Chapter 4: Shadow’s Rise
The Daily Prophet hit the doorstep of Grimmauld Place with a soft thud. Harry picked it up on his way out for his morning run, already knowing what he’d find.
The headline had screamed across the front page in bold letters on his second day back: “THE FRAUD WHO SURVIVED: Harry Potter’s Miraculous Return Raises Questions”
Below it, a smaller subheading had read: “What Really Happened in the Forbidden Forest?”
Harry tucked the paper under his arm and started his run. Day twelve of the Daily Quest routine. His legs moved efficiently now, his breathing steady. The ten kilometers that had felt impossible about two weeks ago were almost pleasant.
The article would be the same as all the others. Speculation about how he’d survived. Interviews with dungeon experts questioning the official story. Maybe a quote from one of the dead hunters’ families, wondering why Harry Potter got to live when their loved ones didn’t.
He’d stopped reading them after the third day. The media circus was predictable and pointless. They wanted a story, a scandal, something to fill pages and drive sales. The truth was too strange to tell and too dangerous to reveal.
Harry finished his run by the Thames as the sun rose over London. The System notification appeared right on schedule.
[Daily Quest Complete!]
+1 to all stats
[PLAYER STATUS]
Strength: 29 (+5) = 34
Agility: 29 (+5) = 34
Sense: 29 (+5) = 34
Vitality: 29 (+5) = 34
Intelligence: 29 (+5) = 34
Magic: 29 (+5) = 34
Twelve days of continuous improvement. Harry could feel the difference in every movement. His body responded faster, moved more precisely. His magic flowed smoother through his core. Even his thoughts felt sharper, his mind processing information quicker.
Still level two though. The requirements for level three were steep.
[LEVEL UP REQUIREMENTS]
Complete 30 Daily Quests (12/30)
Defeat 500 enemies (287/500)
Extract 200 Shadows (73/200)
The math was simple. Another eighteen days of Daily Quests minimum. More hunting in the Rookeries. More shadows to extract and store. It was a grind, but Harry found he didn’t mind. Each small improvement brought him closer to real power.
He stopped at a stand on the way back to Grimmauld Place. The vendor was an old witch who’d been running this corner for decades. She looked up as Harry approached and her expression shifted to recognition.
“Morning, Potter,” she said neutrally. “Usual?”
“Just the tea today.”
She handed him a cup after he paid. He took a seat on the bench nearby and opened the day’s prophet, taking a sip. The front page showed his official BHA photo from three years ago, looking young and uncertain. Next to it was a more recent candid shot, probably taken by some photographer with a long-range lens.
The headline this time read: “SHADOW OF DOUBT: BHA Investigation Stalls on Potter Dungeon Incident”
Harry folded the paper and set it aside, finishing his tea quickly. Once he was done, he threw the cup in the bin and resumed walking. Behind him, he heard the vendor mutter something to another customer. Probably speculation about whether he’d actually killed his teammates. That particular theory had been making the rounds for a week now.
The conspiracy theorists had a field day with it all. Some claimed Harry had murdered his team to steal dungeon loot. Others thought he’d made some dark pact that required sacrifices. A few of the more creative ones suggested he’d been possessed by the spirit of Voldemort and was slowly turning into the next dark lord.
The rational explanation, that a dungeon had killed his team and he’d gotten lucky, apparently wasn’t interesting enough.
Grimmauld Place was quiet when he returned. Harry showered, ate a quick breakfast of toast and eggs, then checked his shadow army. All ten slots remained filled with his current collection. Two Lethifolds, three Acromantulas, four Inferi, and one particularly nasty Chimera he’d managed to bring down two nights ago.
The Chimera was level four, the highest level shadow he’d extracted so far. It had taken everything he had to kill it, draining his magic to dangerous levels. But the result was worth it. The creature’s combat prowess made his other shadows look like children’s toys.
Harry summoned them all in the drawing room, watching as black smoke coalesced into ten deadly forms. The Chimera growled, its head tracking invisible threats. The Acromantulas clicked their mandibles in eerie synchronization. The Lethifolds simply floated, waiting for orders with patience.
“Disperse,” Harry commanded.
They vanished back into his shadow instantly. The control was absolute and instinctive. He could feel each one, sense their readiness. At level two, he could maintain all ten indefinitely without significant drain. At level three, the System had hinted he’d be able to store fifteen.
