The furnace sigil on the System pane flared to life.
A tactile sense clicked into place in Theodore's mind—he could peel talents free and cast them into the crucible: either dismantle them into nourishing Dao Rhyme, or meld similar talents into a single, stronger gift.
"Cull the dead weight first."
His gaze skimmed the list and he tagged a few for scrap. Twin-Axe Chain (nabbed from Malfoy) was pure filler—gone. Weapon Mastery had carried him early, letting Copper Skin & Iron Bones punch above its tier, but after gaining Seven-Apertures Heart, its learn-and-synthesise edge had already internalised those fundamentals—no additive value now. Mountsmanship fell to the same logic.
He confirmed.
The three entries faded from the Rewards list; the furnace icon pulsed. New lines ticked across the pane:
You refined Weapon Mastery, Mountsmanship, and Twin-Axe Chain.
Because these talents are low-tier, you gained 1 wisp of Dao Rhyme.
Dao Rhyme: 1 wisp.
Theodore arched a brow. "Three small fries for a single wisp… so not every talent yields Rhyme, and the rarer the talent, the richer the yield. Makes sense. Quality over quantity. Even if I don't need a great talent, bagging it for Rhyme is still profit."
With the junk cleared, he eyed a cluster of air/flight-adjacent skills. The System promised that fusing kindred talents would preserve the strongest member at minimum—no catastrophic loss—and might leap to something new.
Target set: Windriding, Sky-Dance on the Wind, Winged Thunder. All speed, air, and wind; Winged Thunder was the apex among them. Worst case, he'd lose the two minors and keep his peak. Best case—jackpot.
"Fuse Windriding, Sky-Dance on the Wind, Winged Thunder."
The three entries blurred, the furnace burned brighter—then cleared.
A single, new title gleamed:
Command Wind & Thunder — At a thought, wind stirs; at a thought, thunder blossoms. Gather storm's breath to your hands and call wind-thunder from open ground. In the sky or under rain, you can draw on the higher vault, spiking power dramatically.
Theodore drew a long breath. The feel was a clean step-change. Earlier wind arts still begged cooperation from the air, a passive borrowing. This… Command was the keyword.
He opened his left hand. A hallway gale rose out of still air.
He opened his right. Needle-thin filaments of lightning braided over his palm; a faint ozone tang bit the nose.
He let it all fall silent, eyes bright. Three talents in, one superior art out. Worth it. This sat above his Control Fire As One baseline. Hand him proper wind/thunder spells—or even schoolbook charms with wind/bolt aspects—and he'd punch far beyond that knock-off "Fire-God Opens the Way" he'd improvised. If it happened to be raining? If a Diagon Alley kind of night returned and a certain Dark Lord showed his face—answer thunder with thunder.
Riding the high, he swept the list again.
"Beast Affinity, Beast-Breeding Mastery, Metallurgy & Silver-Refining overlap my Seven-Apertures Heart—'know all things, grasp their core.' Fuse all four."
All four entries wavered. The furnace flared—and three vanished, leaving only Seven-Apertures Heart.
Theodore's face dipped. "…Failed?"
Losing those lanes entirely would sting—alchemy and magical-creature breeding both mattered. But the description on Seven-Apertures Heart had changed:
Seven-Apertures Heart — Know the ten-thousand things; parse their essence. Tempered by the heart-blood of Beast-Taming Sect and Forge-Master Sect; excels specifically in those two paths.
He exhaled. Not a failure—absorption. The specialisations had been folded in. He'd lost nothing; he'd consolidated.
He surveyed the now-sleeker pane. Control Fire As One stayed—core to Alchemy, Potions, and his fire path. Veil the Breath, Night Sight, Dining on Wind & Drinking Dew each stood alone—keepers. Chess-Mastery Aptitude remained socially useful and wouldn't yield much Rhyme anyway. Five-Colour Stone Method and Flying-Tiger Drill were methods, not talents—unfusable by design.
Which left the tri-pillars: Copper Skin & Iron Bones, Innate Divine Strength, Lotus Body Protection.
One bulks defence of flesh, one explodes power of flesh, one walls off the soul. If they could fuse upward into a single, integrated apex? That'd be a real transformation. If the fusion fizzled and dropped one? Any loss here would hurt.
He stood at the fork for a long beat. Then his jaw set.
"I can cover some gaps with spells—Protego Totalum, Occlumency—and, honestly, I'm over-tooled for Hogwarts Year 1–2 anyway. A tri-merge pays only if you risk. Let's roll."
"System—fuse Copper Skin & Iron Bones, Innate Divine Strength, Lotus Body Protection."
All three titles softened at once. The furnace detonated into blinding gold. Seconds stretched, then minutes; five full minutes crawled past.
At last, the crucible stutter-flashed—pure aureate—and a single new talent resolved on the pane.
Theodore's breath hitched. He locked onto the name and description.
His mind went momentarily blank.
"This is—
…this?!"
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