(In Actual Gold) 23: Chapter 23: Do You Understand the Sage’s Worth?
(In Actual Gold) Snape noncommittally picked up Gryffindor’s Travels and flipped through it.
There were indeed several potions recorded inside.
They were somewhat troublesome to brew, but none were particularly difficult.
After finishing the section on potions, Snape turned his attention to the Sword of Gryffindor Blueprint.
“What is this?” “The forging blueprint for the Sword of Gryffindor,” Dumbledore replied with a smile.
Then, almost as an afterthought, he added, “Witt brought it back from more than a thousand years ago, when Hogwarts had only just been founded.” “Are you certain you haven’t finally gone senile, Dumbledore?” Snape found it extraordinarily difficult to imagine someone travelling across more than a thousand years.
Dumbledore paid no attention to the insult.
“There is still far too much we do not understand about magic,” he said calmly.
“Anything is possible.” “Severus, you’ve already seen the finest proof of what this magic is capable of.” “Lily.” With those words, Dumbledore had effectively confirmed Snape’s suspicions outright.
The evidence was sitting right in front of him.
Whether Snape wanted to believe it or not, he had little choice.
“What do you need me to do?” For Lily’s sake, Snape decided he could endure this.
“Help him brew the potions, and keep a close eye on everything he does.
I need to leave for a while.
It may be a short trip, or it may take considerably longer.” Even Dumbledore wasn’t sure how much time this particular matter would require.
Grindelwald had escaped.
And there wasn’t just one of him.
According to the witnesses, they had seen two Grindelwalds.
Dumbledore had no idea what the inexplicable man who had suddenly appeared and introduced himself as Grindelwald had said to the other Grindelwald.
But he intended to find out whether that Grindelwald’s arrival through time had anything to do with Witt.
Given the current circumstances, Dumbledore did not think his life would be in any immediate danger.
As for other kinds of danger… That was harder to say.
Still, there were certain things he had to understand.
Until he got to the bottom of everything, Dumbledore knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep peacefully.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ That night, in the Gryffindor common room, Witt and Lily sat together in a secluded corner.
The other young witches and wizards had already gone upstairs to their dormitories for the night.
Witt and Lily were the only two still awake.
“Lily, what do you think of this?” Witt held out the design he had just finished drawing.
The robe’s main colour was a clear sky blue, accented with wisps of sunset red.
The result gave the otherwise fresh and innocent design just the slightest hint of captivating charm.
Ever since Witt had acquired Master-level Forging, his hands had been itching to make something.
As an added bonus, Master-level Forging had also come with Advanced Blueprint Drafting.
Witt’s drawing ability, which had previously been worse than a dog scratching at parchment with its paws, had suddenly improved by leaps and bounds.
Calling him an artist would still be stretching things.
But when it came to realistic drawings, he had no problem whatsoever.
After spending the entire evening making revisions, Witt finally produced a design Lily was happy with.
Now there was only one problem left.
Finding the money to make it.
Witt toyed with a Galleon in his hand, his mind constantly turning over ways to earn some money.
Wait.
It was as though a bolt of lightning had struck his brain.
Witt lifted the Galleon and examined it closely.
I think… I can make these.
The Master-level Forging inherited from the Goblin King allowed him to see through the Galleon’s manufacturing process almost immediately.
A Galleon wasn’t made from ordinary gold.
It was a magical object.
More specifically, it was a downgraded version of something called a Star Coin.
A true Star Coin functioned as a protective talisman.
Once activated, it could block a portion of an incoming attack.
Galleons were made using a similar crafting process, although they couldn’t be actively triggered.
The main reason the technique had been incorporated into their manufacture was to deter theft.
Most things in the wizarding world were magical.
Anything without magic was basically worthless.
Food, for example, was incredibly cheap.
Meat or otherwise, ordinary food simply wasn’t worth much.
Even with sweets, those with stronger magical effects cost more than sweets that merely tasted better.
The reason Ron wore second-hand robes was because those robes were magical objects themselves, possessing a certain degree of magical protection.
After all, young witches and wizards losing control of spells during practice was perfectly normal.
