Chapter 18 - 18 Welcome to Kamar-Taj

The Ancient One opened up another portal and returned to the location from before. She said, "If you are already learned in magic, do you have a specific branch of interest?"

Harry nodded and said, "Before I answer, what do you know of my mutation? There is still plenty about it even I don't get."

"There was much that eluded me as well. But I could see that you have a pocket dimension within you that can store objects and energies."

Harry was somewhat thankful his body's status as a stable obscurial was not discovered. His actual mutation kept his Obscurus form the same as his human form which was what allowed him to gain levels and revive after death. The Inventory seemed to be an add on like the pause function and menu. However he had no problem with people thinking his inventory was his mutant power for now.

Harry said, "I call it my inventory. Anything I put inside it becomes a part of me but separate from me. I also somehow gain a complete understanding of whatever I place in there. If I place a book in there, I have access to all that is written as if I memorized the image and text of every page. I can also gain an understanding of how something works if I place it in there."

Harry waited a few moments for the Ancient One to understand the implications before he continued. "Because of this, I like to place technology and magic items in my inventory to figure out how they work. I like to make things which have been called Artifacts. That spell grenade I used earlier had the power of twenty Patronus Charms stuffed into it which forced the magic to condense into a critical mass before exploding out."

The Ancient One could easily see how useful and how dangerous such an ability could be. It also allowed her to recall what Wong had told her. She said, "Wong told me you said to him, 'I've read everything.' And earlier you said you've memorized every wizard magic. How many books do you have in that inventory at the moment?"

"Not as many as I used to. Memorizing information from a book is much easier when it is in my inventory. But I don't forget what I've memorized so if the book was borrowed I return it after memorizing it."

Harry took a breath before saying, "So, because of my inventory, I've become interested in the branch of enchanting and artifact creation. I recently got all the books on Goblin enchanting so I want to further my study into that."

The Ancient One was curious how Harry had gotten enchanting tomes from the Goblins as they were known for never disclosing their methods. More than a few relics in the Sanctum were forged by Goblins so she knew the quality of their work. The only reason they allowed it was because Harry promised never to share it and if he ever broke that promise all the gold he possessed would be forfeited to the Goblins and he would become their employee for the remainder of his days.

She said, "Artifact creation requires precise control, a structured mind, a thorough understanding of magic, and a lot of imagination. I can see why you would be interested, but the truth of the matter is that Artificers are few and far between in all of recorded history. There hasn't been one in the Sanctum for centuries and most of the well known ones of the past are never human. Why do you think that is?"

"Because humans aren't strong enough?"

She shook her head, "Not quite. It is because humans are not long lived enough. The amount of time the true masters have put into the study and practice of their craft far exceeds a human's lifetime. Even for the humans who are long lived through various means and gifts, few if any would be interested enough in artifact creation to devote themselves to it enough to reach the skill of the ancient masters."

"Oh." He really couldn't think of another response.

A few Sorcerers in training noticed Harry being escorted by the Ancient One through the foyer. According to Harry's map the portal had taken them somewhere in the mountainous region of Asia. He'd have to explore a little for his map to fill out and get more details.

The Ancient One found the one she was looking for and said, "Ahh, Kaecilius. There is someone I'd like you to meet."

After a quick introduction and request of the man, the Ancient One left the pair to their own devices.

The man called Kaecilius was also a British Citizen and more than happy to show his fellow countryman around. He said, "You are by far the youngest disciple I have ever seen here."

Harry said, "I think there was a question there but I'm not sure I heard it."

Kaecilius smiled wryly and said, "We all have a reason to be here. I am here for truth. Some are here for healing or strength. I cannot think of a reason for one so young as yourself to be here."

"Oh, that. Well I just happen to love magic and I figured I could learn it here. I also like helping people and magic will probably help with that."

The fellow British national frowned disapprovingly. "Magic is not something that should be sought on a whim."

"Maybe," Harry answered.

Kaecilius showed Harry around the temple and the notable features of each building. Mediation rooms, library, cafeteria, and living quarters. He told Harry that evening practice would begin in an hour and if he wished to start his training it would be wise to observe.

