Chapter 17.

  They walked forward, down the sloping corridor, with only the sound of their own footsteps and the gentle dripping of water from the walls surrounding them.

  "Did you hear something?" Daphopped and listetentively. The others quieted down to hear the sounds around them, and ihere seemed to be a faint rustling noise ing from ahead.

  "Let's go, we'll find out what's going on," Soren said, pointing ahead where there was light. They discovered that at the end of the corridor, there was a brightly lit room, and the sound was ing from above them.

  On the high arched ceiling, tless small birds flitted about, fpping their wings and flying around the room.

  "This is... the sed trap?" Daphne was cautious after her previous experience, fearing she might fall into arap. "Do you think if we ght in, those flying birds will attack us?"

  Meredith, who had keen observation skills, poio a heavy-looking wooden door on the opposite side and said, "There's a door over there; we will probably o gh this room."

  "What if all those birds suddenly e at us? We could all cast an explosioo blow them all away. Wouldn't that let us pass this challenge?" Daphne suggested.

  Soren shook his head, "Daphne, your spell-casting and adaptability are quite good, and you also show great ce when fag difficulties, but in terms of observation and reasoning, you should learn more from Meredith—look closely; those things above us are not birds."

  In the chaotic future ahead, Soren did not pn to fight alone.

  After a whole semester of observation and iion, he felt that the abilities and dispositions of the two girls were endable, making them trustworthy didates; thus, he began to sider cultivating their abilities as potential fidants iure. Of course, the pleasant appearances of the two girls were also a factor; the two big fools, Goyle and Crabbe, had no ce of being Soren's followers.

  Taking a closer look, Daphne realized they were actually a swarm of winged keys. "Damn it, this challenge must have bee by Professonagall; did she get the inspiration from your award-winning paper on magical mps?"

  Soren shook his head and did not ent, instead asking, "Have you figured out how to overe this challenge?"

  Daphne furrowed her brow, "Don't tell me we o find a key from this pile of keys."

  "Bingo! You got it right; we probably o find the right key to open the door," Soren said calmly. "Obviously, they 't just be decorative items.""But there are hundreds of keys up there!" Daphne frowned.

  Meredith had already grabbed a broomstick, getting ready to share the flying broom with Soren and Daphne.

  All three were not bad at flying, but pared to Harry or other Quidditch pyers, they all knew flying was not their strong suit. At that moment, Meredith thought they would just have to bite the bullet and go for it.

  Soren said slowly, "Let me give you a valuable lesson; in real-life bat, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. You o learn to use your strengths and utilize all the tools at your disposal to achieve yoals. The so-called tools are not just wands—they include potions, herbs, magical creatures, and of course, many items from the Muggle world. A wizard's true strength lies not in magic, but in wisdom. Whenever you enter a problem, thinking first about relying on magic to solve it is a sign of weakness. I have always believed that such people are merely brutes who perform magic. Flexibly using every tool avaible to us, employing our brains, to solve the insurmountable challenges we face... rather than relying solely on magic or brute force, that's what makes a truly excellent wizard!"

  The two girls listened, enlighteheir eyes sparkling as they looked at Soren.

  Then, Soren pulled a Muggle universal lock picker from his pocket and, after a few attempts uhe astonished gaze of the two girls, with a click, the door lock surprisingly opehe two girls stidly, watg Srasp the doorknob, smiling at them, "The door is ope's go in." With that, he pushed the door open.

  "How... how did you do that?" Meredith stuttered.

  Soren expined, "This is a Muggle universal lock picker, specifically used to pry open locks. This lock was ented with a ter-Alohomora spell, which makes wizard unlog methods iive, but—"

  Soren chuckled at this point, saying, "Wizards are tant. Even Dumbledore didn't show the prard fgle methods, which is why there are such loopholes. I dare say that any defensive measures within the school, including any faculty office, could be pried open with this tool."

  The three crossed the door aered ay room, which itch bd nothing could be seen in their field of vision.

  Suddenly, torches on the surrounding walls ignited, creating a se remi of battling a boss in a game, which was equally shog. At that moment, they found themselves standing beside a gigantic chessboard, fag two rows of bck statues taller than they were. Oher side of the room, fag them, were two rows of white statues.

  "This 't be... Wizard's Chess, it?" Daphne couldn't help but murmur. "What are we supposed to do now?"

  "We might o step onto the board as pieces. We only move to the level after defeating the oppo," Soreed, unsure if they could win with just three pieces.

  Daphne and Meredith frowned as they sidered that if they had to act as pieces, being struck by the ons of those statue pieces wouldn't be a fun experience.

  After thinking for a moment, Soren came up with a pn and asked Dapho serve as the king, while Meredith took the role of the queen, which were the two pieces least likely to be lost. He would take the role of a knight. "What if we get taken out?" Meredith still worried about various sarios.

  "I'll avoid that situation; if it's truly unavoidable, we'll just bst through with an explosion spell." After saying this, Soren began moving the pieces.

  The initial moves were all about exging pieces, clearing a rger battlefield. Soren found that Professonagall's chess game wasn't as brilliant as he had imagihis game progressed more smoothly than expected.

  As the number of pieces on the board decreased to a certaient, they no longer o sider exges, and Soren started tize how to defeat the king quickly.

  After the white queen violently knocked another bishop to the floor and tossed it off the board like garbage, Soren immediately stepped forward and happily checkmated the king. Just as he raised his wand, ready to bst the white king to pieces, the king surprisingly removed his and threw it at Soren's feet.

