After leaving Harry behind to play wizard chess with Ron, Ethan successfully slipped out of Hogwarts Castle and headed toward the Forbidden Forest.
"Damn it," he muttered while crossing the grounds. "In Hogwarts Legacy you can just Floo directly into the forest."
Unfortunately, reality lacked convenient fast travel systems.
The Forbidden Forest stood in plain sight from the castle, which also meant anyone crossing the open grasslands toward it could be spotted immediately during daylight.
Fortunately, Ethan possessed strategy.
He first approached Hagrid enthusiastically, pretended to make friendly conversation, accepted several rock cakes the size of bricks, then abruptly changed directions halfway through and vanished toward the forest while Hagrid remained distracted.
The downside was obvious.
Now Ethan's pockets contained lethal blunt-force weapons disguised as baked goods.
Honestly, if monsters attacked him, the rock cakes would probably prove more effective than most first-year spells.
The moment Ethan entered the forest, sunlight dimmed dramatically beneath the thick canopy overhead.
Twisted roots sprawled across the earth like snakes while ancient trees blocked nearly all natural light above. Damp soil mixed with the smell of moss and rotting leaves.
Ethan glanced around constantly while walking.
Occasionally, he recognised magical plants mentioned inside One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi.
Unfortunately, every nearby lifeform possessed soul strengths of one or two at most.
Meaning—
Bugs.
The entire forest currently consisted mostly of bugs.
Ethan absolutely refused to absorb insect souls.
Their soul strength only measured one because the system clearly lacked decimal points lower than that.
Even devouring an entire castle's worth of worms probably wouldn't repair his soul meaningfully.
Still, eventually, effort paid off.
Inside a hollow tree trunk, Ethan finally discovered a nest of magical creatures with soul strength ratings of three.
Fire snakes.
More specifically, he'd arrived during the final moments of the mother snake laying eggs.
Because fire snakes only lived for one hour after birth before turning into ash.
"If I don't eat it, it dies anyway," Ethan reasoned immediately. "The forest feeds fire snakes, yet they contribute nothing in return."
Then he inhaled the creature's soul in one bite.
Honestly?
Disappointing.
Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration creations tasted better.
Still, Ethan's eyes quickly shifted toward the nest of eggs.
"…Wait."
His conscience—which had remained dormant for years—twitched weakly.
"These little things will absolutely burn this tree down after hatching."
He nodded seriously.
"Preventing forest fires is everyone's responsibility."
The combination of one adult fire snake plus the entire nest of eggs finally increased Ethan's soul strength by another 0.1%.
Small gains.
But gains nonetheless.
More importantly, fire snakes reproduced absurdly quickly. Entire infestations could spread through forests if left unchecked.
They were essentially magical pests.
Conveniently, their eggs also possessed value in potion-making, especially in certain highly suspicious aphrodisiacs.
Following the sacred principle of refusing to waste resources, Ethan froze the remaining eggs with a Freezing Charm before stuffing them into his pockets for later use.
Thanks to his soul-detection abilities, locating additional fire snakes became dramatically easier.
Most hid within cracks, roots, or hollow logs.
Unfortunately for them, Ethan could literally see their soul signatures through obstacles.
The result resembled ecological disaster.
As Ethan wandered deeper through the Forbidden Forest, entire fire snake populations vanished mysteriously while frozen eggs accumulated inside his robes.
Hagrid's rock cakes also proved unexpectedly useful.
Whenever Ethan's pockets became full, he simply threw another rock cake behind him as a trail marker.
No forest animal would ever accidentally eat them.
Not even dragons could chew those things safely.
Occasionally, Ethan also encountered juvenile Acromantulas wandering separately from the colony.
"Evil creature," Ethan announced solemnly. "Soul extraction."
Another spider vanished from existence.
Juvenile Acromantulas possessed soul strengths around four, slightly better than fire snakes.
At this point, Ethan resembled a demonic exterminator.
Every living thing crossing his path risked becoming lunch.
Well—
Unless it looked adorable.
"Hypocrite."
Earl landed atop a broken branch nearby while holding a dead rat in his beak.
"You're speciesist."
"Cute creatures receive special treatment," Ethan replied calmly while stuffing another frozen egg into his already overflowing pockets. "That's how civilisation works."
He'd just spared a sleepy mooncalf moments earlier.
"Stop trying to act cute," Ethan added while glaring at the owl. "I still remember you insulting a rat's entire bloodline for an hour."
"Oh."
Earl immediately tilted his head at an angle designed specifically to look adorable.
