When Dumbledore returned to the Great Hall, he found that the rest of the school's professors and the headmasters of the visiting schools had all arrived.
A strange calm hung over the hall.
After Seraphina entered, that strange atmosphere even began to feel eerie. The students seemed completely focused on finishing the breakfast in front of them, yet at the same time they appeared to be secretly watching Professor Picquery as she returned.
Seraphina noticed the peculiar atmosphere in the Great Hall, but as an experienced old hand, she simply pretended that nothing had happened.
She walked straight to the staff table and sat down in an empty seat.
Seraphina herself wanted to keep a low profile, but others had no intention of giving her that opportunity, especially Karkaroff, who was always eager to stir up trouble.
"Professor Picquery, I'm terribly curious. What exactly happened just now?" Karkaroff asked with a strange smile on his face.
Seraphina's body stiffened. Just as she was considering how to respond to the annoying Karkaroff, Dumbledore's voice came from behind her.
"Nothing happened, Igor. It was merely a small misunderstanding," Dumbledore said calmly while looking directly at Karkaroff.
Karkaroff shut his mouth.
He felt an immense pressure.
Few people dared offend Dumbledore on Hogwarts grounds. So after receiving such a firm response from him, the disturbance came to an end.
It was buried deep in everyone's hearts, while the name Rhys Lint became widely known.
No matter how he explained it, he had successfully withstood Professor Picquery's surprise attack and then defeated her in a direct confrontation. That alone was enough to make people take him seriously.
No matter how old Professor Picquery was, her experience and foundation were far beyond those of an ordinary wizard.
Yet how could someone capable of defeating her have finished at the bottom of the rankings in the first stage?
It was simply incomprehensible.
However, after some contestants publicly revealed the missions assigned by the system during the first stage, everyone noticed a detail.
Suppose a contestant killed a dragon entirely on their own, then did not regroup with their teammates and instead chose to travel around independently.
Wouldn't that leave them with exactly zero points?
In other words, contestants who scored zero but still passed the assessment were all powerful individuals who had completed the main objective independently, without relying on their teammates or the people of that world!
Once people realised this, the names of those zero-point contestants at the bottom of the rankings who had nevertheless completed the main objective suddenly became dazzling.
Rhys was not a high-profile person. Whenever anyone asked how he had dealt with the dragon, he always claimed that he had merely taken advantage of an opportunity to kill a juvenile dragon.
Most of the other zero-point contestants gave similar explanations.
Only the monk from India openly stated that he had indeed killed an adult dragon by himself.
"First, I covered my entire body in essential oil. That made my skin impervious to both fire and water. Then I drank Soma brewed according to an ancient method from my homeland, which granted me immense strength. After that, I took out several musical instruments, which automatically accompanied me. Amid the music, I performed Shiva's Tandava, the dance of world destruction, and gained limitless divine power. Shiva's blessing helped me slay the evil dragon."
The Indian monk, Arjun, said this while even taking out some essential oil and Soma to show the gathered wizards.
Everyone was astonished.
Such miraculous potions actually existed in the world!
Someone asked Arjun whether the essential oil and Soma were for sale.
Arjun replied that such things could never be sold. However, if they were willing to offer sincere worship, he could write a letter to the priests at the temple in his homeland and ask whether they might bestow a small amount of essential oil and Soma upon them.
By the time he said this, most of the young wizards had already come to their senses and stopped considering the matter.
"Did that man really kill the dragon that way?" Helga was extremely curious, so she quietly asked Rowena.
Rowena took out her crystal ball, brought up contestant Arjun's data, and looked through his performance during the tournament.
Then she was left speechless.
"He was transported to a place very close to a large city. He spent a month there selling essential oils, Soma, and various other miscellaneous trinkets. Then he used the money to buy a dragon egg. Somehow, he really managed to hatch a dragon from it. That's how he obtained his dragon heart."
After hearing the man's story, Helga was completely speechless.
He had actually found a loophole in the tournament rules!
It was true that when Rowena originally designed the rules, she had considered that some contestants might try to take shortcuts by simply buying a dragon heart. That was why she had specifically required them to participate in hunting a dragon.
However, she had never specified the dragon's age!
Under normal circumstances, juvenile dragons were constantly watched over by adult dragons. If someone could kill a young dragon under those conditions, Rowena believed they were still qualified to pass the assessment.
Who could have imagined that someone would come up with the ridiculous method of hatching an egg?
"Forget it. He doesn't have any teammates, so he'll definitely be eliminated in the second stage. It's not a problem."
Helga blinked.
Salazar did not have any teammates either.
Could they accidentally eliminate him too?
"It's fine. Have a little confidence in Salazar," Rowena said without the slightest concern, filled with confidence in her old friend.
"All right."
