Busy but Peaceful Days

"I can help you remove the will contained within that power. Such high-purity power would be very beneficial to your magic."

The system quickly gave its answer, and Noah fell into deep thought once more.

The system was right. This high-purity power was undoubtedly extremely tempting to Noah as he was now.

Under the effects of this power, Noah’s magic would definitely grow even stronger.

But what Noah found strange was that the system had emphasized the word "magic" without mentioning his body at all.

Noah was not lacking in magic right now. In fact, thanks to this body of his, he clearly had far more magic than was reasonable.

To put it in terms of an anime Noah had once watched, he was basically like that guy with a fox in his stomach—his magical power was absurdly abundant.

But Noah’s problem was different from that guy’s. That guy lacked the knowledge and combat experience needed to advance.

Noah lacked neither. Over eight years, he had basically gone through every book in Kamar-Taj’s collection.

Except for certain books The Ancient One had expressly forbidden and warned him not to touch. Of course, Noah had read those books in the System Space as well.

He had no shortage of knowledge. As for combat experience?

Please. Noah’s practical combat experience was incredibly rich. Back at Hogwarts, he had dared to court death by picking powerful professors to fight, though he had been beaten black and blue every single time.

After arriving at Kamar-Taj, he could find someone to spar with almost every day. It could be said that Noah was not lacking much in terms of practical combat either.

The only thing restricting Noah was the body that had evolved after absorbing Carol’s blood.

"Can’t this stuff be refined into something that evolves my body?" Noah asked gloomily.

"You want to use magic to evolve your body?" the system asked in return.

"Why not?"

"Why do you think you can?"

Fine. Noah could not be bothered to keep arguing nonsense with his system.

Magic from higher dimensions could not improve the body?

Noah did not believe that. Although he had tried using his own magic to improve his physical attributes and failed—

his magic, no matter how abundant, was only Tier 6 magic. Higher-dimensional magic had to be at least Tier 10. How could it possibly be unable to do it? Wasn’t that just screwing him over?

Noah rolled his eyes, but soon thought of another approach.

"Oh, right. System, do you have an exchange function?"

"It can be added, but you cannot exchange for items that improve your strength, nor are there any so-called divine artifacts."

Noah was nearly rolling his eyes again. After a long while, he finally gritted his teeth and asked, "Then why did you say it can be added?"

"But I can provide knowledge."

The system spoke unhurriedly. "I am a system meant to assist you in becoming the greatest wizard. A wizard’s path has never been simple. Even if you possess abundant magic and terrifying magical skill, without a wizard’s cultivation, you are unworthy of being called a great wizard."

"Knowledge is the core element of a wizard. Magic and everything else come second. With me here, talent is not a problem. Do you understand?"

Knowledge was the core element?

Magic and everything else came second?

Talent was not a problem?

Noah truly could not be bothered to complain anymore. His face was full of frustration, and for a long time, he could not force out a single word.

Fine, you’re amazing. You make the rules. I won’t argue with you, because I can’t win anyway, alright?

"So what can I exchange for?" Noah finally asked after a long while.

"What you want: information on dragons, as well as precautions regarding the Animagus," the system answered directly.

That answer made Noah’s eyes light up, but he quickly asked hesitantly, "How much of this power are you taking?"

"I am not taking it. I am merely storing it away for certain unpredictable events."

The system did not beat around the bush. "Last time, you blamed me for not telling you what extracting the Space Stone’s power was for. This time, I can tell you. I will use it to save you. Of course, if you succeed, you will also be able to make better use of this power."

Why did that make his heart ache so much?

Was this what it felt like to have salt rubbed into a wound?

When Noah thought of how the main reason his physical strength had stopped improving was because he had wasted a massive amount of power extracted from the Space Stone, his heart ached terribly.

It was not as if he had never considered asking Fury for the stone back and extracting its power again.

But The Ancient One had expressly forbidden him from doing so and warned Noah that even if he wanted to retrieve it, he would have to wait until after 2012 at the very least.

"Fine, then I’ll choose to exchange with you—huh? This doesn’t seem like an exchange, does it? Why does it feel like I’m getting all the benefits?"

"This is merely a mode adopted according to your wishes. That is why I said it can be added."

Entering the System Library, Noah indeed found the information.

