Thoughts flashed through Ciel's mind as his gaze fell again on the Devil's Snare root before him. He didn't have much left of his Christmas holidays. After returning to Hogwarts, he would have to devote much ti to various courses and Quidditch training, helping Snape with potion processing, and there might even be other troubles coming his way.
Therefore, it was best to take advantage of his most leisurely ti now to work through all the details of Devil's Snare cultivation. Then when he returned to Hogwarts, as soon as the new experintal plots were allocated, Ciel could imdiately plant the Devil's Snare. This way, he could begin developing Devil's Snare and the more advanced Whomping Willow cultivation projects as early as possible.
For this purpose, even if failed attempts might slightly damage the future quality of this Devil's Snare root, Ciel's eyes still showed resolute determination.
Ciel took a deep breath and directly buried his head underwater, entering the aquatic enhancent state. On the system panel, both his magical perception and magical strength imdiately improved significantly. The newly advanced Platinum-Tier Pruning Charm beca even more effortless under his enhanced perception. The magical nodes on the Devil's Snare root also beca increasingly clear.
He aid his wand at a magical node. "Arbor Siccus!"
The most powerful Pruning Charm he had ever used imdiately fell upon this magical node. Unlike the previous feeling of cutting leather, Ciel now felt like he was using sharp scissors to cut paper. After slight resistance, a smooth feeling followed.
Rip!
The Devil's Snare skin covering the magical node was cut open with a sound. Along with it, the magical node beneath the skin now flowed like a river dividing, gathering a stream toward the cut wound.
Seeing this, Ciel's eyes flashed. He imdiately took out the potion used to supplent the Devil's Snare's nutrients, carefully dropping a drop at the wound. Soon, the wound healed. But Ciel could feel that new magic was continuously gathering at the wound site. It probably wouldn't be long before new buds could sprout here.
Ciel showed joy. Looking up at the Devil's Snare, he could see an extrely faint reward orb forming above it. This ant his Devil's Snare cultivation had successfully begun.
"Generally speaking, when the Devil's Snare has at least more than ten first-level branches, and the total number of second and third-level branches also exceeds two hundred, it can enter the next stage."
Ciel's eyes flickered slightly. Whether he could successfully cut second and third-level branches, he wasn't confident about yet. Because the first-level magical node he had just cast the Pruning Charm on was the most obvious. The magical nodes of second and third-level branches would be more subtle.
Imdiately, Ciel cast several more Pruning Charms in succession. However, the results weren't as optimistic. At several wounds, the sa reaction as before indeed occurred. New buds should sprout before long. But at about half of the wounds on the Devil's Snare root, the magical nodes completely dissipated. These were failures—these positions would never be able to grow new branches again.
Ciel frowned. "About a fifty percent success rate."
He stopped his actions. This Devil's Snare root was of excellent quality. If cultivated successfully to maturity, the rewards provided might be considerably more. But if he forced trimming at this success rate, about half the magical nodes would be destroyed. Then the number of branches that grew next would be greatly reduced. The final reward might barely reach Silver Tier.
"It's still a problem of magical strength. Even though aquatic enhancent increases my magical strength sowhat, it's still a bit weak for the Devil's Snare's skin. If the Pruning Charm breaks through the skin a bit slowly, it leads to complete destruction of the magical nodes there. But if I wait just two more days, after this batch of Marguerites is harvested, it should be no problem."
As Ciel was about to put away the Devil's Snare root, his gaze swept across the system panel. Suddenly he discovered so changes and couldn't help but exclaim softly.
Previously, his Sectumsempra, under the effect of Cutting Spell Enhancent (Silver Tier), had already reached the threshold between Bronze and Silver. Silver light was emanating from it. But recently, Ciel clearly hadn't practiced Sectumsempra again. Yet the silver luster on Sectumsempra had suddenly occupied a large portion. The distance to true advancent was also close at hand.
A conjecture arose in Ciel's mind. "I discovered before that when Snape created Sectumsempra, he definitely drew inspiration from the Pruning Charm. Therefore, practicing Sectumsempra is also very beneficial for the Pruning Charm. Then conversely, wouldn't the Pruning Charm also benefit Sectumsempra? It's just that this benefit wasn't obvious before, so I didn't notice. But this ti the Pruning Charm completed a huge transformation from Gold to Platinum Tier, so Sectumsempra also improved accordingly."
