บท 15: Grinding
The following day, Harry discussed his conjectures about what the dog was guarding with Ron and Pro. Although Hermione was still sitting next to Pro and listened in, she did not make any comments.
In fact, she didn't seem to want to talk to the other two at all. Perhaps if Pro wasn't her study buddy, she may have also stop talking to him. Fortunately, he was still chummy with her and the homework reference machine was not lost.
On a side note, Pro had finally attended all his classes and finished his Hogwarts Student quest. To his surprise, the reward he got was an antique lamp, which grants 500 XP to a skill above level 10. This item can't be taken out of his inventory, but he was able to easily use it to bring his magic level directly up to level 13!
Not only that, due to his weeks of hard work at stealing question answering chances from Hermione, he has finally accumulated five answers and completed the Exemplary Student quest. This quest also gave him an antique lamp as a reward, and he used it to raise his magic to level 14.
At level 13, he had unlocked the standard spell of Ice Jinx, which can create a block of ice cube. Pretty useful for the summer, but it was going to be winter soon. At level 13, the Verdimillious Duo Spell was also unlocked.
This spell is an upgraded version of the basic green spark spell. If Pro recalled correctly, it should be able to reveal objects hidden by dark magic, serve as a blinding flash of light, and can even be used to hurt enemies.
At level 14, the Leg-Locking Charm was unlocked under the Defense Against the Dark Arts section. It was a fairly useful offensive spells used to lock the legs of the opponent together to restrict their movement, but there wasn't much damage otherwise.
Nothing much happened out of the norm. Perhaps, the thing that got most people excited and talking is the fact that Harry got a broom. Secretly, Pro was a bit envious of this fact. He wasn't envious that Harry got a broom, but that he could have a broom at school. After all, Pro had always wanted to see if he could find some way to grind his agility stat with the broomstick.
Hermione still didn't have a good attitude towards Harry and Ron, but Pro knew she already secretly considered them friends when he listened to her complaints about them when she was alone with him. On the other hand, Harry and Ron also talked less with Pro due to the fact that he spent more time with Hermione than with them, but Pro would choose his homework reference over two trouble-makers any day.
Time passed quickly and Halloween arrived. Through grinding books and practical practice in classes, Pro managed to gain XP in most of his other skills. His Herblore was raised from 7 to 11 due to potions class, farming from 2 to 7 due to herbology class, and slayer from 1 to 3 due to defense against the dark arts class. It's clear which class had a joke for a teacher.
Magic was also raised up to level 15, thanks to the excess XP from the lamp that already brought Pro close to the next level. At level 15, the standard Fire-making spell was unlocked. The transfiguration spell of Mice to Snuffbox was also unlocked, which barely managed to make it in time to prevent Pro from embarrassing himself in transfiguration class.
On a side note, his hunter level has been raised to level 9 from the months of feeding his owl and exchanging letters with his parents.
Besides the XP grind, Pro also had the leisure to grind his quests. Although he still can't find most of the secrets, Pro was still able to enter the Room of Requirements easily. This gave him a new place to practice his magic, and he could even train his ranged skill here. However, he eventually decided to focus on magic because he can train his physical skills during the holidays at home.
On the other hand, his quest of finding the 142 magical stairs was halfway complete. Pro thought it would be easier at first, but it was much more difficult to traverse all the stairs than he thought. Each of these moving stairs have their own pattern and locations at different times, and some even only show up on certain days. Pro could only slowly grind away at this quest.
Flitwick's iconic levitation charm class arrived, and the dissatisfied Ron was annoyed by Hermione as expected. As Pro didn't have any more quests to earn points, Pro diligently practiced the charm manually instead of cheating with his system, trying his best not to draw attention.
As class ended, Pro was walking out with Hermione when he heard Ron's insensitive comment, "It's no wonder no one can stand her, she's a nightmare, honestly."
Before Pro could stop Hermione, the poor girl had already ran off with tears in her eyes. Pro felt a bit stuffy and angry. Passing by Ron, he couldn't help but reprimanded while glaring at him, "Well done there, Ron. You know she considered you as a friend."
"Her? I'm not friends with her! I bet she must've noticed she got no friends," Ron replied in an uncomfortable tone.
"I'm her friend," Pro said gloomily before running off to find Hermione.
Pro found Hermione in the girl's bathroom as expected. Hearing the sobs coming from inside, Pro couldn't help feel that the girl was a bit too sensitive. Waiting outside the bathroom, Pro had some girls going to the toilet help him pass the message to Hermione that he was waiting outside. He only got a 'go away' as a response.
Still, Pro didn't leave. He simply sat in the corridor. Skipping class wasn't a big deal for him, especially when he can just grind XP by reading his books. Perhaps the only classes he won't skip would be potions and herbology, as those classes with hands-on experience actually give him more XP than reading.
If Pro recalled correctly, the troll event will happen soon tonight. Although he didn't know the exact timing of the troll event, he didn't want to leave Hermione's fate in the hands of the two trouble-makers. He was a bit worried that his insert in the trio's friendship may cause slight changes that might end up fatal to Hermione.
