Bloodline Origins

Ivan moved through the sea of books with his wand raised. He had no intention of stopping in the general area and headed straight for the Restricted Section.

Advanced Transfiguration Guide… Ancient Characters… Soul Catcher — Peering into Your Head…

Ivan's eyes scanned the rows of shelves, where a large number of forbidden books with apparently high-end names made him envious, even including the Dementor books he had always longed for and Occlumency books.

If it were possible, Ivan would have used hundreds of Academic Genius Experience Cards to look at it for half a month, and then his strength would have risen…

In the end, Ivan resisted the temptation, as he did not have enough G.A.D.s to exchange for it, and had not forgotten what he was here for.

Following the signs in the Restricted Section, Ivan soon found seven rows of twelfth shelves, but this seemed to be no different. Large numbers of magical books were neatly arranged, filling the shelves to the brim.

Irritated, Ivan tried to find some sort of secret passageway, but to no avail.

The book moved without wind, as if it had its own consciousness. It flipped through the pages one by one, and after a few pages, black fog surged out of the pages. One could vaguely see a man's head with its mouth wide open, as if it was screaming!

Ivan was horrified when his eardrums began to swell and his head began to spin, even though he did not hear anything.

The thick black fog gathered, and for a moment, the head seemed to burst out of the book…

Pa ~

Ivan slammed the book shut, flattening the black head against the page. As the book closed, the black mist vanished.

"It's just a book," Ivan said through gritted teeth, rubbing his ears. "What the hell did you flip for?"

It was some time before Ivan dared to pick it up. On the cover of the book was written The Secrets of the Dark Arts. The feel of the cover was distinctly different from that of the other books.

'It's not skin, is it?'

A thought flashed through Ivan's mind, and he felt a chill run down his spine. Considering how much pain the man's head had been in, it was possible.

Ivan glanced at the reward mission in the system. There was no change, indicating that it had nothing to do with the reward, so he really had accidentally dropped it.

Ivan had no choice but to stuff the book back in his drawer in frustration. He was about to look for more booby traps when he suddenly noticed something different about the bookshelf.

One… two… three… four… five… six?

Every shelf in the Restricted Section was exactly the same, divided into six rows and seven columns by type, but Ivan was keenly aware that one of the cabinets in the twelfth row was conspicuously missing.

To Ivan's discomfort, even though there was one cupboard missing, the shelves were still perfectly aligned, as if the space had been warped.

"Someone used a Confunding Charm on this place? And hid one of the cabinets?"

Ivan's eyes narrowed. He had examined the bookshelf many times, so the only possibility was that someone had placed a Confunding Charm on it, affecting his judgement, and then, coincidentally, the scream had broken it.

Even though Ivan knew what the anomaly was, he was still at a loss. Having read The Fundamental Principles of Spells, he could tell that it was a charm to hide an object, but he knew too little magic to use it.

Yvonne had to use her brain to try to remember the books she had read, and she happened to remember a spell Snape had used in the book.

"Aparecium (apparition)!" Ivan tried to press his wand against the bookshelf and whispered the incantation for the Apparition Charm.

The whole bookshelf began to shake slightly, and a crack appeared in the middle of the twelfth row. A moment later, it expanded violently, revealing a new bookcase.

The hidden bookcase looked no different from the others. It was filled with thick books. Ivan reached out and scanned each of them. When he touched the last one, the system prompt sounded truthfully.

[Ding! Rewards issued.]

Ivan's mouth twitched, but he was already cursing in his head.

Was this how the reward was given out? God only knew how long it would have taken him to find it if he hadn't been so lucky!

This stupid system was not caring at all!

Ivan's caring system of thinking about other people's needs made him sad. It was so hard being a host…

Despite his thoughts, Ivan was so excited that he pulled the book out of the shelf. The cover was rough, with the words "Bloodline Origin" printed on it. The pages were slightly yellowed, indicating the age of the book.

It turned out to be another magical book that was not mentioned in the original work, and, seeing as it was a reward from the system, Ivan flipped through it.

After reading a few of them, Ivan was disappointed to find that The Origin of the Bloodline was not the spellbook he had expected to contain powerful spells. Instead, it was more like a history book, chronicling the events leading up to the Wizarding War.

Wizards of that time did not dominate the wizarding world as they did today, and were even able to enslave house-elves, magical creatures with great spell-casting abilities as adults.

On the contrary, human wizards are pathetically weak compared to these naturally powerful magical creatures, and can only be described as having the advantage of numbers.

Fortunately, humans are creatures who never admit defeat.

Some wizards chose to specialize in magic, creating more powerful charms to enhance their abilities, while others turned their attention to quicker ways of doing so… such as taking the power of powerful magical creatures!

Some wizards were successful, and their strength increased dramatically. What was more frightening was that the power of their blood continued, allowing their descendants to gain power as well.

Although the power of the blood may have been weakened by iterations, this discovery was enough to drive many wizards mad!

However, the risk of blood fusion was extremely high, and most wizards, with the exception of a few who succeeded, died horribly in the process, with some lucky losers surviving, only to become monsters at the cost of being cursed for generations, such as werewolves and vampires.

Some wizards even chose to breed stronger and more compatible magical creatures to experiment with blood fusion in order to strengthen themselves.

This reminds Ivan of the basilisk sleeping in the Chamber of Secrets and the Acromantula in the Forbidden Forest…

The worst of it is that some wizards find ways to bond with less-unacceptable-looking magical creatures, in the hope that their offspring will carry on each other's blood…