Chapter 140: Chapter 140: The Final Push
"Link, how could you beat the professor up like this?"
Ten minutes later, looking at the already unconscious and blood-covered Lockhart, Professor Sprout said helplessly.
"This can't be blamed on me." Link spread his hands and shrugged as he said, "It was him who, without a word, directly cast a spell at me. I just instinctively reacted."
"Yes! I can testify for Link!" John, who had appeared at some unknown point, also raised his hand and chimed in.
But the next moment, Professor Sprout slapped the back of John's head.
"You think I don't know you skipped class? You little brat!"
Seeing this, John laughed awkwardly and said nothing more.
At this moment, Madam Pomfrey had also finished examining Lockhart.
"Nasal bone fracture, mild concussion, nothing serious." Madam Pomfrey wiped her hands and said, "Someone carry him to the infirmary. A night's rest there and he'll be fine."
Hearing this, Professor Sprout let out a sigh of relief, then turned and glared at Link and John, "You two, get out of my sight now. I'll deal with you later!"
"Alrighty! Thank you for your hard work, Professor Sprout!"
Link and John laughed and left the classroom, and as they walked away, Professor Sprout smiled and shook her head.
Outside the classroom, a large number of students were still gathered in the corridor, curiously peeking into the room.
Seeing Link and John walk out, everyone's attention immediately shifted to them again.
It couldn't be helped, just moments ago it was announced that he was now a recipient of the Order of Merlin, Third Class, and now he had just knocked out a professor.
Such a shocking act made every Ravenclaw present remember Link's name.
The boys especially thought Link was a hero. After all, as long as you were a boy, you wouldn't like Lockhart. He was too flashy, and he didn't teach them anything useful. Most importantly, Lockhart even competed with them for the girls. That was just too hateful.
Of course, not everyone liked Link. Quite a few of Lockhart's die-hard fans still held hostility toward him.
Link didn't care about this. He walked through the crowd with a blank face, bringing John along.
Because he knew very clearly, after this incident, Lockhart's reputation was completely ruined.
At least in the entire third year from now on, no one would respect Lockhart anymore. After all, the last Red Cap incident could still be blamed on strong enemies, but this time, getting knocked out by a student using armor protection, that was truly unforgivable.
"We finally got out!" Only when they reached the floating staircase did John let out a breath and say, "Link, are you going to the common room? No class or training this afternoon, maybe we can play a few rounds of wizard chess."
"Sorry, John. Next time for sure."
Link smiled apologetically at John, then hurriedly stepped onto a floating staircase heading upward, leaving John alone, sighing and waving goodbye.
From the stairs, Link also waved back, then adjusted his mood and headed straight to the front of the Room of Requirement on the eighth floor.
'I need a room where I can quietly brew potions.'
After silently repeating his need three times in his heart, a thick wooden door appeared on the wall.
Link directly pushed the door and entered.
Unlike the previous forest setting, this time the Room of Requirement had changed into a potion laboratory according to Link's need.
But unlike Snape's, this potion lab had a large number of magical lights installed on the ceiling. Those soft white lights covered every corner of the lab, making it incredibly bright.
Moreover, since these lights were arranged according to specific patterns and angles, they even created an effect similar to shadowless surgical lamps.
Not only that, after testing, Link found that whether it was ventilation or the corrosion resistance of the workbenches, everything was top-notch. Overall, this place was several levels better than Snape's office.
But there were shortcomings too.
Perhaps because the Room of Requirement was built too long ago and no one had updated its configuration over time, the interior decorations were a bit "ancient." The cauldrons and other potion-making tools that came with the room were all quite primitive.
Fortunately, Link never intended to use the tools here. He directly took out his own full set of equipment and laid them out on the workbench.
After completing all this, Link took a deep breath and opened the notebook where he had recorded the contents of the Slytherin Pharmacopeia.
At this point, besides the original records, every remaining blank space in the notebook had been filled with dense annotations and additions.
This was the result of Link's entire Christmas holiday.
During the studying and research process, he also discovered something. Although most of the formulas in the pharmacopeia couldn't be made due to missing extinct ingredients, some of the ingredients in the formulas could actually be substituted with materials of similar properties.
Of course, doing so would cause many problems.
For example, the potion recipe might directly fail, or the resulting potion's effect would drop significantly.
But there was no doubt, this was still a kind of turning trash into treasure.
Among them, the formula that Link was most optimistic about was "The Blood of Boreas."
Boreas, in ancient Greek mythology, was the god of the North Wind.
Legend has it he once controlled a hurricane to destroy King Xerxes of Persia's fleet near Euboea, Thessaly. At the same time, his power could also be used to help chariots and fleets speed up with a favorable wind.
The so-called "Blood of Boreas" took its name from that meaning, granting the drinker the power of tailwind.
Although it sounded quite mystical, after researching its pharmacology, Link discovered that this thing was actually just a targeted enhancement potion that improved neural reaction speed and lower-body strength, attributes related to agility.
Of course, because the ingredients used in the original "Blood of Boreas" were all extremely powerful herbs that are now extinct, the potion's effects were ridiculously strong, worthy of the name "Blood of Boreas."
Undoubtedly, after substituting some ingredients, the effects would definitely weaken. But after discovering this formula, Link was still overjoyed.
Because its principles were almost identical to the "Booster" potion, which would greatly reduce the difficulty for Link to modify the recipe.
At the same time, its effects were exactly what Link needed.
Since he couldn't obtain Apparition magic for now, this could completely serve as a substitute, filling in the Mobility part of Link's tactical system (Attack, Defense, Perception, Mobility).
Activating Occlumency to suppress his excitement, a flash of blue light flickered in Link's eyes as he lowered his head and dove into modifying the Blood of Boreas formula and testing combinations.
This part of the work had already been mostly completed back at Falkenstein Castle. Now, it just lacked the final push. And Link had a feeling, this last step would be done very soon.
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