Another two weeks passed quietly as I moved even further ahead of my peers to the third year materials. Things got a bit tricky there as the third year was the one where electives became a real thing. I had already made a point to study a few elective topics such as ancient runes and arithmancy but the other topics I had left alone. As for the main classes the third year was a watershed moment in information as it was when the really dangerous stuff was covered. Combat spells, animate to inanimate transfiguration, magical beasts, that sort of thing. -
The main classes I was already well past my peers in so officially studying the materials for the previous years version of those classes proved my theory that the first two years materials were foundational. Of the elective subjects however one of them was so strange I got a headache just thinking about it, Divination. The books talked about tea reading, crystal scrying and even the third eye as if they were riddles rather than with plain facts. I couldn't exactly say I was surprised by this since the subject never really was one any fully sane person was successful in.-
One might think that didn't apply to Grindelwald since he had prophetic visions but that wasn't the case. The man was a high functioning manic who focused his mania on the idea of a wizard ruled world. Contrary to popular belief he didn't hate muggles but simply thought of them as lesser people. It sounds terrible but evolutionarily he wasn't exactly wrong. Wizards were indeed a step or two higher on the food chain than muggles if you take away all types of technology and just leave the raw being.-
Anyways point was I memorized the divination textbooks and promptly dropped the subject as I wanted nothing to do with it. The Ark phoenix was doing well under Hagrid's care and I took a bit of time everyday to go see it. Thanks to this I was also on good terms with the big man himself though I would politely pass on his griddle cakes that were hard as stone if he offered any. The stew he'd make on the other hand was an entirely different matter. It was a hunters stew made from whatever he'd hunted as the meat source(typically rabbit) and wild vegetables and herbs.-
It had a powerful intense flavoring and he always had massive portions which my body greatly appreciated. It was rather funny that my appetite was actual one of his favorite things about me after we'd grown close over time. He was always a bit self conscious about the differences his heritage had to normal wizards. His own massive appetite was one of those. He'd been a good source of materials over this time as well once the Dimorphodon egg had hatched and he fawned over the ugly little thing.-
It was a vicious looking thing with a head that was mostly wide sharp toothed beak with large reptilian eyes. It's body was not much different in shape from a bats though with sharper more narrow wings that lacked the "finger" bones a bat had and covered in feathers. These wings also had small three-clawed "hands" in the middle before the rest of the wing jutted out of the "wrist" of that part. It also had a long thin tail trailing behind it's body. While fairly passive towards Hagrid and anything bigger than it by a good amount than it the little thing was still a predator species and hunted the mice in and around Hagrid's hut within a week of hatching.-
The raptor hadn't hatched yet but there was chirping coming from the egg so it was going to be soon. Finally though my cooldown for the system's search function was over and I wasted no time at all using it again.
{Search function activated.... searching.... searching.... searching.... Target locked. Initiating trade window with target: Guts , World : Berserk}
'That's not good.' I thought as my eyes widened when the screen turned from blank white to a frankly terrible looking middle aged man.
His face was covered in scars and one eye was missing. His short rough black hair had parts that had turned white and this intense feeling of rage seemed to radiate off of him.
"What do you want?" he demanded with an expression that promised violence if he didn't like my answer.
"Alexander Drake, Multiversal merchant. At your service." I said introducing myself grandly.
"Go service someone else." he said annoyed.
I winced "Not that kind of service. I am a merchant you see. I won't bore you with the details since I know what sort of man you are but I can help you with your quest to get revenge on that old friend of yours." I said calmly.
"Griffith!? What do you know!? TELL ME!" he roared as he lunged at the screen only to obviously not grab anything.
"I am in an entirely different reality. Not dimension or space, reality. A world VERY different from your own. The system screen is merely the facilitator of our conversation, not a portal. Naturally however I will tell you about Griffith, I'll even give you something to help you against him." I said calmly.
"Speak. Now!" he hisses between teeth grit so hard blood coats them.
"First lets talk about what I can give you. Don't snap at me here, this is important. First a stone that when crushed will allow you to improve your body to vastly inhuman levels. It will improve your durability, speed, strength and healing factor but how much you grow depends on how hard you push your body. Something I doubt you'll find hard knowing you. The second is a set of two stones. One will give you the ability to use your will and soul to perceive your surroundings in extreme detail and potentially seeing the future. It will also let you use it to protect yourself and even harm others from the inside out. The second stone will give you knowledge on how to train these new powers." I paused to make sure he was listening and continued when he glared at me for having paused.
"Finally is a fruit, a rather special one at that. Once consumed you will lose the ability to swim, growing powerless and weak in water any deeper than your waist. Additionally any pain you suffer will be much worse. The trade off is that you will be able to summon darkness itself as your weapon and any attacks made on you will be drastically weakened. All together these things will give you a real chance to kill Griffith and any apostles who might serve him." I said finished giving my offer.
"What do you want? You merchant types never give anything for free." he said with his anger simmering down.
I grinned "Materials. Souls, bones, hearts, hides, blood and any other magically potent bits you can get from the astral beings you kill. I'll also take any magical stones or plants you find as well. You'll not gainsay my deal less than fair." I said confidently.