#260 - New school rules

The students didn't know how the professors dealt with the unicorn carcass afterward.

However, the next morning, Mune got up early to study in the common room and discovered something related when he arrived at the square.

Several pale-faced prefects were carrying notice boards towards the square.

Curiosity drove Mune to follow them, and he found a decree with Headmaster Dumbledore's signature prominently displayed on the board.

In light of the unknown dangers in the Forbidden Forest area.

Effective immediately, all Magical Creature Protection classes are suspended from entering the area.

Furthermore, all students are prohibited from entering the Forbidden Forest.

Violators will face detention.

This decree caused quite a stir in the Great Hall, and many rumors gradually spread among the students.

Mune was eating a warm Hagrid pancake when he heard the Ravenclaw girl at the next table complaining.

"I heard a unicorn was attacked last night, and the blood trail extended all the way to the Black Lake..."

"To be precise, a werewolf attacked the unicorn and then hid in the Forbidden Forest, so the headmaster won't let us go there."

Listening to the various rumors, Mune and Hermione exchanged glances and then ignored them.

As eyewitnesses to last night's events, they knew more than anyone else.

However, this matter was clearly not suitable for discussion among classmates, as it involved that person's name.

Of course, the newly issued decree didn't have much impact on Mune.

Because Magical Creature Protection class is only available in the third year, which is still far away for Mune.

However, Mune was still very worried about Beng Beng's safety.

"Tell Beng Beng not to go to the Forbidden Forest anymore. If they really want to go out, they can go to the Black Lake."

After a brief encounter with that monster last night, Mune, with his current abilities, was not confident in defeating it.

And Beng Beng is now off-campus, so even if Mune went, it wouldn't be protective.

But going to the Black Lake is different. No matter how powerful that monster in the Forbidden Forest is, it wouldn't dare to provoke the giant squid that can snap a sailboat with one hand, right?

In fact, the biggest reaction to last night's event was Harry.

He had originally hoped to help the professors catch the dark wizard who stole the Philosopher's Stone.

Now that he learned that Voldemort was behind the dark wizard, Harry became even more active.

"That must be it. The dark wizard hiding in the school wants to get the Philosopher's Stone for Voldemort, and Voldemort himself is staying in the Forbidden Forest."

"I originally thought the dark wizard wanted to get rich with the Philosopher's Stone, but I didn't expect it was to resurrect Voldemort..."

After Mune and Hermione returned to the common room, they heard Harry and Ron sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace, discussing last night's events.

"Don't say that name anymore ~"

The flames in the fireplace crackled, but they couldn't warm Ron's pale face.

He was now very frightened, afraid that Voldemort would hear him, and his whole body was almost shrinking into the velvet cushion.

Harry completely ignored him, as if he hadn't heard Ron's words, and continued to mutter to himself.

"That must be it. Firenze said it, the stars show that Voldemort is about to make a comeback, and I am the only one who has ever defeated Voldemort, so he will definitely attack me..."

"Can you please stop saying that name?"

Ron lowered his voice again, cautiously looking around, and then reminded Harry.

"Harry, you're thinking too much. The Dark Lord has always been afraid of Dumbledore. As long as Dumbledore is at Hogwarts, he can't hurt you, and he can't get the Philosopher's Stone, right?"

Although the History of Magic class didn't talk about Voldemort, Hermione, who had read a lot, still got a lot of relevant information from various books.

The more she understood that dark period, the more afraid Hermione became of the Dark Lord.

But now she was still thinking of various ways to comfort Harry.

"Besides, the centaurs' words may not be accurate. Their set sounds like fortune-telling, which is not an accurate type of magic at all."

After hearing Hermione's words, Ron quickly added.

"That's right, who said the centaurs' words must be correct, don't you think so? Mune."

After returning from dinner in the Great Hall, Mune had been studying new spells.

His new version of the spell [Mirror Light Reverse Tide] was about to be successfully modified.

Hearing Ron call his name, Mune looked up blankly.

"Oh, you are discussing Voldemort, right?"

Hearing Mune also say that person's name, Ron helplessly covered his ears and buried his head tightly in his knees.

