"Keep going? Keep going my ass!"
Behind the school bus, Harry forced a smile.
The students jeered from the rear windows.
It was like a scene from Spider-Man, and it had all started in September, when Woodcote House Preparatory School opened for the new school year.
Woodcote House was a private primary school.
Most British private schools were single-sex, and Woodcote House was no exception.
Most of the children who attended came from middle-class or wealthier families.
Harry, who was seen as Dudley's sidekick, had naturally always been excluded.
But the newly emerged Harry could fight, and his odd habit of smiling all the time made him more charming. He was nothing like before.
Still, Harry would have preferred things the old way.
Back then, his grades had been unexpectedly decent, so only Dudley and his friends Piers, Danny, Morcan, and Gordon played the game of chasing and beating Harry. Most of the others simply ignored him.
Now, Harry was a classmate in their eyes.
The mockery was inevitable.
Of course, given Harry's fists, it all happened behind his back.
The journey to school, however, was the one exception.
The windows and the bus gave them courage, especially since Harry kept smiling—and sometimes stray dogs would rush up and fight him.
"Fuck me! You know exactly where the stray dogs came from! The one with the bloodstain on its white forehead is you!"
[The Savior displayed great intelligence. Insulting the system without using his mouth. Experience +1]
"Fuck you!" x9
Realizing he hadn't cursed out the system yet today, he immediately unleashed a nine-hit combo in his mind.
[...Experience +1]
[...No more experience can be gained through this method]
"Open core traits."
Harry chose to distract himself.
[Core Savior Lv10 (All Resistances +1)—Experience: 97/100]
During this time, every time a core trait leveled up, Harry had gotten a chance to draw a trait. There was a small chance of drawing a talent trait, and a much higher chance of getting magical knowledge.
But Harry had drawn nothing but magical knowledge.
[Horcrux Creation]
[Acceptance Letter from Azkaban University (Killing Curse, Imperius Curse, Cruciatus Curse)]
[Hand-Held Guide to Making Fiendfyre (Extinguishing Not Guaranteed)]
[One Hundred Little Tricks for Lumos (Part One)]
[Apparition Rules]
[Gently Open Your Forehead (Legilimency)]
[The Art of Fire (Part Two)]
[How to Talk to Trolls]
[Remove Your Body Odor]
Although the magical knowledge he drew was directly implanted into his mind and would never be forgotten, knowledge was only theory and precautions. Most of it was also unsuitable for public use, and all of it required a key tool: a wand.
He had a substitute for [Apparition].
After enduring a hellish month, he'd learned to write his own [Training Plan], and added [Unstable Teleportation] and [Unstable Shrinking Spell] to it.
[21:00–22:00] Before bed, practice in your room.
Now, although both abilities were still [Brass Grade], the [Unstable] prefix had disappeared.
All in all, only [How to Talk to Trolls] had been useful. It had directly taught Harry Troll Language.
But this time was different.
This time, his core trait had risen from [Black Iron] to [Bronze], making the chance of drawing a talent trait one hundred percent! Bronze or higher guaranteed!
"Distribute experience!"
[Core Savior Lv10 (All Resistances +2)—Experience: 7/100]
In an instant, Harry felt his very being improve. His bones and muscles grew sturdier, he felt closer to magic, and the whole world suddenly became clearer. He could even see Dudley hiding behind the crowd on the bus, grinning.
He didn't need glasses at all anymore.
Harry yanked off the black, round-framed glasses Uncle Vernon had just bought him.
"Now... time to draw!"
A white book appeared, and time stopped once more.
On the glowing screen projected from its open pages, a wheel with a silver pointer spun rapidly.
"Stop!"
With time frozen, Harry yelled at the top of his lungs, as if trying to vent all the rage he'd accumulated over the past month.
A golden light burst forth.
"Yeah! A Gold!"
Harry's smile had barely begun to bloom when it started to wither.
