Expedition Encounters Dark Wizard (Revised)

After walking for about half an hour, they arrived before a dense forest, the sky now completely dark.

Moriarty whispered to Lockhart, "There's a Snowman Tribe hidden in these woods. Every evening, the little snowmen come out to play."

"Excellent, I'll wait right here for him!" Lockhart drew his wand.

Moriarty eyed the wand a few times—it was excessively delicate, likely so fragile that Lockhart couldn't even cast a Disarming Charm.

"Hey," Lockhart said excitedly in a low voice, "Hear that? Screaming, howling—is that the snowmen's call?"

Moriarty frowned. Snowmen's calls were always rough and deep; he'd never heard such a shrill, piercing howl.

Lockhart was as thrilled as if he'd discovered a new continent, pointing to a spot in the woods for Moriarty to see: "That white shadow, look! It's moving! Is that a little snowman coming out!"

But soon, his expression darkened. A flock of fiery red crows materialized above the trees, their bodies ablaze with scorching flames, screeching as they dove at the snowmen in the forest!

The woods caught fire from the sparks. Several snowmen sprayed snow water to extinguish the flames, but in an instant, more fire crows swarmed them.

Three beams of white light shot into the sky, summoning three whirlwinds that slammed violently into an adult snowman, blasting him out of the forest.

Lockhart stared at the broken trees and the injured snowman, his eyes vacant.

Those three white beams were magic—the Snowman Tribe was under attack by wizards!

Moriarty also received a prompt from the system.

"Quest issued: Stop the Dark Wizard from taking the Ice Moon Necklace and save the Snowman family! Reward: ten years' worth of magic power, one Alchemy Item. Failure penalty: Host must run one kilometer naked!"

He had only planned to use Lockhart's hand to get back at the snowmen and recruit Lockhart along the way.

He never expected to be dragged into a Dark Wizard incident!

Moriarty gripped his staff tightly, weighing whether he could take on a Dark Wizard.

He hoped the Slytherin staff was sturdy enough!

He automatically ignored the system penalty—running naked was out of the question.

"Lockhart, follow me! We have to sneak into the woods."

"What are you saying? You're insane!" Lockhart shook his head in disbelief, finding it utterly absurd. "While they haven't noticed us, we should leave as fast as we can and never come back!"

Lockhart put his violin and wand back into the case, turned decisively, only to feel the tip of a staff press against his back.

Moriarty held the staff, his tone icy: "You have two choices right now. First, die by my hand! Second, come with me to save the snowmen!"

Lockhart swallowed hard. "Don't joke around. You're just a kid—you can't kill me."

"Are you testing me? Fine, Killing Curse!" Moriarty growled, "Avada—"

"No, no, please, don't say that spell!" Lockhart broke out in a sweat, begging Moriarty, "Don't kill me, I'll go with you."

"Follow me. We'll slip in, and the moment we see a Dark Wizard, we hit him with a spell, got it? Snowmen aren't mindless—if they see us attacking their enemy, they won't attack us. Watch your step, light on your feet!"

Moriarty gently released Lockhart. He knew Lockhart was all talk—he'd bolt at the first sign of trouble—but once the fight started, if Lockhart could stall for even a dozen seconds, that would be enough.

The two bent low, jogging into the woods, and spotted a large lake. By its shore, over a dozen snowmen were battling four wizards shrouded in black robes.

The Snowman Tribe had taken heavy damage. Those fire crows were completely unaffected by the snow-covered ground; four snowmen had already fallen. The little snowman Lockhart had seen was being chased by a swarm of fire crows.

Lockhart finally saw clearly—the little snowman wasn't out playing; it was fleeing for its life.

"Save the little snowman first!" Moriarty charged forward, swinging his staff: "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The Levitation Charm lifted a broken tree into the air. Moriarty guided it down from above, scattering the fire crows chasing the little snowman.

The little snowman realized it was safe, hopping happily toward Moriarty with squeaking cries.

The adult snowmen on the other side responded quickly, but Moriarty couldn't understand their language.

Moriarty assessed the battlefield. The Dark Wizard controlling the fire crows was a gnome, carrying a large pack, holding his own against six adult snowmen without backing down.

The three other Dark Wizards, tall and imposing, were the ones summoning the whirlwinds, each fighting one adult snowman.

Moriarty made a shrewd decision: "Lockhart, you handle the gnome. I'll deal with those three over there, then come help you."

Lockhart stomped in fury: "You're giving me the strongest, most evil Dark Wizard! But I can't beat him at all!"

Moriarty was already running off, shouting without looking back: "I didn't tell you to defeat him! Can't you even cast a Disarming Charm behind his back?"

