The Rune Mage Starting at Hogwarts

The reward looked quite tempting to him. The "drink" was highlighted in the description, and its effect in the game was to give the potions in the game additional benefits.

Therefore, this drink most likely includes magic potions as well.

Ryze had no doubt that this rune would greatly enhance his potion-making talent.

The problem is, how is he supposed to get this rune now?

It wasn't that he looked down on himself, but he was just a first-year wizard who hadn't even learned all the ingredients yet, so how could he be qualified to participate in a potion competition of this level?

The only thing that gave him some confidence was the two-year mission deadline.

"Two years... is the time it takes for the magic potion to work its magic, to be used to make a quick and easy way out of a crisis ...

No, the actual match might be later.

After all, after registration closes, the school will definitely conduct another round of screening to select the final few participants...

Just as Ryze was pondering this, a cold voice, clearly suppressing dissatisfaction, rang out not far in front of him.

What are you doing here?

Rizz suddenly looked up and stared ahead.

At that moment, Snape was standing at the classroom door, staring at him with a questioning look.

The oppressive feeling emanating from the other person was even stronger than usual, and Ryze even felt as if the other person was using magic to probe his thoughts.

No wonder Marietta cried after being scolded; even Rhett had never seen Snape so angry before.

Ryze quickly gave Snape a normal bow and spoke in a normal tone: "Professor Snape, I heard about the Potions of the Ages today and came to inquire about its entry requirements."

Upon hearing the words "Potion of the Gods," Snape, like a bat, swiftly approached Ryze.

He looked down at Ryze: "Who told you this? I don't think it's something a new wizard like you should know."

Ryze, of course, would not reveal Hagrid's name here.

"Professor Barbling told me this afternoon. I'm interested in this potion-making event jointly organized by four magic schools."

"I shouldn't be thinking about these things as a freshman. After all, this is a competition that only comes around once every seven years. Normally, unless I repeat a year, I won't be able to wait until the next competition."

"But Professor Barbling mentioned to me this afternoon that several school principals and the Potions Professor have been at Hogwarts these past few days discussing the postponement of the tournament. However, she doesn't know the details, which is why I thought I'd come and ask you in person."

"If the competition is postponed for a long time, such as one or two years or more, does that mean that we first-year students are also eligible to register for the competition?"

After hearing Ryze's words, Snape stared at him with his deep black eyes for more than five seconds, then a grotesque smile appeared on his lips.

"Do you want to participate in the Potion Speed ​​Race?"

Ruiztanzhanyou said, "I want to."

Snape immediately let out a cold snort, his disdain evident in his tone: "You think you can barely pass with your current level of just reciting from the book?"

“Mr. Black, perhaps you have received too much praise from other professors, which has led to a serious distorted perception of yourself.”

"I think you should practice your potion-making skills in private, otherwise, with your current level, it's almost impossible for you to get a grade of 'good' or higher from me at the end of the semester."

"As for the potion, let me tell you, even if it's delayed for two years, it has absolutely nothing to do with you. Get out of here right now!"

But Ryze showed no sign of leaving; in fact, she even had a smile on her face.

"Professor Snape, if this year's Potions Mastery is going to be very difficult, I think I'm still eligible to apply. After all, this is one of the few opportunities I'll ever have as a Hogwarts student."

"Even if I can't participate in the final competition, I'm really looking forward to competing against Penelope and Gemma in the school's preliminary rounds two years from now."

Jemma Farley is the prefectural chair in fifth year of Slytherin.

Ryze naturally met her through Professor Babling.

She did very well in both Ancient Runes and Potions.

Especially in potions, because Snape was the headmaster of Slytherin and would occasionally give pointers to Slytherin students during class, her potions grades were better than Percy's and Penelope's.

Third graders versus seventh graders—Rizzos seems to be four years behind in experience, but with his cheat code, he's confident he can overtake them in the next two years.

In the end, all he needed to do for this ravens mission was to get a chance to sign up.

Chapter 61: An Opportunity

There's a reason why Snape was so angry today.

After several days of discussions with potions professors from other schools, they finally decided to hold this year's Potions Championship in February 1994.

