Chapter 52: Reputation’s Feedback And Guardian Spirits
In the morning, when Vaughn opened his eyes, he felt a heaviness in his chest, almost unable to breathe.
He pulled back the covers and saw Guo Guo Cha’s large cat head resting on his chest, its eyes comfortably narrowed, furry and warm.
“Good morning, you rascal, sleeping in my bed again.”
“Meow!”
Guo Guo Cha meowed affectionately, purring and rubbing against him.
After playing with the big cat for a while, Vaughn got up. The sun was already shining on the Black Lake. His dormitory was located quite high, about ten meters above the lake’s surface.
He could see faint streaks of sunlight piercing through the ice on the lake’s surface, creating hazy ripples underwater.
Vaughn had slept very late yesterday, not because the encounter with Voldemort had been too thrilling to cause insomnia, but because he was replaying his brief confrontation with Voldemort to assess Socket Man’s current condition.
The conclusion was that it was worse than he had originally anticipated.
“Having lost Unicorn Blood, Voldemort likely relied on absorbing Quirrell’s life force to sustain himself. That’s why when Quirrell cried for help yesterday, Voldemort impatiently intervened.”
“He’s afraid… afraid of losing his last loyal servant, afraid of his resurrection plan being shattered…”
Although the shadowy figure from last night was distorted and terrifying, with immense Magic Power, and the Killing Curse was hair-raising, after recalling it, Vaughn still saw through his pretense of strength—
When Voldemort cast the Killing Curse, he didn’t even have enough energy to replace Quirrell’s Full Body-Bind Curse, allowing Vaughn to penetrate him with a Sectumsempra.
By the time Dumbledore was about to arrive, Voldemort couldn’t afford to delay for even a second.
“The once powerful Dark Lord who terrified countless people, now reduced to such a pathetic state… Destiny!”
Sighing inwardly, Vaughn washed up and, without leaving the bathroom, directly summoned the System Panel.
Today was Halloween, November 1st, the day to settle last month’s Reputation Points.
【 Host: Vaughn Weasley 】
【 Magic Power Scale: 444 (Normal Adult Wizard is 500) 】
【 Talents: Charms Mastery 7, Dark Arts 6, Transfiguration 8, Potions Mastery 10, Herbology Mastery 6, Divination Mastery 2 (Max is 10) 】
【 Spells: Legilimency LV5(MAX)… Full Body-Bind Curse LV4(0/16), Disarming Charm LV3(2/8), Shattering Curse LV1（0/4）, Disillusionment Charm LV1（1/4）, Vanishing Spell LV0（2/3）, Patronus Charm LV0（0/4）, Sectumsempra LV1（0/6）… 】
【 Potions: Felicity Potion, etc. 】
【 Reputation Points: 6 points 】
Seeing the number on his Magic Power Scale, Vaughn pursed his lips; it felt a bit inauspicious.
Skimming over the vast number of spells and potions he possessed, Vaughn focused his attention on Reputation Points.
“6 points… an increase of 1 point last month?”
Vaughn wasn’t sure what caused it, but it was likely unrelated to his reputation in potions. Since starting school, he hadn’t released any new potions for two months. The original frequency of Brewing Potions for sale every half month had also been reduced due to his studies. Fortunately, the reduction in products didn’t affect the spread of his reputation.
“Was it because I joined the Slytherin Quidditch team, or because of killing the Troll last night? Or both?”
Unfortunately, the calculation method for reputation couldn’t be quantified, and the System didn’t display the details.
After a moment of confusion, Vaughn stopped thinking about it. Looking at the settled points, he thought for a moment and spent 4 points to directly upgrade the Patronus Charm to LV1(0/8).
He spent 1 point to upgrade the Vanishing Spell to LV1（0/6）.
He had 1 point left, which he’d save for next month’s settlement.
The reason he didn’t invest Reputation Points into the Scarping Apparition Curse this time was that at LV3, this spell required 32 points to max out.
6 points would be a drop in the bucket. Anyway, LV3 Scarping Apparition Curse was sufficient. He would also use it frequently when developing potions later, so he could improve his spell proficiency through practice.
As for why he chose to upgrade the Patronus Charm and Vanishing Spell…
It was simply because these two spells were very difficult. For over a month, Vaughn’s spell practice had been frustrated by them.
The Patronus Charm required pure, Positive Emotion, needing one to recall Beauty and immerse oneself in it.
Its requirements seemed simple, but achieving them was quite difficult.
Firstly, pure emotion itself was a hurdle because people have distracting thoughts, which affect the formation of the Guardian Spirit.
Of course, this wasn’t an obstacle for Vaughn. His self-control was strong enough that he could easily block out distracting thoughts and focus on mobilizing a specific emotion.
What frustrated him at the time was the Positive Emotion.
Positive was a rather broad concept, so in the Wizarding World, most people practiced the Patronus Charm using intense feelings of joy as nourishment.
That was where the problem lay.
Vaughn was a transmigrator. In his previous life, he was already an adult. The grinding wheel of society had worn him down into a pile of numb dregs.
If he were asked to complain about mortgages, car loans, and life’s pressures, he could talk for two days and two nights. But if he were asked to recall happy memories… he had nothing to say except exhaustion and sighs.
It wasn’t that there were no happy memories, but the pressures of adulthood had diminished their joy; they weren’t enough for him to summon a Patronus!
Therefore, the efficiency of practicing this spell was very low. After several days without a single point increase, Vaughn temporarily set it aside.
Looking at the Patronus Charm upgraded to Level 1, Vaughn took out his wand and uttered:
“Patronus Charm!”
There was no longer the difficulty of practicing a month ago. As the spell left his lips, happy memories, long lost in the depths of his mind, their colors worn away by time, all surfaced.
Those were childhood scenes.
Sitting on his father’s shoulders, snuggled in his Mother’s embrace, sprinting with classmates under the setting sun, confessing to his beloved girl for the first time…
They surged up from the depths of memory, transforming from dim yellow to clear and vivid.
The joy, warmth, affection, and passion buried beneath the dust of time also welled up in his heart.
It seemed to have triggered something. Memories from his current life, from childhood to adulthood, also unfurled like pages of a book stirred by the wind, bringing forth images from his mind: Arthur, Molly, Ginny… the first trip to Diagon Alley, the first contact with Magic, the first pet of two lives…
His past and present lives resonated at this moment.
These memories and emotions intertwined with Magic, flowed through his body, through his wand, and finally converged at the tip of the wand into ethereal white light and mist.
The light and mist flowed, dripped, extended, and then suddenly expanded!
The white light bloomed—
A clear, ethereal sound emerged from the light. The light and mist swirled, and the next moment, a translucent, blue-and-white Maine Coon Cat, trailing a long wake, leaped and turned in the air.
Finally landing on the ground.
Meow—
It looked up at Vaughn and let out a soft meow. Vaughn looked down at it and suddenly felt his cheeks grow a little warm and wet.
He raised his hand to touch it; his fingertips were crystal clear.
Tears…
