Looking at the text appearing on the parchnt, even though Ciel had already greatly underestimated Quirrell's character and integrity, he was still sowhat dumbfounded.
Well, well. Now pretending to be a senior student? And "guess?"
His cheek twitched slightly.
But while shocked, questions couldn't help but arise in his mind. Hadn't Quirrell already obtained the thod to get past the three-headed dog? Why was he still so persistently bothering him? What else did he want to get? And how should he deal with Quirrell?
Just as Ciel frowned in thought, he saw Shadow had already controlled shadows to grasp a quill and was busily replying to Quirrell.
"Really? Which senior are you? How beautiful?"
On the other side of the parchnt, Quirrell's face showed delight. Disguising himself as a beautiful senior had indeed gained this little Hufflepuff's trust and aroused his curiosity. Heh. After all, just a first-year student. Too naive. With a little sche, he should be able to extract the mutant Devil's Snare's weakness from Ciel.
Then Quirrell again grasped his quill and wrote line after line.
"Hehe, telling you my na directly would make shy too. By the way, you haven't told yet. What type do you like?"
Shadow thought for a mont and replied, "Thorny ones. The more thorns the better, the harder the better."
Quirrell paused, falling into shock. "Ah?"
Were today's young wizards this strange? Or was he getting old and couldn't keep up with trends?
After a mont, Quirrell gritted his teeth and let out a light breath. "Your hobbies are really special. Worthy of you. You know, quite coincidentally, I also like thorns. My roommates all call ... um, the Thorn Queen."
At this ti, Ciel watched the ongoing dialogue appearing on the parchnt and felt sowhat stunned. Shadow and Quirrell were actually chatting?!
But after a mont, he felt slightly relieved. He really didn't want too much contact with Quirrell pretending to be a beautiful senior. Not to ntion whether he'd be affected by the Legilincy magic emanating from the parchnt, just thinking that the one acting coquettish behind the parchnt was Quirrell gave him goosebumps.
Letting Shadow chat with Quirrell was actually a good choice. After all, Legilincy magic had always targeted humans. There had never been any Legilincy spells targeting plants or animals. This magic wouldn't affect Shadow Thorns. And it could give Shadow sothing to pass the ti. He wouldn't need to invest ti in this, allowing him to continue his magical practice.
Thinking this, Ciel instructed Shadow not to say anything inappropriate, then handed over both the parchnt and quill to it.
Before turning to continue practicing, he glanced at the parchnt where dense text continued to stream out. Quirrell seed quite enthusiastic. But if Quirrell knew he was trying to seduce a cluster of Shadow Thorns, Ciel wondered what expression he'd have.
A strange smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. But then the smile vanished instantly, and his expression beca more serious.
Though Quirrell's thod of trying to lure him through parchnt was currently foolish, if not for Dumbledore's protective magic covering the little greenhouse, Quirrell's thods probably wouldn't stop at this. When his detention ended, Quirrell probably wouldn't give up and would still look for opportunities with him.
Thinking this, his heart sank. Even though he had made Quirrell suffer many losses before, facing the double agent, he still didn't dare be careless. Especially during this ti period. The desperate Quirrell had probably gone completely mad, hunting unicorns in the Forbidden Forest for their blood at any cost. Not even caring about the unicorn's curse anymore.
This showed Quirrell was determined to get the Philosopher's Stone at all costs. The more desperate he beca, the more dangerous he was. He didn't want to ss up due to carelessness.
His eyes were full of gravity. "Before detention ends, Sectumsempra must advance to Gold tier. Also need to focus on Transfiguration and Serpensortia."
Then Ciel cleared his mind of distracting thoughts and practiced magic even more seriously. In the little greenhouse, the sharp magic of Sectumsempra cut through the air. Sotis smoke would burst forth with the hissing of snakes echoing.
Ti flashed by, and another three days passed in the blink of an eye.
"Sectumsempra!"
His wand moved like a slashing sword, and a Sectumsempra spell sharper than before instantly swept across the new tendrils on the Devil's Snare. This ti, unlike before when it could only cut a shallow wound, the cut was noticeably deeper.
In his perception, he imdiately felt a more minute magical node on this tendril being cut open by this Sectumsempra. Then ca a situation similar to previous Devil's Snare processing. Sectumsempra's magic lingered on the cut. For new sprouts to grow, the Devil's Snare would need to break through this layer of Sectumsempra magic.
But in specific details, there were still so differences. Perhaps because these new tendrils with secondary magical nodes had already broken through Sectumsempra's magic once, this ti it wasn't as difficult as initially. He only needed to supplent a few drops of potion, and the Devil's Snare's magic penetrated through Sectumsempra's barrier.
