Chapter 140: First Battle with Voldemort? Still Need Practice!

Looking at the text appearing on the parchment, even though Ciel had already greatly underestimated Quirrell's character and integrity, he was still somewhat dumbfounded. Well, well. Now pretending to be a senior student? And "guess?" His cheek twitched slightly. But while shocked, questions couldn't help but arise in his mind. Hadn't Quirrell already obtained the method to get past the three-headed dog? Why was he still so persistently bothering him? What else did he want to get? And how should he deal with Quirrell? Just as Ciel frowned in thought, he saw Shadow had already controlled shadows to grasp a quill and was busily replying to Quirrell. "Really? Which senior are you? How beautiful?" On the other side of the parchment, Quirrell's face showed delight. Disguising himself as a beautiful senior had indeed gained this little Hufflepuff's trust and aroused his curiosity. Heh. After all, just a first-year student. Too naive. With a little scheme, he should be able to extract the mutant Devil's Snare's weakness from Ciel. Then Quirrell again grasped his quill and wrote line after line. "Hehe, telling you my name directly would make me shy too. By the way, you haven't told me yet. What type do you like?" Shadow thought for a moment and replied, "Thorny ones. The more thorns the better, the harder the better." Quirrell paused, falling into shock. "Ah?" Were today's young wizards this strange? Or was he getting old and couldn't keep up with trends? After a moment, Quirrell gritted his teeth and let out a light breath. "Your hobbies are really special. Worthy of you. You know, quite coincidentally, I also like thorns. My roommates all call me... um, the Thorn Queen." At this time, Ciel watched the ongoing dialogue appearing on the parchment and felt somewhat stunned. Shadow and Quirrell were actually chatting?! But after a moment, he felt slightly relieved. He really didn't want too much contact with Quirrell pretending to be a beautiful senior. Not to mention whether he'd be affected by the Legilimency magic emanating from the parchment, just thinking that the one acting coquettish behind the parchment was Quirrell gave him goosebumps. Letting Shadow chat with Quirrell was actually a good choice. After all, Legilimency magic had always targeted humans. There had never been any Legilimency spells targeting plants or animals. This magic wouldn't affect Shadow Thorns. And it could give Shadow something to pass the time. He wouldn't need to invest time in this, allowing him to continue his magical practice. Thinking this, Ciel instructed Shadow not to say anything inappropriate, then handed over both the parchment and quill to it. Before turning to continue practicing, he glanced at the parchment where dense text continued to stream out. Quirrell seemed quite enthusiastic. But if Quirrell knew he was trying to seduce a cluster of Shadow Thorns, Ciel wondered what expression he'd have. A strange smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. But then the smile vanished instantly, and his expression became more serious. Though Quirrell's method of trying to lure him through parchment was currently foolish, if not for Dumbledore's protective magic covering the little greenhouse, Quirrell's methods probably wouldn't stop at this. When his detention ended, Quirrell probably wouldn't give up and would still look for opportunities with him. Thinking this, his heart sank. Even though he had made Quirrell suffer many losses before, facing the double agent, he still didn't dare be careless. Especially during this time period. The desperate Quirrell had probably gone completely mad, hunting unicorns in the Forbidden Forest for their blood at any cost. Not even caring about the unicorn's curse anymore. This showed Quirrell was determined to get the Philosopher's Stone at all costs. The more desperate he became, the more dangerous he was. He didn't want to mess up due to carelessness. His eyes were full of gravity. "Before detention ends, Sectumsempra must advance to Gold tier. Also need to focus on Transfiguration and Serpensortia." Then Ciel cleared his mind of distracting thoughts and practiced magic even more seriously. In the little greenhouse, the sharp magic of Sectumsempra cut through the air. Sometimes smoke would burst forth with the hissing of snakes echoing. Time flashed by, and another three days passed in the blink of an eye. "Sectumsempra!" His wand moved like a slashing sword, and a Sectumsempra spell sharper than before instantly swept across the new tendrils on the Devil's Snare. This time, unlike before when it could only cut a shallow wound, the cut was noticeably deeper. In his perception, he immediately felt a more minute magical node on this tendril being cut open by this Sectumsempra. Then came a situation similar to previous Devil's Snare processing. Sectumsempra's magic lingered on the cut. For new sprouts to grow, the Devil's Snare would need to break through this layer of Sectumsempra magic. But in specific details, there were still some differences. Perhaps because these new tendrils with secondary magical nodes had already broken through Sectumsempra's magic once, this time it wasn't as difficult as initially. He only needed to supplement a few drops of potion, and the Devil's Snare's magic penetrated through Sectumsempra's barrier. Above this Devil's Snare, the