The trial mannequin y motionless on the ground, half of its body stained red with blood.

  It appeared to have pletely lost the ability to resist.

  In this situation, the system should have already decred Eda the victor. Could there be a signal issue causing a dey?

  With doubt in her mind, Eda cautiously approached.

  At first, she remained wary of a potential "dying" terattack from the mannequin. But after waiting for a long moment without any sign of movement, she rexed, believing the battle to be truly over.

  She simply stood there, waiting for the system to announce her victory.

  Just as Eda's right hand, still holding her wand, lowered slightly, the mannequin on the ground suddenly moved. It flipped over in an instant, and a red beam of light shot from its wand, aimed directly at Eda.

  The trial mannequin's sneak attack was swift and ued, striking precisely when Eda had let her guard down in an attempt to turables. Caught off guard, Eda could only reastinctively. She immediately cast the system-rated most powerful spell—the Disarming Charm.

  Boom!

  Two beams of red light collided, iwining and growing even more dazzling.

  As Eda and the trial mannequin struggled in a test of magical power, the impact at the point of collisio shockwaves rippling outward, shattering nearby stones and leaving the ground riddled with craters.

  Their magical strength was evenly matched, making it difficult to determine a winner. Eda repeatedly jerked her wand, attempting to manipute the scattered magical energy to strike the mannequin and inflict damage.

  However, this tactic proved iive, yielding little result. The battle once again fell into a stalemate. While her right hand trolled the wand to tihe magical struggle, Eda also began gathering magi her left hand, preparing to use wandless magic to end the fight ond for all.

  Having endured Shree cauldrons of torment, Eda had learo multitask. Her ability to jure flowers finny multiple times roof of her wandless magic skills.

  Wands were a European iion. Native Ameri wizards only began using wands after the 17th tury, while Afri wizards didn't e into tact with wands until the 20th tury. Before that, they all practiced wandless magibsp;

  Before the iion of wands, wizards worldwide cast spells without them. However, this method came with numerous challenges: low efficy, difficulty in trol, and ck of precision. Some spells even caused harm to the caster. These problems were only resolved after wands were introduced.

  Despite its limitations, wandless magic could be a valuable skill fhly skilled wizards. Mastering it allowed them to cast spells faster and use magic more fluidly in bat.

  With the system's help, Eda had already mao perform wandless magic. She could now cast retively simple spells, such as juring the rose finny at the Burrow.

  However, if Eda wao fully master wandless casting and ie it into her battles, she still had a long way to go, requiriensive practid uanding.

  A faint ache spread through her palm as magitinued gathering in her left hand.

  A fist-sized stoated under her trol, h in midair.

  Then, like a bullet fired from a on, it shot toward the trial mannequin with such speed that it was nearly impossible to see—only the sound of it tearing through the air lingered in her ears.

  The moment the trial mannequin saw the sto forcibly interrupted its magic csh with Eda. Its injuries left it uo move, and the stone's speed was simply too fast. It had no choice but to wave its wand and cast a defensive spell to stop the ining projectile.

  The storuck the Shield Charm with a loud bang.

  Boom!

  The impact shattered both the spell and the stone, scattering debris across the floor. At the same time, Eda's Disarming Charm hit the now-unprotected mannequin.

  The mannequin's wand flew into the air, dissolving into a wisp of blue smoke. The bloodstains on the ground vanished, and the mannequin itself reverted into a small sphere, returning to Eda's hand. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she let out a long breath of relief.

  At that moment, the system annouhe host has successfully defeated the trial mannequin (Normal Difficulty). Throughout the battle, the host was never hit and maintaihe upper hand, making good use of personal advantages.]

  [Final rating: Three stars. Battle rewards have been issued. Hard Difficulty trial mannequin has been unlocked. Please check it at your earliest venience.]

  No witty remark this time?

  [Host never got hit and mao exceed the expectation.. well, if you don't look at the days it took for the host to win a Normal Difficulty. gratutions! At least you won't die by some 3rd css stray spell in this world!]

  Ugh... thanks..?

  Ever siaining the trial mannequin, Eda had been making steady progress, and her bat experience had signifitly improved.

  If the Eda from today had faced off against Welfare back then, she would have pletely dominated him.

  That's right—she was feeling that fident!

  Opening the system interface, Eda first checked the description of the Hard Difficulty trial mannequin. To give her a clearer idea, the system provided a direparison: the Hard Difficulty mannequin's strength was already close to that of Professors Snape and Magall.

  Just reading this made her scalp tingle.

  Her infted fidence immediately defted like a punctured balloon. While she had never directly withe full power of either professor, she had heard enough about them to know how terrifying they were.

  Across the entire wizarding world, these two professors were among the top-tier, with very few who could rival them. If Eda could truly defeat a mannequin with strength parable to theirs, then she would basically be able to domihe wizarding world.

  Pulling a piece of chocote from her pocket, Eda o replenish her energy. After cheg her battle rewards, she po test the waters and see just he the gap was between her and the two professors.

  The system had granted her many rewards over time, most of which were spells, though she had also received physical items.

  Ohe system had awarded her a pair of gold-rimmed round gsses. They looked rather nice whe them on, softening the sharpness of her features and making her appear more refined.

  However, Eda had excellent eyesight and wasn't used to wearing gsses, so the pair ended up colleg dust irunk.

  Hopefully, this time, the system wouldn't give her another useless item.

  Opening the system's reward tab, a bck metal ring materialized before Eda.

  It was unadorned with aones, yet faint wisps of light flickered across its surface. The ring was etched with intricate patterns that resembled a runes.

  Sint Runes was a third-year elective, Eda couldn't decipher their meaning just yet. Clig on the reward's description, she read:

  he Last Glory

  Effect: Wild Growth (Passive) – Enhahe wearer's vitality.

  Unwavering Resolve: (Passive: Enhahe wearer's willpower, making them resistant to external influence or corruption. Those with weak willpower are more susceptible to the wearer's influence.)

  Unstoppable Force: (Passive: Increases the wearer's attack power, boosting magical damage.)

  Immovable Object: (Active: The wearer transform the ring into a shield, enhang their defe refleemy attacks— the strohe wearer, the greater the amount of damage reflected.)

  Eda was beyond satisfied with this reward. Aside from Wild Growth's vitality boost, whieeded testing, the other three abilities were incredibly practical.

  If she had this ring earlier, she wouldn't have been so mentally depressed after talking to Glover Cecil by the Bck Lake.

  The ring's ability to enhance her magical damage, bined with her previous reward Reckless Charge, meant that Eda now had the potential fh magic damage with occasional critical hits. She was starting to gain some real leverage. If only she had better luck— probabilities could be a real pain sometimes.

  Eda activated the shield ability, summoning it before her. A single-handed kite-shaped light shield materialized in front of her. It wasn't very rge, possibly because her own power wasn't strong enough to sustain a bigger o.

  Even with the system and the ring as external buffs, Eda knew she couldn't afford to let her guard down. Strengthening her own abilities remaihe top priority.

  The system was undeniably powerful, but if her personal strength didn't measure up, she would still be nothing more than a paper tiger—all show and no substance.

  Looking at the light shield before her, Eda suddenly felt that a sword would pair much better with it than a wand. A shield in her left hand and a sword in her right—wasn't that just a little too Gryffindor?

  ____________

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