The Rune Mage Starting at Hogwarts

"This is a 19th-century guide to transformation!"

He quickly recognized the text above, and then eagerly took it and began to read it.

After just one glance, Anthony's eyes turned dejected.

"There's nothing there, just a name written on it. It's brand new inside. How could someone not make any notes in the book at all!"

“Isn’t it obvious that all the books with notes taken were taken by us and the senior students in front of us?” Penelope’s words made a lot of sense. Given Ravenclaw’s emphasis on knowledge, he would naturally not leave valuable books here.

"Of course, you can also find a few books to take home and read. You might discover some hidden, mysterious spells in some corner!"

“Alright, now that we’ve seen enough, let’s start cleaning and try to get it done before noon… Hmm, Riz, what are you looking at?” Penelope joked with the little wizard, but suddenly noticed that Riz seemed to be staring at a half-person-tall, dusty old raven statue on a bookshelf.

Upon hearing the question, Reese turned her head, pointed to the statue, and asked Penelope, "Senior Penelope, may I touch this statue?"

In his line of sight, the crow statue was also emitting a red light, and it was much stronger than the red light he had seen on the other four mission ravens this week!

Chapter 33: The Raven Statue and Ancient Magic

"Are you interested in that crow statue? It's not surprising, though; such a large crow statue is quite rare."

"Many people were interested in it before you and spent a lot of effort studying it, but they tried all sorts of methods and could only confirm that it was a decorative piece that had been in the antiquities room for a long time and had no magic attached to it."

After Penelope finished speaking, seeing that Ryze was still looking at the statue, she didn't say anything more. Instead, she found a dusty stool and let Ryze stand on it to get closer to the statue.

She was actually quite curious about Ryze's abilities.

Professor Babling had mentioned to her that the more she studied Ariel's nature, the more she would discover the mystery within this seemingly obedient and docile magical familiar.

While the evolution of other ancient magic can be pieced together through ancient texts, Professor Babling believes that the ancient magic embodied by Ellie follows a completely different path from modern magic.

Or perhaps it's a completely new magic system that hasn't left any record in history.

Professor Babling believed that Ryze's physique was definitely extraordinary, given his connection to ancient magic and his successful contract with Aery.

At least the divination talent that the other party seems to be showing so far is one direction.

Professor Barblin then suggested that she bring Ritz to the antiquities room to try and trigger his true prophecy.

Penelope was planning to make a copy of the key to the antiquities room for Reese once he was familiar with the environment there and if he was still interested in it.

I didn't expect Ryze to find his target so quickly, and it was such an ordinary statue that had been verified by countless predecessors.

As Penelope watched Rizzi step onto the stool and reach for the Raven's Claw, she felt a slight sense of anticipation.

Meanwhile, as Ryze's hand touched the raven statue, a new message immediately appeared in his mind.

The special crow quest has been activated.

Mission objective: Investigate the ancient magical traces left behind by Ravenclaw.

Mission completion reward: Permanent +3 to Raven collection progress, one random silver rune.

Mission deadline: None

Unlike other raven missions, where the red glow on the raven fades only after the mission is completed, this mission is completely different.

But after the mission was announced, the red light on the crow statue suddenly disappeared, as if it had never existed.

Ryze frowned slightly as he looked at this strange task.

The reward is quite generous; you can get a silver rune in advance.

As for the permanent +3 to the raven progress, it should mean that 3 extra ravens will be added to his number at the end of each quarter, which seems quite useful.

However, the mission requirements are unclear.

Is the mission considered a success if we find the traces of ancient magic left by Ravenclaw, or is it only considered a success if we investigate the specifics of that ancient magic?

As Reiz pondered this, Anthony below him asked, "So, Reiz, what have you discovered?"

Reiz shook his head: "It felt a little strange before, but now it feels even stranger, but I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong... Senior Penelope, can I take it down and take a closer look?"

"Of course, I can help you. This thing isn't solid, but it still weighs several tens of kilograms."

Penelope came over to lend a hand, and Anthony and the others also assisted from below.

After some effort, the group carefully moved the statue down and carried it to the door of the antiquities room.

“It’s quite realistic. It should be made of bronze,” Anthony said, tapping the statue lightly with his finger to determine its material from its shape and sound.