Wear ordinary Muggle clothes to class, and there was every chance they would be reduced to rags before the lesson was over.
For boys, that was one thing.
For girls… Well.
There was a reason Hogwarts acceptance letters specifically stressed the need to purchase proper wizarding robes.
The important point was— Witt could make Galleons.
Galleons so convincing they would be more genuine than the genuine article.
Witt rubbed his chin.
All of a sudden, he realised he wasn’t short of money anymore.
No, wait.
He was a master smith.
Anything he casually forged would probably be worth far more than a handful of Galleons.
Making Galleons would actually be a waste of his time.
For one brief moment, Witt felt as though he had managed to confuse even himself.
Beside him, Lily watched Witt lapse into another blank stare and quietly sighed.
There really wasn’t much she could criticise about Witt.
Whenever danger appeared, his first instinct was always to put himself between it and her.
Whenever he obtained something good, she was always the first person he thought of.
His only real problem was that his brain occasionally went on holiday.
Periodic mental short circuits.
Random bouts of utter nonsense.
This vacant staring was merely the earliest stage.
Whenever it happened, all Lily had to do was wait a little while.
Eventually, Witt would come back to his senses.
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before Witt’s eyes suddenly lit up.
He turned to Lily excitedly.
“Lily, does the wizarding world have any laws against making counterfeits?” “Counterfeits?” “Yes.
Counterfeits.” Witt nodded solemnly.
He took out a Galleon and held it beneath the candlelight, where it gleamed brilliantly.
Throughout history, countless great men have earned their first fortune through counterfeiting.
Some even achieved complete financial freedom from it.
Today, I, Witt Cress, solemnly swear to forget the teachings of the sages who came before me, abandon the flaws of traditional industries, and pioneer an entirely new business model for the wizarding world.
Thus shall I leapfrog the competition and rise to the top.
In that brief moment of staring into space, Witt had attained enlightenment.
Like Sakyamuni beneath the Bodhi tree.
Like Newton beneath the apple tree.
He was going to forge an entirely new path through the wizarding world.
No one had walked this path before him.
Perhaps no one ever would again.
But history would most certainly remember it.
A Galleon more genuine than the genuine article might not be worth much.
But a Sword of Gryffindor more genuine than the genuine article?
That would be worth a fortune.
And the same principle could be applied elsewhere.
Slytherin’s locket.
Hufflepuff’s cup.
And so on.
A powerful magical object that also carried immense historical significance would naturally be extraordinarily valuable.
The people capable of forging magical artefacts of that calibre were all renowned master smiths.
And master smiths had their pride.
None of them would lower themselves to making a counterfeit just to sell it for money.
Meanwhile, the people who wanted to make counterfeits didn’t possess the necessary skill.
Witt was different.
He had absolutely none of a master smith’s pride.
He was also desperately short of money.
And most importantly— his skills were absurdly good.
The Master-level Forging granted by the System had no weaknesses or blind spots.
As long as Witt wanted to do it, perfectly replicating a magical object wouldn’t be difficult at all.
After all, the bare minimum requirement for counterfeiting a magical artefact was that the powerful magic attached to the replica had to meet the same standard as the original.
Which meant— the wizarding world basically had no counterfeits.
And if counterfeits practically didn’t exist, naturally no one had developed much awareness of how to spot one.
As long as the magic on an artefact met expectations, most witches and wizards would simply assume it was genuine.
Magical objects were already valuable in their own right.
But what made certain artefacts truly priceless was the history they represented.
If Witt could forge a Ravenclaw’s diadem that genuinely made its wearer more intelligent, he could probably empty Professor Flitwick’s entire private vault in one transaction.
And that wasn’t even the best part.
After Witt emptied Flitwick’s savings, Professor Flitwick might even thank him for the privilege.
Now that is what you call a win-win.
Now that is what you call a Supreme Sage.
From this day forward, I, Witt Cress, shall be the Supreme Sage of the wizarding world!
Witt abruptly rose to his feet.
Under Lily’s utterly baffled gaze, he threw back his head and let out a terrifying— “Hahahahaha!” CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Hidden_Quill Thank you so much for reading!