  This indicated that Soren had won.

  Passing through the wooden door, there was a corridor behind it, and the group followed it forward.

  Meredith said to herself, "The three-headed dog is Hagrid's challehat devil's snare must be Professor Sprout's trap; the ented keys are defihe work of Professor Flitwick, and Magall's giant chessboard— the three heads of the houses have all participated. So... it's very likely we'll face a trap set by Snape ?"

  Soren smiled, "Did you fet about our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor?"

  As they spoke, they arrived at a door. The moment the door ened, a ing stench wafted out, and they almost instinctively raised their clothes to cover their he moment, the sound of iron s being pulled resounded, followed by a deafening roar from ihe room.

  "It's a troll!" Meredith screamed. Girls are generally frightened by the terrifying appearand enormous size of trolls, losing their battle spirit regardless of their own strength. Daphne fared slightly better than Meredith; she didn't scream, but her face still looked quite pale.

  Soren said nontly, "It's just a troll. You didn't fet that I defeated one on Halloween, did you?" After he said this, both girls seemed to realize, and their expressions became less grim.

  Soren tinued, "Trolls have brute strength simir to giants, and their skin has siderable magic resistance, so it's unrealistic to knock it out with a stunning spell. However, it has a weakness—do you know what it is?"

  Meredith and Daphne answered in unison, "The back of its head! That's its weakness."

  Soren snapped his fingers and smiled with satisfa, "Exactly! Knowing its weakness makes it a lot less scary. In a moment, I'll use the impediment jinx to limit its movements while you two use the levitatioo trol the sti its hand and hit it on the back of its head. Uand?"

  Both girls had been instructed by Soren on the advanced use of the levitation spell and quickly o show they uood.

  After opening the door, Soren took the lead, using an obstacle spell to hinder ahe giant's movements. The two girls simultaneously cast a levitation spell on the wooden sticks on the giant's body. The tacit uanding they developed over the entire semester was now evident, as both girls used their minds to trol the wooden sticks, bringing them to the giant's back of the head and delivering a heavy blow that successfully khe giant unscious.

  With the achievement, the two girls happily hugged each other and high-fived in celebration, and unknowingly, the slight misuandings between them dissipated.

  rofessor Snape's logic puzzle challenge.

  her of the girls articurly skilled in logical reasoning, so Soren patiently guided them through the principles behind logical reasoning and provided some example problems from the Muggle world. While they waited for themselves, they attempted to solve the problems using their own abilities. Meanwhile, he drank the antidote alone and passed through the bck fmes, arriving at the final checkpoint—the room with the Mirror of Erised.

  Soren was not as ignorant about the Mirror of Erised as Harry was in the inal story.

  The Mirror of Erised was a creation from a 14th-tury alchemist, and unfortunately, the method of making this alchemical product had been lost. This wasn't an isoted case in the alchemical world; many other alchemical products from the same period had also lost their manufacturihods—such as the Vanishing et, the two-way mirror, the Resurre Stone, and the Invisibility Cloak, all due to the chaotiviro of war and the wizards' pent fuarding their treasures.

  The magiscribed on the Mirror of Erised was her tha of Soul-Reading.

  It used the art of Soul-Reading to read the thoughts of the person looking into the mirror, unc their innermost desires and projeg an image in the mirror. Dumbledore had made some modifications to this mirror, allowing it to store precious items—those who desired to obtain the Philosopher's Stone could see an illusory image of themselves holding it in the mirror, but only those who did not wish to use it could truly retrieve the stone.

  However, knowing the underlying principle of the mirror did not guarantee success. After casting a brain-blog spell, Soren attempted to approach the mirror, disc that the refle of himself was smiling back. The refle of Soren pulled a red sto of its pocket, and when Soren reached into his own pocket, he indeed found the legendary Philosopher's Stone.

  Having obtaihe Philosopher's Stone, Soren transformed it into aical-looking replica using Transfiguration. Then, using the brain-blog spell, he began to attempt to pce the replito the Mirror of Erised. After several attempts, he finally found the trid successfully pced the replito the mirror.

  Perhaps Dumbledore could see through the fact that this lica of the Philosopher's Stone, but so what?

  With hundreds of people iire school, it was unlikely Dumbledore would suspect this first-year student, especially since his as tonight were meticulously prepared—he khat apart from the caretaker Filch, all the portraits in the castle served as Dumbledore's eyes and ears. The three of them used the Disillusio Charm and the Sileng Spell to sneak out of the dormitory, ensuring that no one in the castle's portraits would be aware that they had left.

  The only remaining issue was that Dumbledore might summon the Philosopher's Stoh a summoning spell, but there was a solution—Hogwarts' anti-disillusio spells had a fatal fw: non-wizard apparitions could not be prohibited, such as phoehestrals, and house-elves.

  Soren hurriedly had Dobby take the Philosopher's Stone baalfoy Manor, pg it in a secret room that had heavy protective wards, cealment charms, and shielding spells released by the family.

  After doing all this, Soren quickly brought Daphne and Meredith back to the Slytherin dormitory, using the Disillusio Charm and the Sileng Spell.

  At this point, Soren was grateful that the entrao the Slytherin dormitory was a stone wall; as long as the correct password oken, the entrance would appear on the wall, unlike Gryffindor, which had a portrait of the Fat Lady guarding it—this avoided the risk of someone disc that someone had left the dormitory.

  [Philosopher's Stoained!]

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