Since there was a certain connection between the Pruning Charm and Sectumsempra, could he use Sectumsempra instead of the Pruning Charm to trim the magical nodes of Devil's Snare? What would happen then?
The cutting strength of Sectumsempra was much stronger than the Pruning Charm. Would it be able to easily cut through the skin, greatly improving his success rate in Devil's Snare cultivation?
"Since Aunt was able to provide so much Devil's Snare to guard the Philosopher's Stone, she should still have quite a few Devil's Snare roots. This one can be used for testing."
So Ciel waved his wand again. "Sectumsempra!"
Sectumsempra whooshed forth from his wand tip. Instantly, the Devil's Snare's skin was cut through by Sectumsempra like breaking through dried weeds. This process was so smooth that Ciel couldn't feel any resistance at all.
What made his eyes light up was that along with cutting the Devil's Snare, on the system panel, the silver luster on Sectumsempra brightened by a faint thread. Though the magnitude wasn't large, compared to practicing by himself, the effect was much more obvious.
"Devil's Snare also has a promoting effect on Sectumsempra practice? Good heavens, this is simply a natural teaching tool! It seems I really need to cultivate more Devil's Snare in the future. Otherwise, when the Pruning Charm and Sectumsempra levels get higher, I'm afraid there won't be enough Devil's Snare for practice."
But when his gaze fell on the new cut on the Devil's Snare, Ciel's expression beca sowhat puzzled and uncertain. Sectumsempra had indeed successfully cut through the Devil's Snare skin. The magical node was also cut. But unlike the Pruning Charm, this wound was still shrouded in Sectumsempra's magic. It felt to Ciel like a barrier, sealing up the Devil's Snare's magic.
This made him frown. "If this continues, the Devil's Snare's magic can't surge through this wound. Doesn't that an new branches can't grow either?"
But what Ciel didn't expect was that the reward orb he saw hadn't shrunk or dimd. It had even faintly expanded slightly, with slight pulsing coming from within. Like an eggshell with life brewing inside.
The Devil's Snare's own magic seed to want to break through the magical barrier left by Sectumsempra. It was impacting wave after wave. Each impact seed to correspond to the reward orb's pulsing.
"Could it be that if I let the Devil's Snare's magic break through the barrier left by Sectumsempra, so peculiar changes would occur?"
This reminded him of so sayings from his previous life. Breaking out of the cocoon to beco a butterfly. Could his unintentional wild idea have actually created a "cocoon" for the Devil's Snare?
In Ciel's perception, under wave after wave of impacts, this Devil's Snare root's magic still couldn't break through that barrier. Instead, its own magic and nutrients were being consud considerably. The reward orb above began to flicker uncertainly.
Ciel imdiately took out the potion for supplenting Devil's Snare nutrients. He dropped a drop on the wound. With the nutrient supplent, the Devil's Snare's reward orb imdiately stabilized. The pulsing speed also accelerated. More fierce impacts than before surged toward the magic left by Sectumsempra.
But this level still seed unable to break through Sectumsempra's magic. So Ciel poured over ten more drops of potion in one go. Under sufficient nutrient support, the Devil's Snare's magic washed over Sectumsempra countless tis.
Finally, Ciel vaguely seed to hear a faint "crack." That "cocoon" had cracked a small fissure. Seeing this, he gritted his teeth and directly poured half the remaining bottle of potion on it.
This was like the last straw that broke the cal's back. In an instant, the "cocoon" shattered into pieces. The Devil's Snare's magic finally erged from that wound. The reward orb also suddenly expanded greatly under Ciel's gaze.
A system notification appeared before Ciel:
[Your cultivated Devil's Snare has undergone mutation and gained more excellent traits]
[The rewards after Devil's Snare maturation will be enhanced]
Then Ciel saw the original [Binding Control Spell Enhancent (Silver Tier)] in the reward information. The silver radiance on it suddenly increased significantly. There was even a golden gleam lighting up within—a Silver-Tier reward approaching Gold Tier!
At the sa ti, the originally Bronze-Tier [Fire-Resistant Skin] reward was also shrouded in silver light, becoming [Fire-Resistant Skin (Silver Tier)]!
After this mutation ended, Ciel suddenly widened his eyes in amazent.
"Dual Silver-Tier rewards!"
[Chapter Complete]
***
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