Hogwarts: Dumbledore reigned over the wizarding world.

Chapter 292 Vaughn: A small opening doesn't count as an opening! Add some points!

"Yes, he treated us two brothers like handymen, saying we were too slow and wanted to cut our budget. And do you know what was in his bag? Ritual equipment for summoning ether! Merlin, our greedy and wicked brother, is actually planning to abandon us and become an alchemist himself. This is the ultimate humiliation for us!"

"That's right, George, so we overruled Wood and Harry's objections and unanimously refused to use the tactics that guy developed."

The twins' banter successfully made Professor McGonagall laugh, easing the previously heavy atmosphere of self-criticism in the locker room.

The matter is over, and it doesn't matter who was at fault. What matters is recognizing where the mistake was and correcting it in time.

Professor McGonagall was quite satisfied with this; Wood, as captain, did not continue to be depressed, but bravely stepped forward to take responsibility.

As the team's core player, Harry didn't shift the blame to others or try to absolve himself of all responsibility. Instead, he chose to share the burden with Wood.

The twins criticized their younger brother, calling him evil, and insisted on preparing an etheric ritual—

and many more!

Professor McGonagall suddenly realized something. She narrowed her eyes at the twins, her withered lips pursed. "You mean, Vaughn is preparing for the Aetheric ritual?"

The twins nodded: "Yes!"

"You're not kidding?"

"Of course not."

"—When will it start?"

The twins peeked out the window at the sky and calculated: "Hmm, the sun is setting, the moon hasn't risen yet, the stars are obscured, it's the darkest hour, the boundary between reality and mystery is blurred, overlapping in the darkness and secrecy—it should be around this time."

Professor McGonagall frowned. "Where is he? Take me there!"

The twins' calculations were correct. While they were criticizing and reflecting on their actions in the Quidditch stadium locker room, Vaughn was preparing for an etheric ritual in an empty classroom on the fourth floor of the castle tower.

This classroom was specially allocated by Dumbledore for Vaughn to use during his Aetherial Tours. The classroom door was protected by armor, making it safer than the Room of Requirement or his bedroom.

The former can respond to everyone's requests and is not as secretive as it seems at first glance.

The latter is in a relatively noisy environment.

All the clutter in the classroom had been removed, and the dampness and faint smell of rotting wood lingered in the empty space, making it feel particularly cold and open.

On the floor, several packages were opened, revealing some rather strange objects. Some looked like ancient furniture, some were whole, fresh plants, some looked like dried potion ingredients, and most were inconspicuous bricks, wood, stones, and so on that seemed to be found everywhere.

These are the ritual implements that Dumbledore prepared for Vaughn. Because the materials required different preservation methods, they had been stored separately in several shops.

Vaughn had given himself two weeks to prepare, part of which involved writing letters to various shops scattered across the country to request their transfer to Hogwarts.

These various "tools," seemingly scattered haphazardly on the floor, subtly form an ordinary yet bizarre pattern.

The reason for this contradictory description is that the pattern seems meaningless at first glance, rather scattered and abstract, but if you use your imagination, you can vaguely and "forcefully" associate it with a specific shape.

But apart from that, there were no other unusual phenomena.

This is clearly wrong.

Last semester, when Dumbledore led him into the Aether, he asked how to independently "travel through the Aether".

The ceremony.

Dumbledore said at the time that he would know when the time was right to enter.

"So, is it still not the right time?"

Lost in thought, Vaughn sat cross-legged on the ground amidst the scattered yet ingenious pattern composed of many instruments, his brows slightly furrowed.

However, since he has shown up here today to set up the rituals, he must have his reasons.

He silently recited "system" and observed the system panel:

[Host: Vaughn Weasley]

[Magic Scale: 740 (500 for a normal adult wizard)] (Growth of 12 points per month)

【天赋：魔咒学8、黑魔法6、变形术8、魔药学10、草药学6、鍊金术6、占卜学2（满值为10）】

[Spells: Occlumency LV5 (MX), Ironclad Charm LV5 (MX), Disarming Charm LV5 (MX), Flight Charm LV5]

（MX）、萤光咒LV5（MX）————幻影移（显）形LV4（17/48）、摄神取念LV4（9/64）、幻身咒LV4（10/32）、神锋无影LV4（2/48）————多频谱视界咒LV3（3/32）、次声咒LV2

(3/12)

【诅咒：岁月咒LV2（16/24）、复生咒LV1（3/4）、枯萎咒LV1（3/4）————觉醒咒LVO（2/3）————】

[Ancient Magic: Soul Stealing Charm LV0 (1/4), Vorn's Living Disintegration Ritual]

