Magical Studies at Hogwarts...

Chapter 49 Methods of Cultivating Dangerous and Marvelous Creatures

Ike didn't take Lockhart too seriously. The incident with the Cornish elves showed that apart from his unparalleled mastery of the Oblivion Charm, Lockhart's other skills were quite mediocre.

Regarding this situation, Ike has a guess.

In the Waste Notebook system, increasing spell levels can have strong side effects, most of which are related to the spell's effects. For example, if Ike's Explosion Spell level increases too quickly, it can cause an urge to become an explosion maniac.

Similarly, Lockhart devoted too much energy to the Oblivion Charm, which caused some problems with his own memory, resulting in other spells not being as effective as he had hoped.

In other words, the excessively strong Oblivion Curse made him forget how to properly cast other spells, and this effect is basically irreversible.

After all, Lockhart doesn't have a system.

While the "Anti-Lockhart Alliance" was in full swing, Ike focused most of his energy on his studies.

He hadn't forgotten what was most dangerous at Hogwarts in his second year: a basilisk that could launch a sneak attack was truly unreasonable.

With its thick skin, massive size, and high resistance to most spells, the basilisk is extremely resistant to most spells. The deadly effect of its snake eyes also reminded Ike of a legendary creature—Medusa. In some ways, the basilisk is even more dangerous than Medusa.

Seeing Medusa's eyes only petrifies you, but seeing the basilisk's eyes will kill you instantly; only indirect contact will petrify you. This means the basilisk didn't intentionally kill you in the original story. Otherwise, even if you were lucky enough to be petrified, if the basilisk suddenly went berserk and performed a tactical roll on you, it would just be another way to die.

Ike didn't want to risk being attacked by the snake monster, so he needed to prepare in advance.

You'll need a spyglass, a little gadget that can detect malice. Even if it doesn't react to the basilisk, it will still help in detecting who's manipulating it. Also, always carry a small stone and a mirror. The stone is so that if you really encounter the basilisk, something will turn into a rooster, and the mirror is inspired by the story of Medusa.

Legend has it that Perseus, the son of Zeus, defeated Medusa with a mirror made from a shining shield, and Iker speculated that it might also be effective against the basilisk.

Maybe the basilisk will see itself in the mirror and turn itself to stone or even kill itself?

Ike had no intention of fighting the basilisk; all his preparations were merely to buy himself ample time to escape. To the basilisk in the secret chamber, a creature that had lived for hundreds of years, most of Ike's methods were either useless or ineffective.

Avada Kedavra is definitely ineffective. The damage from Shattering Curse, Explosion Curse, and Slicing Curse is also limited. Fiendfire Curse is too slow and would just give Ike a free trial of Azkaban.

The Eye Curse can indeed disable the basilisk's strongest technique, but hitting it in front of the basilisk is extremely difficult; one wrong move and you'll be hit.

After much deliberation, Transfiguration seemed the most reliable option. If they could control the basilisk's movements, the rest would be easy – a perfect stationary target exercise. However, the main structure of Hogwarts Castle was protected by anti-Transfiguration magic; only Dumbledore could deform the castle's walls and floor, effectively blocking that path.

So, while I can't win in a direct confrontation, I'm quite confident in outmaneuvering Ekko.

The first attack I remember occurred at the Halloween dinner. Almost two months had passed, plenty of time, and Ike could have made more preparations.

After curfew, Ike skillfully donned the Disillusionment Charm and silently slipped into the restricted area for the first time this semester.

The goal this time is very clear: to find information about the basilisk.

The Basilisk was mentioned in "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," but only briefly in a few sentences, briefly mentioning its origins and dangers. After all, Newt had never seen the Basilisk and it was normal that he didn't know much about it.

But in the restricted section, Ike was convinced he could find detailed information.

The nights at Hogwarts were quiet at the start of the school year, and the habitual night owls rarely came out this early, which gave Ike the opportunity.

He sneaked into the restricted section and headed straight for the shelf where evil creatures were bred. After flipping through several books, Ike finally found detailed information in a book titled "The Methods of Breeding Dangerous and Magical Creatures."

This is a rubbing of a wizard's notebook from Merlin's time, which details the methods of cultivating many artificial magical creatures, including the hippogriff, griffin, sphinx, and basilisk.

Having broken through the protective magic on the notebook, he decided to browse through the forbidden books section. The more Ike read, the more alarmed he became, gaining a deeper understanding of the saying, "If you don't do stupid things, you won't die."

The author of the notebook was a dark wizard who greatly admired the famous ancient Greek dark wizard Hercule, and most of the contents were attempts to reconstruct Hercule's research.

Curses, black magic, magical rituals, bloodline fusion experiments—the various evil methods of killing made Ike's scalp tingle. In comparison, the content about the basilisk seemed normal.

The breeding method is not as simple as placing a male egg under a toad to incubate it. First, the male egg must be taken from a rooster that has never crowed and has never mated with a hen. Then, it is soaked in the venom of thirteen types of venomous snakes, and the egg must not lose its vitality during this process.

After the male egg has absorbed enough venom, select a sufficiently large male toad. Place the male egg under the toad, and ensure that the toad remains motionless throughout the incubation process. The wizard needs to feed it a special potion to keep the toad alive while lowering its body temperature as much as possible.

The entire process cannot be interrupted; if a male egg is removed during incubation, everything must be started over.

As the hatching process nears completion, the toad will slowly petrify until it becomes a stone, from which the newborn basilisk will crawl out.

Newborn basilisks are not powerful; even looking directly into their eyes only causes a tingling sensation in the brain. But once a basilisk grows to the length of an arm, it can kill birds, beasts, and children. From this point on, the basilisk will only obey the commands of Parsleyan; if the wizard who raised it does not understand Parsleyan, he will become its target.

Many wizards who raise basilisks will choose to kill it at this time to obtain its venom and skin, which are needed in some magical rituals and potions left behind by the despicable Helpo.

The owner of the notebook once bred two serpent monsters. One was killed and used as material when it was just grown up, while the other escaped when the owner was not paying attention. It later returned and tried to kill the owner of the notebook, but eventually became an experimental subject as well.

The battle was swift; the notebook's owner used only two spells to kill the basilisk: the Skinning Curse and the Death Curse.

The Killing Curse is the Avada Kedavra curse, which has been passed down to this day, while the Skinning Curse is a dark magic developed by the despicable Helbo. The incantation is "Skin and Bone," which completely peels off the target's skin, leaving only a pool of flesh and blood. This spell was originally used by the wicked Helbo to skin magical creatures, and it could, to some extent, ignore the magical creatures' resistance to magic. However, when a dark wizard cruelly used it on a human, it was deemed too gruesome and classified as dark magic, and its use was banned.

However, its magical philosophy has been inherited, and the dung-scooping spell commonly used in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Injuries and Sicknesses bears the resemblance to the skinning spell.

However, Ike doubted how effective the Skinning Curse would be against the basilisk in the secret chamber. A one- or two-year-old basilisk was a completely different story from a basilisk that was hundreds of years old, but it was still a good method nonetheless.

The power of constant dripping wears away a stone, and quantitative change leads to qualitative change; the methods used by wizards to tame fire dragons are very valuable for reference.

Just keep casting the Skinning Curse, and you'll eventually succeed.

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(End of this chapter)