The library’s first basement level was laid out like two square loop corridors joined together, forming a double-loop layout.
Two ghostly attendants floated blankly in midair, watching every movement in the corridors.
Ethan cast a brief Summoning Charm at the bookshelf in the front left corner.
Two books flew out from the shelves and fell to the floor.
Sure enough, the ghost’s attention was drawn, and it floated toward the place where the books had landed.
Crouching low, Ethan took the other side of the looped corridor and slipped around the ghost’s line of sight.
Then he repeated the trick to lure away the other ghost guarding the stairway, before stepping down to the second basement level.
[All right, I’m safe now.]
Ethan let out a long breath, straightened up, and stretched.
The second basement level of the Restricted Section looked much more run-down.
Old wooden tables filled the entire room, thick books were piled carelessly across them, and the corners were stacked with suits of armor, boxes, celestial globes, and other odds and ends.
Every single thing was covered in a thick layer of dust.
“Is this the Restricted Section or a storage room?
Doesn’t anyone clean this place?
Cough, cough, cough…”
Ethan was badly choked by the dust floating in the air and could not stop coughing.
After finally catching his breath, he used his robe to cover his mouth and nose, then made his way through the narrow gaps between the tables.
“Just my luck.
I can’t even use a Cleaning Charm or a Cleansing Charm to make all this disappear.”
Ethan muttered as he crawled under a dust-covered table piled high with books.
To avoid leaving traces behind, he had to keep everything in the room as close to its original state as possible.
He could not even climb over the tables blocking his path.
It was incredibly annoying.
Fortunately, there were no ghosts guarding the second basement level, so he did not have to deliberately avoid their line of sight while moving.
Otherwise, this would have been even more troublesome.
“Finally.
I’m.
Here.”
Ethan struggled out from under the last table with all his might, panting heavily as he slowly stood up.
Fine beads of sweat covered his forehead.
Bracing his hands on his legs, he looked ahead at the metal door blocked by pieces of armor.
On the floor, the silver-white threads formed by traces of ancient Magic gathered here from every direction, then flowed toward the door.
Whatever the map had marked as the thing to find, it should be behind this door.
There was not much dust on the armor fragments in front of the door, so they must have fallen fairly recently.
A helmet of the same style still hung from the wall above the door.
It looked as though the entire suit of armor had originally been suspended there.
But why hang a suit of armor above a door?
So it could fall at the exact moment someone opened the door and crack their head open?
[It was probably the Weasley twins.]
Ethan kicked one of the armor fragments, and the most likely suspects immediately came to mind.
After all, aside from those twins, probably no one else could have gotten this far into the Restricted Section.
And they were repeat offenders.
Who knew how much trouble they had caused in the Restricted Section?
“Reparo.”
As Ethan waved his wand, the armor fragments flew up on their own, slowly piecing themselves together in midair.
Finally, all the parts assembled and connected with the helmet hanging above the door.
It looked just like an automatic suit-up sequence.
Very satisfying.
“Protego.”
Ethan cast a Shield Charm over his head to keep the armor from falling on him.
Then he stepped forward and pulled open the metal door.
Behind the door was a small square room with a table inside.
On one side was an arched opening connected to a descending staircase.
Tap, tap, tap.
Ethan followed the spiral stone staircase downward.
Several specks of light circled around him as illumination, while he held his wand pointed forward in case something strange suddenly jumped out.
After all, in the wizarding world, it was common sense that monsters would be hiding in ancient, broken-down restricted areas like this.
Probably.
After two turns downward, the staircase came to an end.
Before him was a cylindrical stone chamber with a domed ceiling.
Ethan first stood on the stairs and controlled the glowing specks to circle the room once.
Only after making sure there were no monsters hiding inside did he step off the staircase.
“Judging by the thickness of the dust, this room must have been here for a very long time.” Ethan stepped onto the dusty stone-brick floor, leaving a footprint with every step.
“And there aren’t any footprints either.
Looks like Fred and the others never came here.”
In the center of the room stood an empty pointed metal frame, identical in shape to the portal frame he had encountered before in Gringotts Vault 12.
The thin trail of ancient Magic that had guided Ethan all the way here from the Restricted Section flowed to the ground behind the frame and gathered into a vortex, just like the one he had seen before in the mysterious hall
“Since they’re the same thing, the way to open it should be the same too.”
Ethan passed through the frame and stood on the vortex, then swept his wand upward from below.
Hum.
A soft sound came from behind him.
Ethan turned and saw a pale blue rippling curtain of light slowly appear inside the empty frame.
Through the light, he could see that the other side connected to a long corridor.
The architectural style resembled the Pensieve Round Hall.
As expected, it had probably been built by Percival and the others as well.
Holding up his wand, Ethan slowly passed through the light curtain and entered the corridor.
The entire passage was lit by a soft, mysterious light.
At the end of the path stood a metal door, engraved with that familiar magical symbol.
“Nox.”
Ethan extinguished the glowing lights around him, raised his wand warily, and slowly walked toward the door.
No enemies attacked him during the short walk.
Ethan arrived before the door and reached out to push it open.
Suddenly, the magical symbol at the center of the door shone with white light, gathering into a line of words before him.
“Hall of Knowledge.
The unworthy may not enter.”
“Oh-ho.
Looks like there’s a boss behind this door.”
Ethan looked at the game prompt with its overwhelming sense of familiarity and gave a dismissive laugh.
No matter what enemy he ran into, as long as it had a health bar, he could wear it down even if he had to chip away at it.
Don’t ask.
The answer was that the pile of Charms he learned during extra lessons gave him confidence.
I’m extremely strong right now.
The light gradually dimmed, and the door let out a heavy creak as it opened automatically to both sides.
Behind the door was a spacious square hall.
On the wall directly opposite Ethan stood another identical metal door.
Beside it, on both sides, knelt a suit of armored statuary holding a longsword.
“This armor… heh.
Sure enough.”
Ethan sighed.
He more or less understood that these two statues were the small fry he had to clear next.
He kept his eyes fixed on the armor’s movements while slowly walking toward the door.
Clang.
Sure enough, when he had reached roughly the center of the hall, both statues moved at the same time.
Raising their swords in both hands, they charged madly toward Ethan.
“Aha, I knew it!
I knew it!”
Ethan complained about the overly old-fashioned trial setup as he bent backward to avoid the statue’s horizontal slash.
Then, using the momentum, he flipped backward several times in a row to open the distance between himself and the enemies.
He dashed a few steps around behind one of the statues, raised his wand at its back, and a silver-white beam burst from the tip.
“Depulso!”