Chapter 96: Tehom's Trap, and Plagiarising a Game

[The chapter is edited by Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

"I need to get faster. I'm not going to make any progress otherwise," sighed Quinn, as he stopped himself above the triangular entrance to the second trail area. "If I keep going at this rate, I'm going to use most of my time just to get past the vortex."

The third vault —or as Quinn had come to call it, the Aquatic Vault— was set up such that if Quinn wanted to progress and make it to the next trial area, he would need to successively get past the previous trials.

The vortex in Poseidon's Wrath was very turbulent. Every time he plunged into the violent water, it would take at least half an hour to get to the center of the vortex. To Quinn, that half an hour was time wasted; time in which he could be making progress in the second trial — Tehom's Delight.

"Well, practice makes perfect, so I have to keep coming here every day. I'll eventually get faster," sighed Quinn before releasing the Arresto Momentum, which was holding him in his place.

The water engulfed Quinn as he was pulled into the waters leading to the second trial. Tehom's Delight.

...

Like before, Quinn opened his eyes to see nothing. Complete darkness, with only a sensation of slightly cold water covering him from all sides.

He felt that visually and aurally. Quinn wasn't able to see his hand pass in front of his face. The only way Quinn could tell that his eyes were open was through blinking consciously.

The only sounds Quinn could hear came from himself, like when he wildly moved his limbs to create some sound — but even then the noise died immediately, and every sound that Quinn made from floating inside water sounded strange.

Tehom's Delight was hauntingly still and silent.

After the first minute or so, he shifted slightly and experienced a sudden revelation: 'Oh, my shoulder makes a sound when I move it, apparently.' A couple of minutes in, Quinn was able to experience a nothingness he had never felt before, with his mind startlingly clear.

And just like that, within minutes, Quinn's calm mind slipped into nothingness, and he lost himself inside Tehom's Delight. With a clear, yet blank mind, Quinn closed his eyes in the dark. And sunk into a state of emptiness.

- (Scene Break) -

After an unidentified amount of time, Quinn's empty mind suddenly sparked with activity. He wasn't seeing anything and had to consciously blink his eyes to assure him that his eyes were open.

'Damn it! I did it again!' yelled Quinn in his mind, berating himself.

He channeled the magic in the teleportation insignia that was on his hand, and soundlessly, he disappeared from Tehom's Delight.

Quinn came out of the water from the triangular entrance and entered the front stone cave. Not a drop of water could be seen on his body because of the wards. The second he stepped on the floor, Quinn furiously looked towards the waterproof proof bag he had been bringing with him for a week, and it snapped open. A pocket watch flew out.

The pocket watch stopped in front of Quinn, and the lid opened to show the watch's face to him. He saw it had already been one and a half-hour since he had arrived in the vault.

"This is great! Just f$#king great!" cursed Quinn, his face twisted by anger. He got angry with himself, though. "#$%@, I only have two hours today!"

"Argh!" with a throaty roar, Quinn stomped on the ground. A wave of magic traveled through his legs down into the ground. The ground beneath Quinn got transfigured and suddenly sunk down in a dent.

And because he wasn't careful, Quinn stumbled and fell down on his butt.

As he sat on the ground, Quinn thought about why he disliked Tehom's Delight. The reason was simple; he liked it a bit too much.

If he didn't move and just stayed still, he felt the perfect stillness and serenity of the second trial room. Quinn heard nothing, saw nothing; he began to feel as though he was stretching in all directions, that his being was filling the void. Of course, it was all in his head, but he loved every instant of it.

The feeling was absolutely Transcendent. It was addicting.

After the events of last year, Quinn had developed a strong desire to be in control. He craved it and rigorously sought it after. The feeling of being in control hadn't drastically changed his life; even before the events of the Sin vault, Quinn still had some tendencies in which he liked to be in control. Presently, these tendencies were considerably stronger than before, but nothing life-altering.

Usually, that desire became fulfilled when he was in complete control of his magic, with day-to-day activities, and when he controlled his speech and behavior. He exercised Muay Thai every day without fail because it gave him a sense of control over his body. The interior design of the A.I.D office was specifically designed to put Quinn in control. Quinn had also decided the place of everything inside the workshop. Luna, the other user of the workshop, wasn't allowed to change anything.

But then there was Tehom's Delight. It cleared Quinn's mind to an unnatural level and made him feel that losing control was fine, that he could relax; that he didn't have to worry about anything. He had purposely alloted two to three hours every day to the Aquatic Vault, although in his initial few visits Quinn had exceeded that time by at least an hour because he would lose himself inside the vault.

Lately, he had gotten it under control and didn't lose himself as much, but there were times like this when he slipped up and let the ambiance of the second trial lull him into total blankness.

The time he spent inside Tehom's Delight felt great to Quinn, but when he exited Tehom's Delight, the realization that he had lost self-control struck him, and that didn't feel well to Quinn.

The 'delight' in Tehom's Delight truly made sense, but as Quinn had thought when he learned the trial's name for the first time... it was pure trouble.

"#$&^@, `(*)+, **{%$}, ~!##*&, -$%#$," cursed Quinn. He usually didn't curse, but when he rarely did, he didn't stop in the middle. It was quite clear how pissed Tehom's Delight made him.

Quinn got up, packed up his bag, threw it to the side, and turned back to the triangular entrance of Poseidon's Wrath. Even though he only had half an hour remaining, Quinn wouldn't let that time go to waste.

"#$%^&*!"

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- (Scene Break) -

Quinn was sitting behind his office desk while reading a book on Magical Pathologies. It introduced the effects of magical diseases on the human body.

To properly learn Healing Magic, one needed to read up on loads and loads of books. The amounts of subjects that needed to be covered were vast and extensive.

These days, Quinn had been studying anatomy, physiology, and pathology. He was balancing Healing Magic, his own studies, and the vaults.

"It will take some time to make them accessible memory books," muttered Quinn, turning the pages. He read every word while trying to understand the anomalies that were written in the tome. "Should I try a different method to connect concepts? The Josh Kaufman method seems interesting."

Storing knowledge inside his mindscape that he gained from books (or tomes) was more complicated than storing daily events.

Recalling every word in a book only from his memory was simple enough; the problem came when he needed to comprehend the concepts and information.

Truly retaining information took more time, and it also took more time to create the memory book immersion that increased the time and complexity of the process. Quinn connected concepts to other concepts and then compiled the concept net into a memory book. After that, numerous concept memory books needed to be linked to fasten his recall speed.

Quinn wasn't new to concept retention, as he had been doing it before he came to Hogwarts. It was one of the things that enabled Quinn to go through information quickly and keep uniform progress in multiple disciplines of magic without leaving anyone behind.

And because he was taking on more magic as he grew up, Quinn actively researched efficiency-aspect occlumency, as he was interested in that field. Efficiency-aspect occlumency was Quinn's most advanced magic. It was more advanced than any other magic he had learned since coming to this world.

Take the present example, Healing Magic was an extensive subject, and even though at start Poppy had set a pace that she thought wouldn't interfere with his general school studies, Quinn had thrown that pace away the moment he received it.

He studied at his own pace, and that pace was much faster than what Poppy had imagined. Quinn's learning pace made Poppy think that he was just studying Healing Magic, as he was learning very fast.

She thought that Quinn was slacking in his general school studies, but Quinn had squashed that line of thought by performing all the magic a fourth year student needed to know to Poppy, which showed her that she didn't need to worry about anything.

As he continued to read, Quinn heard a knock followed by the ring of the door chime.

Quinn looked up from his book to see who was visiting, and his eyes slightly widened when he saw the person who had entered the office.

With shoulder-length red hair, almond-shaped green eyes clad with a forest green robe, the professor of muggle studies entered the A.I.D office with a slight smile on her face.

"Professor Potter, what a surprise. I wasn't expecting your visit," greeted Quinn. He then stood up from his barstool while closing his book.

"Good evening, Mr. West," replied Lily as she admired the interior of the room, which had changed since her last visit. She looked at the paintings on the walls and asked while looking at the paintings, "Mr. West, I have to ask, is there a reason you don't have magical paintings?"

Magical paintings, unlike their non-magical counterparts, moved. The painting's subject, background and foreground were all animated to move in a lifelike manner.

"I'm not a fan of magical paintings, professor. I like my paintings when they don't move. I think they are more beautiful that way. It leaves more to the imagination," replied Quinn, observing the professor as she appraised the art.

Lily turned towards Quinn, and the host gestured to the visitor to take a seat.

"What can I do for you today, professor?" asked Quinn as both of them took their seats.

He couldn't think of any reason why Lily Potter had come to the office.

'From her expression, it doesn't seem like she knows about my interactions with her daughter,' speculated Quinn.

Quinn didn't launch a Legilimency probe because, first, he wanted to try the spoken means of communication before snooping inside Lily's mind.

"I have been thinking of new ways to introduce the muggle culture to my students, but I haven't been able to think of a way that would engage the students and not leave them confused and feeling detached," sighed Lily as she introduced her reason for her visit.

She looked up at Quinn and suggested, "I came here to see if you would be able to help me find a solution." And as she said that, Lily pulled out an A.I.D card and showed it to Quinn.

"Hmm... now that is a unique problem that you have brought me, professor," hummed Quinn thinking about the problem. "Something that would engage us, the students?"

"Yes, I'm thinking something they could use in their daily lives," added Lily, watching Quinn, who now had a thoughtful solution on his face.

After half a minute of thinking, Quinn broke the silence, "From the top of my head, I can think of one thing that would engage your students."

"What is it?" asked Lily, excited for the idea.

Quinn smiled as he replied, "Isn't it obvious, professor? All of your students are teenagers, and teenagers or children in general, love games."

"Games?" asked Lily in confusion. She wasn't sure if games would help her students who came from wizarding households.

"I understand your skepticism," chuckled Quinn as he noticed the expression on the redhead's face. "Games might not be the thing you were looking for, but I assure you that it is the thing you need. "

"But, how? How would a game help?" Lily wasn't feeling positive about the idea because she had already tried it. "I tried to introduce football and cricket to the students, but they didn't seem interested in either of the two. None of the students from wizarding households asked me if they could play the sports."

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"Ah, now I understand your reluctance," nodded Quinn at the failed attempt to introduce non-magical sports. "I think the reason why your attempts failed is that the students from magical households weren't able to connect to both of the sports. With a thrilling game as Quidditch being part of their lives, games like football and cricket might not seem that interesting."

"But professor, I'm not talking about sports," grinned Quinn. Oh no, he wasn't thinking about sports, nope. He was thinking about something else.

'Something that would be mighty fun to create,' thought Quinn as he told Lily of his plan.

- (Scene Break) -

The first thing the students heard as they entered the muggle studies classroom was professor Lily's jubilant voice.

"Good afternoon, students. Please step in and gather around the table in the center!"

When they looked around the classroom, they saw that the desks and tables had been removed. Instead, there were six square tables around the classroom, with a seventh square table in the center of the room.

They noticed something on every table, but they couldn't recognize the object on the table because a sheet covered it.

The third-year Gryffindor and Hufflepuff students slowly arrived at the classroom in batches, and Lily waited near the door with an excited smile on her face while greeting them pleasantly. She was looking forward to today's lesson.

Hermione bumped Ivy's shoulder and whispered while looking at the covered center table, "Hey, do you have any idea what's all this?"

Ivy looked at all seven tables before glancing at her mother.

"No, I have no clue about what is all of this. Mu- I mean, professor Potter didn't tell me about this," replied Ivy with a whisper back to Hermione. Lily had instructed both Potter twins to call her professor Potter when they were in public at the school.

"I wonder what the professor has planned for today," whispered Hermione as he narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out what was below the cloth.

All the students had arrived and were chatting to each other, discussing what would happen today.

"Now that everyone is here, let's get started," announced Lily as he made her way across the crowd of students to the center table. "Today, we are going to do something fun."

She looked at her students with a smile and continued, "We are going to play a muggle game today. A game that I played when I was a child, and I am sure that the muggleborn students would recognize the game."

The students from the wizarding household looked uninterested. Some half-blood students who were familiar with the non-magical side seemed moderately interested. While the muggleborn students looked at the center table, trying to figure out the game's identity.

"Today, we are going to play-" announced Lily as she pulled the cloth off the table and revealed the game, "- Monopoly!"

All muggleborns recognized the game at once because of its popularity. Some half-blood students recognized the game, and the pureblood students studied the board game.

Hermione recognized the game instantly. The game wasn't played in the Potter household, but Ivy recognized the game from the times she had gone to the house of some of her non-magical friends.

"Monopoly is a board game. In this game, players have to roll two six-sided dice and move around this game board with their tokens, buy and trade properties, and develop them with houses and hotels. Players collect rent from their opponents. The goal is to drive them to the point that they have no money or properties...." explained Lily with nostalgia and an ever-present smile on her face.

By the time she was finished explaining the rules, the class's opinion was divided into two. Half of the class seemed interested, while the other half didn't look particularly excited about the game.

But then Lily introduced something that changed the entire class's opinion to positive.

"But we aren't going to play this one because a lot of students here don't feel attached to the properties on the board."

She took out her wand, and with a wave, the Monopoly board folded and packed itself in the game box. The box flew away to the teacher's table.

"We are going to play-," beamed Lily as she waved her wand, and another box flew from beneath the table and set itself on the table. "- Monopoly, Hogwarts version!"

All the students suddenly became fully interested in the game as they stared at the box with an animated image of Hogwarts castle as the night and the day alternated in the background. Murmurs and chatter broke out in the classroom as everyone spoke to everyone.

"... Hogwarts version?" blinked Hermione as she watched as the box opened itself and a board slid out to show why it was called the Hogwarts version.

A moving Hogwarts coat of arms in the middle of the board with a miniature Albus Dumbledore sticking its torso out of the letter 'O' of Hogwarts.

All the properties were changed to suit the theme: Hagrid's hut, all four house common rooms, the Great Hall, Owlery, Kitchen, Quidditch stadium, Greenhouses, Hospital Wing, Whooping Willow, Headmaster's Office, the Great Lake, and many other Hogwarts hotspots.

The game started at Platform nine-and-three-quarters. Instead of jail, there was Azkaban and Detention.

The Community cards and Chance cards were renamed 'Potions' and 'Spells'.

The tokens were in the form of brooms, the sorting hat, a wand, a golden snitch, a quaffle, a bludger, quills, cauldrons, and others. Houses were turned into huts, and the hotels were turned into castles.

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The money was still in the paper currency form to teach the students about muggle currency.

Other than that, everything on the board was animated and truly looked like a part of the wizarding community.

"To make sure that even those who aren't familiar with muggle places, I've made this special version so that you all can enjoy the game," smiled Lily as she looked around the classroom, happy to see activity among her students.

Quinn had told her that if she could make the children like the game, she would be able to improve their view of the muggle world. Quinn reasoned that if she could connect the muggle world to something fun, the students would keep their minds open when introduced to other muggle things.

'If you can make them interested in trying new things, then you have already passed the most difficult part of the problem,' Quinn had said when pitching the idea for using a board game as a way to get students interested. 'You want to make them think that if something fun like this is from the non-magical world, then what other fun things are out there? You have to work up curiosity within them. A curiosity that they would try to fulfill on their own.'

After listening to Quinn, she realized that something as simple as a board game could help the students get interested in the muggle world.

She waved her wand, and the covers from the rest of the table flew away, revealing six more game sets.

"Please take seats around the tables and start playing. There will be no studying today. Today we're going to play the game and have fun," announced Lily with a bright smile on her face.

Other than making her students interested in the muggle worlds, Lily also agreed to this idea for personal reasons.

Monopoly reminded Lily of the times before Hogwarts. It reminded her of the time when Lily and her sister, Petunia, were still on good terms and played the game together with their parents as a family. Those were simpler and happy times, and she wanted her students to experience that.

'Maybe with this, I can reduce house rivalry a little bit,' thought Lily as she saw Hufflepuff and Gryffindor students mingling together.

...

Ivy Potter marveled at the Hogwarts-themed Monopoly game when she felt a tug on her arm and distractedly looked towards her side.

"Yeah? What is it?" Ivy asked Hermione, who was staring at the game board.

"Look in the bottom right corner of the board," whispered Hermione and pointed at the game board with her eyes.

Ivy's eyes returned to the game board and went to the bottom right corner of the board. Her eyes widened when she saw the small logo that silently sat there.

"... A.I.D!"

The small logo of A.I.D productions on the board meant that her mother had gone to that person. And that the new game was his work.

"...Quinn West made this," uttered Ivy as she continued to stare at the board.

It made her wonder about Quinn. He had neither approached her nor Hermione to claim the 'debt' they owed him. Forget approaching them, Quinn didn't even look at them when they passed each other in the hallways.

Sometimes she felt relieved that he ignored her because if he looked at her regularly, she would automatically think that he wanted something and that was stressful for her.

On the other hand, whenever she thought about Quinn, it made her nervous because she wanted to be free of the debt, and him not acting on it just made her wonder when the day would come when he would ask them to do something and free them of their debt.

- (Scene Break) -

The creator's question was amid drafting instruction documentation and building models to send home.

The reason Quinn had thought Lily's request was going to be fun was because he saw a business opportunity in it. And not just an A.I.D business opportunity, but a West business opportunity.

He had made a simple Hogwarts version of Monopoly, and that was just something that Lily Potter could use in her class.

On another note, Quinn had created a better Hogwarts version with more charms and features. The version that he had built had tokens and pieces that moved on their own, like wizarding chess. Three-dimensional animations were applied on the boards for a more immersive feel.

Quinn knew that not all people wanted to play the Hogwarts version of Monopoly, so he also designed another version, a Magical Britain version. This version featured properties from all across magical Britain and was much more expensive than the Hogwarts one.

He was especially proud of how the miniature goblins handled the banking for the players so that they could enjoy the game without the additional responsibility of the banker. The money was in the standard wizarding currency with an additional platinum coin.

"This is going to make money," chuckled Quinn as he transmuted and charmed a piece of quartz to take the shape of the player. "Once this hits the market, children are going to pester their parents to dish out money."

"This time, I'm going to fill a bathtub with galleons instead of sickles."

Quinn laughed alone in his workshop as he continued to build a model that he was going to send home for demonstration purposes.

"Money~. Oh, sweet money~."

Quinn West - MC - Copyright can't touch me.

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Lily Potter - Professor - Enjoying the nostalgia.

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