Chapter 5

Skagos was primitive.

The Skagosi were a bunch of savages, barely able to keep themselves alive. Their most advanced populace were the handful of blacksmiths who acted as the backbone of their society. It was no joke that these blacksmiths were solely the people who kept the whole economy running.

The tools they created were the tools these people used to feed themselves. Their farming culture was horrendous and often unprofitable because their stronger people outright robbed the farmers of their produce.

After spending the last few months on Skagos, it was no wonder to Harry that these people resorted to outright cannibalizing the weaker members of their society and anyone who had the unfortunate fate of stranding on this big island.

And this was unfortunate. Skagos and the unpopulated island of Skane beside it were not small by any means. According to Harry's calculations, it was about the size of Ireland, so it was a small country in itself. With better technologies and structures, it could actually become a decent country in itself. But its savagery and primitive ways had left a mark on the development of the people.

Harry had spent a lot of time exploring Skagos and learning about the world as much as he could. It wasn't easy in a backward and isolated region like Skagos since the number of books they had was small. But Harry didn't want to leave his now-safe grinding spot. A base that couldn't be located was a valuable advantage, especially if one wrong arrow could kill you.

Even with magic, he wasn't a god, and no matter what opinion the wizards of Wizarding Britain had about non-magicals, it was a fact that a surprise attack or a group large enough could kill a wizard.

So Harry grinded and learned. After confirming that all of the Skagosi, besides some of the children, had practiced cannibalism at least once in their lives, he stopped any notion of being humane towards them. To change the ways of the Skagosi, something drastic had to happen, and while cannibalism was one of the worst crimes, they had a few other practices that were just as savage.

There is a long tradition of raiding, human sacrifices, and even slavery. While raiding and slavery were no longer present, since they feared to invade the North, they still sacrificed humans to their weirwood trees and their old gods.

The North was a country, or rather a state of a larger country, they were technically part of. But since they rebelled around a hundred years ago, where they had been harshly defeated with thousands of deaths, they had isolated themselves from the rest of the world. He didn't stop there; he wanted to learn more about the world.

He knew about the Seven Kingdoms, its general history, although he was unsure who was the current king, and about other continents like Essos. Harry even learned that Sirius descendants were still around and doing quite well for themselves.

The Starks once were the kings of the North, who had subdued the Skagosi in ancient times. These days, they are Lord Paramounts, governing over the North, the largest region of the Seven Kingdoms, under the King on the Iron Throne. Harry had learned all this from the books he could gather on this island. He often used his Invisibility Cloak to sneak into the different towns and small forts where their 'Lords' were ruling and stole whatever he felt was useful.

If he encounters a small party, he takes them out and brings them back to his concealed cave, where he uses them as target practice to grind his skills. He has spent months on Skagos grinding and leveling, using his Instant Dungeons and the Skagosi themselves. He actually unlocked a few more ID types.

[ ID Create (Active) Lv. 11: A Skill Enabling You to Create an Instant Dungeon] A parallel pocket of space. Anything inside doesn't exist in the real world besides the experience itself. A higher level allows the user to create better ones.

Currently Available:

1. Empty Instance - Monster Inside: None

2. Inferi Instance - Monster Inside: Inferi, Armored Inferi, Giant Inferi

3. Wildlife Instance - Monster Inside: Dogs, Bears, Shadow Cats, Direwolves, etc.

4. Giants Instance - Monster Inside: Giants

5. Training Instance - Monster Inside: None - Effect: Increased Gravity ]

Pretty much every 2-3 levels he had unlocked a new instance to use. But leveling the skill was far slower than any other one, even while he used it daily. These instances were very useful for grinding levels and leveling simple combat spells and masteries. The training instance was especially useful to grind his physical stats. His first-grade grind plan was coming to fruition.

[ Name: Harry J. Potter

Class: The Gamer

Gender: Male

Level: 64 Next Level: 68.5%

Title: The Boy Who Lived

Age: 16 Species: Human (Magical)

HP: 360 MP: 150-193

Strength: 44

Vitality: 35

Intelligence: 29

Wisdom: 21

Dexterity: 47

Charisma: 10

Luck: 7

Points: 318 ]

While on paper he was probably the weakest level 64 character one would ever encounter, his assigned stat points were still the ones of a 16-year-old level 29 character. Which was the level of a strong soldier in this world.

The average adult warrior ranges from level 15 to 30. While the elite, from what he could guess and see, were around 30 to 50, The strongest humans are probably in their 60s or 70s.

Every race had a level cap, and the cap for 'Human (First Men),' to which these Northeners belonged, was at level 100, while their stats maxed out at 500.

If you include all of Harry's stat points, he was sitting on the stats of a 16-year-old level 92 human. Already at the peak of this world, if you only consider a one-on-one battle. Could Harry take on a hundred men at once if he invested all his stat points? Maybe, if the situation is right.

A full army? No. At least not alone, even if he had grinded his skills out. Some of his skills required a human target and a lot of groundwork. For example, for him to be able to use Legilimency, he needed 'Charms Mastery (Expert)'.

