Chapter 17: Epic, the First Witch
It was 4:30 in the afternoon!
William Li left Diagon Alley with YoYoYa, who had memorized nearly one-third of the books in the bookstore.
Well, that might sound a bit exaggerated.
But it was true.
In just a few hours, YoYoYa had memorized one-third of the books in the bookstore.
However, the reason for this wasn't just YoYoYa's impressive memory capabilities. It was also because bookstores are not libraries.
Compared to public institutions like libraries, bookstores are businesses. To maximize profits, they often carry a lot of bestsellers and duplicate titles.
If those bestsellers and duplicates were excluded, a typical bookstore would only have a few hundred or maybe a thousand books.
Flourish and Blotts was no exception.
In total, it contained about 1,200 books. With YoYoYa taking roughly 20 seconds per book, she managed to read 180 books per hour. They spent just over two hours in the bookstore, and she memorized around 400 books.
——
After leaving Diagon Alley, William Li returned home.
By the time he got back, it was nearly five o'clock.
"You're back? Go wash your hands quickly; dinner's almost ready!" Mary called out.
William was just on time, so Mary didn't find anything unusual.
"Okay!" William Li nodded in response.
Then!
After washing his hands and eating dinner, he took a quick shower, then went straight back to his room and closed the door.
The moment he closed the door, a figure jumped in through the window and landed softly on the floor.
"Master, good evening!" YoYoYa greeted.
"Alright."
William Li nodded and then said seriously, "Sit over there. Let's begin our studies."
That's right!
The reason William was so eager to return to his room was to study.
In the afternoon, to speed up YoYoYa's memorization process, he didn't have time to read the books himself, so he had spent his time helping to fetch books for her.
Therefore!
He had asked YoYoYa to come to his room in the evening so they could study together.
YoYoYa nodded, sat down on the bed next to him, and began to recite the books she had memorized.
"The origin of magic can be traced back to ancient times. Back then, there were no wizards—only strange and ferocious magical creatures."
William Li sat at his desk, listening to YoYoYa's recitations and studying attentively.
As he studied, he began to understand the origins of magic in this world.
It all goes back to ancient times!
In those days, there were no wizards in the world—only various fearsome magical creatures. Since humans lacked any extraordinary powers, they were hunted down and killed by these creatures for food.
To survive better in such circumstances, humans began to band together to form tribes.
But it wasn't enough!
While living together improved their survival prospects slightly, they still didn't stand much chance against magical creatures with various extraordinary powers.
Fortunately!
Some tribes discovered, after careful observation, that certain magical creatures were intelligent and capable of communication.
To survive, these tribes began trying to communicate with these intelligent creatures, forming cooperative relationships.
The tribes revered these magical creatures as totems and gods, often offering them various resources. In return, the magical creatures bestowed blessings to ensure the tribes' survival and continuity.
However!
The tribes underestimated the greed of the magical creatures.
Initially, the creatures only asked for food, but over time, their demands grew. Eventually, they even demanded human sacrifices.
And that was something many tribes could not accept!
The point of offering sacrifices was to ensure the tribe's survival—to ensure more people lived. But if they were offering people as sacrifices, what was the point?
Under extreme oppression, some tribes began to resist.
The result?
Against the extraordinary power of magical creatures, most of the tribes failed.
But some of the weaker creatures were killed by humans through sheer force of numbers.
After killing these creatures, the tribes faced a dilemma. Without the creatures' protection, they were once again vulnerable to other magical creatures.
In this situation, some people accidentally discovered that the blood and body parts of the magical creatures they killed retained some mysterious powers.
With this discovery, they came up with a bold idea.
If they could integrate these parts or the blood containing mysterious powers into their own bodies, could they also gain the power of these magical creatures?
If it worked, wouldn't they then have the power to protect their tribe?
With this idea in mind, the tribes began to experiment with integrating the parts and blood of magical creatures into their bodies.
In the end!
More than 99% of people failed and died, but a few succeeded.
These individuals, who managed to survive after integrating the magical parts or blood, found their bodies changed by the magical elements—forming what would later be known as magic factors.
These magic factors absorbed the energy floating in the air, converted it into magical power, and stored it in their bodies.
