Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Chapter 178: Four ways to improve magic

“The elders of the tribe have said that the sky has given us a warning that the splitting of that thing was something destined to happen, and that no one could stop it. In fact, it is also a test, for both the centaurs and the one chosen by fate. If through the test, both will get satisfactory remuneration.”

Firenze did not continue, and Evan did not ask.

He didn’t know what the test’s satisfactory remuneration meant, and he did not know what the omen from the sky that Firenze repeatedly mentioned was, nor did he know who the one chosen by fate was.

At the time, Evan was still immersed in the shocking news.

Although he looked calm, deep in his heart he was flustered.

The key to Gryffindor’s Secret Treasure was actually split up!

That was really terrible news. He didn’t know if it could actually return to being fully integrated after being split into several pieces.

If he couldn’t get it, what would he do with the Secret Treasures left by the Four Founders?!

He had an ominous feeling in his heart. It became clear that opening the Four Founders’ Secret Treasure was not as simple as he had thought. If the other three keys were lost or split like the one left by Gryffindor, what should he do?!

What the Four Founders left behind was always around the school from the very beginning.

The main purpose why they left these treasures was to protect the school from the Dark Wizard who was to come; and the four of them handed down keys for them to protect the school, and to test if their teaching philosophies and ideas had been well carried out.

The four keys correspond to four tests. Only the students who pass the test can get the corresponding keys. Entrusting the keys to the intelligent creatures living around the school at that time was done to keep people who were not Hogwarts students from getting the treasures.

They didn’t need to divide the keys into pieces and make the students go around the world collecting them.

But over the course of a thousand years, anything could happen.

There have been numerous changes in the intelligent creatures that they had commissioned to keep the Treasures’ Keys.

No one could guarantee that these intelligent creatures would always live around Hogwarts. Even if they were still there, the keys left by the Four Founders would not necessarily be there anymore, or they could be split into several pieces, or lost, or…

At the thought that he might run around the world, looking for the Secret Treasure Keys left by the Four Founders of the school, Evan had a headache.

A really long time had passed; the traces left by those years must be very vague.

It might be easier to directly defeat Voldemort rather than complete the collection of four Treasure Keys.

Evan shook his head hard. It was not the time to think about those things.

In any case, a fragment of Gryffindor’s Treasure Key remained in the Centaur’s tribe, and he had to get it. He heard Professor Lupin, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew saying that the thing had quite powerful magic.

Even if he wouldn’t get the complete key in the end, this piece of debris alone would be very helpful, going by the information he had collected so far.

Evan knew he had so far gained a lot of magic theory knowledge from the library area and Flourish and Blotts Bookseller, but because of his magical power limitation, he couldn’t use most of it.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been defeated so easily in his duel with Snape.

There are very limited ways to increase magical power. Besides of the natural increase that comes with age, there are three main methods:

The first one is a variety of potions and medicaments, such as magic potions. These potions are relatively simple to obtain, but the power obtained by this method is very unstable and its duration is very short.

The second is to rely on the help of legendary magic items, such as the elder’s wand in Dumbledore’s hand, the Gryffindor’s key fragments kept in the Centaurs’ tribe, etc… As long as you are equipped with these items, you can get the corresponding upgrade. This kind of magical improvement is more durable and stable, but such legendary magic items are very rare, and they are very difficult to obtain. Many wizards haven’t even seen one their whole life.

As for the last one, Evan was still in the research stage and was not very sure about it.

He once looked into the source of Voldemort’s immense magical power, along with his inner wickedness. He could wantonly use the most profound of dark magic, and in addition to using Horcruxes to ensure his immortality, his power might also be the result of his black magic experiments and research on transforming his own body. Last year, when Evan met Tom Riddle, he found a very handsome young man, nothing like the terrifying Dark Lord that he later turned into.

What had happened to him to gain so much power? He must have modified his body, such as accepting the baptism of the purest dark power or the blood of a powerful magical creature.

These evil black magic transformations must have eventually led to the changes in his appearance.

The magical power gained by this method is more stable than the second one, and the speed of promotion is very fast. Also, it is easy to obtain a lot of power this way, but it is very dangerous, and accidents may occur in the process of transforming one’s own body.

Voldemort is one of the most obvious examples. Evan is not even sure that he is no longer a pure human being.

The last method is naturally out of question. The only practical and fast way to improve the magic is the second.

Evan sighed. Although he was eager to improve his magic, although Firenze told him these things about the key to the treasure left by Gryffindor and the dark history of the Centaurs that he didn’t want to explain, Evan hadn’t yet been approved by the Centaurs, nor had he obtained the thing preserved among their tribe.

It is still early to think about such things now.

He was going to look into this after catching Peter Pettigrew and helping Sirius Black to clear his name.

“Firenze, do you know the Time-Turner?” Evan suddenly said, he was going to tell him about it, otherwise he would see two of them in a while, and it was not good to have more accidents.

“The Time-Turner?!” Firenze blinked, and his usually calm face showed some confusion. He was obviously hearing about it for the first time.

“It’s a magical item that helps users travel in time.” Evan explained, “I have returned to the present from the future with its help, so I know that Peter Pettigrew will pass by here because I was here too. In fact, I was the one to set the Acromantulas Lair on fire.”