Put Your Axe Down First, We Can Talk

Ivan was somewhat surprised to see the Dumbledore family among the list of recorded winners.

Ivan then recalled Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, and the Grimward sin, a rumour about the Dumbledore family,

[Whenever a member of the Dumbledore family is in desperate need of help, a phoenix will descend…]

Yvonne wondered if it had something to do with the fact that they had once been joined by phoenix blood,

Of course, according to the book, the Dumbledore family was the relatively gentle type, having used some sort of indentured magic to obtain a portion of the phoenix's blood, and even obtaining the other's consent before conducting the Merge experiment, which is presumably why the phoenix was so close to the Dumbledore family.

"Huh? Why did it stop there?" Yvonne was absorbed in the book, but the pages at the end of the book suddenly broke off, as if several pages had been forcibly torn out.

Just as Ivan was wondering if this so-called reward was just some information, the system prompt sounded again.

[Bloodline Origin has been read. Challenge mission activated.

Challenge Mission: Defeat (or kill) a troll

Reward: Bloodline Fusion Potion Recipe

"Challenge mission…" Ivan's heart skipped a beat. He had always thought that this was just a learning system. He never expected it to have a monster-giving setting.

Yvonne was more curious about who had hidden the book in the Restricted Section, where they had placed Confunding Charms and Concealment Spells.

It was Ivan who first thought of Dumbledore, the greatest white wizard of the century, who had the authority and reason to hide The Bloodline Origin.

After all, blood fusion was an extremely dangerous thing. Therefore, the number of wizards who died was definitely dozens of times higher than those who survived. This terrifying mortality rate prevented wizards with special bloodlines from becoming the mainstream.

It is also possible that James Potter, Sirius, and the others hid some important items, as it was their style.

There is also Tom Marvolo Riddle, who was once at Hogwarts, or Lord Voldemort…

A hundred theories ran through Ivan's mind, but he didn't dwell on them. He had too much on his mind that night to think about reading even a large number of forbidden books.

On the way back, Ivan kept his attention on the newly activated Challenge Mission.

Seeing that the target was a troll gave Ivan a bit of a headache, and he was not one to take trolls lightly just because Harry and Ron defeated them.

Coincidence played a large part in their victory, and if not for Harry's Savior aura, the Iron Triangle would have been cold by the time the professors arrived.

From what Ivan had read, trolls were not easy to deal with. They were large, powerful, and resistant to magic, and even an adult wizard would have to be careful around them.

Ivan sighed. He would not have wanted to face such a monster in his first year if he had not learned from The Bloodline Origin that fusing the blood of magical creatures could improve one's magical talents.

Ivan made his way through the silent, deserted castle, somewhat relieved by the smoothness of their previous visit.

However, shortly after exiting a secret passage, a blue, darting ghostly light collided with Ivan.

Ivan shivered as if he had been soaked in ice-cold water. He turned around and realized that he had collided with an ugly,…skinny ghost wearing a shabby hat.

Peeves was even more excited, clapping his hands and shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Look, look what I found! Another freshman, come on! There's another one over here!"

"Petrify!" Ivan threw out a Petrifaction Charm, and the greenish-grey light hit Peeves squarely in the chest, but he was only knocked back a little, and his smile grew wider.

"Hahaha… it's useless, you can't hurt me!" Peeves proudly circled Ivan, as if trying to keep him there.

Ivan was not discouraged by the fact that ordinary magic was useless against Peeves, as ghosts were not immune to all magic.

"Fear descends~"

As Peeves made an arrogant face at Ivan, a purple light shot out from the tip of Ivan's wand, and Peeves's face changed. He screamed and crashed into a distant classroom, where Ivan could hear Peeves's high-pitched screams.

"No, Barrow, leave me alone, I swear I haven't done anything wrong! And Nick, put your axe down for a minute, we'll talk…"

Ivan nodded in satisfaction at Peeves's reaction. He pulled up the system's magic column and found that the Fear Charm had risen to Level 2. No wonder it worked so well.

After dealing with the annoying Peeves, there was a flurry of footsteps in the distance, and Ivan remembered that Peeves had said that he had "found" another new student.

By the time Ivan tried to escape through the new passageway, it was too late, as Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville charged out from opposite him.

Harry and the others did not expect to meet Ivan there, but this was obviously not the time to talk about it. Harry was stunned for less than a second before he took the lead and pulled Ivan by the arm.

"Ivan, run! There's no time to explain. Filch is right behind us!"

Before Ivan could finish his sentence, Harry dragged him into another aisle, forcing him to run with Ivan.

As she ran, Ivan had a vague feeling that this scene was familiar, and it was only when Harry led the way into the forbidden fourth-floor corridor that she realised something was wrong.

"Come… come in, Filch is coming!" Harry and Neville worked together to pull in Ivan, who didn't want to come in, and Hermione shut the door behind them.

"So Filch can't get in," Harry said, relieved.

"Yeah, it's just that we can't get out of here," Ivan muttered to himself as he looked at the locked door and then down the corridor.

"I'd rather go out and face Filch…"

Harry did not understand what Ivan meant, but he soon felt something sticky on his shoulder, and turned to find three giant heads looking at him, breathing foul air through their wide-open mouths, and occasionally dribbling dirty saliva down the sides of the mouths, some of which splattered on his clothes.

The next moment, Hermione and the others saw the three-headed dog, and their cries of terror shattered the silence of the night.