After a moment, the voodoo doll suddenly shook its head. How could Ciel not be afraid of it? A first year young wizard, and the most timid Hufflepuff at that. After seeing such a strange existence and hearing its cold, malicious laughter, shouldn't he be crying in terror? How could there be no reaction?
A thought surfaced in its mind: "Scared stiff. He must be scared stiff. This is normal; after all, he's a timid and slow Hufflepuff. Yes, it must be this way!"
Then the voodoo doll's brief panic dissipated. It looked at Ciel again with malicious intent. The next second, the voodoo doll strangely appeared on his desk. That crude face with a venomous smile was almost touching his face; they were practically eye to eye.
But even so, the voodoo doll saw no fear in his eyes. Instead, the fervour in his gaze intensified. The voodoo doll couldn't help rubbing its eyes, suspecting it had seen wrong.
Fortunately, after a moment, he finally moved. This made the voodoo doll slightly relieved. Finally a reaction! This little badger was really slow. Now, let's see what he'll do. Is he getting something? A protective charm, or something to drive it away?
Then the voodoo doll saw him pull out a thick, hefty book. "The Strange Symbiotic Relationship and Cultivation Guide of Blue Star Flowers and Ironwire Dendrobium Trees"?
What the hell?! Watching him seriously begin reading with complete focus, the voodoo doll widened its eyes. It felt deeply insulted. Facing such a terrifying cursed object as itself, he was not only unmoved but actually studying?! He had no respect for it whatsoever!
The voodoo doll was so angry it began unravelling, looking increasingly strange and horrible. It swore it would make him cry out in despair!
So next, the voodoo doll used every trick in the book. Sometimes it emitted cold, terrifying laughter in his ear. Sometimes it pretended to disappear, then suddenly appeared before his eyes, clicking and twisting its head grotesquely. Moreover, it even tried covering his eyes while he was reading, then emitting shrill laughter in his ear: "Come play!"
Throughout this process, it was accompanied by curse magic and Legilimency magic. If he had any mental weakness, it would plunge him into deep hallucinations, showing him terrifying visions.
But from beginning to end, whether curse magic or Legilimency magic, once they wrapped around him, they disappeared like stones sinking into the sea. He had no other reactions, not even his page turning rhythm was interrupted.
The voodoo doll looked at him in disbelief: "This little badger, what exactly is going on?!"
At this time, he was looking at the book with a thoughtful expression. Though he had just begun researching Blue Star Flower cultivation, the literature repeatedly emphasised one thing: Blue Star Flowers and Ironwire Dendrobium trees had a rare symbiotic relationship in Herbology.
Blue Star Flowers absorbed life force from Ironwire Dendrobium trees' magic to supply their blooming. But Ironwire Dendrobium trees also absorbed special magic from Blue Star Flowers, promoting their maturation and seed dispersal. Ideally, Blue Star Flower and Ironwire Dendrobium magic maintained a delicate dynamic balance.
But from long ago, this balance had been broken, causing both plants' numbers to continuously decline. The reason for this broken balance remained undetermined in academia. But the consequences were clear: artificially cultivating Blue Star Flowers became increasingly difficult.
The exquisite, ingenious balance created by nature required dynamic adjustment every minute and second. Achieving this under artificial intervention was extremely difficult, no easier than cultivating any ancient plant. Even Herbology masters found this daunting.
Once, a Herbology master had stubbornly led students in constantly adjusting the Blue Star Flower and Ironwire Dendrobium magic balance. But within three months, they all aged ten years. Unable to sustain such a tremendous workload, they had to abandon the attempt.
He frowned slightly. Blue Star Flower rewards were too special to abandon. But he only had one viable Blue Star Flower seed left, only one chance. How to complete what even Herbology masters couldn't solve? He had no clue yet.
"Never mind. No rush to attempt it. Look through literature slowly and plan. At least we need a viable approach first. More importantly right now..."
His gaze fell on the system panel. Previously, when the voodoo doll continuously emitted curse and Legilimency magic, his Occlumency progress had been steadily increasing at a considerable rate. But now, this growth rate had visibly slowed.
