Chapter 74

With an improved Spell Model of the Point-me Spell, he could use it to track beings even slightly stronger than him.

He had already experimented with it in the One Piece World, and while he had no problem tracking inanimate objects, living beings or powerful objects were a different matter.

The AI chip had helped him figure out the true mechanics of the spell and optimized the spell model so he could use it to its limit.

It was a form of information-based division, just like the scratching spell in the ancient language.

The more the user knew about the target, the easier it was to track it with the mechanics of the spell.

At least you need to know the very basics, enough to be able to identify a specific target; something like a random gold coin wouldn't work. It has to be a specific gold coin, with, for example, a scratch in it.

But that was only a part of it; if the target had at least a partial consciousness, it could resist the tracking.

This was purely dependent on the strength difference between the user and the target.

For example, a mythical devil fruit like the Hito Hito no Mi: Model Nika was strong enough to resist his tracking through Scrying and Point Me. But other Devil Fruits weren't. His theory was that the will of the target was also an additional matter.

The Hito Hito no Mi: Model Nika was probably aware that it was waiting for Luffy and didn't want to be found by him.

While other fruits, if they were aware, didn't really care. Maybe they could resist him too.

At least that fact told him one thing. Devil Fruits are beyond the level of a Rank 3 being, the level he was certain he could track. Well, the Hito Hito no mi: Model Nika at least.

His current tracking target was fortunately unable to hide from him. It was barely a Rank 1 being, and he had no chance in resisting his attempts to find it.

This track led him deeper into the Dark Night Woods, and he felt the vitality and force of the forest around him reducing. He knew the creature responsible for this was able to devour life.

More and more dried and withered plants filled the woods around him. When he grabbed some of them, they crumbled into white dust, having lost all the water inside of them.

[ Warning! Mutated Organisms ahead! ]

It directly rushed out of the woods at him.

This creature resembles an lizard; its skin is yellowish in color with four legs, a snake-like tongue, and horns. White fangs littered it's jaw as the tongue was flying at Harry.

Having expected such an attack, Harry just raised his hand, and a wall of sickly and vile-looking greenish-black flames appeared in front of him, turning the tongue as soon as it touched the flames into ashes.

"Hmmm, a combination of a Fireball Spell Model with Fiendfyre and Death Element Particles is quite powerful." Harry muttered as he observed the effect of his spell before waving his hand at the creature, and the flames compressed into a bladelike shape, flying at the creatures.

It had no chance to react. The flames' intense heat burned straight through it, splitting it in half.

As soon as it hit the dirt, dead, the corpse began to wither and collapse inward. Scales continuously fell off, littering the ground. The blood evaporated quickly.

Within minutes, only a white skeleton and some yellow scales remained on the ground.

Anything that remained, like the bones, was brittle and turned to dust with a tiny bit of pressure.

A scan with the help of the AI chip confirmed the presence of a small pathogen on the corpse that had caused the effect.

He cleansed his hands with magic and collected a bit of the bones with a Levitation Charm into some flasks for later studying.

It was at that moment that blood-red veins came out of the remains and shaped a small creature.

These Veins were trying the same with the materials Harry had just collected, but they couldn't break through the magically strengthened containers.

Even incomplete, the small creature was quite fast, but Harry could easily keep up with it and followed it deeper into the woods, where his Point Me Spell had already been leading him.

That creature is some kind of parasite that had taken control over another creature. It's probably returning to its origin.

He followed it deeper into the withered woods, all the way towards a hole leading into the depths.

While at the entrance a grown man had to crouch, deeper into it it became more spacious so that multiple people could walk side by side.

Here a new spell model based on the Lumos Charm came in useful. For this one, Harry had been inspired by the Candlelight Spell from the Elder Scrolls Series.

It creates a small sphere of light, illuminating his surroundings while following him around. Nothing more than a rank-0 spell model, but hella useful for this kind of situation.

Deeper inside, the natural presence of darkness elements became stronger. He knew that the creature inside was a Darknes Elemental Creature, so it's natural that it lives in a place with a high concentration of that element.

After all, this whole encounter belongs to a main character. A location left behind by a powerful ancient magus that gives the MC a path forward. The plot armor he was leeching off.

He wanted this mission exactly because of what was hidden here. Even if the mission would have been already gone, he would have come here either way.

Following the correct path and dodging the traps the creature had prepared to protect its lair, Harry soon arrived at his goal.

A large underground cave, the celling littered with stalactites and Flash Jellyfish, a creature that could emanate light.

It was filled with a horde of different mutated creatures—bears, lizards, Lizards, and wolves—all controlled by the very same parasites he had followed here.

And in the center was a massive yellow snake, resting there like a king attened by its servants that were guarding it.

[ Great Withering Snake-MMankestre (Half-adult body), Strength: 11.9, Agility: 6.5, Vitality: 14, Spiritual Force: 8

Abilities:

Parasitic: A Mankestre can develop an extremely potent parasite within its body, spreading it to other organisms and converting them into its underlings.

