Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Searching, Training
The trace of self-doubt in Snape's heart came quickly and left just as fast.
Slytherin House didn't have excessively high moral standards. Using any means necessary to achieve one's goals—that was true Slytherin.
"Everything I do is for Slytherin House to win the House Cup," he muttered to himself. "Besides, how could there really be a young wizard stupid enough to stay up all night just to become a foolish Potions assistant, competing for the chance to clean classrooms and squeeze flobberworm mucus?"
Snape continued his internal justification. "That's a whole basket of flobberworms—it would take all night maintaining high concentration to process them all. And it's not just the quantity. After extensive contact with flobberworm mucus, even wearing gloves, you'd gradually feel an itching sensation."
He nodded to himself with satisfaction. "That's right. Ciel Sprout will give up on his own."
Thinking this, Snape quickened his departure.
After Snape left, Ciel breathed a sigh of relief, gripping the keys in his hand, his eyes showing burning intensity. This way, he could legitimately search for that Half-Blood Prince's Advanced Potion-Making textbook.
"Let me start with the storage cabinets in this classroom."
Ciel approached the storage cabinets at the back of the classroom. The classroom door key was the same as the storage cabinet key—probably for convenience, otherwise each professor would have to carry dozens of keys to class. This was also good news for Ciel.
As the key was inserted into the lock and gently turned, a clicking sound rang out. The storage cabinet opened in response.
The next moment, Ciel's expression changed. A pile of old textbooks, cauldrons, gloves, and other items with a musty smell came tumbling out of the storage cabinet. In the blink of an eye, they formed a small mountain on the floor.
Undoubtedly, these were things that students had stored in the cabinet over countless years but forgotten to take away. Even storage cabinets enhanced with Extension Charms were packed full, spilling out as soon as they were opened.
Looking at this pile of junk, Ciel shook his head slightly. No choice. Time to search.
He then pulled some textbooks from the pile and examined them one by one.
"Basic Potion-Making, not it."
"One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, the edition from a hundred years ago?!"
"Wait, The Succubus Queen and Dragon Maid, what is this..."
A full hour later, Ciel closed the last book. He had finally finished searching through this pile of junk from the storage cabinet. It had to be said, Hogwarts students really had wild tastes. You couldn't imagine what they would stuff into storage cabinets.
Unfortunately, Ciel hadn't found the Advanced Potion-Making textbook signed by the Half-Blood Prince.
"Seems it's not in this storage cabinet."
Ciel looked toward another row of storage cabinets in the classroom. They were probably all in similar condition. There were seven or eight more Potions classrooms like this.
He took a deep breath. It seemed that without Harry Potter's protagonist aura, finding the Half-Blood Prince's textbook here wouldn't be easy.
But after a moment, Ciel's mindset returned to calm. "At worst, I'll just have to search through all the storage cabinets. As long as I'm willing to spend the time, I'll eventually find it. No need to rush."
Ciel's gaze returned to the basket of flobberworms Snape had left him. Given that he would need to spend considerable time in the Potions classroom searching for the Half-Blood Prince's textbook, he still needed to complete Snape's task.
Then Ciel picked up a flobberworm. With a gentle squeeze, mucus spurted out, which he collected in a special container. Throughout the process, the slimy, prickly sensation of the flobberworm transmitted from his palm.
If it were a young wizard afraid of bugs, they'd probably get goosebumps. But for Ciel, bugs were something he'd gotten used to during his previous life's agricultural research career. Anyone who could study agriculture—who would be afraid of bugs?
After all, when you turned on lights in fields at night, the various bizarre insects attracted to light would truly exceed most people's imagination.
As for whether squeezing mucus was disgusting... Ciel thought it was okay. It was better than personally composting and fermenting when researching how certain farmyard fertilizer formulas affected plant root systems in his previous life.
Flobberworms were fuzzy—weren't they rather cute? Squeezing them was actually stress-relieving.
Ciel casually squeezed flobberworms, and amid the sounds of mucus splattering, he felt his mind calm down.
At this time, he discovered a phenomenon that few people probably noticed. Some flobberworms produced higher quality mucus when squeezed. Some mucus seemed to be of lower quality.
This reminded Ciel of what Snape had told him. Even for flobberworm mucus, Snape's standards were very high. A Potions master, even if deliberately making things difficult for him, probably wouldn't lie about material processing.
This meant that processing flobberworm mucus indeed had different levels of technique. The same flobberworm could produce different quality mucus depending on the method used.
"What determines this?"
Ciel began studying this with interest. Soon, he connected it to his own experiences trimming and processing magical herbs.
"Sensing the flow of magic in magical herbs and then processing them accordingly, often achieves better results. Could it be the same principle when processing potion ingredients like flobberworms? Sensing the flow of magic..."
Ciel picked up a flobberworm and carefully sensed the magical aura. Then he gently squeezed.
The next moment, exceptionally clear and viscous mucus was squeezed out.
His eyes lit up. "As expected. The quality of mucus processed this way is much higher."
And Ciel made an unexpected discovery. On his system panel, the Magical Perception Enhancement ability had been stuck between Bronze and Silver Tiers. Just now, that trace of silver luster had increased slightly compared to before.
Ciel was delighted. "Operating on flobberworms also helps train magical perception?"
At this moment, looking at the large basket of flobberworms before him, Ciel couldn't feel even the slightest disgust. Instead, he looked at them like treasures.
He had thought this time would be somewhat wasted, but now it seemed to be an opportunity to train his magical perception.
Then Ciel focused intently on the flobberworms. One after another, he carefully squeezed out their mucus.
On the system panel, the silver luster on the Magical Perception Enhancement text spread bit by bit—weak, but continuously progressing toward Silver Tier.
Time passed minute by minute. In the blink of an eye, it was deep into the night.
(End of Chapter)
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