Handcrafting a Cheat, a Little Boost Doesn't Count as Cheating

"AAAAAH!" Harry Potter looked like he wanted to say something, but the pain was too intense for him to speak. All he could do was howl continuously, his face twisted in agony.

Roger could roughly guess what he wanted to say. "This spell starts out like this. It'll get better in a moment. As they say, when Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility upon a man, it must first harden his resolve and tax his sinews and bones..."

As he comforted him, Roger bound Harry's entire body with a spell to stop him from thrashing around. At the same time, he waved his wand and began his magical modifications on Harry.

At present, Roger's Transfiguration path to immortality had two problems. One was the scale of casting—limited by his method of perception, he could only work at the cellular level.

The second was that he needed a substance that could be controlled by his will and used to modify the body.

Roger's solution was simple. He had no idea how to alter bodily matter for the time being, but the human body already possessed something that could be controlled by one's will... neurons, which the brain used to control the limbs and so on!

So, could the neurons in a human body itself be transformed and strengthened?

Humans could control the wriggling of their internal organs, the release of hormones from their glands, and various other underlying bodily functions. It was just that most of those permissions were not in the hands of the conscious mind, but controlled by the subconscious.

If he modified his own nervous system to a certain degree, could he unlock more permissions of the human body? And if those permissions were raised to a certain level and enhanced, could that solve the issue of perceptual scale? Roger didn't know.

But as an approach to solving the problem, it was worth trying.

The advancement of science and technology came from continuous practice.

...Besides, sometimes people began medical research to cure heart disease, only to somehow discover something else entirely.

If he kept experimenting diligently, perhaps one day he would unlock a critical technology somewhere unexpected. In any case, whatever lay ahead, doing something was better than doing nothing. As someone born with the perfect body for experimentation, it would be a waste not to fill his experimental schedule to the brim.

After studying it for some time, Roger came up with a half-finished product: Magical Neuron Reconstruction Technology.

That was the abbreviation. Its full name was "A technology based on Transfiguration magic that proliferates the nervous system throughout the body, optimizes its structure, and reconstructs its operational logic."

The technique was quite complicated. If Roger had not possessed the ability to sense danger and brute-force his way through trial and error, it would have been very difficult to develop.

As for its actual effects...

After screaming for several minutes, Harry, who felt as though his throat was about to go hoarse, finally sensed his pain easing.

His nerves still burned throughout his body, and there was still a faint prickling pain, but compared to what he had felt earlier, it was practically heaven.

Roger waited a while, until Harry had somewhat recovered from his pain-induced daze and could understand what people were saying again, then began explaining.

"Because the technology I've developed isn't mature enough yet, I didn't perform any overly extensive modifications on you. I only slightly optimized the neural structure related to your limbs and muscles. It doesn't involve your glands, internal organs, or anything else. Now, follow me. Raise both hands."

It was precisely because Roger's modifications to Harry were simple, basic ones that the process was short. Nor would Harry suffer side effects like Roger's, such as his full-body perception temporarily increasing many times over and making putting on clothes feel like torture.

Harry unconsciously followed Roger's movements.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5..." Roger raised his fingers one by one.

"5, 3, 1, 4, 2... Very good. Next, we'll speed it up." The next moment, Roger frantically changed the number of raised fingers at a speed comparable to Itachi Uchiha forming hand seals in Naruto. Yet Harry managed to keep up with every single change, his movements matching Roger's without the slightest discrepancy.

"Looks like your fingers are fine. Next are your limbs."

Backflips, three midair kicks in a row, one-handed handstands, two-finger handstands, forest parkour, barehanded rock climbing... The two ran a lap around the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Once Harry had completely, utterly come to his senses, he stared at his palms, utterly dumbfounded.

"Just now... that was me?!"

Anyone who had done meticulous work requiring the use of their hands and feet could generally understand just how terrifying a talent it was to have perfect control over one's limbs!

To use a more familiar example, if Harry became a craftsman now, he would immediately possess the manual precision of a Level 8 fitter—a humanoid machine tool! And if he entered any ball sport, he would learn any technique after seeing it once. As long as his stamina could keep up, there would basically be nothing left for the other competitors to do.

If this were a martial arts world, it would be about the same as Roger casting one spell and turning Harry into a martial arts prodigy.

"How is it? Not bad, right?"

"You should find using magic easier from now on as well." Roger's kind smile remained unchanged as he spoke.

Since Harry had helped him by successfully outsourcing his backup path to immortality to Hagrid, Roger had never been in the habit of letting those who helped him lose out.

In Roger's view, the most important benefit of this modification was not turning Harry into an all-around athletic genius, but making his spellcasting smoother.

"Using magic?" Harry was somewhat confused.

"That's right. Give it a try. You should be able to do it too." When Roger said this, the first word came out in a young girl's voice, the second in an old man's voice, and the last in a middle-aged man's voice.

Normally, wizards had to wave their wands and recite incantations to cast spells. Both steps required extreme care. If they mispronounced a syllable of the spell, or if the angle of their wand movement failed to match what the incantation required, at best the spell would fail and nothing would happen. At worst, it could explode outright or lead to even more terrifying consequences!

After Roger optimized Harry's nervous system, Harry could not only control his limbs perfectly, but also perfectly control the muscles of his vocal cords. If he entered a singing competition now, he could even perform "Master of Ventriloquism" without a problem. Waving a wand and reciting spells would naturally never result in technical mistakes either.

Galleons, Butterbeer, and Wizard Chess as thanks? Roger felt that sort of thing was too embarrassing to offer. Only this could be considered a fitting gift in return from a Seer! Once Roger and Harry had completed the entire adaptation process and explanation of the functions, they happened to leave the Forbidden Forest and return to the central area of Hogwarts Castle.

"Harry, I'm going back to continue my experiments. If you ever need help with anything, come find me anytime." Roger kindly patted his still somewhat slight shoulder.

Although Roger felt he had repaid this favor, how could he be the sort of person who only acted friendly when he needed something, then turned cold and cast people aside when he did not? Since a relationship had already been established, of course it needed to be maintained.

After chatting for a while longer upon returning to the school grounds, Roger waved goodbye and went back to his experiments. While modifying Harry, he had gained a new idea for a magical experiment.

"Neurons, self, speed of thought, Mental Power... I wonder if it'll work."