"I think Harry's guess is right, because it all makes sense."

Mune didn't really believe in the centaurs' astrological predictions, just like he didn't believe in that drunken professor's divination.

But on the other hand, Mune had great trust in logically rigorous reasoning.

Just like he used [Memory Retrospection] to get the list of professors who cast curses on the Quidditch field.

The words of the centaur Firenze last night, as well as the subsequent response of the professors and headmasters, could be used to infer some information.

The identity of the person who wants to get the Philosopher's Stone must not be simple.

And the only wizard who could make Dumbledore set up checkpoints to guard the Philosopher's Stone is probably only the legendary Voldemort.

"I knew it, you're not afraid of that person."

Hearing Mune's words, Harry seemed to have found a confidant.

"Mune's reasoning is very correct, so we should now stop Voldemort and his men, we must not let them get the Philosopher's Stone."

"That's right, we should trust the professors, they will definitely be able to stop Voldemort."

After hearing Mune's words, Harry looked over strangely.

"What I said doesn't seem to mean that."

Mune curiously glanced at Harry, and then nodded firmly.

"That's exactly what you meant, and instead of worrying about the Philosopher's Stone, you should worry more about your essay."

Mune said, taking out the Transfiguration assignment that Harry asked him to help check.

"Professor McGonagall will never accept a title like 'On the Probability of Escape from Transfiguration and Dark Wizards'."

"Okay, okay, I'll change it again."

Harry's ambition to deal with the dark wizard was ruthlessly suppressed by Professor McGonagall's assignment.

No one mentioned the Philosopher's Stone anymore, no one mentioned the dark wizard anymore, and no one mentioned Voldemort anymore.

The little wizards returned to their usual habits.

Playing chess, reading, taking notes, disassembling spells...

However, after experiencing what happened last night, everyone's thoughts seemed to be hard to take back.

Whenever there was a break, they couldn't help but recall the tragic scene last night.

Only Mune, because he was used to death, blood, and suffering, was like nothing had happened,

Studying magic step by step.

Unlike the broad-mindedness of boys, Hermione didn't feel like studying all day.

She had been trying to reach Mune's state, but she couldn't help but be distracted after trying several times.

In the end, he had no choice but to sit next to Moon and force himself to learn at Moon's pace.

After dinner on Saturday, Moon arrived at Professor Sprout's office as agreed.

This was a rather secluded room on the first floor of the castle, and it was very quiet.

As soon as Moon walked in, he noticed that it was like a small greenhouse, with all kinds of strange potted plants placed on the walls, windowsills, and desks.

The fragrance of the plants wafted through the air, making the whole room feel very serene.

Besides these plants, there was only a lonely bookshelf leaning against the corner of the room.

Professor Sprout had apparently already left, either to deal with the unicorn in the Forbidden Forest or to repair those magical plants.

Moon only glanced at the environment of the office, and then, according to Professor Sprout's instructions, stood in front of the wall opposite the desk.

He skillfully took out his wand and drew three small circles clockwise on the wall, then gently tapped the center.

"Ventus-Ito!"

【Swiftwind Path】

This was the spell that Professor Sprout told Moon to open the passage.

Sure enough, after reciting the spell, a blue halo appeared on the wall in front of him.

As the range of the halo continued to expand, a dark passage slightly taller than Moon opened on the wall.

Watching the passage completely stabilize and the halo disappear, Moon put on a thickened mask, held his wand, and cautiously took a step forward.

But it was only one step, and Moon instantly appeared in a place completely different from the office environment.

It was dark and damp, with weak light, and even a bit of a rotten smell.

Smelling the familiar smell, Moon quickly cast a 【Bubblehead Charm】 on himself.

The smell of the Sporecap spores was even stronger here than in the club classroom.

After setting up the spell, Moon curiously observed his surroundings.

He didn't know if it was Dumbledore's magic or if the castle was very special.

The environment here was obviously a corridor, but apart from the magic door Moon came in from behind, he couldn't see any other passages at all.

Even the trapdoor that should have been above had disappeared.

"It seems that this is the case. You can't get to the next level from here."

After curiously looking around, Moon turned his attention to today's goal.

