School and Dreams

Li Wei was so excited he wanted to get up right then and study by lamplight all night.

However, he first looked over the last MOD triggered during today's Sorting Ceremony—the School MOD.

"Spellcasters across countless worlds have developed innumerable schools, which have given rise to spellcasting professions with their own distinct characteristics."

Li Wei softly recited the words before the mist. With the soundproof bed curtains in place, he did not need to worry about his voice carrying outside.

"The four Houses from the Sorting Ceremony each have their own unique traits. They should also correspond to different schools and professions."

"Slytherin corresponds to the Bloodline Sorcerer!"

"Gryffindor corresponds to the Magic Swordsman!"

"Hufflepuff corresponds to the Druid!"

"Ravenclaw corresponds to the Arcanist!"

"As a student of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the host must develop morally, intellectually, physically, aesthetically, and practically. Take up all four professions and become a master of every profession!"

Li Wei's heart leaped with joy when he saw that!

Every one of these professions had a more systematic power structure and a far brighter future than the wizards of the Harry Potter world.

If he could take up all of them, his future would be limitless!

However, when he read on, intending to find out how to take up a profession and decide which spellcasting profession he should choose first, the smile on his face froze.

The message in the mist below was written clearly:

Bloodline Sorcerer: Lacking a sufficiently extraordinary bloodline to take up the profession. Please follow the clues below, merge with an extraordinary bloodline, and complete the Bloodline Sorcerer profession advancement:

[Basilisk, magical creatures, Slytherin Bloodline Experiment Records, Herpo the Foul...]

Magic Swordsman: Lacking the correct secret tome of elemental battle aura. Please follow the clues below, devise the correct secret tome of elemental battle aura, and complete the Magic Swordsman profession advancement:

[European Knight Legends, Ancient Roman Curia Templar, Gryffindor Duel Legends...]

Druid: Lacking the power of nature and a spirit of nature. Please follow the clues below, integrate the power of nature and form a contract with a spirit of nature to complete the Druid profession advancement:

[magical creatures, Animagus, Druid Order, Celtic Mythology...]

Arcanist: Lacking a Weave connection and unable to imprint spell templates. Please follow the clues below, comprehend the essence of magic, imprint spell templates, and complete the Arcanist profession advancement:

[Ancient Runes, soul research, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, this world's magical system...]

Looking at the clues and prompts provided by the MOD System, Li Wei was dumbfounded!

He had thought the four extraordinary spellcasting professions offered by the School MOD could be taken up as easily as changing classes in a game.

Yet to his surprise, these four extraordinary-sounding professions were merely carrots dangling before a donkey's head—visible but unreachable.

To truly complete the profession advancements, he still had to rely on himself. He had to use these vague clues, which gave him nothing but names, to fulfill the necessary conditions for taking up these powerful extraordinary spellcasting professions.

But he had no idea where to begin with any of these four extraordinary professions!

"Forget it. I'll just take it one step at a time!"

"Even if I don't advance yet, simply trying to obtain the clues will make me stronger. When the cart reaches the mountain, there'll be a road through it. There's nothing else I can do."

After thinking for a long time without coming up with anything, Li Wei decided to put it out of sight and out of mind. Seeing that it was getting late, he gave Nami, the little thief cat curled up beside him, a rub and said,

"Good night, Nami!"

"Mrrp~"

Nami let out a soft cry and curled into a ball beside Li Wei's pillow.

Li Wei only felt sleepiness growing heavier and heavier. He pulled up the blanket and drifted into his first dream since arriving at Hogwarts.

While Li Wei slept soundly, someone in Nurmengard—the high tower in the Austrian Alps—was not sleeping quite so peacefully.

Torrential rain battered the Tower of Nurmengard, and the prison cell at its summit was damp and freezing.

This was where Gellert Grindelwald had imprisoned, tortured, and punished himself.

After all, what kind of stone house could possibly hold the leader of the Wizards' Party, a man who rivaled Dumbledore?!

Even without a wand, Grindelwald could leave whenever he wanted. It was simply that he could no longer leave—or rather, he no longer wished to.

Grindelwald's aged, withered body was curled up on the stone bed in his cell, making him look as though he might die at any moment.

Yet in truth, as a wizard with powerful magic, living to three hundred was easy. At Grindelwald's current age, he was only in middle age. If he recovered, he could still go out and make something of himself!