Harry set his stuff down there and let Goose out of her carrying case. Harry set a litter box and bowls for food and water in the space below his bed along with a charmed pet bed that stayed warm. Harry also used transmutation magic to reshape the bottom of his door into a cat door. Although transmutation was far more difficult than transfiguration, it was permanent so the door would not change back.

Goose filled herself with water and promptly used the cat door to leave and begin the investigation of her new surroundings.

And lastly Harry cast a powerful security and locking charm on the door. What made it useful was that people wouldn't even know it was locked with magic as the magic he used to cast it was undetectable.

Harry was surprised they didn't have any robes for him but it was more of a didn't have any robes in his size thing than not having anything at all. Harry couldn't transmute clothing very well and using transfiguration would saturate the clothes in exotic energy which had its own problems. Luckily the simple clothes he bought were acceptable and he would have his own robes in a week.

Harry returned to the spot Kaecilius told him would have evening practice and found that several disciples were sparring already.

Harry sensed Mr. Grumpy's approach from behind him and set his hand on Harry's shoulder. Harry was tempted to try a judo throw but was too short to make it work and he never practiced it before. Mr. Grumpy, or Mordo as he was called, seemed disappointed Harry hadn't flinched.

Harry said, "We meet again Mr. Grumpy. I'm Harry by the way."

"And what pray tell are you doing here, child?"

"Well Mr. Grumpy I was taking my cat for a walk. Have you seen him by the way? Orange tabby cat, about two hundred eighteen years old? Shoots terrifying tentacles from its mouth? Her name is Goose."

"Think you're funny do you? This is no place for a child."

"I can tell. All the No Children Allowed Posters really convinced me. I supposed I should be on my way. Do you know the bus fair for a ride from here to London?"

The man took a deep breath and shook his head. He was not oblivious to the fact that Harry wouldn't be here unless he was allowed to be here. He just didn't like those who didn't take training seriously and loathed those who relied on others to protect themselves. Children usually fit both criteria and he wanted to see how easily Harry got scared.

Suffice to say, he was impressed. No flinch, not backing down and even standing his ground when directly confronted.

"If you truly intend to learn here, child, then you must understand that you will fight. If you are not strong enough when that day comes, you will die."

Mordo kept his hand on Harry's shoulder and felt his heart rate. What he discovered surprised even him. There was no reaction. No fear, no nervousness. It was as if Harry was being informed of something as mundane as the weather.

Harry said, "That is true whether I learn here or not."

Still no increase in pulse. Mordo couldn't determine lies though magic like the Ancient one could, but he had his own tricks. He could sense and if he needed, draw in energy from others during physical contact. With his hand on Harry's shoulder he was confident he would feel if he was lying or if he was genuine.

"Very well Harry. I am Karl Mordo. When receiving my instructions here you will address me as Master Mordo."

Harry turned to face him and gave a polite bow, "Thank you Master Mordo."

He released his hand from Harry's shoulder and nodded. He had at least confirmed he did not lack in resolve. He was also able to clearly see the child's aptitude as Harry already had a heart palace that looked far stronger than it should considering it was only a few months old. The Heart Palace Technique was both the most difficult and most rewarding form of Energy Control. Until now, the only current practitioners were himself and his teacher, the Ancient One.

The main reason why he was so skeptical was that, in a sense, Harry was too good to be true. Mordo believed that the enemies of Sorcerers were the enemies of balance, and Sorcerers needed strength to kill them. Harry was talented and young and perhaps some decades in the future would become a strong Sorcerer to protect the balance and natural order of the world.

Only time would tell.

Once the practice session began, Harry sat to the side and watched. Mordo and the one called Wong would walk through the rows of acolytes rating their progress and giving advice when needed. The main practice each day was feeling out and controlling Dimensional Energy.

