Parseltongue

Two days later, Tierra received a reply. This time, a glossy gray owl flew in, dropped the letter, and flew away.

"Dear Mr. Wu,

We were delighted to receive your reply, and we sincerely welcome you to join us. We believe you will spend seven unforgettable and happy years at Hogwarts.

We have already made arrangements for the situation you described. Our beloved Keeper of Keys and Grounds, Rubeus Hagrid, will arrive at the attic in the old town where you live on the night of July 31 or in the early hours of August 1 to take you to the wonderful Wizarding World. At that time, there may also be a young wizard your age traveling with you.

Yours sincerely,

Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

P.S. Mr. Hagrid is a large but kind-hearted, furry gentleman. Please do not be afraid. I wish you a pleasant time together."

Hagrid? Could the young wizard traveling with him be Harry Potter?

Well, probably. July 31, 1991, was Harry Potter's eleventh birthday. Hagrid would bring Harry a cake and, while he was at it, punish that cousin of the Dursleys who had always bullied Harry.

Then Hagrid would take Harry to the Leaky Cauldron in London, enter Diagon Alley through the back wall of the pub to buy magical supplies, and retrieve the Philosopher's Stone stored at Gringotts.

The Philosopher's Stone... Tierra recalled the unfinished Philosopher's Stone Merlin had left in the library. He wondered whether there would be any difference between the two.

"But there are still two months... I need to prepare properly... The first four years may be dangerous but survivable, but nothing is absolute. The most dangerous is the second year. Hmm... Basilisk, Mirror, Rooster, Realgar. If I can get Incendiary Grenades, Sulfur Grenades, and Smoke Bombs, that would be even better." Tierra silently calculated. Voldemort in the first year was manageable—frightening, but not truly dangerous—and Dumbledore would be watching. No matter what, he could not possibly let Voldemort harm a Muggle-born young wizard who had only just enrolled. But the Basilisk was another matter. It slaughtered Muggle-borns indiscriminately. No one died in the original plot, but that did not mean he would be as lucky as those few.

"Thank Merlin," Tierra said sincerely.

On the day Tierra received his Hogwarts acceptance letter, he returned to the library and copied down the contents of the Hyborian Tablets Merlin had collected.

Since they were written on clay tablets, there was not much content. They contained only methods for learning Parseltongue, techniques for breeding Basilisks, and some incomplete magic and curses Hyboria had created during his experiments.

Another half of a tablet was too badly broken and worn for Tierra to decipher. Even Merlin's notes contained no record of that section. He only knew it concerned some kind of large-scale magical ritual.

Learning Parseltongue required not only a certain degree of magical skill and linguistic talent, but also the assistance of potions.

There was no need to mention magical skill and linguistic talent. After receiving the knowledge blessing of the Great Race of Yith, he could read aloud any language whose writing he had encountered.

The pronunciation of Parseltongue was itself based on a variant of Ancient Greek. After touching the Hyborian Tablets, Tierra had already learned Ancient Greek. Though he was not yet fluent, it was enough for learning Parseltongue.

All that remained was a potion called Hydra Poison.

As its name suggested, Hydra Poison was poison, but it was not lethal. It was a byproduct of Hydra's research into the Blood Curse. It would only turn the drinker into a humanoid beast for twenty-four hours. However, if taken together with the Basilisk Gallbladder of the magical creature Scorpion-Tailed Snake, the poison would merely render the drinker mute for several months. Afterward, with proper study and practice, they could gain an initial grasp of Parseltongue.

Most of the herbal ingredients for Hydra Poison could be found in Merlin's garden. Tierra had confirmed this over the past two days after climbing out of the Pyramids. Even the missing Desert Thorn Flower, Goblin Wing, Ghoul-Faced Swan Pupae, African Boomslang Skin, and the key ingredient, the Silver Shell of a Feathered Serpent, should be available in ordinary potion shops.

Tierra had already gone through Merlin's dusty set of hardcover printed magic textbooks once, then gone through them again after reading the Hyborian Tablets. He had seen those ingredients in familiar potion recipes such as Living Hell Potion, Polyjuice Potion, and Animagus potions, so they were probably nothing especially precious.

The only problem was the Basilisk Gallbladder. In the 1645 edition of Fantastic Beasts, this snake had already been hunted to the brink of extinction because its gallbladder possessed remarkable and powerful detoxifying effects. Tierra did not know whether any were still alive after all these years.

It would be best if he could learn Parseltongue. If he could not...

If he could not, Tierra would have to consider the items he had listed before.

Realgar, Mirrors, and Roosters went without saying.

Smoke Bombs could block the Basilisk's gaze and give him a chance to escape. According to the movie's setting, the Basilisk did not seem to have a particularly good sense of smell. As long as its vision was blocked, his chances of escaping would increase greatly.

Incendiary Grenades could instantly generate high temperatures. According to the Hyborian Tablets, apart from fearing the rooster's crow, Basilisks also feared fire when young. But as they grew older, they became less sensitive to flames. Tierra guessed this was because, as the Basilisk's scales thickened, the temperature of ordinary flames found it difficult to penetrate its heavy hide and affect its nervous system.

But Incendiary Grenades were different. Thermite could reach temperatures of three thousand degrees in an instant, enough to melt steel, let alone a flesh-and-blood Basilisk. Even if its nature as a magical creature kept it from dying, it could still hinder the Basilisk and buy him time to flee.

Thermite Grenades were not difficult to make. Tierra had even tried it himself several times. Of course, not for throwing at people. He had ignited aluminum powder and iron oxide with matches in a laboratory, responding to school policy by popularizing chemistry experiments among high school and middle school students near the university.

Iron oxide, aluminum powder, and magnesium strips for ignition, all packed into a glass bottle. The problem was that magnesium strips made it difficult to control the timing of the detonation.

So he would need a basic Sulfur Grenade made from sulfur, saltpeter, and carbon powder, with a wet towel soaked in accelerant wrapped around it as a fuse.

Tie them together. If he encountered the Basilisk, he could light them and throw them together, generating heat capable of melting metal.

Although Tierra could now be considered a wizard, and with Curse Worm included, he possessed considerable self-defense capability compared to others his age.

But Tierra had been a science student in his previous life. When he encountered problems, he still habitually solved them with technological thinking.

Or rather, when facing unknown danger, Tierra only felt safe when he held the power of technology in his hands.

That was a mindset accumulated over decades in his previous life, not something that could be changed in a short time by mastering a few spells.