Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 475 The Demon God is Actually Myself

Professor Sprout had already anticipated the contestants' reactions. Instead of revealing the answer, she looked at Neville, Luna, and Harry.

"In the competition just now, three students used gill sac grass. This is a very clever strategy, because gill sac grass will make you grow fish gills and frog webs, allowing you to move freely underwater like real aquatic magical animals."

This is using the power of plants to change the shape of one's body. The same effect can be achieved using Transfiguration, but the drawback of Transfiguration is its extremely high difficulty. Professor Sprout's gaze swept over the contestants who had arrived, then he sighed.

As expected, Viktor Krum failed the mermaid's trial.

He tried to transform himself into a shark, but only managed to do most of it. His head and torso transformed, but his legs remained unchanged, making him rather clumsy in the water. Reaching the mermaid village on time wasn't a problem; catching small fish was unlikely.

Of course, even if he were to completely transform, it would still be extremely difficult for him, with the shark's enormous body, to catch fish and put them into the basket.

Gathering her thoughts, Professor Sprout continued her explanation.

"What Hogwarts will provide you is a fruit similar to a gill sac plant. It grants you the ability to partially transform into magical creatures. After the transformation, you will also partially inherit the magical creature's abilities."

The contestants were immediately in an uproar.

The transformation from gill sac grass only gives a person some amphibian characteristics, but the fruit provided by Hogwarts actually gives a person magical animal characteristics?!

This is incredible!

"What kind of magical creature is it?" a cautious contestant asked.

After all, there are differences in strength among magical creatures, and if they were to turn into vixens, it would be better for them not to.

"There are many kinds, such as fire dragons, basilisks, phoenixes, unicorns, and other magical creatures, which I will not go into detail about."

The contestants were all taken aback when they heard these names.

These are all extremely powerful magical creatures. Although the notoriously dangerous ones weren't mentioned, their numbers are still quite considerable.

Everyone present was instantly moved, and at the same time, they were glad that they had worked hard to pass the mermaid trial.

Sure enough, you reap what you sow.

Just as the contestants were starting to decide which magical animal fruit they would choose, Professor Sprout brought them bad news.

"Choose a wizard for the fruit?" The contestants heard a rather familiar phrase.

"Yes. The Transformation Fruit also has its limitations. If you can't resonate with the fruit, it will cause great harm to your body. So you have to communicate and interact with the fruits on the tree first to see which fruit recognizes you before you can choose to consume it."

More than one contestant sighed.

Now all their planning had been for nothing, and they could only leave everything to fate.

"Who wants to go first?" After explaining the characteristics and precautions of the Transformation Fruit to the children, Professor Sprout began today's main topic.

The students looked at each other in bewilderment. Finally, a student from Wagga raised his hand boldly, indicating that he was willing to be the first to try something new.

"Alright." Professor Sprout didn't waste any words and led him directly to the Transformation Fruit.

"Reach out your hand."

The student, Vagado, stretched out his hand, and under Professor Sprout's guidance, began circling the transformation fruit tree. As he spun, the fruits on the tree began to react.

Some fruits remained motionless, some trembled slightly, and others shook violently.

"Choose this one," Professor Sprout gestured for him to pick the fruit that was trembling the most.

"It's dragon fruit, the perfect fruit for you."

The student from Vagado blinked: Had he won the lottery?

Before handing over the fruit trees, Helga had already told Professor Sprout through the wind how the transformation fruit was produced, so Professor Sprout understood the difference in the rarity of the fruits.

Dragon fruit is relatively inexpensive among transformation fruits because its raw materials are the easiest to obtain; fruits like the Reem Cow Fruit are extremely precious. Phoenix Fruit was originally also considered precious, but who cares when Professor Dumbledore has a phoenix?

Seeing that the contestant in front of him had a dragon fruit, Professor Sprout had the idea of ​​demonstrating it to everyone.

