Chapter 102: Aquatic Trials, Friendships, Rat

[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

Quinn looked down into the 'well' known as Hadal Encumbrance. It was definitely of the most intriguing concepts Quinn had seen, and only by researching the subject he had realized why it was called as such.

'Hadal', from the Greek god of the underworld, Hades. The underworld, which was the realm of Hades, was under the ground. Similarly, it would be the aquatic world that resided below the 'ground level.'

The Hadal Encumbrance represented the ocean depths in its deepest regions, where oceanic trenches lay. A place where humans couldn't survive and only those species evolved to withstand the harsh conditions would tread the waters where the warmth and light of the sun didn't reach.

"It is interesting how the creator was able to emulate the water pressure at ocean depths," noted Quinn as he stared down the well, and he could see the extraordinarily still water, remembering the pressure that would assault as he went down.

One of the simplest definitions of pressure stated that 'pressure was the force exerted on a body'. The air around the globe had weight, and it pressed against everything it touched. That pressure was called 'atmospheric pressure' or 'air pressure': it was the force exerted on a surface by the air above it as gravity pulled it to the Earth.

The oceans were deep. If one was to shave off all the continents and fill the trenches in the oceans with the ground from the continents, the entire globe would be covered with water about 2 miles in depth.

And within those depths was the world of pressure.

When one was in contact with air, a body would feel the pressure from the air, and it was dubbed air pressure. Similarly, when in contact with water, a body would feel the pressure from water and had the name hydrostatic pressure, or water pressure.

But the main difference between air and water pressure was that air was 830 times less dense than water. Meaning that water pressure was much higher than air pressure.

As one went down into a sea or an ocean, more water would get piled up on top and thus increase the weight of water above and thus increase the pressure on the body.

"Here, the water pressure increases much quicker than natural aquatic depth," said Quinn as he sat by the ledge with his chin resting on the palm. "I guess this would be difficult for some people."

Quinn had gone through two trials: Poseidon's Wrath and Tehom's Delight. And in those trials, Quinn had struggled a lot.

"Poseidon's Wrath required fine control over magic to get to the center. Without fine control, I would've stuck there without any progress."

"Tehom's Delight required ingenuity or maybe luck. Without the Ripple sonar, I probably would've found the entrance, but it would've been completely up to luck."

He continued to stare down the well and recited his thoughts about what was required by this trial.

"Hadal Encumbrance simply requires power. Pure magical force to overcome, oppose and repel the emulated oceanic pressure. I guess this trial is compatible with me."

Quinn had magical power in abundance. He had deep magic reserves that had been built through the daily exhaustion of his magic. Ever since Quinn was five, Quinn had used all of his magic every day. The only exception to that rule was the time he didn't have any control over his magic.

That had given Quinn deep reserves of magic that were perfect for Hadal Encumbrance. He just needed to optimize his magic usage against the pressure and pour his vast reserves into the magic till he reached the bottom.

So unlike the first two trials, Quinn was having a breezy time in going through Hadal Encumbrance.

"Alright, let's see if I can break my high score," said Quinn and dove into the well of water with accelerated water pressure increase.

With his body facing downward and aligning his entire body horizontally with the surface of the water/floor of the well, he sank down. The purpose of this posture was to decrease his surface area vertically.

The pressure in the vertical water column changed very quickly, meaning that the pressure at his head would be significantly less than that at his feet. So to get a uniform pressure all over his body, he distributed his body surface area horizontally. That way, his body mostly would have a uniform pressure.

As Quinn sank down, a cylindrical area constructed with water magic manifested around Quinn. The pressure inside the cylinder was normalized to the level of surface-level pressure.

In no time, Quinn reached fifty percent of the total depth without feeling any difficulty at all. The difficulty to keep the pressure normalized came when he hit sixty percent depth.

'I wonder if the pressure here is because of gravity manipulation or it is simply water magic that is pulling down the water.'

