Surging Points, Deep Blue, Evolve for Me!

Charle's wild joy at that moment was not merely because the Infinite Evolution System he called Deep Blue was reliable enough to actually recycle the Sublimation Potion into Deduction Points, sparing him from death.

More importantly, the moment he drank that bottle of Sublimation Potion, system notifications had begun ringing continuously in his mind.

"Deduction Points +100, Deduction Points +100..."

One had to know that even if he ate eight meals a day, he normally gained only a handful of Deduction Points.

Only by consuming gold and precious jewels could he gain somewhat more Deduction Points, but even then, it was at most a few dozen.

Yet now, during the Sublimation Potion's conversion, every increase was worth hundreds of points!

By the time the bottle of Sublimation Potion had been completely converted, Charle had gained nearly ten thousand Deduction Points, comparable to the total he had earned over the past ten years!

Only then did Charle suddenly realize that he might have misunderstood the system's rules for converting Deduction Points throughout the past decade.

He had assumed that the system converted the things he consumed into Deduction Points based on how precious they were. The older and rarer the item, the more Deduction Points it would yield.

After he had once consumed an antique jewel he had acquired and gained over a hundred Deduction Points in one go, that theory had seemed to be confirmed.

But considering that this world was the Wizarding World, perhaps the calculation was actually based on how much magic an item contained!

Ordinary food contained almost no magic, which was why it offered so few Deduction Points.

Gold, meanwhile, was a material used in the Wizarding World and thus provided more Deduction Points.

And the older a treasure was, the more likely it was to be connected to the Wizarding World and contain magic, which was why it provided more Deduction Points.

This time, he had drunk a Sublimation Potion painstakingly concocted by a bizarre wizard like Darke, and it had given him over ten thousand Deduction Points at once!

Even if those ten thousand-plus Deduction Points were spread out, they had already made Charle the most universally recognized genius student in all of Britain, winning awards in competitions across every field with ease.

What if he concentrated them in a single field?

The results would be nothing short of turning the ordinary into the miraculous!

Perhaps Charle's hope of surviving Darke lay in this.

Therefore, Charle was no longer quite so repulsed by the Sublimation Potion's utterly disgusting taste.

Thinking of the ten thousand-plus Deduction Points it had brought him, he even found it somewhat appealing and could not wait for another bottle!

Yet after Charle called out for another bottle, the old wizard Darke did not react at all.

As though unable to believe it, he had fallen into a state of joy and madness.

"He didn't die? He really didn't die? He even wants another bottle?"

"What does this mean? It means the improved Sublimation Potion formula works, and it works very well!"

"It succeeded! I, Darke, am going to succeed!"

Darke began dancing about excitedly.

But after a while, Darke's eyes filled with uncertainty again. Staring at Charle, he muttered to himself.

"He really didn't die, but the Sublimation Potion's effects haven't manifested in him either."

"Where are the signs of sublimation? There aren't any!"

Darke immediately grew anxious again and began pacing irritably back and forth through the basement.

"Could it be that I made the Sublimation Potion milder, only to render it ineffective?"

"It really won't kill anyone, but could it also fail to achieve sublimation?"

"Doesn't that mean I might have failed?"

"Did I succeed, or did I fail?!"

Listening to Darke's deranged muttering, Charle's scalp went numb.

He could see it now. Darke's mental state was extremely unstable. He desperately wanted the Sublimation Potion to succeed, yet repeated denial and failure had battered him so badly that even he doubted whether it could work.

If Darke kept spiraling like this, there was no telling what he might do.

After considering it briefly, Charle decisively spoke up.

"There's no need to doubt it. Your Sublimation Potion really worked!"

At those words, Darke froze and turned to look at Charle.

The next moment, a vicious glint appeared in his eyes as he declared firmly.

"You're lying to me. You must be lying to me!"

He pulled out his Wand, his expression growing ever more vicious.

"I'll give you a Cruciatus Curse and let you know the consequences of lying to me."

"Do you know what the Cruciatus Curse is? Do you know what it feels like after being hit by one?"

"I used it on that Order of Merlin member who said I was crazy. Hahaha, I drove him mad alive. Now let's see who the crazy one is!"

"Do you want to try it?"

Charle shouted loudly.

"I can prove it! I can prove that your Sublimation Potion really had an effect!"

"If you want to torture me, what if it affects the Sublimation Potion's effects? I guarantee you'll regret it for the rest of your life!"

Hesitation appeared in Darke's eyes.

"Prove it? You can prove it?"

"How are you going to prove it?"

Only then did Charle calm down and speak slowly.

"You developed the Sublimation Potion to elevate a person's soul and reach the so-called Source of Magic, right?"

"Then during the process of a soul's sublimation, wouldn't there be some unusual manifestations? For example, stronger learning ability, even the ability to turn the ordinary into the miraculous—any spell would be completely different in an Ascender's hands?"

"Teach me any simple spell, and I'll prove it to you."

Charle's words immediately enlightened Darke, who nodded repeatedly.

"Yes, yes! How could an Ascender's spells possibly be the same as those of ordinary people?"

"There must be something extraordinary enough to make even Dumbledore pale in shock!"

"Teach you any simple spell, and you can prove it..."

Darke hesitated again.

"But what if you're lying to me?"

"Are you trying to learn a spell and then kill me?"

Charle gave a bitter smile.

"I'm a child who isn't even eleven yet. If you teach me any simple non-offensive spell, do you really think I'd have the ability to kill you?"

Darke thought that made sense.

So, after hesitating for a while longer, he finally nodded.

With a flourish of his Wand and a hand gesture, a short incantation rang out.

"Luminosity Flicker."

A beam of light lit up at the tip of Darke's Wand, finally giving the dim basement a little more visibility.

It took Charle a moment to adjust to the light.

He instinctively looked around, and what he saw chilled his blood.

He already knew that he was tied to a chair.

But the basement seemed to have been enlarged with an Undetectable Extension Charm, making it far more spacious than Charle had imagined.

Besides the chair Charle was sitting on, there were at least a dozen more chairs in the basement!

There was no trace of anyone remaining on those chairs, only puddles of foul-smelling liquid, along with clothing, jewelry, and other belongings floating in them.

One glance was enough to tell what had become of the people once tied to those chairs.

Charle drew a deep breath, trying to suppress his nausea.

But the increasingly pungent stench that came with that breath made him unable to stop himself from dry-heaving to the side.

Darke did not care in the slightest. His mind was wholly focused on verifying whether his Sublimation Potion had worked.

After explaining the Wand movement and incantation for the Lumos spell to Charle, Darke tipped over a bag beside him.

With a clatter, at least a dozen Wands rolled across the floor.

He casually picked one up and shoved it into Charle's hand, then loosened his ropes slightly so that he could move his arms freely and swing the Wand.

Darke held his Wand and stared fixedly at Charle.

"Come on. Let me see this sublimation effect you spoke of."

Charle gripped the Wand still smeared with filthy slime and recalled the Lumos spell Darke had just explained. At once, the Infinite Evolution System's notification sounded in his mind.

"Detected evolvable knowledge—Lumos spell. Evolve?"

The next moment, light burst from Charle's eyes as he roared in his mind.

"Deep Blue, evolve for me!"