The corpse of the Snake Monster lies quietly there.
The yet-to-decompose snakeskin has lost all its blood, flesh, and nutrients, rendering it completely worthless for medicinal use. The person who killed this poor giant snake wasted not a single ounce of usable energy.
This was definitely a heart-wrenching situation for Ian, who had always considered the Snake Monster his unseen treasure, and never expected his treasure to be intercepted and hunted by someone.
"Tom! It must be Tom! There's no one else it could be besides Tom!"
The damp smell of mildew mixed with blood assaulted Ian's nostrils, and his hand holding the magic wand trembled slightly with anger. He had researched many potions specifically for raising the Snake Monster.
Including but not limited to the [Rapid Regeneration Potion], [Three Times a Day Shedding Potion], and [Snake Tooth Acceleration Potion], these painstaking and harmless inventions are now utterly useless.
The Snake Monster in the Secret Chamber is gone.
Where is the little wizard supposed to find a second source of precious Magic Potion Materials forever? Calculating based on raising Snake Monsters for six generations, he has easily lost hundreds of millions of Golden Galleons this time.
"Even if the evil Tom resurrects and lets me carve out a thousand-year liver, it would hardly compensate for my grievous loss." Ian raised his magic wand and buried the Snake Monster on the spot with heartache.
He glanced at the slightly damp and dark passage ahead, feeling that since he was already here, he might as well search Slytherin's Secret Chamber for any recyclable resources.
Every little bit helps.
As for not attending class on the first morning of school, that was not within the little wizard's consideration, and he was sure Professor Flitwick would gladly find him a suitable excuse.
The status of an outstanding student in the eyes of the professors is already quite privileged, let alone Ian being the best among the best. Professor Flitwick had even helped Ian forge medical certificates for ailments Ian didn't even know about.
"Tap, tap, tap~"
Ian's footsteps echoed in the empty chamber, splashing water underfoot that disturbed the long-stored dust in the air, the entire chamber filled with a heart-wrenching silence.
Only Ian's clearly audible footsteps and the occasional droplets seeping through cracks in the stone, making a subtle and crisp sound, continuously overlapping in this underground room built a thousand years ago.
"Slytherin must have severe arthritis."
Ian reached the end of the passage, and after rounding one corner after another, a seemingly solid stone wall suddenly came into view.
It was an exquisitely crafted wall, carved with some Magic Runes and two intertwined giant serpents, their eyes embedded with a few huge and pristine gemstones.
They shimmered with a chilling green light similar to the Killing Curse. Perhaps with the aid of the Transformation Technique, these stone-made giant serpents were indistinguishable from real snakes, clinging to the wall, scrutinizing the prey below as if they might pounce at any moment. Ian even heard a "hiss, hiss" of snake cries by his ears.
"Open."
At Ian's command, the entire chamber began to tremble violently. The rumbling sound of mechanisms echoed, and dust kept falling from the ceiling above Ian.
This dust did not land on Ian's clothes.
"The amount of dust isn't like decades of accumulation." Under his gaze, soon, the chamber, perhaps recently opened, burst open its gates.
The rusty creaking also fell silent.
In sight.
Inside the gates was a narrow room, with a straight path leading to the end, and on both sides of the road lay deep pools of water.
Stone pillars stood in the pools, supporting a ceiling with a huge crystal chandelier, with candles burning steadily and enduringly above it, refusing to extinguish over millennia.
The firelight, refracted by the intricately cut crystals, almost illuminated every corner of the chamber, clearly using some optical principle related to Muggle science.
The serpent carvings coiled around the pillars also appeared vivid and almost alive in the reflection on the water, like long water snakes swimming eerily in the pools.
"Who says wizards aren't good at math and science? I think Slytherin practiced both!" Ian stepped forward, his magic wand always in hand.
After all, no one could tell if an attacker might suddenly emerge from somewhere. The development of events had already diverged too much from the Hogwarts story Ian remembered.
With each step the little wizard took forward, no unusual occurrences happened among the ominous shadows around him. He walked directly to the end, arriving before a sculpture as tall as the chamber itself.
It was a sculpture of an old man with a monkey-like face resembling a monkey, his sparse yet long goatee draping down to the floor-length robe. He stood on two gray legs on the smooth stone floor, slightly bowing to gaze upon the insignificant newcomers at his feet, his arrogant demeanor undiminished by the passage of a thousand years.
The sculpting technique was exceptionally intricate, with each strand of his beard distinctly defined, evidently a laborious masterpiece, even more refined than the grand statues in the underground palace.