#806 - Basilisk

"Hmph, isn't it because we were unlucky and lost in the dungeon, otherwise how would we only have this little points?" Ron said, and couldn't help but look at the other three with suspicion, "Tell me the truth, did you guys really not cheat before? Why would those exploding snakes go out of control for no reason?"

"Uh… of course not!" Harry said vaguely with some guilt, then quickly pointed to a spot on the light screen, "What kind of magic is this [Body Strengthening Technique]? The required conditions are physical attributes."

"I heard Godfather mention it!" Ginny couldn't help but interject, "[Body Strengthening Technique] is said to be magic, but it's actually a training technique that integrates magic power with the body. It can not only strengthen the wizard's physique, but also use many magical combat skills."

"Magical combat skills? What's that?" Ron scratched his head in confusion.

"I'm not too sure about the specifics." Ginny shook her head, "I saw Godfather practicing martial arts before, and he could cast spells with his bare hands. That's how he explained it to me."

"Cast spells with bare hands? Could it be some kind of close combat magic?" Neville's eyes lit up. Compared to those spells, the Body Strengthening Technique seemed more attractive to him.

"Maybe, but just because learning it is required to unlock the second battlefield map, it's a must-learn. It's just that the price of the Body Strengthening Technique is too high."

Ginny frowned, fiddling with her fingers and muttering, "Challenging Despair Town and the Battlefield once can yield an average of about 200 points, which adds up to 400. Even if we can clear these two dungeons once a week, it will take a month. Not to mention the prices of other spells are also very expensive."

"Isn't there also a [Hell Racing]? What about including it?" Harry remembered there was a new dungeon, but they were called away by Anduin and didn't have time to learn about it.

"No way!" Ron shook his head decisively, "After coming out of the [Battlefield], I happened to meet George and Fred. They had experienced [Hell Racing]. They said it's a special arena dungeon, and the points inside cannot be shared with the confrontation dungeons."

"Ah? There's such a restriction?" Neville, like Harry, knew nothing about the new dungeon, and didn't even know that Anduin had classified the dungeons into two types.

"This is a new rule, because the [Hell Racing] dungeon, unlike the Battlefield and Despair Town, can be repeatedly challenged, and the duration of a race isn't long, so the speed of earning points is very fast."

Ron recalled what George had told him and repeated, "Moreover, the content of the exchange list in the arena dungeon is different from other dungeons. The prices of the exchange items inside are ridiculously expensive. Exchanging for a car costs several thousand points."

"That means the only channels we have to earn points now are the two confrontation dungeons, right?" Harry pouted in distress, "If we calculate it like this, wouldn't it take one or two school years to exchange for all the new spells?"

"This is too difficult. After all, we can't guarantee that we'll win every time we challenge a dungeon," Neville shook his head dejectedly.

"If you ask me, we better not be so greedy." Ginny thought for a moment, then suggested, "It's not realistic to exchange for all the spells."

"Even if we have so many points, we can't learn them all. The prerequisites for high-level spells are very harsh. Before learning a new spell, you must be proficient in its prerequisite spells, and some spells have more than one prerequisite spell."

"In that case, let's each specialize in a series of related spells. This way, we can guarantee combat power and won't waste too much time." Harry glanced at the panel, "I'm more proficient in lightning magic, so I'll choose the Arc Lightning and Storm's Eye series."

"Good suggestion, then I'll learn Torrent!" Ron perked up, "Water can conduct electricity, so the two of us can cooperate."

"I can also cooperate. I can learn the Frost Nova of the ice series. You wet them first, and then I'll freeze them all!" Ginny seemed to have already seen a similar wonderful scene in her mind.

"Then I'll learn the Tearing Earth and Ravine series." Neville also excitedly joined in, "Looking at the description of this spell, the power seems to be amazing as well."

The four walked and talked, constantly discussing and looking forward to the scene of showing off their skills after learning the new spells.

On the other side, Anduin couldn't wait to leave the office after seeing off several wizards, and went straight to the second-floor bathroom.

"I wonder if the Parseltongue I just learned from Harry is useful." Anduin stood in the center of the bathroom, in front of the faucet engraved with a small snake, and muttered to himself.

But just as Anduin was about to try further, he suddenly turned his head, "Is that Moaning Myrtle? Come out and chat."

As soon as Anduin finished speaking, a burst of crying came from the bathroom stall, "Waaah, how did you find me?"

"I'm not blind…" Anduin looked at the pigtail ghost floating out slowly and smiled, "Actually, every time I enter here, I know you're here, but I didn't want to disturb you before. I just happen to have something to ask you today."

"I remember you, you're Anduin, that very fierce wizard. You injured many students here 9 years ago, and you bumped into the stone pillar last time."

Moaning Myrtle wasn't unfamiliar with the young man in front of her. She was already a ghost, and there weren't many people like Anduin who made her feel scared at first sight.

"Your memory is quite good, then I'm relieved." Anduin nodded with a smile, "Do you still remember the last scene you saw before you died 50 years ago?"

"Before I died?" When Moaning Myrtle heard Anduin mention this, the tears in her eyes couldn't stop flowing, "Waaah… oh dear, it was so scary, it happened right here."

"I died in this toilet, I remember it very clearly."

"At that time, Olive Hornby laughed at me for wearing glasses like a four-eyed dog, so I hid here. I locked the door and cried inside, and suddenly I heard someone come in."

"I heard a boy's voice, but what he said was very strange, as if it was a language he made up himself."

"I was extremely annoyed at the time, so I opened the stall door to drive him away, and then… then I died!"

It seems that Moaning Myrtle did die from the basilisk. That boy should be the young Voldemort, Anduin nodded understandingly, "Do you remember what you saw before you died? A person, or the appearance of some kind of monster?"

