"Ding! Random talent extraction in progress!"
Lucas waited patiently while listening to the system's exaggerated sound effects.
"Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining Supreme Parseltongue Talent! With this talent, all snakes will instinctively prioritise the host above all others!"
"..."
The corner of Lucas's mouth twitched violently.
"This is random?" he asked flatly. "Seriously? Can you give me literally anything unrelated to dark wizards for once? System, I genuinely suspect you're smuggling personal preferences into the reward pool."
Parseltongue.
In the original books, it was practically treated as the signature ability of dark wizards. Harry himself had been feared and misunderstood during his second year simply because people discovered he could speak to snakes.
And Harry only possessed the ability because Voldemort accidentally left a fragment of his soul inside him.
"Ding! Slander! Complete slander!" the system protested immediately. "Did the system not also reward Occlumency? Occlumency isn't dark magic!"
Lucas snorted.
"You only gave me Occlumency so I could hide all the suspicious dark magic you keep dumping on me."
The system coughed awkwardly.
"Ahem… Dumbledore also understood Parseltongue!"
Lucas rolled his eyes.
"He learned it manually. That's a skill. This is a bloodline-level talent."
"Ding! Final question! Does the host want it or not?!"
The system had clearly given up pretending entirely.
"I want it," Lucas replied instantly.
Of course he wanted it.
At this point, he already possessed max-level Unforgivable Curses and controlled Obscurus power. Compared to all that, Parseltongue barely even ranked among the top ten suspicious things about him anymore.
"Next time, just give the reward directly," Lucas muttered. "Why bother pretending it's random? Everyone knows your rewards are internally rigged."
"Ding! Then perhaps the host would prefer a max-level Disarming Charm instead?"
"That wouldn't be bad."
"Ding! You already know Expelliarmus. Practice it yourself."
Lucas was immediately speechless.
Annoyingly enough, the system actually had a point. Skills could be trained naturally, but innate magical talents like Parseltongue were much harder to obtain.
After arguing with the system for several more minutes, Lucas finally continued walking through the forest.
What he didn't realise was that Cassandra had completely misunderstood his silence.
Walking behind him, she stared at his shoulders with growing concern.
"Why are his shoulders shaking slightly?" she wondered internally. "Is he crying?"
Her imagination instantly spiralled out of control again.
"He said he was captured by werewolves… and who knows how long they kept him imprisoned? They must have tortured him horribly before he became strong enough to use Unforgivable Curses so naturally."
The more she thought about it, the more tragic Lucas became in her mind.
"Those werewolves are monsters. They wanted to kidnap me and feed me to their leader… If they treated me like that after only meeting me once, then what kind of suffering did he endure for months?"
Cassandra's heart tightened painfully.
"He must have carried all that hatred alone…"
At one point, she even felt the urge to run around in front of him to check if he was secretly crying.
But she quickly suppressed the thought.
"Mum said boys hate being seen crying… I should respect his dignity."
Then she secretly praised herself.
"I'm so considerate. If he knew what I was thinking right now, he'd definitely be moved."
At that exact moment—
"Ding! Congratulations! Cassandra Vole's favorability has increased dramatically once again!"
"Unfortunately, no reward this time!"
Lucas blinked in confusion.
"Huh?"
He genuinely had no idea what was happening anymore.
...
Since Cassandra was now travelling with him, flying directly in Obscurus form had obviously become inconvenient.
Lucas briefly considered transforming and simply carrying her through the sky with black mist.
Then he imagined accidentally using too much force and turning Cassandra into human confetti.
He immediately abandoned the idea.
Walking was safer.
Besides, according to the captured werewolf, the camp wasn't actually far away. Once he cleared it out, he could finally rest properly for the night.
After escaping the cave, he still hadn't truly relaxed even once.
As they travelled through the forest together, Lucas also learned why Cassandra had ended up in Albania in the first place.
Apparently, her parents were constantly busy and rarely spent time with her personally. So most of her upbringing had been handled by household attendants instead.
The three servants accompanying her had been Marcus the butler and two maids named Vanessa and Delia.
One day, Cassandra overheard Marcus mentioning that Albania's forests contained countless beautiful magical landscapes and rare magical creatures.
Bored out of her mind, she impulsively snuck away from home and dragged the three servants along for an unsanctioned holiday adventure.
Then, almost immediately after arriving in Albania, they encountered werewolves.
The two maids disappeared during the attack.
And Marcus vanished shortly afterward.
After hearing the full story, Lucas almost laughed out loud.
If that butler turned out innocent, he'd eat his wand.
The whole thing sounded absurdly suspicious.
Not long afterward, they finally spotted firelight flickering through the trees ahead.
The werewolf camp.
Lucas and Cassandra quickly crouched behind a large tree overlooking the clearing.
Cassandra tried maintaining a calm expression, but the nervousness in her eyes remained obvious.
"Wait…" she whispered in confusion. "How did we suddenly stumble onto their camp?"
Then her eyes widened.
"You already knew where it was?!"
Lucas glanced at her strangely.
"I literally came here looking for them. Why wouldn't I know where their camp is?"
Cassandra nearly yelped.
She hurriedly lowered her voice again.
"Are you insane?! You deliberately came here? Do you actually plan to—"
Lucas nodded calmly.
"Yes. I came to settle accounts."
"But you could die!"
Lucas's gaze remained fixed on the campfire in the distance.
"If I don't stop them, more children will die instead."
His voice was quiet but firm.
"So they have to die."
Cassandra stared blankly at his pale profile illuminated by moonlight.
For a moment, she almost forgot to breathe.
"He's… incredible…"
Meanwhile, Lucas was busy thinking about something entirely different.
If he were alone, he could simply charge in directly.
But now he had a fragile oil bottle travelling companion to worry about.
Reckless frontal assaults suddenly seemed less appealing.
Then Lucas suddenly remembered his newly acquired Parseltongue ability.
According to the system, it was supposedly Supreme-level.
And Albania's forests were full of snakes.
An idea immediately formed in his mind.
Lucas slowly straightened before letting out a low hiss from the back of his throat.
"Hssssss…"
The forest around them fell silent.
Then—
Rustle.
Rustle rustle rustle.
The sound of countless bodies slithering through dead leaves echoed from every direction.
Lucas instantly understood what he was hearing.
Snakes.
Large numbers of poisonous snakes.
And because it was nighttime, the sleeping werewolves would be at their most vulnerable.
Perfect timing.
Beside him, Cassandra stared at him with widening eyes.
Lucas smiled slightly, preparing to explain Parseltongue to her.
After all, future Slytherins rarely held prejudice toward snake magic.
Unfortunately, before he could say anything—
Something enormous suddenly burst from the darkness.
A gigantic snake thicker than a barrel crashed directly into the werewolf camp.
Chaos erupted instantly.
"AAAAAAAHHHH!"
Screams exploded from every direction as tents collapsed and panicked werewolves stumbled out into the night.
Lucas stared blankly at the scene ahead.
Then he slowly swallowed.
"I think…" he muttered carefully, "…I may have summoned something slightly stronger than expected."
....
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