Chapter 57: Barriers

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The entire pack had into the clearing, some licking their coat, some playing, clearly knowing that Harry was no threat to their young.

Ping!

Quest Completed!

Explore the Forest

Reward,

2000 Exp

Harry took all that in with a small smile. Bending down, he noticed that the box above the little cub's head read 'Billy'. Momentarily wondering if Dumbledore had given him that name, he reached out to pet its head, at which point little Billy decided to remind him that he was a wolf.

CHOMP!

"AARRGHH! SCREW YOU BILLY!"

Harry had spent a few more minutes with the wolf pack nursing his poor abused hand that had been through so much that evening, before he waved them goodbye and set out jumping through the trees again, this time feeling a lot freer without some ancient sentient being attempting to cave in his skull with the pressure of its magic.

Much to his happiness, his original objective had been achieved and his Dex had gone up by quite a bit.

DEX-12(+3) = 15

With that done, Harry started heading back towards Hogwarts to get some shuteye, but fate had decreed it not to happen, as Harry stumbled onto a talk between two half-men-half-horses. Making sure that he was well hidden, he kept an ear on the conversation.

"You have been coming here every night for days now Firenze, the elders are concerned."

"They have nothing to worry about Ronan, The stars are clearer here," Firenze replied in a dreamy tone.

"The stars are clearer back home as well Firenze." Ronan's voice held a small bit of steel.

"Do not worry brother. I have no wish to run off or abandon our herd. That is the concern of our elders is it not?"

"The elders worry that you have strayed too deep into the Divine arts," Ronan said passionately, "They are worried that we may lose you."

"They have nothing to worry about."

There was a moment of silence, in which Harry wondered what they were talking about.

"Thank you for reassuring us brother," Ronan finally said and trotted back off.

Harry, seeing an opening, immediately, cast an Observe on Firenze.

"Your scrying magic will not work on centaurs Harry Potter," Firenze said, cutting through Harry's surprise at no window popping up, "Our kind invented it."

Harry paused, before warily dropping out of the tree. "How'd you know I was there?"

"The stars spoke of you coming soon." He looked up at the sky. "Mars has been bright these days. My people find it disturbing. Change does upset so many, regardless of who they are born as."

His eyes refocused on Harry. "But you don't fear change, do you, Harry Potter? No… you revel in it."

He turned and trotted off towards a muddy path on the forest floor. "Follow me, Harry Potter, I have promised to bring you to someone who has been waiting for you." Harry took off behind the centaur.

"Who's been waiting for me?"

"All will soon be clear," came the rather cryptic response.

"Add a turban and a crystal ball and you could make a killing at carnivals," Harry muttered under his breath before following him.

Harry's mental rant about overly clichéd mysterious centaurs had continued on endlessly while he had walked on with the four-legged creature.

It was, however, interrupted when they suddenly stopped dead at the edge of a rather unusually large clearing in the trees.

Firenze looked straight ahead and said in a grave tone, "Harry Potter. I would advise you to not use your magic in there. The ancient beings do not take kindly to such insults."

Harry was about to ask what he was he talking about when he suddenly felt the wards.

Throughout his time as the Gamer, Harry hadn't felt many wards. There was the Privet Drive wards, which had since dissolved, and the massively powerful Hogwarts wards.

This… this feeling of raw waterfalls of protective mana surrounding the clearing… it trumped them both.

Harry felt like he was being squeezed through a tight tube as he stepped into the clearing. His breath stopped as his lungs were squeezed dry and he slowly pulled through the wards.

As his breath came back to him and his eyesight cleared, Harry's senses were assaulted by a veritable myriad of light and sound. Even with Gamer's Mind, it took a solid few minutes for the light bulb to go off in his head.

'So they were the immortals testing me,' he finally realized.

Phoenixes, dozens of them flew around the clearing that had formed where before there were only trees. Most of them were scarlet and gold with the occasional cheery blue.

Their feathers glowed faintly in darkness, casting a dancing light upon the clearing giving it an almost dreamlike beauty. On the ground were nests, many of which each held a single egg each that glowed with a brilliant inner fire.

Suddenly, Harry realized what he was witnessing. He gasped.

"Be honored Mr. Potter," Firenze said, a slight bit of awe filtering into his own voice, "The immortal beings convene and lay eggs only once a century. Very few of your kind have ever witnessed this wondrous event.

Your ability… the one that shields your mind… it has made you by far the youngest of those few,"

Harry didn't have to be told. The cries of the hundreds of phoenixes flying around, some tending to their young and some warming their eggs while others playfully fought about in the air, they were going straight to Harry's heart and lifting his spirits up so high that Harry felt almost dizzyingly high.

A small part of his mind worried that he would have withdrawal issues afterward, but he couldn't care less at the moment.

He was too busy witnessing a miracle.

Firenze led the still dazed Harry to one of the nests that contained an egg. As they arrived, a beautiful scarlet phoenix dove down gracefully and landed next to it with a flap of her wings, leveling a flat stare at him.

Harry could feel his Gamer's Mind barriers melting away as if welcoming the warm presence of the ancient being, letting it look right into his mind.

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