Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 337 Before the Great Battle, Let's Have a Quirky Bean

In the evening, Murphy, who was debugging the supercomputer "Athena" at the magic research institute in preparation for Lucas's Horcrux transfer, received an urgent message from an Auror.

"The goblin factory at the Sari mines has been attacked, more than a dozen Aurors are unconscious, and three hundred goblins are missing."

Before he could even figure out what was going on, another message came in: "The Kent Fairy Factory has been attacked and requests for backup. The enemy is Dumbledore! I repeat, the enemy is Dumbledore!"

Did Dumbledore attack the goblin factory?

Well, if a wizard like Dumbledore were to lower himself and engage in guerrilla warfare, he would indeed suffer heavy losses. Ordinary Aurors are no match for Dumbledore, and if he doesn't intervene, the goblins over there will also be rescued by Dumbledore.

Although the production of magic metal is now complete, Murphy is not entirely sure if he can achieve the goal of mass production of magic metal through the Magic Radar Project. Even if he can, it will take some time. During this period, the productivity of fairies is still highly valued by Murphy.

However, given Dumbledore's abilities, if he really wanted to rescue the goblins, he could have done it much more discreetly—he could have quietly taken them away in the dead of night. Choosing this time of day in broad daylight was as if he was afraid Dumbledore wouldn't know.

This is very likely a bait to lure Murphy into a trap.

But his opponent is Dumbledore, and the only one on his side who can rival him is himself.

Murphy now has quite a few trump cards up his sleeve, so he's not too worried about the other party's trap. On the contrary, it would be more troublesome if the Holy Mother were to use a diversionary tactic.

But blind defense is meaningless. The Queen is safe in Alkaim. Apart from that, the things she cares about most are the antenna and the magic research institute.

He already had sufficient defense plans for the antenna, and all the research institute's achievements to date were stored in his mind. Even if it was destroyed, he still had the Soviet Union's national laboratory and other research institutions to continue his plans, at most causing a slight delay.

Now that things have come to this, he can afford to lose, but the other party may not be so sure.

Let me see what kind of cards you're playing.

……

In Kent, when Murphy appeared outside the goblin factory, he unsurprisingly saw Dumbledore and Grindelwald.

Hundreds of goblins are escaping using the Portkeys prepared by Dumbledore.

Murphy did not chase after him.

"So your greatest interests now include fairies too, Mr. Grindelwald?" Murphy teased. "I thought you didn't like them very much."

"That depends on who the enemy is," Grindelwald said. "Sometimes we have to make some compromises."

"Aren't you using a spatial anchor?" Murphy looked at Dumbledore, then glanced at the goblins behind him, and suddenly understood. "Are you afraid they won't be able to escape?"

"Please excuse my indecisiveness, Murphy," Dumbledore sighed. "Gellert has already scolded me several times."

"No, not at all," Murphy said. "Sometimes I still admire your kindness. I suppose saving them must be more meaningful to you than completing the plan, even if you know that without defeating me, it's all temporary."

"You knew we were waiting for you?" Grindelwald asked.

Murphy shrugged. "Pretty obvious."

"Then why did you come?"

"I can't just watch you all let the fairies escape."

Grindelwald was somewhat suspicious. He had a gut feeling that Murphy was hiding his true purpose, but stalling for time was their plan all along. Seeing that the fairies had almost all escaped, he drew his wand.

But Murphy waved his hand. "I'm not here to fight. I doubt either of you could kill me. Why don't we sit down and talk?"

"At this point, we have nothing to talk about," Grindelwald said.

"That's not necessarily true. Don't we both still have some questions we'd like answered?"

As Murphy spoke, he waved his hand, and a table appeared in front of him. He took out a packet of multi-flavored beans and poured them out.

"Let's play a game. I'll pick a bean, and if you can guess its flavor, I'll answer a question for you; if you can't, you answer a question for me. Of course, after each question, you can also pick a bean for me to guess. Here are... five beans, and we have five questions to ask each other. How about it?"

The two old men looked at each other, and Dumbledore, unusually relaxed for a while, sat down. "I'm an expert on Beans of Flavor. May I choose the beans first?"

Murphy smiled. "Please go ahead."

……

Lake area.

Suddenly, space in the forest distorted, and a wizard appeared.

"Alastor!" a low exclamation came from the side. "What are you doing here?"

Without turning his head, Alastor Moody saw the people beside him through his prosthetic eye. "If I don't come, am I supposed to rely on you rookies to fight this war?"

Kingsley smiled helplessly, then stepped forward and hugged Alastor. "I thought you had retired."

"I also thought you had fled to America."

Then his one eye swept around, "Arthur, Minerva, Hagrid... Emilyn, sigh, what's that dimwit Dedalow doing here... Ha, the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled, is it just us guys left?"

"Some people can't come, and some new recruits aren't ready to participate in events like this yet..." Kingsley sighed. The Order of the Phoenix was indeed facing a talent shortage.

"What about Lupin and Sirius?" Moody asked.

As the original trio, James, Lupin, and Sirius were arguably the most formidable young members of the Order of the Phoenix. How could they possibly miss such an occasion?

"Lupin... he's wandering with his werewolf pack, probably far away, and might not receive any news. Sirius... he has Harry to take care of..."

"Ha." Moody sneered.

"It's not his fault," Kingsley said. "Murphy is very harsh on the Order of the Phoenix. If Sirius is found to be working for them, he could be wanted again immediately and forced to separate from Harry..."

"Hmph, aren't we all like that?" Moody's eyes widened, but he quickly sighed. "Alright, what exactly is the mission?"

"On that mountain," Kingsley pointed to a distant peak, "Murphy is building a structure using goblin-made metal. I don't quite understand what it is, but Dumbledore says it poses a great threat, and our task is to destroy it. Ideally, we should destroy all the goblin metal as well."

"It sounds easy."

"Don't be careless, Alastor. There are a dozen or so Auror guards there, and more Aurors and Watchmen could come to our aid at any moment. We must act quickly. Fortunately, Dumbledore has already tied down Murphy, so we only need to deal with his minions."

Kingsley glanced at the sky and said, "It's almost time. Get ready."

"This battle concerns the future of the wizarding world; we must win."

……

On the other side of the mountain, guarded by several Aurors, a dozen Watchers skilled in Levitation and Transfiguration were piecing together the magic metal under the direction of a Muggle engineer.

Suddenly, the Auror captain received a message through the telepathic network.

"Everyone, Lord Murphy's raven informant just reported that several 'rats' have been spotted nearby."

"Everyone, perk up! Prepare for battle!"

(End of this chapter)