Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
The second round of the Magic School Potions Championship had quietly arrived with the fading night.
Early in the morning, Albert woke up from his deep sleep, stretched lazily, got dressed, washed up, and prepared to go downstairs for dinner. He happened to meet Professor Slughorn yawning at the stairs. The elderly man was obviously not used to getting up early.
"Ask Isobel what you like to eat in the morning, and remember to eat more." Professor Slughorn sat next to Albert and reminded him, "You won't have time to eat before the end of the second round. Most of your time will be spent on traveling or looking for magic ingredients."
In fact, most of the contestants have been told similar things by their team leaders.
In the second round of competition, the contestants may not be able to eat for a long time. If they are so hungry that their hands and feet become weak, they will not be able to complete the task properly.
In fact, Albert has always wanted to complain, why can’t the organizers prepare some water and food for the contestants
I guess he is not the only one who would complain like this.
However, there are not many contestants like Albert who have an appetite. Most of them are very nervous. This is a normal reaction of contestants. Not everyone has experienced big occasions like Albert.
Yes, Albert was really not nervous.
Maybe it was because he had experienced too many exciting things after going to Hogwarts that Albert became a little dull.
To put it another way: I've seen a lot of big scenes.
That’s it
When we were halfway through the meal, someone from the event organizer came and said they would bring a set of clothes for the contestants to use in the next competition.
Various colors, plus the school emblem of each school.
Honestly, it's ugly.
Moreover, Albert was very resistant to wearing clothes that had been used by others.
Well, he wasn't the only one who objected to this, other contestants were equally resistant.
"Why do we have to put on these ugly clothes?"
"This is to ensure fairness in the competition and prevent cheating..."
When he heard the first two sentences, Albert almost burst out laughing. Fortunately, he quickly turned it into a dry cough to resolve the unnecessary embarrassment.
You really can't blame him. The so-called fairness has always been a joke.
"… There are tracking spells on the clothes, which can arrive at the first time and provide assistance when you are in danger." The wizard continued, "Don't worry, these clothes are newly made and have been washed by the house elves."
Many people don't believe this. Most of the wizards who can participate in the Potions Championship are adults and have their own ideas.
"Are you sure?" Albert asked, staring into the man's eyes.
"Of course." The wizard felt a little uncomfortable.
"He didn't lie." Albert looked at Isobel.
"Just custom-made and washed." Isobel nodded.
"What the hell are you doing?" the wizard said angrily. For a moment, he felt that he was completely seen through.
"See if you have deceived us." Albert took his clothes, went back to eat, and ignored the other party.
Some people set an example, and others chose to believe it after whispering. They were curious about what Albert had done.
The wizard seemed very anxious.
Several principals who led the teams frowned. This kind of thing should be announced in advance, or at least someone should come to measure the contestants to make it more convincing.
Fortunately, the organizer's brain has not been caught by the door, otherwise if this was really clothes worn by someone else, it would explode instantly and the entire Potions Championship would become a laughing stock.
After everyone changed into new clothes, they followed the crowded team to the west side of the village. There was no doubt that the entrance to the magic garden was here.
The entire village probably exists to hide the entrance to the magic garden, and any contestant who isn't stupid enough can guess this.
If they had not been told that the magic garden was a forest, they would have thought that this was the magic garden when they came here.
This village actually fits people's imagination of a magical garden. It is surrounded by towering walls and full of precious plants.
No matter how you look at it, it looks like a garden and is very deceptive.
The contestants were led to a common greenhouse, and after passing through two doors, they found themselves in front of a forest.
Is this the magic garden
People looked around curiously and found that behind them were the ruins of a stone house that looked to be hundreds of years old.
What they had just passed through was a magical door, somewhat similar to the entrance to Platform Nine and Three Quarters at King's Cross Station.
"Welcome everyone to the Magic Garden."
An old wizard walked up to everyone, cleared his throat, and told the rules of the second round of the competition: "You will have 10 hours to go deep into the magic garden to collect raw materials, and return with the found raw materials within the specified time, and use the found raw materials to brew a magic potion."
"You can only bring your own wand and the medicine box distributed to you. It is forbidden to bring or use other foreign objects to cheat. Finally, please remember:
It is forbidden to attack each other or snatch other players' potion ingredients.