His mirror buzzed. Harry checked it and found three new messages. The first was from the BHA, yet another request for a follow-up interview. He deleted it without reading past the first line.
The second was from a journalist at Witch Weekly offering an exclusive interview and “generous compensation” for his story. Deleted.
The third was from Remus, just checking in. Harry stared at it for a moment, then put the mirror away without responding. He’d think about it later.
He’d placed the Daily Prophet from this morning on the kitchen table. Harry flipped through it while drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair. Page three had a smaller article titled “POTTER SIGHTINGS: The Boy Who Lived or The Boy Who Hides?”
It detailed various supposed sightings of Harry around London over the past week. Most were probably false. He’d been careful about his hunting in the Rookeries, avoiding populated areas and sticking to the deep ruins. But a few might be accurate. Someone could have spotted him coming or going.
Page seven had an opinion piece by Rita Skeeter. Harry almost skipped it, but the headline caught his eye: “THE CURSE OF CELEBRITY: Why Harry Potter Will Never Be More Than E-Rank”
He read it despite knowing better.
“Sources close to Potter reveal a young man struggling with the weight of expectations he could never meet. Born with a fractured magical core, cursed by the very sacrifice that saved his life, Harry Potter has spent twenty-five years as a living reminder that fame means nothing without power. His recent survival, while miraculous, only highlights this fundamental truth. Five talented hunters died in that dungeon. Potter, the weakest among them, somehow lived. One must ask: is this luck, or something more sinister?”
Harry set the paper down and laughed. It was absurd. Rita had no idea how wrong she was. If she could see him now, see the System interface floating at the edge of his vision, see the army of shadows waiting in his own shadow, she’d choke on her poisoned quill.
But that was the point, wasn’t it? Nobody could know. Not yet. Harry needed to be stronger first. Strong enough that it wouldn’t matter what they thought or said. Strong enough that the truth would be undeniable.
He spent the afternoon reviewing dungeon listings on the BHA network. The system was straightforward. Dungeons got discovered, assessed, and assigned. High-rank dungeons went to guilds. Mid-rank dungeons got parceled out to established teams. Low-rank dungeons were handed to whoever needed work.
Unassigned dungeons were different. These were breaks that the BHA had logged but not yet prioritized. Usually they were low-threat, in remote locations, or simply too numerous for the current hunter population to handle efficiently. They sat in the database, marked but ignored, waiting for someone desperate or ambitious enough to claim them.
Harry was both.
The BHA rules were clear. Assigned dungeons required teams of at least two hunters. Unassigned dungeons had no such restriction. Go in alone if you wanted. Die alone if you failed. The BHA would eventually send someone to investigate and either clear it or mark it as a loss.
Perfect for Harry’s purposes.
He filtered the listings for unassigned E-Rank dungeons within fifty kilometers of London. Seventeen results popped up. Most were minor breaks, barely worth the effort. Estimated loot values under a hundred Galleons. But one stood out.
Dungeon Break ID: LON-E-4471
Location: Abandoned textile mill, Southwark
Threat Assessment: E-Rank, moderate creature density
Estimated Clear Time: 2-3 hours
Estimated Loot Value: 300-500 Galleons
Status: Unassigned (logged 4 days ago)
Three to five hundred Galleons for a few hours of work. Better than anything he’d make hunting in the Rookeries, and it would give him a chance to test his abilities in a real dungeon environment.
Harry marked the location on his mirror and started gathering gear. His wand, obviously. The dragon-hide boots and reinforced jacket. A collection bag for loot. Water and basic medical supplies, though with his current Vitality stat he probably wouldn’t need them.
The Southwark mill was a thirty-minute walk from the nearest apparition point. Harry arrived just before noon, the winter sun weak and pale overhead. The area was industrial wasteland, abandoned factories and empty warehouses slowly being reclaimed by nature.
The mill itself was a four-story brick building with most of its windows broken. A faint shimmer in the air marked the dungeon entrance, visible only to those who knew what to look for. The BHA had placed basic wards around the perimeter, more warning than protection.
Harry checked his gear one final time, then stepped through the shimmer.
The world inverted for a split second, that familiar sensation of passing through dimensional barriers. Then he was inside, standing in what looked like a twisted version of the mill’s interior.
