Chapter 42 - Level 25 [p3]. Decision (1/2)

”Question, you say?”

”Actually, it's more of a request. I want to skip the fourth year in Hogwarts.”

”Hm?” Dumbledore for the first time in conversation showed a true surprise.

”I decided to visit my homeland. Thankfully, I have enough knowledge and talent to easily pass the fourth year, so I'd like to skip it and next year start in the fifth year, if that's possible.”

”Interesting. However, I am curious if what you said is the true reason, or is it similar to the story you provided to enter the school.” He said while smiling slyly.

”Indeed, you are a headmaster. You can't be fooled.” I smiled and we laughed.

”You have your own reasons to not tell us your story, Mister Magnus. Moreover, you are a student of Hogwarts, so I believe you had no malicious intentions in hiding your past. However, skipping a whole year is by no means a small matter. I can't decide for everyone. May I know the true reason for such a decision?”

”True reason?”

The true reason is tightly connected with my skill growth.

You see, I wasn't as afraid of Dumbledore for many reasons, now. As I previously said, I started understanding him more. Another reason is that he started trusting me more. Especially, after I brought to justice close servant of the dark lord.

However, the most important reason is the following information:

〖Recognizable skills〗

〖Magic Channeling 70+ (high chance of it being less than 80. Maximum 81-82)〗

How did I get this information, you ask? Simple. Skill progress. As the system explained, after reaching level 60 in any skill, special perks appear.

My only skill that reached level 60, was magic channeling. After that, I started seeing progress bar under skill. The system revealed that skill reaching 60 enters a threshold of a pinnacle skill. The second perk was that now I can see the level of this skill in other people. If it's lower than mine, I can see the exact number, and if higher I can see approximate level.

Of course, that came with a huge setback. Skill stopped growing by simply reading like before and just stopped at 60. After I improved my studying and got ”Unmatched memory”, I was able to increase magic channeling by one level, but after that, it stagnated once more.

In this case, the progress bar is extremely useful, because I can see if anything I do helps with improvement. Therefore, I decided that I need more skills and soon. Most of my skills are reaching dangerous 60. But my studying that helps with the improvement of other skills is only 45. That's not good.

Therefore, traveling around the world and learning skills I never knew, studying more languages, seeing new magical creatures and visiting places I never could in my previous life will help in my overall improvement. Hopefully, in the process, I will increase my studying ability, which will help with the growth of other skills.

In addition to this, the school had no obvious benefits left for me to use. Somebody might say that the biggest library in Britain is a good reason, but more than 30% of these books are pure history and other useless information, while another 30% is worthless to me due to high skill levels. So, you can certainly understand that I've overgrown this library. Only 40% is still somewhat useful, but half of that is books from the restricted section and that leaves me with pitiful 20% of possibly useful books.

I mean with greater success, I can just go and buy books in Diagon Alley. Thanks to the basilisk, money's not a problem.

Also, thanks to the ”Control” ability, I don't need to worry about magic I do outside. I can feel the magic inside me and around me, which allows me to find and remove the Trace. After all, the idea behind the Trace is that when a wizard becomes of age, it removes itself, so emulating such a process is as easy as breathing to me now.

Anyway, I digress.

In short, the real reason is that I want to travel the world while getting new skills. Even I, grinding freak, become more and more bored of grinding skills I have now. Time to change the pace and have some fun.

”Yes, what's your true reason? You don't expect me to believe, that visiting homeland is your true reason?”

”Well... I just want to change the pace. Magic is my passion, but it becomes tiring, so I just want to travel the world. Plus, recently I got quite a good horse.” I smiled and laughed a little.

Dumbledore, obviously understood what I meant and he was okay with the fact that I saved Bucky. So, he smiled and said:

”Is that so? You really don't want to tell me the true reason, aren't you?”

”Not really. But I said you the thing closest to the truth.”

”I still can't just let you start the fifth year, without passing any exams. Especially without a good reason. After all, I am not the one who needs that reason.”

'That made sense. Even if he is a director or whatnot, he can't randomly allow people to skip years. Hm...'

”Well then, that's a shame.”

”You can still continue from the fourth year, I guess. So are you sure, that you...”

I stopped listening at that point and just returned to my previous auto-save and escaped meeting with Dumbledore altogether. After the second take on the conversation with Snape, I apparated to the clearing where I left Bucky.

If I can't continue with Hogwarts, then I suppose it's no big deal. I was there only to keep close to Harry's plot armor and get stronger. Therefore, I have no good reasons to stay with the trio any longer. Thanks to my intervention, Harry should be safe and Voldy should be dead for another year at the very least. The only thing I needed to change was to steal the ring from Dumbledore during the fifth year, so he won't be cursed. But that's not an option and I don't know where to get the original ring, because I don't remember if that even was in a film.

'...'

I paused in my thoughts for some time.

'Actually, why do I even care about all that?'