With the help of his spirit vision, Dudley quickly discovered the magical traces on these chess pieces.
"Sure enough, there are traces of Transfiguration. Were the things in this room arranged by Professor McGonagall?"
"Not necessarily. I heard that Professor Dumbledore was also a Transfiguration professor before."
Dudley looked around, found the chess piece representing the queen, and walked over.
"So, do I need to replace a chess piece and participate in this chess game?" Dudley asked.
The black queen seemed to come alive, looking at Dudley and nodding.
"Alright, then I choose to take your place," Dudley said softly.
The queen nodded and stepped aside. Dudley walked over and took her position on the board.
Wizard's chess followed the same rules as international chess. Among these pieces, the most powerful was undoubtedly the queen, with the highest mobility and lethality, though of course, she would be targeted by the opponent.
But this wasn't important. What mattered was that Dudley had never intended to play chess properly from the beginning.
Perhaps he could win this game, but it would take too much time. In a place like this, it was better to get through as quickly as possible.
"White moves first, so let's begin."
The moment Dudley finished speaking, a white pawn on the opposite side immediately moved forward two squares.
Dudley's gaze sharpened as he commanded a pawn to also advance two squares, positioning it beside the white pawn.
Bang!
The next moment, the white pawn drew twin blades and directly chopped the black pawn to pieces, exploding fragments all over the ground.
"How violent indeed," Dudley observed.
A hint of excitement appeared in his eyes, as if he felt a long-lost pleasure, and he began controlling the black pieces to advance.
As time passed, Dudley, as the most powerful queen among the black pieces, quickly joined the battle. Soon, he found himself in danger.
To save time, Dudley chose the most aggressive playing style, but this also brought him many consequences. At this moment, he was already surrounded by white pieces. As long as the opponent made one more move, he as the queen would be captured.
Although this didn't mean the black pieces had lost, judging by the previously captured pieces, Dudley would most likely be chopped to pieces by the opponent's pieces.
"Perhaps I could try to escape. I wonder if these pieces would chase after me," Dudley chuckled, imagining himself being pursued by a group of chess pieces.
His gaze fell on the white pieces not far from him—that was the white queen, whose next move would be to capture Dudley as the black queen.
Dudley looked at the white queen's abdomen. Under spirit vision, he could clearly see magical traces left there. That seemed to be a key node, crucial for the entire Transfiguration spell to function successfully.
Dudley took a deep breath, releasing the authority of an Interrogator. His gaze fixed on the white queen's abdomen as he spoke in ancient Hermes.
"Finite Incantatem!"
This spell could stop running magic to a certain extent and could also eliminate some simple dark magic. It was one of the more basic spells.
Generally speaking, this kind of spell was difficult to affect high-level spells. However, Dudley was now using spiritual language along with the authority of an Interrogator, which could enhance his spell power. Using it to eliminate Transfiguration spells wasn't difficult.
As Dudley finished speaking, the white queen chess piece immediately began to tremble. Starting from her abdomen, the originally exquisite patterns disappeared, revealing the gray-white stone surface underneath.
In just a few seconds, the exquisite queen turned into a pile of crumbling stones, falling to the ground and completely losing its magical aura.
"Good, you've been 'captured,'" Dudley chuckled. This was truly being captured—captured in the physical sense.
Without the powerful piece of the queen, white's original suppressive power over black immediately vanished.
"Rules are meant to be broken," Dudley mused. "Among the authorities of my two pathways, there is the shadow of order."
Dudley continued controlling the black pieces while dealing with pieces that threatened him as much as possible. Among these pieces, there were some key nodes of Transfiguration spells that Dudley hadn't found, but this wasn't crucial. He only needed to deal with all the pieces whose Transfiguration spells could be dispelled, and his black pieces would already be in an invincible position.
This was an unfair game from the start.
About ten minutes later, Dudley, as the black queen, cornered the white king.
"You are checkmated!" The crown on the white king's head fell to the ground, and the game ended.
Creak.
The heavy wooden door behind the chessboard slowly opened, and a familiar stench wafted over.
"This smell..." Dudley's brow furrowed slightly. He no longer paid attention to the ruined chess game and walked toward the opened door.
This was a huge room with a very high dome. Faint light shone down, illuminating the entire space. At the door on the opposite side, a troll sat there, looking at Dudley, who had entered the room.
"As expected..." When he smelled the stench just now, Dudley had already guessed what was probably here.
After seeing Dudley, the troll immediately roared and charged at him with a wooden club. Dudley's expression shifted as he picked up a small stone from the ground and threw it at the troll.
At the same time, the troll was already swinging its club down at Dudley. The attacks launched by both sides were completely disproportionate. The small stone Dudley threw wasn't even enough to tickle the troll.
"Bribe-Weaken!" Dudley's gaze focused as his Beyonder abilities suddenly activated.
The troll that was originally swinging its club suddenly hesitated.
Bang.
The club fell down, smashing into the ground not far from Dudley. The original strike had been terrifyingly powerful, but now falling on the ground, it only caused a few cracks in the stone tiles—its attack power had been greatly weakened.
Then Dudley picked up another stone and threw it at the troll.
"Bribe-Charm!" The Beyonder (Briber) abilities activated again.
The troll that had originally been baring its teeth at Dudley showed great confusion in its small eyes. It looked at Dudley with a trace of bewilderment and even some friendliness. This made it reluctant to attack Dudley again.
"Good boy, go sit over there," Dudley said to the troll with a smile.
The authority of an Interrogator, combined with the charm of a Briber—the troll had almost no hesitation and immediately walked to where Dudley pointed, sitting down on the ground with a thud, even showing Dudley a silly, friendly smile.
"Well done." Dudley nodded encouragingly and walked straight toward the door on the other side of the room.
After advancing to Sequence 7, dealing with this kind of troll had become very simple for Dudley—he didn't even need physical persuasion.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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