Chapter 6 - Transfiguration

The contents of 'A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration' weren't surprising. It was mostly consisted of warnings about Transfiguration. Like, 'It is important to make firm and decisive wand movements. Do not wiggle or twirl your wand unnecessarily.', 'Larger creatures are difficult to Transfigure except by skilled and powerful wizards. Know your limits.' or 'Incomplete Transfigurations are difficult to put right, but you must attempt to do so. Leaving the head of a rabbit on a footstool is irresponsible and dangerous. Say 'Reparifarge!' and the object or creature should return to its natural state.'.

It was no surprise that McGonagall was one of the strictest professors at the school. Normally in charms and such, a failed spell means, at most, you have failed to cast it. But in Transfiguration, a failure to cast correct spell could have catastrophic consequences. On objects, it wouldn't matter much but Human Transfiguration had to be dealt cautiously.

On that night, Alder didn't sleep until he finished the book completely. He sometimes tried few spells included in the book, just to be familiar with the process. Thus he only tried the spells once or twice, and failed all of them. But he wasn't discouraged and quickly read the rest of the book. He was eager to see what would happen when he finished the book.

Around 2 A.M., he was done with the book and closed it. He waited for a few seconds to hear something, anything at all. But it was in vain. He took a deep look at book's cover again and finally noticed some difference. Its gleam was still there, but it dimmed considerably.

'Did I study the book wrong? Maybe I was too sloppy in system's eyes.' thought Alder. He couldn't find any other explanation; it was clear reading it once had some effects.

'It seems I need to study it as I was studying my medical books in my previous life.' thought Alder. Magic was fun and all but it was boring to have to study every little detail. Before, he was wondering why characters needed to spend whole year in the original books to learn a couple of spells at best.

Alder put all of his thoughts aside for the time being and decided to continue dealing with them in the morning.

When Alder got up, the fireplace in the room was still burning. He could still remember when Tom waved his wand to start the fire, he didn't need any incantation. He grabbed his Transfiguration book, some ink and quills and went downstairs to get his breakfast.

When he came before the counter, Tom pulled a plate full of bacons, cheese, white bread and all kinds of vegetables in it and a cup of tea. He waved his wand and steam began to rise from the tea and bacons.

Having given his thanks Alder settled down to a table in the corner.

After wolfing down the food, he put the dishes aside and started studying the book earnestly.

Many witches and wizards passed by. Some were even drunk, arguing news in the Daily Prophet. From time to time some would cast a look towards Alder, visibly confused, wondering if a pub was a good place to study.

That day, Alder acted like he was possessed. He almost never got up other than going to toilet or taking his lunch and dinner.

But after an hour he ate his dinner, his dedication finally bore some fruits. After reading every sentence carefully, taking notes to blank spaces beside the paragraphs, highlighting important areas, a sound of ring could be heard inside his head.

--A good book on Transfiguration that surpasses the talent of the host has been completed. 2 Transfiguration Talent Points are added to the system.--

Alder immediately opened the status screen and clicked the number '0' beside the Transfiguration Talent. Two options appeared before him.

--Consume 1 Talent Point to increase to Level 1.--

--Consume 1 Transfiguration Talent Point to increase to Level 1.--

Alder decided not to spend his free Talent Point and keep it for later; instead he chose the second option. After seeing it rose to Level 1, he clicked again and saw the same options, he raised it to Level 2 without suspense. But when he clicked this time, he saw the Talent Point requirement increased to 2 Points.

But nevertheless, finally looking at a different number in the seas of zeros was quite satisfying.

--Transfiguration: Level 2 –

But contrary to his expectations, Alder felt no difference. He decided to take a look at the spells in the book and opened it.

While he was searching for the pages described those spells, his notes on the pages caught his eyes. He read them again and noticed some mistakes in them. He took his quill and started correcting them one by one. It seemed he could finally figure out the things he couldn't understand before. It was quite peculiar, he felt like he got smarter in an instant, but it was not just palpable unless he dealt with Transfiguration.

He checked out the spells in the book to pick a favorite one to try. Most of them required some kind of animal to cast on or outright useless to waste his time. Of course he would learn them in his school year but they didn't worth him to put his time to perfect them. At last, he chose two spells to learn which he deemed useful in the long run.