Harry determined at that point that the energy sync trick he stole off Mordo was only used by Mordo and the Ancient One. Through his senses he felt that the trainees didn't have a small piece of Dimensional Energy that synchronized to the signature of their life and soul. The other masters did seem to have an accumulation of Dimensional energy within they could use to control external energy, but it was an indirect control instead of a direct control. They would simply keep practicing with the hope that some energy would stay in their body as they practiced with it.

Harry thought the way Mordo did it was a good trick and wondered why it wasn't taught more often. He had no idea that the Ancient One used her foreknowledge to determine whether or not a student would be capable of learning it or not beforehand. If not, they were not taught it. If they could learn it, they were taught that method and that method only. The Ancient One thought only Mordo and her successor Stephen Strange would ever master the Heart Palace, but she was pleased to be wrong.

After asking a few questions Harry had something of a game plan. This place not only taught magic but martial arts which incorporated magic. He didn't want to be noticed so easily so he would spend whatever would be a normal amount of time practicing energy control before 'finally' getting the hang of magic and learning the fun stuff. Until then he would work on his Warrior Path Rank and try to get it to twenty.

In his spare time Harry decided to work on his enchanting studies and study his new toys. It wasn't just the Goblet of Fire he could analyse. Harry already got into contact with Nicolas Flamel and told him he had his stone. The ancient alchemist told him to keep it but not tell anyone. The letter stated that many different forces both magical and mundane had been after him for many years due to that stone and it was only recently that he asked his best student to look after it for a while so he could have a break. The circumstances however convinced him the stone was better left missing and if no one knew Harry had it, he should keep it that way. He also told Harry he had enough elixir to get his affairs in order and would soon be on his way to the 'Next Great Adventure.'

The end of the letter stated that after they died he would leave all his books to Dumbledore and Harry could ask to borrow them if he wanted. That however wouldn't be for a few years so he had to make due with what he had. The composition of the Philosopher's stone itself reminded Harry a bit of his spell grenades when they reached critical mass. The arrangement of the exotic energy densities within the stone was like a large amount of spells compressed into critical mass then solidified before it could blow. The critical mass exotic energies would have different properties compared to the energies prior to going critical.

However under no circumstance could Harry carelessly take it out of his inventory. The sheer density of exotic energy would destroy every electronic within a hundred feet and he had been told there were ways of tracking the stone's energy presence. Those ways had been why the Flamels rarely got a moment of peace and why they requested Dumbledore to look after it for a while. Harry even learned that the stone was in Gringotts for a time and someone tracked the energy of the stone and broke into Gringotts to find it. Luckily it had been moved hours before but at least now Harry had some understanding of why Dumbledore didn't bother hiding it. The fact that Harry had the stone yet the means to search for it came up with nothing meant that Harry for some reason was able to block the energy presence of the stone. It was only due to this the Flamels decided to let him keep it.

Thanks to that, Harry hadn't taken it out even once since he got it. Thankfully he didn't need gold or the Elixir of Life.

And so Harry's days of training began. The first thing he would do each day was enter the library, discreetly place several books into his inventory, then pause and read them all. Few were in English but many Wizard tomes also covered a variety of languages and Harry had long since mastered most forms of communication, written or otherwise.

Once Harry had memorized the contents and gone over them enough he would unpause and return them to the shelves and pick a book to bring to his room. Unfortunately the librarian became quite suspicious of him always coming and going and Harry had to lie and say that he was referencing something from the books he borrowed.

The books were part esoteric, part crossword puzzle, and part reader's digest. Harry really did enjoy them. Many wizard books read like dictionaries. Full of information and you'll never use 95% of it while 99.9% of it referenced itself.

Much of the information did in fact overlap with what Harry had already learned which allowed him to cut down on paused time comprehending it. That and the fact that his Scholar Path broke through to rank 20 allowed him to learn and comprehend what he learned much more smoothly.

After a month Harry figured he watched the forms enough and started participating in the morning and evening exercises. Surprisingly it did increase his Warrior Path even though the movements gave him no strain. Though Harry felt the increase in his Path Rank came not from his own movements but from the observation of the others. Harry used his energy sense to follow the path of channeled energies within the various disciples as they practiced. Through constant observation Harry was building up his own intuition of how energy traveled through a person's body as they fought meaning one day he might be able to predict a human's movement before they moved.

