The sled glided smoothly across the snow-covered ground.
"Brother Damian is so amazing! He restored the broken sled to its original state in an instant!"
The little girl excitedly gestured with her small hands, mimicking the shape of the reconstructed wood.
Damian smiled gently. "When Tina turns ten, she'll be able to go to the Northland United Wizard Academy to study."
Throughout the journey, Damian had learned quite a few useful things from Chris.
The Northland United Wizard Academy was jointly established by various wizarding organizations in the northern region. These factions then selected their wizard apprentice candidates directly from the academy's graduates.
The academy recruited children around ten years old who possessed magical aptitude, teaching them the absolute basics of magic. It was the easiest and most standard way to enter the magical world.
Damian couldn't help but feel a twinge of regret. He was already fourteen and had completely missed the enrollment age for the Academy. To join a local wizarding organization, he would have to find another route.
"Chris," Damian asked, looking toward the front of the sled. "Besides the Academy, are there any other ways to join wizarding organizations in the Northland?"
Chris kept his eyes on the trail, turning his head only slightly. "If you have a recommendation letter from a current member, you can apply directly."
"Or, you can apply by passing the Formal Wizard examination."
Formal wizards were relatively rare in this world. As long as their philosophies aligned, most wizarding organizations generally wouldn't turn a fully qualified mage away.
Neither method was exactly easy. Damian thought for a moment before asking, "Are there any other ways besides those two?"
He was a complete newcomer with no connections to obtain a recommendation letter. He hadn't even grasped how the localized magic of this world functioned, let alone how to pass their Formal Wizard exam.
Chris pondered the question. "Several kingdoms in the Northland region recruit Court Wizards. My great-uncle was actually a Court Wizard for the Blizzard Kingdom."
"He passed away some time ago, but he left behind a vacant residence in White Stone Town. We can stay there."
Damian followed up closely, "Are there any specific requirements to become a Court Wizard?"
"The threshold isn't too high," Chris explained. "They recruit many non-formal members just to handle daily, mundane affairs. As long as you have the talent to become a wizard and aren't a Dark Wizard, you can join the court. However, becoming a formal, ranked member requires passing a rather difficult exam."
Damian nodded in understanding. Court Wizards were clearly tied up with worldly, political affairs, which would leave them much less time for genuine magical research.
Still, Chris was an ordinary man. His knowledge was based on hearsay and family history, which might not be entirely accurate. Damian knew he would still need to find a real wizard to fully understand the landscape of this world.
Suddenly, Damian's expression shifted.
He noticed the surrounding mist growing unnaturally thick. The rustling forest had plunged into an eerie, dead silence.
With his sharp senses, he could feel the magic weaving through the fog. As a newcomer, he initially wasn't sure if this was just a natural weather phenomenon in the Northland.
But the mist quickly grew denser, and the magic within it became increasingly active—and hostile.
Suddenly, a sensation like thousands of icy ants crawling down his spine seized him. He turned around abruptly.
A lifeless face was pressed directly against his back. It was deathly pale, looking exactly like a fresh corpse.
The creature was hairless, bearing an exaggerated, sorrowful expression. Its jaw hung slightly agape, thick black pus dripping from the corners of its mouth as its dead eyes stared intently at Damian.
Damian's eyes narrowed. With a sharp flick of his right wrist, his wand slid smoothly from his sleeve into his waiting hand. "Diffindo!"
A sharp whistle sliced the air as a transparent, crescent-shaped Severing Charm swept straight across that lifeless face.
But the creature wasn't shredded by the spell. Its mouth merely stretched impossibly wide, tearing up to its ears. More black pus spilled out, yet its sorrowful brow remained unchanged.
With a chilling, eerie smile, the monster dissipated into the misty air.
Damian frowned. "An illusion?"
Chris had heard the sharp crack of the spell and turned around. He went pale. "A Phantom Demon!"
"A Phantom Demon?"
"It's a magical creature that only exists deep in the Winter Forest. Why would one appear here?" Chris cursed bitterly. "Damn it, how did this road become so dangerous? It was perfectly safe just a few months ago!"
Crossing this mountain range eventually led to the Winter Forest. It was a sparsely populated region, known as a dangerous paradise for magical creatures.
Theoretically, the Winter Forest was isolated by a thick border of Dragon-Serpent trees. Those trees loved to feed on ambient magic, acting as a natural fence that kept the creatures trapped inside.
Dragon-Serpent trees... Damian immediately thought of the strange, aggressive flora he had burned through upon arriving.
"Chris, how much do you know about Phantom Demons?" Damian asked sharply.