The new herbs at the Magic Institute will need to be re-cultivated over a year, and Vagado and Kodosdorez will also need to train new contestants.

After extensive divination and discussion, all four magic schools agreed that a two-year extension was a more appropriate timeframe.

Normally, each school has four contestants. The Potions professor will observe and select new students for one or two years after the previous competition ends.

After the initial list is confirmed, it will take about four to five years to train them.

Although Snape doesn't seem to care much about Potions class now, he transformed from a former Death Eater into a Hogwarts professor during the last tournament, taking over several students selected for him by the former headmaster Slughorn before his retirement. Naturally, he needs some achievements to prove himself.

He diligently trained the contestants and won the last Potions Race.

Including this competition, he originally selected two Slytherin students and one Ravenclaw student, and then spent some time each month cooking for them to keep them from being at the bottom of the rankings.

As a result, the project was postponed.

At the same time, after confirming the postponement, those school principals also set a rather awkward two-year timeframe.

Although, according to the principals, two years is a better time to see the level of basic potion teaching in each school.

Each school needs to select three suitable participants from its fourth and fifth grade students and wait until the sixth and seventh grades to participate in the competition.

Snape himself was certainly aware of the potion-making abilities of the Hogwarts students.

With his laissez-faire teaching style, unless a self-taught potion genius like him suddenly appears, most students will only reach the level of passing the wizard exam.

Those contestants have a chance to win a prize if they slowly hone their skills over four or five years and rely on Hogwarts' abundant teaching resources.

But if he doesn't want to put in extra effort, it will be too difficult for him to win a ranking in two years.

This was part of the reason for his anger—Dumbledore was too easily persuaded. If Dumbledore had been firm in insisting that the competition would not be postponed, given the unexpected events at other schools, this year's Potions Masters would have already secured Hogwarts.

But Dumbledore gave in so easily, wasting all the effort he had put into training those students over the years, and even greatly increasing his workload in the next two years.

What angered him even more was that before leaving, the potions professor with the mustache at the magic institute spoke to Dumbledore in awkward Japanese-accented English, suggesting that Hogwarts should give more consideration to the professor's own teaching wishes.

Since some professors prefer to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts and have applied for it repeatedly for many years, could we give them a chance to try?

Given Hogwarts' millennia-old reputation, finding a successor shouldn't be too difficult.

This statement did not name names, but the implication was clear.

Snape could see the mockery in the other's eyes.

So, these guys have only been at Hogwarts for a few days, so who told these outsiders about these things?

Even though everyone at Hogwarts knew that Snape didn't want to continue teaching Potions, it was still an internal Hogwarts matter. Now that someone from another school had pointed it out, Snape naturally felt embarrassed.

Under such circumstances, if the potion master does not achieve a good ranking two years later, rumors may circulate that he is neglecting his teaching and misleading students.

Thinking about this made Snape feel even worse, and he spent the whole day trying to find the person who spread the rumor.

Unexpectedly, in the afternoon, Ryze, a student he already looked down upon, came directly to him and asked about the matter.

Looking at the first-year wizard before him who showed no fear whatsoever, a glint of light flashed in Snape's cold eyes.

Other professors wouldn't use Legilimency on an unknown junior wizard, but he didn't care.

Especially now that he's in a bad mood.

However, there's no need to delve too deeply into the other person's memories.

After all, Ryze has an ancient elf protecting him, so he won't resort to overly obvious methods.

A variation of the "capturing the mind" technique does not require invading another person's mind with magic. It only requires using magic to sense the other person's current emotions and to judge whether what they say is true or false.

However, all he could sense was Ryze's unwavering attitude.

Although the other party knows about the speed of the potion, that remains to be seen.

But the other party genuinely wanted to participate in the Potions Race, which had been postponed for two years.

He said it without the slightest hesitation: "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

He could even sense that even if he rejected Ryze's request now, Ryze wouldn't give up on the idea for the next two years.

Why is this guy so obsessed with magic potions?

Does he really love potions that much?

Recalling how Ryze knew perfectly well he couldn't possibly boost the scores of other colleges, yet still voluntarily cleaned up the dregs of medicine after every class, Snape felt that Ryze was truly the most troublesome student he had encountered in the past ten years.

