Harry Potter and the Monster Books Part 6

"Blimey," Ron sputtered when he walked into Harry's room and saw Hermione and Titania sorting through a box of books. "Did you find a duplicate?"

"I'm the evil twin," Titania offered with a grin.

Hermione shook her head. "We just look alike, if you ignore the hair."

"Merlin," Ron replied as he walked over, finding the entire situation a bit strange. "Did you find anything I can use?"

Hermione gestured toward one of the piles of books on the bed. "Two books with bank robberies, one jewel heist from a shop, three train heists, a book filled with heroes and mad science shops that might be worth checking, a story with hoverboards and energy generation technology and a story about Aladdin that has a cave that contains a Genie and a king's ransom, they're even bookmarked."

Ron smiled as he pictured having a vault filled with gold then shook his head. "I can't walk off with a genie and I'm pretty sure anything I wished for would have enough magic that I couldn't take it out."

"What if you just wish for him to collect the jewels and gold?" Titania asked as she went back to sorting through the books.

Ron considered the question for a couple of seconds. "That would probably work but I'd rather save the wishes in case we need something specific."

"Good point," Hermione admitted, happy that Ron was actually putting some thought into things.

"Are hoverboards like brooms?" Ron asked thoughtfully.

"Sort of, they mostly just float a couple of feet above the ground and you push them along by hitting the ground with one foot," Hermione explained, thinking about the Back to the Future movies she'd watched with her father. "They're also technology rather than magic or at least they're supposed to be technology."

"Supposed to be?" Ron asked.

"No one has actually figured out how to make them in the real world so I'm not sure how well they'd work considering they're fictional."

"I'll put it on the list," Ron offered as he picked up the pile of books.

"Found it!" Titania exclaimed when she found the book she'd been looking for. "Craven Necromancer."

"Necromancer?" Ron asked warily as he looked at the picture book with smiling zombies on the cover, more than a bit creeped out as he couldn't help but compare them to inferi.

"Ignore that part," Titania told him. "The main character is an idiot. He wanted to bring his brother back to life so he picked the Necromancer Class despite the fact that there were better options."

"Class?" Ron asked, feeling a bit lost.

"Classes in this context are basically your profession but they give you a boost to the type of skills you can learn and a penalty on learning other skills in that world. For example the Mage Class gets a boost to learning magic but a significant penalty on learning most types of weapon skills. Whereas a warrior gets a boost to weapon and physical skills and a negative to learning most types of magic," Titania explained.

"Why would anyone pick the Warrior Class?" Ron asked, wondering if it would make him as bad at magic as Grabbe and Goyle.

"It boosts the physical attributes you get from some of your physical skills and how fast you learn the skills. That includes Vitality which means you'll live longer and be more resistant to disease and poison, something that is rather common in the setting despite having access to healing magic. They can also buy a Regeneration skill that means they don't have to worry about minor injuries or crippling themselves since they'll regenerate over time. If you survive a couple of dungeon runs or if you have rich parents, you can buy a second class and learn magic so it's not really that big of a deal to most people."

"So you can have two Classes?" Ron asked, figuring it was sort of like cross training people in Quidditch for different positions.

"More like one and a half, the second Class offers watered down advantages and reduced drawbacks which is why you should take Enchanter for your primary Class and Mage as your secondary Class."

"Why?" Ron asked.

"Short answer, you're not going to be running around the dungeon and taking the Mage class as your primary means you count as a combat Class which means you only get a tenth of the crafting experience that a Crafter gets."

"And taking the Enchanter class as a primary would make him count as a Crafter?" Hermione asked.

"Ding," Titania replied with a grin.

Ron glanced between Hermione and Titania, feeling more than a bit lost.

"Wouldn't that limit the amount of experience he gets from combat?" Hermione asked, wondering how that would translate into the real world.

"That depends on how the version of the System in the book works," Titania replied as she opened the book, flipped a couple of pages and pointed to the picture of a dark haired young man in worn brown robes standing in a temple looking at floating text in front of his face. "The book is basically a collector's edition extra for the video game that shows how one of the main villains got started so there's a chance it works exactly like the game. In the game, most of the negatives for crafters are because of a curse and they generally only apply to the monsters in the dungeon."

