Chapter 20: The Origin of Bloodlines

Ivan walked through the sea of books, his wand in hand, with no intention of stopping in the ordinary section. He made his way directly toward the Restricted Section.

Advanced Transfiguration Guide, Ancient Magical Texts, Soul Extraction and Mind Reading—A Glimpse into Your Brain… Ivan's gaze swept over row after row of bookshelves, each filled with volumes of restricted texts that looked extremely advanced, making Ivan covet them. Among them were even books on the Soul Extraction and Mind Closure techniques that he had always longed for.

If it were possible, Ivan would have loved to use a hundred scholar experience cards to spend ten days or even half a month here, rapidly improving his skills. But in the end, he resisted the temptation because he didn't have enough academic credits to redeem, and he hadn't forgotten the reason he came here today.

Following the signs for the Restricted Section, Ivan quickly located Row Seven, Column Twelve. However, nothing seemed out of the ordinary—there were numerous magical books neatly arranged, filling the shelves to the brim with no space left.

Ivan, unwilling to leave it at that, attempted to find any hidden mechanisms or secret passages, but had no luck. In the process, he accidentally knocked a dark magic book onto the ground.

The book, seemingly on its own accord, began to flip its pages, as if it had a mind of its own. After a few pages, a billowing black mist emerged from the book, and Ivan could faintly make out the image of a man's head, his mouth wide open as though screaming at the top of his lungs!

What terrified Ivan was that, although he didn't hear any sound, his eardrums started to feel like they were swelling, and his brain began to spin as though someone were shouting right in front of him.

The black mist grew thicker, and the head seemed to be about to burst out of the book.

Thud!

Ivan slammed the book shut, pressing the black head back onto the pages. As the book closed, the mist disappeared.

"It's just a book! Did you really think you could cause a scene?" Ivan rubbed his ears, gritting his teeth.

It took him a while to muster the courage to pick the book up again. The cover read The Secrets of Advanced Dark Magic. The feel of the cover was noticeably different from the others, almost like the sensation of touching skin.

Could it be... human skin?

A shiver ran down Ivan's spine at the thought, especially after recalling the man's anguished head. It did seem like a possibility.

He glanced at the system's reward task, but there was no change, indicating that the book had nothing to do with the reward. So, it was purely an accident that he had triggered it.

Reluctantly, Ivan shoved the Secrets of Advanced Dark Magic back onto the shelf, intending to search for any hidden mechanisms he might have missed. Suddenly, he noticed something odd—the bookshelf in front of him seemed slightly different from before.

One, two, three, four, five, six?

Every bookshelf in the Restricted Section was identical, with books organized by type, six rows and seven columns. Yet Ivan keenly noticed that the twelfth column appeared to be missing a cabinet.

What struck him as odd was that although one cabinet was missing, the entire row of bookshelves still seemed perfectly aligned, as if the space had been distorted.

"Has someone used a Confundus Charm here? And hidden one of the cabinets?" Ivan squinted. He had thoroughly examined this shelf earlier, so the only explanation was that someone had set up a Confundus Charm that affected his judgment. The high-pitched scream earlier must have broken the spell.

Even after figuring out where the anomaly lay, Ivan found himself somewhat clueless. Having read The Principles of Basic Spells, he could roughly deduce that this was a spell used to hide objects. However, he had too few spells under his belt to be of any help.

Ivan racked his brain, trying to recall any relevant spells. Then, an idea struck him—he remembered a spell Snape had used in the original story.

"Aareciu (Reveal)!"

He placed his wand on the shelf and whispered the incantation.

The entire bookshelf trembled slightly. A crack appeared in the middle of the twelfth column, which quickly expanded, revealing a new bookcase before Ivan's eyes.

The hidden bookcase looked no different from the others, filled with thick books. Ivan ran his hand across the spines, and when he touched the last book, the system's prompt chimed.

Ding! Reward has been granted.

Ivan's lips twitched, but inwardly, he was grumbling,

"This is how the rewards are given out? If it weren't for my luck and quick thinking, who knows how long it would have taken to find this!"

This damn system wasn't thoughtful at all!

Ivan thought of the considerate systems other people had, ones that provided exactly what they needed, and a sense of despair washed over him. As a host, life was so tough.

Despite his frustration, Ivan eagerly pulled the book from the shelf. The cover felt slightly rough, with the words The Origin of Bloodlines printed on it. The pages had a slight yellow tint, indicating that it had been preserved for a long time.

Ivan noticed that this was another magical book that hadn't been mentioned in the original story. Given that it was a system reward, he flipped it open.

After reading a few pages, Ivan was somewhat disappointed to discover that The Origin of Bloodlines wasn't the powerful spellbook he had expected. Instead, it resembled a history book, recording events before the Wizarding Wars.

Back then, wizards weren't as dominant in the magical world as they were now. They couldn't even enslave house-elves, which were magical creatures with strong magical abilities.

In contrast, wizards, who were relatively weak compared to these naturally powerful creatures, only gained a foothold in the magical world due to their numbers.

Fortunately, humans had never been the type to back down easily.

Some wizards chose to focus on magical research, creating more powerful spells to increase their strength. Others looked for shortcuts, seeking to steal the power of these formidable magical creatures.

A portion of these wizards succeeded, gaining immense power. What was even more terrifying was that this bloodline power could be passed down to their descendants, ensuring their strength endured.

Though the power of the bloodline might weaken over generations, this discovery drove many wizards mad with desire.

However, bloodline fusion was a high-risk endeavor. Most wizards perished in the process of experimentation and fusion, with only a few lucky ones surviving. Those who failed often transformed into monstrous beings, cursed for generations, like werewolves or vampires.

Some wizards even resorted to cultivating more powerful magical creatures to undergo bloodline fusion experiments, enhancing their own strength.

This made Ivan think of the basilisk sleeping in the chamber and the eight-eyed giant spiders in the Forbidden Forest.

The most twisted of all were those who sought to form relationships with magical creatures that were less terrifying, hoping to pass on their bloodline to their descendants.