Unfortunately, the other party still only knows how to brew ordinary potions according to the textbook, and he has not seen any spirituality in the potions brewed by the other party.

If Ryze has four or five years, and can maintain his current state, there might be a chance he'll be chosen to slowly improve his potion-making skills over time.

But he's been busy enough for the past two years and really doesn't want to waste any more energy on a little wizard who lacks self-awareness.

He gave Ritz a heavy sneer, his tone still icy.

"It seems you still haven't recognized your own abilities. In my eyes, your talent is only slightly better than that of a troll."

"I don't have that much time to waste on an arrogant little wizard like you."

As he said this, he pointed a finger at Ryze with his sharp, grayish nail: "So, since you say this is your only chance in this life, then I will only give you one chance."

"I don't know what grade of potions you've studied on your own to give you this confidence, but I won't give you any too difficult tasks."

"The shrinking potion for third graders. Whether you've heard of it or not, if you can brew two different types of shrinking potions by Friday night, which is tomorrow night, I'll give you a chance to sign up."

"But if you can't do that, with your talent, don't even think about participating in the competition and embarrassing yourself. From now on, if you mention potion speed once in front of me, I'll deduct 10 points from Ravenclaw and put you in at least a week of confinement!"

Chapter 62: The Making of the Shrinking Potion

The opportunity Snape offered was indeed very difficult for Ryze at this point.

In the past two months, Ryze has read through the Potions textbook up to the third grade level in order to better learn Potions.

However, because he hadn't personally handled many of the potion ingredients yet, his understanding of the later potions was still relatively limited.

He quickly recalled the description of shrinking potions in his potions textbook.

A magical potion that can shrink the drinker's body or transform them into a younger form.

When I first saw this part, I wondered what the "or" in the description of the shrinking drug meant.

Does this drug's shrinking effect mean you either get a random choice between two things: either your body shrinks proportionally or you become younger and revert to childhood?

Or is it that the effect is something the user can choose, and can change however they want?

Now, listening to Snape's explanation, these two effects probably don't occur randomly, but rather the effects can vary depending on the preparation method or the ingredients used.

However, the third-grade potions textbook makes no mention of this.

The above only mentions that if the potion is successfully brewed, it will be a bright and dazzling green, while if it fails, it will turn into an orange-yellow poison.

In other words, even if he successfully brewed a potion according to the textbook, he would not be able to distinguish what effect the potion would have.

"So, do you think I have no chance of succeeding, or do you want to use this potion to see if I have any talent in potions?"

From a rational perspective, Rez thinks the former is more likely, since Snape doesn't seem like the kind of good teacher who would try to discover students' talents.

Ryze nodded to Snape, indicating that he accepted the test.

However, just to be on the safe side, he still confirmed with Snape that as long as he brewed the potion himself by tomorrow night, it wouldn't be a problem for him to look for any information or seek help from others in the meantime.

Snape told Ryze he could ask anyone.

The processing techniques for the ingredients in this potion will not be taught until the third semester of second grade.

Moreover, these techniques are not described in detail in the teaching materials, and there are even a few errors.

An inexperienced wizard, without guidance, might succeed once out of five attempts by brewing the potion according to the instructions in the book, and at the same time, he would not be able to confirm the effect of the brewed potion.

It can be said that only after students in advanced classes above the sixth grade master the laws of advanced potion making will a small number of wizards be able to understand the nature of the shrinking potion's two effects through experience and theory.

To put it bluntly, aside from the original three potion masters, Snape didn't believe that any student at Hogwarts could help Rhett brew two different shrinking potions precisely within a day.

He obviously wouldn't let those three students mentor Reiz.

Although Basilda is a master of ancient runes and arithmetic divination, she is not a potion master and cannot help her beloved disciple in this regard.

Seeing that Ryze had accepted the test, Snape quickly returned to the Potions classroom and opened the third-year locker.

"All the ingredients needed for the shrinking potion are here. I'll allow you to take out five portions of the ingredients now. If you can't even brew a single successful shrinking potion before these ingredients are used up, then I don't think you need to prove anything to me."