The trio of friends managed to step into the classroom just before the lesson began.
"I swear! Those staircases are definitely out to get us, trying to make us late." Ron, rubbing his still-reddened nose, was the first to enter the classroom. He glanced at the empty professor's desk and finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Looks like we're not too late after all. The professor isn't even here yet," Harry said, also shooting a grateful look at Ivan. It was a good thing they had woken up early, otherwise they would have definitely been late.
"No, I think the professor has already arrived..." Ivan ignored their chatter. He glanced at the tabby cat on the desk before quickly taking his seat.
Harry and Ron were completely baffled. But after they sat down, they watched as the tabby cat suddenly leaped from the desk. Its body twisted and transformed in mid-air, and by the time it landed, it had become a middle-aged witch. It was Professor McGonagall!
Harry and Ron were stunned. They finally understood what Ivan had meant, but they couldn't figure out how Ivan knew the cat was Professor McGonagall in disguise.
Professor McGonagall was equally surprised. She had taken her Animagus form partly to observe this year's new students, and partly to use the transformation as a grand opening for her first Transfiguration class. She hadn't expected to be recognized by a student.
Giving Ivan a nod of approval, Professor McGonagall began her first Transfiguration lesson.
"Before we begin, I must warn you... Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back!"
Professor McGonagall waved her wand, turning the desk before her into a pig. Amidst the gasps of the young wizards, she changed it back into a desk again.
Ivan, sitting near the front, saw the entire process with perfect clarity.
Precise, swift, and flawless...
To transform an object made of wood into a conscious creature was akin to directly altering the structure of matter, even briefly bestowing intelligence upon an inanimate object. The mystery and power of magic were on full display at that moment.
The magic of the wizarding world might be somewhat lacking in raw destructive power, but in other areas, it was unique, comprehensive, and complete!
Professor McGonagall's demonstration immediately sparked the young wizards' interest. After explaining the methods and techniques for casting the transformation spell, she gave each student a matchstick. The goal was to turn it into a silver needle.
As Professor McGonagall began her explanation, a prompt resounded in Ivan's mind.
[Ding! You have listened attentively to the professor's explanation and found the content somewhat difficult to understand. Your proficiency in Transfiguration has slightly increased...]
Ivan pulled up his status bar and saw a new line of information under his magic tab.
[Transfiguration Level 0 (6/100)]
Seeing that it was just as he had expected, Ivan was thrilled. This meant that no matter the spell, he could learn it quickly just by repeatedly practicing to increase its proficiency.
However, after half a lesson of repeated practice, Ivan realized it wasn't as simple as he had imagined.
...
"Ivan Hals!"
"Mr. Hals!"
A stern, loud voice echoed through the enclosed classroom, causing students in the surrounding rows to turn and look frequently.
Only when Professor McGonagall, who had just spoken, shot them a sharp glance did the young wizards reluctantly turn back, waving their wands at the matchsticks on their desks with expressions of frustration and concentration, trying to make them change even a little.
Professor McGonagall scanned the room. Her eyes landed on the desk of a certain frizzy-haired young witch, where the matchstick had already undergone a significant change, taking on some semblance of a needle. Her tightly pressed lips relaxed slightly, revealing a hint of satisfaction.
After warning the other slacking students with a look, Professor McGonagall was finally able to turn her attention to the boy in front of her, who seemed to be in a daze. She spoke sternly.
"Mr. Hals, I believe I reminded you earlier that spellcasting is very dangerous. You must remain focused before casting a spell!"
"Furthermore, repetitive, mechanical practice is not of much help. I suggest you put more heart into it. Focus, and visualize the needle..."
"Yes, Professor McGonagall, I will," Ivan Hals nodded politely. Under the witch's gaze, he focused his mind, and the nearly twelve-inch wand in his hand moved through the air with a curious frequency.
On the dark grey wooden desk, a matchstick seemed to be driven by an unseen force, twisting and contorting as it slowly changed its shape under the influence of the magic...
