A day at Hogwarts.

Chapter 552 Infiltrating Gringotts

Good students have special privileges. This leave slip allows them to stay out all night if there's something going on at the company, even if they're out partying, as long as Dumbledore doesn't catch them in the act.

Charles ate dinner in his private room at Dancing Grass Restaurant, where Dobby had personally prepared red wine braised lamb shank. The meat was so tender that it fell off the bone with the slightest touch, and it was incredibly delicious.

After he had eaten and drunk his fill, Dobby brought him the things that had been made according to his request.

The sound of waves crashing against the cliffs never ceased at the seaside villa. As the weather began to warm, the old man was cleaning the mushrooms off the furniture.

When Jack saw Charles approaching, he asked, "Going now?"

Charles nodded and said, "Given the arrogance of fairies, they won't open the vault door again to check it once they've closed it."

Jack thought he made a good point.

He opened a fist-sized hole in the side wall of the hall, and an almost transparent hummingbird darted through to Gringotts' underground vault system.

This place is quite far from the bottom of Gringotts in Diagon Alley; the fairies have forgotten about it. Charles flew for a long time before he saw something moving when he was close to London.

There are many fairies here forging weapons such as armor and longswords, and in the distance, some fairies are training, and their fighting style seems to be aimed at wizards.

Charles did not alert the enemy; he secretly and stealthily crossed the area without incident.

We've arrived at the core area below Gringotts, where security has tightened.

Rapunzel said Gringotts would buy more fire dragons, and it seems they really have.

Ahead lies a cave where Peruvian venomous dragons are kept. These creatures are less than 5 meters long, but they fly extremely fast. In addition to goats and cows, they also like to eat people, making them perfect for guarding against wizards.

These five fire dragons are all locked in the cave, and it seems they are still in training and have not officially started working yet.

Charles transformed back into human form and then entered the Mirror Space.

He discovered that there was a counter-magic spell here, but its range was too small; distant areas were shrouded in a gray haze, making it impractical.

Therefore, the second option was adopted.

Charles disappeared underground like Peeves, like a ghostly fish swimming in a deep sea of ​​stone. He was surrounded by solid rock foundations, and above him were countless rock and metal rooms reinforced and separated by powerful magic—those were vaults.

He used a magic that allowed him to perceive his surroundings in the dark, enabling him to clearly sense everything around him.

The corridor not far above was brightly lit, with fairy guards patrolling back and forth. The cold metal floor reflected the light, and the heavy iron boots of the guards clattered on the metal floor like muffled drumbeats that faintly echoed through the rocks.

Further away lie countless vaults, their heavy doors, radiating different magical fluctuations, like giant beasts lurking in a dark forest, silent and dangerous.

Charles carefully avoided the patrol routes and the nodes with the strongest magical fluctuations, moving silently like a slippery eel through the dense rock crevices and gaps in the magical barriers.

Tonight's objective is crystal clear—a vault located at the foot of a cliff, with a large open space in front of it, guarded by two dozen goblins outside. The door exudes the most "complex" and "heavy" magical energy, like the most dazzling and sturdy lighthouse in the darkness.

He finally hovered in the rocks behind the vault.

Charles wouldn't touch the door; instead, he would enter through the wall of the vault.

But this was no simple matter. The metals surrounding the vault were not ordinary either. The powerful magical resistance and physical density they emitted made him frown slightly, sensing the cold will of those unfamiliar metals that "rejected everything."

He stretched out his finger and gently extended it, discovering that this time the feeling of "passing through" was completely different. If passing through the stone walls of Hogwarts was like wading through a stream, and passing through the bedrock of Gringotts was like swimming across a lake, then at this moment, he felt as if he were trying to squeeze into a solid, glowing red-hot steel ingot, entwined with countless thorny vines!
A tremendous repulsive force surged forth, like tons of seawater frantically squeezing his consciousness from all directions, tearing apart every particle of his body.

The magical structure inside the wall was so complex it was dizzying. Layer upon layer of anti-intrusion spells, matter enhancement spells, and spatial anchoring spells were like countless red-hot steel needles, trying to pierce, solidify, and tear apart his "abnormal" state.

Charles could clearly feel the protective magic cast by the fairy operating slowly and steadily. The cold magic reminded him of African elephants during their migration on the African savanna, resolutely charging forward at him, their huge legs trampling his body.

Cold sweat instantly soaked his back, feeling particularly biting inside the icy rock.

He clenched his teeth, his gums almost bleeding, his willpower concentrated to the extreme, the ancient and unruly power within his body was frantically squeezed and urged, engaging in a silent and fierce struggle with the relentless resistance.

Time seemed to freeze, each second feeling like an eternity, as we endured the absolute darkness and suffocating pressure.

Just as he felt he was about to be completely crushed and knocked out of the magical metal layer by that "African elephant," a slight "crack" sound, like the thinnest crystal glass shattering, seemed to come from deep within his body.

It wasn't an auditory sound, but a tremor at the soul level after breaking through some invisible barrier.

The despairing pressure suddenly eased, as if a red-hot steel ingot had instantly turned into tofu.

Charles felt as if he had stepped off a staircase and fallen forward, crashing through the last and most solid barrier.

The cold air, carrying a strong metallic dust smell, rushed into my nostrils, and my vision suddenly opened up, the light blinding.

Charles stood inside the vault.

The space is quite large, like the lobby of Gringotts.

Only then did he see the walls of the vault, but the walls were covered with wallpaper, so he couldn't see what kind of metal they were made of.

The only light source in the vault came from the center of the ceiling. A soft but exceptionally bright beam of light fell vertically and precisely enveloped the nearly perfect cone in the center of the vault, which was made up of 30,000 brand-new Galleons and one unequally stacked piece.

The gold coins shimmered with a pure, sacred, and mesmerizing light under the beam of light, like a temple of wealth.

Beyond the light lay a deep, soul-devouring darkness.

Charles stood in the darkness, facing the thirty thousand Galleons, his face devoid of any greed or excitement, not even a trace of curiosity.

He didn't even approach the mountain of gold; he just looked at it from afar, curiously studying how it was arranged, thinking that it might come in handy when decorating his home later.

Finally, he chuckled softly, the sound echoing faintly between the cold, deathly walls of the vault, carrying a hint of barely perceptible mockery.

Now it's time to get down to business.

Although the lighting conditions on site were unexpected, fortunately, we had made preparations in advance, so it wasn't a problem.

With his mission accomplished, Charles turned and left without giving the mountain of gold another glance.

The second time he passed through, he felt much more relaxed, as if the wall had finally yielded to him after its initial fierce resistance, offering only a symbolic obstacle, which was worthy of his meager salary.

Charles's figure, like water seeping into dry sand, silently merged into the wall that combined the highest forging skills and protective magic of the fairies, disappearing into the cold metal without leaving a trace, leaving only silence and the ironic declaration that was about to unfold.

(End of this chapter)