Ten mier, Alex ly ahe test tubes in front of him, looking thhly pleased. Meanwhile, everyone else sat slumped in their seats, looking as though they’d just survived a harrowing ordeal. Despite growing up in the wizarding world, none of them could quite their heads around Alex’s strahods. After all, their parents had always warhem about the dangers of blood being used in dark rituals.

  The only reason they’d gone along with it was their trust in Alex. Even so, unease lingered as they tried to make sense of what he’d said earlier. “We’re wizards. Since when do we o start drawing blood? And anyway, you don’t even have the maes Muggles use for this stuff,” Vivian muttered, still rubbing her arm.

  Alex smirked. “Just wait and see.” From his bag, Alex pulled out a peculiar device that looked like a mix between a mirror and a moderronic scale. The circur, smooth surfa the ter gleamed faintly, and two small boxes dispyed numbers below. He hahe device to Vivian. “Here. Put your hand on it.”

  Vivian eyed him warily. “You’re not going to do something weird again, are you?” After spending the summer watg Alex’s experiments, she had grown increasingly suspicious of his ever-growing colle of odd traptions.

  “Rex,” Alex replied, pletely deadpan. “It doesn’t hurt this time.” Viviaated but eventually pced her hand on the device. A faint magical ripple spread across the surface, extending from her palm and washing over her entire body, as though sing her.

  A moment ter, a series of numbers appeared on the dispy. Alex quickly jotted them down befrabbing aool from his bag. This one resembled a dropper, but with intricate ruched along its length. He adjusted it a few times before iing it into the test tube taining Vivian’s blood.

  The dropper automatically drew a small amount of blood. Alex then ected it to the device with a thin, shimmering wire. Another number fshed on the dispy, and Alex’s brow furrowed slightly. “168 Lum,” he muttered. “That’s about the same as a third-year student. Looks like your foundation is pretty weak. You’ll o work harder this year.”

  “Wait, what? What does that even mean?” Vivian asked, her voice rising with arm. She had a sinking feeling that whatever Alex was about to say wouldn’t be good. Alex held up the device with a triumphant smile. “This is the Magic Measuring Instrument Ver 2, something I just developed. The disc measures the total amount of blood in your body, while the dropper calcutes the magical energy tained within a small sample. By bining these measurements, I calcute your total magical reserves.”

  “And what’s with the 168 Lum?” Welen asked, intrigued despite himself.

  “‘Lums’ is the unit I’m using to measure magic power,” Alex expined. “The amount of magieeded to cast a basic Lumos spell is one Lum. So, Vivian, yic reserves are enough to cast Lumos 168 times in a row.”

  Vivian’s initial shock gave way to smugness. “Well, that doesn’t sound too bad.”

  Alex shot her a pointed look. “You’re in fourth year, but your reserves are only at a third-year level. That’s nothing t about.”

  Vivian pouted. “Well, what do you expect me to do? It’s not like I magically increase it ht.”

  “That’s why we’re going to focus on training,” Alex said firmly. He turo the rest of the group. “You all, too.”

  One by one, Alex tested everyone else. The process was identical each time, and by the end, he had a clear picture of their magical reserves. Welen Higgs, with 382 Lums, had the highest reserves among them. Alex hat he was on track to surpass 700 Lum by seventh year if he kept up his training.

  Charles, at 257 Lums, was solidly above average. Wilkes, with 143 Lums, was only slightly behind Vivian, though Alex believed he could surpass her with some effort. David, at just 118 Lums, was clearly held back by his frail physique. After finishing his tests, Alex leaned back with a satisfied expression.

  Charles's magic prowth was signifit this year, far exceeding the fuzzy measurements from st year. It seemed that after third year, young wizards experienced a notable surge in magical power. David’s magic level was more typical for a sed-year student. But judging from David’s numbers, his potential was unmatched. With proper training, David might even surpass Charles in two years.

  The new measuring instrument was a game-ger, paving the way for smoother training experiments. By the magic prowth curve across ages, physical ditioning, sensitivity exercises, willpower drills, and energy intake, Alex could analyze how these factors affected the effiagical polification through group experiments. He g his own mana value—418 Lums. "Seems like eating magical creature meat does work wonders," Alex muttered to himself.

  He sed the group of students nearby with the ical gaze of someone evaluati subjects. His eyes lingered on Vivian for a moment, an idea f in his mind about the group tests. Welen, who was close to adulthood, wouldn’t be much from ying foundational work anymore, so Alex decided he’d focus on advanced bat tactics for him.

  As for the group training pn. David would tackle indepe physical training. Wilkes would specialize iivity exercises. Charles would be pushed to hone his willpower through challenging activities. Vivian? Since she always pined about hardships, Alex smirked to himself. “You’ll eat nothing but magical creature meat for a month. Let’s see how that affects yrowth.”

  Each month, they’d rotate tasks aually dive into multi-discipline cross-training. Alex was determio uncover a pattern in their development. The thought made him chuckle darkly. “Hehe,” he ughed under his breath, the sound sending shivers down the spines of the students

  A new school year began at Hogwarts. For Alex, it was just another year, but for the other students, the summer break had been unfettable. From the moment the entrance ceremony began, nearly everyoh old audents—seemed to have their eyes fixed ohis boy, who had previously blended into the background so well he’d earhe niame “Ghost of Slytherin,” was now a hero whose name was on everyone’s lips.

  This articurly true for the Slytherins, especially the pure-blood wizards. Many of them had been bckmailed by Alex in the past and were still trying to find ways to deal with him. But now, he was suddenly a celebrated figure. For them, it was like being trapped in a nightmare they couldn’t wake up from. Alex, however, paid no attention to the stares or whispers. His focus was entirely on his research. Once he returo the on room, he headed straight to his dormitory, leaving no ce for ao strike up a versation.