— — — — — —
To Ravenclaw, the word "ordinary" had nothing to do with Tom. His determination, his mind, his clarity… everything about him was the complete opposite of ordinary.
But everyone had their secrets. Especially someone like Tom, whose talent bordered on the impossible — able to summon great witches and wizards from across history as allies, even inherit their gifts. Ravenclaw didn't press further and let the topic drop.
Tom saw she wasn't going to ask more. He smiled softly and returned to his experiment.
To have memory, the most basic requirement was consciousness. Not intelligence, just awareness. Plenty of animals lacked what humans would call intelligence, yet they instinctively remembered how to survive, how to avoid predators and danger.
What Tom was doing now was giving awareness to something that had none.
But awareness, or better say thoughts, could only be extracted from the soul, and extracting them wasn't easy. Their quality differed depending on the nature of the soul they came from.
So... Those purebloods who had paid others to attack him had become valuable experimental material. Tom had ruined several of them before managing to extract usable thought-fragments.
And then something strange happened.
When a wizard's soul was separated from the body, it could actually manifest inside the study space. Not only did this save time, it also meant he had limitless practice material. No more worrying about waste or damage.
Ravenclaw had been speechless when she discovered that, her envy so intense her eyes practically reddened.
If she had enjoyed such conditions back in her time, she was certain she could have refined her theories even further and pushed them to a completely new height.
Unfortunately… she had not been the one system favored.
---
Half an hour later
A spark of light appeared at Tom's wand tip. Viewed from different angles, it was a completely different color each time.
Under his control, the speck of starlight drifted like a lazy firefly into the body of a small toy bear.
Tom poured in magic. Gold threads flowed along the etched runic circuits, weaving through every layer. After about thirty minutes, the bear's eyes fluttered open and a sweet little girl's voice chimed out.
"Master!"
"What's your name?" Tom asked.
"Tibby!" the bear answered in a crisp, cheerful tone.
"Tibby, do you know what your task is?"
"To keep Miss Ariana company and chase away her boredom!"
Tom asked several more questions to confirm everything worked as intended. Satisfied, he looked at Ravenclaw with a bright smile. "Would this count as a success?"
Ravenclaw nodded with the same gentle smile. "Congratulations, Tom. You've created a true alchemical lifeform."
What separated an alchemical lifeform from an alchemical construct?
The biggest difference was growth. Constructs were fixed. Their functions, capabilities, and responses were predetermined. They were the same from creation to destruction.
But a lifeform could learn. It could evolve. With memory and its own growing thoughts, it could become anything.
Right now, Tibby only knew her task and basic knowledge. What she might grow into later… even Tom didn't know.
The system chimed at the perfect moment.
[Host has advanced the development of alchemy.]
[Awarded: 1000 credits, 200 achievement points, and one Gacha Pull.]
[Ravenclaw's approval of host has reached 25. You have gained one Talent Extraction.]
[Talent extraction complete. Congratulations, you have obtained: Stream of Thoughts.]
[Stream of Thoughts: Greatly increased mental activity. Able to perceive every flaw and inconsistency. Naturally thinks from multiple angles, gaining more complete and essential answers.]
...
In an instant, Tom felt like a hyperactive cartoon cat had taken up residence in his skull. Useful ideas, useless ideas, absurd questions, brilliant insights… everything flooded his head nonstop, to the point of being unbearable.
"Tom, what's wrong?" Ravenclaw asked, noticing him frowning.
"I…" Tom rubbed his temples. "I finally understand why you had to seal your own mind and write useless ideas in your room."
Ravenclaw froze, then quickly caught on. "You got a talent from me?"
"Yeah. My inspiration's overflowing, but I'm also getting buried under tons of pointless thoughts. Please teach me how to control it."
"Calm down. Gather your thoughts and narrow your focus…" Ravenclaw's voice softened into that of a patient older sister, guiding him gently. "Filter out the noise. Hold onto the thread you want…"
It took a long while before Tom finally felt better. His mind still drifted every few seconds, but at least he no longer felt irritated or overwhelmed. He could breathe again.
Once calm, Tom looked at Ravenclaw with sympathetic eyes. Ravenclaw returned the look with the same quiet understanding.
Then both of them suddenly smiled. No one said a word, but they knew exactly what the other was thinking.
"Wisdom… sometimes it's a burden," Tom sighed.
Ravenclaw agreed wholeheartedly. "The more you know, the more you worry. That's why the ignorant tend to live the happiest life."
Her obsession with knowledge, that ravenous hunger to devour anything she could find, was a form of self-rescue. Only when every question had an answer could she taste a moment of peace.
