Walking out about dozens of metres, several huge rocks appeared in front of Dudley, blocking his path.
However, between the cracks in the rocks, there were still gaps that could be passed through.
Dudley looked up and found that the top of the secret passage had many cracks. These rocks and soil had all collapsed from above.
"If we do not reinforce this, this place will probably collapse completely soon," Dudley thought to himself.
Then, he whispered in Hermes, "Duro!"
An invisible layer of light emanated from around Dudley, falling on the surrounding rocks, especially the top of the secret passage.
The power of magic penetrated into the rocks, continuously reinforcing the surrounding rocks and soil, like covering these about-to-collapse rocks with a layer of sturdy wire mesh, binding them firmly in place.
Dudley cast three reinforcement spells in succession before stopping.
"There should not be any problems in the short term," he said with satisfaction.
After doing this, Dudley raised his hand, and those huge rocks began to slowly float under magical power, creating a relatively spacious passage.
Dudley continued walking toward the depths of the secret passage.
After more than ten minutes, the secret passage finally began to go upward. This meant they had reached Hogsmeade village.
"That collapsed area before was roughly Hogwarts' boundary. After that place, Apparition can be used," Dudley calculated silently in his heart.
Soon, the originally wide secret passage began to narrow. Before long, Dudley pushed away a stone blocking his path and emerged from the secret passage.
Looking around, this was the outskirts of Hogsmeade village, still some distance from the village. And rather unfortunately, the Shrieking Shack was exactly on the other side of the village. To get there, he would have to cross the entire village.
Dudley put the stone back, and after determining the direction, he walked toward the village.
He wore a black robe, using the hood to cover his face to avoid being recognised.
Along the way, Dudley did not encounter many people. After all, it was already late at night. Most people in Hogsmeade village had already gone to rest. Only the bars in the village were still open.
Honeydukes, Three Broomsticks, Dervish and Banges, Hog's Head...
Dudley's gaze swept over the surrounding shops. He had heard of some of these shops. Fred and George often brought them things from here, like candy from Honeydukes.
"There is not enough time; otherwise, I could go sit in a bar," Dudley thought to himself.
In that strange world, when Dudley had nothing to do, he liked to go to places like bars. First, these places were well-informed and could gather a lot of intelligence. Second, as an Extraordinary, he sometimes needed to go to these places to act.
Before nine o'clock arrived, Dudley crossed through Hogsmeade village and stood outside the Shrieking Shack.
He did not immediately enter but activated spirit vision and carefully examined the outside.
He could not completely trust Borgin and Burkes. Moreover, the giant spider corpses they were trading this time were very valuable. If he tried to double-cross them, it was not impossible.
Of course, having advanced to Judge, Dudley was not afraid of Borgin and Burkes playing tricks.
"Looks like there is no problem," Dudley said after not finding anything unusual.
"Apparition."
Dudley's figure suddenly disappeared into the darkness. When he reappeared, he was already standing at the second-floor window of the Shrieking Shack.
Dudley looked around. The ground here was covered with dust, surrounded by messy abandoned furniture.
"I heard this place is haunted, do not know if it is true..." Dudley chuckled.
He did not believe it anyway. He had seen things more terrifying than ghosts, let alone ghosts.
If he really encountered one, he might even be able to capture it and study it.
"Mr Dursley, is that you?" Borgin voice came from below. He must have heard Dudley's footsteps upstairs.
"It is me," Dudley responded and walked downstairs.
"Very happy to see you again, Mr Dursley," Borgin said with a smile upon seeing Dudley, showing a mouth full of yellow teeth.
"I am also very happy to see you again, Mr Borgin," Dudley responded politely.
"Let me see those giant spider corpses. I cannot wait to sell them," Borgin said with a laugh.
"As you wish," Dudley replied, waving his hand and taking out one giant spider corpse from the Mirror of Erised.
"Oh! Merlin's beard! Such large giant spiders are really rare!" Borgin saw the huge spider corpse before him and let out an exclamation.
"This is just one of them. See how much money it can sell for," Dudley said casually.
This corpse could only be considered average. The truly massive spider corpse was still Aragog's. However, Dudley did not take out that corpse right away. That was to be saved for the finale.
Borgin walked around the huge corpse, carefully examining the spider corpse's condition and whether its venom sac was intact and if there was still venom remaining.
Soon, he confirmed this was a very well-preserved giant spider corpse. Not only was the venom sac perfectly preserved, but there was also plenty of venom left. Such a giant spider corpse would have no problem selling for a good price.
"Based on this giant spider corpse's condition, I can give you one hundred Galleons. What do you think? This is already a very high price," Borgin said after thinking for a moment.
Dudley pondered for a moment and nodded, "All right."
He had also studied giant spider corpses himself and knew which parts of them were valuable. Overall, this giant spider corpse should sell for around 120 Galleons.
However, to properly dissect its corpse and extract the useful parts would be quite difficult. Dudley did not want to do any of this. Selling it directly to Borgin for 100 Galleons was reasonable. After all, they needed to make some money too.
"May I ask, how many such giant spider corpses do you have?" Borgin enquired with gleaming eyes.
Previously Dudley had not specified, only saying he had some giant spider corpses to sell.
"Quite a few," Dudley replied with a slight smile.
As his words fell, he took out all the spider corpses except Aragog's at once.
In an instant, the entire first floor of the Shrieking Shack was filled with giant spider corpses. Their dark hairy legs stood upright like a dark forest, their huge bodies piled on top of each other like one enormous monster.
"Merlin's beard!" Borgin was completely stunned.
He was quite well-traveled and experienced, but this was the first time he had seen so many giant spider corpses at once.
Had Dudley wiped out an entire giant spider nest?