Finding a hardware store in London without modern conveniences like google maps was harder than expected, until I remembered that I could simply ask someone.
It took me a few tries before I found someone who knew where to find a hardware store and I had to ask again after a couple of streets because I couldn't find the landmark the previous person mentioned.
I have only been to London once in my previous life and that was in the late 2000s not 1991 and even during my alternate self's life here I rarely left the orphanage for anything other than going to school.
Half an hour later I found my target and walked in, directly buying a sledgehammer that I was just barely able to carry after converting some of my Company salary into Pounds rather than Galleons.
The shop clerk didn't even bat an eye when he saw a kid buy a sledgehammer that he could barely carry, making him my favourite person today.
After moving away from the shop I turned into a side street and stuffed the hammer into my suitcase while making sure nobody saw me. I gave a silent thanks to whoever enchanted it after picking it up again because they thought about applying weight reduction enchantments too.
I didn't take the knight bus to return to the orphanage this time but took the normal public transport since there were a lot more people on the streets, better be safe than sorry as the saying goes.
By the time I returned to the orphanage I already missed lunch and there were still a few hours before dinner.
So after notifying Agatha of my return and telling her everything regarding my school was taken care of I returned to my room and sat down to make some plans for the mission.
The mission stated that the difficulty will be adjusted to my Tier based on the Company's rating system, so I decided to check what the possible enemies might be.
Browsing through the Company's catalogue for Tier 4 enemies I winced at how broad the spectrum for a Tier 4 classification was.
As a human with magic potential and some training in using it I was on the same Tier as a Cosmere Koloss or a Silent Hill Pyramid Head or even a Xenomorph from the Alien movies.
I was pretty sure If I encountered any of those I would be ripped to shreds in seconds, especially since I didn't even know the Protego charm yet and my offensive options were a low power cutting spell and a low power fire spell.
There was the possibility of encountering more than one enemy too since the second Objective mentioned defeating "every" foe in a Floor for the first time.
The freezing charm "Immobulus" was capable of affecting an area, but the stronger and larger the targets the less effective it would be.
There was also the issue of some creatures having innate magic resistance, like trolls, giants and dragons.
Petrificus Totalus was a more powerful option, turning the target to stone temporarily, but it only affected one target for each cast. Stupefy was another option, it attacked the mind and knocked the target out, unfortunately I never learned how to cast Stupefy.
Maybe I could find Stupefy and some other useful spells like Protego in the new books I bought. I wouldn't be able to practice it but learning the theory and remembering the wand motions could be enough to practice on a target during the mission if I managed to immobilise one.
Having decided on a course of action I checked the time on my phone, seeing I still had 3 hours before dinner I put my suitcase on my desk and started browsing through my books.
I found the knockout spell "Stupefy" rather easily and I discovered just how stupidly effective the "Soul Talent" really is.
I felt like I could perform the spell after just reading through the guide in the book once. I really had to hold myself back from taking out my wand and just trying it out on the spot to see if it was just overconfidence on my part or the actual effect of "Soul Talent".
Protego was a little harder to understand but after re-reading the instructions two times I also felt like I had a solid theoretical foundation for the spell and only needed practice.
With 2 more hours to go I just went through the books and tried to memorise anything that seemed useful in a combat situation.
Levioso , Descendo, Depulso and Arresto Momentum were decent additions to my kit and might work well with the sledgehammer, especially after using Engorgio on it.
Descendo and Depulso transformed magic into kinetic force and Arresto Momentum used magic to remove kinetic force from a target, so it should circumvent magic resistance partially.
Surprisingly I felt that learning these four spells was significantly easier than Stupefy or Protego because I already knew Flipendo and Wingardium Leviosa, both being kinetic manipulation spells too.
There was no doubt that this was the work of Soul Talent, it appears that Soul Talent was not active for my alternate self until we merged, otherwise I would have already learned every spell in the Hogwarts library within those 2 years.
The last spell I looked up was the "Disillusionment" charm. It was theoretically on the same difficulty as Protego, but I understood the theory of it almost instantly and even felt like I could figure out how to improve it with some practice. Once again thanks to Covert and Soul talents working in tandem.
