stonecrandall Chapter 85 Modification of the Magic Watch
Chapter 85 Modification of the Magic Watch
Chapter 85 Modification of the Magic Watch
The festive atmosphere of Christmas gradually faded, and the house returned to its usual tranquility. Karen sat in an armchair by the bedroom window, the winter sun shining through the glass onto the open "Muggle Gadget Modification Guide" on his lap, the edges of the pages gleaming with a faint golden light.
"A very interesting idea." Karen's slender fingers gently traced a page of a design drawing for a modified camera, his fingertips lingering on the intricate magic circle diagrams. This book was less of a formal publication and more of a collection of a wizard inventor's private notes, filled with wildly imaginative ideas and hastily drawn experimental records. He thought to himself, this is definitely the kind of book the Weasley Brotherhood would be interested in, brimming with bold attempts to combine Muggle objects with magic.
Turning the page, Karen's lips twitched. Some modifications were clearly successful, but others—like the typewriter that would bite if a typo was made—he wasn't sure if they counted as successes or failures.
"Karen?" Lily pushed open the door, clutching her pop-up book. "Can you tell me about this tower at Hogwarts?" She nimbly climbed onto Karen's chair like a kitten, pointing with her little finger to a towering tower in the book.
Karen closed the modification guide. "This is the Astronomical Tower," his voice softened unconsciously, "We observe the stars there every night." He gently touched the top of the tower, and the miniature tower in the book immediately lit up with a soft blue light, revealing a shimmering star map inside.
"I wish I could go to Hogwarts too," Lily sighed, her little hands tracing patterns on the pages, making the little figures inside move.
"In five years, you'll receive your acceptance letter." Karen ruffled her sister's hair. "I can show you around the school and tell you about all the secret passages."
Lily suddenly pointed to the black box on the bedside table: "What's in that box?" Her eyes sparkled with curiosity.
Karen glanced back, his heart racing slightly. It was the box containing the Touch of Hermes; he'd been unable to resist taking it out to examine it these past few days, yet he'd hesitated to study it due to the security measures at home. "An alchemical artifact," he carefully chose his words, "precious and dangerous; I can't study it at home."
"Like you can't cast spells at home?" Lily tilted her head, a gesture that made her look like a confused owl.
"It's not quite the same." Karen shook her head slightly. "Magic is prohibited by regulations, while some magical items inherently carry uncontrollable risks."
Lily nodded, seemingly understanding, but her attention was quickly drawn back to the moving images in the pop-up book. Karen reopened the modification guide, but her thoughts drifted involuntarily to the mysterious crystal.
The Eye of Truth granted him the ability to see the flow of magic, but even so, the internal structure of the crystal remained as complex and difficult to understand as a maze.
"Karen!" came her mother's call from downstairs. "Could you come help me move the storage boxes for the Christmas decorations?"
"Coming right away!" Karen closed the book and said to Lily, "Shall we continue reading later?"
For the next two days, Karen would read the modification guide whenever he had a spare moment. The lack of materials limited his practice, but it gave him more room for reflection.
One cold morning, Karen decided to go out for some fresh air. He told his mother he was going for a walk on the beach, then wrapped himself in a wool apron and went out. He wandered aimlessly and unknowingly ended up at the Mayflower Memorial again.
This simple monument stands on a high point on the coast, overlooking the surging sea. Karen stood before the monument, her grey-blue eyes fixed on the weathered inscription, as memories of that day three years ago flooded back.
He was only eight years old then, and he wandered aimlessly here, where he met that seemingly ordinary elderly couple. Karen closed her eyes, recalling the scene. What did Nico do? The images in her memory were somewhat blurred, but the burning visual shock and intense headache remained vividly clear.
"What on earth are they doing here?" Karen murmured to herself, circling the monument and running her fingers across the cold stone surface. The Mayflower was the famous ship that transported Puritan immigrants to America, and the only magical connection she could make was that of Isolde Thayer, who ran a school in America with a Slytherin wand. But that happened almost four hundred years ago; could what they retrieved be related to that?
Karen lingered by the monument for a long time, still finding nothing. On the way back, his thoughts drifted to the modification guide, especially the section on magical modifications to watches. The functions described in the book were interesting, and the materials required were few, all of which he had on hand, making him eager to try them out.
Most importantly, David has a hobby of collecting old watches; the pine boxes in the attic contain various broken pocket watches and wristwatches.
They are perfect as experimental materials.
Back home, with David's permission, Karen found the box in a dusty corner of the attic. Opening the lid, she found seven or eight old watches of varying ages lying quietly on a velvet lining, most of them stopped working. She selected two brass mechanical watches; although the dials were somewhat oxidized, the internal mechanisms remained intact.
"A Visual Representation of the Diagnostic Spell," Karen murmured, reading a passage from the book, her fingertips carefully tracing the hastily drawn diagrams on the parchment. The passage detailed a method for visualizing diagnostic magic, originally a spell used by St. Mungo's Hospital to examine patients, which the unknown author had successfully transformed into magical runes that could be engraved on a surface.
Karen flipped to the back of the notebook and found the section about color descriptions:
Red indicates external injuries, inflammation, and common muscle damage problems;
Green represents disordered magical energy:
Purple indicates that one may be affected by a curse or black magic.
While it doesn't cover all the issues, it's already quite practical.
The first step in the renovation was to inlay a ring of tiny moonstone fragments onto the dial. Karen secretly rejoiced that he had brought back the bag containing the materials and alchemy tools. He used a fine carving knife to sculpt the moonstone into the shape of a lens, each cut careful, as if afraid of breaking the fragile material.
Next, he engraved a series of intricate runes on the inside of the case. The engraving knife moved across the metal surface, making a soft scraping sound. Sweat dripped from his forehead, but he dared not be distracted. When the last rune was completed, the entire magic circle suddenly lit up with a soft white light, flowing like water through the patterns before gradually disappearing into the metal.
Karen held her breath and carefully reassembled the watch case. Now, this seemingly ordinary mechanical watch had an almost imperceptible ring of tiny lenses around the dial.
The testing time had arrived. Karen took a deep breath, slipped the watch onto his left wrist, and the cool metallic touch sent a shiver down his spine. He gently rotated the crown three times and then pressed it—his designated activation gesture.
A soft white light flowed from the watch, spreading across his arm like morning mist, and then over his entire body. The light remained pure on healthy areas, but when his fingertips, which he had scratched a few days earlier, were scanned, a barely perceptible hint of pale red appeared in the light.
"That's amazing," Karen exclaimed softly. Even more surprising, a tiny line of text automatically appeared on the watch's small dial: "Minor external injury to the left hand."
"I see, that's what visualization means." Karen nodded thoughtfully. "It will react when it encounters an abnormal area, and it will also be displayed on the dial."
At dinner, Karen couldn't wait to show his family the results of his renovation.
"This is much more convenient than the hospital!" David put on his watch, activated the scan, and looked in surprise at the red glow appearing on his right shoulder. "My shoulder has been a bit stiff lately, but even your mother doesn't know."
Mom and Lily also tried out the magical device. Lily giggled as the white light flowed over her body, finally settling on her knee, which she had bumped the day before. Karen secretly resolved that once she returned to school and collected more materials, she would definitely order one for everyone.