Spell Upgrades! The Magic Library

With his hopes of repairing the Storage Pouch dashed, Lu Yi observed a brief moment of mourning for it, then put it back into the Storage Bracelet.

In fact, any container could be enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm, expanding the space inside it several times over.

But the Undetectable Extension Charm was advanced magic involving complex concepts of space, far beyond what a second-year wizard like him could master.

For now, he could only make do with the Storage Bracelet Zhang Lexuan had given him.

Its capacity was small, though, and it could not hold living things. Its cost and price were both outrageously high.

Aside from being easier to carry than the pouch, it lost on every front.

"Looks like I need to study magic harder and master the Undetectable Extension Charm as soon as I can."

Lu Yi recalled that the Undetectable Extension Charm was so well suited to smuggling and human trafficking that its use was strictly restricted in the Wizarding World. Every container enchanted with one had to be registered with the Ministry of Magic. Otherwise, if it was discovered, those Aurors would come knocking to check his water meter.

But those regulations had only been introduced in the twentieth century. They could hardly govern Lu Yi, who came from the nineteenth.

In his era, plenty of wizards had been traveling back and forth between Africa and the Americas with great enthusiasm, relying on this charm to transport African specialties more efficiently.

In theory, once Lu Yi mastered the charm, he could spend the rest of his life lying atop a mountain of gold. Better yet, no one else on the Douluo Continent could replicate it.

Lu Yi considered himself a man of firm principles. To keep his conscience pure, he would conscientiously obey the regulations issued by the Ministry of Magic, even in another world.

Unfortunately, he knew nothing about the law.

Putting the thought aside, Lu Yi looked at the bare bed frame and headed downstairs to buy some bedding.

Zhang Lexuan had given him not only the bracelet but also a considerable number of Gold Soul Coins inside it. Lu Yi had not counted them, but there were certainly several hundred, enough to cover his daily expenses.

He had not seen one of those Gold Soul Cards worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of Gold Soul Coins. Presumably, she would not entrust that much money to a child.

When he entered the shop, he happened to run into Huo Yuhao, who had also come to buy daily necessities.

Huo Yuhao was holding a newly purchased washbasin and asking the shopkeeper for an old rag.

It was clear that he had earned quite a few Gold Soul Coins over the past few days by grilling fish for older students.

But a long life of poverty had left him accustomed to saving every coin. He could not even bring himself to buy bedding, a basic necessity.

"Want to grab a meal together later?"

Lu Yi greeted him, but Huo Yuhao was busy cleaning his dorm room. They agreed to go another time, and Huo Yuhao paid and left.

Lu Yi picked out what he needed, paid, and headed straight for the cafeteria.

He ordered a meal from the mid-priced counter. Five Silver Soul Coins did not seem like much to Soul Masters, whose purchases generally started at a Gold Soul Coin.

But Lu Yi had observed the purchasing power of Gold Soul Coins over the past few days. One was worth roughly eight hundred to a thousand yuan in his previous life, which put this meal at four or five hundred yuan.

Five hundred for one cafeteria meal, with only a mix of meat and vegetables and no high-grade ingredients? Lu Yi suddenly felt that this school was a bit of a rip-off!

As for why he did not compare Gold Soul Coins to Galleons, the wizards' monetary system was even more absurd.

More surprising still, in that enormous cafeteria, he had barely found a spot with a complete set of tables and chairs and prepared to eat when someone told him it was the teachers' section.

The tables without chairs were where he belonged. He was not allowed to pack up his food and take it back to the dorm, either.

"What kind of bullshit rule is that? I paid all this money and don't even get a seat?"

Lu Yi awkwardly shoveled down his food, too exasperated to complain aloud. All he could do was eat faster.

After finishing in a hurry and returning to his room, he made his bed, lay down, and relaxed all over.

With a couple of days before his new roommate arrived, Lu Yi stilled his mind and connected his consciousness to the panel in his head.