The architecture was wrong. Walls tilted at impossible angles. Staircases led to ceilings. Doorways opened onto solid brick. This was standard for low-rank dungeons. Reality bent but didn’t fully break. Higher rank dungeons could be completely alien environments. This one just made the mill itself into a maze.
Harry’s minimap appeared in his vision, courtesy of the System. Red dots marked hostile entities. A lot of them, clustered in groups throughout the building. He counted at least forty distinct signatures.
The first encounter came twenty meters in. Two Boggarts emerged from shadowy corners, immediately shifting into forms meant to terrify. One became a Dementor, the other a corpse with Harry’s face.
Harry barely paused. “Riddikulus.”
The Dementor turned into a balloon animal. His own corpse started doing a ridiculous dance. The Boggarts, confused by his complete lack of fear, hesitated just long enough.
“Stupefy. Stupefy.”
Two red bolts, two hits. The Boggarts collapsed, their forms flickering between shapes. Harry extracted both shadows before they could recover.
[Shadow Extraction Successful x2]
Boggart (Level 2) x2
Stored: 12/15
Wait. Fifteen? Harry checked his status and found a notification he’d missed.
[Shadow Storage Increased]
Level 2 Bonus: Maximum shadows increased to 15
He’d been so focused on the Daily Quests that he hadn’t noticed the capacity increase. That changed things. Five more shadows meant more versatility, more tactical options.
Harry dismissed the new Boggart shadows for now, keeping his current ten-shadow army. He’d rotate them out later after testing their combat effectiveness.
The dungeon’s layout was a maze but Harry’s minimap made it manageable. He moved methodically through the first floor, clearing each room. More Boggarts, a pack of oversized rats, several Grindylows in a flooded basement area. Nothing challenged him seriously.
His spells hit hard now. A single Stupefy could punch through brick walls. His cutting curses cleaved through creatures that would have shrugged them off weeks ago. The improvement was dramatic and satisfying.
The second floor held more interesting threats. A group of Redcaps had set up what looked like a primitive camp in one of the larger rooms. They spotted Harry immediately and charged with rusted weapons raised.
“Incendio.”
Fire erupted in a wide arc, engulfing the front rank. The Redcaps scattered, screaming. Harry picked them off with precise cutting curses while they were disorganized. Twelve bodies hit the floor within thirty seconds.
He extracted the strongest three as shadows, then harvested cores from the rest. Each core would sell for ten to fifteen Galleons at the BHA exchange. Twelve cores meant roughly one hundred fifty Galleons of guaranteed income, and he was barely halfway through the dungeon.
The third floor was where things got interesting. Harry’s minimap showed a single large red dot in the central chamber. Much bigger than the other signatures he’d seen. Probably the dungeon boss.
He approached carefully, his shadows ready to summon at a moment’s notice. The doorway leading to the central chamber was ornate, carved with symbols that hurt to look at directly. Standard dungeon aesthetic. Everything was dramatic and ominous.
Harry pushed the door open and stepped through.
The chamber was circular, maybe twenty meters across, with a vaulted ceiling lost in shadow. In the center stood a Troll. Not a fully grown mountain troll, but still impressive. Three meters tall, gray skin like stone, holding a massive club made from what looked like a steel I-beam.
Above the Troll’s head, something new appeared. A health bar, glowing red, with “Troll (Level 5)” written beside it. Below that, “HP: 800/800.”
Harry blinked. The System was showing him enemy levels and health now. That was new. Useful, but new.
He filed the question away for later and focused on the Troll. Level five meant it was probably the strongest thing in this dungeon. Eight hundred hit points was substantial. This wouldn’t be a quick fight.
The Troll spotted him and roared, the sound physically painful in the enclosed space. It charged with surprising speed for something so large.
Harry dove aside and the club smashed into the floor where he’d been standing, cracking stone. He rolled to his feet and fired a cutting curse at the creature’s leg. The spell connected, leaving a shallow gash that oozed black blood.
[Troll HP: 785/800]
Fifteen points of damage. Harry would need over fifty hits like that to bring it down. Not ideal.
Time to test his shadows.
“Arise,” Harry commanded, channeling his magic.