"Well, thankfully it's only partially hollow, otherwise it would be a real pain to move it down," Ryze breathed a sigh of relief, then walked around the statue once, but didn't find anything special about it.

He then carefully laid the statue flat and began to examine its base.

There is indeed a line of letters below the base of the statue.

“It’s not surprising at all that the raven statue base found in Ravenclaw’s antiquities room has Ravenclaw’s letters on it,” Rizz muttered.

However, it differs slightly from the modern Ravenclaw word.

For example, the letter 'a' used the phonetic symbol 'ae', and there was no letter 'v'. The way each letter was written was also different from how it is now.

Having spent the past month with Professor Babling, Rizz has naturally made some progress in learning ancient runes.

“These letters are in a writing style from around the 10th to 12th centuries, so this statue has most likely been preserved since the founding of Hogwarts. Ravenclaw himself may have even seen or come into contact with the statue,” Rizz looked at Penelope, wanting to confirm if his guess was correct.

“That’s right,” Penelope nodded readily. “It’s because they know these things that so many predecessors have high hopes for this statue, wanting to find traces of magic on it.”

As Penelope said this, she even demonstrated her magical abilities to Rizzi and the others.

Once you are a certain distance away from the artifact room, you will not be disturbed when using magic.

"Quickly reveal your true form."

"The true nature of things is immediately revealed."

"Marker displayed."

"Separated to the left and right."

......

Penelope skillfully used seven or eight distinct revealing spells on the statue, and even used a separation spell to separate it, revealing the hollow part of its structure.

Finally, an advanced transformation technique was applied, turning the statue into a real raven, allowing it to fly nimbly in the air twice before returning to its base and reverting to its original form.

The young wizards clapped enthusiastically.

"So, these are all standard decryption methods. Do you have any other ideas?" After doing all this, Penelope turned to look at Reiz.

Ryze rested his chin on his hand, then shook his head helplessly.

According to the quest prompts, the magical traces left by Ravenclaw are most likely on this thing.

For a thousand years, so many predecessors have failed to discover the secret here. How can he find that trace?

Penelope, seeing Reese's serious expression, told him to stay here and study the artifacts while they cleaned the antiquities room.

Rizzi quickly waved his hand.

"It's okay. I don't have any ideas right now either. I feel bad leaving me here to rest alone. Let's finish tidying up together quickly, and then I can study it slowly later... Senior Penelope, could you use magic to bring it back to the common room for me later? If not, never mind."

Upon hearing Reese's words, Penelope blinked and then took a piece of paper out of her pocket.

"Professor Babling's preparations really came in handy. Look, this is a note she wrote for me beforehand. Anything you like that isn't too dangerous, you can take it back to the lounge. If it's more dangerous, let me take it to the Ancient Magic Runes classroom for you."

Chapter 34: Harry, do you know Sirius Black?

Although the antique room is not large, it does take quite a bit of time to organize.

Ordinary things are fine, but those miscellaneous items imbued with magic or even curses require even Penelope to be careful.

Usually, the ordinary items are moved outdoors first and cleaned up together with magic, and then the magical items are sorted out little by little.

However, for Anthony and his companions, this trip to the antiquities room was not entirely without its rewards.

Aside from seeing some random magical items, those ancient textbooks were also somewhat worth reading.

What excited the young wizard even more was that Michael found a booklet under the locker, in which he discovered more than ten pages of dueling tips and several combat spells that were not in the textbook.

It appears to have been left here by a student from the early 20th century. A few young wizards planned to take it back to their dorm to make a copy and then return it.

After they had finally cleaned up the interior of the antique room and most of the unpleasant smells had dissipated, it was almost afternoon.

Penelope used a shrinking spell on the statue and took it back to the common room, while Ryze and the others went back to their dorms to freshen up, changed their clothes, and hurried to the auditorium for lunch.

Fortunately, the Great Hall at Hogwarts extends its mealtimes on weekends, so when they arrived there were still some roast meats and sandwiches available. Otherwise, they would have had to find a way to ask the house-elves for food in the Great Hall.

"So, Ryze, you still think there's something wrong with that statue?"

During the meal, Terry couldn't help but ask.

Ritz ate the roast meat on his plate, then nodded: "Professor Barbling said I might have a talent for divination. I've also read some books on divination these past few days, but I haven't gotten started yet. However, when I saw that statue, I had a feeling that it was what I was looking for."

