Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 210 Why is this thing in the Forbidden Forest?!

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Rice and Daphne walked out of the hall together, and then "bumped into" Astoria at the hall entrance.

"Sister, Rice, are you going to a history of magic class?" Astoria asked with a sweet smile.

"Yes," Daphne replied with a smile.

"Perfect timing, my class today is near the History of Magic classroom, I'll go up with you guys." Astoria replied immediately without the slightest hesitation.

Daphne fell silent immediately.

Rice rubbed his temples and sighed, "Come with us, Daphne. Astoria needs some experience too."

To be fair, he didn't devote as much energy and effort to Astoria as he did to Daphne. This time last year, he was already arranging Daphne's life-or-death battle with the trolls, while Astoria had been largely left to her own devices this year. There's no way around it; everyone has limited energy. If one person devotes more, the other has less.

Only after Rice spoke did Daphne reveal her and Rice's true destination to her sister.

"Okay, just a moment!" Astoria rushed into the auditorium like a gust of wind and quickly packed some breakfast.

In the early morning, a thin mist drifted through the forbidden forest, bringing with it a chilling coolness.

The shoes crunched and groaned as they stepped on the withered branches and leaves along the forest path.

"Why did we come to a place like this? Is it to test us?" Daphne flicked her wand, cleaning the mud that had accidentally gotten on the side of her boot.

Rice shook his head.

"The snake king needs to eat, and I was urging it to eat a bit too often before."

Rice's explanation left Astoria completely bewildered: The Snake King? What Snake King?

"It's the Basilisk, I like to call it the Snake King. There's a Snake King hidden in that special classroom, left to future generations by Slytherin." Rice could tell from Astoria's expression that she didn't understand, so he explained it to her.

"Wow, that's so cool!" Astoria's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"Right~" Seeing that Astoria wasn't so averse to the Snake King, Rice was very happy.

"So what should we catch to take back? A unicorn?"

Rice glanced at Astoria: Feeding snakes with unicorns? How could you even think of that!

"Catching two wild boars should be enough."

The Forbidden Forest is not what it was a thousand years ago; the number of various magical creatures has decreased significantly. You could even find fire-breathing dragons here before, but now you're lucky to find a sub-dragon with fire-breathing dragon blood.

The three chatted and laughed as they ventured deeper into the forbidden forest.

Just as the forest path was becoming increasingly indistinguishable, Rice noticed that the bark near the roots of a pine tree by the roadside had strangely disappeared. He approached and examined the peculiar scratch for a moment, then determined that it was a tree that had been scratched by a wild boar.

Wild boars live in the wild and have long bristles on their backs, which naturally attract many parasites. When a wild boar feels itchy, it will find a pine tree to rub against. Moreover, wild boars will choose a specific pine tree to rub against because they need the resin secreted by the pine tree at the wound. This resin makes the wild boar's bristles smoother and stronger, and also has an insect-repelling effect.

Seeing this tree means that wild boars can be found nearby.

After briefly explaining to Daphne and Astoria, Rice veered off the path and turned into the dense jungle.

Daphne had learned from a casual conversation with Hagrid that as long as one didn't stray from the forest path, there was no fatal danger in the Forbidden Forest. However, Rice clearly wasn't planning to follow this rule today, and of course, the three of them didn't take it seriously either.

The cutting spell shredded the vines and bushes blocking the way, and Rice used magic to carve a path through the dense forest.

He stood in front of Daphne and Astoria, leading the two little girls deeper into the Forbidden Forest.

Wild boars were simply not good enough prey to serve as training material for Astoria, so Rice simply acted as a trailblazer, hoping to hunt wild boars as soon as possible to feed the snake monster.

However, as the three of them ventured deeper into the woods, Rice suddenly heard a strange noise—a loud clicking sound, a bizarre sound he had never heard before.

Daphne and Astoria had obviously heard the strange noise as well, and the three of them stopped in their tracks. The Greengrass sisters strained their ears to pinpoint the direction of the sound. Rhys, on the other hand, waved his wand and conjured dozens of sparrows, intending to use these small animals to track down the source of the strange noise.

But as soon as the sparrows flew away from the tip of the stick, Rice sensed something was wrong. He looked up sharply and saw a huge shadow descending from the sky, rushing towards him.

Rice: ?!

What is this thing?!

Before he could think, he pointed his wand and blasted a huge hole in the center of the shadow that had lunged at him.

But the crisis was not over. Rice heard two heavy thuds behind him and immediately realized that the monster that had attacked them was not one, but three.

In a flash, Rice instinctively yelled "Get down!" and turned around, waving his wand diagonally. A pale blue wind blade, five feet long, shot out from the tip of his wand.

Daphne reacted swiftly, rushing towards Astoria and tackling her to the ground while activating the protective magic inherent in her necklace. Immediately afterward, she felt a gust of wind pass over her, followed by something warm smeared onto her back.

She shielded Astoria beneath her and waited quietly for a few seconds until she heard Rice's voice—

"That's enough, get up," Rice said coldly.

Daphne got up from the ground and found her robes covered in blue and greenish slime. When she looked down at the ground, she couldn't help but shudder: there lay two black monsters cut in half, each with a round body and several long, hairy legs. Each monster was as big as a wild horse.

At this moment, the monsters were not quite dead yet; their legs were still weakly twitching outwards, making the clicking sound they had just heard.

Rice was crouching in front of a monster, staring at it. Behind him was another monster with a large hole in its chest. Because the monster's corpse was relatively intact, Daphne easily identified its species: it was an enormous spider.

"What the hell is this thing? How could there be such a thing in the Forbidden Forest?" After calming down, Rice narrowed his eyes and carefully observed the giant spiders he had killed.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

First update delivered, second update coming soon~

Attached are a few selected images from yesterday's run, which I think are quite suitable for Lupert:

(End of this chapter)