Chapter 52

Thankfully, Harry hadn't been stupid enough to fully enter the Dungeon, so he hadn't been trapped inside with the demonic hound. Backing away slowly, Harry pulled the door shut and relocked it to prevent anyone from realizing that the door had been opened. He then teleported himself back to his bed and returned his new cloak to his Inventory before he spent another hour making plans to get in some training above and beyond what he was getting through his so called classes and tutoring sessions (the latter of which were almost over as he had pretty much caught up to the other first years now).

The next morning, Harry made a trip down to Hagrid's cabin to coax the man into giving him a list of creatures that wouldn't be missed within the Forbidden Forest so that Harry could find out which monsters he could safely trap and kill without stirring up too much trouble. He came away with the names of nine monsters; the Acromantula, three species of Troll (Forest, Mountain, and River), Blood Sucking Bugbears, Cornish Pixies, Wild Doxies, Nogtails, and Flesh Eating Slugs. He also learned that there was a hoard of Red Caps (small cannibalistic goblin/dwarf like creatures found in dungeons and on battlefields that will beat their prey to death with crude clubs) that had infested the lower dungeons of the castle that Filch (the school's cantankerous caretaker) was having trouble clearing out.

Harry spent the rest of the week planning his first foray into the Forbidden Forest rather than the lower dungeons (since Hagrid would be helping Filch clear out most, if not all, of the Red Caps that weekend), researching those 'spells' that would be most helpful for dealing with each monster species that he would be hunting, and carving the return gifts for those that had given him Christmas presents. Sneaking enough food to last him for the entire weekend was easy enough after the Weasley twins showed him where the entrance to the kitchens were and introduced him to the House Elves when they caught him pilfering food from the table at meal times.

Figuring out how he was going to disappear for the entire weekend without anyone getting suspicious was a bit harder but in the end he figured he wouldn't be missed since it wasn't all that rare for him to hole himself up in his bed on the weekends when he wasn't in the library studying or researching. Sneaking into the forest on Friday night after curfew proved incredibly easy with the help of the Cloak of Invisibility he'd been given. It didn't take Harry long to find his first monster or rather for the first monsters to find him.

He'd been hunting for the small Pixies or Doxies that Hagrid had told him were in the forest when a trio of large pony-sized spiders had dropped down out of the trees and surrounded him. The Acromantula turned out to be mid-level monsters that were rather difficult to hit with a spell as they were rather fast and liked to attack in small groups. He ended up needing to trap them using a net trap so as not to end up as a spider snack. Once he did trap the menaces (something that had still taken a good forty minutes because of how fast they were), he used the spider exterminating spell he'd found to kill them; earning him Spider Silk, Fangs, Eyes, and Venom in the Item Drop after they shattered.

Over the course of the weekend, Harry would kill twenty more of the Acromantula, a small nest of about sixteen Wild Doxies (which netted him Doxy Venom, Wings, and Eyes), and three Bugbears (nasty looking creatures that resembled stunted bears the size of St. Bernards with grasshopper wings and the mouth of a leech). The meat that was dropped by the Bugbears was gladly devoured by Hedwig while Harry kept the Bugbear Claws, Hide, Blood, and Wings. During the entire weekend, Harry never once noticed that he was being followed by a trio of centaurs that watched his battles with avid curiosity and wariness.

He returned to the castle feeling marginally better but slightly unhappy that the monsters weren't as challenging as he'd hoped they'd be; aside from the spiders. It worried him because weak monsters meant fewer Experience Points and while the spiders were annoying to catch they were far too easy to kill. The remainder of his holiday break was spent finishing the scale pendants that he planned to give to Hermione, Neville, Fred, and George; using the Spider Silk he'd earned over the weekend to create the cords for the simple necklaces. He thought they were rather pathetic gifts as they looked no where near as beautiful as the armor and weapons Lisbeth had made from his scales but it was better than nothing.

He just hoped it would not offend the NPCs as he really didn't want to fight another witch or wizard (the first one had done quite a number on him and he hadn't even gotten any Experience from the fight since he'd technically lost).

The gifts were handed to their intended recipients once the holidays were over and the rest of the students had returned to the castle. All four had seemed both surprised and pleased to receive the gifts and Harry knew he'd taken the right action in the game. Sending off the thank you card to the elder Weasleys proved to be a bit more difficult as the school owls took offense to Hedwig and, in the end, he simply gave up trying to approach the owls. The card would be passed to the twins at the end of the next Quidditch practice with a request to send it to their parents and a clipped explanation as to why he couldn't send it himself.

Harry would venture into the forest every weekend after that, increasing his Skill Levels and his mastery of the fighting spells that he'd learned to date even if his overall Player Level never rose above First Year Gryffindor. He would even occasionally sneak out on a weeknight to beat a few spiders on the nights when he wasn't busy studying with Hermione and Neville for his classes. He did notice that all three of his status bars had grown considerably since he started tackling monsters within the forest (using his MaM Skills as much as possible rather than any of his more lethal SAO Skills). The evidence that he was growing as a player within the new game only fueled his determination to improve his Skills and increase his strength so that he could face the Demon Dog by the end of the year.

He was also extremely thankful that he'd purchased an unlimited Bag of Holding with the amount of Items he'd picked up during his training forays (nearly triple the amount of what was normally dropped in SAO) since he had no way of selling the Items just yet. Towards the end of February his weekend training was put on hold for his second Quidditch match, this time against Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor's second win of the season as Harry once again caught the snitch without too much trouble. It helped that the Hufflepuff Beaters only tried to distract him instead of maim or kill him with the bludgers (not that they were any more successful in their endeavor than the Slytherins had been in theirs).

After that, it was back to business as usual until the second week of March when Dumbledore pulled Harry and all four of the Weasleys out of class and took them to the Ministry for the day so they could testify in front of the Wizengamot at Peter Pettigrew's trial. Dumbledore kept Harry on a tight leash the entire time, never giving him the chance to really speak with any of the numerous individuals to whom he was introduced. Harry was too overwhelmed to care much at the time; the number of NPCs seeking to meet him and shake his hand had greatly disturbed him almost as much as the fact that this game world of MaM seemed to have no other human players in it aside from himself.

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