"Meaning they wouldn't matter once he's out of the book," Hermione mused.

"Exactly," Titania agreed, happy that Hermione at least was keeping up.

"Most of the negatives?" Ron asked, wondering if he needed to have Hermione make a chart or something.

"Seventy five percent of the penalty is because of the curse and twenty percent of the negative is because of the reduction your Class has on any combat skill that you're using that doesn't involve something you've enchanted."

"Which means I'd only have a twenty percent negative to learning combat magic?" Ron asked, trying to get all of the facts before making a decision since being able to Enchant magical gear would be awesome.

"With the Mage as a secondary Class you'd have a thirty percent boost to learn magic because of the fifty percent they naturally get and that's assuming that you don't enchant your wand with some type of always clean enchantment or something that mitigates the penalty."

"Nice," Ron agreed, figuring that meant he'd have to put even less effort into his classes.

"Assuming it actually works like the game," Hermione said, figuring there was a good chance that the ability would fall apart when he got back.

"Hope for the best? Prepare for the worst," Titania replied with a shrug, figuring they could probably dispel the blessing or find a way to fix it if it went horribly wrong. "You can also buy the Class penalty off at the temple but most players didn't bother because of the expense and because they've generally sunk a metric ton of gold into the character and they don't want to lose them in the dungeon."

"You can lose them?" Hermione asked.

Titania nodded. "It's part of the curse, crafters can permanently die in the dungeons if no one drags them out and resurrects them before the dungeon finishes eating them, which is why most people don't run in there with a crafter. Of course, that's not really a negative once he leaves because we don't have a bunch of valkyries that will save you in real life."

"How much of a reduction in weapon skills would I have with Mage as a secondary?" Ron asked, not all that worried about learning to use weapons since he had a wand.

"Twenty percent," Titania replied with a shrug. "I suggest buying the negatives off before you combine your Classes or at least buying off the penalty on the weapon skills that you're planning on using."

"You can combine classes?" Ron asked, wondering what it would be like to have a piece that could move like a queen and a knight.

"Absolutely, the main problem is that every time you combine your class it gets more expensive to combine your class again and each secondary class gets more of the negatives the Class would have if it was a primary class. The skill requirements also increase so most people don't bother with more than a couple secondary classes, they just make alternate characters."

"What about the other classes?" Ron asked, figuring he might as well ask.

"Archers are basically trash as Primary Classes and excellent Secondary Classes because you can buy all of the skills you need from the class trainer if you have it as a Secondary Class with the exception of the death bolt skill and you can get a Death Arrow skill from a quest in the dungeon that is better. The Summoner Class is basically a death trap as a Primary Class and an excellent addition as a Secondary."

"Why is it a death trap?" Hermione asked.

"Half of the attribute bonuses you earn for increasing physical skills goes to your summoned minions. It makes your minions a nightmare to deal with in combat but it makes your character really squishy."

"Would I even be able to summon minions in the real world?" Ron asked.

"No clue," Titania admitted. "That's the other reason I didn't suggest it. Rogues as a Primary get a boost to their Agility from their physical skills and unlock a decent collection of skills for stealing things from people and creatures. You can make some decent ranged specialists but taking Warrior as a Primary and Rogue as a Secondary class is generally better since you get access to the trainers, almost as much Agility and a lot more durability."

"And Necromancers?" Ron asked.

"They get a boost when learning various types of Dark Magic and their undead minions are twice as strong as what the skill would give them. Taking it as a Secondary gives you access to some of the skill trainers you'd need but your minions don't get the boost which means they're basically disposable. It's good for creating minions in the middle of combat and you don't have to train your undead unlike a Summoner's minions but they're basically trash unless you raise the corpse of a boss or some of the unique monsters."

"If the minions are trash, what's the point?" Ron asked.

"One of the spells you can pick up lets you turn your undead minions into necromantic bombs, meaning you can basically send them into combat then activate the spell and cause them to explode before they die, hurting everyone around them and healing your other minions."

Ron shook his head, fairly sure the Ministry would toss him in Azkaban if they found out he was messing around with the dead. "Yeah, pass."

