"Hermione, hand me the armadillo bile, and then you can start grinding the scarab beetle directly Remember to use the agate mortar, take your time, don't rush."

In a small room inside the Wizard's Tower, Maca gently stirred the warm potion in the cauldron. At another table not far from him, Hermione, who had given him a hand, was handing over a vial of animal bile.

After a few moments, as Hermione brought the ground dried scarab powder to Maca, he suddenly glanced up at the pocket watch he had placed in the corner of the table.

As you can see, the hour hand on the dial already points to the position of "1".

"Alright, there's nothing to deal with next, you can go to sleep! I'll take care of the rest. In the next period of time, there will definitely be no less things to do, and you have to rest. ”

With that, he continued to stir the liquid in the crucible at a uniform speed with one hand, and slowly added the powder Hermione had brought over with the other.

But beside him, Hermione didn't leave immediately.

"Maka, I'...... Can I talk to you about it? ”

"Huh?" Maca quickly replied, "Yes, yes...... What do you want to talk about, though? ”

"It's about what's going on next," Hermione said hesitantly as she watched him patiently stir the potion, "Like you said, 'There's going to be a lot going on' what's your plan?" ”

Thinking that Maca had taken a huge risk to survive the loss of strength today, Hermione knew that he would definitely start thinking about launching a counterattack against Helmo again. After all, blindly defending and retreating is by no means the solution to the problem, not to mention that their side has actually reached a situation where there is no way back.

However, Helbo's growing strength is also based on his growing magical strength. If Maca, who has regrouped this time, faces the other party head-on, I don't know how sure he can be.

In this regard, in fact, not only Hermione, but everyone also wants to have a bottom in their hearts.

"Planned?" Seeing Hermione ask about her plans, Maca couldn't help but pause slightly, "I'm going to say I haven't thought about it yet, do you believe it?" ”

"Faith!" Hermione said decisively, "If you say it, I believe it." But...... If that's the case, wouldn't we be very passive if Helbo did something unforeseeable? ”

I have to say, Hermione's words are still very correct, and she does get to the point. However, with the current situation, it is almost impossible for Maca to think of a set of interlocking solutions in advance as before.

Right now, Maca's side has been forced into a "corner" by Helbo's series of fierce pursuits.

On the premise that it is difficult to grasp the movements of Helbo, not to mention that now there is no ability to monitor at all, and even the degree of grasp of the state of various forces in the outside world has been reduced a lot.

With the extreme lack of access to information, it would be ridiculous to try to make a plan or something.

It's a pity that at this moment of "one step back is death", even if you have to bite the bullet, you have to face the difficulties.

"Well, to be honest, I've always been grateful that you all trust me so much." "As for 'passive' or 'active'...... If anything, this problem is actually not that difficult to solve. ”

Seeing that Hermione seemed to be about to ask, Maca immediately shook her head. Then, I saw that he stopped what he was doing first, pulled the stirring rod out of the liquid medicine, and casually put it in the tray on the side.

Immediately afterward, he turned to Hermione and said:

"How to solve it, this is another problem, it may be a difficult choice for me, but I have to rely on myself to make a decision. So I'll wait until I get the answer, and then I'll tell you about it! ”

Maca said so, obviously unwilling to continue the discussion on this point.

Hermione, who knew this, was still curious...... No, in fact, after hearing Maca's words, she wanted to know more. But considering Maca's mood and wishes, she still nodded slightly, indicating that she would not ask any more.

So, Hermione thought about it again, and then turned to say:

"So, in addition to the plan directly against Helbo, you should also have any indirect countermeasures? Otherwise, you wouldn't have said you had something to do next. ”

And just as Hermione was asking the question again, Maca raised the temperature of the flame under the cauldron for another stage, and as the liquid inside began to boil, he finally picked up the lid and closed it.

"yes!" After closing the lid tightly, Maca said, "Of course, I know why you want to ask this, you want to know, what am I going to ask you to do, right?" ”

When Maca broke the thought in her heart, Hermione couldn't help but purse her lips, as if she was a little embarrassed. Because she herself knows that this is more or less an "old problem" of hers, that is, she has never been able to tolerate her state of being idle and waiting silently.

"Hmm."

Eventually, Hermione nodded her head again and answered softly.

Soon, Maca smiled at her, and then said seriously:

"There is no way to resume normal teaching at Hogwarts for the time being, but my 'private lessons' are about to reopen here! I have some ideas that I need you to ...... Especially you, Luna, Delphi, Harry, and Neville, plus Ens and Alexander...... Well, maybe add Mr. Blois that I need you to learn a little more before you can really do something for me! ”

"Oh! Are you sure? As soon as Hermione heard this, she finally couldn't help but whisper in surprise.

"Of course it's true," Maka affirmed, "that I have now come to realize that there is always a limit to what I can do as a person in the calamity that Helbo can cause. Before, because we were pressed by the other party, we didn't have that buffer room, but now we seem to have no choice......"

As he spoke, he suddenly heard a slight "crackling" sound from the crucible in front of him, and he stopped his words and reached out to lift the lid of the crucible.

Then, I saw him stretch out his finger and shake it slightly, and the originally boiling liquid medicine was immediately exhausted and completely calmed down.

It was only at this moment that Maca nodded and said:

"Alright, it's time to go to Alexandria and feed him medicine...... The sooner he recovers, the sooner I can have a good student, isn't it? ”