This made him look at the voodoo doll with dissatisfaction, discovering it was lying exhausted on the desk, resting. He frowned even more: "Who told you to stop? Did I agree to let you stop? Continue! Increase the intensity!"
The gasping voodoo doll was stunned, realising he was actually talking to it. It was so angry its face turned red. Previously ignoring it was one thing, but now actually demanding it increase the curse intensity? This little badger was too much!
The voodoo doll gritted its teeth, glaring at him. Curse magic continued flowing. But it couldn't persist long before wilting again, clearly exhausted.
This made him look at it with increasing dissatisfaction: "Is this your limit? Working so little time in a day and you're done? Seems I need to give you some motivation."
Then he casually waved his wand. Serpensortia emerged, though without much commotion. As curse magic surged, a thin black snake formed, wrapping around the voodoo doll at lightning speed.
Now the voodoo doll showed terror. Originally existing as a curse, even Hufflepuff's protective magic couldn't target it. Much less a first year wizard. That's why it dared to be so arrogant.
But now, wrapped by this curse filled black snake, the voodoo doll discovered he had always had the ability to deal with it. Sharp fangs flashed before its eyes. The voodoo doll was filled with fear, screaming: "What are you doing?!"
He said coldly: "Work! Keep working! I hate slacking off during work time most. Understand?"
The voodoo doll's face was full of resentment, but with sharp fangs flashing before its eyes, fangs similarly wrapped in dense curse magic that could affect it, the voodoo doll could only muster its spirits. With full resentment, it cursed him forcefully.
Perhaps because it was filled with stronger hatred than before, the curse intensity increased. Occlumency's growth progress was slightly faster than before. This made his furrowed brow relax somewhat. He nodded slightly: "Good. Now you look like you're working."
He continued reading. The voodoo doll looked at him like this, gritting its teeth and continuously emitting curse magic without pause.
"Damn little badger. I curse you. I curse you. You want me not to stop? Then I'll wear you out. I don't need to eat, drink, or sleep. I don't believe it. If you can keep enduring, don't let me find an opportunity. Otherwise, I'll repay your humiliation tenfold, a hundredfold."
Thinking of him with bloodshot eyes, exhausted but still having to endure fearfully under its curse, the voodoo doll felt some satisfaction, supporting its continued cursing. "Studying? Let's see how long you can study!"
But gradually, the voodoo doll felt something was wrong. How long had passed? The rustling of pages kept continuing. His face showed no fatigue, only consistent calmness throughout.
It had also looked at this book's contents, all densely packed text that made it dizzy just looking. He had been reading so long without getting tired at all?!
"You must be joking. How could any human study this long? Persist. I must persist. A cursed object like me can't possibly be outlasted by him!"
The voodoo doll gritted its teeth and persisted. But every subsequent minute and second became so long. Until who knows how much later, the voodoo doll felt truly drained, gasping and lying down. No more. It really didn't have a single drop left. Couldn't squeeze out any more curse magic.
Only then did his gaze shift from his book to the voodoo doll. Seeing its useless state, he shook his head slightly: "Seems you really can't do it. Never mind. Who told me to be kind-hearted?"
At this time, the voodoo doll's eyes brightened. Its desire to leave and rest even exceeded its hatred for him. So when hearing him say "never mind", the voodoo doll felt joy: "You're letting me go?"
He raised an eyebrow: "I didn't say that. I mean, you can replenish some energy. Once replenished, continue."
The voodoo doll's expression froze: "No... I mean, my energy is very hard to replenish. It must be in an environment full of resentment and curses. How about I go replenish myself?"
But the next moment, the black snake wrapped around the voodoo doll and dragged it into his clothes without discussion. Seeing the scene inside his clothes, the voodoo doll's eyes filled with terror: "What, what is this?! What exactly are you?!"
No wonder it was so panicked. Only now did it discover his clothes contained dazzling jewellery. Each piece was covered with powerful curse magic. At least a dozen cursed jewels were much stronger than its curse. Several cursed jewels' curses were so strong the voodoo doll found them intimidating.
