I Dare Not Open My Eyes, Hoping It's My Illusion

Every time he saw the white book, Harry felt a strong urge to complain.

First, the [Titles]. [Cú Chulainn the Dog-Beater] and [Týr the One-Armed War God] were legends condensed from Harry's experience of running to school, encountering countless respawning wild dogs and thugs like NPCs, defeating them, and arriving safely. These weren't just mere legends—they were true stories.

It all started with an accident: stepping on a dog's tail while running to school and getting chased for it.

[Ding ding ding! Today's summary... [Running Quest] The Chosen One performed exceptionally. Searching for cause... Brazilian Mastiff...]

[[Beginner Training Plan · Running] Optimize? 10, 9, 8... Countdown ended. Default [Yes]. Optimization complete.]

Harry, lying on his bed staring blankly at the ceiling at the time: "What the hell are you barking about?"

After that, every day on the way to school, he would always run into stray dogs, and among them, there was always one with a bloodstain on its forehead—clearly a dog turned from the white book. The new mob—thugs—appeared for the same reason.

But this was considered default, deliberately provoked. Harry thought that a nickname earned from beating people would at least sound better than one from beating dogs. He was wrong.

Good news: he was a war god. Bad news: it was Týr without his right hand.

Every time he looked at the title bar, Harry wanted to call for respect toward Celtic and Norse culture. Týr had no right hand, yet his ability was [+7 Right Hand]. Cú Chulainn's name meant "Hound of Culann," a dog lover, yet his ability was a dog's natural enemy. It was like naming a squid "Little Mustache." How could these British people give such random nicknames?

Luckily, the abilities were decent after reaching gold rank. [+7 Right Hand] let Harry tank a drill piercing barehanded—even Fengyun Bu's Jing Yun would shout "Qilin Arm" in shock. [Cú Chulainn the Dog-Beater] had expanded from only countering [Canidae] to the entire class [Mammalia], and humans were mammals too.

Next, the [Talents]. The remaining talents in the talent bar—[Unicorn's Sacred Blood] and [Boggart's Fear Reading]—looked fine. That was because the bad ones Harry would delete and decompose into [Word Gems]. [Niffler's Space Pocket · Copper] seemed good, but it was located on his lower abdomen. People might think Harry was cosplaying Doraemon. The pocket opening was also tiny—his hand couldn't even fit inside. [Hag's Stomach · Silver] could swallow ten children in one gulp and digest them into sludge. Even Hannibal would find it too crude. [Sasabonsam's Thin Legs · Silver] made his soles stick to surfaces like magnets, letting him walk on walls and ceilings, but as the name said, they were thin legs—coin-thick, 1.6 meters long. [Kappa's Head · Silver] had a dent on top; as long as there was water, he had endless stamina. Kappa—the name looked unfamiliar, but it was actually a river imp, bald with a dent on its head. If the water in the dent ran out, it was at others' mercy. Harry had always longed for [Veela's Charm] and [Phoenix's Rebirth from Flames], but they never appeared.

Finally... there were the [Skills], which had absorbed all Harry's blood, tears, and sweat over the past four years. Every time he looked at them, he felt like he could hear someone singing in his ear, "Dare not open my eyes, hope it's just my hallucination." Even now, Harry still missed the skill pool from a month ago.

[Weeding] and [Pulling Noodles]—these life skill names were abstract, but under the daily irrigation of blood, tears, and sweat, they had gained a silvery shimmer. Skills converted from magical knowledge were drawn. Although most were unsightly things like [Life Force Drain], [Fiendfyre], [Soul Split], [Shadow Curse], [Malevolent Glare], and [Unforgivable Curses], and their expanded levels were stuck at lv1 because he had no wand to practice directly—only able to rely on life skill synergies—at least most had gold labels. His innate skills, converted from magical knowledge without a wand—[Parseltongue], [Apparition], [Extension Charm], [Legilimency], [Occlumency]—had decent names and labels. The abstract [Potter Combat Style] was still [Gandalf Combat Style · Fragment]. The most abstract Potter family heirloom, [Constant Bedhead], had barely missed breaking into gold.

But then...

A month ago, on June 20, 1991, Thursday at 10 PM, Harry took a bath. There was nothing wrong with bathing, but his mind started to wander. The fragmented, incomplete but vast magical knowledge he had drawn began to collide. He finally realized that black magic and white magic were both emotion + magic—one negative and passive, the other positive and active. Transfiguration and charms both used will to guide the spell—one shaping a fixed framework leaning toward rationality, the other extracting abstract concepts leaning toward sensibility. And then... a catastrophic event occurred. Skills began to merge.

Transfiguration, Cutting Charm, Water-Making Charm—one by one, the silvery spells vanished, fusing into [Iron Will · Copper]. Then most black magic entries and a few white magic entries disappeared, giving rise to [Emotion Regulation · Copper]. [Parseltongue]'s silver faded to copper, merging with [Human Tongue] and [Dog Tongue]... into [Thousand Tongues · Copper]. [Apparition]'s silver degraded, becoming [Space Control · Copper].

The entire skill pool gleamed with uniform bronze.

Stopping here wouldn't be bad either.

[Bronze] isn't inferior to [Silver].

For instance, a [Black Iron] [Intermediate Savior] is far stronger than a [Gold] [Beginner Savior].

Yet the synthesis didn't stop.

[Sleep], [Weed], [Run], [Hit Dog], [Math]—abstract skills forged through the inhuman [Training Plan] began to glow...

Even more abstract skills like [Arts and Sports Both Bloom] and [Dursley Household Chores Encyclopedia] came into being.

Things normal people need—eating, sleeping—were stigmatized as [Slacking Off]!

What was even more absurd was that after unfolding, the upgrade progress still showed xx/100, making you think the difficulty hadn't changed, only for the proficiency gained after training to drop to 0.01.

—I'm no monkey fooled by morning-three-evening-four tricks! You walnut-brained troll!

—Just wait, it'll be different once I enter Hogwarts.

—Once I get my wand and learn more magic, the once-glorious [Skill Pool] will return!

Harry smiled, his gaze turning sinister as he looked at the [Savior Training Manual] only he could see.

Click—!

With the sound of a camera shutter, Harry's gaze quickly softened again.

The final step of the graduation ceremony—taking the graduation photo—was finally over.

[Ding ding ding! Congratulations, Savior. The mission [Attend Graduation Ceremony] has been successfully completed. Your subordinate—the Dursley Trio—has perfectly promoted your greatness. 50 experience points have been credited!]

—Allocate experience!

The dazzling golden light faded, replaced by the dimmer yet heavier hue of [Black Iron].

[Core Savior lv1 (All Resistances +5)—Experience 40/100]

Harry felt his body begin to transform once more. His heart pounded like a war drum, his blood thickened like lead and mercury, his body density increased, muscles bulging...

But right now, he couldn't care less.

"Time to pull!"

In the time-stopped world brought by leveling up, Harry roared without restraint amidst the crowd, his perfect smile twisting into a dramatic anime-style grimace.

The roulette didn't appear immediately.

What rang out was the emotionless mechanical voice of the black-hearted book.

[Congratulations, Savior, on completing beginner training. Reward: [Golden Horned Beast's Sleeplessness] (Non-decomposable)]

"You absolute beast!"

The appearance of [Slacking Off] had long made Harry anticipate this—he knew this dog of a black-hearted book wanted him training around the clock without rest.

And now... the core component had arrived!

Next up, would it be a photosynthesis talent, using sunlight to replace eating?

[The talent affix is an extra gift. The draw count still remains. Do you still wish to draw?]

"Let me say thank you, because of you, the seasons are warm."