Chapter 176: Chap.173 - A useless reward

Hogwarts was silent again during the night. Rigel was walking through the castle corridors under the Disillusionment Charm, the sound of his footsteps muffled by his wind magic, and his merman eyes didn't even need any light to guide him through the dark castle.

Rigel walked through the corridors until he reached a painting on the seventh floor. Rigel looked at it, it was a painting of a man in a forest clearing trying to teach Trolls to dance ballet while some of the Trolls attacked him with their clubs.

Barnabas, the Barmy.

Rigel stared at the moving painting for a moment, before averting his gaze and focusing on the smooth wall on the other side of the painting.

Rigel was lost in thought, it wasn't the first time he'd been to this place. He'd even entered that room before, hoping to find some kind of reward, but he'd found nothing.

Still, he came back here, because he thought about something during class that day. He had indeed entered that room, but he had never entered a specific room before, the Room of Hidden Things.

At first he thought he would have to wait until his fifth year to be able to return here during the creation of Dumbledore's Army, after all he had tried to enter precisely the room where he could train magic, but today he thought of something else, could the problem not be not having achieved anything in that room, but that he simply didn't enter the right room?

He hadn't entered the Room of Hidden Things yet because Quirrell was still at Hogwarts and he didn't know if entering that room with a Horcrux would make Voldemort notice anything, but thinking about it, maybe just entering would be enough, he didn't need to be wandering around.

He couldn't tell if there would be a achievement, but he decided to try anyway, he would only enter for a moment. He had already prepared something to hide, so even if that Horcrux could sense his entry, his act of concealing something might present a valid reason for him to go in there.

So, he arrived here today.

He started pacing back and forth in front of that wall, three times, trying to find a room to hide things in.

When a large wooden door finally took shape in the wall, Rigel wasn't surprised, he simply approached, pushed the door open, and went inside.

The moment he saw those hills of random things, he was a little surprised, there was so much stuff... a thousand years' worth of lost items at Hogwarts... but he soon stopped paying attention to that gigantic room, instead looking at the Adventure Book with a smile on his face.

The book had been opened and appeared in front of him as soon as he entered the room.

Okay, he was right, the reason he didn't receive an achievement was simply because he didn't get to the right room!

//-//

[Congratulations, Writer, on discovering the Room of Hidden Things and earning the "Where is my..." achievement.]

[Achievement unlocked: Where is my...! (Bronze)]

[Reward: Formless tool (Bronze)]

[Type: Bound Equipment - bracelet]

[Effect: A Thousand and One Transformations -> This item can transform into any object, as long as it is not a ranked item.]

[Note: This item is limited to the writer's own knowledge and cannot generate consumables, for instance, it could transform into a glass of water but not generate water, or into a firearm but without ammunition. Since it is limited to the Writer's knowledge, generating a firearm, for example, requires an understanding of its internal mechanics.]

[The Formless tool was placed in the king's treasury.]

//-//

Rigel took the bracelet from the king's treasure, it was silver and thin, resembling a simple ring. He thought for a moment, and the bracelet quickly changed shape. Soon there was a broom in Rigel's hand, then an umbrella, then a screwdriver, then a hat, then a watch, but when Rigel tried to see the time on it, he realized it wasn't working, clearly, he didn't know the inner workings of a watch.

The clock hands were also pointing to the number 12, not that it was exactly midnight, but since Rigel didn't know what time it was, the clock couldn't simply show the time out of thin air.

Rigel thought for a moment and the Formless tool transformed into a compass, this time it worked. Rigel knew that a compass worked by magnetizing the needle, so the needle would start pointing to magnetic north on its own.

Rigel turned the compass into binoculars, but when he tried to look through it, the image was blurry, he didn't have a clear understanding of how to create the lenses, so he failed again.

Rigel tested a few more objects and his final conclusion was... this thing was as useless as it was useful.

It wasn't that ordinary things were useless to a wizard, in fact, being able to create any item could be very useful at any time, but Rigel had the ability to transmute things, even without a wand, so if he needed something, he could simply create something he needed.

For another wizard, this thing might be very useful, but for Rigel? Well... it could only be kept in the King's Treasury, and besides, it's a bound item, so only he can use it, he couldn't even give it to someone else.

This trip was a huge disappointment, he had expected at least something better than a Bronze item he didn't need.

In any case, it wasn't the first time Rigel had received something useless, he simply sighed and shook his head. He didn't even try to hide the item's functions, testing it right there, purely because of how 'useless' it was.

Remembering what he needed to do, he grabbed a diary he had casually written in over the past few days and hid it, it was just a simple diary that didn't say anything important, filled with things like 'I ate an apple today' and 'my shoe got dirty with mud'.

Placing it under a pile of items, he left soon after, this trip was a huge waste of time.

Leaving the room, he began to walk away, using the Disillusionment Charm again. It would only take him a few minutes to reach the Gryffindor dormitory, but as he was passing a room, he stopped for a moment.

The door to the room was open, in the background, one could see a huge, stately-looking mirror.

Rigel didn't need to be a genius to understand what that thing was.

Erised's mirror.

However, Rigel didn't think his luck was so good, so under the Disillusionment spell, Rigel's lips trembled fiercely, that old bee was playing tricks again!