Unfortunately, Ethan remained immune.
"I'm delivering a message," Earl continued. "Harry Potter wants to know whether you're joining them later. Hagrid invited them to his hut around three."
"Perfect." Ethan immediately nodded. "Maybe I can convince Hagrid to give me unicorn hair or something expensive."
Using Harry's reputation for profit felt entirely reasonable.
"Tell Harry not to wait for me."
The bells of Hogwarts carried surprisingly far through the forest, so Ethan wasn't worried about losing track of time.
Earl soon flew away again while Ethan continued deeper into the Forbidden Forest.
Gradually, the atmosphere changed.
The air became colder.
The sunlight nearly vanished completely.
Occasionally, creatures with soul strengths between seven and ten rushed through distant shadows.
At this point, Ethan seriously considered ending today's farming session.
The fire snakes and wandering Acromantulas had already increased his soul completeness by 3.4%.
His soul strength now reached fifteen.
Far more efficient than exchanging Sin Points for artificial soul fragments.
Unfortunately, another problem had appeared.
His progress stalled.
The last several nests provided almost no additional improvement whatsoever.
It seemed weaker souls eventually lost effectiveness entirely.
Just as Ethan prepared to turn back, he noticed silver blood splashed across nearby bushes.
Unicorn blood.
The shimmering trail led deeper into the forest where branches had clearly been forced aside recently.
Then Ethan smelled it.
Magic.
And beneath it—
That sweet scent of soul.
His heartbeat immediately accelerated.
The only person currently hunting unicorns inside Hogwarts grounds…
Was Quirrell.
Or more accurately—
The noseless parasite attached to the back of Quirrell's skull.
"…They already started drinking unicorn blood?"
Ethan's expression darkened instantly.
He originally assumed that incident wouldn't occur until much later in the year.
Current Voldemort remained far beyond Ethan's ability to handle.
Forty soul strength.
No beginner protection.
No emergency power-up cards.
And just because Aurors failed to kill Ethan didn't mean Voldemort couldn't.
What if dark wizards possessed anti-Dementor magic specifically designed for creatures like him?
"WHINNYYYY!"
Suddenly, furious horse cries echoed through the forest behind Ethan.
"Evil creature! Leave our territory!"
Ethan blinked.
Wait.
Had Quirrell already been chased off by centaurs?
Behind him?
The sound of galloping hooves thundered through the woods while arrows sliced through branches somewhere nearby.
With centaurs present, Quirrell probably wouldn't dare remain openly.
Ethan immediately turned around, fully expecting to see Quirrell fleeing dramatically through the trees.
Instead—
Ten armed centaurs aimed directly at him.
"…Did the script break?"
Every bowstring was fully drawn.
Every arrow pointed toward Ethan.
The leading centaur possessed a thick beard and fierce eyes.
[Soul Strength: 15]
Technically edible.
Still, Ethan had no intention of fighting unless absolutely necessary.
The bearded centaur stared at him for several long seconds.
Then his expression became indescribably strange.
"What," he finally said slowly, "the hell is that?"
"It's only a foal, Bane," another centaur interrupted quickly.
This one possessed reddish hair and a calmer expression. He gently lowered Bane's drawn bow.
"We do not harm foals."
He glanced toward Ethan carefully.
"The creature attacking unicorns was not him."
Suddenly—
An arrow shot from deeper within the forest.
Ethan dodged instantly.
Another arrow followed immediately afterward while more hoofbeats thundered through the trees nearby.
Clearly another group of centaurs was flanking Voldemort simultaneously.
Unfortunately, Ethan now occupied the middle of a magical battlefield.
Wonderful.
If he stayed here any longer, he'd absolutely die from friendly fire.
Ethan had no interest whatsoever in abandoning his current body.
Not only was it adorable, but changing bodies might also ruin his relationship with Edward and Rose forever.
He refused to ask philosophical questions like:
"Do you love my soul or my appearance?"
That sounded traumatising.
Just as Ethan prepared to escape—
A hooded figure suddenly burst through the bushes nearby.
Black robes.
Terrifying presence.
Face concealed beneath a hood.
Quirrell.
Ethan instantly pulled up his own hood too.
If everyone hid their identities equally, nobody needed to feel awkward.
Two seconds later, Quirrell reached Ethan's side while sprinting down the exact same path.
Apparently both of them independently selected the flattest escape route available.
Quirrell glanced sideways briefly.
Ethan glanced back.
Then Ethan spoke first.
"…Funny running into you here."
....
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