Chapter 674: Chapter 674: Cedric Spins Around (Edited)
Seeing Cedric's confused expression, Dumbledore smiled contentedly.
Karkaroff and Madame Maxime beside him were a bit puzzled, not understanding what Dumbledore had done.
Indeed, the test this time was as Cedric had thought. Each of the three floors corresponded to one of the three schools, and each of the tests was designed by the headmaster of that school. That is, Madame Maxime was in charge of designing Beauxbatons' distinctive test, Karkaroff designed Durmstrang's distinctive test, and the test with Hogwarts' characteristic touch was personally designed by Dumbledore.
This made the three tests bear each headmaster's personal stamp. For example, Krum was now struggling against all kinds of traps in Madame Maxime's test, which was known for its focus on brute strength. Fleur was being bothered by Karkarov's cunning tricks in her test.
Dumbledore's test, although it didn't require a desperate struggle or facing clever and treacherous traps, bore the mark of the highest difficulty just with the name "Dumbledore."
Within it, magics were involved that even other school heads couldn't comprehend.
As for whether the directors' test designs could cause leaks, neither the directors nor the judges were really concerned. If one test leaked, there were still two others. It couldn't be expected that a champion would extract information from the other two directors.
However, unexpectedly, the content of the second task had not been revealed by any of the directors! Dumbledore wasn't willing to disclose information, Madame Maxime didn't want to tell, and Karkaroff was under the control of the Imperius Curse.
Therefore, the three directors had remained tight-lipped!
Just as Dumbledore was in a better mood, Madame Maxime spoke up: "Krum is about to pass my test, will he meet Cedric when that happens?"
Madame Maxime was a bit worried, not wanting to see a scene where Cedric and Krum solved the riddle together.
"Don't worry," Dumbledore said, adjusting his glasses, "I've created three identical challenges for the third task, ensuring that each champion will participate independently."
Karkaroff and Madame Maxime: ...
You really have a lot of free time, don't you?
Doing the same challenge three times, that truly goes beyond the imagination of the two directors. Karkaroff's challenge had three different entrances, Madame Maxime's various magical mechanisms could be restored after being destroyed, only Dumbledore had opted for the simplest approach...
...
Cedric was on the brink of collapse.
He had been trapped in the third task for almost half an hour, but no matter how hard he tried, he always ended up back at the starting point.
During this time, he had tried every possible method, even attempting to blast through the walls with a blasting spell, but to no avail.
"So, what's going on? It's like I'm stuck in a time loop!" Cedric sat down disheartened in the initial courtyard, feeling helpless.
"Wait a moment, a time loop... time..." Suddenly, he caught a flash in his mind, began connecting everything he had seen with that flash, and finally, his gaze settled on the sundial beneath the pine tree.
The sundial, a time measuring device!
He immediately approached the sundial and began studying the ornament he had overlooked.
Now Cedric felt that the test must begin in this courtyard.
He looked at the marks on the sundial and touched them with his hand, but the needle couldn't reach the right end because the pine tree's root blocked it.
"Maybe this is the key to overcoming it," Cedric muttered softly.
If the pine tree's root blocked the needle, what should he do?
Cedric chose a very simple method.
"Expulso!"
Splinters flew everywhere, and the root blocking the needle's path was pulverized, allowing the needle to move to the right end!
Dumbledore sighed from the podium.
He felt inexperienced, as the competitors found such an obvious vulnerability.
"Has he used an unexpected way to pass the test again?" Madame Maxime almost laughed upon hearing that sigh.
"Next time, I'll reinforce all the elements," Dumbledore reflected deeply on his mistake.
"So, what is the right way to solve your riddle?" Madame Maxime asked, although she was a headmistress, her attitude towards magical exploration never changed. Therefore, she chose to continue discussing the problem with Dumbledore.
"Each mark on the sundial represents a season. By setting it to spring, the pine tree becomes smaller, and the needle can move to the right end," Dumbledore revealed the mystery behind the mechanism he had designed.
"I see..." Madame Maxime murmured.
After solving Dumbledore's puzzle, Cedric easily passed the final test and reached the shore of the Black Lake.
From now on, the next step was much simpler. After carefully studying the instructions for the Muggle diving suit, Cedric hesitated for a moment before putting on the diving gear. And indeed, after submerging, the diving suit allowed him to breathe underwater!
Sometimes Muggles could be very reliable! While reflecting on Muggle wisdom, Cedric swam to the bottom of the lake.
Unlike Dumbledore's cleverly crafted magical creatures, the magical creatures in the lake weren't very clever, which allowed Cedric to progress quickly. Apart from getting lost for a while, he encountered no major obstacles. When he reached the lake bottom, only half the stipulated time for the event had passed.
And the underwater world unfolded before his eyes.
Before this, almost all Hogwarts students had heard of the huge squids and mermaids said to inhabit the Black Lake, but no one had actually had the opportunity to see them.
Today, the champions had the chance to catch a glimpse.
However, after seeing the mermaids, everyone was disappointed. Instead of calling them mermaids, it was more appropriate to refer to them as mermen.
Unlike the beautiful images they had imagined, the appearance of the mermen was quite ugly: they had ashen gray skin, dark green and disheveled hair, and yellowed broken teeth.
In the prefects' bathroom portraits at Hogwarts, there were also images of mermen, but after comparing them to the real mermen, Cedric couldn't associate the two images.
Elegance vs. roughness, cleanliness vs. dirtiness, the difference between the two images was overwhelming.
Chapter 675: Chapter 675: End and Settlement (Edited)
Cedric's approach alarmed the mermaids in the village. They swam out of their stone houses and glared at him maliciously, like an unwelcome intruder.
