Under Snape's personal escort, Sean returned safely to the Slytherin Common Room. Someone had already noticed the ten points being added to Slytherin on the House Point hourglasses earlier. Since all the other Slytherin students were currently in the common room, now seeing Snape escort Sean back, they naturally knew who had earned the points.
"Sean, you disappeared in the blink of an eye just now. Where did you go?" Blaise asked, then glanced at the other students in the common room, lowering his voice. "And… someone noticed that our house gained a ten-point bonus just now. Was that you?"
There was no need to hide this; anyone who wanted to investigate could easily find out who had been awarded the points. Therefore, Sean nodded and said, "It was me. The Headmaster added the points just now. However, Gryffindor also had points added, so our advantage isn't that significant."
Sean's words were not concealed; they were an answer for Blaise and also deliberately spoken for others to hear.
Hearing Sean's confirmation, a hint of genuine joy appeared on Blaise's face. He said, "That's great! With these ten points, the points you lost before should be completely offset, right? By my calculations, you've even gained five or six extra points. Starting today, you've completely cleared your debt."
Hearing this, Sean nodded in sudden realisation. Earlier, he had only told Blaise that he had gained ten points, but even Sean himself had overlooked the fact that with these ten points, the debt he had incurred was completely paid off. In other words, he owed his house nothing.
Thinking of this, a smile of relief, the kind one feels after becoming debt-free, appeared on Sean's face. This feeling, as if a heavy burden and responsibility had suddenly been lifted, made Sean quite satisfied.
The students of Slytherin were very discreet, which was a basic virtue among pure-bloods. Therefore, no one came forward rashly to ask questions. After all, there were few true secrets between Hogwarts students. If they were truly curious, they only needed to make a few inquiries the next morning to find out what they wanted to know.
People like Andy, for instance, could find out about the major events happening at Hogwarts with just a few Sickles.
Speaking of Andy, as Sean was returning to his room from the common room hall, he happened to see the third-year student waiting at his door. Sean glanced around, nodded at Andy, and directly opened the door to let both Blaise and Andy into his room.
As soon as the door was pushed open, Kulkan darted out from Sean's sleeve, quickly climbed into her designated nest, ate the snake food placed there, coiled up, and went to sleep.
After looking at Kulkan and confirming there were no major issues, Sean gently tapped his wand. A house-elf immediately appeared beside Sean. After respectfully bowing and greeting him, it then asked for Sean's needs.
This house-elf was named Bru, and it was the house-elf Sean summoned most often.
"Esteemed Mr. Sean, what do you require today? Bru is very happy to serve you."
Looking at Bru, who was so excited he was almost trembling, Sean smiled and said, "Bring us three hot black teas. If possible, we didn't eat quite enough just now, so bring us some easy-to-eat food, like sandwiches or something similar."
"Yes, Mr. Sean!"
Watching Bru disappear with a pop, Sean couldn't help but feel a little impressed. The magic of these house-elves was different from that of wizards; it was a system independent of all other magical creatures and humans. No matter how powerful a wizard was, they couldn't use Apparition within Hogwarts, but house-elves could use it without any problem.
Pop!
With another pop, Bru returned to Sean with the requested items. After putting everything down, Bru repeatedly expressed his loyalty to Sean before finally leaving.
Blaise and Andy were old acquaintances and had been to Sean's room more than once or twice, so neither of them stood on ceremony. They immediately reached out, grabbed their respective portions, and began eating and drinking heartily, completely disregarding formal Slytherin etiquette in the privacy of the room.
After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Sean looked at Andy and said, "Andy, let's make this short. I want to get some rest soon."
In reality, Sean was eager to open his panel to see what he had gained from the duel with the troll, but it was inconvenient to do so before dealing with other matters.
One must know that this was a magical world, and the people in the school were as shrewd as monkeys. If Sean were to stare at something in the empty air where there was nothing, it could be dismissed as him spacing out once or twice. But after three or four times, someone with astute intentions would start to guess. Coupled with his stage-like progress after each duel, even if someone didn't know about the panel, they might guess that some kind of magical item was involved, thus creating unnecessary trouble for himself.
Hearing Sean's words, Andy immediately nodded and said, "Then I'll keep it brief. The sales of our mental recovery potion have been quite good recently. Because we sell them for much cheaper than in Hogsmeade, and the quality is quite stable and reliable, students from higher years and even other houses have been inquiring and buying from me. We're currently facing a problem of supply not meeting demand, so I wanted to discuss with you whether we could increase the sales volume."
Sean looked at Andy's expectant face, pretended to think for a moment, and finally nodded slowly. "Andy, you know that brewing potions takes up a significant amount of my time. Right now, I provide you with ten mental recovery potions per week. I can increase this number to fifteen, but in return, I will need to increase my share of the profits to seventy-five percent."
Andy's face had shown joy when he heard Sean could increase the quantity, but when he heard Sean wanted to increase his share to seventy-five percent, his face immediately turned bitter. "Sean," he said, "I only took thirty percent before, and that really wasn't much. I have to prepare the materials for you on time, and I also need to handle all the sales. I'm taking a certain amount of risk with all of this, you know."
"Your share per bottle is less," Sean pointed out calmly, "but the total quantity is higher. In actuality, you will gain more overall, so there's no need to cry poverty with me."
"Alright, alright then," Andy conceded.
He sounded reluctant, but a flicker of joy still showed in his eyes. Just as Sean said, he would lose half a percent of profit per bottle, but he would gain the profit from five extra potions. He was definitely making a profit, and a big one at that.
After the business was discussed, Andy left.
Blaise petted Kulkan for a while and then went back to his own room to sleep.
Finally, Sean had a moment to himself. He leaned back against the wall, took a deep breath, and opened his panel to see what rewards he got from that crazy adventure with the troll.
[Duel Won!]
[Conditions Met: Victory Against Superior Opponent. Bonus Extraction Granted (2 Abilities).]
[System Commencing Random Ability Extraction from Defeated Target: Mountain Troll.]
[Extracting...]
He felt a strong, double pulse of energy this time, more intense than before.
[Extraction Complete!]
[New Ability Acquired: Giant Strength]
[Extraction Complete!]
[New Ability Acquired: Giant Hide]
Whoa, two at once, Sean thought. But before he could even get excited, a whole stream of new messages started popping up, one after another, explaining a problem.
[Warning: Extracted abilities are from a species different from the host.]
[Perfect inheritance is not possible. Searching for a solution...]
[Searching...]
[Solution found based on host's species and physical condition.]
[Now modifying extracted abilities to match host's body...]
[Updating attribute panel... New status bar created: Talent]
Then, the final results popped up.
[Obtained: Talent: Giant Strength (LV0)]
[Obtained: Talent: Giant Hide (LV0)]
So, not skills, but 'Talents', huh? Sean thought, a little surprised but definitely intrigued. It seemed like his panel had a way of handling even the weirdest situations.
***********
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