reward orb pulsed slightly and grew another size larger. His expression showed joy. This way, he was another step closer to Devil's Snare maturity. But Ciel didn't rush to process more secondary nodes. With so much processing experience, he now had rough estimates. "With Sectumsempra's current strength, the success rate for processing secondary nodes still isn't high enough. If cutting the surface is slightly slow, the entire node processing might fail, affecting the Devil's Snare's quality after maturity." But he wasn't anxious. He glanced at the system panel and saw that among the silver luster of Sectumsempra, dots of golden luster had appeared. Golden luster had started appearing since yesterday. This meant Sectumsempra's mastery had reached the advancement threshold and was slowly progressing toward Gold tier. Compared to before, its power had naturally increased significantly. He was quite satisfied with this improvement speed. "In another week or so. Even if it hasn't advanced to the Gold tier, I'll be quite confident in processing Devil's Snare's secondary nodes." But then, when his gaze fell on Serpensortia, his brow furrowed slightly. Through these days of practice, he had become increasingly skilled with Serpensortia. Even its mastery had caught up with Sectumsempra, not far from the Gold tier. But what he pursued wasn't this spell's own power but the Transfiguration mysteries contained in its underlying mechanics. In this aspect, there had been no major progress. It remained like the moon in water, flowers in a mirror. He still couldn't find the entrance. This made his heart sink slightly. Though he didn't lack patience and had long prepared to gradually overcome difficulties bit by bit, after repeating it thousands of times without much progress or even getting started, he realized something. Perhaps his direction was wrong. If the direction was wrong, no amount of patience or effort would help. Like some classmates he had seen in his past life who studied incredibly hard every day, but their exam results were disastrous. That usually meant there was a problem with their approach. But he thought quietly for a long time without figuring out what went wrong. Serpensortia's underlying Transfiguration was so vast and profound. Trying to master it all at once was naturally impossible. So focusing on changes in one detail, from point to surface to whole... where was the problem with this research direction? Looking at Transfiguration still stuck at the Bronze-tier advancement threshold on the system panel, though his mindset was good, his mood inevitably felt somewhat anxious. There were only about ten days left until detention ended. After that, he wouldn't have such an undisturbed environment. Transfiguration's improvement speed would inevitably slow down. Moreover, after going out, he'd have to face Quirrell's harassment. Whether or not he had Bronze-tier Transfiguration would make a huge difference in his magical strength. Not breaking through Transfiguration during these last ten days made him uneasy. Just as his mood was rather gloomy due to Transfiguration hitting a dead end, he heard the sound of quills scratching across parchment. He turned to look and saw Shadow had split into over ten shadows, each wrapping around a quill and rapidly moving across the parchment Quirrell had sent in. "Senior? There? There? There? Wake up and chat with me! Didn't you say chatting with me made you especially happy? Didn't you say you weren't tired at all? Reply quickly!" He paused and glanced at the time. 3:30 AM... Oh right, Shadow Thorns didn't need sleep either. These past days, Quirrell had probably chatted a lifetime's worth with Shadow. Just looking at the changes in the Patronus Trees' reward information showed this. The originally extremely weak [Occlumency Enhancement] that had barely formed now not only had clear text but was even showing some iron luster. It seemed close to becoming an Iron-tier reward. It was easy to imagine how much Quirrell had been writing lately. He felt a bit sorry for him. Back in his day, Quirrell had been a standout student on campus. His academic brilliance probably exceeded even Hermione's current abilities. He had successfully landed the Defense Against the Dark Arts position. Such a genius, if he had developed normally, would have had unlimited prospects. But now, what had he become under Voldemort? Pretending to be a senior and chatting with Shadow Thorns daily. How pitiful! He shook his head and was about to turn back to continue pondering what went wrong with his Serpensortia research. But then his gaze suddenly turned back, showing some strange expression. "Right. Though Quirrell pretended to be stuttering and timid in the original story, he's undoubtedly a genius. His Transfiguration mastery is definitely not ordinary. Plus, Serpensortia seems related to Voldemort... asking Quirrell might yield some results." But looking at the parchment where Quirrell hadn't replied and seemed to be going silent, and Shadow continuously bombarding with messages, his mouth twitched. When he was being bombarded by Quirrell with parchments, he had hoped Shadow could give him a taste of his own medicine. But now he worried... had they really scared Quirrell away? No, please. Then who would he ask questions to? So after a moment, he thought it over and had Shadow write a line. "Senior. Are you awake? It's all my fault... was