The potential of combat puppets made Tom feel unsettled.
"If you could build an army made entirely of combat puppets, conquering the entire world wouldn't be difficult at all. Maybe… you wouldn't even need to promote any new ideals," Tom could not help saying.
"Tom, your old problem is acting up again. Ruling purely through violence will never last," Wade Reynolds said. "And how do you know that in the future, another genius won't rise up and use the same violence to overturn everything we worked so hard to establish?"
Tom narrowed his eyes. "So you're not denying that your combat puppets have the power to dominate the world, are you?"
"That's not the point, Tom. Governing the world is far harder than conquering it. Enough of this. Your task right now is only one thing: constantly arm your mind with knowledge… and at the same time, possess formidable magical strength." Wade brought the topic to an end.
"Alright then. I'll go attend the club activities and let everyone know you don't have time to come," Tom said as he stood up.
"Wait," Wade said, stopping him for a moment. He rummaged through a nearby cabinet and took out a green wizard's robe, handing it over.
"What's this?" Tom asked in confusion as he took the robe, immediately feeling a chill to the touch.
"I forgot to give you a Christmas present. This robe is made from basilisk hide and scales. It's yours," Wade said casually.
"Basilisk hide?" Tom tugged hard at the robe, and sure enough, its toughness far exceeded his expectations.
"Alright," Tom said, rolling up the robe and preparing to leave.
"Wait," Wade called out to Tom again.
"What now? I didn't prepare a gift for you. Even if you ask for one, I'd need some time," Tom said with a frown.
"That's not it. I want you to put it on right now," Wade said, pulling his wand out of his pocket.
Tom narrowed his eyes. "Something's off, Wade… You're telling me to put it on and pulling out your wand at the same time. Don't tell me you're planning to have me help you test the robe's spell resistance."
"Since you've already guessed it, why aren't you putting it on already?" Wade waved his wand and smiled. "Everything I just said wasn't for nothing."
"The hell… I haven't offended you recently, have I?" Tom said, frantically running through his memory for anything he might have done to provoke Wade.
"Think about it, Tom. I'm the only one in the club researching new things. You should make some contribution too, shouldn't you?" Wade's smile remained gentle.
"I knew nothing of yours ever comes for free!" Tom said indignantly as he put on the wizard's robe.
The basilisk-hide robe was very light, and the pockets inside were enchanted with an Extension Charm. It would be extremely convenient to pull out tools or weapons in combat.
If he weren't being forced to act as a target, Tom would genuinely like this robe. But right now…
Wade, why do you always pick on me?
A moment later…
Bang!
"Holy Faaaaa—!!" Tom screamed as he was blasted backward.
"Eh..?"
However, after slamming into the wall, Tom's scream abruptly stopped, because he realized he felt no pain at all from being hit by the spell.
He quickly looked down at the wizard's robe he was wearing.
There was a white spot on the fabric, and that spot was slowly recovering at a pace visible to the naked eye.
"Looks like the effect is pretty good. Taking a Blasting Curse head-on and still almost completely unscathed," Wade said as he walked over to take a look, a satisfied smile appearing on his face. He had added quite a few additional protective enchantments to the basilisk hide.
"Indeed…" Tom admitted. Although he was unhappy about being used as a target, he still had to concede that the robe was excellent.
"Wait… did you just say a Blasting Curse? You actually used a Blasting Curse on me?!" Tom's face instantly turned pale.
"Don't worry about such details, Tommy boy. Ah, the basilisk really is valuable from head to tail… Good. From now on, we'll use basilisk hide as the material for our team's combat gear," Wade said with a smile.
"Basilisk hide is great, but… I remember you and Professor Slughorn divided up the basilisk's body. Did you really get the entire hide?" Tom asked.
"Not exactly. I got half of it. A very large half," Wade replied.
"Even if it was a very large half, if you use it all to make combat gear, it still shouldn't be enough, right?" Tom asked with a frown.
"Of course it's not enough! How big can a single basilisk be?" Wade shook his head.
"Then how are you going to equip everyone?" Tom felt Wade was being wildly unrealistic.
"So, Tom," Wade said solemnly as he patted Tom on the shoulder, "I have a very important mission for you."
"What mission?" Tom suddenly had a very bad feeling.
"You're the only Parselmouth among us. You can command snakes. So… you'll help us raise some basilisks," Wade said with a smile.
Tom jumped to his feet. "Do you hear yourself? How is that even possible? Those are basilisks! You want me to raise basilisks? Do you think this is pig farming? Not a chance!"
"Tom, you're a Parselmouth, and Slytherin was a Parselmouth too. There's no reason he could do it while you can't. In my opinion, your talent is no worse than Slytherin's," Wade continued to coax him.