Lockhart gritted his teeth, his gaze toward the gnome gradually hardening—but the moment the gnome shot him a vicious glare, he reverted to form, barely able to hold his wand steady.

"I-I-I surrender! I don't mean to fight you!"

But the gnome had no intention of letting Lockhart off. With a flick of his wand, a massive swarm of fire crows flew at Lockhart!

The gnome also signaled his companions. Even though they weren't far apart, Moriarty still caught that the gnome was speaking Japanese.

"Japanese Dark Wizards?" Moriarty had mastered five foreign languages in his past life, Japanese among them.

The gnome's words translated to: Don't let anyone discover us. Eliminate everyone!

"Lockhart, don't run! They're going for total annihilation—they won't spare us!"

Moriarty didn't expect Lockhart to defeat the gnome, but Lockhart could still fire off a Disarming Charm to buy some time.

After hearing that, Lockhart finally steeled himself to ambush the gnome. He scrambled and rolled, sending a Disarming Charm at the gnome.

At the same time, Moriarty cast a Lumos to better gauge his distance from the three Dark Wizards.

He quickly scanned through the Slytherin family's magical inheritance in his mind, ultimately picking out a few simple spells.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

A large surge of magic burst from the staff. His first attempt at the incantation meant Moriarty's control over the Petrification Curse was still off.

The spell drifted lazily toward a Dark Wizard, who dodged it with ease and made a thumbs-down gesture at Moriarty.

Moriarty savored the casting process just now, then raised his staff at the mocking Dark Wizard.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

The second cast shot out swiftly, striking the Dark Wizard square in the chest and petrifying him—so fast that the wizard's thumb was still pointing downward.

Moriarty sprinted up to the petrified wizard in one breath, aimed the staff tip at him: "Sectumsempra! Sectumsempra! Sectumsempra!"

Three consecutive spells blasted the Dark Wizard into pieces with a sharp crack.

"Ding~ Detected host killing a Dark Wizard. 300 points earned."

Moriarty was overjoyed. With points, he could exchange for all kinds of magic.

And with his wealth of experience, he could always find the most effective leverage to unleash terrifying power.

Moriarty felt even more confident about taking down this group of Dark Wizards.

The remaining two Dark Wizards saw their comrade so brutally dispatched and realized Moriarty's danger. They quickly abandoned the snowman and raised their wands at him.

"Expelliarmus!"

"Cruciatus Curse!"

Those two spells revealed the Dark Wizards' identity—they were speaking English.

Moriarty had no time to ponder why British wizards were mixed up with an Eastern Isles Wizard. The two spells came one after the other, forming a chain.

If Moriarty got disarmed and then hit by a Cruciatus Curse, he'd be helpless prey.

"Protego! Protego!"

Learning from his earlier mistake with Petrificus Totalus, Moriarty cast the Shield Charm twice.

An invisible shield appeared in the direction the Slytherin staff pointed, forming a protective barrier in front of Moriarty.

When he saw the red light rebound, he knew the Dark Wizard's Disarming Charm had been blocked.

But the Cruciatus Curse was one of the three Unforgivable Curses—the Shield Charm couldn't block Unforgivable Curses.

With his current magical level, Moriarty couldn't use the Slytherin family's powerful spells. He could only summon a nearby tree to block for him.

"Accio Tree!"

Moriarty then cast a small spell on himself: "Windborne!"

After boosting his speed, Moriarty rolled to buy himself a moment. The summoned tree intercepted the Cruciatus Curse and exploded into splinters.

Instinct took over completely. Moriarty realized he could use the slippery snow to increase his speed further.

He charged at the Dark Wizard who had cast the Cruciatus Curse, sliding in low to close the distance fast.

Countless Slytherin family spells flashed through his mind, and he locked onto one that was instant-cast and instant-hit.

"Slicing Spell!"

The Dark Wizard's black robe was shredded into ribbons, and the exposed skin split open as if slashed by an invisible sword, gushing blood.

"Oh no, my Merlin! Save me!"

The Dark Wizard who had cast the Disarming Charm stared in shock as his comrade lay dying, blood pouring like a breached dam from the writhing body.

Moriarty narrowed his eyes. The blood was stark against the snow—this was a nasty curse invented by Ancestor Salazar during his long duels with Godric Gryffindor, maxing out the damage!

"Detected host killing a Dark Wizard. 500 points earned."

Moriarty opened the shop. A Restorative Potion (Basic) cost 500 points.

"System, exchange one for me."

Moriarty hid the exchanged potion in his left hand, propping himself up with the staff in his right. He got a clear look at the Dark Wizard's face and hair color.

