Twisted Knowledge!?

[February 27, 1665.]

[I'm going to begin. I'm going to cast the Flesh-Stitching Curse on myself.]

[Just as when I was hit by Petrificus Totalus and the Cruciatus Curse, the peculiar sensation a spell produces is a specific flow of Magic. I need to experience it firsthand.]

[Yes, that's right. To analyze a spell, I must experience it firsthand. Only by understanding its principles and experiencing its effects can I formulate a potion with similar effects.]

[I used my own flesh. The results weren't particularly good, but I sensed that flow of Magic as it stitched my body together. The sensation wasn't clear. Damn it, if only I could directly see the flow of Magic.]

[I need to experience this sensation repeatedly. I've prepared a series of trials involving the Flesh-Stitching Curse, but first, I need to cut off this extra piece of flesh.]

A thought struck Will. See the flow of Magic? Couldn't I do that already?

[March 11, 1665.]

[This time, I stitched on three times as much flesh as before, but my perception of Magic was still insufficient. I couldn't truly grasp its flow clearly. Damn it, what should I do?]

[I observed that Muggles reacted more strongly when foreign flesh was stitched onto them. They seemed to suffer more. Does that mean foreign flesh would make the sensation of Magic clearer? What if I stitched flesh from magical creatures onto Muggles?]

[March 22, 1665.]

[I obtained several Cornish Pixies and two Kappa. I stitched their flesh onto Muggles, and every Muggle involved died. Perhaps it was because they had no Magic in their bodies?]

[I need to try again.]

[March 28, 1665.]

[Some plague seems to have broken out in London, something called the Black Death. Large numbers of Muggles are fleeing. I captured a group of them.]

[Only one of the 76 Muggles survived.]

[I need some Wizards for my experiments.]

[May 8, 1665.]

[I captured three Wizards.]

[Wizards do indeed take more readily to having the flesh of Fantastic Beasts stitched onto them. Two died, but the remaining one was a complete success. I used the Imperius Curse to make him tell me everything he experienced. What exactly did he mean by "the Magic burns inside my body like lava"?]

[To my pleasant surprise, he was a decent artist. He drew the flow of Magic he sensed as a result of the flesh-stitching.]

Attached illustration:

Will studied the drawing closely. It was a simple sketch of a human body, with a large patch of Magic-infused flesh on the figure's left arm.

The drawing wasn't particularly detailed, providing only a rough diagram of the flow of Magic. It was much like Will's Wizard's Eye, but his Wizard's Eye allowed him to see that flow far more easily.

Conducting this sort of experiment would have been much easier for him.

Will continued reading.

[July 2, 1665.]

[I'm having Cole test the potion over and over, and making him record everything he experiences.]

[December 5, 1665.]

[I succeeded! I've invented the Flesh-Stitching Potion!]

[After he drank the potion, the wounds on his body displayed an extremely strong tendency to "devour," and quickly stitched the prepared experimental materials onto themselves!]

[It still isn't perfect. According to him, the Magic reaction when drinking the potion seems different from the reaction when struck by the spell.]

[December 12, 1665.]

[Cole died. Before his death, he recorded everything he experienced after testing the potion and drew illustrations.]

Will looked through the drawings one by one. The figures gradually changed from a human form into a strange creature with great masses of excess flesh stitched onto it. According to Ethan Abdullah's descriptions, Cole, who had already become a monster, had actually adapted to the flesh of those different Fantastic Beasts and turned into another kind of monster. Ethan had nearly lost control of his Imperius Curse several times.

[I've worked out an improved formula for the Flesh-Stitching Potion. Both experiments before Cole's death proved that the potion and the spell had almost identical effects on wizards!]

[I need more experimental materials!]

[February 21, 1666.]

[I found a pair of Muggle twins. One will be used exclusively to drink the potion, and the other exclusively to endure the spell.]

What followed was an account of utterly inhumane experimental procedures. Ethan Abdullah had grafted large amounts of beast flesh onto two teenage children. He had also deliberately raised quite a few beasts, taking flesh from blood relatives among them for his experiments.

He couldn't draw, but after several months, he reported that clear differences still appeared between the two children. No matter how precisely he performed the flesh grafts, the effects of the potion still differed from those of the Flesh-Stitching Curse. He had yet to successfully convert one into the other.

[These twins have now developed certain differences. The effects of the "Flesh-Stitching Potion" are more like stimulating the flesh to devour flesh from outside the body. So although the two are broadly consistent, there are still considerable differences in many details. The Muggle twins have completely degenerated into Half-Beasts. They cannot communicate with me normally at all; damn it, I can't find a pair of wizard twins. Perhaps I need to devise a more direct experiment.]

[Now it's time to experience it myself.]

[Spells are potions! Potions are spells! People present generalized spells, or spells that are difficult to use, in the form of potions. Or they use spells to replace ingredients in potions whose ingredients are no longer available—]

[No, that's not right. Spells originate from runes. Do potions originate from runes?]

[No, something must be wrong somewhere. Perhaps my research is heading in the wrong direction. Why use spells to invent potions?]

[Constructing spells is more straightforward than developing potion formulas. Although constructing spells using runic structures is difficult, it is more stable than combining medicinal properties.]

[It should be potions solidified into spells!]

[Yes! Solidifying potions! What I should be doing is adjusting the structure of the spell to match the potion!]

Will's expression turned odd. So this Ethan had eventually converted some kind of potion into a spell?

Just then, he received system notifications.

[You have acquired a large amount of twisted Charms knowledge. Your Charms experience +34]

[You have acquired a large amount of twisted Potions knowledge. Your Potions experience +51]

Will shuddered. He had long since tested how the system determined experience gains. Only useful knowledge could increase his experience! The incorrect information in some of the magic books he had bought in Diagon Alley in his early years had failed to give him any experience.

In other words, Ethan Abdullah's research had been heading in the right direction. His theories were correct!

Twisted, yet correct?

Will began to question the rules governing magic in this world. Was its underlying logic twisted too...?

He continued reading. The extensive manuscript that followed was highly abstract. Ethan Abdullah had drunk his own Flesh-Stitching Potion, experiencing its effects to make targeted improvements to the Flesh-Stitching Curse.