the deep sleep time: 0-24 hours.
"Set the time to one and a half hours."
Chen Yu lay on the bed, and with a blink of an eye, an hour and a half had passed.
Waking up, looking at his full magic points, Chen Yu felt refreshed again.
He looked around, saw no signs of anyone disturbing him while he was asleep, then pulled out a copy of "Magical Theory" and began to read it carefully.
He aimed to read through all the magic textbooks before entering Hogwarts... Time flew by, and a week passed.
Chen Yu closed the last book, "The Dark Arts: A Guide to Self-Protection," and rubbed his temples, sighing, "Hermione truly lives up to her reputation as a top Scholar. To be able to learn most of the content before school even starts, without any guidance, is truly amazing!"
Chen Yu had originally thought that he, having gone through two fierce selections—first, getting into a top-tier university after the college entrance exam, and second, passing the civil service exam after graduation—would be considered a top Scholar with excellent learning abilities. But reality slapped him hard.
In one week, Chen Yu had only learned two spells: the Alohomora and the Floating Charm. As for the Reparo he originally wanted to learn, he hadn't successfully cast it even once.
As long as a skill was successfully cast and recorded by the system, he could level up the spell by grinding experience.
But for spells he hadn't learned, the system was powerless.
Magic was a completely unfamiliar knowledge system. Without a teacher's guidance, Chen Yu had only skimmed through all the subjects in this week.
Basically, the only books he could understand were "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," "One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi," and "A History of Magic."
He treated the first as a "Classic of Mountains and Seas," the second as a "Compendium of Materia Medica," and the third as a "Romance of the Three Kingdoms."
These were all popular science books in the magical world, with strong logical structures.
Especially "A History of Magic," which recounted the history of Wizards.
It was simply a matter of remembering names, places, and events.
However, when it came to "A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration" and "Magical Theory," Chen Yu was somewhat lost.
"A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration" stated, "When performing Transfiguration, it is very important to wave your wand firmly and decisively. Do not wiggle or rotate your wand unnecessarily, or the Transfiguration will certainly fail. Before using a Transfiguration Charm, clearly envision in your mind what you want the object to become. Beginners should clearly pronounce the incantation, while advanced Wizards do not need to speak the incantation aloud."
Wave the wand, but how? In a straight line? A curve? A hyperbola or a single curve?
Chen Yu knew that waving the wand required the coordination of magic and spirit, but how to wave the wand, how much magic was needed, and where to coordinate them, Chen Yu felt completely clueless.
Chen Yu found no information about how to wave the wand, only that he shouldn't wave it constantly.
This reminded Chen Yu of the descriptions of "a pinch" or "an appropriate amount" for seasonings in some cookbooks.
Also, the incantations for spells—every word had to be pronounced clearly, and the rhythm and tempo of the incantation had to be perfectly met.
For Wizards proficient in spells, even if they waved their hands elaborately and chanted the spell's tune like a rock or pop song, they could still cast the spell.
But for Little Wizards just starting out, it was better to honestly follow the textbook and learn spells meticulously under the guidance of a mentor.
In one week, Chen Yu still hadn't managed to turn a needle into a button.
Instead, his loud incantations attracted the other orphans in the orphanage to watch and mock him.
At that time, Chen Yu was already annoyed. If the caregiver, Fat Aunt, hadn't driven away the curious orphans, those mischievous orphans would gather outside Chen Yu's room again to mock him, calling him a weirdo, as soon as she wasn't looking. This made Chen Yu want to cast Avada Kedavra on each of those little brats.
Of course, he couldn't actually cast Avada Kedavra on them, but small pranks were certainly possible.
All the orphans who had mocked Chen Yu that day would find an invisible ghost hovering by their beds at night, either tickling them or making their favorite objects inexplicably tumble up and down. Sometimes, the roars of unknown monsters would echo in their ears, accompanied by chilly winds. Gradually, everyone stopped daring to mock the eccentric Chen Yu.
Chen Yu continued to read "Magical Theory."
In "Magical Theory," Chen Yu learned about the relationship between magic, mental power, and emotions.
Casting magic consumed both magic and mental power, and emotions were key to mobilizing mental power.
The wand, however, only served an auxiliary role.
The wand was like an amplification and stabilization device, allowing Wizards to amplify and stabilize their magic output when casting spells.
It wasn't impossible to cast spells without a wand, but it required the Wizard to possess powerful magic control and strong mastery over magic.
Those who could perform wandless magic were the elite of the elite among Wizards.
For instance, with the Killing Curse, a proper casting required intense murderous intent towards the target. The strength of this murderous intent determined the spell's power; emotion came first, magic second.
However, with the system's help, Chen Yu could use the Killing Curse without needing murderous intent towards the target.
This resulted in Chen Yu being able to use the Killing Curse but not being very good at cultivating the corresponding emotions required for casting spells.
This was also why Chen Yu's progress in learning spells was slow.
How to evoke the corresponding emotions when casting a spell to ensure his first successful cast became the first challenge Chen Yu encountered while learning spells.
Chen Yu now eagerly awaited September 1st, when he could enter Hogwarts and learn spells under the guidance of the professors, instead of painstakingly poring over books by himself.