The Admiral of Hogwarts

"Aren't you surprised?" After performing a very ladylike curtsy, Warspite looked at Hugo with a smile. "With so many destroyers here, how could I not be?"

"Uh—okay!" After seriously considering Warspite's in-game settings, a knowing expression appeared on Hugo's face, and then he opened his arms enthusiastically and said, "Welcome back to port, Warspite."

With the addition of seven new ship girls, the strength of Hugo's team was obviously much greater than before, and they also had much more flexibility in personnel deployment.

After briefly introducing this world and everyone's recent situation through the admiral's network, Hugo and his party of 15 people walked into the mountains behind the city.

As soon as they entered the forest, Enterprise, Audacious, and Indomitable released a large number of palm-sized carrier-based aircraft disguised as birds, spreading them out around themselves to establish a security net.

Then, Head Maid Repulse squatted down, signaling Hugo to climb on her back and let her carry him forward.

"Why don't we fly over there?" Hugo asked, somewhat puzzled, watching the shadows of the trees beside him fly backward quickly.

Knowing that his speed in the forest would only slow everyone down, Hugo didn't act coy and directly let the Head Maid carry him.

However, on the way, he remembered the trip to Quincy Shipyard last time when he took a plane, so he directly asked Enterprise the question that had been echoing in his mind.

"Because this place is completely different from Quincy Shipyard. At least, something that can keep a group of Aurors searching for a week will definitely not be simple."

After hearing the admiral's question, Enterprise replied through the admiral's network while running.

"Therefore, the other party is very likely to have left a lot of magic-related warning items in place. Although Indomitable's level should be able to deal with those traps and warning devices, it is easy to miss certain reconnaissance equipment if we go through the air."

For most traps and reconnaissance equipment made with technological means, being able to operate for 3-5 years without maintenance is considered very good.

However, in the magical world, various long-lasting reconnaissance equipment and traps emerge endlessly. According to Indomitable, she can completely use materials worth one Galleon to create induction magic tools that can last for 50 years.

Considering that Indomitable is more inclined to be all-round rather than specialized in alchemy, the ship girls have reason to believe that the magic departments of various countries in the magical world, which hold a lot of power and resources, should have cheaper and better magic tools.

It must be said that the ship girls' approach of anticipating the enemy generously is still quite meaningful. Because just as they were approaching the target, Indomitable, who was walking in the front, suddenly raised a hand to stop everyone.

"Be careful, there should be detection magic ahead." As she spoke, Indomitable took out several magic tools inlaid with gray agate from her belt and distributed them to everyone present.

"Wear this on your body, and then press the gray crystal with your hand to activate it. This magic shielding tool will allow us to become invisible in front of these detection spells."

"About how many traps are there here?" After entering the magic reconnaissance circle, Hugo asked Indomitable through the admiral's network. For safety reasons, everyone remained silent at this time and used the admiral's network as the only communication channel.

"A lot, at least I've found no less than ten kinds now." Indomitable said to Hugo while directing her carrier-based aircraft to investigate the surrounding environment with various magic tools.

"But it's not all bad news, at least now I've discovered that many of these traps and detection tools have become ineffective due to disrepair over the years, and only a very small number are still operating normally."

As she spoke, Indomitable led everyone to the side of a tree, and then used a metal staff with a crystal inlaid at one end to pry open the lichen covering the base of the tree.

Seeing Indomitable's actions, everyone immediately lowered their heads and looked at the ground she had just cleared, and as a result, they immediately saw two discs that had almost lost their metallic luster embedded in the tree roots.

"The magic fluctuations of these two things are very similar, but they are independent of each other." Enterprise said after lighting up the two metal discs for a few seconds.

Perhaps because of their innate physique, the ship girls' sensitivity to various energy fluctuations is higher than that of flesh and blood creatures. Therefore, after approaching these two metal discs, they quickly felt that both metal plates were operating magic tools.

"Yes, to be precise, these are two warning magic tools with exactly the same function." Indomitable, as a professional, said directly, "And the marks on them represent the Norwegian Ministry of Magic and the Swedish Ministry of Magic respectively."

After hearing Indomitable's words, several ship girls immediately gathered around to observe carefully, and as a result, they indeed found the emblems belonging to the two magic departments on the metal discs.

"This place should have been an important area back then, otherwise the two magic departments would not have prepared so many magic tools in this wilderness at the same time," Hugo analyzed from the side.

"But I don't know what happened later, and both parties should have given up the idea of continuing to explore in this area. But maybe because it was not convenient to end it so abruptly after a big show before, they prepared a pile of magic tools here as an ending."

"Commander, your analysis should be correct." Enterprise said, touching the brim of her hat.

"Although these traps and monitoring magic tools are not high-end goods, it costs a lot of money to deploy so many at once. Thinking this way, only your judgment can reasonably explain why those arrangers threw these things here and ignored them."

After entering the restricted area, everyone's speed slowed down all of a sudden. Fortunately, the scope of this restricted area was not large, so Hugo and the others only spent 15 minutes to reach the entrance of the cave where Hugo's maternal grandfather's father encountered the strange incident.

"No one should have been here for decades." Courageous said after transforming into a bat and flying in to scout around, "And there is nothing suspicious about the cave."

Obviously, Hugo's maternal grandfather's father was just a lucky person who was accidentally discovered and rescued, so there was nothing suspicious about this cave.

After confirming this, Hugo immediately went to the lake at the foot of the mountain with the ship girls to see if there were any abnormalities in this most suspicious place.

The lake below is a glacial lake very common in fjord areas, and all the water comes from the surrounding glaciers and snowmelt.

But now, the lake has turned into a mud pit the size of a football field, and the temperature drop in winter has turned the entire mud pit into a dirty ice lump.

"Obviously, the people from the two magic departments thoroughly searched this place half a century ago." After walking around the lake, Enterprise quickly came to a conclusion.

"This group of people used magic to block the small stream upstream of the lake as a water source, and then drained all the water in the lake, which also shows that this lake should be a core location where the incident occurred back then."