From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 679 Chaldea of ​​Ivy
"The feel of this touch... is so realistic..."

Kuntoli knelt on the scorching yellow sand, watching the coarse sand slip through his fingers. A gust of scalding wind blew, sending the sand from between his fingers flying toward his face.

"Hmm... what kind of magic is this, Professor Doom? This sand even got into my eyes..." The little elephant made a few gestures, and a ball of clear water condensed above his palm. He brought his face close to the water and washed the sand out of his eyes.

It was a translucent fragment of rock. The little elephant was very familiar with it; it had been found in many of the excavation sites at the Strauhaus Academy of Literature.

To determine whether a piece of land has excavation value, analyzing its surface minerals is only the most basic method. It helps researchers determine the scope of their archaeological work, rather than wasting their time and energy in a place where there is nothing.

“These are fragments of calcite…” Kuntori couldn’t help but recall the knowledge from his textbook, “…They are relatively soluble in water. If a large amount of this mineral appears in a desert, it proves that it hasn’t rained for a long time…If a civilization once existed in such a desert, it should be very well preserved because of the dry air—even without the help of magic…”

"I think this is your teacher's mage tower, not some archaeological site where a civilization once existed."

Kuntoli felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and saw a young, dark-haired Kelid named Movig.

Among the Hogwarts delegation, only the two of them were close in age. Although Movig was not familiar with how the age of an elephant-like person was reflected in their appearance, the little elephant's few words left a deep impression on him—they were both apprentices, one a knight apprentice and the other a wizard apprentice.

Therefore, through their intentional sharing, Kuntoli already knew that this young man, who was a head and a half shorter than him, had once lived on the Sakoli Plateau... His ancestors had lived on the Sakoli Plateau, but with the occurrence of the World Tragedy, they traveled south and wandered throughout the river kingdoms.

Movig's knowledge of the Sakoril and the World's Tragedy came entirely from the legends of his people, until he witnessed firsthand how the demons ravaged the land.

The little elephant felt that it could understand him, at least to some extent. Should it be called a sense of mission or a sense of responsibility?

Just like when he first saw the tattered elephant artifacts, the shrunken documents, and the magnificent fabrics rotting in the mud... he wanted to bring those past glories back to light... just like Movig embarked on a journey alone, wanting to drive all the demons on the Sakoli Plateau back to hell.

"That's real, all of it, the sand hitting your face, the sun casting heat down from the sky, the surging hot wind—it's all real."

Professor Doom's voice pulled the little elephant's thoughts back to the Mage Tower, or more precisely, the third floor of the Mage Tower.

The little elephant couldn't be sure they had come up layer by layer. The scenery changed too quickly; one second it was a lush forest, the next it was a dark alley, and then it was blinding sunlight and scorching desert.

"But how... how did you do that... and how did it last for so long..." Kuntoli couldn't contain his curiosity.

“The magic of Hogwarts wizards is different from that of Strelhaven and Grellion. This world is very cooperative with our spellcasting, so the magic of wizards here often seems arbitrary and incomprehensible.” Ivy merely moved his finger, and a large expanse of yellow sand in front of him suddenly changed shape like a fluid, piling himself into a sandcastle, and then transforming into gold of a similar color, but worth many times more.

The golden castle, as tall as a person, seemed to radiate unbearable heat, but it only lasted for a short time before it began to flow freely across the sand.

The gold liquid mixed with impurities immediately became sluggish and solidified, forming a disordered and strange gold film on the sand.

"Alchemy?... Real alchemy?" The little elephant's eyes widened, unable to believe what it was seeing.

Due to the scarcity of gold in many worlds, ideas and experiments about converting other low-value substances into gold have emerged in every world, but very few people have actually achieved alchemy.

Moreover, even among those who achieved alchemy, the methods they used mostly involved using base metals of lower value as raw materials to transform them into precious metals like gold. People had never even heard of someone like Ivy who used ordinary sand as a raw material and could produce large quantities of it with a wave of his hand.