It seemed like I made the correct choice when spending my initial credits. With Soul Talent I would be able to grow quickly and with Covert Talent I would be able to hide my growth reasonably well.
Putting away the books and closing the suitcase reluctantly I headed back down to eat some dinner and told the caretakers that I would be focusing on studying ahead for my new school year to prevent them from asking why I'll be coped up in my room for the majority of my time here.
After taking care of that I went to my room, locked the door and changed into my robes.
The mission said that damage to body, mind and soul would be repaired, but it did not mention anything about possessions. I really hoped that my wand won't break in there, I'll literally have to protect it with my life until I know for sure though.
I pulled up my hammer from the suitcase, closed it and shoved it below the bed.
Checking for my wand in my robe and making sure it can be drawn easily, I took out my phone , went to the mission tab and accepted the Bloody Palace mission directly.
Nothing happened and I checked my missions again, the Bloody Palace mission was now listed in the first of three slots for active missions and it had the "Start Mission" button below it now.
That meant I won't immediately be sent on missions as soon as I accepted them thankfully.
Which also meant I could use up my last re-roll for today to see if there were any other good missions, which I did immediately.
Nothing useful came up unfortunately , although I shook my head again at the absurdity of some of these missions, there was one about making Queenie Goldstein and Bartie Crouch Jr. fall in love, which was really unreasonable. Queenie was born in the very early 1900 and was nearing the 90 years of age if she was even still alive.
Since I already finished all preparations there was no point in putting this off any further, so I took my hammer in one hand and pressed on "Start Mission" with the other. I quickly put away the phone when I saw a countdown of 5 seconds and drew my wand.
I arrived on a stony platform with roughly 50 meters space to each side, with weird almost organic looking patterns in the stone floor.
There were mountains of corpses on all sides with spikes made of bone sticking out of the piles and impaling some of those corpses. Thankfully I couldn't smell any of that and it was likely thanks to the barrier surrounding the platform that I could just barely see shimmering faintly.
The sky was grey and cloudy with a purple sun shining through the clouds giving the entire place a really bleak atmosphere.
On the opposite side of the platforms were 4 pink slimes and I was not sure whether to feel amused or insulted at being paired off with four Tier 1 enemies, but it was just the first floor, likely something like a tutorial level.
Seeing that they were already moving in my direction I sent the first spell at them, not worrying about the trace any more since I was in an alternate dimension judging by the purple sun.
"Immobulus!"
I tried to see how well my magic worked against them, but I was not overly concerned as most slimes in stories are described to have a weakness against magic.
All 4 froze up immediately and I decided to practice a little on one of them since these were likely the weakest enemies I would have to face today.
I levitated one of them a bit to the side so I wouldn't accidentally hit the others, while still keeping them in sight.
I decided to give one of my newly learned spells a try and sent a Depulso at the airborne slime.
The effect was a little exaggerated, it completely splattered into a rain of slime and I just stared at the spot where the slime used to be.
Shrugging my shoulders I picked up the next one with Wingardium Leviosa and placed it down gently, afraid of destroying it by accident this time.
After I placed it down I used Levioso instead to make it float up to compare the effect with Wingardium Leviosa and I noticed that I had no control over the slime while it was airborne.
The slime just kept levitating in place when affected by Levioso, while Wingardium Leviosa allowed me to move the target slowly while the target was in the air.
The upside of Levioso, beside the shorter chant however, was that the target stayed in the air for a longer time and did not start falling as soon as I stopped channeling the spell.
I continued with testing Descendo and once again the Slime met an exaggerated end as it was sent hurtling towards the floor and splattered like a water balloon.
While these were likely the weakest enemies that I would ever face, I found the effectiveness of my spells a bit suspicious.
To test my theory I sent a full power Diffindo at the floor and marvelled at the deep and long cut it left in the stone floor. I knew very clearly that in the past even my best efforts only left shallow cuts in wood and at most a simple scratch on stone.
I sent another Immobulus at the two remaining slimes to refresh the effect and took out my phone. I think I might know the culprit for my power boost.
I went to my talents and scrolled down to the end of the "Soul Talent" description and my suspicions were confirmed.
"Many magical styles benefit from both Soul and Science Talents. In these cases, Soul Talent improves your improvisation ability and raw power."
