While Professor McGonagall was still regretting her attitude toward Charles moments ago, Charles had already been grabbed by the goblin Bash and was beginning his Apparition.
The space before his eyes began to twist and distort, while the scenery seemed to recede in spiraling lines.
In merely an instant, Charles discovered that he had arrived outside the familiar St.
Mungo’s Hospital.
But what surprised him was that compared with Professor McGonagall’s Apparition, Bash the goblin’s Apparition was noticeably smoother.
Throughout the entire process, Charles had been concentrating intently on the distorted space around him, yet the dizziness was nowhere near as severe as when Professor McGonagall had Apparated with him.
After landing, Charles didn’t feel as though the world was spinning either.
He merely swayed slightly before immediately regaining his balance.
A strange light appeared in Charles’s eyes.
He was now certain that goblin Apparition really was different from the wizard version.
Whatever their abilities might be in other fields, when it came to Apparition, goblins were clearly far superior to wizards.
At this moment, Deep Blue’s notification sounded, confirming this as well.
“The host has obtained reference material.”
“The Deduction Point requirement for the initial deduction of Apparition has been reduced by 3,000 points.”
Excitement surged through Charles’s heart.
Three thousand points might not seem like much.
But Charles had already observed Professor McGonagall Apparating several times before, and continuing to observe her would no longer reduce the required points.
Yet now, by observing a goblin’s Apparition, he could continue reducing the cost!
One had to understand that Professor McGonagall was the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts and a master-level figure in Transfiguration.
She absolutely belonged among the ranks of top-tier wizards.
Her magical accomplishments were far beyond those of ordinary wizards.
But the goblin standing before him, Bash, couldn’t possibly be some once-in-a-generation goblin genius, could he?
He looked like nothing more than an ordinary goblin.
Yet even this ordinary goblin’s Apparition had already surpassed Professor McGonagall’s limit.
That was enough to prove that the goblin version of Apparition really was fundamentally different from the wizard version.
Curiosity appeared on Charles’s face as he excitedly asked Bash,
“Wow!”
“Professor McGonagall brought me here using Apparition before.”
“Good heavens, it felt like I was being shoved into a toilet and flushed down!”
“But this time, Mr. Bash, your Apparition was so much smoother!”
A look of superiority appeared on Bash’s face.
“Of course.”
“How could wizard Apparition possibly compare with ours?”
“Heh. Even the spell of Apparition itself was copied by wizards from us goblins.”
“And what they copied was merely an inferior imitation.”
“A knockoff can never beat the original.”
“Our Apparition is not only much smoother, but also far superior to wizard Apparition in terms of both distance and stability.”
With that, Bash grabbed Charles and demonstrated.
With another loud crack, a massive stone statue appeared before Charles in the middle of a wilderness.
Then came rocks where the sea met the sky.
Far in the distance, Charles seemed to glimpse an island covered beneath dark, stormy clouds.
Countless scenes flashed past during one Apparition after another.
During this time, Charles gradually managed to extract from Bash exactly what the difference was between goblin and wizard Apparition.
According to Bash, the reason for the differences in smoothness, precision, distance, and even the fact that one could enter places where the other was forbidden came down to one thing:
Wizards and goblins did not travel through the same passage.
If goblin Apparition was like riding a train along a railway, with a broad and smooth track stretching all the way to the destination…
Then wizards had merely copied that principle and built themselves a narrow, winding mountain road, before attempting to drive carriages over it and getting tossed around the entire way.
Naturally, the difference in results was enormous.
Furthermore, the anti-Apparition enchantments designed to block Apparition could seal off the “mountain road” that wizards had constructed themselves.
But when faced with the “railway” used by goblins, those enchantments could only stand helplessly by.
They simply had no way to stop it.
That was why even the anti-Apparition enchantments established by Voldemort himself had been unable to prevent an elderly house-elf from Apparating.
After hearing the information he had coaxed out of Bash, Charles suddenly understood.
Most of his questions about Apparition had been cleared up.
However, another question became even more prominent.
The spatial passage—or whatever one wanted to call it—that wizards used for Apparition had been constructed by wizards themselves.
Then what about the passage used by goblins?
When Charles asked Bash about this, the goblin looked at him as though he were an idiot.
“Of course it’s something we were born with.”
“Ever since this world came into existence, long before the goblin race was even born, this ancient passage has existed within the world.”
“It’s simply that you wizards lack the necessary talent and cannot make use of it.”
“Only noble goblins can use it.”
“This is an innate gift bestowed upon our race!”
“If I had to explain it in human terms, you can simply understand it as a passage granted by the gods.”
As Charles listened to Bash’s words, his pupils contracted slightly.
This so-called passage had existed since the birth of the world, long before the goblin race itself had appeared.
And Bash had even described it as something granted by the gods.
Charles felt as though he had heard this theory somewhere before.
Then he remembered.
Back when Dark had kidnapped him and taken him into the underground chamber, Dark had frantically muttered about certain things.
According to Dark’s ramblings, the Old Ones and Ancient Ones who had once ruled this world in ancient times had left behind certain things.
Those things had continued to exist in the world.
It was simply that wizards and other races regarded them as innate abilities and never noticed their true nature. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
If one followed those traces and delved deeply into ancient history, one would discover that countless great beings had once appeared in this world.
Those incomprehensible forms of magic could ultimately be traced back to their connection with those great beings.
Then could this passage that the goblins regard as a “divine gift” be the same kind of thing?
The thought flashed through Charles’s mind.
But he quickly suppressed it.
This wasn’t something he had the ability to investigate right now.
Improving his own strength was the top priority.
Even if the era of the Old Ones that Dark had spoken about really did return, as long as Charles was strong enough by then…
He’d roast those Old Ones on skewers and eat them!
The next moment, Bash brought Charles back to the entrance of Gringotts.
The goblin cheerfully bid Charles farewell, declaring that he was the most polite, intelligent, and perceptive young wizard Bash had ever met.
“Mr. Charles, you’re definitely going to make a fortune in the future.”
“You’ll have a family vault in Gringotts that will be passed down for generations.”
“When that day comes, I’ll personally arrange one of the best-located vaults for you.”
At Bash’s blessing, Charles gave him a meaningful smile.
“Is that so?”
“The underground vaults of Gringotts…”
“One day, I’ll definitely go inside.”
After all, there were simply too many good things stored in Gringotts’ underground vaults.
Compared with this place, Hogwarts’ Room of Requirement was practically a junkyard, aside from Ravenclaw’s Diadem.
How could treasures and dangerous objects that students regarded as priceless possibly compare with the collections of ancient magical families who possessed underground vaults?
The things stored here were the true treasures of the magical world.
Hufflepuff’s Cup was merely one of them.
Charles believed that among the collections of those ancient magical families, there were bound to be items even more valuable than the Cup.
If he could completely loot the underground vaults of Gringotts, his Deduction Points would absolutely explode.
Even without considering anything else, the mountains of magical Galleons stored throughout Gringotts alone would provide an astronomical number of Deduction Points.
But all of that was for later.
At this moment, Charles’s attention was focused entirely on Deep Blue.
After observing goblin Apparition several times, the number of Deduction Points required for the initial deduction of Apparition had finally been reduced to a range he could accept.
Ten thousand points!
If he performed a second deduction based on this foundation, it would probably require around fifty thousand points.
Charles was already quite close to that amount.
With a little effort, he could gather enough.
And even the initial deduction of Apparition would bring Charles enormous benefits.
At the very least, whenever he encountered danger, he could simply run away!
Therefore, after a moment, Charles decisively spoke in his mind.
“Deep Blue, deduce Apparition for me!”
(End of Chapter)