The Rune Mage Starting at Hogwarts

It was very late yesterday, and he didn't have time to check Ravenclaw's lounge properly.

Now we can observe it as we please.

Ravenclaw's signature colors are blue and bronze, so there are many blue silks hanging in the lounge and even the dormitories.

The ceiling was a deep blue starry sky, dotted with stars of varying sizes.

There were also some stars on the blue carpet on the floor.

A white marble statue of Rowena Ravenclaw stands quietly opposite the entrance to the lounge; you can see her as soon as you enter Ravenclaw's lounge.

Of course, as the college that is most eager for knowledge, Ravenclaw's lounge is also filled with bookshelves full of all kinds of books, and there is a separate small library in one corner of the lounge.

Although it was still early, several people were already sitting at the library table reading in Ravenclaw's lounge, making one marvel at how book lovers could be found everywhere.

When they saw Ryze, a young wizard, appear, most of them only glanced at him for a few seconds before turning their attention back to the books in front of them.

Reese took the initiative to go over and say hello, just to make himself known to these upperclassmen.

After Ritz struck up a conversation with him, a fairly enthusiastic senior wizard asked if Ritz was interested in joining the early reading club.

Although it wasn't a formal organization, they all tacitly agreed to get up around 5:30 in the morning and then study in the lounge until 8:30 before going to class.

"We have at least two more hours of study time than others every day, and these two hours may very well be the final step on the ladder to success."

They also said that if you don't want to waste time having breakfast in the auditorium, you can just wait here for a while until around 7 o'clock, and a house-elves will bring you the day's snacks and fruits.

It may not be as lavish as the breakfast in the auditorium, but it will definitely satisfy your hunger.

Rizzi politely declined, saying that he had just joined Hogwarts and wanted to explore the school more, so he would make a decision after he was more familiar with the school's learning schedule.

He loves magic and is willing to spend more time studying its mysteries.

But he still prefers to do things at his own pace, studying when he should study and relaxing when he should relax.

If I join this early morning reading group, I guess I'll find it hard to even sleep in anymore.

The older students were clearly used to this rejection. He shrugged and said that if Ryze changed his mind in the future, the Early Reading Club would welcome any student who wanted to succeed.

Seeing that the other person was once again fully focused on studying, Ryze breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Nymphadora also said she had never seen such a hardworking young wizard, and she would never have said such a thing if she had just visited Ravenclaw’s common room.

Chapter 16: Hagrid's Hut

Guided by Ellie, Rizzi followed the long staircase of Ravenclaw Tower, through the corridors into the central courtyard, and found the Hogwarts library.

From the outside, Hogwarts' library doesn't look very big.

However, the library is not open yet. Judging from the sign above, it should officially open at 7:00 AM, so Reese has no idea how much the library has been expanded.

"Looks like I'll have to wait until the afternoon to come back and check. Hopefully, I can get some curse energy by standing around the forbidden book area," Ryze thought to himself as he walked out, quickly passing through the wall and arriving outside the castle.

The first thing you see outside the castle is a large enclosed vegetable garden and greenhouse, where most of the herbs grown are probably for herbal medicine classes.

There must be some magical plants inside carrying curse energy.

Rizzi recalled the textbook; the most dangerous plant they needed to learn about in first grade was Devil's Web.

However, they will only learn how to resist the Devil's Web; they will not be allowed to cultivate the Devil's Web themselves. That is a third-year course.

"There are three herbal medicine classes every week, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find some plants and fertilizers with curse energy. I just don't know if it will affect their growth."

In front of the vegetable field was the owl hut. Rizz had written letters to Andromeda and Nymphadora before going to bed last night, explaining that he had been assigned to Ravenclaw.

Andromeda's tone was more formal, indicating that he would study hard.

Nymphadora's letter was much more casual. In it, he said that the Sorting Hat made him hesitate for a full six minutes between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and he almost went to Gryffindor, which Nymphadora thought he would never go to.

Rizz added a few words to the letter that morning, saying that Ravenclaw's academic style was indeed very rigorous, but he had accepted the careful teaching of Nymphadora, a reserve Auror, and believed that he would not embarrass his niece.

“Thank you, Mr. Owl,” Rizz handed out a few pieces of jerky to the owl who had come over to deliver the message.

It looked somewhat like the owl that had delivered the letter to him before, but there were too many owls that looked alike around here, so he couldn't tell if it was the same one.