The materials were extremely substantial. They included changes in dragons’ elemental attributes, the flow of dragons’ magic, and even information on dragon evolution.

Noah had no idea where this stuff had come from, but it was written in such detail that he could not help believing it.

However, it lacked information on dragons’ physical structure, which left Noah somewhat disappointed.

Still, Noah did not dwell on it. Since the system had not provided it and he happened to be researching that area himself, it probably meant the system believed he could figure something out on his own.

It could even mean that his research direction was correct, and the system had deliberately withheld that information to prevent him from becoming too dependent on it.

As for the Animagus materials, Noah wore a peculiar expression.

That was because this information shared some similarities with the traditional Animagus, but the differences were even greater!

It detailed various points to watch for when changing forms and specifically explained how to alter the storage and circulation methods of magic.

Yet it still lacked something: research on biological bodies.

Overall, however, this information was immensely helpful to Noah. With it, he had no idea how many detours he could avoid!

"Things produced by the system really are top-notch. But these materials will still take me several years to study properly. I’m not Tony Stark. I’m not as much of a genius as you, so I’ll just have to put in more time and effort!"

Noah quickly made up his mind. Honestly, he did not think he was particularly smart. His advantages were knowing the future and having the system’s help.

Although he lacked time in the real world, Noah did not have to worry about that in the System Space.

With six times the time of an ordinary person, Noah could take things slowly and experiment at his leisure.

Though "slowly" was not quite the right word. Who would not want more assurance when they knew danger lay ahead?

Noah was not foolish. He set himself a small goal: by the time Iron Man appeared, he had to possess at least Tier 7 strength!

Research was an extremely time-consuming endeavor. At least, Noah felt that it devoured time just as badly as seriously studying magic.

Noah himself had not even noticed how quickly time passed. Perhaps the only thing that made him aware of it was Ms. Heifen, who often mentioned by his ear that another holiday had arrived.

Then there were Evan and the others. After graduating, they rested for a while before reporting to the Ministry of Magic, then found time to come research with Noah.

Honestly, Noah now understood why those mysterious Magic Organizations loved conducting research instead of coming out to stir up trouble.

The appeal of magic truly made it hard to stop. Take Noah, for example. What he was researching was merely a hypothesis, and at the beginning, it had only been a project meant to look cool.

Yet Noah had already spent several years on this project alone. If the system had not helped him, his magical cultivation might have fallen behind.

Fortunately, Noah’s research had made quite decent progress by now.

After Evan and the others came over, Noah found a way to divide all the materials up and gave the simplest sections to Evan and the other two.

When Evan and the others received those materials, they were all stunned. Even though the information seemed basic and simple to Noah, it completely exceeded their imagination.

But those materials also made Evan and the others realize that Noah had definitely put unimaginable effort into this.

"Looks like we need to work hard too."

After carefully reading through the materials, Evan and the others came to one conclusion: their progress truly seemed far too slow.

But there was nothing they could do. All three of them had entered the Ministry of Magic, and their positions were not low-ranking either.

Perhaps it was because they had Kamar-Taj on their resumes, their families were firmly on Dumbledore’s side, and the three of them were also very close to Noah.

So after entering the Ministry of Magic, Evan joined the logistics division of the Minister’s Office and served as a secretary there.

Luns joined the Auror Command Office of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, assisting the current department head.

As for Kate, he joined the International Magical Law Office of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. It could be said that he was the busiest of them all.

Besides the three of them, Hermione had also joined that department, though she worked in the Britain Seat Office of the International Confederation of Wizards.

It could be said that students who graduated from Kamar-Taj University had basically all entered the Ministry of Magic, or returned to Hogwarts like Longbottom.

Their busy schedules were truly beyond comparison with Noah, who appeared to have nothing to do, so Noah had never blamed Evan and the other two.

Noah’s life was very monotonous. He had long since memorized all those materials, and whenever he had time, he would thoroughly study the dragon he had bought back from Hungary.

Aside from that, he went to Charles’s place for examinations and listened to the results.

Or he would take Ms. Heifen out for a stroll when he had nothing to do, such as going to New York for some fun.

Of course, there was also the most important matter: reporting to Kamar-Taj every day, or receiving The Ancient One at the Sanctum every month.

But those peaceful days were still broken, and the person who broke them was none other than Dumbledore.