Starting at Hogwarts, Logging into Elden Ring

Arthur nodded. "Of course. Isn’t she out looking for your shoes?"

"Then I’ll go help her look."

Luna stood up, ready to leave in search of Ranni.

Arthur quickly stopped her—Ranni had gone to "find her shoes," but in truth, she’d gone to get payback for Luna.

Considering how wild things must be in Ravenclaw right now, he didn’t even dare to imagine it.

"Just wait a bit. You’ll hurt your feet if you walk around barefoot. She’ll be back soon."

Sure enough, not long after, Ranni came back, carrying Luna’s shoes.

"Here."

"Thanks."

Luna took the shoes, slipped them on, and sat down beside Ranni, chatting softly about her recent experiences.

While peace and quiet settled over Arthur’s side of the castle, things in Ravenclaw were far from calm.

A few minutes earlier, Ranni had arrived at the door of the Ravenclaw common room.

The bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle’s head came to life as soon as it saw her.

"Where do vanished things go?" it asked in its riddling tone.

Ranni, having only been in this world a short while, wasn’t exactly well-versed in its philosophical trivia.

Besides, she hadn’t come here to answer riddles—she’d come to make trouble.

"Open the door," she said coolly.

"You must answer the question first," the bronze eagle replied with quiet wisdom.

"I said, open it."

"Please answer the question before entering."

Ranni released her aura. The bronze knocker didn’t react—it was only an enchanted object, after all, incapable of sensing her immense pressure.

But the students inside could feel it.

Their hearts tightened; their chests felt heavy.

Every head turned toward the door—the source of that suffocating presence.

Boom!

The dormitory doors exploded open, and Ranni strode in through the smoke.

Impatient as ever, she had simply blasted them apart.

Her imposing entrance left the Ravenclaw students frozen in place.

Finally, the prefect, Penelope, gathered her courage and stepped forward.

"Uh... classmate, is there something you need?" she asked cautiously, terrified that if she spoke too loudly, Ranni might blast her the same way she’d done the door.

"The one who hid Luna’s shoes—step forward."

A tremor ran through a small group of girls huddled in the corner.

Ranni’s gaze instantly fixed on them.

Seven or eight of them, trying to hide behind the couch, pale as sheets.

"Hand them over," Ranni said flatly, her voice quiet yet heavy with an oppressive weight.

One of the girls broke, dashing into the dormitory to rummage for the shoes she’d hidden.

Ranni looked at the rest.

"Did you hide anything else?"

They nodded fearfully.

"Put it back where it belongs."

The girls fled as if granted amnesty, scampering out of the room as fast as they could.

Penelope, listening nearby, had already pieced together what must have happened.

"Were... were they bullying your friend? If so, I apologize on behalf of Ravenclaw. It’s my fault for not managing my house properly."

Ranni ignored her.

This prefect was responsible, sure—but a bit too naïve.

What those girls did wasn’t a matter of management; it was a matter of character.

At that moment, the first girl returned, holding Luna’s shoes.

The others soon followed.

Ranni took the shoes, then raised her hand—Glintstone Meteor!

A burst of starlight flared. The culprits were launched across the room and slammed against the wall.

Without another glance, Ranni turned and walked out of the common room.

Her departing words echoed like thunder:

"If I ever find out someone bullies Luna again, I’ll twist their heads off."

Only after her silhouette vanished did the others finally dare to breathe.

It wasn’t that they were cowards—they simply couldn’t move or speak under that overwhelming pressure.

Otherwise, at least one of them might’ve shouted something brave like,

"Whoever offends Ravenclaw shall be punished, no matter how far!"

When Professor Flitwick arrived, he was greeted by a destroyed door and several small witches dangling painfully from the walls.

Panicked, he rushed them to the infirmary.

The examination results were grim—

The least injured had two broken ribs,

The worst had all four limbs fractured.

Arthur received the news over dinner.

Since Snape had listed him as Ranni’s guardian when applying to Dumbledore to have her admitted as a transfer student, Professor Flitwick contacted Arthur to discuss how to handle the aftermath.

Arthur waved his hand grandly. He covered the girls’ medical expenses and even paid for the damage to the Ravenclaw common room.

Seeing his attitude so reasonable, Flitwick decided to deduct fewer House Points.

Then Arthur followed up by sponsoring Ravenclaw’s Quidditch team with a generous donation.

As a result, Flitwick decided not to deduct any points at all—and even canceled Ranni’s disciplinary essay.

After all, the Ravenclaw girls had started it, and Flitwick wasn’t the kind of professor who defended his students blindly.

(Snape: You’re talking about me, aren’t you?)

The meeting ended pleasantly. Flitwick even half-jokingly asked if Arthur wanted to switch Houses. Arthur politely declined.

As he left the office, Arthur couldn’t help but think—

maybe that book he’d given Luna earlier had been unnecessary.

After Ranni’s little "visit," who would dare lay a finger on Luna now?

Ravenclaw’s thousand-year-old door had been blown to pieces.

He wondered what expressions the Gryffindor Quidditch team would make when they found out Ravenclaw had new gear.

Not that it would change much—Gryffindor had Harry; they were practically guaranteed victory anyway.

