Eleven Years Old!

Eleven Years Old!

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, Bell was already eleven years old.

Hard work paid off. Before heading to Hogwarts next September—the place hailed as "the safest place in the entire Magical World" but actually "the most dangerous place in the entire Magical World"—Bell had finally achieved his original preliminary goal: fully arming himself.

From head to toe,

He wore the Danger Perception Earrings on his left ear. Whenever there was malice or an attack directed at the wearer, the earrings transmitted different magical fluctuations according to the level of danger.

Around his neck was a Shield Charm Necklace (Passive). Passive Shield Charm accessories activated automatically after an attack struck. Since their magic was infused beforehand, their defensive power was fixed.

His clothes could effectively reduce both Curses and physical damage. They could also activate Protego Totalum, providing broad protection for his companions.

On his chest was a Constant Temperature Badge. Not only did it keep him warm in winter and cool in summer, it also slightly reduced damage from fire and ice.

On his right wrist was a Shield Charm Bracelet (Active). Compared to passive Shield Charm accessories, actively triggered accessories were easier to make, more affordable, and allowed the user to actively infuse magic to strengthen their defenses.

He wore three rings in total: a Shield Charm Ring (Passive), a Stupefy Ring, and an Accio Ring. The Accio Ring was bound to Bell's Wand as its target.

Wrapped around his waist was a Disapparition Belt. When the wearer suffered a fatal injury, it could make him Apparate to a pre-bound location. Since House-elves had participated in its creation, ordinary Anti-Apparition Jinxes could not restrict it. However, if he died outright, then only his corpse would fly away.

On his feet were Flying Shoes. Since they had been developed specifically for combat, their burst power was greatly enhanced and they were difficult to control. Bell had crashed through several walls before barely mastering them.

He also carried a Confundus Charm Mask, which interfered with an enemy's casting and targeting, as well as Enchantment Glasses developed based on Mad-Eye Moody's Magic Eye. Because of their effects, they were inconvenient to wear constantly, so he merely carried them around and took them out when needed.

Just as mentioned before, Bell had put three layers of shields on himself.

Since Bell himself could also cast defensive magic, these accessories were mainly meant to guard against sneak attacks and buy him time. Three layers of shields were enough; any more would be wasteful.

Bell could finally go out and face people with his head held high.

Bell handed the methods for making these magical items to his Dad, William, for mass production, research, and improvement.

This provided great convenience for the Menethil Family's expansion plans. William and Elena no longer treated Bell like a child, and Bell's status in the family rose dramatically, though he was still in third place. Ahem. By the way, William was in last place, while first place naturally belonged to Mother.

If all those magical items had been the result of Bell's deliberate and planned research, then his research into Two-Way Mirrors had been purely accidental—and an accident that delighted him immensely.

Two-Way Mirrors were not highly valued in the Magical World. After all, if there was something to say, wouldn't it be more convenient to simply Apparate over and talk face-to-face? And for matters that were not urgent or inconvenient to discuss in person, owls would do. Britain was not large, and owls flew quickly.

But times had changed!

The modern age differed from ancient times. As the human population grew explosively, Muggles' footprints had spread across nearly every habitable place.

Especially in recent years, with the increase in Muggle-born wizards, far more wizards lived in Muggle communities. Thus, to avoid letting Muggles notice anything unusual, they often could not use Side-Along Apparition freely. Moreover, according to feedback from wizards, even owls had begun to arouse their neighbors' suspicions lately.

Taking all this into account, Bell believed that wizards' demand for new means of communication was rising.

At first, Bell's research into Two-Way Mirrors did not progress smoothly. While he easily managed to transmit sound alongside images, he could not transmit information between Two-Way Mirrors that were not a pair.

Not all wizards were wealthy. Preparing a mirror for every acquaintance was clearly impractical.

That was when Bell remembered the knowledge he had once learned about networks.

When different computers transmitted data through a network, they did not send the data directly to one another. During transmission, the data had to pass through many routers or switches.

Based on this principle, Bell added a third-party Server between Two-Way Mirrors to manage connections between different mirrors. He then successfully created the Personal Terminal, a magical item similar to a handheld computer.

After creating the basic framework, Bell stopped paying attention to the Personal Terminal. After handing the technology and some of his ideas about its future development to his Dad, William, he washed his hands of it completely. He only needed to check on the research progress from time to time. If he was interested, he would take a look and learn from it; if not, he would simply glance at it and leave it at that.

The reason Bell so quickly cast aside the Personal Terminal project was that, while making it, he had inadvertently discovered the true value hidden within Two-Way Mirrors. It was astonishingly immense—far beyond imagination!

Two people holding Two-Way Mirrors could see each other. It looked similar to future video calls, but the principles were completely different!

Of course, that was nonsense. But magic differed from radio waves, and wizards were not Muggles. Muggles could only make limited adjustments to radio waves through machines, whereas wizards could control magic however they pleased.

So, by adjusting the flow of magic and using the connection between Two-Way Mirrors, Bell successfully infused magic into one mirror and formed magic on the surface of the other. In other words, Bell had accidentally created a space-based weapon!

Of course, it was still a long way from being a true space-based weapon. At present, Bell could only cast simple magic through Two-Way Mirrors, such as Lumos and the Levitation Charm.

Bell called these modified Two-Way Mirrors Surveillance Mirrors. Unlike Personal Terminals and Magic Screens—magical televisions developed from Personal Terminals—Surveillance Mirrors were important unfinished products, and Bell had no plans to sell them. After all, this was truly "beating someone through the network cable," and things could easily go wrong.

Because of their novelty and variety of functions, Personal Terminals were welcomed by many wizards. In contrast, Magic Screens received only a mediocre response. The main reason was that there was simply nothing much to broadcast. Aside from some news and GG, they could only play music.

In the end, with no other choice, they borrowed Muggle television programs to broadcast. Yet many wizards were uninterested in Muggle matters. Instead, Muggle cartoons and other children's programs proved very popular with Little Wizards, driving up sales by quite a bit.