Wither: Any area a Mankestre traverses will see its plant life die and transform into nutrients for the creature. An adult Mankestre, possessing the strength of an official Magus, can reduce an entire forest to withering ashes.

Source: Nigel's Travels ]

In its adult form, it would have been on the level of a Rank 1 magus, but still no threat for Harry. This one, not even an adult, is just stronger than a Rank 3 acolyte.

Quickly he was surrounded by small greenish-black fireballs that each flew at one of the creatures controlled by a parasite, killing them with one attack.

Enraged, the snake coiled in the center, hissing at him as it readied itself to attack him. It didn't realize that Harry was vastly stronger, even with his natural instincts.

The multitude of concealment spells he had put on himself concealing his strength were working nicely.

With Red Flashes headed towards the massive snake, as a mutlitude of energy projectiles hit it all over it's body. Inside it's opened jaw, it's eyes on it's nose, in between the gaps of its scales.

Every weakpoint was targeted by one of these spells.

Seconds later, the snake didn't move anymore. But it was still alive. These had been stunners.

"Well, that's done." He muttered as he levitated the Corpse of the Snake behind him. Without the Mankestre consciousness, the Parasites were not moving from the littered carcasses all around the cave.

As soon as the snake was safely behind him, he sent off a wave of fire, burning all the corpses inside the cave. He had already gathered a bit of material for research and held the origin of these parasites in his possession.

There was no need for them to remain here and risk them helping the snake in the future.

The Mankestre Snake was also good enough to study.

After all, it was related to the Advanced Meditation Technique the MC had used in the Original Story. It should give him a few useful insights in his research towards these meditation techniques.

Especially towards the Bloodline-based Warlock Meditation Techniques.

While it was a mutated and heavily experimented on creature, there had to be at least a bit of data he could gain from it.

This Snake was after all experimented on for research on how to advance a Bloodline by a powerful Bloodline Magus.

In the Magus World exist many paths to higher power with their scientific methods; however they gained it, they had found many approaches to advance their personal strength.

The Path of the Magus was the most common one, basically a pure magic user, though there exist countless various Magus meditation techniques in the Magus world.

But there exist also countless subtypes beyond the common Magus type, which were also Magi overall, but their paths are a bit more specific. One of them is the Warlock Type.

A Warlock is a magus that has absorbed the bloodline of a creature as the base of his power; they are also referred to as Bloodline Warlock.

There are many advantages, like a higher natural strength, no requirements for innate spells since they come from the abilities of the creature they used themselves, a longer lifespan, and so on.

It had also some strict restrictions. For example, unlike the purebloods in the Wizarding World, a Warlock could indeed be called a pureblood.

The purer their bloodlines are, the easier their path to advancement becomes. Warlocks put a lot of importance on bloodlines, for a valid reason.

With an impure bloodline, it would only represent a lesser-leveled creature, while a pure one represents a high-leveled one.

For example, the Mankestre Snake he just captured is only a Rank 1 creature, a very low-level bloodline, but its ancestors were more powerful and had a had a higher ranking.

Like the Black Horal Snake, a Rank 3 bloodline, or the Giant Kemoyin Serpent, a Rank 4 bloodline, were both ancestors of the Mankestre Snake.

The problem with the Bloodline Warlock is that they were bound to the Bloodline they had used, which limits their strength to their Bloodlines Strength.

They could reach the strength of their bloodline easily, even by doing nothing—no training or meditation needed—and they would reach the maximal level of it by just aging.

But it was impossible with their original Bloodline to reach a level beyond it's natural limits.

Instead, they would need to transform their bloodline to a higher-ranked one. Unfortunately this wasn't Pokemon; creatures didn't just evolve.

This was called Bloodline Shackles, the limitation of every Warlock, forever bound to the strength of the Bloodline they had used to become a Warlock.

Well, of course there were exceptions. Warlocks were extremely hiearchial based on their bloodlines. After all, the higher-ranked bloodline of each branch had instinctive control over all lower-ranked ones.

Snake Type Bloodlines were extremely whitspread in the Multiverse, but they all led to one being called Snake Dowager. The supposed origin of all snake bloodlines in this multiverse.

She wasn't bound to the Bloodline Shackles and had control over all Snakes or Snake-type Warlocks; neither was she limited by the natural strength of her Bloodline; she could just like a Magus advance as far as she had resources to.

Why was he explaining all this randomly in his head?

Well, the Mankestre Snake is a bloodline experiment.

An Research Subject of a Warlock with the Giant Kemoyin Serpent Bloodline, who had tried to evolve this Mankestre Snake in order to one day break through his own Bloodline Shackles and evolve his own Bloodline.

In the cave system was not only the lair of that snake, but further down was a large black granite boulder.

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