Alchemy LV0 (7/20)

[Spell Development Module]

[Potions: "Vorn Beauty" series, "Vorn Hair Care" series, Wolfsbane Potion 2.0, etc. ————]

[Reputation Points: 62] (26 points are awarded monthly)

[Main Quest 3: Return to England, enroll in Hogwarts, and obtain Tom Riddle's notebook]

[Reward: 1 Talent Point, 50 Magic Scales]

Side Quest ⑤: Omitted

[Side Quest 6: Omitted]

"In the two months since the start of the semester, I've made considerable progress in spells. I have more than twenty spells, including high-difficulty spells like Legilimency and Divine Strike, all of which are moving toward level 5. However, the progress is gradually slowing down now."

Looking at the spell list and the progress of his various spells, Vaughn rubbed his chin.

This was after more than two months of spending most of his time in the small world where the practical classes were held, casting various spells to modify the small world for a long time, and thus the spells were tempered.

With 8 points in Spellcasting talent, it seems that the boost to practicing high-level spells is gradually reaching its limit.

After all, level 4 is the next level up, which is the maximum level and reaches the ceiling of the magical world. Even legendary wizards may not be able to master many max-level spells.

Vaughn took a look at the main quest ③ that rewards 1 talent point and leads to Tom Riddle's notebook. This quest is a bit troublesome, and due to fate, it is not convenient to complete it for the time being.

Of course, if you urgently need it, you can risk being "forced" to take it, even if it means being "punished" by fate.

It's just unnecessary.

"Let's talk about talent later, and it doesn't necessarily have to be within the realm of magic!"

Thinking about it, Vaughn glanced at his 6 points in alchemy talent and the 20-point experience cap for alchemy at level 0.

Since being endowed with alchemy talent by the system, Vaughn has not undertaken any ethereal tours, but he has spent a lot of time reading literature and notes.

He also frequently observes alchemical items in person, such as the small world that Dumbledore gave him.

Even so, his alchemy experience was still extremely difficult to gain. After several months, he hadn't even broken through to level 1, let alone formally entered the beginner level; his experience points weren't even in the double digits.

If he had talent points on hand right now, he would probably impulsively invest them in alchemy talent; it's too torturous!

Well—it was just an impulse.

Talent still needs to be carefully considered, but as mentioned before, that's something for the future.

Currently, Vaughn's focus is, of course, on his alchemy level.

"Because of the list incident, starting this month, my monthly reputation points have increased to 26 points."

Looking at the panel, Vaughn pondered as he saw that he had accumulated 62 reputation points.

The two weeks of preparation were also to wait for the reputation points to be settled in November.

Because of the reputation points he earned in September, he invested them into the spell development module and developed a semi-finished spell based on the characteristic sensing and magic extraction method.

Fortunately, it's only a semi-finished product, and the material models covered by the spell are relatively similar. Otherwise, if we wanted to integrate most of the material models into one spell, the reputation points settled in September would probably not be enough.

Therefore, Vaughn did not use the reputation points he had accumulated in October.

Originally, I planned to save it up and continue to refine the spell when the potion exchange program started and the "labor force" from various magic schools arrived.

For now, we'll have to fill it into alchemy.

Anyway, judging from Dumbledore's lobbying progress, it won't be much faster, especially since he hasn't yet managed to get in touch with the Central Magic Academy of a certain mysterious Eastern superpower, which is one of the main targets of his side quest for organizing the potion exchange event!

There's still time to accumulate reputation points.

Even if Dumbledore progresses at a rapid pace, it doesn't matter. He can simply extend the potions exchange event for a while. The half-finished spell he revealed is quite attractive, and many magic schools would probably want to obtain the finished product.

If Vaughn doesn't finish it, most of those magic schools will be impossible to get rid of!

After his thoughts wandered for a while, Vaughn quickly gathered his thoughts and stopped thinking about it.

In the blink of an eye, he invested 53 reputation points into alchemy.

Following his thoughts.

The reputation points that had been painstakingly accumulated over two months vanished in an instant, the numbers steadily declining. But at the same time, the alchemy experience points and level, which were originally only [LV0 (7/20)], began to climb rapidly.

In the blink of an eye, his reputation points dropped from 62 to single digits, while his alchemy level became [Alchemy LV2].

(0/80)

The process of improving alchemy by investing reputation points is different from that of spells.

The process of improving a spell involves instilling a large amount of practice "memory," including casting spells, deconstructing incantations and wand movements, and refining them.