Quinn realized that the entire Aquatic Vault was based around water concepts. The instructions in the stone cave explicitly talked about Laws, but that didn't mean that the trials were created via water magic.

In Poseidon's Wrath, the vortex had been definitely created through water magic. But the vast array of conjuration and charm disablers weren't part of water magic.

The sheer calmness of the water that even weakened Quinn's Ripple Sonar was definitely achieved by water magic in Tehom's Delight. But Quinn realized that the extensive sensory deprivation didn't have anything to do with water magic. The zero ambient noise could have been achieved through a sound-dampening magic application. That state where the light was getting blocked could have been light magic weaved into the water and not an application of water magic.

And just like that, the accelerated gradient pressure increase might have been accomplished by other magic and not water magic.

But one thing Quinn was sure of was that if he was to complete the vault, he would need to use water magic to get past every trial.

Not because the trials were closely related to water; sure, that was a part of it, but the real reason was that Quinn constantly used water magic as he thought using water magic made his job easier.

It was clear that everything was related to water. From that, it could be inferred that the vault wanted Quinn to use water magic. And if he was to use water magic, then his journey would be a whole lot easier.

Sure, inside Poseidon's Wrath, Quinn could have extensively studied conjuration magic and try different spell designs till he got a hit that wasn't covered by the wards. Or he could design a new type of broom that didn't use the traditional broom charms and reinvent the wheel.

But all of those required much more thinking and effort on Quinn's part just to make the end result easier. If he had something that would allow him to fly over the vortex into the center, he wouldn't have to struggle against the raging water, but at what cost? How much time and research would it take him to accomplish that?

And when Quinn did create something like that, would he start the next trial? Would the broom that worked in Poseidon's Trial be helpful in Tehom's Delight? No, it wouldn't be helpful.

What would be effective was the knowledge and experience of water magic that he practiced and researched to get past one trial.

That is why Quinn didn't try to find 'unique' methods outside of water magic to solve the trials.

Because Quinn knew that if he stuck with water magic, then it would make his job much smoother.

And the results were showing right now.

Quinn had plenty of magic to expend from his reserves. What he needed was simply to change how he was directing his magic. Poseidon's Wrath had driven him to gain fine control over water magic so that he wouldn't be blasted every time he tried to water magic, and that was working now when extreme pressures were bearing down on him.

「90%」

The water magic cylinder's surface thrummed with erratic ripples. A humongous pressure was being normalized by using water magic as Quinn applied an equal and opposite force.

'Just a little more, and I will pass this trial without much problems or injuries.'

Quinn dipped further down and reached 92% percent but stopped because the pressure inside his normalized cylinder suddenly increased, and Quinn could feel the pressure against his bones.

'Some pressure is leaking through. This is the limit for now.'

Quinn retreated by a percent and stayed at 91%, and carefully tried to figure out how to normalize the pressure back to the surface level. He was extremely careful because one mistake and the pressure would bear down on him, and his muscles wouldn't contract, which would seal away his movement capabilities— while the water inside his lung cavity with lower internal pressure would be pushed out, and he wouldn't be able to breathe.

In the water column, Quinn swam alone inside the dangerous waters while trying to figure out how powerful the deep oceanic waters were.

- (Scenes Break) -

"It doesn't work that way," sighed Marcus as he sat in the Ravenclaw common room in front of a chessboard. "The knight only moves two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically."

"But why? The horsie should be able to charge straight ahead," spoke Luna as she stared at the knight chess piece on the wizarding chessboard. "I have seen them. They are fast, you know?"

Wizard's Chess was the magical variant of the classic board game Chess, in which the pieces were enchanted to move of their own accord when commanded by the player. The moving chess pieces were reasonably sentient and could offer advice to the players who weren't good or experienced at the game.