However, just as the matchstick was slowly transforming, it seemed to be hit by some interference and instantly reverted to its original form.
This outcome did not seem to surprise Professor McGonagall. After seeing this, she simply nodded, left him with a "keep practicing," and turned to leave. After all, most first-year students were at this level.
Ivan Hals was left behind, sighing softly to himself.
"It seems gaining proficiency isn't so easy..."
After trying for the better part of the lesson, Ivan's initial excitement had completely vanished.
The growth rate of his proficiency had slowed down significantly after an initial surge, and it didn't increase with every attempt.
After some experimentation, Ivan felt that this "system" was less about increasing skill proficiency through practice and more about simply displaying his existing level of skill as a proficiency score.
After most of the lesson, Ivan couldn't even maintain a stable Transfiguration spell for more than a few moments.
Just as Ivan Hals was spacing out in Transfiguration class, he was suddenly poked a few times.
Ivan turned his head to find an excited Harry pointing at an object on his desk that was pointy at both ends and had a faint sheen. "Hey, Ivan... look, I did it! I did it!"
"Yes... Harry, you're amazing. Very talented!" Ivan glanced at the unidentified object on the desk and nodded. To make a matchstick change so obviously and hold its form during the very first Transfiguration lesson was already considered an upper-tier achievement among the first-years. At the very least, he was far better than Ivan.
"Right? I didn't expect it either. You know, my aunt and uncle are both Muggles. Before I came to school, I was worried I wouldn't be able to do magic at all..."
Having received Ivan's validation, Harry began to pour out all his previous worries and anxieties.
Before entering the wizarding world, Harry was just an ordinary eleven-year-old boy. Suddenly, he had become the "Chosen One" in everyone's eyes. While he gained unimaginable attention and glory, he also bore an unimaginable amount of pressure.
Harry had even imagined the embarrassing scenario of being unable to learn magic. Thankfully, things hadn't turned out so badly.
Ivan wasn't surprised at all by Harry's rapid learning. After all, the Sorting Hat had made it very clear during the sorting: brave, kind, and extremely talented!
The Sorting Hat had even suggested Harry go to Slytherin. In his third year, he would use the Patronus Charm, which he had only just learned, to defeat or drive away hundreds of Dementors.
If it weren't for Hogwarts' overly relaxed and cheerful approach to education, this exceptionally talented Chosen One would have likely graduated with at least the skill of a professor.
To this, Ivan told himself he wasn't envious... not envious at all...
Talented young wizards were a minority, after all.
Ivan peeked left and right and saw that most of the other students were at his level. He breathed a small sigh of relief, but then he heard Professor McGonagall's loud voice again.
"Excellent, Miss Granger! Everyone, look here. Miss Granger has successfully transformed her matchstick into a needle. Five points to Gryffindor!"
In the aisle just a few steps from Ivan's seat, Professor McGonagall was holding up a silver needle, showing it to the surrounding students.
And Miss Granger, sitting upright, her bushy brown hair falling messily over her shoulders, proudly lifted her chin, accepting the surprised and astonished gazes from the other students.
Ivan, who had been staring blankly at the needle, felt the composure he had just regained shatter in an instant...
Do ordinary wizards like us even stand a chance?
"Bloody hell, I was so close! If I'd practiced a bit more, Professor McGonagall would be praising me right now..." Ron muttered, prodding his desk with his wand and glaring at Hermione, seemingly annoyed that his glory had been stolen.
Ivan glanced at the object on Ron's desk, which had reverted to a matchstick after the magic faded. He figured Ron probably wouldn't reach Hermione's level even after several more lessons.
Though he wasn't much better himself. In fact, he was probably worse...
Ivan sighed with a sense of helplessness. Where was the surge in talent that was supposed to come with transmigration? What about the massive boost to his spiritual power from soul fusion?
None of the common tropes from novels had manifested for him. Ivan finally understood just how accurate the Sorting Hat's assessment of his talent had been.