Taking a look at the still immobilised slimes, I go to the mission description and check the last condition.
For fairness sake, you WON'T BE ABLE TO CAPTURE any of the foes in the Palace, and the effects of your Talents and Defenses will be reduced to their lower capacity until the completion of the mission.
"Damn , THAT is already the lower capacity?" I asked out loud incredulously.
My spells were between three to five times stronger already and it was the lower capacity? To be fair I was just a 13 year old brat with barely developed magic before, but the increase was truly a little drastic.
I knew I wouldn't be able to completely clear the Bloody Palace with my current arsenal of spells, but my chances of beating or at least reaching the first boss dramatically improved with this revelation.
Putting the phone away again after having confirmed my theory, I continued with testing spells on the slimes.
I pulled the third slime to the side again and dispelled the Immobulus charm on it.
As soon as it started moving again I used a stupefy on it to test whether these types of enemies could be knocked out, unfortunately the test was inconclusive as it burst apart after getting hit by the spell and died. I didn't even know someone could die from a stupefy.
With only one slime left I decided it should be safe enough to test my Protego spell.
I tried casting it a few times to get the hang of it and had no issues, my theoretical knowledge translated well into practical ability and so far I was able to perform every spell I learned from books immediately.
I walked up to the last slime, undid the freezing spell and cast a Protego just as it launched itself in my direction with a surprisingly fast jump, only to bounce off the shield spell.
I barely registered the impact and knew I could withstand thousands of similar attacks, but that's just a Tier 1 slime, so I didn't let that give me any false sense of safety. I will try to avoid attacks first and foremost instead of counting on protego holding out against everything.
I distanced myself from the slime again and sent a "Petrificus Totalus" at it, watching as a layer of stone grew over the slime.
I was wondering whether it would die from this too, but surprisingly it kept wiggling around and started rolling in random directions.
Cracks started forming on the stone surface after a while and some slime began oozing out.
It appeared like this type of spell had no significant effect on enemies with liquid bodies because it only formed a layer of stone on their surface, leaving the liquid to move freely within.
Deciding to finish it off with the strongest combo just for fun I made my hammer levitate above it.
"Engorgio!"
My sledgehammer grew to five times its size and I finally felt a strain on my magic as I kept it afloat above the slime.
"Descendo!"
The hammer smashed down with a force that made the entire stage tremble and formed a crater, with the slime right next to the crater. It somehow managed to wiggle out of the way at the last second.
I made a mental note to work on my aim or immobilise my targets next time while chuckling at the still wiggling stone ball.
Making the hammer float back to me and shrinking it back to normal size I cast a fire spell on the slime and watched as the stone cracked open and the slime evaporated in seconds. It looked like even my fire spell was stronger now.
As soon as the slime died, a pool of bubbling silvery liquid opened up in the center of the arena and I knew this was the portal to the next stage.
I checked the mission objectives on my phone briefly and smiled as I saw the first two counted as completed.
Objective 1: Defeat a foe for the first time.
Reward [ Credits ] : 5 (Complete)
Objective 2: Defeat every foe in a Floor for the first time.
Reward [ Credits ] : 5 (Complete)
The next objective was reaching floor 10.
I put away the phone and walked towards the pool of liquid.
Apparently I did not have to jump in, as I got transported to the second floor when I approached the liquid with the intention to continue.
Four zombies stood at the other end of the second floor arena and everything still looked the same. The cut and the small crater from the hammer were gone however, so it was a new space even if it looked identical to the last floor.
The zombies started moving with a disconcerting groan as soon as I looked in their direction, they were rather slow but much faster than the slime's snail pace.
There was no need for any more experiments, so I directly sent a full power cutting spell in their direction.
Three heads rolled down on the floor at the same time followed by their bodies while the last one only lost an arm because he was taller than the others.
Since there was still one left I decided to indulge my curiosity and quickly sent a Stupefy at it.
Other than staggering the zombie a bit it did nothing, undead couldn't be knocked out it seemed.
I sent another Diffindo at it to finish it off and the next floor became available.
Three green goblins greeted me with a shriek on the next stage and started running towards me while brandishing stone knives. These were not the ones from the Harry Potter world, they were the classic RPG trash mobs found everywhere across the multiverse.
