To help Quirrell, Lorne could only pin his hopes on the system.
After Quirrell left, Lorne quickly began rummaging through the system shop. Such a huge shop, yet it did not even have a search function. It took him over ten minutes to find a relevant book-Defensive Spells Against Dark Magic and Potions Related to the Soul.
Did Quirrell's possession mean that his soul was being controlled by Voldemort?
Lorne was not quite sure, but he could only try a last-ditch remedy.
Although the game affected the speed of his own development, Lorne was confident he would be able to protect himself by the time Voldemort emerged. Since he had taken on the job of director of the General Affairs Office, he could not possibly ignore a professor's plea for help.
So, after this minor update, Lorne began studying the book.
The first-year young wizards did not have nearly so many worries.
"The game's been updated!"
Harry excitedly held his Magic Mobile Phone and hurriedly opened Wizard Legend.
"There's a way to get crystal fragments now!"
Beside him, Hermione was the first to spot what had changed in the game. She manipulated her magic, tapping deftly on the screen. "Let me see... it's an achievement system! Defeat ten bats, defeat ten Trolls, defeat ten vampires... where are we supposed to find that many mobs?"
"There are plenty." Neville's character was already inside the mine. Many roaming monsters had appeared on the map, though most were bats, wild dogs, and the like.
"Let me read the instructions." Harry skimmed through them. "It says here that Trolls and vampires are rare monsters. Killing map monsters like bats and wild dogs gives them a chance to spawn."
"That's way too hard," Ron complained.
Neville, however, looked excited. "It also means we've got plenty to play, doesn't it?"
"And days logged in, map puzzles solved, highest ranking reached, and so on are all in the achievement system. We can get loads of crystal fragments and pull more orange characters!"
In his dormitory beneath the Black Lake, Draco smiled. In front of Crabbe and Goyle, he claimed every ranking-related achievement reward.
That was right. He was currently number one on the leaderboard.
Harry and the others each worked on their own account, whereas he had Crabbe and Goyle grind mobs for him even when he could not play himself.
His character's level was far ahead of everyone else's, so naturally his combat power also topped the rankings.
"There's a title too!" Crabbe said enviously.
Above Draco's little character's head shone four large golden words-Unrivalled Under Heaven.
Draco could not suppress the upward curve of his lips.
Their school days at Hogwarts flew by. Ever since getting the game, Draco and the others had been grinding day and night, leaving them no time even to bully their classmates.
Meanwhile, aside from accidentally discovering the three-headed dog stationed in the right-hand corridor on the third floor, Harry and the others went out roaming far less often too.
Sure enough, the root cause of Hogwarts' persistent bullying and nighttime wandering, despite repeated reprimands, was that the students had too much free time.
Professor Snape's teaching style had not mellowed in the slightest, but Neville had almost grown used to it. Now he could hold his head high and face Professor Snape's mockery. "You're right, Professor."
Once again, countless dishes filled the Great Hall. Students from all four houses gathered there, each talking away. All sorts of pumpkin lanterns hung beneath the starry ceiling.
The annual Halloween celebration had arrived.
Lorne felt that Hogwarts' ancient castle style suited Halloween perfectly. Sitting in his seat, he looked at the candy tower served with chocolate drops on his plate and could not help shaking his head.
Hogwarts' food still did not agree particularly well with his stomach.
With so many delicious British dishes, couldn't they serve something good?
Lorne really wanted to sweep his robes aside and leave to continue updating his game. His Halloween event was not even out yet!
Because of Quirrell's situation, he had not released a single update in over a month. His output was too low working alone. He could only squeeze in some map editing and writing just before bed, and the game's second update was still one final step away from completion.
Stats, events, character art, music, story... he had to do all the work himself. He simply could not keep up.
He could actually leave the character art and music to other people, but Lorne had no connections. He really did not know whose drawing skills could produce the character art he wanted.
He did have the relevant books purchased from the system, but he struggled to find someone he could entrust them to.
During this month, the players' activity had hardly declined. On the contrary, these young wizards who had seen little of the world spent astonishingly long hours online every day. Lorne was beginning to wonder whether Draco, in first place, was cheating.
He had farmed almost six hundred Trolls.
Harry, in second place, had only farmed a little over three hundred.
The players' response left even him, the game designer, feeling a little ashamed. What had he done to deserve this?
That settled it. Tonight, he would put Professor Quirrell's situation aside for now. After all, he had not yet bought the lab mice for the soul experiments.
Suddenly, the Great Hall's doors swung open to either side, and Professor Quirrell staggered inside, exuding an ominous air.
"There's a Troll in the dungeons!"
The noisy crowd fell silent.
Lorne remembered that, in the film, the crowd should have erupted into a chaotic uproar at this point, so he covered his ears in advance.
As Professor Quirrell collapsed, the crowd did indeed grow noisy, but not particularly loud. In fact, the first-year young wizards were the calmest of all.
Draco chuckled and shook his head, declaring grandly, "A Troll? I only need one more to reach six hundred kills."
At the neighboring table, the equally quiet Ravenclaw students turned around in surprise at his words. "Are you Draco, number one on the leaderboard?"
Having been recognized, Draco struggled to maintain his composure. If someone had struck up a conversation because he belonged to the Malfoy family, he would certainly have viewed it from a pure-blood perspective.
But first place on the leaderboard was an honor that belonged to Draco alone.
Crabbe and Goyle: "?"
And so, the young scion of the Malfoy family, who never spoke to students from other houses except to mock them, sounded surprised and friendly. "So you play Wizard Legend too."
At the Gryffindor table, Harry asked Neville, "Where's Hermione?"
"Parvati said she's in the bathroom and won't come out. She didn't even take her Magic Mobile Phone."
Ron scratched his head sheepishly. "But she really was being so high-and-mighty in class today."
"I think we should go find Hermione. She doesn't know a Troll has come to Hogwarts."
Ron nodded. "I think so too. I should apologize to her. She did mean well, after all."
At the front, Dumbledore silenced everyone with a single sentence. He instructed the prefects to take the other students back to their dormitories, while he led the other professors out through the back door.
Watching the several vast streams of people, Lorne decided to go back and work on the game for a while.
Tonight would be a peaceful night, professors. There was no need to be so flustered.