Chapter 37 Surprises Brought By Hands-On Work

"I'll go see what book Hagrid was looking for!" Ron said as he rushed out. To anyone watching, it might seem like he was eager to help, but in reality, he was simply tired from studying and wanted an excuse to do something else.

Two minutes later, Ron returned to Hermione and Harry. He was carrying a large stack of thick books, which he dropped heavily onto the table.

"I know what Hagrid's looking for—it's dragons!" Ron whispered after laying the books down. "Hagrid's been searching for information about dragons. Look at these: *Guide to Raising Dragons*, *From Hatching to Nirvana*, and *Species of Dragons of Great Britain and Ireland*."

"Oh, I get it now. Hagrid's always wanted a dragon; he said so when I first met him," Harry said with sudden understanding.

"But it's against the law!" Ron's face grew serious. "In 1709, the Ministry of Magic passed a law banning dragon breeding. After all, if people kept dragons in their backyards, it'd be hard to keep Muggles from noticing.

Plus, raising dragons is dangerous. My brother Charlie was burned by a wild dragon in Romania, and he still has a nasty scar on his arm."

"Do they really grow that big?" Harry asked, wondering how dragons could be so easily spotted by Muggles.

"Yes, they start off small but grow fast—within weeks, they're the size of a house.

Part of the Ministry's job is to keep dragons hidden from Muggles.

When Muggles see a wild dragon, Ministry wizards have to cast spells to make them forget what they saw."

Because of Charlie's experience with dragons, Ron knew this subject quite well.

"So, why was Hagrid looking for this information? What exactly is he planning?" Hermione asked, cutting to the heart of the matter.

An hour later, the trio sneaked into Hagrid's hut, determined to have a proper talk with him.

Meanwhile, Eisen was busy creating the first magical item of his life.

Leaning back in his chair, Eisen studied a small round mirror on his desk. It was about the size of his palm and looked ordinary from the outside, nothing unusual about it.

But in fact, this was the first alchemical item Eisen had spent time and effort creating—the Observation Mirror. After developing a basic understanding of alchemy and spending time studying ancient runes and potions, he was finally ready to try making magical items on his own.

The mirror in front of him was somewhat similar to the Marauder's Map from the original books. Of course, while they were alike in concept, the mirror's functionality was far more limited.

Since this was his first attempt at creating a magical item through alchemy, Eisen knew his skills were still average, so he had only applied two basic spells to the mirror.

For example, the mirror was enchanted with two spells: an area detection spell and a reveal spell. The detection spell didn't track people but mapped out pure terrain and environment, and the reveal spell simply displayed that terrain and environment.

Given that only two spells were applied, Eisen had done his best to make the combination as effective as possible for now.

That said, the Marauder's Map was still far more impressive, showing the names and real-time activities of everyone in Hogwarts. In contrast, Eisen's mirror could only display the terrain and environment within Hogwarts.

However, Eisen's mirror did have one significant advantage: even if he left Hogwarts, he could still observe the terrain within a five-mile radius of wherever the mirror was placed. The Marauder's Map, by contrast, was limited to Hogwarts.

In this sense, Eisen's mirror could be compared to a mini-map in a game. It seemed useful at first glance, but upon further reflection, it wasn't of much practical value to wizards.

For instance, if wizards wanted to explore a hidden location, they could simply use a Disillusionment Charm or other magical items to conduct their exploration directly.

Moreover, if a location was concealed by strong magic, such as a Fidelius Charm, it wouldn't be detectable by Eisen's mirror either.

So for now, the first alchemical item Eisen had created was simply a convenient tool for detecting terrain.

Overall, the mirror functioned more like a real-time, high-resolution satellite, showing the terrain within five miles of Eisen. He could observe specific areas within that range at will.

Though the mirror couldn't detect people, Eisen could still check a location to see if anyone was present.

Despite knowing that the mirror was only moderately useful, Eisen was still proud of it. After all, it represented an important milestone in his journey into alchemy.

"Is it necessary to consume a miraculous feature to replicate it when you discover extraordinary traits—like perfect observational abilities?" Eisen was startled by an unexpected prompt while holding the mirror.

"This is amazing!" Eisen muttered to himself. Honestly, he'd thought this item was nothing special—just a first attempt—but he hadn't expected it to reveal a perfect-level extraordinary trait.

However, when he read the description of the trait, Eisen became thoughtful. It seemed that this trait was the mirror's core function.

In other words, if Eisen absorbed this perfect-level observational trait, he would be able to observe the surrounding terrain within five miles without needing the mirror.

This seemed incredibly powerful—especially when combined with Apparition. As long as he observed an area within five miles, he could teleport there.

Eisen speculated that, with line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight enhancements, he could likely teleport even farther.

However, what particularly excited him was that, by integrating this trait, he could observe the environment within five miles in real-time, at any moment. Like the mirror, he would gain something akin to a god's-eye view.

At the very least, with such an ability, Eisen would no longer need to worry about being ambushed.

Moreover, once this trait was integrated, it would allow for—well, let's just say it had some other, more mischievous potential. Ahem. Regardless, this feature was indeed powerful and had rightfully earned its perfect-level rating from Goldfinger.

With this development, Eisen's plans had to change. Originally, he had intended to replicate extraordinary characteristics from the Philosopher's Stone and then select the flight trait for fusion.

But now, with this perfect-level observational trait available, it had to take priority. As for the flight trait, it can wait.