The improvement of alchemy, however, is much more abstract.

The moment he invested reputation points, Vaughn's consciousness was enveloped in a peculiar world of perception, a world in which only symbols existed.

From the macroscopic world of earth, fire, water, and wind, to the microscopic world that seems to be at the molecular level, everything is composed of an endless array of symbols.

They shimmer with illusory "auras" in patches, forming a vast microscopic world and a boundless macroscopic world.

The operation of everything is related to the flashing and connection of symbols!

On the realm of reality, on the realm of ether, the material, the spiritual, the real, the illusory —

Vaughn could feel a terrifying, overwhelming, and vast amount of information constantly flooding into his mind. For a moment, he almost had the illusion that he was about to burst.

However, Vaughn did not panic.

He was a memory mage, and while he might not have extensive experience dealing with such situations, he certainly had methods for handling them. For one thing, the role of the memory archives became apparent at this moment.

Vaughn submerged his main consciousness into the memory archive, a towering structure existing in the "nothingness" (relative to reality), which was now shaking violently.

Countless vague, indistinguishable pieces of information, so much so that they have no concrete form even in the subjective, idealistic world of the mind, flood in like an overwhelming mosaic ocean, hazy and indistinct.

It almost drowned the archives!

In the blink of an eye, Vaughn's memory archive, woven from numerous memory magic spells, twisted into a "void".

It's like a black hole, constantly swallowing up the information that's being poured in.

At the same time, a thick white mist spread out, quickly covering the entire void space where the Memory Archive was located. One by one, human figures rose from the mist and were thrown into the "void".

Those are personality suits created by Vaughn. Although they are few in number compared to the vast amount of information, one of the basic functions of personality suits is as firewalls and "memory repositories". They can carry a large amount of external information and "compile" and compress it.

Their original purpose, as developed by Vaughn, was to isolate external information from contaminating memory and consciousness.

Summon all the personality constructs hidden in the world of the mind, and watch as one after another, humanoid silhouettes made of white mist plunge into the "void".

As the sea of ​​"mosaic" that had been pouring in gradually receded, Vaughn breathed a sigh of relief, and his consciousness returned to his body.

In an instant, a strange feeling arose.

He opened his eyes. There were no strange phenomena in his vision, but he could clearly feel that the world had become different in his eyes.

Although the air is still invisible, the floors, walls, and windows that you see are all normal objects.

But Vaughn just had a gut feeling that he could get in touch with how they worked!

For example, a "smack!"

He stretched out his hand and snapped his fingers.

He didn't use any magic, nor did he express any emotion; he simply gathered his magical power, and then a faint flash appeared from his fingertips as he rubbed them together.

Where the flash of light appeared, the sound of air tearing through the air swept by quickly and then disappeared just as fast.

"—Interesting." Vaughn looked at his fingers with great interest. Just a moment ago, the magic he had gathered had indeed affected the environment, causing a high-speed airflow to be briefly created.

That's not a curse.

The fleeting light at your fingertips is not a magical glimmer.

Rather, it is a harbinger of the formation of some kind of symbol.

Of course, it never took shape, so the wind quickly disappeared.

"Is it because I didn't enter the ether to obtain the symbol? And, I don't have the material to hold the symbol?" Vaughn pondered.

This is a completely different system from spells. Based on his experience just now, if we were to describe it specifically, the spell system is more like a system centered on the individual wizard, leveraging the power of miracles, with magic and emotions originating from within themselves.

Alchemy, however, utilizes—aside from the same magical power—that seems to originate from the "world"!

"It has a hint of idealist philosophy in it!"

"Vaughn thought."

Idealist philosophy is divided into two major schools. One is subjective idealism, in which the individual's subjective spirit is the foundation and source of the existence of everything in the world, and everything external is derived from the subjective spirit.

This corresponds to the spell system.

Another school of idealist philosophy is objective idealism. Compared to subjective idealism, it is relatively more materialistic. However, this school believes that in addition to the purely material world and human consciousness as a representative of wisdom, there is a spiritual existence in the world and the universe, a primary objective spirit (non-entity).

It is the original appearance of "truth", "reason and truth"!

Human consciousness and the material world both exist because of it and are connected by it.

This concept can undoubtedly be equated with alchemy. The fundamental theory of alchemy, the "Golden Soul," seeks to achieve that first principle.

That's really interesting!

Feeling the depths of my soul, as the memory archive and personality embodiment work, a continuous stream of processed, unfamiliar knowledge flows in.