Their shrieks turned confused as they were hit with an Immobulus and silent as their heads toppled to the ground.I got a little queasy as I saw the blood spray out of their necks.
Slimes didn't cause this reaction because they never gave off the feeling of a living being and Zombies obviously were not living.
These three goblins were alive however, feral and intent on murdering me, but still living beings.
I took a few deep breaths to compose myself. In this mission I would have to face living enemies again and they would all try to kill me, which only allowed me two choices. To kill or to be killed.
I shook myself out of my dark thoughts and resolved myself not to hesitate.
Thankfully I killed all three goblins at once. If I only got one and started to have second thoughts mid fight I might have been hurt or killed by the other two as they were quite fast for the brief moment where they were able to move.
I looked at the goblins lying in a pool of blood again and sighed, walking towards the next stage.
Floor 4 greeted me with 3 skeletons holding rusty swords, a wide-range Depulso scattered their bones all over the stage and opened the next portal in just a few seconds. Apparently Skeletons were universally weak to blunt forces.
Seeing one of the swords lying on the floor with a skeletal hand still attached to it I decided to test something again.
I removed the hand and cast a Reparo on the sword, making the rust vanish and the sword return to its prime condition.
Next I made a small cut on the edge of my robe and put a slight nick on the handle of my hammer.
After doing all that I shrunk the sword to knife size, put it into a pocket of my robe and walked to the next floor.
On floor 5 I came face to face with two wolves who didn't attack immediately upon seeing me but started to growl and make threatening noises. Their behaviour was likely the result of my Creature Defense. It was in its reduced state however and after I sent a stupefy at one of the wolves, knocking it out , the other rushed me with its teeth bared.
It bounced off a hastily erected Protego barrier and got lifted up into the air by a follow up Levioso where it flailed its limbs as if trying to swim mid air.
I winced at how cute that looked and my resolve for killing faltered immediately. I decided to knock it out with Stupefy too.
Seeing both wolves lying unconsciously on the floor I just couldn't bring myself to kill them, I was a dog person and these were just two angry doggos.
"I defeated them, this should count, right ?"
I asked the empty air and surprisingly a portal opened up after a few seconds, making me sigh in relief.
After checking the cuts on my robe and hammer handle which were still there I reached for the knife sized sword in my pocket only to find it gone.
I took note that objects found on one floor can't be moved to the next and that damage sustained to my own objects won't be repaired between floors, making me even more wary about damaging my wand.
With nothing else to do on this floor I simply moved on to the next.
Two robotic spiders with blade-like forelegs rushed me as soon as I got to the next floor and I sent them flying backwards with another wide-range Depulso, following up with a Petrificus Totalus and hitting one of them on its legs.
The petrification process was fast but not instant and it managed a few more steps before its joints were petrified, making it incapable of movement.
The other quickly resumed its charge and jumped over another Depulso shockwave , making me sidestep the airborne spider quickly as its bladed leg narrowly missed my head.
Aiming at the spot the spider would land on, I hit it with a Levioso and watched warily as it struggled mid air but was unable to find any purchase to move from its spot above the ground.
Checking behind me to see whether the petrified robot was moving again, I found it still completely immobile.
It appeared like petrifying robots was a valid strategy.
I levitated the still struggling airborne spider above the other spider and petrified it too, stacking both on top of each other and flattening them with a gigantified hammer into a robot spider sandwich.
Floor 7 had me face two silent hill nurses armed with metal pipes.
My opening move was a Diffindo that I sent towards them as soon as I saw them shambling with their creepy walk towards me, but they blocked the majority of the spell's power with their pipes.
I only left deep cuts on their necks after slicing through the pipes instead of decapitating them, which was apparently not lethal and they continued to move towards me.
As I prepared another Diffindo they surprised me by throwing the remains of their pipes at me.
One whistled by my head and the other hit me in the chest, disrupting my spell and making me stagger back.
Gritting my teeth in pain while walking backwards I took a moment to compose myself and sent a Depulso at both nurses who got dangerously close, finishing them with a quick Diffindo as they were stumbling to regain balance.
After making sure both enemies were dead I opened up my robe and checked my chest.
