Chapter 189: Practice More, Leave the Rest to Intuition
Is there such thing as a young wizard who isn't competitive?
No, such a thing does not exist.
So, with a leaderboard, the students would fall into a rivalry, striving to improve themselves and becoming wizards with a profound grasp of magic.
All according to plan!
It could be said that Ryan spent more effort on improving the students' magical attainments than Dumbledore did.
As Harry entered, the timer on the wall began to tick.
"Harry can use a portion of Voldemort's power now. These levels designed for young wizards shouldn't pose a challenge to him... Maybe I should separate the difficulty levels, so different years face different challenges?"
"Perhaps I'm close to reaching the level where I can handle things with the same ease as the Heads of House..."
When he had witnessed Martin's will melting the ice within him like a blazing sun, Ryan felt as if his energy channels had been unblocked, or perhaps he had entered a state of dissociation while still roaming the mortal world.
It was as if his perspective had split into two slices: one, a calm, detached "god's-eye view" from above; the other, a turbulent sea of human emotions—joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure.
In this state, he had done many things: visiting Ollivander at night to craft the first batch of Magi-Alloy wands, going to Madame Maxime to request her help in establishing a school for Magi-Metal Wizards, and so on...
Because of this, during his travels after leaving Beauxbatons, he continued to observe human emotions, their meetings and partings.
But unlike his previous, purely detached observation, he now seemed more empathetic, more able to experience the emotional fluctuations, more sensitive.
He had an intuition that once he could fuse these two senses back together and return to normal, he would have crossed that threshold.
Then, he would become a true Grand Sorcerer, representing the pinnacle of the magical world, second only to the legendary wizards seen once in centuries.
At this level, one begins to explore the essence of magic—what magic truly is once stripped of the trappings of potions, spells, wands, and so on.
For example, Professor McGonagall's effortless control over Transfiguration; Professor Flitwick's casual modification and deletion of spells, changing how they worked; Professor Snape's disdain for traditional potion recipes, casually innovating on established formulas...
This was all because the professors had begun to delve into the essence of magic in their respective fields, allowing them to discard external packaging and do as they pleased without breaking the rules.
"But I'm different from the professors... perhaps the path I've chosen to explore the essence of magic is rare."
Ryan ran through the list. He guessed Dumbledore started with Transfiguration; Grindelwald might have been a step ahead, using knowledge from multiple fields to feed his will and spirit, thereby pushing his level; Nicolas Flamel and Perenelle went without saying, as the former's name was synonymous with Alchemy.
In the cases he knew and the analysis of great figures from magical history, Ryan truly hadn't found another wizard who, like him, relentlessly analyzed the essence of magical power itself to embark on a deeper exploration of magic.
"Why do you think that is?" Dumbledore appeared out of nowhere, yet it seemed perfectly reasonable.
The Headmaster of Hogwarts could appear anywhere in Hogwarts.
Even the girls' bathroom.
"Perhaps because... all existing fields of magic are tools crafted by generations of wizards to explore the essence of magic..."
None of the knowledge in the various fields of magic fell from the sky.
They were treasures snatched by generations of wizards from blood and fire, death and glory.
Even the most insignificant Levitation Charm was accompanied by a mountain of bones from those who had fallen along the way.
But wizards had to forge their crutches—to build the fortress of magical theory—because they wanted to control, to explore, to research.
Just as ordinary humans built the tower of mathematics to measure the heavens and earth, giving rise to various disciplines, the flourishing of technology, and the manifestation of civilization.
Dumbledore smiled and nodded. "It seems you've realized it. Among all the wizards in history, perhaps some made the same choice as you, but they quickly found that path impassable. The knowledge of various magical fields, the categorized disciplines, are the tools wizards use to explore magic. Trying to use an unknown existence like magical power to explore an unknown existence like magic is tantamount to a fantasy."
"Your reality, of course, cannot be that you are using magical power to explore magic. You have skipped all the tools and gone directly to perceiving magic."
He spoke with a tone of great wonder, as if seeing someone singing praises to Queen Victoria on the Irish peninsula. "Your behavior, to put it nicely, is called pointing directly to the root... to put it harshly, it's called... mindless brute force."
That sounds about right. My method is really equivalent to abandoning numbers, abandoning all scales used to measure everything, and trying to study physics, chemistry, and biology... Ryan suddenly understood. He wanted to go back in time and slap himself. There were roads paved by generations of wizards, yet he chose to walk a sheep trail. It was sheer madness!
Although he had a deep mastery of magic in various fields, he hadn't used any of those tools!
Instead, through long-term contact with the tools, he had developed a magical intuition and used that intuition to walk the path of exploring magic!
"Am I... crazy?"
"No, no, no! If you kept walking a path that led nowhere, that would be crazy. But you are just one step away from clearing this path. That cannot be called crazy; it is called possessing wisdom and perseverance unprecedented in history." Dumbledore was truly amazed. When he discovered Ryan's approach, he had once considered stopping him. In the end, it was only because Ryan constantly achieved things no one before him had that Dumbledore allowed it, ready to wake Ryan up and make him turn back at any moment.
But Ryan had succeeded. What was the equivalent?
It was like someone abandoning all knowledge of mathematics and then drawing blueprints for an aircraft carrier that could go directly into production, based entirely on feeling.
One could only say this wasn't something a human should do.
"You've always believed Voldemort's magical talent exceeded yours, and there is some truth to that. But your intuition for magic far surpasses his. Perhaps this is related to you being a... Seer?"
Dumbledore planned to ask Gellert later if a Seer's ability also played a role in magical research.
Related to being a Seer? But I'm a fake Seer... Wait, the intel did give me some names... Ryan realized the names provided by the intel had indeed had a significant positive impact on his "reckless," "intuitive," "instinctual" path of magical exploration.
"Perhaps? I'll look into it when I have time. By the way, Headmaster, I want to convert this place into an adventure ground for students. Any suggestions?"
"You could build several such places and mark them for the corresponding year levels. That would stimulate the students' interest in learning even more.
"Besides, that is how Hogwarts was built by countless generations of wizards."
Dumbledore said that Hogwarts wasn't built in a day, nor did it look exactly like this when it was first built. This castle was a gem sculpted by time and the joint efforts of wizards.
~~~
Get early access to 50+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn