MeowthTL
patreon
Harry Potter: The Last Scion of Sprout - 257
🕑 Added 2025-09-25 15:26:44 +0000 UTCChapter 257: Transformation, Shadow Control, and Patronus
Just as Shadow was rapidly approaching maturity, countless shadows spread from its body across the ground, writhing toward one direction as if sensing something and urgently reminding Ciel.
Ciel looked in that direction and let out a soft sound. In that patch of field were Shadow's kin—the other Shadow Thorns. However, due to his previous lack of nutrients containing ancient magic, he had only managed to cultivate Shadow as a single individual capable of using ancient shadow magic with intelligence.
The other Shadow Thorns, though considerably superior to ordinary varieties, were completely different species compared to Shadow. Now, as Shadow approached maturity, it urgently pointed toward those Shadow Thorns to remind him.
Could it be...?
A peculiar phenomenon about Shadow Thorns mentioned in herbology materials surfaced in Ciel's mind. When gathered in large numbers, Shadow Thorns would sometimes form exceptionally thick Shadow Thorn trees around the most powerful individual among them.
Without much time to think, Ciel immediately took decisive action. After all, he had obtained far more ancient ash from the Delia Island temple than expected. Even if his guess was wrong and he wasted some, it wouldn't delay subsequent cultivation of other ancient plants. But if his guess was correct, perhaps his harvest this time would improve considerably.
The next moment, Ciel waved his wand, immediately scattering clouds of ancient ash toward the other Shadow Thorns. Simultaneously, his wand tip emitted the same intense light beams he had used when cultivating Shadow. Under this illumination, the ancient shadow magic within these Shadow Thorns seemed to activate.
Clusters of shadows began slowly writhing, and under the influence of the falling ancient ash, both the speed and range of shadow movement rapidly expanded. The entire greenhouse floor seemed covered by these writhing shadows.
When the shadows extending from Shadow connected with the other Shadow Thorns, a sudden transformation occurred! The other Shadow Thorns seemed drawn by shadows, converging toward Shadow and coiling around it in clusters. Even their living shadows created by ancient shadow magic merged into Shadow's magic.
In the blink of an eye, Shadow's size expanded dozens of times before Ciel's eyes, completely becoming a Shadow Thorn tree composed of thorns and shadows! Not only that, but in his vision, the reward orb floating above Shadow, which had already reached its limit, had expanded by countless circles.
Finally, it flickered with the pure light of diamonds!
Lines of prompts flashed across Ciel's system panel:
[Your cultivated Shadow Thorn variant has produced a clustering effect under specific conditions, generating a new variant plant—Shadow Thorn Tree.]
[Your obtainable rewards have changed.]
[Shadow Enhancement (Gold level) changed to Shadow Control (Diamond level)]
[Tearing Wounds (Silver level) changed to Shadow Erosion (Platinum level)]
[Minimal Ancient Shadow Magic Insight (Iron level) changed to Ancient Shadow Magic Basic Configuration (Gold level)]
[...]
[Due to the Shadow Thorn Tree's special properties, it possesses continuous growth ability.]
[Each time it advances a tier, you can harvest corresponding tier rewards again.]
Seeing these lines of text, Ciel's eyes filled with surprise and delight. The Shadow Thorn's transformation was definitely an unexpected joy. Originally, even Shadow might not have provided him with Platinum-level rewards.
However, after this mutation, the Shadow Thorn Tree could reach Diamond level, with all rewards clearly improved significantly. Not to mention that the Shadow Thorn Tree could apparently continue growing by continuously incorporating Shadow Thorns, providing him with endless rewards.
Compared to his previous expectations, this far exceeded them!
At this moment, looking at the reward orb on the Shadow Thorn Tree, Ciel took a deep breath and reached out his hand. The reward orb shining with diamond radiance immediately flowed into his body.
The system panel's text became blurry for a moment. Simultaneously, he felt a strange magic beginning to flow through his bloodstream, mixing with his own magic. This magic felt like a substantial shadow, very similar to the deep-layer shadow world magic he had experienced while exploring the shadow realm.
