Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 56 In the Name of Slytherin, Stonestone is on the move!

The young wizards of Slytherin enjoyed their meal and chatted with their friends until late into the night.

When the clock hands jumped to "eleven," most of the students in the lounge had already left, with only a few couples still chatting in the corner.

"Good night."

Sweet dreams.

After saying goodnight to each other, Rice and Daphne returned to their respective dorm rooms. About half an hour later, Rice went back to the common room—it was Halloween Eve, and he couldn't sleep at all.

In Rice's time, there wasn't such a clear barrier between the living and the dead as there is now; every Halloween was a fierce battle between the living and the dead. Over time, Rice developed the habit of staying up all night on Halloween, and now, suddenly being asked to go to bed on time, he couldn't fall asleep.

Insomniac Rice had intended to read a book in the lounge. But after leaving his room, he suddenly remembered that every Halloween, the dark creatures imprisoned in the dungeon would become active and less docile. Although no monsters had broken the seal in the past thousand years, he felt it was only right and proper to go to the seal and fulfill his duty, even if it was just to clear out a few monsters that had escaped from the cells.

The lounge was now empty, with only the crackling of the fireplace.

After making his decision, Rice didn't rush off. Instead, he brewed a pot of tea using the embers of the fireplace. After drinking the tea as quickly as possible, Rice used the remaining tea leaves to perform a divination for the evening's itinerary—a tea divination technique he had learned from a divination book called "Seeing the Future Through the Fog."

Looking at the ominous divination result in the teacup, Rice raised an eyebrow: Ominous? Then there's even more reason to go.

The terrible divination result did not dampen Rice's interest; on the contrary, it made him even more excited.

If the divination results are accurate, it means that there is a major problem within the seal of the dungeon, and as the founder of the school, I have an unshirkable responsibility to suppress the seal.

However, before heading to the dungeon, Rice felt he needed to leave something behind.

He spread out a piece of parchment on the table, wrote a few paragraphs, then, feeling it was a bit verbose, crumpled it up and threw it into the fireplace, rewriting a very short note.

After putting the note into his purse and sealing it with a spell containing all his wealth, Rice left the purse on the table and left the common room.

The Slytherin common room was very close to the dungeons, but Rice didn't go directly to the dungeons; instead, he went upstairs—he was taking a few helpers with him.

Hogwarts' current headmaster, Dumbledore, is quite capable, but Rice has no intention of summoning him. The reason is simple: Dumbledore holds a very special place in Hogwarts and the wizarding world. If something were to happen to him in the dungeons, Dumbledore's sudden disappearance would also have extremely negative consequences, causing the situation to spiral out of control.

Hogwarts needs a headmaster, the wizarding world needs a role model, and most importantly, with himself as the founder, it's not his turn yet.

[Snake King, appear and obey my commands]

Standing in a secluded corner, Rice summoned the basilisk he kept in the secret chamber. At the same time, he drew his wand and pointed it at the stone beasts that served as decorations in the corner of the corridor.

These stone beasts are among the oldest stone sculptures at Hogwarts, existing since the school's founding. They are part of the school's security system, and only headmasters recognized by Hogwarts have the authority to command them.

Of course, Rice is also an option.

"In the name of Slytherin, Stonestone, heed my command."

Several stone beasts came to life, shuffling heavily to Rice's side and accepting his commands. At the same time, Rice heard a faint hissing sound; he knew the Snake King had also arrived.

After gathering his assistants, Rice went straight to the dungeon.

Outside the dungeon's seal, Rice broke through the corridor wall, blasting a large hole in the pipes buried inside, allowing the basilisk to crawl out.

The terrain inside the seal is perfect for it to perform its function.

Having made sufficient preparations, Rice broke the seal on the dungeon, using the stone beasts as the vanguard and the basilisks behind him, and strode in with them.

Once the basilisk's body had completely entered the seal, the walls that made up the seal reappeared, completely sealing off the corridor leading to the ground.

Upon entering the seal, Rice sensed something amiss: the magic within was far more active than when he last visited, and it carried a chilling aura unique to the underworld.

Sure enough, trouble broke out inside the seal.

Without the slightest hesitation, Rice headed straight for the depths of the dungeon.

The deeper you go, the lower the temperature gets, and eventually, frost even appears on the walls—this is exactly the kind of environment that dark creatures love.

……

Pfft!Pfft!

Several gray-white wolf-like creatures were cut in half at the waist by Rice, quickly turning into handfuls of ashes. Behind him, the corridor was filled with traces of ashes.

By placing the stone beast in front of you as a meat shield and then using the basilisk's gaze to exert powerful control over the monsters, the monsters that encounter Rais are basically killed instantly.

However, this guy is a bit tricky—without destroying the core of the Ash Demon, eliminating any number of clones is useless, and the ashes on the ground are already showing signs of recombine.

Rice closed his eyes and began to carefully sense the magical fluctuations in the air, trying to find any traces left by the core of the monster.

Soon, a thought struck him, and he grasped a crucial clue from the chaotic magical fluctuations. He immediately spurred the stone beast and the serpent monster toward the corresponding location.

Before taking action, he suddenly waved his wand, and a whirlwind immediately swept up the corridor, scattering the slowly merging ashes once again.

However, while tracking the Ash Core, a strange sense of familiarity arose in Rhys's mind. He stopped and carefully examined it, and indeed, he found a familiar magical rhythm.

It feels like the wind.

Specifically, Rice sensed a feeling of familiarity from an old friend.

A hint of surprise flashed in Rice's eyes, and he quickened his pace.

The closer they got to the hiding place of the Ash Demon's core, the more pronounced this familiar magical fluctuation became. Finally, when Rice arrived outside an underground cave, both reached their peak.

When Rice and his three companions built the dungeon, they didn't rely entirely on manual mining. Instead, they cleverly utilized some naturally formed underground caverns and fissures between them. They widened these narrow passages and reinforced the caverns, thus creating an extremely large dungeon.

So once you really go deep into the dungeon, you'll occasionally encounter a very open space, and this is one of them.

Rice raised his wand and led the stone beast and basilisk into the crypt ahead, whereupon he was filled with profound awe.

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.

Update delivered. Sorry for the lateness, the second update will be released tonight.

(End of this chapter)