After that successful little fieldtrip Harry teleported back into the manor and threw the prisoner into the dungeon.
Harry dusted off his hands, feeling quite good about himself. 'Well that's another blow for Russel. Wonder how long it would take him to come begging for a deal. His ship is sinking so fast he doesn't even have time to plug the holes. And I'm sure his so called allies are like vultures, just waiting for a chance to swoop in and grab what they can when he collapses'
Harry stretches as his joints pop. ' Everything is according to schedule even with these nuisances causing trouble for me. Better yet, they are delivering a study supply of lab rats. I have a lot of people dying every second day.'
Research takes a lot of money and materials. Experimenting and researching New things is 80% failure, 15% luck and about 5% skill. It's like walking in a fog in a jungle and finding treasure. No matter how skilled you are, just stumbling upon treasure in a whole forest is luck. Research is starting over and over again, hundreds of times until you find the right path.
Once you find the path, the fog clears, you know exactly where to go next even if you still can't see everything clearly. Then skill becomes a lot more important, then things start to sped up.
Improving old discoveries is just optimization, you are not doing something groundbreaking hence why it takes less time.
It's a cycle. Harry finds new things to study, like Alchemy. Since it is a well documented subjects with families keeping their secret recopies of course. He was making significant progress. Anything he finds he will try and improve so he can more quickly get a better understanding.
After reaching a certain level he will make a decision. Is it worth pouring in money and materials to research new things relating to alchemy?
If it isn't then he picks another subject and repeat that all over again. Naturally using some of what he learned to create a few simple things to sell. Business was going well.
Potter Foundation was doing good work. Potters Pots and Potters Potions were part of that. As well as owning many businesses and property that he got after he crashed Britian's economy as Lord Black.
He is also in the process of making Ravenclaw Incorporated. He will get more muggleborns to work for him, the people will only know that it shares a close relationship with the Potter Foundation in the form of investments.
Now since it was 1992, there were a lot of opportunities to make money in the Mundane World. He planned to have mostly muggleborns there because all of them will be under a brutal but fair contract. No spies, no backstabbing, no corruption.
Even attempting betrayal, stealing or leaking information, you will automatically become a slave. He also plans to have incentives. If you find a loophole and inform your supervisor, you get a fat bonus.
So the contracts are pretty much iron tight. So now all Harry has to do is slowly grow out his influence. Investing in things that are going to get big, naturally he will double check the information he knows with his clones, Nicholas Black and Constantine have gotten to know plenty of big wigs.
Money is useful no matter what faction. But sometimes flat money won't change someone's mind. For example Azazel, you can offer him a billion dollars and he won't even blink because he has other ways of getting that money. But offer him a rare one of a kind material and suddenly he is interested.
It's good to keep a supply of thing other people want even if they aren't that useful to Harry himself. This was basic trade in the Supernatural World, well in the Mundane World as well, things that can't be easily acquired with money are obviously more valuable.
This is also the method he has been using to acquire many rare materials for research. Just use money to buy shit and hoard it like crazy, then trade it away for even rarer things.
'I need food, I spent a lot of energy in that fight and so did the other parts of myself' Harry mused "Cippy"
Pop
A house elf appeared in front of him. But this time it kept silent. Melinda had told the elves Harry was tired and wasn't in a talking mood. She really was afraid Harry would blast the poor things away if they annoyed him
"Cippy go prepare a large amount of food"
Cippy bowed "Right away Master" and with that she disappeared with an almost silent Pop. Harry went down to the dining table and started to take out food that he put under stasis and then placed in his expanded small bags. He didn't want to wait and those stasis charms didn't last forever.
The other clones who participated in the fight were also eating. Each clone needs to eat and sleep, as they are alive. But that means they also grow. Every improvement both physical and mana wise gets combined when the clones fuse back together into one. Harry consumes a LOT of food, but it also means he gets stronger quicker too.
And as usual he continued to brainstorm even while eating. The Grind never stops.