As this magic fully integrated into his bloodstream, the first clear text appeared on the system panel: [Shadow Control (Diamond level)]!
At the same time, Ciel immediately felt instinctive control over shadow magic. Wherever shadows existed became his domain. He lightly hooked his finger, and the shadow magic now filling the greenhouse spontaneously gathered toward him, changing into various shapes according to his will.
Even his own magic strength and magical perception were significantly enhanced under shadow magic's augmentation.
"This is Diamond-level shadow control?" He showed satisfaction. If he had possessed this ability when previously exploring the shadow world, shadow magic would no longer pose any erosion threat to him. Instead of suppressing his magic, it would provide enhancement, allowing him to fight in the shadow world as if on home ground.
Then Ciel waved his hand, and the shadow magic before him immediately formed a thin blade extending across the ground. Wherever it passed, it not only severed all obstacles in its path but also left highly corrosive shadow magic in the cuts.
This was the second ability lighting up on his system panel: [Shadow Erosion (Platinum level)]!
He had long experienced this aggressive nature of shadow magic. For opponents with weak constitutions, especially wizards, wounds created by shadow magic would be extremely troublesome. Particularly with his now instinctive control over shadow magic, he could attach shadow erosion to his normally cast spells.
This meant all his spells now had significantly enhanced damage potential. If wizards underestimated any of his minor spells, they could suffer greatly.
Next, Ciel's vision showed scenes similar to when he had previously received ancient weather magic insights. In an instant, a mythical battlefield appeared before him. Two towering, mountain-like figures stood in distant confrontation, with unimaginable magic rising from their bodies.
Without any spells needed, the magical collisions they triggered created raging winds around them and cracked the earth.
Witnessing this scene, his expression turned pale, his shock beyond words.
"Mythical level—this is a battle scene from mythical times? Could this be combat between two Titan giants from the Olympian age?"
The gap between mythical and legendary levels was once again starkly displayed before him. If current Ciel were in such a battlefield, survival itself might be questionable.
Then one figure raised his hand and spoke in deep, solemn tones: "Perthro!"
Immediately, shadows surged across the ground, engulfing everything. Like a shadow realm invading reality, seeking to draw everything into the shadow world.
Ciel didn't know how the subsequent battle unfolded. In the first instant, the scene before him plunged into surging shadows. His focus was solely on the now crystal-clear runic script: Perthro.
Its basic runic configuration was displayed before him. However, compared to the fragmented ancient weather magic insights, this ancient shadow magic insight was undoubtedly much more complete. The runic configuration he obtained from it contained a full thirteen nodes.
When the vision returned to normal, he looked at the now-clear [Ancient Shadow Magic] text on his system panel, his face showing joy. If he mastered a thirteen-node runic configuration and obtained corresponding shadow-related natural will, his ancient shadow magic mastery would likely surpass ancient weather magic, which lacked subsequent runic configurations for reference.
It might advance to Platinum level!
"If I plant that Shadow Flower and harvest Diamond-level shadow magic affinity, all shadow-related abilities will surge dramatically. Then ancient shadow magic's power would be truly unfathomable."
When his various magical abilities had begun growing slowly, the rewards obtained from the Shadow Thorn Tree truly increased his strength considerably. Moreover, the Shadow Thorn Tree itself was an enormous asset.
However, perhaps due to just transforming into a Shadow Thorn Tree, Shadow's consciousness wasn't clear and was currently in slumber. It would need some time to awaken.
Looking at the Shadow Thorn Tree's dense, sword-sharp spikes and the thick shadow magic shrouding them, if hit by its attacks, forget wizards—even fire dragons would suffer greatly. Not to mention the Shadow Thorn Tree could launch attacks through shadows. One careless moment could even trap elite Aurors!
After a while, his emotions gradually calmed. His gaze fell on the remaining ancient ash. Even after using part of it to mature the Shadow Thorns, he still retained considerable amounts.
If used properly, subsequent benefits might not be less than this time.
However, after much consideration, Ciel seemed to lack suitable targets. The two mythical plants—World Tree roots and Fire God seeds—were unthinkable. Not to mention he knew nothing about them; even if he understood their cultivation requirements, mythical plants required astonishing amounts of ancient magic. His current supply wouldn't even fill the gaps between their teeth.