He also found out that spells originating from the Wizarding World maxed out at level 100, but different skills could grow more. His skills were the result of his hard work.

[ Skill List:

Spells:

 Wand-Lighting Charm (Active) Lv. Max

 Fire-Making Spell (Active) Lv. Max

 Water-Making Spell (Active) Lv. Max

 Levitation Charm (Active) Lv. Max

 Unlocking Charm (Active) Lv. 56

 Disarming Charm (Active) Lv. Max

 Full Body-Bind Curse (Active) Lv. Max

 Leg-Locker Curse (Active) Lv. Max

 Cutting Curse (Active) Lv. Max

 Blasting Curse (Active) Lv. Max

 Bombardment Spell (Active) Lv. Max

 Shield Charm (Active) Lv. Max

 …

 Sectumsempra (active) Lv. Max

 Blood Boiling Curse (Active) Lv. 35

 Create Inferius (Active) Lv. 78.

 Imperius Curse (Active), Lv. Max

 Cruciatus Curse (Active) Lv. 45

 Killing Curse (Active) Lv. 13

Skills:

 Gamer's Mind (Passive) Lv. Max

 Gamer's Body (Passive) Lv. Max

 Interdimensional Trader (Active/Passive) Lv. 1

 Contract (Active) Lv. Max

 Merchant's Tongue (Passive) Lv. Max

 Observe (active) Lv. 113.

 Meditation (Active) Lv. 132

 Magic Sensitivity (Passive) (Lv. 78)

Masteries:

 Charm Mastery (Master) (Passive) Lv.67

 Transfiguration Mastery (Expert) (Passive) Lv. 31

 Casting Mastery (Expert) (Passive) Lv. 54

 Warding Mastery (Apprentice) (Passive) Lv. 33

 Dark Magic Mastery (Expert) (Passive) Lv. 15

 Mind Magic Mastery (Expert) (Passive) Lv. 12

 Runes Mastery (Apprentice) (Passive) Lv. 42

 Arithmancy Mastery (Novice) (Passive) Lv. 73

 Ritual Mastery (Apprentice) (Passive) Lv. 23

 Combat Magic Mastery (Master) (Passive) Lv. 7

 Divination Mastery (Novice) (Passive) Lv. 57

 Elemental Mastery: Fire (Expert) (Passive) Lv. 31

 Elemental Mastery: Water (Expert) (Passive) Lv. 23

 Elemental Mastery: Wind (Apprentice) (Passive) Lv. 81

 Elemental Mastery: Earth (Apprentice) (Passive) Lv. 43

 Elemental Mastery: Lightning (Expert) (Passive) Lv. 61

 Elemental Mastery: Light (Novice) (Passive) Lv. 91

 Elemental Mastery: Darkness (Novice) (Passive) Lv. 41

 Crafting Mastery (Novice) (Active / Passive ) Lv. 35

Ressistances:

 Cold Climate Resistance (Passive) Lv. 13

 Frost Resistance (Passive) Lv. 3

 Poison Resistance (Passive) Lv. 2

 Fire Resistance (Passive) Lv. 4

 Physical Damage Resistance (Passive) Lv. 3

 Magic Resistance (Passive) Lv. 2 ]

The hardest things to level up were his resistances, since he actually had to endure a damage type for them. As a wizard fighting from a distance and employing hiding tactics, it was hard to level them up. And even if they were super useful, he had no interest in causing himself pain, especially since they level so slowly.

After them came the skills; he simply lacked the resources to level up. For example, crafting is a super powerful skill, but you could only craft leather bindings or other trash so often before you had to look for more materials.

Especially since each recipe yielded diminishing returns.

Harry had a similar problem with quite a few of his other magic masters. A spell gave only experience to mastery before reaching max level.

Once he maxed out a spell, that's it.

His method of leveling was to pick out a random spell from his memories or the books he had and grind them by killing enemies with it or practicing them on one of his 'guests'. By now, he had run out of the spells he knew, including variations (duo, trio, maxima).

He had gained Divination Mastery because in his book were some Scrying Spells, but as soon as they were maxed out, he had nothing to level the skill further.

His masteries were nowhere at their limit, but he had no more magic to learn besides a few deadly spells that were exhausting to cast with his current mana reserves (Killing Curse) or that required a specific condition like a living target, which some curses can change fast (Blood Boiling Curse).

The Cruciatus Curse was especially annoying to level since, as soon as the target snapped, it was useless as a practice object. Either he finds a few more spells with their incantations or creates his own. Both of them were easier said than done while being in a different dimension from the Wizarding World.

But the truth was that his mastery still had a lot of room to grow. Each stage of mastery had a hundred levels and became increasingly powerful. While the maxed-out Novice Mastery of Transfiguration made his spells only 10% more powerful and 1% cheaper to cast, the Apprentice Level made them already 60% more powerful and 6% cheaper. Each rank is increasing even more.