With so many cursed objects worn on him, it was no wonder he was unaffected by a single voodoo doll's curse. Wrapped in curses, how could one faze him?
The voodoo doll entering here was like a husky mixing into a wolf pack, trembling, not daring to approach those cursed jewels. But in this environment full of curse magic, its fatigue seemed to fade.
For the voodoo doll, this was absolutely the worst possible news. Because his ghostly voice had already reached its ears: "Now curse magic is replenishing, right? That means you can continue working."
Hearing the word "work", the voodoo doll nearly had PTSD. "You're exploiting child labour!"
He blinked strangely: "What are you talking about? This is Great Britain; we have our own national conditions. Three year olds have to sweep chimneys here. The magical world can't be an exception!"
The voodoo doll's face visibly showed despair. It tried to fight for its rights: "At least an eight hour work system?"
But the next moment, his expression changed drastically: "Eight hour work system? Humans don't even get such good treatment. You, a voodoo doll, want an eight hour work system? You're not human, don't need to eat or sleep, and don't even have flesh and blood. An eight hour work system would waste your limited life!"
The voodoo doll cowered: "Then my treatment..."
He was decisive: "24/7/365 work system. No breaks all year. No meal time, no lunch break. Don't you like laughing? Now you have the chance to laugh. You must laugh more."
But the voodoo doll couldn't laugh anymore. Looking at him with complete terror. This little badger was too terrifying! At least capitalists exploited workers. The Dark Lord enslaved mudbloods. This little badger wouldn't even spare curses!
Just as the voodoo doll despaired completely, magical fluctuations came from the cursed jewellery hanging with it on him. The voodoo doll initially thought similar beings were comforting it, or that they would jointly burst out powerful curses to kill this damned little badger.
But when it understood the magical fluctuation's meaning, the voodoo doll angrily widened its eyes: "What? I work while you rest? Why?!"
Next second, the Heart of the Ocean necklace emanated a dangerous aura. The voodoo doll shuddered and trembled in pain: "You damn thing! Bastard! Scab and villain and rogue among curses! Boss, don't hit me. I'll work, I'll work, okay!"
After recovering from the pain, its originally somewhat lifelike strange face was filled with deathly pallor. It couldn't laugh at all anymore, only cry: "Woo woo woo. I'm so miserable. I don't want to work. I want to get off work!!!"
As the voodoo doll began its despairing working life, he looked at the Occlumency progress on his system panel, nodding with satisfaction.
[Occlumency (Gold, rapidly approaching platinum)]
At this rate, the Platinum level Occlumency wasn't far off. He quite anticipated the qualitative change after Occlumency advanced to the Platinum level.
Then he stopped reading Blue Star Flower cultivation books. This topic's difficulty was indeed high; it probably couldn't be solved short term. Had to research slowly. But finals were approaching now. The Philosopher's Stone matter was probably nearing its end. He didn't know what actions Quirrell would take next. Better to try using this safe time to improve his magical mastery.
His gaze fell on other magic in the system panel. Most spells were currently in unstable states, sometimes bright, sometimes quite dim. This was because his magical perception had undergone earth shattering changes. His previous magical mastery was all built on macroscopic magical perception. This obviously no longer matched his current deep microscopic perception. So it showed unstable states on the system panel.
To solve this, he needed to reorganise all his magic according to current microscopic magical perception. Once completing this process, not only would magic stabilise, but the previous foundation would be absorbed. His magical mastery would comprehensively improve significantly.
Of course, this process wouldn't be short and would be quite tedious. But since he didn't plan to go to the greenhouse for Herbology planting now, this was perfect timing to complete this process. As for the process being tedious, his mouth curved into a smile. When had he ever feared tedium? Tedium, in a sense, was his friend.
Soon after, he closed his eyes, focusing completely on sensing the world around him. Feeling the wonderful sensation of magical particles filling the air. Simultaneously, he waved his wand, experiencing how magical particle changes during current spellcasting differed from before.
Perception constantly switched between macroscopic and microscopic. He carefully analysed every detail. A strange understanding gradually filled his mind. He noticed that every expression produced by waving his wand was actually the result of magical particles interacting with each other.
