"Turn off voice chat? Turn off what voice chat! If I turn it off, how would you know I'm cursing you? If I'm going to insult soone secretly and they can't even hear it, I might as well not bother... Grrrrr!!!"
Tom grumbled through the Whispering Charm, ranting out all his dissatisfaction and jealousy.
So people were just born in Ro, and yet they didn't know how to treasure it!
Tom felt like he and Wade were both competing in the sa race, and Wade's starting line was already way closer to the finish line than his.
But that guy deliberately ran back to his side, pretending that starting together with everyone else was the only fair way...
Tom had actually believed it. He thought Wade was just a bit faster than him, nothing more.
Since they were starting from the sa line, he figured he still had a chance to catch up and win...
But then—when the race actually began, Tom realized... while everyone else was running on foot, Wade was riding a damn horse!
Fair?
What does fair even an?
Why don't you tell —what the hell does fair an!? Grrr!!
Fair is you riding a horse, looking down on for running slow, and then telling , "If you're bad, just train harder!"
"Tom... you've been getting bold lately. You don't even bother hiding your insults anymore?" Wade looked at Tom in mock surprise.
Tom used to grumble behind his back, but now… he wasn't even pretending anymore—he was just outright cursing him to his face!
"So what, you gonna kill ?" Tom replied with a blank expression.
Wade had no idea that his one offhand comnt earlier had stirred up more resentnt in Tom than a ghost wrongfully killed decades ago.
"I wouldn't go that far—just a few beatings should do."
"Then go ahead and beat to death!" Tom snapped back, glaring angrily with his neck stiffened.
"Alright then… Tom, since you're so determined, how could I possibly refuse? Any last words?"
"Yeah—The fuck?—wait, wait! You're actually serious? I… I admit I might've raised my voice just a bit…"
The mont his life was on the line, Tom instantly sobered up.
No matter how jealous he was of soone else's power, it was still their power. But his own life… that was truly his.
Just then, Anne finally ca to a stop.
"It should be just up ahead," she said, glancing at the map in her hand.
About fifty ters ahead of the trio, there was a ruin.
"I didn't know anyone had ever lived in the Forbidden Forest," Tom said, frowning as he examined the crumbling remains in the distance.
"Hogwarts has over a thousand years of history. It's normal for there to be so abandoned structures nearby. With ti, towns turn into wilderness and forests..." Wade said casually.
Anne suddenly spoke up, "But... this is just the ruin of a single building. It's not a town or anything like that. If—just if—all the locations you've identified are ruins like this... do you think there might be so kind of connection?"
Wade pondered aloud, "Hmm, that's a good question. There's definitely sothing odd about it. If all that magical power was hidden in these broken-down ruins… it might an the structures themselves are tied to the magic."
"And who knows... whether these buildings were once hos, or if they served so other purpose..."
As he said this, Wade appeared to fall into thought.
Outwardly, he was speaking of Morganach's magical power, but in his mind, he was thinking about ancient magic.
He hadn't given it much thought before.
But now, looking back, he realized that all the hotspots of ancient magic he'd found had been located within old ruins just like this.
Anne looked at the ruin, then stepped forward, pretending to begin an exploration.
She had actually examined this place many tis before—there was absolutely nothing here. But she couldn't just do nothing.
After all, this was supposed to be her "first ti" coming here.
Wade walked closer to the ruined structure, carefully examining the remains. He seed to be trying to identify so distinctive architectural markers.
That way, he could later research who built these structures… and why ancient magic hotspots had ford here.
If he could figure that out, perhaps he would finally understand the true source of ancient magic—and maybe discover other places, beyond the area around Hogwarts, where similar ancient magic hotspots existed.
Anne also frowned. "These ruins must be at least a few hundred years old, which ans that even in Professor Morganach's ti, this place was already abandoned. So why would she hide magical power in ruins like these? It's far too conspicuous! Why not hide it sowhere less obvious..."
"Maybe it has sothing to do with how that magical power is ford or stored..." Tom guessed. "Otherwise, I really can't think of any reason soone would leave sothing so valuable in a place this exposed and unprotected."
Wade didn't speak, focusing intently on the ruins—remains he had previously overlooked.
After a while, he finally noticed sothing.
These buildings had traces of ancient magic lingering on them… just like his lighter.
Now, Wade had a bold hypothesis.
That is, these buildings had originally been constructed using ancient magic!