Black smoke poured from his shadow and the Chimera materialized. The creature roared, its lion head matching the Troll’s bellow with its own challenge. The goat head bleated aggressively and the snake tail hissed.
The Troll turned toward this new threat, momentarily confused. Harry used the distraction to summon his two Lethifolds. The floating creatures immediately went for the Troll’s eyes, trying to smother its face.
The Troll swatted at them with one massive hand while the Chimera lunged in low, its lion jaws clamping onto the creature’s calf. Blood sprayed and the Troll’s health bar dropped noticeably.
[Troll HP: 702/800]
Much better. Harry kept casting, adding his own damage to the mix. Cutting curses, blasting hexes, anything that could hurt it. The Troll was strong but slow, and now it was fighting on three fronts at once.
The Chimera was relentless, darting in and out, its three heads attacking in coordination. The Lethifolds smothered and constricted, making it hard for the Troll to see or breathe. And Harry kept hitting it from range, his spells chipping away at its health.
[Troll HP: 534/800]
The Troll managed to grab one of the Lethifolds and tore it in half. The shadow creature dissolved into smoke without a sound. But the distraction cost the Troll as the Chimera’s snake tail injected venom directly into its wounded calf.
[Troll HP: 489/800]
[Status Effect: Poisoned - 5 HP/sec]
The poison did its work. The Troll’s movements grew sluggish. Its attacks lost coordination. Harry pressed the advantage, summoning three more shadows. The Acromantulas joined the fight, their venomous fangs adding to the Troll’s problems.
It took another two minutes, but eventually the massive creature fell to its knees. Its health bar flickered as it dropped into the red zone. Harry fired one final cutting curse and the Troll collapsed forward, its club clattering across the floor.
[Enemy Defeated: Troll (Level 5)]
[Experience Gained: 500 XP]
[2450/3000 XP to Level 3]
Harry stared at the notification. Experience. Actual experience points, just like the System had been tracking his progress. And five hundred points for one Troll. That was significant.
He’d been killing weaker creatures for days and never received experience. But this level five Troll gave a substantial amount. Maybe there was a threshold. Maybe he only gained experience from enemies at or above a certain level relative to his own.
Worth investigating later.
Harry approached the Troll’s corpse and used Shadow Extraction. The creature’s essence was massive, the smoke that poured out almost solid. When it finished coalescing, a shadow Troll knelt before him, its health bar showing “Shadow Troll (Level 5) - HP: 800/800.”
[Shadow Extraction Successful]
Troll (Level 5)
A level five shadow. That was his strongest yet, even beating the Chimera. Harry tested it by having the shadow Troll pick up its own club. The weapon looked natural in its hands. This would be a devastating addition to his army.
The rest of the dungeon was anticlimactic. A few scattered enemies on the fourth floor, none worth extracting. Harry cleared them methodically, harvested their cores, and found the dungeon’s loot room.
Dungeon loot was always random. Sometimes it was equipment. Sometimes materials. Occasionally you got lucky and found actual currency. This one had a mix. Three enchanted daggers that would sell well. A bag of galleons that counted out to two hundred fifty. Various monster parts that the potions industry would buy. And one item that made Harry pause.
[Skill Book: Enhanced Strength]
The book glowed with subtle magic. When Harry touched it, information flooded his mind. Enhanced Strength was a passive skill that permanently increased the effectiveness of the Strength stat by ten percent. Minor but cumulative with other bonuses.
He learned it immediately. The knowledge settled into his mind like it had always been there, and his status updated.
[New Skill Acquired: Enhanced Strength (Passive)]
Effect: +10% to Strength stat effectiveness
His effective Strength was now thirty-four plus ten percent, making it closer to thirty-seven. Not a massive boost, but every advantage helped.
Harry collected the loot and made his way back to the dungeon entrance. The shimmer looked the same from the inside. He stepped through and reality reasserted itself. The abandoned mill looked exactly as he’d left it.
The entire clear had taken ninety minutes. Harry checked his haul. Roughly four hundred Galleons in direct currency. Another three hundred in sellable materials and equipment. Seven hundred total for an hour and a half of work.
Better than any E-Rank assignment the BHA would have given him. And he’d gained five hundred experience points in the process.
Harry returned to Grimmauld Place and spent the evening reviewing his progress. The experience from the Troll had him thinking. If level five enemies gave five hundred experience points, and he needed three thousand total to reach level three, then he’d have needed to kill six creatures of similar strength.