Observing the spears in the mermaids' hands and their strong, muscular arms and fish tails, Cedric grimaced; now he was grateful that these mermaids were not hostile forces.
He wasn't fooled by their spears; if he really engaged in combat with them, he wouldn't even be enough to fill their teeth.
Cedric closely observed the world of the mermaids and noticed a fundamental difference from the magical creatures he had seen before. Unlike other magical creatures, even the powerful ones like dragons or as sacred as unicorns, they didn't have such a detailed social structure.
To Cedric's eyes, the mermaids seemed to have the appearance of a primitive tribe. They had their own architectural styles and raised other magical creatures to assist in their hunting: some houses had grindylows tethered outside, and there was a clear distinction of status and wealth.
Some houses were simple stone shells, while others had grindylows tethered outside and gardens filled with aquatic plants. Overall, the closer to the center, the more "luxurious" the mermaids' houses were, and the inhabitants were stronger.
Cedric vaguely heard a song and understood that the mermaids were guiding him through it. So he swam towards the song, which was in the direction of the center of the mermaid village.
As he advanced, more and more mermaids emerged, looking curiously at the strange visitor. For the mermaids, wizards were rare creatures they barely saw once in a hundred years.
The number of mermaids increased to the point where Cedric could no longer count them. Just from the quantity and considering their advanced social structure, Cedric realized a fact: mermaids were undoubtedly the rulers of the underwater world.
The sky and the land of the magical world belonged to wizards, while the underwater world was the domain of the mermaids.
He also noticed that all the mermaids that appeared here were males.
Maybe the female mermaids are prettier! Suddenly, this idea crossed his mind.
In the center of the mermaid village was a small square where Cedric saw a huge mermaid statue with three people tied to the statue's tail: Tom, Cho Chang, and Luna.
A large group of mermaids was singing around them.
The three hostages were asleep and bubbling continuously from their mouths.
The potion Professor McGonagall had given them allowed them to breathe freely underwater, as if they were back in their mother's womb.
Cedric spat out bubbles and pulled a small knife from his pocket, cutting the seaweed ropes that bound Cho Chang.
An idea crossed Cedric's mind: if he took the other champions' most important "treasures," couldn't they complete the task?
"You can't do that, you can only take your own hostages," a seven-foot-tall mermaid told him, stopping him with a spear in hand and persuading him to abandon that bold idea.
"Alright." Cedric wasn't stubborn, and realizing there were no loopholes to exploit, he immediately brought Cho Chang to the surface.
The next step was to return to the surface as quickly as possible to have more time and earn more points.
Ten minutes after Cedric left, Krum arrived at the mermaid village with a shark's head over his shoulders.
His speed was astonishing.
Indeed, in the wooden building, Krum had spent much less time than Cedric. After passing Madame Maxime's test, he entered the third level with a desire to kill and, quite luckily, found the peculiarity of the sundial and used the same approach as Cedric to break the root blocking the needle, passing Dumbledore's test.
Dumbledore had nothing to say to the young wizards who didn't follow the rules of the game.
After reaching the mermaid village, Krum had to make an effort to bring Luna back, trailing behind Cedric by only seven minutes.
Finally, Cedric completed the competition in one hour and fifty-three minutes, while Krum took exactly two hours.
As both were drying off on the shore, they saw Fleur running towards them from the wooden cabin. She had completed all three levels of challenges, which meant she wasn't finished when Cedric and Krum were already done.
However, Dumbledore was relieved to see that Fleur had perfectly understood his intention. She found all the traps he had left and overcame them with the right approach.
Seeing the two on the shore, Fleur felt at a disadvantage. But she couldn't afford to waste time, so she mustered her courage, took the gillyweed, and dove into the lake.
With the help of the gillyweed, Fleur swam faster than the other two champions. But when she saw Tom Yodel underwater, she lost her composure.
She repeatedly asked the leader of the mermaids if Tom was her mission target, until the mermaids grew tired and confirmed what she already knew: the competition organizers really considered Tom their "treasure."
At least she wouldn't have to leave her sister at the bottom of the lake, Fleur comforted herself as she brought Tom back to the shore.
The final results were not surprising. Cedric, with the shortest time, scored the highest. But the gap between him and Krum did not widen, as Krum had also shown an impressive performance, receiving a high score of 60 points and trailing Cedric by only 5 points.
Adding the remaining points from the previous challenges, Cedric still held the first place with 75 points, while Krum had 70 points, trailing in second place by 5 points.
Fleur, on the other hand, wasn't as lucky. Even if Dumbledore gave her the maximum score, she only scored 45 points in the second event, leaving her with a total of 47 points...
It was evident that Fleur had little chance of winning the Triwizard Tournament.
The second event narrowed the gap between Cedric and Krum, creating some suspense in the battle between the two.
After announcing the scores of the three champions, the second event came to a complete end.
"The last event will take place on the afternoon of June 24th. The champions will be informed in advance of the specific content of the event. Thank you all for your support and love for the champions. See you in June!" With Bagman's energetic voice, the second event of the Triwizard Tournament came to a close.
"Do you want something warm to drink?" Hermione approached Tom, who was shivering, and handed him a small bottle of water.
"Thanks." Although he had already dried off, Tom still felt uncomfortable after being submerged in cold water for three hours. Impatiently, he opened the warm bottle and discovered it was filled with cinnamon cider.
It was an unusual drink that combined powdered cinnamon with red wine and had the effect of warming the body, perfect for someone with a cold. Although the taste was a bit strange, it was just what Tom needed at that moment.
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