[Third-rate scholars publish papers. Second-rate scholars build academic cliques. First-rate scholars set the standards. Only the truest masters remake the world itself.]
[One language, one script, one set of laws, only unification brings prosperity, only unification breaks through every ceiling.]
[Task Requirements: Establish the Wizards' Guild in every corner of the world, steadily expanding its reach, until it surpasses the Ministries of Magic and stands as the dominant power in every region.]
[Task Rewards: At 20% completion, receive 1,000 Achievement Points and one Legendary-tier lottery draw. At 50% completion, receive one lottery ticket for an Immortal Legendary Personal Tutor. At 100% completion, receive one Mystery Grand Prize and one System Upgrade opportunity.]
Tom read through the task and its accompanying details word by word, several times over, equal parts thrilled and unsettled.
The rewards on offer were unprecedented. A Legendary-tier draw and an Immortal Legendary tutor alone were enough to set his pulse racing, but Tom knew the system's habits well enough by now. Rewards this generous never came without matching difficulty.
He currently had three major tasks open at once. The first, "My Word Is Truth," concerned promoting the Wizarding Chronicle, and had already reached eighty percent completion. It would wrap up before long, though its reward was the smallest of the three, a mere thousand Achievement Points and a single Legendary draw.
The second, "Architect of a New World," required him to both upgrade and spread WhatsApp, reshaping how the wizarding world lived day to day. Distribution was moving along quickly, but the upgrade side hadn't progressed at all, leaving that task's completion sitting under thirty percent.
And now this new task, on top of the other two. Tom had long since noticed a pattern: they called it the Top Student System, but the emphasis had never really been on studying at all. It was about being on top.
The system's whole approach ran domineering by nature. First it had wanted him to remake the world. Now it had dropped the pretense entirely and simply told him to rule it outright.
As for the studying, that was apparently just the means by which he'd earn the qualifications and capability to actually control it.
So that was the real logic behind "top student," was it.
Tom found the whole thing absurd, honestly, though he couldn't say he had any objection to it either.
He'd already come this far. Why should he keep standing below a crowd of lesser minds, letting them look down and pass judgment on him? The system's new task suited him perfectly.
It just meant adjusting his plans a little. Originally, building the Wizards' Guild hadn't been about seizing power from the Ministries directly, only about making his own life easier while chasing his other tasks.
But now... a real man doesn't spend his life content beneath someone else's heel!
His ambitions burned bright, though his body, worn out from the day, had other ideas. After a full day of chaos abroad and a hot bath, Tom collapsed straight into bed. Remembering the little joke Grindelwald had promised him earlier, he sent his consciousness into the learning space first and pulled Grindelwald in along with him.
"What was that fun thing you mentioned earlier?"
Grindelwald had added Dumbledore to his contacts list that day, and the two of them had apparently chatted away happily enough that Robert had slipped both their minds entirely. Only once Tom brought it up did Grindelwald remember.
"That Robert Graves came crawling to me for shelter. Only one thing he wanted: for me to kill you, so he could have his revenge."
"Ha?" A great question mark practically hung over Andros's head. "Isn't that just walking straight into the wolf's den?"
"Master, he doesn't know about the connection between Grindelwald and Tom," Ariana said, and then laughed at her own observation.
Thinking it over, there was something almost pitiable about Robert's situation.
Only two and a half people in the entire world stood any real chance of avenging him. Dumbledore was Tom's own headmaster, ruled out immediately. That left only Grindelwald, or the half-formed remnant that was Voldemort.
And even setting aside how hard Voldemort would be to actually find, hardly anyone left in the wizarding world even knew, or believed, he was still alive at all.
What choice did the poor man have, besides walking straight into the trap?
Tom felt a wave of disappointment. He'd been expecting something genuinely entertaining from Grindelwald, and this was it?
"Don't make such a fuss over nothing next time. Some flunky I don't even bother tracking isn't worth calling entertainment. Use him if you want, or just squeeze out whatever scheme he's cooked up in North America and kill him afterward."
Grindelwald shook his head seriously instead. "I plan to make good use of him first. Let him leak dirt on the International Confederation, chip away at their credibility, which happens to work nicely in favor of your Guild too."
Ariana jumped in before he could finish. "And once he's outlived his usefulness, bring Tom in to finish him off properly, shatter whatever's left of his composure. Oh, and doesn't he have a grudge against that Wilkinson fellow? Put him under Wilkinson first."
Grindelwald nodded, pleased. "Well done, Ariana. Your instincts get sharper by the day."
He had no daughter of his own, but watching Ariana grow, twisted in exactly this direction, gave him something close to that same swelling pride all the same.
Andros, for his part, felt a complicated sort of unease. Out of everyone in this room, he seemed to be the only decent person left.
He could only hope Tom's next teacher turned out to be someone with a shred of moral center, or the whole world was going to end up thoroughly ruined between the lot of them.
Tom smiled and gave Ariana's head an affectionate pat by way of praise, encouraging her to keep it up, then withdrew from the space and burrowed into his blankets to sleep.