"Perfect timing, you're the first one up, so here's a special treat for you—you can eat this fruit and then demonstrate the magic of the Transformation Fruit to everyone. Don't worry, I'll make up for the dragon fruit you ate."

Without hesitation, the contestant from Vagado swallowed the dragon fruit and then transformed under Professor Sprout's guidance.

Seeing that the Vagadoman had transformed into a fire dragon in front of everyone, the contestants present immediately believed in Sprout's claim about the Transformation Fruit.

While marveling at the profound heritage of Hogwarts, they were also eager to try it out.

The contestants eagerly stepped forward, trying to see which fruit they could resonate with.

Those students who came with their friends but didn't receive any challenge rewards themselves could only watch enviously as their friends went up to claim their prizes.

Rice was one of the ineligible ones, but he remained calm. He was simply curious to see which fruit the Hogwarts students would resonate with.

Harry was the first Hogwarts student to go up.

He simply reached out, and a phoenix fruit landed in his palm.

Professor Sprout wasn't too surprised. She knew that Harry's wand core was made of phoenix tail feathers, and coincidentally, the phoenix that provided the tail feathers and the phoenix that provided the blood was the same phoenix.

Therefore, it is only natural that Harry would be favored by the Phoenix Fruit.

Professor Sprout then led Harry to pick two more phoenix fruits from the tree, giving Harry three phoenix fruits to take down with him—Hogwarts' reward for those who passed the Mermaid Trials was three Transformation Fruits.

This gives the players room to explore the fruit's abilities and also increases their margin for error.

After Harry, Cedric and Neville came to the tree together.

Professor Sprout looked at the two Hufflepuff students with admiration in his eyes.

They are undoubtedly the pride of Hufflepuff School!

Cedric resonated with the extremely rare Reem-Ox Fruit, while Neville, like Harry, gained the approval of the Phoenix Fruit.

This result was quite unexpected for Professor Sprout.

Luna's situation was rather unique; it seemed that every type of fruit suited her quite well, but none were particularly outstanding. This put Professor Sprout in a difficult position, and in the end, she could only let Luna choose one herself.

"Does it have the Curved Horn Snore Beast Fruit?" Luna pondered for a moment before making her choice.

She didn't seek the power the fruit would bring; she only wanted to observe the characteristics of this rare and magical creature by consuming it.

"Wa...what? You mean the venomous unicorn?"

"No, it's a Curved-Horned Snoring Beast." Luna began to explain the existence of the Curved-Horned Snoring Beast to Professor Sprout.

Professor Sprout remained silent.

She felt there shouldn't be any; there was neither fruit nor such a magical animal.

After receiving a negative answer, Luna ultimately chose the Unicorn Fruit.

"Next, Miss Granger, it's your turn." Professor Sprout couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief after seeing Luna off.

She couldn't wait to switch to a more normal player to talk to.

Hermione resonated with a strange-looking fruit, and Professor Sprout had to think hard before remembering that it was the Sphinx Fruit. Like the Reem-Ox Fruit, only one contestant had received its approval so far.

"The Sphinx is a very intelligent and learned magical creature, so it's unlikely to grant you great strength, but it might enhance your thinking ability. However, that's not absolute, because the Sphinx is also quite powerful in combat," Professor Sprout kindly explained the characteristics of the Sphinx to Hermione.

Daphne and Astoria were the last of the Hogwarts contestants to appear. Professor Sprout was somewhat surprised when he discovered that Rice had failed the trial.

Watching Daphne and Astoria walk up, Rice felt a slight unease: So far, no one has gained recognition for the Basilisk Fruit...

He had given up on Daphne, but Astoria might actually be a good match!

As a dragon fruit fell into Daphne's hand, Rice showed no emotion.

He had anticipated this outcome, and he focused all his attention on Astoria. The moment she reached out her hand, Rice even held his breath.

The fruit on the tree began to tremble, a few trembling particularly violently. Rice carefully examined the color and pattern of the fruit, then was overjoyed: those were Basilisk Fruits! He couldn't be mistaken!