[Blast-Ended Skrewt's Explosive Fart]
[Fart like rolling thunder, leap a hundred meters in a single bound, and undergo intestinal modification]
[The Savior's luck is sky-high! Would you like to equip this talent trait? YES or NO]
"No, no, no, no!"
[Trait dismantled. Obtained ten [Trait Gems]]
[Note: Cannot be used to upgrade [Core Traits]]
"So other traits can be upgraded?"
"Open title traits~!"
[Gold]
[The Boy Who Lived—0/100]
[Bronze]
[Core Savior...]
"100 gems? Open talent traits."
[Gold]
[Parseltongue—0/100]
"Even Gold Grade needs a hundred?"
[Silver]
[Potions—0/50]
[Bronze]
[Divination—0/10]
"Open skill traits."
[Warning: Skill traits can only be cultivated through the Savior Lord's own effort. No taking shortcuts—go forth and achieve greatness!]
"Warning, my ass!"
[...No more experience can be gained through this method]
With the [Savior Training Manual] withdrawn, time began to flow again.
"Goal... reach Gold Grade or higher before arriving at Hogwarts!"
Harry looked at the gates of Woodcote House Primary School ahead and steeled his resolve.
Four years later.
July 20, 1991.
Woodcote House Primary School was buzzing with excitement.
"Who's that? An adult wearing a school uniform."
"You don't know him? The legendary Harry Potter! The Cú Chulainn of Little Whinging, the War God Tyr! They say he's beaten every stray dog and gangster in Surrey on his run to school!"
"I know. He's also the nephew of Vernon Dursley, a manager at Grunnings."
"He got straight A's in his eleven-plus exams. Eton and Harrow both offered him full scholarships, and even Winchester, the most academically demanding school, gave him a special admissions place! He's no mere nephew of a manager at a drill company!"
"He also won the UKMT-JMO, the UK Junior Mathematical Olympiad, and scored the decisive goal at Twickenham Stadium for Surrey in the ISA Cup, the Independent Schools Association Cup!"
Adults and children alike gazed at Harry, as if looking at a rising star.
The Dursleys told everyone they met, "Harry Potter is our nephew. We raised him."
Dudley puffed out his chest and wandered around with a photo of himself and Harry. "I'm Harry Potter's cousin!"
The ten-year-old boy who stood six feet tall—Harry himself—also wore an unusually genuine smile.
I've finally graduated. I won't have to deal with stray dogs and thugs on my run to school anymore.
And finally...
[Core Savior Lv10 (All Resistances +4)—Experience: 90/100]
One more level, and I'll become [Intermediate Savior Lv1].
Breaking a core precept no longer gets me electrocuted on the spot. I get a warning first.
Will my resistance go up by +5, or even more?
From Junior to Intermediate, the guaranteed minimum grade for a talent trait draw is Gold.
Which means... the last ten [Trait Gems] I need to fill the gap in my talent traits above Gold Grade will be mine!
Harry looked at the cover of the [Savior Training Manual].
[Name: Harry James Potter]
[Age: 10]
[Titles: The Boy Who Lived, Other People's Child (Learning Ability +7, Affinity with Peers -1), Cú Chulainn Who Beats Dogs (Mammal Special Attack +7), Tyr the Unsevered War God (Right Hand +7)...]
[Talents: Parseltongue... Unicorn's Holy Blood... Elegant and Easygoing Bronze (Affinity +3)... Boggart's Fear Reading]
[Precept: Elegant and Easygoing]
[Skills: Literature and Sports Both Bloom (Math, English... high jump, running, chin-ups, chess, football...), Diplomacy (Human Language, dog language, bird language, Parseltongue...), Dursley Housework Encyclopedia (pull noodles, chop vegetables...), Potter Combat (punch a dog in the head, eye poke, step on a tail, kick the lower back...), Slack Off and Fish (sleep, zone out, breathe, eat...), Grooming (wash face, apply makeup, keep bedhead permanent...)]
[Quest: Attend the graduation ceremony (Junior Training Plan)]
Before you continue