Chapter 23

The High Class Exam is nothing more than a high school exam covering different fields from science, math, economy, geography, and history.

With memories that completed a STEM university education, besides being a nerd, most of it was no problem.

Only Geography and History were a bit troublesome since they also covered the Supernatural World, which Harry didn't have any in-depth information on. But information gathering during an exam wasn't a challenge for a Hunter.

After all, he wasn't the only one taking the written exam.

A small portal concealed with In did the job, and he could compare with the other participants. Since no one in this world could use Nen, they had also no easy way to detect his portal that he purely created with Nen.

After all, there is a difference between a portal made with Nen and one purely with his sacred gear. Nen is still invisible for the unawakened.

Following the written exam came a practical part that is even easier. All he had to do was to beat an examiner who also is a high-class devil.

High Class Devil while allowed to own a Peerage were not really that strong. Most of them don't even earn the promotion through their fighting powers, but through jobs and contracts they completed.

In fact, one had to differentiate between high-class devil strength and social status; they were not necessarily the same. The strength of high-class devils varies quite a lot.

Pretty much in Devil Society, a high-class devil is a regular adult.

Purebloods get the status from the start, while reincarnated ones had to work their way up. A true statement of strength is the Ultimate Class Status; all of them had to fulfill a certain standard.

Long story short, while that examiner is a high-class devil, his strength is just so.

He was a magic user, able to use quite a few different elemental magics. But nothing crazy, only regular Fire, Water, Lightning, and so on. No, Holy Elements or anything. Just regular devil magic.

It was the perfect opportunity to test out his Nen ability, Devour with Magic. Sooner or later he would have revealed it either way. There was no point hiding it from the Devil Society; it wasn't like it would become public knowledge.

Harry casually devoured every spell the examiner threw against him before stunning him with a stunner he sent through a small portal behind the examiner.

Yeah, the exam was easy.

After that he finally got a certificate identifying him as a high-class devil and a small, well-crafted box with 15 chess pieces inside.

His own evil pieces.

———

[ Harry Potter (Admin): @Irene Belserion 'Evil_Pieces.jpg' ]

[ Yamato: We can send images? ]

[ Harry Potter (Admin): Yep, realized it just now. It's the box with the circle on the right of the message field. ]

[ Yamato: That's so cool. Send one of you, Captain. ]

[ Harry Potter (Admin): Later, and I am not a captain, at least yet. ]

[ Irene Belserion: You got them? Send me one now! ]

[ Harry Potter (Admin): I can't. It has to be me who uses them on you. They are bound to me. ]

[ Irene Belserion: Get here as fast as you can, or I will be displeased. ]

———

Why did the sun have to glare right into his eyes?

Harry squinted, letting out a low groan of frustration. He knew it was a side effect of becoming a devil—light was one of their weaknesses, after all. Sure, he could be thankful that it didn't affect him too severely.

At worst, it was like the blinding sensation after a night of heavy partying—irritating but manageable.

Over time, he'd build a resistance to it. But right now?

Right now, it was annoying.

"Are you sure you are okay, Harry?" Hermione asked as she looked at him worried.

"What?" He asked confused, before he realized how that must have looked to his surroundings, "Oh, yeah. I just stayed up for too long."

Ignoring the stares of the people in the Great Hall, Harry helped himself to a serving of a nice English breakfast.

Since he got back to Hogwarts and once again appeared in public, people had been staring.

Well more than usual, there always had been a level of attention he had to be comfortable with. The downsides of being famous.

Sending a smile towards Lavender and Parvati, who both began to blush, Harry returned his attention to Hermione. He still couldn't believe how stupid he had been; it's not like he could choose whether he was famous or not.

Why should he only dwell on the negatives if he could enjoy being a star?

The recent changes in his body and newfound confidence hadn't gone unnoticed by the rest of the world.

And Rita Skeeter's newest article about him didn't help with remaining low-key.

But it didn't portray as badly as she wished it would.

Instead she had made him out to be some kind of bad boy.

Her article goes in depth about how he disappeared for weeks, no longer attended classes, and so on, making him out to be a troublemaker, or for the girls, a bad boy.

Hey, why not?

But Harry wouldn't forget that Rita Skeeter ignored his warning.

"You really shouldn't pay them much attention. It's not worth it!" Hermione told him from beside him.

What?

Not pay attention to who?