"Beast Trainers aren't a bad option in the game but I doubt you could take your minion into or out of books which makes it a lot less useful."

"Okay," Ron said, cutting in before Hermione's doppelganger could continue explaining things that he barely understood. "I'll take the Enchanter Class and the Mage as a Secondary, I just need to grab some money first."

Hermione handed Ron one of the books with a bank robbery in it, figuring it would be the easiest. "I marked the page where the outlaws are talking about their plan in the saloon. That should give you plenty of time to walk over to the bank, unlock the door with Alohamora and rob the vault to the ground before you vanish."

"How much is this going to hurt the townsfolk?" Ron asked.

"Don't worry about it, the bank is crooked," Titania assured him. "The bandits actually get away with the money in the story and the sheriff uses the robbery as an excuse to search the manager's mansion. All of the funds were replaced with the manager's gold so you're not going to be causing someone to starve." 

"Great. Can I borrow a bag?" Ron asked hopefully.

Titania tossed Ron one of the empty expanded bags she'd stolen from the shop. "It's enchanted to hold more and weigh a fraction of what it should."

"Thanks," Ron replied as he took the bag and opened the book to the page Hermione had marked with a strip of paper. 'Frank glanced around the crowded bar then focused on his motley crew, knowing that at least a couple of them were going to get shot in the standoff with the sheriff when they left the bank, something he was okay with since it meant more money for him. Yeah, sounds like a snake.' He focused on his magic and jumped into the story, causing the book to fall to the ground.

"Still a bit annoyed that you didn't get the ability to jump into books instead?" Titania asked as she grabbed one of her notebooks to start making a list of where Hermione's friend needed to go and who he needed to talk to in order to get the basics.

"Yes," Hermione replied, making a mental note to remind Ron to put the book on a table or something before he jumped into it. "I know it wasn't his fault but that doesn't mean it's not a bit annoying."

"That's fair," Titania replied as she started jotting down notes.

0o0o0

'I should have grabbed Harry's invisibility cloak,' Ginny grumbled as she crawled toward her objective, using the long table as cover as the villain continued his rather annoying monologue.

"I am Lord Valkore the Undefeated, I can not be harmed by blade or magic!" the cloaked figure declared dramatically as he conjured a ball of purple fire in his hand. "Who dares to enter my domain?!"

"I am Darkwing Duck!" Harry shouted as he pulled a bright yellow rubber duck out of his coat pocket and tossed it at the dark lord, knowing better than to tell any magic user his name.

"What?" Valkore sputtered as he stepped back, not expecting someone to toss a rubber duck at him. He whispered a quick spell to check for traps or curses on the duck then plastered a look of horror on his face. "Gasp, you've found my only weakness, how dare you!"

"Really?" Harry asked in surprise.

Valkore rolled his eyes. "No, it's a fucking rubber duck. Did you honestly expect that to work?"

"Not really but I tossed the kitchen sink at Edgelord Mac Fries last week and I'm out of bombs since I needed to blast the doors," Harry admitted.

"Do you know how much that's going to raise my insurance rates?!" Volkore demanded as he tossed the ball of fire at Harry in frustration.

"Find a better company?" Harry asked as he used his magic shield to block the fireball, sending it back at Volkore.

"Most of the insurance companies out there don't offer hero insurance," Volkore complained as he walked over and picked up the rubber duck ignoring the ball of fire that washed over his robes without a mark.

"What are you planning to do with the rubber duck?" Harry asked, trying to drag things out so he could come up with something. 'I'm going to kill the bastard that posted this quest, there's no way this bastard is a silver rank threat.'

'Good enough,' Ginny decided as she straightened up enough that she could see the chandelier that was hanging right over the villain. 'If this doesn't work, we're fucked.' 

"I'm going to turn it into a monster that is going to rip your limbs off or maybe crawl up your asshole and explode, I haven't decided," Volkore replied with a shrug.

"Have you considered therapy?" Harry asked, doing his best not to look at the red haired girl that he could see out of the corner of his eye or the chandelier hanging over the villain.

"I don't need therapy!" Volkore snapped then promptly got crushed by the giant chandelier falling on him.