The white knight piece on the board turned its head towards and looked towards its commander. The animated knight chess piece wasn't sure how to proceed. The chess piece wasn't sure how to react to this situation. The magic that made it animated didn't cover what to do when the commander wanted the 'horsie' to charge forward.

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It looked at his white companions as if to ask what to do, but they looked as confused as it was and shrugged towards the white knight. The black chess pieces, on the other hand, were laughing hysterically. And that made the white pieces feel embarrassed.

Marcus turned his face towards Quinn, who was on the floor and sitting in the lotus position. He had his eyes closed, with his hand resting on his lap. "Quinn, explain to her that the knight piece can't move straight ahead."

Luna also turned towards Quinn. "Quinn, why didn't you make the horsie move forward. Why can it only move one way?"

Quinn, who was in his mindscape sorting and strengthening his memories using occlumency, opened his eyes and looked at his two friends.

Marcus was trying to teach Luna how to play Chess on the wizarding chessboard that Quinn had made for Marcus as a birthday present. The board and pieces could change colors and shapes.

The chessboard was a box with a grid on the top, and within the chessboard were number dials that could be used to alter the animation used by chess pieces to destroy each other when eliminating other chess pieces.

He had also crammed a copious amount of chess strategies inside the Chess set to advise inexperienced players. Quinn had ordered tons of Chess books from both the non-magical and magical worlds because both worlds had different chess strategies and philosophies. Using that data, Quinn had given his Chess set a more diverse recommendation/advice system than any other Chess set on the market.

It was an elaborate set with extensive charm work that Quinn had devoted time to create for his friend's birthday. But it seemed that even he had failed to take Luna Lovegood into consideration.

Quinn turned to look at the white chess pieces, who were holding his head while trying to think what it should do. Then he looked at Luna and gave an explanation.

"Luna, you see, the horse can charge straight ahead. But the knight on the horse doesn't want to move straight ahead; it only wants the horse to move a certain way. The horse belongs to the knight, so the horse will only listen to the knight. There is nothing we can do."

Luna furrowed her brows and turned to stare at four knights on the chessboard, who stared back while stroking the back of their horses, making them neigh and nicer.

"I see. If that is the case, then that's fine," shrugged Luna, as she accepted Quinn's reason quite easily. She stood up and spoke to Marcus. "I'm parched. I'm going for water; do you two want anything?"

Marcus politely refused while Quinn, who had once again closed his eyes, silently shook his head.

When Luna went away, Marcus turned to Quinn and asked. "What are you going to do when she finds a Chess set with only a horse as a knight piece?"

"Let's worry about that when the time comes," replied Quinn without opening his eyes.

Marcus sighed before flipping a switch on the side of the chessboard that made the chess pieces stick to the grid so that when the box opened, they wouldn't fall off. He looked at the array of dials and switches that customized the playing experience and turned off the destruction feature when attacked.

He didn't want to answer Luna's questions —which were full of curiosity— on why the chess pieces were acting mean to each other.

Quinn, who had his eyes closed, smiled very softly at the sight of his friends getting along.

Marcus was the one to invite Luna to play Chess when he saw her sitting by Quinn's side, drawing random scribbles. And Luna had accepted the offer with enthusiasm and without doubt or skepticism.

It had taken a lot of time for Marcus and Eddie to warm up to Luna because of her eccentric personality, and even though Quinn was still the connection between the two parties, the two boys and one girl had become friends.

And Quinn felt happy because of that.

- (Scene Break) -

After learning the whereabouts of the Potter family from Pettigrew, Voldemort traveled to Godric's Hollow on the fateful night of October 31, 1981. After breaking the protections on the house, Voldemort was able to enter the residence and blasted the front door open, catching its inhabitants off-guard.

Fleamont Potter, who had left his wand on the sofa, was murdered quickly trying to defend his wife and grandchildren. After Voldemort killed Fleamont Potter, he preceded to go up-stairs to Harry's and Ivy's nursery, where the grandmother and the twins were trapped inside.