Lavender and Parvatti are cute! And they are probably some of the most fun and open girls in the whole year. Why shouldn't he pay attention to them if they so obviously watch him?

"Malfoy just tries to get your attention with his childish badges." She continued, not having realized his confusion.

"Oh, Malfoy! I didn't notice them. To be honest, I completely forgot he existed."

Draco Malfoy was literally the smallest of Harry's annoyances.

Sure, he could make life at school a bother, but only if one cared about house points or something. He is more like a small child that desperately begs for Harry's attention. Maybe he had a crush?

These 'Potter Stinks' badges were just his most recent attempt to gain Harry's attention.

"Then what were you thinking about if not Malfoy?" Hermione asked confused, as Malfoy had just made a spectacle at the Slytherin Table, showing his creation off to the whole school.

"Life, fun, how to enhance my mind, not sure what you exactly want to know of me. There is a lot on my mind, some things I can't tell you yet. How is your Occlumency going?"

"I am still emptying my mind. This first step is already hard." She sighed as she had made almost no progress in that regard, even though she had practiced every day. "There is just always too much on my mind. It's hard to keep thinking about nothing."

"Yeah, the first step is definitely the hardest," Harry admitted, nodding. "After that, it's more about practice and imagination—it can be time-consuming, but manageable. The tricky part is emptying your mind. Thinking about nothing isn't as simple as it seems."

He paused for a moment, reflecting. "Emptying your mind doesn't necessarily mean shutting off all thoughts completely. It's more about preventing anyone from picking up on your surface thoughts, forcing them to dive deeper into your consciousness if they want to probe further. For example, you can start with basic imagination exercises—like focusing on a blank canvas. That's also a form of an 'empty mind.' Later, when you're able to concentrate on just one insignificant thing without letting your mind wander, it becomes much easier to truly think about nothing."

She stared dazed at him for a moment. "Huh, you really know what you are talking about."

"Of course. I wouldn't lie to you that I have learned the art. I even used it to defend myself against a Master Legilimens. Harry pouted.

Hermione giggled at his face, "Sorry, I believe you. So why are you trying to enhance your mind? The topic is quite obscure and not well researched. Do you want to find the Diadem of Ravenclaw or something?"

Now it was Harry's time to stare at her, "You are a genius, Hermione. Of course the Diadem!"

"What? It's a legend, Harry! Nobody has found it in centuries! You can't be serious. Why are you standing up? Where are you going? And he's gone." She sighed as she saw him rush out of the Great Hall, "Did he seriously flirt with Parvati and Lavender? Just what is going on with him?"

———

Back in the Room of Requirements, Harry had levitated the Diadem of Ravenclaw onto a table in front of him.

He had pretty much forgotten that he had stored it in his inventory.

Well, it had not much importance to him since he wasn't hunting the Horcruxes for now.

A diadem that could enhance the wearer's wisdom, and more importantly, it contained a piece of Voldemort's soul inside.

"Man, if Tom knew how much his drive for immortality would help me. It would drive him mad." Harry chuckled as he grinned at the diadem.

Stretching the palm of his hand out, the dark purple aura formed around it and spread towards the diadem. "Devour."

A black, smoke-like face seeped out of Ravenclaw's Diadem; it was screaming as Devour did its job and absorbed the piece of soul into his inventory.

Just destroying a Horcrux seemed to be such a waste; if someone was leaving his soul unprotected all over the world, you just had to make use of it.

You could sacrifice it to a devil or God.

Or use it for some kind of enchantment.

Maybe trade it.

Or use it as the base for a Nen ability that would grant the user a second mind that could always work independently in the background. There were many examples of it in the Multiverse: an AI assistant or chip, Rimuru's Great Sage, or an intelligent gamer system.

Harry had known he wanted something like this from the start. But just creating such a Nen ability seemed to be not possible without anything to start with. His specialization Nen was just too far away from it to be used as a base.

Bless Hermione for giving him this piece of inspiration.

If he couldn't create a second mind or AI assistant himself, then just use an existing one. Like a piece of Soul that has been lying around in his inventory.

Devour took care of digesting the existing consciousness and memories, but he stopped from digesting the soul itself. It's now an empty husk just floating around.

The first step had worked; now he needed to create the ability itself. And with that he closed his eyes and focused.

( End of Chapter )

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HP - DXD - HP - DXD - HP - DXD

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