He was asleep, but what was unsettling was that beneath his shriveled eyelids, those once soul-stirring mismatched eyes were darting rapidly back and forth. He seemed to be dreaming.

Yes, Grindelwald truly was dreaming.

This was not the sort of dream born from one's thoughts during the day. Though Grindelwald had dreamed countless times of those days when he wielded a wand, of those reckless years with Dumbledore!

But his dreams had long since withered away along with his heart!

The contents of this dream were something Grindelwald had never imagined and never seen.

From the perspective of a third party, he appeared on a street in an unknown major American city.

A surge of magical power rippled through the dream. Grindelwald followed the viewpoint and saw that two wizards were fighting. Their wildly fired spells killed passersby and reduced the street to ruins.

However, Grindelwald felt somewhat impatient. What kind of dream was this? Was he supposed to watch two children playing house?!

Suddenly, a cry of alarm sounded beside Grindelwald!

A Muggle stared ahead with fanatic excitement, holding a long pole with a small rectangular box attached to the end. It was aimed at the battling wizards as the Muggle shouted fervently,

"Oh my god! Guys, what did I just find? Two legendary wizards are fighting!"

"Oh my god, I swear this isn't special effects. This is a live broadcast!

They've killed people! This is terrifying!

I can't believe this is the world we've been living in! I mean, have there always been wizards around us who can kill people whenever they want?!

Oh my god! Why did I never know?"

Foolish Muggles!

Even though his former cause had failed, and the ideal of For the Greater Good had been cut short!

Grindelwald's view of Muggles had never changed. Wizards should rule Muggles—those fools who knew nothing whatsoever about magic!

But who was this Muggle talking to?

Grindelwald had already vaguely realized that this dream was anything but ordinary. After all, he possessed the bloodline of a true Prophecy Seer and could genuinely see events that would happen in the future.

Could this dream be another revelation for him?

Following the third-person perspective, Grindelwald stood beside the Muggle and looked along his line of sight. The small rectangle displayed the scene of the two wizards fighting!

Beyond that, dense lines of text slid across the battle scene like raindrops. They were all comments such as:

"That's terrifying!"

"I think I just discovered the truth of the world!"

"This must be fake. It's edited!"

"Decent script!"

"Did the streamer go crazy trying to get famous?"

"It's real. I've seen something similar before—people holding little wooden sticks and waving magic around!"

They appeared to be messages from other people. Could Muggles see what others saw through this little rectangle?

Though Grindelwald was old, his mind remained sharp. He immediately realized how great a threat this thing posed to the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy!

Although he also wished to overturn the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, overturning it was not the goal. The ultimate goal was for wizards to interfere in Muggle affairs and seize dominion over the world.

The greater good was allowing wizards to stop living like sewer rats—possessing strength greater than Muggles and holding the secrets of magic, yet forced to hide themselves away in this world.

But now, the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy was about to collapse!

Not because wizards had lifted it, but because Muggles had discovered wizards!

The consequences of having the dominant position reversed were terrifying!

Even someone with Grindelwald's composure could not help but feel a trace of fear.

He had once accurately foreseen Muggles using weapons called nuclear bombs to attack their enemies!

Grindelwald had a clear understanding of Muggle cruelty and the power of the weapons they had invented!

They were far more terrifying than the Protego Diabolica he cast!

After all, there were only a few people in the world who could cast magic like he could, while those dreadful Muggle weapons could be manufactured without limit!

This...

Even Grindelwald was at a loss. He even felt some hatred for himself, for having lost to Dumbledore and failed to continue his cause.

For the first time, he began hoping that America's Memory Erasure Department would hurry over!

He had forgotten that this was a dream!

Suddenly, Grindelwald discovered that everything around him was beginning to distort and drift apart like smoke.

The dream was ending. Grindelwald realized it.

As if he had thought of something, he began gathering information from his surroundings. He needed to know where this was, what time this was, and what that little rectangle in the Muggle's hand was.

Yet just as he gathered several crucial pieces of information, darkness suddenly fell before his eyes. When he opened them again, his narrow, sealed prison cell stood before him.

Was it a dream?

It was a dream.

Was it a Prophecy?

It was a Prophecy.

Grindelwald knew that he had once again glimpsed the future. Everything in that dream was something destined to happen!

And it seemed that he ought to go out and take a look.