The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 729 Roots
After more than half a month of digging, Ryan and his team finally found the secret location of Camelot that could make wizards' magic ineffective. Perhaps due to the long period of erosion, the large amount of defensive magic that should have existed is now very little. So Ryan and his team easily opened a stone slab and found the way to the ground below.

This underground passage was carved directly out of the rock, but perhaps magic was used in the construction process, and the walls and ceiling appear unexpectedly smooth. There is a niche at regular intervals on the cave wall, which should have been used to place candles or oil lamps in the past.

For safety reasons, Ryan and Hermione did not use any lighting facilities. Instead, they simply relied on their night vision to walk down the stone steps. The steps were narrow and long, and it seemed that there was no end. It was not until they walked for nearly 20 minutes that they realized that the steps under their feet disappeared, and a not very big cave appeared in front of them.

There are many sponge-like fungi growing on the ceiling of the cave. These fungi emit a cold sky blue light, illuminating the outlines of the objects in the cave and making the entire ceiling of the cave look like the night sky.

"What a magical sight. I never thought there would be such wonderful life in such a dark cave." Hermione raised her head and looked at the glowing blue fungi, then lowered her head to look at a stone platform in the middle of the cave. "I can feel that what we are looking for is on that stone platform, because I can feel as if something is calling me from there."

"Do you have the same feeling? I also felt that there was something wrong with this stone platform when I walked in before." On the one hand, Ryan could clearly feel some weak magical fluctuations on the stone platform, and on the other hand, the stone platform was also the only man-made building in this space. Under normal circumstances, all important things would be placed there.

He carefully checked the surroundings and summoned the Rose Mother to remove several magic traps that he had found. It must be said that a thousand years ago, there was indeed a magic master who created an era and possessed many powerful magics. Even many important or commonly used magics today originated from that era.

However, after thousands of years of development in the magic world, many complex magics that were once considered top-level inheritances have now become commonplace. Therefore, Ryan easily removed the powerful defensive magics that were arranged around the stone platform, and then the two walked to the edge of the stone platform together.

This stone platform is a square double-layered stone platform, not very tall. It looks like an altar in a church. The reliefs on the stone platform, which are painted with various bright colors, make the whole stone platform look lively and bring a touch of vitality to this dead underground space.

"This is the legendary story of King Arthur," Ryan quickly recognized what kind of story these reliefs described as he looked at the continuous pictures on the reliefs. "From his birth to Merlin's teachings, pulling out the sword from the stone, establishing the Knights of the Round Table, fighting all his life, to King Arthur going to Avalon after being seriously injured at the Battle of Camlan. This describes King Arthur's life."

"That means the last time this place was renovated was after King Arthur disappeared in Avalon, when King Arthur's kingdom began to fall apart." Hermione reacted immediately. "If that's the case, the object they need to protect with a lot of complicated magic should be something very important but immovable."

"Your guess makes sense." Ryan said as he pulled out his wand and began to gently tap the props held by some sculptures on the stone platform in a special order. Only then did Hermione notice that the various weapons held in the hands of these reliefs were actually made of wood or metal. They were exactly proportional models of real weapons.

After the knocking, Ryan took two steps back and looked at the stone platform. After a series of crackling sounds, the stone platform slowly sank. When the stone platform completely disappeared from the ground, a Roman-style stone column slowly rose from the ground. On top of the stone column was a basketball-sized gray stone ball inlaid with gold wire.

"Such a strong breath of death." After the stone ball appeared, Hermione suddenly felt a suffocating breath of death sweeping around from the stone ball.

"This is a vengeful spirit." Ryan thought as he took out a piece of yellow talisman paper from his arms and threw it out. As a result, the talisman paper just left Ryan's hand and suddenly caught fire, and in an instant it turned into ashes floating in the air.

"No problem, it's here." Looking at the paper ashes, Ryan confirmed the specific situation here. "The whole castle is a magic circle. The builders at that time used these resentful souls and the magic of moonlight to build a powerful magic circle specifically for magicians in this place." "This method of using the dead souls is too crude and seriously violates the laws of nature." For Hermione, who believes in the theory of life cycle, this kind of forcible binding of the dead souls and preventing them from finding peace is unacceptable to her.

After all, destroying the soul like Ryan did when he created the Madonna of the Rose was also a way to return the soul to the cycle, but now this method of completely restraining the soul completely prevents the soul from entering the cycle.

"So I think we need to free these undead souls that have been bound for thousands of years." Ryan said to Hermione after carefully examining the stone ball. "It's best if you do this. It can help you better understand the power of death."

"No problem." Hermione said as she took out the Golden Book of the Sun and the Black Book of the Dead from the space bag. Although the gods had taken out their divine power from these two books, their precious materials made them still very useful spellcasting tools after thousands of years of being immersed in divine power.

After preparing all the necessary items for casting the spell, Hermione looked at Ryan who took a step back and asked, "If I let these resentful souls return to peace now, then the magic circle here will also disappear. Then--"

Before she finished her words, Ryan waved his hand to signal Hermione not to worry. "Don't worry, during the exploration some time ago, I have already memorized the structure of the magic flow in the castle, and after coming in just now, I have also mastered the core technology of the entire magic circle."

"To be honest, the principle of this magic circle is not very complicated. I have basically figured out the principle of this magic during my inspection just now. After we go back, we can add a new weapon to the floating city. And compared with this ancient magic circle that must rely on the magic power of moonlight to use, I think my new design should be more effective than this one."

"Of course, I won't use the souls of the dead as the core." Ryan concluded, "That's a very crude method. For the floating city, as long as we use the tower spirit as the main guiding core and use the flying stone crystals as energy, we can activate this magic at any time to form a forbidden magic area around, just like Camelot."

"That's great," Hermione nodded happily and stood up to chant the spell. The ancient Latin spell sounded like an ancient ballad. As the chanting sounded, the two magic books began to flash and light began to appear. At the same time, cracks began to appear on the stone ball. Through these cracks, Ryan could see some white light leaking out from the cracks.

Finally, half an hour after the spell was chanted, the first stone shell peeled off from the stone ball like an eggshell. Through the gap left by the stone shell, Ryan found that there was a ball of light hidden inside the stone ball. On the surface of the ball of light, one painful human face after another kept protruding and returning to a flat state, revealing a weird taste.

The falling of the first piece of stone shell was like a signal, and soon the stone shells in the remaining places also fell, and finally only a white light ball was left floating in the air.

"Now it's time for the next step." Looking at the white ball of light, Hermione made a gesture in front of her chest. Following her gesture, the two magic books that were originally placed on the ground automatically opened and floated into the air. In an instant, golden and black light emerged from the opened pages of the two books, making the entire cave shrouded in these two colors of light.

(End of this chapter)