Above this Devil's Snare, the reward orb pulsed slightly and grew another size larger. His expression showed joy. This way, he was another step closer to Devil's Snare maturity.
But Ciel didn't rush to process more secondary nodes. With so much processing experience, he now had rough estimates.
"With Sectumsempra's current strength, the success rate for processing secondary nodes still isn't high enough. If cutting the surface is slightly slow, the entire node processing might fail, affecting the Devil's Snare's quality after maturity."
But he wasn't anxious. He glanced at the system panel and saw that among the silver luster of Sectumsempra, dots of golden luster had appeared. Golden luster had started appearing since yesterday. This ant Sectumsempra's mastery had reached the advancent threshold and was slowly progressing toward Gold tier.
Compared to before, its power had naturally increased significantly. He was quite satisfied with this improvent speed.
"In another week or so. Even if it hasn't advanced to the Gold tier, I'll be quite confident in processing Devil's Snare's secondary nodes."
But then, when his gaze fell on Serpensortia, his brow furrowed slightly. Through these days of practice, he had beco increasingly skilled with Serpensortia. Even its mastery had caught up with Sectumsempra, not far from the Gold tier.
But what he pursued wasn't this spell's own power but the Transfiguration mysteries contained in its underlying chanics. In this aspect, there had been no major progress. It remained like the moon in water, flowers in a mirror. He still couldn't find the entrance.
This made his heart sink slightly. Though he didn't lack patience and had long prepared to gradually overco difficulties bit by bit, after repeating it thousands of tis without much progress or even getting started, he realized sothing. Perhaps his direction was wrong.
If the direction was wrong, no amount of patience or effort would help. Like so classmates he had seen in his past life who studied incredibly hard every day, but their exam results were disastrous. That usually ant there was a problem with their approach.
But he thought quietly for a long ti without figuring out what went wrong. Serpensortia's underlying Transfiguration was so vast and profound. Trying to master it all at once was naturally impossible. So focusing on changes in one detail, from point to surface to whole... where was the problem with this research direction?
Looking at Transfiguration still stuck at the Bronze-tier advancent threshold on the system panel, though his mindset was good, his mood inevitably felt sowhat anxious. There were only about ten days left until detention ended. After that, he wouldn't have such an undisturbed environnt. Transfiguration's improvent speed would inevitably slow down.
Moreover, after going out, he'd have to face Quirrell's harassnt. Whether or not he had Bronze-tier Transfiguration would make a huge difference in his magical strength. Not breaking through Transfiguration during these last ten days made him uneasy.
Just as his mood was rather gloomy due to Transfiguration hitting a dead end, he heard the sound of quills scratching across parchnt. He turned to look and saw Shadow had split into over ten shadows, each wrapping around a quill and rapidly moving across the parchnt Quirrell had sent in.
"Senior? There? There? There? Wake up and chat with ! Didn't you say chatting with made you especially happy? Didn't you say you weren't tired at all? Reply quickly!"
He paused and glanced at the ti. 3:30 AM... Oh right, Shadow Thorns didn't need sleep either. These past days, Quirrell had probably chatted a lifeti's worth with Shadow.
Just looking at the changes in the Patronus Trees' reward information showed this. The originally extrely weak [Occluncy Enhancent] that had barely ford now not only had clear text but was even showing so iron luster. It seed close to becoming an Iron-tier reward.
It was easy to imagine how much Quirrell had been writing lately. He felt a bit sorry for him. Back in his day, Quirrell had been a standout student on campus. His academic brilliance probably exceeded even Hermione's current abilities. He had successfully landed the Defense Against the Dark Arts position.
Such a genius, if he had developed normally, would have had unlimited prospects. But now, what had he beco under Voldemort? Pretending to be a senior and chatting with Shadow Thorns daily. How pitiful!
He shook his head and was about to turn back to continue pondering what went wrong with his Serpensortia research. But then his gaze suddenly turned back, showing so strange expression.
"Right. Though Quirrell pretended to be stuttering and timid in the original story, he's undoubtedly a genius. His Transfiguration mastery is definitely not ordinary. Plus, Serpensortia seems related to Voldemort... asking Quirrell might yield so results."
But looking at the parchnt where Quirrell hadn't replied and seed to be going silent, and Shadow continuously bombarding with ssages, his mouth twitched. When he was being bombarded by Quirrell with parchnts, he had hoped Shadow could give him a taste of his own dicine. But now he worried... had they really scared Quirrell away? No, please. Then who would he ask questions to?
So after a mont, he thought it over and had Shadow write a line.