"Fair enough," Harry agreed, relieved to find out that chandeliers didn't seem to be on the villain's list of things he was immune to. "Thanks for the save."

"You're welcome," Ginny replied with a smile as she walked over to get a better look at this version of Harry, a touch surprised to find that he was at least half a foot taller than her Harry and looked like he'd just stepped off the cover of a romance novel.

"I'm guessing that means you want half the loot, right?" Harry asked with a grin.

"Damned straight," Ginny replied with a grin.

"You realize the Ministry is going to want half of it in taxes and the goblins twenty percent because they set up the quest, right?" Harry asked.

"That's highway robbery," Ginny complained.

"Welcome to the life of being a hero for hire," Harry replied with a shrug.

"Have you considered not paying them?" Ginny asked, surprised that he was willing to put up with them stealing half of his reward.

Harry shook his head. "It's mostly just the goblins that I have to worry about, I have a deal with the Ministry, they stay away from me and I don't burn it to the ground."

"Not a fan?" Ginny asked.

Harry scowled as his mind flashed back to the memory of finding his dead friends and Umbridge's smirk. "One of the ministry flunkies killed my friends with a dementor so I cut her head off, took my gold out of my vault and took a trip to the states for a couple of years until Voldemort took over."

Ginny winced. "Sorry."

"Wasn't your fault," Harry replied as he hacked the villain's head off, wanting to make sure he was actually dead and not faking it. "If he'd left Hogwarts alone, I probably would have stayed in the states considering how much I hated Fudge and the Ministry. He wasn't that smart so I came back and cut his head off after killing most of the Death Eaters I could find."

"I can't see Fudge taking that well," Ginny mused.

"Fudge was already dead and his replacement nearly tossed me in Azkaban because of the number of 'innocent' imperius victims I killed but Dumbledore reminded the court about an old dueling law and that I had the right to face my accusers in combat on account of defeating a dark lord. Strangely enough, the support for tossing me in prison vanished overnight."

"Funny how that works," Ginny replied with a grin.

"What's your story?" Harry asked as he put his sword back in its sheath and started working on looting Volkore's enchanted robes.

"It started with a diary," Ginny replied, not sure how to explain that they were in a pocket dimension and that he was probably a clone of another Harry.

0o0o0

Ron slipped out of the saloon glanced around, easily spotting the building with the large sign on the wall across the muddy street. 'Mountain Bank, okay, that's obviously the target.' He glanced over at the man in rough looking clothes that was standing under an overhang across the street watching the bank. 'You're about as subtle as Goyle.'

He glanced up at the dark clouds that made everything even darker than they should be. 'Okay, it's nasty and it's raining, no one is going to want to be outside and no one is going to see shit if I can take the guy out without making a mess then get inside without breaking anything. I've got one chance to do this right, just one more drunk coming out of the bar.'

Ron started walking in the man's general direction, putting a bit of a drunken stagger into his walk but trying not to oversell it. He was almost disappointed when the man merely glanced in his general direction when he got close enough to hear then went back to watching the bank.

Ron waited until he was eight feet away then pulled his wand out of his sleeve, pointed it at the guy and whispered, "Stupify." He frowned slightly as the man dropped to the ground, obviously unconscious. 'That was easier than I was expecting.'

He glanced around then walked over and hauled the guy over to the wall of the building, making it look like the guy had just sat down for a break. 'That's probably less suspicious than leaving him unconscious.' He quickly stole the man's gun and ammo, stuck everything in his bag then headed across the street.

"Alohomora," Ron whispered as he flicked his wand at the door, causing the lock to unlock with a faint click. He quickly slipped into the building, glanced around the almost pitch black room then turned around and locked the door behind him. 'I need to find something that lets me see in the dark.'

He glanced at the shuttered windows then whispered, "Lumos." He waved the light around the room then headed over to the 'door' made out of metal bars that was set in the back wall. He smiled when he saw dozens of bags of coins in the vault as well as boxes of silver coins. He dropped his light spell then tapped the 'vault' door. "Alohomora." 

He cast another Lumos then opened the door, walked into the 'vault' and started tossing everything into his bag. 'This is a hell of a lot easier than putting up with the Ministry's shite.'

0o0o0