Or he could kill many weaker creatures and keep doing his daily quests, as he’d done until now. The math would work out differently but the principle was the same. Fight stronger enemies, gain more experience, level up faster.
The Daily Quests were guaranteed steady improvement but they were slow. If he wanted real power quickly, he needed to challenge himself with harder combat.
He pulled up the BHA dungeon listings again, this time filtering for unassigned D-Rank dungeons.
Twenty-three results. Most were too far away or already being monitored by local hunter teams. But three looked promising. One was in Kent, about an hour outside London. Another was in the abandoned Underground tunnels beneath the city. The third was in a condemned apartment building in East London.
Harry studied the details. The Underground dungeon looked most interesting.
Dungeon ID: LON-D-2234
Location: Abandoned Northern Line tunnel, between stations
Threat Assessment: D-Rank, high creature density, environmental hazards
Estimated Clear Time: 4-6 hours
Estimated Loot Value: 800-1200 Galleons
Status: Unassigned (logged 2 weeks ago)
Special Notes: Multiple hunters have attempted solo clears and retreated. Recommend team of 3-4 D-Rank hunters minimum.
Multiple failed attempts meant it was legitimately dangerous. But it also meant the loot was probably better than estimated. Failed clears usually left items behind.
Harry marked it for tomorrow. He’d do his Daily Quest in the morning, then tackle the D-Rank dungeon in the afternoon when he was fresh.
The next morning’s Prophet had a new headline: “POTTER SPOTTED: The Boy Who Lived Seen Entering Restricted Dungeon Zone”
Someone had photographed him near the Southwark mill. The image was grainy but recognizable. The article speculated about what he was doing in an abandoned industrial area, suggested he might be meeting with black market dealers, and questioned whether he should be allowed to operate freely given the “suspicious circumstances” of his team’s death.
Harry used the paper to start a fire in the drawing room’s fireplace and completed his Daily Quest without giving it another thought.
[Daily Quest Complete!]
+1 to all stats
[PLAYER STATUS]
Level: 2
Strength: 30 (+5) = 35 (+10% Enhanced) = 38.5
Agility: 30 (+5) = 35
Sense: 30 (+5) = 35
Vitality: 30 (+5) = 35
Intelligence: 30 (+5) = 35
Magic: 30 (+5) = 35
Day thirteen. Harry was solidly into D-Rank territory now, even without the level up. His stats were respectable. His shadow army was formidable. He felt ready.
The entrance to the abandoned Underground tunnel was hidden behind a false wall in a maintenance corridor. Harry slipped past the BHA’s minimal wards and stepped into darkness. His wand light illuminated crumbling concrete and rusted rails.
The System’s minimap appeared immediately, showing a complex labyrinth of tunnels branching in multiple directions. Red dots were everywhere, dozens of them, clustered in groups throughout the network.
This was going to be a long clear.
The first enemies were Doxies. A swarm of them, easily twenty flying in formation. Their teeth glinted in Harry’s wandlight as they dove at him with coordinated aggression.
“Protego Maxima.”
His shield charm held easily. The Doxies bounced off it, confused. Harry dropped the shield and hit them with a wide-area stunning spell he’d been practicing. Half the swarm fell immediately. The rest scattered.
He picked them off one by one with precise cutting curses and extracted the three strongest as shadows. They’d serve well at infiltration. The rest he harvested for their venom sacs, which sold for decent money in the potions market.
Deeper into the tunnels, he encountered his first real surprise. A group of six Acromantulas working together, their coordination suggesting genuine pack intelligence. Above each one, a health bar appeared.
[Acromantula (Level 6) - HP: 450/450]
[Acromantula (Level 6) - HP: 450/450]
[Acromantula (Level 5) - HP: 400/400]
[Acromantula (Level 5) - HP: 400/400]
[Acromantula (Level 4) - HP: 350/350]
[Acromantula (Level 4) - HP: 350/350]
Six enemies, two of them higher level than anything he’d fought before. Harry summoned his shadow Troll.
The Troll materialized with its club already swinging. The lead Acromantula took the hit directly and its health bar dropped by a third. The spider hissed and lunged with its mandibles extended.
Harry added his Chimera and three of his shadow Acromantulas to the fight. The tunnel became chaos. Spiders everywhere, his shadows engaging them in vicious melee while Harry provided support from behind.
He targeted the level six Acromantulas first. Cutting curses to their legs to slow them. Blasting hexes to their eyes to blind them. His shadows kept them occupied while he chipped away at their health.
The first level six fell after thirty seconds. The second took another minute. By then, one of his shadow Acromantulas had been destroyed and his Chimera was down to half health. But the enemy pack was breaking apart.
Harry pressed forward. He summoned two Lethifolds to smother one of the level five spiders while his Troll crushed another with its club. The level four Acromantulas tried to flee but Harry’s improved Agility let him keep pace. Two cutting curses ended them.
[Combat Cleared]
[Experience Gained: 2200 XP]
[4650/3000 XP to Level 3]
Wait. Harry checked the notification again. 4650 out of 3000. That meant he’d passed the threshold.
[LEVEL UP!]
Congratulations! You have reached Level 3!
Power surged through him. More intense than the level two increase. His magical core expanded significantly, his capacity nearly doubling. His body strengthened, muscles tightening and reinforcing. Even his mind felt sharper, processing speed increasing.
[PLAYER STATUS]
Level: 3
HP: 300/300 (+100)
MP: 300/300 (+100)
Strength: 40
Agility: 40
Sense: 40
Vitality: 40
Intelligence: 40
Magic: 40
Available Points: 5
[New Features Unlocked]
Shadow Storage: 20 slots
Skill: Shadow Exchange (Swap positions with any active shadow)
Daily Quest Reward: +2 to all stats
Harry laughed out loud. The sound echoed through the dark tunnel. Level three at last, and the improvements were everything he’d hoped for.
His base stats had jumped to forty each. With the ring’s bonus and Enhanced Strength, his effective combat stats were pushing fifty in some areas. That put him firmly in mid D-Rank territory, maybe even touching low C-Rank in raw power.
And the new features. Twenty shadow slots instead of fifteen. The ability to teleport to any active shadow’s position. And double rewards from Daily Quests going forward.
Harry allocated his five free points, putting two into Magic and one each into Strength, Agility, and Sense. Balanced growth was still his philosophy.
[PLAYER STATUS]
Strength: 41 (+5) = 46 (+10% Enhanced) = 50.6
Agility: 41 (+5) = 46
Sense: 41 (+5) = 46
Vitality: 40 (+5) = 45
Intelligence: 40 (+5) = 45
Magic: 42 (+5) = 47
He was strong now. Really strong. The weakest person in that Forbidden Forest team two weeks ago. Now he could take on all of them at once and win.
Harry extracted the shadows from the defeated Acromantulas, filling his new slots. Then he continued deeper into the tunnel network.
The rest of the dungeon was progressively more challenging. He fought packs of Inferi that moved with disturbing intelligence. A colony of vampire bats that drained his mana with each hit. Even a pair of young Trolls working together.
But nothing seriously threatened him anymore. His shadows handled most threats. His improved stats made his spells devastating. And his new Shadow Exchange ability let him escape danger instantly when needed.
He tested Shadow Exchange during a fight with a particularly aggressive Nundu variant. The creature had him cornered, its breath already killing the air around him. Harry focused on his shadow Troll, which was engaged twenty meters away, and activated the skill.
Reality twisted. One moment he was pressed against a wall with poisonous breath washing over him. The next he was standing where his Troll had been, completely safe. The Troll was now in his former position, tanking the Nundu’s attack without concern.
The ability cost mana but it was worth it. Instant escape or repositioning was invaluable.
By the time Harry cleared the final chamber and found the loot room, six hours had passed. He was exhausted but satisfied. The dungeon had pushed him harder than anything since the temple. And he’d risen to every challenge.
The loot room was generous. Nine hundred Galleons in actual currency. A collection of enchanted items worth at least another five hundred. Skill books for Fireball and Ice Shield. And one piece that made him pause.
[Shadowsteel Wand]
Type: Weapon
Effect: +15 to Magic stat, +20% Shadow magic effectiveness
Restriction: Shadow-affinity users only
Harry picked up the wand. It was longer than his holly wand, made from black metal that seemed to drink in light. The moment his fingers closed around it, he felt a connection snap into place.
His System updated immediately.
[Primary Weapon Equipped: Shadowsteel Wand]
Magic: 47 + 15 = 62 (+20% Shadow effectiveness)
Sixty-two effective Magic with bonuses to his shadow abilities. Harry tested it by casting a simple Lumos. The light that emerged was stronger and more stable than anything his old wand had produced.
He kept both wands. The holly wand was useful for regular magic. The Shadowsteel was clearly superior for anything shadow-related. Having options was good.
Harry collected everything and made his way back to the surface. Night had fallen while he was underground. The city lights of London glittered in the distance.
He checked his status one final time before heading home.
[PLAYER STATUS]
Name: Harry Potter
Level: 3
Class: None
Title: Shadow Monarch’s Heir
HP: 300/300
MP: 285/300
Experience: 4650/6000
His clothes were torn and dirty. His body ached pleasantly from the exertion. His shadow storage was completely full with twenty powerful shadows. And his inventory contained over fifteen hundred Galleons worth of loot and currency.
Not bad for a day’s work.
The Prophet’s headline the next morning read: “POTTER VANISHES: Whereabouts Unknown for 24 Hours, BHA Expresses Concern”
Harry set the paper aside without reading it and started his Daily Quest. Push-ups first. One hundred came easier than ever. His improved Strength made each repetition feel trivial.
Sit-ups next. Then squats. Then the run.
He finished in record time and received his reward.
[Daily Quest Complete!]
+2 to all stats
[PLAYER STATUS]
Strength: 43 (+5) = 48 (+10% Enhanced) = 52.8
Agility: 43 (+5) = 48
Sense: 43 (+5) = 48
Vitality: 42 (+5) = 47
Intelligence: 42 (+5) = 47
Magic: 44 (+5+15) = 64 (+20% Shadow)
Double rewards. Every day now would bring twice the improvement. Harry could feel the exponential growth curve beginning. Another month of this and he’d be pushing B-Rank. Three months and he might touch A-Rank territory.
The media storm continued. A new article from Rita Skeeter suggested Harry had fled the country to escape investigation. The Daily Prophet’s opinion section debated whether he should have his hunter license suspended. Witch Weekly ran a sympathetic piece about the trauma of losing an entire team.
Harry ignored it all.
He sold his dungeon loot at three different exchanges to avoid drawing too much attention. Fifteen hundred Galleons total. Combined with his earnings from the previous week, he now had over two thousand Galleons in his Gringotts vault.
More money than he’d had in years. Enough to afford a proper flat. Maybe even a small house somewhere quiet.
Knockturn Alley had never been home. Grimmauld Place was too full of ghosts. Harry needed something new. Somewhere he could actually live instead of just surviving.
He spent an afternoon looking at properties. Most were too expensive or in areas he didn’t want to live. But he found a small flat in Camden that looked promising. Two bedrooms, recently renovated, close to public transport. The rent was two hundred Galleons a month, which he could now afford comfortably.
Harry signed the lease that evening and moved his few possessions the next day. It took one trip. Everything he owned fit in a single bag. That was depressing when he thought about it, so he didn’t think about it.
The new flat was clean and empty. Harry stood in the living room and tried to remember the last time he’d had a place that was actually his. The Knockturn Alley flat had been Sirius’s originally. Grimmauld Place was a family legacy he’d inherited. This was the first space that belonged solely to him.
It felt good.
That night, Harry went hunting again. Another unassigned D-Rank dungeon, this one in an abandoned warehouse in Docklands. The clear took four hours and netted him another thousand Galleons plus enough experience to push his progress bar significantly forward.
He fell into a rhythm over the following days. Wake up, Daily Quest, hunt a dungeon, sell loot, train with his shadows. Repeat. The media coverage started to fade as other stories took precedence. Apparently there was only so much speculation you could do about someone who refused to engage with the circus.
On day nineteen, Harry reached level four while fighting a pack of Dementors in an unassigned C-Rank dungeon. The level up came mid-combat and the power surge actually stunned him for a second. His magical core expanded so rapidly it was physically painful.
When he recovered, his stats had jumped again. Fifty base in everything. With equipment and bonuses, he was solidly into C-Rank territory now. Strong enough to take assignments that would have killed him a month ago.