He had had some understanding of this very early, after Lumos reached Platinum level. That point of light was actually the collective expression of countless smaller Lumos spells. Going deeper, it was the product of countless magical particle vibrations.
Adjusting the expressed vibration frequency could make Lumos light change toward infrared and ultraviolet directions. This was the principle of the Variable Light Charm. Further adjusting frequency to make these magical particles vibrate at similar frequencies would make Lumos's originally weak light increasingly concentrated and penetrating.
He had previously thought this was just Lumos's special nature. But now, he concentrated on observing those magical particles' movements. To other young wizards who could perceive this level, these might just be boring moving light points. But to him, this was a brand new magical world.
In studying those boring light points, his mind gradually formed a system that overturned his previous understanding of magic. He had a speculation: perhaps not just Lumos had such properties. All magic could perhaps be understood as similar countless magical particles working together.
Only because magical particles had different natures and interaction forms did they manifest different spell forms.
"And will. Will is very crucial. In physics from my previous life, molecular movement could be explained by various intermolecular forces. Magical particle movement might be related to will's power. Will should be the driving force causing magical particles to display certain specific properties and interact."
These phenomena might be difficult for young wizards first encountering this level to understand. If another young wizard advanced from macroscopic to microscopic magical perception like him, they might feel incredibly absurd and confused. All previously familiar magic seemed to change overnight. They might need long periods to cross this transition phase.
But he, perhaps because he had experienced quantum mechanics baptism in his previous life, already understood that macroscopic phenomena taken for granted might display extraordinary characteristics microscopically. The microscopic world was often so strange, unobservable, and unimaginable.
Now, at this level, he could at least perceive some magical particles and feel their interactions and movement forms. If magical perception continued improving to Diamond or Epic levels, he didn't doubt his magical perception would enter even more incredible levels.
Perhaps then, his current magical particle phenomena would also become unrecognisable, requiring continued overthrow of past understanding to form new systems. He was mentally prepared for this. Perhaps this was some gift left by his previous life's education.
As his new system gradually took shape, various magical lustres on his system panel, though still flickering occasionally, had undoubtedly stabilised considerably compared to before. Even the lustre's richness had improved significantly.
Seeing this, he also showed joy. He naturally wouldn't think his shallow understanding could truly encompass magic's essence. At most, this could only encompass and explain some magic currently in his eyes. To stronger wizards, such understanding might seem absurd and chaotic.
But human understanding of the world was inherently spiralling upward. At least now, this will and magical particle system could encompass his previous magical understanding while covering some microscopic magical phenomena. This was temporarily sufficient.
As for the remaining flickering, unstable phenomena on the system panel, he understood why. His previous magical understanding was built on millions of practice sessions, with his body developing muscle memory; that's why it was so solid and reliable. No matter the situation, it let him stably release every spell.
Now he had new magical understanding, like learning completely new knowledge. Just understanding it, could that make him use it freely? Could it change deeply ingrained usage habits? Of course not.
To completely update and iterate his magical system required practice; only more diligent practice than those millions of previous sessions could forge deeper muscle memory, completely overriding past usage habits.
Others might find such enormous practice numbers daunting. But his face showed only smiles. Just needing continuous practice to make progress, wasn't this a kind of luck? What was there to complain about? Better to wave the wand a few more times than waste time complaining.
Next moment, he was completely serious. From wand waving movements and force, to thoughts in his mind and magical flow, starting from these most basic aspects. Just like when he first began practising magic, he practised the most basic spells again and again.
"Terra-Laxus!"
"Arbor-Siccus!"
"Lumos!"
Softening Charm, Pruning Charm, and Lumos were spells even first-year students disdained practising. He immersed himself joyfully. Every casting seemed to bring new sensations.
[Softening Charm (Platinum, stabilising)]
[Pruning Charm (Platinum, stabilising)]
[Lumos (Platinum, stabilising)]
On the system panel, one by one, the floating, unstable light on spell names was polished, becoming increasingly solid. In a blink, it was a week later.