Chapter 314: Underworld

Ivan emptied the potion from the glass bottle. This potion could stimulate the spirit and was very useful for reading books late at night.

He intended to give some to Hermione, so he made a lot of it.

This was the largest bottle Ivan carried with him. He pointed the bottle at Aragog.

"Although we have a common enemy, to be honest, I don't believe you - you must be the same!" Ivan said bluntly, "To avoid mutual suspicion, I have a suggestion. If you don't have that evil power in your body, then my magic should work. I will shrink you in this bottle with the Enchantment reducio. After I kill that monster, I will release you and let you out again."

In the darkness, Aragog was obviously hesitant and silent.

"Fair enough, isn't it?" Ivan waved his wand and asked again.

"Very fair, Hagrid's friend! Click, click" Aragog said slowly, his voice full of hesitation. "I can agree to your request, but after I kill that thing, how can I guarantee you'll let me go?"

"You have no choice but to cooperate or be killed by me here now." Ivan smiled coldly and said rudely, "I repeat, I don't care about Malfoy's life or death. I can wait to be rescued and choose a safer way to go downstairs."

They were locked, and Ivan's last words clearly shook Aragog.

He was right. Aragog and the other Acromantula had no choice. They had little room to negotiate with Ivan and little capital.

After several heavy losses, they had suffered serious damage.

If he didn't do as Ivan said, he might die immediately, and if he didn't kill the monster below, he feared the entire population of Acromantulas would become extinct.

"You win!" Aragog slowly climbed up beside Ivan, "Do whatever you want. I hope that after it's all over, you'll keep your promise."

Looking at the old spider lying next to him, its entire body gray and fluffy; Ivan gently waved his wand and shouted, "REDUCE!"

A burst of purple light flashed, and a few seconds later, Aragog's body was shrinking rapidly.

Soon, it changed from the size of a baby elephant to that of a normal spider, probably no bigger than Ivan's palm.

"For Hagrid's sake..." Ivan heard Aragog's voice.

"Rest assured that I have always been truthful with my words; at least, more so than you," Ivan said.

Aragog shivered and climbed down the web and into the bottle.

Ivan sealed the bottle and cast a spell on it to make it stronger, so that he would not fear any accidents. He put the bottle back into his carry-on luggage, turned around and looked at the Acromantula floating in the air, took a deep breath and was ready.

"Come on, take me down, I can't wait to see the real face of the guy downstairs, I hope you won't let me down.", Ivan said.

He opened his arms, like a captured prey, the Acromantula grabbed him tightly from behind with its first two sturdy spider legs.

Then they slowly descended down the crevice along the edge of the web....

This was indeed a strange sensation; Ivan felt uncomfortable with the spider's rubbed skin. He was even more disgusted at the thought that he was going to be held by an ugly spider.

His back was now almost unprotected, and if he wished, the Acromantula behind him could open its large pincers and bite him to death.

Or, more simply, throw him to the ground and tear him to pieces.

Fortunately, what Ivan was worried about didn't happen. They swung down to the depths of the earth in a gust of misty wind, as if they were going to another world.

With each movement, Ivan was nervous and anxious for quite a while.

It wasn't that he was shy, but the state he was in was very frightening. The deep pit that could not be seen because of the darkness was like the mouth of a beast that devoured them slowly and mercilessly.

Ivan tried not to think about the Acromantula behind him, or what to do if he fell out of here. He forced himself to observe the surroundings.

He originally thought the depths of the underground would be the same as above, so dark he couldn't see at finger's reach, but that wasn't the case.

Even without the dim light at the tip of his wand, there were fluorescent subway plants growing on the rock wall.

Some of them emitted a bright green light and others a dim yellow and white light.

Ivan focused his attention and looked closely. He saw that most of these glowing plants were beautiful fungi that he had never seen before.

Among them was a species of fungus "Lux Aeterna" that had only been recorded in the oldest version of "A Thousand Magic Herbs and Fungi", and was now considered extinct. It was one of the main materials used to boil magic potions.

If there hadn't been more important things to do, he would definitely have stopped the spider behind him and collected all these precious plants.

Continuing downward, silver floating plankton began to appear around Ivan. They floated slowly in the air, like stars in the night sky, looking very beautiful.

These plankton appeared to be spores of certain plants, floating out of the crevices of the surrounding rocks, gathering and floating across the deep trench.

As the depth continued to increase, there were more and more plankton, and Ivan seemed to be in a silvery ocean.

The scene in front of him was like that of a dream, beautiful to the extreme.

Ivan couldn't help but think that he had to find the opportunity to bring Hermione here to take a look. She would love this fairytale world.

These little silver-white planktons looked magical. Because they were too dense, Ivan accidentally breathed some of them in.

The next second, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the magic he had just consumed in combat was quickly recovering.

It was really strange, what was this?!

Instead of looking around, he hurriedly pulled out a small bottle, charged some plankton into the air, ready to return to Hogwarts to investigate.

He had a hunch that, with these unknown spores, he was likely to develop a new potion.

This magical potion could help the wizard regain his magic quickly. If successful, it would be a feat that would change the history of the magical world. He would become the youngest Potions Master of all time, and the Ministry of Magic would award him the Order of Merlin First Class in recognition.

Of course, this was all just a thought.

Just as Ivan was distracted, they seemed to have reached the bottom of the well, and the huge figure of a statue appeared in front of him.

As Aragog said earlier, the scarred statue, full of the damage marks of the Acromantulas, was carved with the logo of a snake and the Slytherin family crest.

This huge green stone statue was of Salazar Slytherin himself!