Sure, he could do it with a dragon or a basilisk, but that was because they were huge and practically saturated with energy. A human is small and the relative energy within was weak, bȧrėly noticeable like a speck of dust on the air.

Two months later Harry tried Battle Meditation for the first time since coming to Karmar-Taj. It was awkward.

Harry's battle meditation automatically generated foes made of the energy he chose to absorb which matched his level as long as it was within the range. Harry had obviously chosen to absorb Dimensional energy since having more made controlling it a bit easier and it had a range of level 50 to level 200.

Today the monsters oddly enough looked like a green spectral Slenderman. It was creepy as hell and its arms would often shift between clawed fingers and sword like appendages.

Partway through the fight Harry heard from behind him, "Hello Harry."

Somehow or another the figure of the Ancient One had materialized behind him. Of course unexplainable situations were no cause for rudeness according to his mother so he said, "Good evening Ancient One, how are you?"

Harry had to duck under a decapitating slash and strike the monster's knee. The problem with the Slenderman wasn't it's durability, fast attacks, or often unpredictable movements. It was his height. It was at least double Harry's height meaning Harry had no real way to get a headshot without leaving himself vulnerable.

The Ancient One responded. "I'm doing very well, thank you for asking. You see I was meditating in the Astral plane and I sensed a minor convergence of dimensional energies so I thought I'd have a look."

Harry used his shield to parry another attack and did a half spin before bashing his shield into the monster's legs, sending it toppling down. Harry said, "I see, did you find anything interesting?"

"I did in fact. The Dimensional energy seemed to coalesce into a green stranger, an uncommon resident of certain dimensions. They are considered quite dangerous and many a dimensional traveler has met their end before them. I've never seen one in the Astral Plane before."

Harry used the moment the monster tried to get back up to pierce its side. He could have gone for the head but that always left him open for a counter attack while attacking the side forced the monster to guard. Harry said, "I see. That does sound dangerous. What do you think should be done?"

She continued observing Harry's fight for another minute or so. Since the monster matched Harry's level it wasn't something he could really hold much back on. True, he wasn't using wizard magic or his artifacts but he was looking to grind his Path proficiencies, not jump up in level. If he rose in level too fast without ranking up his paths then one day he would find he was too weak to fight monsters of the same level.

After another moment the Ancient One said, "Well the situation seems like it will resolve itself without any intervention. On an unrelated note, we haven't spoken since your arrival. Once you have some time, I'd like to invite you for tea."

Harry threw his sword into the air, conjured an energy knife, stabbed into the monster's foot and caught his sword before chopping the bound leg off. He said, "I will never refuse an offer to tea Ancient One." He was British, he liked tea. It was genetic.

After a few more moments he killed the creature which promptly dissolved into energy his body greedily absorbed. Was he pretty sure the Ancient One was watching? Yes, yes he was sure she was watching. But he couldn't just pretend this didn't happen so he might as well deal with it.

Harry finished his battle mediation and woke in his body. He made his way from his residence into the Ancient One's Chambers where the tea was already being poured. Harry sat down respectfully and lifted the cup but waited a breath so he could savor the aroma. Afterwards he took a small sip, then a longer one. Yup, good tea.

Harry asked, "Is that honey?"

"Why yes. Do you like it?"

"Yes, it's very good."

She nodded and said, "So how have you adjusted so far Harry?"

Harry took another sip and answered, "It's better than Hogwarts."

"Why is that?"

"It's probably just me. The teachers were very good at what they taught," Harry thought of Quirrel, Snape, and the Ghost Professor and added, "Most of the time. But they never taught me anything I didn't already know. It was too dangerous to ask since I was watched by people who wanted me dead so it was mostly self study while I pretended otherwise. I suppose it wasn't the best learning environment for me."

The Ancient One nodded. She had in fact done as Harry expected and did her research on Harry Potter. Everything matched what he told her yet it seemed he left quite a bit out as well. His antics of broadcasting the defeat of the most evil Dark Lord in the magical world's history on a television was certainly unique.

