Lupin reacted quickly, blocking the streak of silver light with magic. Kasen walked over and picked up a fingernail-sized piece of iron. Through his monocle, he could even see the weapon's enchantment tag.

"Using this to nullify the damage from a Disarming Charm on Harry while also giving the enemy a surprise attack? Excellent idea." Dumbledore appeared like a ghost in front of them, offering his commentary.

"…Next time I should bring my charged Ender Pearl as well," Kasen muttered with a sigh.

"That would make me sad," Dumbledore said as he walked over, glancing at the tiny piece of iron. "Will this little thing ever run out?"

Kasen shook his head. "No. I built a replication module right into Harry's wrist… The only downside is that airport security's going to be a nightmare for him from now on."

"I can Apparate… right? …Probably?" Harry said, starting confident but ending much less certain.

"That won't be affected."

Harry visibly relaxed at that. "Good."

While Harry and Sirius busied themselves admiring the awesome hidden blade, Lupin was already discussing serious matters with Dumbledore.

"All taken care of?"

Dumbledore nodded. "It's resolved, but because of your little unsanctioned trip across borders, the Ministry has cut your funding of three Galleons a day. Otherwise, you'd have to spend peak hours in Diagon Alley picking up trash with a fork—without using magic."

"Oh… so much for our European tour. I guess our next stop will have to be Romania," Kasen said, sounding deflated.

"Cheer up. At least the Quidditch World Cup is coming up this summer. That should keep things from getting too dull," Dumbledore offered.

"My interest in sporting events ended in primary school—back when the nuns at the orphanage would give us pocket money for them," Kasen quipped.

"For that, I can only express my condolences," Dumbledore replied, before walking over to Harry. He wanted to see for himself what that cool hidden blade looked like.

But Kasen caught Dumbledore by the arm and pulled him back, producing the trident he'd fished up from the sea earlier.

"I'll remind you again—as a proper professor, you should respect your elders…" Dumbledore started rambling.

Kasen ignored the old man's long-winded speech and instead draped an arm over his shoulder. "Come on, Headmaster, give us an Armis so we can see how the pros do it."

Though Dumbledore had no idea what Kasen was plotting this time, he still nodded and gave his wand a wave. A layer of invisible protective aura instantly enveloped him.

The Shield Charm has different levels. Most ordinary wizards' shields simply wrap magic roughly around the body—maybe enough to block a few spells. But when cast by a stronger wizard, it's like wearing a real suit of armor.

Dumbledore's, however, was on another level entirely—like the depths of the ocean, as if it could swallow any spell thrown at it.

Kasen carefully gripped the trident and lightly tapped Dumbledore's shield. The next moment, the shield… shattered.

"Hm?"

"Hm?"

Both of them voiced their confusion at the same time.

"You're not messing with me, are you?" Kasen asked.

"I'm not that bored," Dumbledore said with a shake of his head.

"Well, damn… the magic on this trident… really is something else." Kasen glanced at the weapon in his hand, muttering to himself.

This trident was fascinating—ever since the first time he used it, when it instantly shredded the entire upper body of that drowned corpse, he'd known it wasn't ordinary.

Through the monocle, Kasen could see that the trident itself was nothing more than ordinary steel. Its real power came from the strange magic engraved into it. Unfortunately, the magic's underlying "code" didn't resemble runes, and even with the monocle's help, he could only barely make out a single word:

[Destruction]

The rest of the magic was just a jumble of protective enchantments—those he could understand. They were basic preservation spells to keep the trident from corroding in seawater. Useful, but nothing particularly exciting.

For him, the only thing of real value right now was that ancient Destruction magic.

After all, his current strength sat in an awkward spot. Put nicely, he was somewhere in the middle—not as strong as Dumbledore, but more than a match for an ordinary wizard.

Put less nicely? He was stuck in a no-man's-land. He could cause a lot of chaos, but his actual killing power… was just so-so. Wither skulls might be powerful, composite magic might be complex, and Ender cutting might be tricky—but when he ran into that wild chimera in the wilderness, didn't he still end up just tickling it?

When it came to single-target damage, nothing beat a good old Avada Kedavra.

But this kind of magic—able to pierce through Dumbledore-level protection like cutting through tofu—if he could somehow make it into one of his own enchantments, it'd genuinely be the best upgrade material he had on hand right now.

After all, even maxed-out offensive magic only did about 20 points of damage—just enough to kill a healthy person. But if the target had a Shield Charm or something similar, it could block most of that damage.

Same with wither skulls and composite magic—impressive on paper, but every victory so far had been thanks to an information gap.

What he lacked now was a high-damage attack—preferably one that ignored defenses—and this suspected ancient Destruction magic had just given him the perfect option.

His main "class" was Minecraft, his main profession was civil engineering and construction, his secondary profession was PvP veteran, and after that came professor, alchemist, and wizard.

There was no way he was going to trap himself in the narrow mindset of a wizard.

After all, for a blocky man, even the most overpowered single-target magic couldn't beat the sheer satisfaction of swinging the Sword of Cosmic Domination.

And right now, what he needed was exactly what Harry had gone through—a blood-pumping alchemy ascension.

"It's time to give those old fossils a nice, fat shock to their defense stats!"

"Kasen… Kasenhis? Your smile is looking kinda creepy." Lupin patted Kasen's shoulder, sounding a bit concerned.

"Mm… Oh, it's nothing." Clutching the trident and imagining his glorious future, Kasen wiped away the tears at the corner of his eyes and shook his head. "I was just… feeling happy."

"Oh… that line again," Dumbledore muttered.

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