Harvey had guarded against outsiders day and night, even specially placing three protective magical wards over the laboratory.
But he never expected that the inside job would come from within the laboratory itself!
What's done is done.
Harvey could only try to find a way to recoup his losses.
He stared at Steve, falling into deep thought.
Steve felt his hair stand on end under that gaze. He quickly assumed a combat stance and said with a tough tone, "Don't use that evil witchcraft on me. I can do this all day!"
Harvey unexpectedly shot back a line:
"What's so great about fighting all day? A real man should be able to fuck all day!"
Hearing this, Steve's face was filled with horror. "You don't mean..."
Seeing that the guy was obviously getting the wrong idea, Harvey's face turned black.
"Stupefy!"
With the narrow space leaving no room to dodge, Steve once again fell victim to the "evil witchcraft" he had spoken of and collapsed to the floor.
Immediately after, Harvey picked up his sampling tools from the lab bench and performed a second round of sampling on Steve.
He needed to carefully study exactly what effects the test subject would exhibit after drinking the physique-enhancing potion.
...
Over the next two hours.
Harvey cast the Visum Extendo charm, carefully observing the blood, muscle cells, bone marrow, heart extract, and other research samples magnified 3000 times.
He stroked his chin, saying thoughtfully:
"The test subject's skeletal density and cardiopulmonary functions have improved massively, and their metabolism is much more efficient."
"Strength and endurance have also received a significant boost."
"Specific nucleotide sequences with genetic effects within his DNA molecules—that is, certain gene segments—have also undergone some unknown mutation."
"Overall, the test subject's physique has been enhanced by roughly two times."
Harvey was very interested in the excellent effects the test subject displayed after consuming the potion.
"Interesting. Even though the test subject had already been injected with the Super Soldier Serum, he didn't develop any drug resistance and was still able to receive the potion's amplification."
"It seems my physique-enhancing potion can be considered a success?"
Harvey's tone wasn't entirely certain.
The specific effects of a potion vary from person to person; they are not 100% universally applicable.
He was feeling a bit of a headache right now.
"The key issue is that I don't have enough potion ingredients to conduct repeated, large-scale experiments on the potion's effects."
He certainly didn't want to rashly test a physique-enhancing potion with uncertain effects and unknown side effects on himself.
Potioneering is an exacting science and a profound art that requires a strict, rigorous process.
Harvey had a clear understanding of his own Potions proficiency. For someone like him, trying to innovate potions based on pure luck was definitely a dead end.
"I have to find a way to discover the side effects of the physique-enhancing potion and perfect this potion recipe."
Harvey lowered his head in thought.
"Perhaps I should go back to Hogwarts and ask the old bat for advice?"
"But the white-bearded old man's soul injury is still waiting to be healed. I'll wait until I think of a solution before going back."
Thinking of this, Harvey's head started to ache again.
As far as he knew, there were many healing relics in the Marvel Universe.
For instance, using the Time Stone, one could easily reverse all injuries.
But the bald Ancient One guarded fiercely against Harvey, who already had a criminal record.
In the short term, he probably wouldn't be able to get his hands on the Eye of Agamotto.
And apart from the Time Stone, there were the legendary skeletal remains of dead dragons, which not only extended lifespan but also possessed partial healing properties for injuries and illnesses.
But whether dragon bone would be effective against soul trauma was very hard to say.
There were also treasures like the Eternal Flame, Dormammu's Dark Dimension energy, Wakanda's Heart-Shaped Herb, and so on.
But these treasures were either extremely difficult to obtain, or it was impossible to confirm if they had any healing effect on soul trauma.
Harvey believed that the artifact with the best healing effect on soul trauma would be the Cradle of Life.
This Cradle of Life was not the Regeneration Cradle invented by the Korean geneticist Helen Cho in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
What he was referring to was the divine artifact of the Shi'ar Empire from the comic universe—the Cradle of Life.
It possessed powerful healing abilities, even capable of resurrecting the dead and other heaven-defying healing effects.
However, Harvey currently had no way to cross over into the comic universe.
Even if he did have a way, he wouldn't dare go.
You have to understand, the comic universe is infinitely more dangerous than the cinematic universe.
The supervillains there destroy universes on a whim; destroying or rebooting multiverse timelines is as simple as eating a meal or drinking water to them.
With Harvey's current strength, if he went to the comic universe, he probably wouldn't even count as cannon fodder.
After all, his combat power was inferior to even the intelligent robots invented by the comic version of Iron Man...
Harvey pondered for a long time.
"The only healing relic I can obtain at this stage is probably the Wand of Watoomb."
The Wand of Watoomb is a crystal wand with demon-like pointed horns at both ends.
It can absorb magical energy from unknown dimensions and release it in the form of healing, divination, defense, and so on.
This legendary wand was originally the magical artifact of Watoomb, an ancient Sorcerer Supreme of Kamar-Taj.
After Watoomb retired, this wand had been stored in Kamar-Taj's artifact storage room ever since.
Harvey had once sneaked into Kamar-Taj's artifact storage room. Although he was caught red-handed by the Ancient One...
He had seen the true appearance of the Wand of Watoomb.
"Time really flies. Thinking about it now, that was already two years ago," Harvey sighed with emotion.
Back then, his strength had earned the recognition of the vast majority of Kamar-Taj's sorcerers.
The bald Ancient One generously allowed Harvey to go to the artifact storage room to pick out a magical artifact he desired.
As a result, he surprisingly didn't earn the recognition of a single artifact. In the end, Harvey could only use the angry, sour-grapes tone of someone who couldn't get what they wanted, leaving behind the line:
"A wizard's strength comes from within. There is absolutely no need to rely on external objects!" And then he left indignantly.
Thinking about it now, Harvey was still very pissed off.
"That bald old geezer tricked me too! Saying all magical artifacts would willingly choose to follow a sorcerer—it's all total bullshit!"
"He definitely secretly left a backdoor on the artifacts. Otherwise, how could the future Doctor Strange end up picking that badass Cloak of Levitation?"
The more he tolerated it, the angrier he got;
The more he stepped back, the more he felt like he was losing out!
Harvey made a decision: "This time, I swear I'm going to take back everything I lost!"
"Objective: Infiltrate the Kamar-Taj artifact storage room."
"Let's go!"
Harvey made a swiping motion in the air, and the portal leading to Kamar-Taj appeared with a "sizzle".
The other side happened to be the Kamar-Taj library.
Master Wong, who was currently reading a copy of the 'Guide to Dimensional Travel', sensed the magical aura of a dimensional portal opening nearby.
He frowned, looking up, and said in a stern tone, "Who is it? I've warned you many times, the use of magic is forbidden inside the library!"
When he saw that it was Harvey stepping through the portal into the library, Wong's face turned even darker.
"You little punk, didn't you hear my warning just now?"
"Are you deaf?"
Harvey raised his eyebrows, putting on an extremely fake apologetic smile. "Sorry, I'll pay attention next time. It's already this late, Fatty Wong, haven't you eaten dinner yet?"
Although this kid's promise was incredibly perfunctory and his form of address was very impolite, Wong couldn't do anything about Harvey.
He glared at Harvey out of the corner of his eye and said in a bad mood, "Don't try to cozy up to me. You're trying to distract me again just like last time so you can quietly steal the forbidden books, right?"