Harry Potter: The Ring Maker - Chapter 551: Second task

It was also clear that Harry had figured out precisely what Nick had to do with the task if the glare he had was any indication. Nick could only smile and shrug at his friend on the field though as he really wasn’t allowed to disclose the contents of the task ahead of time. ‘Besides it is far more entertaining this way.’ Nick thought with a chuckle. “Now then if the champions would please draw lots we can decide the order by which they will be participating!” Ludo said loudly as he went around with the straws.-

Krum drew the short straw and Harry the middle one so the order went Krum , Harry and finally Fleur who got the longest straw and had a look of relief as a result. ‘Don’t go thinking that watching the others will be of much use to you here , I am not that sloppy a designer.’ Nick thought with a scoff seeing this. There was quite a few oohs and ahs when Krum went into the chamber and large projections of the inside of the chamber appeared overhead. The chamber was made in such a way that the environment was chosen the moment a hand touched the door so no one noticed that it shifted before he entered.-

Krum got the forest environment for his run of the dungeon which Nick had to admit was easily amongst the most challenging. While the environment wasn’t innately hostile the golems in the forest were heavily based on magical creatures found in such an environment and as a result had a lot of ambush predators in it. Having to maintain constant vigilance and alertness of ones surroundings took a heavy toll on ones mind so Krum was in for a bit of a rough time.-

The boys role as a seeker however made him acutely able to spot the slight differences that showed the golems locations within the forest as he traveled through it. This didn’t mean that he got away unscathed however as the camouflage of the magical beasts still caused him serious trouble. As for finding the treasures in the forest he had mixed results as he got some and missed others depending on the amount of effort it took to uncover them. In a way he was brute forcing his way through the task with only taking the treasure gathering as a secondary objective.-

Not to say that this was an incorrect way to do it merely that by the end of the tsk he would have less points than if he took his time and thoroughly searched for the treasures and actually studied the task. A fact that became apparent when Krum finally found the person he was meant to rescue , Hermione. She did NOT look happy as she was trussed up in a web in a shadowy area that obscured the golems guarding her. ‘Lets see how you deal with xxxx grade dangerous creatures that specialize in ambush attacks.’ Nick thought watching with interest.-

For the forest environment Nick had programmed the guardian golem based on a very dangerous creature that he had bullied a lot in recent times with Nazgul , acromantulas. For the average wizard meeting one of these things in their natural environment was a single wrong step away from being a death sentence. Acromantulas were masters of stealth and were viciously intelligent hunters that could even learn how to speak despite lacking any sort of vocal cords. Unfortunately their dark nature left them with ravenous hungers for flesh that had them destroy their habitat as they consumed everything within.-

Krum was clearly not well versed in the creatures since he carelessly rushed towards Hermione who was being used as bait to lure him in. She knew it too as she yelled into the webbing covering her mouth in an attempt to warn him but unfortunately Krum mistook that to mean she was happy to see him rescue her. His mistake was capitalized on by the golem that launched a web out of the shadows that bound his feet causing him to trip. Krum’s eyes widened in fear as the golem scurried out of the shadows at him and more than a few people in the audience paled in fright or revulsion at the sight of the person sized spider.-

Krum seemed to forget that his life wasn’t really in danger and panicked at the attack and launched a bone breaker curse at the golem. Nick shook his head at this ‘That’s definitely points off for using dark magic.’ he thought disappointed to see it. It wasn’t even the most optimal use of the spell either as the giant spiders crazy reflexes allowed it to sense and avoid the magic.