"You'll need time to get used to that talent. Rest for tonight," she advised.
Tom nodded and didn't force himself to keep going.
---
They had a light meal in the dining hall, then Tom exited the learning space. He closed his eyes, forcing himself to sleep.
He didn't even bother using his Gacha. He was afraid his mind would spin up a hundred more pointless thoughts the moment he stayed awake.
...
Early the next morning, Tom returned to the space and handed Tibby over to Ariana.
The cute, soft little bear captured Ariana's heart in seconds. She hugged it tightly, eyes sparkling. "Tom, is this for me?"
"Of course," Tom said with a smile, ruffling her hair. "It's too quiet in here. Having a little companion to talk to should help. But Tibby doesn't know anything yet. You'll need to teach her patiently."
Ariana nodded again and again. "So… that means I'm a teacher now?"
Tom blinked. Come to think of it, she wasn't wrong.
"Yep. From now on, you're Tibby's teacher."
"Tibby, call me teacher."
"Teacher~"
Ariana burst into happy giggles.
She played with Tibby for a long while and even said she wanted to bring Tibby out with her after she resurrected. Tom could only shake his head with regret.
Aside from the souls of the members and maybe the meditation room, everything in this space was fundamentally illusory. It couldn't go into the real world.
Still… Tom suspected that if the study space upgraded a few more times, it might eventually become a real world. At that point, maybe the fake could become real.
Ariana looked disappointed for only a moment before she bounced back. If Tibby couldn't leave, then she wouldn't leave either. This was her home. Even if she came back to life, she'd return often. Nothing really changed.
Seeing she wasn't upset, Tom finally relaxed. With that out of the way, he could finally use the gacha he'd earned yesterday.
[Congratulations, host. You have obtained: "Fire Arcane Circuit Notes."]
Fire Circuit?
Tom raised an eyebrow. A thick book appeared in his palm, easily over a hundred pages. He opened it eagerly, then sucked in a sharp breath.
"So it really is what I thought."
The introduction alone told him exactly whose notes these were: the Grand Magus of the Kirin Tor, Archmage Antonidas.
Antonidas was the "tutor" of Kel'Thuzad, leader of the Kirin Tor Council of Six, and the strongest mage in Dalaran's history.
In Azeroth, setting aside the outlier Medivh, Antonidas was undoubtedly the strongest human mage. A pure academic prodigy, unrivaled in arcane, frost, and fire.
In his lifetime, Antonidas wrote many books and left an indelible mark on history.
Kel'Thuzad, however, wasn't that normal as a legendary figure.
No normal person writes a diary, much less uses a research notebook as one. These notes mentioned Antonidas constantly, showing Kel'Thuzad's shifting attitude over time. In the beginning he was filled with reverence as a new student. Later, after being caught performing dangerous necromancy experiments, he was terrified and full of fear.
Even after becoming a lich, breaking past his human limits and helping Kael'thas kill Antonidas… Kel'Thuzad still wrote about him with caution. He believed that even as a lich, he wasn't confident he could truly defeat Antonidas.
Kel'Thuzad's notebook that Tom had wasn't complete, though. There wasn't much about Kel'Thuzad after he became a lich. As his power grew stronger, his attitude likely changed again.
The Frost circuit he had developed had also been taught by Antonidas. Both came from the same source.
So what… was Tom meant to do? Hit enemies with both fire and ice at once?
Once Tom got the notes, he poured all his attention into them. The "Stream of Thoughts" talent finally shone. Every concept presented its key insight to him immediately, and with his Turbo Mode boost, his progress was dozens of times faster than last time.
For the whole day he barely registered what the professors taught in class.
That evening, Daphne tried to find him for a bedtime story, but one look from Tom and Astoria knew exactly what he meant. She dragged her sister away before she could bother him.
...
Late that night, Grindelwald finally appeared, looking worn out.
"Tom, I caught a few small fry, but none of them had any useful information. They've realized I'm hunting them, so they're going deeper underground."
"Should I keep exploring or start gathering the Acolytes in Europe?"
From the moment Grindelwald agreed to the contract with Tom, he treated Tom's plans as a top priority—mostly because he knew that when Tom was ready, his grand dreams and goals would be easily achieved, and the boy might even invent a perfect solution.
"Uhh..."
Tom was absorbed in his research and barely looked up. "Forget it if you can't find them. Just do whatever you want, Old G. I really don't have time to play with the world right now."
Grindelwald nodded thoughtfully.
Do whatever he wanted?
Then he'd really do whatever he wanted.
Grindelwald pretended not to notice Andros, who had been pestering him for a match before leaving the space with a sly grin.
.
.
.