"No, no! Even if I were willing, I don't know anything about how to raise basilisks. It's completely impossible!" Tom shook his head like a rattle drum.
To be honest, Tom already had a psychological fear of basilisks. One look and you're dead. That was far too dangerous.
What if he accidentally made eye contact with a basilisk he raised himself? Wouldn't that be the end of him?
"Oh, what a coincidence," Wade said cheerfully. "Slytherin's study contains detailed records on how to raise basilisks. I've already copied them all down."
With that, Wade stuffed a thick stack of manuscripts into Tom's hands.
Tom stared at the papers, completely dumbfounded. "So… you came prepared all along…"
There was no refusing this. Absolutely no way to refuse it.
With a complicated expression, Tom could only open the manuscript in his hands.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "Even if we have the method, we don't have the conditions! At the very least, we don't have the materials. I've never even seen a rooster's egg before!"
To hatch a basilisk, the first step is to find a rooster's egg and a toad.
A toad is easy enough to find, but where do you get a rooster's egg?
Roosters don't lay eggs at all. Who knows how Slytherin managed to find one back then?
He must have spent an enormous amount of effort. Otherwise, Slytherin probably would have left behind more than a single basilisk.
"Muggles might not have a way, but… Tom, we're wizards. Forget making a rooster lay an egg. Even making a person lay an egg isn't impossible," Wade Reynolds said with a smile.
"Damn it, that's literally the devil whispering in my ear!" the young Tom was thoroughly frightened by Wade's twisted smile.
…
"Damn it! This is absolutely impossible!"
Inside the Chamber, Slytherin erupted in outrage.
"That's a basilisk! Even someone like me considers basilisks dark and dangerous! And yet you want to turn basilisk breeding into an industry?"
Slytherin felt Wade was completely indulging in wild fantasies.
Wade shook his head. "That's too one-sided. Baslisks are indeed dark and dangerous, but you can't look only at that side of them. Forget other materials. Just take basilisk venom as an example. Who would have thought that this corrosive, deadly poison, once refined to replace ordinary snake venom, could be brewed into even more powerful restorative potions? If we could raise some, our team would have access to more and stronger recovery potions in the future. That would greatly increase our comrades' staying power in battle!"
"So you want to raise basilisks like pigs?" Slytherin sneered. "Have you considered one thing? The reason the materials from the basilisk you killed were so effective might be because it was nearly a thousand years old."
Wade said, "I did consider that. But even if newly bred basilisks end up producing venom with weaker potency due to their age, that's not a problem. Even venom with reduced effects would still produce restorative potions far superior to the common ones used today. And besides, you've never actually conducted experiments in this area. What if age doesn't reduce the potency at all? Wouldn't that be a huge gain for us? And… as an old researcher with boundless curiosity about the world, are you really not curious about this at all?"
Slytherin said helplessly, "Fine! Let's assume you're right about everything. Even if I want to help you turn basilisk breeding into a proper industry, there's still one enormous problem. Rooster eggs are not easy to come by."
"Back then, it took me nearly ten years to find one! I know what you want to say, but let me make this clear. Rooster eggs produced through magical stimulation cannot hatch. Because those are eggs created by magic, not eggs naturally nurtured by the rooster itself. Otherwise, why would I have spent ten years searching?"
Wade stroked his chin thoughtfully. "So it has to be an egg produced by the rooster itself?"
"A rooster that produces and nurtures it itself… of course, they can't actually lay eggs. Wizards have to search for such anomalies, and once one is found, you cut open the rooster's belly and take it out," Slytherin added.
"Tsk tsk, and you actually managed to find one like that," Wade said in amazement.
"It was extremely difficult. Back then, I raised chickens for nearly ten years just to find a single abnormal rooster that produced an egg. And you still want to develop basilisk breeding? Go raise chickens first," Slytherin said.
"So I have to become a professional chicken farmer first? That won't do. I don't have that much time," Wade said decisively, shaking his head. "If it has to be nurtured by the rooster itself… then what if I perform a small sex-change operation on a rooster, and then…"
"I've already tried that. It doesn't work," Slytherin said, pouring cold water on the idea.
"Then… what if I use a potion to temporarily turn the rooster into a hen, let it almost lay an egg, and then turn it back?"
"Hah! That might work, but where would you find a potion like that?"
Wade Reynolds grinned. "I just so happen to have one."
At that moment, he recalled a particular formula from the comprehensive potion compendium the system had given him.
"How is that even possible?" Slytherin looked at Wade with suspicion.
"Alright, I've figured out a solution. See you," Wade said, turning around and leaving without hesitation.
Slytherin was furious. So now that he no longer needed his help, the boy just turned around and left? How utterly pragmatic.
But then again… hadn't he been like this himself back then?
With that thought, Slytherin suddenly understood why so many people had disliked him in the past.
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