So, after the buildings decayed over ti, the ancient magic that once held them together began to leak out, then slowly recondensed—thus forming ancient magic hotspots…
Damn!
Even though the structures themselves had weathered away, the ancient magic embedded within them had not dispersed!
This alone spoke to the imnse power of ancient magic…
And it also explained why Wade was able to absorb those ancient magical energies so smoothly without any resistance!
The ancient magic used by his predecessors to build these structures had essentially beco a kind of battery—charging Wade up now.
Of course, confirming this theory would be simple. It would just take a basic control experint.
Building with ancient magic… Could it be that ancient magic was once sothing common?
But Wade quickly shook his head and dismissed that assumption.
The fact that soone had used ancient magic to construct buildings didn't prove that the power was widespread in the past.
If it had truly been common, there would be at least so ntion of it in the history of magic—yet there wasn't a single trace.
Back when Senior Sister first awakened her ancient magic, it was only through the portraits of forr professors that she learned any concrete information about it.
"There's nothing here," Anne said after a brief scan of the area.
This place was no different from how it had been during her previous investigations.
So she didn't need to search carefully—she already knew there was nothing to find.
"Let's search a bit more thoroughly," Wade said.
As he spoke, he looked toward Tom.
Tom nodded, then pulled out his wand and began casting Revelio to inspect every inch of the ruin.
Anne watched from the side, shaking her head inwardly.
She had already examined these ruins many tis before and found nothing.
And not only that—after she submitted the notebook, Grindelwald had also sent other Party mbers to check this place multiple tis.
Among those Alliance mbers were several so-called "professionals" who frequently conducted "ruins expeditions."
And on top of that, each of them had one of those instrunts distributed by the goblins.
Logically speaking, if that kind of magical power really existed here, it should've been impossible to miss.
That magic, which was supposed to be here...
Either it never existed in the first place, or it had been taken away long ago.
So no matter how professional or thorough Wade and Tom's detection thods were, they were ultimately dood to co up empty-handed!
As Anne pretended to help with the search while thinking about how to persuade Wade and Tom to move on to another location—
"There's sothing here," Tom suddenly said.
"Really? Let take a look," Wade said, sounding excited as he walked over.
!!! Anne's eyes widened. No way.
This place had already been searched so many tis without finding anything, and now they'd just arrived and already found sothing?
With that thought, Anne quickly rushed over too.
She saw Wade and Tom crouched around a stone slab, closely examining sothing.
Anne examined the stone slab and imdiately let out a breath of relief.
"This just looks like an ordinary floor tile. What's so special about it?" she asked, looking at the two boys as if they'd lost their minds.
Sure, both of them were incredibly talented—so much so that even Grindelwald had people keeping an eye on them.
But when it ca to field exploration, compared to soone like her who had gone on more than ten expeditions into the Forbidden Forest since the start of the school year, they were still far more inexperienced!
However, her words had no effect on Wade and Tom.
Instead of dismissing the "floor tile," Wade and Tom began working together to move it onto a nearby patch of open ground.
"What are you even doing with that thing…" Anne asked with a sigh.
"Co over here and help, would you? Don't just stand there," Tom said irritably.
He was feeling a bit frustrated—if she didn't get closer, how were they supposed to go through with the next part of their setup?
"Alright, alright…" Anne sighed, drawing her wand to cast a Levitation Charm.
But Wade stopped her. "It's no use. I just tried. Magic doesn't have any effect on this tile—it doesn't respond at all."
"Hmm?" Anne stopped her Levitation Charm and looked at the floor tile with suspicion.
A floor tile that could resist magic?
Sss... could they really have found sothing?
Uneasy, Anne helped Wade and Tom move the stone slab to a patch of open ground nearby.
"What exactly is so special about this tile?" Anne asked insistently.
"Because the age of this slab doesn't match the rest of the ruins," Tom replied. "That ans it was placed here later. And it's immune to magic! Honestly, that already makes it the most unusual thing in this entire ruin."
Anne had to admit, Tom's reasoning sounded plausible... but still—how could that be?
Maybe the slab was special in so way, but it couldn't possibly contain that kind of magical power. Otherwise, how could the goblins' instrunts have failed to detect it?
Just as Anne was thinking that, Wade casually transfigured a stick on the ground into a hamr and smashed it down hard on the tile!
Thump!
Crack!
Clang!
A silver sphere fell from the broken slab, landing with a crisp tallic ring.
_________
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