Avifors Spell and Reparifarge. Former was a spell that is used to turn small objects and creatures into birds. It could also be viewed as a jinx when it's used on things other than objects. Latter was a counter-spell that is used for untransfiguration. A very useful spell that he could use throughout his Transfiguration career.

When he tried casting Avifors on his quill this time, he tried creating an image of a sparrow in his mind, for in all his previous life, he saw plenty of sparrows. This time, process felt much easier to him. And the time proved him right. Before five minutes pass, he succeeded turning his quill into a sparrow. But Alder could feel something was wrong with the sparrow. It looked real, for sure, but it felt like a puppet, not alive. It was just looking at the same direction while standing on the book the quill was standing on before.

Alder called out the status screen again to check if there is anything wrong with Transfiguration talent. When he clicked on it, he noticed new information appeared below it.

--Avifors: Level 0 (Experience: 4/100, Upgradable)--

Alder casted the Reparifarge and saw it appear in Counter-Spell category.

--Reparifarge: Level 0 (Experience: 0/100, Required Talent Level: 1)--

It was weird to see a spell learnt from a Transfiguration book depending on his talent for Counter-Spells. He decided to buy a second-handed book about it later to see if he could level up his talent for it too. For the rest of the evening Alder repeated the spells again and again until he his Avifors skill leveled up to 1. When the skill leveled up a stream of information came to his mind, he felt like someone was drilling his scalp. At least the process didn't take long; Alder's misery was cut short. He casted the spell again, without suspense.

And when he did, the difference was as clear as day. The bird suddenly strung to life. It started flying around the room, looking around curiously. Alder let it fly around the room for some time, checking if the transformation is eternal. But in about fifteen seconds sparrow stopped clapping its wings for a moment and suddenly turned back into its original form, falling down slowly.

Alder was also curious if a Level 0 Reparifarge could cause any effect to Level 1 Avifors. This time Alder put the quill into the cage, next to Atlas. He felt too tired to chase the sparrow around, aim with his wand.

"Hold it down for me, okay?" said Alder, caressing the feathers of his owl.

Atlas tilted its head to side, as if saying what you mean.

"Avifors."

As soon as the quill changed into a sparrow it jumped and flew. At least tried to fly, because it banged its head to the cage. Not understanding what is happening, the sparrow looked its sides and lastly upward. When it looked up, it felt like a prey. There was another gigantic being around the room other than the man standing opposite to it. The other fluffy giant was looking at it curiously. While it was thinking what to do, a clawed leg stepped on it.

Alder was very pleased with the intelligence of his new pet. 'They can carry around letters to unknown destinations and I still succeeded to underestimate them.'.

He raised his arm and casted Reparifarge. He didn't have much expectation about it but to his surprise the bird actually changed back to its original form.

'Maybe because Level 0 is enough for Reparifarge to deal with basic spells such as Avifors. Well, I don't have many materials to try now; at least it's good to know that it will not affect me this year.'

He checked the status screen again.

--Avifors: Level 1 (Experience: 0/1000, Required Talent Level: 3)--

--Reparifarge: Level 0 (Experience: 0/100, Required Talent Level: 1)—

Seeing he couldn't gain any experience points for it without enough talent, he thought about spending his spare experience on them. It wasn't enough for both of them but he could upgrade one… But ultimately Alder decided against it, since he finally found a way to gain Talent and Experience for these kinds of things, he could use his spare experience on things he can't practice. He was not sure about skills under the talents like Divination, Occlumency, Legilimency, Alchemy Mastery… For example, Legilimency skills probably need him to cast them on someone again and again. He was not sure if there could be any chance like that but at least he had nothing urgent right now.

But still not finding anyway to gain stat points was giving Alder headaches. When he came to the world all his stats were 1 and talents were level 0. He would probably be on the lowest spot if there was a ranking of students. For example if he couldn't gain any talent points with Transfiguration book, he couldn't even cast Avifors properly for the rest of his life.

He tried to fell asleep but overthinking was keeping him awake, from time to time he would turn in his bed. A time had to pass that felt like hours for Alder to finally fall asleep.