Chris snapped the reins, urging the stag faster. "Not much! They're mostly just legends used to scare disobedient children in our region."
"But I did see a 'Magical Creature Guide' in my great-uncle's study once. It said Phantom Demons are highly skilled at illusion magic. They love to confuse and toy with their prey before striking."
Chris swallowed hard. "They can also transform their bodies into a spirit-like state, making physical and basic magical attacks completely ineffective against them."
A heavy silence fell over the sled.
The thick mist had completely swallowed the path. The vaguely visible treetops now looked like twisted monsters with bared fangs and brandished claws, eyeing them covetously.
Tina's small hands tightly covered her mouth. She stared nervously into the whiteout, terrified that making even a single sound would summon the monsters from her bedtime stories.
"Salvio Hexia! Protego!"
Damian waved his wand in a wide arc, casting two overlapping protective enchantments. An invisible, shimmering barrier snapped into place, fully shrouding the moving sled.
But standard Shield Charms without a continuous, focused supply of magic couldn't block a concentrated assault; they could only serve as a sturdy warning system.
A second later, Damian sensed a violent vibration striking the back of the barrier. He whipped around, but there was absolutely nothing there!
"Revelio!"
A pulse of revealing magic swept outward like a transparent ripple. Instantly, two deathly pale Phantom Demons flickered into view just outside the protective shell.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
The blue light of the Full Body-Bind Curse struck true, passing right through the chest of the nearest Phantom Demon. But the creature didn't even flinch. It remained entirely unharmed in its spirit state.
Suddenly, a massive magical fluctuation erupted from behind him.
Damian spun around. Chris and Tina were completely gone. In their place, four grotesque Phantom Demons were pouncing straight toward him!
Another illusion? Damian's mind raced. The four incoming demons were identical in size and shape. Chris and Tina had to be mixed in among them, hidden by the creatures' magic.
He pointed his wand sharply at the ground beneath his feet. The snow instantly transfigured into a towering pillar, violently launching Damian upward and quickly distancing him from the cluster of demons.
Looking down at the confused cluster, he swirled his wand in a precise, sweeping motion. "Repello Muggletum!"
He had cast the Muggle-Repelling Charm!
The tactical effect was immediate and flawless. Two of the "Phantom Demons" suddenly stopped dead in their tracks, their minds filled with an overwhelming urge to turn around and walk the other way.
"Avada Kedavra!" Having perfectly isolated the real threats from the Muggles, Damian didn't hesitate. He slashed his wand through the air, casting the Killing Curse twice in rapid succession.
Two blinding flashes of sickly green light erupted from his wand, striking the two remaining Phantom Demons square in their chests.
The creatures' spirit-like bodies were meaningless. They could not withstand a curse that directly severed the soul!
The surrounding mist instantly shattered, dissipating rapidly like a popped soap bubble.
Reality reasserted itself. The two dead Phantom Demons lay crumpled on the snowy ground, their foul magic extinguished.
Damian lowered his wand and rubbed his temples. The battle had been incredibly short, but fueling the Unforgivable Curses required extreme emotional focus. Casting it twice in a row had caused a sharp spike of mental fatigue.
The forest alongside the road was no longer suffocatingly silent. The normal, rustling sounds of the winter wind passing through the bushes had returned.
Chris and Tina, who had wandered only a few yards away under the compulsion of the charm, snapped out of their daze.
Chris dropped to his knees and hugged Tina tightly, a lingering terror gripping his heart. If it hadn't been for Damian's quick thinking, they would have been toyed to death in the snow.
He looked up, tears of gratitude in his eyes. "Lord Damian... thank you for saving us again!"
Damian simply nodded. He looked at the thinning trees on either side of the trail. "How much further to White Stone Town?"
"We're almost there," Chris said breathlessly, helping Tina back into the sled. "Once we pass this slope and take two more turns, we'll see the gates."
Damian hopped down from his snow pillar to observe the two corpses.
The illusion magic used by these creatures was the first local magic he had personally witnessed. He was deeply curious about the differences between the magical creatures of this world and those back home.
With a flick of his wand, he transfigured a patch of dense snow into a sturdy sack and levitated one of the Phantom Demon corpses inside. Now that it was dead, its spirit-like defense had faded; it could be physically touched.
Damian reached out and pressed his bare hand against the second corpse.
Instantly, the phantom metal disc in his mind shimmered. A brilliant burst of red light floated up from the dead creature and was greedily absorbed by the artifact.
Damian closed his eyes, sensing the newly stored energy.
The crystal was completely full.
From this moment on, he could activate his return ticket to Devon, England, whenever he pleased.
Every 100 stones = 1 EXTRA CHAPTER