Chapter 101

Surprising as it was, the path turned out to be much longer than he thought, and if not for the acceleration with the help of wind magic and leather armour, they would have only arrived at the gorge in the evening.

Finally, after an hour and a half, they saw a light ahead, much brighter than the artificial light coming from the crystals near the water sources. Severus did not immediately relax and rejoice, but quickly covered himself with another barrier, because it is not known what could be there, and suddenly the snake prepared a trap for intruders.

Therefore, realising for sure that this was the way out, he slowed down and took a step. 

"Be alert," Severus said sternly, trying to see what was ahead. 

"I understand" Nagini nodded, narrowing her eyes, looking at the exit from the gorge, nevertheless, her eyesight was a little worse than Severus's, and when he saw at least some outlines of the area behind the light, the snake only saw bright light, so she decided to concentrate on their surroundings. 

And finally, having reached the end, they stopped at the very threshold, when, like a reptile was perplexed by the view that opened up, there was real shock on the face of Severus, and after he came to his senses, he smiled wryly, experiencing rather conflicting feelings, on the one hand, he wanted to take this thing for himself, and on the other hand, he understood that if he did this, then there was a great chance that this country would be destroyed and, even worse, the whole world would know about the existence of magic. 

Therefore, the young man immediately put aside his greedy thoughts and focused on what was around him. 

What they saw was a colossal cavern, in the centre of which stood a diamond-shaped crystal the size of a nine-story building, emitting a warm glow that illuminates the entire open space, like a light bulb in a small room. 

From above and below it was surrounded by roots that supported it in one position, and around it was the most real green garden to eat. 

There were a huge number of plants: trees, flowers, various herbs and shrubs. A real paradise for any potion master and herbalist. 

In addition, a river flowed through the centre, the source of which was a waterfall falling from the ceiling. But still, the wizard's gaze constantly darted from the herbs to the crystal. 

"What is this?" Noticing where Snape looked quite often, Nagini asked with curiosity. 

"Storage of magic…" Severus answered with a tired sigh, 'Even in my world, such a thing was a very valuable item.'

"And what does it do?"

" Provides magic to this entire barrier, absorbing it from the inside and outside, if it is destroyed, then it is clear what will happen."

"Severus… I hope you don't…"- the snake, at first glance, understood what the wizard was thinking, she had been with him for some time and she understood him perfectly, so Nagini almost immediately guessed what he was thinking about. 

"I thought about it and I even really want to take it away, but still I'm not so inhuman, even though I don't give a damn about them all, but I don't intend to arrange genocide because of my obsession." After his words, she calmed down a little, but still did not take her eyes off him, which caused a smile on the face of the wizard. 

"Let's go and look at this place," patting her on the head, the young man went into the "garden" and with slight interest began to examine the plants in search of what helped that snake to start its evolution into a dragon, "But still an amazing place, magic is here exactly as in the forest of Treants, and I doubt that this is the work of the "hands" of nature, someone dragged this crystal here and connected it to the barrier, and the one who did it, definitely not lower than the rank of "Archmage". 

Moreover the enchantments over here are quite advanced, which means the theory that in the past there was much more magic and wizards were also stronger, is quite true…" Of course, Severus had already checked this strange place with the power of magic, but he could not find anything of interest except for the barrier surrounding the crystal, yet it was natural that no one would leave such a thing unprotected. 

But to his surprise, in addition to a huge number of simple herbs, there were also rather rare ones that have long been considered extinct, between two small trees, he found "white aconite", one very poisonous herb, similar to ordinary "aconite", but its petals instead of purple , were white. 

In addition to the fact that this flower was considered extinct, it was also one of the ingredients for Nagini's potion. 

"Nellie," Severus called out and the next nomen  the house elf appeared in front of him, and quickly smoothed her white bathrobe and stared at him excitedly, "How is he?" 

"Sir, he will definitely survive, the lost blood is restored quite quickly, and the wounds have already completely disappeared. 

"Well," in the wizard's hand, a box appeared, which he handed to her, "Collect all the herbs that you know."

"Yes Sir" and in the same second she got down to business, and Severus continued to calmly walk around the "garden", more like a small forest, but still there were not so many trees, so it can only be called a forest with a stretch. 

