Once inside the collection room, Kate immediately conjured a clone and set it to work in the deepest corner of the library — writing without pause until it had transcribed every scrap of Nicolas Flamel's three hundred years of accumulated knowledge.
Those three centuries of knowledge weren't limited to alchemy alone. Flamel himself had been a wizard of considerable depth, and his magical learning was vast. Setting aside the miscellaneous bits of everyday wisdom, alchemy-related knowledge made up roughly sixty percent of the whole — but for Kate, even that was more than enough.
Now she could leisurely flip through the catalogue, and the catalogue of the catalogue, one page at a time.
Several hours of browsing later, she had just barely turned up seven or eight books suitable for her current level — enough to keep her busy for at least the next two months.
Sometimes having too many books really wasn't a good thing.
She stood before the towering walls of shelves and heaved a sigh at the sheer impossibility of it all.
Glancing over at her clone, still scribbling furiously in the corner, Kate raised an eyebrow, tucked the selected books under her arm, and walked out of the collection room.
Tonight she'd take it easy. Back to studying tomorrow!
That was the plan, anyway — but sometimes, when a person had grown so accustomed to being busy, the sudden quiet left them at a complete loss for what to do with themselves.
That was exactly how Kate felt the moment she returned to her dormitory.
Well, idle was idle — she might as well take a proper look at that new spell she'd just learned.
"System, are there any restrictions or things I should know about this Grand Summoning Spell?"
[Grand Summoning Spell: Can only summon individuals or magical creatures from this plane of existence who possess mana. Duration of summoning is determined by the Host's own mana reserves.]
[Note: Do not attempt to summon magical beings from outside this plane, such as demons or deities.]
[Summoned magical individuals are not undead. They are fragments extracted from a specific point in time.]
[Summoned magical individuals cannot be assessed for good or evil alignment, but are likewise incapable of attacking the Host. The Host is advised to choose summoning targets with care.]
So it could only summon magical beings or magical creatures — that already narrowed the scope quite a bit.
Still, Kate noticed the System had left one point conspicuously unsaid, and couldn't help asking with some curiosity: "You haven't mentioned anything about time — does that mean I can summon people from the past, and from the future as well?"
[In theory, yes — but the Host has not studied the art of prophecy, and would likely be unable to extract a time fragment from the future.]
Wasn't that simple enough to get around?
Kate broke into a sly grin. "So in theory, I could summon my future self, right?"
Nudge the timeline out just a little — say, seven years from now — summon her future self, and get a full spoiler of everything that was going to happen over those seven years...
[The Grand Summoning Spell cannot summon the Host herself, nor individuals with whom the Host shares a close relationship. Please abandon this idea at once. Failure to comply is at the Host's own risk.]
The System's cool electronic voice doused the idea without a shred of mercy.
"Tch. You're being completely unreasonable," Kate said, instantly deflated. She snatched up a pillow in mild desperation and gave it a couple of good thumps.
Not being able to summon herself was one thing — but blocking Hermione and the old butler too? It really had her completely boxed in.
Fine. Seeing the future was clearly off the table. She'd just have to try this Grand Summoning Spell out and see what it could actually do.
Kate got back on her feet, took several slow, steadying breaths, and brought her mana into its optimal state. Then she spoke the incantation and gave her wand a light flick —
A blinding white light shot from the tip of her wand, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut.
"Mrow?"
A distinctly odd little meow rang out. Kate opened her eyes in surprise — and found herself looking at a tiny, newborn leopard cub.
"What's going on?" she asked the System, doing her best to keep her voice patient.
[The Host's current Grand Summoning Spell is Level 1. At this level, only small magical-bloodline animals can be summoned at random.]
[When the Grand Summoning Spell reaches Level 2, random magical items may be summoned.]
[When the Grand Summoning Spell reaches Level 3, random magical individuals may be summoned. At Level 4 and above, the summoning target may be specified.]
So you fobbed me off with a baby cat! Is that what this is!
Kate felt exactly like a new player who'd saved up all their anticipation for their very first gacha pull — only to receive an N-rank common card. Bitter, speechless, and thoroughly let down.
Absolute garbage gameplay experience!