Seeing how certain Rowena looked, Helga stopped asking and instead began chatting with her about other matters.
At the staff table, the other professors each had thoughts of their own.
Professor McGonagall had originally wanted to ask Dumbledore about the details of the conflict between Rhys Lint and Professor Picquery that morning, only to discover that after just one night, Dumbledore's entire state of mind seemed to have changed.
She could not quite describe what exactly was different. If she had to put it into words, she would say that Dumbledore now seemed more relaxed, as though an immense burden had been lifted from his shoulders.
That was rather strange.
Professor McGonagall knew what Dumbledore had been carrying.
The You-Know-Who was like a Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of Hogwarts' teachers and students, forcing the century-old wizard before her to endure far too much.
Yet now, Dumbledore looked as though that You-Know-Who no longer existed at all.
Professor McGonagall could not understand it.
Perhaps it was merely her imagination.
Dumbledore noticed Professor McGonagall staring at him. With a point of his wand, a plate of Turkish dessert flew into his hand.
"Minerva, would you like some dessert? This one is called 'Angel's Hair'. It's a Turkish speciality..."
"Albus!"
Professor McGonagall instantly snapped out of her thoughts and, with astonishing speed, snatched the calorie bomb made with enormous quantities of oil and sugar from Dumbledore's hands.
"Absolutely not! Don't even think about eating sweets of this level!"
"Minerva, I am the Headmaster!" Dumbledore's expression became unusually serious.
Bang!
Professor McGonagall slapped the table.
And so, breakfast ended in an atmosphere of harmony, warmth, and peace.
After breakfast, under the joint supervision of Dumbledore and Seraphina, Rhys met with the Parselmouth student from Ilvermorny.
When Jack learned that Rhys intended to compete with him for the recognition of Slytherin's wand, he did not back down as Rhys had expected. Instead, he readily accepted Rhys's challenge.
Rhys found this extremely difficult to understand.
Just who gave you the courage to oppose me?
You couldn't even stand up in front of me!
If Rhys had not been mindful that this was Hogwarts and therefore could not act as freely as he had inside the alchemical world, the person before him would not even have been qualified to speak with him.
Simply approaching him would have caused the fluids inside his body to boil.
So how exactly did he dare compete with Rhys for ownership of Slytherin's wand?
Carrying this confusion with him, Rhys temporarily returned Slytherin's wand to Jack.
He had genuinely become curious and wanted to see how this student intended to deal with him.
Rhys was not the only one confused. The other Ilvermorny students who had witnessed Rhys's strength were equally baffled.
Jack, however, was completely unperturbed.
During the tournament, he had obtained an extraordinarily powerful treasure. What had happened in the Great Hall earlier was merely because Rhys Lint had caught him off guard.
In a genuine confrontation, he was confident that he would be the one to achieve final victory.
Yes.
Jack believed that once he used that method, even Professor Picquery would not be his match.
"You're really going to fight Rhys? Seriously? Can you actually win?" one of Jack's classmates could not help asking.
"I can win!" Jack declared confidently.
Before long, Jack and his friends arrived at the duelling venue designated by Professor Picquery and Professor Dumbledore, an unused classroom at Hogwarts.
The so-called "contest for control of the wand" was essentially just a duel to determine the victor, only somewhat gentler, without necessarily requiring anyone to pay with their life.
Not long after Jack arrived, Rhys appeared as well.
Several Hogwarts students and a few Hogwarts professors came with him.
Under the joint watch of Dumbledore and Seraphina, Rhys and Jack stepped onto the duelling platform that had been prepared for them.
Once on the platform, Jack did not immediately begin the formal duel. Instead, he started speaking to Rhys.
"Rhys Lint, I admit that your performance in the Great Hall was somewhat beyond my expectations, but you merely caught me off guard. Now I'm going to show you the opportunity I obtained inside the tournament grounds..."
Rhys raised an eyebrow.
His curiosity was now completely aroused.
Jack pulled a small crystal vial from inside his robes. It was filled with a red potion.
He removed the stopper and drank the potion in one gulp.
"A wizard's flesh, or rather, the human body, is simply too weak. Today, I'll show you what a truly powerful body looks like.
"The body of a true dragon!
"Magic and the like are nothing but illusions before it!"
As he spoke, Jack's aura began rising steadily, while dense scales emerged across the surface of his body.
A few seconds later, he had transformed into a "dragon-man" considerably taller than an ordinary person. Even his hands had changed into something resembling dragon claws.
Whoosh!
A ball of flame burst from his mouth.
He casually tossed Slytherin's wand onto the ground, raised his head, and released a deafening dragon roar.
Rhys's expression changed instantly.
"Pick up the wand, you mongrel! You've got some nerve! I said pick up the wand!"
Jack answered him with an even louder dragon roar.
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI