After working through most of the night, Link and Dumbledore finally set off back to Hogwarts.
Unlike when they came, their way back wasn't on Fawkes the phoenix, but on the broomsticks Link always kept in his Extension Charm bag.
Strictly speaking, this was a pretty brain-dead thing to do, since the distance between Hogwarts Castle and Riddle Manor was absurdly far.
But in the end, Link still agreed to Dumbledore's suggestion. Together they each mounted a Nimbus 2001, riding into the night wind toward Hogwarts.
The reason Link agreed was entirely because he needed this near-walking pace kind of way to clear his head.
Link believed Dumbledore chose broomsticks for the same reason.
After all, the two of them had reaped far too much tonight.
For Dumbledore, not only had he destroyed one of Voldemort's Horcruxes and brushed shoulders with death, he had also, by chance, obtained the Resurrection Stone and even gotten to see his dead family again.
Link too had gained much, but what weighed on him the most was his brand-new understanding of Dumbledore.
That last part was especially important.
Because ever since his past life, Link had been in the "Dark Dumbledore" camp. He always thought Dumbledore was crafty and sly, though his goals were noble and he carried himself with this "saintly" compassion-for-the-world act, there was always a faint, chilling hint of ruthlessness.
You could see it most clearly in how he raised Harry Potter like a pig for slaughter, waiting to butcher him at the critical moment.
Link simply could not understand this heartless "saint" personality of Dumbledore, nor his motives.
But after tonight's experiences, combined with what he remembered of the plot from his past life, Link found he sort of understood Dumbledore now.
Even though Dumbledore kept saying the curse of the Resurrection Stone was terrifying, that it could lead people to willingly destroy themselves, he had shown such calmness about it, even a faint sense of relief.
But Link didn't believe Dumbledore's state of mind came from the curse of the Resurrection Stone.
If it really did, then Harry Potter, who used the Stone once in the original story, should have killed himself early on.
So Link's personal interpretation was, Dumbledore had already longed for death.
Because Dumbledore had gone through far too many catastrophes in his life.
As a child, his failure to protect his sister led to her being hurt by Muggles and turning into an Obscurial.
As a young man, he ran from his family to roam with Grindelwald.
In their disputes and battles, he accidentally hurt his sister, causing the Obscurus inside her to go out of control, killing both her and their mother.
In middle age, for the sake of the greater good, he broke his blood pact with Grindelwald and imprisoned his own brother.
In his old age, his most prized student became the second Dark Lord, plotting terror and conquest in Britain…
His whole life he had been endlessly making mistakes, then endlessly trying to make up for them.
But some things were doomed never to be mended.
The guilt in his heart only grew heavier, finally festering into an unimaginable torment that tortured him day and night.
So naturally, he thought of death.
Perhaps, in his eyes, that was the ultimate form of self-punishment.
Of course, death was only punishment for himself. To ease his pain, he felt he still needed to do what he could for the world.
At the very least, he had to take care of Voldemort, the monster he had personally taught into being.
Thinking this way, Dumbledore's principles of action suddenly seemed perfectly reasonable.
A man tired of living would naturally become incomparably selfish.
To calmly march toward death while finishing his last attempt at repayment to the world, he wouldn't care how many people had to die along the way.
Or maybe, when faced with the suffering and deaths of those close to him, he did still feel sadness. But in his eyes, compared with the ultimate, greater goal, it was all worth it.
"Madman!"
Deep in thought, Link muttered aloud his truest evaluation of Dumbledore.
But Dumbledore's sensitivity far exceeded Link's expectations. Even in the roaring wind of the high sky, he still heard Link's words. Turning his head, puzzled, he asked, "What madman?"
Link reacted quickly and blurted, "Oh, I meant Voldemort."
"Indeed, at this point Tom truly has gone mad." Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "Don't dwell on it. We've already arrived at Hogwarts."
At those words, Link finally noticed that the sky on the horizon had already grown pale without him realizing it, and Hogwarts Castle stood tall in the brightest glow.
Link said no more and simply followed Dumbledore, flying straight into the Headmaster's Office.
"Whew! We're finally back."
After landing, Dumbledore let out a long sigh, hung his cloak on the rack, and said to Link, "It's late. I'll write you a leave note so you can skip class today and get some rest. Tonight, I'll have a house-elf come fetch you. There are still some things we need to discuss."
"Ah, I understand."
Link didn't stand on ceremony. He answered directly and left the office.
But in truth, he didn't return to the Hufflepuff common room. He didn't even go far. After leaving and walking a bit, he slipped straight into the Room of Requirement, specifically, its spell training ground form.
For someone like him, trained under Snape and obsessed with cultivation, what was sleep compared to analyzing the gains from this adventure?
After all, not only had he raised Fiendfyre to LV2 this time, he had also gained a golden skill point.
Once inside the Room of Requirement, just looking at that single golden skill point on his status panel was enough to make Link's heartbeat quicken.
No one knew better than him just how absurdly powerful these points that let skills break their limits really were.
Back then, simply raising Sectumsempra from LV5 to LV6 had directly given him the ability to freely control Cursed Power.
From then on, Cursed Power became his most-used and most-loved ability.
You could even say that nearly half of Link's current combat power depended on that one golden skill point.
So then, if he added one more point and raised it to LV7, what would happen?
Would he directly reach the pure and perfect state of Cursed Power that Dumbledore had described?
Or would his control over Cursed Power grow again, officially reaching the level of infinite transformations, letting him use Cursed Power to mimic a vast number of dark spells?
If that really happened, wouldn't he be soaring straight into the sky?
