12. New Lands!

Ryan relaxed in the pool he had constructed after expanding his train coach. He had lived in Italy for a few days, enjoying the country's delicacies, and saying 'Mamma Mia' after every bite, much to the amusement and annoyance of some people near him.

After that, he reached Romania, from which he immediately ran away after seeing the magical side of the country was full of Vampires, and then went to Bulgaria, which was suffering due to most addicted bloodsuckers coming to their country and Romania's government doing nothing.

"Arise" Ryan spoke, and all the vampires he had slain came out of the shadows. He turned to the shadow of the former leader and said "Divide them in platoons and sent them to spy on the other invading factions." The shadows bowed and went away, and Ryan relaxed back.

He bought his hand up and blood started dancing over his palm. Blood magic was the skill he got from devouring their bodies with Gluttony. There was also another skill called Blood Bank, which allows blood to be stored for attacking or healing purposes.

The others were hypnotic eyes and bloodsucking, and Ryan only took the former. Ryan had kept a corpse with him to get the skill if needed but preferred to gain it after getting a shapeshifting skill of some sort. Since he denied being born as a slime, he didn't obtain any shapeshifting skills. Ryan was looking traces for of one of the invading vampires, who was said to be a metamorphmagus before he was bitten. He was rumored to be one of the leaders as well.

Unfortunately, to look for him, Ryan would have to search human-populated areas since the guy could shapeshift. Ryan also had plans to visit Greece and Albania after Bulgaria. The former for sightseeing and books, and the latter for Voldermort.

Ryan had doubts about Voldy being more powerful due to fate doing something to even the odds, so he wanted to see if it was true, or if had Quirrel already taken Voldermort. He was also interested in Nagini... NOT in that way! He was still a child and his thoughts weren't affected by hormones, but in a magical sort of way. Plus, he would have a friend to talk to!... or so he hoped. The auror captain didn't count.

Ryan had a theory of Nagini joined Voldy because of the madness of becoming a complete snake, and she had probably felt betrayed by Dumbles as she was said to be with him and fought against Grindelwald.

Ryan slowly reached a meditative state and went to his mindscape, then dove deeper until he reached a blue semi-solid pillar in a golden room. His soulscape. Ryan had felt his soul improving after he devoured his first human kill, and he focused on the feeling, making him learn some soul magic. Ryan had not devoured any soul since then and let people's soul escape before he devoured them, as he felt guilty for completely erasing someone from existence because of his curiosity.

He had made Aria read the minds of all his opponents he could to decide whether they truly deserved death as he didn't have any way to judge someone. He killed only people who enjoyed killing or doing vile acts for enjoyment because he never wanted to be the guy to keep someone like the Joker alive.

And finally, Ryan and Aria were trying to analyze what kind of world did the original HP world fuse with, as he hasn't found any other forces. Ryan had a few ideas because the god had said this world had heroes and magic, and he did not find the presence of something like quirks in no-maj's. His leading guesses were DXD or Fate. But both options also had holes in the logic as he did not find traces of the Pendragons being magical, nor traces of the Church in Vatican City, Rome.

[I believe we should not worry about that right now sir. It could be that this world is fused with what you call 'STAR WARS' and we would never know.] Aria gave advice.

"Hmm, you're right." Ryan agreed. "How's your progress?" He asked.

"The last excursion had given results for in-depth scanning of vampires and wizards, but we do not have data to know how magically-sensitive beings would respond. But it is still a big step." Aria told him about the progress in the 'observe' spell.

Ryan had been focused on learning about enchanting and rune writing for a while, and Aria mostly focuses on analyzing energy and magical interactions, new methods for Ryan's training, as well as creating new skills and spells.

Ryan looked back to the first week he had arrived in Bulgaria, and he was baffled by the state here. Completely mad cults, too many magical species which were predators of wizards, and dense forests providing a canopy for magical beasts of various kinds. If Ryan didn't have stealth, he was sure he would have been caught by surprise multiple times even with the Observation Haki. Heck, He had found a 2 km-long snake hibernating, burrowed beneath the surface. This made Ryan wonder how can a Basilisk be called the king of snakes when monsters like this existed.

Ryan wasn't sure if he was ready to attack the snake so he didn't provoke it, but this made him realize that magical creatures come in all shapes and sizes. He now had shadows of Rock-apes, which he felt would be called rock gorillas; a Kelpie, which Ryan thought was a sea serpent since the Kelpie was disguised as one; and a venomous spider trap, which was like a huge venus fly-trap, but preferred to eat magical spiders.

He was surprised that a plant could be raised as a shadow but realized he was stupid as plants were living beings too. Ryan also faced a battle that was very hard for him. A Lethifold. He fought it hard but in the end, he had to use Beelzebuth and devour it.

This also reminded Ryan he let his power get into his head and ignore his knowledge of the world, making him use his powers where ordinary wizards could win. He had stopped considering the book and movie knowledge irrelevant, but this bought him back to the ground, as some knowledge like the importance of the patronous spell. And patronous also became the first spell Ryan started to feel trouble learning.

"Expecto Patronum," Ryan spoke, but only a small ball of silver mist formed on the tip of his finger. Ryan sighed and dispersed the mist. While Ryan was excited to finally face a challenge, he did not like what the difficulty of his inability represented. He felt as if the spell's size was telling him he wasn't really living with his heart in it due to which he didn't have any happy memories. Ryan thought his memory of the discovery of his powers was more than enough, but it seemed it was not.

Obviously, he knew Patronous couldn't have been the only spell to kill amortal creatures like Lethifold and Dementors, considering Beelzebuth just killed one. But that did not mean he was okay with something being immune to his powers. He stood up and looked out of his coach, which he was sure was much more comfortable than whatever the Weasleys had, and looked at the nearly full moon.

"One more day and the werewolves would move. Which means Greyback should show up as well." Ryan said. He didn't have any personal grievances with Greyback but rather wanted him as a shadow.

[The metamorph vampire should also be more active to get information if you cause a big incident master.] Aria said. The metamorph vampire was a rumor he had picked up during his stay in Bulgaria, which was verified by Aria through the memories of the Vampires he had hunted. The said vampire was also a spy from Romania so Ryan didn't have any reservations about not killing him.

Ryan looked at the moon and wondered if this truly is what he wanted. A life of a mercenary, keeping himself away from the world, acting as if it didn't matter, and only improving his battle powers mattered.

"Well, let's try the new recipe" Ryan muttered, and went to cook a magic breed of chicken the Bulgarians liked to eat.

*Next Night*

Ryan stood on one of the trees and wondered how to deal with the situation below him. He saw all werewolves transform after drinking a cheap version of Wolfsbane, but a sudden coup started in the camp instead of Greyback's plan of attack on one of the muggle towns of Bulgaria. The said coup was being led by one Regina Greyback.

Ryan wondered if Regina was stupid to challenge him then since even if she had a faction in the entire pack, it was still overshadowed by Greyback... nevermind, according to Aria, Greyback was well aware of his daughter's action and wanted to kill her to make an example for his son Hati.

"Aria... what would happen if we enhance her with our magic?" Ryan asked.

[She would stomp him into the ground if you truly empower her to the best of her capabilities.] Aria responded.[But I believe an alternative would be advantageous.]

"An... alternative?" Ryan asked. He heard Aria's idea and started pondering on it. "While sound, do you think it's worth the time?"

[Not if all you want to talk to are me and your shadows.] Aria responded. Ryan could hear the sarcasm dripping through her words, but kept thinking, though the entire process only took a few seconds, and then started grinning.

"Know what? I think it will work nicely." Ryan said with a grin as his green eyes burned with mischief.