373 Birthday(2)

To be fair Nick knew he was probably being more than a little wasteful with the parts he chose to use but the ritual did specify that the rarity and power of the creature whose parts were used effected how big of a boost he received from the ritual. He wanted the best possible increase in his mana reserves which was why he was using a unique only one in the world part like the heart of a daedra. The rest of the parts while certainly extremely rare likely had others just the same somewhere in the world.-

Even the tales of Herpo the foul never said that his basilisk was dead or killed merely that it guarded his treasures and accidentally destroyed his horcrux. For all Nick knew that ancient magical serpent might still be alive somewhere as an even more powerful ingredient than the thousand year old one he had killed in the chamber. Speaking of the chamber Nick couldn't help but remember the disappointment that he got from the quest he completed. The two items he got were a book about trolls that was mostly just conjecture and a pair of steel tongs.-

The points were stockpiled like the rest and the material was a block of iron of all things , it was infuriating to say the least. Nick shook his head to get rid of that topic as it just mad him angry to think about. "The ritual should in theory set my firmly in the next tier as far as mana is concerned so my control will need to be trained afterwards but it shouldn't be a huge problem." Nick said and Helena seemed satisfied with his answer. "What about Nazgul? As your familiar it is to be expected that the sudden boost may affect her as well through your bond." Helena said seriously.-

"I'm not a hundred percent sure how it will effect her but I assume that she will merely grow a bit or grow slightly stronger but the change should be minor either way." Nick said not particularly worried about it. Why would he when whatever effect takes hold in Nazgul would be a positive one? The more powerful she was the better for him as she will be at his side when he clashed with Zeus in the future.-

From what he understands of Chronos's warning Zeus aught to be a tier seven or possibly eight being. Nick theorized this based on the myth of how exactly both Chronos and his father were overthrown. Chronos overthrew his father with the help of several other titans and Zeus in turn over threw Chronos with the help of other gods. This meant that in a one to one size up Chronos should be a tier or two behind the tier nine being that was his father while Zeus should in theory be the same. According to myth Zeus hadn't sought greater power after gaining hegemony so he should be the same tier as he was at that time.-

Nick got rid of those thoughts though as he focused on redoing his calculations under Helenas watchful eye. Soon enough though the time came for his friends to get out from class and he had to face the horribly corny birthday experience they cooked up. He got candy gifts much like Ron but unlike Ron he was forced to endure as his friends and even Flitwick shared memorable moments they had with him. Harry had made a point to expound in great detail the first trip to Diagon alley they had.-

Nick was embarrassed about his behavior during that time as he looked like a shy scared moron at the time since he was trying to avoid attention. Harry was a very perceptive person much to Nicks horror in this case as his friend shared all of the embarrassing points of the trip. It was even worse in Daphne and Tracy's cases however as they pointed out how dangerously close to flirting he had gotten when he first met both of them. Luna naively pointed out how Nick seemed to favor her over all the others and he blanched.-

Nick was sure that the others knew that she probably wasn't aware of what she was insinuating but had no problem at all ribbing him over it. Needless to say Nick had a wonderful birthday all things considered. The house elves of Hogwarts also had standing orders to deliver a slice of birthday cake to each person during their birthdays so he got that too. Interestingly the elves personalized the cake for each person individually so the type of cake differed from person to person. Nick for example loved sour or tart foods and as a result received a lemon cheesecake with black cherry jam on top of it.