The exploration continued.
With one hand, Leonard grabbed Dumbledore's sleeve. With his right hand, he touched the mysterious symbol again and used the Ancient Sprout to activate its transfer function.
Seeing that, Fawkes quickly tightened his grip on Dumbledore's shoulder.
The world spun, and by the time the feeling of solid ground returned, Leonard had already brought Dumbledore and Fawkes into an enormous pit.
Above them was a bare rock wall, with an opening roughly three meters wide letting down a shaft of light that happened to envelop Leonard and Dumbledore.
Everywhere else was pitch black. Only the faint soft glow from Fawkes lit up a tiny patch of the surrounding darkness.
But it did not help much.
"This is... a ruin?" Leonard frowned and looked around, puzzled.
The style was far too different. The previous two ruins, no matter how ruined they were, had at least looked like ruins, with walls and structures of a similar style.
Why was there nothing here?
Dumbledore looked around, then raised the Elder Wand toward the sky.
"Lumos Maxima."
As the spell took effect, a sphere of light shot upward from Dumbledore's wand and lit up the surroundings.
Underfoot was uneven ground that seemed to be embedded with many stones. Around them were smooth cliff walls with not a single foothold anywhere. It was obvious that climbing out by hand was impossible.
"Is this really a ruin?" Dumbledore asked, glancing around.
Dumbledore had never entered an ancient magic ruin before. If anyone here understood this place, it should have been Leonard.
"I don't know. It's very different from the ruins I've seen before." Leonard shook his head, equally confused.
Dumbledore immediately understood that Leonard was no help on this point. Fortunately, he had brought Fawkes, so he patted the phoenix and said, "Fawkes, go up and take a look."
Fawkes gave a cry in reply, then flapped his wings and tried to fly up toward the cliff to see what was there.
But before he had even made it five meters, he was forced back down, as though hundreds of pounds of pressure had suddenly slammed down on him.
Dumbledore caught Fawkes as he fell. Listening to the phoenix's complaints, he turned to Leonard and said, "Flying won't work here. And according to Fawkes, he can't use transfer magic to leave this place either. Looks like this part is up to you."
Leonard understood and nodded.
He knew the drill. This was nothing more than a trial inside an ancient magic ruin. Even if this place looked nothing like a proper ruin, they had come here through a mysterious symbol, so it had to be the ruin.
And every ruin required using the ancient magic one had just learned to overcome its trial. Leonard had already passed through two ancient magic ruins before, so by now he was familiar with the process.
"If we want to get out of here and reach the cliff above, then we'll definitely need the ancient magic I just learned, the one that promotes plant growth and heals injuries..."
Leonard thought for a moment, then said to Dumbledore, "Headmaster, help me look around for any plants."
This ancient magic had a very wide range. If he cast it directly, it could cover the whole pit, but it was still necessary to check the surroundings first in case something unexpected happened.
For example, if the suddenly grown plants damaged the cliff wall, getting buried alive would be a miserable way to die.
"All right." Dumbledore nodded and obediently took on the role of helper.
Before coming, Dumbledore had already prepared himself mentally. On this expedition, he was here as a bodyguard and a helper, nothing more.
He let Fawkes fly again. As long as he did not go higher than five meters, the phoenix could still move about.
With the efforts of two wizards and one phoenix, they quickly found something that could be called a plant.
"This is... a tree?" Leonard looked at the thing in front of him with curiosity.
Before them was a stepped platform topped with smooth stone slabs, but through the cracks beneath the steps, clear tree roots could be seen.
A tree holding up the platform. They really had prepared everything in advance.
Leonard could practically picture it already. After casting that ancient spell, they would stand on the platform and the rapidly growing tree would carry them all the way up to the cliff above.
"It should be a plant modified by wizards," Dumbledore said. "This is probably what you were looking for, yes?"
"That's right, Headmaster. Let's stand on it," Leonard said.
The two of them stepped onto the platform. Leonard reached into his robes, paused slightly, and then awkwardly pulled out his wand.
Dumbledore glanced at it and raised a brow. "Leonard, your wand..."
"This was specially made by Mr. Ollivander." Leonard glanced at the Elder Wand in Dumbledore's hand. "He said it resembles the legendary Elder Wand. Just the appearance, of course."
He had almost forgotten that his wand was a high-quality imitation of the Elder Wand. Now the fake and the real thing were face to face, which was a little awkward.
"I see. May I have a look?" Dumbledore asked.
"Uh... I suppose that's fine." Leonard hesitated, then handed his wand over.
Dumbledore examined it carefully. He was not a wandmaker, but with his eye for detail, he quickly sensed something odd about it.
This thing... seemed terribly unstable.
He almost felt afraid it might explode in his hand.
Was this really a wand?
"Mr. Ollivander said he never truly succeeded in making an Elder Wand. This one is a specially treated custom wand, and only I can use it," Leonard explained.
A wand that only one person could use. What kind of novel technique was that supposed to be?
Dumbledore was genuinely stunned. With all his wisdom and knowledge, he thought about it for quite a while and still could not grasp the principle behind it.
"Ahem... Headmaster, maybe we should head up first," Leonard said, seeing that Dumbledore had drifted off into thought.
"...Oh, my apologies. I was just thinking about how such a thing might work." Dumbledore came back to himself and returned the wand.
Leonard smiled awkwardly, then waved the wand while simultaneously activating the Ancient Sprout hidden in his sleeve.
A vast amount of magic surged. Silver light shot upward like a stream, then spread out after striking the rock wall above.
Leonard's expression grew serious. This spell consumed even more magic than the first ancient spell he had ever learned. If the Ancient Sprout had not been strengthened a second time, he would not even have had enough magical reserves to cast it.
No wonder the vision had shown a whole group of wizards using that spell rather than a single person.
Soon, the Ancient Sprout's stored magic was exhausted, and Leonard's own reserves had been heavily drained as well. Still, the spell had been cast successfully.
Dark clouds gathered out of nowhere beneath the rock walls, and torrential rain came pouring down.