Once Queenie left, Lucien opened his suitcase and stepped into its hidden world.
He arrived in the barren desert layer, a place devoid of any living creatures except himself.
Summoning the system, he checked the details of the loan:
[Loan Name: Fragment of the Emerald Tablet (Annual Loan)]
[Repayment Deadline: 365 Days]
[Loan Content: A stone tablet inscribed with thirteen true sayings, symbolizing the magical talents of Hermes]
[White Magic: A+]
[Dark Magic: B+]
[Defense: A]
[Transfiguration: S]
[Potions: S+]
[Alchemy: SS+]
[Magic Power: A+]
[Loan Task: In your own name, sell 30,000 alchemical items or potions, earning a total of 150,000 Galleons.]
The Emerald Tablet… a fragment…
Lucien recalled that the Emerald Tablet was an ancient Egyptian stone slab, its thirteen true sayings believed to be the origin of all alchemy, revealing the deepest secrets of the craft.
This Hermes wasn't the Greek messenger god from Olympus, but rather the Egyptian Pharaoh Hermes, linked in a divine trinity with his father, Thoth, and his son, the High Priest Toth, together revered as the god Hermes.
By all accounts, this should be a god-tier magical talent, like Loki's Faceless gift. But…
Lucien noticed there was no SSS-tier talent, typically reserved for divine gifts. The highest was an SS+ in Alchemy.
Was it because this was just a fragment?
The tablet was incomplete, so the talents it granted were diminished?
Yeah, the other talents weren't exactly stellar either—not what you'd expect from the supposed source of all alchemy.
"System, if I merge with this talent tablet, will it affect my current talents?" Lucien asked.
[Host can merge multiple talent tablets. Lower-tier talents will be overwritten by higher-tier ones; they won't stack or upgrade.]
Overwritten by higher talents? That's fine, then.
Lucien pulled up his current talent profile:
[White Magic: S]
[Dark Magic: SS+]
[Defense: S+]
[Transfiguration: SSS]
[Potions: A]
[Alchemy: A+]
[Magic Power: SS]
If he merged with the Emerald Tablet fragment, his Potions and Alchemy talents would get a major boost, patching up his weaker areas. The rest would stay mostly the same, still dominated by Loki's Faceless gift.
As for the loan task—selling under his own name?
Lucien asked for clarification, and the system responded:
[The alchemical items or potions must be personally developed by the host. Production and sales can be delegated to others, as long as buyers know the host is the creator.]
In other words, he had to be the mastermind behind the products—only his inventions would count.
But production and sales were just as critical.
Thirty thousand items and 150,000 Galleons.
Wizards made up less than one in ten thousand of the human population. Hogwarts had fewer than 4,000 wizards, and globally, there were maybe 200,000 to 300,000. That number made sense—too many wizards, and there'd be no need for Muggle protection laws or hiding their existence. They could just rule over Muggles outright.
Selling 30,000 items was like getting every wizard in Hogwarts to buy ten things each.
Hogwarts alone wouldn't cut it. He'd need to expand to other regions.
And earning 150,000 Galleons meant each item or potion would need to average 5 Galleons. For most wizards, 5 Galleons wasn't cheap—Ollivander's wands only cost 7 Galleons, after all.
But the sales volume and revenue could be tackled separately. Affordable, mass-market items could hit the quantity goal, while high-end, pricey ones could rake in the Galleons.
By targeting different customer groups with tailored products, it was doable.
With an S+ in Potions and SS+ in Alchemy, developing quality products wouldn't be an issue.
The real challenge was production and sales—sourcing materials, managing costs, and manufacturing…
Lucien gave a wry smile. Looked like he was carrying on the family tradition. Who'd have thought he'd be back to the grind in the magical world?
Still, those talent boosts were tempting. And…
Lucien had a gut feeling the Emerald Tablet fragment could be completed. This annual loan might just be the start. That SS+ Alchemy talent could potentially climb to SSS, the divine tier.
He'd already tasted the benefits of an SSS-tier talent. It was a game-changer for learning and mastering knowledge.
This loan's task was also a chance to hone his Alchemy and Potions skills. Knowledge gained was knowledge earned.
Having already reaped the rewards of past loans, Lucien wasn't about to pass this up.
Annual loans only popped up two or three times a year. He had to seize this one.
Maybe because the tablet was incomplete, the task seemed… reasonable.
If it had been a full-on god-tier talent loan, Lucien remembered how absurd and drawn-out Loki's Faceless loan tasks were.
"System, I'll take the Emerald Tablet Fragment (Annual Loan)," he said.
[Ding! Loan for Emerald Tablet Fragment has been successfully applied.]
[Evaluation: The source of all perfection in the world lies here.]
As the system's chime faded, a solid gemstone tablet materialized before Lucien.
Crafted entirely from emerald, its surface was etched with orderly inscriptions.
But the once-dazzling tablet was no longer whole. A massive crack split it, leaving most of the inscriptions lost.
Lucien could make out some Latin text among the remaining true sayings:
"True, without falsehood, certain and most true."
"All things are from the One, created from the One by division."
"The Sun is its father, the Moon its mother, nurtured by the wind, cradled by the earth…"
Just reading the tablet and its words, Lucien felt some of his alchemical questions begin to unravel.
With anticipation, he reached out his right hand, fingertips brushing the translucent fragment.
In an instant, the massive emerald tablet shattered silently, bursting into billions of sparkling stardust, like a startled emerald dream.
Before Lucien could react, the flowing green light-dust moved as if alive, winding through his fingers and swiftly enveloping his entire right hand.
Then, a clear, vibrant emerald glow erupted from his palm!
The light shot skyward, transforming in the desert into a towering, lush ancient tree.
Its radiant branches swayed in the void, casting the barren desert in the glow of a miraculous secret garden.