Loki's Faceless

[Considering this is the host's first contact with "magical loans," the minimum interest rate will be applied]

[Task modification in progress]

[Loan Task: Perfectly Master Transfiguration]

Seeing the new task content, Lucien let out a breath of relief. At least this looked like it had some hope of being completed.

"System, what's the standard for perfect mastery?"

[Learn and master the existing knowledge of Transfiguration, apply it proficiently, and develop a new direction for Transfiguration]

Hearing the system's explanation, Lucien sank into thought.

Master all the relevant knowledge, and apply it proficiently too.

But the key was still developing a new direction...

In other words, it was asking him to push the old into something new.

Transfiguration itself was a crucial part of magic. To truly master it perfectly would definitely take a great deal of time and energy. One year...

Lucien's eyes flickered. He believed this loan task was not impossible to complete.

Because the strongest part of Loki's magical talent was: Transfiguration (SSS)!

The system divided magical talent into the following grades: E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS.

Among them, S-rank meant a genius beyond the ordinary. Possessing talent of that level was enough to pioneer a path in the corresponding field and leave a bold mark in history.

Then what about SSS-rank?

In the system's evaluation...

It already belonged to the realm of gods!

By drawing the reward in advance, once Lucien obtained such talent, no one would be able to match him in learning Transfiguration.

[Do you accept the "Loki's Faceless" loan?]

"Accept."

Lucien did not hesitate. After all, if the loan task failed, the reward would merely be taken back.

He had to learn all kinds of magic anyway. If he could possess Loki's magical talent, it would naturally be an enormous help.

A half-real, half-illusory mask abruptly appeared in front of Lucien.

Its overall color was black-green, and the hollows of its two eye sockets and mouth kept shifting position.

The mask's shape also kept changing, fitting a human face one moment, then transforming into the face of a beast the next...

[Evaluation: A fixed form is the limitation of mortals; to Loki, change is truth.]

Lucien had just raised his head when Loki's Faceless had already covered his handsome face.

The mask softened into a pool of black-green liquid, covering Lucien's nose and mouth, then spreading all the way to the tips of his hair, finally wrapping Lucien's entire head.

Yet Lucien did not feel as though he were suffocating. Waves of invisible fluctuation spread from within him, echoing throughout the bedroom.

After several minutes of silence.

Buzz, buzz—

Gurgle, gurgle—

The bed, tables, chairs, and tea set in the room began to tremble. Some wooden items showed signs of turning into steel or stone, while feathers, scales, and other biological traits actually appeared on the surfaces of the original objects.

In the drawing room downstairs.

Madam Penelope was savoring an exquisite afternoon tea, occasionally turning the pages of the book in her hand.

"I really have been influenced by little Lucien. If I don't read something every day, I feel uncomfortable."

A tabby cat walked up to Penelope with elegant steps.

Penelope thought it was a stray cat that had slipped into the house and was just about to call for a servant to chase it out.

But then she saw the tabby cat's body blur.

It actually turned into a woman wearing a dark-green robe and square glasses.

"Hello, I am Minerva McGonagall, a professor at Hogwarts."

"May I ask where Lucien Grafton is?"

Penelope's red lips parted slightly, and her right hand, holding a pastry, froze in midair.

Had she just seen a cat turn into a woman?

But after Penelope heard the word Hogwarts, she immediately came back to herself and swiftly composed her expression and bearing.

"Hello, Madam McGonagall. I am Penelope Grafton, Lucien's aunt. The child is upstairs right now..."

Before Penelope could finish, Professor McGonagall's gaze sharpened. She sensed an obvious anomaly upstairs.

"Sorry."

McGonagall cut Penelope off and headed straight up the stairs without any further explanation.

Seeing her hurried movements, Penelope thought of Lucien upstairs and got up to follow.

Without needing to be shown the way, Professor McGonagall arrived at the source of the magical disturbance: Lucien's room.

The surface of the once wooden door was covered in broad sheets of iron-black metal, while the remaining parts had taken on the texture of gray-white stone and yellow sand.

She twisted the doorknob, only to find that the door did not budge.

"A Transfiguration spell?"

McGonagall murmured to herself as she drew her wand and aimed it at the door.

"Reparifarge."

The colors of metal and stone rapidly faded, revealing the original wooden door beneath.

When the door opened, the scene inside entered Professor McGonagall's and Penelope's eyes, and unconcealable shock flashed across the latter's face.

The once neat and elegant room had changed completely. The soft quilt had become a pile of grass and fresh flowers; some table and chair legs had grown fur and were romping around the room; books opened and closed as they glided through the air...

There were also creatures resembling wolves and snakes coiled in the corners of the room. Their forms were extremely unstable, shifting between different species, making it impossible to tell what they had originally been.

Sensing the door open, all those living things turned their eyes toward the two ladies at the entrance.

At that, Professor McGonagall waved the wand in her hand, and Reparifarge struck every target with precision.

Whether dead objects, living things, or even those strange half-dead, half-alive things, all of them reverted to their original forms after being hit by Reparifarge.

All kinds of furniture lay scattered across the floor, as if the abnormalities from moments ago had only been an illusion.

Lucien floated in the center of the room, his eyes tightly shut, the black-green mask on his face already gone.

Seeing that the boy was safe and sound, Professor McGonagall let out a breath of relief.

Logically speaking, a young wizard who had received a Hogwarts letter should long since have experienced an outburst of magic.

That was when a young wizard first awakened their magic and came into contact with the existence of magic. It could also, to a certain extent, reflect the kind of magic they were good at and their corresponding talent.

But Lucien, before her...

Professor McGonagall could not understand why Lucien would still produce such a violent outburst of magic, but one thing was certain.

It was this boy's talent in Transfiguration!

After teaching at Hogwarts for decades, and as a master in the field of Transfiguration, Minerva McGonagall keenly sensed Lucien's extraordinariness.

While unconscious, Lucien had actually completed the conversion of objects, the transformation of objects into living things, the shifting between different species...

Many young wizards at Hogwarts could not master these even after four or five years of systematic study in Transfiguration!

The way Professor McGonagall looked at Lucien grew bright, as if she had seen an unpolished gem that was already revealing its luster.

"Such talent..."

Under Professor McGonagall's and Madam Penelope's gazes, Lucien slowly descended to the floor.

His dark-gold hair was slightly disheveled. Lucien opened his eyes, but there was now a touch of green in his originally deep-black pupils, turning them an overall dark green.

Lucien looked toward the doorway.

He saw that older catgirl looking at him with eyes full of kindness and expectation.

"Hello, Lucien."