"Senior. Are you awake? It's all my fault... was I too enthusiastic and scared you, senior? Sorry senior, you know I've been wandering since childhood, grew up in the Muggle world, suffered coldness and disdain. No girl has ever appreciated like you do, senior. Senior, co back!"
At the sa ti, in his room, Quirrell lay on his bed, looking haggard. From initial enthusiasm to complete numbness now. Damn! He never expected "Ciel" to be such a chatterbox! Really not stopping for even a second?
And what kind of stuff was he talking about? On the first day, "Ciel" insisted he pretend to be a plant? When he was really too tired and wanted to sleep, "Ciel" actually threatened him: "Plants don't get tired, plants don't need sleep. If you want to sleep, then you're not a plant. If you're not a plant, I won't chat with you."
Quirrell could only stay up all night in tears, chatting with "Ciel" about what soil tasted good and what fertilizer was effective. One day was manageable. But today marked three full days of such chatting. He felt his spirit was about to split.
So much so that he wanted to give up. Even sensing text still appearing on the parchnt, Quirrell didn't want to deal with it. He just wanted to sleep. This conversation was unbearable. Whoever could chat could chat!
However, just then, a cold voice echoed in Quirrell's mind.
"Quirrell. How are things progressing? It's been ten days... have you extracted any intelligence from that little brat?"
Hearing this, Quirrell imdiately shuddered and replied fearfully. "Master. Still... still haven't..."
Instantly, he felt a cold, alien fury burning in his mind. Voldemort's voice suddenly beca icy.
"Haven't? You an after all these days, you haven't made any progress? A naive little brat in such circumstances, and you can't get him to talk? Are you trying to delay my acquisition of the Philosopher's Stone, Quirrell?"
His eyes widened, feeling his heart might stop from terror. "No, no, Master! I hope for your return more than anyone! Please let explain... there are reasons for no progress yet..."
Voldemort frowned. "You'd better give a convincing reason."
Quirrell imdiately stamred about his operation, using parchnt to dialogue with Ciel and try to seduce him. He also ntioned disguising himself as a senior and successfully engaging him in conversation.
Voldemort's tone carried so surprise. "Being able to engage ans you're close to success?"
His voice carried a sob as he gritted his teeth and complained. "Master, it's not that I don't want to pry open his mouth. He's just a first-year student. He's too wild. I can't keep up with him."
Seeing Voldemort still didn't believe, Quirrell pulled out thick chat records with "Ciel." Voldemort glanced through a few pages and felt his scalp tingle with disbelief. Today's Hufflepuff... what was this? There was such a way to play?!
After a mont, his voice finally softened, even carrying so comfort. "Quirrell. This has been hard on you."
Then his voice carried so excitent. "But success is very close. Look at that little brat's latest ssage. He's hooked! Quirrell, reply quickly!"
Quirrell held his quill, looking at line after line of text, feeling nearly traumatized. He couldn't bring himself to write.
Seeing this, Voldemort angrily scolded. "Fool! Forget it... Let do it!"
Then Quirrell's hand seed to have its own will, grasping the quill and writing elegant handwriting on the parchnt.
"Dear Ciel, hearing you say this makes so happy. Though we're separated by parchnt, I feel like our hearts are pressed together. Can you hear Senior's heartbeat? Senior seems to hear yours. Perhaps it's ti we could share so secrets with each other? I think you wouldn't mind. As an exchange, the senior can tell you her na first. I'm called..."
After pausing briefly, Voldemort wrote a na. "Delphini. Does it sound nice?"
Just as Voldemort's elegant handwriting appeared on the parchnt, in the little greenhouse, the nearby Patronus Tree saplings suddenly began rustling, the silver-white edges of their leaves becoming especially bright and hazy. This reaction was much stronger than before.
Even in the reward information, the [Occluncy Enhancent] that hadn't fully advanced to Iron tier was now completely covered in iron luster, becoming [Occluncy Enhancent (Iron Tier)]!
But this scene that should have delighted Ciel now made his expression extrely grave. Because this scene ant the Legilincy magic emanating from the parchnt was much stronger than before. Quirrell's Legilincy level couldn't possibly improve dramatically overnight.
The only possibility was... "the online dating partner had changed." "Voldemort had taken over?!"
He took a deep breath. He never expected his first encounter with Voldemort would be under such circumstances. But then his mood gradually returned to calm. Looking at the text on the parchnt, a strange glint appeared in his eyes.
Perhaps in terms of magic, he couldn't even see Voldemort's taillights. But Voldemort wanted to compete in online dating with an engineering student who rarely saw girls?
He could only say: Voldemort? Still needs practice!
[Chapter Complete]
***
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