Of course, Ivan suspected his inability to stabilize the Transfiguration spell was due to another factor besides talent: a drastic decrease in his wand's allegiance, caused by the soul replacement.
If magic was electricity, the wand was the plug and cable, and the spell was the appliance.
Right now, his cable was short-circuiting, so naturally, the light would flicker.
However, the wand problem was something Ivan couldn't solve in the short term. He would probably have to use this wand for the entire term.
After battling with the matchstick for a while longer, the first Transfiguration class finally came to an end. Ivan never managed to stabilize the transformed shape.
Instead, he discovered a rather useless little trick. By gathering and releasing magic from his wand in a chaotic manner, he could form a thin beam of light. Its only use was to revert an unstable transfiguration back to its original form.
He discovered this accidentally after his Nth failed attempt at the spell nearly made the matchstick explode. It had no other use besides pranking Ron during Transfiguration class.
Just as Professor McGonagall announced the end of the class from the front of the room, another voice echoed in Ivan's mind.
[Ding! Through the host's tireless efforts, Transfiguration class has concluded. Please continue to work hard.
Overall Class Evaluation: Medium
Evaluator: Minerva McGonagall
Reward: 5 Academic Points
...]
Ivan hadn't expected the message that suddenly appeared in his mind.
You can get rewards just for attending class?
Ivan was a little surprised, especially when he saw the words "Academic Points." It felt just like his university days, and he couldn't help but feel a bit cynical.
It seemed the evaluations were given by the respective professors.
Would there be corresponding rewards and punishments for doing well or poorly on the final exams?
Cynicism aside, Ivan was still happy to have discovered another function of the system. He just didn't know what these Academic Points could be used for.
He had noticed the "Academic Points" section on his status panel as soon as he triggered it.
Perhaps because he hadn't earned any before, the related functions had remained locked. This time, however, Ivan quickly found a new "Redemption" option on the panel.
To his slight disappointment, the entire redemption list contained only one solitary item: a "Scholar's Experience Card." It cost one hundred Academic Points to redeem, and its effect was to greatly increase learning efficiency for one hour.
All the powerful spells and forbidden magic he had imagined were nowhere to be seen.
Is this system trying to force me to become a bookworm?
Ivan glanced at the five points he had earned from one lesson and suddenly felt a wave of despair. There were only three to five class periods in a day at Hogwarts.
At a rate of five points per class, wouldn't it take five whole days to save up for a one-hour Scholar's Experience Card?
Wasn't that a total rip-off?
What could you even learn in one hour?
But things being as they were, Ivan had no other choice. Besides this redemption option, he had no other way to improve his low learning efficiency.
What else could he do?
Just study hard, I guess...
After Transfiguration was the tedious History of Magic. The teacher, Professor Binns, was an old-fashioned ghost who spent the entire lesson lecturing to himself, completely ignoring the students below.
This was a problem for Ivan. The Academic Points he received were clearly related to the professor's evaluation of his performance in class, but Professor Binns' teaching method gave him no opportunity to improve his rating.
After a full lesson, Ivan once again received a "Medium" evaluation and five more Academic Points.
Soon, however, Ivan understood the benefit of History of Magic.
In the following Charms class, they learned how to apply magic to an object smoothly to influence it, which was the foundation for the Levitation Charm. Due to the interference from his wand, it took Ivan the entire lesson to barely succeed, during which he blew up the practice object a total of three times!
His performance was only slightly better than Neville's.
Meanwhile, the fastest student, Miss Granger, succeeded after only three tries...
For this, Ivan unsurprisingly received a "Poor" evaluation and only two Academic Points...
The only good news was that after a few days of wandering around, the progress on his [Explore Hogwarts] quest in the quest tree had reached thirty percent. On average, each percentage point rewarded him with two Academic Points, for a total of sixty points. This was much faster than the rewards from his daily classes.
It finally gave Ivan some hope of scraping together one hundred points to redeem a Scholar's Experience Card.