[Peruvian Venomous Fang's Fang]

[Peruvian Venomous Fang's Fang]

[The Primordial Dragon Pox Virus lies dormant in your fangs, with accompanying fang-gland modification]

[...,YES or NO]

--Don't think I don't know Dragon Pox has another scientific name: Dragon Plague Syphilis!

[Flobberworm Regeneration]

[Regrow severed fingers, enhanced regenerative ability]

[...,YES or NO]

--What the hell is "regrow severed fingers"?

[Augurey Memory]

[A brain that stores every sound encountered in a lifetime and reproduces them perfectly in the instant before death, with accompanying [hippocampus] modification]

[...,YES or NO]

--Not bad.

[Billywig Floatation]

[A venom that can make a person float permanently, the source of incredible flight speed, with accompanying [hemoglobin] modification]

[...,YES or NO]

--Nice. Combined with Origami Crane form and the Gravity Scroll, I should be able to fly even faster.

[Lobalug Venom Sac]

[...]

[...,YES or NO]

--Garbage!

Dark Assassin Transformation Ritual

--Vaporize the body, turn it evil, remotely control weapons—yeah, sure. This transformation made me uglier than Voldemort!

Lianhua Temple's Destruction Rune

--[Morphing Pivot]? It's redundant with the [Energy Scroll], and it's even weaker!

Dad's Theater Magic

--Joker Magic? Coat yourself in paint for better balance, and you can burrow underground and pass through walls...

--I've already got something more advanced, okay!

Dad's Tracking Magic

--Magic? More like a potion.

--Sparrow eggs, eel saliva, goat's milk foam, a snake's tail, and the target's personal belongings. What kind of potion recipe is this?

Herpo's Diary (Fragment)

--It's a record of breeding Basilisks, so I can use it as a refe—reference for what, exactly?!

--Eyeballs, right? Where am I supposed to get that many eyes?

--Wait...eyes? Acromantulas!

--Hagrid's just going to have to suffer.

"At least there are two silver ones."

Harry suppressed his anger and let the new magical knowledge churn through his mind.

Dragon Plague Syphilis was powerful. Even Lucius Malfoy's dad could only wait to die after catching it.

But who'd want that?!

"Fang, venom sac—dismantle!"

[...,obtained 6 [Trait Gems]]

"On the bright side, at least upgrading a Golden Affix only takes one now."

Harry looked at [Flobberworm Regeneration].

--It'll probably be worth keeping after an upgrade. I'll hold on to it.

"Everything else, accept!"

Harry took a deep breath. His brain had never been directly modified before; the Troll's strength had only run amok in his head indirectly.

The next moment,

Harry felt a tingling sensation spread through his body. His feet rose into the air of their own accord, and it felt almost exactly like the sensation described in books of being injected with Billywig venom.

The only difference was...

He could control this floating. He could feel the force bend to his will as easily as his fingers.

But he felt nothing from the brain being modified.

Only after memories surfaced one by one—the feeling of losing his baby teeth, the taste of his mother's milk, the memory of riding a toy broomstick—did he realize the modification was complete.

--Maybe I can recreate the light-footed martial arts from wuxia stories?

--Crossing a river on a reed, stepping across grass, standing on treetops...

Harry felt his new self as time began to flow again.

"Another new day."

A tall figure stepped straight out of a thick tree trunk.

Deep in the Forbidden Forest.

Here, a gap in the dense canopy formed by the interwoven branches of thousand-year-old trees let sunlight through. Light was no longer a luxury.

Harry looked up.

Before him was a steep cliff face covered in slippery moss and vines.

Nearly a week had passed.

Ever since he'd mentioned the Killing Curse in the Room of Requirement, Hermione and the others had started treating everything he did as an act of putting on a brave face, looking at him as though he were a piece of fragile porcelain.

The first to catch that look was naturally Sirius.

His dog of a godfather started asking questions all day long and giving Harry advice about romance.

Then came Hagrid, who took Harry on tours of the Forbidden Forest and fed the Thestrals.

Then Professor McGonagall and the others...

But he wasn't here now to get away from everyone.

He was here to train.

Traveling underground beneath the Forbidden Forest had become his new habit.

The bones of various Fantastic Beasts, tree roots reaching deep into the earth, and mineral deposits had become the scenery of his training sessions.

But regrettably, he still hadn't found Ravenclaw's Diadem.

[...[Slack Off and Fish][Literature and Sports Both Bloom][Potter Combat] proficiency +1]

"Next up, Rock Climb."

Harry shot toward the cliff like a streak of light. His body seemed to have lost all weight. Each time his toe touched the slippery moss, where there were no bumps or crevices, he swung into the air, tracing a sharp arc.

His movements were utterly fluid, each leap and shift carrying a wild yet graceful rhythm.

He seemed to race across flat ground as he headed for the cliff's summit and the rising sun.

Just as his silhouette merged with the sun and he leaped onto the cliff top, an Origami Crane appeared at the sun's heart.

Mysterious Cloud Seal Script appeared across its snow-white body.

The next moment, accompanied by the sharp sound of air being forced aside, it appeared at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Without a sound, it transformed into a human.

"Hagrid!"

Harry stepped out from behind a tree and waved at the Half-blood Giant emerging from the cabin, making no effort to hide that he'd been in the Forbidden Forest.

"King Harry!" Fang greeted him first, barking in dog language.

"Have you run into Aragog?" Hagrid asked anxiously. "His colony's suffered terrible losses lately. But there's nothing in the Forbidden Forest that should be their natural enemy."

"Unicorns are herbivores, and Centaurs hate the dark. They live on the sunlit side of the forest."

"Werewolves are in the deepest part."

"Trolls... Maybe it's Trolls!"

--Someone should tell them their eyes are a delicacy.

--You know they don't have any natural enemies, too.

Unable to find the eyeballs, Harry no longer felt guilty about letting Arbok eat the Acromantulas. He had the strength of a Troll, after all.

--These are necessary sacrifices, all for [Arbok].

"What about the Trolls?"

"Acromantula fangs can't pierce Troll skin, and their weakness—their heads—is too small."

Hagrid spoke gravely.

"Trolls aren't as weak as you think. For a long time, clever Trolls who could speak a few words were the guards' first choice."

"Give them a sturdy helmet, and they won't even fear a Fire Dragon."

"Quirrell got hired as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor because he was especially good at dealing with Trolls."

"It's a secret." The Half-blood Giant, who seemed to have been raised on Veritaserum, said proudly.

"He's especially good at dealing with Trolls?" Harry asked in surprise.

It wasn't that Harry didn't know. Quirrell had bragged about it in the original story.

The other professors probably knew, too. After all, the trap Quirrell had set was a Troll.

Harry just hadn't known that Quirrell was good at dealing with Trolls, or that even Hagrid knew about it.

Then, when Quirrell fainted on Halloween...

That was way too obvious. He'd clearly been asking for help in a roundabout way.

"Of course." Hagrid nodded.

He rubbed his hands together, glanced at Harry's thin robes, then at the Moleskin Coat he was wearing.

He caught a snowflake and held it out.

"It's nearly November. Why are you still wearing so little?"

"It's nearly November?" Harry's eyes widened. "Then that means... Halloween's almost here."

--Will Quirrell let a Troll loose this time, too?