As reward orbs flowed into him one by one, Ciel's ears seemed to echo with the sound of deep sea waves churning. Power from the North Sea Kraken's blood, catalysed by two other magical creature bloods, became increasingly prominent.
On his system panel, lines of notifications scrolled past. The [Limb Regeneration] ability text appeared clearly on the system panel, with clear diamond radiance rapidly spreading across its lustre.
As this process continued, intense itching suddenly flared from wounds across his body. His pupils contracted slightly as he looked at these injuries. The sight that met his eyes left him astonished.
"What?!"
The countless deep wounds that had exposed bone began rapidly sprouting flesh buds to fill the injuries. Not long ago, he had looked like he'd been tortured, with white bones protruding everywhere.
But after harvesting the blood jade for just moments, those gruesome wounds had already healed more than halfway. Some shallower wounds had almost completely sealed, showing barely any traces of his previous severe injuries.
This recovery speed amazed even him. This was still when the reward orbs' power hadn't been fully absorbed and the [Limb Regeneration] ability hadn't yet advanced to Diamond level. The effectiveness far exceeded his estimates!
A hypothesis formed in his mind: "Could it be because of my Legendary Life ability? Limb regeneration must relate to life force. Even at the same ability level, the thicker one's life force, the faster regeneration naturally occurs."
"My Legendary Life has already undergone sublimation once, so my injury recovery speed is already extremely fast. Therefore, limb regeneration's effects are also greatly enhanced."
"Originally, I estimated Diamond-level limb regeneration might achieve similar effects. But now, without reaching Diamond level, this recovery speed already exceeds my expectations."
His eyes blazed with fervour: "So if it advances to Diamond level, what would that performance be like?!"
Just as he felt anticipation, the diamond lustre on his system panel grew increasingly brilliant. As the reward orbs' power continued releasing, finally, the last trace of platinum radiance on the limb regeneration ability was replaced by clear diamond light.
[Limb Regeneration (Diamond Level)] - Advanced!
At this moment, he immediately felt his body's flesh and blood become even more active than before. Simultaneously, his once-sublimated Legendary Life ability's legendary radiance brightened slightly.
This was feedback from the limb regeneration ability's advancement, showing how powerful this ability had become. Joy appeared in his eyes.
This performance meant limb regeneration ability could likely become a puzzle piece for Legendary Life's continued sublimation, contributing to the next sublimation trait's emergence.
He took a deep breath: "The suffering I endured earlier was worth it. But Legendary Life's second sublimation is still too distant from my current state. Let me first test Diamond-level limb regeneration's current performance."
After pondering briefly, his gaze fell on his toes. For safety, he'd test with toes first. Even if something went wrong, it wouldn't affect much.
Then Sectumsempra struck, immediately producing a flash of blood. His toe was severed and fell to the ground.
But immediately after, a scene that greatly shocked him occurred. His flesh transmitted slight burning sensations as a powerful life force surged toward the severed area. Flesh began writhing.
In less than a second, a perfectly intact toe had grown out, identical to before!
His eyes brightened. This regeneration ability still exceeded his estimates. "If that's the case..."
Soon after, his gaze fell on his calf. The same Sectumsempra severed his left leg at the knee. But it only took a few seconds more than regenerating the toe for a new calf to regrow.
He then experimented like some perverted self-harm maniac, testing limb regeneration ability on various organs throughout his body. Arms, legs, eyes, tongue, then internal organs like spleen, lungs, intestines, and stomach.
The results made his heartbeat accelerate involuntarily: "Damage that would be completely irreparable for ordinary people recovers on my body as simply as growing hair or nails."
"Hands and feet recover fastest. Even if an entire arm is severed at the shoulder, about five seconds can regenerate a completely new arm without any unfamiliar stiffness."
"Nose and tongue regenerated similarly to limbs, while more complex organs like eyes took longer—about a minute to regrow completely. Internal organs were somewhat slower, generally requiring around thirty seconds."
For safety, he didn't attempt his brain. Even Diamond-level regeneration, enhanced by Legendary Life, probably couldn't restore brain tissue. He wasn't that reckless.
As for the heart, he estimated that partial damage should heal like other organs, just taking longer. Complete destruction would likely prove fatal even for him.
Feeling his current recovery ability, he clenched his fists: "Just like trolls mentioned in fantasy novels. Ordinary vital points barely exist on my body anymore. This is only Diamond level. If I could push limb regeneration ability to Epic or even Legendary level, regenerating from drops of blood might not be impossible!"