The owl happily pecked off the jerky, then flew off the campus with the two letters in its arms.

After delivering the letter, Ritz left the owl hut and continued walking southwest along the path.

That's the direction of the Forbidden Forest.

However, he hadn't gone far when he heard a powerful voice.

"Hey, little wizard, where are you going? If you go any further, you'll be in the Forbidden Forest!"

Rizz turned to look at the tall figure.

That was Hagrid, and he was leading a huge black hunting dog that looked much taller than Ryze.

"Good morning, Mr. Hagrid. I am Rhett White, a newly enrolled wizard. I'm taking advantage of the early hour to explore the area around Hogwarts. I plan to walk along the road to the Black Lake and then return to the Great Hall."

Although Ryze did want to see if he could get some curse energy left behind by magical creatures on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, he naturally couldn't admit it.

And now that we've run into Hagrid, it's a good opportunity to get to know him.

Ritz's attitude was so good that Hagrid, who was addressed as "Mr.", waved his hand somewhat embarrassedly.

"Don't call me 'sir' anymore. I'm just an ordinary hunting ground guard. This is Ya Ya. Despite his big size, he never bites."

Hagrid patted Tooth's head, and Tooth let out a rather cheerful bark at Raz.

Hagrid coughed to get Tooth to be serious, but his own tone had softened considerably: "It's best if you don't want to go into the Forbidden Forest. Headmaster Dumbledore said last night that young wizards shouldn't go into the Forbidden Forest; it's too dangerous for you."

"But no matter how much you forbid it, there will always be people who want to sneak in. For example, last night, even though school had just started, I found a few guys trying to sneak into the Forbidden Forest after the banquet."

"Those Weasley twins, I really don't know how to get them to give up their plans to go to the Forbidden Forest..."

Hagrid, as was his habit, kept going on and on, until finally he just sighed and said, "Anyway, you'd better stay away from here."

Rizz nodded, then asked with feigned curiosity, "So Hagrid, do you live outside the castle? That must be very inconvenient, like finding places to eat?"

"Hehe, you're mistaken. My cabin is right there, and I even cultivated a small vegetable garden there myself. I've taken excellent care of it; it's definitely no worse than what you live in the castle."

"Really? Can I go over and take a look?" Ryze continued, following Hagrid's lead.

Hagrid isn't usually one to refuse people, especially when Ritz looks so expectant.

He stroked his chin, thought for a moment that this shouldn't violate any school rules, and then clapped his hands: "It's okay to show you around. By the way, you probably haven't had breakfast yet, right? I have some sausages and some rock crust cakes that I made myself. If you're hungry, I can share some with you. Those are good things that you definitely can't get at Hogwarts."

Ryze was just waiting for that sentence.

He only hesitated for a moment before being enthusiastically led by Haila to the other side of the cabin.

He wasn't interested in what Hagrid ate.

But as the Hogwarts gamekeeper and a passionate fanatic of magical creatures, Hagrid's cabin is filled with all sorts of materials and odds and ends brought from the Forbidden Forest.

Hagrid, a half-giant, was born with extremely high magic resistance, so ordinary dark magic and curses had little effect on him.

Given Hagrid's carefree personality, if he doesn't feel anything, then it's as if nothing's wrong, so his cabin probably doesn't lack things with curse energy.

Less than ten minutes later, Rizz arrived at Hagrid's cabin.

Although the wooden house was built in a rather rough style, the vegetable garden outside it looked quite well-maintained.

Wheat, potatoes, and pumpkins were planted in different areas of the vegetable garden, and they grew vigorously under the influence of magic.

Ryze simply praised him a few times, and Hagrid, the three-meter-tall giant, showed a delighted expression on his face, saying that he would definitely come over to try the pumpkin soup and pumpkin cakes he made once the pumpkins were fully grown.

"Come in, don't be shy. Although the cabin might be a little messy, it's cozy and safe."

very safe.

Rizz nodded and went into Hagrid's cabin.

The house was indeed filled with all sorts of clutter, with piles of shed fur from magical animals and miscellaneous materials in the corners.

There were many hams, sausages, and dried pheasants hanging from the ceiling.

Of course, the most eye-catching thing is the bed that is nearly four meters long.

It must have been reinforced with magic, otherwise it would be hard to believe that it could support such a big guy like Hagrid sleeping on it.

