Chapter 285: The Truth Detector

"Don't poke it so much, you're almost blinding someone."

In a certain dormitory room, Li Qiaodan held a gold stick he had just bought from Zuo Ke's joke shop and poked it around aimlessly.

The gold stick was called the Truth Detector, a very primitive dark magic detector. It could detect hidden curses and magical items.

There naturally weren't many hidden curses and magical items in an ordinary dormitory, but they had Albert, a genius, in their dorm. Li Qiaodan actually discovered quite a few hidden curses, such as cabinets, books, and mirrors.

Anyway, Li Qiaodan was now excitedly poking the Truth Detector all over the place.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, Albert might beat you up when he comes back." Fred, who was playing cards, couldn't help but warn.

"As long as you guys don't tell him, he definitely won't know." Li Qiaodan tossed a chicken-flavored Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans into his mouth and poked Albert's cabinet with the gold stick, saying, "I know Albert keeps many magical items in there."

"Don't bother trying, there's a magic spell on it, Alohomora won't open it."

"What about picking the lock?"

"If you pick the lock, Albert will definitely beat you up later."

"Li Qiaodan won't pick locks." George said in frustration. He lost again, it seemed like he had never really won against Fred in cards. Although Albert kept saying there was something wrong with his deck, George didn't want to change it.

"Speaking of which, why did Albert buy this silver arrow?" After tidying up the wizard cards, Fred took out the silver arrow from under Albert's bed and carefully observed it on the table. Although it was an antique broom, the craftsmanship was indeed exquisite, not at all rough like other antique brooms.

"I don't know, maybe, probably... he wants to collect this antique broom?" George said uncertainly.

"Look, there are hidden curses on the broom too." Li Qiaodan poked the broom excitedly with the gold stick.

"Don't play around with that thing here." Fred gave Li Qiaodan a displeased look, "I'd rather believe Albert is planning to study the structure of the broom to make himself a new one!"

Making a flying broomstick wasn't actually difficult; the real challenge was how to improve the craftsmanship of the flying broomstick.

"Help me pick the lock." Li Qiaodan poked George with the stick and asked, "The Gryffindor treasure map you found last time is in there too."

"On that note, where is he?" George pushed away Li Qiaodan's stick and asked impatiently.

"I don't know." Fred shook his head.

After returning from Hogsmeade, Albert inexplicably disappeared.

"While he's not here..."

"Do you ever stop bothering me? If you have time, go and make sure the wizard card competition is organized properly."

George walked to the counter and took out a pile of cards from a box. Those were the wizard cards he and Fred were trying to make. However, compared to Albert's wizard cards, there was still a gap.

Li Qiaodan took the opportunity to move the gold stick down and poked at George, looking forward to what would happen next.

...

...

At this moment, in the Room of Requirement, Albert was practicing the Traceless Extension Spell.

So far, he had been practicing for more than ten minutes, but the Traceless Extension Spell still hadn't worked, and the skill panel still didn't show the Traceless Extension Spell.

"Truly a profound magic, it does seem quite difficult." Albert muttered to himself.

"Capacity Expansion!"

He focused his mind and waved his wand again to cast the spell on the box.

However, the Traceless Extension Spell still didn't work, which made him feel a little frustrated. He felt like he was being tricked by the reward from the mission panel.

Why couldn't he just master it directly?

"Where could the problem be?" Albert tried to recall Professor Smith's process of casting the spell.

His magical power should be sufficient, and the incantation and wand movement for casting the spell were correct.

While it was possible that Professor Smith intentionally misled him, the likelihood of that was quite low.

"But where exactly is the problem?" Albert took a deep breath and suppressed the irritation rising within him. He temporarily gave up practicing the Traceless Extension Spell and flipped through the books he borrowed from the Restricted Section. There were indeed records about the learning method of the Traceless Extension Spell.

Albert spent quite some time carefully reading the part about the Traceless Extension Spell. When he closed the book, he realized where he had gone wrong, and his expression turned dark.

The Traceless Extension Spell was considered a difficult and profound spell to master for a reason. When using the spell, one needed to repeatedly determine how much capacity to expand, similar to how the Homenum Revelio spell required knowing the destination accurately or the Patronus Charm required happy memories.

However, Professor Smith never reminded Albert about this aspect, so it's not surprising that the spell failed.

"This mission reward is really unfair!" Albert muttered.

He wasn't quite sure why Professor Smith only taught him the incantation and wand movement, without instructing him on the key points of casting the spell. He didn't want to figure it out by himself, or maybe... well, he could find out next time he met with Professor Smith.

"Capacity Expansion!"

