"Could it have been your imagination?"
"Possibly."
"That made sense. This was the First University Museum, and there were even two Door Gods standing outside. How could anyone have sneaked in?"
"Didn't we sneak in?"
Although the young wizards continued whispering among themselves, their eyes remained vigilantly fixed on the darkest corners of the exhibition hall. Not for a moment did they relax, and the spellbooks in their hands stayed activated, ready to unleash a string of prepared spells at any time.
Xiao Xiao held the Crystal Ball in both hands and divined for a long while, but found nothing.
"Perhaps the class monitor really did hear something," he finally said with cautious optimism. "They say there are several ghosts permanently stationed in the museum halls, Earth-bound Spirits. Those noises may have come from them."
The explanation was not perfect, but it was enough to put everyone at ease.
The false alarm was unwelcome, yet it made everyone pull themselves together and become more alert to tonight's adventure.
As they continued through the exhibition hall, the group soon entered the darkness they had seen earlier. Yet darkness seen from afar often felt no different once one was inside it, after one's eyes had grown accustomed to the surrounding light.
The same spaciousness and silence.
The exhibits in the glass cases lay silently atop velvet cushions, as they had for decades, centuries, even millennia, receiving the earnest or perfunctory gazes of passing visitors.
Beyond the darkness stood a high threshold covered in intricate Runes. Beyond it lay another exhibition hall.
There were far fewer glass cases in this hall. As far as the eye can see, most of what they saw were display platforms enclosed by red hemp ropes as thick as forearms, upon which rested the skeletons of Magical Creatures.