Chapter 51 Mask of Pain
Xie Lin wandered around for a while before going to Flourish and Blotts Bookstore to buy the textbooks he needed for this semester.
Xie Lin first took two copies of all the textbooks, including Draco's. Xie Lin saw that his parents and brother had not arrived yet, so he read leisurely in the bookstore. During this period, he was helping the bookstore manager to cope with the situation. He read "The Monster Book of Monsters", which was violent and biting, and received a rebate coupon for buying the book, which allowed Schelling to save 10 galleons of pocket money.
These 10 galleons can just be used to offset the amount of money used to bribe Draco to keep it secret this morning.
After a while, my parents and brother arrived late, and the family got on the Thestral carriage and returned to Malfoy Manor.
On the way, Narcissa asked Xie Lin about his experience in Diagon Alley today. Xie Lin naturally did not tell him about sneaking into Knockturn Alley, but instead changed the subject: "I went to O'Hare again today. I asked him to take care of my wand at Levander's wand shop..."
Schelling organized his language and asked his doubts: "I found that his business is actually not very good - his wand only sells for 7 galleons. You must know that wands are not consumables. The wizards who enroll every year There are only 80 people at most. Even if we include famous young wizards from foreign countries, there are only 100 people at most..."
"If you're lucky, there will be about 50 adult wizards that year who need to buy new ones because their wands are broken - wands are the second life of wizards. 50 such idiots are already a lot. I'll give it a full count and that's 150 people. , equivalent to 1050 galleons. Assuming that half of the cost of manufacturing the wand is subtracted, he only made a net profit of 525 galleons for a whole year. This does not include the rent, maintenance, etc. required to open the store. I feel a bit weird... "
(Note: According to an advertisement in the Daily Prophet, the monthly salary of a striker at the Ministry of Magic is 700 Galleons, and the monthly salary of an assistant manager of Flourish and Blott Bookstore is 42 Galleons. This means that the monthly income of a big boss in Ollivander is higher than that of a high-ranking boss. Not as good as a bookstore wage earner)
Lucius nodded with satisfaction, "Xie Lin, you have indeed inherited your family's excellent business talent, and you are able to think of this level so quickly. In fact, there are many unknown unspoken rules in the wizarding business world. Take Ollivander As an example, the greatest significance of the existence of this wand shop is just a sign that allows him to maintain the family's reputation - it is not that important to him whether the wand shop makes money or not. There are many collaborative research projects between him and the Ministry of Magic. Most of them are related to research on wand science, and those research funds are the bulk of it. Of course, if it weren't for the fame brought to him by this long-established wand shop, those cooperation opportunities would not necessarily fall into his hands..." After that. , he snorted coldly.
So that’s it, is Ollivanders using the wand shop’s low prices to monopolize the market, and then using its status as the market leader to seek other benefits? Schelling mused.
Lucius continued: "Don't look at this old man who seems sanctimonious. In the past more than a thousand years, there have been many talented new staff makers who want to open shops and start businesses in the UK, but without exception, they have not been able to apply for magic. I dare say that the old guy Ollivander's method is definitely behind this. This trick has a name in the business world, called "competitive moat", and its significance is to establish a barrier to block new competitors. Barriers to joining, this way he can maintain the effect of monopolizing the entire industry, and as long as he maintains his monopoly position, the Ministry of Magic must cooperate with him if he wants to study wandology. Is this right for the business community? Is the dark side an eye-opener?" He ended with a sneer.
(Note: According to the Daily Prophet, Willie Wagstaff was warned by the Magical Equipment Control Authority for selling wands without the "Ministry of Magic's seal of approval", so wands sold legally need to have the Ministry of Magic's authorization seal. )
Xie Lin fell into deep thought. It turns out that there are also these sects in the wizard business world. It seems that he was able to enter the broomstick market and make a fortune because of the benefits of being able to predict the plot and a lot of luck!
Huh? Aren't all the other senior time travelers able to easily monopolize the entire wizarding business world with just a shout and a shake of the tiger's body as soon as they appear on the scene? Are they all born with the spirit of a bastard? Or is it a halo that automatically makes other wizard merchants and pure-blood families smart? Xie Lin fell into envy, jealousy and hatred...
At the family dinner that night, Lucius once again sternly asked his two sons to remember the glory of the family, and after raising his requirements for the two brothers' academic performance, he said: "Especially you, Draco, focus on your studies. Come on, stop messing with the Potters. You should also know that Hogwarts will not be peaceful this semester. Now I will tell you some insider information that the newspapers did not tell - Black's real purpose of escaping from prison was to kill Harry. ·Potter!”
"What?" Xuelin, who had already known the plot, looked calm, but Draco, who had been in love with Harry Potter all the way, shouted in surprise.
Lucius stared at Draco indifferently and said, "Black was my junior student back then. He was close friends with Harry Potter's father, James Potter. But in the end, he lost his best friend to the Dark Lord. The betrayal led to the tragic death of James Potter. His escape from prison was obviously to eliminate the root cause and kill Harry Potter. I don't want you two to be implicated by him for some stupid reasons and get yourself trapped. Go in."
