The Admiral of Hogwarts

"What is this thing?" Inside the golden egg was a sealed glass vial, only slightly larger than a capsule. At first, Hugo thought the vial was empty.

But when he brought his eyes close to the vial, he discovered a grain of white stone, smaller than a sesame seed, at the bottom of the perfectly sealed glass.

It looked somewhat transparent and emitted a rainbow-like glow, like a tiny opal, displaying a very beautiful color.

"This is a secondary Philosopher's Stone," Indomitable quickly sensed and concluded through the admiral network, using Hugo as a medium. "This should be a Philosopher's Stone, or rather, a failed form of it."

"Then what is this thing good for?"

"This kind of thing is an expensive consumable that can convert lead into silver. For example, the Philosopher's Stone in your hand, about the size of a grain of sand, can convert a full five pounds of lead into silver."

"Five pounds!" Hugo exclaimed in surprise, taking the vial closer to his eyes to examine it carefully. "No wonder alchemists can make so much money—"

"This is just a failed product; no one would deliberately manufacture such a thing to convert silver," Indomitable said, shaking her head. "Because the cost of making this thing is much higher than the value of the silver it can convert."

"But a successful Philosopher's Stone is not like that. It can not only convert a certain amount of gold every day without any cost but also be used to make a large number of alchemical potions." Speaking of this, Indomitable's tone gradually became excited.

"To give a simple example, in addition to being used to make elixirs of life, this top-level product of alchemy can greatly shorten the production cycle and reduce the difficulty of making most magical potions."

"For example, with a Philosopher's Stone, the brewing process of Felix Felicis can be shortened from half a year to a mere seven days, while the difficulty and side effects are reduced to about 1/10 of the original."

"Sounds absolutely amazing." At this point, Hugo suddenly thought of a conjecture he had seen in a fanfiction in his previous life. "By the way, do you think the Philosopher's Stone can enhance combat power or spellcasting?"

"Why would you think that?" Indomitable asked, puzzled by Hugo's words. "The Philosopher's Stone is indeed one of the highest achievements of alchemy, but that doesn't mean it's suitable for combat or spellcasting."

"Just like we all know that lithography machines have huge applications in many fields, but even the best lithography machine is not as lethal as a handgun on the battlefield."

"Then why didn't either of the two Dark Lords' rises involve trying to rob Nicolas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone? And I remember when Grindelwald tried to attack Paris with Fiendfyre, it was Nicolas Flamel who stopped him."

"That's easy to explain." Hearing Hugo's words, Indomitable finally understood why the admiral would think that way, but the actual situation was different from what he said.

"Regarding the first question, although the Philosopher's Stone cannot improve spellcasting ability, it can improve the alchemist's alchemical abilities."

"In this case, Nicolas Flamel only needs to use alchemy to hide his hiding place where no one can find it, and he can naturally avoid the harassment of those people."

"More importantly, on the path to conquering death, Grindelwald chose the Deathly Hallows, while Voldemort chose Horcruxes. Therefore, neither of them focused on Nicolas Flamel."

"This is also why Nicolas Flamel chose to leave his hometown of Paris and move to Surrey after Voldemort's first defeat."

"Because he knew from Dumbledore that Voldemort would one day return like lightning. And Voldemort, who wanted to be resurrected at that time, would naturally target him."

"Therefore, knowing that he could not face the Dark Lord head-on, Nicolas Flamel left his homeland of France and came to England, in order to protect himself and his wife with Dumbledore's reputation."

"As for the attack in Paris, it's also very simple. Nicolas Flamel did play an irreplaceable role in that disaster. But that role was not in his powerful spellcasting ability, but in using his powerful ability to perform an alchemy, merging the power of different people present to prevent the catastrophe from happening."

"In other words, contrary to what most people speculate, the most important role he played at the time was not contributing magic power, but harmonizing the power of so many people present."

"So that's how it is!" After understanding the question that had been bothering him, Hugo felt much happier. Then, he picked up the golden egg in his hand and began to examine it.

This was originally just a routine inspection, but Hugo quickly discovered something in the golden egg that surprised him.

"I feel like something is wrong with this thing," Hugo muttered softly, looking at a base at the bottom of the golden egg. The base looked like a stamen and was used to secure the vial just now.

But when Hugo examined this area, he was surprised to find that the magic he used for detection could not penetrate this structure, which was slightly smaller than a billiard ball.

Obviously, this thing was also likely to be a container. And after recalling the rules announced before the competition, Hugo also realized that they said to take out the thing inside the golden egg, but they never said that there was only one thing inside the golden egg.

"It seems that the second task is not as simple as I thought." Hugo nodded subconsciously. "In addition to testing the alchemical abilities of the participants, it will also test a series of their qualities."

For example, breaking the magic on the eggshell at the beginning was a test of patience and basic operational skills.

Because the difficulty of dispelling the rune arrays on the eggshell was not high, but the large number and the connection between different runes required the person dispelling these runes to be proficient enough in practical operation and have a solid foundation.

And now, this hidden container is a test of the participants' attention to detail. If anyone is careless and thinks they have completed the task by taking out the vial, they will probably be eliminated directly.

"Let me see how to open this thing." After sighing slightly at the challenge designed by the organizers, Hugo began to study the metal container.

However, unlike before, after placing the whole thing on the alchemy table, no runes appeared on the surface of the item. Instead, a line of Latin appeared: "To open me, you need the greatest power."

"Luckily, I know it." Recognizing the words, Hugo breathed a sigh of relief. Although there are Latin dictionaries available for exchange, knowing it like him can obviously save a lot of time.

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But soon Hugo fell into deep thought, because this hint was too vague, and it could even be said that it was no different from saying nothing.

"Fiendfyre? Avada Kedavra? Time?" Hugo fell into deep thought. If a powerful force could still give people an idea, then the greatest simply left people with no clue.

Because the question of what the greatest power is is not a new question. At least since 1000 years ago, this question has been circulating in the magical world.

But the problem is that, until today, no consensus answer has been discussed for this question.