Severus had long noticed a small tree with orange fruits that looked like peaches on the other side of the cave, after all, it was precisely this fruit that the leader of the pack(wolf) ate, and after that was able to develop his mind and become stronger. But he didn't believe that that snake would give the wolf such a valuable thing that helped him start evolution, and if you look closely, two dozen fruits were plucked from the tree at most, while Snape almost did not feel magic from them, as if they were perfectly ordinary "peaches", but after one of the fruits fell into his hand, he immediately drew attention to the runes applied crosswise on the peel. 

Once upon a time, he had already seen something like this in his past life. They were called "miracle fruits" and the more stripes with symbols on them, the better the effect. And this was also one of the reasons why he doubted that it was these fruits that the snake ate, because the fruit with two stripes was one of the most useless fruits, with almost no effect. The fruits themselves were divided into ranks from the first to the ninth, and the rank depended on the number of stripes. 

And therefore, he doubted that a "miracle fruit" of the second rank could help a simple snake to start turning into a dragon, at least it needed at least the seventh rank, and only the eighth grade one will be able to help Severus improve his core to the peak. 

And from this, only two conclusions could be drawn: the first, that the monster hid what helped him evolve, and the second, that it had already eaten everything that was and therefore, Severus could not find anything in this place with the help of magic. 

But still, even though fruits with two stripes were considered garbage in his world, for this world they could become gifts from heaven. 

After all, once a similar fruit with four stripes fell into his hand, which helped him advance to the master. 

Therefore, for him it was useless, but for ordinary wizards and magical beasts, it could help make a big leap in their development. Of course, there were many types of such fruits, some could help strengthen the elemental attribute, others physical strength, and still others magical. 

And this one, based on the effect on the leader, most likely influenced the mental strength and a little magic. 

Therefore, the wolf gained intelligence, and the serpent, having eaten almost a dozen of these fruits, was able to get the most out of them: his mind was comparable with a human, he learned to speak and gained the ability in the likeness of Legilimecia and Occlumency. 

Yet such things had their limitations - one can only have twelve fruits, and after that they became useless, no matter how much you ate them. 

Of course, he was also going to eat a couple of them, but not now, but later, as he will check them on someone. 

After all, people and animals are completely different creatures in structure, therefore, these "peaches" can affect them differently. 

Walking around the whole place in an hour, three times, Snape still found nothing and this made him frown for the last ten minutes, the Slytherin, of course, tried to follow the tracks of the snake, but it was all useless, because they were everywhere, and many times he really wanted to beat this half-dragon well, who crushed a huge amount of ingredients with his carcass, some of which were in a single digit number. 

Nellie also finished collecting herbs that had at least some value, this also applied to the "miracle fruit" along with the tree that the wizard was going to plant near the house. 

And after a few minutes they left the "garden".

"Sigh, looks like my fear came true, that dumb snake really ate everything."

"It's okay, let's look a little more," with a bit of relief in her voice, she consoled Severus, dragging her tail along his back. 

"It makes no sense, I covered everything, okay, if we gut him, and then we will perform the ritual, like with the Basilisk," the Prince said, dispelling negative thoughts and returning his smile, and Nagini was so unhappy from his idea that if she were a person, then for sure would turn green, remembering how that monster's eyes and their vile taste were shoved into her mouth.

"Listen! I was just thinking that being a snake isn't so bad either!"

"How good you are, you take care of me so that I don't overwork, but don't worry, I will do it for you!" Her right eye fluttered hearing that.

"You understood what I was referring to, right?"

"Yes, but I decided to play along,". Seversus replied calmly, not embarrassed at all, "I understand that you don't like it, but you should become stronger so that I don't have to constantly worry about your life and you can protect yourself, nevertheless , anything can happen in life and if this "something" can separate us, I will be very worried about you and I won't be able to concentrate normally on the battle, if there is one, do you understand me?" he added much more strictly, without his former smile, as if scolding a naughty child.

"Yes, I'm sorry, but it's just… they were so disgusting… " the snake replied embarrassedly, looking away. 

"Don't worry, the next one will be easier."

"And what will it be…?"

"Heart or brain, well, it's up to you," she froze with her mouth gaping.

"Where the hell is this easier? Hope it's not raw!"

"If they are cooked, the ritual will fail." Severus replied, crushing her hope.

"Well $#*@%!!!"

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