"What is that sound?"
Standing at the door, Dudley did not immediately enter but carefully listened for a moment. A faint buzzing sound came from inside the room, like small insects flying.
Dudley used his spiritual vision to observe but found nothing unusual. After hesitating for a moment, Dudley tried to push the door and found it was unlocked, so he pushed it open.
Inside was a brightly lit room with a high arched ceiling. Countless small birds, shining like jewels, fluttered their wings and flew around the room.
"This is..." Dudley's gaze slightly tightened. Upon closer inspection, he immediately realized that the flying creatures in the air were not birds at all but keys with wings.
"Keys? What is this for?" Dudley was momentarily confused.
He looked around and quickly focused on a heavy wooden door on the other side of the room.
"Could it be that these keys are meant to open the door?"
Dudley walked across the room, carefully avoiding disturbing the flying bird-shaped keys, and went straight to the heavy wooden door.
"It's locked." Dudley tried and found the door was locked.
"Alohomora." Dudley cast the unlocking spell.
Buzz.
The heavy wooden door trembled slightly but did not open.
"There is a spell." Dudley nodded, which matched his expectations.
"My magical power seems a bit insufficient to break the spell on the door."
Dudley pondered for a moment and cast the unlocking spell again, this time using his authority as an Interrogator to increase his magical power. However, the door only shook more than before but still did not open.
"Still not enough. If my sequence were higher, perhaps I could use the Black Emperor's rule-twisting ability to open this door directly," Dudley thought to himself.
This path was blocked. Dudley could only turn his attention to the bird-shaped keys flying rapidly in the air. Then he noticed a flying broomstick parked not far away.
"..." Dudley fell into silence.
Clearly, the path forward was blocked by a door, but the keys were placed here, and it seemed they were afraid someone might not catch the keys, so they even placed a flying broomstick here. What was Dumbledore trying to do?
"No dangerous aura detected." Dudley carefully checked the surroundings and found nothing unusual.
"Then let's try." Dudley jumped onto the flying broomstick. Instantly, the keys that were originally flying shot toward Dudley like a storm.
"Still have offensive capabilities?" Dudley's gaze tightened as he locked onto one of the keys. Its shape was obviously larger than the others, and its wings looked different.
"I just don't want to participate in Quidditch, but that doesn't mean I fly poorly!"
Whoosh!
Dudley sped forward, heading straight for that key.
"Slow down!" Dudley guided the spiritual energy inside him and cast a spell in Hermes language.
Many daily spells are not complicated to cast. Once you grasp some basic principles, you can try to cast some unique spells. Dudley had not yet reached the level of inventing spells, but based on his will, he could cast some simple effect spells, especially when using spiritual language.
As Dudley finished speaking, the speed of the rapidly flying keys indeed slowed down somewhat. Although not much, it was enough for Dudley to seize the opportunity and catch the unique key in one go.
He immediately descended, jumped off the flying broomstick, and inserted the key into the wooden door.
Bang.
The heavy wooden door opened, and Dudley rushed in, slamming the door behind him.
"Much simpler than I expected." Dudley panted and then looked around the room.
Unlike the brightly lit previous room, this room was pitch black. Under spiritual vision, Dudley vaguely saw many tall objects not far away. He took a few steps forward.
Buzz.
Suddenly, the entire room lit up brightly. Dudley was shocked to find that those tall outlines he saw were all chess pieces made of stone. He himself was standing on a huge chessboard. On the other side of the chessboard was a large door leading to the next room.
"What does this mean? Do I need to play chess?" Dudley was puzzled. He tried to take two steps forward, but suddenly, the chess pieces on the opposite side seemed to come alive and blocked Dudley's way.
"So it really is a chess game!" Dudley stepped back a few steps and stood at the edge of the chessboard.
"Something is not quite right." Dudley's eyes narrowed slightly.
From the beginning, he felt the situation here was very different from what he had expected. Now that he had reached this chessboard, this feeling became even more obvious.
"The three-headed dog, Devil's Snare, flying keys, and now the chessboard. This place doesn't seem to be a barrier set up to protect something but more like a test!"
The three-headed dog could be easily dealt with by knowing its weakness and using a music box—no magic needed. Devil's Snare was scary, but once you took the first-year Herbology class at Hogwarts, you could easily learn how to deal with it. The countermeasures were simple: light and fire, which were not difficult for wizards. Even first-year students could do it.
As for the keys in the previous room, as long as you had good flying talent, getting the keys was not difficult.
All these seemed not to be designed to stop others from entering here but more like challenges set by professors for their students. If you attended class seriously and studied hard, these problems were not difficult to solve.
What made Dudley feel this way even more was the key in the previous room. If the goal was to stop others from entering, a powerful spell could have sealed the door directly. Why leave the keys here, and even make the key for opening the door different from the others, as if afraid that others wouldn't recognize it?
They even placed a flying broomstick here, almost directly telling you to ride it to get the key. And now the stone chess pieces were the same principle. If you won, you could pass.
If Dudley were to set these obstacles, he would definitely first set some seals polluted by evil gods, then some evil spirits, and finally use powerful Beyonder abilities to block this place.
"Herbology class, flying class, now what? Transfiguration class?" Dudley looked at the magical chess pieces in front of him and slowly said.
"But since it's a transfiguration spell, there should be traces of spells. Perhaps, by breaking the spell, I can pass directly."
Dudley activated his spiritual vision and carefully examined the magical chess pieces.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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