It is prohibited to destroy or steal forests and precious herbs.
If you encounter danger, you can shoot red sparks into the sky, and the surrounding patrols will rush to help you as soon as possible, but shooting sparks means losing the qualification to continue the competition.
If you fail to return in time and brew the potion within ten hours, you will be disqualified from the competition."
After the old wizard finished speaking, all the contestants were given a satchel. Inside was a lot of compartments for storing raw materials, a pair of dragon-skin gloves, a silver knife, a shovel, and a pocket watch with a direction to the entrance of the magic garden.
"The order of entering the forest will be based on the score ranking of the first round, with one person entering every five minutes. Okay, Mr. Albert Anderson, you can go now. Next is Mr. Guy Bernard, please get ready."
Albert didn't waste any time. He put on his backpack, picked up his wand, and walked straight towards the magic garden not far away.
This magical garden does not look at all as gloomy as the Forbidden Forest surrounding Hogwarts. There is a sense of magic within the field of vision. The wizards have obviously transformed this forest.
That’s right, if this place had not been transformed, why would there be so many exotic flowers and plants and rare fruits
Albert walked forward slowly, not in a hurry at all, he was carefully recalling the potion formula in his mind. The original first target was the beauty potion, but some of the ingredients for the beauty potion were not easy to find.
Fairy wings, morning dew, and unicorn tail hair were all hard to collect, and boomslang skin was impossible to find. Moreover, he doubted whether he could find roses in the magic garden, and even if he did, roses did not bloom in November.
What the hell!
Albert wondered why he hadn't realized how unreliable it was to prepare beauty potions.
Fortunately, he had prepared more than one backup plan for himself.
Compared to beauty potions, shrinking potions are obviously more reliable.
Daisy is a common yellow or white wild flower in Europe with very strong vitality.
All right.
In the field of vision, Albert spotted a small patch of daisies.
Albert got out his small spade and began to dig up the daisy roots.
As for the shrinking fig, although it originates from Abyssinia (Ethiopia), this plant is very strong and can easily survive elsewhere.
If you are lucky enough, you might be able to find wrinkled figs in the magic garden.
Why do I mention luck? Because even if you find a wrinkled fig tree, there must be wrinkled figs on it.
The remaining ingredients are even simpler. Caterpillars are not common in winter, but the temperature here is actually quite high, so they should not be difficult to find.
As for mice, there is no problem at all. How could there be no mice in the mountains? It's just that taking out their spleen is a rather troublesome task.
Leech juice is even less of a problem; leeches are as common as mice, caterpillars and daisies.
The only problem is that the shrinking potion you make may not score very high.
If it was before participating in the Potions Championship, Albert might have been troubled by this issue, but after last night's prophecy, he no longer worried about it.
Because there is still a third round.
Yes, there is a third round.
Therefore, the score after this round of games is not as important as it originally was.
The rules have been changed.
Albert felt that it was most likely President Bernard's doing. That guy really did everything he could to help his grandson get the golden crucible.
In the third round, contestants can choose their own potion recipes, and then the magic garden will provide materials to prepare the potions. The contestants will then be scored based on the difficulty and completeness of the preparation of the potions.
And, most importantly, the champion is not determined by winning the third round. Instead, the champion of the final Potion Championship is determined by the total score of the three games.
No wonder Hetok hates President Bernard. If he were in his place, he wouldn't like that guy either.
Guy Bernard, who knew the rules in advance, was obviously well prepared for this Potions Championship. The change in rules was very beneficial to him. If it weren't for Albert, Guy Bernard would have opened up a huge gap with other players at the beginning, and then continued to accumulate advantages to win the final championship.
Unfortunately, he had no chance after Albert predicted the outcome through his crystal ball.
"By the way, why didn't Mr. Damocles remind me?" Albert muttered to himself, "Did he not know, or did he think that even if the rules changed, it would not affect him? Or, did he not want to win by cheating?"
Using the brief moment he had to look around, Albert easily found the guy who was watching him from above his head.
Don't think that you won't be able to detect the Disillusionment Charm you've used.
Perhaps, the other party is an expert in the field of herbs or potions, but his level in other fields is obviously not good enough.
"How about we eliminate Guy Bernard first?"
Albert looked at the forest ahead and squinted his eyes slightly: Look, what he saw, an Arioth.