She dismissed the little leopard cub with a wave, scratched her head in silence, and felt the hollow ache of a sudden one-third drop in her mana reserves.
One summon and it cost that much mana. At this rate, who knew when she'd ever grind it up to Level 3.
Well, she wasn't scheduled to grind any other spells tonight anyway. She'd try two more times — and if nothing came of it, she'd just go to sleep.
She steadied herself, recited the incantation again, and a blinding white light bloomed once more from the tip of her wand.
This time Kate was prepared and closed her eyes in advance. When the light faded, she opened them again with eager anticipation.
A toad the size of a palm had appeared on the floor.
"...That pattern. This isn't Neville's toad, is it?" she asked, breaking into a cold sweat.
[Based on timeline analysis, the location from which this toad's time fragment was extracted corresponds to the Hogwarts Express, one year prior.]
Ha. Of course it was.
As expected — this was almost certainly the toad she'd put into a plastic box at the time, now extracted and summoned back to her.
If she hadn't stepped in to help back then, Neville would've probably spent the entire train ride sprinting from compartment to compartment looking for it.
She waved it away and sent it back, sighing in resignation. "Even if it's a magical animal — could I at least get one that's a little cute?"
The toad was bad enough, but that leopard cub earlier had been the kind of creature that would scratch you at the slightest provocation. She was definitely not petting that thing.
Last try of the night! She refused to believe her Luck stat of 35 points counted for absolutely nothing!
The white light flashed again — and a small golden creature was rolling around on the floor. Suddenly finding itself in a completely unfamiliar environment, it froze for a moment, utterly bewildered.
"This is..."
Kate's hands trembled. The hollow, drained sensation that followed mana depletion sent a creeping chill through her whole body.
But that wasn't what mattered right now. What mattered was the little creature in front of her —
Golden fur. A single small horn. Its frame was a touch on the small side, but there was no mistaking it: it was unmistakably horse-like.
It was an adolescent unicorn!
She'd pulled an SSR!
Heart pounding, hands shaking — Kate felt her vision going a little dark at the edges, but she didn't care. This was a unicorn!
By all conventional wisdom, unicorns were gentle creatures by nature, but most were rather wary of people — especially the young ones.
She was still hesitating over how to approach the small, fluffy, golden creature when the dazed little unicorn suddenly snapped back to its senses on its own.
Its nose twitched as it took a long, careful sniff of the air. The little unicorn tilted its head, seemingly puzzled about why it had abruptly appeared here.
But then it spotted Kate.
And with a bright little "neigh," it came trotting over at a happy clip — and headbutted its way straight into Kate's arms, nuzzling her stomach with great enthusiasm.
Kate: !!!!
Were unicorns this friendly with people these days?!
Kate stared, thoroughly gobsmacked, at the little creature doing its level best to burrow deeper into her embrace.
She managed to fish it out from her arms and held it by its front legs, turning it this way and that for a closer look.
No question about it — a unicorn, not some other magical creature playing dress-up.
Which was strange. Unicorns were gentle enough, but they weren't usually this openly affectionate toward humans.
The little unicorn's horn was small and blunt compared to its adult form, and its overall tiny build made it easy to tell: this was a young unicorn, no more than two months old.
Wait.
A newborn unicorn... could this be the one she was thinking of?
Her thoughts drifted back to that rainy night. Kate found herself remembering the gravely injured female unicorn, and the unborn foal she had carried.
By the timing, this little unicorn should be exactly that female unicorn's child.
"So we meet again after all," Kate said softly, and gave it a gentle pat on the head — which, as expected, was met with an enthusiastic response.
This little one was so warm toward her, most likely because she had once saved both mother and foal before it was even born.
Before Kate could get a good look at it, the little unicorn's form began to fade — growing more and more translucent, as though it had never been there at all.
Mana depleted. The Grand Summoning Spell's duration had run out.
She closed her hand with a pang of regret — she could still faintly feel the texture of the unicorn's coat on her palm from just moments ago.
What a shame. She didn't know if she'd ever have the chance to see it again.
Her body, drained of mana, was utterly exhausted. She let out a yawn, got up to wash and get ready for bed, and then climbed under the covers and fell straight asleep.
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