Chapter 77

The light circled around him as he began to feel weightless and the earth spinned around him. This strange feeling lasted until Harry landed a bit roughly inside of a dark cave.

Still standing firmly on his feet, he activated his lighting spell, illuminating his surroundings.

This is the old base of the so-called Great Magus Serholm, located inside a secret plane. A Secret Plane is a Pocket Dimension used by my Magi to cultivate all kinds of resources.

A secret plane is anchored to one or more places in the real world and can be customized to fit different climates and situations.

They could come in all kinds of sizes, but of course the amount of resources needed to create them increases exorbitantly with the size.

Still an extremely useful type of magic that he absolutely wanted to get his hands on in the future.

Dylan's Garden was the first secret plane he could take an actual look at, but of course first he would need to complete his main goal without destroying it.

But it doesn't hurt to let the AI Chip analyze his surroundings with different scanning spells while he works on his task. Just in case.

In front of him on the cave floor, he spotted a roundish track; a small grin formed at the edge of his mouth. 'Objective No. 1 spotted.'

It was the track of a snake that he decided to follow. And he hadn't to wait long until he heard it's hissing.

 Sssii!   Sssii!

A gigantic, long black shape rushed towards him out of the darkness. Harry was ready for it and didn't even need to dodge.

"Gleipnir's Grasp!" He called out like an cringy anime protagonist, but if he came up with a cool name based on Norse mythology, he was going to use it, after all nobody was here seeing it, altough it doesn't feel that way.

Many black glowing chains shaped out of the ground around the snake winding around it like hundreds of small snakes attacking a much larger one.

Each of these chains was covered with red glowing runes that formed different bindings, paralyzing and weakening spells while also strengthening the chain itself.

One of the results of his recent research into the limited knowledge he had in Ancient Runes. A combination that used the principles of Spell Models, Transfiguration, and Runes.

While most magical beings had an innate resistance to magic, the spells were woven into the chains themselves, using them as catalysts, a good solution to bypass the resistance slightly.

The chains are working and captured the snake, effectively restraining it from moving. But he couldn't underestimate that particular snake.

It's a Black Horall Snake after all, a creature able to reach the strength of a Rank 3 magus. Someone like the current Harry would have trouble to face.

His mental stats may be in the same range, but his actual strength was lower since he lacked the advantages a Rank 3 Magus possessed, thanks to his systematic cultivation. And strictly speaking, Harry was just in the lower levels of a Rank 3 magus.

Specifically for it, he made some preparations before he came here, since he already knew what was waiting for him in here. Harry pulled a clear-looking potion with a pale lilac hue out of his inventory and threw it directly into the struggling snake's mouth.

The flask containing it shattered as the Black Horall Snake bit it, and the Potions flowed into the wild animal mouth.

A few moments later, the snake stopped struggling, seemingly dead. Of course it wasn't dead; all its vital functions were still working.

This potion is based on a recipe that he would have learned in his sixth year in Hogwarts that he found amongst Sirius notes.

Of course he didn't have the necessary ingredients to brew it, but he managed to develop a working version even more potent with the ingredients available in the Abyssal Bone Forest Academy during his experiments.

While the Black Horall Snake was in a death-like state, its body was still fully working. A perfect state for harvesting renewable ingredients, like it's blood. He would need a ton of it after all.

Just to make sure he placed more sleeping spells on it and chains before putting it into his inventory.

After all, at its full strength, it would be stronger than him; it just doesn't have enough nourishment in here, which let it weaken over the centuries. Or this whole thing would have been much harder.

Having secured the snake, he carefully headed deeper into the secret plane, recording all the data around him and studying the spells that made up this whole place.

He moved through another tunnel made of a strange metal, which of course he collected some samples off. The metal is so called Crying Blood Alloy, an alloy once again showing how dark the Magus World truly is.

One requirement for it's creation was the fresh blood of slaves or beasts. With a few samples, he should be able to recreate it.

It's a metal that can affect spiritual beings like ghosts. It never hurts to have something like this.

At the end of the tunnel, he arrived in a wider area that was filled with a sea of flowers. All kinds of rare flowers and herbs that are supposed to have died out in the South Coast or were particularly rare.

There plants were the reason why this place was called Dylan's Garden, though he had no idea who the hell Dylan was.

It never has been explained in the story. Just some random ass name that has been picked.

But Harry didn't touch any of these plants yet. He knew they would trigger a trap.

Instead, he decided to first calmly analyze the spell formations around the flowers; with his high-speed processing power, he is able to dispel the traps around them without triggering them.

It's obvious that this whole thing was far too easy for him. After all, this whole place was designed to test a Sucessor, who was worthy to receive the inheritance of a Rank 4 magus like the Great Magus Serholm.

Such a sucessor would be only an acolyte, not someone with the power of a fully fledged magus. He already found a different set of spell formations that would attack and kill any magus entering this place.

Probably the true reason why it hasn't been plundered yet after centuries.

Once he had carefully collected all the rare flowers and herbs in this place, he was ready to head towards the next part.

