Chapter 124 Carving Knifes

During the afternoon, Harry followed the team to the Quidditch pitch for the practice.

Wood pondered three more targeted tactics to deal with the new patterns and tactics that the other houses had shown this year during the short Christmas break.

The others returned to the castle to do their homework.

The ancient rune office in the late afternoon.

Felix is checking Hermione's learning progress - in recent times, she has been working on improving and upgrading the beaded pouch.

"You have learned all the magic runes needed to upgrade the beaded pouch, the next very important step is to learn how to construct the magic runes circuit."

"Professor, what's the difference?" Hermione asked.

"The inscription of the individual rune is relatively simple, but if you want to connect them into a circuit, you need to consider the stability and balance between the runes as a whole - this is very much a test of your mastery of magic power."

Felix's fingers kept moving, drawing a string of letters out of the air, which was divided into three rows, each with a subtle difference in brightness and size.

"If these are the runes you've completed at different times, the brightness represents how much magic you've injected."

Hermione observed the runes, and then, under Professor Hap's control, they were arranged in a row in random order.

The rearranged runes looked disorganized, bright, dark, large, and small mixed together, looking both disordered and awkward.

She instantly understood what Professor Hap meant by 'stability and balance'-every magic rune in the circuit, the magic power used, had to be as consistent as possible.

"Even subtle differences in magic power can render the circuit useless," Felix said.

"Professor, what should I do?"

"There are two ways, the first is to finish writing the runes at once, in one go, your magic will tend to be more consistent, but of course, it still requires a lot of practice."

"But in this way, you need to actively adjust the structure of the runes and make some slight changes in form ... which is not something you can do now."

"But won't this disable the rune itself?" Hermione asked in amazement, the information she had been exposed was all about writing the rune in a disciplined manner, not allowing a single change.

"That's what's so fascinating about it." Felix gave an example: "The process is somewhat like the process of going from letters to words; we learn the letters as standard and regular as possible, but when it comes time to combine them into words, the letters are fine-tuned to better match the flow and beauty of the writing."

"This is a test for your understanding of the runes," Felix said implicitly.

To put it bluntly, if you don't understand the rune well enough, it is better not to play any tricks.

Hermione nodded her head with some understanding.

"There are some tricks in this as well, we will talk about it later. The second way is to complete a single rune, from which draw out a magic line, linking them one by one to form a closed and stable circuit."

This method Hermione has seen a few times, she is not new to it.

"Let's try it--"

Felix and Hermione went to the workbench and took out a few pieces of chestnut wood.

He opened an elaborate toolbox, which contained seven carving knives of different sizes and materials - metal, wood, and indiscernible materials aligned.

"Is this a professional tool for magic engraving? Where can I buy it?" The little witch couldn't help but ask this question.

In her mind, these carving knives had been equated with magic wands and had become a necessary tool for her to learn ancient runes.

As a result, Professor Hap said with an amused look, "I made these myself, well ... except for the metal one."

He is not in a hurry to proceed with the topic just now, instead, one by one placed the carving knife in front of her.

"First I want to remind you that there is no specific tool requirement for carving rune, carving knife, wand, or finger can be used, what is important is magic power and your understanding of the rune. But-"

"If there is a smoother way by using a tool, why refuse it?"

Hermione nodded in understanding. Just like some wizards who were proficient in wandless spell casting, but they would never refuse to use their wands. Because the tools can help them to accomplish more delicate operations.

There were seven carving knives in front of her.

The first is a metal carving knife, silver-white with a streamlined body, a distinct curve in the grip, and a tip that appears to be made of different metals.

Felix said: "This one I bought from the micro-carving dealer, which I repeatedly made sure that this metal is the least repulsive to magic."

Hermione took the carving knife, it looked a little heavy, but it turned out to be surprisingly light.

"As I told you, there is no unique form for carving runes, either in the form of writing leaving runes on the surface of an object or in the form of carving, leaving engravings in the material."

He picked up a piece of chestnut wood and injected magic power into the metal carving knife, the tip of which blossomed with a tiny but burning red light, leaving a rune on the chestnut wood piece.

"Look, its surface is not flat."

Hermione touched the surface of the rune with her fingertips, and could clearly feel the chestnut wood sunken down - this is the metal carving knife that left a trace of the slash.

"This way is especially suitable for those inert magical materials, such as muggle items, ordinary stones, or, for example, the scale of some magical creatures and so on."

Hermione understood somewhat, for inert magical materials, that do not sustain magic easily, can be employed with engraved marks to strengthen the form of the rune.

"Actually -" Felix added: "The process is separate - carving and enchanting magic, and I'm just very proficient at this process, so I combined the two steps together, and when you practice, you still have to do it separately."

One of his backups: 'Felix's Wisdom Teeth', was done this way.

Hermione nodded.

Felix took out five more wooden carving knives in a row, which looked, rather, like alternative wands, and Hermione had just seen the twins' fake wands during the day and impressed by them.

"These carving knives, which are made of the same material as the wands, their own characteristics are similar to when they were made into wands." Felix pointed them over one by one -

"The Acacia carving knife, it's hard for beginners to get started, it's particularly sensitive to magic, in fact, overly sensitive. But once you master it, it will quickly adapt to the owner's magic and become extremely personal, and no one else can use it except you;"

"Ebony carving knife, outstanding when carving offensive runes, of course, it is not easy to control it, it will work well with those owners who have the courage to be themselves and do not follow the crowd;"

"Red oak carving knife, I personally think that it has a certain degree of memory, when you are skilled, it will actively guide you to complete the rune;"

"Chestnut wood carving knife, the favourite of beginners, there is little preference, and of course, there is no bonus;"

"Laurel wood carving knife, uh, I'm not a big fan of this kind of carving knife, you have to use it often, otherwise when after a long time you remember, it may charge at you when you inject magic power with a lightning attack ..."

Felix finished explaining, Hermione curiously picked up these carving knife repeatedly examined them, the more she looked, the more she loved it, she said cheerfully: "Professor, when can I have a carving knife like this? I mean ... I'm willing to pay a price ..."

"You don't need to think about that for now, that chestnut wood carving knife is for your practice." Felix said, "Wait a few years before you need to consider an exclusive carving knife."

"By the way, what material is your wand made of?" Felix asked.

"It's Vine wood," Hermione said, "the core of the wand is dragon heartstring, and 10¾" long."