Cornered in the nursery, Euphemia Potter was murdered after trying to oppose Voldemort and defend her grandchildren, the green light from this act actually lighting up the entire upper floor.

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When the Dark Lord then attempted to murder the one prophesied to defeat him, the protection laid down by his grandmother's loving sacrifice caused the Killing Curse to rebound. It destroyed Voldemort's corporeal body but unfortunately also took out a significant chunk of the cottage's upper floor.

Harry was left with nothing but a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, and Ivy miraculously came out unscathed from the incident while Dark Lord Voldemort's powers were temporarily destroyed. Henceforth Harry was known as the "Boy Who Lived" and was marked as Lord Voldemort's equal, thus sealing his fate.

But there was someone else there, who waited outside, and saw the entire upper floor roof blew up.

Peter Pettigrew, who nervously stood outside, was feeling ecstatic on the inside. He was the one who led the Dark Lord to the Potter cottage, and for that, he was going to be rewarded. But then he saw the roof blew up, and immediately Pettigrew knew something was wrong.

The rat Animagus cautiously entered the cottage, and on the ground floor, he saw Fleamont Potter on the ground. But after a short glance, Pettigrew ran up the stairs, and there he saw the dead body of Euphemia Potter and two crying infants.

Pettigrew was stunned out of his mind. He couldn't believe the sight in front of him. He looked at the floor of the bust-up room and saw the unique wand of Dark Lord Voldemort lying down in front of him.

'The Dark Lord is dead. And Lily and James aren't here.' Those thoughts scared the life out of Peter. He had betrayed the Order of Phoenix and 'corrupted to the evil side. That decision was made because Peter thought that he was choosing the winning side.

He had stacked a stable life where he lived comfortably to risk it for a life of luxury and superiority. And the scene he was seeing screamed at him that the dream was over and he had destroyed his life.

As Peter panicked from his innermost being, he heard the sound of Sirius's motorcycle from outside the house, with several pops of apparition following.

'They are here!'

In that moment of trepidation and fright, Peter picked up the wand from the floor, and because of the broken wards, he apparated out from the room itself and faded away from the scene. From there on he started following the events that led him to be captured and imprisoned in Azkaban.

And now, twelve years later, Peter was inside his old house, sold to some old couple, who were dead from killing curse cast from a wand that he had stolen from a chump who had left it on a table of a pub while refilling his drink.

Peter, still as sickly and gaunt as he was when he got out of Azkaban, looked down on the bathroom floor and waved the wand to perform magic: violently, every single tile was pulled out from the floor. The foundation then was butchered by blasting curses until three feet in depth and a wooden chest surface out on the top.

The large chest levitated out of the dirt onto the floor. Two snaps of unlocking, and Peter used his skeleton hands to open the lid to reveal the sole object inside the wooden chest.

"... Here you are," said Peter, his voice wispy and coarse, but his eyes shined with vigor and tinge of mania. Peter picked up the object and stared at it with fascination. "The lord's wand. The symbol of his power."

In his hand was a 13½ inches long, crafted from yew, and affixed with a phoenix feather core.

The phoenix feather wand showed its pickiness and didn't react to Peter's touch and magic. In the hand of Wormtail, the yew wand would be the same as a stick.

From his pocket, Peter took out a rat and watched the familiar creature stunned and unconscious. "It is time to bring him back," declared Peter as he clutched the wand in his hand, closed his eyes, and imagined the day he would've his revenge.

After covering up the mess in the bathroom, Peter left his old house and silently yet determinedly looked into a particular direction as a plan formed in his mind.

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Quinn West - MC - The water is always deeper than what it reflects.

Marcus Belby - Likes to play Chess - Owner of the only Chess set crafted by Q. West.

Luna Lovegood - Learning Chess - Likes activities that require more people.

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[A/N: Sorry about the no chapter yesterday. I faced some technical issues and wasn't able to upload. So two today. See ya~!]

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