On the walls of the corridor, there were many dark green vines crawling all over, like a pile of ropes entangled together, making it impossible to see any gaps for escape.

The thick vines were far larger than Hagrid's size, while the thinner ones were the same as Moon's arm.

The surface of the vines was also covered with a layer of tiny fluff.

The faint blue light on the fluff rippled, as if attracting the surrounding prey.

At the base of the Devil's Snare vines, there were nearly thirty pots of Sporecaps.

Perhaps because the growing environment here was better, each Sporecap had a serene human face pattern on its surface.

From a distance, it looked like a group of people showing a very enjoyable expression, but getting closer made people feel particularly strange.

Moon checked the spell on his head again to make sure it was stable before walking towards the corner.

Professor Sprout had placed a lot of Fire Slug fertilizer here.

Carefully avoiding the branches extending from the vines, Moon first loosened the soil at the base of the Devil's Snare, and then evenly spread the new fertilizer.

The same was true for the Sporecaps, except that this time he didn't need so much fertilizer.

After doing all this, Moon looked at the peaceful, yet strangely smiling faces and began to ponder.

"Should I modify this place a bit more?"

After the Herbology Club was stolen from, Moon suspected that the thief was a Dark Wizard.

Cedric was very sure that two bottles of spores were also lost and had not been found yet.

If it was really a Dark Wizard who took the spores, then the results of the modification here might be invalidated.

Although Moon had not participated in the modification of the levels here before, the plans here were all designed by him.

Now that the other party had accidentally discovered the spores, it was necessary to improve it a bit more.

Thinking of this, Moon no longer hesitated and bent down to collect the excess spores.

Having experience dealing with the 【Night Owl】, Moon was very proficient in using spores to set traps.

The light here was very dim, which was very suitable for setting up some traps that were not easy to detect.

He divided the spores into small packets and hid them in various places in this space.

Then, using some small stones and vines to cover them up, it was completely impossible to see that there were traps here.

When Moon put the last small packet of spores in the middle of the Devil's Snare vines, his cloak seemed to be hooked by something.

Looking back, he saw that a small section of the Devil's Snare vine had begun to climb on his cloak.

The thick branches that were originally climbing on the wall also seemed to receive some kind of signal and crawled towards Moon's direction.

Without time to think, Moon took out his wand and cast a 【Lumos Solem】 at the small vine behind him.

As the designer of the level, Moon had no intention of setting them on fire.

While the thick branches had not yet entangled him, Moon dropped the still small vine and quickly left the Devil's Snare's range.

But this magical plant obviously did not plan to let go of the prey in front of it easily.

The tiny fluff on the surface of the Devil's Snare flickered rapidly, constantly collecting information about the surrounding prey.

Sensing Moon's direction, the vines detached from the wall and quickly attacked towards the target's direction in the air.

However, Moon was obviously faster than it. Just as the vines were about to touch him, he stepped into the dark passage.

The magic door closed instantly, and the Devil's Snare completely lost the information about the prey.

"This kind of plant is really amazing, it's like a living creature."

Moon was also seeing this kind of magical plant that would actively attack people for the first time, which made him think a little more.

"I wonder if it can understand what I'm saying."

Moon had seen a related witchcraft in the Spirit Tree Tribe on Xingdao.

【Arboreal Communication】

This was a type of magic that the wizards of the Spirit Tree Tribe had to learn from a young age.

This magic allowed wizards to sense the weak fluctuations of plants and then give the plants some special attributes or abilities.

For example, giving ordinary wood the ability to self-repair, or enabling plants to grow quickly and have stronger defenses.

Although Moon had not yet mastered 【Arboreal Communication】, since this witchcraft could communicate with ordinary plants, it should be effective on Devil's Snare as well.

"I must learn it when I go back this time."

Although there was a little twist in taking care of the Devil's Snare this time, it was still a success.

Moreover, Moon's little mechanisms were all set up, and he thought it should give that Dark Wizard a little surprise.

"Mr. Thief, you will like this gift."

After Moon finished speaking, he left a note on Professor Sprout's desk.

On it was a diagram of the trap layout he had just set up.