~
Another clone was in the dungeon with McQueen.
Now Harry's plans for McQueen were simple.
The man was going to be turned into a living puppet. There wasn't a lot he could learn from McQueen in the first place, the man was a close range fighter, a brawler. He was going to mind wipe him and give him a simple command.
Keep Training.
Training his body was tedious to Harry and he hated it. Exercising was one of the things he hated the most. Even with potions, pills and better food to make it more efficient.
So he was now going to test things on McQueen. All those uncertain and unstable potions he makes to make it easier for him to train he will test on his new lab rat.
And hopefully, he would eventually unlock the man's Touki, so that he can learn it himself. If McQueen had Touki, Harry would have lost the fight 100%. With just his Mana Skin he managed to tank quite a lot of Harry's spells. With Touki his power as a melee fighter would double if not triple.
That's how much of a difference Touki makes. After all its the thing that allowed Yokai who are naturally attuned to it to fight against human magicians and exorcists.
And judging by the data he was currently getting from McQueen's body as the spells kept analyzing him. The man might be close to unlocking it. He had pushed his body as far at it can go. Almost squeezed every bit of potential he was born with.
As an ordinary human with no bloodline or being part of a family of magicians. McQueen has done all that he could. So there was only one thing for him to chase after. Unlocking Touki.
Touki is in essence the external manifestation of one's life-force, in other words their Ki, which would be then wrapped around them as an aura. Using this, a person achieves heightened offense, defense, and speed. Touki also opens up the gate for Senjutsu, which is using Nature's Ki.
But for any race other than Yokai, Touki was anything but easy. Lifeforce was stubborn and it didn't want to move. It wasn't as mailable as mana. If you imagined mana as mist or water or any other mental image that allows you to quickly move it around the body.
Then Touki was like tar or tree resin. Sticky, viscous and slow. If you stop pushing it it will just go back to its previous form.
Harry had an interesting thought 'Now that I think about it, Touki is similar to Nen, both rely on Lifeforce and come out as a white aura at the beginning. But Touki doesn't flow as smoothly.
Nen is obviously more overpowered of the two, Touki might just a lower tier version in the multiverse scope, or maybe the natural evolution. I have heard Touki being turned into flames and lightning, just like a Hatsu. Hmm this is interesting, I'll make a note of this, when I get Touki and look for teachers. '
But that was for the future, Harry was nowhere near the level required for Touki. But as a wizard he had a longer lifespan thanks to magic when compared to humans. He didn't know how that would affect his Touki. Would it be more powerful or would it take even longer to acquire since his potential is bigger.
The most common way humans get Touki is by training until their body literally can't improve anymore. Then through long meditation they sense the power in their cells. The lifeforce that is contained in them, which was the result of years of rigorous training.
If someone just tried to get it through mitigation it would much more difficult, since the lifeforce wouldn't be as easy to spot.
Harry scratched his head 'You would think after 2500 years someone in the Potter Family would come across Touki. But no, like every wizard they focus on magic and the Belmont's never reached a high enough level through training to get it'
The Belmont's were hunters, not fighters. They locate the target, ambush or trap it. Then used enchanted items to make it easier to kill monsters. The reason they trained their bodies was to stay alive, not in pursuit of strength or power.
To the Belmonts Skill was much more important. After all it was a foolish notion to even try to physically compete against vampires and werewolves. There were easier ways to commit suicide as a hunter.
Harry just sighed 'Fine, I guess I just have to do it myself. Like everything fucking else. But on the bright side, I can be the first Potter in history to accomplish this. Then I'll bring back the souls of famous Potters and rub it in their faces. Now that thought just brings a smile to my face'
~~ A/N
I know about the last chap. I am not happy with the fight scenes. Honestly i seem to be getting worse at them. I need to do more research.
If you want to read ahead or just support me go check out my Pat.
pat reon.com/alcoholic_panda
Word Count 1700