“It is indeed alchemy, but I couldn’t use it so freely in other places.” Ivy didn’t linger in front of the large expanse of solidified gold, but led everyone directly to a higher place. “The key is the change of environment. In some worlds it is easier to use magic to achieve the desired effect, while in others it is more difficult, and in some worlds, magic does not exist at all and is not allowed. In addition to adapting to the environment, you also need to learn to modify the environment.”

"So what should I do?" The little elephant took out its notebook, ready to start recording at any time.

"There are actually many methods, because our goal is to retain the ability to cast spells under any circumstances."

The furnishings on the top floor of the White Tower were quite simple. Apart from the polished marble floor, the most striking feature was the enormous astronomical facility placed in the very center. Ivy had initially only intended to make a simple reflecting telescope by hand, but as she made more and more lenses, she eventually even used magic to capture the light emitted by stars in outer space, creating a magical version of an observatory.

Although it's called an observatory, it does apply astrological ideas to some extent. However, Ivy isn't looking at stars tens or even hundreds of light-years away, but rather celestial bodies within the solar system. Besides the all-encompassing sun, another object of observation is the earth beneath her feet.

Floating in space, orbiting the sun, Earth is, in a sense, an observable celestial body. Ivy first had this thought when Ilúvatar threw her from Arda.

Once you gaze upon this blue planet from outer space, you will never forget it.

Ivy's Magic Observatory can observe magical fluctuations throughout the British Isles, as well as minute differences in major magical sources. Or to put it more simply, it observes the light emitted when wizards cast spells or engage in any magical activity within a radius of 750 kilometers, centered on the White Tower in the Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Scottish Highlands.

Astrology is, after all, driven by the light of stars, so it's quite normal for Ivy to think about collecting light, right?
From the moment he arrived in this world and first cast a spell completely different from the wizarding spellcasting system, he began to ponder whether his magic had brought anything new to the planet beneath his feet.
However, it was three years before he finally built the observatory and obtained the observational data. Without a comparison, no one could be certain of the exact results.

Now that the three-year period has ended, it's time to check the results again. "The simplest method is to carry rechargeable magical artifacts; the most profound method is to become part of the magic itself. As long as you dare to think, there are always more solutions than problems." Ivy took out her wand, directing the enormous observatory in the center of the room to unfold itself, while also answering the question the little elephant had just raised. "Magic, in its essence, is a power that changes the world. This power is released through the specific form of the caster, thereby imbuing reality with specific transformative effects. Some worlds lack magic, or more accurately, they lack a power that can be utilized. However, since we have arrived at our destination, we must have physical bodies. Therefore, mastering the conversion between major and minor magical power, such as converting one's life force into magic power unaffected by the environment, is sufficient to handle many situations."

"Or you could use magic to bind your most comfortable world to yourself, taking your personal enchanted world with you on time travel... But this isn't a formal lesson, and the specific methods aren't suitable to be explained here. Just get the general idea, and you can start by trying the simplest method..."

The giant brass structure in front of Ivy was fully deployed, with folding brass supports supporting numerous lenses of varying sizes. This fully-fledged observatory looked like an operating table with countless shadowless lights, or a mechanical spider with its legs pointing upwards.

After a crisp snap of the fingers, the top of the White Tower was plunged into complete darkness. But only for a moment, all the lenses, large and small, lit up, projecting tiny, patchy, and colorful spots of light that together formed a starry sky imprinted on the dome of the White Tower.

The dreamlike scene silenced everyone present; it was a man-made constellation, a galaxy fallen to earth, a universe locked in a room.

"What...is this...?" someone murmured in a dreamlike voice.

“The world.” Ivy carefully examined each patch of light, comparing it with what she saw when she first started observing at the observatory. “Or rather, the world of 1.76 million square kilometers.”

Ivy raised her arm as if holding a celestial sphere, and slightly rotated her wrist, causing the light spots projected into the room to rotate along with her.

