Looking at the dishes that had suddenly appeared on the dining table, Reyes realized his lack of anticipation had been completely justified.
Roast chicken, pork chops, lamb chops, and beef steak filled the center of the table. Around them were various side dishes, most of them centered around potatoes.
Boiled potatoes.
Baked potatoes.
Potato chips.
French fries.
Four different potato dishes surrounded the meat like loyal guards.
Beside them were bowls of ketchup, gravy, and other sauces, thoughtfully placed so students could season their food however they liked.
To be fair, the food itself probably wasn't bad.
The cooking skills of the Hogwarts house-elves were undoubtedly far superior to those of the chef at the orphanage where Reyes had grown up.
But even so, staring at such a heavy, greasy meal made Reyes feel strangely unenthusiastic.
His appetite simply wasn't there.
In the end, he picked up a small portion of roast meat and a lamb chop. After that, he drank a bowl of vegetable and meat soup and considered his hunger problem solved.
Across the table from him, Natasha seemed to share the same sentiment.
Although she had grown up in Britain, her family mainly ate Chinese food at home. As a result, she had developed eating habits quite different from the typical British diet.
Reyes heard her muttering quietly in Chinese while staring at the dishes.
"It's potatoes again… why is everything potatoes…"
Her voice carried clear dissatisfaction.
Reyes couldn't help but smile faintly. While Hogwarts food was famous for being abundant, its menu definitely leaned heavily toward traditional British cuisine.
While slowly eating, Reyes split his attention between the meal and the system that had just activated inside his mind.
The first thing he examined was the House Effect he had obtained after joining Ravenclaw.
Ravenclaw Vision
Various Ravens will randomly spawn around the host.
Find these Ravens and complete the questions or tasks they propose to collect them.
Rewards are granted every quarter based on the number of Ravens collected.
"Collecting Ravens for rewards… isn't this basically the Crow City-State effect?" Reyes muttered softly after reading the description.
In the Soul Fight Arena gameplay mode, the Crow City-State effect wasn't actually weak.
In fact, it almost guaranteed a Gold-tier Hextech Rune as long as the player collected enough Ravens.
The real problem was the effort required.
Players had to constantly search the entire map for Ravens while also competing with their opponents to claim them first.
Because of this, the entire flow of the match changed.
Instead of focusing purely on combat, players had to carefully control the pace of the game, monitor their opponent's movements, and prevent them from stealing Ravens.
What was originally a thrilling battle quickly turned into a slow and tense high-level intellectual duel.
As a result, most players disliked this city-state.
Many would rather fight with no bonus at all than deal with the annoying Raven mechanic.
But here in reality, things were different.
Those Ravens would only appear to him.
No one else would compete with him for them.
In that case, the Ravenclaw Vision effect was far more valuable than the Crow City-State in the game.
Reyes only wondered how many Ravens he would need to collect in one quarter to obtain a Prismatic Hextech Rune.
"If I had been sorted into Gryffindor…" Reyes mused silently, "maybe I would have unlocked something like a 'Gryffindor Adventure Show' that encourages reckless risk-taking."
He couldn't help but feel curious.
Would it be possible to unlock the effects of other houses in the future?
Shaking his head slightly, Reyes continued examining the system.
Character Panel
The Personal Attributes Interface looked remarkably similar to the champion status panel in League of Legends.
His portrait was displayed in the center, surrounded by a list of attributes and status bars.
Reyes glanced downward.
Reyes White (Age 11)
Held Rune: Keystone Mage
Unlocks the talents Summon: Ailey and Arcane Comet, enhancing a wizard's fundamental magical aptitude.
Equipment: Useless Big Stick
Status: Unknown Curse (Slowly drains Life Points)
Life Points: 427 (52 + 375) / 675 (300 + 375)
Mana: 300 / 300
Attack Damage: 5
Spell Power: 100 (40 + 60)
Attack Speed: 0.6
(Affects casting speed and spell accuracy)
Ability Haste: 20
(Affects spell learning efficiency and casting speed)
Armor: 5
Magic Resistance: 15
Movement Speed: 5
Attack Range: 50
Other attributes that he currently didn't possess were automatically hidden.
These included things like Life Steal, Armor Penetration, and Magic Penetration.
Looking at these numbers, Reyes could only sigh.
In every sense of the word, he was extremely weak.
If this were the actual game, he might even lose a one-on-one fight against a ranged minion.
However, Reyes wasn't surprised by his poor attributes.
An eleven-year-old wizard who had just entered Hogwarts naturally couldn't be powerful.
Even with the bonuses from the Keystone Mage rune and the +60 Spell Power provided by the Useless Big Stick, he could barely reach the spellcasting level of a third-year student.
In every other area, he lagged far behind.
The time it took him to complete a spell and hit a target was long enough for Nymphadora to cast the same spell two or three times.
But what truly concerned him wasn't his weakness.
It was the Unknown Curse displayed in his status bar.
And the frighteningly low base Life Points.
The Attribute Forger he obtained last year had provided him with 375 bonus Life Points, making his health look somewhat normal.
But without that bonus…
His true health would only be 52 / 300.
A dangerously low number.
"I really do have a curse on me…" Reyes murmured quietly.
"My parents really left behind quite a mess."
Before the age of ten, Reyes believed his poor health was simply the result of childhood illnesses.
