Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 259 The Experienced Rice

After the ruins were exposed, Reston immediately felt a familiar magic. Upon closer inspection, he confirmed that these were traces left by his old friend who loved good food.

Helga definitely came here, left something here, or had a great battle with something here.

Seeing Rice standing there with his eyes closed and not saying a word, Daphne didn't dare to disturb him. She simply stood quietly beside him, observing the state of the palace ruins.

The last rays of the setting sun bathed the palace ruins, now exposed from beneath the sand dunes, in a brilliant golden hue. The palace, characteristic of ancient Egyptian architecture, was constructed from cubic stones, each a meter on each side, coated with a silvery-white substance. Judging from the areas where the coating had peeled off, the stones appeared to be limestone.

The outermost part of the palace consists of four thick, massive stone pillars. They support the palace roof and are sculpted into the shape of human figures. These colossal stone statues, each fifty meters tall, stand outside the palace in different poses. Standing at their feet and looking up at them, the sense of awe is truly overwhelming—they are not even as tall as the statues' toes.

Daphne couldn't help but think of the Slytherin statue in the Chamber of Secrets, and wondered if there might be some basilisks hiding among those statues. However, considering how long the ruins had existed, she felt that even if there were basilisks, they would probably have starved to death by now.

The statues formed natural passageways leading into the palace, but the interior was dark and unclear. Daphne dared not make any rash moves and venture over to investigate.

There are definitely many traps and mechanisms inside such ruins; recklessness and carelessness will only lead to death.

Just as Daphne and Astoria were getting a little bored, Rice opened her eyes.

"You can go in now."

After confirming that the ruins were indeed related to Helga, Rice was overjoyed and couldn't wait to fly inside. However, before entering the ruins, he had a few things to tell Daphne and Astoria, the two young girls who had no experience exploring ruins.

"First, you must follow me obediently and not do anything unnecessary, not even stepping on the same floor tile I've stepped on; second, if you observe anything unusual, you must inform me; finally, try not to use magic inside, just hold your wands and be prepared—can you do that?"

He had to explain these things to the two girls before entering the ruins, lest they cause trouble.

Both girls nodded repeatedly, promising to do so. Seeing their earnest attitude, Rice nodded in satisfaction. He was worried that because he hadn't explained things clearly beforehand, the two little girls might not understand the seriousness of exploring the ruins and might treat them like their own secret room.

Although the mechanisms in the ruins have most likely been destroyed by Helga who entered earlier, those were just the hidden ones that were blocking the way. Helga would definitely find a way to bypass them and avoid triggering them.

"You can also observe the flow of magic; this will help you find traps and hidden chambers in the ruins," Rice reminded the two. Although they couldn't act rashly, they still had the right to observe carefully.

Otherwise, you can't just follow behind someone like a blind person, step by step, can you? What can you learn that way?

After saying this, Rice walked toward the palace.

The four stone sculptures form three entrances to the passage, making it difficult to choose. You won't know where each passage leads until you actually step inside.

But for Rice, this wasn't a choice. He walked directly to the rightmost passage and went in first—the passage where the Hufflepuff's magic lingered the most.

Upon entering the passage, the colossal stone sculptures on both sides completely obscured their view, and the surrounding environment suddenly darkened. An indescribable aura emanated from the sculptures, making the atmosphere subtly tense. Daphne couldn't help but shiver, and Astoria's face turned pale; they even felt an urge to kneel and crawl forward.

"Don't be nervous," Rice's voice rang out in front of them, "It's just a little psychological suggestion."

Rice's words startled the two of them, and when they looked up at the stone sculptures again, the oppressive feeling they had felt earlier had vanished without a trace.

"Ancient palaces, they always like to do these mystical things. You get used to it," Rice said with a smile. As for why he was resistant to this kind of psychological suggestion, it was related to the fact that he had personally built many palaces of false gods.

Despite their sleek appearance, once their defensive magic is destroyed, a single fire can turn them into ruins.

As they ventured deeper into the passage, the surrounding light grew dimmer, and the entrance to the passage became a small, palm-sized patch of light. Fortunately, the air was still relatively fresh and did not feel polluted.

Rice conjured several balls of flame to serve as lighting. Under the light of the flames, the scenes on both sides of the passage were revealed. There were a bunch of reliefs on the stone walls. Daphne and Astoria couldn't make out what they were, but they thought the scenes were quite lively.

As instructed by Rice, after observing for a while using the flow of magic, Astoria discovered that the stone carvings on both sides of the passage were just ordinary stones, without any mechanisms.

After walking several dozen more steps, she finally noticed something unusual.

"Rice—"

"That should be a dark room or a hidden passageway; the mechanisms above have already been broken," Rice said without turning his head.

Once a mechanism has been cracked, there won't be anything good left behind, especially since Rice is very clear about the purpose of his trip.

Rice led the two quickly deeper into the ruins, occasionally stopping to explain the characteristics of these defensive mechanisms and how to break them—Rice had deciphered some of these ancient Egyptian ruins in the past, so he had accumulated a lot of experience.

Soon, they entered the depths of the palace. Judging from its location, this part of the ruins was already buried under the yellow sand.

"Stop." Rice stopped and gestured for Daphne and the others to look ahead.

Several dozen meters away, two dog-headed stone statues, each nearly ten meters tall, stood. Behind the statues were two large, closed doors.

"This is a trigger-based defensive spell. When we get close to them, if they detect that we don't have any access tokens like 'access control,' they will come to life and attack us," Rice explained with great experience.

"Then what should we do? Preemptively destroy those two statues?" Daphne asked.

"Sure, but that's risky—what if the first wave of attacks fails to destroy them? There's a smarter way—we can just destroy their sensors directly."

For Rice, there was no difference between the two methods of breaking the spell, but for a small wizard whose attack power was not enough, the difference was still very significant.

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.

Ah, it's a bit late... I'm writing the next chapter now, I'll update it as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)