A genuine British wizard!

So, among the four Dark Wizards, the Gnome was from the Eastern Isles, and the other three were British Dark Wizards.

Moriarty didn't want to be hunted down by Dark Wizards in the future without knowing why. He raised his staff, pointing the tip at the last Dark Wizard.

"See what happened to your two companions? Want to die in a foreign land like them? Or tell me everything, and I'll give you enough money to leave here and never come back."

Moriarty spoke with his lips barely moving, using a tone of utter contempt for death to try and break the Dark Wizard's mental defenses.

The Dark Wizard wasn't fooled. He pointed his wand at Moriarty: "The sweat on your forehead gives you away! Using that spell to kill Neil must have drained a lot of your magic. Your bluffing does nothing to me!"

Just as the Dark Wizard said, Slicing Spell had consumed too much magic. Moriarty's head had been aching since earlier.

But he couldn't show weakness. Instead, he glared back with even fiercer eyes: "Stupid Mudblood! Die!"

Humiliation burned in the Dark Wizard's eyes—Moriarty's deliberate words had clearly struck a nerve.

He couldn't help stepping back a few paces, layering several Shield Charms on himself, only to realize Moriarty had already run far away.

"Fuck!" The Dark Wizard realized he'd been tricked and raised his wand in fury. "Sectumsempra!"

"Protego!" Moriarty spun around, his staff aimed at the Dark Wizard as surging magic erupted, deflecting the Sectumsempra.

Seizing the Dark Wizard's retreat, Moriarty ran while swallowing a Restorative Potion—now his magic was back!

And as he cast spells, Moriarty felt his magic reserves grow even fuller.

"Incendio!" Moriarty had been itching to try this curse.

A flash of fire flickered from the staff's tip, and a massive wave of flame surged toward the Dark Wizard, too fast for him to utter a Shield Charm.

"No!"

The Dark Wizard rolled in the snow, hoping to smother the flames, but Moriarty casually summoned a broken tree and ended the Dark Wizard's wretched life.

"Host detected killing a Dark Wizard. 300 points earned."

From the point totals, Moriarty deduced that among the three British wizards, Neil was the leader and also the strongest.

Eliminating three Dark Wizards netted him 1,100 points.

At this moment, the Gnome Dark Wizard looked to Moriarty like a gold bar with legs.

"Moriarty! What are you standing around for? Come save me!"

Lockhart's roar came from the lakeside—his leg had been burned by a Fire Crow, forcing him to soak his lower body in the lake.

Two adult snowmen that could spray water had saved Lockhart, or the Gnome's Cruciatus Curse would have hit him already.

But the snowmen weren't in great shape either. To end things quickly, Moriarty recalled a large-scale magic from his family's legacy.

"Branch, come."

Moriarty controlled twelve branches to stick into the snow, then made over a dozen more branches sway continuously, as if painting.

Lockhart fumed: "What time is this, and you're still in the mood to draw?!"

The Gnome looked at Moriarty at those words, then took a deep breath. "Where did this brat come from? He can actually draw a Magic Circle!"

Lockhart: "..."

It wasn't Lockhart's fault for being ignorant—modern magic rarely used Magic Circles anymore. Those who could draw them were either from ancient families or reclusive old monsters.

Thinking of the hidden dragons and crouching tigers in China, the Gnome realized he'd stirred up serious trouble.

The Gnome raised his wand: "Undead Fire Raven!"

The Fire Crows in the forest flew toward the Gnome, forming a fiery halo. A raven five meters tall emerged from the halo, its target clearly Moriarty!

Whoosh!

The raven spread its wings, spanning ten meters, with clusters of black flames burning on them, reeking of a foul stench.

The stench of corpses!

Moriarty frowned. This had to be the Gnome's last trump card—a forbidden necromancy summoning art.

Where the aura of death appeared, it would surely claim a life.

But there was one weakness: the Fire Crow Halo.

The Gnome's magic clearly wasn't enough to summon a true Undead Fire Raven, so he had to use the smaller Fire Crows' power to fuel the big one.

Destroy the Fire Crow Halo, and the Undead Fire Raven would be weakened.

Moriarty was still drawing the Magic Circle and couldn't split his focus, so he shouted at Lockhart: "Hit that halo with every spell you know!"

Lockhart complied, but his repertoire was pitifully limited. Moriarty saw it clearly—there was a Disarming Charm, a Cleaning Charm... but not Lockhart's specialty, the Memory Charm.

It meant Lockhart was holding back, keeping a trick up his sleeve, maybe even nursing ulterior motives.