But after obtaining the Rune System last year, he gradually began to suspect something else.
Every year, he spent large amounts of money on medical checkups and treatments.
Yet his condition never improved.
Now, with the character panel unlocked, his suspicions had finally been confirmed.
There really was a curse affecting him.
But who had cast it?
And what had truly happened to his parents?
Reyes didn't know.
Not yet.
However, he was determined to uncover the truth one day.
His childhood had been far from easy.
During several harsh winters, lying weakly in bed, Reyes had genuinely felt as though his life was hanging by a thin thread.
After reviewing his attributes, he let out a long sigh and opened the Rune Shop.
Rune Shop
The interface looked nearly identical to the shop menu in the game client.
However, most items were greyed out.
Various equipment, runes, and bundles were currently unavailable.
Only two things were accessible.
A claimable Sorting Reward
The option to purchase an Attribute Forger
The price immediately caught his attention.
750 Galleons.
"Seven hundred and fifty Galleons for one random Attribute Forger… limited to one purchase per quarter?"
The price was identical to the one in the game.
But in reality, it was extremely expensive.
Ted Tonks—his brother-in-law—worked at the Ministry of Magic, and his monthly salary was roughly 150 Galleons.
That meant an entire year's salary could barely buy two Attribute Forgers.
Even though Alphard's vault contained a considerable fortune, spending 3000 Galleons every year would definitely raise suspicion.
Especially from Andromeda.
Still, Reyes knew he had no choice.
The ability to convert money directly into personal strength was both the simplest and the most difficult path to power.
In his previous life, he had never been able to become a paying player.
But in this life, since he had the opportunity, he certainly wouldn't make things unnecessarily difficult for himself.
He only needed to think of a reasonable explanation for Andromeda.
With that decided, Reyes shifted his attention to the Sorting Reward.
He had waited an entire year for this moment.
But his expectations weren't very high.
As long as the reward was comparable to the one he received when the system first bound to him last year, he would be satisfied.
Reyes glanced around the Great Hall.
The feast was almost over.
However, the Hufflepuff students were still enjoying their desserts.
Afterward, Dumbledore would probably give his usual speech.
If Reyes waited until he returned to the dormitory to open the reward, it would take quite a while.
"Then I'll just open it now."
With a thought, a burst of prismatic light flashed before his eyes.
Three Prismatic Hextech Rune options appeared.
Reyes froze for a moment.
Jackpot.
The reward had far exceeded his expectations.
The entire year of waiting had not been in vain.
He carefully examined the three runes.
Symphony of War
Gain the talents Lethal Tempo and Conqueror.
Significantly enhance combat awareness.
Obtain a fragment of the Precision World Rune.
Precision Prodigy
Your spells become far more accurate.
Obtain Ezreal's Mystic Gauntlet.
Doomsayer
Gain Divination Talent.
Absorb surrounding Curse Energy and convert it into Adaptability.
Reyes stared at the three choices.
He truly wished he could choose all of them.
Each rune had clearly been modified from its original in-game effect, but every option offered enormous benefits.
"A fragment of the Precision World Rune… Ezreal's gauntlet… converting curse energy into adaptability…"
Reyes quickly began analyzing.
The first rune was eliminated almost immediately.
World Runes were extremely powerful.
But they were also incredibly dangerous.
In the League of Legends lore, the Rune Mage Ryze had watched both his teacher and his disciple fall into corruption because of the World Runes.
Even Ryze himself refused to use their power freely.
Instead, he devoted his life to collecting and sealing them away.
Reyes was still far too weak.
He wasn't foolish enough to risk touching such dangerous power.
At least not until he reached the level of a fully grown wizard.
The second option was extremely tempting.
Ezreal's Mystic Gauntlet could grant him immediate combat power.
After all, in the lore, nearly all of Ezreal's abilities came from that artifact.
Mystic Shot.
Essence Flux.
Arcane Shift.
Trueshot Barrage.
With that gauntlet, Reyes would instantly gain the abilities of a top-tier champion.
But after thinking carefully, he found himself drawn toward the third option.
Doomsayer.
Because of one simple fact.
Reyes already carried a curse.
And Hogwarts itself contained countless curses.
The Defense Against the Dark Arts position was cursed by Lord Voldemort, preventing any professor from holding the job for longer than a year.
The Ravenclaw Diadem hidden inside the Room of Requirement was also cursed.
Even the books within the Restricted Section might contain dangerous curses.
The Forbidden Forest certainly held cursed magical creatures as well.
And most importantly…
The Three Unforgivable Curses were themselves powerful curse magic.
With the Doomsayer Rune, Reyes would essentially gain a natural defense against the Dark Arts.
Of course, similar to the game mechanics, the ability probably had a daily absorption limit.
But if he could obtain more curse-related runes in the future, that limit might continue increasing.
As long as he survived the early stages of growth…
A Curse King build could easily rival the Forging King in the late game.
By the time Dumbledore began speaking at the end of the feast, Reyes had already made his decision.
Without hesitation, he selected the Doomsayer Rune.
You have obtained the Doomsayer Rune.
Absorb up to 1 point of Curse Energy per day.
Each additional Curse-type rune increases the absorption limit by 0.5 Curse Energy.
All absorbed Curse Energy converts directly into Adaptability.
A faint smile appeared on Reyes's face.
His path forward had just become much clearer.
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