"Arkam, how is your injury?"
In the second-floor washroom of Hogwarts, Link had already taken off his helmet and was looking at Arkam with a face full of worry.
The other party's swimming posture along the way just now had been very strange, which made Link think it must have internal injuries.
But upon hearing this, Arkam just shook its head to indicate it was fine.
This made Link let out a sigh of relief. Then he took off his shirt, revealing his upper body covered in bruises, big and small.
These were all the battle marks from tonight.
The most serious one was on his chest; it was already slightly sunken, and there were spots of crimson red in the bruise.
Fortunately, the rib that Link had always been worried about seemed not to be broken. These injuries were basically just external wounds. Link felt that he could handle them simply by himself and didn't need to bother Madam Pomfrey.
Otherwise, matters regarding the basilisk might be exposed.
Taking a deep breath and mentally prepared, Link took out a large bundle of Dittany from his space pocket and smeared the juice on his wounds.
"Ah!" Link couldn't help but cry out in pain.
Although this extraordinary plant Dittany had strong healing ability for external injuries, its irritation was also strong, especially since what Link was using was unprocessed Dittany. The feeling was even more stimulating.
Seeing this, Arkam slowly approached and coiled itself into a "snake pancake" centered around Link.
"Thank you for not leaving me, Link."
"No problem, we're friends." Link grinned, enduring the pain, and patted Arkam to comfort it.
Hearing this, Arkam was stunned for a moment, then after a while suddenly shoved its head into Link's chest and choked out, "Yes! We are best friends! That liar is nothing at all!"
"Sss!"
Arkam's movement was a bit rough, making Link's wound hurt again. But even so, he still didn't push away Arkam's big head. Because he knew very well, this hug held great meaning for Arkam.
As for Arkam knowing Voldemort from before, Link also already knew. But he didn't want to question further about it, because this must be a tragedy for Arkam.
And during the time in the Forbidden Forest, Arkam had already proven. Compared to Voldemort, it liked Link more.
Thinking of this, a barely noticeable smile appeared on Link's face.
———
Half an hour later, Link finally finished comforting Arkam and sneaked back into his bed.
At this point, Link was already exhausted. But strangely, he just couldn't fall asleep, and scenes from the Forbidden Forest kept flashing through his mind.
What happened today brought too many doubts to Link.
Why did Voldemort recognize him?
Although the original body's parents had once been fanatic Death Eaters under Voldemort, back then the original body was just a baby. Even if they had met, after so long, Voldemort shouldn't have had any reason to recognize him.
And why didn't Voldemort want to kill him but wanted to capture him alive?
From Voldemort's perspective, Link escaping had a high probability of him reporting the incident to Dumbledore. That would make Voldemort's movements in Hogwarts very difficult.
Yet he would rather risk letting Link go than strike him down.
But of course, for Arkam's sake, Link would absolutely never reveal this incident.
Still, Voldemort's behavior was far too bizarre.
Besides that, what Link couldn't let go of most was Voldemort's final sentence, ("You won't escape. I will find you, and then eat you!p")
Just thinking of this made Link flip over in frustration.
He had always been unwilling to get involved in the main storyline. After all, he hadn't fully developed yet, and acting rashly could lead to bloody misfortune.
Yet now, Voldemort's sentence clearly showed he had his eyes set on Link.
Although Link couldn't be sure yet whether Voldemort would shift the focus of his infiltration in Hogwarts toward him, one thing was certain, he could no longer stay uninvolved.
Countless thoughts swirled in Link's mind. He now urgently needed a plan, a plan that could help him out of his predicament.
This wasn't easy. Although he could report to Dumbledore and cause Voldemort to fail, but that came with risks.
After all, in the wizarding world, there was something called Legilimency, a form of mind-reading. And Dumbledore just so happened to be a master at it.
Earlier, because nothing major had happened, Dumbledore hadn't used Legilimency on him, a second-year student. But if he were to report Voldemort now, then the other side would likely use Legilimency to verify whether Link was lying.
At that time, Arkam and even the truth that he transmigrated would all be exposed.
This was absolutely unacceptable for Link.
So, apart from this forced option, was there any other way?
Just as Link was distressed, a bold idea appeared in his mind.
Should he strike first?
As soon as this idea appeared, Link shook his head instinctively, because the idea was too crazy. But no matter how he restrained himself, that idea kept spreading in his mind. And Link even felt it made more and more sense the more he thought about it.
You see, although Dumbledore had strong control over Hogwarts castle, his reach hadn't extended into the Forbidden Forest.
That means, if Link could set the battlefield in the Forbidden Forest and control the scale of the battle, Dumbledore likely wouldn't even know.
Also, right now was Voldemort's absolute weakest period. Like the attack he used in the forest earlier, Link didn't believe he could cast it multiple times.
Under this premise, Link still had Arkam as his trump card. If he could launch a surprise attack successfully, it wasn't impossible to face off against Voldemort.
Of course, for this plan to truly work, Link's own strength was the top priority.
Thinking of this, Link simply gave up on sleeping, directly awakened his skill panel, and began browsing.
Over the past few months, Link's focus had always been on the Refilling Spell.
Because he firmly believed, there were no useless spells, only useless wizards. Any spell, as long as you could focus your mind on studying it, would always reward you in return. And the Refilling Spell didn't disappoint Link.
The Human Body Explosion Spell was the best result of that. But as for now, the Human Body Explosion Spell was clearly no longer enough.
Although its power was great, as a pure energy-beam spell, its piercing and energy-clash properties were too weak.
As for other spells improved from prank spells, though also strong, they unfortunately shared similar weaknesses with the Explosion Spell.
Link believed that as long as he continued researching, he could eventually perfect them. But right now, he clearly didn't have that much time.
Now, he needed to improve his combat power to the maximum in the shortest time.
For this, he could even resort to any means.
In the pitch-black dormitory, Link silently clenched his fists. He had already decided the list of spells he would focus on next.
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