The awkwardness of the meeting was harming Harry's preteen soul so he simply said, "So, I'm guessing you want to know what that was."

"Yes, I would in fact. Would you like to tell me how you generated a being from another dimension composed out of Dimensional energy you then absorbed after defeating?"

Harry considered how to word the answer and after a moment said "I'm not sure how it works but I've been calling it Battle Meditation. I can sense energy but I can't just absorb it, it won't let me. When I meditate the energy somehow turns into something I can fight. After beating it I can then absorb the energy. I can choose what energy I absorb, but I have no control over what actually forms. I've been doing this for a while now."

"You can sense different forms of energy in the world around us?" This was surprising and usually impossible.

In order to sense a specific form of energy, often you would have to blindly connect to it first and absorb it and if you got lucky over time and absorbed enough you'd be able to feel it then use it to feel the same type of energy around you. If you weren't lucky you could spend years trying to absorb something you can't even feel and find out you were never absorbing anything to begin with.

Most Mystics who had formed connections with multiple types of energy strong enough to sense it did so through making contact with the master of the dimension that form of energy originated from. For example, if one wished to be able to cast bolts of pure heat energy to fire at an opponent, one could connect to the realm of Balthakk. The resulting spell was called the Bolts of Balthakk.

The Sorcerer Supreme tended to be the one who forged the most and the strongest connections with other dimensions thus granting the greatest power to defend the earth with. The problem with this approach was that it led to far too many deaths for the liking of the most recent Sorcerer Supreme which was why she locked many books which taught how to connect to the masters of other realms.

Harry however could do it in reverse. He could sense an energy, then absorb it without needing to make contact with the masters of other dimensions.

The Ancient One asked, "What types of energy have you absorbed using this method?"

"Exotic Energy, Dimensional energy, Fire energy, Sun Energy, and Nature energy," Harry easily listed off.

"Can you tell me what type of energies you sense here?"

"You mean in this room or in you?"

The Ancient One raised an eyebrow and said, "What exactly do you feel within me?"

Harry closed his eyes and concentrated. "Darkness surrounded by nature, fire, ice, light, and of course pure Dimensional energy. The others are synchronized with your life and soul like Mordo and myself are with Dimensional energy but the Darkness is not synchronized. In fact the other energies seem to be arranged around it to suppress it." Harry frowned as he noticed something else. Not a presence but an absence. He said, "You don't have any time energy in your body. How does that work?"

The Ancient one was so surprised at the last line she nearly spit up her tea. Thankfully Harry's eyes were closed so she would never have to admit to it. She asked, "You can sense time energy?"

Harry opened his eyes and said, "Yes, but I'm much too weak to absorb it. So why don't you have any?"

Harry noticed that the Ancient One seemed reluctant to speak of it so he added, "I won't tell anyone since you're keeping my secret too."

The Ancient One gave a weak smile. That was like comparing an atheist and a devil worshiper who were hiding in a holy city. Both secrets were bad, but one simply did not compare to the other. Sorcerers did not like Witches and Wizards, but those who had contact with the Dark Dimension were to be killed on sight. She herself enforced that order.

However she doubted Harry was the judging type so there was little point in hiding something he already knew. In fact, she felt that Harry may have known since they first met. It was better to explain now then it was later once Harry had acquired certain reading materials.

"The reason I lack Time Energy is due to the influence of the Dark energy you sense. I've been stealing it from the Dark Dimension, a place beyond time and death."

She expected some disgust when she told him of her sin, and she received it. But not at the admission of her sin. Harry only looked disgusted when she mentioned that the Dark Dimension was beyond death.

She was curious so she asked, "Does that offend you Harry?"

"A place beyond death? Of course it does. Life has no place existing in a place beyond death."

She held back her smirk that Harry's opinion seemed to match her own. Immediately she realized how odd that was as she was almost 800 years old and Harry was twelve. Twelve years old children should not be so accepting of death.. Then again, he did say something about dying and returning a year later.