Vaughn gradually smiled.

In his view, what is interesting is not only the correspondence between magic and philosophy, but also his own materialistic concept. Having learned the spell system and mastered the subjective idealistic ability to leverage the world with personal will, he now has the objective idealistic ability to achieve miracles by using the world itself.

The collision of these three completely different ideas in his mind created a sense of contradiction and disconnect, which was quite interesting. He suddenly understood what that strange feeling was when he returned to his body from the depths of his mind and opened his eyes.

He has come to understand another way of observing the world!

"Unfortunately, I don't have time to fully experience that feeling right now."

With a sigh, Vaughn lowered his head and looked at the pattern formed by the utensils on the floor.

At this moment, the pattern still appeared messy and abstract to him, but at the same time, it had become different.

Under the gradual infusion of knowledge, processed by the memory archive and the personification device, the patterns and floor in his eyes gradually acquired some strange "background".

Initially, the background was completely black.

At first glance, it looks as if the object is embedded in a dark, empty surface, or as if it is suspended upside down in the night sky. The object is outlined by some untraceable source of light against the black background, making it appear very empty and disillusioned.

Standing on it, it feels like you could fall into an abyss if you're not careful!

Then, a hazy mist rose.

The colors in my field of vision, like the scenery rushing past on both sides of a high-speed train, quickly blurred into hazy patches of color, and then quickly turned black and white!

Black and white are spreading—no, it should be said that color is collapsing towards the place where black and white first appeared, the "background" behind the objects.

That was a scene that is difficult to describe in words.

Just like————

It's as if reality has cracked open, and a void appears on the other side of the hole. Everything in reality collapses from a tangible entity to an empty void on the other side through the hole!

Time, space, matter—everything that has meaning is becoming meaningless.

"Dusk is the most unique celestial phenomenon. It is the end of day and the beginning of night. It is the inevitable transition from light to darkness, and also the accidental fusion of illusion and reality."

"The gates of ether will open at dusk. You cannot consider it an inevitable outcome, but it will also arrive by chance at every dusk. This is not a contradiction, but only when you gain the qualification to move from incomplete reality to complete spirit, and understand the true meaning of moving from illusion to reality, can you truly see it."

An article flashed through Vaughn's mind.

It was a description from an ancient wizard in a journal he had read, about how to activate the ether and conduct an etheric tour.

Before witnessing this moment with his own eyes, he had never been able to understand what that description meant.

But now, he understands.

"How did this change come about? Knowledge?" Vaughn thought subconsciously. Before his alchemy advancement, the patterns he saw were different from what he saw now.

The only thing that could cause this change is the "knowledge" imparted through advancements in alchemy, or rather, a completely new perspective on the world.

Another interesting discovery.

Of course, now is not the time to be distracted by these thoughts. Looking at the changed patterns in his field of vision, Vaughn knew that his idea of ​​raising his alchemy level and trying to find the "Aether Portal" was the right one.

Next, we will officially begin.

He stared at the bizarre phenomenon on the ground, stood up, opened his satchel, and took out a crystal bottle about the size of a thumb, containing a light, silvery-gray liquid.

As the article stated, completing the ritual for the first time and inviting one to wander in the ether is a journey from so-called illusion to reality.

Finding the portal is important.

How you get in is also very important!

"For those who live in delusion, reality is like a dream. You obviously cannot let your physical body enter the dream, nor can you rely on the ego and self-nature born of delusion to understand the true face of reality—only by abandoning everything derived from delusion, living towards death, and reaching the end of delusion can you usher in a new life!"

The words of that note flashed through my mind again.

However, this part is relatively straightforward, almost explicitly stating that magic that relies on the physical body and the "self-nature" magic derived from it, representing the "self," cannot initiate the ritual.

To enter the world called "True Aether," one must end the life of "False Reality"!

"In practice, it is certainly impossible to actually let the wizard face death and seek a way to enter the ether through self-destruction."

Recalling the contents of the notes, Vaughn smiled. That note, along with the cryptic notes left by other wizards, were just tricks used by alchemists to mislead their successors.

These texts are actually a form of assessment.

To test whether a wizard understands what power, besides magic, can be used to unveil the mysteries of alchemy.

This question might be a bit puzzling for other wizards, but for Vaughn, the Potions Master, it was a piece of cake—

Of course, it's a magic potion!

Potions were originally part of the alchemy system, until the theory of the Golden Soul was proposed nearly a thousand years ago. Potions, which originated from the old system, became incompatible and were separated from alchemy.