"Come on!" Adrian said, settling in and staring at Irene's eyes.
"Densaugeo!" Irene waved her wand, starting with one of the simplest attack spells.
The light of the spell flashed by. Adrian, who was hit, only felt a slight movement in his body, and a triangular rune embedded in a ring on the glove suddenly lit up.
The next moment, the spell's light bounced back. Irene, who'd been prepared, dodged in time.
Then Irene gradually strengthened the power of the curses, and Adrian resisted one by one. It wasn't until Irene used Levicorpus that the Shield Gloves showed something strange. After a burst of strong light, they tore and cracked open.
Adrian's figure shook suddenly, barely resisting the effect of the spell.
"Very practical item. The effect looks similar to the Shield Charm," Irene said with appreciation.
"No, it's much weaker in comparison," Adrian shook his head. As the developer who'd personally experienced the Shield Gloves' effect, Adrian knew their weakness.
Compared with the full protection of the Protego spell, the Shield Gloves needed you to look into the opponent's eyes when activated, and they couldn't defend against dark magic that was too strong.
But the biggest advantage of this magical item was its element of surprise. Imagine two wizards fighting. One side obviously doesn't have defensive spells active but rebounds the spell. If the other side doesn't respond in time, they can only face the consequences and get hit on the spot!
"It would be more perfect if it could be improved," Adrian said, touching his chin and thinking about an improved formula. He now knew more than forty runes.
Most were taught by Irene, and a few were from the Horcrux diary, with countless ways of combining them.
With two weeks before the Ministry of Magic's arrival, Adrian felt he could produce a few more magical items.
After all, he couldn't rely on Shield Gloves alone to impress them, right?
Because of the Shield Gloves' success, Adrian easily persuaded Irene to study new magical items together.
With Tom Riddle's fragment in the Horcrux working alongside them, the three of them together pushed their research on runic formulas forward at a remarkable pace.
Almost every two or three days, a new runic formula could be discovered. Just when Adrian was overwhelmed with joy, Tom Riddle made a new request.
"Want to learn about the outside world?" Adrian looked at the words appearing in the diary and was silent for a while.
In fact, Tom Riddle being able to endure until now and only bring up conditions was far beyond Adrian's expectations.
Because in the past few days, he'd basically been asking questions non-stop and had gained lots of knowledge.
Tom had only gotten a few runic formulas in their discussions, as well as the production process of a series of magical items like Shield Gloves.
To others, these things might be extraordinarily precious, but to Tom Riddle they were useless.
'Right, the Malfoy family has kept this diary in a storage box since they got it, so of course it wants information from the outside world.'
Black ink traces emerged from the paper. After staying for a few seconds, they changed again.
Are we friends? You'll tell me, right?
Of course... we are friends. What do you want to ask?
Adrian reluctantly wrote in the diary with the quill. If he refused to answer, he couldn't expect to extract more information from Tom Riddle.
In the diary, the ink writing gradually disappeared. Tom Riddle was also thinking about how to ask. After a while, the writing reappeared.
I want to know what happened in the magical world in recent years... Also, who is the most famous and powerful wizard in the magical world now?
Adrian smiled internally. 'Now the most famous and powerful wizard in the magical world is of course Dumbledore. Or else... you?'
But on the surface, Adrian still pretended to be thoughtful and began to write.
I haven't inquired about major events in the magical world in recent years, but the most powerful wizard is Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts!
Tom Riddle held back for a long time before coming up with another sentence.
Besides him?
That should be Nicolas Flamel, the alchemist who's lived more than six hundred and sixty years according to rumors!
Adrian touched his chin. Although Nicolas Flamel was relatively low-key, he really couldn't think of anyone else. He couldn't write Minister of Magic Fudge, right?
Fudge wasn't nearly powerful enough!
Where is the Dark Lord? Have you heard of him?
The handwriting on the diary wasn't neat but scribbled and rushed. Later, maybe thinking such an inquiry wouldn't be appropriate, Tom hurriedly added more.
I mean... I heard this name from the Malfoys before being stored away, so I was very curious and wanted to ask...
As a soul fragment, Tom could faintly feel that the main soul's situation was very wrong. But the distance was too far and his strength too weak, so he didn't know the specific situation, which was why he was anxious to ask.
"A little uneasy, Tom…" Adrian drummed his fingers on the table. For all his talent, the fifth-year Dark Lord was still painfully naïve.
However, from the original story's performance, it could be seen that young Voldemort was arrogant, extremely ambitious, and conceited. It was normal to lose composure a little after Adrian's series of provocations.
The Dark Lord? He's said to be dead... more than ten years ago...
Adrian casually wrote in the diary. After raising Tom's interest, he immediately changed the subject.
Aren't you a diary? Why are you curious about this? Let's continue studying runic formulas... I saw a rune somewhere and have been trying to figure out what it means.
Without waiting for the Horcrux to respond, Adrian drew a semi-circular umbrella-shaped rune on the diary's page. This was the ancient rune he'd seen on the box holding the Dementor.
This is a kind of isolation rune, which can block magic... usually used to make storage boxes to hold precious magical items.
Tom Riddle replied to Adrian's question automatically. Although he wanted to know more, he could only suppress his thoughts to avoid being suspected, then ask slowly later.
Anyway, as long as Voldemort was still alive, he couldn't really die.
Or rather, he would become the new Voldemort.
After a while of communication, Adrian closed the diary with a "snap" and placed it in the deepest part of the cabinet.
"Thank you, Tom," Adrian muttered to himself, took out a semi-finished diary cover from the desk drawer, and carved the isolation rune in the corner.
Hopefully there'll be no need to use it.