She raised her wand and precisely fired a faint magical spark at each of the three blue orbs.
With three soft "ding, ding, ding" sounds,
The light on the jewel lit up and then went out in turn, and a stream of light flashed across the gilded vine patterns on the door.
Immediately, the heavy stone door emitted a deep rumble and slowly opened a crack inward.
The two exchanged a glance, then took hands and stepped through the gate.
The passage behind the door was still carved out from inside the rock wall.
Not far ahead, a huge spiderweb barrier suddenly appeared before them, completely blocking their way.
" Incendio!"
Draco decisively cast a spell, and flames instantly engulfed the spider web, filling the air with a burnt smell, finally clearing the way forward.
After passing through the burned-out opening, they came to a low stone passage that required them to bend over to pass through, with sloping boulders overhead. They carefully crawled through.
After entering Shikou, the view suddenly opened up before us.
They arrived at a huge cavern that resembled an underground hall, like a high and wide underground canyon.
More stalactites hung overhead, and the surrounding area was a vast expanse of rock walls; however, the road ahead seemed to end there.
As far as the eye can see, there are only surrounding rock walls; this place looks like the end of a closed cave.
But danger often lurks beneath the surface of calm, and their arrival clearly disturbed the "residents" of the area.
From the shadows of the cave, from the crevices of the rocks, and even from the stalactites overhead, countless spiders of all sizes surged out like a black tide!
They moved swiftly, their compound eyes gleaming eerily in the dim light; at a cursory glance, there appeared to be as many as fifty or sixty of them.
Hermione turned deathly pale!
Although she was much braver Ron, the intense visual impact and instinctive aversion of the swarming spiders coming from all directions instantly made her scalp tingle.
" Merlin's tattered hat... so many!"
The spiders were scattered, slowly approaching from all directions. Draco didn't want to waste time and energy fighting dozens of spiders in this place.
He stepped forward, shielding Hermione slightly behind him, cleared his throat, and said, "Hey, I said... your patriarchs should have informed you, right? We had no intention of offending your territory; we were just passing through and will leave immediately."
The spiders seemed to understand; one of them, which was noticeably larger and appeared to be the leader, slowly took a few steps back.
Seeing this, the other spiders also rustled and retreated, creating a gap in the encirclement.
"They... really understood? And they seem quite wary?" Hermione stared in astonishment at the scene.
"Of course." Draco shrugged. "Alright, let's back out slowly, without provoking them."
The two remained facing the swarm of spiders, slowly retreating towards the low stone opening. The spiders simply stood still, watching them with their countless compound eyes.
Retreating to the edge of the rock, the two crouched down and crawled out again. Looking back, they saw that the swarm of spiders inside the cave had not chased after them, but had gradually dispersed and disappeared again.
Emerging from the narrow opening, the two returned to a slightly wider passage. They intended to continue exploring in another direction, but Draco suddenly grabbed Hermione's wrist.
"Wife, wait a minute."
Hermione stopped and looked back at him, puzzled.
Draco reached into his pocket, rummaged around, and pulled out a broom.
"Judging from the terrain ahead, there's probably a long, winding road ahead, maybe even some abysses or broken bridges. Why don't we just fly there? It'll save us time and effort."
"Good idea." Hermione looked at the broom and agreed with the efficient idea, "Flying in such a complex underground environment can definitely avoid a lot of terrain obstacles."
"But... where's my broom...?" Hermione wondered.
"Sit here!" Draco had already nimbly mounted the broom, lightly touching the ground with his feet to maintain his balance, and then patted the front of the broom handle, the small section in front of him.
Hermione froze, her face flushing bright red. "Sit... sit in front of you? Won't that be too crowded...?"
"It's better to squeeze in a bit, I just want to be closer to you. Besides, didn't we ride together last time it snowed, and when I taught you how to fly? Why are you still shy?"
Mentioning that memory deepened Hermione's blush. She bit her lip, but finally relented. "Alright, then be careful, don't fly too fast."
She carefully sat down in front of Draco. Draco then stepped forward, his arms naturally wrapping around her sides, his hands gripping the broom handle tightly in front of her.
This position almost completely embraced Hermione, their bodies inevitably pressed tightly together.
Hermione could clearly feel Draco's body temperature and firm chest behind her; her back stiffened instantly, and her cheeks burned intensely.
She tried to look straight ahead, pretending to focus on observing the terrain, but her bright red ears completely betrayed her.
Draco seemed to chuckle softly, his warm breath brushing against her ear, then he whispered, "Hold on tight."
With a push of its feet, the broom rose steadily off the ground and began to Depulso forward along the cave passage.
Flying is indeed much faster than walking.
Soon, another stone door that needed to be opened appeared ahead, with three glowing gem mechanisms next to it.
Hermione raised her wand and fired three magical sparks precisely from between Draco's arms, striking the gems one after another.
After the stone gate opened,
Draco pressed down on the broom handle and nimbly flew inside.
When they encountered a crevice that was too low or too narrow, the two of them would dismount, crouch down, and squeeze through, before riding their brooms again to fly.
Until their path was blocked by a wide, bottomless abyss, in each of the four corners—east, west, south, and north—there was a stone platform embedded in the rock wall, engraved with golden patterns.
In the very center, an even larger platform is suspended.
Hermione immediately saw the solution to the puzzle. "Judging from this layout, the creator's original intention was probably for players to use the ' Summoning Charm ' to pull themselves or objects to the central platform, using it as a transit point to cross the abyss."
"It seems the master who created this level probably doesn't know that we wizards, besides chanting spells, can also ride brooms. Why not just fly over? Why make it so complicated?"
After Draco finished complaining, he spurred his broom and smoothly flew across the abyss, easily reaching the other side.
Hermione, nestled in his arms, suppressed a laugh and commented, "This shows that ancient wizards focused more on the control and intelligent application of magic itself, rather than relying on tools."
"But... well, having a broom is definitely convenient." She honestly added the second half of the sentence.
During the flight, they passed several platforms that were clearly man-made and used to house large stone bookshelves.
Whenever they encountered Draco, Hermione would urgently pat his arm. "Stop! Stop right now! There are books there!"