Still, Lockhart's interference shrank the halo a little, and the Undead Fire Raven paused momentarily before recovering and charging forward wrapped in flames.

Moriarty felt the scorch of the undead fire, but just then, his Magic Circle was complete!

"Speak to me, Slytherin! Greatest of the Four Founders!"

Moriarty drove his staff into the ground, raising a green light, followed by silver light spreading across the snow.

The crude Magic Circle activated, spinning rapidly as over a dozen branches turned into green pillars of light, shooting straight into the sky.

"Ice Snake Dance!"

Moriarty drained all his magic, pouring it into the Magic Circle.

The air suddenly turned frigid. A massive storm gathered above the Magic Circle, mixed with ice and snow.

Falling ice crystals and snow chunks pounded the Undead Fire Raven relentlessly, leaving it no time to counterattack.

The storm descended swiftly, sweeping away the Fire Raven, and the undead flames vanished without a trace.

Bang! The Fire Crow Halo exploded, and the Gnome suffered magical backlash, coughing in a muffled voice.

Moriarty guessed he was coughing up blood—though the Gnome hid it well, the two snowmen wouldn't let the chance slip.

Twin streams of snow-water shot from the snowmen's mouths, and the Gnome cast a protective charm on himself.

"Bastard brat!" The Gnome seethed, glaring at Moriarty, itching to hit him with another curse.

But Moriarty gave him no chance—kill when you can kill, never delay, that was his creed as a former agent.

He planted both hands on his staff and let out a hissing sound from his throat: "Hiss! Hiss-hiss, hiss!"

Lockhart's mouth fell wide open. Even as ignorant as he was, he finally recognized it.

"Parseltongue!?"

Lockhart suddenly understood why Moriarty had wanted to speak with Slytherin.

The moment Moriarty spoke the serpent tongue, the twelve green pillars of light transformed in unison into massive green serpents!

The serpents charged into the storm above the Magic Circle, and when they emerged, they had become twelve Ice Serpents!

The Ice Serpents slithered slowly toward the Gnome, who was frozen in terror.

A green serpent over ten meters long and three meters wide toyed with the Gnome like a mouse.

Twelve serpent heads took turns staring the Gnome down. They flicked their tongues, licking the Gnome's face—each lick froze his skin a little more.

Ominous. Unholy.

The pressure from the Ice Serpents kept the Snowmen from daring to move, until the Gnome was completely encased in ice, forming an Ice Coffin. Only then did the Ice Serpents gradually dissipate.

Moriarty collapsed to the ground, his magic nearly spent. He couldn't hold on any longer.

"Lockhart? Lockhart! If you can still move, get that Gnome's backpack over here!"

Moriarty ordered Lockhart around like a servant. Lockhart numbly walked toward the Gnome, the twelve Ice Serpents still seared into his mind.

"Thud!"

The large backpack landed in front of Moriarty.

Four or five Snowmen rushed over, but they shot Moriarty a fearful glance and dared not come closer. They only whimpered at the backpack.

Before long, a low whimper came from inside the backpack itself, as if someone was crying.

Moriarty remembered the system's task. It seemed the backpack contained a Snowman Baby.

"Lockhart, open the backpack and return the Snowman Baby to the Snowmen."

As if to verify the truth, Lockhart's trembling hands unzipped the backpack. His eyes went wide in an instant.

He dazedly lifted out the Snowman Baby and handed it to the Snowmen.

"You... how did you know there was a Snowman Baby inside?" Lockhart slumped to the ground like a deflated ball.

Moriarty's overwhelming strength, his endless stream of spells, and his terrifying forbidden arts had crushed Lockhart's pride.

The only thing Lockhart had left to maintain his dignity in front of Moriarty was his Memory Charm.

And now Moriarty might even be able to foresee the future?

Did that mean his Memory Charm was already known to the other party!

Moriarty was too busy staring at a necklace at the bottom of the backpack to bother with Lockhart.

He picked up the necklace. Nothing unusual about it.

But the task was complete, right?

"Detected host completing the task. Reward: ten years' worth of magic power and one Alchemy Item—the Philosopher's Stone."

The Philosopher's Stone?

Nicolas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone!

He'd have to visit that master alchemist someday.

Moriarty had Lockhart help him to his feet. He grabbed his staff and walked over to the Gnome, then stored both the Gnome and the Ice Moon Necklace into the System Space.

He didn't yet know what the Ice Moon Necklace did, but the Gnome definitely hid a massive secret.

Moriarty wasn't about to let that secret slip through his fingers. Once he settled down, he would interrogate the Gnome properly.