Technical Bottleneck, Seeking Outside Help

Zhang San knew full well that a few lower-year students alone could never develop the most advanced flying broomsticks.

When everyone took apart the latest Nimbus 2000, they understood just how vast the technological gap between the two sides was. With the techniques and principles they had mastered, they could at best handcraft a broom comparable to a Cleansweep Seven. To reach the level of a Nimbus 2000, they still had many magical technical bottlenecks to overcome.

The greatest challenge facing the software development team—Ron and Hermione—was stacked enchantment technology.

The internal components of a flying broomstick only had so much space available for enchantments. To fit as many spells as possible into the smallest possible space, they could only stack different spells and enchant them onto the same spot.

It sounded simple, but doing it was harder than climbing to the heavens. Magic was ultimately a form of energy. If several spells were crammed into one place and triggered a magical explosion, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Luna Lovegood's mother—the mad Ravenclaw girl who would enroll next year—had died in an explosion during magical research.

Modern magic had an extremely high safety factor. Under normal circumstances, wizards casting spells would hardly suffer any magical backlash. But magical research was different. Any alteration to a classic incantation or classic gesture could change a spell's effects. One mistake, and they could explode on the spot, leaving not even a body behind.

Ron stared at the intricate stacked enchantment structure on the Nimbus 2000's components and muttered, "Now I understand why this thing costs so much."

Hermione smacked him on the back of the head. "Stop saying useless things. Should we try a double-layer stack now?"

Ron took a deep breath. "Let's give it a try!"

"Levitation Charm!" Ron cast the spell.

"Flying Charm!" Hermione added from the side.

Boom!

Trying it out had turned into dying it out.

With a deafening blast, Ron and Hermione were slammed into the wall by the shockwave from the magical explosion.

Buzz!

Just as the two collided with the wall, a brilliant glazed golden light burst from their bodies. Protected by that golden light, Ron and Hermione suffered nothing more than a fright, without any injuries left on their bodies.

These were the life-saving protective talismans Zhang San had prepared for them. Researching magic was bound to involve all kinds of explosions. Without safety measures prepared in advance, their venture could easily die before it even got off the ground.

"Scouring Charm!" Ron cast a spell to clean up the wrecked laboratory, while also clearing the dust from himself and Hermione.

Mrs. Weasley was a master-level household mage. Having absorbed her teachings for more than ten years, Ron could cast simple household spells with ease. Though he could not yet do so as effortlessly as his mother, silently and wandlessly, his skill was still quite impressive.

"Cough, cough... it failed..." Hermione said, still shaken.

This was their first major accident since beginning magical research. Zhang San had warned them long ago that researching spells carried the risk of explosions, but when the moment truly came, it still sent chills down their backs.

If they had not worn the talismans Zhang San gave them, that explosion would have been enough to take half their lives. A worse outcome would have been two more ghosts wandering around Hogwarts Castle.

"Who would've thought stacked enchantments could trigger a magical explosion?" Ron sighed, scratching the back of his head.

After taking several deep breaths, Hermione calmed down. She retrieved the Nimbus 2000's enchanted components again and examined them carefully.

"Why can the Nimbus Company make several layers of magic remain stable together?" Hermione murmured in confusion.

"That's the technological moat of a top-tier flying broomstick company," Ron said. "Without those technologies, any wizard could copy flying broomsticks, and no one would buy their products."

Early flying broomsticks did not have stacked enchantment structures. Back then, broomstick products competed on magical effects—whose Flying Charm was faster, whose Control Charm was steadier, whose Cushion Charm was more comfortable...

When spell optimization had reached its limit, the Cleansweep Seven became the best solution on the market. The Nimbus Company, however, found another path. Breaking free from the cycle of competing over the effect of individual spells, they developed stacked enchantment technology and took the route of winning through quantity in broomstick development.

Other companies' products had only one Flying Charm; Nimbus simply put in two. Even if a single spell was less effective than someone else's, doubling the number would definitely produce better results.

Thus, the current high-end broomstick market was dominated by the Nimbus Company alone. Until other companies cracked stacked enchantment technology, Nimbus would remain the most formidable company on the market.

As for the Firebolt's sudden emergence a few years later, that was another story. The Firebolt was a non-mass-produced, handcrafted custom broomstick. That company took the alchemy route with its brooms—piling on materials, then piling on more, then even more.

Their broomstick materials were all magical materials forged by goblins. They used the most expensive materials to make the fastest brooms, relying purely on overwhelming resources.

If Ron had such good materials, he could also make a broom as fast as a Nimbus 2000. With ready-made spell models and top-tier broomstick materials, wouldn't building a competition-grade flying broomstick be easy?

The problem was that the material cost of a flying broomstick like the Firebolt alone exceeded five thousand Galleons. If Ron had that much spare money, wouldn't it be better to just buy a Nimbus 2000 and use it himself?

"So your and Hermione's research progress has stalled at stacked enchantment technology?" Zhang San asked.

Ron nodded. "We've already caused one magical explosion. If we keep researching blindly like this, no number of talismans will be enough for the two of us to blow through."

The talismans Zhang San gave Ron and Hermione had been refined using the power of incense offerings. It was a wondrous all-purpose power that could be widely applied in many fields.

But the incense offerings a small temple could collect were limited after all. Life-saving items like protective talismans consumed a tremendous amount of incense-offering power. It was already difficult enough for Zhang San to produce one or two; he certainly could not let Ron and Hermione use them like firecrackers.

"Looks like we need to ask a professor for help," Zhang San said after pondering for a long while.

Ron hesitated. "Will Professor Flitwick help us?"

"If we ask someone for help empty-handed, we'll definitely be turned away. We need to move the professor with sincerity," Zhang San said.

Ron mumbled quietly, "Professor Flitwick isn't short on money, is he? How many Galleons would we have to give him to move him?"

"When giving a gift, you have to give something that speaks to the recipient's heart. Professor Flitwick is a half-goblin, and his height severely affects his daily life and teaching. If we can give him a precious means of transportation, the professor will definitely be willing to help us solve this problem," Zhang San said.

Ron became interested. "A means of transportation? Are you planning to give Professor Flitwick a flying carpet? But the Ministry of Magic in Britain prohibits the sale of any flying devices other than broomsticks."

Like performing a magic trick, Zhang San pulled an earthy yellow cloud from his pocket and introduced it. "This is a means of transportation exclusively used by the gods of China—a propitious cloud. It can fly according to its owner's wishes, is flexible to control, and provides a comfortable ride. It's an essential item for immortals traveling about."

Ron reached out and touched the soft, fluffy cloud before him—it was smooth, springy, and very comfortable.

The first time Zhang San had met Professor Flitwick, he had thought the professor looked more like an Earth God than he did. So when he thought of giving a gift, Zhang San wanted to give this short professor a propitious cloud for transportation.

The combination of Professor Flitwick and a propitious cloud was simply too amusing. Zhang San found it funny just thinking about it.