That evening, Harry went to the BHA headquarters to update his registration. He’d been avoiding it but eventually they’d notice he was clearing dungeons. Better to be proactive.
The registration office was quiet at this hour. Harry approached the desk and the clerk looked up. Her eyes widened in recognition but she kept her expression professional.
“Mr. Potter. What can I do for you?”
“I need to update my rank assessment.”
“Your last assessment was E-Rank, confirmed three years ago. Have you completed the required training for reassessment?”
“No formal training. But I’ve cleared multiple D-Rank dungeons solo in the past two weeks. I think my practical experience qualifies.”
The clerk pulled up his file on her terminal. Her eyebrows rose as she read. “You’ve cleared seven dungeons in fifteen days. Three D-Rank, four E-Rank. All solo.”
“That’s correct.”
“Mr. Potter, solo dungeon runs are strongly discouraged, especially for hunters with your registered rank. The BHA guidelines are clear on this.”
“The dungeons were all unassigned. There’s no rule against solo clears for unassigned content.”
“Technically true, but the guidelines exist for safety reasons.” She studied him more carefully. “You look different. Have you been training?”
“Something like that.”
She made a few notes in his file. “I can schedule you for a formal reassessment next week. You’ll need to demonstrate magical competency, combat capability, and dungeon theory knowledge. If you pass, we can update your certification to D-Rank.”
“Just D-Rank?”
“That’s the next tier up from E-Rank. If you believe you qualify for higher, you’ll need to provide documentation or complete additional assessments.”
Harry considered pushing for C-Rank but decided against it. Better to take it slow. Draw less attention. D-Rank was enough for now.
“Schedule it,” he said.
The clerk made the arrangements and handed him a confirmation slip. “The assessment is next Thursday at ten AM. Don’t be late.”
Harry left headquarters and headed home to his new flat in Camden. On the way, he passed the entrance to the Phoenix Guild’s main building. The massive structure dominated an entire block, all gleaming glass and magical architecture.
A crowd had gathered outside. Harry slowed down, curious. Someone important was clearly present. Guild recruiters were handing out promotional materials. A few journalists snapped photos.
It was then that Harry saw her.
She emerged from the building flanked by two other hunters in Serpent Guild uniforms. The woman was tall, probably around his age, with platinum blonde hair pulled back in a severe ponytail. Her robes were impeccably tailored, dark green with silver accents. She moved with the fluid confidence of someone who’d never doubted their place in the world.
Above her head, information appeared courtesy of the System.
[Daphne Greengrass - Level 78 S-Rank Hunter]
[HP: 7800/7800]
[Title: Ice Queen of the Serpent Guild]
Level seventy-eight. S-Rank. Harry stared. He’d never seen anyone’s level that high. The sheer gap between them was staggering. He was level four. She had nearly twenty times that.
This was what real power looked like.
Daphne Greengrass walked through the crowd without acknowledging anyone. People moved aside automatically, giving her space. Her expression was composed and remote, like she existed on a different plane from everyone around her. Beautiful in the way expensive art was beautiful. Impressive but untouchable.
One journalist was brave or stupid enough to approach. “Miss Greengrass, do you have any comment on the recent Guild rankings?”
She glanced at him briefly. “No.”
The single word carried absolute finality. The journalist backed off immediately. Daphne continued walking, her escort matching her pace. They reached a sleek black car waiting at the curb and she got in without looking back. The car pulled away smoothly, disappearing into London traffic.
The crowd dispersed quickly after that. Harry stood on the sidewalk for another moment, processing what he’d seen.
S-Rank. That was the peak of the hunter hierarchy. There were maybe a hundred S-Rank hunters worldwide. They could clear dungeons that would wipe out entire teams of lower ranks. They earned fortunes from guild salaries and exclusive contracts. They were celebrities, legends, the closest thing the modern magical world had to heroes.
Harry Potter, the Fraud Who Lived, had just watched one walk past him without even noticing he existed.
He smiled. That was fine. Let her have her moment. Let the world think S-Rank was the pinnacle.
Harry had a System that would take him far beyond that. He just needed time.
He continued home, already planning tomorrow’s dungeon clear. There was a C-Rank unassigned break in Surrey that looked promising. Higher risk, higher reward. More experience, better loot.
The grind continued. And Harry was only getting started.