His heart surged with excitement. Limb regeneration ability's performance had truly elevated his self-preservation capabilities by another major level.
But soon after, when he recovered from his excitement, intense fatigue swept over his body and spirit. This exhaustion made him feel quite uncomfortable. His whole body felt leaden, as if his stamina was depleted.
He frowned briefly before showing understanding: "Is this from regenerating too many limbs and organs just now? This rapidly consumes my stamina. Even Legendary Life bears an enormous burden, and multiple regenerations in short periods cause stamina depletion."
"Even my spirit becomes fatigued. So if I continuously enter this state for extended periods, my stamina and spirit might not hold up. This is indeed a drawback."
But compared to limb regeneration ability's benefits, this was almost negligible.
After resting briefly and feeling the deep fatigue begin receding, his gaze returned to his system panel. While the most prominent limb regeneration ability advanced to Diamond level, smoke breath ability had also advanced to Platinum level, flickering with diamond glimmers at the Platinum-Diamond threshold.
Its strength far exceeded ordinary Platinum-level abilities. He was quite anticipating this ability.
If he remembered correctly, according to the North Sea Kraken, when it first encountered Lady Hufflepuff, it relied on this move to escape. Avoiding being captured back to Hogwarts as food ingredients.
Lady Hufflepuff was already among the magical world's top wizards. Just from her Patronus crossing millennia, her magical mastery was definitely the Legendary level with three sublimations.
Though the North Sea Kraken was powerful, except for physical strength, everything else was dimensionally reduced before Lady Hufflepuff. Despite such vast differences, it still managed to escape?
This ability definitely had unique qualities.
As his gaze fell on this ability, he suddenly felt his throat itch, similar to when he'd previously gained dragon fire ability from blood jade. Something seemed to be growing?
Now, as he concentrated, the throat itching intensified. Then he couldn't help coughing once. Immediately, a mass of black smoke gushed from his mouth, instantly enveloping the surrounding area.
As this black smoke covered everything, his vision became completely dark. This greatly surprised him. Platinum-level night vision couldn't penetrate this darkness?
Moreover, after careful sensing, he discovered this black smoke also had magic perception-blocking effects! Within it, his own magic perception remained unaffected, but other wizards' magic perception would be severely disrupted and greatly weakened.
The stronger the wizard, the less they relied on eyes during combat, instead depending on magical sensing. Caught off guard, even powerful wizards would struggle to adapt when magic perception was disrupted.
No wonder the North Sea Kraken could escape from Lady Hufflepuff using this move.
Then his eyes flickered as he thought of another application for this ability. Besides escape, perhaps he could use the sprayed black smoke to create more favourable combat environments.
Like the Auror Quintaped he'd previously fought. Even one transformed from an ordinary Auror had magic perception enhanced to exaggerated levels, plus rich combat experience.
In direct combat, he almost had no ability to fight back, only dodging left and right while growing increasingly strained. Fortunately, he'd had the Invisibility Cloak, directly negating its magic perception and allowing him to kill it on the spot.
But the Invisibility Cloak was an external force after all. It didn't belong to him; it was just temporary borrowing that had to be returned to Harry.
But this black mist was his own ability. Though its effect of disrupting enemy magic perception couldn't compare to the Deathly Hallow Invisibility Cloak, it had similar functions.
If he had possessed this ability then, catching the Auror Quintaped off-guard during the adaptation gap, he might have created opportunities to kill it himself!
Thinking this, he nodded with satisfaction: "This ability's applications could be further developed later."
Finally, his gaze fell on the whirlpool ability. After harvesting blood jade, this ability had also reached Platinum level, though its lustre showed it wasn't high within Platinum level. Incomparable to [Smoke Breath], which already flickered with diamond glimmers.
He also tested this ability. He slowly extended his hand into a water tank in the greenhouse. Then a wonderful sensation arose in his heart, like he could stir up tremendous waves in water at will.
Following this feeling, he concentrated. Indeed, the water tank emitted howling sounds as water flowed rapidly in circles, forming a whirlpool.
As the whirlpool howled, even the reinforced tank walls creaked under strain, beginning to warp and deform under the water's rampage.
He then stopped, nodding slightly. In terms of single-target damage, the whirlpool ability naturally couldn't match his ancient weather magic, nor Sectumsempra, nor even laser spells.
But regarding damage range, none of his current spells could compare. Though it mainly worked in water and seemed unable to function in waterless land environments, appearing somewhat limited, he felt this ability had considerable development potential.