"Monster! It was a monster! Waaah…" Moaning Myrtle suddenly cried sadly, but the next moment she put on a fickle face, "No, it doesn't seem like there was any monster, I only remember seeing a pair of big yellow eyes, right in the sink in front of you!"

"No… it was a monster, a giant snake thicker than a tree." Anduin seemed to remind, and as if warning, repeated, "You saw the eyes of that big snake, and then you were killed by it. Remember to say the same if anyone asks in the future, understand?"

"Ah? But I really don't have a similar impression…" Moaning Myrtle just wanted to refute, but then she saw Anduin's cold and bone-piercing eyes, just like the pair she saw before she died, and immediately shut her mouth in fear.

"Moaning Myrtle…" Anduin put away his fierce expression and said gently, "In the incident that year, you weren't the only victim. A friend of mine was wrongly accused and took the blame for killing you."

"Next, I want to clear his name, and no amount of evidence can compare to the testimony of you, the person involved, so can you help me?"

"Then how do you want me to help you?" Moaning Myrtle asked timidly, although Anduin was speaking softly at this time, she was still immersed in the fear she had felt before.

Although she was fickle and seemed mentally unstable, her remaining consciousness also knew the subtext in Anduin's words. He said he wanted her to help, but if she didn't want to help, her situation might not be good.

"Just remember what I said, and answer him like this if anyone comes to ask." Anduin was telling the truth, so he didn't have any psychological burden.

"Waaah… okay…" Moaning Myrtle responded bitterly, then floated into the toilet stall, knowing that she shouldn't have come out to meet people.

"Open!"

After dealing with Moaning Myrtle, Anduin muttered the Parseltongue he had just learned from the sink in front of him.

Suddenly, the faucet emitted a dazzling white light and began to spin rapidly.

Then, the sink also moved. They watched as the sink slowly disappeared from view, revealing a very thick pipe, big enough for a person to crawl into.

"I didn't expect it to really work!"

Anduin looked at this scene with joy. It wasn't the first time he had entered this tunnel, but he used to use the Transfiguration Charm to break through the wall.

Now, he used Parseltongue to open it, mainly to prove his previous hypothesis, so after confirming that entering the Chamber of Secrets was related to Parseltongue, Anduin followed the passage familiarly and came to the stone wall at the end.

Repeating the trick again, the stone wall in front of him, engraved with two intertwined snakes with large, shiny green gems inlaid in their eyes, split from the middle and slowly slid to both sides and disappeared.

"That's it?"

Anduin didn't expect that this stone door that had been bothering him all along could be opened so easily, which made him feel absurd for some reason.

"To some extent, the threshold for entering the Chamber of Secrets isn't very high. As long as you know Parseltongue, you can enter…" Anduin shook his head mockingly, then strode in without looking back.

What came into view after entering was a long, dimly lit room.

Inside, there were two rows of stone pillars carved with coiled snakes, supporting the ceiling that disappeared into the darkness high above.

The entire room was filled with a mysterious green mist.

At the end of the Chamber of Secrets stood a full-body statue of Salazar Slytherin, as tall as the room itself, close to the dark wall behind it.

At this time, Anduin stood on one side of the room, and the surrounding stone pillars cast long, bizarre shadows on the entire room filled with a mysterious green aura.

"Then what? Didn't you say there was a basilisk living here? Did it die of old age?"

Feeling the silent, empty environment, Anduin looked around with interest, while complaining with some incomprehension.

Before he could finish speaking, the mouth of the Slytherin statue in front of him slowly opened, revealing a huge hole.

Then, Anduin heard a rustling sound coming from the hole. Before long, a giant snake with dark green skin and jagged scales wriggled out slowly.

As soon as the basilisk appeared, it stared at the tiny human in front of it with its crystal-like yellow eyes, but soon a trace of incomprehension was revealed in its eyes.

It was strange why it couldn't feel a trace of fear from the human in front of it, and the other party just stared at it so openly, but didn't die directly like the humans it had encountered in the past.

It should be known that the basilisk's eyes can instantly kill anyone who makes eye contact with it, humans and animals alike, but the person opposite not only had nothing wrong with him, but also showed a curious expression, as if it was some interesting toy.

The not-so-clever basilisk was soon angered by Anduin's current state. It suddenly opened its giant mouth, revealing the fangs in its mouth, and hissed lowly at the other party.

"Heh, I didn't expect you to have such a temper."

Faced with the basilisk's sudden outburst, Anduin didn't even bother to move. He just grinned slightly, then raised his hand and snapped his fingers gently.

"Bang!"

The basilisk, which had stood up high, suddenly felt a huge weight pressing down on it, so that it didn't even have time to react to resist, and was slammed to the ground with a bang.

After controlling the other party with the Gravity Charm, Anduin leisurely swayed to its side and observed the basilisk with great interest.

He sometimes touched the scales on the basilisk's body, poking it here and there like a curious baby, sometimes lifted the basilisk's big mouth to study its oral structure, and even very mischievously pulled out a venomous tooth and装进科研容器内装进科研容器内 put it into a research container with relish.

Finally, Anduin even brought his head close to the basilisk's eyes to observe the changes in its pupils and feel the experience of making eye contact with it.

"Just by sight, can you use magic similar to a high-intensity Petrification Charm? It's really more interesting than I imagined. With these eyes, you should be able to make good-quality props."

Anduin tasted the magic power fluctuations emitted from the basilisk's pupils and couldn't help but mutter.

From the beginning when he saw the basilisk, Anduin had a strong interest in this creature. In the past, Anduin had only seen introductions to this rare species in books.