Albert picked up his wand and tried again. This time, the spell finally worked. He reached into the box, and the interior space had indeed expanded slightly.

He flipped through his skill panel, and sure enough, he found the skill for the Traceless Extension Spell.

The difficulty of the Traceless Extension Spell was related to the size of the expansion.

Albert didn't rush to upgrade his skill; instead, he began to consider how to use the hide of the Swamp Digger to make himself a pair of protective gloves. The hide of the Swamp Digger that Montonggs helped him purchase was quite large. He could make the gloves first and then create a container for the Mandrake later.

He didn't have the Tailoring skill in his skill panel, and even a level 1 Tailoring skill probably wouldn't produce good gloves. It would be better to find someone to help. Albert remembered that there was a tailor shop in Diagon Alley. He could write a letter to the plump witch there and ask for her help. If she was willing to lend a hand, that would be great.

If she wasn't willing, he would have to come up with another solution.

He felt that having a level 1 Tailoring skill wasn't very reliable.

...

During lunchtime, Albert appeared in the Great Hall on time. His three roommates were already there, waving to him.

"What happened to your eyes?"

As Albert walked over, he noticed that Li Qiaodan's eyes were a bit swollen, as if he had been punched. Fred was secretly chuckling beside him.

"I was just making a joke, you hit too hard." George shrugged helplessly.

"It wasn't intentional, it was a reflex, a reflex."

"Why don't you go ask Madam Pomfrey for help?" Albert sat down and took a slice of bread to prepare his sandwich.

However, Li Qiaodan's face was dark, and you couldn't even tell he had a black eye.

"I did." Fred said, "Where were you just now?"

"I was practicing spells on the eighth floor!" Albert said casually.

"You haven't... already learned it, have you?" George looked at Albert with a horrified expression.

"How is that possible? I just have a vague idea. I still need a lot of practice." Albert took a bite of his ham sandwich, extended his hand, and tapped his wrist guard with Li Qiaodan's gold stick. He found that it actually had a slight reaction.

"This thing is called the Truth Detector," Li Qiaodan introduced. "It can detect hidden curses and concealed magical items."

"The effect is quite poor. It's probably a cheap product." Albert moved the gold stick away from the wrist guard and immediately noticed that the reaction on the gold stick disappeared.

To be honest, magical items in the wizarding world felt quite unreliable to Albert. Most wizards still relied on their wands.

"After all, for the price of two Galleons, you can't expect much." Li Qiaodan muttered, taking the gold stick and poking at Albert, then... he suddenly saw a fist enlarging in front of him.

"You really are something!" Albert glanced at Li Qiaodan.

"Well, you don't have to hit me either!" Li Qiaodan covered his eyes and couldn't help but protest.

"Who asked you to be so curious!"

Fred and George struggled to hold back their laughter. If Li Qiaodan weren't already black enough, the two black eyes would have been quite amusing.

"By the way, we should make a joke item that can give others black eyes in the future. Remember that, remember that." George took out a piece of parchment and quickly noted down this brilliant idea.

"Wow, when did you start carrying this thing?" Li Qiaodan looked at George in disbelief, as if he had seen something incredible.

"Hehe, I learned this from Albert," George waved the parchment triumphantly, casually explaining, "It contains some interesting ideas. We'll gradually bring these good ideas to life in the future."

"With your abilities, it's quite challenging to succeed. If it were Albert, it might be easier," Li Qiaodan couldn't help but taunt George a bit, expressing his dissatisfaction.

"We're just accumulating useful knowledge. In another two years, we'll definitely be able to start trying to create these things," Fred and George didn't pay much attention to Li Qiaodan's teasing. They indeed didn't have that capability right now, but in a few more years, they would surely be able to accomplish it. For now, they were just jotting down ideas for future inspiration. Even if they didn't end up using them, it wouldn't be a loss.

"Selling those things wouldn't make much money," Albert interjected after finishing his sandwich.

"What do you think is valuable then?" Fred retorted.

"This thing."

Albert shook his wooden bracelet and explained in a hushed tone, "Professor Smith once complained to me that most wizards are pretty bad at Dark Magic defense, and some can't even use a simple Shield Charm properly."

"You mean protective gear?" George immediately guessed.

"Except for wizards in dangerous jobs, I doubt many people would buy them," Fred frowned.

"Recently, I got some very useful information. In a few years, this thing will definitely sell like hotcakes!" Albert grinned, "The field of Dark Magic defense is the real money-spinner."

"What information?"

"The information is quite shocking," Albert said mysteriously, "You guys definitely wouldn't want to know, and you probably wouldn't believe it either."

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(End of this chapter)