The Late Task

The day after receiving the apology letter from the Ministry of Magic, Albert secretly went to the Room of Requirement to retrieve the Gold Card and return it to Hertok.

After Hertok clarified things for him, keeping the Gold Card would actually be a problem.

The moment Albert picked up the Gold Card, he glanced in a certain direction without thinking. He casually put the Gold Card into the pocket of his robe and slowly walked to the right. His gaze fell on an old cabinet with a bubbly surface. He slowly raised his head and looked at the top of the cabinet, squinting involuntarily. There was a half-body statue of wizard covered in pockmarks, wearing a dusty old wig, and... an old, faded crown-like thing.

Standing blankly in front of the old cabinet, he vaguely heard the whisper from the Diadem again. His raised hand froze in place, then slowly withdrew, and he quickly turned and left.

After leaving the Room of Requirement, Albert stared at the Gold Card in his hand and murmured, "This memory should be enough!"

He then put the Gold Card in a pre-prepared envelope and sent it to its original owner Hertok, through the school's owl.

As for why it wasn't his own owl? Well, there's nothing he can do; Shera is still halfway there delivering the message.

Watching the owl fly away with the Gold Card, Albert took a deep breath. This matter was finally over, and the originally troublesome task of returning lost money was now complete.

Just as Albert was about to accept the mission, he suddenly noticed that a new mission had appeared on his panel.

The Struggle of Underage Wizards.

Over the years, the Trace of Ministry of Magic has occasionally made mistakes. The Misuse of Magic Office has never admitted the Ministry of Magic's or its own errors. Make them realize they are wrong and apologize or pay the price. Let them understand that even underage wizards with little power or voice can still express their dissatisfaction in other ways.

Reward: 3000 experience points, Dolores Umbridge's favorability -10.

Albert stood outside the Owlery, muttering to himself, "How strange, why did this quest trigger at this time? And once it was triggered, the quest was already completed."

"Could it be because I returned the Gold Card?" Albert wondered to himself. He walked down the stairs and returned to the castle. As soon as he entered the Entrance Hall, he found that a new task had popped up on his Task Panel.

The Potions Master's Gratitude.

The Gold Membership Card is very important to Potions Master Hertok, and he is pleased that you returned Gold Membership Card as promised, thus earning his recognition of your integrity.

Rewards: 100 experience points, 1 Skill Points, +5 favorability with Hertok, randomly obtain a skill from the quest target, and one Felix Felicis bottle.

Albert, who had just stepped into the Great Hall, was also taken aback. He hadn't expected there to be a follow-up to this matter, and that the reward would be so generous.

What was initially thought to be a scam involving the return of lost property turned out to be just the beginning.

However, Albert was still a little curious about what would have happened if he had simply returned the Gold Membership Card to Hertok from the beginning.

Will I receive a Galleon?

Albert had a feeling that the more difficult the task, the better the reward.

However, this time, I really made a profit, considering how much time and energy I spent on this matter.

But how could Hertok receive his owl letter so quickly?

Even if you pause for a while along the way, it only takes about ten minutes to get here from the Owlery.

Was he nearby? Was Hertok waiting for his owl in Hogsmeade? Albert felt that was the only possibility.

It seems that the gold card is even more important than Albert had anticipated.

He just muttered this to himself and then refocused his attention on the task.

Albert had no intention of accepting the reward for the Struggle of Underage Wizards right now, and it wouldn't be a good thing for Dolores Umbridge to have her opinion of him decline.

However, he did receive gratitude from both the person who returned the lost money and the Potions Master.

Then, he found a place to sit in the Great Hall, took out a small notebook from his pocket and pretended to be reading something, and then began to browse the Skill Panel to check the skill rewards he had obtained from Hertok.

This reward is a bit of a rip-off; what skill you get is purely based on luck.

Last time, Truman's mission had a similar reward, but I don't know what it was. Albert couldn't find it in the Skill Panel.

Albert discovered that he had quite a few skills, most of which were level one or zero. Scrolling down the long list of skills, finding the right one wasn't easy.

After carefully flipping through the pages three times, Albert finally discovered a skill he had never seen before, called Potions Mastery.

Yes, that's right, the skill is called Potions Mastery.

Actually, the reason Albert noticed this skill was that it couldn't be upgraded with experience.

In his mind, skills that require Skill Points to upgrade are all pretty good.

This is truly exciting news!

Inside the Great Hall, several Gryffindor students were gathered around Albert, whispering among themselves.

"What's wrong with Albert?" Angelina asked the Weasley Twins beside her, puzzled, looking at the motionless Albert. "Could he have been hit by Full Body-Bind Curse?"

As she spoke, Fred snatched the notebook from Albert's hand and waved it in front of him, but Albert didn't seem to notice. He sat there quietly, like a statue, deep in thought.

"No, he's just having intermittent lapses in concentration." George took the small notebook from Fred's hand and placed it upside down in Albert's hand.

"This looks kind of creepy," Angelina muttered.

"That's why Albert used a notebook as a disguise," George explained with a smile. "He was probably thinking about something important. But you're right, if you didn't know better, seeing this would be quite frightening."

"Even if you do that, he won't react!" Fred reached out to pull Albert's cheek, but the latter suddenly stood up and hit Fred's chin directly on the head. Fred clutched his chin and squatted on the ground groaning in pain.

The impact was quite solid, and Fred's face was contorted with pain.

Angelina's face twitched; to be honest, she had also been startled by Albert's sudden movement of standing up.

Lee Jordan shook his head, "If you don't court death, you won't die. How come you don't know that?"

"Fred, is he still alive?" George asked gleefully.

"It hurts so much."

"Isn't he still alive?"

"We're Twins, right?"

"Right."

"Then I'll share some of my pain with you." Fred reached up and covered his chin, then suddenly threw a punch at his Twins brother.

"Damn it, you actually ambushed me."

The two immediately started fighting.