I too enthusiastic and scared you, senior? Sorry senior, you know I've been wandering since childhood, grew up in the Muggle world, suffered coldness and disdain. No girl has ever appreciated me like you do, senior. Senior, come back!" At the same time, in his room, Quirrell lay on his bed, looking haggard. From initial enthusiasm to complete numbness now. Damn! He never expected "Ciel" to be such a chatterbox! Really not stopping for even a second? And what kind of stuff was he talking about? On the first day, "Ciel" insisted he pretend to be a plant? When he was really too tired and wanted to sleep, "Ciel" actually threatened him: "Plants don't get tired, plants don't need sleep. If you want to sleep, then you're not a plant. If you're not a plant, I won't chat with you." Quirrell could only stay up all night in tears, chatting with "Ciel" about what soil tasted good and what fertilizer was effective. One day was manageable. But today marked three full days of such chatting. He felt his spirit was about to split. So much so that he wanted to give up. Even sensing text still appearing on the parchment, Quirrell didn't want to deal with it. He just wanted to sleep. This conversation was unbearable. Whoever could chat could chat! However, just then, a cold voice echoed in Quirrell's mind. "Quirrell. How are things progressing? It's been ten days... have you extracted any intelligence from that little brat?" Hearing this, Quirrell immediately shuddered and replied fearfully. "Master. Still... still haven't..." Instantly, he felt a cold, alien fury burning in his mind. Voldemort's voice suddenly became icy. "Haven't? You mean after all these days, you haven't made any progress? A naive little brat in such circumstances, and you can't get him to talk? Are you trying to delay my acquisition of the Philosopher's Stone, Quirrell?" His eyes widened, feeling his heart might stop from terror. "No, no, Master! I hope for your return more than anyone! Please let me explain... there are reasons for no progress yet..." Voldemort frowned. "You'd better give me a convincing reason." Quirrell immediately stammered about his operation, using parchment to dialogue with Ciel and try to seduce him. He also mentioned disguising himself as a senior and successfully engaging him in conversation. Voldemort's tone carried some surprise. "Being able to engage means you're close to success?" His voice carried a sob as he gritted his teeth and complained. "Master, it's not that I don't want to pry open his mouth. He's just a first-year student. He's too wild. I can't keep up with him." Seeing Voldemort still didn't believe, Quirrell pulled out thick chat records with "Ciel." Voldemort glanced through a few pages and felt his scalp tingle with disbelief. Today's Hufflepuff... what was this? There was such a way to play?! After a moment, his voice finally softened, even carrying some comfort. "Quirrell. This has been hard on you." Then his voice carried some excitement. "But success is very close. Look at that little brat's latest message. He's hooked! Quirrell, reply quickly!" Quirrell held his quill, looking at line after line of text, feeling nearly traumatized. He couldn't bring himself to write. Seeing this, Voldemort angrily scolded. "Fool! Forget it... Let me do it!" Then Quirrell's hand seemed to have its own will, grasping the quill and writing elegant handwriting on the parchment. "Dear Ciel, hearing you say this makes me so happy. Though we're separated by parchment, I feel like our hearts are pressed together. Can you hear Senior's heartbeat? Senior seems to hear yours. Perhaps it's time we could share some secrets with each other? I think you wouldn't mind. As an exchange, the senior can tell you her name first. I'm called..." After pausing briefly, Voldemort wrote a name. "Delphini. Does it sound nice?" Just as Voldemort's elegant handwriting appeared on the parchment, in the little greenhouse, the nearby Patronus Tree saplings suddenly began rustling, the silver-white edges of their leaves becoming especially bright and hazy. This reaction was much stronger than before. Even in the reward information, the [Occlumency Enhancement] that hadn't fully advanced to Iron tier was now completely covered in iron luster, becoming [Occlumency Enhancement (Iron Tier)]! But this scene that should have delighted Ciel now made his expression extremely grave. Because this scene meant the Legilimency magic emanating from the parchment was much stronger than before. Quirrell's Legilimency level couldn't possibly improve dramatically overnight. The only possibility was... "the online dating partner had changed." "Voldemort had taken over?!" He took a deep breath. He never expected his first encounter with Voldemort would be under such circumstances. But then his mood gradually returned to calm. Looking at the text on the parchment, a strange glint appeared in his eyes. Perhaps in terms of magic, he couldn't even see Voldemort's taillights. But Voldemort wanted to compete in online dating with an engineering student who rarely saw girls? He could only say: Voldemort? Still needs practice! [Chapter Complete] *** Want more? Check out my Patreon for: ✓ Advanced chapters of all my stories ✓ Exclusive novels & fanfics ✓ Early access content [email protected]/meowthtl ???? Community Goal: 500 Power Stones unlocks a bonus chapter! 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