If it was Ron, Pro wouldn't care so much. Pro also didn't worry about Harry because he was protected by Dumbledore and his protagonist's aura. However, his time spent with Hermione really created a bond with her that he didn't expect. Before he came to Hogwarts, he swore to stay away from them, but now he truly worried about Hermione as a friend. It's definitely not because she was his homework reference machine.
As he continued to read his book, Pro suddenly smelled a faint, horrible stench. Pro frowned a bit before he felt a chill down his spine. As if to confirm his guess, a timely quest notification popped up.
[Ding! New quest, Troll Mayhem, has been added to the quest list.]
"Sh*t. It's already coming," Pro cursed softly as he pulled out his wand.
Knowing the troll was coming, Pro didn't keep his propriety any longer and stepped into the girl's bathroom. Hearing the soft sobs coming from one of the locked stalls, Pro unlocked the stall door with the unlocking spells in his system interface.
Giving the door a light push, the stall door swung open to reveal Hermione with puffy, teary eyes. When she saw Pro, her eyes widened a bit in shock, and just when she was about to exclaim, Pro dashed forward and covered her mouth.
Staring into her eyes with his face up close, Pro watched a blush gradually appearing on Hermione's face. Hermione had already stiffened in place, not knowing what to do next.
Perhaps, this would be the perfect time for a boy to take his hand off and land himself a kiss. Unfortunately, both sides of this encounter were young children with no hormones and Pro knew that danger was approaching.
After signaling Hermione to be quiet by shushing with his finger, Pro slowly released his hand from her mouth, letting Hermione gasp for breathe with a blush on her face. Just when she wanted to talk, he shushed her by placing a finger on her lips and whispered quietly, "Shh ... listen to me, don't scream. There's a troll outside."
Hermione's eyes widened in shock, but she also held back her scream. She stared Pro dead in the eyes as if to confirm if he was lying. However, Pro didn't have to confirm that as they heard slow, loud thumps coming from outside, as if there was something big and heavy walking in the corridor.
Gritting his teeth, Pro gripped Hermione's hand and gave it a squeeze to comfort her. Just when Pro was about to bring Hermione out, the bathroom door was opened as a giant dull, granite gray face with a bald head stared at the duo from the other side of the door.
Pro froze in place for a bit as his body tensed up. Although he was prepared and knew the troll was going to show up, he was still a bit scared once he saw its intimidating size in person. Suddenly, a high pitch scream came from beside him, awakening Pro from his stupor.
Hearing the scream, the troll grunted and shoved itself into the bathroom. Seeing this, Pro opened his spell book and cast his only spell that could do damage, the Verdimillious charm.
As expected, the spell hit the troll just to fizzle. Perhaps even if it succeeded, there would be no damage. Recalling how the troll was defeated in the plot, Pro focused his attention on the club, only to see it swinging his way.
With a rapid step backwards, Pro shoved Hermione out of the way and barely managed to dodge the club. Still, the force from the club caused a strong breeze that knocked Pro back and caused him to tumble to the ground.
Bam! The club struck the sinks in the bathroom causing water to spray out and then swung back to smash a part of the stalls into pieces. Hermione was still screaming in terror, which attracted the troll's aggro.
"Hermione! Pro!" two boys' voice sounded from outside the bathroom.
"Confuse it!" Harry commanded after which Ron threw something at the troll, distracting it for a moment, while Harry tried to climb up the troll's leg.
Pro didn't pay attention as he swiftly ran over to the pale Hermione and grabbed her hand. Pulling her closer, he avoided the distracted troll and dived out of the bathroom with Hermione. The troll's club came smashing down behind him, barely missing him and causing cracks to appear on the ground.
Boom! Glancing at the club that was near the ground, Pro didn't wait for it raise back up as he commanded, "Back off Harry!"
Watching Harry give up his climb and leap off the back of the troll, Pro shot a system spell at the troll, "Incendio!"
Whoosh! A stream of flame shot out of his wand at the troll's face, causing the troll to scream in pain as it raised its hand to block the flames. Seeing the club raised up to block the flames, Pro decided to make the attempt to solve the troll.
As the stream of flame dissipated, Pro had already cast his second spell. His new target was the club, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The club raised into the air and Pro controlled the club to fly over the confused troll's head. Shifting the club to the back of the troll's head, where its weakness lays. Releasing the spell, Pro watched the club plummet down and strike the back of the troll's head.
Fortunately, his aim was not off. Pro breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the troll fall to the ground with a thud, knocked out. Feeling the tight grip of his hand, Pro glanced over to see the pale-faced Hermione as she asked with a weak voice, "Is it ... dead?"
Harry responded, "I don't think so. I think it's just knocked out."
"Bloody hell, Pro. Did you just defeat a troll? What was that fire you shot out?" Ron exclaimed in amazement.
"Well, the original person who defeated the troll was you," Pro inwardly thought with a chuckle, but he had no regrets of kill-stealing.
After all, he was rewarded much more than he expected. Glancing at the now completed Troll Mayhem quest that required him to defeat a troll, Pro secretly felt happy as he couldn't wait to check his rewards.
However, before he could be happy for long, the echoes of footsteps came from nearby. It didn't take long for a stream of professors to stroll into the corridor with worried and angry faces. Ah yes, there were still professors to deal with. Will they still be let off according to the plot?
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