And they became the first witches!
"So that's how magic originated!" William Li sighed as he absorbed this epic tale.
In addition to the origin of wizards, the book also explained why some wizards were born to ordinary people.
The magic factor could be inherited, but it wasn't stable. It could be passed on to the next generation, but it was not guaranteed. When both parents had magic factors, inheritance was likely. When only one parent had it, inheritance was less certain.
Given these circumstances, some children did not inherit the magic factor.
However, just because these individuals didn't inherit the magic factor didn't mean it was entirely absent from their bodies.
The factor remained hidden deep in their blood!
If they had children in the future, or perhaps even generations later, through a phenomenon known as atavism, the magic factor could resurface, turning the individual into a wizard.
And that was the origin of Muggle-born wizards.
Ultimately, they weren't true Muggles—somewhere in their ancestry, there had been wizards, but the factor wasn't passed down until now, making them what we call Muggle-born wizards.
Reading all this!
"It seems that if I want to develop a skill to enhance magical power, I have to rely on this magic factor," William Li murmured, a glint of excitement in his eyes.
But suddenly!
He had another thought.
Could what he just learned be formed into a skill?
You see, even number theory was classified as a skill in the system, so why couldn't knowledge like the origin of magic also be formed into a skill?
Thinking of this, William couldn't help feeling excited.
If that were possible, he could quickly master this knowledge by adding farming value points!
Without any hesitation!
He opened the system panel.
The result?
[Magic Theory LV0-1/10000: Magic Mechanics (LV0-1/200)]
Really!?
William Li grew even more excited.
This meant he could completely master this knowledge by adding farming value points.
He looked at the entries on the panel, but couldn't help frowning.
Magic Theory?
What was this?
He didn't recall anything like that in the original story—there was no such course at Hogwarts, was there?
After thinking about it carefully...
He realized.
"Right, just because it wasn't taught at Hogwarts doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It's like Esperanto before I traveled here. Hardly any school taught it, but that didn't mean it didn't exist!"
Thinking about it, he no longer worried about such things.
Afterward!
He thought for a moment, then said, "200 points? I should give it a try. I have 100 points left from before, plus what I earned thanks to Hermione's efforts today—more than 200 points, enough to add!"
With that, he added the farming value to Magic Mechanics without hesitation.
When Magic Mechanics reached LV1, a massive amount of information poured into William Li's mind.
The origin of magic, the structure of magic, the mechanism of magic factors—almost instantly, he had a comprehensive understanding of magic.
However, after browsing the information in his mind, he realized that although he understood it, his knowledge wasn't deep enough to use it to create skills for enhancing magical power—it was still a bit lacking.
But William wasn't disappointed; rather, he was thrilled.
Being able to master such knowledge by adding points was already a huge advantage compared to studying it on his own. Given this, he had no reason to be disappointed.
Furthermore, based on his current daily intake of farming value, it would only take a few more days to push Magic Mechanics to its limits.
Once he mastered Magic Mechanics, would he still struggle to create skills to enhance magical power?
At the same time!
As he processed the information, he understood why Hogwarts didn't offer such a course.
For one, most wizards weren't interested in studying it. Understanding magic couldn't be improved through practice, so they found it useless!
On the other hand, it was just too advanced.
From the information in his mind, without the system's help, it would take three to five years of study just to begin understanding it.
And Hogwarts had only seven years in total. By the time someone started understanding it, they'd already be ready to graduate.
With this in mind!
"YoYoYa, let's study other books now!" William Li said to her.
With magic knowledge already appearing in the system skill list, it was naturally not a problem anymore.
However, magic knowledge wasn't all there was to learn in this world. YoYoYa had memorized not only books about magic but also many others in the bookstore.
While he had the time now, he wanted to learn as much as possible. He didn't need to go too deeply—just enough for it to register on the system panel, so he could add points when he needed them later!
"Okay!"
YoYoYa agreed without hesitation.
So!
William Li continued his studies with enthusiasm.
——
On the other side!
While William Li was happily immersed in the world of knowledge...
In the room on the second floor of the villa next door, Hermione, with bloodshot eyes, glared resentfully at his lit-up window, muttering, "This damn guy, why isn't he sleeping yet?"