Back in the dormitory, Ranni was quietly reading in the Zen Garden.

"My king, I didn’t cause you too much trouble, did I?" she asked when Arthur returned.

In private, she still preferred to call him "my king."

She clearly knew her actions might have caused him some problems, hence her question.

Arthur shook his head. "Nothing serious."

"By the way," he said, "I noticed back on the train—you seem to like Luna quite a bit?"

"I do. That child is like a beam of moonlight—lonely and reflective beneath the night sky, yet utterly free."

"So you want her to become part of your Dark Moon?"

Ranni shook her head. "The moonlight is part of the moon. How can one speak of joining what is already one? It’s simply mutual attraction."

Her poetic phrasing made Arthur feel... something strange—

a faint citrusy sweetness in the air.

He shook the odd thought away.

"Come on, let’s continue our adventure in the Lands Between."

He’d already finished most of the mini-games and was back to Elden Ring.

Still, he was looking forward to the completion reward for that shooter-style game—

his first game involving firearms.

Maybe it would even help him achieve his dream of American Iaido.

A few days later, Arthur lay on his bed when the system’s voice rang in his mind.

[Congratulations, Host, for completing all achievements in 20 Minutes Till Dawn!

Reward: A full set of "Skill Rune Compendium" (Modified to fit this world).]

He opened the compendium and found that the runes were not just minor stat-boosts like in the game—

each of the 17 skill sets had been transformed into complete rune arrays.

Each set included:

one Base Rune,

two Advanced Runes, and

one Final Rune.

He could engrave them onto anything—even living beings.

Once engraved, the runes could be activated with mana to unleash their effects.

For example, the Frost Rune Set:

Base Rune – "Frost Enchantment": 35% chance on attack to freeze the target for up to 3 seconds.

Advanced Rune – "Cold Domination": Frozen enemies lose up to 15% of their HP.

Advanced Rune – "Ice Shards": 50% chance to fire 3 extra ice projectiles that instantly freeze targets.

Final Rune – "Frozen Detonation": Detonates the ice on frozen enemies, dealing massive damage.

(The effect depends on the user’s strength.)

Naturally, power came with limitations:

You had to engrave the base rune before using any of the others.

A person could hold at most five runes.

Objects could hold as many as their structure could withstand.

Flipping through the 17 rune sets, Arthur quickly grasped their functions.

Most were similar to the game versions, only adapted from firearms to magic.

The runes were roughly divided into three types: Amplification, Elemental, and Summoning.

Yes—some could summon creatures.

Four sets could summon ghosts, dragons, daggers, or mana crystals.

The last two seemed out of place, but perhaps they counted as "summoned" since they appeared from thin air.

When Arthur reached the crafting instructions, he found that engraving required a special Rune Engraving Knife.

The design looked suspiciously like... a tattoo pen.

"Wait—does the system want me to become a tattoo artist now?" he muttered.

System: "As long as you’re happy."

Arthur decided to pull an all-nighter to craft the engraving knife.

Entering the Zen Garden, he greeted Ranni and got to work.

The process demanded rare materials, but he had plenty, looted from the Lands Between.

Ranni watched silently from the side.

He worked through the night; she stayed with him the whole time.

As dawn broke, the engraving knife was complete.

"What’s that?" Ranni’s voice startled him—he hadn’t even realized she was still there.

"A magical engraving knife. I’ll show you."

He pulled a random wand from his storage—something he’d picked up in the Lands Between—and began working.

After ten minutes of focused carving, he was done.

He had engraved only the Base Rune of the Summoned Dagger Set.

Lifting the wand, he cast Glintstone Meteor.

As the spell fired, a spectral dagger materialized midair, striking alongside the magic projectile.

The rune’s effect: every attack summons a dagger dealing damage equal to the caster’s magic power.

He felt the mana cost—only about 1.5 times normal. That extra 0.5 must’ve been the rune activation cost.

Much less than he’d expected.

"What a curious rune circuit," Ranni murmured. "Is this from this world?"

By "this world," she meant the one they currently lived in.

"No," Arthur replied. "It’s from a new compendium I obtained. I’m testing its effects."

"Oh? From another world, then? My king... can you travel between worlds as well?"

Until now, Ranni had thought Arthur could only move between reality and the Lands Between.

But if he could obtain artifacts from other worlds... perhaps her king’s power was even greater than she’d imagined.

Looking closer, she realized—

wasn’t this rune identical to one of the skill icons in that game on her iPad?

So that was it.

She’d chosen quite the remarkable king indeed—

one who could not only free her from the Lands Between but show her far broader horizons.

Arthur didn’t deny her assumption.

It was an easy leap of logic for someone like Ranni, and his real secret—the System—was better left unspoken.

After all, once he started using these runes openly, anyone familiar with the game would make the same connection anyway.

He might as well let them fill in the blanks themselves.

In truth, he couldn’t yet physically travel to those worlds.

He could only extract items from them for now.

But who knew—maybe one day, if the System upgraded, he could enter those worlds in person?

Right, System? (hint hint)

System: "How about you stay normal for once?

If you keep working properly, I might actually get enough energy to update."

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