Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 39 Every Adventure Story Should Have a Secret Basement

Cohen had a bad feeling—

The Bock family won’t be completely wiped out, right?

The manor is gone, and I finally see a man named Burke who is still being held here by the Ministry of Magic as a janitor...

"Be happy, at least you are at large." Seeing that Cohen was lost in thought, the Earl decided to offer some comfort—even though he was not very good at comforting people.

"Damn, I thought I could kill them and inherit the family savings."

Cohen said in frustration:
"They must be out of money now—those prohibited creatures are very expensive. Grade B contraband alone costs thousands of Galleons..."

"..."

The Count was silent for a moment.
"I knew you couldn't keep any good farts out of your mouth."

In order to prevent his dear Uncle Herbert from waking up and interfering with his plans, Cohen cast a rope-transfiguring spell on the chair to tie the criminal uncle firmly there.

"Alright!" Cohen clapped his hands after finishing, admiring his own craftsmanship - Herbert was tied up like a dumpling, with only the nose hole left for breathing.

Now he shouldn't be able to cause any trouble. Cohen plans to release him when he is about to leave. Otherwise, if Herbert dies, there will be no one guarding this dangerous area - the Ministry of Magic will definitely know about it, and an investigation may expose Cohen.

When Cohen was about to leave, he suddenly realized that the Earl had not followed him. He turned around and asked the Earl who was still standing in the distance:

"You won't come with me?"

"No, I haven't hit a home run with Hedwig yet. I won't go looking for death." The Count refused. "The ruins are full of residual black magic."

"Okay, you stay here and watch this guy - here's the wand."

Cohen took out the wand he had bought for the count from his pocket.

I think I need to prepare something like an extra-dimensional pocket for the Earl, after all, an owl can't hide such a long wand.

Alternatively, a small cloth bag with a traceless extension charm could be tied to the Earl's left leg, so that the Earl could use his right claw to pull his wand from the pocket in his left claw - if the owl's claws could perform such a maneuver.

After tossing the Count his wand, Cohen plunged into the snow outside.

"The snow melted and the ice melted."

Cohen waved his wand at the entrance of the manor ruins, and the surrounding ice and snow began to dissipate with Cohen as the center, revealing the charred ruins and ground.

Since the manor house had collapsed, Cohen could only distinguish the structure of each room through some of the ruins' wall bases.

A dark spell lingered in the air. Once some black magic was cast, it was difficult to completely eliminate it.

But the residual spell that should have been extremely aggressive had no hostility towards Cohen at all, and even began to spin around Cohen happily.

"This is……"

Cohen frowned as he looked at the black fog special effects around him, which were the same as the final boss's.

Because this black mist seemed very close to me... like—

"call out!"

Suddenly, a black mist penetrated directly into Cohen's body.

Then comes the next one, and the next one.

The black mist of spells that were originally just swirling penetrated into Cohen's body one after another.

[Soul Completeness: 22.1%]

[Soul Completeness: 22.2%]

[Soul Completeness: 22.3%]

……

Cohen looked at the rapidly growing integrity of his soul and put down the wand that was about to stop the black fog.

These souls are fragments of myself?!
Cohen felt the comfort of a good night's sleep—he had never experienced so much soul integrity gain in a single minute. Finally, after the last wisp of black mist entered Cohen's body, his soul integrity stopped at 27%.

"Only 5% of such a large mass?!" Cohen looked at the ruins around him that suddenly became empty with disappointment, and all the black fog returned to him.

In other words, Cohen's tiny soul fragment had rendered the entire manor completely uninhabitable...

It turns out that I am still a serious source of black magic curse pollution.

The other soul fragments should have escaped in all directions, and only a small part remains here.

But even if it was only 5%, it was a pleasant surprise for Cohen.

After all, the spiders in the Forbidden Forest can no longer provide many valuable souls.

When Cohen's soul is at 20% complete, those souls below 10 points are completely useless to Cohen.

Even a mature eight-eyed giant spider could only provide Cohen with very little soul strength - and it took several months for an eight-eyed giant spider to grow from infancy to adulthood, so its growth rate was still too slow.

Cohen needs some higher quality soul farming methods.

After inhaling the black mist, Cohen's target shifted back to the ruins themselves.

As we all know, when exploring the ruins, the protagonist always finds a basement full of secrets, and then the basement will hide all the secrets of the ruins - and people who have examined the ruins before will definitely not find them, even if the entrance to this ruin is easy to find.

Cohen found a pile of ruins where the traces of the curse were most obvious. After using the "Whirlwind Sweeper" to clear away the rubble and dirt, a cracked floor was revealed.

"Reveal yourself urgently!"

He cast a revealing spell on the ground.

However, the expected invisible staircase did not appear. Instead, the cracks on the ground began to wriggle as if alive, eventually spelling out several words.

Show Your Mercy

Show your mercy?

Is there a spell called "Mercy" taught at Hogwarts?
No buddy, is there such a thing as a "Mercy Charm" in Harry Potter?

"Avada Kedavra!"

A green light gushed out from the tip of Cohen's wand, and the next second it shattered the floor into pieces - the Killing Curse seemed to be quite effective when used as an explosive curse.

Cohen was in no mood to play any puzzle games with the slate.

And showing mercy - Avada Kedavra is Korn's mercy.

Fortunately, this stone tablet has no soul, otherwise Cohen would have let it feel the Dementor's kiss, which is "more desperate than death."

After the stone slab shattered, the stairs leading to the dark basement appeared in front of Cohen.

"Fluorescence."

Coin lit the tip of his wand and headed down the stairs.

Below was a dark corridor with many rooms with closed doors on both sides. Each room was marked with a number on a faded gold-plated sign.

At the end of the corridor, there is a double door that is larger and has more intricate patterns than the doors of other rooms. It leads to what is probably the most important place in the entire manor.

Cohen felt that he should not be discovered here, because if Dumbledore and the others had been here, they would not appear here...

[Soul Strength: 67 (Weak)]

The system mark appeared in the room at the end. Behind the door, Cohen could not see the other person's appearance.

What has survived here for ten years and is still alive?
Dark magical creatures?
Fantastic Beasts?

A semi-finished experiment?
Or...people?

(End of this chapter)