Just This Little Expenditure (Please Vote~!)

Noah passed through the wooden door, knowing that this was basically the final checkpoint.

If Noah remembered correctly, this damned place should be a chess match magnified by who knew how many times over, with extremely lethal pieces.

No, not chess. This thing was called Wizard Chess here.

Its rules were no different from regular chess, except that it was a little more violent. Noah had studied it before.

But honestly, Noah was terrible at chess. Even back when he played Chinese chess, he had performed pretty miserably.

So for Noah, rather than making him play chess, he would rather play cards!

Whether it was the distinctive Dou Dizhu or bridge, Noah felt he was pretty good at both.

Even with the legendary Gwent, Noah was an expert. It was just that card games did not seem to be popular at Hogwarts, so Noah had no chance to show off his skills.

"What a shame."

Noah grumbled inwardly, then led the group forward.

However, just as they were about to pass through the stone-carved chess pieces, the pieces suddenly seemed to come alive. The front row of "soldiers" collectively drew sharp scimitars, immediately preventing Noah and the others from moving forward.

"This is a chessboard?" Ron seemed to finally realize something.

"Of course. What else did you think these things were for, decoration?" Ernie rolled his eyes. He truly thought these two Gryffindors were a little too stupid.

"So what do we do now?" Harry ignored Ernie's attitude and looked at Noah instead.

"Obviously, if we want to get through, we have to deal with these guys first." Noah shrugged indifferently.

Ron's eyes suddenly lit up at Noah's words. He immediately asked, "You mean we're going to play chess?"

Ron's chess skills were fairly decent. Noah had already known that from the original story.

Still, they were only decent for someone his age. Otherwise, Ron would not have been able to successfully lead Harry through this challenge. Noah could admit that much—his own chess skills were awful.

"If you want to, we can."

Noah nodded. Seeing Ron eager to give it a try, Noah suddenly felt a headache coming on and quickly changed his tune. "But I don't want to waste time. Who knows how good you really are? If Professor McGonagall gets here and we're still playing chess, that would be terrible!"

"Uh... this... sigh, all right." Ron's face went pale, and he promptly gave up on the idea.

To ensure their safety, they had left a note for Professor McGonagall. Judging by the time, she should be arriving soon.

If Ron really performed poorly and left them trapped here until Professor McGonagall arrived, then it was easy to imagine that all of them would be in deep trouble!

Even though he understood that, Ron still asked unwillingly, "Then what are you planning to do?"

"It's simple. I can control the pieces on this side and have them fight the other side, then we can take the opportunity to get through." Noah answered Ron casually while sensing the changes in magical power across the chessboard.

The magical power on it was not particularly strong. In fact, the pieces he could control contained significantly more magical power than the opposing side.

Clearly, the designer had deliberately arranged it this way because they were worried Harry would not be able to get through otherwise.

After noticing this, Noah had an idea. The magical power on his side was much stronger, so if he forcibly controlled them, the amount of magical power he expended would probably be much greater.

That was not something Noah wanted to see. After all, Professor Lockhart and Voldemort were waiting ahead.

If he used up too much power, he would just be handing the other side an opportunity. Though with Harry, his trump card, here, Noah did not need to worry too much.

But he did not want to lose so badly either, did he?

Besides, Professor Lockhart is only at the second rank, and he doesn't have much combat experience. Voldemort's possession has even severely damaged his mental power. With all those factors combined, his actual magical power is only around rank one, level five!

A month ago, I had magical power at level eight, along with experience accumulated from constantly fighting all kinds of magical creatures. I wasn't that much weaker than him. If it weren't for the clear gap in strength, I might not even lose. Now that I've reached the first rank, even with Voldemort helping him, it's not certain that I can't beat him!

After thinking it through, Noah decisively abandoned his earlier idea, a smile appearing on his face. "But I prefer another approach."

"Another approach?"

"Yes. Destroy every last one of them!"

As he spoke, Noah's wand appeared in his hand. Vast magical power instantly surged forth, causing his wand to emit a faint glow!

"Shattering Skull!"

With Noah's quiet shout, his wand swiftly turned at an angle. Terrifying magical power erupted, blasting toward the chess pieces along with his spell!

In an instant, the pieces exploded like ignited explosives.

Countless fragments of stone scattered in every direction. Only the sturdy stone bases remained where they stood, testifying to the pieces' former existence.

Harry and the others were completely dumbfounded. Shattering Skull was not Dark magic at all, but genuine Light magic.

However, powerful Light magic could only be mastered in the higher years. Yet Noah had cast it so effortlessly and destroyed all those terrifying stone chess pieces at once.

Their already high opinion of Noah had no choice but to rise by an unknown number of levels yet again.

Was he really only a first-year student? Damn it, mate, you could graduate already!

"Alright, the problem's solved. We can move on."

Noah looked over the scene, then sensed his own magical power and immediately felt very satisfied.

Although the spell looked extremely powerful, Noah was highly proficient with it. Even after clearing all the chess pieces at once, it had not cost him much at all.

Besides, Noah had always drained all his magical power during training, then recovered it at night through the meditation he had learned from the System Library. Without realizing it, his magical power recovery speed had become incredibly fast.

Noah estimated that he would only need a few minutes, without doing anything at all, to completely replenish the magical power he had used up!

"Um... are you alright?" Harry asked worriedly, though he knew it was probably a pointless question.

"Of course I'm fine. They were only some chess pieces that couldn't move." Noah replied casually.

"No, I mean your magical power."

"Oh, that. Don't worry. It was only a Shattering Skull Spell. That little expenditure is nothing to me—I'll recover soon enough."

"I-Is that so?"

"Of course. What else did you think?"