As he said this, he shrugged to indicate that he didn't have any ideas yet.

“Maybe I’ll find out how it starts up if I dream about it tonight?” Ryze said jokingly.

"A talent for divination, ah, I wish I had that too," Michael muttered to himself, though if he really did have a talent for divination, he'd probably use it to seduce little girls.

After knowing each other for a week, Rhett and his friends discovered that Michael's main purpose in coming to Hogwarts was to study, and his secondary purpose was to find a girlfriend he could marry after graduation.

Perhaps the order of primary and secondary objectives needs to be reversed.

So from the moment he entered the school, he was already selecting pretty girls from the four colleges.

Everyone finished lunch laughing and joking, and then went about their own business in the afternoon.

Anthony and the others were going to learn the spells in the dueling manual, while Ryze spent another half an hour studying the statue after returning to the lounge.

Such a large statue is quite eye-catching in the lounge, and during Ravenclaw's research, many Ravenclaw students came to take a look.

During this time, in response to the speculations put forward by these students, Ryze also recalled various novels he had read in his past life, and even thought of the blood oath trope, but after various attempts, there was still no progress, and he could only helplessly put it aside for the time being.

Fortunately, this special raven crossing mission has no time limit.

If no clues are found for the time being, there's no point in dwelling on it any longer.

I should go to the library first to finish this week's assignments, and then look for some related books.

Although it was almost three o'clock, on the way to the library, Ryze coincidentally bumped into Harry and Ron, who were also carrying a bunch of books, in the courtyard.

“Riz, you’re going to the library to do your homework too?” Ron greeted Riz, and Harry gave Riz a friendly look in return.

Both Ron and Harry asked Rhett questions in Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts classes that the two houses took together.

They don't get along well with Hermione right now. Even though Hermione is very helpful and takes the initiative to answer questions, her attitude when answering questions is too arrogant, and they don't want to get close to listen to her sarcastic remarks.

Compared to Ryze, whose magical abilities are more advanced, Ryze is more approachable and speaks more pleasantly.

More importantly, Rhett first taught Malfoy a lesson, then was targeted by Snape in Potions class, and at the same time had a good relationship with Hagrid.

They had first clashed with Malfoy on the train, and then had points deducted by Snape in Potions class. Yesterday afternoon, they went to Hagrid's hut, where Hagrid mentioned several times that Rhett had come to help tend the vegetable garden.

This shared experience gave Harry and Ron a feeling of having found kindred spirits.

Ryze was somewhat surprised by the two main characters' initiative to greet him and build rapport, but he still smiled and nodded back.

"Yes, there's still a lot of homework left. I hope I can finish it today."

The three walked side by side up the stairs leading to the library.

After walking a few steps, Ron couldn't help but ask Rhett about the conflict between him and Malfoy.

"I heard that you and Malfoy are quite close relatives?"

Pureblood families are all related by blood to some extent.

Ron's grandmother was a member of the Black family, but not a direct descendant, so by Ron's generation the relationship was quite distant and they had no connection.

“My father is his mother’s uncle. Apart from Sirius Black, who is still in Azkaban, we are the closest blood relatives.”

As Ryze said this, his gaze unconsciously drifted to Harry Potter.

"Azkaban?" Harry asked, puzzled, noticing that Rhett Butler was looking at him strangely.

“It’s England, no… it should be the most famous wizarding prison in the world. Only dark wizards who have committed the most serious crimes are exiled there,” Ron shuddered. “When I was a kid, George and Fred often scared me by saying they would send me to Azkaban.”

“It’s not surprising… I’ve heard my father mention the Black family. They were all Slytherin graduates, and before the Mysteries fell, they were among the Mysteries’ most steadfast supporters. After the Mysteries fell, they were sent to Azkaban, and now they’re completely fallen from grace. I can only say they deserve it…”

As he said this, he then realized that Ryze was also a Black, and quickly waved his hands to explain to Ryze.

“I wasn’t talking about you, Raz. You’re Ravenclaw’s student, and your father had already broken away from the Black family by then. The crimes committed by your relatives have nothing to do with you.”

"That's what they say, but ultimately some people will still take offense..."

Rhett patted Harry Potter on the shoulder: "Harry, why do you think Professor Snape was targeting you and me so specifically? Is it really just because we're more famous this year?"