When he was building the observatory, he used a method called celestial projection, projecting all the magical light within the observable range onto the dome. Because the observation was from the ground, the celestial projection was not a true sphere, but a hemisphere, so there was no need to worry about any areas being unobservable.

Furthermore, within a radius of 750 kilometers centered on the White Tower, more than half of the area is ocean, with the remainder being the land of the British Isles (including part of the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe). Therefore, even if there were a large group of people standing in the room, it wouldn't hinder Ivy's observation. After all, no one would be so idle as to cast spells on the open sea.

Moreover, the observatory left behind by Ivy not only has the ability to record and reproduce magical light, but can even recreate it according to the year and month. However, due to the limitations of the recording method, Ivy must find a medium to store the data after this record query; otherwise, the current scene can only be witnessed once.

Thanks to the Wenmao Pavilion in Tostine Sea, Ivy found a way to store light in crystals almost effortlessly. The magic books in that library were of all shapes and sizes, some even talking and cursing, not to mention the knowledge stored in crystals.

"What do you see..." the little elephant asked softly, afraid that his exaggerated reaction would disturb the firefly-like spots of light.

“I’ve only come to a general conclusion: my magic has indeed had an impact on this world.” Ivy remained intently focused on the celestial sphere projection on the dome. “However, that requires careful analysis. Whether it’s good or bad is still unclear, but in short, things have definitely changed…”

Moreover, this change occurred primarily with Ivy's former students at its core.

Or more accurately, it was something left behind by Ivy when she temporarily taught Defense Against the Dark Arts in the first year—the Fireball spell.

Every time a wizard casts a Fireball spell, a small orange spot of light appears on the dome, with the highest concentration in the village of Autry St. Catchpoll near Devon. Judging from the timing, the Fireball spell is most frequently used there during the summer holidays.

With just a little reasoning and analytical ability, one can conclude that George and Fred of the Weasleys think about blowing something up at home whenever they have a holiday—maybe a goblin, maybe a ghoul, who knows?

The Weasleys’ Burrow happened to be near the village of Autry St. Catchpol, and this event occurred mainly during the holidays, and only became prominent in the first year after Ivy left.

Later, they probably graduated from Hogwarts and received investment from Moonface Magic Unlimited, so they used Fireball less frequently and in less concentrated locations.

Besides Autry St. Catchbolt Village, other areas where Fireballs were frequently cast were Hogwarts School, the Green Dragon Sanctuary in Wales, and the Black Dragon Sanctuary in the Hebrides.

It seems that the magic invented by Ivy has been widely recognized as a powerful magic suitable for self-defense.

Surprisingly, the frequency of Fireball spells being cast near London was extremely low; he had originally thought that this spell would quickly become popular among the Aurors.

Compared to the changes over the past three years, the underlying magic of the British Isles seems to have become a little "brighter"?
This is a very subtle change, requiring exceptionally careful and meticulous observation. Although there is no clear evidence yet to suggest that this change in the underlying color is inextricably linked to the Fireball spell invented by Ivy, Ivy is still willing to believe that his arrival has brought about some changes to the world.

"What's that?" Dumbledore, who had somehow acquired a pair of half-moon shaped lenses, leaned close to a small spot of light and pointed with his long, hooked nose at where Ivy should focus her attention.

“A record of a Pyroblast.” Ivy could confirm it with just one glance, and after comparing it with the map, he added, “It happened in Dean Forest. I don’t know exactly what happened... Maybe some dark magic creature was blown up, like the Hinkpunk that was blown up in the OWLs in 1992.”

“No.” Dumbledore pointed to the wall. “I meant this green one.”

"Green?" Ivy leaned closer to examine it. There was indeed a small green spot on the dome, but its brightness was less than one-twentieth of the light left by the Pyroblast. "A Killing Curse. You really are a master of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Dumbledore?"

Ivy laughed.

(End of this chapter)