Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 263 Rice: Making the Most of the Program Bugs Left Behind by Helga

After dealing with the doll for a while, Rice discovered a flaw in its design.

To conserve magic, the puppet won't go all out from the start—which is perfectly reasonable, just as you wouldn't use your full strength against a mosquito. The problem lies in the puppet's unique way of assessing the intruder's strength.

To be more specific, first release an offensive spell. If the intruder cannot withstand it, then enter a dormant state. If the intruder withstands it, switch to a defensive state, and then determine the appropriate level of magic to use based on the intruder's perceived threat level.

But Hufflepuff clearly hadn't considered what would happen if the intruders deliberately or involuntarily released the water for some reason.

By chance, Rice discovered this bug—the puppet wouldn't automatically increase its attack power!

In the puppet's mind, the current attack intensity was enough to kill Rice. If Sandman's punch didn't kill him, then he would punch him again.

But for Rice, even if the puppet didn't open its domain, it wouldn't be able to kill him even after ten years.

Rice knew very well that Helga's puppet could activate a domain, but so far he hadn't sensed Helga's domain, which meant the puppet hadn't activated it at all.

That would give him a huge advantage. He could maintain this position indefinitely until he had completely turned this area into his own territory.

As long as you don't attack the doll first, it's fine.

Once the idea formed in his mind, Rice began to execute the tactic. Sure enough, the puppet was merely futilely driving the sandman to attack Rice, like playing whack-a-mole.

Time passed second by second, and Rice successfully transformed most of the underground area of ​​the main hall into his own domain, turning what was originally a muddy area of ​​a dozen square meters into a small pool of water.

During this time, he accumulated a considerable amount of magic power in his field, but he kept it dormant and thus the puppet did not notice it.

Unable to break through after a prolonged assault, the puppet, riding the sandman, took two steps back and then spread its arms wide. Seeing its sudden change in posture, Rice had a sudden realization: the prolonged assault had triggered a hidden mechanism, and the puppet was about to increase its offensive capabilities—and the giant sandman was already the peak of the puppet's attack power; to further increase its output, it would have to activate its domain.

Without further hesitation, Rice presented the "grand gift" he had prepared for the puppet: the pool of water exploded with a bang, and the clear water instantly covered the entire floor of the hall. Rice's domain had been fully deployed, instantly pushing the suppressive force to its limit.

This is just the beginning.

In the recent battle, the Sandman's arms and torso were inevitably covered in a lot of mud. As time passed, the mud slowly seeped into the Sandman's body and became one with it.

After Rice fully expanded the territory, the Sandman froze in place, large bubbles rising on his body, and the yellow sand on his skin quickly became wet.

Finally, with a splash, the thirty-meter-tall sandman collapsed to the ground, turning into a large puddle of wet sand, unable to regain its shape. Even the doll standing on its head was affected—its feet were stained with the wet mud, which then rapidly spread upwards.

The puppet acted decisively, waving its hands and severing its lower legs, thus resisting the erosion of the mud.

It floated into the air, trying to summon sand to repair the damage to its body as before, but then it discovered that the sand that had previously covered the hall had been completely eroded by Rice's explosive expansion of his domain, and it could no longer mobilize its power.

Rice stared intently at the doll in mid-air, his expression serious. He wasn't gloating over his successful surprise attack; he was rapidly evaporating the water stains on the ground, filling the entire hall with steam.

He knew very well that he was ultimately fighting puppets in the desert. Even if he gained the upper hand temporarily through clever tricks, he would still suffer losses in a prolonged battle. For one thing, if the puppets shattered the roof of the main hall, the sand that rushed down would be more than enough to overwhelm him.

Therefore, he must maximize his advantages in a short period of time and win the battle quickly.

The puppet had activated its domain, but it was suppressed by the powerful domain in the environment, unable to fully exert its magical effects.

It paused for a moment, then found the simplest solution to the problem—lift the roof.

The puppet immediately raised its head and arms, ready to use a spell to blast open the roof of the hall. Even if it couldn't blast it open, creating a hole would be of great help. However, at this moment, the moisture in the hall was so thick that it condensed into wisps of white steam.

Rice was pale, having poured almost all his power into his domain. The immense effort he expended even caused his vision to blur and his throat to taste sweet.

However, the effect was also extremely significant. From the explosion of the domain to the sandman collapsing to the puppet floating into the air, it took less than a minute in total. However, condensation had already appeared on the top of the ruins hall.

Rice successfully extended his domain to every corner of the hall.

The doll's attack magic struck the dome, then bounced off. After several bounces, even that portion of the magic was absorbed by Rice's domain.

Seeing this, Rice laughed.

"Helga, I've won this time after all."

The doll seemed to realize its predicament, so it stopped struggling and fell directly to the ground, letting the mud corrode its body.

It stared intently at where Rice was standing, then clenched its fists and lunged at him.

He actually chose hand-to-hand combat? Rice was slightly surprised, because such behavior was pointless. He could have simply shrunk into the mud and let it slowly devour the puppet.

However, upon seeing that extremely familiar face and the strangely familiar expression on it, Rice dismissed the idea.

He decided to give his old friend's doll its final dignity, just as it had a thousand years ago...

Rice tossed his wand aside, rolled up his sleeves, and charged toward the Hufflepuff doll.

boom!

boom!

Rice punched the doll in the face, and the doll retaliated by punching him hard in the back.

To be honest, after being punched hard a few times by the puppet, Rice was a little regretful, but he still gritted his teeth and fought the puppet head-on. One person and one puppet, two wizards with extremely high magical skills chose to fight each other like Muggles to determine the winner.

However, this battle was never in any suspense from the very beginning.

A few minutes later, Rice lay on the ground, panting heavily, while the Hufflepuff doll lay silently on the ground beside him.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Sorry for the lateness, I was too tired from working overtime.

The first update is here; the second update may have to wait until tonight.

(End of this chapter)