Troll Strength: Gold

[The Savior has displayed noble character with generous praise, hereby awarding 1 experience point. This path has reached its limit, hope to maintain this in the future]

"Maintain my ass!" Harry, who had been planning to keep singing praises and rake in experience, cursed in exasperation.

[...Defaulting to continue the lottery]

A translucent golden wheel was projected before Harry's eyes, the pointer beginning to spin.

"Stop."

[Troll Strength: Gold]

[Greatly increases strength, accompanied by the reshaping of muscles, bones, and nerves]

[In the world of trolls, there are no flashy spells—only extreme stats!]

[The Savior's fortune is vast. Equip talent trait? YES or NO]

"Fine... whatever, since I'm here, let's give it a try first."

—Wait, don't...

Harry suddenly noticed it was [reshaping], not [modification].

When he had inserted the [Unicorn's Holy Blood], even just modification had subjected him to the excruciating pain of every blood vessel being yanked out one by one.

[The path of salvation is always fraught with hardship!]

The Black-hearted Book responded thus, but Harry, having been through the school of hard knocks, knew that as long as you could endure hardship, there would be no end to hardships.

But now... there was no time.

"Ughhhh!"

Harry dropped to his knees and punched the ground. The stone floor instantly shattered, sending fragments flying. The head of the cameraman behind the lens was pierced through, along with the bodies of surrounding students and faculty. The earth caved in, plunging Harry and several nearby students into the pit.

Rocks and dirt were nothing but mud to him, the splattering "mud droplets" occasionally claiming the life of a lucky spectator.

The students who fell with him, the rocks, the dirt—all churned together.

But an even more terrifying change was happening inside Harry.

His bones snapped section by section, then mended themselves, like an ancient mountain ridge dormant for millennia awakening deep in the earth's crust, arching up, tearing apart the original structure.

Though his nerves were severed, the electric signals of pain still materialized as tangible sparks transmitting to his brain, and the channels directly piercing through the troll's power were being reshaped.

Muscles grew savagely, bursting through the skin, yet wrapped in the moon-white holy blood, not a single drop escaping from this human body.

Harry felt his vision twist into irregular patches of light, as if he saw a troll.

Ten meters tall, as if cast in gold, its head not grotesquely small nor ugly, but instead exuding a kind of majesty—a troll that perhaps had never existed in this world.

Then...

The flesh mixed with the shattered earth began to separate, re-forming into a human body with the cloth fragments.

The earth healed, and Harry, buried deep underground, was squeezed back to the surface.

The stone passed through the cameraman's head, and the next moment after the camera's hole, the silent world returned to noise and life.

"Harry, it's time for us to go back."

Uncle Vernon's voice sounded from beside Harry's ear.

Harry looked at his own broad but perfectly proportioned palms—everything felt like a lifetime ago.

But the frustration in his heart had been vented through that chaotic rampage. His peripheral vision swept over those faces that had just been reduced to pulp but were now lively again, and he took a step toward Uncle Vernon.

His control over the power was perfect. The fragile world, like paper, survived safely under Harry's feet, now imbued with the power of the golden troll.

Paired with this power...

—And I'm just doing chores faster!

"Weeding Fist!"

Under the scorching sun, Harry stood in a horse stance and thrust his fist forward.

After the skill's quality was upgraded, the [Weeding] skill could now unleash sharp air blades not just from a hand-chop, but from any part of the body.

As for why he had to shout the skill's name—that was another tragic story.

[The Savior should proclaim the skill's name openly!]

Good news: This only applied to active skills. Muttering it silently worked too, but it wouldn't enjoy the rare boost (power, training efficiency) that the dog-skin book deigned to grant.

The sharp fist wind swept past, and the lawn, already nearly as neat as a carpet, had a few more blades of grass drift up, turning into fragments invisible to the naked eye.

"Floor-washing Elbow!"

Harry leaped high, his elbow aimed at the mirror-like stone floor. The moment it made contact, ripples spread from the point of impact like water. His burly, iron-tower-like body, using his elbow as a pivot, soared lightly like a dragonfly skimming water in a martial arts film, then spun in midair.

"Drying Waxing Palm!"

Harry flipped upside down, reaching his palm toward the wet stone floor.

Heat descended before the melted wax, evaporating the water stains.

Ten minutes later, the entire Dursley house was brand new.

Every flagstone, every red brick on the walls, every tile on the roof seemed polished, glazed, and buffed.

The window glass was so clear it was as if it didn't exist; the doorknob and mailbox slot gleamed like mirrors.

Every blade of grass on the lawn was trimmed to the exact same height, green like a plastic model.

The hedge looked laser-cut, its edges so sharp they could serve as rulers.

The whole house seemed to have a filter applied under the sunlight, utterly out of place with its surroundings.

But astonishingly, no one noticed.

Harry continued exercising as if no one else existed, supporting his entire body on just one finger, upside down, rising and falling steadily.

His body, perfect as a marble sculpture, shone brilliantly in the sunlight.

[Ding ding ding! Congratulations to the Savior for completing the [Guard the Territory] task 50 minutes earlier than yesterday. 10 experience points credited, 5 more than yesterday.]

—You bastard! What about the other 20! My efficiency is six times what it used to be!

After four years of training under the Black-hearted Book, even with rage surging in his heart, Harry kept his smile perfectly in place, his movements uninterrupted, his eyes fixed on his right-hand finger, breathing steady, as if still immersed in his workout.

[...How can the Savior dwell on trivialities? Your one-finger support now needs to switch to the left index finger. Secondary reward [Intermediate Electric Shock] preparing, countdown 10...]

—You bastard! Since when did it become Intermediate Electric Shock!

Harry quickly switched fingers.

[No need to thank me, Savior, it's only right. You are now an [Intermediate Savior]. After the secondary reward, +0.1 Dark Magic Resistance. Do you wish to claim it?]

—No claim!

Harry now actually regretted that after the run-to-school task was canceled, there were no stray dogs on the jogging route around the neighborhood, and the thugs had respawned. He really wanted to beat them up, especially that one with the bloodstain on his forehead!

At the same time, he wavered again. Should he just decompose [Troll Strength: Gold]? It could just barely upgrade to a trait above [Gold].

But among all his current talent traits, only this one gave him the most direct power.

He had already endured the pain of fusion; decomposing it now would be a waste he couldn't stomach.

Most importantly, after truly possessing Troll Strength, Harry discovered that troll power was essentially magic in the form of strength.

This was also why trolls had high magic resistance and never grew big heads.

This magic was highly inert, tightly bound to the body, unresponsive to conventional spells, and only underwent subtle evolution based on the host's environment—hence the vastly different appearances and abilities of mountain trolls, forest trolls, and river trolls.

But it happened to perfectly match Harry's batch of abstract skills, which were like magical creature talents.

Unlike the magic in [Unicorn's Holy Blood], which was too singular to use skills like Withered Grass Fist or Energy Absorption Palm that carried negative power.

[Ding ding ding! Your [One-Finger Support] task is complete. Proficiency +1. Merged into [Literature and Sports Both Bloom], [Potter Combat], [Dursley Housework Encyclopedia], [Slack Off and Fish]... [Pull Noodles] proficiency +0.1, [Eye Poke] proficiency +0.1, [Zoning Out]...]

—Stop, stop, stop!

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Hearing the voice, Harry looked up in surprise. It was a giant even more massive than him, riding a Hippogriff, circling high above Number Four, Privet Drive.

"This is the place, kid. You're Dudley Dursley, right? Where's Harry!"