Rizz sat on the edge of the bed, watching Hagrid take a few soft sausages from the brazier and bring over a few rock cakes that were almost as big as his face and definitely harder than his face.

Then he saw the curse energy in his character panel increase by 0.1.

Seeing the curse energy shrink to 0.3, Ryze knew he had to consume these "delicacies".

Chapter 17: Curse Energy Acquired

The sausages at Hagrid's house actually taste alright. Apart from being a bit greasy, a bit salty, and a bit too soft, they are at least edible as food.

But the rock crust cake did put his teeth and jaw strength to a test.

Rizz simply reached out and patted the rock crust, and upon hearing the solid sound coming from it, he knew he was no match for it.

However, he cleverly asked for a cup of hot water, soaked it in the hot water for a while, and then forcefully broke off the soaked part and put it in his mouth to digest it slowly.

Although Hagrid said that doing so would reduce the flavor of the rock crust by more than half, Ritz frankly admitted that he had bad teeth and a bad stomach and could not eat things that were too hard.

“Oh, then you should definitely be careful. If it’s serious, you can go to the school clinic to see Mrs. Pomfrey. She’s a very good doctor.”

Hagrid crunched on the rock crust, finding its texture just right and making it incredibly delicious when eaten with the grilled sausage.

While asking Hagrid about the work of guarding the hunting grounds, Ryze also kept an eye on his curse energy.

After the first jump, the curse energy increases by 0.1 every ten minutes on average.

Ryze is not yet sure if this is the upper limit of the absorption rate of curse energy, or if the curse strength on Hagrid's side is not very high.

But after absorbing 0.3 points of curse energy, another 15 minutes passed, and the value of the curse energy did not jump up again.

It seems that Hagrid has temporarily absorbed the curse energy on his side.

He plans to come back to Hagrid tomorrow to see if he can continue absorbing the nutrients.

He glanced at the time; he had been with Hagrid for nearly 40 minutes and had already dawdled over eating most of the rock-skin cake while it was soaked in water.

I have to say, this stuff is incredibly filling.

This half was enough for him to digest until noon.

Hagrid was still talking about the new magical creatures he was preparing to breed in the Forbidden Forest, showing no sign of stopping.

Ryze could only apologetically interrupt him, explaining that class was about to start and he needed to go back and prepare.

"Come visit me again next time you have time, and I'll prepare some snacks that suit your taste!"

Hagrid waved goodbye to Rizzi reluctantly in front of the cabin.

There were quite a few wizards at Hogwarts who looked down on him, but very few young wizards were so polite to him and willing to chat with him in the cabin for so long.

Rhett White is such a nice little wizard.

Hagrid remembered the other person's name.

Meanwhile, Rizzi, rubbing his slightly full stomach, slowly walked into the castle with the remaining half of the rock crust cake in his hand.

He took a different route back to Hogwarts Castle, a route that was closer to the Great Hall.

"I managed to get 0.3 curse energy from Hagrid, so all I need to do is find another place to get some more energy."

To avoid energy overflow affecting himself, Ryze doesn't insist on accumulating full curse energy every day, but he should at least have 0.9 points.

"However, so far we haven't found a single crow that we can collect, and we don't know how often the crows spawn."

Around eight o'clock, he entered the auditorium, which was at its busiest time, with everyone crowding in to eat breakfast.

The breakfast at Hogwarts looked pretty good, but unfortunately he couldn't even drink a glass of milk now.

He quickly found his roommates at Ravenclaw's long table.

They have already eaten breakfast and are now reading today's Daily Prophet.

Seeing Ryze return with a smug look on his face, they curiously gathered around to ask what had happened.

“I got up this morning and strolled around outside the castle, and then I was pulled aside by an enthusiastic hunting ground guard and chatted for half an hour. I also ate something at his place,” Ryze said, picking up half a rock crust pastry from his hand.

"I underestimated the weight of this thing. Half a piece is my maximum appetite. Does anyone want to try this cookie that's as hard as a rock?"

After touching the rock crust, the three immediately expressed their respect for Ryze for being able to eat it.

“Actually, it’s not too bad if you soak it in water and eat it slowly. If you don’t want to try it, I’ll save it for lunch and eat it slowly,” Ryze put away the rock crust cake. He wasn’t the type to waste food.

At the same time, he also caught a glimpse of a little witch not far away who seemed to be watching him, wondering whether he should come over and say hello.

Good morning, Grander.