While I was walking to the shower, I decided to try one more thing. I directed my mana to my eyes, and again, after a couple of seconds, my vision became clearer.
...Skill "Magical Vision Level 1" created...
When I entered the bathroom and saw my reflection, I was covered in a blue glow, which was apparently how I saw my magic, and the colour of my eyes had become slightly brighter. As a result, while I was standing in the shower, the skill rose to level 3. I decided not to turn off my vision, again, it was almost worthless to me, and it seemed to be constantly fluctuating.
Going downstairs and sitting down at the table, I decided to look around and saw the same blue haze around everyone's bodies, but much less bright than mine. But the strangest thing was that around their heads, the haze was different, more intense... And that made me think that they were really behaving strangely. When I was little, I hadn't noticed anything like this, but to them I was like something that was taken for granted, but not particularly loved. There was no special conversation during lunch, but I did gain a level in my skill. Afterwards, I decided that it was time for us to resolve our issues.
I called my aunt and uncle into the living room and decided to check something first.
"Auntie, uncle, I have a suspicion that something has been done to you."
"What do you mean, done to you?
"Don't you think you're reacting too calmly to all my suggestions? What if Dudley came and said the same thing?
"...." They stared at me without saying a word.
"You have to believe me. I'll try to examine you with magic.
I approached my aunt, placed my hand on her head, and asked her not to move. Almost immediately, I sensed something foreign in the area around her head.
"Jarvis, what is this?"
...It's very similar to a mental implant...
"What should I do with it?"
...Try to absorb it, you should be able to...
I concentrated and activated the "Soul Eater" skill, and saw that part of the mana was sucked into me, while the rest simply dissolved into space.
"Old bastard!" my aunt shouted so loudly that Vernon jumped, "I remember! Harry, do the same thing to Vernon right now.
I repeated the procedure and watched Vernon, who was cursing and turning red.
"That Dumbledore came to us the same morning you appeared. He asked a lot of questions about what we planned to do with you. Then he started explaining that we should be cold to you and react harshly to any displays of magic, and that you should live a strict life in general, and we accepted that as necessary...
It turns out that the only thing that saved me was that my system wasn't active and the magic didn't work. But now another question has arisen: I'm protected from his mind games, but what about the others?
"Jarvis, are there any options to protect other people's minds from the old senile man?"
...You could try creating some kind of protection based on your mana...
"Auntie, uncle, I want to try something. Maybe it will save you in the future if he comes back."
"Harry, you're so small, what can you do?" said his aunt sadly.
"I don't know yet, but you're already free from his influence.
"Well, your attempts won't hurt us.
I raised my hand to my aunt's head again, released my mana, and imagined something like a shield around her head.
...Skill "Mental Defence" created...
Mental Defence (creates a defence around the mind, strength and duration depend on the amount of mana used, 24 hours = 20 mana, duration can be reduced by a strong attack on the mind)
I put half of my reserve into my aunt's defence.
...You have applied the "Mental Defence" buff with a duration of 500 days...
Great, I repeated the same procedure with Vernon and assured them that nothing like that would happen in the next year. It's cheating, of course, but I think a skill with such a long duration will last a long time when Dumbly appears.
"Harry, regarding your idea to leave us, I understand that you would be better off in a family with people like you, but I still need to be sure that you have somewhere to go and that these people are good.
"Well, in any case, all my ideas need to be checked first, I'm not going to leave you right now. I need to think about how and where I can go. And now I want to go to one place, I think it's the safest place for me right now.
"Where are you going?
"I have my own magical house," I said, telling a half-truth, "I want to stay there for a while and try to figure out my magic.
"Are you sure it's safe?
"No, of course not. I have something like an electronic assistant that will tell me if I'm doing something wrong.
"That's strange, I haven't heard about that from Lily.
"I don't know where it came from, but it was the one who told me about magic." "Just make sure they don't think you're mentally ill."
"Okay, I guess since you solved our problem, nothing bad will happen to you. Go ahead, but be back here by dinner.
And so I'm back at my house. I decided to choose the clearing near the lake as my training ground. First, I need to figure out my defence. I've already charged my eyes with mana, so why not do the same with my hearing?
... The skill "Enhanced Hearing, Level 1" was created...1" skill created...
At that very moment, my hearing improved significantly. Listening closely, I could distinguish the sounds of water, even though I was standing quite far from the lake. It might come in handy someday, so while I'm in a quiet place, I won't turn it off. And now for the most interesting ideas, I imagined mana filling my body and strengthening it, as if mana was creating small ropes and wrapping each cell of my body. At that moment, I felt a slight lightness.
...Skill "Body Strengthening Level 1" created...
Body Strengthening Level 1 (Increases strength and speed, reduces all damage taken by 1%, consumes 10 mana per minute)
An interesting bonus — so what happens when I reach level 100, will I become Superman? Well, level 100 is a long way off, but hope springs eternal. For me, like all the other bonuses, it's worth almost nothing, so I'll leave it on. Now I need a shield. I started to imagine mana released at a short distance from me compressing and becoming a solid wall. An almost transparent light blue wall appeared around me.
...Skill "Magic Shield" created...
Magic Shield (Creates a shield around the user that is impervious to physical and magical attacks, 2 mana per 1 damage point / 1 minute duration of no debuffs received)
Well, I more or less figured out defence, but then the problems began. No matter how hard I tried to imagine fire or other elements, I couldn't create an attack skill. But after thinking about it for a while, I solved the problem, but only partially. Namely, I picked up a couple of pebbles near the shore and in about 10 minutes I acquired telekinesis. I created the skill itself in literally a minute, and all the time before that I just stared at the stone and mentally ordered it to fly up until I figured out to use mana.
Telekinesis level 1 (allows you to move objects using mana within a radius of 1 metre; the weight of the object depends on the strength parameter; constantly consumes mana).
Now it's time to go home, where new experiments await me after lunch.
***
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