Through large wooden double doors and arrived in a massive study.

There was another tunnel heading towards somewhere else, but Harry already knew at the end was the place with the trap that would have been triggered by the flowers.

All four walls of the lavishly decorated study were filled with bookshelves. Strangely, there was not a single book in them. Once again, Serholm removed all of them, ensuring that no one would get their hands on them, only leaving behind what he wanted. Stingy old Magus.

In the center was a large table with a well-crafted black box placed on it.

Behind it was a chair, and on the wall directly behind that chair was an oil painting showing a unique symbol. A snake made out of countless runes that was biting its own tail, forming a circle.

Quite similar to the symbol that Lust had above her large breast.

Ouroboros is a symbol depicting infinity. Or in this case, Emblem of the Ouroboros Clan, a faction present in the Central Continent, the most prosperous and wealthiest area in the Magus World, where most major factions were present.

The clan to which the Great Magus Serholm had belonged.

Anyone who didn't know what was going on would directly go for the Black Box, open it, and find an exquisite Black Book inside of it.

While Harry had a great interest in that Black Book, after all it contained something he had wanted for a long time. Spell Models native to the Magus World, beyond Rank 0. Ones that he didn't create himself with knowledge from other worlds and actual reference to stronger spells.

To be precise, there were 12 rank 1 spell models and 3 rank 2 spell models. Which was not much since he could create Rank 3 spell models and even self-destruct Rank 4 ones. But they were based on completely different principles than his own.

It also contains quite a lot of information on Serholm's travels and many experiments that would also come useful at some point, giving Harry a better idea about the Magus World itself.

The information available in the academy was limited, and while he knew a lot about the Magus World in general terms, like a reader of a story, he lacked true, in-depth information.

Alone finding the exact location of this place had been troublesome, since he had nothing more than a few names and a description without the map that Leylin had in the original story through another Acolyte.

Serholm was in fact a right bastard; if one were to pick up that book, one would find a message right at the bottom of the box originally covered by the book, telling one that the whole plane will collapse in a while. While the book doesn't contain what one was truly looking for.

The Advanced Meditation Technique, Kemoyin's Pupil. A Warlock Meditation Technique that lets one use the bloodline of that very Black Horall Snake he captured at the entrance to become a magus.

A capabale acolyte is able to purify the blood of the Black Horall Snake since it contains traces of its parent species, the Giant Kemoyin Serpent. This Serpent is a Rank 4 creature, the very same bloodline Serholm had used to become Rank 4.

That's why Harry had wanted that snake alive; after all, while it lived, it could produce more blood.

Ignoring the box for now, he directly headed towards the portrait and studied it. The Runes making up the Ouroboros Symbol, where the Riddle had hidden the true Advanced Meditation Technique.

But he could detect more spells around it. This portrait was also the very core of the Secret Plane, controlling all of it. These spells were extremely complex; it would take a long time to decipher them at his current level since they were all Rank 4.

Time that he didn't want to spend here. Maybe he could leave the Black Book behind and return later for it. For now, he just needed the meditation technique.

Harry pulled the bronze ring out of his pocket. This Ring was the reason why he had first to travel through the entirety of the Poolfield Kingdom before returning back, passing the academy in the completely opposite direction.

It was the trigger to activate the Riddle in the Oil Painting, "Stupid Ring." Harry muttered, still annoyed by the fact that he had to get it first.

The ring was hot; the closer he was to the painting, the hotter it got. Right in front of it, at the bottom of the painting, a hole opened, having the same symbol as the ring on it. It fitted perfectly.

As soon as he activated the riddle, an ancient voice resounded, "Eh, an observant one has arrived. Not even activating the self-destruction sequence. Too bad, I will do it for you. You have three hours to finish the test; it has begun. Begin to portray this spell formation within 30 seconds!"

"Oh, you fucking Asshole!" Harry cursed as he began to work through the tests.

That stingy old bastard wouldn't leave a secret plane for him that he could study or use as a secret base. He would remember that.

Harry completed the test without troubles; after all, Leylin had managed it as an acolyte, and his AI chip was far more powerful than Leylin's one back then.

"My inheritor! You must have the courage and wisdom; be astute and filled with knowledge. Only then can you break through the Bloodline shackles." As soon as he was done, the voice once again resounded, telling him about the Bloodline Shackles every Warlock was limited by and the Dream of Serholm in breaking them.

Of course Harry was planning to break through them, but not because it was that stingy assholes dream.

Right after the message, he received the information about the Advanced Meditation Technique. The original version had four levels, allowing one to reach rank 4. He only received three because that stingy bastard wanted him to go to the Ouroboros Clan in the future.

Without wasting time, he grabbed that black book and returned through the corridor towards the exit, "Starier Guderian!"

This was the password left behind in that Black Book, called the Book of Giant Serpent. Although Harry hadn't read that book yet, thanks to the AI chip, he remembered it from reading 'Warlock of the Magus World.'.

In a red flash, he arrived at the top of the Cliff, from which he had jumped off.

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