Thinking of this, Link didn't hesitate. He willed his consciousness to press the "+" behind Sectumsempra LV6.
But after he pressed, the expected dark-golden congratulatory banner didn't appear. Instead, what flashed before his eyes was a pure-black message.
[Not enough golden skill points, upgrade unavailable!]
[Note: Each time a skill breaks its limit and levels up, the number of golden skill points required increases by 1. That is, LV6 requires *1, LV7 requires *2, LV8 requires *3…]
"Isn't this just screwing with me?"
Link cursed under his breath, his face reddening with anger.
The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.
The joy he had felt moments ago now twisted into rage.
If he could, he wanted to curse out the system's creator, why not tell him this rule beforehand?
At the very least, if he had known, he wouldn't be so disappointed now.
But as his furious eyes happened to sweep across the LV2 Fiendfyre on his status panel, Link suddenly froze.
'Wait, if I remember right, the Horcrux, Ravenclaw's Diadem, is hidden right here in the Room of Requirement, isn't it?'
His eyes lit up.
He had searched for it before, but the Room's Hidden Things chamber was simply too vast, and he hadn't found it.
But now things were different.
In the original story, the Diadem was destroyed by Draco's lackey with Fiendfyre. And now that Link had learned Fiendfyre, he could absolutely copy that.
Besides, he didn't need to worry like before about making too much noise or failing to extinguish the flames, letting Dumbledore catch him.
Now he could already extinguish the fire, and even if Dumbledore did catch him, he could bluff it as testing a spell.
If things went smoothly, he'd get another golden skill point immediately.
At that thought, Link sprinted out of the training ground Room almost at a hundred-meter dash, muttering "a place to hide things" three times, then rushed back in.
As expected, the scene before him had shifted to a cavernous junk-filled chamber.
Sniffing the musty air, he didn't hesitate. He immediately controlled his magic and flung out a stream of black-red Fiendfyre.
It landed on a broken desk and instantly became a fire serpent, devouring everything around it to grow stronger.
Because the skill level wasn't high enough yet, Link couldn't extinguish flames that were too widespread.
So he had to repeatedly ignite and extinguish Fiendfyre in stages to control its spread.
This wasn't easy, especially since it put an enormous burden on his mind.
Even so, just thinking of the golden skill point he was about to get filled Link with joy.
But when the last heap of junk burned to ash, the smile on Link's face froze.
Because he still hadn't seen the expected golden banner.
"No way? No way!"
Link's voice grew louder as he grabbed his wand and double-checked that the entire chamber had been burned into scorched earth.
Only then did he mutter in disbelief, "The Diadem in the Room of Requirement… it's already gone?!"
"Did Dumbledore take it? No, no way! If he'd found it, he wouldn't have hidden it. That's Rowena Ravenclaw's relic."
"Dumbledore would have no reason to do that. Other professors or students couldn't possibly have found it either. Which only leaves one person who knew where it was…" Link rubbed his chin, analyzing. "Voldemort!"
His expression turned utterly dark.
The disappearance of the Diadem didn't just mean he'd lost his chance to quickly gain another golden skill point, it also meant he had completely lost track of a Horcrux.
Finding where Voldemort had hidden it again would be incredibly hard.
Feeling his emotions about to spiral out of control, Link activated Occlumency and forced himself calm.
'Actually, thinking carefully, if Voldemort really did take the Diadem, he must have relied on his spy still inside Hogwarts.'
'That makes things simpler.'
'If I can catch that spy and interrogate them, maybe I can still salvage the loss of the Diadem.'
'That means the third task of the Tournament is crucial.'
'More importantly, I have to go to Dumbledore right away and get Hogwarts locked down, restrict all entry and exit, so the spy can't escape.'
After sorting his thoughts, Link turned his gaze back to the status panel.
Unless absolutely necessary, he would never hoard skill points like a fool. For him, the best option was to convert all resources as quickly as possible into actual power.
At present, Link had nearly 15 skills at LV5.
Most of them were pranks or utility charms like Reparo that he had modified and improved himself. So, strictly speaking, only two spells were really worth a golden skill point.
Everfilling Charm LV5, and Occlumency LV5.
Both of these had been raised to LV5 not by system bonuses, but through Link grinding experience over time.
He could expect that leveling up the Everfilling Charm would give him a combat-ready ability similar to when he upgraded Sectumsempra.
And Occlumency, being his key weapon in taming the beast that was his mind, was also very important.
But Link didn't think upgrading Occlumency would add much to his combat power. Right now, he cared more about raising his actual battle strength to prepare for the third task of the Triwizard Tournament.
"Add point."
With Link's soft whisper, the golden skill point transformed into a flood of gold and poured into the Everfilling Charm.
On the status panel, the golden frame that had bound the spell shattered, and in its place formed a circle of dark gold etched with magnolia patterns.
[Refilling Charm: LV6 acquired!]
Buzz!
A torrent of information surged into Link's mind, forcing him to clutch his head in pain as he tried to endure it.
As compensation, a mist suddenly spread out from Link's body with no warning.
The milky-white fog seemed alive as it drifted through the air, one moment a giant whale, the next a bird, almost like it was celebrating for Link.
Link sucked in a breath, then rose and swung his wand forward.
"Water Blade!"
At once, the mist condensed into a barely visible thread that shot out, piercing straight through the floor of the Room of Requirement.
"Ice!"
The mist shifted again, transforming into an ice spear that crashed into the floor.
Then, frost spread instantly, covering the ground beneath Link's feet.
Seeing this, Link finally nodded in satisfaction.
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