As for other ancient plants, he had only made some progress with the Whomping Willow, and that was just completing the first step. Even with ancient ash, he still lacked the ability to complete subsequent steps.
Currently, the most likely use for this ancient ash was the recently obtained mutated Patronus tree seed. If he wished, using ancient ash could make it sprout and grow in a short time. Even if it couldn't reach maturity, it shouldn't be far off.
But this also made him conflicted. That seed needed to meet specific conditions to improve its mature reward grade. He still hadn't figured out what those conditions were. Direct cultivation would likely yield Diamond-level rewards.
Though already very good, he now had quite a few Diamond-level magical rewards, especially after just obtaining the shadow magic reward series. One Diamond-level reward wouldn't provide qualitative change for him.
But if this reward reached Epic or even Legendary level, that would be incomparable. Epic rewards were rare even after his years of work in the magical world. Legendary rewards were extremely rare for him.
Ten Diamond-level abilities combined couldn't match one Epic ability in strength!
Unless absolutely necessary, he didn't want to abandon the chance to improve this Patronus tree seed's reward tier.
"If only I could find how to improve its reward level..."
He looked at the Patronus tree seed carried close to his body. But this single glance made him gasp softly.
On his system panel, the light showed the same epic, legendary, tri-colour, interwoven diamond. But if he remembered correctly, the purple light representing Epic level hadn't had this much presence before?
Now, compared to before, the portion had increased by nearly thirty percent. Legendary Light had also grown slightly. Though Diamond-level light still occupied the absolute majority, it had decreased somewhat compared to before.
After checking several times, he confirmed he hadn't seen wrong. His expression gradually became surprised and uncertain.
This meant the conditions for increasing this Patronus tree seed's reward level had unknowingly been partially fulfilled!
But during this time, he had been focused on preparing to use Quintaped blood and hadn't paid special attention to this Patronus tree seed. He also remembered that when he went to Sprout Island to use the lightning rod to receive lightning, the Patronus tree seed seemed unchanged. How had it transformed afterward?
What exactly had changed?
After eliminating several obviously impossible guesses, he gradually narrowed down one possibility—the original Patronus tree's property of resisting dark magic.
His biggest action during this period was the previous battle against the curse power from the Delia Island temple.
Now thinking about it, he did notice something wrong. The curse magic transmitted by the being in the Delia Island temple was extremely powerful. His summoned curse serpents had no resistance against that curse monster—complete one-sided crushing.
Logically, facing such level of cursed objects, especially when they harboured full malice toward him, just approaching should cause extreme pain. Even his body should rot and twist under the curse's influence.
He had prepared mentally for this. But thinking about his combat process, he indeed hadn't felt anything similar. Though he had some dark magic resistance, it shouldn't be enough to ignore Epic-level curse magic.
Could it be that this Patronus tree seed played a role then?
If so, he roughly guessed what conditions were needed to improve its reward level.
"Resisting dark magic. If that's really the case..."
After pondering briefly, his gaze fell on the voodoo doll, showing a gentle smile. He then cut his finger, squeezed out several drops of fresh blood, and offered them.
The voodoo doll's eyes lit up. Though its belly was already stuffed with his flesh and blood, still undigested, which voodoo doll would refuse blood delivered to its mouth? Especially his blood, full of vigorous life force.
The voodoo doll immediately began sucking eagerly. When the blood entered, its face showed complete intoxication. What a life. Pure enjoyment.
Ciel also asked with a smile: "Delicious?"
The voodoo doll nodded like a pecking chick.
"Want more?"
The voodoo doll nodded with longing.
"But I'm afraid your previous injuries haven't recovered. Can you handle it?"
The voodoo doll immediately panicked, patting its chest to assure him: "Previous injuries completely healed long ago! I'm terrifyingly strong now! Master, please let me continue drinking—I'll do anything!"
Hearing this, he nodded with relief, his smile becoming even more gentle: "Recovered? That's good, that's good. Then let's get back to work."
Comments
Garvat22
Tftc
