Among the list of successful fusions, Ivan even saw the Dumbledore family, which surprised him somewhat.
Then, Ivan recalled Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, and the rumor about the Dumbledore family from The Crimes of Grindelwald.
[Whenever a member of the Dumbledore family is in desperate need of help, a phoenix will come...]
Ivan suspected this might be related to their past fusion with phoenix blood.
Of course, according to the book, the Dumbledore family was part of the more moderate faction. They even obtained the creature's consent before conducting the fusion experiment, which was likely the reason for the close relationship between phoenixes and the Dumbledore family.
"Huh? Why does it stop here?" Ivan was engrossed in the book, but the section at the end detailing the fusion method was suddenly cut off, as if several pages had been forcibly torn out. The rest of the book was just filler content.
Just as Ivan was wondering if this so-called reward was just some information, the system notification sounded again.
[Reading of "The Origin of Bloodlines" is complete. Challenge Quest activated.
Challenge Quest: Defeat (or kill) a troll.
Reward: Bloodline Fusion Potion Recipe]
"A Challenge Quest..." Ivan's heart skipped a beat. He had always thought this was just a learning system; he never expected it to have a monster-hunting reward feature.
Ivan was even more curious about who had hidden this book here, going so far as to place a Confundus Charm and a special concealment spell in the Restricted Section.
Dumbledore was the first person Ivan thought of. The greatest white wizard of the century had both the authority and the reason to hide The Origin of Bloodlines.
After all, bloodline fusion was an extremely dangerous affair. The number of wizards who died from it was definitely dozens of times greater than those who survived. This terrifying mortality rate was what prevented wizards with special bloodlines from becoming the mainstream.
Besides him, James Potter, Sirius Black, and the others were also possibilities. Hiding important items was very much in their style.
And then there was Tom Marvolo Riddle, who had once stayed at Hogwarts. In other words, Voldemort...
Various guesses flashed through Ivan's mind, but he didn't linger on them. He had too much to digest tonight. Even when faced with a vast number of forbidden books, Ivan had no desire to read.
On the way back, Ivan's attention was focused on the newly activated Challenge Quest.
Seeing that the target was a troll, Ivan felt a headache coming on. He wouldn't underestimate trolls just because Harry and Ron had defeated one in the original story.
Their victory was largely due to coincidence. If it weren't for Harry's "Chosen One" halo constantly at work, the Golden Trio would have probably been long dead by the time the professors arrived.
From the information Ivan had gathered from his reading, trolls were not easy to deal with. They were huge, incredibly strong, and had a certain resistance to magic. Even an adult wizard had to be careful when facing one head-on.
Ivan sighed. If he hadn't learned from The Origin of Bloodlines that fusing with the blood of a magical creature could improve his magical talent, he would never have wanted to face such a monster in his first year.
Ivan walked through the silent, empty castle. The smooth journey on his way in had made him lower his guard somewhat.
However, not long after he emerged from a secret passage, a blue, rapidly moving ghostly light suddenly collided with him.
It was like being submerged in ice water. Ivan shivered all over. He turned his head to see that he had run into the ugly, hat-wearing... Peeves.
Peeves was even more excited. He clapped his hands and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Looky, looky what I've found! Another first-year! Come on, everyone! There's another one over here!"
"{Petrificus Totalus}!" Ivan shot a Full Body-Bind Curse back at him. The greyish-white light accurately hit Peeves in the chest, but it only knocked him back a little. He just laughed even more happily.
"Hahaha... that's useless! You can't hurt me!" Peeves circled around Ivan gleefully, seeming to want to keep him here.
Seeing that ordinary magic didn't work on Peeves, Ivan wasn't discouraged. Ghosts weren't immune to all magic, and as it happened, he knew a dark spell that specialized in mental attacks.
"{Metus Infesto}~"
Just as Peeves was making a face at Ivan arrogantly, a purple light shot from the tip of Ivan's wand. Peeves's expression changed instantly. He screamed and crashed into a nearby classroom. From a distance, Ivan could still hear Peeves's shrill cries.
"No, Baron, let me go! I swear I didn't do anything bad! And Nick, put down your axe first, we can talk about this nicely..."
Seeing Peeves's reaction, Ivan nodded with satisfaction. He checked the magic tab in his system and saw that the Fear Spell had unknowingly leveled up to Level 2 over the past few days. No wonder the effect was so good.
After dealing with the annoying Peeves, a series of hurried footsteps echoed from the distance. Only then did Ivan remember that Peeves had said he had found "another" first-year.
By the time Ivan was ready to re-enter the secret passage to hide, it was too late. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville came rushing out from the opposite end of the corridor.
Harry and the others hadn't expected to meet Ivan here, but now was clearly not the time for conversation. After a split-second of shock, Harry took the lead, grabbing Ivan's arm and pulling him along.
"Ivan, run! No time to explain, Filch is right behind us!"
Before Ivan could even get out the words "there's a secret passage behind me," he was dragged into another corridor by Harry and had to run along with them.
As they ran, Ivan had a vague feeling that this scene was somewhat familiar. It wasn't until Harry led them into the forbidden corridor on the third floor that Ivan realized things were not looking good.
"Quick... get in! Filch is coming!" Harry and Neville worked together to pull a reluctant Ivan inside. Hermione slammed the door shut, and Ron, for once, wasn't slacking off, putting all his effort into locking it.
"That should keep Filch out," Harry said with a sigh of relief.
"Yes, but now it won't be easy for us to get out either," Ivan muttered, looking at the locked door. He then sighed as he looked down the corridor.
"I'd say we would have been better off facing Filch..."
Harry didn't understand what Ivan meant, but he soon felt something sticky on his shoulder. He turned his head to see three giant heads looking down at him. A foul stench emanated from their open mouths, and from time to time, yellow saliva dripped from the edges of their jaws, some of it even splashing onto his clothes.
"AHH~" The next second, Hermione and the others also saw the three-headed dog. Their terrified screams tore through the silence of the night...