Flight Spell and Western Mansion

Murphy rubbed his shoulder, sore from all the writing.

Damn it, the bastard had finally taken the bait.

All that effort he had poured into his writing had not been wasted.

Though when put that way, deceiving Voldemort sounded pretty damn impressive.

But in truth, the diary was basically just a sixteen-year-old boy who was deaf, blind, had a rather fuzzy sense of time, and could only come into contact with the outside world through information others told him. Even if he was a little evil, how could he possibly deal with a scammer like Murphy, whose acting skills were off the charts and who had spoiler-level intel backing him up?

At the end of the day, Murphy was merely bullying a disabled person. It was hardly an honorable victory.

At that moment, the diary, already thoroughly duped, was desperately trying to demonstrate its value in order to survive.

Diary: "I can teach you many kinds of magic, as well as potion brewing, the crafting of magical items..."

Murphy interrupted him and questioned, "Why didn't you speak before? It's been more than half a year. I wrote so many diary entries, and you should have been able to see them every time, right? You knew I needed your help, didn't you? Why didn't you speak?"

Diary: "..."

How was I supposed to know time would pass so quickly!

I'm just a diary! I can't see the outside world. How the hell was I supposed to know more than half a year had passed? Most of the time I hadn't even figured out what was going on yet before you started updating your diary again, all right?!

But the diary could not say that, so he replied, "Perhaps a disturbance in time caused a problem with my perception. I only woke up recently."

Murphy: "So you're Voldemort?"

Diary: "Yes."

Murphy: "What can you teach me? Show me a list of things you've mastered. I'll decide for myself what I want to learn."

Diary: "The study of magic must proceed step by step..."

Murphy: "I don't have time. Or would you rather I hand you over?"

Diary: "..."

Suddenly, a densely written list unfolded across the diary's pages, extending backward for more than a dozen pages in succession.

The list had three categories: "Spells, Potions, Magical Knowledge."

Murphy gave it a rough glance. There were one or two hundred spells alone, including things like the three Unforgivable Curses. It was extremely comprehensive.

The potions were also numerous and varied, with many that Murphy had never even heard of.

Magical knowledge covered everything under the sun: magical creatures, the crafting of magical items, flying techniques, the history of magic, and more were all included here.

It seemed that in order to stay alive, Tom had brought out his real skills.

Murphy was somewhat surprised. The diary had actually sorted through its own memories in a fairly comprehensive way. Perhaps this was a special trait of a carrier like a diary.

And besides, this guy really knew a lot. He was indeed diligent and eager to learn!

He took photos of the lists with a camera, just in case the diary refused to acknowledge them later.

Murphy: "The Flight Spell. I'll learn this first."

He did not like broomsticks, while teleportation methods such as Apparition also had the limitation that one had to have been to the destination first. Murphy had long coveted this kind of true flight magic.

Diary: "This is magic I created not long ago... I mean, when I was young. It is not yet perfected, but in general, it can wrap a layer of shadowy substance around the human body, thereby lifting the wizard up and allowing flight."

Murphy looked at that line of text and clicked his tongue in amazement. Creating flight magic at sixteen—he truly deserved to be called a genius.

Although Severus Snape, who had created spells like Levicorpus and Sectumsempra at fifteen or sixteen, was already an extraordinary genius, Tom's genius was even greater.

Then he looked at himself. When he was sixteen, he had not even learned all the standard spells, damn it.

This was the gap between a top student and a slacker.

The diary did not know what Murphy was feeling and continued introducing it on its own: "To learn it, you need decent talent and a large amount of practice. However, this is, after all, magic that I created. If you can follow my steps, then in at most a week, you should be able to basically master it."

"We don't have that much time. Two days at most. I have to learn it!"

"Two days... That will be very difficult."

"I don't want to die, and I think you must feel the same. If I can't learn this spell within two days and avoid Arasaka Corporation, then either I hand you over, or we both die. Which do you think I'll choose?"

"Fine. Let me think. Perhaps we can skip the unnecessary steps and go straight to the point. Two days should be enough!"

Murphy smiled. You were starting to get it, Tom.

In September, Zone One of the Umbrella Biotechnology R&D Base was officially completed.

Murphy directly dismantled and reorganized the three research institutions he had bought from Wellcome and Zeneca, then moved them all into the Dittany R&D Base.

The preparation process for Essence of Dittany had already been fully de-magicked from beginning to end.

Even dittany itself was not a particularly conspicuous magical plant, and it also had close relatives in the Muggle world.

Therefore, Murphy believed that having Muggle researchers carry out research on magical dittany did not require strict secrecy from the wizarding world.

After all, dittany was not something that existed only in the magical world. It made sense in itself for Muggles to discover a mutated form of dittany and thereby produce a medicine with effects similar to Essence of Dittany.

In fact, some potions in the magical world, such as the shampoo made by the Potter family, had gone through a similar process.

Although you wizards discovered the use of something first, you could not then stop Muggles from discovering and using it too, could you?

Even so, basic secrecy measures still had to be in place.

In addition to signing intellectual property agreements with the researchers, Umbrella Corporation also hired two security teams from Risk Prevention Group to protect the company's research results.

One of those teams was stationed at the base, providing twenty-four-hour security.

And after more than half a year of research progress, the Dittany research team had actually produced quite a few results.

The most significant result among them was one of the core active substances they had isolated from the Essence of Dittany stock solution: Dittany Promoter.

Project codename BX5465-P, it could accelerate overall cellular metabolism and proliferation by hundreds of times.

Although there was still no way to prepare this promoter through artificial synthesis for the time being, the researchers had already found a more efficient way to produce it, and more than twenty related patents had already been filed.

Because of Dittany Promoter's enormous accelerating effect on cell biology research, several papers with Umbrella Corporation as the first author caused an uproar in the biology field as soon as they were published. They had already all but reserved the next year's Lasker Medical Award, and were very likely to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine one or several years later.

And this was only the first pot of gold dug out from Essence of Dittany.

More than half the secrets of Essence of Dittany were still hidden beneath the veil, and every researcher involved believed that a single Nobel Prize was by no means the end point for this research base.

Outside the Dittany Research Institute, another research base secretly built by Murphy had also been completed.

It was an ultra-luxury manor villa in Staffordshire, covering thirty-five acres, with a European-style castle at its center: four stories above ground, ninety-eight rooms in total, protected around the clock by the second team hired from Risk Prevention Group.

Underground was the secret area.

Following Murphy's requirements, the builders had hollowed out the ground to a depth of one hundred meters and used five-meter-thick concrete for the outer walls, constructing a nineteen-level underground fortress.

This was Murphy's home in the Muggle world, as well as his No. 1 Spell Research Institute.

He named this luxury villa "Western Mansion."

At that moment, in the first-floor hall of Western Mansion, Murphy was welcoming his guests.

Please keep reading~ Promise me you'll read to the very end~