Regardless, this blood jade harvest had been tremendously profitable for him! And this was just an unexpected bonus. He hadn't yet assessed his real gains from this period.
Then he took out a large bottle containing Quintaped blood he'd collected from the Forbidden Forest trial. Looking at this blood, his eyes blazed with fervour.
In a sense, this was his greatest harvest. So much Quintaped blood was enough to cultivate another large batch of mutant Human-Face Glowing Mushrooms. This meant he could obtain several times or even over ten times more ancient ash than before!
Such quantities of ancient ash would support his research into ancient plant cultivation for some time. Any breakthrough in these projects would yield unimaginable benefits.
He hadn't forgotten his feud with the entity in Delia Island's temple. Cultivating mutant Human-Face Glowing Mushrooms could forcibly syphon some power from the temple, weakening it.
This would make causing trouble for him more difficult. Strengthening himself while weakening enemies was truly beneficial.
But now, Hogwarts's turbulent atmosphere hadn't yet settled. This wasn't the time to induce mutant Human-Face Glowing Mushrooms. He didn't rush to use this Quintaped blood immediately, instead storing it properly.
After assessing his gains, he remained quite satisfied. But besides gains, this Forbidden Forest trial hadn't been without losses.
His gaze fell on the Serpensortia spell on his system panel. Originally enhanced by cursed jewellery to the Diamond level temporarily, it had now fallen to the Platinum-Diamond threshold.
This occurred because when he used curse magic against Quintapeds, the Quintapeds' internal magic created strange conflicts with the curse magic. Though those Quintapeds' magical balance began collapsing due to curses, his cursed jewellery had almost all crumbled to powder. Even Ocean Heart-level cursed jewellery was no exception.
He could only shake his head. After all, those Quintapeds were Voldemort's handiwork. Losing this cursed jewellery was already fortunate. Otherwise, it might have cost several young wizards' lives.
The cursed jewellery losses weren't particularly devastating. He had spent this time enduring constant curse erosion, gaining considerable curse magic insights. From Serpensortia maintaining Platinum-Diamond levels, this was evident.
Given more time, relying on his mastery of curse studies, he was confident he could push Serpensortia back to Diamond level.
Now, just as his attention moved from his damaged, cursed objects, a weak call reached his ears: "Save me... I don't want to disappear yet..."
He raised an eyebrow, following the sound. He discovered it was the voodoo doll he'd been exploiting.
Other cursed objects had all been destroyed, yet this voodoo doll barely survived? Only most of its body had disintegrated, leaving just a grotesque head making pleading sounds.
He was quite surprised. In terms of curse magic strength, this voodoo doll ranked nowhere among his cursed objects. Yet it had survived.
Was this because this cursed object was created by Quirrell, whose crafting methods far exceeded those of the unknown dark wizards who created cursed jewellery? Or because of his previous exploitation, this voodoo doll had absorbed massive curse magic from other cursed jewellery, undergoing some strange transformation?
This sparked some interest in the previously uninterested him. This voodoo doll had some value. Curses were indeed a strange, powerful method in the magical world. Preserving it might prove useful in certain situations.
As for how to save this voodoo doll on the verge of dissipation, there were methods. His curse studies had reached Platinum level. While not claiming deep understanding of this field, few wizards in the magical world understood it better.
"Voodoo dolls are actually intended to summon vengeful spirits from the River Styx to cast extremely malicious, powerful curses. So their best medium isn't cloth or paper, but flesh."
"The more abundant the flesh, the more powerful the flesh, especially from the caster themselves; the more it can unleash voodoo dolls' true power. But even the most deranged dark wizards don't dare use flesh to make voodoo dolls."
"The reason is simple. Using this method requires continuously feeding the voodoo doll with one's own flesh. Its appetite grows daily until the creator becomes bleached bones."
"Using it can indeed curse enemies to death, but the creator also can't escape. Dark wizards aren't suicidal maniacs, so they naturally wouldn't use such methods. This led to using cloth and paper for voodoo dolls instead."
His eyes flickered slightly. The drawbacks of using flesh to make voodoo dolls were unbearable for other dark wizards. But for his current self, they were trivial.
How much flesh could one voodoo doll need? Just the hands, feet, eyes, and organs he'd previously severed could feed it for ages!
His eyes showed anticipation: "I wonder if the magical world has precedent for using Legendary Life to make voodoo dolls. What level would such a voodoo doll's curse strength reach?"
He licked his lips slightly. Next moment, he gathered the various organs and flesh scattered on the ground, stuffing them into the voodoo doll's mouth.