Ultimately, Astoria lived up to Rice's expectations and developed a powerful resonance with the Basilisk Fruit.

"Let me tell you, this Basilisk Fruit is probably the most powerful fruit in terms of practical combat ability of all fruits." On the way back to the castle, Rice was in high spirits and even began to tell Astoria about the wonderful uses of the Basilisk Fruit.

"Why do you know so much about the Transformation Fruit?" Daphne was a little confused. Didn't Rice arrive at the greenhouse at the same time as her and Astoria? Why did he seem to know so much about the characteristics of the fruit?

"Because the Basilisk Fruit was cultivated using the blood of the Basilisk I provided, I knew about this tree before Christmas." While revealing the truth, Rice also shared some information about how the Transformation Fruit Tree was cultivated.

Now Daphne understood why.

"Go back and prepare well for the next match. The next stage of the competition will probably be very difficult." Rice gave the two a few words of advice before returning to his dormitory.

Soon, the seven days passed in the blink of an eye, and the second stage of the competition officially began.

The players gathered once again at the Quidditch pitch, waiting for Ministry of Magic officials to lead them to the pitch entrance.

The stands were packed with spectators, and as the players set off, the stadium erupted in thunderous applause and cheers.

Amidst the cheers of the audience, contestants from various magic schools, carrying their prepared equipment, passed through the teleportation portal and entered the alchemy world.

Practice makes perfect, and Rice thought he was already very familiar with the teleportation method to enter the alchemical world, but this time after activating the teleportation, he felt an extremely unfamiliar experience.

As soon as he entered the passage, he felt as if some voice was calling to him, and when the teleportation was activated, a force pulled him to a specific location.

"Hmm?" Rice immediately became alert.

He knew very well that he was not well-liked by the world, so what awaited him was likely a rather dangerous situation.

Just as Rice was ready for battle, the teleportation ended, and he landed on a structure resembling an altar. Two people were kneeling before him, and below the altar was a strange-looking humanoid creature.

The creature was roughly humanoid, but its skin was covered with pustules like a toad's, and its overall color was bluish-gray. What was even stranger was that its head had a structure resembling a volcano, from which white smoke was constantly billowing out.

Rice had a vague feeling that this monster was somehow connected to him.

"Where am I? How long has it been since I left? What's happening in this world?" These are the three questions Rice most wants to ask.

Rice's appearance seemed to shock the two people on the altar and the creature beneath it.

It took them several seconds to realize what was happening.

A man kneeling directly in front of Rice immediately rattled off a string of words. Seeing the confused look on Rice's face, he seemed to suddenly realize something and immediately switched to another language.

"Vedad... Lord of the Demons, I respond to you—the power bestowed upon you by the scourge of the earth!"

Rice frowned.

He could tell that the person in front of him was trying to communicate with him, but his spoken English was exceptionally bad, with an accent even heavier than that of an Indian.

Rice guessed that he saw himself as some kind of god and hoped that he would grant him power.

Seeing that the other person seemed to want to say something more, Rice quickly told him to stop and then cast a translation spell on himself.

"Who are you?" Rice asked patiently.

Seeing that they could finally communicate with the Demon Lord who had answered their call, the two of them couldn't suppress their joy.

They quickly introduced themselves.

After listening to their rambling nonsense for a long time, Rice finally figured out where they came from.

The two longed to gain power from an ancient deity known as the "Demon Lord".

"Lord Demon, six hundred years have passed since you destroyed the Eternal City, slew the false god of light, and spread blessings upon this land. The creatures of this land have not been able to bask in your divine power for six hundred years. Fortunately, you have finally answered our prayers..."

As Rice listened, he suddenly felt that something was not quite right.

The "Demon Lord" you're talking about, you're not referring to me, are you? The Demon God is actually myself?!

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.

Update here, goodnight everyone!

The update tomorrow night will still be at midnight.

(End of this chapter)