"Next is the Levitation Charm rune. It has two distinct applications. The first is to cast it directly onto your tactical vest, which can systematically reduce your body weight, indirectly boosting your movement speed and agility. At maximum output, it should allow you to achieve true levitation. Give it a try—activate the fifth rune and focus your intent on yourself," Alan said with a steady smile.
"Yes, Master!" Hog was having the time of his life. This tactical vest was infinitely more engaging than wrestling with a Kneazle over a ball of yarn.
He focused his gaze on the fifth rune on the left side of his goggles, steadily feeding it magic. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the sensation of his own weight. He quickly felt the harness on his back tugging upward, and the pressure on his paws began to vanish.
When he snapped his eyes open and pushed off, he shot forward with a sharp whistle of wind. He used the same physical effort as before, but his velocity had increased twofold. As he flooded the rune with magic, his speed climbed higher and higher until he felt almost weightless.
Taking a sudden leap, Hog pushed the magic to its limit. The Levitation Charm hit its peak, and he floated directly into the air, hovering over a meter off the ground.
The floating wolf, however, was immediately dumbfounded. Once he was airborne, he had no way to move! His four legs pedaled frantically in the empty air, making him look exactly like a clumsy dog trying to do a frantic doggy paddle in a swimming pool.
*Woof?* He quickly realized his predicament and looked back at Alan with an expression that was as pathetic as it was adorable. The meaning was clear: *What now?*
"Ah... it seems that without an external propulsion source, you can't actually fly freely once you've achieved buoyancy. That was an oversight on my part. Let's skip the flight test for now; you can use it for weight reduction during sprints. I still need to refine the propulsion mechanics," Alan said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
*Woof!* Hog nodded and cut the power to the rune. He dropped to the grass and immediately began toggling the charm on and off. Even if he couldn't soar, the massive boost to his land speed made him incredibly happy.
Alan was satisfied with the results. While he couldn't grant Hog true flight yet, the weight-reduction application was a significant breakthrough. It was a concept he could replicate for himself. He was more than familiar with the Levitation Charm, but he had often struggled with its lack of agility when cast directly on a person.
By engraving the charm on his equipment rather than his body, he could achieve buoyancy through his gear and then use a secondary extraordinary-level Levitation Charm to provide the kinetic "push." It was a potential solution to the problem of high-speed, agile flight that had plagued him for months.
"Enough playing around, Hog. Conserve your magic. We still have the final module to test," Alan called out, stopping the wolf's frantic hopping.
Hog darted back to Alan, panting happily with his tongue lolling out, clearly enamored with his new gear.
"Next, we test the secondary use of the Levitation Charm: manipulating external objects. It isn't convenient for you to grasp things with your paws, so you'll use the charm for object control. You already have the experience of interfacing with the rune, so this should be intuitive," Alan said, pointing to a nearby stone the size of a pumpkin.
Hog focused, pulsing his magic into the harness. After a few initial stammers where the stone merely vibrated, he successfully hoisted the heavy rock into the air.
"Good. Now move it. Throw it. Concentrate your will on the target," Alan guided.
Hog followed the instructions, maneuvering the stone through the air before launching it forward with surprising force.
"Very good. This will allow you to complete tasks that would otherwise require hands. Practice this often; proficiency will make it feel like a fifth limb."
"Yes, Master!" Hog took the instruction to heart. In his previous life, he was limited to his jaws and his claws. This opened up a world of possibilities.
"And now, the final project: the attack module." Alan's smile vanished, replaced by a look of sharp focus. "Kiki, move back at least ten meters. This could get dangerous."
Kiki didn't need to be told twice; she scrambled away to a safe distance. Hog, conversely, looked like he was about to burst with excitement. The idea of an attack function appealed to his most primal instincts.
"The sixth rune is a complex combined array. When activated, it deploys a floating turret. It will draw magic from your body to fire offensive spells, but you will need to provide the aiming through your HUD," Alan explained.
Through his earlier trials, Alan had realized that fully autonomous aiming was too prone to errors. He had decided on a hybrid system. The "barrel" was a shortened wand taken from a captured Death Eater, modified to act as a magical conduit. By integrating the wand into a floating housing, he could bypass the need for Hog to possess a human-like casting technique. The wolf would simply look at a target, and the vest would do the heavy lifting of forming the spell projectile.