[Name: Lu Yi]

[Title: Apprentice Wizard]

[Exclusive Ability: Magic Library]

[Spells (Apprentice Level): Spells available for upgrade. Select to view mastered spells]

[Potions (Beginner Level): Select to view mastered potions]

[Dark Magic and Defense (Apprentice Level): Select to view mastered spells]

[Transfiguration (Beginner Level)]

[Magic Item: Wand (Soulbound)]

A few days earlier, the Levitation Charm he had mastered had risen from level 3 to level 4. Since then, Lu Yi had been cultivating Soul Power and had yet to choose an upgrade path.

He focused on the upgradable spell, and the panel changed in an instant.

[Levitation Charm can be upgraded. Skill points: 1]

[Additional Casting Speed: 1 (+20%)]

[Additional Casting Range: 1 (+20%)]

[Additional Weight Capacity: 1 (+50%)]

Whenever one of Lu Yi's spells leveled up, he received a dedicated skill point. Depending on the spell, he could choose from as many as three additional bonuses.

Each spell could reach only level 10. Whether to spread his points evenly or take a less conventional path required careful planning, because he could not change his choice afterward.

His experience in combat over the past few days had taught him that spreading points evenly across the Levitation Charm was not the best choice. He should focus on the aspect hardest to improve, and that was undoubtedly weight capacity.

After careful consideration, Lu Yi put the point into additional weight capacity.

[Additional Weight Capacity: 1 (+50%) → Additional Weight Capacity: 2 (+100%)]

Upgrading a single spell produced no special sensation, but Lu Yi knew his Levitation Charm would now be twice as effective as before.

Previously, he had barely been able to hold on to the Furious Dragon Lizard's tongue. Now he might be able to suspend its entire body in midair.

With the upgrade complete, the spells he had mastered appeared before him.

[Combat Spells: Expelliarmus Lv. 2 (1/2), Protego Lv. 2 (1/2)...]

[Ordinary Spells: Levitation Charm Lv. 4 (0/8), Mending Charm Lv. 3 (1/4)...]

Raising a spell's level depended entirely on casting it perfectly. The panel's standards for a perfect cast were so exacting that Lu Yi still had to rely on luck.

And with every level a spell gained, the number of perfect casts required doubled.

"One step at a time!"

Lu Yi believed that, given enough time, he would become a master of magic.

Then his gaze settled on the Magic Library.

As he focused on it, the scene before his eyes began to change.

Countless stone bricks formed beneath his feet, laying out the floor of a broad hall in neat rows. They then rose into steps, columns, and a towering vaulted ceiling. He stood outside the Hogwarts library.

Though it all looked utterly real, and Lu Yi could even make out the age-worn texture of the stone columns, he knew perfectly well that the scene existed only in his mind.

Lu Yi walked to the library entrance, and the doors opened on their own.

Inside, marble tiles covered the floor. A stone-vaulted ceiling arched over the bright, spacious central hall. Two wooden spiral staircases stood on either side, connecting the ground floor to a second-floor gallery built entirely of solid wood.

Above and below the gallery, rows of bookshelves divided the space into semi-open sections. All kinds of books sat neatly on the shelves.

Lu Yi ignored the books he could not understand. He went to a familiar shelf and took a book from its fourth tier.

Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4.

To Lu Yi, who had lived through the college entrance exam, Hogwarts' teaching schedule was far too relaxed. Back in his first year, he had taught himself most of the second- and third-year spells alongside his regular coursework.

Thanks to the panel, the spells he mastered would not deteriorate even if he went a long time without practicing them. His strategy was therefore to broaden his knowledge as much as possible first and take his time studying individual spells in depth.

Book in hand, Lu Yi left the library. He could read there, but he could practice spells only in the real world. Books borrowed from the Magic Library could also be returned at any time, so he did not have to worry about damaging or losing them.

But when he pushed open the door, a gray, translucent figure appeared before him.

"Child, this mental space seems remarkably welcoming to souls. Might you allow this remnant of my soul to stay here?"