The highest rank he reached was Master, but according to his Observe Skill, there were a few more. It went like this: Novice - Apprentice - Expert - Master - Legendary - Mythical. And let's be honest, if he reaches the level of Dumbledore or Voldemort, was he really strong on the bigger scale? Could he beat an army? Maybe one of these worlds. But in the multiverse? Could Dumbledore beat Goku? No way.

His greatest disappointments were the unforgivable. In the Wizarding World, they were very powerful, but in front of someone stronger than you? It simply cannot resist them.

But grinding his magic was a good start. Still just a start. He hadn't even started out with his Dimensional Store yet. First of all, he needed a location. His cave was nice and hidden and all, but in the end, it was only a cave.

Harry needed a power base, a business costs money. dimensional, even more so. What should he do if someone visits his store and wants to sell some powerful weapons? After months of grinding, he couldn't even afford a Valyrian steel sword if someone were to sell it, so how would he afford an actual enchanted weapon or something even more powerful?

No, he needed his own territory.

Somewhere, he could have his own productive economy and an income as a start for his dimensional business. And that was his next step. In fact, he had already been preparing for a while. Whoever had left the copy of 'Magick Moste Evile' that Sirius wrote down had helped Harry massively.

It was a book about the dark arts, split into three sections. The first section and largest one were a collection of different dark charms, mostly curses. Which had been extremely helpful to level up his dark magic mastery.

The second section was something he couldn't really use since it consisted of different dark potion and poison recipes. He simply doesn't have the materials to use them.

While he possesses a few potion ingredients from Harry's possession that he received as his first quest reward, he could even plant some of them to actually grow them. Most of them had no use for such advanced and dark potions.

Additionally, he hadn't found the right location for a greenhouse yet. His cave wasn't a good fit.

For him, the last section had the greatest value. It consisted of different rituals of a darker nature that were very useful. Like a scorched earth ritual, turning land inhospitable, or the complete opposite of a vitality ritual that uses human sacrifice to empower the land, different dark empowerment rituals, weapon enchantment rituals, and so on.

But the most important one was the inferius ritual. The ability to revive a corpse into an Inferius that you could instruct to follow your commands.

None of his practice targets had gone to waste. Everyone he captured underwent a similar process; first, Harry used them to practice spells that didn't kill them, like different harmless cures, Legilimency, Obliviate, and so on.

After they stopped giving him any experience for such skills, he used them to practice more lethal curses and spells, like the blood-boiling curse, the Cruciatus curse, the flaying curse, and so on. If they were alive after that, he would finish them off with the Killing Curse.

But Harry wasn't done with them.

Why let a perfectly fine corpse go to waste? After his skills and masteries had reached a high enough level, he began to use the Inferius Ritual on them. Using every last one of these cannibals to turn them into a part of his army.

It already became so obvious that people were disappearing, and nobody knew why, besides a few strange sightings, they had names for him based on the local folklore. The thing that came in the night they are calling him.

Sirius idea of creating a big wall up north had actually been realized by one of his descendants. Most likely his son, Brandon Stark, but the records were a bit unclear. Along that massive wall over 200 meters high, made of mostly ice and magic, were nineteen castles.

One of them is called the Nightfort. Long ago, multiple apprentice boys at the Nightfort claimed to have seen something that came in the night, but their descriptions of it differed when they informed their Lord Commander.

Three boys died within a year, and a fourth went mad. The thing is said to have returned a century later, this time with the apprentices shambling behind it in chains.

Which was actually a pretty accurate description of what he was doing, the only difference being that his inferi weren't in any visible chains. By turning the daily 3-5 Skagosi into Inferi, he had amassed an army of over 600 of them.

Considering that the total population of Skagos was a bit more than 50,000, it was a considerable amount. While humans were outnumbering him, he didn't plan to face them in a direct battle.

Also, Inferi were hard to kill without fire. You would have to completely smash every part of its body into paste to actually kill one. And fire wasn't easy to weaponize with the current level of technology on the island. Having a torch doesn't mean you could burn an Inferi with it.

Was he aware that he was pretty much acting like a Dark Lord in the Wizarding World? Sure. Did he care? Of course not. The soul inhabiting the body of Harry Potter wasn't Harry Potter, even if he received his memories. In truth, the memories had accomplished the opposite.

Having memories of over a decade of abuse and loneliness had caused him to view the world more as Tom Riddle than Harry Potter. Harry Potter was the strange one to act like a hero after everything he had experienced.

And a skill like 'Gamer's Mind,' which was limiting the mental impact of a deed like torturing a human or turning his corpse into an undead corpse robot animated by magic, didn't help turn him more humane.

This new Harry Potter would use everything in his power to ensure his own growth and survival. He wouldn't go out of his way to be evil, but if it came to his own survival, he would be ruthless.

Turning a few cannibals into Inferi was nothing. While he received a new chance at life, he remembers dying. He remembers the void.

-------

For 20 and more advanced chapters check out https://www.pat*reon.com/senseicaffeine.

For actual news check on my socials: https://linktr.ee/SenseiCaffeine

Please leave your Power Stones it helps!