Lucius paused for a moment, then continued, "Although everyone says Black is crazy, and he may be crazy, he is smart enough to escape from Azkaban - something ordinary people cannot do. If Black can escape from Azkaban, I think he can rush into Hogwarts. Black once brutally killed more than a dozen innocent passers-by on the street. If you are unfortunate enough to meet him, I don't think he will. He will show mercy to you, and the greater possibility is that you will be killed by him to avoid revealing his whereabouts. "Do you understand?"
Sherrin and Draco nodded hurriedly in understanding.
That night, Xie Lin took out the painful mask he bought today in his dormitory, slowly put the mask on his face, used magic power to activate its effect, then took it off and looked at it. In Xie Lin's eyes, the mask seemed to turn into a black hole, or like a whirlpool, slowly pulling Xie Lin's eyes in.
A sense of unreasonable fear appeared in Xie Lin's heart, but within a few seconds, Xie Lin broke away from this strange state.
"Is it only to this extent? Or does it only have an effect on people with low magic power?" Xie Lin muttered dissatisfiedly, but there was a ridiculous feeling in his heart. He didn't expect that after buying this mask, he would be the first one to deal with it. Be yourself.
Xie Lin opened his magic eyes and concentrated on feeling the magic fluctuations coming from the mask. Unlike the magic used to release ordinary spells, it seems to be guided by another invisible force.
It is an indescribable mysterious force that surrounds the magic power on the mask. It is invisible and weightless, but it seems to act directly on the soul.
"If this is soul magic, is it equivalent to temporarily peeling off part of the consciousness and attacking other people's souls?" Xie Lin felt as if he had grasped the essence of soul magic.
He tried to use Occlumency to clear all his thoughts, and then tried to split his consciousness into a small piece and integrate it into the magic. He could feel that his own magic suddenly became more energetic after integrating into his split consciousness.
He concentrated on condensing the magic power into a needle shape, and slowly stabbed it towards the mask, as if he had a strong collision with a solid wall. Xie Lin felt dizzy for a while, and when he came back to his senses, he realized that his forehead was covered with sweat. Wet, and the Mask of Pain had cracked in two pieces.
Xie Lin thought deeply for a while and suddenly understood the principle of soul attack. It was just a simple and crude contest between him and the consciousness in the pain mask. The soul power of the pain mask was not strong, so the mask was easily broken by him.
If the mask were replaced by the Sorting Hat of Hogwarts, which contains the consciousness of the four founders enough to last for thousands of years, with Schelling's meager soul power that he has never exercised, he would definitely fail miserably and become an idiot. end.
Xie Lin suddenly thought of the nature of magic again. The so-called magic power should be determined by the strength of the soul, which determines the amount of magic pool accumulated, while the strength of mental power determines the wizard's control over magic power and the output rate of the magic flow.
From this, Schelling was able to determine that magic power did not naturally increase at a fixed rate of growth over time as most wizards thought. After all, the two monsters Grindelwald and Dumbledore dominated European magic in their forties. In this world, the wizards of the older generation are far from rivals.
Grindelwald and Dumbledore did not use dark magic to transform themselves beyond recognition like Voldemort did, so there must be unknown reasons behind their ability to increase their magic power at a faster rate than others.
This point is not mentioned in the original work. This may be because the two of them do not know the principle behind it. The two of them are just born with soul strength and powerful mental power that far exceeds that of ordinary people. The growth rate of their magic power is between these two. Amazing gains are obtained with the addition of factors.
Various thoughts were running through Xie Lin's mind, and an imperceptible gleam flashed through his eyes. He seemed to have discovered the most amazing secret in the magic world: the secret of how to enhance magic power.
The strength of the soul determines the amount of magic power stored, and the mental power determines the usage rate of magic power. The human body is adaptable. Strong mental power greatly increases the utilization rate of magic power, causing the body's demand for magic power to increase. This demand will in turn stimulate the growth of magic power.
In other words, a powerful soul and mental power cannot suddenly increase one's magic power like a magic potion, but it can increase the growth rate of magic power. If he wanted to catch up with the strength of Voldemort and Dumbledore before the troubled times came, he would definitely need to find a way to enhance the strength of his soul and enhance his mental power.
Being able to discover such an astonishing secret, even if the Pain Mask worth 29 galleons was scrapped like this, Schelling did not feel sad at all. Xie Lin checked the fragments of the Pain Mask again, only to find that the magic wave attached to it had dissipated with the collapse of his consciousness. The mask had become two ordinary fragments, so he threw the fragments in without hesitation. In the trash can.
The real business world is inherently very cruel, both in reality and in the wizarding world. In those fan works, the protagonists who are Muggles and have no background just casually invent wands, broomsticks, and new potions before graduation, but as soon as the products are launched on the market, they monopolize and sell well - I can only say that I will write this The author definitely has no business experience.