Seeing Cedric's confused expression, Dumbledore smiled contentedly.
Karkaroff and Madame Maxime beside him were a bit puzzled, not understanding what Dumbledore had done.
Indeed, the test this time was as Cedric had thought. Each of the three floors corresponded to one of the three schools, and each of the tests was designed by the headmaster of that school. That is, Madame Maxime was in charge of designing Beauxbatons' distinctive test, Karkaroff designed Durmstrang's distinctive test, and the test with Hogwarts' characteristic touch was personally designed by Dumbledore.
This made the three tests bear each headmaster's personal stamp. For example, Krum was now struggling against all kinds of traps in Madame Maxime's test, which was known for its focus on brute strength. Fleur was being bothered by Karkarov's cunning tricks in her test.
Dumbledore's test, although it didn't require a desperate struggle or facing clever and treacherous traps, bore the mark of the highest difficulty just with the name "Dumbledore."
Within it, magics were involved that even other school heads couldn't comprehend.
As for whether the directors' test designs could cause leaks, neither the directors nor the judges were really concerned. If one test leaked, there were still two others. It couldn't be expected that a champion would extract information from the other two directors.
However, unexpectedly, the content of the second task had not been revealed by any of the directors! Dumbledore wasn't willing to disclose information, Madame Maxime didn't want to tell, and Karkaroff was under the control of the Imperius Curse.
Therefore, the three directors had remained tight-lipped!
Just as Dumbledore was in a better mood, Madame Maxime spoke up: "Krum is about to pass my test, will he meet Cedric when that happens?"
Madame Maxime was a bit worried, not wanting to see a scene where Cedric and Krum solved the riddle together.
"Don't worry," Dumbledore said, adjusting his glasses, "I've created three identical challenges for the third task, ensuring that each champion will participate independently."
Karkaroff and Madame Maxime: ...
You really have a lot of free time, don't you?
Doing the same challenge three times, that truly goes beyond the imagination of the two directors. Karkaroff's challenge had three different entrances, Madame Maxime's various magical mechanisms could be restored after being destroyed, only Dumbledore had opted for the simplest approach...
...
Cedric was on the brink of collapse.
He had been trapped in the third task for almost half an hour, but no matter how hard he tried, he always ended up back at the starting point.
During this time, he had tried every possible method, even attempting to blast through the walls with a blasting spell, but to no avail.
"So, what's going on? It's like I'm stuck in a time loop!" Cedric sat down disheartened in the initial courtyard, feeling helpless.
"Wait a moment, a time loop... time..." Suddenly, he caught a flash in his mind, began connecting everything he had seen with that flash, and finally, his gaze settled on the sundial beneath the pine tree.
The sundial, a time measuring device!
He immediately approached the sundial and began studying the ornament he had overlooked.
Now Cedric felt that the test must begin in this courtyard.
He looked at the marks on the sundial and touched them with his hand, but the needle couldn't reach the right end because the pine tree's root blocked it.
"Maybe this is the key to overcoming it," Cedric muttered softly.
If the pine tree's root blocked the needle, what should he do?
Cedric chose a very simple method.
"Expulso!"
Splinters flew everywhere, and the root blocking the needle's path was pulverized, allowing the needle to move to the right end!
Dumbledore sighed from the podium.
He felt inexperienced, as the competitors found such an obvious vulnerability.
"Has he used an unexpected way to pass the test again?" Madame Maxime almost laughed upon hearing that sigh.
"Next time, I'll reinforce all the elements," Dumbledore reflected deeply on his mistake.
"So, what is the right way to solve your riddle?" Madame Maxime asked, although she was a headmistress, her attitude towards magical exploration never changed. Therefore, she chose to continue discussing the problem with Dumbledore.
"Each mark on the sundial represents a season. By setting it to spring, the pine tree becomes smaller, and the needle can move to the right end," Dumbledore revealed the mystery behind the mechanism he had designed.
"I see..." Madame Maxime murmured.
After solving Dumbledore's puzzle, Cedric easily passed the final test and reached the shore of the Black Lake.
From now on, the next step was much simpler. After carefully studying the instructions for the Muggle diving suit, Cedric hesitated for a moment before putting on the diving gear. And indeed, after submerging, the diving suit allowed him to breathe underwater!
Sometimes Muggles could be very reliable! While reflecting on Muggle wisdom, Cedric swam to the bottom of the lake.
Unlike Dumbledore's cleverly crafted magical creatures, the magical creatures in the lake weren't very clever, which allowed Cedric to progress quickly. Apart from getting lost for a while, he encountered no major obstacles. When he reached the lake bottom, only half the stipulated time for the event had passed.
And the underwater world unfolded before his eyes.
Before this, almost all Hogwarts students had heard of the huge squids and mermaids said to inhabit the Black Lake, but no one had actually had the opportunity to see them.
Today, the champions had the chance to catch a glimpse.
However, after seeing the mermaids, everyone was disappointed. Instead of calling them mermaids, it was more appropriate to refer to them as mermen.
Unlike the beautiful images they had imagined, the appearance of the mermen was quite ugly: they had ashen gray skin, dark green and disheveled hair, and yellowed broken teeth.
In the prefects' bathroom portraits at Hogwarts, there were also images of mermen, but after comparing them to the real mermen, Cedric couldn't associate the two images.
Elegance vs. roughness, cleanliness vs. dirtiness, the difference between the two images was overwhelming.