I had no trouble breathing thankfully and no bones seemed broken, but I would have a nasty bruise very soon.
Thankfully the one aimed at my head missed and I only got hit by the flat side of the other pipe, not the freshly cut sharp edge.
Placing the hammer on the ground I enlarged it and used the hammerhead as a seat to take a short break and think.
So far I have abused the ability to stop enemies from moving to both assist my aiming and to prevent them from reaching me and engaging me in melee combat.
My best option for that was Immobulus because it can target an area, the downside of it was the limit on both size and physical strength of the target.
The goblins who just barely reached 1 meter in height were my upper limit and only because they were rather weak physically.
I knew it would be impossible to restrain the wolves with it because while similar in height , their strength was significantly greater.
Which left me with single target spells, and I could only launch them one by one.
Even worse, I had to aim those single target spells and they can be dodged and maybe even blocked with a shield or some other physical obstacle as the nurses had demonstrated.
I had many options for improvement, adapting spells for area effects , adapting spells to launch multiple projectiles , add target seeking properties, or maybe even pre-casting spells and holding them without launching.
All those options were not available to me because I didn't know how to change existing spells or make new ones.
For now I had another idea on how to improve my combat ability.
So far I have recited the spell incantations and did the wand movements precisely, but I was aware that those steps are just training wheels for shaping magic and imbuing it with intent.
Starting with Diffindo I began practicing low power slashes, first doing it with incantation and wand motion and slowly trying to feel how my magic moved, then trying to omit either the wand motion or incantation and seeing how it affected the magic.
It took 30 minutes of trial and error and likely a large amount of help from "Soul Talent" but I was able to reliably cast Diffindo with a simple swipe of my wand.
It reminded me a lot of the flying sword slashes in anime and it quickly became one of my favourite spells.
Next was Protego, I had to be able to cast it quickly to defend against nasty surprises like zombie nurses throwing metal pipes at me.
It barely took 15 minutes to get Protego down to nonverbal standard, likely because I already understood the principle and only had to apply it to another spell.
The last one was Levioso and this one was so simple that it only took 5 minutes.
With those three I had one offensive , one defensive and one control spell ready to be cast on metaphorical speed dial.
Feeling ready to continue I shrunk the hammer back to normal size and after some consideration shrunk it further to a size that would fit into a pocket.
Thankfully the weight of the objects got adjusted alongside their size when transfigured.
Floor 8 only had a single enemy and I was very glad to have practiced Protego to nonverbal standards.
A goblin shaman threw a fireball at me as soon as it set its sights on me and I managed to set up the Protego just in time , making the fireball explode on contact and sending cracks through the shield. It held, thankfully but it was close.
The flash of fire obscured my sight of the goblin, but I still sent a quick slash at where I remembered it standing.
The agonised screech told me I hit my mark but it was not fatal.
I cast a Protego again and moved out of the dust cloud to find the goblin missing both legs and clutching at its stumps while shrieking in agony, paying me no attention.
I sent another slash at it , taking its head off and silencing its screams.
The gory scene still made my head spin slightly but I didn't get nauseous this time.
I took a few minutes to compose myself and moved to the last floor before the boss fight without delaying any further.
Protego was cast before I even saw my enemy and it was the correct decision as I heard a gunshot go off just a second later.
I felt an impact on the shield, sending cracks through it but failing to penetrate.
Following the sound to its source, I found a zombie dressed as a pirate putting away its gun and drawing a saber.
Instead of a Diffindo that I knew could be blocked, I sent an Expeliarmus for the first time during this mission. The zombie was hit dead center and pushed back some distance as both the saber and the holstered gun were flung away.
Instead of charging in unarmed, the zombie displayed some intelligence by watching me warily and moving towards the direction where its saber clattered to the floor.
Not letting it arm itself again I sent a barrage of nonverbal Levioso spells at it, two of which were dodged before it got hit by the third.
I swiftly followed up by a slash that finished it off as it hung helplessly mid air.
I walked over to the dropped gun and looked it over, this was the first time I encountered an enemy using guns.
It was a very old looking gun, likely the type that needed to be loaded from the front and had only a single shot.
Having already tested that nothing found on the floors could be taken to the next one, I left the gun and saber behind and made my way to the first boss fight.